The Feinics Gate Podcast - Issue 157 - Cupid Has a Body Count

Thanks for another forgettable experience.

Ladies, now it's Showtime. Let's show them we can rise from Ash, Jane, Lavender and Scarlett. Phoenix power so can go where we rise. They try to burn us when we're like a flower. They didn't know we had a phoenix.

What's up everybody? It's your girl Jade Phoenix. Here. We are back. We gave you an unforgettable experience of chaos with our last episode, but we're back with even more chaos and craziness and buffoonery in this episode. But you will not know, you'll not know any of that until you subscribe to our podcast on every single listening platform that you have out there. But we especially love you guys on Spotlight. So try to give us a follow on there and you'll be updated on every single brand new episode every single time we post one.

But I'm not alone. I'm not alone. I have my 2 cohorts who are out in the multi, the multi nest of madness. They're out there. But we have we have our Crimson who's down in New Jersey. Say hi, Crimson.

Hey, how's it going, everyone? Hi, Crimson. And then obviously we have lavender too. It all started when I was born. What's up guys? And you all are so happy that I was. We were. I thought I was being funny. We're just going to say hi, Crimson, every time. I need to say hi now. That's all you're going to say? I'm. Going to say hi Crimson. OK. I have now become high Crimson.

Sure, and that's how you want. Everyone crazy with that opening. We have a new lavender hyper fixation, gentlemen and ladies and babies and gay bees. It's I I blame you, Crimson. Why thank you, emotional. Damn it, I just blame you. It's easiest to blame you because you are the only male presenting person on this podcast. OK, and how could you not say the joke when when Jade said say hi Crimson, how could you not say hi Crimson back? That's why it's now in my head the. Perfect joke. The perfect it wasn't.

Right there. Fuck. Your. Life Bing bang, we're so fucked. Come on now. What did he say? I mean, I mean we are in the multi nest of madness. So I mean, it kind of is in the wheelhouse. Exactly, that's what I'm saying a little. Bit and it's there, there's nothing we could do about it. So I mean again, Crimson is your fault. OK. Were you contemplating the like the the validity of my statement like the hell? Partially, yes. You done goofed. Sure. All right then. All right. So what have you guys been up to since our last episode that ended in pure calamity and chaos, you know?

Nothing much honestly, just vibing. Doing our best. We got to celebrate one of our favorite friends of the Gate this past weekend. That was very, very fun. We did. But otherwise, just sorting through the chaos that is, I still have two boxes to unpack, but because they're books and I want to have a perfect opportune moment, perfectly organize them, they're still sitting in boxes in my apartment. That's valid. Though, Yeah, that's valid. Crimson and I spent Super Bowl Sunday together. We got to watch the Super Bowl together.

That was funny. It was that was. Funny. It was funny. The Super Bowl. The Super Bowl. The Super Bowl was funny because the Patriots got their asses handed to them. That was a great. That was more that wasn't even funny, that was just embarrassing. It was what? So I'm just sitting there going, but hey, this is what happens when you have Stefan Diggs on your team who fucked over Cardi B, who's a fucking witch. Same way Tom Brady got fucked over when he fucked over Giselle. Just saying stop messing with the witches, we know what we're doing.

'Cause they're gonna fuck with you. Karma, motherfucker. It's it was funny because I keep seeing a clip. Was it? Cardi at the halftime show. Cardi was at the halftime show Yes, Cardi was at the halftime show. She was one of the guests. She. Was part of bad gutting. Thing she was she was there. Pedro Pascal was there. Jessica Alba. I think Pedro Pascal was the one person I noticed first. She told me Cardi B was there. I was just like I can't see it. There's too many short black haired women there and they all from a distance they all look far as hell but I can't I could even tell until like they had the right angle for me to see her.

Yeah, also like did not know that that whole that the all the grass and all that set up that was on the like for the the set, the stage was people. I didn't fucking know that was people. It's honestly great because there's actually a rule as to how much like on field, like technical set up you can bring during the Super Bowl halftime show. So that's how Bad Bunny and his team got around it. They dressed dancers as the plants because then they couldn't say, oh, you're bringing too much stuff on the field because it's literally people in costumes.

Yeah, and it makes sense too, because it's understandable a little bit because like you also got to take into considerations like, yo, once the show's done, you guys got to go. Yeah, it's. Not a rush, yeah. Get off the field. Get off the field but no it. Was it was good? Oh yeah. What was really, really funny was they're they were trying to have a whole nother halftime show playing on a completely separate. Oh my God. Oh my God that thing did so bad. No touchy. I don't touch that. Like 4% of halftime show views were on there.

That's still a lot. It's still too much. 4% too many. It still is, but compared to what the actual halftime show was. Yeah. That was like, I think what it was like a let me see here I need I need to double check 'cause I. Double check your numbers 'cause I'm going to I'm going to give you guys some fun things. So like a lot of people have been talking about the quote UN quote answer to the Bad Bunny halftime show. And I was dying laughing because there was a user on TikTok that kept referring to Turning Point USA 'cause they abbreviated obviously to TPUSA and he kept calling it the tea pussy.

And I was just fucking dying. Just fucking dying. Because I will never refer to that as anything else as I will never call it Turning Point. I will never call it Turning Point USA. It's from now on it is tea pussy. That is it. It is tea pussy. Tea pussy all the fucking way. So apparently on the the Bad Bunny halftime show, it was just under 130 million people. Nice. And it actually set a record for Telemundo like it was the most people on like watching American technically Spanish language channels.

Yeah. Watching the Super Bowl, ever. Yeah. And I'm sure that's only including the television viewers. That's not counting the viewers that were online through like YouTube Live or YouTube TV, you know, So I'm sure that's only like the major networks that were airing the Super Bowl views. That's not counting everywhere else that you were able to watch it. And look, I might not know any of Bad Bunny's music, but I on Vibes Alone I love him, but on Vibes Alone, I just think he's like a wonderful human being.

I've always liked him and it made me so happy to see him in the halftime show. Dude, I've liked Bad Bunny ever since he. Was. I love Bad, but I've, I've I've liked Bad Bunny since he was debuted at the Royal Rumble a few years back. Like that's that was my introduction to Bad Bunny. I had no idea who he was until the Royal Rumble a few years ago where he came in as a contestant. He had the whole fucking shit where he's wearing the chain and he had the fucking Kendall sticks that I was laughing and calling it a Weypa stick because it was all Puerto Rican flagged out.

So. That's amazing. You know, so dead ass. Like that's how I was introduced to Bad Bunny. And then through that, I learned about his music and I, I am not Puerto Rican, I am Irish, Italian, but I can speak Spanish. I understand Spanish and I understand all his music. I listen to it, I enjoy it, I fucking love it. And it's really catchy. So for me, that halftime show was great. I was just like, why are we playing a football game around a Bad Bunny concert? What's happening here? I I remember Bad Bunny when he started like becoming like super popular.

OK. And that was like probably close to around, I want to say 2016. 10 years ago 20. 18 It was like, yeah, wow, he's been around for a while now because he started making SoundCloud music and stuff like that. I remember he did a couple singles. On there. Oh, I'm not a SoundCloud person. I don't know. Oh, I, I back in, back in like high school college days, that SoundCloud was where most people put a like, especially like starting artists would put their music up there. I know what it is. I just I was never into it now but.

I think people are still using SoundCloud. I do think that that is still a thing. I wouldn't know because I never really used that platform. Well, I'm talking about more in like publishing or like putting up their own music. I wonder do you think maybe we should share the Phoenix gate to SoundCloud? We could probably check that at some point we should see how how. Expand the gate, expand the multi nest of the madness into a SoundCloud. How do you feel about that lavender? I know nothing about SoundCloud.

I know it exists. I know that people publish music there. I usually would hear it like second hand if it was like SoundCloud signal singles. So like I would hear it once somebody like put it on YouTube kind of vibe like I was the person that the way that I got my independent music when I had my original iPod was literally no, actually there was a software where you could put in like YouTube videos, especially for independent. Oh, I know exactly. What you're talking about, yeah, where you put your ads, download their music and you could like export the MP3.

Oh yeah. Yeah. That's what I used to use. So I never actually used SoundCloud personally. And this is really funny hearing everyone's background about Bad Bunny because admittedly my first introduction of Bad Bunny was literally the Met Gala because I love looking at the outfits at the Met Gala. But I also don't listen to a lot of Latin music. I don't listen to a lot of R and BI, don't really listen to a lot of hip hop, so I'm not surprised I didn't really know about him because it's not usually my genre.

Once I've found more in it, how I feel are more diverse and creative artists and like the rap scene, I've been able to kind of expand my music taste there. Like, I love Doji, I love Buttress. But I found out about him because of the Met Gala, because he was like, I think it was last year. He was one of the only men who actually like, followed the scene and didn't just wear a horrible generic, like, black suit. And I was like, I like this guy's vibe. Like, I'm down with him. I don't even think I fully knew he was like a music artist.

I was like, I'm down with this guy. I don't know what his thing is, but I like him. And then because of that whenever he like appeared on anything like a Fidel or like in Happy Dealer. Too, Yeah. I watched him because I just like him. I think he has like good energy. So funnily enough, my first time ever hearing bad body music is on Super Bowl. That's valid. And as you can hear, Luke is chiming in. That's. Absolutely valid. Also agreeing that he also only just listened to Bad Bunny while his Mama was replaying the Super Bowl halftime show on her laptop today.

We love this, we love this, we love. That he feels he's also a voice on this podcast. The cats of the gate are a very secure niche because our, our entire Phoenix Gate family, almost every single one of us owns a pet, whether it be, whether it be of the cats, whether it be a dog, of which both Crimson and I have both. We have cats and dogs. Well, he doesn't have cats. I I have cats and dogs. He's got a dog. So yeah. Take that depression. Because I'm recording out of my own nest today, Luke loves to chime in his thoughts and opinions.

As he should. As he always should. And he's sitting right on my lap right now. Well. I'm sure if Eclipse or if Eclipse or Rocky Meal Boa were awake they'd be chiming in too, but they are both passed out because I made sure to give them their dinner right before we started recording this so they would get nice. And EP. And I would not have to deal with like, you know, them climbing all over everything and being menaces. Oh, totally fair, I mean. Downright white club in the background. Yes. App app everywhere.

Nah, I'm good, I'm good, I'm good. But so it back to the original conversation about the T pussy. So I've heard I didn't watch it. I refuse. I will not give that any any type of play. No air time, no air time. But I heard and I've been watching the clips from other people talking about it on TikTok, on Instagram reels and whatever about how apparently Vanilli Hillbilly Kid Rock was lip syncing and it was so badly fucking done that you could he was like 3 or 4 seconds off from his actual fucking song that he was so out of sync with it.

And then he apparently has come online and he's like attacking the people making fun of him for it going, well, that was a prerecorded thing that we did live. Like, OK, so you lip sync. No, that's not what lip syncing is. No, that's exactly what lip syncing is, you fucking dumb ass. So now they're calling him Hillbilly Vanilli. Like what? Like. Very valid. Take the L. Yeah. Take the L bro, you fucking suck. Pull. The lever drunk. Just take it, take it, take it up the ass the way you have been taking Trump's tiny little penis.

Just do it. It's fine. So, so one thing I do want to say though, about that whole Kid Rock thing there, there's, there's just been just such a like, oh, man, it, it, it it's just, it's just more embarrassing than anything, Yeah. Yeah, exactly like. Because it it's like, at least if you guys were going to do your own halftime show, OK, I don't give a fuck what for what particular reason, but if you're going to do it, at least pick someone good. Everybody else cancelled. Besides that, what's so crazy is fucking Kid Rock who's literally stolen culture music.

Like nods from everyone who isn't white is coming up and doing this tipuse show because God forbid someone's not speaking fucking English. Not even just that. Did you forget how literally you're in? The only reason you're famous is because you stole cultural nods from literally every non white denomination in the entire world. On top of that, you're sitting there promoting a song that literally sits there and you admit that you will only sleep with underage women in it. Oh my God, I heard about that.

What? You're the lyrics, everybody's like oh what are you talking about? I'm like look up the lyrics to BA with the BA fucking. He literally says that he will only sleep with underage women in his fucking song. It's like lock him up with the rest of the fucking Epstein file people, OK? That's a whole. That's a whole other episode. Exactly. But do us all a favor, lock them up with the rest of. Them I do not disagree. OK 'cause like your your girl's been doing deep dives and just put it this way. And I'm only going to say this because it needs to be fucking said.

The Cheeto in Charge's name appears in the Epstein files more than Harry Potter's name does in all 7 fucking books. His name appears more in the Epstein files than a fictional fucking character whose entire series is named after him. And that's the fact that I'm going to leave you with, and we're going to start talking about what we are going to be talking about this week. Hell yeah. We're talking because it is that wonderful time of the year, of the Hallmark holiday. Valentine's Day. Hooray. Oh my God, yes.

No. Yeah, you know, like I, it was actually speaking on Valentine's Day. It was kind of funny. About that. Is my partner literally asked me, he was like, how do you feel about Valentine's Day? Not that we weren't going to do anything, but he didn't want it. Like he didn't know how I felt about Valentine's Day. And I was like, look, it is a Hallmark holiday. You don't need to get me nothing special. I got you a little something just because it makes me feel good to get someone something right, Valentine's Day or no Valentine's Day.

I just like it because it's an excuse to give a little gift. Right, that's my love language too. Together, same. I'm like, as long as we spend time together, I really don't care, you know? Like, I feel like we created all these things are on Valentine's Day. And I think like talking as someone who's been a long time being single like it honestly I feel like it's made to just depress people and make them feel worse about things they can't control. And the thing, you're not wrong, it's. Crazy. You're not wrong because like so many things get advertised.

Like, you know, why are you not in a relationship? Why are you not getting engaged? Why are you not getting married? Why are you not this? Why are you not that? And if you're single on Valentine's Day, it just makes you feel worse. And unfortunately, Valentine's Day also happens to fall in the middle of February, which is in the middle of, like, some of the darkest weathers that we have. You know, like, this is it. It makes the seasonal depression even fucking worse. Oh hell yeah it does. Like, honestly, like, that's why, like before, you know, one of the things I used to do all the time was plan something for myself because I was always like this single friend.

And I shouldn't have to be honest. I should have never put myself in the classification. And I know that now as an older person. But you don't think that way when you're like 17, you know? So I used to like, plan specific things for myself. Like I don't really do it as much anymore, but it used to be prime time for horror movies to come out. And there's a reason. Why? It used to be like a horror movie came out every Valentine's Day weekend. And that's what I would do even if I went by myself because it was like a release and an escapism from watching all the everybody in high school getting each other roses for charity and you being the one person that didn't get one, you know, like.

What? What? What about you? Would always buy me one. What about you? Crimson. What about you, Crimson? Like how? What is your take on Valentine's Day? I mean, for me it's like, am I going to go like anything fucking crazy? Like the typical cliche shit, depends. It really all depends on the person. But at the same time, I'm also it, to be honest, it's all type of marketing holiday. It's all just to make money. So usually what I try to do is instead of going with just a cliche, like, oh, just get their chocolates and figure out to like, you know, a dinner.

I honestly would just prefer especially when dinner, Oh yeah, First off, good luck getting a dinner at a decent restaurant because we don't got reservations for that time of the year. Forget about it. But I I honestly would prefer to just like actually do something. First off, I would get something a little bit more personal. You know, I, I, I usually get something that I know the person's going to like and not just what I think every, you know, girlfriend is going to like or anything like that along those lines.

You're not a generic guy. I'm not a basic bitch, no emotional damage. So, you know, I at least try to, you know, try our best to know every little like and sort of thing like that that the person really enjoys. And no, I usually buy gifts accordingly to that. So I'm, I'm very big on gift giving. That is the thing that I, I really do like.

And it doesn't even have to be anything expensive. People really think, Oh yeah, you buy them like an expensive bracelet. It's like 2-3 hundred bucks and she'll love it. Yeah. But then she wears it once and. Never. Not everything. I can't count many times that's happened. For real. Yeah. Yeah, believe it or not, but and and you would think it's like, oh, you know, they're going to like it. No, no, it's and it's not even like, oh, it's not even like it was like uglier. It was like a Pandora bracelet and it had charms that they liked from Disney.

So it's like, so I'm like, OK, never wore it. Like, all right, cool.

I would have worn that thing every fucking day. I actually also. That's a nice. Gift. Seriously, I have a Pandora bracelet and the reason why I never wear it is because it doesn't have enough charms on it for my sake so I just don't wear it. And I want to like, I want to wear my bracelet. I love mine. I love my Pandora bracelet, but I. Broke on mine like a year or so ago and I just have not had the moolat to replace it. Felt. Yeah, I mean, so. When it comes, when it comes to that type of stuff like that, I mean, you know it, a lot of it kind of comes down to again, it kind of comes down to what the person really likes.

Sometimes they're maybe, maybe they're not really big on bracelets, maybe they like. I said agreed. Oh yeah, maybe they didn't. Maybe they're not crazy about bracelets. Maybe they're more into. I don't know. We can probably. I'm trying to think off the top of my head here. Maybe they're more into mini terrariums or anything like that, like those little kind of artsy ones, or maybe they're very big in the fossils or, you know, just anything I can possibly think of that the person would like. Valentine's Day.

A lot of people very much misunderstand that Valentine's Day apparently has to always be something with hearts and roses and this. That's not really the case. If you're going to be getting something for somebody as a gift, it doesn't have to be something like that, doesn't have to be jewelry even. It could just be something as simple as something that they really do like and you can just get it for them as a gift. And that works just as well, if not even better because it's custom. It's not something that's very cookie cutter that everybody else.

Yeah. Lavender, did you get did you get your partner a gift? I did. It wasn't anything too crazy just because like this month like really snuck up on both of us, which is why it was hilarious. He was there the other day and he was like, let me make sure this is what you actually want to do. I'm like, it's totally fine. Don't worry about it because there's been some craziness as we've all heard on the gate as what's been going on my whole beginning of the year. But I got them a nice little gift card to their favorite store, a card.

And I actually made sure the card was like from ATV show. That was one of the first things we talked about when we first connected and they're I got them their favorite candies. Oh, that's sweet. That's sweet. Because like, you know, I wanted to get a little something else, but I was also like, you know, like, at this point I was a little like, the thing I wanted to get, it wouldn't come in time. Yeah. So I was like, you know, I'll include it with like his birthday gift because I know I want to get it for him.

It's like, you know, I can't agree with what what Crimson is saying more because as somebody that used to date someone that literally knew nothing about the things I like and, or cared, like, yeah, maybe he bought me a gift, but it was literally like, it was like he didn't know me at all. And if you, when you do that, your partner's noticed. Just saying. Oh yeah. It's the worst your. Partner noticed when you know nothing about them because it'll do nothing but be a blaring red flag. Yep, Yep. Like so I actually went out of my way and I made sure that I got my partner a gift.

I haven't given it to them yet. So I'm not going to say what it is on the air because if they're listening, I don't want them to to know because they'll they'll, they'll cheat. They'll cheat and be like, well, what is it? And I'm like, no, no, you have to wait. So they're going to get their gift this weekend.

One thing I would say actually just a quick side thing I want to add before anything I remember because I don't want, I don't want to lose my train of thought on this Choo Choo. One of the things I feel like I usually personally, I try to do this because I think it's a really smart idea since we did mention about the whole thing with chocolates and everything and, and stuff like that, that lavender was mentioning one thing I think would be a really smart thing to do, which I was. I, I can, I always ask my partner in case because if the last thing I want to do is, you know, maybe they really wanted something and then I'm just like, OK, you know, and I ended up not getting it.

Chocolates and candies are always a lot cheaper the day after Valentine's Day. It's true. So true. Everything goes on sale. It is actually true and you want to know what kind of sucks is So my birthday it is is exactly 1 month after Valentine's Day. I am March 14th and they nicknamed that day Steak and Blowjob Day as a response to Valentine's Day. My God. So I started to and it's also pie day because 3/14. Yes. So my whole joke to everybody is OK, you want to give me the gift of a steak, a blowjob and pie?

I'm here for it. Let's go. Like I will gladly take those as gifts for my birthday considering and and, and Valentine's Day actually opens up the the countdown to my birthday. I don't start counting down the days until the 14th, which is, you know, Valentine's Day and Valentine's Day, believe it or not, actually has a really fucking dark history. It it really does. Like everybody's like, everybody's like, oh, it's so cute. And then, then, then no, it actually the modern day imagery of all these like candy hearts, romance, roses, all this shit is actually totally grounded in martyrdom superstitions designed to conjure ghosts, fucking and ancient fertility rituals.

Like that's what Valentine's Day used to be.

Yeah. You know, like, OK, let's start it off with this where everybody, everybody who does any type of deep dive into Valentine's Day. And I know that The Gate has done several episodes on Valentine's Day in the past. If you guys want to go check out our old, our catalog, everything's there on Spotify and all listening platforms. But the roots of Valentine's Day are actually from an ancient Roman festival called Looperkalia. And this is what was not just a single day festival, it was a three day festival where it would usually go from February 13th to the 15th.

And it was not a fucking romantic thing. It was brutal, chaotic, which we love here at the gate. Fertility fucking ritual we they guys did. Have you ever heard of Looper Kalia? Have either of you heard of it? No, I never. Vaguely, vaguely for me, I I don't remember all the details though for it. OK so I'll give you a little bit of history of Looper Kalia since neither of you have heard of it. So basically a ton of shit would happen in this three day festival. They would have the actual ritual itself and the priest the looper see would sacrifice goats and a dog at the looper cow cave on Palatine Hill, the supposed location where Romulus and Remus were nursed by she wolf.

Now anybody who knows anything about Roman history, Romulus and Remus were the founders of Rome and the Roman Empire and, and they were abandoned. They were twins, they were abandoned and they were nursed by the she wolf who like raised them and help them survive. So Lupercalia obviously is a festival honoring their, them the founders of Rome and all that fucking shit and the Roman Empire and you know, so they, you know, that's why the dog gets sacrificed. And of course goats, because goats are always like the traditional sacrificial thing.

Besides like lambs and sheep and cows, basically anything we could fucking kill basically anything we can. Kill. Anything we can kill and bleed and yeah, pretty. Much. Yeah. So there were a couple of things that would happen during Looper Kalia. 1 of it was known as the lashing, where the men would take the strips of the goat's hides and they would fashion them into thongs and run absolutely butt ass naked throughout the city, whipping any of the women with the goat's hide who approached them. And women would often welcome this from happening, believing it guaranteed fertility and easy childbirth.

They're whipping them with. Thongs. They they they would take thongs, like long lines of the goat's hides that were sacrificed. Think. Think shoelaces. Like the underwear? No no no, they were doing this completely bought ass naked Hon think think shoelaces think getting hit with a shoelace. OK, OK, I see. Yeah, I'm getting the picture. You're picking it up. Picking it up. Picking it up, picking up the signal doesn't sound fun. Not from. Me picking up what you're putting down, Yeah. There we go.

But women would actually welcome being whipped because it obviously they believed it helped with childbirth and actually getting pregnant. So yeah, if I see anybody coming at me trying to whip me with a string, get away from me. Yeah, somebody would be losing hands. Yeah, No, no thank you. No, thank you. Another thing was known as the sexual lottery. Now this is according to lore, so we don't know how truthful this is. Where young women would place their names into a jar and men would draw them to determine their sexual partner for the duration of the festival.

Wait a minute, I just realized something. What? This sounds sort of eerily familiar to a certain book series that we love. Was this the inspiration for that? Yes. OK, so it's going to be like, I don't think it was called ubercalia, but like I remember they had that like died of lust and they would go like absolutely nutty bananas. Yep. But we love Missouri J Masks. We do, but yes, that is ancient fertility rituals did like Hinge. One of the big things was was just orgies. Like orgies and sex because the ancient people believed, and many people to this day still believe that sexual energy and magic revives the earth.

You guys didn't know that? I didn't know that, but it makes sense generally as a string we're looking at like we're all connected to each other emotionally and spiritually into the earth. It makes sense that sexual activity and connection through sexual activity would relate back to that. Of course, of course. But for me, but not the babies. I'm good. I'm. Valid. Like, listen, I just kids are not for me. Not for. Me valid. I feel like more people need to understand that they're not for everyone.

They're not like, feel like you need to be a very special person to be a parent because there's nothing wrong with that. No, there is absolutely nothing wrong with that and I fully support it. But these ancient rituals that were done in these ancient societies are in our soul DNA, They are in our ancient memory. We remember them like OK Crimson. Does your does Portugal do anything crazy like ancient style, like just to acknowledge their ancient heritage or anything like that?

Off the top of my head, there's probably a couple things, but the the problem I want to say the problem, the thing with Portugal is it kind of depends on what area of Portugal you come from. Really. Well, that makes sense. Yeah, there there's, I mean, I'm pretty sure I'm positive. Like, you know, if we're talking about like cultural holidays and stuff like that, Christmas is obviously it, it, it's one of those things that obviously it's, it's, it's there. Now, if I have to think if Valentine's Day, I actually don't remember hearing much about Valentine's Day, not saying that they they don't celebrate it.

I would have to double check that honestly, because I I've never, you know, I've never heard any family member talking about it ever before.

But in terms of like culture wise, like, yeah, it kind of really just depends on what part of Portugal you're from. Because it, it, it's like some, some, some, I guess, I guess you'd call them like villages or small towns and stuff like that. And we're talking about like when I say like a village, I'm not saying like, you know, something with like 4-5 huts or something like no, I'm talking about like. It's it's. It's an actual like. An. Actual it's like a small like. A borough. I can't really. I can't even call it a town.

Like a borough? Because it's such a small no, it's it's probably too small to even be called a borough either, so. It's just like a neighborhood. You get called that. Yeah, honestly, that's probably the best description I can get it because the way and I'm going to use my grandparents place where where they're from as an example for my mom's side for them. They live in the mountain areas of Sara de Stila, which if for many people who don't know that is. The mountain that stretches the highest in Portugal and the towns there, they, they're kind of like split up into sections, town slash villages.

I call them villages because for it to be even classified as a town, there's no way where my grandparents live that that's a town. No, I refuse to accept it. It's too small. But but they're, they usually do tend to have a lot of custom celebrations for those particular areas. Well, yeah, just like just like certain beaches. I I can't really confirm if if it's all of them, but certain beaches out in Portugal they celebrate a festival of I guess I, I, I guess that the best description I can say the festival of sea foam, if that makes any sense.

It does. You know, the sea foam that comes out the ocean. Yeah. So there's usually that time of the year where there's a just, I guess I'm, I'm assuming I would have to double check. But every time I hear about the festival, the sea foam festival, I always see a lot of foam out on the beaches. It has to be correlated with that. It just makes the most sense to me, but but I'm pretty sure there has to be a little bit more to the, to that than just that. I, I highly doubt. So I'm pretty sure if I even asked my father, he he probably give me the whole logistics and details about it.

But we do have something like that as well over in Portugal. So and not all beaches celebrate them. There's only a couple at least the the beach town that we have our house over there. They do celebrate it. They do a nice little, you know, nice little, I guess show and stuff in the town square and stuff where they'll have like a live band and stuff for it. So it's like kind of almost like a little mini festival. But yeah. But yeah. In terms of Valentine's Day, let's see here I was doing some searching while I was talking.

Oh yeah. Actually, did we have we do celebrate Valentine's Day now in terms of like is there a culture difference between the two? I highly doubt so like the one at least you know, 2 meaning here and over there. I I lived out. There's that big of a difference when it comes to how Valentine's Day is celebrated. Pretty sure all the couples take each other out the same way, get each other gifts in the same way, you know? That's pretty. Cool. The typical stuff, pretty much. Yeah, because like the like the even the color symbolism comes from Lupercalia.

So red and white are associated with the holiday because they are thought to represent the blood of the sacrifices and the milk soaked wool used to clean the sacrificial knife. Oh, I was going to say milk, but you know, maybe I was being a little too lenient on the fertility part. Oh, I'm pretty sure that's probably another reason why I'm almost positive of it. But you know, we're trying to not like make assumptions because these are all like a lot of the stuff obviously is assumptions because none of us were there.

A lot of a lot of the old ancient rituals did not survive. Thanks, Christianity and Catholicism and all that fucking bullshit. So, you know, there's that. But it also, The thing is, is also the reason why it became Valentine's Day is because of Saint Valentine. Yes, that I did know. That's because I went to Catholic school. Yes. So now legend suggests that he was a priest in 3rd century Rome. So we're still in Rome. We're still dealing with Rome here, who defied the Emperor Claudius the Second by secretly performing marriages for soldiers who were forbidden to What so?

Why were they forbidden to what ancient the rule? No, probably because the emperor was like, well, if you're in the army, you, you got, you have to be ready to leave at a moment's notice for me. And men who had families were more reluctant to go to war. Oh, OK, because I was thinking like Game of Thrones. How like the specific Knights in Game of Thrones you serve under like? I, I don't know, honestly, that's something we would probably have to look into, but I'm assuming that's probably what it is.

So for his defiance, Valentine was imprisoned, beaten, and eventually decapitated on February 14th. Yes, and the from your Valentine legend actually comes from while he was in prison that he supposedly fell in love with his jailer's daughter and left her a farewell letter signed from your Valentine, a phrase that has turned from a final tragic note into a romantic cliche. Oh. My goodness. Yeah, so we're, you know, again, dealing with Rome and how fucking brutal that fucking shit is between sacrificing and then killing people.

I love it. Yeah. And then, you know, like Christianity is all about that. Like, you know, not to be bleak, but it's all about like self sacrifice. So that doesn't surprise me. It's true. And there are so many superstitions in folklore from the 18th and 19th centuries around Valentine's Day that are heavily tied to, you know, dark, dark folklore and love, divination and all sorts of stuff because, you know, we all get that Twitter painted feeling. Yeah. So you would have graveyard rituals to see a vision of their future spouse.

Some women would go to a churchyard on Valentine's Day eve and run around the church 12 times chanting a specific verse. I mean, listen, I'm going to see visions too. If you have me running around a church in the middle of the fucking night on the 13th, I'll see visions too. I'm just saying I don't know about, I don't know about you 2.

Just honestly. I wouldn't be surprised. There's also something called the first bird. It was believed that the first bird an unmarried woman saw on Valentine's morning predicted the type of man she would marry, IE seeing a Raven, a Blackbird or an owl signified a quote UN quote brooding or mysterious lover.

Yeah, right now I wouldn't even. Know what bird was which besides maybe an owl because who knows, maybe birds were predicting my love life forever and I had no idea because I didn't know what kind of birds they were. Maybe, but then I don't know, like, did you see a bunch of pigeons last year before you met your partner there? Are a lot of pigeons OK? We love there are pigeon colonies on the top of this building. We love pigeons though. We do love pigeons. And supposedly also like supposedly also in the Middle Ages, banquets were illuminated by love lanterns which were just hollowed out turnips carved with faces which are similar to modern day Jack O lanterns.

That's really cool. I love that. Yeah, now it's cool because like in also, again, still in the 19th century here, kids, not all Valentine's Day was meant to be romantic. Have you ever heard of a vinegar Valentine? No. OK, no. So the Vinegar Valentine's were super popular back in the 19th century. They were anonymous, nasty and very cruel cards that were sent to insult unwanted suitors, enemies or people with laws, and they would always feature grotesque caricatures and very harsh rhymes. Oh, a middle school bully must have taken a a little page out of that book.

Probably received more of those than real Valentine.

That was actually like. That was one of my biggest pet peeves about Valentine's Day, especially at, like, like, a Catholic school for, like, you know, K through 8 And like, yeah, Luke, they made you give out Valentine's Day cards, like, you know, like the little ones that you get from, like, the drugstore. Yeah, we had that in in grade school, in elementary. School. I just had one, you know my main bully one year because like all of the male friends abandoned me once they realized all the girls didn't like me and they liked girls.

So they she wrote me a Valentine's Day note supposedly from my old guy best friend and I was so excited and I waited out in the schoolyard just to be laughed at. So be kind and also teach your kids to not be assholes on Valentine's Day. The non popular kids OK. Well, we can kind of blame like the shift from all this grizzly shit to it being a more romanticized version. Basically. Honestly, thanks to Shakespeare,

I'm waiting for the bomb to drop. Yeah, Oh my God, I'm so sorry people of the nest, but I just saw the funniest shit. My cat discovered that his treats were on top of his new little litter cabinet and he just poured all of the streets all over the floor. Oh no. So I am watching this little devious man reap the rewards of his bad behavior. However, I do love me some Shakespeare. Yep. So Shakespeare actually helped to make this more of a romantic holiday because obviously, because Lupercalia is what started it all.

We had a Pope who is named Jealousius the 1st, and he combined Lupercalia with, like, you know, Saint Valentine's Day to expel the Pagan rituals. And it became more of a theatrical interpretation of what it had once been. And it's funny because it was a little more than a drunken revel, but Christians put their clothes back on, and that didn't stop it from being a day of fertility and love. And the Normans, around the same time as this was happening, would celebrate Gallantin's Day. Gallantin meant lover of women.

And that was likely confused with Valentine's Day at some point because, you know, obviously, Gallantine Gallantin Valentine, you know. Yeah. So. And as someone who does celebrate quite a few Galentine's Days, it does get a little lost in sauce there that they used to be doing different things. It does, and what's cool about it is that like Shakespeare and Chaucer actually romanticized Valentine's Day in their works, it gained popularity throughout, obviously, Europe and Britain, and handmade paper cards became tokens du jour in the Middle Ages, because obviously that was also very precious resource back then.

So to receive a piece of paper with written word on it was probably akin to receiving a diamond bracelet or something now. I love that because that's how I feel about letters. I love receiving a good letter. Yep, and it's cool because the industrial revolution actually ushered in factory made cards in the 19th century. Because we're back in the 19th century, kids, and in 1913 Hallmark began mass producing Valentine's Day cards. So since 1913, that is when it became a Hallmark holiday. Literally.

I love that we can pinpoint when it became a Hallmark holiday. 1913. Like, I think it's one of those things that like, and understandably, we're all like, oh, what a cheesy Hallmark holiday, when really it wasn't a Hallmark holiday for most of its existence. You know what, in all honesty, like I love the many different cakes that we have on Valentine's Day now in the Bronx Zoo lets you name a Roach after your ex and then you then those those roaches get fed to different animals that eat bugs. Oh my God, yes, it's like my favorite thing.

I am obsessed with that and they and they live stream it. They do. You can literally watch an animal eat a roast name after your ex and if you pay like a little extra money, like donate a little extra money, don't go ahead live stream it and read a note to your ex while you're the the the bug version of your ex is being eaten by this animal. Yep. You just start hearing so such and such.

Don't you so insert names? Fuck you. I don't think they would actually ever read that that you. There is some language, probably rules, but I think that's one of the greatest things that's ever come out of just people democratizing. Honestly if I if I did this and I might eventually, my note would probably be my greatest wish would be for thine to fornicate with thine self. Yes, and for those. Who? And for those who don't understand what she just said, she just said for them to go fuck themselves.

Hey, and This is why we love Crimson. But yeah, did any of you guys have any fun facts to add? I mean, I I basically went through everything I researched today. Like, I don't know if it's real. It's obviously not a historical fact, but one of my favorite facts about my grandpa was Valentine's Day was his favorite holiday. And he used to like put on this very grumpy demeanor all the time, but he loves Valentine's Day so much. And like big 6 foot guy, right? And he used to when we were growing up, drop off Valentine's at because this is my grandpa on my dad's side to all of his grandkids every single year.

And he specifically bought different things at different candy for every single kid. My grandmother would. Do that. So he used to buy me every year peanut Buttercup because those are my favorite. And he used to call me the hipster because I used to like, you know, I was so into that mid off like beanies and over like stars and like the whole thing. So he used to write to the hipster almost every year on a little Reese's Peanut Butter Cup tart that he would give me for Valentine's Day that he would drop off at our houses every single year.

And that's why I'm a big believer. And like, it doesn't need to be a big thing. You know, just the fact that my grandpa knew and loved me enough to know my favorite candy with peanut butter cup and knew that I liked hipster mid ought style enough to call me the hipster on my Valentine's Day cards. You know, like he didn't need to spend $1,000,000 or something like this and now end up a button fact about Valentine's Day on a podcast. Agreed. Yeah. What What about you, Crimson? Any fun facts to add?

Honestly on this one I don't really have much much else really to add to be honest. OK, so. Kind of talked about a lot of the stuff that I briefly knew about. And I mean, for the most part, you know, I, I personally haven't really dug into deep or at least know much else in other cultures. I guess you could say for the holiday, you know, I just know the very basic stuff of, you know, how we celebrate it. Some small things I guess from other smaller cultures, but in terms of like overall don't really have much else behind the actual holiday.

OK, so all right, for the to to close it out, I want you both to tell me what your perfect Valentine's Day date would be. We'll start off with you labs since since you, since you I'm sure are very involved.

Well, like you're a monster. You know, for me. Excuse my little my little coffee, but for me specifically, it just matters that it's something that I like and something that someone's willing to do with me. Like I love and honestly, like this is giving away my plan for Valentine's Day, but this is how you know that my partner really cares about me. I was like, all I want to see is Horny Wuthering Heights. And lo and behold, we have tickets to go see not only Horny Wuthering Heights, but we're going to a nice wine place so we can get wine tipsy before a.

Yo. That is like the perfect day to me, watching a really bad but purposely bad adoption of a classic literature after being able to have an entire bottle of rose. Hey.

There you go. What about you, Crimson? What would be your perfect Valentine's Day date?

I don't see anything for me, it's not anything super and nothing super romantic for me. I actually do like more activities more than anything else. So at least in my case, now if it's if it's for my partner, it's a different story. I do do like doing, you know, romantic activities with my partner. But if it's like, say, if it's like something specific to what I personally like more, you know, I'll, I'll go and be like, oh, you know, let's head up an arcade. I want to go to an arcade. I actually like going to arcades.

I don't really go to them. I don't think. I don't go to them as often as I usually what would like to. One of the biggest things I've been trying to plan out hopefully for this year is to head out to one of the VR rooms because the one that I usually like to go to personally actually came out with a new. I, I don't know if I would really call it like installment or a new chapter. I guess would be a better word to use for the zombie game that they have, which is really, really fun. I've had a lot of fun with the first two.

I know they already came out with the 3rd SO. Yeah, I mean, that's kind of what I would be considered, at least for myself personally. You know what I would like for Valentine's Day as something to do a lot. Of fun. That is a lot of fun idea. There's a lot of fun. Maybe we maybe if we can't do it for Valentine's Day or you know, just we can plan a Phoenix gate date with the all of the gate. Exactly. Or hell, even your birthday. Oh. Yes, Jim. Have a nice little Valentine's Day holdover for Crimson and and Lavender's birthdays, who happen to be literally back-to-back.

So yeah, but it's an idea, I think honestly, yeah, it is an idea. We could definitely because I know at least for that VR room, though, a, the one that I know is actually fairly close to me here, I think it's maybe about 20 minutes, maybe 15 minutes actually.

So it's actually a lot closer than the last time I went because I was actually in a different town before I moved. We'll put a pin in that and we'll revisit that to help make your dreams come true. There's nothing more than the Phoenix. Gate. Exactly. And there's nothing more than the Phoenix Gate would love to do then come to you guys live after experiencing this and giving the place to review on one of our social media platforms that you guys should be following, you can catch us on the Phoenix Gate literally same spelling on every single social media platform.

And being as we have been in talks and we've been saying this for a very long time, we are going to be starting to go live. So you're going to have to catch us on one of those platforms, most likely Twitch or YouTube or even Instagram and TikTok live. But we will be there, so give. Us give us the. Subscribings because it's the only time you're going to know when we go live. We're rating. Let us know what you think. Yeah. Yeah, let us know what your favorite Valentine's Day plan is, or hell, what your favorite experience ever was.

Or God, if you had a bad experience, let us know. We love hearing all sorts of stories from our Phoenix nation. We love that I already shared some Valentine's Day trauma on this episode. You did. So y'all should TuneIn let me know your fellow Valentine's Day trauma please? Definitely. But on that note, we're going to go because we have to go do our Valentine's Day shenanigans. So everybody enjoy your Hallmark holiday and stay tuned. Give us a like and a follow and everybody say bye. Bye bye. We're born in fire.

Ice from vain, which is blood in my. Face.

The Feinics Gate Podcast - Issue 157 - Cupid Has a Body Count

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