NYE BUMMER NEWS
Exit/In informed us last night that we’re going to have to postpone New Year’s Eve until April 9th, because of the crazy intense spike in COVID numbers over the past two weeks. I know it’s a raging bummer, but you can expect us to ring in the new year to the extreme on its new date of April 9th. I don’t exactly know how we’re supposed to tell the whole world that 2022 has been postponed by 4 months, but I guess the word will get out. And hopefully there won’t be any kind of Y2K stuff going on with toasters and lawn mowers becoming sentient and such.  

And don’t worry, the April 9th show is going to be the same exact lineup – Proto, Makeup And Vanity Set, and Hans Condor. 

If you need a refund for your show ticket, Exit/In is giving you until January 6th to do that. Check your emails from Exit/In for more info on refunds. Otherwise, hang on to that ticket and we’ll see you in April!

The New Year’s Eve Eve Left Can Dance Dance Party Party is also in the same boat, but we’re not exactly sure of the long-term fate of that event yet. We’ll know more in the future. 

EURO TOUR
Speaking of April, don’t forget we start our second-ever European tour that same week, and Makeup And Vanity Set is coming over there with us now! Grab tickets and help spread the word about it. We want to see every person in Europe at our shows. 

APRIL
17th – Berlin – FRANNZ Club
18th – Amsterdam – Melkweg
19th – Paris – Les Étoiles
21st – London – Shepherd’s Bush
22nd – Great Yarmouth – Sci-Fi Weekender
23rd – Swansea – Sin City
24th – Oxford – O2 Academy
26th – Wolverhampton – KK’s Steel Mill
27th – Glasgow – Stereo
28th – Bradford – Nightrain

Mega Man Movie
Allllsoooo….. we’ve seen a lot of people getting amped up about the possible Mega Man Netflix movie’s lack of any Proto involvement, and while we appreciate the fervor, it would be far more effective to tag or contact the people involved with the project itself, instead of just responding to news source that’s reporting it. 

We’d recommend tagging Netflix, the production company, and/or some of the producers+directors in your friendly, polite, and courteous rants about how their project is doomed unless they involve us somehow. 

So with that, enjoy another 14 or so weeks of a terrible year! 
Don’t drive angry,

-Commander

p.s. Keep an ear on your email, because we’ve got some more (and hopefully better) news coming soon. 

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Great news, Europe… Makeup and Vanity Set is coming with us on our April tour!!! The only one he won’t be playing is the Sci-Fi Weekender show, so get to grabbing those tickets before they’re super gone. This thing is gonna be amazing.

APRIL
17th – Berlin – FRANNZ Club
18th – Amsterdam – Melkweg
19th – Paris – Les Étoiles
21st – London – Shepherd’s Bush
22nd – Great Yarmouth – Sci-Fi Weekender
23rd – Swansea – Sin City
24th – Oxford – O2 Academy
26th – Wolverhampton – KK’s Steel Mill
27th – Glasgow – Stereo
28th – Bradford – Nightrain

Speaking of Europe, the Act I vinyl represses are sold out in the Limited Run and Sound Machine online stores, but there’s still one variant available at the Kings Road Europe store (and it’s my personal favorite color scheme of the three). So if you missed out on the US variants, don’t fret, because KR ships worldwide and it actually works out to be not too expensive to ship from there to the US (and you don’t get charged Euro taxes). 

RE-NEW YEARS EVE… EVE DANCE PARTY WITH THE RETURN OF LEFT CAN DANCE!

–Dec 30th – Exit/In–

In case you don’t know about LCD, they used to put on a hell of an indie/rock/electro/pop dance party here in Nashville pretty regularly, but they’ve been in hibernation for years now. Well, they’re waking from their slumber now, and just like a groggy bear that’s stumbling out of their den after a long sleep… they just want to dance. Or rather… play music so you can dance. A few of us Protomen AND Makeup and Vanity Set will be there playing some jams, too. So if you’re around Nashville for our sold out show at Exit/In on the 31st, you might as well come bear dance with us for a bit the night before. CLICK ME FOR TICKETS

*NOTE* same Nashville venue COVID rules apply – Vaccine proof or negative COVID test results are required. Masks encouraged, but not required. 

BLACK FRIDAY SALE
Our annual Black Friday to Cyborg Monday sale in the Sound Machine Store starts NOW and ends on Cyborg Monday (November 29th, at 11:59 p.m. Central Time).  The code is: TWENTY21 … and knocks 20% off everything EXCEPT the new “Red Act 1 Logo” shirt because they just arrived and the pre-orders are shipping out now.

And just like last year, for a limited time, we’re signing anything in your order that makes sense (t-shirts are pretty rough because the ink doesn’t really stick or show up on black shirts, and tends to wash off) for a flat fee of $20. Just add the “add band signatures” item to your order and follow instructions for the action. This offer will run until December 10th and your order will be shipped the week of December 13th.

More soon.

-Commander

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THE PROTOMEN (ACT I) VINYL REPRESS
Now available in 3 separate color variants from our Kings Road Europe and Sound Machine Stores, as well as with our new friends at Limited Run Games (if you don’t know Limited Run Games, you should absolutely go check them out)! And luckily, these records are in-hand, so there won’t be the traditional months and months of the vinyl waiting game. All three stores ship worldwide, so take your pick or buy them all!  

We’re also bringing back the original Protomen logo shirt in 3 color variants (with a Blue version we’ve never done before… and I’m not exactly sure why we never did it?). 

*PLEASE NOTE* There are also women’s shirts, but there’s a bit of craziness with the covid shirt market right now, so we don’t exactly know which style shirts we’ll be getting for those across the stores, so we didn’t want to lead you astray with the wrong mockups here. Keep an eye on the individual stores for updates.

Limited Run has also come up with their own take on a “Hope Rides Alone” shirt design that I think some of you might like. Check it:

**PLEASE NOTE AGAIN** All this stuff will be in Pre-order mode for 2 weeks and then they’ll get those shirts printed and out the door. Ship times will vary from store to store. 

EUROPE TOUR APRIL 2022
In case you missed the last mailer… and live in Europe… we’re coming your direction next spring!!! Yeah, I know, it’s pretty exciting. I already pooped my britches twice in anticipation. Tickets are all live (with links below) and ready to be yours, so get to owning a little piece of history. 

APRIL – 2022
17th – Berlin – FRANNZ Club
18th – Amsterdam – Melkweg
19th – Paris – Les Étoiles
21st – London – Shepherd’s Bush
22nd – Great Yarmouth – Sci-Fi Weekender
23rd – Swansea – Sin City
24th – Oxford – O2 Academy
26th – Wolverhampton – KK’s Steel Mill
27th – Glasgow – Stereo <—— note venue change
28th – Bradford – Nightrain

COVER UP VINYL
Got a few of these Cover Up records left, so if you’ve been on the fence about it, you better grab one quick before they’re gone for a while. 

Warm salutations of some kind,

-Commander

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Hey Europe, we’re coming for you… AGAIN! We had this scheduled for 2021, but obviously that didn’t happen. But I feel real good about it happening in 2022, so grab some tickets and please help spread the word over there about these shows. We’d love to make European trips a much more regular thing. 

APRIL – 2022
17th – Berlin – FRANNZ Club
18th – Amsterdam – Melkweg
19th – Paris – Les Étoiles
21st – London – Shepherd’s Bush
22nd – Great Yarmouth – Sci-Fi Weekender
23rd – Swansea – Sin City
24th – Oxford – O2 Academy
26th – Wolverhampton – KK’s Steel Mill
27th – Glasgow – The Garage
28th – Bradford – Nightrain

**NOTE** – some UK shows are in “Priority Presale” right now (whatever that might mean) and will be generally available on Sept 6th at 9am UK time.

BANDCAMP FRIDAY
…… is today! 
We’ve put up the freshly mixed 2021 version of “Built To Last” on Bandcamp a couple times in the past year for Bandcamp Fridays, but I realized that it’s never lined up with a mailer before for me to tell you about it, so… here you go! It’s available for purchase on our Bandcamp page until 11:59pm PST tonight (Friday). 

AND we just noticed that the split black/clear variant of “Night of Queen” vinyl is down to less than 100 copies, so we’ve added it to the Bandcamp store as well. 

If you don’t know what the hell a Bandcamp Friday is, it’s a very special day where Bandcamp waives their fees for 24 hours, so the artists get all of the money (except for CC fees, but that’s fair enough). So yeah, get out there and support some bands today so they can buy some Tapatio Doritos!

NEW YEARS 2021
Happy to announce that our New Years show at Exit/In with Makeup And Vanity Set and Hans Condor has sold out, but we wanted to give you a heads up on some new COVID related policy changes at Exit/In (and a majority of venues in Nashville). 

I know it’s still a few months away, but as of right now, Exit/In is requiring a proof of vaccine OR a negative Covid-19 test (within 48hours of the show) to get into the show, with masks strongly recommended. We’re all for this, by the way. The more precautions the better, so venues can stay open and so we don’t get stuck in a lockdown situation again. 

KYLE GASS – VACCINATED
Speaking of vaccines and such, Kyle Gass (of Tenacious D fame – he was also in Evolution, which is a criminally underrated film, I might add) asked us a while back to shoot some footage for a little video he put together for his “Vaccinated” parody of The Ramones’s, “I Wanna Be Sedated.” We obliged. And while they couldn’t use very much of our stuff because it was such a jam-packed star-studded event, we figured we might as well release the Snyder Cut. You might want to rent out a movie theater to watch this potentially academy award winning gem. Watch HERE.

LIVE IN NASHVILLE
Don’t think you can make it to our New Years or European shows? Don’t sweat it, we made Live In Nashville for this very exacting reason! If you don’t have it already, grab a copy of the Blu-ray and/or CD (or just the digital versions) from our Sound Machine or Kings Road Europe stores and watch or listen anytime from the comfort of your own home. 

COVER UP VINLY NEARLY SOLD OUT
If you want a copy of The Cover Up on record, you’d better hurry, there are only about 200 left in Sound Machine Store and much less than that at stores across the US America. Again, if your local record shop doesn’t have it, see if they can get it from URP Distribution before they’re all gone. Also, there are some signed copies available at the SM Store right now.  

Stay safe out there,

-Commander

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For the first time in nearly two years, we’ve got a show lined up! 

NEW YEARS EVE AT EXIT/IN!!!
To celebrate their 50th anniversary, Exit/In is going all out. They’ve got 50 commemorative shows lined up between now and the end of the year, and they’ve got us set to end it all on New Years Eve. 

This is the longest we’ve ever gone without playing a show and I’m gonna tell you, it’s been super weird. However with that kind of break, we’ve had plenty of time to work on an album that some of you have been looking forward to. We’re not ready to pull the lid off them beans, but I’ll tell you them beans are lookin good… or sounding good? Do beans make sounds? I’ve lost the metaphor here. Either way, here’s some info for the show and how to snag tickets and limited VIP action:

The Protomen (that’s us!)
Makeup and Vanity Set
Hans Condor

A limit of 50 VIP tickets are currently on sale here (*EDIT* VIP IS SOLD OUT). Use this password at checkout –> PROTO50

the perks include:
-Pre-show Meet and Greet with The Protomen
-Early entry to the show
-Limited edition merch item made exclusively for this illustrious occasion

The PreSale for regular entry tickets are NOW AVAILABLE. You gotta use this password for these presale tickets, though –> EXITIN50 

And then, if any are left over, the rest of the regular entry tickets will go on sale Friday the 16th at 10am (CST). —-> TICKET LINK

COVER UP IN RECORD STORES
Do you live in the US America and want a copy of the red Cover Up vinyl, but hate the internet and the convenience of having things shipped to your door? No problem! Go down to your local record shop and pick one up today! Might want to call first, though. If they don’t have it, first take a few moments to curse the sky, and then politely ask them to order it through URP Distro. They’ll be so caught off guard by your sky cursing that they’ll mostly agree to anything. Also, might as well pick up a couple more albums while you’re there. Record stores and artists could use all the support you can muster.

We’ve got some more announcements coming in a week or two, so keep an ear on your nose. 

-Commander

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Just wanted to give a quick update here, since we haven’t had a mailer/news post in a bit. 

Everything is going great on this end.

We just got word from the record plant that The Cover Up vinyl repress is nearly done. They mentioned they may be ready to go next week. They took a little longer than expected, but what doesn’t at the COVID party? We hope to get those in your hands as soon as robotly possible. **note** In case any of you missed the last mailer/news post, our cover of “In The Air Tonight” was wonderfully featured in Season 3 of Cobra Kai on Netflix. If you haven’t watched the show, go check it out. We loved it so much we went and made a limited Cover Up meets Cobra Kai – JohnnyBot shirt to commemorate (and repressed a new variant of the regular Cover Up shirt). All that stuff is in the Sound Machine store, if you like things. **end note**

Act III recording is going strong, and is about to be going even stronger now that all of The Protomen are fully vaccinated to the extreme. We even made a short little video thing about getting vaxed that we hope to show off soon. Keep your ears peeled.

MAVS – HEART OF BATMAN
Another cool thing that’s happened recently is Sound Machine released Makeup And Vanity Set’s soundtrack for the recent documentary about Batman Animated Series, Heart Of Batman. It’s super rad and has some pretty serious packaging by Caspar Newbolt. Fold out bat wings, fancy booklet full of never before released art from the show, and a Batman themed Beanie Baby (not really).  But seriously, just check it out at MakeupAndVanitySet.com … or just buy it on the Sound Machine Store.

No show updates right now, because… obvs. But hope to have some kind of news in the next couple months. 

-Commander

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Long ago, in the year 2007, I wrote a mailer that could not be more relevant to current proto-events. I could paraphrase it here or recount it verbatim, but luckily it’s still on our news page for you to read. So just go take a gander here before continuing on. And be warned… I really loved ellipses… even more than I do now… …… …

All caught up? Good, lets continue…

Well, it’s been 13 years and it’s clear that I didn’t win the presidency, because Kreese is still causing mayhem and Will Smith DID, in fact, remake Karate Kid. And while I still can’t bring myself to watch that movie (even though I love Will Smith and Jackie Chan), since it was clearly kung fu and not karate, Will Smith made good by helping produce the Cobra Kai series. So, in the end, I was wrong to try to stifle Mr. Smith and his Karate Kid remake dreams, because the long road led us here. 

So. What does all of this mean? A lot of you already found it over this past week, but in case you haven’t yet… you might want to check out Cobra Kai on Netflix. They used our cover of “In The Air Tonight” in one of the episodes of Season 3!!!!!!!!!!!

Now don’t go skipping around trying to find the scene, because it won’t make any sense out of context. Watch it from the beginning. And by that, I mean, watch the first three Karate Kid movies, and then start the Cobra Kai show. It’s wonderful.

To commemorate, we got the ever-amazing John DeLucca to do the above variant cover for an “In The Air Tonight” single (that doesn’t actually exist). Johnny Lawbot? or Robot Lawrence? Mr. Robot? Sorry, I can’t seem to really make a good protomanteau out of it. <—— See what I did there?

COVER UP VINYL RETURNS
And if all that weren’t exciting enough, we’re finally repressing The Cover Up record on Red 180g vinyl! Pre-sale starts at this very instant. 

**as with all vinyl, we don’t exactly know when it will be ready to ship because of varying vinyl production times, but it’s been in the process for a bit now, so hopefully it’s not a horrible wait. Either way, the pre-order comes with an instant download of the album, so you can get straight to hearing stuff with your ears.

We’re bringing back The Cover Up shirt, too. But changing it up a bit by putting it on a black shirt.

And we also went ahead and reworked the “In The Air Tonight” single cover into a shirt, too! This one is gonna be suuuuuuuuuuuuuper limited, so get your pre-order in quick to secure one.

LIVE IN NASHVILLE… IN EUROPE 

Live In Nashville is now available in our KingsRoad Europe store, so give it a gander if you haven’t already! And spread the word over there. The more stuff we get selling, the more new things we can put in that store.

Now get to it, you’ve got stuff to watch.

-Commander

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Yeah… I know… these things are incredible. And unfortunately, they are exclusive to our European store, because Kingsroad is the only company that can get them printed and in your hands in time for the holidays. Hoooweevverrr… Kingsroad ships worldwide, so everybody’s got a relatively fair crack at them! The cutoff to get your orders in time for the holidays is around the 9th, so get your orders in quick.

Proto-Santa and Robo-Krampus art by the ever-wonderful John DeLucca. Layout consultation by Stefanie Cobb. And Christmas trees, candy canes, Light light, and snow… by me! You better enjoy it, because I won’t be doing that shit ever again.

BLACK FRIDAY SALES
20% off everything in the Sound Machine Store from now until Monday night (except for the Live In Nashville Blurays and CDs, since Blurays just came in Tuesday and some early buyers still haven’t gotten theirs, and that just wouldn’t be fair, now would it? Didn’t think so)! Enter this code at checkout: TWENTY2020

Kingsroad Europe Store has a black friday weekend sale, too! 20% off everything, except for the new Christmas Sweatshirt (we can’t discount the new rad super suuuuper limited Christmas sweatshirt, because believe me, it’s priced as low-cost as we can possibly make it)! Enter this code at checkout: PROTOMENFRIDAY

LIVE IN NASHVILLE STUFF

Speaking of…. Blurays finally came in and are currently shipping! Really sorry for the wait on those. COVID supply chain issues ain’t no joke. With that, everything is now in-hand and shipping. Did you know that Blurays and CDs make wonderful stocking stuffers? I’m just saying.

–SIGNED STUFF–
And since the COVID action is in full force, we won’t be coming to your city to shake your hands and sign your merch (and babies) for a while, so we figured we could offer the next best thing.  For a limited time, we’ll sign anything you want in the SM Store. Just add the BAND SIGNATURES “product” to your cart and we’ll make it happen. If you have specific things in the order you don’t want signed, just let the store know what you don’t want us to sign, otherwise we’re gonna sign it all. Keep in mind that this will add a little bit of a delay since we’ll have to hunt all The Protomen down for signatures. It’s a bit of a chore, since most of us live in the forest, in caves, and under bridges.

**Note** This add-on will be offered until Friday, December 11th at 11:59 p.m CST.  Orders will be signed and shipped by December 18th.”

Beach hoodies will be back in stock by mid-December, so go ahead and grab a pre-re-order for a discount this weekend while you can. Then sit around for a couple-ish weeks and be mildly cold while you wait for it (and your brand new Proto-Christmas sweatshirt?) to show up. 

UNSOLVED MYSTERIES
An update on “theprotomen” Twitch user name mystery … We got it! So if you’re a twitcher, get on there and follow the account, we’ll get some kind of something going on there soon. Even if it’s just a live feed of our synthesizers dressed up for Christmas!

There were so many exclamation points in this mailer!!!

That’s all for a bit. 

-Commander

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LIVE IN NASHVILLE – STREAMING RELEASE
Our new live album, Live In Nashville, is now available on all kinds of streaming and digital purchase parties (Apple, Spotify, Amazon, Google, Bandcamp, and Strudl [music for when you’re eating pastries]). Buy and stream your heart out…. but preferably buy… but streaming is cool, too… just do whatever makes you happy. Live your dreams. Also, please spread the word whilst living your dreams.

Posters for Live In Nashville are now shipping. They turned out great and we signed a mess of them, so grab some before Panther decides to burn them all because we used a picture of his unshaven face for the cover of this thing (he reeeallllly regrets not shaving that night…). 

CDs are also finally in hand and are starting to ship from the Sound Machine Store (we have signed ones of that, too)! Blurays, on the other hand… those ran into all kinds of COVIDelays. But everything is finally ironed out and they should be shipping very very soon. We don’t exactly know what “very very soon” entails, but it’s looking like two weeks — give or take a year. This IS Protomen stuff we’re talking about…

KINGSROAD EUROPE STORE

Hey Europe… heads up! The very last of the Act I vinyl repress (European exclusive Clear Smoke vinyl edition) are now available in very limited number (30) at our Kingsroad Europe store. Make it happen. Also, more stuff coming to that store soon.

TWRP + GAMBLER = OVER THE TOP

Our future-past space-earth robot-feline-cone friends, TWRP, put out a new record since the last mailer called, Over The Top. And if that album title wasn’t wonderful enough, our very own Gambler Kirkdouglas McArthur C. Clark Kent State University Courtyard Marriott Hotel And Casino (yes, that’s her real name) makes an appearance on “Destination.” The whole album is pretty fancy. Give it a gander on CD, Vinyl, and all those same previously mentioned streaming parties (except for Strudl. TWRP hates pastries… I know, right? Who hates pastries? TWRP, that’s who. Unbelievable).

SPOTIFY PLAYLISTS
And last but not least (but maybe least?), we’ve added another Spotify playlist for you to gander. The Protomen Discography. It’s our entire current digitally-available discography for those times when you want to blow 6.5 hours. We’ll get “Built To Last” and “Beards Going Nowhere” on there someday… and yes, Act III will be on there when that bun is ready to come out of the oven.
***and don’t forget about the Pre-Show Playlist that’s been around for a bit. Please spread the word on that action, too. Help us excite those algorithms!

That’s all for now, but expect an obligatory Black Friday mailer next Friday. Speaking of… everybody have a happy and safe Thanksgiving next week. And for those of you outside the US, have a happy and safe Thursday next week.

-Commander

p.s…

If you, or anyone you know, have any information about, or are the owner of, the Twitch user-name “theprotomen,” please contact us at Unsolved.com… I mean, Protomen.com

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On this exact day 15 years ago, we, The Protomen, released our first album, Act I, upon the world… the week before.

That night, 15 years and 1 week ago, we played the whole album in front of a few dozen people for the first time ever at a venue called “The Boro” in Murfreesboro, TN. The show was a little wild and ferociously messy sounding (not unlike the album itself) but it got the point across. And even after all these years (and one week), those songs are still an absolute joy to play live. Today, on the anniversary of the week after the anniversary of that illustrious occasion, we present to you our first live video and album (well, first… after that Live Queen Album), The Protomen – Live In Nashville. 

Please note – This live show in question is NOT that original Boro release show. Believe me, you do NOT want to hear that one. This show is from many years later after we finally learned how to play our own songs, and we played a whole lot more than just Act I.

-Track Listing-
01. Intro
02. How the World Fell Under Darkness
03. Breaking Out
04. Keep Quiet
05. Light Up the Night
06. The Fall
07. Here Comes the Arm
08. Hope Rides Alone
09. Funeral For a Son
10. Unrest in the House of Light
11. The Will of One
12. Vengeance
13. The Stand (Man or Machine)
14. Sons of Fate
15. Kilroy Speaks
16. Father of Death
17. The Hounds
18. Thanks
19. Due Vendetta

Bluray – 98 minutes
CD (2 disc) – 94 minutes
Show info: Act I Vinyl Release Show – July 9th, 2011 – 12th And Porter

The CDs and Blurays are still in production, so don’t expect those to ship immediately, but they’re in the repro pipeline right now. You’ll get fancy immediate digital downloads with purchase of the Bluray and CD, though, so grab something and get to watching and listening. 

*And don’t worry Europe, we’re gonna try to get some CDs and Blurays sent over to our Kingsroad Store, too.  

And more good news – the commemorative Act I Logo Raglan Baseball-style T-shirts are back by popular demand. These dudes flew like hot potato chips on that last tour (i.e. Tapatio Doritos and Zapp’s Voodoo… not very hot but incredibly good), so grab them quick-like.

As usual, we’ve made some combo packs so you can save a bit of money on all of it. Check them all out on the Sound Machine Store. We’ve also updated protomen.com a bit to accommodate things, so take a gander at that and see if you like it. 

**PLEASE NOTE** If you are a Protomen Documentary Kickstarter Backer and didn’t get two emails from us yesterday (one from Chris and Panther through Kickstarter proper, and one from VHX) that included your free digital download of the video, please email us with your full name and Kickstarter email. We’ll get it worked out. *also double check your junk folder.

And in case you missed the last mailer, we released The Cover Up on CD (also shipping some of these to KingsRoad Europe Store), and gave a link to our Pre-Show Spotify Playlist (you can listen to this before watching the video and it’ll be like being at a real show!!). Check them out, or don’t, whichever’s funnier. 

Enjoy the show,

-Commander

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