Coffee with Gays™: Every Sip Is A Story

Exploring Haunted New Orleans 👻 — Ghost Stories, Voodoo & Queer Legends

• Blaine LaBron, Ryan Hines, and Reed Rousseau • Season 4 • Episode 30

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It’s Spooky Season at Coffee with Gays, and Blaine & Reed are joined by their friend Joseph Federico for a trip through the haunted heart of New Orleans.

From ghost stories and Marie Laveau’s voodoo legacy to psychic readings, vampire culture, and the queerness of Halloween itself, this episode celebrates the city’s mystical energy and the queer creativity that thrives in it.

Light a candle, sip your potion, and join the conversation — where ghosts, legends, and gays come together.

New episodes every Thursday | Follow @coffeewithgays

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SPEAKER_01:

Welcome to Coffee with Gaze. This is our spooky season episode since spooky season has started. And I'm Blaine. And I'm Reed. And we have a special guest today, our friend of the show, Joseph Frederica.

SPEAKER_02:

Hello.

SPEAKER_01:

Do you want to introduce yourself a little bit? You've given us some guests, and we're going to be interviewing some of your clients soon.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah. Wonderful. So again, thanks so much for having me, especially during spooky season, the most fabulous time of the year, in my opinion, for many different reasons. But I'm the marketing maven as I'm known on social media. I'm also a published author, and I love all things horror. A little mean in a nutshell.

SPEAKER_01:

So we thought it would be perfect to kind of have a Halloween episode with you. I do have my fall colors on. That's about as far as I go. And I don't have my pumpkins yet. I have to say, I do have a lot of pumpkins in my physics during fall. You do too?

SPEAKER_02:

Oh, the boxes. We have boxes, yes.

SPEAKER_03:

We should do a video a pumpkin carving episode.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, we are having a pumpkin carving party here in Dallas, so uh we should do that. That'll be fun. No, you didn't get that invite yet. Reed doesn't get invited to anything because he never shows up and he's always late.

SPEAKER_04:

That's it.

SPEAKER_01:

So when don't worry, Reed, you will get the invite to the pumpkin carving contest or party. I promise. But you better show up. If you don't show up, we're never inviting you again. Done and done. That's okay. So, Joseph, we were kind of talking about this episode and how we're coming into this fun season. I think it's been um, I don't know, kind of a very serious time. And I think we've done like some serious episodes, so we want to do something fun.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

Why do you like spooky season so much? Let's start there.

SPEAKER_02:

I have always loved Halloween. I was raised in a very superstitious Italian family. So every time growing up, it scared the hell out of me. Number one, right? So if a if a ball blew or a door slammed or a wind came through the home or something, my family, including my grandparents, would say, Oh, hi, and the name of a deceased relative. And I'm like, A, I don't know who the hell this person is, and B, that's scary as shit, right? So I was always like intrigued by learning more about what the other side meant and what, you know, it meant to be spooky or to to just live with it, right? And then, of course, my love for RL Stein and Ann Rice and Christopher Rice and all of that in horror movies. It's just, it's just fun, and it really speaks to the gay experience, to be honest.

SPEAKER_01:

So why do you think I have to ask this question? Why do you think the gays are so obsessed with Halloween? I always am fascinated by it.

SPEAKER_02:

Because, you know, it speaks to the queer experience, especially the queer male experience, especially vampires and vampirism. Um, as you know, as as a study of literature and loving all things dead and deceased, as well and sexy, because it'll especially Halloween season allows us to come out of the shadows and allow our freak flag to fro to fly, you know, as as because we wait till Halloween for that.

unknown:

Huh?

SPEAKER_01:

I was about to say, don't we let our freak flag fly a lot? If I said that.

SPEAKER_02:

I don't think I don't think most of us do. I mean, as we get older and of course, you know, become more more more comfortable with who we are. Again, this is just my opinion from you know being a 42-year-old and having a lot of conversations about this over the years. I feel that society paints us now more than ever as monsters, as queer people, especially the trans community. And Halloween is a time, spooky season, we can really lean into the crystals and the witchcraft and the vamp, you know, the vampires and New Orleans and voodoo and just and just enjoy it and then feed off its energy and then give it back into the universe.

SPEAKER_01:

These are all very old port cities, by the way. So New Orleans, Savannah, and St. Augustine. So they have like all this really old, rich history that I find really fascinating.

SPEAKER_03:

Have you ever taken a ghost tour in any of the cities?

SPEAKER_01:

I have.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

Both in New Orleans and in Savannah. Have you? Who me? Because you've been, yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

A million ghost tours. My upcoming one is gonna be um actually um in New Hope, Pennsylvania in a few weeks. I have never been on that ghost tour. So I've been to on many in New Orleans, I've been on many in Maryland, Eddiesburg, a few experiences there myself. So yes. Yes, 100% yes.

SPEAKER_01:

So you had an experience in New Orleans.

SPEAKER_02:

I've had at a hotel in particular. Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

So what was the main one that you had at like I guess what was it, at a hotel in the French quarter?

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, it was the hotel one. That was our first year. My first time in New Orleans, 2014. We stayed at the Maison Dupuis, and my friend and I, you know, went out for the day, came back, had some drinks, and then we were in the lobby before going out to dinner on an actually ghost tour and to go out for the night again after changing. And I forgot something in the hotel room. And it was on the third, fourth floor, something like that, again of the Maison du Puy in the French Quarter. And I said, Okay, you grab us some drinks at the bar. I'm gonna go get my wallet or cash, whatever the hell it was. And it was pretty quiet because everyone's out partying, dancing, enjoying the music. And I get my stuff. I don't feel strange whatsoever. It's kind of quiet before dinner time. I lock the door, I come down the hallway around the band, and there's a double um shafted um elevator right in the middle of the building, like two white frame doors. And in between the doors came like an eight-foot man through the broken wallpaper.

SPEAKER_01:

Eight foot tall.

SPEAKER_02:

Eight foot tall. Swear to god. And it was only half of him, and he was smoky, and he looked well to do, sort of. He looked like he was burnt, like smoky smoke was coming off of him, and he looked like a chalk owl. And he had a top hat and a floppy bow tie, and he was just casually walking past me, you know, where I had just come from, and I was walking towards the elevator shafts, and I looked up at him, like literally looked up at him, and he looked down at me, he kind of smirked, and he walked away. He didn't say anything, we didn't really communicate besides, you know, just acknowledging each other. And then he disappeared into the ether. And I went downstairs and I said, Melinda, you'll never fucking believe what just happened to me.

SPEAKER_03:

How much pregaming did you guys do before you?

SPEAKER_02:

How much pregaming? New Orleans is like party central.

SPEAKER_03:

Well, I was just curious to know if you were on mushrooms or something. Like, I'm curious to know what brought it up.

SPEAKER_02:

No, no, no, just booze. No, no gummies, no, no, nothing. Just it was just it was just booze. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

There is something very interesting about these kind of old, um, these old cities. They literally do have something about them that are just they have a different level of energy. I mean, this is in New Orleans. I was in Portugal two years ago and super old. Another port city. I think it's these port cities. I'm telling you, like, there's something about like the sailors and all this, like, because I've only had these experiences in like really like a lot of port cities. But the same thing to you. I was staying with my friend, he was hooking up with this guy, so I was staying in the living room and in my because my bedroom was next door, didn't want to hear it. Of course. And so I was in the living room, and then I heard the guy leave, and I was like, Oh, okay, he left. And then, like, I literally like was sitting on the couch in this very long hallway, and I saw somebody go walk out the front door again. And I was like, I was like, Chris, like, what, like, what? Like, I knew this guy had left, heard the door close. I was like, Chris, is that you? But my friend, and then I go up there. My friend is literally asleep. And he's and then I woke him up and he was like, he's like, no, that was me. I've just been in here. And I'm like, that is so crazy. I saw somebody literally walk down that hallway, and then I had to like sleep in that bedroom. I was so terrified. Like Lee was our last night, and so you didn't lose sounds.

SPEAKER_02:

I mean, I have a ghost in my hallway here in Morristown, and this is not a port city. This is a revolutionary city, but it's not a port city.

SPEAKER_01:

So, anyway, you know, I've never really been scared, I guess, of the other side. You know, my great-grandmother, I think. So my family is Native American on my great on my great-grandmother's side. I know I don't look at LM super white. I get it, I get it. Ha ha ha. But you know, when there's a genocide of Native American people, then there's very few of you left. But my great-grandmother, my great-great-grandmother, she was full-blooded. So anyway, I don't know. They just had a very spiritual connection. So my great-grandmother would see stuff all the time and talk about it. And I remember my great-grandfather died of cancer. She said, Oh, he just came in last night and just sat on my bed and like, no big deal. Just like it was just like every day. So I learned, I think, from a fairly early age to not be afraid of things. Sure. And I think that's always been kind of like a thing. I have to ask, Reed, have you had any experiences?

SPEAKER_03:

I mean, none that I would necessarily share. I'm uh, I am a I am a believer. I I'm not a non-believer. I just keep that stuff to myself for I just feel like if you speak too much about it or talk too much about it, then it then maybe you lose it. Does that make any sense? Like, I feel like I've been very protected by my paranormal activity or my paranormal partners, whatever you want to call them. Sure. I I feel like I've just been very protected and grateful, and I don't want to speak ill or tarnish that relationship I have with them. Right.

SPEAKER_01:

Way to make me feel bad, Reed.

SPEAKER_02:

I don't feel bad about my sharing my experiences, but but I I'm holding space, honestly, for Reed. And I and I and I respect that. I understand that. Having many experiences myself, yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

So let's get back to like, I don't know, some of your experiences in particular. I think. Wait, can you tell me about Marie Laveau? Number one, let's explain to people who she was. And if you've ever watched American Horror Story Coven, that was the best season of American Horror Story. It died after.

SPEAKER_03:

Hands down. Oh, I feel like Asylum. I still feel like Asylum like gives it.

SPEAKER_01:

That's because they brought the Coven people back. That's why it was good. Did you ever watch Coven?

SPEAKER_03:

Coven was after Asylum. Asylum was season two.

SPEAKER_01:

Asylum. Oh, you liked Asylum.

SPEAKER_03:

Oh I loved Asylum. I love Jessica Lane, though. The aliens? That was at the alien? Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

Mental institution.

SPEAKER_03:

It was the yeah, it was the mental institution based on the city.

SPEAKER_02:

And then it had like a sub. Yeah, okay.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

That was early on, you know, season early on, too. But Coven, my heart goes to Coven. I'm sorry. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

I'm gonna have to like rewatch it because it was so good. Watched it on the clips.

SPEAKER_02:

But yeah. Oh well that was really good too because they brought everyone back. Not in the same way. Not in the same way. So it was good, but meh.

SPEAKER_01:

But Marie Laveau obviously was a big part of the Coven storyline. So what was your experience with that? Because I noticed she put that in the notes, and I just had to. I did.

SPEAKER_02:

I did.

SPEAKER_01:

So and you have to explain who she is because some people might not know.

SPEAKER_03:

Okay. Marie Laveau, wasn't she the she owned a plantation, right? She was a plantation owner, wasn't she? She was the voodoo queen of New Orleans. She's the one that was played by Kathy Bates.

SPEAKER_02:

No, that was Madame La Lerie.

SPEAKER_01:

Which is a real character, a real person.

SPEAKER_03:

So Angela Bassett was Marie Laveau. The best Marie Laveau. Gotcha.

SPEAKER_02:

But yeah. So she's the witch queen of New Orleans, and say that she never died. But historically speaking, genetically speaking, she had daughters that looked like her. So they kind of all played the same part and you know carried on her legacy throughout New Orleans and its history. But she was a free woman of color at the time, and she was a hairdresser. So she got all the white people involved with, you know, or learned about all the gossip through doing their hair and then helping them with spells and love potions and all these other fun, fun little things.

SPEAKER_03:

So witchcraft and voodoo. I'm curious to know the difference between standard witchcraft and whatever craft Marie Lavaux, like my voodoo. Is it is voodoo is voodoo is it voodoo and then witchcraft or is voodoo an affiliate of witchcraft?

SPEAKER_02:

I think they're interchangeable to a certain extent. You know, witchcraft witchcraft is more Americanized. It's more like European. And uh voodoo derives from Haiti. And then there's voodoo, which is like American folk magic, which is it really started in New Orleans. If you watch The Skeleton Key, it kind of explains what hoodoo is. It's you have to believe it to have it affect you. Hudu. Now, you know, voodoo is actually a religion. So they are all different.

SPEAKER_01:

Hudu you have to believe in order for it to affect you. Correct. Interesting.

SPEAKER_02:

So you can be hexed, you know, and hoodoo and voodoo, but just in different ways, for instance.

SPEAKER_01:

So our the psychic that I well, I got Reed going to her, but she's like Dallas' biggest second. We're trying to get her on the show, actually, but she's had cancer for many years. So yeah, okay. It's been up and down for her, but she's so amazing. But she's always given me like these little hoodoo things. There was someone in my life I wanted to get rid of, and she gave me this voodoo powder thing that I needed to get called Hotfoot, and I I never did it.

SPEAKER_02:

I was gonna say, well, did it work? But I guess not. You didn't try it.

SPEAKER_01:

No. Actually, it worked in opposite because I didn't do it. So Okay.

SPEAKER_03:

Well, it's just so ironic how closely uh witchcraft, voodoo, and religion, spirituality kind of come full circle. I actually do.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, a lot of the deities in Catholicism actually carry over into voodoo and voodoo, just in different ways as well. So they're all like intertwined.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, we were just talking about this. So I go to this Chango Botanica in Dallas that has like been around for 40 years, and it's really just a mix of Catholicism and I don't know, I call it Catholic mysticism, quite frankly.

SPEAKER_03:

I mean, I'm not sure. So growing up Catholic, I'm not sure I ever heard uh a separate side other than the Bible and you know, the basic Catholic religion. But I do know that my mom believed in after my grandmother passed away, she believed very much like if a light turned on, if a light turned off, oh, that's your grandma, oh that's you know, spirituality and and you know, whatnot, but never anything directly affiliated with like witchcraft, if that or like crystals or anything like that. Nothing was directly affiliated, but yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

But think about how old the Catholic Church is.

SPEAKER_03:

Right, yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

And where that really came from is really paganism, you know what I mean? So, and think of the crusades, think of all the blending here in America. We're a melting pot, still are, you know? So they are all intertwined. I mean, of course, it all depends on who you who you talk to. I think in layman's terms, witchcraft is more like American magic, you know what I mean? Right. Arriving from Europe. Again, voodoo is definitely from Haiti, and then Hoodoo is like American folk magic, Native American folklore as well, kind of mixed in there. So Oh, go ahead. No, no, go ahead, go ahead. No, but Laveau, I've I've I've had an experience. I mean, I went to her tomb and they had just rebuilt and repainted and renovated her.

SPEAKER_01:

Can you just also explain like what the tombs in New Orleans look like? I'll put it on the video.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, so they are so they're all above ground. They're all above ground because the water table is, you know, so yeah, is really, really deep. It's the whole city's below uh water level. So if they put or bury their loved ones and deceased in graves, they would float. Yeah. And they there would be mayhem, and there has been historically, you know, speaking, so they bury them above ground. Um, and I learned this in New Orleans on one of the many, many tours I had been on. They put their loved ones in the tomb, and it's so hot in Louisiana that it takes about a year or so for the body to fully decompose, and then they actually open up the tomb, they take the body out, and they do what they need to with that loved one, and then they actually reuse that tomb for another uh funeral. Yeah. Yeah. I didn't really realize that. I didn't realize that either. But like that they keep reusing it. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03:

Wow.

SPEAKER_02:

True story.

SPEAKER_01:

That's really crazy. I can't believe that they like reused the tombs.

SPEAKER_03:

Just for yeah. Sorry, is it just for families?

SPEAKER_02:

I mean, they're like family-owned plots, so it could be for anyone, but families like typically. But Laveau so has this supposed tomb where everybody and you can't do this anymore, it's illegal to even go into St. Louis number one. Only film crews are allowed, I believe, now because all the things that have happened, you know, there. Um, but people draw three X's and they leave pennies and things for Laveau, you know, for for spells and for luck and to pray to her. Um, and I couldn't do that. So I I did have my three little pennies ready. And when everyone left, I left three pennies as an offering before I left. And then about two, three years ago, I actually I see spirits once in the blue moon, and I was on another podcast recording, and Laveau had actually she came to me on on a recording years ago. So she blessed me. On a podcast? The podcast.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah. It was a spiritual chance. Can I ask what she said, like how it went or what she said?

SPEAKER_02:

No, she didn't speak, she just she just like approached me and I felt her presence. I saw her with her beautiful skin, her white turban, her long, gorgeous face, and she was in a dress, pretty much in white, and she was just kind of like looking at me, kind of seeing what was going on and how I would speak of her. I spoke very well, of course. I would never speak ill of Lavo.

SPEAKER_01:

Um and she's a deity, and I felt like you would get smacked down.

SPEAKER_02:

Smacked down, yes. I mean, of course, people take certain liber uh liberties on on film and in in coven to you know present these figures in certain ways, but I think Bassett did a wonderful job as as Lavo.

SPEAKER_01:

So do you feel like it was accurate?

SPEAKER_02:

Yes, yeah, yeah. And and long story short, so one of the scenes in Coven where they were doing the it was with Sarah Paulson, and I'm not gonna say, you know, exactly what it was because I want people to watch the show and the our podcast, but in a scene where they were doing a um like a drum circle and spell for the character for Fiona Good, not Fiona Good, her daughter, I'm sorry, there was an actual voodoo practitioner also of the name Maria Laveau spelled a little bit differently that that that actually is a voodoo priestess in New Orleans. I had contacted her when I wrote my first book to actually get the whole project blessed. I didn't use her, but I used another location in New Orleans to bless the project. Crickets.

SPEAKER_01:

No, I think it just it's just fascinating.

SPEAKER_03:

I think so too.

SPEAKER_01:

What would you say your most interesting supernatural experience has been? Because clearly you're tied into this kind of supernational.

SPEAKER_03:

I didn't have the chance. It found me. I was also gonna Yeah. Sorry. Well, maybe you could uh explain how it found you.

SPEAKER_02:

2022, I went to see my clients in the Everglades of Florida. And my first one. Sorry, I'm not laughing at you. No, no, no, I know. So I was fighting like imposter syndrome. It was my first time really working, you know, on a long trip, creating content, you know, all the above. And I went down Turner River, both sides, with my team and my clients. And we were paddling through the mangrove tunnels, paddling pattern, like like four or five hours, early morning to mid-afternoon. And I felt such a spiritual connection to the energy in those tunnels, learning about the history with a tour guide from a tour guide as I was paddling and struggling, but learning to have confidence in myself and trust my team to get me through all these twists and turns. And I came back about four or five days later, back to New Jersey from Florida. And I was, I was almost dizzy. Like I felt like I was straddling two worlds and I spoke to my spirituals about it. That's how I got into crystals. That's how I got more into the spiritual realm of learning about my, I wouldn't call it a power. It's my whatever you want to call it, blank. Um, and then I felt like a part of me had actually died in the mangroves while I was in Florida, just like struggling to find my true voice, my true path with the gay community, with the trans community, just in social media marketing in general and PR, but in a natural spiritual manner. And um, ever since I've I've had even more experiences. I've seen uh the deceased um all over the place, especially that summer, which I can get into in a moment, in Gettysburg. I think I put in the notes with you guys. A bit of a zombification experience, which was also freaks me out. Um, and then I actually also hear the deceased once in the blue moon if I can really communicate and concentrate with them.

SPEAKER_01:

I would say like my experience with this is more a feeling less like I said, I mean, I had the few times that I've seen things or have been those times. I guess by the way, as a child, I pulled my grandfather's picture off the wall and was like papa, papa, but he had died of a heart attack and I never met him, so I didn't know who he was. Sure. So, like things like that that my mom said, and she knew there was someone in the house. So those things have like totally happened. But I just I feel like I've always had, and I don't know if it's just a diff different level of like spiritual connection, but I also do believe that we all have like different kinds of gifts and like what we can and can't see. Like I would always say, like, my mom always said I had like a gift of discernment. Like I can meet somebody and pretty much immediately tell if they're like kind of a good person. And I will be like, no, to the bad people. I mean, just and I'm always I'm usually always right. I was never wrong about it.

SPEAKER_03:

Except well, I I was wrong once, but I was gonna say, I think he's been wrong several times. That's a good thing.

SPEAKER_01:

No, no, has it once. Stop. That is me ignoring the gift. That's the problem.

SPEAKER_03:

Has a psychic ever told you this? Because just say most psychic readings that I've had have all told me, oh, you know, you could read for people. Oh, you could read for people. And I'm like, no, no, I can't. They're like, yeah, yeah, you can. I've always thought that I've had a decent judge of character, is if you want to call it. But I'm more of a feeling, like Blaine was explaining, rather than seeing, if I have seen anything, it has been a black shadow that's like run really fast. Or if I'm laying down on the couch and I look up, I'll see like a silhouette, but I'll turn around really quick and it'll be, you know what I mean? It will be gone.

SPEAKER_02:

And you know, who it was or what it was.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, that's like what you're describing is like my great-grandmother. Like she would like have these experiences where it was like this person from the past like came and talked to me.

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

And she's like, no joke. And she's not, she was Christian, but she was also very just spiritual. I can't explain it.

SPEAKER_02:

Spiritual, yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah. But my worst, my worst experience was in Gettysburg. That same year, a few months after I had gotten back.

SPEAKER_01:

Let's go. Let's talk about Gettysburg.

SPEAKER_02:

Uh Chuck Olusky, that whole straddling two worlds and trying to figure out, you know, who I was and and what my gifts were, at least they were presenting, you know, in my life. So we were in Myrtle Beach for two weeks, drove. That's the first time. No, not the first time we had driven. Yes, it was after COVID. We stopped flying, we started driving, enjoying life again and road tripping again in America, not to the Midwest and back, but a shorter version of that. And we were gonna stop for lunch and to go to the bathroom, gas up, and just have a break before getting back to New Jersey. So I had been to Gettysburg once before. I had an experience there, and nothing compares to this by any means. So we stopped in McDonald's. But the GPS had kept on, it took us through a battlefield and cemetery, and we couldn't get out of it. It just kept on, you know, pushing us just deeper and deeper into this battlefield. And on the playlist, you know, it was unplanned, unbeknownst to us. The end of the black parade by my chemical romance was playing where the like battle drums, you know, like the end of the song. So okay, nothing really spooky about that. Just in hindsight, kind of strange. We stopped at McDonald's, the only place that was really open. And then we order our food, and we sit, and there's this big picture window where my partner, Matt, he sat back facing it, and I was facing this big window across the street from another battlefield. We got our food, I went to the bathroom, washed my hands, bent over, looked up in the mirror, and I saw a lightning flash in my eyes and in my face, and I, you know, saw the person looking back at me was a version of myself back from the Civil War with a beard, long hair, my uniform was on. Um, so that was the first part of my experience in Gettysburg that time. And then it got worse.

SPEAKER_01:

What do you think that meant?

SPEAKER_03:

I was about to ask, did you ever look into it and find out if you had any any relatives that know?

SPEAKER_02:

To this day, I have not looked into that. I'm actually too spooked too, to be honest, with that part. Yeah. Yeah. What did it mean? I think it was I I was given a sign to like re reflect on my past because I had just had that experience in in you know the Everglades in the mangrove tunnels a few months prior. So then I got back to my seat and I was pale. And my partner was like, Okay, what's wrong? Like, what's going on? Let's spill the tea. I told him what had happened in the bathroom. And he's like, he dropped like his nugget. He's like, What? I'm like, yeah. And then I kind of ignored it, eating my cheeseburger, delicious, you know.

SPEAKER_01:

Not the healthiest, but you know, good road trip snacks to get home and then we had cheeseburgers tonight, by the way, from Shake Shack.

SPEAKER_02:

I got a cut down on the cheeseburgers, by the way, but that's a good thing. So I'm looking across eating my burgers at this smaller battlefield, and there was a cannon. And I had seen this general or somebody higher up in the ranks on repeat moving this cannon. Like, not physically, just like in my mind, back and forth and back and forth, like about five to ten times. And then he noticed me. I just got chills. He noticed me looking at him. Then that subsided for just like a moment, like 30 seconds to a minute. Then other soldiers actually walked and crawled their way up to the sidewalk and lined up. They had noticed me that I had some kind of gift that I was just learning about, and they were waiting to line up to talk to me. But not just a spirit like deceased noses missing, jaws missing, bloody skeletal. And then my partner knew immediately what was going on, and I said, We need to get this to go and we have to get out of here. So that was my experience, my second experience in uh Gettysburg.

SPEAKER_01:

Wow, it's amazing how I mean, I'm not surprised that Gettysburg is so haunted. Very haunted. Like here in Dallas, we have a hotel called the Adolphus Hotel, and it's super haunted. And there's a woman who jumped from the balcony as a bride. And if you go to that floor, it's actually you can feel the heaviness of that floor. There's it's an events floor, but like you can feel it. It's pretty off.

SPEAKER_03:

It's you knew something was going on there. How long ago did she jump?

SPEAKER_01:

I think it was in the early 1900s because the Adolphus has been around. It's one of the first hotels in Dallas.

SPEAKER_02:

Even like Nola, there's such, I mean, even like just getting off the plane and then driving to your hotel or getting an Uber or what have you, the heaviness of the city and the excitement and the horror. You can just, you can just Right?

SPEAKER_01:

It feels very heavy there. Heavy. I will say, like everywhere I go, it feels very heavy. I mean, there's obviously probably a lot of sin there, but um, there's just a lot of um energy, I think. You know, I have a funny story about NOLA when I first I think it was it was my first, maybe it was my first time going as an adult. So I went with my best friend, and my best friend is like obsessed with making you walk everywhere. Like he's just can't help himself. And we had gone out and got, you know, NOLA wasted on really bad liquor. And yeah, like grain alcohol and sugar. Yes, grain alcohol, vodka, mixed it all in like all those sugary drinks that you get and the big thing and whatever. I mean, you just went all out.

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

And the next day he had a full itinerary, and he's a big history buff.

unknown:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

He's super excited. Yeah. So he's super excited. So he got up and I was so hungover. I mean, he was hungover too, but I was so hungover. We end up walking, I think, like seven miles through the city. We went to like the Confederate Museum and like all these different, like crazy museums, which by the way, Jefferson, what was it? Who's the Confederate president? Jefferson Davis. He had really precious slippers. I'm pretty sure he's gay.

SPEAKER_02:

Probably. I mean, most were.

SPEAKER_01:

I know. I really remember his slippers like the most from that day, as miserable as I was, because I was like, well, those are really precious slippers that the gay guy would wear. But um we end up going back and then he's like, we're gonna meet my old professor who used to be here at SMU, and then he's now in New Orleans. This guy was fascinating. First of all, I almost passed out in a very antique bookstore we were in, but he was um studying vampire culture in New Orleans. And it was the first time I ever had really realized that there's actually real vampire culture in New Orleans. There is. And he took us through it and he he's studying it. I mean, he's writing like a dissertation on this thing.

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

Have you like had any interactions with anybody like that at all? I mean, these people actually drink blood, which is crazy.

SPEAKER_02:

I mean, I went to, I'm not gonna say the establishment, I do not recommend going there, but there's a themed something in the French Quarter that I had gotten to in 2021. I went for for Christmas time with my same, you know, travel partner. Her name is Melinda, my best friend, my muse, my manager, and we were wearing masks and we're a little bit, you know, pleasantly punched. And we had gone to one of these themed places, and it was very strange. Uh, they host the Anne Rice Halloween ball every year, so you can Google it. And then I was asking some questions like journalistic questions about Anne Rice, because I'm I'm drunk, but also I want to know, right? I want to learn while I'm traveling through Louisiana. And these people were very strange, very hush hush. They didn't really understand my questions, which were very straightforward. So nothing like vampire related directly, but it was like adjacently related, and they were very serious about, you know, kind of closing ranks while the public was asking questions about them. So that's as close as I had gotten to any vampires in uh in New Orleans. Yeah. Anne Rice, she's an author, the most popular vampire author of all time, and her son, Christopher Rice, is a queer author who is gorgeous.

SPEAKER_03:

I'm just glad that his mic was on mute when you asked that. Yeah, I heard you, and I think did you hear him too? Well, yeah, yeah. Hence yeah, he heard you through micro my microphone, thankfully.

SPEAKER_02:

But I like how to clutch my like my Nola Pearls. I'm like, what? You don't know Ann? It's okay.

SPEAKER_03:

I even know Ann Rice's For once.

SPEAKER_01:

Reed actually knows somebody that I don't. And I just okay, I didn't know Ann Rice.

SPEAKER_02:

She had passed right after I had left New Orleans in 2021.

SPEAKER_03:

She he talked about her his her hot son. Her attractive.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, Christopher Rice's man. I carry a torch for that boy too.

SPEAKER_01:

Okay, I'm gonna have to look it up. I just I just didn't know. I just didn't know. I mean, he didn't know yet.

SPEAKER_03:

We we did discuss this last time we spoke.

SPEAKER_02:

You can visit her house in the garden district, but like she it's not her home anymore, obviously. But they moved to California and that's where Christopher lives.

SPEAKER_03:

I remember us talking about this last time we spoke. Bigly, yeah, yeah. Mm-hmm. Because we talked about how we were gonna do a road trip, a podcast road trip or some sort of like gay road trip, something about what's Florida Nola or something like that. Yeah, but I forgot what the event was. We did talk discuss going during the Halloween season, though.

SPEAKER_02:

Well, it's just like it's just like a mini Mardi Gras. If you don't want to go to Mardi Gras, head to Nola for the Halloween season.

SPEAKER_01:

And have you ever been to, for our gay listeners, have you ever been to Southern Decadents? Because that just happened too.

SPEAKER_02:

I know it did, and I've never been. I I want to go. I want to go.

SPEAKER_01:

It's really fun.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

I'm I'm not into a lot of these kind of gay festival things, but I really like Southern Decadence. It's a different world.

SPEAKER_02:

Like if there was an opportunity for me to go for a film, for instance, or something, then I would absolutely go for these these larger events. You know, including Mardi Gras. I heard you have to go for like two and a half weeks, three weeks. You have to go a week before while it's calm. They lock you in basically in the city during the events, the big event season, and then you have to wait a week after to get out safely um from the city itself. It's a big deal. Mardi Gras's a big deal.

SPEAKER_01:

And when is Mardi Gras again? It's uh It leads up to Lent. It's the start of Lent. So April.

SPEAKER_02:

So like it all depends, like the end of February, March, March-ish. Okay. And it ends on, you know.

SPEAKER_01:

Boy, I'm a bad Christian. I don't even know when Lent and I was raised Catholic Easter things.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah. Lent is around Easter. I'm sorry, Lent is before Easter.

SPEAKER_02:

Before it the lead up to Easter. It ends on Fat Tuesday and then comes Ash Wednesday. So whatever day that falls on the calendar was when that is that year.

SPEAKER_01:

See, I need to go for Fat Tuesday. That's what I need to do.

SPEAKER_02:

That's when all the parades roll. I mean, like, that's the do-all end all. All the day parades occur. It's it's it's like a daytime parade day, and then it carries over into the night with partying and such costumes and so I guess the real question is why haven't you moved to New Orleans yet? I'm working on it. Not moving permanently, though, because it's a real bad, oof, you know, it's a real red state. Let's put it that way.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, true. And it's also a poor state. I mean, it is to tell you.

SPEAKER_02:

It is.

SPEAKER_01:

I lost the first night. I was at Southern Decadence one time. We went out to Oz, which is the gay bar there.

SPEAKER_02:

That's what inspired this Oz, by the way.

SPEAKER_01:

So yeah. Really? Go on. It's so fun. It's definitely my favorite gay bar. And we went out there, and that night, like, I don't even know how this happened, but like we went to the this pizza place, and like, you know, typical Blaine. I'm sitting there chatting up with these guys, and I don't think they stole my wallet. What I think uh happened is I think I had the pizza and I had my wallet under the pizza, and then I went and trashed it. You put the plate down.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. No, no, no. I put it in the trash can, like one of those nasty streets trash cans in New Orleans.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, he threw it away.

unknown:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

You do not want to hang out on bourbon for too long. Don't do it if you're a first-timer.

SPEAKER_01:

I was just walking home and with my friend, and the next morning I didn't notice it. So then I had it like I was freaking out. I was like, okay, it's now a Friday. I can't get any credit cards. And I was like, I'm going to, well, my Amex will overnight an Amex, but they were supposed to overnight it for Saturday delivery. It didn't make it, by the way. Until it didn't make it in time. But I literally went and dug through the trash can in Bourbon Street, all that trash to try to find my wallet. It smelled so bad. It was so gross. It was so human. It's the grossest thing I've ever done in my entire life, desperately trying to find my wallet. But nobody ever used one of my credit cards. So I have this thing about traveling with credit cards. Now I only like have like a couple because I have of what I did in New Orleans. But here's the thing I learned about New Orleans. They have very little infrastructure. And when I say this, I'm like, I was like, okay, I have a Chase credit card. I have a Bank of America bank account. And I have a Chase bank account. Yeah. And I have a Capital One credit card, which I should be able to get something from somewhere.

SPEAKER_02:

Yes.

SPEAKER_01:

And literally, they don't have Apple Pay. Like, I thought I could use the Apple Pay virtual cards. They don't have that anywhere in New Orleans. And guess what? Bank of America doesn't operate in all of America, especially New Orleans. They don't have anything in New Orleans.

SPEAKER_02:

I didn't know.

SPEAKER_01:

There's not a Bank of America branch. So I was like, what the hell? And at the time, I think at the time I actually didn't have a Chase bank account. I just had a Chase credit card. So I was like, oh, maybe I can go like, but all the banks were like closed by the time I was doing this. Yeah. And then I couldn't do like cash advance. It's crazy. I was like, this place is crazy. There's just not a lot of infrastructure in New Orleans. I mean, I guess it did get destroyed by Katrina, but like I still don't think it's an excuse. It's just a very poor state, really.

SPEAKER_02:

It's a very poor state. There's a lot of money that gets pumped into the city, of course, but they it's it's it's currently in shambles, unfortunately. And that's a place that also holds my heart that I won't go beautiful climate again and such history. But the French quarter, there are slum lords that are holding on to properties that they shouldn't be doing, you know, or having right now. Like a lot of businesses are going out of business, so it's not doing too well right now. So if you guys ever have a chance, the listeners, please go to New Orleans and and spend at queer businesses so you can put money back to the economy because it's not doing so well.

SPEAKER_04:

There are a lot.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah. It's a blue it's a blue dot and a red state. It's a blue dot. There are a lot of a lot of queers um you know in the area. Again, it holds it should hold your heart too, because it gets in your soul if you go at least once.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh yeah, it's amazing. And the music too, I think is amazing as well. I just love it.

SPEAKER_02:

Every corner there's something floating out of it somewhere, you know.

SPEAKER_01:

Um have you had the beignets at the beignets? Have I had the beignets? Have I had the Month several times? Cafe Dumont.

SPEAKER_02:

In the afternoon, after after partying, at night, yes.

SPEAKER_01:

And then I love that everybody's just playing all the like cool jazz music and or whatever that is outside. It's just so much fun.

SPEAKER_02:

It's Zydeco, it's Cajun, it's the jazz, it's all all the things. And and voodoo is really prominent there too. And it's not a scary Hollywood thing. It's it's a real, you know, living, breathing religion down in the in the heart of uh New Orleans. So it's everywhere.

SPEAKER_01:

Scoutings and I think the answer is obvious. Like, why do they make voodoo in movies so evil when it's really not supposed to be?

SPEAKER_02:

Because it sells.

SPEAKER_01:

Because it sells. It's a casual It's also probably like it's probably casual racism too.

SPEAKER_02:

From the I was just it is absolutely no, it's not casual racism. It's total racist. It's racism.

SPEAKER_01:

It's just racism. I mean, the movie industry has been racist for, in my opinion, its entire history. It's until recently. But it's interesting how they've categorized it that way when I don't think actual practitioners of it are are really that way.

SPEAKER_02:

No, they're not.

SPEAKER_01:

And I know they're not going and pitting pins and dolls, right?

SPEAKER_02:

No, no, and I know many of them. A few I've had on my podcast in the past, I've had also had blessings, you know, sent my way uh from altars to bless my projects to make sure I'm doing the right thing, um, you know, in honor of the religion and not just to sell books. So I have a pretty deep connection to the voodoo practice and and religion.

SPEAKER_01:

I will say there was this guy on TikTok. I don't remember his name now. It was a couple years ago. I don't know if you ever saw it, but he was challenging all the witches of TikTok to take him out. Do you remember this? It was hysterical. It was so funny. And these witches were like sending him like jars of hair and like really crazy stuff. But I never actually heard him, I never saw any videos of any like voodoo people. It was always these crazy white girls that probably weren't witches. They were just having like, you know, meltdowns over this guy. And he was like, Witches of TikTok come after me. I mean, it's so funny because they're like TikTok witches. So they're not really like, I don't know, they're just not really legit, in my opinion.

SPEAKER_02:

You know, they're just no, no, no, no, no, no, no.

SPEAKER_01:

I mean, unless you're like, it's like it's like the astrologists of TikTok today that have predicted everything wrong, and then they double, triple, quadruple down.

SPEAKER_02:

I mean, like, everybody's gonna make a book. You know, I I respect the hustle, but like do justice, you know what I mean? Witchcraft, voodoo, um, even astrology. So just don't, I don't know.

SPEAKER_01:

It's yeah, I don't I don't believe some of these astrologers, they're they're just not right. No. I mean, Reed can talk about it because he's been doing the California Psychics Network.

SPEAKER_02:

What? What's going on there, Reed? It's embarrassing.

SPEAKER_03:

I downloaded that California Psychics app where you can just you know log in and at any time and connect with a psychic or whatever. I tried it out. I tried it out a couple times.

SPEAKER_01:

And be honest, Reed, how many times?

SPEAKER_03:

Over the last over the last year, probably four, four or five. Okay. I've had multiple psychics too, just to like test it out. And they pretty much said the same thing that Valentina told me, if I'm being honest. But one thing of that all of them have said still hasn't come to fruition yet. So I'm just gonna wait and see, I suppose. Just spotting your time. I would like to think so, yeah. I'd like to be positive.

SPEAKER_01:

Let's be honest, so Valentina doesn't charge as much as they do, or and she spends way more time with you.

SPEAKER_03:

Right. The embarrassing part is I probably spent next to$3,000.$3,000.

SPEAKER_01:

Read on psychics.

SPEAKER_03:

If you do it collectively, yeah. It's one sitting. So one reading, I was driving back from Arkansas. I was driving back from Arkansas in early April.

SPEAKER_01:

This is like the 1900 days.

SPEAKER_03:

Well, it was stupid because I was driving my truck. I was it I was on a road trip, you know, back and I had like six hours left in my drive. So I thought, okay, sure, I'll just have a phone call real quick. And I wasn't even thinking it was a$500 phone call, but yeah. So I was probably spent near$3,000. Yeah. Well, yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

And how much was Valentina?

SPEAKER_03:

Valentina, I think, was$125 or$100.

SPEAKER_01:

She's$125, yeah. Yeah. And four hours long.

SPEAKER_03:

Right. And in in retrospect, I definitely should have called Valentina because her readings are about four four to six hours. But and wonderful. I I loved my reading with Valentina. At the end of the day, I look at it as if I'm if my anxiety is lower, if I feel more at peace or more at ease with whatever's going on, whether it be mentally, emotionally, whatever, I'm well worth it, in my opinion. And all my readings with the California Psychic app were worth it, in my opinion. Again, it's all about feeling for me. Like I'm kind of jealous that I haven't had more visual interactions like you have, if at all. But mine's more of a feeling, not really. Yeah. It's your intention, yeah. My I mean, I also have this recurring nightmare, which has gotten a lot worse lately. But this recurring nightmare of falling, like falling from a skyscraper, falling from a really tall building. Just I'll I'll even like start falling asleep, and out of nowhere, I'll like jump up because I I feel like I'm falling. You feel like you're falling.

SPEAKER_02:

That's that's a pretty common human experience or nightmare or dream. But I I I think because of what you were saying earlier, just my intuition is saying because you're a crossroads and you haven't found your footing yet. And that's that's actually an opportunity.

SPEAKER_03:

So yeah. Let's hope so.

SPEAKER_02:

Of course it is.

SPEAKER_01:

You know who's really good at dreams, Reed? My mother, Deborah. You need to talk to her about your dream.

SPEAKER_03:

That's another six-hour conversation.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. So my mom, uh Reed actually helped uh redo my mom's house after a tornado hit it. But yeah, she'll talk to you about your dream all day long and she'll ask you all these questions and she'll interpret it for you. You might not want to know the answer. I will say that doesn't sound good. Yeah. I don't think you falling from a skyscraper is a great omen.

SPEAKER_03:

No, it's been going on for a little while, but you know, it's it's terrifying. I'll get a check out.

SPEAKER_02:

I would get a check out.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah. I've woken up and like grabbed something because of the feeling of falling. It's it's kind of crazy.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. I mean, I do that too when I sleep though. Like I I'll like wake up thinking I've fell and hit the ground and then like do like that. Is that not is that not normal?

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah, but are you dreaming that you're falling in the sky like out of the sky or out off a building?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, basically. And then I'll hit the ground the second I do I wake up, like really quick.

SPEAKER_03:

I always I always worry because I have had deja vu several times in my life. Like several, several times I've had deja vu. And obviously, if you know anything about deja vu, it's something you've dreamt about previously. Did you know that? Oh, yeah. I'm okay. So I'm worried that I'm gonna this is just a preview of me, my future, or how I'm gonna die.

SPEAKER_01:

I don't think it's how you're gonna die. I think it's a reflection of how you're feeling about your life in the current moment. That's my where it needs to go. Yeah. I don't think it's how you're gonna die. It's probably just you feel like you're in free fall, which is probably accurate.

SPEAKER_03:

I don't feel that way, though. That's ironic. Like I'm I feel pretty grounded. But again, uh, I could I could use a vacation, I could use some, you know, New Orleans in my life, I could use some Halloween fun and yes, and festivities. That's honestly what I'm don't.

SPEAKER_01:

So, what are you doing for Halloween, Joseph? I have to know. And then I want to ask Reed, like, what is your plan for your costume? I have an idea for mine, but I want to get an idea of like if it's a good idea or a stupid one, because I'm terrible with costumes.

SPEAKER_02:

This year's gonna be pretty low after the big road trip, you know, to the Midwest and back. We're gonna lay low this this fall. We are going to New Hope in a few weeks to there's a new like haunted Hollywood museum and gift shop in little town of New Hope that's in Pennsylvania, across the bridge from New Jersey. Um, we're gonna do a ghost tour uh that same night with our friend Caitlin, whose wedding we were at in St. Paul, Minnesota just a few weeks ago. And then we have a tradition of Halloween. We watch all the Halloween movies that the Michael Myers from start to finish, all of them, including the new trilogy that was released a few years ago. We get pizza and we just hand out candy to the trick-or-treaters. So very low key Halloween this year. Very chill.

SPEAKER_01:

That sounds amazing. Instead of hanging out with a bunch of gays, I gotta say.

SPEAKER_02:

Like it's always I don't have an idea for to do much. This Halloween's like for us, we're just gonna chill this year.

SPEAKER_01:

I also have to say, like, these Halloween celebrations have become like a problem, I think, in the gay community because they've cordoned them off. They've started selling tickets. You can't get in. Remember when it was just like a blog party and then we just could have fun? Like, what happened to our friends?

SPEAKER_02:

Or go into a house party, go into a club where there was no like entrance fee, dress up, do hookup, I mean, whatever, you know.

SPEAKER_01:

But that remembered this happened to our prides too, right? They they turned them into these true, like what's it called? These um the thing where you have to pay for tickets, and now it's a music festival. And it's like the same thing for Halloween here in Dallas. Actually, I went last year because it actually looked like a very cute cowboy. I know there was a lame costume, but I I did look great. And I was like, I want to go to do this. I get there and I'm like, I'm sorry. There's an entrance thing. We have to sit in a huge line, which is just crazy. When the old days, you just walked up and down. Like I've done at both Santa Monica Boulevard and Dallas on Oak Lawn, and you just walk up and down the street on Cedar Springs. It's so much fun.

SPEAKER_02:

It makes sense.

SPEAKER_01:

And like for some reason, we've decided to invent it all, and I don't understand.

SPEAKER_02:

But that reminds me of watching the movie Hellbent, is you know, similar to what you're explaining, uh, Lane. I I recommend you can't really stream it. You can get it on Amazon for like$9.99,$10, but it's called Hellbent, and I highly recommend everyone watch it. It's a gay horror movie, by the way. Slasher movie.

SPEAKER_01:

I didn't know there was a gay horror movie.

SPEAKER_02:

Yes, and there's another one coming out, man.

SPEAKER_01:

No way.

SPEAKER_02:

Like uh Queens of the Dead is coming out soon. It's it's like brand new, hasn't been released yet.

SPEAKER_01:

I'm sure Reed will be rushing to watch that one.

SPEAKER_03:

Which one?

SPEAKER_01:

Queens of the Dead.

SPEAKER_03:

No, he's have you heard of it? No. He's still confusing two Wong Fu. Or oh no, I'm sorry. Yeah, he's confusing Tu Wong Fu because he's never seen Tu Wong Fu.

SPEAKER_02:

I remember that.

SPEAKER_01:

No, I'm just saying that. I'm just saying that I just don't think you'd be watching Queens of the World.

SPEAKER_02:

I'm revoking your gay card for not watching Tu Wong Fu. I'm just saying.

SPEAKER_03:

I still haven't watched it. I know, and he won't because it doesn't last only. Here's the thing about Blaine. He has a attention issue. And he can only watch video clips on TikTok that last no longer than like 25 to 30 seconds. And 30 seconds is probably pushing it.

SPEAKER_01:

It's not true. It's so true.

SPEAKER_03:

You have to tweak it.

SPEAKER_01:

I watch a lot of movies. I watch a lot of movies, but I will say, like when I do watch a movie, I'm constantly getting up, pausing, getting up. It takes me. Okay, the worst was when I was watching Game of Thrones. Because it would probably take me about three to four hours to watch one episode because I would research everything. And then I'd get up and I'd have to have breaks. So yeah, you're right, Reed. I'll give you that.

SPEAKER_03:

I know. I know I'm right.

SPEAKER_01:

So I will tell you my costume. Yeah. I want me and my friends to go as the Blue Origin women.

SPEAKER_02:

Which one will you be?

SPEAKER_01:

Well probably Gail. No, I can't be Gail. I guess I have to be like Katy Perry.

SPEAKER_02:

Like with her little flower.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, with the flower and then the dark hair. Yeah. People get a really dark wig. Yeah. So my friend, we went to Benson Boone last weekend and he wore this like bright blue jumpsuit. And I was like, that looks like the blue origin outfit. How did he look to it?

SPEAKER_02:

And that jumpsuit.

SPEAKER_01:

He looked really good. I'm sure. Brian's pretty hot. So he looked great. He everybody was taking pictures with him. They were just like completely obsessed. They were like, oh my God, I need pictures with you. Look just like Benson Boone. He's got a mustache now and a mullet. And like it just was so Benson Boone. It was great. Though Benson Boone is very short, I have to say. He's not 5'9. I don't care what Wikipedia says or 5'8. He's got to be 5'6.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah. No, because I wasn't invited to the concert.

SPEAKER_01:

Why not? Because he doesn't show up.

SPEAKER_03:

That's not true. If I was invited to Benson Boone, I would have gone. But it's a it's a sore subject.

SPEAKER_01:

Reed was so mad he followed us to Fort Worth and passed us on the express lane.

SPEAKER_03:

That was actually an accident. I got stuck in the express lane, but I did pass them in the in the I did pass them in the in the shoulder lane. And then I realized that I missed my exit. So the express lane heading from Dallas to Fort Worth, it's just a one, one lane, and you only get a certain amount of exits on it, right? And I missed my exit by 20 minutes, like, or or what would seem like 20 minutes. It basically gave me added another 20, 25 minutes to my drive to get off at the next exit. But yeah, I basically drove way too far. And that was And that was that.

SPEAKER_01:

I'm just gonna say what actually happened. I want to explain Dallas geography to everybody. Okay. He lives up here in Little Elm. I live here down in Dallas, right? So we're up north.

SPEAKER_03:

I what I to stop you, I was going to Capell to pick up Rufus, my dog. My dog was in Capell. So I was going northwest. DFW Airport, which is west.

SPEAKER_01:

Okay. But then Fort Worth is West. So there was no reason for him to be here.

SPEAKER_03:

Well, at the time of day that you guys left to go to the concert, it was traffic. So I just took, as you said, okay, I'll take the express lane. So I jumped in the express lane going west, and I could easily get off at DFW airport and go north. Well, I missed the DFW airport exit, which then pushed me out like eight miles past, you know, which other 20 minutes. But that's yeah. Either way, I passed them because they were driving slow. What were you in? Were you in that boxy-looking BMW?

SPEAKER_01:

Yes.

SPEAKER_03:

It was the ugliest BMW I've ever seen.

SPEAKER_01:

That's Reynolds. Don't say anything. I won't say anything.

SPEAKER_03:

But when he watches this episode, sorry, Reynolds.

SPEAKER_01:

I get in trouble. No, somebody will tell him about it and then we'll talk about how shitty Reynolds' car is. It's not. It's a brand new X5.

SPEAKER_03:

That's not an X5.

SPEAKER_01:

X4 or something. I don't know. I don't really care.

SPEAKER_03:

It looks like the toaster oven of BMWs, but anyway.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, he doesn't pay a thousand dollars a month. Well, he probably does.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

He's a doctor, so it doesn't matter. So I'm gonna be a blue origin girl. I'm gonna get a I think that'll be a funny outfit. I think my best one ever was a urologist. Um and I it was very simple scrubs, but I made up like a really braunchy name for the urology clinic. And then I got like so much play on Santa Monica Boulevard. So that was my favorite one. Fun that I ever did. But I usually like get to the end, like get to Halloween and I'm like, shit, I didn't do an outfit. So this year, but like I don't even know what we're doing this year. So I don't think we're gonna go to the block party. I don't want to go to a block party. Um, like I said, it was just so awful the last couple years because they were charging.

SPEAKER_04:

So they take the function.

SPEAKER_01:

What are some of your favorite recipes then? I think you have one, right?

SPEAKER_02:

For me.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, don't you have like a Halloween thing that you do as well?

SPEAKER_02:

Is it something that I told you about already?

SPEAKER_01:

Punch.

SPEAKER_02:

Punch. I think it was. Was it punch? Was it the a voodoo juice that I told you about?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, voodoo juice.

SPEAKER_02:

No, so that's not my recipe, but that is a delicious drink.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, what is it? I love a cocktail.

SPEAKER_02:

What is it? So if you're in the French quarter, you go down to Lafeet's blacksmith shop, one of the oldest bars in New Orleans, and you order this the place that does the absent as well.

SPEAKER_01:

Like it's a little bit more.

SPEAKER_02:

I'm sure there's absent, but that's the old absent house.

unknown:

Okay.

SPEAKER_02:

That's by Pirates Alley. That's the one.

SPEAKER_04:

Yes.

SPEAKER_02:

That's a good place too. Great cocktails. But the voodoo very cool. Um, you ask for the purple drink, is what it is now referred to as a purple drink with an A, and you get a big old cup of voodoo juice. And it's um, it's lethal. It takes its time to work its way through the body, but you only need like one, and you're good for the evening. So I highly recommend uh going for the purple drink. So there's that.

SPEAKER_01:

Read we should go to New Orleans and have purple juice.

SPEAKER_03:

What is in purple juice is what I'm gonna ask. Everything. So it's like a hunch punch.

SPEAKER_02:

It is like grain alcohol, and then pretty much, and just all the other fixes. Yeah, but it's and you can get brain freeze really easily, but it is like on a hot Louisiana night, it is chef's kiss. Yeah, magnifique. But if you're asking about a recipe, I do have a recipe for fall as well. Anything alcohol is usually my recipe, but go ahead. Your your go-to. So this is like cozy, warm Saturday morning type recipe. You take a thing of crescent rolls, right? And you take a can of pumpkin filling and some sugar and cinnamon and chocolate chips, and you mix it with whipped cream cheese, and then you stuff and re-roll each of the crescent rolls and bake them, and you have a cup of coffee or some tea, and you have a great easy, cozy fall morning breakfast or dessert.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, that sounds amazing.

SPEAKER_03:

It's like a pumpkin croissant or something. Pumpkin cheese croissant. I'm not so I'm not a huge fan of pumpkin. Uh I don't do the pumpkin spice thing. It's not my thing. Right in the heart. Right in the heart. I I know, I know. Pumpkin, yeah, no, I don't do that. No. What's my October go to, though? There's something in October that I go to. I don't I don't know what it is, but it's not pumpkin spice or anything like that. I'm not a pumpkin guy. I'll carve them. I'll carve pumpkins and I'll do all that stuff, but none of the pumpkin spice stuff. Not eating the pumpkin stuff. Okay. Okay. How about this year's Halloween costume, Mr. I I I like I said, I think I might, if I do go out or go anywhere, I'll probably do like Deadpool or something like that. I don't know. Okay. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

Maybe that'll be a pretty sexy read. Can we post it on our Instagram?

SPEAKER_03:

Or I'll just go as like, have you ever seen uh Big Hero Six? Nope. So have you ever seen those inflatable costumes? The ones that like are automatically inflatable? Yes. I I would I would go as like one of those inflatable costumes. Nice. Okay. That's boring. I don't know. I'm sure Blaine's gonna try to pick me out a Halloween costume and I'll just maybe I'll go as Clark Clark Kent. I did watch the new Superman the other day. How was it? It was actually good. It was really good. Okay. I don't know the name of the actor that played him, though.

SPEAKER_02:

Oh, he was in um he was in Ryan Murphy's Hollywood. He was in um Pearl as the movie guy. He's been around a while, that actor that played him.

SPEAKER_03:

Really? Yeah. For a long time. I didn't recognize him. I mean, I th I I was pleasantly surprised. I mean, he's no Henry Caville, but he's gorgeous too.

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03:

Oh yeah. Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah. But adult adult Halloween costumes are expensive, or they can be. So.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah. I So here's the thing. I'll if I'm gonna do an adult or a an adult, if I'm gonna do a Halloween costume, it's gonna be a one stop shop. I'm gonna step into it, zip it up, and that's it. I'm not

SPEAKER_02:

You don't want to buy pieces here and there and no, no, no.

SPEAKER_03:

I'm not and I'm not really gonna wear a mask. I'm not really a mask kind of guy.

SPEAKER_01:

I think you should just wear a cheese drink.

unknown:

Oh my god.

SPEAKER_01:

You get so much like from that. Yeah. It'll work really well, Reed.

SPEAKER_03:

I'll just I'll just go as my in my spider-band costume. I got a lot of attention when I put on my spider-band. I'm sure you did. For all the right reasons. That thing was super tight. Super tight.

SPEAKER_01:

But I mean, Reed does have a nice ass, just in case anybody's wondering.

SPEAKER_03:

Nice.

SPEAKER_01:

Thank you.

SPEAKER_03:

Yes. That's all I work out is my waist end.

SPEAKER_01:

God bless. Well, this has been super fun. Yes. I'm very excited about Halloween and fall. I do love fall. And maybe I'll have a party this year again. One of my favorite theme parties, which I love to do a theme party, is um how if October threw a party. And the idea is you come dressed as your favorite, like stereotypical white girl that loves fall. Fall. Yoga out that and then you serve in PSL like cups, like you know, like Starbucks cups, like the boots, like all these wine out of the pumpkin, and yeah, all the fun boots, furry Ud boots and scarves, like big scarves that like wrap around. Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_03:

Do they still wear juicy sweatpants? Is that what is that what they wear to be? That's not really a thing anymore. I don't know.

SPEAKER_01:

Reed, that was done in like 2002 after Mean Girls. It was probably Mean Girls that was over. My God.

SPEAKER_02:

And then had a resurgence in like 2008, and then like that was it. Sorry.

SPEAKER_01:

No, it's definitely Ug Boots, yoga outfits, like that whole thing. And then, you know, a lot of Diet Coke and Nutella. Yeah. So anyway, I love that theme party. It's my favorite to throw. So maybe I'll do that. Maybe that's what we'll do for the pumpkin carving party that you're not invited to.

SPEAKER_03:

That I that I'm not invited to, not you. Joseph, you should come down. You should come down sometime. I would love to.

SPEAKER_01:

We have fun in Texas. We do have fun in Texas, I have to say.

SPEAKER_03:

We're also really not far from New Orleans, only like six hours. Blaine doesn't drive anywhere.

SPEAKER_01:

So Blaine I only fly to New Orleans from Dallas. Let's get a 45-minute flight.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah, if Blaine could fly and to drive an hour, you know what I mean? To skip driving an hour, he would do it, you know.

SPEAKER_01:

If the opportunity I went to Fredericksburg and literally it was like a four and a half hour drive in Texas, and I literally was like, I was built for private jet life. I mean, unfortunately, I don't have a rich family, so this has not happened for me. Um, but I was made for it because to me that was like the most painful thing I've ever had to do.

SPEAKER_03:

Was drive four and a half hours or ride four and a half hours. He didn't drive.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh, I didn't drive.

SPEAKER_02:

No. You just hopped in, you hopped in.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, and I just sat there the whole time. But then I was just like bored. I will say I did I did do a road trip, by the way, from LA to Dallas when I moved here. And I had a lot of fun with that. I had a friend of mine, but you know, to your point about like long days, we had a couple long days of driving where we were hauling, but like for the most part, we would stop like every four hours. Like we stopped in Scottsdale, talk about like, or not Scottsdale's a Sedona, talk about some interesting stories there. I had a lot of spiritual moments. That's a whole different topic. But um, and then like we stopped at like all these national parks along the way, like White Stand Sands National Park, which is in New Mexico, which I just like never heard of. I went to Carlsby Caverns, which I hadn't been to since I was like a young kid. It was just very like cool. And we went to all like, what is it, Winslow, Arizona? We went to Winslow, Arizona. Like you've heard it in the song a thousand times. And we're like, we're gonna stop at Winslow, Arizona. We stopped at the giant pistachio in Nevada, went to Roswell, which was totally lame. Don't ever go to Roswell, not worth it. Sucks. Really?

SPEAKER_02:

So I did have all the Fort Americana stuff.

SPEAKER_01:

It just was, you know, is it it actually was super cheesy. There were other towns around it that were cooler. I think Roswell just is not cool anymore. I think it maybe was back in the day. But anyway, that was fun. But I mean, we had to break it up because girl, I can't, I can't be all cooped up one person alone.

SPEAKER_02:

You need, I mean, it was fun learning about the different cities in which we stayed, but you need to take breaks and eat a little bit healthier if you can, hydrate a lot because you get dry really quickly. Um, and and just and just enjoy the travel, you know, not just getting to your destination, enjoy the travel is what I recommend anyone.

SPEAKER_03:

Well, yeah, especially when you're driving anywhere west or north of here, not north mostly, but like west of here. Everything is it's so dry, so dry out there at the climate.

SPEAKER_02:

So dry. I mean, like everyone was saying, even St. Paul and Minnesota was very dry. And I've been to some dry places, like you know, Colorado, like is yeah. Let's talk about dry, you gotta hydrate, you gotta like infuse yourself with you know, like water, electrolytes, all nine yards. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah. Colorado's dry, Utah's dry. Very dry. Yeah, yeah. Well, yeah, we gotta get you down here. We gotta do a road trip up there. Maybe I can convince you.

SPEAKER_02:

I would love to, especially if this thing goes through hopefully with a whoever, and then I'll definitely fly New Orleans.

SPEAKER_01:

We're not doing a road trip with you, Reed.

SPEAKER_02:

I will fly to you guys and then I'll fly to New Orleans and I'll fly home. I'm not getting in the car anytime soon. The next two years.

SPEAKER_03:

I'm gonna see if I can convince Ryan to come with me on a well, I mean, no, Ryan won't. Ryan doesn't separate from his uh fiance. That's true.

SPEAKER_01:

But if Ryan does go, he used to do copycase with us. If he does go, I would go with you.

SPEAKER_03:

That's what I'm saying. Yeah. I would make it the quickest drive to New York or New Jersey.

SPEAKER_01:

No, see, that would be actually not fun. I would want to stop at a bunch of places. Like we could stop at Savannah, we could stop in the Carolinas.

SPEAKER_03:

Savannah is not on the route to New Jersey.

SPEAKER_01:

That is Reed, you don't know. You haven't mapped it out, have you?

SPEAKER_03:

Yes, I have. Savannah is straight west, southwest, technically. Definitely map it out.

SPEAKER_02:

Definitely map it out if you have a chance.

SPEAKER_03:

I've made the cross-country road trip a few times. The only thing is I haven't done the west side yet. I've only done the east and north and central. But yes, I'll convince him and we'll get out there, I promise. Have your people call my people.

SPEAKER_01:

Will too. Well, thank you, Joseph, for sharing all your spooky stories with people. Of course, thanks for having me. And I have to say, I just want to show you, I do have all my crystals here that I recently charged in the full moon. I don't know if it's worked, but I did do that. It's been a while. So we're hoping for really good energy over here.

SPEAKER_03:

Always.

SPEAKER_01:

And like I said, I have tons of my candles burning and all of these things.

SPEAKER_03:

It's kind of overkill. I think it might be, yeah. We'll talk about it. We'll talk about it when we staff.

SPEAKER_01:

But if anybody has any kind of spooky story, I would love to hear it in the comments too, because that would be super fascinating. I would love to hear what people have heard and seen in particular.

SPEAKER_03:

Yes.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. So thank you, Joseph, for the time today. This was super fun. I'm glad we gotta have like a chill so much. Yeah, fun night talking about spooky season and all this kind of fun stuff and like why the gays are obsessed with it. So 100%. Very excited. So thanks for joining us tonight. Um, yeah. Thanks so much. So cheers. Have a good night, everybody. Good night, everybody.

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Adam Bailey

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Blaine LaBron

Co-host
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Ryan Hines

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