Muse

Cut. Kyle, I don't feel like we're capturing the essence of the show right now. You don't call cut. You're not the director, man. Okay, no, I'm sorry, and I respect you as a director, but quite frankly, I think you're losing control a little bit, and I have a better idea than what you're giving me right now. So let's cut and start again, starting now. Cut and action, go. All right, let's roll sound. And also roll sound.

T-B-T-L Guess what day it is? Guess what day it is.

It's Friday. Friday. Gotta get down on Friday. Everybody's looking forward to the weekend.

We are not ramping down. We're just getting started. Nothing stops this train. Nothing.

Nice software. Boy, you sure don't talk like a machine.

Um, maybe try one cooler and faster. and louder and better and less insecure and more just cool this is stuff so funny by the way did

the comic come up with this because some of this stuff like i feel like i could see somebody doing

their act well all right hello good morning and welcome everyone to a friday edition of tbtl social engineering what is it exactly and how does it work the show that just might be too

beautiful to live and the best part is your fingers stay clean my name is luke burbank i am

your host coming to you today from beautiful seattle washington oh ma pa it's just beautiful and the sauna of sound this is special this is special aka andrew's studio where we have arrived at episode 3818 in a collector series let the fun begin you know that uh i do love me well i love me and i hate me some twitter hi everyone welcome to my twitter so it's with a sort of mixed feelings that i i watch what may or may not be the final hours of this platform that It both bedevils me and also gives me most of my serotonin release during a given week. By the time this recording is hitting your phone or podcatcher of some kind, I mean, I don't know. Will Twitter even still exist? Probably. But things are really getting weird over there. We're going to talk about that. But also, speaking of failed businesses, Tom Brady and Larry David and others are now being sued by people who lost all their money on that FTX thing. So you got my money? Also, we've got a couple of lingering food news articles.

Welcome to Food News Today.

That have kind of been hanging around all week that we will also talk about if we have the time. Although really what I want to talk about on this Friday is that I have a new favorite feline. There is something about the soul of a cat. And it ain't Bubbles Burbank, I'll tell you what. So we may get into that as well. And also music for your weekend on this Friday, a.k.a. a Fri-yay. We're going to do all that with the help of this young man, the longest running co-bro of the show, maybe known best for his depictions of the tall ships. He's coming into today's recording with one goal in mind.

I don't want any more bullshit any time during the day from anyone. That includes me.

He's Andrew Walsh, and he's joining me right now from just across this broadcast table. Good morning, my friend. Good morning. Why do you think I got this big-ass bruise on my arm? I think it's part of being middle-aged.

Just getting mystery bruises? Yes. How long would you say this thing is? Is I got two, three-inch bruise?

Yeah.

On my arm? On your forearm. On your forearm. On your right forearm.

There's a three-inch kind of long, sort of rectangular bruise.

And I cannot, for the life of me, remember banging my arm on anything. I probably, should I look it up on IMDb? Should I look it up on IMDb? Yes. The Bruise starring Bruce Willis. Every time I look something up on others.

Now that's it. Is Bruise Willis, is that a show title?

It might be. It might be. Yeah, but should I look it up on WebMD is what I meant to say. But I feel like if I just start typing in, like, mystery bruises on WebMD, I'm going to spiral real fast.

No, it will, as they often say, it'll make you think your life is ending pretty soon. I would say I'm going to start looking up all of my medical maladies on IMDb. Yeah, definitely. I feel like it's just going to be a more positive space for that, and it won't tell me that I have hours to live. I don't know. I'm being serious when I say as I get older it's more common that I will you know what I have been having all

morning here in seattle huh unexplained itching of the outside of my fingers on my left hand the tips of your finger oh the outside of your fingers i'm talking like right here i'm showing you yeah the back of your hand the back of your fingers only one hand only one hand and i've been like kind of just i've been itching it a little bit i've been trying to i've been working my hand like a pitcher trying to rub a wrinkle into a baseball it's just and i i think unexplained Physical weirdness Is part of The dying process

Make a fist with that hand quickly Now hold it up to my arm Did you oh by the way we're doing the show in person today Oh my gosh I think that you punched me And somehow you're allergic to my skin Exactly Maybe your skin is allergic to having Its ass kicked By me That's your new move You punch people on the inside of their forearms Nobody's ready for it Nobody sees it coming

It started when I was a bouncer at a club And the inky stamp that we had It ran out of ink So I started just punching everyone in the forearm To mark that I'd checked their ID And they were allowed to go in and order drinks

I don't like stickers on my skin I think we've discussed that I don't love having stamps on my skin

Anyway, welcome to Seattle Thank you, I'm very excited to be here Although it's bittersweet for me this morning, Andrew Because I think you have a better cat than I do

I have two better cats than you Okay, no, I mean, listen, peace and love

Peace and love to the professor But I can only really speak to the cat That I've cradled in my arms Unflappable, that cat Now, I've been, obviously Pretty, I've been pretty pro-Bubbles Burbank, my cat And have said things such as I would die for her Maybe the closest I've ever felt to a pet in my life Which is saying a lot, because I've had a lot of pets I'm very very close to that cat And I think what I have loved about her Was something that a lot of people said to me Before I got her and really before I'd had A small kitten in my life which was They're kind of a little more like a dog Which I always thought was the weirdest compliment to a cat I was like well then maybe you should get a dog If that's what we're going for here But then what I've always loved about Bubbles Is that she is playful, she's curious She wants to kind of hang out with me I like that, I like that she's not just She's a real companion She's a companion Yeah, absolutely. But what I didn't realize until I came into your house and Bingo came out to start sniffing around and say hi. And then I picked Bingo up and then Bingo just was chilling in my arms, not trying to escape, not meowing, not trying to claw my eyes out, not on like a countdown clock, which is what Bubbles will do. Bubbles, I pick Bubbles up, but it's sort of against her will.

Yeah, same with bananas. You can feel it. I know exactly you have this like countdown clock, you know about how long you then you feel her tense up a tiny bit. You're like, OK, put you down.

Well, that's when I that's when I put her in the bear hug. That's when I start playing her stomach like a banjo. And so I was just and then I handed Bingo over to Becca, who's here as well. And then Bingo did something that may have broken broken my brain and my heart, which was he just he's being held by Becca. He was totally chill and he just leaned his head back. Yeah. So he's now upside down

Like sliding off her arms almost

His head is now fully upside down He just looked at me with both of his eyes And then just like I touched my nose to his nose Oh yeah And he just didn't even He did not for one second Appear to be bothered by any of this And that's the thing that I've not ever been able to I didn't fully grasp how rad this cat was Until I just got to meet him Because I feel like you get the cats that either hide or are pretty like even olive the cat that i used to have who i also really loved and thought was a cool cat olive was a huntress she was mostly outside yeah indoor outdoors indoor outdoor emphasis on the outdoors her mom had been a barn cat she was just you get a cat that's aloof and doesn't want to be around you or i thought you get a cat like bubbles that wants to be around you all the time but is on their own terms and bingo appears to be a cat that wants to be around you

largely on your terms just a chill dude he's kind of like mercury like when you're holding him he just he's in retrograde yeah is that why i've been in such a bad mood this doesn't work for the podcast i'm sorry but actually i did tweet this picture so you can while twitter still exists i guess you can find what am i andrew underscore walsh i think on twitter i literally don't even know but do you see that photo that genevieve took i liked it he is i smashed the like he looks like al bundy he's just like really does the cat is just like laying on his back Nobody's around him On an armchair Kind of propped up And he just His little arms are just They just flopped by his side Somebody said Just put a little beer can In his paw And he's totally Al Bundy

You need to put some pants on him And then wedge one paw in Do you know that I did that Like partially because I don't know I was a teenage boy

And I think you just are a little You're still figuring out your own body But I think watching Married with Children Like why you have bruises on your arm That's something I like to figure out in my mid to late 40s But I think I remember that was one of the bits Was that Al loved to sit down On his couch Pig! Used to be a star, poke high or whatever And he would slide one hand By the way, these pants are kind of tight

I can't do that That's why I have tonight pants So that I can slip my hand down the front

But like I remember seeing him do that And I don't think I'd ever seen a dude do that I had never done it And I think there was a period of years Where I started doing it thinking I mean literally even at age like 14 I think you're impressionable And you think oh is that just something I didn't get the memo on And that's what we're doing as guys

Right exactly And the thing is I haven't seen anybody do it since Like it was presented to us like it was a Like it was a trope or something But really it was his own thing And remember I mean it got to the point on that show I was not allowed to watch that show Nor was I

I would watch it on my secret Remember I had a boombox that had a TV built into it But my parents didn't I mean the screen was smaller than this iPhone I'm holding up for you But because my parents didn't know That this boombox had a television on it I could sit down there in my room Watching the three channels that it got

Via the antenna Yeah my friend Tony had one of those And we would also sneak watching TV there Because he had some strict parents with guidelines About what he was allowed to watch um but yeah like married with children i remember because we had a conversation about vhf and uhf um a few weeks ago and like in cleveland we had the three main network channels and then we had two uhf stations but then one of the uhf stations channel 19 um w o i o we heard and this is like the late 80s i want to say we heard it was becoming a fox station and nobody really knew what kind of fox meant and it wasn't like obviously fox then isn't what it is now and we just knew it had something called the simpsons which was a cartoon not for kids and the show married with children which my parents are had already heard about just like the trashiest thing that could be on tv like that was like we might as i mean if i was caught watching marry with children i might as well be caught watching pornography that glorifies drug use like and disrespects the police and celebrate and hail satan like um it was just like oh my gosh what is coming into our homes and so like that show was always like the show that was not for for our family but you know you would see it here or there the parents would go out I would get older that show lasted a long time and it got to the point I was gonna say this before where all Al had to do was slip his hand down into the band of his pants and the crowd would woof woof woof or cheer or whatever go wild right and then a toilet flushes off screen like the Simpsons parody of it Like you flush a toilet and the crowd goes wild for it.

I know. And then it'd be like, also, I was actually talking about this, I think, either with you or with Becca. So the good news is you and my girlfriend are existing in the same Venn diagram overlap. But also, this is another learned behavior thing. When Christina Applegate would come on camera, Kelly on the show, they would play this, you know, a bunch of guys hooting. Wolf whistling. And I was thinking, I guess that's also what we do. You know what I mean? I mean, you wonder how this toxic masculinity shit gets started. It's like me watching on a boombox TV going like, oh, yeah, I guess she is hot because all these people, all these guys are objectifying her in this moment. And now, granted, I mean, the point of the TV show is to create these larger in life archetypal characters. So I guess I'm not saying to be sexually attracted to Kelly Bundy is a crime. But I remember not having experienced that kind of thing Having worked on zero construction crews By the age of 13 I didn't know that was a thing And then I saw it on that show And then I thought, I guess that's also what we're doing

Right, which is why when your co-host, Elena Yes Comes out on stage, you always wolf whistle her On LiveWire And it's really uncomfortable for everybody No, I mean, and this is not a spoiler But like, you know, that's why I strongly believe And have very rooted feelings about You and I had mentioned very briefly i think last week something about like kind of gender constructs or something and like i feel very very deeply that yeah i mean we're talking about one of the most obvious gross examples of those stereotypes being reinforced and you're a young person you're you and i were young boys watching this stuff and like it was seeping in but there's a there's just a million smaller things that seep in as well that might not even seem as egregious that are just part of our culture and this is not a spoiler but it's like it's literally this conversation is there's a nod to it in in the white lotus you have um kind of three generations of men a guy who's like probably in his 20s he's kind of a kid michael imperioli who's like in his 50s in this and then His dad, who's played by F. Scott Fitzgerald. Oh, my gosh. That is a gett. No, who's the guy who played Salieri and Amadeus? He's a famous actor. F. Murray Abraham? Good for you. Ring your bell.

Well, I mean, let's be honest. F. Murray Abraham. How many actors, their first letter of their name is F, period. It was a fairly short list.

So I wasn't even sure if I got that right, though. But anyway, and he plays the grandfather, right? And so you have this kind of conversation, the young kid who's like in his 20s, like criticizing his dad and grandpa for saying and kind of embarrassing him in front of a young woman he has an interest in because they're dealing with these like kind of gross stereotypes and they're saying like no we're the reason they're stereotypes is because we're men we're hardwired like this right and he's like no no you think you're hardwired because you're consuming it from the moment you're born you're getting messages from society about how men are supposed to act or women are supposed to act or whatever and so anyway and it's i also do think not that

there aren't lots of chauvinist pigs that are our age and that are 25 i mean it is something that spans generations but i do think there is a generational component i was on this shoot in new york and i will try to be very vague here but i was talking to a person that works for the hallmark channel who is part of i think their publicity department and we were just making small talk between various setups on the shoot just you know i don't know just very very what would you call it surfacy conversation about whatever and then there was another person there um who was not part of the hallmark thing they were kind of an extended part of the cbs crew a person who is 30 years older than me so maybe maybe not not mid-70s let's say they're like 25 years older than me and we're talking and the three of us are just standing around just chatting and this guy goes says something about his kids like i moved to jersey because you know i for my kids and he goes huh here i am talking about my kids that's really ruining my chances of flirting with you oh and i'm just like bro wow yeah like that you just send a chill through the room like yeah oh like it was i i like part of me wanted to just make an excuse up to leave but then part of me wanted to not just like leave this poor person no no with someone who just said a weird ass thing in a professional setting just sit there this other person who is uh you know i'm sure used to the persistent toxic masculinity of our society didn't even respond and we just moved on and i basically stayed in the conversation long enough in my mind to get us away from that onto something else and then in what felt like a safe place so that i could get the fuck out of

there right yeah so that you could then flirt with the person by yourself well i started flirting

with the guy right i was like i don't care that you have kids my dude but it was just out of the blue and it was it was so and i i really kind of was thinking about it for a long time because this person was actually really like this person that i was knowing from the other side of the production he was a cool guy that he and i were having these really nice chats you know throughout multiple days of shooting at different locations and i just thought like how many things like that has this person who is not like a seem i don't think in any way is this person trying to be chauvinist or make someone uncomfortable or be rude but how many things like that as this person said in their 70 years on the planet right two people it's just like oh and that's one person

right right right i'm trying to think viz and i were watching something it might have actually been the white lotus because i think that is what kind of led to this and again i'm not going it's none of this matters to the plot it's not a big deal and it's set up from the very beginning that the um this grandfather who's played by f scott fitzgerald um is i've already sure it's not tiesto hernandez yeah what wait for the newsletter um what's his name f what f murray abraham murray abraham i'm sorry it's f murray kill okay hold on everybody just stop we gotta write down the show title f period murray kill um that is such a good joke um i uh anyway that's part of his character and like that's where we're seeing kind of some tension it's not the main plot by any stretch of the imagination but like it comes in hot with him this older man in his late 70s I'm going to say just flirting a hardcore with these young beautiful women who are at this resort right at this white lotus resort and he's embarrassing you're seeing the difference between the generations he's embarrassing both his son who's well in the middle age and his grandson but then there are times where you know like you just see the three different generations all being embarrassed by the other right um but we were watching it and it's like you know just these nice young women as portrayed in the show who are just like standing there politely while this old gross man and he's not even especially gross he's only gross because he's

acting gross you know is is like kind of saying oh well you should come on this trip with us and just like flirting really hardcore he like he just doesn't under the whole point is he doesn't understand why a woman wouldn't be complimented by that yeah and uh genevieve just keeps screaming at the tv she's at work she's just doing her job right and this person that i was talking to was

at work yeah exactly and like and like the other thing that you might hear from some of the more you know toxic men in the world is just this this idea that like we're living in this like woke culture overly woke culture where like you can't even compliment someone or every like you can't say anything anymore and what i have observed at least in this case is no what's really happening is in 2022 there's still a lot of guys saying inappropriate lame things to women who are generally just kind of smiling through it it's this this this uh woman did not like stop the conversation to go why would you even say that to me where it worked yeah right she just whatever laughed smiled we moved like i bet you that that's 99 of these interactions so the people that think like oh man the the feminist movement means like they're always about to read you the riot act and you're just trying to say nice dress yeah it's like no no that's not what's happening like talk to any woman in your life i don't know who i'm lecturing right now al bundy's ghost like talk to any woman in your life and ask them how often that shit happens and then what how it's usually handled and my guess would be most of the time the woman just getting through it just making what is the best of five least good options here and just moving forward that's

still really the world i think we're living in well that's why i go back this has come up on the show several times um and i always use this one example of um i was at the grocery store this is I don't know, five years ago now or something. And there was a woman, I think she's my age or older. I don't really remember the details all that well, but just had a cool dress on. It wasn't especially like it wasn't like a sexy dress. It was just like a it was just literally a cool dress. Right. I kind of like cool dresses. And so I think I said, hey, that's a cool dress or something. I told the views about it later. And she's like, eh, you know, you can probably just miss people with that. You know, when I say that, I'll get feedback from people in our audience, a lot of them women saying like no it's okay to compliment somebody's dress and like i'm a woman and like that's okay like we know when somebody's being creepy and when they're not or whatever and i understand that but the reason i have now said like no i don't need to especially you know like go up to a stranger i have no interaction with at all just to compliment something that she's wearing is like that might be a nice thing but like honestly like you have no idea if she's grocery shopping at 5 p.m and just got off of work you have no idea how much shit she put up with with dudes who are giving her unsolicited compliments all day you know what i mean and well even though i know i'm not creeping and i'm not you know i'm not flirting i'm just like you know um i just don't need to i just don't need to roll the dice on that you know like what's the what's the i guess the upside is maybe you make somebody feel good but like i don't know just let

her you know pick out her produce well i'm sure that this was the exact conversation we had the last time that we talked about this particular scenario for me that all comes down to did you cross a produce section to say it right or are you standing next to each other in line at the point at which either you or they are done paying for the groceries therefore have an out right like if i if if my if where i am in the world happens up next to somebody who is a woman and maybe she has a nice dress on if it felt like the kind of thing where we're just standing next to each other and also we're not gonna have to stand next to each other for 45 minutes yeah like we're not in line for a roller coaster at the we're not not in line at the um thing in the airport where when your flight is canceled and you've got to go stand and wait for them to book you a new flight if it's something where it feels to me casual and by natural happenstance there we are i might say hey that's a really cool dress or you know compliment but it's like what i would probably never do is go like someone's two lines over and i go over two lines ago hey that's a like that's And I stress like if chaser across the parking lot, like that, like that bad guy in Terminator two or like Zoiberg or like Zoiberg, uh, I just want to talk.

There's nothing to do with mating. Let me ask you, this is changes the topic a little bit, but it stays on the topic of those lines at airports. I'm not talking about the line that you're talking about, the one where your flight is

canceled, but which by the way, can I just mention to people never stand in that line? Get the app. Oh yeah. So whatever your airline is, get the app and just start war dialing them the second that your flight, you even have an inkling your flight might have a problem. Get on the phone with somebody. The phone. And if you're getting a phone tree, use the F word a lot because this is my own theory. I probably shared it with you on the show. I am of the opinion and I've had the experience when you're getting, when you're trapped in phone hell, if you start using the F word a lot. I think the software is set so that it tries to get you to a human faster because they can they can sense you're melting down and a type of person to like I always had a theory.

I don't know if I'm right or not, but they might have some people. And again, this is totally just speculation on my part based on maybe an urban legend I heard in the 90s. But like that, they might if they can tell that somebody is agitated before they get to a to a human being in the phone tree, they might have special human beings who are good at dealing with crisis people.

Yeah, you know, the crisis phone person.

Anyway, you were saying we got an email from somebody, by the way, who and this was forever ago. And I don't think I ever had a chance to read on the show. I'm looking for it now. But who was working on or was somehow at their research university or something new about some research going into certain customer service software that would somehow measure maybe like typos or the rate of speed while entering information. Oh, wow. So it could funnel more angry or agitated customers. But it was just like some experiment. I can't find it in my email here. That was forever ago. But I was just going to ask you, I guess you don't do those because you're TSA approved. You don't have to go through the long winding lines where you see the same person like maybe five or six or seven times before you finally get through security.

Not usually. But when I was flying to New York a week or so ago and I had to run for my flight because the TSA line was also extremely backed up, it was one of those situations. So it does happen, but it doesn't happen as often as it would in the sort of regular line.

Yeah. Yeah. Sometimes I feel like I'm like best friends with somebody by the end. Like we haven't said a word. Right. But you've just passed each other so many times. And you know what?

I this is a classic how my brain works. what i have a really hard time doing or what what makes me unirrationally kind of annoyed is when you get to one of those things and there's no line so it's just the person is sitting there tsa person waiting for you to come and you have to go through like you have to switch back like a mouse like yeah you have to switch back like five or six times with your roller bag and i just feel like there can't I just pull these stanchions apart like I I have a real problem following the rules when the rules seem to be kind of unnecessary not arbitrary but arbitrary in that moment silly and I'm just like I feel like I'm like I don't know some combination of Benny Hill and Mr. Bean you're hearing that music going yeah yakety sacks as I'm just following this course that makes no sense for me in this moment it's unnecessary it's also unnecessary andrew that i'm desperately trying to find my tv boombox on ebay but i believe i have oh yeah vintage matsui mcr 550 boombox tv radio cassette player matsui it's selling right now in england for 108 us that's not bad 69 pounds i know i wonder do you think it would even pick up any unfortunately and you know like when they show you the photo They should be trying to show you the best version The TV is just on snow Oh Which makes me wonder if the TV still even works Or if they just don't have any over Over the air channels anymore Yeah, Matsui MCR 550 boombox TV radio Cassette player is exactly what I had

I'm seeing this too Are you looking on eBay?

Yes, it's the one They list at first Great British pounds 69.26 is the cost anyway man i'm tempted to buy one of these oh no i'm looking at one that's parts only oh yeah i mean i would be surprised if this thing even worked do they i mean with an antenna i could theoretically get a couple channels right there's still some over the air broadcast i think so i

mean well there was that you know i was already on cable at that point so i don't know but there was that big thing about you had to get digital antennas a while back to get over the air stuff Right so maybe there's no way this thing

There's no way this thing Is still going to get married with children I'll bit torn it For you thank you give it to you on a thumb drive Hey let's take a quick break here but when we Come back I actually have an update From listener Tracy Listener Tracy was one of the many Tens of listeners who Stopped by Livewire last night thank you Everyone who came out it was really fun to get to see all Of y'all thanks for coming to the show Now Tracy was also at The Smashing Pumpkins show Which we needed to get some eyes On if one William Corrigan Jr I don't know If he's a junior He seems like you know Esquire maybe Billy Corrigan Sr Might have been the kind of guy Who would name his son William Corrigan Jr Anyway Billy Corrigan from the Smashing Pumpkins Was caught eating chips During a drum solo And Tracy was at the concert And talked about it with me last night And now has sent a follow up email That I'm going to read When we come back on TBTL

You

all right let's thank some of our donors of the day who are keeping tbtl rolling with their financial support folks like ryan inman of gallatin tennessee very familiar name thank you Ryan yeah thank you very much Ryan and I'm wondering was I did I get anywhere near Gallatin when I was out there in Tennessee goofus and Gallatin uh-huh I was gallivanting near Gallatin um thank you people say you know one of the great qualities of America is that it's in a Gallatin society

that's what they said

I'm out of Gallatin references uh thanks Ryan appreciate you also thanks to Rebecca Gerke of Kingston Washington Kingston is beautiful You take the ferry to get over there It's really A little slice of heaven, Kingston, Washington

You mentioned, I'm going to go back To something now, going to an egalitarian Society, who was You were talking About Lafayette yesterday, right And I said, regretfully So, and I said, wasn't he like I think I said economist, I knew that was wrong But I knew I was thinking of somebody and some wonderful listener and I don't know who it was because I think it was a text message I'm just remembering this from last night texted me that said I think you were thinking of de Tocqueville if I'm saying that name right so at least I was at least there was some little bit of reality that my

brain was trying was it like Alexis de Tocqueville right and de Tocqueville came to the US I believe and was very impressed by sort of what was unfolding right

yes and not an economist but I just think like an aristocrat and a thinker and stuff and so anyway um i was just so whoever sent that and thank you like i just felt like when you were having that conversation i felt very dumb for saying that but also like i still couldn't scratch this itch of but i i'm thinking of something right i know i'm not right but i'm thinking of something as a basis of reality so i appreciated yeah you

were like french kind of like french aristocrat who comes to makes a strong connection to america

Yeah, right.

By the way, in case anyone cares, Lafayette was a wealthy Frenchman who actually came over and fought in the American Revolutionary War. He commanded American troops in several battles, including the siege of Yorktown. So just a little update on that. And it is interesting how I mentioned this yesterday, how many places in America are named for Lafayette or reference or how many statues of Lafayette exist. And it was really just, I think, because he became this kind of sensation in America at around the time when they were naming things and at around the time when they were building statues. And so he got sort of like you might argue he's slightly overrepresented in the in the naming of cities and the lore of places. And that's not a diss on him or anything

Yeah, no, let's not start a beef

No, let's not This is not the show where we diss Lafayette This is the show where we thank Chris Gleam Of Reno, Nevada The biggest little city in the world That is such a great slogan for a city Yep Isn't it though? Thank you, Chris I haven't been to Reno You know, since my daughter stopped playing club volleyball It's really cut down on my trips to Reno That's a big club volleyball town, Reno? Yeah, there's the – actually, it's in Sparks, I think, technically, which is like a – I want to say – or maybe it was just the Sparks Convention Center. We used to go to Reno a lot, and then they would have this huge convention center that they would turn into like a million volleyball courts. The Reno Sparks Convention Center.

I'm looking at it.

Yeah, and then – and boy, I was living there for a while.

Well, that probably fit you. Like, so at night – I didn't hate it. I was going to say, because you'd probably put Adelaide to bed at a certain point, right? I don't know how old she is. Maybe she's a young teen or something at this point. Yeah. And then you're going out.

Her and her volleyball friends are staying in some series of rooms. Sure, yeah. And it would be like, okay, everyone get a good night's sleep. Daddy will be at the poker table.

Would you say that, would you go to Reno before Vegas? I mean, are there?

Well, you know, I bet you that there are a lot of, there are probably a lot of nooks and crannies of Reno that I don't know about in like cool little out-of-the-way places. I only really knew about the sort of, you know, main, I don't know, three or four big casino hotels and then that convention center.

Okay, so I was wondering because it's like a smaller version. I've never been to Reno, and I haven't really been to Vegas either. I wasn't sure if there was something kind of appealing about Reno, maybe having more old school bones or more.

I think Paul Thomas Anderson's first movie, it's called Hard Eight.

Yeah.

It has a young Gwyneth Paltrow in it, is set in Reno. Okay, yeah.

And I think that that's a kind of an interesting look at the sort of what's up with Reno versus what's up with Vegas.

Ooh, I want to watch the Heart 8 again. I haven't seen that in decades. I remember really liking it. I want to throw a Heart 8.

I want to find a place that will let me do the craps around here. Thanks, Chris. Also, thanks to Benjamin Oaks in Charleston, South Carolina. Beautiful Charleston. Yeah. Again, a good distribution today. Tennessee, Washington, Nevada, South Carolina. And then we're popping down to Lakeland, Florida, where Emmy Pickering is.

Oh, Emmy. We met Emmy when we did our Florida show down there at the Waffle House. Yes. Thank you, Emmy.

It's another place that I really would like to go is a Waffle House.

A Waffle House, I know. Somebody took a photo of – you know, when I go to, like, a restaurant to order breakfast food, I don't usually get – sometimes I'll get pancakes if it's easy. But, like, for the most part, I'm not into sweets. But somebody took a picture of their French toast this morning and I saw it On Instagram and now all I can think about Was it bean probably? No it was Stephanie Drury who was Oh our friend Stephanie Drury yeah And I was just like now I want French toast I haven't had French toast in years and years and years But suddenly it's the only thing that matters to me

I'm trying to use the Use my location on the Waffle House website To find the closest One and I just think this would be This is going to be interesting Okay I'm zooming out of Washington State I'm zooming out of the west coast I'm zooming out of planet earth There's not even one on planet earth Oh that is surprising to me You know what I want to say Colorado Denver Andrew we missed our chance Oh Denver that's why people go to Denver Exactly for the omelet For the Denver omelet at the Waffle House anyway thank you Emmy and thanks also to Michelle Rund in San Jose California Thanks to all of our donors today For making TBTL possible We would not be here I would not be able to come in Just amped on coffee The problem is Andrew I got one of the big Starbucks things at the hotel And then came here and then refilled it with coffee From your house This is much more coffee Two of these is much more coffee than I drink in a given day Usually so I'm bouncing off the walls But happy to be here nonetheless Thank you to our donors for making TBTL possible hello and welcome to top story well let's start with a little update from listener tracy who went to the smashing pumpkins concert and uh let me see i've got to get back into my email now which as you know andrew is a 30-step process despite logging in every time and saying please remember me uh it's a lot of hoops to jump through but anyway last night tracy uh was at livewire as As I mentioned, there was a whole group of really awesome tens that came by. And now we, I feel, Andrew, I want to make sure I'm not giving short shrift to anybody else. We had assigned, I believe, Camaro Kev the job of investigating, is Billy Corrigan going to eat chips? I think we had another listener. I'm saying the name might be Chris off the top of my head.

Yeah, I think he was maybe live texting me from the show.

Oh, so you do maybe have some feedback from him as well.

But everybody had a different perspective on it. It's like Rashomon. I love it I think Tracy might be the more definitive one though Because I believe I don't know if it was Chris who was texting me But somebody was live texting me during the show And all I know is that apparently Billy Corgan addressed it at some point And talked about chips But that's basically all I know

Here's what Tracy sent me Alright this is The Smashing Pumpkins correspondent following up I was at the show last Saturday in Seattle Billy sounded good But a bit fatigued i was watching for the chip eating sure enough drum solo he goes to the left of the stage and he had a snack i was messaging on facebook with fellow listener laurel during the show and she saw it too uh-huh he addressed it with the crowd and made a comment about eating chips

helps his voice okay i got did i tell you i got a listener email i don't think i did tell you this who said when he was in a high school band a teacher or somebody told him that chips are good For the voice because of grease or something like that But I was kind of dubious

We had this whole conversation last night After Livewire Me and the other tens kind of going like Has anyone heard of Chips being a vocal Aid but maybe so and he said He said Eating chips helps his voice Or something along those lines and then Tracy writes the next day they cancelled their show in Portland due to him having laryngitis

Yes that's true

Now this this would actually kind of track then this would put a totally different spin on this story which is if billy corgan yeah thank you i just gave luke the andrew just jiggling the andrew just adjusted his tie that he's not wearing on his adam's apple as billy corgan did when he was eating

the chips he quickly like kind of rubbed his throat quickly which this actually this makes it all make way more sense so it's not the billy corrigan is just like so peckish that he can't go through a whole concert without eating some chips and he's just waiting for the drum solo he is doing this as a vocal sort of aid a vocal tool and that would that would just make a lot more sense because it just seemed like a kind of an odd behavior at that moment but if he's if he's having trouble i mean it's a lot of i used to be a little whatever you know what i mean what comes next i don't know little boy i think so i used to be a little boy no despite all my rage i'm still just a rat in a cage that was um really uncorrigan like of me no but like that's high that's got to be hard to belt that out for hours and um so he probably Is one of those people that heard from his music teacher That eating chips helps your voice And so that's why he's been Smashing chips during the drum solo And nilling this wobble on his neck To try to like spread the grease Around internally on his vocal cords

It is little boy The more we said it the more I started to doubt us But no I used to be a little boy so old in my shoes I want to read this email From Jason from Linwood Washington and my apologies I kind of got this wrong I don't think any teachers were involved here but listen to this billy cortana oh is that billy corgan's real name oh anyway he says billy cortana is a certified weirdo however that's a good last name i know why would you change that it is weird we all kind of say billy corrigan but it's not it's billy corgan oh c-o-r-g-a-n anyway uh jason from linwood washington writes however back in the day when i was in a seattle area christian rock band i learned that who's writing this this is jason from linwood this is listener um i was in a seattle area christian rock band and i learned that eating potato chips can actually help keep your throat loose something about the oils and the chips i don't know they let me they didn't let me sing in this band but i always eat potato chips just in case i get called

up from the crowd to help the band out okay this is on facebook um which i can't really log into but i'm just looking at whatever it'll let me see i was googling uh eating potato chips for vocal health yeah somebody under the name disc makers said um okay quick vocal recording tip eat potato chips no really here's a crazy trick for recording vocals have the singer eat their favorite regular potato chips before you cut their vocal track not pringles it's got to be something greasy you'll be blown away when you hear the difference the salt eats away at phlegm and the oil lubricates the throat and it just gives the voice a little more crispness huh there you go i'm sold hey it

It was on Facebook. Does it say who stole the election? No, I mean, so at least it is a theory out there whether or not, you know, the veracity. We're not the ones to say. But no. But I also think Billy Corgan, like, yeah, I mean, he's he's just kind of a strange dude. But like, I don't think I do think he takes his I do think he takes his craft very seriously. Sometimes you might even think too seriously.

Yes. What's weird. Every time I kind of Billy Corgan is I'm sorry, Billy Cortana. I use his name because it matters Every time that I kind of Think he's a little pretentious Or a little he does something that sort of Is off putting for me then I'll hear him on like the Howard Stern show or doing a long in-depth Interview and I'm like he's actually kind of an interesting

Dude yeah but didn't he get weird with Some Alex Jones stuff I gotta say I don't really Know about what he said I just thought that he Was saying some stuff that was like not great for society

He bought like a failing Wrestling empire he's really into wrestling Which is that's not a problem Per se but yeah I think he's got Some conspiracy I think that's some bad takes on Things I mean he is A sort of a bizarre dude but I'm with you I think he takes Being the lead singer of Smashing Pumpkins Still very seriously and I am now willing to say I think the potato Chips are his attempt to sort of rejuvenate

His voice mid concert Especially since he canceled the Next one and he had been doing this at several Concerts throughout the Midwest making his way out West here I don't know though The more we're talking about him oh he's such a serious musician or takes his art very serious like if you really take your art that serious would you name an album melancholy and the infinite sadness if you were if you were a pretentious twat whoa it's british it's cute the british get away with so much they really do buggering let's not let's not go through it all here are you we don't get away with it we're not

british um but uh yeah no that's i mean and that's the tension if you will or the whatever you want to call it the duality of of billy corgan is that i love you know i love the music it's very nostalgic for me when i hear a lot of that stuff but yeah names like melancholy and the infinite sadness do not uh do not indicate a person who's not high on their own supply now i want to say this if people think i'm dunking like i think that if you were to look at a pie chart of all of the music that i was obsessed with in my life or all of the albums melancholy would be a huge chunk of that pie chart i mean college like all i did in college was fall in love with sarah who didn't love me back and then i would go back to my apartment or my little dormitory and just listen i literally would just like listen to melancholy in the infinite sadness on repeat while just feeling all kinds of unrequited love from the people around me.

Well, happy Friday. Yeah, I'll tell you who's not getting any love right now. Anyone even tangentially associated with that FTX thing, that crypto exchange, because, of course, it collapsed and people are out billions of dollars and they're all looking for someone to sue and to recoup some of their money from. And there's now a class action lawsuit against the people that were in the ads for FTX. Now, we played that Larry David ad where the whole bit is Larry David has always said things are a bad idea that are actually a good idea, like the wheel and the toilet and things like that. And so he says the FTX is a bad idea. He's being sued. Tom Brady is being sued. A lot of the people that showed up in the ads are being sued. Raising the question. Steph Curry, I think. Yes. Yeah, Steph Curry. Raising the question, do you think one, do you think that these folks are actually liable in the sense that they put their name? They encouraged people to do something, something that turned out to be unsafe financially for them, as if they had done an ad for a car that was, you know, like the Pinto or something. It was unsafe at any speed. That's the first question. The other question is, does Larry David have any legal cover? Because in the ad, he's literally decrying the product. Well, I mean, it's an. ad for it but at no time does larry david say this is good you should do it in fact larry david's character literally says no it's bad like i understand that it is meant in a broader sense to promote the product but you don't have larry david on tape saying use like the way that matt damon and we're talking i think about different companies yeah i don't think damon was crypto.com okay yeah but even so like those matt damon ads he's like fortune favors the bold he's like for some reason he's on like the space yeah right station it's weird because matt damon is so self-aware and to me likable but those ads were so just like tonally bland and like him just going fortune favors the bowl he's in like some sort of like if futurama weren't a cartoon he's in like

the most boring futurama yes sort of he's like in the in the hall of heads only there are no heads

in there yeah but but basically like that's one way and but larry is in his ad he's really not saying that he's he's doing a joke but what we literally have him on tape saying is this is bad

don't do it and then this says don't be like larry i listen i don't know if you know this i'm not a lawyer um i'm not even super well read up on this although i did hear some people talking about it on another podcast and it sort of sounds like the the gambit here is to loop these famous people in to kind of get the headlines and to draw attention to it and that it sort of seems like it's not actually because there has to be protections there right i mean there better be otherwise i'm going to be paying out a lot of drink works money to some of our listeners i'm like let's not talk about what the reality is let's talk about what we want the reality to be interesting um and you had that great uh me undies lawsuit on your hands i believe that was just because

people wanted me to wear undies do you know the listeners it is ironic that you would do the underwear ads and then that's we you know what the cobbler's children go without shoes and do You know, last night listeners showed up at the show and said we were considering buying packs of underwear and throwing and throwing it on stage, which would have been the most hilarious thing, because as opposed to like when, let's say, your Tom Joneses, your Rod's Stewart play and people throw their own underwear on stage.

This would be one of the few times where people are just throwing your underwear on three packs of Hanes, Hanes, Tidy Whitinger, Boxer briefs.

That would have been pretty funny, although, like, of the whatever 400 people who were there, only, like, seven of them would have understood the joke, and the rest would have just been, including my parents, would have been like, what in the holy hell is happening?

And, again, you get to the place where this is sort of a workplace. What are your colleagues thinking about this as people are throwing underwear at you? I would then have to explain it. Yes, exactly. Now, oh, I did want to ask you before you move on. This has been something I meant to bring up several times during the show. So what happened with your drummer yesterday? I didn't ask you this before the show Because I wanted to know on the show

Our friend and new associate Associate producer of Livewire Celine Ramadan Came through and got us a guy named Mitch Shepard Who was great

Showed up, like, for sound check, within 30 minutes, learned all of the parts. Yep. Yep. We just had him do that just to keep it kind of simple, stupid. He learned all of the parts. He did a great job. He was a delight to work with. Celine came out to the show as well. Nice. Now, one thing, when I was taught, there was a point where we were like, I'm walking to get my hair cut at Rudy's. By the way, I have another Rudy's story for you at some point. You're getting more right.

Which one are you going to? I went to the one in Beltown. Okay, I've never been to that one. I was going to say, if you go to one of mine, maybe I can navigate with you. I'll go in with me like, he's with me. He's okay. I was walking.

I had a really, yesterday was a pretty hectic day for me because getting in late from New York the night before, I switched hotels because the Wi-Fi at the original hotel I was at was not going to be conducive with us doing the show. And just to be honest with you, I really love that. Weston and I got a million Bonvoy points so I was like I'm gonna go do that I we are we were missing a drummer we were down a drummer and so I was because I'm the person from Seattle I ended up kind of tasked with coordinating a drummer I was still trying to jam through the last hundred pages of one of the books that I was reading to do the interviews on we had three big guests which is unusual for us usually we have two main guests and then a stand-up comic I don't have to do any prep for the stand-up comic this was three main guests so that was like a third more prep than i normally have to do and i'm walking to rudy's and i'm on the phone i'm three-way calling with our a y'all our our keyboardist from the band laura our executive producer trying to figure out musical stuff like what numbers can you play without a drummer etc and anyway celine came through but i ended up calling celine after mitch confirmed and i was like thank you so much and i was like you know uh andrew told me that i have to credit him as an associate producer she goes wait so he's trying to cut in on my action no that's true but

i'm the one who suggested you hadn't reached out to her until i suggested reaching out to celine that's absolutely true so i produced it to the degree that i said let's you're both gonna

get special thanks when we record when we record the interstitials for the episode of live wire you don't have to give me a special and actually no this is beautiful you get it three ways because We're going to take each one of these interviews So the interview that we did with Ross Gay The interview that we did with Kenji Lopez-Alt and the interview we did with Nora McInerney Who's blowing my phone up all morning I got a story on that too

And I have something I maybe need to play for you That might make you deeply uncomfortable

Oh perfect Each one of those is going to be A primary interview In one episode of Livewire So what we recorded last night is going to actually Go on to make up components of three different episodes and i have to thank you and do not thank me i will i already feel

embarrassed i was just joking it was a spoof now listen i have something on my phone here that i am going to tell you what i want to propose the look on your face means that you can totally opt out of this we don't have to do this or we can do this and then cut it out of the show if it makes you uncomfortable do you have you're really grimacing do you have any idea what i'm going to propose to you could not have less of an idea so yesterday at 4 48 p.m i butt dialed you You left me a voicemail. OMG. Only it wasn't you. You pocket dialed me. I prefer pocket dial. Now that you know I don't wear underwear. And it was you negotiating something with somebody, I think transportation related, but I couldn't tell who all the players were. Okay. It's 40 seconds long. So you've listened to it. I've listened to it, but I'm a little confused. I listened to it yesterday. I was also in the middle of something, so I wasn't listening super closely. I was like, it's a butt dial. So should I play it here? I mean, you're not, I know that you're not being, I don't think like you're being like aggressive or anything. Like, let's just take a listen to this.

Wait a second.

Oops, sorry. I should have turned. Sorry. Wait a second. Was that a kiss? That's me kissing Becca. Oh, no. I thought you were talking to somebody at a front desk somewhere. I just noticed that this is way. If I had known that, I wouldn't have played this. No, that's okay. It's nothing scandalous.

I do also kiss people at the front desk.

I did not hear that. I was just listening and going through my day yesterday. I did not think this was a personal. Oh, my gosh. I'm so embarrassed now.

Oh, you shouldn't be. Okay. And the rest of it, I think, probably is me trying to figure out how she should get to the venue. Yes, okay. Because I was leaving for soundcheck.

I'm not going to play any more of it. Not that you say anything wrong, but you were talking about transportation, and I think I even heard you say something about a bicycle or something. But I thought that it was you and Becca talking to somebody at the front desk. I'm now uncomfortable playing a private conversation between you and your girlfriend. I'm sorry about that. I don't.

you seem cool about it it gets very sexy how did that become more embarrassing for me I don't know I think this I wouldn't have done that though

if I knew it was a private conversation oh of course not I didn't feel when you because I remembered when I was curious to hear what was going on because I remember and I don't know if it's on the end of the recording but I like look at my phone and I just see that I've been calling your machine for 50 seconds and I just like and I go like oh I just butt dialed Andrew and then I turned it off oh so you even knew okay gotcha I knew

okay gotcha Just so you know, what I thought I heard yesterday when I listened to that was I thought that I heard you guys at maybe a hotel front desk and somebody was trying to help you guys figure out various transportation options from a hotel. And I had this whole scene in my head. I didn't even really realize it until I'm describing it to you now, but that's what I was picturing. But then I just played on the podcast a big moi kiss and now I feel just bad. Hey, you know what? Hey.

I'm passionate like all of us Greeks. I mean, I'm just happy. Like all of us Albanians. Of all of the things, like, of all the shit that I talk and of all of the, like, kind of compromising situations that I find myself in of one kind or another, I'm just glad that this was, like, the most innocent dial I could have dialed. Sorry, pocket dial I could have pocketed. Like, because, like, you know, I mean, that is still a fear that I think we all have, which is that you will pocket dial the wrong person and you'll be just saying something that you wouldn't. You'd be embarrassed if they heard you say it Or you'd be embarrassed if the wider world heard it There's nothing on there that makes me at all embarrassed That's why I don't care If I had been ranting about Some One of the things last night that was kind of weird I feel like I've started like 30 little side Tributaries of conversation That I'm trying to I hope that they come back together at some sort of delta Of content Actually is that how a delta works Or is the delta where all the tributaries begin?

It's not like a delta. Is it where they begin or where they end? Where the river flows out into a bigger body of water or where it begins?

I don't know. We'll never know because how can we Google that?

There's no way to find out. Let me go to Twitter.

Like one of the things last night that was kind of surprising was the way – so we were in the basement of Town Hall doing live wire. They have the main hall, which is this beautiful cavernous space, and then they have the downstairs. We were not really sure how many tickets we were going to sell And so we took the safe route, which was the downstairs Which is much nicer than it was even 15 years ago Way nicer, but still definitely not enough room for what we were doing The stage was a little bit tricky So in March, we're going to do the show upstairs But that's like 900 seats, that's a pretty big night for us So we were downstairs, and there were some quirks about the being downstairs One of them was, like when we're doing the show at the theater in Portland, the Alberta Rose there's a green room there's a pretty big green room where everybody can hang out everyone working on the show their friends and family the people that are going to be on the show there's food back there it's just kind of a hang and there's a bathroom like it's just you have your own private space this was a different setup this it turns out the two bathrooms for everyone who was there all like 400 attendees those bathrooms were also back where the one room was that we were all hanging out which was a tiny little room and there was nowhere for us to change so i go into the men's bathroom to change from my regular clothes into my suit did they remodel that too

because i remember that being an old school almost like a like literally a school bathroom institutional it reminded me of like a great school bathroom christian scientist this was

the first church of christ scientists downtown church oh okay yeah that makes sense too but the same exact institutional yeah vibe is it still that way no it's all remodeled that's why i figured but i'm just like in there like changing and then i come out and i look around and there's like three or four guys in the using the bathroom none of whom have any association with our show i thought we were backstage no i was just in the regular bathroom i come out there's like a couple guys we'll have a good show tonight right and i'm like well thanks i don't usually like to change yeah Next to the people who are going to watch the show As I'm about to go on stage Literally the band is finishing up their number They're about to say my name A woman comes up to me and goes Where's the bathroom And I walk her to the woman's restroom Because she can't find it That was So for instance You were changing in the stall right In the stall In the stall Nobody saw me But it was still like It was just I wouldn't do that At the Alberta Rose Theater I wouldn't go find the public bathroom Right The public men's bathroom And change in that bathroom Right Right before the show so that was one of the quirks my point in all this is to say you could have also heard me railing to becca about how annoying i found about that whole like i was it you know it was a good show it was a really fun show there were some quirks you could have there were so many things yesterday that you could have heard me complaining about uh-huh i'm glad you just heard me giving my girlfriend a kiss yeah um who this is the real question right who was booked Upstairs no one We could have had the Upstairs but it was more expensive I only found this out last night by the way I have this is what happens Andrew When you Make it very clear that you don't want to be in on Any of the major decisions at an organization Much like my approach to TBTL I'm kind of like I've I have made it Pretty clear that I mostly I didn't I am whatever I think I'm the opposite Of micromanager and so I heard hey we're playing town hall I was like cool I was like thinking That's big space well give it a shot And then I heard it was sold out and we had sold 400 tickets and I thought Something doesn't compute about this And then I found out we were in the lower level And then I found out last night that they had Had the chance to use the upper level had considered Moving to the upper level after we sold out the lower Level but had chosen to just Stick with the original plan but you

As an organization would have to pay more money to Book the bigger space probably more staff from Town hall it's more expensive

to use the great hall it's called but it's actually better roi if you yeah this is so no no no but if you if you if you sell 900 tickets at town hall yeah right it's great roi for the show even though it's more expensive to rent that much space right and march 9th we're gonna be back i made everyone that i talked to last night promised they're coming back march 9th because that's gonna be that's gonna be a lift for us yeah yeah yeah um all of that is to say i was not uh embarrassed By you playing that butt dial because again Most of the day I'm doing or saying something Wildly inappropriate and that was one of the few times

I wasn't. I was really hoping that there was like some Like big famous Like rock band or musician Upstairs and you had to literally be On stage with like a broom like banging The broom handle. That would have been so good

The ceiling's vibrating Dust is coming down And you're like shut up up there Twisted sister is playing town hall You know one of the things I realized was They don't really have any Dressing rooms in town hall Even for the upstairs there's one and I took Nora up there because she wanted to get into Her outfit and had asked Me she was like are there dressing rooms there And I was like yeah because I assumed there were Because they've just done this like 30 million dollar Remodel literally and so And I feel kind of like I'm hosting like it's Seattle it's my town Nora's my friend I want it to be really great and then I Realized oh there's no dresser you can change in the Public bathroom with everybody else Or I knew there was one dressing room, but it was up on like the third floor. And, you know, me, I'm hopeless with getting even in a building like that, getting around the labyrinth of figuring out how do we get to the place that we're going to. And so eventually we did. I managed to get her set up in that dressing room. But I realized the reason that that place doesn't really have like typical theatrical backstage is because it's mostly just somebody shows up with a book they're reading. You know it's not for it's not for the kind of performance where it's like where are the dancers going to get dressed yeah it's for a place like Michael Lewis to come and read from Moneyball right or something along those lines it's generally pretty like the person just shows up in the clothes they're going to wear they've got their book and then they go on stage or something I mean I'm kind of reducing it down to one kind of thing but it's not the kind of thing that necessitates a lot of people getting primped.

yeah exactly i mean that's and it brings back memories again i i have not seen it since it's been renovated so even though i know intellectually that it's been renovated and it looks different i can just kind of picture the space the way it used to be because when i first moved to seattle i was being paid pennies on the dollar by kaw to go there and record all of these um all of these like book readings um and i'm trying to think like well it doesn't matter i'm trying to think like that's where i saw um michael medved talk i didn't know who medfed was at the time years later we would work in the same building together and sit at desks near each other um and i remember just being like how is this guy so wrong like i remember him using like the airline industry oh right versus versus public infrastructure as the airline industry does it right or whatever i'm just like even then i was like but we bail out the airline industry all the time what are you talking and also it's like the only industry where you can spend your money up front they don't have to they don't have to deliver on their services and they don't have to pay you back essentially like they can just give you miles to go somewhere else like what are you talking about how is that a good example of the free market just imagining you sitting in the back of town hall

like just monitoring the recording and then just also getting kind of riled up and I'm just being

like legitimately confused too and I think I've definitely been I don't think I was as radicalized then as I am now either like you know I don't think I got worked up about that stuff that much

Then the other couple of stories that I Wanted to just get off of the books I was by the way when we're talking about FTX I was tempted to go into a whole conversation About the Like side story in All of this which was that The guy who founded FTX Sam what's his Yeah, Sam Bankman Freed Bankman Freed Bankman should be the easiest one to remember, right? Bank

Yeah, well, Sam Scamman Freed This guy that was, you know, considered this wunderkind There are a lot of indications that this kind of thing was never really actually very solvent And it was kind of smoke and mirrors But one of the side plots was that he and his the another I think the CFO of the company and this whole group of his friends a lot of them had gone to MIT together or some had worked at Jane Street which was a some other kind of venture capital deal basically they were living in the Bahamas these like 10 or 11 people of a certain age who were alleged to be in what was called a polysicle which was just kind of like a swinging free loving kind of sitch and so of course when this thing crashes then it's like then the next day in the new york post it's like sam bankman freed and his you know polysicle were the issue that these people were all living in the bahamas just going crazy on the sex and the amphetamines and then the next day their lawyer is saying literally they were under sexed and not doing amphetamines what it's like when your lawyer has to say when your lawyer has to has to clarify you were in fact under sexed never since butt chugging a lawyer had to deliver exactly more awkward statement it was so strange well this is an awkward transition from that story to the fact that sam's club has lowered the price by 12 cents of its hot dog and soda so it used to be a dollar 50 and now it's a dollar 38 and of course that is significant because it now means it is cheaper than the $1.50 that Costco is charging. And so they think that if they make their hot dog and soda a little bit cheaper, it may drive more business their way. I'm wondering if this is going to work. Are people, would people for a discount of 12 cents, like would they go to an entire other large, whatever you call that kind of store, to get the hot dog and soda, I think nay.

Not for something that is subscription-based. And first of all, I don't know how many places, how many areas of the country have Sam's Club and Costco available to them. Like all the Sam's, I didn't even know that there used to be Sam's Clubs around here. I think Kamara Kev was telling me that there was one on Aurora. Yeah, there is. But not anymore, right? They all closed down. Oh, did it?

It was by the KFC. It was across the street from that donut place at about a hundred and like 30th that donut place used to be a winchell's owned by my friend linda shay's dad sam shay and we used to hit that up for free donuts okay it's pretty dope so yeah so there's like a kfc the kmart what what used to be a kmart yeah yeah kind of where the sprouts is now

i think sure yeah sure yeah okay it doesn't really matter but like to answer your question like i don't know how many areas those two were in competitive markets obviously some but like It's not like you just get in the car and you decide Am I going to go to Target or Kmart Kmart doesn't exist anymore but whatever Gold circle That was something we had in Ohio in the 80s But like You have to decide who am I throwing my Lot in with or you're going to be members of both Which I don't think is going to happen and so I just don't see it as being like what 15 cents Lower 12 cents I mean I guess what it does is And I say this about too many things Probably but I guess it gets us talking about Sam's Club and it gets other people Talking about Sam's Club on radio and TV And podcasts and then maybe Sam's Club becomes a little bit bigger in people's Minds when they go to sign up for

I didn't know that Sam's Club until I read this article Was owned by Walmart Yeah Sam Walton Walmart and Sam's Club yeah I've been To the I've been to the birthplace of Walmart Bentonville Arkansas I've been in the museum That has Sam Walton's original office preserved perfectly. It's actually really cool, to be honest with you.

You get to sit in the chair. No, it's behind glass.

But it looks, I mean, God, I want this office so bad. It's like really perfectly preserved. It's very cool.

I picture his office not being your style. I picture it being like really rich mahogany.

It kind of is, but I still kind of liked it.

Okay, so it is like that old school. I think of the, remember the creepy guy who would do the, what was the Christian dating app that everybody made fun of? Not Christian Mingle, but... E-Harmony. E-Harmony, remember those...

Neil Clark Warren?

I think, is that his name? And he would be in his, like, study or whatever, talking to his little granddaughter about his dating app. It was so weird. But I picture, like, that old, like, leather and wood.

You couldn't be more right. You absolutely couldn't be more right. I think there was just something about how perfectly preserved it is. If you just, like, Google Walmart Museum or, like, Sam Walton office, you'll see it's exactly what you were picturing, Andrew. But for some reason, I don't know why, it was just charming to me.

Well, I used to – I mean, when I was a kid, like, that was the height of sophistication to me. Like, that's what – if I become an adult, that's what I want. My favorite colors out of the Crayola box, thank you for asking, were brick red and forest green because, like, that was what I wanted. I wanted like a you know whatever the quote unquote brick red color leather chair right with like maybe like that green almost like a like you'd see on a poker table or something like that green felt here and there like that's to me like you couldn't you couldn't be a more sophisticated man without a den like totally has like fake wood paneling in it.

Oh, wow. It's really something. But my point in that is to say, having been to the birthplace of Walmart, you think I would have put that together, that Sam's Club would be Sam Walton. But I had not figured that out.

Oh, he's got a cheaper chair than I would have thought. Not a leather chair, the one I'm looking at. A pink upholstery chair. I mean, just look at this office. Like, it is an office that your dad could have had. Oh, this is way lower-key. Brow than I thought it was going to be. Yeah. I actually kind of like it more. Like I like the chairs that everyone else is sitting in

I'm a fan I'm an unabashed fan of wood paneling Yeah me too

Like this kind of You know we have wood paneling in here And like you said it looks like a sauna But when I think of wood paneling I think of this old school shiny fake wood paneling Oh yeah this is much more down to earth Than I thought it was going to be

This could absolutely be in an insurance office in Cleveland Yes definitely

This feels like some of the offices that I'll see Like even Like kind of the offices of a fab shop A fabrication shop Oh Luke Yes There is something And if I could show this to you I know that you would love this too In that show that I've been watching Called Police Woman from 1974 I literally

Are you watching more episodes

We watch a couple more By the way one sad thing about that We're sort of talking about gender stuff before And in the media The first episode was kind of about these bank robbers But there was also this sexual crime component of it That really sucked And now I've watched three episodes And the second episode was actually be right to what you're kind of talking about even though it took place in 1974 it's about um like the uh illegal uh human trafficking sex trade only it's about like all these like this group of gross men are kind of like hiring young white models in los angeles and then shipping them to asian markets overseas as if like we're stealing we're stealing these young blonde women from la and turning them to sex slave like and then the third episode also has something to do with sex crime and i kind of that's starting to really turn me off like they're they're clear they're so focused on these gross sex crimes but are they also doing it for a titillation factor i mean at this point it starts to feel like it right like the show that is supposed to be about like an empowered policewoman come up with the name policewoman um is now like it's so clear that that's like it's titillating to them in a way too which really puts it puts me off the show a bit i I hope they kind of get rid of that as the show moves on to 1975. All of that is to say the fashion and design of the show just kills me. I already sent you a little clip of a video of them drinking in the back of this Chinese restaurant bar that I absolutely love. But in the actual police station itself is one of those giant old school in the frame kind of maps of L.A., an overhead map. But that's all it looks mostly just black and white, I think. But you just see the arterials and everything. And it's huge. Right. And I told these we actually even found a place on our wall where if we could get a recreation of that, it would be it's totally up your alley. I thought of you, too. Like if you saw this, you would want it on your wall.

I would geek out on that. It's so cool. Yeah. So are you going to keep on with policewomen until you either get sick of the subplots or bored with it?

I mean, are you going to watch a few more? I mean, there's also so many. i was talking about how i love rockford files i mean there's a million of those i haven't seen either but i have been sort of like yeah i mean i i like having the option you you know what else is on the crackle network which is a free uh a free um you know service that i think anybody can watch i don't even know if you have to sign up for it they have elf on there whoa just full episodes of elf i started watching the pilot episode last night that was where comedians

and cars are getting coffee started out which is so uh what's that i'm so on crackle oh

I thought you meant on Elf That was his first guest I forgot about that

Willie and Elf get in a vintage Porsche With a young Jerry Seinfeld

Aliens and cars having coffee Oh that's actually a good show title as well

Willie Alright You know what I realize is that At the top of the show said we were going to talk about Twitter and then we never talked about Twitter but I think that's Fine because on Monday we'll know more about Twitter

Also, did you want to tell me briefly?

why Nora is blowing up your phone well okay that was one of the complicated I mean no I feel like you know Nora is all about transparency and she's our good friend so I'll tell you exactly what happened last night after the show the plan was for Nora and her lovely husband were retiring back to their hotel and Becca and I were going to come of Nora was like this is the hotel we're staying at come by and and we'll have a drink in the bar and I was really hungry hadn't eaten anything really that day and so it was like a little bit it felt it was like six blocks from the venue and it was it felt like taking a lift was kind of unnecessary but it was cold last night it was man and i realized and i've also got i'm in my suit but i'm carrying all of my street clothes my normal clothes on a hanger and i've got my bag with my computer and becca's got her stuff and i'm carrying this kenji lopez alt book about walk cooking which by itself actually that's not true becca was carrying it it weighs like 15 pounds and we're walking and i'm realizing oh what see like a six block walk seems like nothing in the summertime but then it's really cold and you're kind of like so anyway it was a hike we got there and literally as we're walking into the lobby i get a text from nora i'm uh i sat down on the bed and i'm beat we're going to sleep maybe we'll see you tomorrow and i was just like i was tempted to text well we're in your hotel but what am i gonna do make her come downstairs from her at that point you're just kind of like well we're not doing even though entertain me even though we we agreed we were meeting here we came here we're standing here you're saying well we're not doing it now so i was like oh okay so when we got out of there it was fine but then this morning i couldn't let you know i can't let her off the hook that easy so she like texted me this morning like hey we're grabbing brunch where are you at and i was like lol we were in your hotel last night when you when you bailed um let me see what the exact thing was but then you had to twist the knife oh not twist it but put it in just right you know you're all decided this is me twisting it it was a clean first i was inserting it now this is the twisting of it so then uh it was like here's exactly what i said um huh uh i said lol we were at the bar in your hotel when this came through i'm referring to the text from the night before um and then i said damn that hotel is nice did your publisher pay for it because it was way nicer than the live wire hotel and then she said no my amex did points baby and then she says we're going to breakfast um uh you know meet here and then she's like dropped she did something crazy with my phone where all of a sudden she was sharing her location with me so my phone while you and i were talking earlier my phone kept yelling at me to see if i wanted to share my

location with her that's interesting so you could because i've heard about this so you can actually You could watch her kind of move If you opened up the app you could sort of see Where she was in town Yeah I guess I would have because she was trying

This is what she said in all caps Okay come find us here's my location And then I said I'm doing TBTL you nerd and then she said Oh my god what a loser okay Well first of all she should be here We could have set up an extra mic And that was my critical error

We should have invited her here because then you and I Could have largely taken the day off And I also I haven't seen I haven't seen Nora in a very long time, but her new book, let me just tell you, is so good.

Yeah, it's so good. This is I guess this is where you and I have a conversation about our friend Nora in absentia. But like, you know, Nora is really known for writing in a really moving way about dealing with grief. That's really not what this new book of hers is. It's just fascinating, funny, insightful essays about her life and about particularly the lives of women her age and her friends and things that she's been through. but it's not like a grief book it's not like how to deal with the loss of your husband at age 35

and it's so good she is such a good writer does she need any tips on writing or podcasting or

anything no but she said happy to take her under my wing she said something very encouraging last night to me which was on stage i asked like do you hate writing which is your job and she said um yes unless i'm on a deadline and then uh then i really get into a kind of a flow with it but she said she said i think everything she i think reading is a form of writing i think watching tv is a form of writing basically you have to take a lot of stuff in in order to have something to put down on the page yeah and i was like i've been writing this whole time yeah i think going

to the casino is writing did she mention anything about playing madden being a type of writing that was the only thing that wasn't writing oh what about minecraft that is writing darts is darts writing okay okay you know what i have it all written down at home i can share it with you

All right, so we should do some music for your weekend before we get out of here. Let's start with you, Andrew.

Yeah, I was going to, you know, I actually had this teed up for last week, but now this week it's even more perfect. I think we skipped our own submissions last week, but we're talking about our friend Lini, of course, our friend Celine Ramadan, who also performs as prom queen and also performs, and that's kind of more of her.

I don't know, rock band? Do we call it rock? I don't know. I call everything rock.

It's some other genre that I like more than rock, by the way.

Yeah, everybody knows. I'm a huge fan of Prom Queen. But Leanie has also been performing. Doom Whop, I think it's been called. Yeah, that's the genre. She's made her own genre. But she also performs under just the name Leanie, L-E-E-N-I, if people are not familiar, as a synth pop artist. And this new record that she dropped this summer took me a while to to actually kind of sit down with it and listen to it. And I got to say, I felt like a bad friend because this came out in August and I didn't start listening to it until like the end of October. But honestly, it fits this season so right. It was like a really crisp fall day, almost felt like winter. And I was walking to the train station. I can't remember where I was going a few weeks ago. And like this music just hit so perfectly. The reason why it's a little bit tough for music for your weekend Is because first of all it's a true accomplishment Of Stereo imaging and production Like it's just amazing And then we're going to play it here And I'm going to smash it down Into our mono podcast That's going to be And also these songs are very long The nature of the genre they really unfold Over time you know So I don't know if this is what Lini would pick Or not to play off of this to represent the album But she has a shorter song on here called Seven Times Seven. And this sounds like it's 47, right? Good job. 49. Oh, damn it. Is it 49? It'd be easier if it was 47. Yeah, well, let's just change. Hey, new math. Yeah, exactly. So I sort of feel like I'm playing this one. I don't know if it's the best representation. It's a beautiful, beautiful song with a lot of string sounds in it. But it's also kind of like from the beginning, you'll get a sense of the song as opposed to having to listen to five minutes before you get to the part where it changes tone. You know what I mean? So here, this is off of Leanie's new record, which is called Violet, and it is available on the streaming services that you'd expect and Bandcamp as well. And this song is called Seven Times Seven.

I thought I would cry for the rest of my life Broke down on a chapel floor, bleeding The storm raged outside, there was nowhere to hide

A beautiful dream where you wake up screaming Dial my phone for heaven Seven times seven I leave a message if nobody's home And carefully return To the lessons I should learn And kiss away my wishes I've been so old

Played a little more of it than I usually would Because you know what, Spotify, come after me Yeah I'll get Leany to go Exactly, write a strongly worded letter Yeah

Exactly We'll take a picture of Celine holding a newspaper For proof of life And then she'll be holding on the other hand A sign that says I approve TVTL playing this music That is so awesome And it's great too because it is It's a very different sound From a lot of the other like Prom Queen stuff That I love so much that Celine does

Yeah and it is It's a different project and I highly recommend Listening to the whole thing Just like letting it be your soundtrack To your walks to the train This winter or this fall Because it just hits perfectly

Now the song that I would like to suggest Is from a singer named Madison Cunningham And Madison Cunningham was the musical guest On Livewire last night Oh look at this Who was nominated this week for two Grammys And I will admit that I was not super familiar With Madison's work before last night But it was I mean the highlight of the show obviously Were my jokes and my dynamic hosting But a very close second Oh, the highlight was when you changed next to some strangers. For them it was, definitely. But maybe in a close second was when this singer, Madison Cunningham, came on stage. And particularly the first song that she played, which now, by the way, I can't find it because I forget what it was called. And it was just her and her guitar.

Meanwhile, a lot of her other stuff on her albums is more produced, right? So there's extra instrumentation and stuff. But the incredible range of Madison's voice and her incredible guitar playing, like she had a guitar that was sort of unlike, I hadn't seen anything like it, almost looked part dobro, you know, like a dobro has that kind of metal circle on it. I don't think it was, but it just was, the size of it was different, the strings, it was some kind of unique musical instrument. She was creating

Was it a piano? Guitars have the keys, right? Yeah, right She was sitting down in front of it It was a sit-down guitar Yeah, it was a sit-down guitar About the size of half a room She kept blowing into it Okay, oh, okay It was a breathalyzer guitar Okay, it was a keytar Wait, no

Just the amount of interesting sound That she was making with this guitar That was such an amazing part of the performance As well as her voice just having this Wild range and power to it It was one of those moments where everyone in the room just kind of like just almost wasn't exhaling. Like it was just now I don't know if this song, this song is called Song in My Head. It's just a song that Madison Cunningham does that I thought was really good. I don't even think it was the song she played last night. But I just want to highlight her. And I would like I think a lot of folks actually do know about her. But if you don't know, now, you know, this is can we play a song in my head by Madison Cunningham?

There's a song in my head Oh, a line that never stops playing I'm not sure how it ends I can't remember when I heard what he was saying I'll make up the start of the worst I make up half the words And where T should ever bend I've never heard Because it hurts To be on the outside Looking in Well I do my best to listen But I'm uncomfortable With too much silence From the passenger seat You said what does that mean I said I'm wanting to live With the violence, violence But I'm not the kind that wants to be lost I don't want to be forgotten I don't want to pretend that it's alright I want to see these walls crumbling just all around I got my gold in me

Alright, so there you go. That's a little bit of song in my head. Like I said, if you have a chance to see Madison Cunningham coming through your town, I would highly recommend it. And if you notice that she's playing solo, especially go to it. Because I honestly think her with the guitar on stage by herself was so powerful. I almost liked it more than the more produced stuff. This is really beautiful, though.

It's definitely not overproduced. I definitely love it. But I know what you mean. Sometimes you hear that. It's like you describe that feeling of almost everybody waiting with bated breath in a certain way. I know what you're talking about.

Yeah, it was really a cool moment. Again, probably the highlight of the night. Now our listener suggestion comes from Listener Lindsay aka Pale Ale which I believe was Lindsay's Handle out on the Trail yeah was it the Appalachian Trail or the Pacific Crest Trail

I can't recall yeah And she's checked in with us from Various trails it was a long trail East Coast Trail the one that that would have probably been The Appalachian I think it was Appalachian because Didn't she write into us or call into us Or something from like the Georgia does it Go all the way down to Georgia I would guess I would feel like I'm sort of remembering that. So Lindsay says, Tocqueville.

Lindsay says, Hey guys, I first heard this song on Tik TOK and it really feels like it fits this sunny Seattle, November vibe. Enjoy. And then Lindsay includes the link. And I was like, huh, I wonder what this is going to be. And I clicked on, I was like, Oh my goodness, this is a song that I have loved for a long time. And that if you're somebody who is into, um, this sounds very pretentious to say, but like, let's just say the most well-known kind of Ethiopian jazz yeah I know this I have in fact

this song is off of a record that I have flagged on here I used to listen to this record all the

time this compilation it's uh it's a guy named Mulatu Astatke and the song this particular song is called Tezeda and Tezeda is a sort of style of music out of like Ethiopian Eritrea and um this this particular album which I think is kind of a compilation it's called like uh Ethiopike volume 4 I think it's kind of some of the like I want to say greatest hits from this guy Mulatu but it's this I love this kind of music so much I can't profess to have a large knowledge of it

Really, this album is probably one of my biggest.

I don't know if you and I ever bonded over that. Maybe we did. But, yeah, this was always a record. Because they would play this at Teddy's a lot. It is just a vibe. It's such a vibe.

I don't even remember the Broken Flowers, the soundtrack. Remember Bill Murray did a movie called Broken Flowers?

Yeah, Jim Jarmusch, I think.

And this is when Jim Jarmusch was in a real kind of like Tazetta phase. Oh, I didn't remember that. A lot of the songs on there are some of the real kind of like classic kind of Tazetta style. So so that's what we would like to go out with here is the song to Zeta by Mulatu Astatki as recommended by our friend Lindsay, a.k.a. Pale Ale. So hope you enjoy this vibe as we wrap up this broadcast week. Thank you for listening. Thanks for being part of TVTL.

We will be back here on Monday. I'll be in San Francisco because, you know, you are going to you'll be in San Francisco on Monday after going back to the East Coast. I'll go to D.C. on Saturday. And still, you're in Seattle now. You're not even making it back home between these trips. And I never bought underwear. New York for two weeks.

I never bought underwear, Andrew.

Shut up. Back to Seattle for two nights, then back to D.C. Yeah. On Saturday night. Then back to San Francisco. On Sunday night.

When will you eventually... I think Tuesday morning. Tuesday morning. I think Tuesday morning I will probably be in Portland.

Okay. Gotcha. Bubbles isn't even going to recognize you. I don't care about Bubbles. And you're going to smell like Bingo. Bingo is the new Bubbles.

Bub who? All right. Thanks, everybody. Have a great weekend. Stay safe. Go Seahawks. Oh, they have a bye. Well, enjoy your bye, folks. Yeah. And see you on Monday. Until then, please remember, no mountain too tall. And good luck to all.

As my grandpa likes to say, hot diggity dog.

As I like to say, hot damn!

Power out.