Muse

Quick plug, I'm Mike LaFontaine, owner and founder of High Class Management. Whoops! Comics Constant Companion. Let's start right out. Hey, what happened? As you know, back in 1970, I started on a series called, What Happened? And every time something would go wrong, I would look at the camera and say, Hey, what happened? We had a lot of fun with that and a lot of other catchphrases. I got a real red wagon! and uh i can't do my work and i believe i was the first one to use the phrase i don't think so but it only lasted a year and that's good because that's how you establish a cult so i was on stage doing all my shtick you know hey what happened and i can't do my work and if someone would heckle me that they'd say are you going to be on stage all night i would say that's right and that'd crack up the audience tbtl why is this man wearing no pants the answer

will surprise you brother who are you what are you doing i'm with the news dude if anyone touches

my man kenny g i'm gonna be up in their face and i'm gonna start some sorry i know that you don't

swear but like i love to say what's the symbology there symbology i'm sure the word you were looking for was symbolism what is this symbolism there well i've said a lot of things in my time not all of it's worth listening to but let's just say this time around it is

well all right hello good morning and welcome everyone to a monday edition of tbtl the show that just might be too beautiful to live.

That was the fanciest sentence I've ever heard, and I used to watch Frasier.

My name is Luke Burbank. I am your host. It's like someone punching your brain, but in a weirdly satisfying way. Coming to you from the Hollywood Broadcast Center in Portland, Oregon, where we've arrived at episode 3,559 in a collector series. Let the fun begin. And we have much to talk about, including the one million dollar error apparently by a journalist from australia who was sent to interview adele i've made a huge mistake and then made a huge mistake and now they will not release the interview i don't know who's in the wrong here is it adele is it the journalist is it the people handling the various things we will talk about it also um speaking of music i know the next big superstar in america and frankly the world kids and fantasy and he is this five-year-old kid who can first of all he has perfect pitch and he can also just kind of like uh produce entire songs he can play every instrument it is really quite something so does this sound like our musical robot i want to share that joy with all of you plus we'll do some emails and emails all with the help of this young man, the longest-running Cobra of the show, maybe best known for his depictions of the tall ships. To me... An innocent champion of honesty. That's what he is. He's Andrew Walsh, joining us right now from the Roosevelt neighborhood of Seattle, Washington. Good morning, my friend.

Good morning, Your Honor. Ah, damn, sorry. I'm just trying to get in the mode here for my jury duty. I kind of like it, though. Yeah, I figured you would.

Maybe just try that.

Not even on the show, but just in our personal life. I would like his honor. Uh-huh. Your Excellency?

Mm-hmm. Would accept. You know, I actually said that to an actual Supreme Court justice when I was on, oh, wait, wait, don't tell me. And I think it was, this is where my memory fails me, but I'm going with David Souter. Some Supreme Court justice who would agree. It wasn't William Rehnquist. I would remember that. But some Supreme Court justice that agreed to be on that show. and I think I referred to him as Your Excellency, which is not actually

how you do that. Were you doing it to be funny? Yes. Okay, yes. And did they react?

No. That's like how most of my jokes work.

No, when I say they, I mean the audience, of course. Oh, also no.

No, nobody liked it.

Nobody enjoyed it as a joke, but I was like, yeah, good try, Barb. Yeah, no, you have to enjoy your own jokes. God knows I enjoy my own jokes. Are you going to try any jokes when you're

moving through the voir dire process if i don't call it joie de vivre at any point that will be

a victory i don't even know if i said that correctly to be honest with you how is it

how do you say it voir dire is the um process of how juries are selected no i know but i'm saying

and if i get through that process without pronouncing it as a joie de vivre then i I won't consider that day. That is how.

your joke went over on wait wait don't tell me i just wanted to give the audience an example of that but yeah so i don't know what exactly is going to happen i think i can talk broadly about this process i got a postcard in the mail a couple of weeks ago saying and it's just so funny that it's a postcard in the mail by the way i just could have so easily thrown this away but i guess that's that's how it works so i get a post by the way would you consider throwing it

away the postcard yes and not going to this thing because if you get on this jury bro we're going to be hamboned for like six months

it's not going to be a six month thing do you already know what the actual case is I do yes but I'm not allowed to look it up that's the weirdest thing about this so again I can't talk about that and I won't talk about that but you know I get this postcard in the mail they say this is your badge number go to this website fill it out and then we will probably send you a questionnaire if we don't send you a questionnaire don't worry about it I'm like okay maybe they won't send it then mid week I want to say last week I got the questionnaire and the questionnaire includes like kind of the name of the defendant and the charges and like the people involved in the case on kind of both sides of it and ask you a bunch of questions like do you know any of these people because obviously if you did have a personal relationship with any of them you wouldn't go on to the next phase I don't know. Am I involved in the case

by just asking for a friend

of me? Between you and I yes but I didn't say that because I want to end up on this trial because I want to send you away but no obviously Obviously, that's as much as I'll say about that. But they just ask you a bunch of general questions, too, about kind of who you are. And then they say, okay, if we look this over and want to ask you some follow-up questions, you'll join us via Zoom next week at a prescribed time. If you don't hear back from us again, you're off the hook. You've done your duty for this round. And so I was kind of, I mean, I have very mixed emotions about this. Like, yes, the timing kind of couldn't be worse. I was thinking it could be worse. It could be happening, like, right before or during a TBTL-a-thon. Like, that would be the worst timing. But this is right before the holidays where you and I need to start recording a bunch of stuff. And, like, you know, the timing is definitely not great. But on the other hand, you know, I can't spend my weekend being furious at the outcome of a trial in Wisconsin and then be like, how am I going to get out of jury duty? Like, those things are not compatible in my brain, right? And like the idea that maybe we need people that we trust on juries and one person I trust is me, sort of, with some things. So anyway, you know, obviously I've had a lot of mixed emotions about this, but I've decided just to be, you know, honest and see where the process takes me. Between you and I, I have a strong feeling that if I'm asked about some things today, I probably won't. I can't really go into it. Chances are I won't be selected to go on, but I'm not – I'm really trying to be – I want to be honest, but I really don't want to go into this with I've got to get out of this because of, you know, inconvenience purposes.

I really respect that about you. No, you don't.

I really do. I'm not – You're being sarcastic.

No, I'm not BSing you because, like, I have no time for that kind of stuff. and it is a civic duty and it is the kind of thing where if you know if the only people who agree to do jury duty are i don't know the the sort of how do i put this i've been thinking about this a lot because really if you get this gig we're going to be in a bit of trouble as a show and it's like well there are there are certain kind of jobs where you know it's like to go to jury duty or to do jury duty virtually is maybe almost a relief or a break from the tedium or interesting and like we don't have that kind of job like if you are really doing this for a while it'll we'll figure it out obviously but i was thinking like is our job essential or not because i tend to think of our job as non-essential but then as soon as there's anything that in any way threatens it i'm like this is very essential work we're doing andrew You know, but then if only like if the only people who do jury duty are the people who are looking to get out of their actual nine to five, that's not a good population to be the arbiters of things.

Yeah. And I don't know. I mean, I can't draw a direct line to this, but I feel like you could make an argument that those who have risen to a level of some sort of career that gives them the opportunity to maybe get themselves out of something like this. I don't know if this is what I'm saying is actually true. I just feel like it could be somewhat self-selecting so that potentially people who have maybe, you know, it's not like I'm a super educated man, but that the people who are kind of gone through society more educated and then get those jobs are maybe somehow the set up the best to get out of this. I don't even know as I'm saying that. I don't know if I can make that argument, but it's sort of I don't think you're wrong, though, a bit of truth in there somewhere. And so it's kind of like, well, then so who are we leaving this to? And again, not that we can't. trust the judgment of people who didn't go didn't go to kent state university i'm not saying that but just generally speaking we can trust non-golden flashes we can right we can trust golden flashes and golden canes um but anyway yeah so i don't know yeah it just does sort of seem like and again the timing really sucks because in a lot of ways like i feel like this could be good for tbtl in a certain way because i could sometimes mixing if it happened in a more convenient time i know there are no great convenient times in your life because you're packing you're packing every minute of your day but you know we do have the flexibility on this show to create our own schedules we do it when we want to take a vacation we do it when you know we find ways to make it work and so now given the timing of this again going right into the holidays it is just bad timing but generally speaking if you and I and it's not I just don't think something like this takes six months I could be wrong um it's murder one no just joking just joking just joking um but But I just think that it could be, you know, hey, what if we had to do two weeks of TBTLs at night or something like there are ways to to make it work, even if it's not the most 100 percent thing, you know. But now now here we are. I kind of wish it wasn't Thanksgiving week and you and I need to record some shows so that we can have content on Thanksgiving and stuff like that. But, you know, we'll we'll make it work. And like I said, as far as my duty is concerned, like I'm going to be honest with them. There are reasons why I think I'm probably not the best fit for this. And chances are that will come out today. but I'm also not going to try to lose Lemonade you know what I mean I'm not going to be wearing my Star Trek cosplay Star Wars

I'm not even joking when I say I think this is really good and I'm glad you're doing it because I am the kind of person who doesn't do this stuff and you're doing it and I think that's good for society

and I'll let you know and I do think that you know once I am through whatever I'm through with I still don't think I'd be comfortable talking about obviously the details of the case but maybe the details of the process I'm actually just sort of curious like i've just never i've never even been asked before just nice to be asked can i ask you

a different question that i think is important to our friendship which island of hawaii are you

going to be on oh are you thinking about doing it um we don't actually have to divide up the islands like i joked the other day but to answer your question honestly we are going to be on maui

okay different island oh did you already make your plans i did i found a cheap ticket to um Which one is Honolulu on? That's the big island, isn't it? I don't know for sure, but I think. Is that the one you're going to be on? No, I'm on Maui. Oh, okay. That's a different island? Yeah, I think so. Yes. I have once booked a ticket to the wrong island of Hawaii for a Toons wedding.

It was a wedding, yeah.

Yeah. I'm very bad with knowing what island is what. The nature of my question was, if we would have been on the same island, would it have been weird for you if we hung out on our vacation?

No, I don't think it would have been weird. I also think we can talk about this off air, but I think we have a mutual friend who might be on Honolulu during that or on the big island during that time in Honolulu. Yes. We'll talk about that off air.

OK, so I think it would have been a funny thing if we happen to be on the same island during our break and just like not hanging out, but also us hanging out. I worried that it would make you feel like it was feeling like work.

Well, what do you think of this? Our friend Don't make any guesses Because I think you'll be able to figure it out pretty easily Let's not say it on the show But our friend who I think is going to be in Honolulu While we're in Maui Is considering island hopping For a dinner on Maui With us What if you snucked away in their luggage

Island hopping Like getting on a plane and flying island to island

It was an idea that was floated And taken somewhat seriously Over some Din Tai Fung a while back I don't know if it's going to happen or not I would be into that, potentially. Yeah, so anyway, yeah, so that's pretty cool. You're going to be spending – now, we're taking two weeks off the show, but I'm only going to be spending one week over there. How long are you – how long are you going to be on the islands?

I think like four days total because that was the bracket of the flights that I could afford.

How do you feel about that?

About how expensive airfare is?

No, about a four-day vacation, just out of curiosity, because part of me – because you'll probably – that's four days, not counting travel, I assume, right? So they have four solid days.

I think it's getting there Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and maybe flying back on Thursday. So, no, four days with travel happening on those four days.

You're more of a traveler than me, too. So hopping on an airplane is probably like the equivalent of me, I don't know, getting in the car or hopping on a bus in a certain way. But I think that I was – you know, I know I was spoiled as a kid. And when it comes to vacations, it's like my family was not a family that did a lot of like world traveling or did any kind of fancy traveling at all. You know, we would load up a van and drive down to Florida. But when we did that, you know, from Ohio, so it's kind of a long road trip. when we did that we would spend a lot of time there like it would be it would almost like you'd be coming back feeling like a different person sort of and like a week or a month a couple of weeks i think i think we used to take a standard two-week family vacation with like two days driving down two days driving up but uh then staying in a condo down there and i you know looking back i can't remember exactly how we handled it i know my parents sent a note into school and i would have to catch up on all of my homework in one way or another so you'd miss school for this yeah i would miss school and i don't because i don't think it was usually around holidays maybe it would sometimes you know it was often in the spring so maybe they would sometimes take advantage of the easter holiday or the springtime holiday and then tack on sometime i don't really remember the details and i could even be wrong about this but i'm pretty sure they were real long beefy beat well they were beefy vacations luke we'd go to the beef capital of florida um but uh you know and again they weren't super fancy but they were just kind of like luxurious in their length, sort of. And I think that I've carried that over a little bit into my adulthood. The first time Vives and I went to Hawaii, we went to, it was supposed to be the dry side of the island, but it was still a rainy season. And it was a very short trip. And like, for me, it never really felt like a vacation, because for me, a vacation means, oh, you check out, you just check out of your brain for a long time. And you just sit on a beach until like, you're sick of sitting on a beach or sick of sitting in a pool sort of um and so anyway that that's where my question comes from not that i'm trying to neg your four days i'm just curious how

you're how you look at that what it came down to is it's so expensive to fly places right now and i have like billions of miles but i used all of them up to get me and becca a ticket out there and then and then not i didn't even have enough to get us back and then also the hotels in um like i i think we're gonna probably end up staying in waikiki oh yeah are like this is the privilege i guess you would say of mostly having uh my work the cbs work that i do paying for my travel i forgot how expensive hotels are it is like you have to take out a second mortgage to stay in hawaii during the month of december for like four days so i was just like uh that was about the max i thought i could justify because it is not cheap i'm sorry that i'm distracted i'm

just wondering if we should restart the show it's oahu that's where honolulu is not the big island i know it's not a but that's still not the island you're on no no it's not the island i'm on i'm just embarrassed because i think a lot of our audience do not be embarrassed again i literally

booked the the flight to the wrong island once carrie had to say do you realize that that's not Where the wedding is And I was like I don't know There's like islands They seem pretty close Were you late for the wedding? Did you like Come rushing in For weddings and a funeral style? No she got in front of it And she actually Changed our tickets So we were going To the right place But No judgment for me In terms of Which island is which Yeah

Yeah Well I'm glad I'm glad that you did it I know you felt like You needed to get Some place sunny What with the River of What is it? The water river of the sky The atmospheric river Yeah That we've been dealing with for the past couple of weeks.

I know. And the darkness, do you feel like the darkness has been somehow darker than before? Or is that just us aging?

You know, the darkness has seemed darker. And I'm not saying, people are just different. It doesn't get to me the way, I mean, I don't love it, but it doesn't get to me the way I think it really gets to you and it really gets to Veeves. And maybe that's just because you guys spend more time outside, honestly. But yeah, like I was walking. So it was after the Seahawks game yesterday, which what time that would have ended around four o'clock. Right. And I think it ended about one twenty.

That's a good point. I was.

Well, we'll talk about a no point. I think we're going to try to do a no point today. We had to skip last week. But I was weirdly optimistic through a big chunk of that game. But anyway, it wrapped up, let's say, four, four thirty. We were up at the Pinehurst Pub hanging out with Camaro, Kev and some folks. And I decided that I wasn't quite done yet with my Sunday. So I was going to walk down to our Eagles Club, which is about just under a two-mile walk. I'm like, oh, that'll be fine. That'll be good. Good little walk. Walk off these chicken fingers. By the way, I mean, not to get super controversial on the show, but we went to the Pionehurst Pub to watch the game the past two weekends, and they switched up their chicken fingers, like, drastically. What did they do? In the seven days. I don't know. I don't know if it's a supply chain issue or they have no other shit. But I mean, are they better now or worse now? No, not good. Not great, my friend. They were really good last week. They were like lightly breaded, nice, fat kind of chicken tenders. You know, tendies. You've been on the message boards. I'm a good boy. Yeah, no. I mean, they fulfilled my healthy frame. But then so. Kevin and I yesterday were just licking our chops. I had been thinking about getting these chicken tenders since I woke up in the morning. I'm like, okay, I'm not going to get the fries. I'm going to get the tots. These are the dipping sauces.

What do you dip them in?

I dip tots or the fingers? The fingers. Barbecue sauce with some tapatio in the sauce if possible. Interesting. No, you're ranch, I assume.

In my tendies days, I would go with any kind of spicy mustard they could possibly do.

Yeah, Genevieve did a honey mustard on hers. But anyway, and by the way, just I know you didn't ask, but tots, I'll go pretty heavily doused in Tapatio and then just kissed with a little barbecue sauce maybe.

Do you feel like sometimes Tapatio, which I love, is so much flavor that it makes whatever you're eating just become like a Tapatio bowl?

I'm trying to think. I mean, when I'm putting it on a tot, a tot really is just a vehicle for the flavor. So that's good for me I like it there And then other things I'm trying to think What I use it on Every now and then I'll throw it on some eggs But I guess it depends On how much you use

I just feel like Tapatio and sriracha When I put them on something And I love those flavors Whatever I put them on Just becomes mostly That flavor after that Hmm Maybe you're using too much

It's very possible Possibly Anyway Where was I This is stupid We're talking about the dark So I decide I've never done this wok before But I'm like Whatever It's two miles south, almost directly south of where we are to go from the Pinehurst Pub to the Eagles. And, man, it started off, you know, a little bit dusky. But then there's a part of this walk, Luke. When I got to the Eagles, I started describing it to some of the locals who, like, have grown up around here, and they knew exactly the path I had taken. It got so dark. And then at one point, like, the sidewalk just ends, and I had to go through, like, kind of a ravine area. That's where the sidewalk ends? That's where. Hey, Shell. We found it? I found it. I doubt that you know maybe this specific part of North Seattle, although these were your stomping grounds for so many years. But there's just this weird part where you're walking through these neighborhoods. They don't have – they're like these cute little neighborhoods with a lot of cute little houses up in North Seattle, but they don't have sidewalks in these areas.

That's Maple Leaf.

Yeah, between Pinehurst and Lake City is that Maple Leaf. And at one point, like I'm following the map on my phone. and it just says keep going south, but I'm looking ahead, and the road ends. I'm like, I guess I'll just see if this is one of those little urban trails that kind of cuts through an area, and sure as hell it is. Next thing you know, I'm slipping and sliding in the pure dark in this little wooded area that becomes kind of a trail, not for long, but for, I don't know, like not long at all, like a tenth of a mile. I don't know. And this is at like 4.45 probably? No, it's like 4.45, maybe 5 o'clock, and it is pitch black. I have to pull out my phone and turn the flashlight on. I'm like, I don't know if the flashlight is good, if there's any ne'er-do-wells lurking in these shadows. But I turn on my flashlight, and then I get to this part where I'm down at the bottom of some sort of ravine, and then I've got to climb this large staircase. I don't know if it's a long staircase or a large staircase. It was a large staircase that I was just huffing and puffing by the time I got to the top of it, and I just couldn't see shit. So all of that is to say, yes, it seems dark.

I've also found myself needing to use that flashlight on my phone in restaurants now, which I never had to do before. But I am very much like, it's very dark in here. Can we like I used to see those ads for that owl thing, which was like a magnifying glass that had a light on it. It was like, I think, mostly advertised on like HLN, which plays forensic files. It was, I thought, really focused on a demo that's not me But it turns out that's me And driving in the dark, too, now I'm just like, is it always Has it always been this dark? I get stressed driving in the dark

This is, I think I'm going to set myself up for ridicule here But one thing I've been enjoying doing lately is reading Did I just talk about this on the show with you last week? That I've been enjoying reading physical books lately Like, I'm still reading this, like, Easy Rollins mystery series It has, like, 15 titles in it, and I'm, like, I don't know, halfway through. But what I've been doing is I've been buying just used paperback editions of these Easy Rollins books online. A listener sent it to me. I can't remember the website off the top of my head, but you can support, like, kind of small indie bookstores around the country without having to order these things from, like, Amazon or something. Because I love going into a bar or a coffee shop or a restaurant with a physical book. I don't know why. I just do. I enjoy it more than reading it off of the Kindle app on my phone. Um, but then sometimes I find myself in a bar, like, and if it's, if they turn down the lights too much or, or what have you, it becomes difficult to read. So I've got this move now where when I walk in, I look for like where the lights are hanging down from the ceiling so I can position myself. or one of them where it seems like, well, dude, just read it on your phone. And, you know, I can and I have and I would, but I kind of prefer this. But what would be nice would be if there was a nice little, a small little gadget that would be like a small, like a very, very small, tiny little lantern with a warmer light that you could control. What do you mean by warmer? Like I wouldn't want something that I'm turning on at the bar that's distracting people around me or, you know, calling any attention. But, you know, a warmer light, like the light on your phone is going – or even if you use the light emanating from the screen of your phone, if you've ever done that move where you turn the brightness all the way up, it's a very cold kind of, you know, almost fluorescent-y kind of light. And those lights – the flashlights on a phone are a very kind of bright, harsh light. But if you had a small –

Which I also assume are burning 1,000 percent of the battery power every two seconds they're illuminated.

Probably, yes. It would be nice if that light was adjustable, number one. But also if there was like a little device I'm sure they have them

They used to sell them on Hammacher Schlemacher

The kind that you would attach to the book

Yeah, and they were exactly what you're describing They were very intriguing And I was thinking someday when my eyes are tired I'll get that And then they discontinued Hammacher Schlemacher And then my eyes got tired

Yeah, and then everything just got tired And then you were done But yeah, so I know what you mean Having to have a little bit of extra light at our age because I'll be sitting there like reading my book, squinting and like trying to make sure that I'm positioned under the perfect light at a bar where again, I know there are technological solutions to this. I don't know why I'm trying to act like it's the 1800s.

I've just always prided myself on my eyesight. That was the one thing on my body that worked. And now that it's like not working as well, it's bumming me out.

Have you gotten your eyes checked?

No, I wouldn't do that.

Because you know Genevieve, like that was one of her leading characteristics was her pride and her eyesight. She said that her superhero name would be the supervisor because she was bossy and she had really good eyesight. And then she started to lose it. Now, the thing about her is she was really reluctant to get glasses at first. She's still proud that she has good distance sight. You know, she can still see far away. I have the exact same thing. I can see very far, but anything close up, game over. Yeah, same with her. She started doing this thing where she's like, I don't want to wear glasses. My eyesight is fine. But she's, like, looking at getting arm extensions so that she can hold the menu further away from her face.

As Bing Crosby called it, playing trombone.

Yeah, right. So, yeah. But, I mean, also, Genevieve got glasses, and they look super cute, by the way. I think you know my expression. I think everybody looks better in glasses if they can find the right glasses. So this could be a whole move for you, Luke.

This really could.

This could be, like, a more scholarly kind of studious look for me. Oh, picture this, for real. So you're on stage, live wire. You're interviewing an author. You get to a point where you want to point something out in the book. You pick up the book off of the stool next to you or whatever you have, and you put on your glasses, your cool-looking glasses, and you look down, and you read the phrase, and then you take them back off, and you finish your question. That's a pretty cool move, I think. There is a real gravitas to that.

Yeah. Think about it. Okay. Well, you've convinced me. I'm going to get an eye check. Thank you, Your Honor. Because these things ain't working the way they used to. All right, let's take a quick break, and then when we come back, I want to talk about this thing that happened with this Adele interview, which was very strange, and then also my latest YouTube obsession. Coming up in a moment here on TBTL. Thank you, baby. All right, let's thank our donors of the day. These are the wonderful, generous people making today's episode possible. Starting with Alicia Nicholas in Benson, Arizona. Love that show. Arizona. There you go. That guy, the guy that says Arizona.

Yes, I can never remember his name. All of our listeners know it.

I feel like he's blowing up. He probably had already blown up in the UK, but he is now firmly blown up, at least on the TikTok feed.

Yes, he, you know, I love what we do in the shadows. Matthew Barry. Yeah, Matthew Barry. Yes, I was trying to talk and type. But, you know, people who know that I've fallen in love with that show and his character in particular have been telling me that he was already known, I think you're right, overseas for some other show that I'm blanking on. But, yeah, he is a beloved, beloved person.

He sure is. And we're very happy to have Alicia Nicholas from Benson, Arizona checking in. Also, Joseph Warren is in Bronx, New York. I don't really know if that's how you say it, but trying to sound Bronx-y. I feel like I was probably in the Bronx like four times.

And I lived in New York, probably four times total.

Yeah, I've never set foot being an Ohio boy. You were scared of the Bronx? I was scared of the Bronx. No, the most time I've ever spent in New York was with you on our last trip. Brooklyn, in and out. What were we, so 24 hours there, you think? 30? And that was including the time you broke down on the Verrazano Bridge? No, the George Washington. And that was maybe it was a similar amount of time, but it was basically an overnight thing. And that one, we were, you know, we were supposed to be back home starting our work week. So that was definitely not even a good time to check out. That time, though, wherever we stayed, I think I've told you this before, our car broke down. It was me, Genevieve, and our friend Beverly. And Beverly's sister lived in New York somewhere. I don't even know where, but I do know we had to take that big SkyTrain thing. Oh, to Roosevelt Island? Maybe. It was that thing that hangs off of a cable and it's scary. I think that goes to Roosevelt Island, actually. Maybe that's where they lived.

Huh.

What did you do with the car? I can't remember the details. This is the second time we broke down. The first time we broke down, we stayed in Jersey. And this time, we must have had it towed somewhere. I'm sorry. I can't remember the details of that particular thing. What I remember most is the... What do you call that hanging? I wanted to say pun. that's the wrong word but i feel like i guess you might call it a gondola oh that's the word

i'm looking for a gondola exactly uh there is a gondola here in portland that i am dying to take but it has been closed because of the pandemic or it has been um just uh ohsu employees only for the entire time that i've been here and tell you what i mean this pandemic has been bad for everybody and i'm not trying to be you know glib about that but one of the things i I'll be excited when the pandemic is over. I can take that ding-dang gondola up to OHSU. You're just going to take it back and forth and back and forth. You just keep hitting like a kid on an elevator. I really will. I'll just sit there all day. Yeah. Rebecca Gerke is in Kingston, Washington. Beautiful Kingston, Washington. Right there where the ferries come and go. Thank you, Rebecca. Also, Chris Gleam is in Reno, Nevada, the biggest little city in the world. You ever been to Reno?

I have not. I have not. And again, and I know this is a very different city, but the most time I've ever spent in Las Vegas was also with you, which was an overnighter, I believe. Turns out I'm very important in your life. It turns out I would only be going to Florida with my family were it not for you.

You'd be going to a rat's mouth.

Yes, exactly.

I have been to Reno for various volleyball tournaments, and while I was there, I was like, God, this feels like the biggest little city in the world.

Is that what it feels like?

Then they named it that.

I feel like Oregon feels like a big little city. I'm sorry, Portland, Oregon is what I meant to say there. Do you get that vibe, having grown up in Seattle, that it's kind of like, you know, it's a city. It's a real city, but it somehow feels a little bit homier than, say, Seattle.

Well, the one thing I've noticed here is that I get recognized more for Livewire. Of course. So that's, you know, I guess a win. I think it's a Somewhat smaller kind of like fish bowl Where I'm not a big fish But I'm a slightly larger fish Than I would be in Seattle for what that's worth We've also got Benjamin Oaks checking in From Charleston, South Carolina Thank you Benjamin And then Emmy Pickering Is in Lakeland, Florida

Emmy Kate

We met Emmy Kate We didn't go through Lakeland on our trip there I don't think so

But Emmy made her way to the Waffle House

I'll tell you that much That was unforgettable I haven't been to a Waffle House since that And I would actually really like to do that I heard an NFL guy say this thing That was so great He was talking about how you wanted to get better and better at football And he said You know, I wanted to make the NFL And then I did And then I wanted to become an all-star Or whatever, like a pro bowler And I did And he goes, you know You give a pig a pancake, he wants some syrup I love it That's a good line right

Absolutely Hey I'm going to do something here that I've never done before At the end of this segment here As this music runs out My apologies for making this awkward But I have something that has been living in my brain That I want to talk to you about It's a ridiculous idea But I want to try to give it some serious thought During no point conversion today And I'm going to tease I'm teasing no point conversion here Luke Are you ready for this We're going to make it the top story. Hold on. Hello and welcome to top story. All right. What's your tease? We I want to discuss something that was thrown out as a ridiculous concept on the Levitard show by Billy Gill last week or two weeks ago. But I keep on thinking about which is why.

Why can't we platoon quarterbacks or why can't we use quarterbacks the way you might use a bullpen as in put in like maybe a team has three quarterbacks that are specialists at three different like kind of parts of the game that you put in when the circumstances when the circumstances call for you have so many thoughts on a red zone quarterback, you know, like just a starting quarterback.

Anyway, we will discuss some hell basically, right? Like somebody who can run.

Oh, you mean for the red. Well, we'll talk about it. We'll talk about it then, but it's a ridiculous idea that I love.

Do you remember that joke that I told you about the chiropractor? Sorry, I'll have a hamburger.

Wait, no, that's a different joke. About a week back? The chiropractor one. No, I don't think so. I did tell somebody your library joke, though.

That's the joke about a week back?

Oh, I...

Nobody gets that, but it's a slow soaker. It's a way homer. I'm very proud of this joke.

It's pretty good.

Everyone I told that joke over the weekend was initially confused and then was like, okay, now we get it.

I love that you're just becoming like a joke teller.

I mean, they're pretty. These are the daddest of dad jokes.

Why are they popping up in your life? Have you bought a joke book?

I think I stumbled into a TikTok algorithm that's delivering them to me. Love it. Love it. But I'm fully owning this kind of dad humor right now.

Do you think kids still have joke books? Like, I loved my joke books growing up. Like, I had joke books, just books filled with jokes.

That's a great question. I think they don't, probably. Uh-uh. Who made the joke books that you had?

I can't remember. I remember I had a really thick one. That was like my dictionary of jokes. It might even have been called the dictionary of jokes. I had this thick book that I treated with respect. That was my main joke book. But then I think I had, like, little joke books that were, like, dedicated to maybe specialty areas, like maybe cars or something along those lines.

Well, my big version of that was Reader's Digest because they had, like, four different sections that were basically jokes. Humor and uniform, right? Life in these United States. Yep, yep. All in a day's work. And I think I'm forgetting. There was a hospital one. Laughter is the best medicine, maybe? Oh, yeah, probably. And I just loved those jokes. Like, I was very into them. So that was kind of my version of that.

Yeah, yeah. those sections have really gone I mean they still have them in Reader's Digest I'm still a subscriber by the way no joke are you still getting Reader's Digest yeah yeah it was a gift from my dad a couple years ago great gift they still uh because they come out every two months now so every time you forget your Reader's Digest subscriber suddenly one shows up and says we're still here for you baby um and yeah you actually read them though I do yeah and I keep them in the bathroom and I read them and um yeah those sections have really I mean they used to be two solid pages if you were lucky sometimes they would even go on to a third page now they're spread across one measly page and then a big chunk of that is like a cartoon like you know like a single panel cartoon and then they'll fill it out with just like funny tweets that they've seen what it's readers digest is reprinting tweets yeah it's a big thing yeah a lot of

world of men yeah i know i yeah yeah um did you see this very weird story around the adele interview that went sideways no no no i did not until you sent the show sheet so there was a reporter from channel 7 in australia shout out to linda and other australians who was sent to the uk to interview adele because i don't know if you've seen this but adele is doing the pr She is everywhere right now And it is a big deal if you get to be the person Who interviews Adele And somehow This interview that this Australian Network was doing Cost them a million dollars And I think that that was because They were like licensing Or they were paying for the rights to play Adele's interview with Oprah Which I'm going to take a wild guess And say you didn't see I didn't but I saw a lot of promotion leading up to it Adele one night only that one so this guy flies out to the UK to interview Adele and we don't really know what happened in the conversation because Adele's people have suppressed the interview but supposedly she asked him at some point in the interview have you listened to the album and he said I've only listened to the first song and then things may or may not have gone off the rails he says that somebody sent him the album while he was in the air he was on the flight there was literally an evite with the album because that's also very like top secret and you know carefully controlled you know because the album wasn't out at the time he says he missed the email because he was flying to the UK from Australia and And because he had not listened to the album, one version of events is that Adele walked out of the interview and her people will now not let them play the interview on this channel in Australia, which paid a million dollars for this to happen.

And she's not giving the they're not paying the million dollars back. I don't understand how this stuff works, you know, like that was weird to me, too, that you're paying a million dollars.

Yeah. Again, I think it has to do with having the rights to play the Oprah interview. As part of the package. Right. So I don't know how much of the million dollars was that. But the interview this guy did, Adele's people will not let it play in Australia because of this apparent, like, complete insult to her. Which, again, I don't even put this on Adele. Usually the famous person is more or less okay, and it's the layers of people supporting them that get weird about stuff. The other thing that I thought was really wild about this story was that apparently Adele has reached out to Spotify to disable the skip function on this new record.

Yeah, let's talk about that. I mean, I caught a little bit of wind of that. I don't think it's to – I don't think – I think that that might be – you might be falling for a twist of the news that has people upset. It's not to disable the shuffle function. It's to not default to the shuffle function.

Oh, interesting. So it defaults to that.

Apparently, and this is where I should have read up more about this. I saw that our friend Lini, who, of course, is a musician, herself has strong opinions about it. And again, I don't want to mischaracterize what she was posting either, but seemed to be saying that, yeah, listen, we make albums and we have a preferred order. We're not just throwing the songs randomly onto a record. There is an art of creating an album from start to finish. Now, if you want to shuffle it, the functionality is still there. You can shuffle it all you want, or you can make playlists. You can take the new album and pull every song off of it, create a playlist, and put it in whatever order you want. But there's nothing wrong with an artist, especially a powerful artist like that, saying, listen, I made this album in a certain order, and this is the order of which it is. If you want to mix it up later, do that on your own time. Are you looking up the details of this while I'm talking?

Because I'm sort of stalling here.

But anyway, that's my understanding of it, which as somebody who enjoys records and the idea of of an album having a purposeful playlist or, you know, a purposeful order, I kind of respect that.

Yeah, I was initially a little annoyed with it, but then I thought, well, you put a ton of effort into this thing. And like, I don't think we have the technological ability to do this with TBTL. And Lord knows we put a minimal amount of effort into it. but like yeah if we made this show we wanted people to listen to it from the beginning to the end as opposed to listening in the middle and you know jumping around or whatever like i think it's reasonable that the person who creates the art gets to have some say in how

the art is experienced yeah or at least like say this is my this is how it comes out i mean afterwards do what you want like we didn't have the ability to rearrange a cd track listing unless we made mixtapes out of it right I mean but you're also talking to an obsessive person here who and again now this is the part of the show where I compare myself to Adele everybody ready for this but as somebody who is obsessed well so as I as I told my friend Oprah as somebody who is obsessed with mixtapes and growing up like making mixtapes in high school that I was very proud of and I got a lot of good feedback on which of course just inflated my own sense of ego regarding said mixtapes. Once we got into the digital era, and I continued making mixtapes in the digital format. And I remember that a big time for me doing that was kind of the late 2000s, like 2008, 2009, especially once I moved out here to Seattle, I would make these, I didn't have a lot, I had a lot of time on my hands. And I'd make these mixtapes, and I'd send them back to people in New Hampshire to share with cover art, you know, digital cover art and all these things. But I would jump through so many hoops to try to maintain the integrity of my playlist order because the idea of making a playlist for somebody again obviously I'm not an artist I'm not even a very experiential yeah these aren't my songs even but the one thing that I'm adding is I think this song you know I'll never forget my friend Cary Grenz who said like who has some argument that I can't recreate here saying why the third song in a mixtape is the most important song like that's where you that's where you either lose people or keep people um like i just love these conversations and i love the idea of making a you know a mix tape or in the in this day in age like a playlist and saying like this is the this is the order that i would like you to listen to this in because it builds to something and then it ends to something you know i do think that that stuff is important right and i think that if anybody has the right

to try to dictate that it's the person who did the sure the art making i also

also just like find it this really kind of like hits a nerve for me because the and i'm gonna put backlash in quotes here the backlash against this guy from australia who i promise you if he knew he had the adele cd he would have listened to it like he's not gonna not listen to it and also kind of like give i guess i give him credit for being honest when she said have you listened to this the album he said i've only listened to the first song i wish i had more details on this

which we don't have because I find it fascinating because, like you said, usually we can make it sound like it's the actual artist, the person being interviewed here, Adele, who maybe stormed out of this interview, which we don't even know if that happened or not, but that might not even be it.

His argument, by the way, the guy from Australia's argument is that what was supposed to be a 30-minute interview went 38 minutes, which he says indicates it was going fine.

Oh, yeah. See, that's the thing. Like, it's hard for me. And again, that's why I can't I can't quite wrap my head around this because we don't know what happened. But I'm finding a little bit difficult to believe that Adele is in the middle of an interview that's going really well. And then it's suddenly like, did you listen to my record? And then he said, no, I was only sent one song. And then there's some confusion and some apology, which it sounds like this person is very apologetic that she's going to say, well, then I am out of here. Like either the interview must have been go. You know, I could see if somebody was like trolling her, if it was somebody who like kind of had who wanted to mix things up and maybe get headlines by getting Adele or being very critical of Adele or something like that. And then she's like, did you even listen to my record? Maybe that's a final straw situation. But even though she is literally the definition of a diva, I don't think that she is a diva in the negative sense that she'd be like, you know, then I don't respect you. Get out of my studio or what have you.

Yeah, that seems super unlikely. And the worst thing is to watch these other people who work in the what I call entertainment industrial complex pile on this guy like other people who are just trying to get like Twitter likes or like, come on, I would have listened to that album if I had the chance to interview Adele. And it's all people whose whole thing is just being kind of those like, you know, celebrity Hollywood reporter types that just go to these sad things and publicize these movies in one way or another. So to see the feeding frenzy from them on this poor guy, it's like, give him a break.

This is such a weird place to take this conversation But I walked in the room the other day And Genevieve had on that movie Oh shoot, is it Red? It's the one with

Is that one with the old people?

Yeah, because it stands for

And by old people I mean people roughly my age By the way, I saw a casting notice For a gig that I didn't book Where they used me as an example And they said the old guy Wait, what? What? Back up, what? Yeah I saw a casting notice For a gig Like it comes into your email or something Well no, Carrie sends it to me Because she was doing acting stuff And she also said, please take this in the spirit It's intended So she gets some sort of like She gets a casting notice for a gig that she could potentially do And then there's all these Details about when the shoot is Outfits, etc Film yourself This, that, and the other And then they were trying to explain who the person Or people could be playing opposite of And it was me And I think this YouTube video was me And a couple of other people And they said the older white guy

So I see Because they haven't reached out to you But they're saying that they're probably going to find

No they didn't cast me

But they're going to find a type like you sort of That's why they included you

They were thinking of casting me And then they decided they wanted to go in another direction So first of all I can't apparently play myself Which hurts But also they described me parenthetically As the older white guy

And I'm sorry I'm asking all these details But this is a world I'm unfamiliar with So they put together a little YouTube package Were there clips of you performing in other similar things Or was it just a headshot of you That they were showing in a video

I didn't even click on the video My guess is it's door number one And I mean They were just trying to be descriptive I'm sure it was a thing where I was with other people And they were trying to say this is the person But they said the older white guy I'm just like well That's where it is now Burbs

I'm not trying to rub it in

And I also didn't book the gig

And you didn't get the gig And they didn't even reach out to you Because you didn't even know about this

No they reached out to me

Oh they did

They reached out to me They asked me if I was available on a certain day I said yes Sent them various things And then they sent back a very nice response It was like it turns out the client wants to go in another direction But somehow in the process of that The casting notice went out With me as the The idea of the person in it Even though they weren't ultimately using me and so somehow that's what's been That's what's permeating the greater Seattle acting community.

Was it for Red 3?

It was, and I was so close.

I was supposed to play Bruce Willis. Yeah, they went with Bruce Willis instead. They decided to bring him back one more time. They sure did. Wow, I find that very fascinating. I was just going to say, though, that I was walking through the room, and that movie Red was on that has Bruce Willis. And you're right. That's the whole point. It's like a bunch of kind of action-y people who would be usually past their prime, but they team up. I've never seen it. The listeners probably know more about it than I do. But it's Bruce Willis and Mary Louise Parker are the two leads, I think, or co-leads or something. And I'll never forget that time. I mean, this is years ago. You and I dissected that interview where those two were doing their junket tour. And there was just some really sweet, I want to say British guy, who was just, like, so excited and enthusiastic to be talking to them. Because I was trying to relive this story for Genevieve or retell it for her. And she's like, hey, I don't really have any sympathy for like this, the kind of media that does these junkets or whatever. But I'm like, this guy, listen, maybe you don't have tons of respect for his industry, the interviewer, the guy who just does, you know, who amongst other things maybe just does these junkets and gets to interview people like Bruce Willis. But either way, he was being very respectful. He was a little bit goofy. He was a little bit over the top. But in a way that he was just so excited to be sitting down with Bruce Willis and Mary Louise Parker for his five to seven and a half minutes or whatever he was allotted. And the two of them were just bullies. Nothing. I mean, I think I think the reason this sticks with me is because it was this eye rolly scoffy kind of was a real punching down kind of situation. It was totally punching down, and it just reminded me of the, like, I don't think that if Bruce Willis had been doing that interview by himself or if Mary Louise Parker had been doing that interview by themselves with this enthusiastic interviewer that they would have started punching down on him. It was that thing that we all lived through through high school. No matter how popular you were, at some point you walked in on a conversation where there were two people who thought they were cooler than you. And then being in the presence of each other, they decided to just, like, turn their coolness on you and just kind of sneer at you and talk down to you and belittle you. And when I see them in that movie, like, I just think about the guy they were talking to probably doesn't even remember this anymore.

And I get so mad on his behalf. In no way am I trying to defend them for being rude to him. But I also think that is somewhat an outcome of how those junkets work. Like you take some actors and you put them in these directors chairs for like 20 hours. And again, this doesn't mean that they they should be rude to people. But I think it's also unfair to them because it really like it's so impossible. I would imagine no one's ever asked me to do this this gig but it's it seems like it would be impossible to sit in that chair in front of the foam core red you know two or whatever background and have a million people ask you the same questions and pretend I just saw this thing on TikTok by the way that I actually wanted to grab for the show where people were asking Bill Murray about Groundhog Day this was the Groundhog Day Jug Kid I'm sorry no that wasn't it was Garfield often confused with Groundhog Day and they were asking him it was just like a it was a kind of a super cut of people journalists at the junket for Garfield asking Bill Murray questions and I have to give him credit his answers were so great they were like why do Garfield too and he said drugs are expensive and like every answer it wasn't kind of at the expense of the people interviewing him just kind of in that Bill Murray friendly way but I guess my point is this is a bad system like generally speaking you don't get anything meaningful unless the interview subjects Bill Murray or excuse me Bruce Willis and Mary Louise Parker are being rude or I don't know that the person forgets to listen to Adele's CD like it's just it doesn't ever create anything useful other than when there's a disaster

no I would agree that I don't think that you know I don't want to sit here and defend that kind of I mean even to call it journalism is giving it too much credit give you know that this type of infotainment I don't like it I don't consume it but as far as like saying well it's got to be difficult for these two ultra celebrities to show somebody a modicum of respect even if they've had a long day over the course of 10 hours yeah over the course of 10 hours but you know what like maybe I'm just thinking about jury I mean they do not have the hardest job there are so many jobs where people have to suck it up and be nice to terrible bosses after 10 hour shifts and do all kinds of things It's like we sit in meetings – I mean I don't know if you believe this. I've sat in meetings with people who I don't have a lot of respect for who I'd love to – I'd love to talk to them a certain way. But you don't because it's your job.

I appreciate you not doing that to me.

Yeah, and they have a pretty good job. I'm not saying it's always easy or that like –

Like, doing a 10-hour junket is necessarily easy, but, like, are we comparing hard jobs and saying that, like, you know, well, Bruce Willis and Mary Louise Parker, you know, have the right to punch down on a really nice person who's showing them a lot of respect just because their jobs are hard? Like, come on. No, that's a good point. That's a good point.

None of it is digging a ditch. Right. Exactly. Yeah. Which is the kind of thing that I come up against with our job. I heard – I was watching this thing about Henry Nilsson, the singer. And he apparently never liked to perform live He wanted to write music But he just couldn't get it together To perform live It stressed him out And he said I don't want to have to be on at 8pm If I'm not feeling it And I thought The interesting thing about our jobs Is our job is essentially to be on At the time when it's time to be on And for me some of the other job stuff I have Is also that To be on And it's both very lucky that we have this job And also kind of weird, hard to describe, well, what are the parts of it that can sometimes feel not great, even though we're so lucky to have this job? And I think when I heard that about Henry Nilsson, like, yeah, the idea that, like, and maybe it's much more like Livewire than TBTL. But the idea that I have to go beyond at a certain time if maybe I'm not feeling it on that day, just kind of like it resonated with me.

Yeah, no, definitely, especially as a musician, right? There's so many different aspects of, and I know nothing about this world again, but like that makes a lot of sense to me. Somebody who says, what do you like to do? Well, I love to write songs and I love to record songs. Like that is such a different experience than performing those songs live on stage. It seems like a completely separate job.

And it's interesting how much those are combined as things, generally speaking. Like if you want to play music or write music, then you also have to have the component where you go in front of people and play them. Unless you're like a songwriter who's writing pop hits kind of way behind the scenes.

Yeah, and especially today, right? I think maybe – would you say that Harry Nilsson maybe could have even gotten away with that model better in the 70s and 80s than today because of the way music is licensed and you don't make those album sales?

I think the way you make money is touring more so now. It's like touring and playing live shows. So anyway, I'm continuing my pursuit of becoming the Henry Nilsson of podcasting.

It's going to be tough with Livewire.

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 V-mail, my friend? Yeah, I got some strikes you're fancy.

You know, I'll be honest with you. I woke up this morning and checked the voicemail line, and I didn't actually open my TBTL email yet.

Woke up this morning and checked the voicemail line.

So I have some voicemails.

That's one of Henry Nelson's greatest songs.

That was good. I love Scooby-Doo. So I just wanted to give you an opportunity. If you saw anything important coming in through the email chain today that you'd like to share, I will leave space for that as well. But other than that, I have some voicemails here like this one from Rachel who wanted to weigh in. You told the story about how you were at a LiveWire show and your doctor came running up to you through a crowd full of people yelling. And yelled. Hey, Luke, I'm your doctor. I'm your doctor. And Luke, I am your doctor. And I said that that led me to tell you about a conversation I had with my physical therapist as I was kind of saying goodbye to her after my final session. She said, if I see you in public, I can't like kind of say hello to you. But I think she implied that I could say hello to her. Well, we have a message here from a doctor who wants to weigh in.

Hey, Luke and Andrew, it's Rachel, the rural family medicine doctor up in Maine. I'm just listening to your show about doctors identifying themselves at, you know, very public events. I work in a small town, and I see my patients, like, all over the place all the time. And, yeah, it's a really strict rule that I don't acknowledge them first. If they say hi to me and if they sort of, like, identify me as their doctor, then I can talk about that. But I don't say hello first. I don't pretend like I know them. And even if they start talking to me, I don't recognize that I'm their doctor until they sort of, like, acknowledge it, if they're, like, in front of someone else. It's, like, a pretty strict rule and a pretty big deal with regards to privacy. So, I don't know, Luke. Maybe find a different doctor. Anyway, power out.

Well, the thing is, it didn't really bother you, right? Like, that's the thing. It really didn't. He might be acting inappropriately, generally speaking, by the code of his thing. But I don't think you're interested in finding another doctor because you didn't really care.

Also, it's interesting because, like, everyone has a doctor. Or at least if you're, you know, have the privilege to have health care, you have a doctor. So the idea that you have a doctor is not...

itself embarrassing yeah i guess i mean i'm sure that he cupped my testicles was right right um

but i feel like i guess you would get into it when you start getting into specialty doctors right like because and there shouldn't be a stigma around mental health obviously but you could certainly see hey luke it's me you're your psychologist or your psychiatrist or whatever yeah and then and then you know generally speaking like you understand why they have the rules I do understand why they have them

And I think it's better to err on the side of caution But I'm also not embarrassed for People to know that I have a doctor And that The caller who's also a doctor It's good to hear that they're being Extremely careful But I don't know if most people would be embarrassed For their doctor to say How's it going? And then if someone asks Oh this is my doctor or I am their doctor If you didn't go like I'm their doctor and also they gotta do something

about that boil yeah exactly they there they pat your stomach and say like how's the diet going or something along the lines of that this guy's one of my many 45 year old clients yeah i'm gonna tell you what i tell all my 45 year olds which is turn your head and cough uh sir i'm at a public event i'm looking now on the fly because i am a terrible producer i think i actually didn't finish

my fully finish my thought when we were like this is like last week when i was talking about the doctor thing which we we sort of went into like you and i went into the conversation about where the results of my test might be which would probably be in an online portal oh yeah but i said to him i was like can i get my i i think i said to him like well i'll see you in in a few months and he goes hopefully not oh and i was like okay i guess it was good i guess the results were good like it was very it was a very non non kind of committal on his part well maybe i'll see

in a few months hopefully not uh if the tests turn out okay you won't be here in a few months

do i have to start or like if the things if the you know tumor shrinks what are you talking about

hopefully not right right right you're joking about the tumor right don't scare i mean as far

as i know but again i haven't logged into the portal i'm not trying to joke people go through health stuff our listeners are going through health stuff even as we say this i promised you

that i wasn't going to read an email but this conversation reminded me of this email that we did get from listener Dave in New York City last week. It says, I walked into Grand Central Station and the guy sees me and gives me the old, hey, you, finger guns. I give him the old, hey, you, because I don't recognize him right away. He asked me how I'm doing, asked a couple of other questions, like someone who actually knows me but doesn't know, know me. Then we say goodbye and we go our separate ways and I'm racking my brain to figure out who this dude is. And then it hits me. He was my doctor HIPAA out Listener Dave in New York City Wow By the way For all those who wanted to let me know That patients can't create HIPAA violations Against themselves I know that They're just jokes They're just jokes I'm one of the only people who's ever HIPAA violated themselves Stop HIPAAing yourself Oh there Maybe that's a show title Stop HIPAAing yourself show title Yeah, I also wrote down before, we didn't say it, but because I realized we're near the end of the show and we needed a show title, I wrote down, Garfield is the Groundhog Day of Movies. I don't know if that's a good show title or not. Here, let's just end on this quick one-minute voicemail that I thought was pretty funny.

Hey, Lincoln Andrew. So, the other day I met this guy who I hadn't ever met before. And he was like, oh, I'm from Bellingham, Washington. And I said, without thinking, yeah, I know Bellingham. and he got really excited and he was like oh really because nobody ever knows where Bellingham is and then I promptly realized that I am from Massachusetts and have not been to that side of the country and said that I knew Bellingham because of you guys and I don't know Bellingham and then immediately panicked and didn't know what to say and my whole brain just filled with like every CBTL sound and I was just like that's a banana and it was really awkward and then I had to say um well i actually don't know bellingham i just sort of listen to this podcast every day where two men talk about nothing and it happens to kind of happen near bellingham um so i guess i just wanted to call and let you guys know that that's why i listen uh power out i was gonna say

i hope you ended your conversation with that fella by yelling power out and running away

i feel like she has a reasonable understanding of bellingham yeah based on like i don't think it was not like a complete fail like me saying i tried to buy a bowling alley in los angeles like that was a complete fail because i only called them like if you if you listen to the show for the many years that i was living in bellingham you were getting a

daily rundown of what was going on in that city it reminds me a little bit of i guess it would have been i mean time warped so much during the pandemic anyway but then also the fact that there were like somehow three basketball seasons all contained within one year during the pandemic all being played at disney world yeah i'll be but the only time i've ever watched basketball with any kind of consistency was like maybe two weeks during the playoffs because the miami heat were in the playoffs during the bubble. Yeah, and I was listening to Levitard Show constantly. And so if the guys on the Levitard Show were talking about everything going on with the Heat, it was more interesting if I had watched a Heat game. And so I remember being at Teddy's one day. So this is like, you know, kind of the early days of things opening up. Nobody's sitting at the bar. We're sitting at tables. And I have my table like situated so that I'm looking at the big screen. I don't know if you know, but Teddy's is Seattle's number one sports bar voted by someone at some point. I was the one that put that on Yelp. And I'm cheering for the – Genevieve is with me, and I'm cheering for Miami. Some other guy there I think was rooting for the Bucs or whoever they were playing and started asking me – started talking to me about basketball, which I was like I have to say right away. I don't really know much about basketball. But I did have to explain why I'm rooting for Miami. And essentially, I was just like, actually, you know what? I was going to tell you that I said this podcast I listen to, but you know what? That's not true. I did what a lot of TBTL listeners do I said my buddy's from Miami I said something like I have some friends In Miami so I'm rooting for them because I remember When the conversation ended Genevieve Turned to me and said your friends And I said shut up

I think we need to redefine Friendship exactly if you listen To people for an hour Plus a day You can consider them your Friends yeah exactly

It was just easier although in this day age I mean podcasting is so is so um common I mean I could have easily have just said oh I listened to a sports show out of Miami you know what I mean that would have probably been less weird especially if you had asked me follow-up questions if you said oh really I'm a census taker in Miami I know everybody there who's your friend yeah but again I just I feel like these

kinds of shows our show in particular but also Levitard it's so living in people's ears that I I just want to like, I want to completely deputize people and sort of release them to say our friend, my friends in Bellingham, my friends in Portland, my friends in the Roosevelt neighborhood of Seattle, Washington, et cetera.

How do you feel about lover? Just like my, you know, my line went down for a minute.

It sounded like you said lover, but I think that must have been a glitch in the connection. Did Andrew Walsh just say lover?

I know. That's one of the words that I'm not allowed to say. It just doesn't do anybody any good.

We can go north of strangers and south of lover. Is that a show title? That certainly is. North of strangers, south of lover.

I'm writing it down. I wonder what that will mean for our hits this week or this show if we get a lot of downloads. I assume that will SEO something. Hopefully. Have you been thinking about music, generally speaking?

I have been not only thinking about music, Andrew, I've been listening to music. Yeah, what have you been listening to, and should we go out with it? I am obsessed with this song by the band. Let me get back to... Is it the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band? It is, in fact. It's Fishing in the Dark by the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band.

Hey, how did I know?

Let me see if I can get back to this Spotify thing I was working with here. Oh, man, this is going to... Technology is going to thwart me. this band loving oh can you oh yeah okay did you not not love not love i know for a second i thought

we were i was like oh yeah we just talked about that but no that's love this band is called loving

and uh okay hold on it's oh okay technology thwarted me and then rewarded me when i said that to you andrew my phone got to it because it heard me saying really what did you didn't say a trigger word though to get your phone to i said the band loving and it just i saw like a microphone and a WAV file, and then it took me to the band. Wow. I know. Again, kind of upsetting, but also convenient. Yeah. Can we go out with the song Visions by the band Loving? We sure can. I got it right here. This is your phone, apparently. All right. Thanks for listening, everybody. We're going to be right back here tomorrow with more Imaginary Radio for you sport heads. We're going to be coming your way with a no-point conversion in just a few. Until we see the rest of you on Tuesday, please take care of yourselves and each other. And remember, no mountain too tall. Good luck to all. It's the beauty of the morning It's the soft line of your thigh It's the day that I found you known As I walked along the shore I read the lines you wrote Left hidden in my cold

It's the truth, it's the truth, and it's her life.

She loved to be Alone, alone To feel the shape Of herself at home That could not be known Like a stranger on the street Whose eyes you fear the need

Are we, are we, are we We are. Are we telling this to the audience? We should. I know, but do you want them to find out for themselves? Power out.