Hey, y'all, this is this is Ben. I'm one of those guys who's written in before who's who's not a fan of professional wrestling by any means, but but who is a rabbit fan of TLF. And I have a testimonial too. I've already tried recording this twice and I ended up sounding like Bob Newhart on Ballium. Taken a long time, so I'm I wrote down
my ideas and and then I'll be reading those shortly. I did want to clarify that I haven't listened to the most recent episode where Jack and j P and t J discussed the show because I didn't want it to influence my my perspective, because this is it's important to me, so this is going to be a doozy. There were a couple of announcements later on that that are kind of swerves in their own right, but you need to listen to the
whole thing if you want to understand their significance. I guess I'll start with my introduction to TLF, because I know that the Jack will appreciate the absurdity, especially knowing where it ended up leading. I can listen to podcasts at work, so I can listen forty hours a week, and I do so. I've listened to all kinds of strange and interesting podcasts. And back when
I was introduced to TLF, I was listening on SoundCloud. And at that point, if you hadn't queued up your next episode and you came to the end of the episode of whatever it was you were listening to, it seems like they would just pick a new episode of something and just tack it onto the back there. So that's what happened with TLF. I was listening to something else, I didn't have anything else q'ed up, and then TLF came on and I I remember listening and I didn't know what it was. I
didn't check my phone to see what it was about. And oh, yeah, these two guys are talking about a professional wrest you know, that's that's interesting. So I could sense they were engaged. I could, I could they were funny. I think the main thing I remember from that first experience was was Jack saying that he was going to be referring to JP as the boss for the remainder of the of the podcast, and and I thought,
yeah, yeah, I can get down with that. So I listened uh, it was, yeah, basically in a lark, just trying something new and interesting. And and I listened for a while. I don't remember when I stopped. And then I, I don't know, I just went back to listening to other stuff. But but even for me, as a non wrestling fan, that first taste something about it was enough to draw me back. And and I went back to TLF. And and when I did, I went back hard. And I haven't left since. So I don't know.
I think, I think when I first started listening, I couldn't tell if TLF was a work or a shoot. I didn't have that vocabulary either. But I couldn't figure it out. I couldn't figure out if it was more likely that that two people would be able to talk at such a great length about wrestling, or if it would be more likely that somebody would be paroding people who would talk about wrestling for that length the feedback I didn't know.
I wasn't familiar with the culture. I didn't know that professional wrestling was an addiction, so it was all new to me. And yeah, that's that's where that's where it began. I don't know which episode. I don't have any any attached to any shows, so I and it's random. It could have been any time over a span of years literally. So that's that's the story of how I got in. Now we'll get into the question at hand, which is what TLF is to us or to me and and why
it's been around for ten years. And and I'm going to tell you there there maynot be that many of y'all out there who listen to TLF like I do, but I know there are some and and I know some of you out there are going to get this. So here we go. What what TLF is. It's relentless, maniacal, meticulous, passionate, obsessive, courageous, consistent, creative, analytical, investigative, edifying, and all the rest
of the adjectives. TLF is a podcasting juggernaut. It's a serious analysis of a majorly influential part of Western culture from an intimately personal perspective and all the way to the macro and then beyond. TLF is a wrestling promotion led in booked by the co chairman, but one that never let you down. Is Jack's I for details, both President Missing and JP's unbridled and promptu thespian spirit working in perfect tandem. It's iconoclassic and innovative, and it takes the unique
characteristics of the podcast medium to otherwise unthinkable extremes. TLF is all things to all people, and the thing that you despise most about TLF is another Solar System member's absolute favorite thing, and to that end, the most recent episode is as likely to be in some Solar System member's top ten list as any other show from any other time over the past ten years. TLF is a treatment, not a show, and that's why the co chairmen can use their
alchemy to turn any type of dogshit into gold. It's a saucepan reducing topics and characters down to their essences. Is the funniest, most educational, most insightful, and most rigorous podcasts, as well as the one with the highest grade of artistic integrity I've ever listened to, and I've listened to a ship ton. TLF is glass walled, a mission to observe an extraordinary friendship that
was initiated by the co chairman's mutual love for wrestlings. Two old time one man bands performing side by side, playing their own instruments as well as each other's. It's the offspring of the inoperable Siamese twin psychees of two extraordinarily intelligent and creative people. TLF is literally just one continuous, sprawling magnum opus,
and it just keeps expanded. It's a postmodern take on a form of modern entertainment that was still happening in the postmodern era, and it produces real valuable work now in the meta modern era. It's addictive and I mean literally, and all told, it's nothing less than an important cultural document. Now, why TLF has been around for ten years, why not just put it at
the top of the list? Is that fucking Solar system stupid and their thoughts and their feedback, and the fact that the co chairmen have always interacted with them and allowed room for their input and insights, both positive and negative and good and bad. It addresses any and all topics that require dressing along the way to cover in any given subject, it always rewards the careful listener, and you do have to listen carefully because a single throwaway comment might turn out
to be the best part of an entire episode. TLF deals in audio books and the show as a whole, is an audio encyclopedia. The co chairman's locus of approval is always internal, bitch. The co chairman put an unconscionable amount of time into the production of the podcast, as well as into interacting with a solar system through the show and on social media. After listening all the way through and coming to the end of the last episode of a Journey,
you feel like you've completed a pilgrimage because guess what you have. There's a sort of lapse finished on everything TLF puts out, from audio to artwork, and the standard is incredibly high. The co chairman provide accurate assessment of complex things and they do it on the fly. The co chairman can recount
and analyze your memories and failings better than you can. TLF recalls a time when you felt you could be even something and it takes the base of that belief that you had and create something new out of it that you actually can believe in. And this is important. TLF is worth more than you pay for it. And the final note here of the reasons that TF has been around for ten years, that's because you don't change it, it changes you.
Here we come to the second part here, and that first part was that was for the co chairman, and the second part this is to the Solar system. And here's the swerve. And I hope it's not considered a heel turned because that wasn't the intention. Ben the non wrestling fan is also haystackscal So I didn't intend for that initially, but I changed my email address early on, and so I had the opportunity to create a pseudonym and two
email addresses to contact TLF. So it's just if you if you keep in mind that been the non wrestling fan who's written in about TLF being a jazz podcast. That's the same guy who's who's behind anything that Haystacks has written or or or had read on the podcast, anything on social media or Patreon or Twitter. And I'm a major proponent of a lapse solar system. It's the most intelligent, creative and any community I've ever had the good fortune to be
a part of. And I'm i'm I'm happy to be proud to be a member of the Solar System. So, so we've got a situation here, and let's talk about power. I didn't quite get my minor and philosophy But but any anyone with eyes can see that tlf is a top down power structure, is duality rule, minority influence and majority input. So the coach chairmen are going to do what the coach chairmen are going to do, and you're
going to take what you get. And I know this. I've I've watched both seasons of S n N and I've seen Jack and his Emerson cap on the TV show. I've I've gone back and doug up the remnants of the MySpace page. I've gone probably about as deep as you can reasonably go, and I can tell you that the co chairmen haven't changed. This is the year of TLFX, that's true, but it's also it's also almost the year of sonco XX. If you've been listening for a long time, you will
know what sonko is. That is to say that in this power structure, unless you can do what the co chairmen do better than they can, then you're going to have to resign yourself to being their bitch. And that's fair enough, and it's well deserved. But this is what I'm saying. That doesn't mean you have to be a bitch. In general, the solar system can do nice things for itself. I've had the great pleasure of working with a number of amazing Solar System members on a variety of projects like LATS well.
I had assistance to devise the method for creating the database, although I've been responsible for about ninety eight point five percent of the work in building it.
The Lapsed Hall of Fame, which was was many people's idea but which I got off the ground, and which was which was headed by Austin King Solber International lats Day, which was Austin's idea, but which I led and organized and had a great group of volunteers who were very helpful in helping the Solar System find time codes for for their all the spots that we're looking for
and couldn't find. The remastering of both seasons of s n N with Carl which UH which was supposed to be or hoped to be a gift to the Solo System, but which the coach chairmen have decided not to share. Then a couple of other projects that are sort of in the balance, like a Wikipedia page or something similar, special things to a cliff for that, and things like maybe getting ah getting a TLF into the Library of Congress, which
hasn't quite gotten off the ground. But but anyway, these these, all of these things, these are these are by the fans for the fans, the Hall of Fame lats and potentially the Fan Favorite List which is being worked on. Those those all belong to the solar system. They benefit the co chairman, but those are ours and and that's primarily because TLF doesn't have time
to work on that stuff. And that's okay, and that's understandable, but that doesn't mean they own it. So I'm going to tell you something that that I've seen as a as a non wrestling fan coming into pro wrestling fan culture, and that's that I've seen the abusive relationship with with pro wrestling and the fans, and that's mimicked in in TLF and its listenership. And I know it's tongue in cheek, but the result is is sort of the same. And so I want to say this, this is important for me,
and I'm saying this from an outsider's perspective looking in at wrestling. Fans, stand up for yourselves, you know, the coach CHAIRMN the are the wrestling friends you always wanted but never had, but but you're not going to become best buzz with them. That's a closed system, and you can bask in
the heat that emanates from that friendship. But your only option is to do that, is to do the next best thing instead, and that's to get in touch with other intelligent, creative witt in hopefully positive Solar System members and meet up at shows, even better, meet up when there's not a show, and talk about stuff that's not fake carnial bullshit. Build nice things together
for the community, the solar system, and take care of them. I'm saying this again as an outsider, and I don't give two shits about what the general public says. Y'all are cool people, so accept it and have fun with it. And if other people don't get what you get, well fuck them. I'm I'm way far left in Norwegian politics, so Americans probably don't even have a term for me. But here's a little fuck you to the oft advertised laps capitalist model. This is my this is my gift to
the solar system. This is my second announcement, a little bit of a swerve. Maybe I'm I'm opening LATS to the Solar system for free and and I'm and without registering and email address, and and I'm leaving this announcement here as a sort of an easter egg. So if you hear this and get in touch with me, I'll send you the link. I'm not interested in
promoting this amazing resource anymore. That allows you to find basically anything that's ever been said on the on the public feed and find time accurate timecodes for it. If you have a use for that kind of thing, this is the only way to do it. I mean, unless you've written down notes for every timecode for everything that you were interested in listening to again. It also allows you to cross reference and go back and little inside jokes that you don't
under stand to find where things happen for the first time and characters. It's fantastic and it works, and it's free for you. But if you use it, if you use it a lot, throw me a bone instead of being a freeloading bitch. You can give me a buck or two on the Patreon because I'm going to keep it updated. But I've put in the hundreds of hours and the hundreds of dollars to create that database, and I wouldn't mind having a little help maintaining it. So that's it. That's so,
that's that's your tenure anniversary present Solar System. And now that I said that, if anybody listens to this, you know, I've been on the I've been on the discord a little bit, and I know that that they are going to be people out there who are saying, no, that Haystacks, that dude, he's he's a he's a fucking mark. And and they're right, I am a TLF mark. And and I'm not ashamed of that.
This this is going out to any of you who who sit on your hands will criticize in other people and and and saying that people who believe in stuff are marks. Modernism was based on sincerity and and postmodernism is based on irony. And we live in the meta modern era now where where irony and sincerity co exist. But the result has to be productive. And this is where that snarky sarcasm it ain't worth a shit unless it's back with something real.
TLF is meta modern. They it it's ironic. They're making fun of stuff, they're poking fun that they're irreverent, no sacred cows, right, But what's the ultimate result of tlf's work. That's that's an audio encyclopedia of professional wrestling, and that's why it's not a game. I think the biggest lesson that I took from doing all the work on LATS was was this marks get
shit done. So any haters out there, you can just let me know how it feels sometime when when everybody's gone home and you're standing there with nothing, but you're dick in your hand because you're sure as hell not going to produce anything that anybody really gives a shit about. If you're just making fun of stuff all the time, and that's that's it. That's my that's my
test, Ammonial I very much. I appreciate the efforts made by the co chairman over the past ten years and for all they had done, and I also appreciate the efforts made by the solar system over the same amount of time. And now I have to go take a massive shit. So I do have one little PostScript though, in just a little something for the road, and that's this. It used to be better because you used to have the capacity to believe in it, and that's the dragon you're chasing.