Muse

Hi, Kathy Mitchell here in the kitchen with a brand new exciting product called the Grittleman. And I have a friend to help me introduce it to you from Channel 5 News, Dr. Steve Bruhl. Have you ever bought a panini at a restaurant? What's a panini? A panini is a sandwich. Why did you call it a panini? Well, panini is Italian, I think. It means grilled in Italian. What's Italian? That's a country in Europe. It looks like a boot, kind of shady.

Like a cowboy boot.

Kind of. Let's make you a sandwich. You want to hand me one of those spatulas over there? How about some meat? You like turkey?

Who are you calling turkey?

And then you can add whatever you like, your own little touches. You like pickles or... Yeah. Okay, very good.

Let's put some pickles.

There you go. Very good. Very good. And now we're ready to go. We'll just lay that sandwich right on there. Do you like sandwiches? Have you had a panini before?

And a cowboy boot. TBTL.

The problem is, I thought the show was going to be entertaining and interesting. The fact is, it's just plain boring.

It worked.

It worked. What worked?

Our little plan. You see, first we get your attention with the boring stuff. Then we hit you with the excitement. Bam!

Bam! What did you have to do? Did you do anything to spare your touche at all? I mean, was it just hard swing and keep moving? Uh-huh. I might bring me a kiwifruit pillow in a few hours then, eh? I don't use foul language, and I don't like to hear anyone else use it either. Uh-oh. He's starting that funny talk again.

All right, hello, good morning, and welcome, everyone, to a Tuesday edition of TVTL, the show that just might be too beautiful to live.

I just want to hug this show and never let it go.

My name is Luke Burbank. I am your host, coming to you from the intersection of Hollywood and Highland in the shadow of the Holly Woo sign here in beautiful Los Angeles, California. Come on to the coast, we'll get together, have a few laughs. Staring once again at the Magic Castle, the home of El Ropo.

El Ropo.

No El Ropo sightings yet, though. I've been here for two days. I've jogged past the Hollywood Castle twice and yet to see an El Ropo. So I'm hoping that comes together before my trip is over. Got a chance to hike up Runyon Canyon again this morning. And I'm going to have a hard time proving this scientifically, But I am pretty sure that last night, under the cover of night, in the dead of night, somebody snuck up there and made that hill that is Runyon Canyon about 60% taller because it was a slog this morning getting up there. But that's got me in the right frame of mind, my friends, to share episode 3485 in a collector's series with you all. Let the fun begin. one of my very favorite things about the city of angels is no more my friends that's the saddest thing i've ever heard i am absolutely devastated at some news that i figured out via the internet yesterday i will share that news with you and i will ask the question why didn't anyone tell me we have a few tens that live down here in la and we have others who travel through this part of the world and i feel like somebody should have told me this piece of information that i am now gonna i had to learn about it on the streets the mean streets of the 213 so um we will talk about that also uh oscar meyer and doge the cryptocurrency have combined to make something called a hot doge i'll say what's up doge uh we will get to that uh time permitting and then i had a um I had a thought when I was getting coffee this morning at the Starbucks here in the hotel. I felt people were being rude to me. I mean, it's so rude. I can't believe it. That's so damn rude. But I actually think it I don't know. I don't think I have a leg to stand on in this particular situation, which we'll talk about. Plus emails and emails. else um but i'll get the official opinion of my guiding light on all things petty the longest running cobro of the show may be best known for his depictions of the tall ships he's already got his uh lunch plans together he might be having a bologna sandwich or maybe a fish sandwich he is andrew walsh and he's joining me right now from the roosevelt neighborhood of seattle washington good morning my friend good morning Luke, do you remember the other day on the show when you were talking about a headline you saw regarding The Weeknd? No, just joking. I do want to say we do. You mentioned e-mails and v-mails.

I'll get on board your forward promotion train here and say I got some e-mails and v-mails. No d-mails, weirdly enough, regarding busking, Luke. And somebody has raised. Oh, right. Hot take yesterday. Yeah. We got one person who has some experience in this realm right here in Seattle and somebody else who raises the specter, Luke, of fake busking, which may be something that's happening around the country. I will tell you more about that later. I just felt like forward promoting. You did a nice job forward promoting, and I wanted to join in the fun. I also had nothing else to say, honestly. That was it.

Yes, I hope you start every—I want to see how many episodes in a row you will start by calling back our conversation about The Weeknd. The singer-songwriter of The Weeknd. Right. Like, I just—I would see if you could remember to keep doing that for a good week or two. That would be awesome.

Maybe I should just pull the plug on it like I did today, though. Maybe I should have actually had some tape ready. It just popped in my head.

I think just referencing it is probably enough for me and the listeners. Yesterday I forward promoted a couple of things For today's show That were just kind of rattling around in my brain One of them is, Andrew I'm very excited that I have something from the USPS Called informed delivery Oh, okay Which sounds vaguely like the USPS is asking me If it can escalate intimacy Like, did you know California Is an informed delivery state? If you don't inform the person you're delivering their mail You have not received consent um i'm uh i was a lot of my mail was still ending up at my old place in bellingham and carrie was being very nice and forwarding it to me but it was just sort of work for her and i thought you know what the united states postal service this is what they do this is their whole thing is forwarding mail why am i forcing carrie to do it or or hassling her with it and so i actually finally filled out the paperwork to forward my mail and they kept asking me if i wanted something called informed delivery and i was like fine i'll take it whatever it is what it is andrew is anytime a piece of mail gets forwarded now they tell me they send me an email that tells me mail is coming my way and they show me a photo of the mail i like that isn't that cool yeah so like no more wondering if that you know paycheck from a microsoft or whomever is making its way down to portland where i live i now see a photo of it and it's like well of course they can do that it's all photographed now it's all digital but they're just fill something like i you know i'm old enough to remember when you would when you would move and you would you know file the paper with the post office to forward your mail you'd sort of get some of it maybe not all of it you kind of never knew if it was working you also would like your old mail would still somehow end up at the place you had been living but i am i get excited to see an email from the usps with a photo of junk mail that

i will be getting now in portland even like the even like the flyers and whatnot the junk no they

actually to be honest with you they don't forward that that's part of the whole thing they tell you they forward like real mail but i mean things that i probably are not vital to my life but even so i just like seeing the photo of what they're about to forward to me it's very fun

that's what i was going to say i'm almost sort of surprised that you even wanted your mail forwarded um because you're somebody who i could see just like not really opening your mail but then you mentioned checks from microsoft i'm like ah yeah you probably want that cream my boy that's

right yes that's how that's how that's how apm got my attention recently is that um clippy rules everything around me is that that's exactly right that's exactly a lot of people think i'm talking about the wu-tang song but no talking of course about clippy now i think that's really great customer service from the usps which is a national treasure i'm getting it's not even bad customer service it's just petty customer service from apple oh yeah because i i said on the show the other day that i finally cut the cut the cord as it were with my apple music with like itunes and whatever that is because honestly it never it has never flipping worked for me over the course of probably 20 years of subscribing to it by that I mean you know you're paying the service so that you have access to all this music but like 80 percent of the time it just takes forever to load you you you buy and download songs or whatever and then they're not somehow on your phone or your watch it's like it just has been it's been a really lousy kludgy service for me for all this time and so I realize I'm using Spotify more and more and I don't know.

like, okay, I'm just going to get rid of it. And I will say that was a weirdly, I don't want to say scary, but it was, I was, it was, I was, my finger was hovering over the touch pad on my laptop. Do I really do this? Do I really, do I really sever this relationship I've had for all these years? Like, what are the implications? And like, I was like, well, the implications are basically nothing because I have all this music also on Spotify. I also pay for Amazon music so I can play it through the hockey puck. It's like, I'm not lacking for streaming services. But Apple has just been the longest running one in my life. Well, I ended the thing, but of course I had a couple of weeks left on what I had paid for, I guess. And so the other day I just turned on my computer and it's just like Apple's just like so mad at me. It just says, you've unsubscribed from our service. So we're deleting your, quote, genius results. Let me just tell you, I don't even know what the fuck genius results are.

I know a genius is. This is a holdover from iTunes way back in the day. By the way, I really want to talk about the state of Apple and these services, by the way, because you're hitting on something here that I think is really interesting. But Genius is, even before streaming services, and we were just using iTunes to kind of collect and manage all of our albums and songs and maybe some stuff we got off of Kazalite. Who's to say? LimeWire. LimeWire. LimeWire much? What that is is genius makes a – it would make a playlist based on what it thought your preferences were just based on you – the songs that you play a lot. So it would kind of like kind of pick up on patterns. It's kind of an early, very – Santa must have come early to create this AI playlist for you.

I can't stop drinking wine.

Did you see? I'm not used to being rich. I tried so hard to work that into a text message to the fun-loving criminals yesterday. And I don't think any – did you even know what I was talking about? I don't think I saw that one. I'm sorry. Somebody made – why am I doing this?

We're so far away from what we need to be doing here. But somebody – so I finally put together – I'm sorry I'm interrupting your story. I finally put together my annual Browns-Seahawks comparative schedules for the football season. So you can see when each team is playing and when they overlap and when I'll have to DVR one. What were you going to say? I just said thank you for. Oh, yeah, yeah.

That like tells me that football season is back. Like when you get that calendar, get that schedule together. It genuinely makes me very happy and excited for footballs.

It's starting to get real. And I noticed, as did the stew bot when I sent this out, that the Browns are going to be in Green Bay playing my favorite quarterback, Aaron Rodgers. on Christmas Day. And so Stubat mentioned something about Christmas and Green Bay being a country music song. And I said, and I tried so hard. Now, keep in mind, I was sending this to a text chain. I don't even know. I guess we have confirmation that several people on this text chain are familiar with the sketch show. I think you should leave. But I wrote, Santa and all his elves must have worked hard to give Randall Cobb to Aaron Rodgers so early. That's a good joke. I thought it was – I figured Luke will know because you know that I can't say the word early without doing an invitation of Patty Harrison. But I don't – I think everybody else on the text chain might have thought I just glitched out for a second.

I am so sorry. I think I was running around the Hollywood Bowl doing that TV thing when that came in. And then you know how it is when you're not on your phone for a while and then you sort of – you go back and you see you have messages. But if it's like the criminals, I'll like look at it, but not fully actually grasp what's in there. And I just kind of as opposed to if I was sitting, you know, in line at a Starbucks as I was this morning and waiting to die. I would have like looked at it, digested it, laughed, responded. But that's a good joke. That's a solid spoof. And I love the Randall Cobb. See, that's what that's what makes the joke work for me is the kind of like the weirdness of the particular Green Bay Packer you picked.

Well, do you know the Randall Not that we need to get into this, but do you know why I Picked him? Do you know that Aaron Rodgers like finally Flexed his leverage And said, I want a receiver, and so He said, I want Randall Cobb, and they're bringing Randall Cobb back. Do you know that? I didn't know that. Yes, that was a very Specific thing, but I I think it's weird that Shailene Woodley is going to

Be starting at wide out That's the kind of Leverage Aaron Rodgers has. I would like my Fiancee to also start at wide receiver

It's just so weird. But anyway, not to get into sports talk, but that's why I made the Randall Cobb thing because it was such a strange thing. It's like, okay, I'm going to have some control now. And then he picks Cobb. But anyway, more to the point of text messages, I never want you. I was thinking about this this weekend because you. sent me several texts that i didn't respond to and i don't want you to think that if i don't respond to a text that it says anything i don't feel like people must respond to text or if if you don't laugh at a text that i send to the text chain that's that's fine like i don't think there should be because i can't live with that kind of pressure myself frankly uh for all of our like

well-documented weirdness around overthinking and assuming things that might not be true like how you and I tend to be maybe in the world uh that weirdly is not one of them for me as it relates to you I think because our relationship is solid enough that like I just think oh if I sent you a text or if I forward you like some funny meme or a PD USA thing where he's talking about next door citizen yes I'm just I'm just like yeah well if you were and in a moment where you could respond you would and if you yeah you can't respond or are you like I just don't assume that there's anything more than just whatever the moment of your life was that you received the message in um i never think and again i do think that that speaks to the fact that we have a good solid relationship if we had to kind of if things were tense or complicated i might be oh did he not like that or does he think that you know i just i'm just not overthinking that stuff as it relates

to you yeah and i think that maybe i guess maybe i'm on the out slightly on the outside of this because i thought that everybody sort of shared that dynamic when it comes to text messaging that you don't have to reply but actually i think i've had conversations with friends and family members who uh could you tell i was just working through i i just suppressed a burp there i was trying to be real cool about it could you tell i just powered through uh well i was about four feet

from the mic clearing my throat because i don't have a mute function here in the hotel as i would at the nest broadcast center so we're both yeah just broadcast professionals i'll tell you what It's I use this phrase a lot, but, you know, I think it was somebody said Hemingway said bankruptcy happens very slowly and then all at once. Yeah. And I feel like the the full and total dissolution of this show is going to happen slowly and then all at once. Yeah. And it'll be when you and I can't do the show because we both need to be clearing our old man.

I know. Well, my my performance review is Wednesday, so I'll let you know if it happens all at once.

Oh, by the way, speaking of, I did get, in the words of the tallest man on earth, somebody did make that vicious call. I got an email saying, if I don't do the cybersecurity training by today, my VPN is canceled. And we really are all over the place today. This by itself could take up half of the show. My response, I tried to keep it friendly. At first I was You know it was one of those things where I was Again I was pretty busy yesterday And getting an email about cyber training And the fact that my VPN is going to be Turned off My temptation was to be snarky And to say An actual human being sent this to you This wasn't an automated thing It was not automated and it was sent by a person Who I think you said is maybe A recent hire Whose job it is This person seems very nice and their job is to just sort of coordinate meetings and things and handle a lot of detail stuff. This is just the messenger, right, the person who sent this to me. It wasn't one of our bosses, although our bosses were looped in on it. And so the first thing I wanted to do was respond by basically saying, like, you know what, who cares? And also, isn't this the training we just did last year? But then I thought, that person also had to do the training that we all did last year. In other words, this sucks for everybody. It doesn't suck uniquely for me. So there's no point in me pointing out that we just did this. We've done this training every year for four years and that nothing new is happening. So I initially had something in there like that. Like, isn't this just kind of the same thing? But then I thought, take that out. So I took that part out. But I did say, oh, hey, thanks so much for the email. I said, unfortunately, I'm traveling right now, and I'm not able to do this until the end of the week. And I said, and if they have to turn my VPN off, then I guess they have to do that. I go, luckily, that isn't something that's in particular use or it's not part of my daily job stuff. So thanks very much. And I haven't heard back. But I tried to keep it friendly and not be sort of like, you know, have fun turning off my VPN, which I don't even use for this training that we already did. Like, I just didn't want that to be the tone because this person, of course, doesn't deserve that.

They're just doing their job. And, you know, I don't want to go on the same rant I go on every year, but I just want to reiterate that every year when they tell us via mass email that we have to take this thing again, it's always tied to the idea of there are new threats out there. And then you take the security training and it is exactly the same. same i mean there might they might have tweaked one or two slides out of the 50 000 that are in here but i know it's the same one because they have the same typos they have questions that are not true and false questions that they then turn into a true and false if that makes any sense like they'll say can't can hackers get into your system even if they don't have your password and then they'll say true or false it's like that's not how true or false works and it's always the same question like they're they're telling on themselves by being shitty in the first place whoever created these things and then and then by trotting out the same mistakes year in and year out and i strongly believe that fine if this is something that you need us to do let us take the quiz first let us take the final exam and if we pass it then you don't have to hold us hostage which is exactly what they're doing number one by not letting you click through this thing faster and number two by saying we're going to turn off your your digital rights to the company if you don't take it i think it's i i have strong feelings about it that's the end of the rant but i will say that um when i got my because they sent out the original notice and then of course i said i'll do that later and then i forgot about it and then somebody who is apparently somebody who i'd never heard of somebody who is high up in the it department sent out an email to everybody who had not taken it yet but then like kind of highlight like sent out this chart of everybody in the company who had not taken it yet and who they report to with like highlights or whatever and the email I know that they're just doing their job and this is coming from the IT department themselves and they said something like highlighted below you know you know we're talking to you and then said you know what to do winky smiley face and I am so I and I will admit irrationally triggered by this thing and I know our listeners have to do this year in and year out too and so maybe I shouldn't be complaining about it so hard or taking it so personally but when you're sending out something that is so irritating to me please do not tempt me with the phrase you know what to do because I thought of so many responses of what I was going to do now obviously I did not send it I don't have a death wish of my career but my gosh there was something about the like kind of cheekiness of this you know what to do yeah surrender three hours of my time for meaningless

Yeah, I can kind of see that one both ways. I mean, I think you and I both know that that was coming from a place of someone trying to sort of keep it casual and friendly when it's because they feel like they're being a nudge and they'd rather just, you know, they're trying to just be. Anyway, like you said, Andrew, our listeners have our listeners have real problems in their lives. And yeah, us complaining about our fake problems is is probably not the most fun thing. But let me complain about one other fake problem. I did a dumb thing this morning, which was I did not leave myself enough time before we were supposed to start recording to do a couple of little things. I wanted to go down to the printing center and see if I could find my buddy, the Saudi Arabian medical data specialist. He was not there. I needed to print something, and I wanted to grab some coffee. When I got back from my jog, I peeked into the coffee shop, and it was packed. It was just a line going out of this little Starbucks that's built into the hotel. Also, by the way, Andrew, I only realized later that there is a mask mandate in Los Angeles. Remember how I said the other day that everyone's wearing masks, everyone's being good, I'm being good. I thought I was doing it on a voluntary basis. It just occurred to me after I had sauntered through the hotel maskless after my jog that the rules in L.A. are you have to wear a mask.

Yes, I remember when that I knew that that law had gone into effect when you said yesterday something about wearing a mask because you're getting back in the habit. I forgot that you're in L.A. Of course. Yeah, that's not it's not optional there. That is that is no law.

And so I will say that I thought, oh, I'm being a good boy wearing my mask, but I thought it was voluntary. And of course, like anything that's voluntary for me, my sort of adherence to it was sort of spotty. There was a couple of times where I, you know, would would go get something from the lobby or whatever and forget to have a mask with me because I'm sort of gotten a little bit out of the habit. Yeah. You know, in Portland. Anyway, I'm really trying to get back to to doing it all the time. But again, I was thinking to myself, this is sort of optional. It's not optional. And now I feel terrible about the couple of times I didn't have my mask with me because I probably looked like I was just that guy spoiling for an argument. Yes, I know. I'm not going to wear a mask and say something to me. Like, literally, when I walked into the hotel on Sunday night, I don't know if I had my mask on. I think I might not have. And I just talked to the very nice person at the front desk, and they were behind, you know, plexiglass, and they had a mask on. And I was just like, well, I'm glad they're taking it seriously. Like, that guy probably – and the guy was so nice to me.

probably just thought this dude is trying to flex yeah and it's like well i better i better

not approach this fella about it because i don't want to get into a fight like you're a white man walking around confidently not wearing a mask where it's mandated like that's our worst nightmare where you accidentally were the guy that we were judging so harshly because you know if you if you're again like if you look like me and luke and you're walking around in a mask mandated area without a mask you're not just we don't assume that you're forgetting it we assume that you are making a statement and daring the world to say something to you oh luke i'm cringing on your

behalf man i know i know and then when i started talking about cyber security and how hard my life is i'll cut all that out i'm embarrassed taking it all together um was a bad it was a bad look for me anyway so i go down to to get some coffee and i think my annoyance i was feeling in the coffee shop was because i had not scheduled my morning properly you know what i mean this is what I do a lot I don't leave myself enough time because I am a time optimist Andrew you are a time realist and then I become annoyed at everyone else that they're delaying me even though what I should have done was just given myself more time so I'm waiting in line this epic long line at the coffee shop and again everywhere in LA is like everywhere in America right now there aren't enough people to work the jobs at places like Starbucks or this Starbucks so there's just a couple of staffers and they're doing their best but everyone in line andrew is ordering the most complicated drinks and also the most needing to be heated up pastries and bagels and the whole the heating up process of the of the croissants also one lady yesterday in line called it a croissant which i know is how you say it but i was like lady you sound like you're from pittsburgh stop i don't mean that's how they say it in pittsburgh i mean she sounded like a yinzer or some other non-french place and then was saying croissant and i was like oh that was grating on me anyway the heat it's the heating up of these of these breakfast pastries that turns out is the chris sullivan choke point of this process andrew it's like it's not even the coffee which they have down to a pretty great system it's walking to this microwave oven thing taking the pastry out of the pastry case putting it on a tray putting it in the microwave for 25 seconds taking it out with tongs putting it into one of those weird little tissue paper sleeves doing that for four of those for every single person because everyone was apparently going back to their room or to some meeting and they needed multiples of everything that was what was killing me and i just thought It felt like violence to me That everyone wanted a warm pastry this morning And I guess my question is If you were in that line And you saw that it was a very long line And you had had thoughts of having Some kind of cheese danish But you had seen that the ordering Of all the cheese danish Was what was delaying things Would you consider just not getting food Like That's insane of me To want these people to not order food

Yeah, because they may that might be why they're in line and that I mean, you're in line and you're in a like you said, and I'm not trying to pile on. But no, I think that was your irrational brain in the moment because you think that everybody is you and they're they want a cup of coffee. No, these people want breakfast. I mean, that's why they got in line and that's why they waited so long. They're not going to skip the breakfast that they were in line for just because they're at the front of the line now.

Yeah, that's fair. It also gets into my own judgy bullshit around should we start the day with 600 calories of sugar? But that's again, that's that's all lives inside my own head and is no reflection on anyone else. You're right. I mean, the people people are allowed to have breakfast and they're allowed to order it from the Starbucks if they want. somebody on twitter though i tweeted out hey uh the like a new rule is if there's more than six people in line at the coffee shop your new order is a medium black coffee and somebody actually proposed a pretty clever idea which is there should be another line for and i guess there are places that do this where they just will have the drip coffee kind of set up so you can go and get your self-serve i guess and maybe you just leave the money there or i don't know how the pavement necessarily works but that really seems like a good a better system because i'm again this is my own fault for not giving myself enough time in the morning um but i i find myself constantly frustrated because my coffee order is very not complicated it's just a medium drip of whatever you got and a couple splendas oh by the way i think splenda retweeted me literally the corporate account of Splenda. Oh, really? He tweeted that coffee tweet, which is, you know, kind of, in my life, sort of big news.

You said specifically in your tweet something about black coffee with Splenda. Did you call that? I didn't say with Splenda. Really? Although, you know, knowing me, you know that there's going to be some Splenda in it.

there and then i get retweeted by the splenda account and you didn't even mention that let alone tag them you didn't even mention them no i didn't unless somebody else let's see here somebody might have okay oh here we go i said i said i said my tweet and then someone responded to me and said byo splenda and then the account responded to them so that's how it got on i feel weirdly starstruck that splenda is retweeting me they didn't retweet they um

they just commented responded yeah they reply guy yeah exactly splendor splendor sling to my dms

yeah yeah um so anyway you're right i'm wrong i just need to give myself more time it is it's crazy how how much running behind creates agita for me and yet i don't do a better job of being a time realist i mentioned that i i had to go uh while i was in the airport on sunday and they were doing a very thorough search of my bag um and i said i wasn't very upset by it because i had enough time like i was being an andrew there i like got to the airport earlier than i needed to it looks like luke came early i was wondering if we could get through it nope we could not we cannot and we will not i uh and it totally changed my whole experience at the airport which was yeah okay fine they gotta like go through my suitcase and they gotta take my foot spray and they gotta do whatever like it just was unfazed by the whole thing and i have been very phased by things a lot of other times because i'm looking at my watch and i'm thinking i'm not going to get the flight etc this morning had i just i don't know gotten up a little earlier moved a little quicker in the morning or cut my little jog hike shorter anyway a whole bunch of different things i could have done differently i would have just been standing in line in the starbucks just taking it all in watching you know pardon the interruption or whatever was muted on the tv screen like i could have just had a normal nice relaxed morning but instead i'm angry at everyone who wants that because they're heating it up and it's it's delaying my day could have just enjoyed your

craig bensinger what is the what is the talk show that's graham bensinger graham bensinger just enjoy your muted graham bensinger has anybody put it on the poll gear mo has anybody watched graham bensinger with the sound turned on dude that's a good tweet i will smash the light

That's your tweet, my friend. You know who Graham Bensinger – this is no joke. You know who Graham Bensinger's guest is this week? Who? Randall Cobb.

I was drinking coffee. Are you joking or is it for real?

I'm totally joking. Okay.

I literally almost had that coffee come up my nose. I'm okay. In the words of Paul Rudd, I'm okay.

All right. Let's take a break, and then we'll be back with more TBTL. Let's thank some donors of the day. These are people who love TBTL so much that they are sending in donations each month, which is how we're able to do the show. And they send those donations because they know that we have it hard, Andrew. We're forced to do cybersecurity training. Sometimes we're stuck in line behind people ordering croissant. And these people The stuff we talk about on the show resonates with them And they want to keep this thing rolling on Vanessa Shook Is supporting the program From Missoula, Montana Nice Home of Hellgate High Where my dad, Walt B Graduated from Also featured recently I guess the Missoula real estate market Is off the chain, Andrew As are the real estate markets everywhere in America I have incredible financial timing, Andrew I am able to make sure that I get out of being a homeowner During the most financially rewarding time to be a homeowner So that I can then be an aspiring homeowner In the worst time to be trying to buy a house I can really time these things

Anyway Well, we bought a house in New Hampshire in 2006 and then tried to sell it in 2009, so I'm with you.

Also some sweet timing. Yep. Vanessa, thank you for supporting the program out there in the white-hot real estate market that is Missoula, Montana. Oh, speaking of, well, this is an interesting one. Yeah. Our friend Ivan Vukovic. I think we have an update here, right?

Because it was just his Blur's Day.

In Vancouver, Washington. But if I remember right, he and Rachel, they're off in Europe somewhere.

Amsterdarn. Amsterdang. Yeah. Did you go with darn? I think you went with darn, didn't you? I was telling somebody about that tweet. I think that is such a good joke. I was better than retweeting you, Luke. I was just word of mouth retelling your joke this week. Thank you.

yes thank you and you know there's a real long tail on that tweet it continues yeah do some decent numbers um yeah so uh so maybe ivan's mailing address is in beautiful vancouver washington ivan thank you for supporting the show and have fun out there in amsterdam um eliza holder is in a minneapolis minnesota nice that's where the company i used to work

for before i started ragging on them on a podcast i had that thought i had that thought i was like

What is the Someday we'll find out what is the amount Of crap talking Our actual company we work for That is too much It's you know We'll know when we know We'll know when we can no longer VPN in Or get our paychecks In the meantime Eliza thanks for keeping things rolling for us Also Chad Bates is in Bothell Washington Thank you Chad For supporting the show And then we got a couple of Real Bellevue heads Oh, yeah. David Brumley is in Bellevue, Washington, and Glenn Ferguson is also in Bellevue.

I hope they know each other, or if they don't, that they can get together and have like a mini Bellevue 10s meetup. Maybe at that comedy bar that has the ice rail. What is that place? I went to see Amy Schumer there when we were working for Kylo Radio. the parlor remember the bar which is on the other side of the comedy um the kind of the comedy parlor there's a bar area and the rail the bar part is actually you know it's one of those things

that's made of ice i liked it a lot there uh there was a place maybe there still is just south of the baseball stadium it's called henry's oh yeah and they have that they have like a bar an ice bar that you so you put your beer on there and it never gets warm yes and then you can and

And then, of course, me, I'm a fidgeter, so you put your finger in there for a while, you make little divots, and you just know that they have some sort of a Zamboni machine that comes out every evening or maybe before they open and makes it all nice again. I love it. I'm very – one thing we've learned this year is the connection between me and ice is getting out of hand. I was at a restaurant, like a big restaurant. Sorry, I'm trying to think of the name. What is it? It's the big Ivers restaurant down in the water where the buskers were, by the way. I mistakenly said the buskers that annoyed me the other day were at Pike Place Market. They were actually down by the Seattle Piers. Oh, down on the waterfront. Yes.

Isn't that trippy to have the viaduct gone?

It is very weird. I mean, it's a beautiful, beautiful place. And it's also that's even more touristy than Pike Place, I think, because that's where you have like the people trying to get you to ride in their. What do you call it? The bicycles. Rickshaws. the rickshaw thing and it's like it's pretty wild scene down there and um there's this uh restaurant there which just serves probably you know what how many people do you think ivers serves on a on a you know tourist season day like a 10 000 it's so huge this and it's a beautiful view of the water if you can get a seat outside and they just kind of churn and burn people through there which sounds rude i mean it's it's it whatever yeah the ivers slogan

Ivor Haglund, I think, was his name. Yeah, churn and burn him. Yeah, he used to say keep clam. But then he changed it to churn and burn him.

We've been churning and burning customers since you were knee-high. Breaking necks and cashing checks. Since you were knee-high to a muscle. Anyway, I was going to say that I had this moment where somebody in this restaurant, you know, somebody who was working in the kitchen, goes by with a huge bucket on wheels full of ice it was huge it was like a mine cart full of ice and i am like i have like i wanted that ice i get excited now when i see huge amounts of ice

because i want it for my ice cooler can i just tell you that um buying that pebble ice machine has really i mean first of all i obviously just like it i'm consuming a lot of that ice it's soft It's a little chewier, but it also has really made me rethink my whole sort of thought on the process of making water into ice. And by that, I mean, for years, I have been darkening the doors of various dive bars. In fact, Andrew, this is a great segue into the first Top Story that I want to talk about with you, which is a biggie for me. hello and welcome to top story for for years i've i've been uh you know in bars where there's that move where someone's always walking from some other part of the bar or restaurant to behind the bar to dump a huge thing of ice yes yes yes and it like never i just i've just been watching this happen and i've given it zero

zero thought most of my life. But what I realize is ice makers to make a lot of ice, you need a big ass machine. Like I was struck by how big this pebble ice machine was that I got because it's supposed to be, you know, for your home and your kitchen. I mean, it's large. It's the size almost of like a microwave or something. And it's because in order to take in a bunch of water and then cool it and then make it into ice and then store it, you actually need a fairly substantial piece of machinery and a lot of bars they don't have it doesn't make sense to use up that real estate for an ice machine nearby where the the drinks are being made or whatever and so there's this whole world in which people are always moving ice from the place where the ice machine is it's usually in the back somewhere to the place where you need the ice to be it's like how many people hours are used in this country moving ice around in that fashion and how do i get that job every time i

And then dumping, I love the sound of the big buckets of ice being dumped into the bar back area. Love it.

So one of those bars, Andrew, where I used to see people doing that, was Roger's Exciting Tattletale in Culver City, California. I don't think, maybe Teddy's is now a close second, but I don't think there is any establishment that has been more talked about, any drinking establishment that has been more talked about on TBTL over the years, Andrew. Long before the TBTL was even a twinkle in anyone's eye I was going to the Tattletail There at the intersection of Sawtell and Jefferson Street And yesterday I wrapped up all of my TV stuff And the thought crossed my mind Would it be kind of a fun little journey To head over to the Tattletail And maybe have one drink And see if any of the regulars are there And so I thought, you know what If I'm going to do that, I'm going to take a lift so everything is safe and sound. And so I got on the Internet to see how far am I from the Tattletail and, like, what is it going to actually cost me to take a lift over there and take a lift back? And I Googled the Tattletail, Andrew, and I didn't get any results. Instead, I was rerouted to something called Stage 21, Bar and Lounge, which is the new Tattletail. r.i.p to roger's exciting tattletale my favorite bar in america now replaced by i have to tell you the most depressing concept it isn't like one of the regulars bought it let's be honest those regulars are in no shape to run a bar no it isn't like louis bought it and is now just running it and it's just not Roger running it anymore. It is a totally different concept based on the photos that I can see at this website. I ask you, Andrew, to please go to stage21moyolounge.com. Oh, I was on it yesterday.

Yeah, you texted me yesterday. It looks like, tell me if you think this is a fair description. It seems like kind of a bougie sports bar. It's like a sport, you know, they have 11 screens for sports, but they also have like a kind of a specialty cocktail menu.

Yes and also they're very much Leaning into the karaoke which was one of the Also great things about the tattletales they had Eventually I think karaoke like every night

But I mean

I think they're trying to be bougie But based on the photos well first of all They're using a stock photo Of like it's like It's like the kind of stock photography that now Is only used by people being funny To make fun of stock photography like you do in the In the newsletter

Or I assume that the people who do the cybersecurity training i assume that they're using those exactly sarcastically the two places where

this is used your newsletter and our cybersecurity training and now apparently stage 21 bar and grill because it's just the worst stock photo of dudes yelling at what we assume is a television showing a sports event then they've got their signature cocktails let me tell you the tattletale was by the way very overpriced funnily enough for being kind of a shithole but they what they didn't have were signature cocktails like the Purple Rain, the Scooby Snack, the Last Dragon, the Touchdown Cosmopolitan, the Golden Girls, the Three-Point Shot, or the cocktails, the Kiladelphia, the Green Mile, the Blackula, the Exorcist. The food list includes the Cut Chili Dog, Cujo's Chicken Wings, and the Oscars Burger. These were not elements of the Tattletail. They also painted the place I can see in the photographs, which is so depressing to me because what was so great about that bar was it it just was so I mean, it had been there forever. Like Roger bought it, I don't know, 50 years ago, 60 years ago. And and it was it was largely unchanged, which was so great about it had just like a great big old huge wood bar had Christmas lights. I mean, it was just the classic.

kind of awesome dive bar that everybody's probably been to at some point now it's this very depressing like white and gray like they painted everything they tried to make it modern but i don't think they did a particularly great job of it um it just and then i was like well maybe i'm wrong maybe this is just a bar that's near the tattletail so i dialed their phone number andrew and you know what my phone told me you're calling the tattletail i apparently have the tattletail in my contacts oh no which is pretty troubling so that's how i know this really is so i texted my one friend glenn from the tattletale like and he hasn't texted me back he texts me about once every two years when he sees me on sunday morning uh-huh i texted him and i was like dude am i crazy or is the tattletale gone i have not heard back from him but all indications are that this bar is no longer so then i was like is roger okay so i had i tattle i i google roger i because i know the town he lives in he lives in calabasas and i i get like a listing for his address and then i google street view his house which is exactly the house i expected roger to live in it's this kind of big house and like a cul-de-sac somewhere like feels very roger to me um i didn't see i was worried there was going to be a death notification yeah because he's like 80 something but no he appears to still be alive i mean he probably just decided i've had enough of this i'm selling it but i am guessing that that place is not going to be that successful because what made that and this could all just be my projection like maybe this place stage 21 will do great there's probably more people that want to go to that kind of bar with karaoke every night and 11 screens there's probably more people that want to go to that than wanted to go to this weird thing that was the tattletale um but i can't separate my own feelings out it feels to me like what made the tattletail great was the the people that worked there and roger and the whole vibe of that place it was just a real regulars bar and now it's this other weird trying to be new and cool thing which i feel like makes no sense at that corner that it's on it's like it's next to a freaking tropical fish store and like a barber shop and it's like it's not in a particularly stylish or trendy neighborhood like it just i don't know but of course i'm never going to be predisposed to be excited about something called stage 21 bar and grill that took over my beloved tattletale yeah yeah well they

couldn't use the name art marble 21 that was already taken by a sports bar although it does

have 21 in it yeah is it is it art marble 21 it was art marble wasn't it art marble 21 or am i

I just think I think it was. Yeah.

Art Marble 21 is still called that this. What is going on with that number? Are they just trying to remind people the legal age to be? Why is that number popping up in these soulless, weird reimagination of these bars?

Here's what I'm here's what I'm surprised about. Two things I'm very surprised about. Number one, you already mentioned at the top of the show. How did nobody tell you? Thank you. Like, I know that you have not been to that place in a long time, and we've had some, you know, kind of even quasi-serious conversations about your relationship to it and how, in a certain way, I don't want to put words in your mouth, but how that represents a very specific time in your life, but also that maybe you were being a bit of a tourist, I think, into a kind of a Bukowskian world. Am I putting words in your mouth that you started to later feel like, yes, this was a place where I felt like a regular, and I was a regular, but I could also leave it at any time where maybe some of the people there, it was more ingrained into their lifestyle?

I mean, yes. I don't think that that's an inaccurate statement about my relationship with that place. The other thing was I sort of fetishized that place because when I didn't live in L.A., because it had represented a really fun time in my life. I had recently moved to Los Angeles. I was engaged with this job that I was really fascinated by. I was loving living in L.A. and I was loving the tattletale being part of that whole thing. And and so I had a lot of positive feelings about it. But then years later, I thought I don't really want that to be my life. Like, I don't want to be spending, you know, a lot of my Fridays drinking excessively in a kind of dark bar in Los Angeles. So I did sort of rethink my relationship with that place or at least how I thought of the place. yeah so yeah that is definitely a thing for me so anyway i kind of got caught up in that but i just

know that it was such a it was such a part of of your stories and in your identity for a while and something we talked about so much on tbtl i can't believe that somebody didn't notice this and just i mean people tweet us about so many things i can't believe somebody didn't mention that but also when you sent me this text last night by the way you just all you did was send me um a link to to this stage 21 and said, guess what this used to be? And I knew. immediately i think i texted back oh tell me you're not in culver city um but what i did then was i was like well what is the story like somebody would have written it up like goodbye to roger's exciting tattletale room right like and i looked on social media like there's no mention on twitter about this there's i mean maybe this is all again maybe my perspective on this is warped too because of my association with you and how you talked about this place but But I also sort of wonder, is this also a reflection of like the death of that kind of like the, you know, like the L.A. Weekly isn't really the L.A. Weekly anymore. Like I feel like some sort of indie newspaper should have written a quick little obit for this place. Right. But there's there's nothing. There's just nothing mentioned anywhere.

I find that so odd because I did the exact same thing. I was Googling around like what happened to Roger's exciting tattletale, which, by the way, takes you to some weird websites. None of them are a piece about, you know, a Jonathan Gold piece, RIP, about like, you know, this bar that was kind of legendary for a while. You know, most of the writing and reporting around the Tattletail, Andrew, is from me. Really? I didn't find anything, really. If you Google Roger's Exciting Tattletail, one of the things that comes up is us having Roger on TBTL. Oh, wow. I forgot about that. A story I did for Day to Day about dive bars and bars that are open on Christmas where I went and interviewed Roger like on Christmas. Like almost – one time I had him on the radio show on Cairo because there was the Carpocalypse or Carmageddon or something. Oh, yeah. I dialed him up. Yes, I remember that. Because he lives in Calabasas and he used to drive to the bar and it took him along the 405, this exact route. Like I've single-handedly tried to make Roger Lowell a media figure in the United States. That seems to just be me. But, yeah, I can't believe that nobody – like, that part really – I think that's what really bummed me out, Andrew, was there was sort of no obit for this place. You know what would – and, of course, I didn't end up going, but what would – you know what I thought I was thinking last night would be the most depressing thing for me? If I went to this new version of it, which is, like I said, it's – I don't know why the paint job really throws me, but it's like if they would have just hermit crabbed into this what I thought was a great space, I'd be like, all right, you know, life goes on. nothing gold can stay but the fact that they painted it this weird gray to try to make it more mod and I'm assuming did a shitty job although I haven't been in there what would be the most depressing thing is if I went in there and all the regulars were still just sitting there in this shitty sports bar version of it that would depress me more than anything because then it was like wow where's your loyalty I hope they all moved down to the Scarlet Lady I'm sure they did By the way, a dive bar that is four doors down from the Tattletail, which I always thought was so weird. You had people that were Tattletail people and Scarlet Lady people, and there was no overlap. And I was a Tattletail guy, like my father and his father before him. By the way, that's kind of a funny thought to have. My granddad, Farnham Burbank, lived in Los Angeles, as did my grandmother. My grandma, Virginia Burbank, worked at a candy shop in Hollywood, I think, when she was in high school or something. I wonder if there was ever a time where an old Farnham Burbank was knocking off after a day of work and passed by the Tattletail and stopped in or landed on a flight and stopped in. Unlikely, but you never know. Anyway, it would be very depressing to me if the folks that I used to see at the Tattletail were still in this grim, updated version of that space.

That would be depressing. I doubt they are. I think they probably moved on and found their new watering holes. That would be my guess. But, yeah, like, do you I think I know the answer to this because you and I both went searching and found nothing. But, like, we don't even know when this transition happened. I mean, my guess is they probably closed maybe during the pandemic, maybe didn't know if they would reopen, hoped they would, and then eventually maybe gave up and sold it. Like, I don't know. But that would be my guess as far as the timeline is concerned. But, like, we just don't even know. Like, yeah, if you had known, let me ask you this. I bet you the answer is no. But if you had known it was going to close and you had, like, a week's notice, would you have made an effort to get down there and just maybe just, like, had one more drink with the gang? Again, this is a gang that you haven't really had a drink with regularly in, like, 25 years.

Yeah, probably not just because it had already become the case that when I would go in there, you know, once every year or something, fewer and fewer. I mean, literally a lot of the people died because they were older. And then just it wasn't it just wasn't really the same scene anymore. We're different bartenders. And so I had grown fairly distant from the place. But you know what? What's crazy is it didn't even occur to me. Of course that was because of the pandemic. Duh. I'm just wandering around the hotel without a mask, yelling about cybersecurity, forgetting that, in fact, there was a pandemic here. Of course that's what happened because what the tattletale was not.

was the place you would go get your to-go cocktails, get your pre-made to-go, all the things that bars were doing to try to stay afloat. Of course, that's what felled this place. And I can't believe that it didn't even occur to me until you said that. Because in places like Portland, again, bars were able to try to figure out ways to roll with it and still have some sort of business operation going. But that was not what the tattletale was ever about. So that had to be what killed. also roger's 80 something probably honestly roger was always very shrewd yeah hopefully he got a payday yeah probably availed himself of of all of the uh various things that were available to small business owners and then probably sold it to somebody and the person who bought it had no idea that really the special sauce of the tattletale was roger and so um you know that's exactly why that happened and i can't believe it took me how an hour and six minutes into the show to figure that out like of course the pandemic is what killed the tattletail now the question is is

the frolic room still there oh you know that was maybe the first thing that actually went through my head i was at dinner when i got your text and i looked down quickly i was like oh tell me it's not the frolic room then i was like oh wait no you didn't have a connection to the frolic room and really i only went there a few times and enjoyed myself there and i it would the frolic room if that went down that would probably be the bar in la that would make me the saddest because i that's such an that i mean the fact that it maintains its dive bar ness while it's right there in the heart of hollywood next to um what is the theater it's next to i don't even recall anymore but you know it's like a where a lot of tourists will come to see you know uh you know like the the the stuff that is the broadway uh musicals that are now touring and then they'll go into this bar next door afterwards and they'll realize oh there are career alcoholics in here but it's a weird mix of tourists and regulars and bar flies um so i always wonder like how is that maintaining its its usual kind of um dive bar status that would make me sad but you know i don't i can't claim at all to have the connection to that place that you had of course to rogers yeah i mean and

on the one hand it's like it was just a bar who cares and i didn't even go there very much but on the other hand it definitely felt like for me a big part like i don't know what i'm taking harder my divorce in la or the title tale closing and by the way right i have to be specific as to which divorce i'm talking about andrew which is really tells you something but no like like that was for me a hugely memorable part of living in this town which is sad i understand that listeners are going bro like how is that that important to you but it really was and it being on makes me feel like a little part of the LA that I was very connected to is no more. And that is the kind of thing that happens all the time to people but I think it sucks because it makes you it forces you to confront the fact that A, we're all getting older and B, things always change, you know? Yeah. Absolutely.

Here I go once again with the email every week I hope that it's from a female. No man it's not from a female.

What doesn't change, Andrew, is us not getting to all the top stories, whatever Oscar Mayer did a thing with Dogecoin You didn't want to talk about that

You never wanted to talk about that really

No I kind of did but I just wanted to talk More about what's going on For me in LA with you and With Washington and other such things But yeah I mean it's a It was a gimmick the one good thing is the money There's an auction for this special pack of hot dogs The money is actually going to a worthy cause So at least they're donating the proceeds It's not like they're just enriching The coffers of Oscar Mayer or doge or whatever so yeah what is the cause is the cause is the money go to the guy who had a

bunch of money in a cryptocurrency but can't remember his dang password to unlock it that's who it's going to i don't have the cause doesn't he only have like one more try wasn't that a new york times article a long time ago we talked yeah we talked about it he had like five tries and he's down to his last one and then he's locked out forever i think he maybe had like three more

tries okay but it was still like yeah it was it was it was not many although the good well yeah i was gonna say the good news for him is if if crypto if i don't know where the crypto prices are although we do ads for coinbase i should just go check my coinbase but i was gonna say that's a guy who if if the bottom fell out of the crypto market that'd probably be better for him yeah right yeah exactly by the fact that he has although he also apparently had a crap load of other uh money you know other uh crypto investments so it was like he was missing this 21 million dollars or whatever but he had a bunch of other money so it's hard to feel that bad yeah he he

wasn't like a poor widower who had locked up all of his money in this um i have no idea why did i say widower like anything like that was a weird it's a really weird thing to come out of my face We were talking yesterday.

or maybe I was talking yesterday about busking. I was surprised at these buskers who I, you know, I mistakenly said at Pike Place Market, but really it was, as I mentioned earlier, down by the piers, which is a very big tourist area here in Seattle. But buskers who I assumed must have gone through the proper licensing process to get permission to be on the street corner kind of blasting their music. And again, they were amplified. and really terrible just just like really like notably bad at singing and tempo and everything that goes along with making music pleasant um and I was just kind of curious like are these people who are just like they have just it was the self-confidence thing that really got me like how are you so self-confidence and so self-confident to go through the process of applying for this busker street corner and then to go out there and do it, but kind of not hear how you sound. And maybe I need more of that. Maybe I would be more successful if I had some of that confidence. But I did say there must be some sort of a licensing process. And our friend

Kirk says there is. Hey, dummy. This is Kirk Honda calling about your conversation about the Pike Place Market busker situation. As you're talking about it, I was like, hey, I know something about that because i used to be a busker at pike place and i actually had a license to do so so the process is such that you don't have to have any talent you just go to an orientation there's no tryouts and so you could be a terrible musician and still have a license so to speak to be able to do it but they are very strict about no amplification which of course makes sense Because if you're in that tight little spot by the fish market and you have this huge amplifier, it's going to ruin everyone's day. So that person was breaking the rules, at least as far as they were a few years ago. So, all right, power out.

You know, and that sounds like that is specific to the Pike Place. I would guess that it would be the same if you're going to get a permit down by the piers. But, I mean, I could be wrong about that. I'm not sure. But it did seem rather loud and bad. You know, not just not just bad, but this is what leads me. We also got an email here.

Let me just mention, too, what can't Dr. Kirk Honda do? I know. He's a psychologist. He hosts, by the way, hosts a podcast called Psychology in Seattle, which is great. And also former Busker. Yeah. Just continually surprising us with his talent.

And also that he I mean, what must he think of us as a psychologist who's been listening to this show?

Dude's been listening forever. I feel like, is it just, do you think this is, this will be his greatest project of his career is studying the habits of the male podcaster and writing up some kind of like huge dissertation on us when it's all said and done? It'll be groundbreaking.

I definitely feel like we must be part of some sort of a project because I just don't think he would submit himself to this otherwise. Got a note here from listener Kelly related to busking. says I really felt your frustration with buskers they're often way too much for me I get sensory overload when I'm already a little stressed out such as being in a crowd but something I learned recently that is wild is how many people are out busking as violinists connected to the amp and they're faking it it's not just in city centers I first noticed it in my suburban target in Vancouver Washington I assume that's what Vanwa is do they call Vancouver Washington Vanwa because I like that. They do now. Yeah. There are stories about this popping up everywhere across the country. And she sent one from Toronto, I believe, where I was reading it, where people were suspecting. Because sometimes people will be amplifying a backing track of something and then playing, accompanying with it. But there is some evidence that people are just like, yeah, it looks like they're playing electric violin. But they're actually just faking it and imitating playing violin while the record plays. I don't think they use records for the record.

I have watched many YouTube videos on this subject, Andrew. Really? Like, yeah, totally. It's a thing. I forget where I saw it. I think maybe I follow somebody on Twitter who is a classical musician, and then they had, like, retweeted something about this, and then I got really interested in it. There's all these videos of people going up in sort of, like, not usually in an aggressive way, but kind of confronting people who are just playing fake violin. And it's definitely, like, it's a crew, right? Like it isn't just random people doing it. It's like a group of people who kind of know each other and train each other on how to do this. And they just travel from city to city and they are usually in like, yeah, like a target.

Or Walmart parking lot And they're playing fake violin And I think it makes real musicians more mad Than it makes people like me Because I'm not a real musician But people who have spent a lot of time Perfecting their instrument It bothers them It's a weird It's a weird thing because I guess it is You're perpetrating a fraud on people And yet also people are just voluntarily giving you money I don't know, it's complicated to me As far as, I mean I don't think it's okay but also it seems like you're just kind of standing there hoping people will donate money to you, and if they have a good experience, does it matter if you were playing violin or not?

Yeah, there's a guy, I don't know why I want to take it here. So at the Whole Foods across the street from me, there's often a real change vendor. Of course, that's like the street newspaper. The folks can buy it for $1 and then sell it for $2 and keep the profit. But it's kind of a, I don't know if most cities have that or not. You think most cities have those street newspapers now? Luke, I know Boston had, I think, Spare Change, and it's called Real Change here in Seattle. Anyway, wasn't sure if I was over-explaining that. But they'll usually have a Real Change vendor there. But then there's also, you know, sometimes there will just be somebody who's just like with a sign that says, I need help, you know, help me out or whatever. But then there's another fellow there who, I don't know, maybe he's my age, maybe a little bit older. I'm not sure. uh really friendly guy but he's always offering um a poem hey can i can i write you can i read you a poem or can i i think he's maybe making up poems on the spot uh for people and like i am you know like he seems like a really nice guy but man do i not want a poem and i just sort of wish he'd stop asking you know like it's like if you just straight up said like hey you know you know Things are tough Could I have a couple of bucks I'm actually more likely To engage with you But like I kind of The performative nature of him And he'll always kind of comment Like if I'm wearing My Dern Good hat He'll say Hey You want a poem about Dern Good And I'm just like No Dern Good being a little Grocery store In my old neighborhood And I have a hat That says Dern Good And it's like Ah there's just You're putting too much Pressure on me Ah I just want to I'll buy a real change But no I don't want a poem

How much would you pay For him not to write a poem Well Maybe that's the business Yeah That's the business model, is how much gets people to pay him so he'll leave them alone. He's got a great voice.

I'll tell you that. He's got a very deep, deep voice. I'm sure if you do hire him for poem services, I'm sure you get your money's worth. But it's just not for me.

Yeah, that's that kind of thing that doesn't appeal to me either. Maybe if I was on Molly or something. Like if I was in some state of blissed out, blissed out state of mind where I was like feeling very like connected to the universe and like, look, there's just poetry everywhere. But that's not my normal state of mind when I'm just like going to Whole Foods. Yeah. And so like I don't really want a poem and I don't think the poem is going to be probably that great or profound. There are people that go through the world just like seeing art and beauty everywhere and would probably be interested in that. I'm just also not one of them.

Yeah. Yeah. Hey, you know what? I got a sad note from our friend, listener Christy, yesterday that bears some bad news. Listener Alan, Alan Christensen, who's been, I mean, a long, long, long time listener of TBTL. I think going back to the radio days, and we met him so many times throughout the years at various events. And we knew that he had been struggling with his health for quite some time. I think the last time we saw him was on the boat, Luke, when we did a live show here in Seattle on a boat. And I remember he got up and asked a question and I think razzed you a little bit while we were doing the show. He passed away. And, you know, I don't know the circumstances, but, again, I know he struggled with his health for a long time. And apparently it was time to say goodbye. So that kind of hit hard. It's hard to see these folks and say goodbye to them after knowing them for so long. But I hope I hope his family is doing OK. And if you're a 10 who who knew Alan, maybe hung out on the Facebook page. I hope there's a community of people together kind of offering support.

I was thinking about Alan today when I was jogging and I was thinking about what I wanted to say about him because he was, like you said, Andrew, just such a great member of the TBTL community. And I considered him to be a friend of mine. I had had beers with him in Fremont once. we spent an afternoon just hanging out me and him and uh alan was really an inspiration to me because he he had been dealing with so much medical stuff for the last you know i don't know five years or something but he would just always rally and show up at tbtl events and he was just like uh always really positive and had a smile on his face and really kind of made me feel like i really

need to appreciate that i have had uh i've had good health you know and like if i was kind of i mean you know if i'm feeling like i want to complain about some petty thing in my life i can think about somebody like alan who who despite the health stuff that he was dealing with was just like i said would would make uh showing up at tbtl events a priority i know he had really strong connections with tons of listeners and people like you said on the facebook page like he just was a real inspiration in how much he was able to get out of life, even under circumstances that were far less than ideal. So, I was really, really sad to hear about Alan passing away, because he was a really cool dude, and a very funny dude, too. Understated, dry, but, like, really funny. So, yeah, rest in peace, Alan. We love

you, buddy. Absolutely, absolutely. So, those are the emails and voicemails that I have today. How do we end of the show I don't have any I was I was trying to look up like are there any good like busking songs either songs about busking or what is like the quintessential busking song well I

don't know if this is on anybody else's list but when you're talking about busking in Boston yesterday I was thinking of the singer Mary Lou Lord who I am a huge fan of all these years later I remember when I wrote for the the UW daily I would be sitting in there and like you know there was a music section of the student newspaper and they would get all kinds of stuff mailed to them and somebody had put up a marylou lord poster uh this is in like 1995 or something and i would stare at that poster and one day i was like let me find out what this marylou lord person is all about and i think i went and bought a cd of hers or something anyway she busked a lot and busked in boston and even recorded a whole album i think it's called street sounds oh okay where she covers a bunch of other artists city sounds live city sounds yeah okay this was recorded i think like on the t or near the t in boston exactly what you'd been talking about um and uh anyway she does a version of i don't want to get over you the magnetic field song oh yeah which i really like and it's on that album so maybe we go out with that i also think alan would have liked this alan i think alan had good musical taste so alan would have dug this all right cool well i got that right

here so we can go out with that good call all right thanks for listening everybody we're gonna

be back here tomorrow with more imaginary radio for you so please do join us for that until then have a great rest of your tuesday um stay safe take care of yourselves hug your loved ones because you know we're not here forever hug your favorite bar because it's not here forever and please remember no mountain too tall and good luck to all

I don't want to get over you I guess I could take a sleeping pill And sleep at will And not have to go through what I go through I guess I should take Prozac right And smile all night And somebody new Somebody not too bright but sweet and kind Who would try to get you off my mind I could leave this agony behind Wish it just what I'd do If I wanted to But I don't wanna get over you Cause I don't wanna get over love And I could listen to my therapist Pretend you don't exist And not have to dream of what I dream of I could listen to all my friends And go out again and pretend that's enough Or I could make a career of being blue I could dress in black and read Camus Smoke clothes, cigarettes and drink vermouth Like I was 17, yeah there would be a scream But I don't wanna get over you we've heard you calmly but sincerely to turn off your radio now power out