that time we were tourists in los angeles on our anniversary

Posted on By Wil

Saturday, Anne and I celebrated our 27th wedding anniversary by being tourists in our own city. We got a little fancy, and went to The Broad museum in Downtown. I love their permanent collection (one of these days, I’m eating a gummy to go giggle myself into oblivion at the giant table and chairs), but we were both super excited to see the Takashi Murakami exhibit they have out right now. They did not disappoint; getting inches away from some of these pieces was extraordinary. If you’re local, remember that the Broad is free.

From there, we took the Angel’s Flight (first time, ever, for either of us) down Bunker Hill to Olive, and walked to the library. Y’all, the Angel’s Flight is so great. It’s a short funicular ride in a tiny car that feels like it hasn’t changed since the day they started operations. It’s not even a minute, but is still kinda magical. I have driven past it hundreds of times a year, for decades, and never even thought about riding it. But it was right there, and we were deliberately being tourists, so we bought our tickets and hopped on. I’m so glad we did.

We walked a big loop down to Pershing Square, and up 5th Street to the library. The last time I went there, I was in high school, probably sophomore year. My studio teacher, Marion, took me there on a field trip, specifically to do research using the vast resources that the public library offered.

I did the whole thing, with the card catalog, the microfilm thing, old newspapers, all that stuff. It was so much fun, and so satisfying, and my old man brain has completely forgotten whatever it was I learned about that day. All I remember is how exciting and overwhelming it was to have access to so much information, so many primary sources. Oh, buddy, just you wait for Wikipedia. You have no idea.

The library wasn’t that busy, but I was so happy to see the media labs and creative areas just full of people. Some kids stopped me for a picture. I asked them what brought them to the library, and they told me they were there to make posters and materials to promote their poetry shows in the valley. How fucking awesome is that? God, I love artists so much! And I love that our public libraries offer materials and facilities to support artists at no cost.

We spent a lot of time in the library. There are a lot of great exhibits up right now, including a giant pop-up book that actually works, even though it’s about the size of two billboards. There are many exhibits celebrating the library’s 100th anniversary, and they’re all written in English and Spanish. I’ve been learning Spanish with Babbel for awhile, and I’m starting to get to a place in my education where I can read the Spanish, understand most of it, and infer the parts I don’t know from the context that I do. This is the first foreign language I’ve ever learned, so I don’t know what milestone that is, but it felt so satisfying to experience.

From the library, we went into the Biltmore, which has historic significance in our family, to get out of the heat and have a Coke. We sat in this little bar together, quietly away from anyone else, and just sipped our sodas.

I said, “I love that we are being tourists in our own city, on our anniversary, because this is exactly what we’d be doing if we went away.”

“I love this too,” Anne said.

“And I know I say it all the time, but goddamn do I love being married to you. I just love Us so much. I love being part of Us.”

“Yeah, I love it too,” she said. She sipped her Coke and I did the same. “Happy anniversary.”

We clinked our glasses.

“Twenty-seven years. Still punk as fuck.”

“Still punk as fuck.”

We giggled like the dorks we are, settled up our tab, and headed back into the surprisingly suffocating November heat. We rode the Angel’s Flight back up the hill (I got to help a lady with her stroller, which I only mention because I rarely get an opportunity to help a lady with her stroller, and I love it when I get to be a helper), then we went to dinner.

It was, like everything else we did that day, just wonderful.

I’m so lucky, and so grateful to be married to my best friend, my partner in crime, my ride or die, for 27 years. What’s wild is, we both feel like we’re just getting started.

Hi, I’m Wil. I narrate audiobooks and host It’s Storytime With Wil Wheaton. Sometimes I’m an actor on TV. Sometimes I write this blog. I’m on Instagram and Threads @itswilwheaton. My Tumblr is wilwheaton.tumblr.com. My bologna has a first name, it’s S-U-B-S-C-R-I-B-E if you want to get these posts in your e-mail. Here’s the thingy:

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please don’t fuck this up.

Posted on By Wil

After one of the worst weeks of my life, I woke up yesterday morning in a world I genuinely believed was gone. I woke up to discover that gravity is, in fact, real. I woke up to a country that didn’t fuck up the open book test again, and for the first time in a decade, I think that maybe I see a warm and comforting glow behind a distant horizon. There’s still a whole lot of darkness to cross before we get there, but at least I can see it.

Which is why I want new leadership in Congress, if the speeches the current leadership has given are any indication of how they intend to use the majority we just gave them. With all due respect to Hakeem Jefferies, I’m going to quote Ashley The Baroness on Instagram, explaining why she believes we need a different Speaker: “What was all that fighting for, if when you get into that room, your courage ends?”

And as Amanda Nelson has so eloquently laid out, Chuck Schumer has shown us how he leads, and his leadership is wildly out of step with the base of the party, the mainstream of the party, and (as it turns out this week) the majority of voters in America. We’ve been fed up with his sternly-worded letters and his threats that whatever unconstitutional depravity coming out of the white house will sure make them look bad, and nothing else, for a decade, at least. America does not need, and can not survive, Democratic leaders who don’t have the stomach for the bare-knuckled brawling it will take to deliver consequences to Trump, his cabinet, his family, and the criminal Republicans who have enabled and protected them.

It was very telling that in his first speech after the GOP’s extinction-level event, Jefferies framed our need for accountability as a desire for revenge. He just doesn’t get it, if he truly believes that. He isn’t stupid, and he knows that if we do not hold all of them to account — which includes prison time — all those new Democratic voters who clearly said FUCK THEM UP SO THEY NEVER TRY THIS AGAIN will never come back, and we will be right back where we were last week.

It is astonishingly tone deaf, and not just a little insulting, to suggest that our demand and very real need for accountability and consequences is simply wanting to get even, to exact a petty revenge. I doubt he believes that, and is speaking in dogwhistles to the corporate donors and AIPAC, which would make his position even more craven than it already is.

Schumer is already surrendering in advance, probably locked in a room with The Baileys while he tries to figure out

Think of it like this: voters gave Democrats a loaded canon and said “aim this at the heart of Republican corruption”. We even set it up for them, so all they have to do is light the fuse. And Jefferies and Schumer swung the barrel around and aimed it at their feet.

Yeah. No. We aren’t going to stand for this. We gave you a mandate. Voters who have never and will never vote for a Democrat again gave you a mandate. The mandate is clear: HOLD. THEM. ACCOUNTABLE. FOR. THEIR. CRIMES.

In other words:

There is still time to get these guys on record and force them to commit to the most intense oversight in history. Call your reps and your senators, congratulate them on their historic wave election, and tell them that we expect them to use their majorities to punish these criminals so severely, nobody will even think about trying this again for at least a generation.

Hi, I’m Wil. I write this blog (duh), I host It’s Storytime With Wil Wheaton, which drops new episodes every Wednesday wherever you get your podcasts, and in our Patreon. Occasionally I show up on your TV. You can follow me on Instagram and Threads where I am @itswilwheaton. You can get your own adorable Wil Wheaton Bedhead plushie for another 17 or so days, and if you want my posts delivered to your inbox, here is the thingy:

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I wish I really were a Traveler of all of space and time.

Posted on By Wil

It’s only been like ten minutes since I found out, just before it hit the press, so I’m staggered and doing my best to process everything, while my phone is blowing up. There will be wonderful obituaries and reflections from so many people who knew him. I’m going to do my best to write my own, but that’s going to take a little bit.

This was taken when we filmed Journey’s End.

For now, I want the world to know that Patrick wasn’t just my captain or my castmate; he was my friend and mentor. He made me a better actor, just by being in scenes with me. He never treated me like I was a kid; he always treated me like I was an equal, a fellow artist, at a time when I wasn’t mature enough to understand how precious that was.

I haven’t seen Patrick in a long time, our lives and schedules being what they are, but I thought about him almost every day. He rarely posted in our group chat, but when he did, it always made me smile. He always texted me back when I reached out to him directly, no matter what it was about, and he always — always — made me feel special.

I wish I really were a Traveler of all of space and time, so I could go to him, one final time, and tell him how much he means to me. I think he knew, but still.

There is so much more to say, and it’s going to take me some time to say it. Until then, I loved him, the same way I love the rest of the space family we shared. May his memory be a blessing.

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in which i am turned into a little plushie thing

Posted on By Wil

I love this webcomic called Poorly Drawn Lines, particularly a character called Mouse. I identify heavily with Mouse.

So about two years ago, when Reza (who writes and draws the comic) partnered with YouTooz to make a Mouse plushie, I smashed that pre-order button so hard it left a dent on the screen.

About a year ago, someone from YouTooz reached out and asked if I wanted to make a little plushie of my own with them. Of course I said yes, and immediately got to work spitballing what it would look like. I eventually settled on Bedhead, a coffee mug, my octopus tattoo, and a black t-shirt with a design that celebrates my allyship, my love of tabletop gaming, and being punk as fuck.

Here’s what he looks like:

Isn’t he adorable? His little coffee mug is attached with velcro, so you can take it off and replace it with whatever you like, limited only by your imagination and the laws of physics.

I’m from the Star Wars figure generation. Getting an action figure of myself when I was a teenager was a really big deal for me. When Funko did a Wesley Crusher, I just about lost my mind. So getting a little plushie dude who is such a fantastic representation of me is also exciting and a whole lot of fun. My sample has been hanging out with Mouse in the bookcase, and they are very happy together.

YouTooz is taking orders for the next 26 days, and it’ll ship early next year.

Hi, I’m Wil and this is my blog. I actually write meaningful things here more often than I promote things here. If you want to get my posts delivered to your inbox, here is the thingy:

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i had so much fun telling a story to a live audience, i think i’m going to do it again

Posted on By Wil

So I did my live reading of The Body Snatcher at Geeky Teas yesterday, and I felt great about it.

At the beginning of the show, I asked the audience how many of them were subscribed to my podcast, and only four or five people raised their hands, out of about 60 people in the room. As a podcaster, I would love for that number to be, like, ten times that, but as a guy who wondered if anyone would show up to watch him read a Victorian horror story, I was thrilled.

I know that it’s a big ask to come see me read a story that’s over 150 years old, especially if you don’t know me as a reader and storyteller, so the fact that all these people showed up for me, well … that’s really cool.

I told them at the top of the show that I genuinely did not know how it was going to go, that they could be at the very beginning of something I do for a long time, or they could be at the opening night and closing performance of a very bad idea. Either way, I promised, it would be a memorable experience.

Friends, can I tell you how wonderfully surprising it was to feel the entire house connected to me and the story for the entire time? This is a dense story, the writing is challenging, and I knew I had a lot of work to do, to bring it to a contemporary audience in a way that was accessible while remaining true to the material. I was just overjoyed to feel the audience was with me the entire way, a lot of them connected enough to laugh at the very subtle, very dry humor that shows up briefly in the third act.

As a proof of concept, as an answer to the question, “Will an audience show up for me, and can I entertain that audience with a story?” This was an unmitigated success. I am definitely going to do this again, with a modern story from a contemporary writer.

While everything inside the house went well, I did have a complete technical failure on my stream to Patreon, and I still don’t know why. With about 20 minutes left in the reading, my laptop just went to sleep for no obvious reason, and it took the livestream down with it. I couldn’t exactly stop in the middle of the show to troubleshoot it, so if you were watching, I am so sorry it shit the bed. As a fun bonus for me, the local recording failed right alongside the remote recording, too.

So that sucked, and the next time I attempt to livestream something like this, I’m going to get someone else to handle all of it for me, so this doesn’t happen again.

Finally, on a very personal note, this entire experience was deeply meaningful to me. From the moment I had the idea to do a live show like this, all the way through doing the entire show, I never once doubted myself, felt like an imposter, heard Carrie’s mom screaming “they’re all gonna laugh at you!” or anything like that. I felt excited to get up in front of an audience, and entertain them for about an hour. I felt excited to do this thing that I sincerely and genuinely feel good about, this thing that I absolutely own as an artist, this thing that I have worked hard to master, that I believe I am pretty good at doing.

It’s always been a challenge for me to embrace the joy and or have any sense of deep satisfaction in my creative work, but all the work I’ve done to overcome and heal so much trauma seems to be working, and I have time and space to feel confident and secure in my creative self.

For maybe the first time, ever, I don’t feel like I need to make myself small, or beg for permission to make the art I care about, and if that feeling persists … well, I am so excited to let it fill my cup until it overflows with creative ideas. Maybe I’ll even find my own story to write in there, somewhere.

Hi, I’m Wil. I’m so happy that you’re here. This is my blog. I host It’s Storytime With Wil Wheaton. If you’d like to have my posts delivered directly to your inbox, here is the thingy: