Does Tacky Still Exist?

Maybe the idea of tacky dies with my generation. There’s a way in which every winner of the YouTube era, every Instagram superstar, they all still comes off tacky to me. When I see a foxy lady on Instagram in a unique setting I think. . .who is taking the photo? Her friend? A professional? Her man? Sometimes when I go to a beach I see a couple hanging on the sand and all that’s happening is that the dude is taking pictures of the girl. She is telling him exactly what the fuck to do. She is bossing him around. She is reviewing the photos. They aren’t laughing. They are working. I don’t know if the dude is in to it. I feel the girl is into it. But like, if you want some fancy ass beach photos of yourself. . .this is what you do. It might look tacky to me and you, but it is in the only option. It’s not happening on accident.

I think I’m on the tacky side. In the hand-you-a-flyer era I would hand any fuckface on planet Earth a flyer. I was fearless yet not annoying. But I was a beast with the flyers. I think that actually did a lot to help build the audience for band’s I played in.

But in the “we should make a little video” era I’ve been lost. When ever I’ve been with Heiruspecs and most times I’ve been with Dessa when someone has said “we should make a little video” there’s a collective groan. They never turn out great. It’s a lot of people doing something plainly promotional, but attempting to downplay the promotional aspect. The camera phone follows the members of the band around the practice room, some engage, some ignore. It’s awkward, it’s fleeting. You don’t really know if it works or if it doesn’t. People come to the show but no one ever says “I was on the fence and then I watched you play that bass line in sweatpants in your basement and it was a done deal.” But there’s a collectively enforced tacky policing from the group. The easiest win is for the reluctant above-it-all type. That personality type is in great surplus in most musical groups. They have deemed it all tacky, they have no notes, they just don’t want in. I think in my entire life I wonder if I have ever been described as reluctant. I’m just not a reluctant person. I’m not above-it-all. I’m in it. We should make a little video.

I am tacky. Tacky won’t die on my watch. It’s important to share your shit, to shout your shit. Or maybe stop shouting. But find a way to share it. And find a way to share it that isn’t tacky. Why do I have a blog? In some sense it is cause long Facebook posts are tacky. You might know Zachariah Combs, NEW MC. One of my longest running partners. We’ve been in groups together since 2000. He’s a Southside Minneapolis legend. Rapper/festie/writer/town crier. He makes long facebook posts. Mostly this blog is my long facebook posts. . .but you know. . .long facebook posts are tacky. They are tacky to me. They are not the style that works for me. But this blog is how I stay not lost in the “we should make a little video” era. I share with you, on terms largely dictated by me.

There’s a hook here. This post is winding up to something. It’s winding up to tell you that Trivia Mafia is launching a podcast tomorrow. Me and Chuck are hosting. We started the Trivia Mafia thing in 2007. It’s big. It’s big in ways I don’t even really understand. Chuck and I have a really good relationship. He still runs Trivia Mafia. I work at Jazz88. I come to the holiday party for Trivia Mafia. If we come into some unexpected money and Chuck and Brenna are going out to a fancy dinner they’re bringing me and Rachel too. Every year when Trivia Mafia pays our taxes we go out for a fancy dinner, I like that night a lot. But now we are starting a new chapter. I’m not a silent partner. I’m making a podcast and it’s exciting. It’s also taking a shot at a thing I think I’ll be good at. I’m good on the radio. I’m good at hosting events. I’m good at running trivia. But all those checklists. . .you still might make a bad podcast. So you have to go in and make it.

So we’ve been going in and making a podcast every Thursday morning at 10am. It’s been weird. We’ve made four episodes. They keep getting better. Chuck and I are hitting a good stride after a bunch of completely predictable but truly unexpected, at least by me, conflicts in the process of getting this started. Just weird. And then shit started clicking. We started more easily agreeing on things. I would go back and listen to the podcast voluntarily even after we approved the episode. We’ve been working with a producer named Beth K. Gibbs. She does an impressive job and I’ve been admiring her work and admiring the vibe we have on the podcast. Here’s the first episode. Unless you’re reading this thing at like 11:47pm on a Friday, you can listen to this podcast now.

Nowadays if you make a podcast you have two paths known to me by getting people to listen to your podcast. You can get a bunch of ratings. You need a lot. Or you can have good social media posts that get people electrified about listening. I thought Wosney Lambre looked like the fat kid from Juice. Audio is good. But people watch podcasts on YouTube. Chuck and I are confused by this. We are audio podcasts folks. We listen to the Political Gabfest, Bill Simmons, Blank Check, Bomani Jones, Juan Ep is Life. It’s audio. I don’t know what some of the hosts look like. But you have to make a spicy splash on the ‘Gram. Also, content from podcasts is some of the best stuff I see when I do relent and scan a little. Here’s the one we made for episode one. It took me like 6 hours to make this. It’s 32 seconds long.

Sweet jesus. I’m proud of that. I’m proud of knowing the year MLK was assassinated super quick. And proud for delivering it super fast. I don’t know Mia well, but she cracked my ass up with that one. And whenever I make Chuck laugh it’s a good ass day. I’ve had a lot of good ass days in that regard lately.

So, I’m tacky. I think this podcast is already good on its way to great. Chuck and I have a lot of chemistry. We did a trivia night together for 15 years. We have a purity to our trivia thing. Chuck and I got put together to run a trivia night. We didn’t know each other. I knew Rob Skoro, the bartender at 331. Chuck knew Jarret Oulman, the owner at 331. They both booked us to run trivia and figured they should just make us do it together. We met at the Dinkytowner in December of 2006 and got started with trivia in January of 2007. We had a MySpace page. It was that era.

Trivia Mafia now has logos, brand strategies, style guides, staff meetings. But at one point it was me and Chuck smoking cigarettes outside of the 331 Club with two sharpies. And there we were on Thursday morning ironing out our last to dos for this podcast launch. And we have a very vague sense that we should “do a promo.” Chuck feigns like he has no idea what I’m talking about. But to some extent. . .he doesn’t. Chuck is a social media lurker, but not a broadcaster. I’d bet $1400 that Chuck has never handed a flyer to a stranger in his 45 years of existence on planet Earth. But Chuck is a beast. Chuck is amazing. But we need to do “promo.” I position the camera. Chuck touches his hair, cause Chuck always gets his hair right. Earlier this week a designer frankensteined Chuck’s best hair photo onto his best body photo. And we ended up opting for a different photo altogether. Chuck is amazing. So is his body, so is his hair. I bet his body hair is amazing too.

Before we film, Chuck asks if we should ask everyone to rate the podcast with 5 stars. We talk about the details. We agree that’s an annoying boss move to say to all your employees. “Hey peasants, go listen to our recorded conversations and rate them highly.” No that won’t work. We don’t want to be tacky. And man, that move is unacceptably tacky. But you’re not my employee. You just read this blog. Subscribe. Give it five stars. If you don’t give it five stars I’m inclined to believe you’re a hater.™ Bomani Jones. Then we make a vanilla ass promo video and then we go back to our days. Chuck’s picking up his wife from an appointment. I have to walk the dog, eat lunch and go to work. We are decidedly adults. No sharpies. No cigarettes. No flyers. But I fear if I don’t shout my shit, if I don’t figuratively give you a flyer, if I don’t push this. . .maybe no podcast. Maybe no radio show. . .maybe I’d have to work a normal ass job. . .maybe no vanity magazine project. . .shouting is part of the work. . .tacky is part of the work. . .and fun is part of the work. I loved bumming an American Spirit off of our regular Dawn on sticky Sunday night in Northeast Minneapolis and making the team do a foot race for a tiebreaker. 331 trivia nights some of the best of my life. Met my wife there. But I’m not going back to a weekly trivia night. Can’t do it. Got those kids. Too old for it in my current understanding of what I can and cannot do.

But to be next to Chuck, making him pop his head back from a joke I stumbled into. To create. To make a little video. To make a little something to share. It’s what I’m about. It’s what this show is about. It’s about getting what you got out of your trivia night. And it was never just trivia that you got out of your trivia night. It was laughs, it was friends, it was perfect. Do you miss your trivia night? Do you still go to a trivia night and you just want a little more? We’ve got that. GIVE US 5 STARS.