November 6, 2024

November's Mystery Movie

Maybe last month I forgot to write a post because I was stewing this one to perfection. JK, it was because the last two months Tim not only burnt his own candle at both ends, but burnt one end of mine as well. But I am tired in so many more ways than one, so buckle the fuck up...

REMEMBER THAT TAPE FREAKS IS STILL SOLD OUT FOR THIS YEAR.

This month's move theme: What did we watch this October?

Hints: This month's movie is one of the handful we were able to watch this October, and oddly it turned out that I had seen this one before but completely forgot about it. (That's not shocking to anyone who knows how I retain movie information, but it is generally strange to watch something and vaguely know what's going to happen next but also not really know what's going to happen at all...) This month's movie is a weird little horror trilogy that features some stars of the time as well as people who went on to be very recognizable. 

Content Warnings: In the opening scene a gun is pointed at students in a classroom setting. In that same scene there is a [MILD SPOILER] self harm "prank", so to speak. 

If you have other content concerns, feel free to reach out (facebook or email at info@TimMonsters.com) and we will happily address any concerns, big or small. We want fun surprises for everyone!

Mutual Aid Suggestion: (Here's where the buckling becomes relevant) this month's mutual aid suggestion is to reevaluate where you spend your time, energy and money, and start strengthening all of your communities. What yesterday illustrated without ambiguity is that what we spend our time, energy and money on matters SO FUCKING MUCH to the money hoarders that they will dump literal billions into imploding our (and any) country's government just to make it a liiiiittle easier for them to make more billions each year. 

And that's not hyperbole. Colonization, Citizens United, boarder BS, union busting, stacking the Supreme Court, bribing Supreme Court Justices, lobbying, creating a war on drugs, creating racism, commodifying our prison systems, making our entire planet reliant on oil while hiding the dangers of it’s extraction and use, and so on, and so on, and so on; is all exclusively to make it just sliiiightly easier for capitalists to make even more obscene amounts of money in this arbitrary system they not only invented, but perpetuate almost out of compulsory obligation. 

The commodification of our every waking moment is also to the same end. Subscriptions to everything, automatic payments connected to your bank accounts, making debit cards ubiquitous (because CC companies get money every single time you use their cards), creating credit scores, creating a middle man to getting healthcare, consolidating healthcare providers, allowing venture capitalists to take over our pet care industry, opaquely controlling the prices of our food, forcing us to turn to legalized loansharks for the luxury of living paycheck-to-paycheck, hell even conveniences like quick meals or horrors like state run mental institutions and Native American “boarding schools": all to make it as hard as possible live without the “luxuries” that the money hoarders desperately need us to be dependent upon. 

The phrase “follow the money” didn't spring forth from nowhere after all.

So I'll say again, what we spend our time, energy and money on matters immensely. Start carefully evaluating where you are spending your resources, and start finding ways to become less and less dependent on the money hoarders, no matter how impossible that might feel. And start building up your communities so knowledge is just that much harder (i.e. cost prohibitive) to eradicate through propaganda. 

Want to start growing your own food? Now is the perfect time to start planning next year’s garden so start researching ethical, sustainable and Indigenous ways to grow food and source supplies now. Want to learn a skill that your ancestors had but didn’t get passed down to you? Start researching how to reclaim and disseminate that knowledge. Want to arm yourself so that you feel protected? Don’t you dare buy new arms, and you'd better learn how to make your own projectiles to boot. Want to create art? Make sure it says something constructive/eye opening/perspective shifting to someone else. Work for a company that causes harm? Start researching gremlins. Have control over purchases made for your employer? Start convincing them to switch to more ethical companies/products/etc. 

No action means much in isolation. But then we don’t live in isolation do we. In fact we have so much fucking power in this world that money hoarders parted with MASSIVE amounts of their precious money just to convince us we are powerless. DON'T give them their money’s worth. 

Get Your Tickets FOR NEXT YEAR I GUESS Here: Tape Freaks presents: Mystery Movie @ the Trylon, 7pm $5 


September 4, 2024

September's Mystery Movie

Ok. You've finally done it. TAPE FREAKS IS NOW SOLD OUT FOR THE REMAINDER OF 2024. We don't even know what to do with that information! If you're a gambler, you can arrive at the Trylon when the doors open to get on the standby list, there have been a couple tickets available by show start at each of our sold out shows.

This month's move theme: Warmth, is it really worth all the trouble?

Hints: This month's movie will teach you a few new things about Japanese customs, furniture, and superstitions. That is, if you can keep track of your running list of questions until you have access to the internet again... This absurd horror-comedy is subtitled, and falls firmly in the "What the F@#?" category.

Content Warnings: No content warning that we can recall, but never hesitate to ask if you have content concerns!

If you have other content concerns, feel free to reach out (facebook or email at info@TimMonsters.com) and we will happily address any concerns, big or small. We want fun surprises for everyone!

Mutual Aid Suggestion: This month's suggestion is to donate to a spay and neuter organization! We are currently trying to get another family of kittens in our ally fixed, and appointments fill up the moment they are available. It's harder than getting Tape Freaks tickets! But results in exponentially more kittens... Our go-to spay/neuter resource is MN SNAP, and you can donate to them here

Get Your Tickets FOR NEXT YEAR I GUESS Here: Tape Freaks presents: Mystery Movie @ the Trylon, 7pm $5 

August 7, 2024

August's Mystery Movie

Not only is this month's movie SOLD OUT, tickets are already selling for the next few months of screenings, and they only went live yesterday! And we didn't even tell anyone! However, occasionally there are relinquished tickets night of, so if anyone wants to gamble on stand-by tickets, just stop in and ask if we've got anyone signed up on the waitlist.

This month's move theme: How does electricity even work?

Hints: This month's movie stars a child actor who had a long and successful career in TV. The writer-director of this month's movie doesn't have much else credited to his name, but did feel this movie's release was handled poorly due to studio heads changing at the time of it's release. The writer-director of this month's movie also had a pretty loose handle on how electricity works...

Content Warnings: This month's movie contains lightning/electricity effects.

If you have additional concerns/questions about this month's film, feel free to reach out through facebook, or email info@TimMonsters.com we will happily address any concerns, big or small. We want fun surprises for everyone!

Mutual Aid Suggestion: This month's mutual aid suggestion is to share some of the great things Tim Walz has done for our state, so that people outside MN have a better idea on what he brings to the ticket! For instance, it isn't often I (Colette, the writing half of Tape Freaks) hear people talk about rural life in the ways that I experienced it. Usually all I hear are unrealistic caricatures of country folk trotted out solely to pay lip service to a class of people that have absolutely nothing to do with country life. But the rural upbringing Walz talked about in his introductory speech is the lived experience of rural Minnesotans, as it is for rural Appalachians and rural people the country over. But don't get me started on how that became the lived experience for rural Americans, because it's no coincidence that I'm anticapitalist! My understanding of how corporations and lobbyists are not to be trusted, stems from how they fucked the American farmland the moment they discovered the loopholes they could... hold on, I'm regretting my metaphor setup... Anyway! Walz isn't paying lip service to anyone when he talks about the American farmland. He's got an extensive record of supporting our farmers in ways that help FARMERS, not the companies trying to exploit them, and I for one am FUCKING HERE FOR THAT. 

Get Your Tickets FOR NEXT MONTH Here: Tape Freaks presents: Mystery Movie @ the Trylon, 7pm $5 

July 3, 2024

July's Mystery Movie

 Well, it happened again. And next month's screening has 15 tickets as I write this! 

TONIGHT'S SCREENING IS SOLD OUT!

This month's move theme: Always keep important stuff in jars.

Hints: The director of this month's movie has the interesting honor of directing one film that launched a particular production company into the stratosphere, and then much later directing this, one of said companies final films. This month's movie has little understanding of human biology. Come to think of it, this month's movie might not have a full grasp on technology either.

Content Warnings: [MILD SPOILER] Characters in this month's movie discuss human fertility quite a bit.

If you have additional concerns/questions about this month's film, feel free to reach out through facebook, or email info@TimMonsters.com we will happily address any concerns, big or small. We want fun surprises for everyone!

Mutual Aid Suggestion: This month's mutual aid suggestion is to familiarize yourself with the horrifying plan the vile sycophants who've glommed onto 45 have for his next term: Project 2025 (link takes you to Last Week Tonight's breakdown of it). 

Get Your Tickets FOR NEXT MONTH (If There's Any Left) Here: Tape Freaks presents: Mystery Movie @ the Trylon, 7pm $5 


June 5, 2024

June's Mystery Movie

Total shock I know, but:

TONIGHT'S SCREENING IS SOLD OUT!


This month's move theme: A film for the whole family.

Hints: This month's movie is a family film that makes Thunder of Gigantic Serpent look like a sensible Sunday evening stroll. Though this is not a Godfrey Ho film, there are familiar names and faces abound. Honestly there's no way to hint at the ride this movie is going to take you on!

Content Warnings: No content of note this month.

If you have additional concerns/questions about this month's film, feel free to reach out through facebook, or email info@TimMonsters.com we will happily address any concerns, big or small. We want fun surprises for everyone!

Mutual Aid Suggestion: This month's mutual aid suggestion is to replace one packaged or disposable item you regularly consume, with one that is package free (or packaged less) or is reusable. Do you buy coffee at a coffee shop? Bring a reusable container. Do you make coffee at home? Buy bulk beans. Do you buy clamshells of cherry tomatoes or berries? Try growing your own. Walk or bike somewhere you'd normally drive, decline paper or plastic bags, make dinner using the food you have at home, find alternatives to pesticides/herbicides in your home and lawn care. Every one of these things you can swap into your life, is another way you've removed yourself from an industry that should have been replaced long ago. An industry with only one: to ensure that our dependance on their products (oil, gas, plastic, chems, etc) persists until the planet yeets us off it's face, or they have all the world's currency. Reassess your relationships with everything, always.

Get Your Tickets FOR NEXT MONTH Here: Tape Freaks presents: Mystery Movie @ the Trylon, 7pm $5 

May 1, 2024

May's Mystery Movie

 

TONIGHT'S SCREENING IS SOLD OUT

Sold out again... What have we done?! 

This month's move theme: Sometimes guessing the future gets more right than not.

Hints: This month's movie features one actor with a famous face accessory, and another who's famous face accessory is only worn for his non-acting day job. This might be the closest together we've screened one director's films. This movie is a dark, gritty, fairly bleak, action sci-fi movie, that's also rated PG-13!

Content Warnings: No content of note this month.

If you have additional concerns/questions about this month's film, feel free to reach out through facebook, or email info@TimMonsters.com we will happily address any concerns, big or small. We want fun surprises for everyone!

Mutual Aid Suggestion: This month our mutual aid suggestion is heavier than usual. This past Thursday, Twin Cities movie theaters lost their most prolific and dedicated audience member, Michael Huspeni. Many Tape Freaks attendees will recognize him from our screenings, though ours were but a drop in his movie viewing bucket. Through his insatiable consumption of film, he crossed paths with many people in our film community, and as seemingly unaware and inarguably eccentric as Mike was, he was ever-ready to express his appreciation of his likeminded theater comrades. Whether in the form of a thoroughly thought out question-and-answer joke featuring a long-forgotten starlet of the silver screen, or a hand-written proposal for a film series written in a tongue-in-cheek style so dry that you question your perception of reality the moment you finish reading it, or simply through an enthusiastic "Thanks boss!"; Mike made sure we all knew that he not only saw us, but also thought of us as so much more than strangers in the flickering dark. So this month's mutual aid suggestion, as will now be every May's suggestion, is to spend the month taking inventory of the people that contribute to the fabric of your life, and to let them know that you truly see them. Write a "you're great" note, tell them a joke tailored to your shared interests, or simply tell them "thanks" in a way that will stand out in their day. And however you decide to communicate your appreciation, add a couple pinches of eccentric flair for good measure πŸ’–πŸ“ΌπŸ’–

Mike Huspeni's funeral information can be found here, and if you have a Mike story (long or short) you can share to help bring his family and friends solace, you can do that here. πŸ–€πŸ“ΌπŸ–€


Get Your Tickets FOR NEXT MONTH Here: Tape Freaks presents: Mystery Movie @ the Trylon, 7pm $5 


Thanks boss!








April 3, 2024

April's Mystery Movie

 

TONIGHT'S SCREENING IS SOLD OUT

You guys, this is getting out of hand. So far this year, we've sold out every month! Bananas.

This month's move theme: Did you know that Aztec people are alive on this continent today? Also, did you know that they're largely responsible for one of the best cuisines on our food-filled planet? From Wikipedia: "Mexican cuisine continues to be based on staple elements of Mesoamerican cooking and, particularly, of Aztec cuisine: corn, chili, beans, squash, tomato, avocado. Many of these staple products continue to be known by their Nahuatl names, carrying in this way ties to the Aztec people who introduced these foods [...] to the world. Through spread of ancient Mesoamerican food elements, particularly plants, Nahuatl loan words (chocolate, tomato, chili, avocado, tamale, taco, pupusa, chipotle, pozole, atole) have been borrowed [...] into other languages around the world." Just checking...

Hints: Pretty sure this month's movie was made by people who didn't know any of the above. (And I know I have the internet, but if all that is true now, it was true then too.) This month's movie is also weird on nearly every front it could be, so maybe Aztec culture isn't the only subject they could use a refresher on.

Content Warnings: The action in this movie is mainly driven by misconceptions of Aztec culture. 

If you have additional concerns/questions about this month's film, feel free to reach out through facebook, or email info@TimMonsters.com and Tim or I will happily address any concerns, big or small. We want fun surprises for everyone!

Mutual Aid Suggestion: This one is super easy, take yourself out for Mexican food, and tip HUGE. We are so extremely spoiled with excellent Mexican food in the metro, and not unlike other ethnic cuisines, the prices we pay for that food doesn't line up with the amount of effort and skill that goes into making it for the masses πŸ’–πŸ“ΌπŸ’–

Get Your Tickets FOR NEXT MONTH Here: Tape Freaks presents: Mystery Movie @ the Trylon, 7pm $5