RUNNING THE LIGHT, SHORT STORY PREVIEW, & THE BOYS
This newsletter will be different. You may have noticed that I’ve changed the header from “weekly” to “periodic.” Over the past few months, I haven’t been getting to the newsletter every week, and the newsletters I have been sending out have felt sparse and low effort.
So, I’ve decided that rather than send out second-class updates on a schedule, I’ll give you the effort you deserve when I can make the time for it. For me, it takes about an hour to write something worth reading newsletter style, and with my job and podcasting I can’t make this worthy every week without sacrificing one of the other two. Instead of weekly, let’s call it “periodic.” Sometimes this could mean twice a week, other times once every two months. Either way, “periodic” makes me feel less guilty and strokes my ego because I no longer think of myself as a guy who makes false promises, at least not with this newsletter.
Maybe this is the right decision.
Maybe this is laziness.
Who knows? Everything I do, including this newsletter, is some version of a creative experiment, and I wouldn’t be doing my job as a creator if I didn’t change the things I felt called to.
So, let’s dive in.
LATEST AUXORO RELEASES:
Last week, I released this epic episode with the hilarious Sam Tallent.
Sam is a standup comedian and writer based in Denver who wrote the best book I’ve read in recent memories, and I’ve had a lot of memories recently. This book is Running The Light and it’s about a washed-up comic, Billy Ray Schafer, doing the road in the wildest, most depraved, sad, and exhilarating way possible. He fucks in the bathrooms of Improvs, does enough cocaine to beat his heart faster than Nick Cannon beats a snare in Drumline, and ruined the only relationship that ever meant something to him.
I suppose I love this book because Billy Ray reminds me of the worst parts of myself. These parts bring me to the highest states of body and mind in the short term, but if I let them take the wheel for the long haul I’d end up face-down in a ditch getting bumf***ed by a f******* bum.
I’ve felt the hooks of drugs, sex, and zero responsibility sink into me, but not so deep that I ever lost track of the things that mean the most: the relationships with the people I care deeply for, dedicating myself to the craft that chose me (podcasting), and cultivating a sense of adventure. For what reason I was able to escape, I don’t know. Genetics certainly played a primary role in my ability to dance with demons without succumbing to addiction. And also, the way my parents brought me up gave me the tools to recognize the limits of risky pursuits.
Regardless, there will always be part of me, a tiny .02% part of me that wants to leap off the deep end and say fuck it, fuck it (why did I leave these “fucks” in and bleep out the previous ones? Probably aesthetics) to all long-term responsibility and just buy a used car and drive it through the Americas snorting, sleeping with, and sucking up everything I can until I ultimately fall prey to the same fate as Billy Ray.
That’s why I love it. The book allows me to explore that part of myself without actually giving up the things I care about. It also has great writing and character development, and will make you laugh and cry by the end, at least it did to me.
Check out Running The Light by Sam Tallent here.
Check out The AUXORO Podcast episode with Sam Tallent here where get into what makes standup comedy beautiful, argue about capitalism, talk about Norm MacDonald and Tim Dillon, and other things.
THINGS I’VE BEEN THINKING ABOUT
Even though I write in newsletter fashion “periodically,” I do write most mornings. For the past couple of months, I’ve been writing a short story about a guy who goes through a breakup that’s 5% based on my life and 95% concocted exaggerations or made-up situations entirely.
Writing clearly is essential to clear thinking, and clear thinking is essential to hosting a podcast conversation. Writing on a more consistent basis has not only made me a better host, but it’s allowed me to explore my mind in a way that’s just not possible without sitting at a desk and seeing what comes out. If you have a job that requires clear thinking and creative input, which most jobs do nowadays, I encourage you to sit down and write at some point during the day.
You don’t even have to release it.
And, if it’s shit, who the hell cares? I’ve written and recorded a ton of shitty content in the process of learning as a creative. The story I’ve written may be shit, but that’s not up to me. All I can do is take a seat, shut down my wifi, grab my Oxford Thesaurus and type away, edit, type away, edit again, and type away until I’m satisfied that it’s done.
Write a newsletter, write a short story, keep a journal, make a comic book, it can be anything. I’ve written a ton of non-fiction articles and newsletters in the past, but for whatever reason, I feel more called to fictional short stories with the time that I dedicate to writing.
Here’s a preview of what I’ve been working on. The working title is Crossing The Line. If you read Running The Light, you’ll no doubt sense some influence:
The coke numbed the back of Adam's throat like he wished he could numb his heart. As he again rolled up the twenty dollar bill tighter than a nun's ass crack, Adam twice flicked the sides of the cash cylinder for absolutely no reason. It was just something he'd seen in movies and thought it looked cool.
How many things do we do just because we saw them in movies? Adam thought. The whole 'do a line, lean your head back, and look up to the sky with hulk mania in your eyes' was the way directors injected coke into the mass psyche. I much more prefer to hit it cool and casual, like Johnny Depp in Blow: just a quick toot-ski off a fancy silver spoon while rocking a tuxedo and a woman on my arm who distracts everyone except me.
It didn't occur to Adam that "hitting it like Blow" was also a Hollywood projection.
As he lowered the bill towards the line, Adam noticed some rock still visible.
He grabbed his Chase Sapphire Card from the edge of the table and pressed it down to smear the line flat, listening to the coke pebbles crumble beneath it like a drug prep ASMR.
"Fuck yeah," Adam whispered to himself feeling Johnny-esque as he corralled the coke across the coffee brown dresser. It was a strong, full-brown coffee color too, not that weak-ass bullshit trafficked to businessmen in the lobbies of Courtyard Marriotts as a perk to corporate slavery. I have constant anxiety attacks as I spend my life selling software I don't care about, but at least the dark roast is on the company card! That’s how Adam imagined their rationale.
He swished the flake side to side a few times before finally fashioning two lines. Adam thought about the extra points he could've added to his Chase account if the dealer let him pay by card. Adam was in Chicago at a friend's apartment when he beckoned the dealer with the same app he used back home in New York, which meant the purchase could certainly be categorized under 'travel': two times the points.
As the line lay waiting, he gazed at the off-white, yellow-tinged powder. Adam laughed to himself as he remembered the adage he learned as a boy: 'Don't eat yellow snow.' What about snorting it and gumming the leftovers, does that count? He also reminisced about an adage a fellow powder pirate told him in a Lower East Side stall: The pure stuff always has a yellow tint. God, I hope nobody pissed on this.
Adam vacuumed the first line into his right nostril, one of two doors to the soul. They say the eyes are the gateways to the soul, but no one's gaze had ever shown Adam who they were could the way cocaine did. Interesting people on blow became fascinating, and the boring became just faster talking, more unbearable versions of themselves like listening to a podcast about weather on three times the speed.
He sniffed in the slight burn and then sniffed a second time, feeling the metallic drip begin numb the back of his throat which matched the numbness in the nose. The numbing spread almost as fast as the serene euphoria.
Adam's horniness for conversation erupted.
Jake, Adam's friend who lived in the Chicago apartment they were partying in, stood to his right pouring a shot of chilled Tito's. Mikey, another friend of both who lived in Chicago, completed the degenerate trifecta by loading the bong. As his friends fiddled with paraphernalia, Adam yearned to release his coke thoughts in the form of words, but the ideas felt too good swirling around in his head. It felt like nothing he could say would match the show going on inside his psyche, like the conveyor belt from brain to mouth would wipe out 30% of the magic. Instead, he mentally edged himself with potential longshot business ideas, like driving directly to Joe Rogan's studio in Austin Texas and telling Rogan why he needed to put his podcast, The Adam Rossi Show, on The Joe Rogan Experience Network. Surely Joe would be blown away by Adam's effort to drive all the way to Austin and be struck by his conversational confidence. Adam pondered flying, but driving shows more guts.
WORK OF OTHERS THAT INSPIRES ME
Since the inception of streaming services, I have only watched three hour-long shows from start to finish: Hannibal (Amazon), Succession (HBO), and now, The Boys (Amazon). (side note: Amazon is underrated AF).
The Boys answers the question: What would a world full of superheroes and humans actually look like? (shout out to my brother Matt for recommending it).
There is so much, I’d argue too much superhero content nowadays with a new Marvel movie dropping every other weekend. Almost all of that content follows the same binary path of Good Vs. Evil, the good guys versus the bad guys. The good guy is good at the beginning of the movie and stays good until the end, and same for the bad guys.
In The Boys, the good vs. evil paradigm is shattered in such a dark and satisfying way. The superheroes or “supes” can act just as maniacally as the humans. The humans can cause just as much damage as the supes. The lines blur, sharpen, and blur again.
I’ll stop talking now and let the first scene from Season 1, Episode 1 speak for itself. If this doesn’t hook you, then this is not the show for you:
CLOSING NOTES
Here is a short clip from the latest bonus episode available only on AUXORO Premium. For bonus episodes, minisodes, the ability to become part of the show, and more, check out AUXORO premium today. It’s $5 per month and you can cancel at any time.
Also, Spotify recently introduced a podcast rating system similar to Apple Podcasts. If you would be so kind as to click this link on your phone (you can only rate in the mobile app) and leave a five-star rating, this would immensely help spread the word about The AUXORO Podcast. We have pretty decent traction on Apple Podcasts and could use a little boost on Spotty.
Thank you.
I hope you enjoyed this more in-depth, thoughtful format of the newsletter and I wish you good luck on the present hunt this holiday season.
Cheers,
Zach