RQ Network Feed Drop - Push the Roll with Ross Bryant: The Butterfly Factory Part 1 with Brennan Lee Mulligan

Billy here, the voice of Alice in the Magnus Protocol, and today I'm here to tell you about the Magnus Archives Mysteries. Immerse yourself in the world of the Magnus Archives with the Magnus Archives Mysteries, a cooperative puzzle and deduction board game from the designer of the Magnus Protocol Mysteries. Become an interim archival assistant and help John, Martin, Tim and Sasha uncover the truth behind six new supernatural mysteries. Perfect for fans of escape rooms, the Magnus Archives Mysteries can be played at home by superfans and new listeners alike. No previous knowledge required. Crowdfunding for the game begins on the 9th of March on Kickstarter. Go to www.rustyquill.com forward slash mysteries to find out more and to sign up for notifications as soon as the project goes live. That's rustyquill.com forward slash mysteries. Thanks for listening. Hi everyone, it's Corrine, the voice of Simon Fairchild from the Magnus archives. Today, we're sharing a recent episode from one of the brilliant podcasts on the ARQ Network, Push the Roll with Ross Bryant. Push the Roll with Ross Bryant is a weekly improvised comedy horror actual play podcast from the creators of the award-winning Eight Slade Nobody podcast. Each episode features improvised Call of Cthulhu adventures, combining cosmic horror tabletop RPG and dark comedy filled with amazing special guests. This is part one of The Butterfly Factory and features a guest appearance from Brennan Lee Mulligan. To listen to the next exciting episode, which is out now, click on the link in the description or search for Push the Roll with Ross Bryant wherever you get your podcasts or you can find more information on RustyQuill.com or PushTheRoll.com. Have fun and enjoy the episode. Welcome to Push the Roll. Wow, wow, wow, wow. The blank page lies before us. We stand vertiginously at the lip of chaos. Let's see where chance takes us. We got Cup, we got Nick, we got Paula, we got Brennan in the building. Thank you all so much for joining us. You're welcome, Ross. Absolute pleasure. This is so fun and it's so exciting. Happy to be here. So we're going to improvise a Call of Cthulhu game right off the top, inspired by a title. Now, we've got a full table of titles submitted by our Patreon subscribers. So I think we have 100 titles that have been submitted by our friendly subscribers. Just this month? That's right. I actually randomly picked a selection of 100 from the more than 100 that we received. That's amazing. Wow. What is wrong with you people? Yeah, people are twisted and creative. So let's see what their sick minds have created. So would somebody like to do the honors and roll a D100 to see what figure we get, which will then randomly decide which title will inspire our little adventure today? I'll roll it. Yes. Yes, Brennan, do the honors. I think that's the perfect solution. 25. All right, cup. 25. Okay. Okay, interesting reaction. Yeah. Oh, this is great. This is a great title. No, so this comes from ClorpDonk, user ClorpDonk. I know ClorpDonk. Yes, hello, ClorpDonk. Okay, this is rigged. Polonoscorp donk. Of the Long Island donks. Yeah. Yeah. Of course. The title is The Butterfly Factory. Oh. Okay. Interesting. The cosmos is a cyclopean infinity of chaos. Infinite branching paths stretching off to vistas in the distance that will drive the mind mad Shall we shrink in the face of all this? Or will we climb aboard the chaos and ride it to the end, letting chance guide the way? This is Push the Roll We're rolling dice against your Patreon suggestions to create improvised Call of Cthulhu adventures in real time with themes of eldritch horror, the weird, the transhuman, the transmundane, the cyberpunk, the splatterpunk, the anything punk. We don't know until we roll. Anytime, anyplace, anything can happen. When you push the roll. Now that's a whimsical, delightful creature, but a factory conjures images of industrial waste and sterility and grime. there's a thematic juxtaposition even within the title and i think that's the direction clorp donk is pointing us in yes this um crafty clorp donk yes this this antithesis that that clorp donk is so craftily placed into the title the butterfly factory yes the butterfly this beautiful symbol of like natural loveliness freedom it's gossamer wings plying the sky and and the factory the choking the the air with smoke and noise what is this what does this make me think of the butterfly factory well i hear butterfly factory i'm instantly thinking just just butterflies thinking of like butterfly effect things rippling out butterfly is making me think just of of beauty natural loveliness and fragility um softness in contrasting with with um the factory the factory not only makes me think of a giant cement structure with an enormous smokestack pouring smoke into the sky but also Andy Warhol okay nice the factory being of course what what he called his art studio where all kinds of artsy and fashionable eccentrics would gather the butterfly factory to me just as a title it sounds to me like a paperback you're there at the sort of a spinet rack in your used bookstore thumbing through the weathered paperbacks with cracked and faded covers. And the Butterfly Factory really seems like something that you'd see there printed in the 60s or 70s. I think this is where this is where my imagination is just kind of like pushing me here. I'd like us to all think of characters that would be in a Warhol-esque smart set in like 19 late 60s early 1970s New York we're thinking Edie Sedgwick's young socialites we're thinking rock musicians we're thinking artists weirdos people from the Upper East Side slumming it on the downtown scene yeah hmm well my first thought I don't know if this exactly matches what you just pitched us Ross. So feel free to help me mold this. But my first thought is the like kind of put upon assistant who is there, maybe really wants to be a, you know, an artist herself, but right now relegated to brush cleaning, canvas stretching. We are mining the depths of my painting knowledge, you know, really wants to prove that she could do that, maybe, if she was just given a shot to do it. That absolutely tracks with what we're talking about, especially if we're thinking of that era in art and a Warhol-esque figure in particular. You're thinking of this sort of reframing of the concept of an artist from this person a dobbing paint on a canvas, but rather a corporate CEO managing a whole group of employees who are pushing out material. And so you probably have a bunch of these sort of henpecked assistants doing the work. Yeah, yeah. Let me see what... I'm just going to dig into the old 1920s character sheets, I think. Those are my old reliables. Yeah, maybe this could be an artist themselves, a frustrated artist or craftsman or uh yeah i think so someone who was promised hey just take this internship it'll lead to something uh but it hasn't yet how long do i have to do this before i am elevated to the position of artist myself so yeah i'm gonna find a um i think an artist character sheet here. I'll consider names. Come back to me for names. I'm not sure yet. It's the hardest part of any character. Yeah, of course. Well, cultural touchstones, things like Downtown 81, or I Shot Andy Warhol, or Basquiat, or maybe some of the movies that he made, or think of Lou Reed's song Walk on the Wild Side. This is the sort of milieu we're we're cooking with. And if you're thinking of names, the Warhol superstars had some pretty incredible names that might get your your mind going. Names like Cherry Vanilla or Bridget Berlin or Candy Darling or Ultra Violet. Oh, my gosh. Yes. OK, that's great. See, I only have a name. I actually went into the Regency set and grabbed a poet. But I'm picturing someone who actually is just like super pale from being indoors all the time, working across like different mediums for art, but isn't particularly good at any of them and figured that he could maybe get away with that in poetry to say like, maybe you're just not sophisticated enough to understand my poems. But I have Velvet Bloom as my character name. It's a nice one. I love that. That's absolutely perfect. Yeah, and he's like, he projects confidence, but he's quite fragile because he's surrounded by, well, we'll see, right? Brilliant artists, potentially. Mm-hmm. Confident and striking yet fragile, not unlike a butterfly. Wonderful. Yeah. I'm kind of stuck on this Nico-esque kind of artist too, but I feel like we might have too many artists. So maybe the kind of like aristocrat really leaning on the association with creative types kind of fancying themselves also, but an artist as well, but not really able to produce anything. So just, you know, hanging out, waiting for inspiration. Yeah, I also also put out there that like, so the type of person you're describing is often just like these sort of like scene mavens, these seniors people who just have this kind of natural charisma, and maybe even like a like a model. Yeah, I was gonna say someone could be there whose job is to inspire the art being created. Yeah, so amuse. Yeah, yeah, that's the word I was looking for. Yeah, like Twiggy. Yeah. Yeah, like Twiggy or E.D. Sedgwick. I'm not sure which character sheet would work best with this. I mean, honestly, maybe just dilettante. That dilettante sounds pretty good. I've actually grab the antiquarian i love that the antiquarian i feel like is great that that that gives me a picture that this character might have an art history degree um or something like that and uh and they actually know a lot about the art of yore that maybe is being subverted in the in the new set that you're involved with look you gotta know the rules to be able to break the rules so true yeah what are you thinking what are you thinking brennan um i would like to be And this is a contentious point of history. There are differing reports on this. However, I would like to be an American CIA agent who, due to the Cold War initiative by the CIA to promote abstract expressionism as a means of producing American cultural assets, totally devoid of revolutionary or populist sentiment. I think I want to be a like art dealer. Yes, a quote unquote art dealer. Yes, yes. One of those art dealers who's funding art and seems to have access to galleries that can buy your art. There's a lot of quotations happening here. Where does that budget come from for all those artworks? What sort of arms deals are going on in the side? Yes, the galleries were big scare quotes here. Scare quotes flapping in the air, not unlike butterflies wings. And yes, I, too, Brennan, am fascinated with this concept that's floated up in a culture of of the CIA and the American government promoting abstract expressionist art in particular as a way of promoting the American project of freedom while de-racinating American art of its of its radical messaging. The 60s had this huge Woody Guthrie resurgence in folk art and folk traditions and folk music. And, you know, as someone who I feel like grew up in New York City and was often chided for a degree of culture lessness by not being moved by abstract expressionist artwork, I found myself giddy with elation when a connection was made between it as an actual weapon of government promoted meaninglessness. as I went, aha, my assumptions about this art were 100% correct. As a seven-year-old, I went, I don't think this is anything. And they went, no, it's something. And then later I read, the CIA promoted this because it wasn't anything. Yes go back into your history books and compare if you will the socialist realism of a beautiful 1930s WPA mural as compared with a picture of a can of soup Hell yeah. But yes, both of these are expressions of a particular relationship with commodity and industry, the sort of things that are made in factories. Ooh. We're cooking with gas here, folks. I love this. I love I love in particular, Brennan, that bringing in a CIA agent, because that is all part of the stew of this time period. Also, this Cold War paranoia and dancing on the edge of apocalypse that all of this scene has of like, yeah, my gosh, maybe we're going to have our 15 minutes of fame because maybe 15 minutes is all we got because we have a lot of missiles trained on each other. And who knows when it's all going to go down. So, Cup, do we have a sense of who Velvet Bloom is kind of occupation-wise? Yeah, I don't think he actually has a real occupation. I think maybe like some of the others here, he's just kind of flitting about, going from party to party, trying to make an impression on everyone else. I think he walks around. He probably has some family money that's allowing him to do this. He came up to New York from New Jersey. He is often seen wearing like a thrift store tuxedo jacket with no shirt on underneath, metallic scarves, really like intricate sunglasses. Sometimes he wears like those like see-through vinyl raincoats. He just wants to be seen. And he's always like kind of pushing his terrible poetry on everyone, hoping that somebody finds deeper meaning in it and then can kind of push him up so that maybe he gets featured in like these art galleries. or some of these really well-known poetry readings that are happening around the city. All right. Excellent. Velvet Bloom, party boy, poet, scene maker. Oh, and now that you said party boy, I'm thinking like floppy blonde hair that's like falling over his eyes as well. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Like emulating Warhol. Yeah, pretty much. Yes. Paula, do you have a name for your for your overworked antiquarian? Yes. Margot Marceau. Oh, love that. And yeah, I think she looks more academic and harried than she does this like kind of pop culture idea of what an artist looks like. Maybe more like what Velvet Bloom looks like. She doesn't quite live up to the glamour idea of someone creating art. but she knows within her she could. She could. Yes. They would just let me. You're right on the cusp. And Marceau is not my real last name, but if I go by that, people will think I'm more artsy. What about this fashionable dilettante, Nick? I think that she goes by Willow. Not her real name. But she's going to be this, like in the 60s, that whole, you know, emaciated aesthetic, how beauty was equated with basically like not really being there. she's always in latest fashion so you know she's in the you have to forgive me I don't know anything about 60s fashion she's always in the you know the the latest Mary Quant or Yves Saint Laurent and is very concerned about the like aesthetics of things and so she's a name dropper she's everything you would expect from someone who doesn't have a lot of their own personality and relies on kind of like subsuming everything around them that has been designated as cool or avant-garde or cutting edge fashion, cutting edge art, all of this. The takeaway here is insufferable. Okay. All right. Maybe to some. We sound like perfect pawns for the CIA. All three of us. Which segues beautifully into. Great assets, all of you. And please tell us more about our gallery owner. I would love to. My character's name is Alan Clay. He is, or at least that's the name he goes by. And I think that he appeared in town about seven years ago. He was a regional gallery art scene person who was a very big deal. in the Twin Cities, although someone else heard that it was actually St. Louis and someone else had actually heard that it was maybe Pittsburgh. But he was a big gallery dealer somewhere else. And I think that he has essentially come in to the scene. And the main role, he's like an introducer. I think that's the main thing that he does. Like he buys pieces himself from time to time, but the main thing he does is like make those connections and promote people. And I think that a lot of a lot of what he does privately is sort of market making is like the people that he there's been a couple of times where he'll have been someone's first big purchase. So like the first piece that someone sells for an enormous amount of money. And lo and behold, once you've sold one piece for a lot of money, typically the art scene for all of its visionaries tends to produce a lot of following. And all people need to hear is that someone sold a piece for a ton of money. And that sort of seems to imply that they're the next big thing. And art thrives on the next big thing. So Alan Clay is a next big thing maker extraordinaire. Wow. A spotter finding these blue chip artists early in their career. If I can just get Alan to look at some of my work, maybe I can get out of here. And I think Alan has a little bit of that. He's a thin, reedy man. I think he's like 5'10 or something like that, where everything about him is square but seems to be an affectation. So he's got like, in the style of the time, like thick framed glasses, wears a black suit or like a charcoal, a nice dark charcoal suit. But everything is always like a safe choice with a wink. Sort of that thing of like, well, you're the artist. Let me not be taking up any air in the room. But everything seems to be done with a wink. But there's this weird question of like, is it being done with a wink? Or have we talked ourselves into this square being important in this community? Hard to say. So that's sort of what he looks at. It's like, look at the hip square in the corner. Oh, he hasn't said anything funny or interesting all night. Oh, no. Like, oh, wait, oh, this is just a guy with a lot of money. But again, things are tailored. It's nice. So he's not a total goon, in other words. Great. Wonderful. These people have really come into focus. I love this. Should we roll luck? Let's see how lucky you are. Roll 3d6 and multiply that figure by five. And that is how lucky your character is. and you can drop that stat into your luck. Ooh. Make smart choices, Cup. Oh, boy. I always do. 40. Oh, no. Let's see. Oh, I did pretty good. I have a 65 luck. Dang. That's great. Yeah. Oh, that's better than me. So, of course, if you fail a roll, you can always spend luck to bring it down to the relative level of success that you would like. The other method of attempting to succeed where you have failed is you can, per the title of the show, push the roll, where you try what you were doing harder, maybe using a different tactic. You roll the same skill. And if you succeed, you succeed. But if you fail a pushed roll, something terrible happens to you. High risk, high reward. Lovely. Cool, cool, cool. Okay. Here we go. Oh, dear. I just got nervous. What? Because you, didn't you just go, and it made me nervous? Because I laughed? Yes, okay. You did it again. In darkness, smell dust. The smell of dust invades your nostrils. it's it's palpable like an atmosphere in here hanging in the air it's the smell of dust and paper it's a bookstore you're walking through teetering piles of used poems on either side of you down a long hallway the the topics history architecture art spirituality occult moving deeper and darker to the back. And there's one turning rack. And just see your hand reach out and push it around and pluck out one weathered paperback. On its cover, there is like a beautiful oil paint illustration of a young woman in a bodysuit kind of writhing either in pain or in ecstasy, in dance. Lights strobe out in the darkness on this cover. And it seems as though a rather loche man is kind of lounging there in the darkness, looking at her. The title, The Butterfly Factory. And you can see some of the writing beneath the promotional copy. The dark beauty of the young set fluttered through the night, but something was waiting to pluck their wings. And as you look deeper and deeper into just the black paint, as you kind of thumb through it, the price. Oh, a steal, only $2. It's a little bit damaged. There in the darkness of that cover, there's something that seems to resolve. There's something else in the art there, in the paint on the cover. Is that a face? No, it's just something there in the darkness that you can't quite see. Waiting there in the darkness as we move into that cover, through the cover, into the cover, into that darkness. The darkness of the night. No longer in the bookstore. No longer the smell of dust. But the smell wafting up from the sewer grates of 1970 New York. Steam billows up from manhole covers. You can hear... Like the yellow taxis rush by. You can hear sounds crackling out of a zenith television shop that you're moving by. And you can hear like, the Vietnam War continues as more of the war dead come through. Unrest in Watts continued today as more cars were set on fire. The president... As we're moving, moving through the city downtown, we're in downtown. As we move down a flight of stairs into the lower level of a building, as the music is getting louder, the smell is not of the night. It is not of dust. It is of sweat. And you're hearing bass guitar, organ, tambourine, rock and roll music as we're moving into this smart set party. We follow two women in each other's arms, passionately embraced against a wall. A mirror ball throws light on them. A small, older bearded man with a cocktail kind of waddles by hand in hand with a young model. We move through the dance floor of a bunch of people doing the frug and cutting shapes in the darkness. And we're moving through, through, through. And let's land on our party here. Perhaps all of you sitting together, let's say, in a booth off in a corner here. This is a party thrown by your boss, Margot Marceau. this is a this is a party thrown by bruno banks who is uh one of the uh hottest pop artists on the scene right now and in fact hanging from the ceiling are some of bruno banks artworks they are enormous um vinyl uh boxes of maltomeal and and cheerios and detergent that are sort of bulbously dangling from the ceiling uh you know them well because you helped stitch them together Yeah, I actually did most of the work, but I am under strict, like, in DA to never tell anyone that I did most of that. Great. The music is so loud. There are five people in black leather up on a stage. They're all playing instruments except for one of them, whose instrument appears to be a bullwhip that she is cracking at intervals. But you are in conversation. I'm actually really lucky to work for Bruno. I'm learning so much from him, and I know it's really going to really launch my career one of these days. And I take another big gulp of my drink as I say this over the din of the music. You are lucky. He's a genius. I mean, how do you come up with ideas like this? Boy I guess just inspiration strikes or something and then you tell other people to do it Drink Just a disproportionately loud peal of laughter escapes from Willow as it becomes clear that she's not actually listening, but rather keeping her eyes, scanning the crowd to see if anyone more famous or slightly higher status comes by that she could glom onto and then go off and converse with. Yeah, perhaps your eyes notice the actual Jim Morrison is shimmying by out on the dance floor there with his shirt off and beads around his neck. He looks on the verge of passing out, but he is he is dancing out there. Yeah, I think I think Willow might be starting to scoot a little bit out of her seat in that direction. I think Alan is seated all the way in the corner of the booth and is doing that thing where you're sitting in the corner of a booth where you're tilting out to face the room where it's like rather than sitting with his back to the cushion, he's sitting with his back to the wall in that corner and has a cigarette that he's smoking indoors. Oh, boy, what a time. and he sort of i think he hits everybody with very warm eyes the eyes are very warm but the smile is very patronizing you know like the mouth is sort of crooked and the eyes are very kind so he's like oh look at all these little birdies flying hither and yon it's beautiful it's a beautiful scene as always oh jim look at there goes jim uh i work with jim you've met jim oh yes Yes, yes, yes. Jim's an old friend. We go way, way back. Wow. I knew him when it was just the door. Wow. That's so interesting. It's just that I've also spent a lot of time with Jim. And, you know, he never really mentioned you. It's just, I guess we were just partying so hard that it didn't come up. Well, I'm like a pair of drawers on the floor. Unmentionable. Mr. Clay. Yeah. Look at your laughter, laughter, laughter. I'm almost drowned out by the fuzz guitar coming from the stage and the occasional bullwhip cracks. A young woman suddenly is, like, leaning against you, Willow. This is just a young girl from the scene, you know. She goes by the name Cherry Coke. And she is, like, kind of looming over you like, Oh, oh my God. Where? Where did you get those? Are you going to the after party? and she lowers her sunglasses and looks down at the table in the center of all of you, where each of you has set on the table. This is probably what started your conversation earlier. A ticket to the after party. And you can see the ring of the four of them making a little cross there in the center of the table. And on each one, stamped with a rubber stamp, it says, The Butterfly Factory. Very, very exclusive, Willow. You don't happen to have a plus one, do you? Oh, I'm so sorry, Cherry. It's just, you know, we have to keep it small. Otherwise, it's not as fun. But I promise I will tell you all about it when I see you next time. You can tell that she's like dying inside when you look at her eyes. And then she just pushes her sunglasses up and leans in close and is like, you promised to tell me everything. besitos and she kisses you on each cheek and shimmies back into the crowd oh she's the worst to everyone else at the table after she scuttles away it's a week ago willem you are at a model casting it's a pale white psych of a room and let's just see like a photo of willow bang standing with one arm above her head Bang. Leaning on a bicycle. Bang. In a full leather jumpsuit, unzipped to the navel. Bang. And see the photographer there. All right. Wow. OK. Great stuff. We'll call by the end of the day to let you know. that's fantastic um maybe we could do just some extra you know slightly more risque shots just to pad out the set like wow something a little artistic you read my mind i would like each one of you i'm loving this idea of like generative scene painting What about this model casting office tells us that it is at the absolute bleeding edge of fashion, but is also a little like, as we've already recognized, a little bit erotical and maybe a little bit cloying in its perversions? I think that there are bronze sculptures that are exaggeratedly willowy human figures like dancing throughout. The sort of stick figure sculptures are supposed to be very featureless, but these ones have been left mostly featureless, except they all have very wide, empty eye sockets in a level of detail that leaves you like, I don't know, it's just a little bit unsettling. Yes, yes, there is something unsettling about these figures. Anyone else have a detail to add to this room, to this office? I think there is a box full of props to be used in different photo shoots, and there are some that you might expect, you know, like silk scarves and things like that. But then also there's a bunch of them that are strange and maybe a little out of place. Like there's a bedpan and and one of those like hand crank egg beaters and, you know, like just one random old shoe that looks like it's from World War One or something like a soldier's boot from World War One. Just these very strange things. Great. Yeah. What sort of photography are they doing here anyway? I think the restrooms, it's just one room with toilets, no stalls. We have nothing to hide here. We have, we should be exposing everything. Amazing. Okay, great. There's like this constant drone of demo reels playing, like the most cutting edge music, but it's all like a little warbled. Like there's a broken jukebox in the corner. and if you ask anyone, they'll tell you that it's an installation. It's a work of art itself and that's why it's broken. Great. Nice. So yeah, over this low hum of maybe a song by a band like the Strawberry Alarm Clock or the Chocolate Watch Band being played just off kilter and warbly, the shoot has taken place that you suggested and the negatives are well in the possession of the photographer. And he looks at you, Willow. As always, a total groove, Willow. Say, if you're not doing anything next week, maybe you'd like to go to the after hours after Bruno's little shindig. What do you say? He reaches into a little cigarette case and he pops it open. And there are cigarettes of like five different colors in here, but in among them is a little ticket that he hands to you reading The Butterfly Factory. Willow snatches it with a bit too much excitement. Bruno Banks? I mean, yeah, that would be groovy. And she's like clutching this thing almost white knuckled. Oh, it's, um, this isn't Bruno's official after hours, Willow. oh no no no it just so happens to be on the same night i know that this is bruno's opening or whatever a real happening but this is from someone new this and he turns it over revealing the address this is from ivy wild and we just see ivy wild's name there and let's uh cut over to maybe like four days ago, Velvet Bloom. I want to see you delivering some of your poetry. Of course you do. We all want to see this. Bookshelves on either side of you. The smell of strong coffee in the air. There's a huge poster on the wall with a picture of Ho Chi Minh on it. And you're on a little stage and a notebook in front of you. and several people are leaning forward to listen to what you have to say. He does, maybe he calls it demonstration poetry, but I think he's going to bend down and he's going to put the notebook on the stage and he's going to stand up and take a gum wrapper out of his pocket and he's going to hold it in his hand up to the audience and say, it's just a gum wrapper in my pocket. It just looks like a gum wrapper, right? A little bit of Wrigley's, But this gum wrapper is louder than the subway, right? It's louder than the velvet underground. If I unfold, if I unravel the gum wrapper, look at the potential. Look at the silver horizon of the gum wrapper. Do you see it? Do you see the reflection? But if I fold the wrapper and he's carefully folding it, it becomes a coffin. And then he just steps backwards. He takes like five steps backwards on the stage as the lights dim. Great. Do you have a poetry skill on your sheet there, Velvet Bloom? I do, I do. I have a very generous number, a 50. Why don't we do our first roll of the game in this absolutely absurd way? Give me a poetry roll and let's see how well received your rather outre demonstration poem was. I love it. I love it. Oh, man. Wow. Oh, no. Okay. I rolled a 96, but I have a 50 exactly, so it's not a fumble, Ross. I didn't fumble your poetry roll. I don't know if this is consequential enough to warrant taking the time to push the roll, but I am always happy to push the roll with a second poem. Are you going to poetry harder right now? I'm going to poetry harder. Perfect. Just say it louder again, but louder and faster. No, I think the idea that I have is that he was kind of trying to make this like illustrative scene of the gum wrapper and he realizes it's not working. So he's just like rifling through his pockets, looking for more props to use in his next poem. And he pulls out like a handful of change and he starts chucking it at people in the audience. And he's like, the moon's a nickel. And he throws it at somebody. and he's like the the the sun is a penny and he throws it at somebody and just starts pelting people with change as he kind of calls out all the celestial objects wow okay let's see if this goes over well this sounds like quite the push maybe i missed my calling everyone as a demonstration poet i think so yeah if you roll 100 here i'm just gonna be so happy all right let's see i passed 38 under 50 Okay. Wonderful. It was just that good? You didn't have them. You didn't have them at first, but the sky falling on them in the form of change has turned to them. This confrontational act has really won the crowd, and they applaud you. Nice. Oh, the violence of currency. Yeah, nice. That's the name of the act now. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. As you're on your way out, a man with a rather sharp Van Dyke beard kind of pulls you aside, and it's like very interesting, very interesting poetry. I suppose it's rather ghost to even call it by that name. What you're doing up there doesn't have a name yet. It's so far out on the limb. I know. I caught the moon. So allow me to give you something in return. He reaches into his velvet jacket, and he gives you the invitation. oh this is uh wow worth a lot more than a nickel velvet balloon by the way if you missed it uh mister oh i didn't miss it i didn't miss it i didn't nor did i miss this he makes the coin kind of dance down his fingers and trust that this is the same night as mr bank's opening but the patroness of this after hours is someone new and once again he turns the the card so that you can see the name of Ivy Wild. He'll slide into his pocket. Let's see you and Bruno Banks in the studio, Margo. All right. I am busy, I think, like sewing and stitching together the portions of this installation as previously described. I think I'm struggling with maybe a detergent bottle and how I'm going to attach it. And as you're working, like pricking your finger on like sewing needles and getting rope burns from the various material to make this thing, Bruno Banks is keeping up a steady monologue of conceptual ideas as he kicked back with his feet up on his desk Yeah they be sort of hanging from the sky bruno has a bowl cut like a jet black bowl cut and he wearing a turtleneck and a chain with a big uh monocle dangling from it that every now and then he picks up and looks at a piece of paper in front of him lets it drop again his uh beetle boots are kicked up on the desk there are no angels anymore so we are replacing them with today's angels. Today's angels you find in the supermarket aisle. Every trip to the supermarket is a walkthrough purgatory, and we can only hope to meet an angel before we leave the door. He's yammering like this as you continue to labor. Yeah, so deep there, Bruno, really, really deep. You know, speaking of angels, I had some sketches I wanted to show you of some wings that I've been playing around with, you know, trying to capture that like ethereal nature of flight and spirituality and therefore heaven and death and the afterlife. And she's just like spitting out, trying to sound artsy. And you would look at them, right? Takes the papers from you. Oh, thanks. He looks at the first page, thumbs to the middle, looks at the middle, thumbs to the back, looks at the back page of your drawings, shuts it, slides it back to you. Did you know, Marceau, that if you read the first page of a book, the middle page of a book, and the last page of the book, that you can totally absorb a book in under two minutes? Oh. I've literally read thousands of books this way. Well, this isn't really a book, though, is it, Bruno? It's sketches. Good, I thought you might... You know, because I've been working here for you for three years, I'm the most well-read person I know. Can you run to the store? Can you be a darling and maybe run to the store and pick up a purple, swatch a purple vinyl? Oh. I'm having a vision. Oh, yeah. Sure. Did you think they were good? He's looking at something else through his monocle, which he realizes a headshot of himself. He's like, very, very good. Very, very good. Great. Maybe one day I'll have time to actually paint them. Instead of gluing together detergent bottles and... Outside, um, you've just missed the bus. Of course. Stupid walk. Excuse me. There's a man with a rather sharp and pointed Van Dyke-like goatee and like a dark overcoat who has hailed a cab, but he's holding the door open. Uh, yes? You seem to need this more than me. Oh. Um. Going uptown? Uh, yes, I'm on a search for purple vinyl. Um. Oh. Well, what's that in your hand? Oh, my... Just some sketches. I did. I guess they're not very good. And I was just trying to capture the feeling of that something, you know, that that that that thing that you almost see and then you don't see it. I don't think that makes any sense. Oh, to the contrary. He holds out his hand and is almost like helping you into the taxi the way like a turn of the century footman would while holding your little. And I think, yeah, I'm being like I'm kind of in the taxi before I even realize that I'm allowing him to lead me in. It's like, yes, you show great promise. Oh. Wow, really? Thank you. I have to say this is all too new. You can hear like a little pop as something falls into your folder of papers. I hope you do continue on this journey. And know that there are patrons that could assist you. If you make the right connections. Yes. Connections are everything in this line of work. He whistles again and shuts the door. Wow. Thoughts racing through my mind. No one has ever been this nice to me on the street of New York. And wow, he really liked my stuff. And I think he got me. And what is in my folder? And I look and I see... Of course, the invitation. Hey, lady, where are we going? We going to sit here all day, says the driver. And I give him the destination. The first guy in this story I have liked. The first guy in this story that I have had a positive reaction to. lady this guy over here hails me you hop in and nobody tells me nothing where we going lady uptown downtown oh yes uptown to the vinyl store but not records it's material I give him the address to the vinyl store good gravy you gotta be more specific I know a place he pulls out we're in the back of an art gallery splatter paintings on the walls swirls of neon colored paint non-figurative designs Alan Clay you see a collector walk through the door I observe him waiting to see if he approaches any of the pieces with interest he's kind of looking at a floor to ceiling painting that is all white except for five blue lines that just run through its center. I see, uh, you're admiring number 13. Um, yes. It is a beautiful thing. It's a completely unique shade of blue, never been created before. Oh. Novelty is half the battle with artwork, I suppose. That's the sort of novelty that, um, freedom and free enterprise can afford one. Don't you agree? He looks at you very hard. In addition to speaking to the character of the human spirit, art's greatest achievement in some ways is its ability to appreciate in value. Free enterprise being what we're after here. My name is Alan Clay. I'm the proprietor of this gallery. My name is Curtis Crockett. I was wondering if we might have a little conference back in your office, if I can impose upon your time, Mr. Clay. I'd be more than happy to meet with you, Mr. Crockett, right this way. Would you like a cigarette? Why, certainly. Nothing better than a fine Virginia leaf to get the day off to a good start. Oh, sure. Like to keep it nice and mellow. I only eat one meal a day. And I walk into my office with him. Well, let's just swell. Swell. I myself had my boiled egg already today. All I want to do is walk into our office and have us both turn to each other and go. Like weird fucking. The nictating membranes of our eyes open and shut. God, I hate communism. Let me lick your eyes. Yes. All of that happens, of course. You reveal your lizard faces to each other, and... No, no, no. He sits down and rests a little case next to him on the chair. All very sleek. Eans chairs, modular design and all. I wonder if you don't get out into the field much anymore, Mr. Clay. Seeking new acquisitions, I mean. Well, I find these days I'm connected enough that the field comes to me, but I'm always looking for a new hot thing. Wonderful. Well, maybe I can put you on to an exclusive, Mr. Clay. As someone who's well known in the artistic markets, I think it would be best if you made the connection to the individual that I am eager to collect with. He opens up the case, and you can see that there are photographs in the case. kind of moves one aside, and it seems to be like a woman getting into a car, and then there's another of the same woman kind of coming out of what looks like a brownstone. And then he lifts out a little ticket. Yes. Very, very hard to come by. We don't know where this Miss Wilde originally came from, but she does definitely have artistic connections in Eastern Europe. You don't say? Well, I would love to make her acquaintance. I try to keep tapped into the entire scene out here. Gets harder and harder these days with all the comings and goings, but a pretty little thing like Miss Wilde escaping my attention seems rather unusual. How long ago did she make her way to this glorious metropolis of ours? It seems she's very good at escaping attention. She kept quite a manner, it seems, in East Berlin for a time. Apparently, also had some connections on the rather avant-garde dance scene as well. Into the plastic and performance and corporeal arts. As lovely as they are, I find that they are not as remunerative in the realm of free enterprise as collectors like you and I tend to admire. Unfortunately, those works of art which are ephemeral do leave something to be desired in terms of the acquisition of assets. Well, let's see if this is an asset worth our acquisition, Mr. Clay. Do we understand each other? Perfectly. I'm going to kill this woman. Sorry, red line, red line, red line. Easy, easy, easy. I think we understand each other perfectly well. You get the sense that you believe that he's informing you that this Ivy Wild may or may not be an asset of the Soviets. Yes. And this means that, one, that this may be an asset we wish to acquire. Could this be someone that we could turn and make an agent of our own? or if they're engaging in active measures, perhaps what you said in jest is more to the point. You know, it's always a big risk any time someone comes over and sees the quality of life. Blue Jeans and Cheeseburgers have done more recruiting for our cause than any agent could ever hope to. I wonder if Miss Wild couldn't be persuaded to open up a new line of credit and perhaps take on some additional employers. After all, this is nothing if not the land of opportunity. Well, do your best to extend an opportunity. Since it seems you've had such good luck with so many other artists, perhaps you can add one more to your roster. And if she doesn't find the seductions of the cheeseburger and the frankfurter beguiling, then I think we both know there are other ways. The art market is very dog-eat-dog. Here today, gone tomorrow, Mr. Clay. What's that your friend Warhol says? Everyone gets their fifteen minutes of fame? You just go and find out whether hers have struck. Let's see if this carriage is about to turn back into a pumpkin. Um, I'm going to leave being like, I actually am pretty hungry. You talked a lot about cheeseburgers and hot dogs. I might get a hot dog on my way. Pumpkin, pumpkin pie. What time of year is it? Yes, you walk up, oh, delicious pumpkin patch. And we see a Hunkleya eating a delicious, delicious hamburger. Got my hands around a big raw pumpkin, taking big old chops out of it going, I love America. Oh, beautiful, poor spacious. Bleeding from my gums as hard pumpkin shell goes into my mouth. Pumpkin goo falling down under your gray flannel suit. Great. And it is with that that perhaps we now bring ourselves back up to the present, where you all have revealed that you all have tickets to the after party. And as things are wrapping up here, at Bruno Banks' Little Happening, it may be time to go across town, deeper into downtown, to the Butterfly Factory, and meet your estimable host, Miss Ivy Wild. Only the strange Only the strange words now Only the strange words now Only the strange words now To listen to the next episode that's out now, you can click on the link in the description or search for Push the Roll with Ross Bryant wherever you get your podcasts or you can find more information on rustyquill.com or pushtheroll.com. Thanks for listening.