News & Notes in the Machine...

The next "Box Set" is coming, should we chat during the rain/snow, tweaks to the Machine and a weird experiment, possibly.

As California hunkers down and groans about yet another “atmospheric river” that’s coming (narrator: “It’s here”), now is a good time for me to exhale and remind you (and myself) that The Bastard Machine only turned One Year Old as a substack in the middle of January and some (narrator: “Many”) of you might recall that I was in the midst of a challenging and annoying move, which lasted well into February. So celebrating the anniversary never really happened and all kinds of things, including my fiction writing, got put temporarily on the shelf.

But even then I was looking back at what worked, what didn’t, what did but I didn’t follow up on, etc. I’ve had some quick posts talking about changes that are coming (narrator: “They’re here”) including a predominance of paid posts — gotta keep the lights on so I don’t have to move again! —and very likely more and varied topics.

Already you can probably tell that I’m excitedly embracing more film reviews for the ‘Stack (I even tweaked the description of this whole enterprise) and will also start incorporating more wide-ranging/esoteric efforts to appear each Sunday (those will be free posts).

I’m also happy to say that the Box Set feature — where we pick a show and watch each episode together (theoretically) — is returning now that I have more time to manage that demand. For those unfamiliar, the Box Set is a little club where I critically deconstruct each episode of a selected TV series and our thoughtful community weighs in with some excellent comments. With the collapsing value of social media — particularly one’s return on investment these days — having a vital community of readers talking amongst themselves is of great value. (As noted for everyone who re-upped recently, the Box Set is a paid subscriber feature.)

I’ll restart that feature with — appropriately drunken drum roll — the final season of HBO’s “Succession,” which premieres March 26. (Now’s your time to catch up on last season if you haven’t — I rewatched the last two episodes just to get primed.) For those of you who are new or those who forgot, since our motto around here is essentially that nobody should drown watching TV, readers should come to this exercise at their own pace. That said, the Box Set is a little more intensive in that you have to commit to watching each week (well, you don’t of course — you can always play catch up, but that week’s spotlight take from me will have spoilers). And even if you’re a day or three behind after the episode deconstruction posts, the entire week serves as a lively discussion in the comments. It’s similarly important to note that in the spirit of ME also not drowning, the critical deconstruction of each episode could appear Monday or it could appear midweek, depending on what work load I have.

Final season for one of TV’s best recent-era dramas.

This is probably a good time to encourage those of you who have been thinking about becoming paid subscribers to do so if you have the means (you’ll remember that I cut the yearly rate to $50 recently). While there will always be free posts the ratio will shift starting soon (narrator: “It already started, Tim — your last two were paid posts”).

That was always the plan from the beginning but the feeling-out process, which was a lot of fun, also took longer because 2022 was a pretty great year for working on other projects and also miraculously getting a place in Portland (aka The Birth Of the Moving Posts). But as the TV industry contracts and projects are either derailed or not even considered — and there might even be a writers strike soon — there will be less time spent doing that for the time being and more time doing this and working on book projects. But what I’ve discovered regarding the latter is that this Substack is a great change of pace to working on a book, and juggling them (you know, when not carrying furniture down a bunch of stairs repeatedly) has been very manageable so I have a feeling things will be more lively around here as I keep going down both paths (and less down that third one, unfortunately for now).

But I’m excited to finally be getting a little “ahead of the cycle” — a thing I wrote about recently as the dream scenario for juggling these two disparate styles of writing and how to approach them. Not sure I can keep forever ahead but when you see an uptick in posts then you’ll know I’m managing it well enough in the moment. I think two positives events from the last year of this Substack — starting the “Two Episode Test” and watching more films has certainly helped. Happy to continue that.

Looks like the weather is going to confine lots of people indoors for a bit (a rarity here in California) so it might be a good time to do a Chat soon. You know, via the Substack app on your phone (iOS or Android). I highly recommend the app if you don’t have it already and whether you partake in the Chats or not. It just makes reading and organizing other substacks much easier. But I ALSO agree that a desk top version would be nice and apparently that’s in the works at Substack proper but hasn’t rolled out. While I’m not seeing overwhelming buzz from other Substacks that have tried the Chat feature, it’s also possible I haven’t looked hard enough. I know some ‘Stacks use it a lot. Can’t hurt, though. I’ll try it in the evening at some point so people are home (and it’s not too late on the East Coast). We’ll see how it goes. Could be fun. (Also, that’s a paid subscriber thing, too. I wouldn’t call it a huge perk just yet, but if it turns out people like it, maybe it will be. I’m told we can post photos. I’ll just show pictures of Pepper by the fire).

Introducing Substack Chat

I think you’ll see some more tweaks here in the coming weeks and months. One idea someone had (which seems possible) and it also seemed to me like maybe a good idea, but also there was wine involved, was this: I watch the first episode (half hour only) of some show (any show!) and record thoughts, criticisms, unintended laughter, dog barks, etc., into a podcast/voice post. It would of course be timed to the start of the episode. Then later you could cue up/sync up said “vocal post” at your place and, as it starts, hit play on the audio to listen along. Hey, we can all be in the same bed!

My first thought was, “OK, well, I guess I would have to say at least a few words every 20 seconds or so because otherwise it would just be dead air.” Isn’t that right? But since I always tell people to watch every show with the subtitles on, THIS would be a perfect example of how that would be helpful. Granted, I think this whole idea is possibly/probably insane. But as most people who know me will tell you, I have no problem talking for roughly a half hour. None. What intrigues me in a Mystery Science Theater 3000 kind of way is that, what if it does work? Or, maybe better yet, what if it doesn't work but that’s the funny part?

I’m assuming this will have to involve wine on my end. But anyway, here:

Lastly, I’ll leave with this last bit of news/info: It’s kind of baffling to me how few people (and I’m not the only Substack writer to think this) use the “share” feature to share a free post with people they know. Who doesn’t love sharing? You know, they built a whole thing around that for the Youth Of America (and the world). It’s a simple, hey check this out, you might like it (because of the topic…or maybe even because of the writing). I’m obviously biased, but I think you should use it more! It certainly would drive more engagement, so if you’re willing and you know some folks who might like a particular post, please do.

And yes I know that you can’t “share” a paid post. But next week I’m rolling out a popular Substack feature for paid subscribers where each of you can send (I think to as many as three people?) a one month paid subscription trial. The best feature is that whomever you send the one-month-paid trial to doesn’t have to annoyingly link any credit cards to it and remember to cancel later. Instead it’s a no-like-no-risk thing (and doesn’t make you seem like a drug pusher or a Girl Scout Cookies seller). It costs you nothing and it costs them nothing. They just need to put their email in. After a month, if they don’t like the content, they don’t have to do anything (Substack automatically makes them free subscribers). I think that sounds pretty cool, especially with the bulk of the content from here on out being paid.

The other minor change is that, as The Bastard Machine shifts more behind the pay wall, I’ve re-opened up the archives for a longer stretch so that free subscribers — still beloved! — will have access to many past free posts they might have missed or purposely skipped that now seems important (because those readers are now starting a show the old post talked about, for example).

OK, that’s it I think. You’re all caught up. Be careful of the weather in your town. Stay safe.

Love to your mothers.