River: Bonus

Matt Donato, Ben Silverio, and Ansel Burch are pop culture observers/ content creators/ excellent friends who are here to have a great time. After all, the noodles never run out, and we never get full!

Some stuff doesn’t make the final edit, and some of that gets to be in this weird mishmash of content. It’s the bonus episode.

Find us online!

Matt Donato is @Donatobomb on Bluesky, Letterboxd, and Instagram

Check out his podcast, Certified Forgotten. It’s a podcast about horror movies with 10 or fewer critic reviews on Rotten Tomatoes.

Ben Silverio is @BSilverio20 on Instagram, X, Threads, Blusky, and Hive.

Ansel Burch is @TheIndecisionist on IG, Facebook, Yowsa, Blusky, Reddit, and Threads.

Check out Ansel’s new TTRPG, Cards! https://the-indecisionist.itch.io/cards

Check out Ansel’s new time travel actual play podcast, For the Time Being!

Next week, we’re kicking off a month of heavy metal goodness by watching Terminator Genisys with Rachel Granda-Gluski. Until then, make sure you’re subscribed, because it’s always #Time2Party

Transcript

Ben Silverio 0:05

Hey, I'm Ben Silverio.

Matt Donato 0:06

I'm Matt Donato,

Ansel Burch 0:07

and I'm Ansel Burch, and

Ben Silverio 0:09

it's time to party.

Ansel Burch 0:13

We are not doctors we don't give medical advice. Please drink responsibly. Today's episode was recorded on March 20, 2025, can do the same thing again,

Ben Silverio 0:26

fair enough. I mean, I did it

Matt Donato 0:29

word for word, word for word. Go Yes. Word for pen from the top.

Ansel Burch 0:34

Good rehearsal. Everybody. Good

Ben Silverio 0:36

Matt, did I see a special guest in your room for recording? Sits here, the entire family. Well, or sit here the entire family. Oh, hi buddy. Like Amelia

Matt Donato 0:48

is upstairs, but he's still gonna stay here the whole time and just be like, Why aren't you paying attention to

Ansel Burch 0:51

me? Oh, so are you in California as well? Matt,

Matt Donato 0:57

yeah, I'm in Los Angeles. I've been here about five years.

Ansel Burch 0:59

Fantastic.

Ben Silverio 1:01

He's on the boring side of town, though. Oh

Matt Donato 1:06

yeah, but you're always coming this way, so

Ben Silverio 1:08

I don't what does that say? I come there to hang out with you. I know exactly. That's why it's not the boring side. Here you go. You and Amelia make it not boring. We do.

Matt Donato 1:19

I forget if I asked this, right? This ready? This is just audio,

Ansel Burch 1:21

right? Yes, it will record video. We don't use, yeah, yeah, no, that's

Matt Donato 1:26

fine. We do the same on ours. I just never, like, there was one time that, like, someone's like, Oh, come on my podcast. And then, like, it wasn't just, it was a video podcast. I was like, Oh, you actually used the video. I wasn't ready for this, so I just do it to be safe. Good, good.

Ansel Burch 1:38

Check, good, check. We have been talking about potentially doing that, but yeah, no, not with so boring you. Yeah,

Matt Donato 1:44

no, no. So we because, like, people, I don't know, people like that shit

Ben Silverio 1:48

I don't get, I don't know why

Ansel Burch 1:50

it's a podcast,

Matt Donato 1:52

yeah? But, like, my Normie friends are always like, oh, yeah, I watched this podcast on YouTube. And I'm like, that's not what the fucking vlog and they're like, yeah, like, I don't know. I like watching on YouTube in the background. I'm like, that works the same. If you listen to the audio, it's so, yeah, which,

Ansel Burch 2:07

I mean, we are on YouTube now, but it's just our logo for the duration.

Matt Donato 2:12

Yeah, we're in the same boat. We're Yeah, did

Ansel Burch 2:15

you get your RSS feed on there? We did. That's exactly what we did. So do that for the longest time, and then I didn't catch it when it got announced. I guess so for the it was, it's very recent for us that we got on there. It's

Matt Donato 2:30

us too. And it's like, once we get to the video, sometime that'll be fun, but, yeah, it's like, sitting there. I

Ansel Burch 2:35

It's enough of pain in the ass. I like editing audio. But even simple video is just scales of difficulty higher.

Matt Donato 2:45

Yeah, I can, I can crush this out. I can crush podcasts editing out. But video, I don't wanna sit there and do it's a whole

Ben Silverio 2:51

other see Ansel. We're not that far behind if the matt Donato just got on it.

Ansel Burch 2:56

There we go.

Ben Silverio 2:59

Dick, funny story when I first met Matt, like we didn't know each other, but I've seen his name around, so I was just like, wait the matt, Donato and Amelia. Was like, Don't call him that. It'll go to his head.

Matt Donato 3:10

And it did immediately, did immediately, and there was no issue. Was a result. So you know, I and we're friends to this day. So now you know how you address me when you when you meet me,

Ansel Burch 3:23

flattery will get you everywhere.

Matt Donato 3:25

Oh, everywhere, my God, Jesus, tell me I'm pretty.

Ansel Burch 3:31

So I'm so you have a cool t shirt? I'll say that I

Matt Donato 3:34

do this is a god. What was that stupid? Yeah, Loot Crate fucking like a decade ago, I still have my Loot Crate shirts. I wanted to work for them so bad. I knew two, I know two people did in the video department. Their office

Ben Silverio 3:46

was super cool. I took a tour and I profiled them for one of the first websites I wrote for. Yeah, and they were, they just sent me a crate full of shit.

Matt Donato 3:58

They were both my friends quit there. So, like, yeah, you know, you're okay not working there exactly.

Ben Silverio 4:04

Yeah, the my contact there also left. So yeah,

Ansel Burch 4:08

it does seem like it would be either awesome or terrible place to work. No,

Ben Silverio 4:14

well, after the Mystery Box fad kind of went down, you know,

Ansel Burch 4:18

dead, yeah, yeah, yeah, oh my god. But, like, I want those. It's true. I do too, the snack ones, Yeah, fuck yeah. Oh, 40 packs of ramen a month. Sure that.

Matt Donato 4:29

No, it's the Korean like, snack food one. Oh yes, hell yeah. Give me the mush. Give me those fucking cheez. Its that taste like octopus or some shit. I want it.

Ansel Burch 4:39

And please don't translate. I would like to not, I would like to find out purely through experience. I

Matt Donato 4:45

don't want to know. Don't put a picture on there. Just yeah, let's go get go. What

Ansel Burch 4:49

is this supposed to be? It's

Ben Silverio 4:51

like, man, you know you're eating angler fish, right? It's like, okay,

Matt Donato 4:55

now I know I like angler fish. Yeah.

Ansel Burch 4:57

I was like, it's not poison. I.

Ben Silverio 4:59

Yeah, that's true. It's the other bits of the puffer fish that are poison, but freeze dried.

Ansel Burch 5:07

Oh, that takes the poison right out of it.

Ben Silverio 5:13

How my mind will go back to Simpsons episodes, but they're all from like, the early 90s, and never anything recent. I

Ansel Burch 5:21

mean, because last time you watched the Simpsons

Matt Donato 5:25

that, and also, like, it was always better in the beginning, like, let's be honest,

Ben Silverio 5:28

that's true. The beginning, as in, like, 10 seasons in, seasons in that's,

Matt Donato 5:36

that's about the time I started. I think

Ansel Burch 5:37

it had to find its feet and then not lose them. And now and or we were all, I

Matt Donato 5:43

think we were all the right age at that time. Yeah,

Ansel Burch 5:48

I'm sure, I'm sure mid adolescents are enjoying Simpsons as we speak.

Ben Silverio 5:55

I wonder how they would react to South Park, like early South Park when we found it, you know?

Ansel Burch 6:01

I mean, I did react well to it, so I can't imagine today's you are down. Yeah, I did not enjoy the South Park. I didn't I did not catch that wave, which I know makes me a weird person in our generation,

Matt Donato 6:19

weirdo. I

Ben Silverio 6:20

mean, Ohio, that's true. I did live in the past, at least Matt and I were on the coast. Yeah, I

Ansel Burch 6:27

liked it. Maybe that was it. I wasn't cool enough. That's too Western.

Ben Silverio 6:30

You know, I am starting to realize that the regionality thing, like, is a thing because, like, I know a lot of people who don't like 30 rock, who aren't like East Coasters, I just started watching Designing Women, and I don't think I like it, just because it's, like, so Southern and, like, Republican coded, even though there are, like, liberal things about it, because, I mean, it's a Hollywood sitcom for feminist women, kind of,

Ansel Burch 6:59

I mean, but it was as liberal as it could be at the time, I

Ben Silverio 7:03

guess. Yeah. And like, I'm trying to look past all the the hacky like fat shaming jokes, or, you know, like the the sexist jokes and like, all that stuff. But I think the writing is just not as good as Golden Girls, and that's disappointing.

Ansel Burch 7:18

Yeah, I I I think that's a fair assessment. Honestly, why

Ben Silverio 7:24

can't more things be Golden Girls? Matt,

Matt Donato 7:27

I don't have that answer. There's only so much. Yeah. I was like, I, that's what I yeah,

Ben Silverio 7:34

sorry to trick you, but this podcast is actually about Designing Women.

Matt Donato 7:40

You're gonna make me watch an episode live,

Ansel Burch 7:43

live, react. That's what we're doing here. This

Ben Silverio 7:46

is when Gene smart's character comes in. She's literally the whole reason why I started watching this, of course.

Matt Donato 7:53

Yeah, no, that makes sense. Like,

Ben Silverio 7:54

I like Gene smart

Ansel Burch 7:55

turns out in certain contexts, yes. Oh my god, we should actually start, huh? Oh yeah, let's do the song. Sorry.

Ben Silverio 8:07

Oh Matt, when I say this next bit, you respond with the next bit of the movie quote. So I say, be excellent to each other. You say, and party on dudes. Sorry, I forgot that bit. We always do. We always do. It's part of the tradition. Now, you'd think we'd have it down by now, but it's we do. It's part of the bit. That's true. It's part of the bit. Yes, all right. Now, What? What? What's the next? Oh, wow. What's a, what's a 20 sided die called a casaedron? Yeah, when we can have a building shaped like that? When's the Oh, I bet you're D and D headquarters gonna be, oh,

Ansel Burch 8:54

that they have wasted an opportunity there. But I bet you there's a hedron building.

Ben Silverio 9:03

Man, it's, I'm trying not to get all these tangents in at the very end here, but here we are. Did you know that you can go to the creator of Dungeons and Dragons house in in Wisconsin and play Dungeons and Dragons in the basement where it was

Ansel Burch 9:18

created? Yeah, yeah. I haven't done it, but I do know that that is a thing that people do. I

Ben Silverio 9:23

pitched that as an article when I was working at the travel website. Oh, and that one did not get approved.

Ansel Burch 9:32

Yeah. So fun fact, this is what we are so far in tangent territory. So sorry, but Matt, because I'm in the gaming industry at least a little bit. One of the big things that's going on with that right now is, like the legacy of Gary Gygax is very questionable right now, a because he was a little super racist. And there were some other like moral things going on, but also so the company that was originally responsible for releasing DND TSR dissolved, but, you know, they sold all their shit to wizards, and they stopped existing. And now there are two TSRs, one company legitimately bought the license to be TSR again, and they are legally TSR. And then Gary's kid was like, fuck you. I'm TSR too. And so now there are like dueling companies both trying to be TSR at the same time, stealing art from places doing all sorts of shady shit. At the same time, they're also, like, trying to market and capitalize on Gary's legacy. So like, there's a DND themed tavern experience that's supposed to be opening up near Geneva, where Gary is from, and part of the house experience that you were talking about is also embroiled in all of that nonsense, so there's a lot of gross and weird politic going on around all of that. So you may actually have saved yourself some headache by not going to game in Gary's basement.

Ben Silverio 11:20

Yeah, oh, man, that Okay, last thing, and then we're gonna wrap up also.

Matt Donato 11:28

But I don't like, I don't gave like that, so, like, I have nothing of insightful that. Hey, if

Ansel Burch 11:32

you want to come next weekend and play some D and D, I can hook you. I can hook you up.

Matt Donato 11:36

I started dabbling. I started dabbling. I did the Lovecraft. I forget what it's called, but like, there was a Lovecraft play through that my friend did and he hosted. So that was, yes, exactly. It was called Cthulhu, very, we did that. I was a I was a bartender, nice, of course, the tracks. So, yeah, I'm starting to wade into that. I think it's very fun to like play that character, TTRPG. Haven't got the expert. It's right here exactly

Ben Silverio 12:01

my my character is a dragon born bard who plays the bagpipes and brews his own beer and who casts what is it? Vicious laughter. Vicious mockery. Vicious mockery, where he just insults people. And whenever I play Bardic inspiration, I I go anyway, here's wonder wall.

Matt Donato 12:28

Wow, dick, dick,

Ben Silverio 12:31

yeah, on bagpipes. So it's, I'm just a dragon hipster. It's very fun. Half of my spells are for the bit. Except I did learn a healing spell because I thought it would be helpful. I'm like, maybe not all of these should be for the bit, but you

Ansel Burch 12:48

can do more bits if you're alive. Yeah.

Ben Silverio 12:52

You can find us on the internet. I am at B cell, Vario 20 on Instagram, X, blue sky, letterbox, etc.

Matt Donato 12:59

You can find me Matt Donato at Donato bomb on blue sky, letterboxed and Instagram. And you can also find my podcast, certified forgotten. At certified forgot, anywhere you have a social media account, we talk about horror movies. Attend a list cryptic reviews on Rotten Tomatoes. So if you want some recommendations on movies you probably haven't heard of

Ansel Burch 13:18

that's certified forgotten. And you can find me at the indecisionist on all of the meta properties, as well as blue sky, YouTube, all the other places that I can be bothered to be. Check out my other podcast for the time being, and my other work@indecisionist.com this has been an indecisionist production special. Thanks to April moralba for our podcast art, and to Marlon longit of Marlon and the shakes for our amazing theme song.

Ben Silverio 13:45

If you're still on a social media platform that uses hashtags, feel free to use the hashtag time to party, to join the conversation. That is time, the number two party,

Ansel Burch 13:53

as well as time the number two party, all spelled out next to Warren

Ben Silverio 13:59

that Donato Always a pleasure hanging out my friend, looking forward to the next drinking wrestling chabatras evening.

Matt Donato 14:06

You know it, man, as long as the travel schedule has been killed in those plans, but I am ready for the wrestles and the drinks. Thank you so much for having me. I appreciate letting you show y'all river

Ben Silverio 14:16

so yeah and so party people while you go off prepared to sail that day, we want to remind you to be excellent to each Other already on days, one last pop for Ansel. You