Coming Down

Having found the nexus at the center of the convergence, Matthew finds himself catapulted into the riot of sounds and colors that make up the world around him. After a short interval spent contemplating circular rhythms that defy mathematics, he rejoins mundane reality and begins the homeward journey.

The middle of this three part saga reads like a laundry list of party times. West coast Phish Tour, Ren Faire, Esalen with Terence McKenna, Burning Man, raves in San Francisco, and four months as a beach bum on Maui. And all of that bookended by Rainbow Gatherings. It's hard to believe Matthew packed it into one year.

Matthew ventures forth from his small mountain town into a forest realm filled with strange folk and mystical wonders. After a near miss at a shamanic circle, he encounters a mysterious stranger who grants a boon and charges him with a quest. Forever changed, he soon embarks on an epic adventure.

Armed with a loose plan and a big score, Nathan and his crack team of professional loadies make an ill-advised foray into the field of fungus smuggling. At first it seems like the perfect crime, but outside the flophouse blacklight glow, trouble is brewing.

In the depths of a vicious hangover, Kimberly gets the call that will change her life forever. Instead of pretending she has the wrong number, she does the bravest thing any twenty-six year old living in a punk rock party house could do in that scenario and learns the true meaning of family.

Glen's dream as a young man was to be in radio. He lands his dream job in Spokane, working with a rogue's gallery of men with ridiculous names. One fateful night, he takes artistic liberty with a coworker's property and disaster ensues.

While enjoying a number of drinks after a show, Nathan makes his politics clear to the locals. They don't take kindly. He and his friends are forced to run the gauntlet to avoid a mob of angry rednecks. Amid a hail of curses and crowbars, they barely make their escape.

World Youth Day. A time for the pope to press the flesh. Matthew and some of his family make the long trek from Bend to Colorado with their youth group for the ceremony. Matthew claims he got close enough for John Paul II to sweat on him. He and his people manage to survive a potentially life-threatening infrastructure boondoggle amid record heat in Cherry Creek Park.

A young man by the name of Joshua makes a series of increasingly poor decisions that eventually bring him under the purview of the local constabulary. After a fair quantity of judicial malingering, he flees across state lines to the midwest. It is there that he is recruited as a part-time merchant of locally produced artisanal bathtub rocks.

Due to youthful sloth and a marked lack of legal knowledge, Nathan manages to commit what has been referred to as the dumbest series of barely criminal acts ever committed. The dude manages to bumble his the way to the big house on some truly frivolous bullshit.

One day, Matthew went to bed with a stomach ache. Two days later he was in the Emergency Room waiting for surgery. Broke, unemployed, deep in loan debt, and late on rent—Matthew is in a tight spot.

This week we put aside our crass chicanery to celebrate a very important person. Without her, none of this would be possible. Not only is she literally the progenitor of this podcast, she is also our first sponsor. Today she tells the tale of the bravest thing she has ever done: escaping from a cult called the Church of Christ. Twice.

Pizza Pipeline. A business that began in Spokane as a money laundering operation for drug smugglers. Though the name was a bit on the nose, it quickly became successful despite itself and branched out into other small college towns. What follows are a few of the many, many ridiculous stories that were forged in that strange crucible of pizza delivery.

Sex Glove. An award-winning band from Fort Collins, Colorado. Their fans describe them as misunderstood genius, their critics call them dangerous criminals. One thing everyone can agree on is that they peaked early and it all went to their heads.

If you read the title and assumed this couldn't possibly be another story from Matthew, prepare yourself for disappointment. Despite falling down a hill and winding up in the hospital in Episode 9, Matthew clearly did not learn his lesson. It takes an altogether different type of sadness to make him swear off the devil's dandruff forever.

Sane. The house. Where everyone was safe to be themselves no matter what. Like many autonomous zones, not everything was perfect. Utopia eventually devolves into dystopia as the shitwater flows downhill.

While contemplating the rigors of the high school social scene which they are about to enter, Sarah and friends come to a conclusion: they need to get good and plastered beforehand. (Merely as a training exercise, of course, with the intention of avoiding future embarrassment.) So Sarah and three of her teenage friends do their best to get proper smashed (for educational purposes.)

Matthew's holiday trip from Topanga to Bend turns into a bad comedy when the plane encounters freezing fog on the eastern slope of the Cascades. With tensions rising in a room full of delayed travelers, Matthew channels his inner troubadour and summons some old trouper magic.

Nathan and friends have a night on the town with nowhere to go and nothing to lose. Inexplicably, they catch a glimpse of the Party Van at the local Barnes & Noble, and are driven to investigate. When the sleuthing spooks their quarry, our protagonists drop the hammer and roll the hard six.

Matthew and the Delaware House gang start pooling their beer money and buying kegs. When winter rolls along, they pick up what looks like a fresh pony keg of Jubelale. But all is not as it seems.

Nathan and company decide to go back to the hotel with Thomas A. Anderson after a drunken night at a show. Things seem cool until room service is ordered and their host reveals he has taken the red pill. Abraham Lincoln's ghost was not pleased.

Be tells the story of how she grew up in Alabama, moved to Portland, and discovered who she is through her commitment to labor unions. After a resounding personal revelation, she begins an ongoing journey toward becoming the woman she is today.

Nathan and friends take a walk across town in the middle of the night while participating in some mild underage drinking. Bowls having been smoked, the party heads homeward, only to have their egress denied by Team Ramrod in full pursuit formation.

Tara tells the tale of the bravest thing she has ever done: escape from Flint, Michigan. Along the way, she drunkenly kidnaps a man who may or may not have been threatening her in a dark alley and narrowly avoids joining the Armed Forces. She has a thing for astrophysics and can neither confirm nor deny allegations that she may have worked for NASA. Get in here and meet Tara.

Matthew pries open his third eye with a crowbar and beholds intergalactic shenanigans. Roughly a month later, he witnesses a disturbance in the upper atmosphere. Coincidence? You be the judge!