Work From Bed Friday

Amy & Tommy record this episode from the basement of their new house, Beatrice. Even in the middle of a major move, the two come together to discuss Chapter 23 of Miranda July's All Fours, touching on the subjects of vaginal dryness, third things, and polyamory. They know nothing about polyamory, but that does not stop them from discussing it, and also the lack of human predisposition to monogamy. Although for some, it may...

Join Tommy & Amy as they stumble into the house of mirrors created by the shifting identities of Chapter 22 of Miranda July's All Fours. They explore the new terrain created inside a spontaneous few days of role playing between our main character and her husband. Can we be more honest inside fiction then we can in real life? And does that honesty mean that real constructs (like marriage) can dissolve inside of that fiction...

Do we ALL need a room of one's own? Could it just be Room 321 at the Excelsior? Amy thinks yes, yes it could. 

Amy & Tommy discuss Chapter 21 of Miranda July's All Fours, examining the anatomy of a marital standoff by sharing their historical responses in the aftermath of an unresolved dispute. This, and more, including the bodily freedom of pop stars,  menopause as a catalyst, and spoons. And forks. 

Mentioned in this ...

Chapter 20 of Miranda July’s All Fours is one of Tommy and Amy’s favorites. Our character invites her friends to Excelsior’s Room 321 in order to crowdsource marital advice and a whole lot more. But once there, the room expands into another dimension and a new portal seems to open, a place where one can begin to understand oneself and one’s own desires via the sharing of others. Through it all is the titillating question: “If you c...

True to form, Tommy & Amy "very thoroughly" examine Chapter 19 of Miranda July's All Fours. In the aftermath of a marital fissure, our character moves through her days in a haze of formality, cupcakes, and bones to chew on. All of which allow our fearless hosts to explore their past marriage tensions, typically beginning with a tiny pea, twenty mattresses down.

This chapter seems to mark our character&ap...

Amy and Tommy's discussion of Chapter 18 was particularly long...and juicy! So, they continue their conversation from last week in this episode and unearth a  memory of the time that Amy got kicked off Facebook for a nipple.

The marital clash in the chapter brings up a lot of "before times" incidents that Amy & Tommy enthusiastically excavate while the All Fours heroine treads water, alone in a metaphori...

Chapter 18 of Miranda July's All Fours is barely three pages in total. It only takes eight minutes to listen to it on audio. Tommy and Amy, however, do not let that stop them from talk talk talking for so long about rage, intercourse as a disappointing end game, and centering pleasure. They dig deep into the anatomy of a marital argument and hit on a profound distinction: working on your relationship vs. practicing loving. 

You can't always get what you want, but sometimes you get what you summon. And it will blow your mind. At least it did for our heroine at the end of Chapter 17 of Miranda July's All Fours. 

In this, the second part of their long and juicy discussion of this pivotal chapter, Amy & Tommy tackle pre-fab structures, reveal how objectification is a total turn-on, and consider the body as the entry point to the sou...

Chapter 17 is so long and juicy, that our discussion was long enough and juicy enough to to warrant TWO episodes. Welcome to Part 1!

How long does real transformation take? In the twelve hours of this chapter, our reliably unreliable narrator transforms from a fixation on summoning Davey to an openness to having sex with the world. All because of a mind-altering bodily experience. It's the moment of deep darkness befo...

In our discussion of Chapter 16 in Miranda July’s All Fours, we cover solo parenting, self loathing, authenticity, and holding on to our wildness. Also, what does "ass-prone" really mean?

But it’s our discussion of personal change as a constant that really brings this episode to its eerily meta level. Note Tommy’s sudden tendency to mansplaining, heretofore absent from the pod. Here's Tommy:

             "I mean, ...

The title of this episode was inspired by Portland writer Jenn Lalime. Her comment on Miranda July’s Substack piece spurred many juicy conversations, both in the comment section and in Amy and Tommy’s kitchen!  Here’s the exact quote: 

“It look me nearly 20 years of marriage before I stopped living in the shadow of male sex entitlement and fucking the grumpy out of my husband.” 

Whoa. Right? She goes on to talk about how sh...

In Chapter 14 of Miranda July's All Fours, our increasingly unhinged heroine realizes that she has most certainly cried "Wolf!" or, in her case, "Menopause!" Now officially experiencing perimenopause, we follow her faulty reasoning as she concludes that her newfound libido may soon disappear along with her estrogen—she, and all women, will eventually fall off of a cliff. Or so she thinks.

Amy confi...

Amy delivers that line with so much enthusiasm (and only flubbing one word) that it's as if she's hoping it will be considered as her audition for the next incarnation of the audio book. Or the Starz series?? One can dream...

In Chapter 13 of Miranda July's All Fours, our increasingly unhinged heroine pleads menopause, finally agrees to adopt a puppy, and witnesses the moment that her desperate attempt to co...

Oh, heartbreak. You are so maddeningly universal. The sick feeling. The roboticism.  The detachment from reality. As our character re-enters her domestic life, heartbreak haunts her. She lives the image from the beginning of the chapter: a frozen soul, in her basement, between a trampoline and a couple of suitcases. 

Amy & Tommy examine the bleakness of this chapter, but not without cackles of laughter and memories of ...

"I'm thinking something, what am I thinking?"

In fact, there is no thinking at all. Just action, sensation, and a new understanding occurring at a subterranean level. Chapter 11 of Miranda July's All Fours is a veritable feast of subconscious mystery: sex dreams, uncharted intimacy, and the perilous territory of goodbye. Amy & Tommy dig right into the middle of it, excavating juicy bits of their own...

Unbridled emotion, soul-connected dance, and strobe lights as sex toys—Amy and Tommy don’t miss any of it in their discussion of Chapter 10 in Miranda July’s All Fours. Amy calls it the “love chapter” and perhaps it is, sprinkled with the tension of fraught desire and the finitude of time.

A strange irony exists in the very best moments both in love and in sex: the deep desire to stay right there in that very feeling forev...

When our character learns that Davey’s first sexual encounters were orchestrated by his mother with his mother’s very experienced friend, she is, understandably, flabbergasted. But the thought that emerges later has morphed into something of a motto or a mantra for Amy and Tommy.  Miranda July writes, “An overly skilled lover was kind of icky—desire should make you clumsy.” Indeed. Clumsy indeed.

In Amy & Tommy’s romp through Ch...

"He reached across the table and touched the back of his hand to the back of mine..." and so begins the erotically charged emotional affair between our main character and Davey. As readers, Amy and Tommy are pulled into the weightless madness that comes the realization that our feelings are mirrored by the object of our desire. As a long-time married couple, they examine this hilarious and sexy chapter from a healthy dist...

In Chapter 7 of Miranda July’s All Fours, our character wrestles with two realities: her sudden and unhinged desire for Davey's body AND her grim awareness of her aging self. Amy & Tommy use this chapter as a framework to discuss the surprise of primal desire, inner voices,  and the intersection of life and art. They also realize that solo orgasms are like cookies.

Read along or just enjoy the discussion! Subscri...