Muse

Welcome to our newest debater, Tina. Thanks, Mr. DeSanto. You know most of these jokers. Larry's our policy ace, Zach's a research machine, and Todd's a ninja with sarcasm. Sarcasm, huh? Any good? No, I'm terrible. Oh, that's too bad. Ugh, I was doing it! TBTL!

What will your first sequence of the day be? Do we have any, uh, new sequences? I have a beta sequence I've been working on. Would you like to see it?

They had been posting their stuff out on the Internet, and apparently they'd been met with virtually nothing but ridicule.

Hey, Paul. I'm Tane, your latest dancer. I can't wait to entertain you. Now, Tane, I can get into. I'm sorry, who are you?

I was asking myself that same question, and I did not like the answer. Anybody know what this is? Huh? All of this is the digestive system. And now we're going to have a couple of guys who's going to give us a presentation about what happens when the digestive system isn't working properly.

All right, hello, good morning, and welcome, everyone, to a Tuesday edition of TBTL, the show that just might be too beautiful to live. A beautifully wrapped, glossy, sweet-smelling show. My name is Luke Burbank. I am your host.

Is this real life?

Boy, I tell you, the Tuesday after Labor Day. When real life officially rears its real head. And you know it's time for summer to be done and all the stuff that comes with fall and winter. I'm already jumping over fall. We have an entire season that is now just about to start. So I should just focus on that for the moment. But anyway, here we are. It is the Tuesday after Labor Day, which always puts you in a little bit of a, can't always put you in a little bit of a mood. We have lots to talk about here on episode 3,505 in a collector series. I saw a tweet the other day that said that maybe it was, I don't know if it was yesterday's show or the show from Friday, but I gave the show number two times in the course of 30 seconds. So clearly I had said it, and then I was talking, and then I had forgotten that I had said it, and then I re-announced it. But the good news is I did have the episode number right, which is rare for me. So we're going to call that a little bit of a win. Oh, indeed. We're also going to talk about the guy behind that voice you just heard, Michael K. Williams, a.k.a. Omar from The Wire, Chalky White from Boardwalk Empire. He was also in Lovecraft Country. Amazing actor who passed away over the weekend. So we'll reflect on his life a little bit. We will also keep things very musical in the top stories.

I'm singing! I'm in a store and I'm singing!

Three stories involving musicians making music, including Guns N' Roses, who were trying to make music. They were in the middle of Paradise City this weekend, the Bottle Rock Music Festival, when the people in charge of the festival literally just unplugged all of their equipment. power out because they were playing too late and it was upsetting the citizens of the bay area uh so we'll figure out what's going on with that also uh a little uzi vert the rapper i'm the

president of rap music and i need to work with you right away you know he's got that 24 million

dollar diamond that he has embedded in his forehead uh he decided to crowd surf during the rolling loud festival and someone ripped the diamond out it's just it's hard to believe that any of those words I said in that order are actually relating to a real thing that happened but it did and we'll get into it oh and ABBA is coming back sort of well they're bringing back something called ABBAtars they digitally project themselves into some special theater built for this whole thing tickets are of course sold out immediately they are also not cheap so we'll tell you what your chances are of seeing a digital rendering of the band ABBA in the I think it's in the UK next year we'll do all that with the help of this guy Longest-running co-bro of the show may be best known for his depictions of the tall ships. He's an activist and house party enthusiast.

Please welcome God's one and only voice of comedy.

He is Andrew Walsh, and he's joining me right now from the Roosevelt neighborhood of Seattle, Washington. Good morning, my friend.

Good morning. Sorry if you caught me clearing my throat there at the end. I unmuted myself a little bit too quickly. It's going to be that kind of a day.

I just my are you feeling that just that kind of like the the dread of the Tuesday after Labor Day like it's just there's no denying real life is back I had a pretty I mean not super busy but a relatively full weekend by my standards nice weekend. But I also really messed up my sleep patterns because at least two of the nights, I think Friday and Saturday, maybe, or maybe Saturday and Sunday, I stayed up until after three in the morning. Whoa. Not partying hard, not going to these festivals that you just told me about two festivals in the intro that I didn't even know existed.

At a rave or something?

What are they? Rolling Rock? Rolling Loud and Bottle Rock. And Bottle Rock. Anyway, I was not at either one of those. I was just, you know, like the one day we went out to dinner, had a nice dinner with some friends, got back maybe 9, 30, 10 o'clock at night. And then I just sat down and there was a Simpsons marathon on. And I just let the Simpsons wash over me. It was like some sort of Labor Day marathon that was going on, you know, as marathons do for hours and hours. I can't even tell you what I watched. I sat there. I played on my boop boop, just let years of the Simpsons wash over me, none of which I'd seen before, by the way. There are more Simpsons seasons by far now that I have not seen that I have seen. Anyway, point is, I had a really nice weekend. I love staying up late. I don't know if that's what the witching hour is, but it feels like the witching hour to me when you're up past midnight, past two in the morning.

Three feels like that's the absolute... Once it's past three, now you're into really kind of... It's almost morning again territory.

Yeah, right? If you're not careful, you may hear Bob Edwards pretty soon.

Right. You start to hear birds singing. The light starts to change. There's just that, you know, like 1 o'clock is like, oh, this is on the late side. I should probably hit the hay. 2 is like, whoa, I kind of overdid it. 3 is like, well, now it's a coke bender. Now I'm a nice person. Now I'm committed. Now we're just going into, like, you know, multiple days of no sleep kind of thing. So anyway, it was really nice. And you did that a couple days in a row.

And I love doing it, but my sleep schedule is all off now. And I just like and again, I never want to come on this show and like ever make it sound like I'm overburdened with this job of doing TBTL because I most certainly am not. Although the fact that I can't say TBTL maybe means that I'm overburdened, but not in a good way. But I'm you're asking too much of me to be able to pronounce TBTL. But, yeah, I'm definitely you can hear it. I'm definitely I'm definitely a little groggy coming in today trying to get life right again and seeing some things on my calendar, Like some deadlines, some new goals are needed from me. APM needs to know what my goals are going into this next year and whether or not they align to the strategic company goals of APMG. Goal one, pronouncing TBTL. Yeah, no kidding. Like I've been lowering the bar for years. You'd think that that would play into this. Anyway, just like these things that in the long run will not probably take up that much time but are just like sort of emotionally draining to see on my calendar on a Tuesday morning after Labor Day.

My goal is going to be knowing where the Bottle Rock Music Festival actually occurs. It happens in Napa. It does not happen in the Bay Area. I think that's outside lands. I think I was confusing them. So to our listeners that have thrown their phone or were going to email me when I talked about the residents of the Bay Area, those would not have been the people affected by Guns N' Roses playing late into the night. I am also, I feel, moving a little bit slow today, Andrew, even though I went to sleep at like 10 p.m. last night. I mean, I got a lot of sleep because I spent a good portion of the weekend. We went down to Salem, Becca and I. We went to this like really fun camp out with her family. And both of her brothers actually like DJ parties and events and things. So they have like a really great music set up. So there was like karaoke. We were all camped out in this field. There was just like fun music and karaoke and, you know, the drinking of the alcohol. But what I realized is I am at an age where I cannot drink two days in a row, like drink, you know, a considerable amount of alcohol. I could maybe have a glass of wine two different two nights in a row. But I cannot have like two days of sort of, quote unquote, partying because that all wrapped up, you know, sometime early Monday morning for me. Slept there Monday, got up, came home, went to bed really early yesterday. absolutely did not consume any alcohol yesterday drank water and was very very just like mellow was trying to get some reading done for uh interview i have to do today but i feel like i was hit by a mac truck this morning i'm not like more than 24 hours removed from any shenanigans like i it is just it is i am not 25 anymore is what i'm realizing on this tuesday morning did you drink coffee before you went to bed on any of these nights though because that should not affect that actually might have been my problem i forgot to drink my nightly yes that would have pepped me up actually last night so i i was just really really kind of licking my wounds and just moving very slowly again trying to rehydrate trying to just kind of get it together and i started watching a show on netflix called clickbait oh yeah they've stayed up until there

was another night where she stayed up after me this might have been thursday she said like i think it was her thursday night i can't remember can't keep days straight after this long weekend but yeah she stayed up literally all night watching that entire series uh-huh well i mean it's it's i

have to give them credit it's fairly genius because first of all they named it clickbait which is kind of you know you're calling it what it is which is this is a show that is just designed To force you to keep watching the episodes Because it's so cliffhanger-y There's so many twists and turns I would argue it's not particularly well done Yeah, she would agree Like, it's It almost feels like a soap opera In a way, like, I think the acting Is pretty lousy, I think that Like, the characters are Fairly flat, fairly one-dimensional It's, but really what it has going For it is, they end every episode With such a kind of cliffhanger That you just, you're like okay one more and i realized i'm not even enjoying this i'm just watching it because i want to know what happens next and i was like i bet you there's a solution to this let me just google what happens on this show sure enough slate.com explaining exactly what happens who does what who done it who didn't done it and what all the twists and turns were and i read in so i had watched like two and a half hours of this show this is also when it was 10 and i was like if i go to sleep now i can get like a bunch of sleep if i keep watching this there's like eight episodes or something there's a lot uh of you know to this show i was like if i keep watching this i'm gonna be up until three in the morning and i can't pull that off andrew can but i can't yeah no so i just speed read what happened in every episode and i got to the end and they said this is how it all works out and i was like okay cool and it was like a spell was broken it was like i have no desire to watch the rest of the show i just wanted to know what happened and now i know what i hear from

veves you did it right by the way she did not speed read her way through it but she did watch it all and i i don't want to i haven't even seen it so i can't really spoil anything but just based on what she told me you did not miss anything so what we're doing yeah i felt probably when i reading viewership for the tv show but upping viewership for the wikipedia page or the slate

article that tells everybody what happens yeah i won't spoil anything but um it's uh it definitely um it seems to get pretty convoluted by the end based on what i read um and when i when i read the kind of like the the mystery when it was revealed what was really going on i was like wow i'm glad i didn't i didn't spend another six hours of my life waiting to find all of that out so without giving anything away actually you know what i also watched uh was a movie i think it had to be shot here in portland i saw places that i recognize called um i don't feel at home in this world which was just kind of like an indie it's sort of one of those like it feels like an indie film that doesn't get made anymore because it doesn't it i mean it had elijah wood in it uh you know frodo from the lord of the rings and also um it had a an actor who i'm not super familiar with her work but i've seen her in a lot of things but she's often kind of the friend of somebody who's maybe the sort of star of the movie can i ask you a question

this isn't this isn't about um is it kind of a coming of age story about a girl whose parents

are deaf no no okay no this one is about a i thought of it because you just mentioned spoilers and it's basically the story of a woman who is living a life where she's just kind of getting the fuzzy end of the lollipop constantly like she's the kind of person that when she's walking to the grocery store and somebody just thoughtlessly like knocks something off a shelf she'll go pick it up and put it back up behind them you know like she's just always kind of getting there's this one just genius scene she works somehow in health care i don't know if she's a nurse or if she's a nurse i think she's a nurse's aide and there's a woman who's who's passing away who's very old and on meds and the woman is just saying a string of these insanely racist things as this home health or this uh nursing aide the star of the film as she's like helping kind of tidy up the room or do whatever and then like after the woman passes her family who wasn't there is like oh did she have any last words the woman who's the star of the movie was just like no i'm so sorry she did have last words they were terribly racist and vile so there's some little scenes like that that i thought were pretty funny speaking of convoluted the movie gets kind of wild at the end it becomes kind of silly to me but i enjoyed it at least i enjoyed like the first two-thirds of it and i just enjoyed it because again it reminded me of being in college or in my early 20s when i feel like there used to be way more indie films that were just like they didn't necessarily have any huge stars not they weren't necessarily kind of going anywhere but they were It's like a fun thing that was somebody had a good idea for a script and then you went and shot it. I feel like now there's just no kind of there's no room for those.

kind of movies maybe those things are just becoming tv shows now that's a good point i

wonder if that's part of it yeah yeah no i know the exact i know the exact type of thing you're talking about because every now and you know where i was feeling that was um when you were playing for me the trailer game the can you guess the movie based on the audio from the trailer again we were playing during the um tv tale summer games and hearing that voice i don't know who it is it's not the main it's not the main voiceover artist who did like the big blockbusters of the 90s but it's the person who did all the miramax that's the other thing too unfortunately a lot of those things i loved were like miramax right isn't that the weinstein company too so now you see that and you're like uh um but um but like that whoever did like wasn't don lafontaine but no exactly it's the person who would do like often it would be with these smaller movies would be sort of a plucky kind of music and it would be like his voice would come in and be like in this land everything is peaceful until one day arnie opened the pickle jar and then like i i that was probably the perfect i would watch that movie i don't even but you know what i mean it always started off sort of like plucky and upbeat until something then there's a twist and um i just missed that i feel like my college uh my college days were just filled with me sitting there just like randomly grabbing anything off of the shelf at blockbuster that sort of looked like it would fit that sort of small movie um experience and bringing it home and just like living in that world and you're right maybe a lot of that has moved to netflix i gotta say i know i mentioned this to you the other day um i want i sort of feel like white lotus sort of gave me a little bit of that vibe i mean it was definitely a a mood that that tv show or whatever we call it

yeah yeah no i i maybe like again maybe that is just what's happening is and because you know what by the way there you go mike white who created white lotus you know his first movie i think that i remember was called chuck and buck and it was kind of one of those movies that was like an indie film it had kind of an edgy script i think there were some things that happened in the film that were unexpected it was just a small you know budget but it was the kind of thing that made the rounds on the festivals and then you heard about it then it was playing at art house theaters and then your friends that like liked movies were talking about it you know yeah and it just doesn't seem like those kinds of the the closest thing i can think of it even though it actually stars nicholas cage so that doesn't really count is that movie pig oh yeah yeah i have yet to see but i think i told you becca was an extra in it yeah so her back may be in that film near nicholas cage which would be very exciting for everyone but um yeah that movie's getting really good reviews and again it's starring nicholas cage so we're already talking about a different category of film i guess but just i don't know he was all kind of smaller films he

was in a lot of the kind of indie stuff that i loved in the 90s i know that he's huge now but like his roots are in like coen brothers weirdness and and whatnot you know oh god raising arizona

right i want to go watch that movie right now you say the words raising arizona and i just am like immediately my mind is flooded with like five of my favorite scenes in cinema yeah they're just like all from that movie it's just so good did you you know did you see we got an email from

listener holly woo mike um the sound designer there in la la land um who was saying he sent an article that says the the coen brothers may not be making movies together anymore yeah one of

them is retiring to pursue writing plays i think oh i didn't know about the the writing plays part

but yeah that's an interesting that's you know looking back at my relationship with film is like at a certain age you start paying attention to who the director is you know like before that you're totally blind to the idea that you would watch a movie based on a director then something clicks right for people our age I think a lot of it is Tarantino and the Coen brothers and um uh and what's his name Beetlejuice and Batman and um oh I was thinking of Paul Thomas Anderson oh yeah P.T. Anderson is a big one but as was Wes Anderson but like before that like Tim Burton was a big one for me and you're like oh i like his style and there's a through line in these films so anyway the the the potential you know the fact that we might have seen the last coen brothers movie as a coen brothers movie is yeah that kind of a little bit of a gut punch yeah i know those

guys have made some of my favorite films or at least the films that i have sort of like that have lived in my mind the most over the years you know again sort of like paul thomas anderson And you do get to points in certain Coen Brothers films where it's like, I don't really know why the people are doing what they're doing in this movie, but I'm just I can't stop watching it. So I'm entertained by it, even though. But then, you know what else? It's like what I've realized is over time, my what I enjoy in a movie has kind of shifted. And it's probably because of people like the Coen Brothers. By that, I mean, when I was watching clickbait last night, I was like, this is so formulaic. I know I.

These people are like, I'm mad because you did that mean thing to me, and now I'm mad at you. And it's like, I don't like that in a show anymore. No subtlety. There's no subtlety to it. And then you have people like the Coen brothers or like P.T. Anderson that are making films that have a lot of subtlety to them, or at least kind of weirdness that would have been harder for me, was harder for me when it started out. I was like, well, why is that person saying that? Because that's not what I expect them to do based on the fact that they're supposed to be mad here. But over the years, I think I've drifted to being much more in your camp of like I'd rather some of the characters on clickbait did something I wasn't expecting them to do like they would have in a Coen Brothers movie.

Yeah, I'm still confused by the ending of No Country for Old Men, to be honest with you, and I've seen it many times. But that's a movie. And that's the thing about the Coen brothers. I don't know where we are on the show sheet, BT-dubs, but the Coen brothers, like, they'll make something kind of silly and plucky with that trailer voiceover guy I described before for something like the Hudsucker Proxy, right? Like, literally, that guy, I think, does the Hudsucker Proxy voiceover in the trailer. But then they'll do like later on, much later in their career, do No Country for Old Men, which is there's no levity in that. I don't think there is there even a moment of levity in that movie. It is one of the it's one of the darkest, hardest movies to watch by them, I would say. And then the end is just like a long soliloquy. But that's the funny part. Yeah, that's as funny as it gets. Everybody's got a chill going up their spine.

but then when they this honestly though this was a creative turn when this guy walks in now you have a friend in the diamond business that was unexpected yeah tom shane appearance yeah exactly

oh yeah tommy lee jones is the name i was struggling for there a second well speaking

of quality television and also of things you know of actors whose work i really admired uh very sad news that michael k williams uh has died he was uh omar in the wire i mean i gotta say like omar would have to be in the top maybe 10 maybe top 20 most iconic television characters that i can think of from the last 20 years i mean he arguably omar kind of there was a lot of really great performances and characters in the wire but i'd have to say omar probably stands out the most in my mind and and you know a lot of people were writing remembrances of michael k williams as a person um and talking also writing about the character of omar but i had forgotten And that Omar's character is also gay, which is which was which was something that was was an interesting part of that show. And also he played it so well. You know, I think Peter Sagal said it right when he was tweeting. These are things that I'm not really qualified to get into, i.e. being a person of color and being gay. These are also things that I have a limited, you know, I'm looking far from the outside on this.

Was he talking about the character or was the actor himself gay?

I didn't know. You know what? I actually don't know the answer to that. He was talking about the character of Omar and just how Michael K. Williams brought this humanity to that character and also that it was really groundbreaking, you know, for sort of what it was putting on TV that maybe hadn't been presented in that exact way before. Or a character like Omar also being a gay man, you know, that was that wasn't something I had seen before. Anyway, he was just obviously good. I loved him in Boardwalk Empire to Chalky White. He was really great in that. I know he was in Lovecraft Country. I felt I know our friend when Hollywood power player win, you know, knew him through that because their company produced that stuff. So it's a really, really sad day because the guy sounded like he was a pretty amazing dude.

I could be totally wrong about this. I have not seen the first season of The Wire since it was new, I think, or relatively new. So it's been quite some time. But I thought the other thing about Omar as a character was they rolled out his character kind of slowly. Like you said that you forgot that he was gay. It was because the first time we meet him, you know, often Hollywood has a way of putting those things in boxes. Right. And now here's our gay character. Right. Right. In the first couple of scenes, that is something that's established. That wasn't the case for him. That was if we were clickbait. Right. Right. You would know that right away. I'm the gay guy. Oh, and I'm almost wondering. I'm almost wondering if if Omar, the character, it could be again wrong. I almost feel like Omar, the character might not even appear in the first couple of episodes. But either way, the general the general structure of that show and his character, the thing that I really liked about it was, yeah, because it was it was just introduced to you as a kind of a need to know basis sort of thing. And it was just like really, really well done by him and just so young. I don't know. I know they're investigating and I didn't look at the papers today. I saw the breaking news yesterday, so I don't know what the cause of death is. But when you're when you're in your 50s, it's obviously way, way, way too early. It's just so heartbreaking. I just sort of feel like these these really, you know, I don't know why I need to make this comparison. But Willard Scott died this weekend, too. And, you know, like he was a beloved character who. lived well into his 80s you know and and now 80s hundred and 80s how old was scott when he died i think he was 87 but um i could be wrong i saw that actually that was my reaction to that i thought um oh actually a little bit younger than i thought but but you know lived a full life and then and then you read about this this actor who just like was just so beloved and respected and and just such so skilled at his craft and is special in so many ways and is gone at such an

early age it's just tragic well and he had lived a really interesting life uh too that i was unaware of a lot of his backstory so i started reading a lot of um you know remembrances of him over the weekend and you know he uh he he grew up in new york he was a dancer for a while he um you know he had that very iconic scar across his face which he had gotten in a bar fight i guess tupac saw a photo of him and cast him in a film basically because he liked the scar which is also kind of amazing because i can only imagine that you know michael k williams after being you know injured in a bar fight with this you know somebody cut him basically i mean you have this major scar across your face you have to be thinking at that point well this is a career ender for my my acting aspirations but in fact it really was something that was you know kind of stood out and made him have a certain uh you know reality to how he looked in these things so then he starts acting in things but his life was you know he definitely uh had struggled and even i didn't know this either but he did this interview with new jersey.com that was linked to in a new york times piece so i was reading an obit in the new york times then i get on this nj.com piece and it was one of the more well-written pieces of journalism i've read in a long time shout out to whoever wrote this this profile of michael k williams uh in new jersey.com some years ago but he talked about you know he'd struggled with um with drug use and post the wire so think about this you're omar and the wire he he had this sort of dual life he uh you know was still michael k williams the actor who was i'm sure pretty sought after and he was also a guy who was dealing with you know substance abuse issues and everybody would just call him omar and he was living for days at a time i mean the i don't think the character of omar was thought to have a drug problem i mean omar's deal on the wire was just rob people i think he robbed the drug dealers was kind of his deal but can you imagine being in like newark or trenton somewhere in new jersey and you're in like a flop house and you're or you're somehow in a in a drug situation and omar walks in like the the guy who played omar comes in and is like i mean again it was a tough time for him so i don't mean to i don't mean to to be glib about it but but first of all like i said i was really struck by how honest and candid he was in this interview talking about those times in his life where people everyone's just calling him omar he's just out in the streets but he's also really just out in the streets you know like as omar like that just seemed like that would be so mind-blowing uh you know if i were somebody from the perspective of the person running into him you mean yes like it's like this is the guy from the wire who's portraying this on television but it's also this is really i mean there was no allegation he robbed anyone but just like to see him in that in those circumstances would have been really strange and anyway he had gone through stuff with that and then he had this was also an interesting detail i thought somebody

had taken him to a church in new jersey where he um he he was befriended by this pastor this guy sounds like a really a pretty awesome pretty compassionate dude whose kind of thing is he's known for really reaching out to people who are having hard times and and really kind of helping them you know through that and i guess uh michael k williams was saying when he showed up this pastor was like what do you do for work and michael k williams thought that the guy was joking because he was like everybody has to know who omar is and so he's like i'm in entertainment and the guy's like oh yeah well good luck with that maybe you'll make it someday like this pastor was giving him absolutely zero props yeah but then michael k williams was reflecting back that that was kind of what he needed to that moment because his ego he said was kind of out of control he just figured everyone kind of like would know who he was and this guy didn't and that actually was kind of good for him yeah in that way yeah so he was able to uh get cleaned up and then he had you know a good number of years where he was clean and really sounds like he was really um great with a lot of like nonprofits and with reaching out and i also saw on twitter a lot of people who kind of were in like the greater new york area who ran nonprofits and things and they were like the person you could always rely on was michael k williams like he was the dude that would show up for your event he was a dude that would donate money he was like really uh just an incredibly generous solid kind of supporter of a lot of other causes oh another thing too was when he goes to this church and starts kind of getting his life back on track again i keep stressing this is post the wire this is opposed to him being on like what's considered to be maybe the best television show ever he's working as a contractor for one of these dudes that he's living with and they're

out there doing floors are like sanding floors and he's like loving it it's like michael k williams out there just working a normal job just doing his thing um so it just sounds like a guy who really you know who had you know was dealing with what he had dealt with but also was just really a lovely human by all accounts and and uh you know is uh has left far too young unfortunately

yeah no i'm gonna cry thanks all right as if this tuesday wasn't hard enough i know you came in

you know already kind of like by your account moving a little slower probably didn't pump up the jam talking about michael k williams but um he certainly uh had a played a really some really crazy really amazing roles and really left quite an impression on the culture so r.i.p by the way the actor from i i don't feel uh at home in this world anymore is melanie linsky that was the that's the she's the star of the movie okay yeah that doesn't ring a bell to me if you saw her you'd be like oh yeah i have seen you in a lot of things i think she was also kind of a tv star like she was on one of those sitcoms that like i don't think we watch um where you know which somebody owns a

pizza shop and they're in their 20s and something along those lines i think yeah like when is the

last time that you even watched i don't i can't think of the last time when i watched a network situation comedy that has like a stage and there's a live crowd and it's you know like that's a multi-camera shoot i mean i only know they exist i'll start finding out what they are again

starting this weekend because i'll see the commercials during football season of course that always limits me to just like usually fox and cbs shows usually right no does nbc carry games too anyway i'm sure they do um but yeah that's the only reason i know that those shows exist and the the shows where it's just like piano man he plays piano by day and catches burglars by night I don't know where you're playing the piano during the day Maybe you're a piano salesman in this scenario But you know what I'm talking about

You've pitched two amazing You've pitched an amazing TV show and movie One is about a guy who opens a pickle jar And everything changes The other is about a guy who is a piano Tuner by day

Oh now he's a tuner, I like the punch up No that's good This is the creative process at work

This is the necessary art of our time You and me punching up this idea But it's got to be called Piano Man, though.

It's got to be called Piano Man, and he may or may not use Piano Wire in his action at night.

Yeah, definitely. I know. When football season starts again is when I also find out that, like, oh, that person has a sitcom? Yeah. You know what I mean? It's like, oh, that person who I remember from 20 years ago from whatever other thing they were doing, now they have a sitcom where they live next to a neighbor who's very different than them, but somehow. Right. Somehow they're all I feel like some of those shows are literally like Almost a parody of how those shows look Like I literally think there's one called like The Neighborhood Yeah, or could it just be called The Hood

Maybe

Maybe you're right, maybe it's The Neighborhood It's got one of the people from like New Girl The Zooey Deschanel show But like the other guy who everybody loves And then Then there's like I forget who, is it like Cedric? There's just like Basically like neighbors who are different races and have different life experience, but they also sit in the backyard in lawn chairs and crack whys.

Yeah, I feel like I've just seen, like, different promos. If I'm thinking of the right show, and I may not be thinking of the right show, but, like, it just seems like it's always in front of the house. Cedric the Entertainer's always holding a hose and cracking whys and trying to put down his neighbor, right? But is he always holding a hose in the front yard? Yes. When Dave Johnson and his family...

When Dave Johnson and his family arrive from Michigan, they're unfazed at their new dream home is located in a community quite different from their previous small town. However, their opinionated next door neighbor, Calvin Butler, is wary of the newcomers. Certain they'll disrupt the culture on the block. That's the jumping off point for the neighborhood.

So it's a gentrification show. That's kind of interesting.

I mean, depending on how they handle it. And by the way, we may have like people who love that show. Maybe the show has more nuance to it than I would realize. Again, I see it in 30-second clips While desperately hoping that the Seahawks have drawn up Some effective way to protect Russell Wilson During the timeout My mind is usually elsewhere My mind is like, okay Is Pete Carroll going to once again Decide to not go for it 4th and 1 On the other team's 36-yard line That's where my mind's at during these breaks

Can I ask you an important question? Is James Spader, does he play the piano man? I feel like he does Isn't James Spader Like, that's where I learned James Spader has a career on network TV now, right? He's running around.

The blacklist.

Is that what it is? That's his, the blacklist?

But maybe the blacklist is actually his list of pianos he's tuned where the people were slow at paying him. Or actually, no, the red list would be, like, the blacklist is great.

Everybody's paid up, and it's good. It's a boring show.

show but it's satisfying hey like ours yeah all right let's take a quick break then we come back we'll get into these music related top stories stay with us here on tbtl hey let's thank some donors of the day these are the people making the show possible you know what Andrew, I feel like I have now we're about a half hour into the show. I feel like I have more energy and I am feeling more excited about life than when we started the show. So that's good.

That's great.

I feel worse. Would you say you're feeling? No.

I'll let you know.

Well, I feel better. And I think I mentioned this maybe a few weeks ago, but I do think we're lucky to have the kind of job where, for me anyway, whatever my mood or energy level, what have you, is going in, I feel better. Like, while I'm in the process of doing the job Maybe it's because, like, my job is to talk to my friend Andrew

Yeah, and I'm an uplifting character

You certainly are And honestly, one of the I think one of the more creative television and film studio executives in the making

I'm just getting started, man I have so many ideas Can we get Wyn on the show? Let's get Wyn on the show And I'm going to pitch him a bunch of ideas That would actually be kind of great That would be funny

They just signed some massive deal What I find out about our friend Wyn is all by way of, like you know twitter and like the hollywood reporter but the their company monkey paw just signed some like insane multi-year deal with some other like mega entertainment corporation to keep making shows wow so i mean i would say they're probably open to pitches and we have piano man um pickle

pickle pickle guy yeah they are all like man guy person it's all but again they need to be fleshed out i feel a little bit bad genevieve and i were about we're so close to going to see a movie yesterday but i couldn't quite pull the trigger the thing is i should see candy man right that's theirs that's a monkey paw production yeah very much but it's just it looks too scary for me i'm sure it's great but it's too scary for this old guy just the part about gentrification scares

me i'm probably doing that left and right you know we get to do this job which has me feeling better and Andrew feeling worse because of people like Josh Laster in Caldwell New Jersey Josh is one of the donors today supporting the program

can I say one thing about Josh or to Josh here I want Josh to know that he's firster in my book

wait oh wow well that's what this says in the bible the first will become last and the Lasters will become firsters definitely now I'm going to go with Michelle went in puyallup washington i like that that's what i'm going with on that pronunciation that's a different version of michelle than i've seen um but uh that's oh i thought you're asking about

the went it was it could be michelle huh no i think it's michelle yeah how about karen earl

in seattle washington thank you karen kerry deutsch is in bellevue and then kelly conroe is in Forest Park. I feel like Karen, Carrie, and Kelly could form some kind of Irish clogging concern.

Oh, sure.

They could be, you know, probably kind of make the rounds, you know, do some folk festivals and the like. I'd go see Karen, Carrie, and Kelly.

Can I say something really rude here? This is just like, this is me throwing negativity. This is me having a private negative thought by myself on a random, I don't know, Wednesday, and now regurgitating it here on TBTL during what should be an uplifting part of the show where we thank people for letting us do this, but I don't go to a lot of Irish pubs. It's not really my scene, but there is one in my old neighborhood that has a really good steak salad that I enjoy. And so I was really in the mood for a steak salad the other day, so I went there, and I was sitting at the bar having my steak salad, and there was a big sign on the wall that said, Irish music performed here. And there was something about the way, or on-premises, that's what it was, Irish music performed on premises and it was kind of an old timey sign but it read like a warning and it I really I thought to myself thank you for the warning because I felt like it should be a warning I'm not into Irish music and if I walk into a place like to eat a salad and there's a bunch of Irish music playing especially if it's like live and I can't like you know if it's really loud I will probably leave it's just not my one of my neighbors used to perform Irish music at this exact place by the way i did not see her there though uh you know that i'm irish right

and albanian if you tell me you don't like albanian food i mean we have almost nothing to talk about or music either of them i couldn't tell you one thing about albanian food or music

or music for that matter i would actually be more if somebody said hey i'm going to an albanian pub to hear some albanian music i at least it's the unknown I would be more curious about that Well you know what Karen, Carrie and Kelly When you form your trio I'll come we don't need Andrew there

I'm sorry I'm being a jerk

I'll be there supporting you And also you know who's going to be there Nate Holtman Because Nate is down in Tacoma, Washington And he's supporting the show That's just a hop, skip and a jump from Seattle Where we're all going to meet up for the Irish Clogfest Which is going to be virtual this year So it'll be a Zoom clogging festival Yes Which leaves a little bit to be desired But, you know, you just got to be safe during the time of the Delta variant. That's right. Thank you to all of our donors for making it possible for us to keep doing the show. We really do appreciate you. Hello and welcome to Top Story. Guns N' Roses was playing at the Bottle Rock Festival in Napa. I also realize why it's called that because Napa, of course, is wine country. So this is this intersection of wineries and vineyards and bottles of wine and then rocking and rolling, which is what Guns N' Roses were trying to do the other night. But I guess there's a strict curfew. It is 10 p.m., or at least I don't know if it's a curfew as much as you can't play past 10 p.m. And they were in the middle of, I think it was Paradise City. And Axl Rose was screaming, oh, won't you please take me home? And all of the lights went out and the mics turned off. That is quite a time to pull the power on a show like this. I think this is kind of cute, though. The audience just sang the rest of the song, just finished the song with them, and then the show was over.

Yeah, I wondered what the – when I got to that line, I was like, oh, that's kind of fun. Wasn't there a famous Guns N' Roses concert in the 90s, like when they were at just the height of their popularity, probably around the Use Your Illusion tour where, like, Axl Rose, like, kind of hit a fan with a microphone or something and then stormed off the stage and created all kinds of, like, problems in the audience.

That sounds like that could have happened.

Yeah, this is amazing how times have changed. Right. Now he's playing a wine festival. He's playing a wine festival, and when they pull the power on him,

he's like, oh, cool. Yeah, he threw up two peace signs. He threw the mic into the crowd and threw up two peace signs after the crowd finished. I mean, honestly, like, that is pretty bitchin' though Like, if you're a rock and roll band If you're Guns N' Roses Also, Axl Rose, I feel like, you know I don't really know that dude's story I mean, I know that he's definitely had some issues over the years And I think, you know, that band has been kind of There's been a lot of drama there It seems like Slash is the, ironically, I guess Just based on Slash's overall look Slash seems like the most mentally stable one Yeah, actually, I think he has

Yeah, I don't think he struggled, or if so, not publicly.

Slash has got his shit together. But at least Axl Rose has lost the, for a while he had those dreads that were clearly not even his real hair. That was a wild time for them.

That wasn't his real hair? Those weren't really his dreads?

I don't believe so. I guess I don't know. Maybe he grew his hair out and then had it put in these dreads that looked almost like, not only did it just not look great on him it was possibly cultural appropriation i don't know but like he seems like he's doing a lot better he got rid of that hairdo and uh you know he seems he seems like um you know he's enjoying himself in guns and roses again and again i think that that's if you're if you're trying to like tell the world that you guys still rock very hard rocking for too long so the festival has to literally pull the plug on you and then the crowd just like finishes the song for you and then you just leave like that's a pretty

that's a pretty rocking move yeah no and by the way i want to make it clear i'm trying to figure out were they dreads i'm looking for photos here or did he have his hair braided trying to remember

because he went through a braided phase right yeah you know what maybe they weren't dreads maybe

they were weird braids he already had long hair so i'm gonna assume that it's his i don't think he had extensions or anything because he was a long-haired rocker and then i think he braided his hair but um i want to make it clear i'm not saying that like oh i'd be more pleased if this story ended with axel rose at age i don't know 62 no what what do you think he is he's probably in his 50s right hitting a fan and causing a riot in the crowd i don't think that's good i'm actually glad i actually thought it was kind of it brought me joy to hear that oh when they pulled the power what happened oh everybody just kind of sang along and then and then they closed the night out that

way it's actually kind of sound epic and fun i'm googling axel rose dreads now because i have it very strongly i guess no dude these are not this is not his hair this is absolutely not his hair like this is these are extensions that are braided into his hair or tied to his hair um i don't wow wow i mean i i have to say that when i was in high school i did have my hair braided like crisscross like those guys from not because i was that into crisscross but

I wanted to have dreads, but I didn't want to put in the time or lack of washing my hair to really get them, which I think is like a years-long process. So my friend Melissa Goodman said, well, if you let me braid all of your hair, which took like three hours, if you let me braid all of your hair, then it'll eventually turn into dreads if you just leave it alone because it gets all tangled and matted. So I said, all right. So I let her do that. So I only lasted for like a week, but I for a week had hair not dissimilar to what Axl Rose was rocking during that period, that regrettable period of time when he had those those whatever you call them.

Yeah, these look like I don't know. Is cornrows the right the right terms? It looks like it's all braided and then what the Internet's calling. OK, gotcha, gotcha. I'm not seeing anybody confer. I mean, listen, like there's nobody with the possible exception of Mike Ryan on the Dan Levitard show who pays more attention to men's hair and men's hair fakery than you. So I don't want to argue with you here, but I'm not seeing any obvious. Do you like because here's the deal. Axl Rose famously always had long hair before it was braided. Why do you think that he would cut it off and then get extensions for these braids?

I don't think he cut off. I think what happens is he had long hair that I think they braided it, but they braided in like these extensions. I can't I can't explain it to you other than to say I just think these are fake by looking at them. That's just my gut. I'll let the listeners decide the listeners who know more about about box braids and more about just like let's just do some let's hive mind this and everyone let us know what's going on with it. I'm guessing that, but I could be totally wrong about that. the other thing that was kind of interesting was I guess the band didn't know that their instruments were off because they monitors when I say pulled the plug on the band they pulled the plug on the speakers so the band is still playing and they're hearing in their in-ear monitors I guess what sounds still like they're still it's normal it's still working and but the crowd is not hearing them because the speakers are off

also didn't they pull the monitors I thought that was interesting too so like the actual visual experience It sounds like it went to black as well. I didn't watch a video of this. I don't know if there is. There is a video, but I didn't see it.

Speaking of video, ABBA is getting back together, and I know people are excited about it. Our friend Bean is very excited about it. I saw him promoting his cup of tea in a chat podcast, and he is amped. I'm interested in this avatar thing that they're doing. So they're going to have a series of concerts, I think, next summer. they're building a special 3 000 capacity abba arena at london's queen elizabeth olympic park the shows start in late may and you know lord willing and the covid don't rise um but i think it's interesting that they're the band is not going to actually be standing on stage playing that it's going to be these digital versions of them and everyone seems totally excited about the tickets are sold out knowing that the tickets they're hundreds of dollars well they're hundreds of pounds i can't do the conversion but pound is still beating the dollar so they're not cheap all to go sit in this specially built stadium and listen to and watch they're not holograms that's something that they're very clear about this is not like when you know they like hologramed tupac up for like coachella one year these are these things that they're calling avatars that are going to be some digital i saw a picture of the people from abba wearing almost like those kind of things that like you know the dude that's playing like golem has to wear oh when they're You know Andy Serkis when they're shooting him

Oh yeah I saw these photos yeah

The ping pong balls on him it was kind of a version of that So obviously they're going to like perform All of this stuff they're going to film it all On some stage somewhere You know with green screen and the like and then they're Going to turn them into these avatars I guess my guess would be That the People in ABBA are just at an age They don't look like super old to me Like I was kind of trying to find some newer photos of them But Maybe it's just that they kind of they don't have quite the energy to play like you know a full-on concert five nights a week for months is that I mean what is going on with this that's interesting I assumed that because I read

about this last week but I don't know if you and I are working off this same source material here I just read a little blurb I assumed that it had something to do with the unknown of the future of concerts but I guess that doesn't make sense because if human beings are gathering to watch their avatars that's not really a covid related concern right is it so i guess i have that wrong i just assumed that it was like well people are reinventing what and that is true whether or not it actually is directly related to covid you could probably make the argument that it's indirectly related in the in the way that people really are trying to figure out new ways to do

live shows generally speaking right and and i mean that is happening this one though like you said is confusing to me only in that the crowd will be there presumably and so i don't know how much how you're improving it by not having abba there and uh i guess it's just Again, I'm guessing that they want to do a series of concerts, but they ask themselves, can we really do this night in and night out for as many shows as people want to have tickets to? No. Well, what if we basically did the show – we recorded the show like one time, and then they make kind of a movie out of it, but using these digital avatar things they're going to project somehow. And then people can come. They can feel kind of like they're having a live experience with us, but we don't have to do it every single night.

Yeah. No, it sounds like a good idea. Good work.

I heard one of the songs, by the way.

It actually sounded pretty good. Oh, did you? Oh, is it on like – was it like some sort of early leaked type of thing or is it actually on Spotify? Could we go out with it?

We could. I think that the one I Still Have the Faith in You and Don't Shut Me Down are the two – I mean what they sound like to me are ABBA songs, which my feelings on ABBA are generally neutral. Like I don't dislike the music of ABBA. I also don't go out of my way to find it. But but, you know, somebody singing it at karaoke or if I hear it on the radio, if I'm walking through a store and it's on, I'm not mad at that. I think it's inarguably some sort of catchy stuff. And these songs, I think I just heard one of them. I don't know which one of them I heard, but it just sounded like an Abba song, you know?

Yeah, I am.

Which is kind of fun.

I got to say, like, I didn't Abba was just sort of always there growing up. Like, I don't think my family was especially into them, but I do think we had a vinyl Abba record. So we weren't not into them. And I don't really think I considered them too much until we started working with Dave Ross at Cairo Radio, who's the biggest ABBA fan I know and probably the biggest ABBA fan a lot of people know. I would actually love to get his take on this. No joke. I'd be interested in hearing. I assume that he's just straight up psyched about this. But, like, as an adult, thinking about songs like Waterloo, like, oh, shit, I love Waterloo. Like, again, like, I don't ever, like, put it on. I don't have any albums. I don't like seek it out on Spotify. But then I think to myself sometimes, why am I not listening to more ABBA? Like, it's just like it's like kind of sunshine in a bottle, ABBA.

I think I wrote this on Twitter and received very little traction on it. But I was thinking about that song, Waterloo, a while ago. And I was like, that's such a funny thing. That's such a funny way to describe like this romantic moment or whatever. Like you're using this like historic thing involving Napoleon and a defeat. And, like, you've got to have a certain amount of history to understand what Waterloo is even a reference to. Or maybe you don't. But you know what I mean? Like, it just seemed like a very, like, if you're going to try, if I was sitting down to write a song about my relationship with someone and basically, I think, what is it? The plot of Waterloo is they're singing that kind of like that was the moment that they just became totally in the bag for this person.

Yeah, which is weird because you'd think if you were writing a song where you meet somebody and they become your romantic Waterloo, You would think that that would mean that that's the person that maybe broke you on all relationships, sort of, that would take you out of the game. But I don't think that's it. I think the song is about, like, I was probably playing the field. I was, you know, I was kicking around, dating various people. But then you, you're my Waterloo. Once I once I met you, I locked in. That's my memory of that song. But I don't.

Yeah. Right. If I were writing about somebody being my Waterloo, it'd be like, oh, you're the you're the reason that I've now lived alone for the last 20 years in a state of emotion. panic right because our relationship that's what's in the pickle jar the hair dad it's dirty like that that's because you were my waterloo you broke my brain and my heart yeah uh it doesn't sound like a compliment but they somehow made a hit song out of it oh speaking of doing musical performances in different ways i um i saw this little headline over the weekend you know the dave matthews band played at the gorge in george washington and uh that's like a big tradition it's called labor dave weekend i'm sure we have listeners that go out to it it's a whole thing well i guess a couple of the people in dave matthews's band uh either tested positive for covid or were near someone who tested positive so they had to sort of scratch them at the last minute and so they were they were like furiously re jiggering the lineup and people from the other bands were helping out like you know there's a few bands that play during the weekend and like they were different people were sitting in and different things so that guys they get the whole thing going and it was fine and everyone had a great time but they had to do these real last minute shifts just in reading the article about it i just happened to see i don't know let's say maybe one of the worst band names i've ever seen in my life andrew a fan shot video showed matthews addressing the still-accumulating crowd while introducing the opening act, Dumpstafunk. Oh, wow. Dumpstafunk. Oh, God. D-U-M-P-S-T-A-P-H-U-N-K. Dumpstafunk. Nope. Nope. Next year's Song of the Summer contest,

Dumpstafunk, is...

Already getting some votes.

Wow. I just, I kept looking at that word. That's as bad as it gets.

That makes Hoobastank sound like ABBA.

It is in the grand tradition of Hoobastank. You're absolutely, I don't know why or how, but it obviously is.

Like, Dumpstuffunk makes me want to go to a Hoobastank show because it will be that much better by comparison. I just, I can't believe that that was a name and that that show is, that that band is also popular. Watch, we're going to have a listener who's in that band and they're going to be popular.

That would be our luck. Yeah. Well, you know what, then all we're judging right now is the name and maybe you can talk me into it. I'm trying to think and this is not a good day to try to do these kind of games if our brains are not as as sharp as they might be on, let's say, a Wednesday. But I'm trying to think of bands that I like that have like the worst name to best music ratio. And I think like Mud Crutch is up there. I think Mud Crutch, Tom Petty's first band is like, that's a terrible name. But, of course, I love me some Mud Crutch and some Tom Petty. So that's definitely up there. There are other ones that you and I both kind of got weird vibes from as kids that we thought the music was different than what it actually – Fugazi is kind of like it. I don't know if Fugazi is a bad name for a band, but it was definitely a name that I didn't care for too much. And it turns out I really liked their music once I actually heard it and got into it.

You know, honestly, Dumpster Funk might be up there because now that I'm reading up on them, they are a band. They're from New Orleans. They're a funk band, and they play. Oh, they're funk. There's like four people named Neville in there, which makes me think they're probably from the Neville musical family of New Orleans. You know, like Aaron Neville and the likes. So here we go. This is Where Do We Go From Here by Dumpstapunk. I mean, honestly, I'm not mad at this sound. I like funk music.

It's better than I thought it'd be, but I got to say, this is going to surprise you, Luke. Yeah? I'm not a big funk guy. I'm not a big funky guy. I mean, maybe I'm funky if I don't shower, but I don't like funk, which I mean, obviously that wouldn't surprise anyone, right? I'm like the least funky person in the room.

But wait, wait, wait. Like Parliament?

Yeah, I never got into it.

Like Atomic Dog?

I mean, you know, I it's like anything that you, you know, I appreciate it. I don't think it's like bad. I'm not like out here saying let's get rid of funk music. I'm just saying that, like, I've never owned officially calling. No, there's a sign that says funk music played on the premises. So I'm like, thanks for the warning. No, I you know, like it's not like what I was saying about Irish music where the sound offends me. It's just like but I mean, you I've never owned a parliament record or George Clinton or anything like that. I never dial that stuff up. And I definitely understand and I think I appreciate music that I do listen to that was inspired by or borrows from or samples, all of those things. But, yeah, no, I mean, are you really surprised? Do you think I'm a funk guy? Do I seem like a funk guy to you?

Yeah, a little bit because. because like i know you like a lot of hip-hop music that i feel like the roots of it or at least certainly a lot of the samples are from maybe i'm just thinking largely about digital underground the reason i got into parliament was because and i think i probably mentioned this back when um shock g passed away sadly uh aka humpty hump but like i would listen to digital underground And some other stuff too Some Snoop And I would just hear this cool shit And I didn't realize any of it I didn't know it was Pretty much all Parliament Or other kind of like Funk stuff Zap and Roger and the like And so then once I kind of figured out Where it was from I started going back And listening to the source material And I really liked it Like I just find this Like undeniably Funky Although you know what Once again my computer Is doing that thing Where when I play music It just sounds Blown to hell So that'll also Keep us out of trouble With whatever Internet spiders Are looking to see If we're playing too much flashlight on the show um lil uzi vert the rapper has that 24 million dollar diamond that's loaded into his forehead which we talked about this when the announcement came out or when he announced that he had this he'd been making payments on this diamond since 2017 uh it is um like uh it's pink in color and it's almost 11 carats he said it's his most prized possession you know he just basically had a i guess you would say it's a piercing he has a forehead piercing that's kind of it's like midway up his forehead and then in between his eyebrows and that thing holds this diamond in place that cost him 24 million dollars and he was at the roll in loud festival and he was crowd surfing and somebody ripped it out of his forehead andrew

now is it true that this is what he claims are Some people kind of saying, well, maybe he just – because there was a lot of kind of internet backlash, right? People kind of making fun of the look. And so is there a chance that he just changed his mind?

Well, the big joke when he – the joke when he got it was it looked slightly askew. And I think it had to do with swelling from having his, like, skin pierced. So it looked like it was, like, kind of lopsided or sort of, you know, not set perfectly in between his, like, eyes. And the idea that you would spend $24 million on a diamond and then also have it like permanently, I guess, well, or until you take the piercing out, but very prominently installed on your face. But then it would be slightly off. I think that's what people were kind of having some fun with. But he apparently still really loves it. But people had noticed he hadn't been wearing it for a while. And he still has it, right?

Like, I don't know if you mentioned that. It got ripped off. But he says he still has it, which is where things get complicated.

it that's right because so he had stopped wearing it uh in some photos and other things and people were like trying to figure out what happened does he not have his diamond anymore then he mentioned i do have it but what happened was it got ripped out at rolling loud or i was crowd surfing i mean can you imagine it is insured by the way as well this article says but like did somebody rip a 24 million dollar diamond out of his head and then give it back i mean if it

fall on the ground it was a true accident but also it's how do you find in a situation like that i know it's big by diamond standards but it's small by any other standards it's a small little diamond how do you find that in that scenario exactly now you have a friend in the diamond yeah that is a friend in the diamond business finding a diamond you know what i mean like think about dropping

something at a music festival on the ground near where the front of the stage is now imagine it's a 24 million dollar diamond that just flew out of your forehead it's so i mean i i have a hard time believing that story because i have a hard time believing someone gave it back and that wasn't a bigger thing like wouldn't every i mean if you first of all there's the fact that it's tremendously valuable then there's the fact of like if you find it how do you get it back to the loser do you give it to a security person did he find it was he like everyone stopped the show i need to look around i lost a contact hold on can we clear out i lost a contact everyone

everybody stop the music how is that also not a bigger story people would have been videotaping

with their phones of little uzi vert was like crawling around on the ground at rolling loud looking for his diamond you know yeah like something about this story doesn't totally add up to me there's just something kind of weird about it i don't know what it is i don't know if he's just like i don't know why he would but i also don't understand why he would make that story

Well, again, if we're right or if there's something to the idea that this story of him losing it at a concert or having it ripped out during crowd surfing, if that doesn't quite seem like the real story here, the only other thing I can think of is this is why you shouldn't be super ostentatious about anything outward facing. You know, it's like if I got some hat, well, maybe this is a terrible example, but if I got, like, some hat, like, let's say I told you I've been wanting to get one of those, like, kind of golf-style hats for a while now, right? I'm still on the fence with it. Genevieve thinks it's going to be a little bit too much of an affectation because it's such a different look for me. But if I were to try that out, I might try it out subtly, you know? I'm probably going to get that thing and maybe, I don't know, maybe wear it to Teddy's, you know, the corner bar one day. Maybe just, you know, subtly see, you know, test the waters with that. I'm not going to take out a press release saying, attention, everyone. Andrew has a new hat. It's part of a new look and a new chapter in his life. Because then if the hat doesn't work for me after a while, I have to release another press release, which is essentially what's happening here. Right, exactly.

You think swag is so cool. Well, guess what? It's for boys and class is for men. This is class. um i also if your hat was 24 million dollars don't publicize that yeah no well it's insurance i have a 24 million dollar by the way i know did you have the same thought right well because like think about it what is insurance really it's the idea is you're accepting a payment because if you have enough people making the payments to insure various items you're bringing in more money in those payments than it costs to actually replace the items if they are to uh you know if they go Lost or stolen or damaged for some reason But it just feels like That just seems like a bad bet Although it is, on the other hand It is installed in his forehead So I could see both arguments Like if I was the underwriter One would be, there's a 24 million dollar Piece of jewelry that someone's just gonna have On their body, seems like there's some things That go wrong with that, the other part of me would be like It is installed in his skin That makes it harder to lose, not like on a keychain it's not like he's carrying it around loose you know he's not wearing it even on like a little wrist you know bracelet it's like it's part it's installed in his body so that should I mean the other thing is dude get a fake one I mean it should have been fake the whole time I'm looking at this diamond look I don't want to try to judge because I don't have the money for a 24 million dollar diamond but it looks like costume jewelry anyways it's pink it's like it's not if you were to if this thing were to be fake nobody on earth would know that it wasn't the quote-unquote real thing because i mean you could make something looks exactly like this that would be five dollars

you know i am wondering if it looks a little bit different up close i'm not exactly sure about that but i am thinking about getting a 24 million dollar rabbit's foot that i'm going to carry

oh good i think i can get that insured talk to kevin o'brien 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.

All right, an email or a V-mail before we get out of here?

You know, I got a text message. I'm looking back here. I can't tell. A T-mail? I got a T-mail this weekend. I can't tell who sent this. But somebody texted me. I had mentioned Soto, which is a neighborhood here in Seattle. It's where our stadiums are and, you know, whatever, that kind of stuff. And I mentioned that SOTO stands for South of Downtown. And this person texted me from the 206. It says, did you just say SOTO means South of Downtown? Doesn't it mean South of the Dome? As in the Kingdome, Seattle's former sports arena. I didn't realize that, but I looked it up. And it turns out that was the original term, South of the Dome. But now it has, according to Wikipedia, it now means South of Downtown. So they switched it at some point. And I don't know who they are.

That would make more sense. I had never thought of that. But, yeah, because D-O for the dome, S-O-D-O, because downtown, well, I guess it's the same principle. But, yeah, because south of downtown, I guess downtown is one word, right?

Yeah, I think so, yeah. So, I guess you would just use S-O-D-T, right, which is less fun to say, I think. S-O-D-O-M-O-J-O. So, yeah, what is it? Is Soto Mojo a specific thing that is related to a very specific season or a moment in marriage history?

Yeah, it was just one, you know, every year they've got to have some kind of catchphrase. And one year it was Soto Mojo. I'm sure that the ad agency, it's probably still Copacino. The folks at Copacino probably had, it would be even possible our friend High School Bud might have helped create some of these over the years. But I'm sure they just had a list of, like, 50 things for the Mariners, you know, that this can be our, like, this year at CS Rise, True to the Blue was one. Back the Blue, I was like, that one was a weird year.

I do love the fact that Phyllis has a shirt that she got when she was a kid. And now, of course, her son Gus wears it. And it's a T-shirt that says, the Mariners, anything could happen. And I was like, wow, they were really just covering their bases with that one, weren't they?

Well, my all-time favorite, which I reference a lot on the show and in our text conversations with our sports friends, is Lefevre Believer, I think, was the best. That was the absolute best slogan we had because we had a coach named Jim Lefevre, and his last name was not unlike Brett Favre's in that because it was, I assume, European in its origins. It had a lot more consonants than we're used to seeing, and some of them seem like how Brett Favre's last name looks like it should be Favre or whatever. Like, the V and the R seem like they're, you know, transposed or whatever. Lefevre's, like, name was like that, but plus, like, four more letters. So it was Lefevre Believer, but Believer was spelled in the same kind of, like, way that Lefevre was. That was kind of genius.

I'm paying attention to you, listening to every word, but also kind of digging a little bit deeper into the Soto thing. So on the Wikipedia page, it had said something like it is, you know, originally meant south of the Dome, but after that was demolished, it has been taken to mean south of downtown. But then they actually cite the reference on this, and I am now on a Seattle Times article from June 21st, that's my mom's birthday, 1997, Starbucks developer help boost Soto area south of Dome gets makeover to become south of downtown. So it wasn't just something that people started saying, like, it was an actual, like, kind of campaign. It was something that the city did and the businesses in the city to rebrand it south of downtown. That's interesting.

Well, it actually worked.

Yeah, because I'm, you know, then I roll in, what, 10 years after this, and I'm calling it south of downtown.

Right, because we were mentioning this the other day on the show that, like, some. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. Like, I don't hear anyone calling North Hollywood no-ho, even though that was a project they did. And I think I said there was part of downtown Seattle, they tried to rebrand it the West Edge. Oh, I'm down in the West Edge now. But, like, if you would have said that, nobody would have known what the hell you were talking about. Meet me in the West Edge.

They should have called it the Wedge.

Well, there's Wedgewood, so that might have been confusing.

Oh, yeah, that is confusing.

Is the Wedgewood broiler still in business?

Yeah, it is. I went there, I don't know, a few months ago and had a solo dinner there. It was quite nice.

Beth's Cafe is on the ropes, which is a real blow to my childhood memories. They say they're going to try to reopen, but it is currently not open, and they're just trying to get the financial stuff in order.

Yeah, because it's relatively new owners. It was on the ropes a while back, and then somebody came and bought it. Oh, it hasn't been 20 years, but they bought that. And the people who own Beth's now own the brewery next door, right? Or the tap room next door or something. I thought they had plans to really kind of keep it, kind of keep the original vibe and everything. And they sounded like kind of, I don't know, just good owners, good stewards. But then, yeah, this pandemic, they tried opening again during the pandemic. And it's just like just the margins for these businesses, especially during this time when you just don't know. Like I talk to people, it's like it's just you get it from all angles. Like, whether or not you're going to have the customers or if you can maintain the regular hours given the staffing shortage at these places. Plus, you can't get your supplies. Like, you're going to places like Cash and Carry to get your napkins and your ketchups and all those. But those supply chains have still not, like, really steadied out since the pandemic. So when you have, you know, insecure customer base, a staffing shortage, and a supply shortage, like, it is tough out there for a Beths. That's what I'm saying.

I know. It is just like you said, every conceivable headwind that you could be working against right now, if you're a restaurant, you're being buffeted by all of them. So anyway, that was like when I was a kid. Well, when I was a teenager, once it was like old enough that I could sometimes go do stuff with my friends, but not old enough that I would like go to bars or even go to parties where people were drinking. I would, you know, spend a lot of time at Beth's. It was where you go. You could still smoke cigarettes indoors. We would, like, smoke some cigarettes and eat a gigantic omelet and feel like we were being very old. I mean, I don't think I would even really go to Beth's anymore, but the idea that it might not exist still bums me out.

Yeah, I believe that. Do you have time for a voicemail? I could play a voicemail here that's a bit of a story and a bit of a public service announcement. Take a listen to this. This was about you. By the way, I assume that you got your vax card back, no problem, after you lost it and then somebody found it and tracked you down.

The fellow that found it was nice enough to leave it at the hotel, you know, the front desk of his hotel. So I got it.

I'm all good with my card. Nice. We have a listener who also did not have their card for a moment.

Hi, dummies. This is listener Rachel from Pittsburgh. I heard you guys talking about Luke losing his vaccine card, and I wanted to share my story. Recently, I went out to some friends, and we found a bar that had outdoor seating, so we felt really good about that. and we went down there and my friends started texting saying just so you know this place has vaccination cards which I have never encountered so far I had not heard of any place doing this this is Pittsburgh we're very purple I guess so I had a soccer game and then I was meeting them afterwards so I'd already played my soccer game and going back home was a long way off I did not have my vaccination card because I had told my husband like this is a medical record we need to keep this somewhere safe it's not carried around with us like where it could get lost or your wallet's stolen this record's stolen and so I had very wisely put it away somewhere special and if you're like me you know what happens when you put something away somewhere special which is I have no clue where it is now I had taken a picture of the first shot i had not taken a picture of the second shot so when i went to the bar i tried to be cool i was like you know there's johnson johnson they're never gonna know i am fully vaccinated but my card doesn't reflect it and luckily the guy just kind of checked to see if i had a vaccine card and if our names matched and they did but um i came home i tore through like all the desks in our house all the different folders could not find his card anywhere um but i was able to call the pharmacy i got mine from an event but it was put on by um giant eagle which is a local grocery store but i called my giant eagle pharmacy and they um had records that i had gotten the shot and were able to administer a new one um so it was actually really easy uh so if anybody public notice if you do lose your vaccine card uh find the place that did it like pharmacy associated with it and they should have your records uh thanks love the show power out so funny

Yes.

This is not the point of the voicemail, but it's so funny how names that you grow up with you just don't think twice about until you hear them in a different context. I've been out of Ohio for a very long time, and so I haven't really thought about Giant Eagle in a long time. Do you think that's a strange name for a grocery store? Why is this Giant Eagle? It almost sounded like the listener kind of chuckled there when saying Giant Eagle, like almost hearing it herself for the first time, like how outside ears might hear that.

Well how about Piggly Wiggly Right Which Yeah There was a great Anthropocene reviewed episode About Piggly Wiggly And I mean the guy He just There was no Backstory to it Other than he just said People will remember that name Yeah Like It wasn't like that was His childhood nickname Or they sold pigs Or wigs It was just You know Just a weird thing He came up with But yeah There's a lot of that stuff And then you say it enough You're used to it It doesn't sound silly Until you're saying it For someone who's unfamiliar with it And you're like That is a weird name

Yeah, like Pig, Wig, and Beyond is one of the places. That's where you get your pigs and your wigs and your bath mats.

That's right. All right, that's going to do it for today's show, I think. I'm going to bring this music down. Do you want to go out with I Still Have Faith in You by ABBA? Yes, I do, because I still have faith in you, Andrew. No, even after my performance today? Even though you don't want to come watch this Irish music festival I'm putting together? Even though you don't believe that Axl Rose is using hair extensions I still have faith in you, Andrew

Well, I'm not Again, I want to make it very clear Like, I don't want When we get an answer to this I don't want people saying Andrew was wrong Well, I don't want people saying that, generally speaking But I'm not saying Luke, you're wrong This is definitely his real hair I'm just I don't know what I'm just looking for evidence of that Because I had never heard that before And I just know him as a guy with long hair

Well, I still believe in you, Andrew Thank you That's the point of this. So thanks for listening, everyone. I'll be back here tomorrow with more imaginary radio for you. Until then, have a great Tuesday. Stay safe. Welcome back to Real Life, everyone. And please remember, no mountain too tall. And good luck to all.

The likes of which are rare and grow so hard to find. Do I have it in me? I believe it is in there For I know I hear a pretty sweet song In the memories we share I still have faith in you And I will say I never really thought I'd feel this way But I remind myself of who we are How inconceivable it is to reach this far Do I have it in me? I believe it is in there For I know I hear a very sweet song In the memories we share I'll leave you guys with this Wundle plus Wundle equals toodle. Power out.