on finding each other if this whole magical terrible basement really does implode—

Bluesky @jesserbest

Instagram @jesserbest but my presence there is mostly just photos of charcuterie boards

Cohost is idiopathicsmile

Wordpress jessicamarybest.com, you can also sign up for my extremely periodic newsletter at the end of this post

mutuals, if you're okay with it, pls drop me a line (you can do it privately if you'd rather) and tell me where/how to follow you across the various webbed sites.

in the meantime, i will be here posting til security chases me out. <3

one of the ongoing struggles of my life is that i would love to get more of my circle into specific musicals and audio dramas, but (especially when the musical has no pro-shot) the most effective way to actually immerse someone in an audio-only story is to shut them in a dark room with absolutely nothing to do but listen, and frankly i lack the confidence to pull a move like that without feeling like a disney villain

aw, thank you! both podfics are extremely well done, and also the runtimes have gotta be intense; i admire your commitment!

only getting to this now, so sorry, and tbh i missed the entire Booping Saga but i love this message, thanks!

thank you so much for this message! and also for this opportunity to plug @keepitsteadypod, which currently has six episodes out (and miiiight soon have another???) we've had a lot of production setbacks, and i super appreciate the reminder that there are real human beings who care about the show, thank youuuu!

been thinking about it, and y'know what, even if we had actual a.i. and not Autocomplete Fueled By Plagiarism, and even if it was capable of producing visual art that felt good to look at, or written works that held up for more than a page or two, i would still oppose using a.i. in this way because like. at some point you've gotta ask yourself, what kind of world do you want to live in?

and the fact of the matter is, if we outsource any significant amount of creativity to computer programs, that is going to make it much, much harder for people to make a living being creative. and our capitalist hellscape being what it is, that will ultimately mean fewer people in the world making art. why take any step to bring us farther from the urge to make shit out of nothing? why rush to automate away some of the few tasks that are fun and fulfilling, and can bring joy and meaning to our lives? what jobs will those people have instead? boring jobs? no jobs?

what kind of world do you want to live in?

one of the joys of writing audio drama semi-professionally is that sometimes you will get a draft back and one of the comments will be "re: the part with the bird facts, i think you need weirder bird facts"

one of the torments of writing audio drama is that i then went and found SUCH A WEIRD BIRD FACT and now i feel honor bound not to post about it publicly until the episode comes out, but friends, it is SO WEIRD. also, utterly fascinating and delightful. i want to share it so badly, but i also don't want to spoil it for the episode.

it may be worth mentioning that i am terrible at keeping secrets, at not blurting out the thought most obsessively circling my brain at any given moment. i could never be a magician; my first night in front of an audience i would be blurting out, "GOSH, LOOK AT ALL THESE HIDDEN WIRES AND PULLEYS."

as such, this weird bird fact haunts me. it is constantly in my mind, hovering above my typing fingers, clawing at my soft palate but i must keep it on the inside, conceal don't reveal, play it cool, swallow it down, keep that beak zipped—

so in closing, i guess just please be patient with me in the coming months, and when we interact, know that internally there is an 80% chance i am kermit-mouthing my brains out

hi! thank you so much for this ask! i love writing for this show and the third episode of World Gone Wrong holds a special place in my heart because i think it's the first time you the audience fully realize just how ride-or-die the two hosts are for each other.

what a great question! in the case of the snippet of poem you hear on the show, it's sort of written as a loose carl sandburg pastiche. it's an interesting challenge to write a character who is canonically a talented poet because while i do write poems on the rare occasion a poem-shaped idea grabs me (and in fact that particular quote on the show i cannibalized from a longer piece i'd written a while back), i don't write much poetry and i have more confidence in my skills at pretty much every other form of creative writing.

it's a similar challenge to writing a character who is much smarter than me. like, in a words-based medium, how hard can i dance around the conjuring of sentences which must create the illusion of something that is by definition beyond me? (different writers grapple with this in different ways. for an example of how maybe not to do this, see bbc sherlock in its later series.)

but the thing about faking intelligence is, as you sit there at your computer, writing the words, you're free to do research on topics your character knows well. it is hard to fake creativity and skill. so at this point, i'm only really comfortable showing something malik has written if it's a joke. i'm a lot more confident in my punchlines than my poetry.

we did talk a little about malik's writing amongst the producers and the actors. slam poetry definitely came up at some point. i also think that since malik's work often centers questions of identity and performance and the self, he is very comfortable doing pastiches across a wide variety of styles if that helps make his point. on some level, a lot of poetic style is a kind of performance, i think.

idk, this is one of those aspects of the show where i'm really excited that other writers will be able to play with these characters in the future. it is my hope that at some point we'll get to hear more of his work.

@worldgonewrongpod, you are also welcome to weigh in here!

tagged by @worldgonewrongpod! if you've been enjoying World Gone Wrong (a new audio drama, a fictional chat show in which queer characters crack jokes, contend with the supernatural, enjoy each other's company, and have a lot of feelings—why yes it is essentially my dream project and i'm thrilled to be writing for it), you should def give them a follow.

last song:

i've been trying to continuously listen to new things, but if i'm being honest, my last track was "pretty (ugly before)" by elliott smith. idk, i had a craving.

favorite color:

cobalt blue!

currently watching:

i'm like halfway into the newest contrapoints video, if that counts. also, last week tonight, franklin, ghosts, and abbott elementary. if anyone has any recs (especially stuff i can watch with my parents), i'm here for it.

sweet/savory/spicy:

i like all of them but the one i crave the most is probably sweet.

relationship status:

in a long-distance relationship with my wonderful girlfriend

current obsession:

uh, mostly trying to figure out how to get my brain right. i had some trouble getting my antidepressant for a while and it got real bad; i'm medicated again and hoping to just generally make some mental health progress. like, maybe go nuts and do something about the incredible amounts of kneejerk self-loathing i've had for my whole conscious memory, idkkkk

last thing you googled:

whether or not patton oswalt was in that show manhunt because i saw the trailer and kept going "...is that—?" (the answer is "yes.")

here i'm supposed to tag people but instead i'm gonna chicken out and say: if we're mutuals, assume i wanna know and am too shy to ask!

say what you will about gotye's "somebody i used to know" but i gotta appreciate a song that ends with a second party rebutting the entire rest of the song, while still in the song. imagine if more songs did this. incredible.