Photo by Eric Ernest Johnson

From ANDRAS JONES: The thing about the way we’re recording these, just about a month before they come out, we really do get a kind of psychic snapshot of the immediate future in ways we simply couldn’t, and probably wouldn’t want to, plan for. A lot of people who dig synchronicity, and thus this show, also follow astrology in some for or another. I pay attention to it peripherally and listen to my friends who have a mathematical grasp of the movement of planets and such. I’m no expert but I do observe mercury retrograde cycles. Whether it’s scientific or psychological or simply fanciful, I find these trying periods to be a useful container for transformation. Mercury wasn’t in retrograde when we recorded this Pop Oracle session with INARA GEORGE, but it sure felt like it. I don’t want to say that everything went wrong because that is almost always an exaggeration, but it sure felt that way. You can tell by my gushing during the podcast that having Inara on the show was a HUGE deal for me. So you can imagine how, after recording all of our previous episodes in the intimate little haven that it is the studio at Starburns Industries, I was caught off guard when I was informed our show was getting bumped to the stage at Starburns Castle for a Dan Harmon session. If you’re gonna get bumped for someone, one of the premier comic minds of our time isn’t any kind of insult, and the truth is I’ve fantasized about presenting Radio8Ball at “The Castle” where they film “Harmontown”. It’s like they built it specifically to do Radio8Ball, but still, on this day it was a big empty concrete room with people walking through and none of the good microphones from the studio. I actually begged Matt Brousseau to get me at least one of the Neumann’s mics for Inara’s voice and he did, not that it ended up mattering, but we will get to that later. Inara was a great sport about the whole thing, and why shouldn’t she be? It was all new to her. She hadn’t spent years dreaming about being on my show the way I have about collaborating with her. She didn’t know how much better it could have been, and here is where we get to that Mercury retrograde dynamic I was talking about. When you have such a clear idea about how things are supposed to go, and then they don’t, and you have to figure out how to not only react to the change in plans but also to your disappointment, and insecurities about how others might be experiencing the change-up? That was all happening for me as we started up the show and I’ll be honest, I couldn’t bear to listen to it for a week or more after we recorded it. I had to have my mixing engineer Tony give it a listen before I did, just to make sure it wasn’t terrible, and even then I had to fortify myself with wine for the first listen. It turns out it isn’t terrible. In fact it’s actually kind of wonderful. Inara laughs a lot, so that’s good. As long as I can let go of my idea of what it could have been or should have been, it’s pretty good. Surprise!

Surprise

oh, don’t wag your finger
I’m amazed that you would know or care
With all the modern misery
mine can’t compare

No, won’t put a limit on it
Stretch as big, as big as I can stand
And burst right through my fingers
Through my arms i expand

And i hide in the bend of your eyes
sit tight, i could be full of surprises
and i always know
what it is you want

now all, all of my halos are rebellious
It’s you that put them there
I don’t know what they’re after
But they’re setting up a dare

Am I a sinner
By all accounts I think I’ll go to hell
I don’t wait for your answer
I know you very well

and i hide in the bend of your eyes
sit tight, i could be full of surprises
and i always know
what it is you want

i am full of surprises
i am full of surprises
i am full of surprises

and i hide in the bend of your eyes
sit tight, i could be full of surprises
and i always know
what it is you want