123. this ritual is horizontal: mash-up with a wizard podcast [1 of 2]

Hello horizontal lovers & ritualists,

horizontal is the podcast about sex, love, & relationships of all kinds, recorded while lying down. this ritual is horizontal is part of my Season 4, the Season of Experiments. 

Usually, I have a guest or two reclining next to me, sharing a pillow, but This Season in the Era of Covid, my guest is often lying down across the world from me, as Devin is here... and we have an intimate, vulnerable, long-ranging and long-form conversation that unfolds over the course of  3 - 5 hours, and gets divided into 2 - 4 episodes. Typically, the first half of our conversation is available in all the podcast places, and the latter half is available exclusively to patrons of the horizontal arts.

In the latter part of our conversation, which will be episode 124 on horizontal, we discuss a bit of ghosting wizardry, dating reviews, self-holds, and parenting our inner child. Then I tell Devin a story about being photographed nude in a nest, and the most miserable sexy dance party, and Devin conjures a 3-point spell for alchemizing connection across distance. One way to gain access to episode 124 is to become a patron of the horizontal arts on Patreon. 

Patreon is a portal to the work of the modern-day independent artist, like the love child of crowd-funding and a subscription service. A monthly contribution to my Patreon unlocks over 50 exclusive episodes, and a monthly contribution to Devin’s Patreon offers you access to magical rituals centered around numbers of, shall we say, modern-day interest — one of which I participated in. The number: was 69, and the episode is titled “How to Pleasure Yourself and Others.” Last night, I listened back to it (for the first time since the recording) and got turned on! so I highly recommend it. To become a patron, navigate directly to Patreon.com/horizontalwithlila or Patreon.com/thispodcastisaritual

The other way is this — as a rare gift in honor of our collaboration, you can gain access to the full episode if you head over to Devin’s this podcast is a ritual feed, even if you aren’t a patron of the horizontal arts! Which means, if you are listening to this on Devin’s feed, you get the whole thing right now.

The experiment of this episode, as Devin described, is a mash-up, and this is my very first mash-up episode. When I think about mash-ups, I think of some intrepid songstress like my friend Meghan Tonjes and the way she puts two pop songs in a blender on YouTube and makes something creamily delicious — both capturing the infectious joy and the hook-iness of the original songs, and somehow also more than that, the alchemy of two entities enjoined, creating something that does not exist before they are enmeshed. In other words: Magic.

In this part of our conversation, I tell Devin the story of Hamilton & the Hondalorian, and we talk about connecting across distance, phone calls vs. video calls, charting-new-territory friends and rerun friends, the nutrients of digital communication & joy of sexting, the Seamlessification of dating, resilience, rejection, & confidence, & icing on Tinder.

This mash-up was mixed and mastered by Irving Gadhoury of IGrecording.com. My cover art was illustrated by Shana Shay, whom you can hire on 99designs. The remix of my original intro music was created by kidmental, whose motto is “theme songs for everyone.” You can both support a Black creator, and get a theme song of your very own by supporting him on Fiverr or on Patreon.

Until next time, my horizontal ritualists, my ritual horizontalists: 

May you have someone to love, something to do, and something to look forward to. I’m looking forward to assembling my camera kit with 4K video capabilities and proper studio lighting... and finally shooting my Master Class-style course on connection! If you want information on that, and future horizontal endeavors, follow @horizontalwithlila on Instagram, or sign up for my email missives on horizontalwithlila.com

And now, through the Magic of the interwebz, come lie down with us in Canggu, Bali, Indonesia, Louisville, Kentucky, and wherever you find yourself horizontal.