Muse

okay the computer is tabulating oh you got category i9 c3 g6 i9 c3 g6 is that as good as it sounds you have a robust sense of self and are well suited to leadership positions

characteristics strength determination tenacity yes i suppose that's accurate they do call me tenacious ray down at the country club because for the past 10 years i've been suing them for

discrimination tbtl i love your imagination and your imaginary show i've got to have that thing on 24 7 i love the patter we can save any segment we've done in the past okay remember that segment

where we did the world's fattest pets glenn lost all the tapes we made that work you mean when we got those two rabbits and we tie them together to look like a big fat one yeah people loved it

they bought it i see you exhaling sir we're going to be with you in just a moment you've got to be patient okay we're very very sorry our apologies we apologize to you you will not have to wait

that much longer at all well all right hello good morning and welcome everyone to a thursday edition

of tbtl the show that just might be too beautiful to live gentlemen this is democracy manifest

my name is luke burbank i am your host coming to you from the hollywood broadcast center right here in portland oregon where it's another gorgeous spring day that um you know you like to get wet involves rivers of water washing their way down the street i am going to be in palm springs this weekend chasing tumbleweeds for CBS television and I'm telling you can't come a moment too soon to get out there into the sunshine also this can't come a moment too soon episode 3927 in a collector series fun begin over the weekend folks in Tampa saw something very mysterious in the sky and they were freaking out at this unidentified object.

What the f***? I told you. No f***ing way. They, whoo!

We will tell you what they were seeing, or at least what authorities are telling us they were seeing coming up. Also, I have been, of course, mentioning obliquely this radio show that I'm really into that's not in production anymore.

I heard about that thing on the AM radio.

I will finally reveal my new favorite radio show they don't make anymore on today's program. I promise you. And it's a Thursday, a.k.a. Blur's Day. So we'll do the Blur's Day messages all with the help of this young man, the longest running co-bro of the show.

This man will make your liver quiver. This man will make your bladder splatter. This man will freeze your knees. If you will, let's all welcome...

Andrew Walsh, he's joining me right now. Good morning, my friend.

Good morning, Luke. You know, I cannot perform on this show unless you build me up with, like, a big, like, kind of a fan-fairy introduction. You came close today.

I thought it was slightly thirsty that you sent me that tape and said, could you intro me with this today?

I was like, all right. You know, you covered me there, though, because originally I put my own voice at the end saying, welcome to Andrew Walsh. And you're like, you know what? Let me just take over that part.

You know what's funny is sometimes when I'm going to play intro tape for you, I will intentionally play the wrong one for you in our sound check so that the real tape that I want to play for you hits you by surprise so we're hearing your very first reaction. I toyed with that idea for this one, but I figured, eh, it's kind of a long clip of tape. I do want to make sure the level is okay, et cetera. But as I was playing it for you, initially, like before we were recording, I just remember you going, ew, when it says the part about how you're going to make someone. I'm a bladder splatter.

Yeah, that is. It's evocative.

You're saying you don't want to be introduced in the style of the godfather of soul, James Brown.

This man will make your liver quiver. This man will make your bladder splatter. That's a good thing. This man will freeze your knees. If you will, let's all welcome.

Okay, can we break down those three things and decide if we want any of them? Like, this is one of those situations where maybe if you see this on the poster. I'll play it, and then I'll pause it, okay? Let's go item by item.

This man will make your liver quiver. Okay.

Okay.

Yeah, I don't know.

I mean, like, not to already be influenced by what I know is coming, but, like, that's probably the best of the three.

I guess, although I don't particularly want to.

quivering liver in fact no i think mine is quivering actually already that's why it seems like a space i'm comfortable in i i got you know i i had a physical and i got all my data back and my liver is fine apparently i was as surprised as anyone to hear that cholesterol not great but uh liver not quivering currently okay now this next one we can all agree I don't think anybody wants this

This man will make Your bladder splatter Like I'm really trying hard To look for an upside to that But I'm coming up with

Nothing like literally nothing I would say this fella who's Introducing James Brown now I don't know if this was The regular guy like if he Traveled with James Brown and this Was the intro that they were doing for the Godfather of Soul at each and every gig on this Particular tour but But if not, maybe he was a local, like, DJ in that town brought in to kind of hype him. And I think he's leaning into the rhyming over what the real sort of physical consequences of what he's describing is.

Yeah, you think so? Right. Yeah. Like, I feel like... This man will put your brain in pain. Wait, no, what? No, wait, is this wrestling? Well, it rhymes. Here's my theory. This is the guy who tours around with him and always does the introductions. And it started off... It started off better. it started off with like this man will make your pants dance you know you're like okay well that's good like i i showed up i've got my bell bottoms on i wanted like you know it makes sense like okay and then they keep but now it's like it's near the end of the tour luke and he's just like i'm saying the same thing every night i want to start spreading my wings a little bit being a little bit more creative with this stuff it's it's kind of the um counting crows issue that you have when you go to see the crows live and you're just like i just want to hear the way you perform it on the album but the crows are like well we've done it that way a million times so instead we're going to do kind of a long remix version of this where we really let it classic dirt and so that's what is probably going on here like the guy just really wanted to kind of spread his wings have a little

bit more creativity and then just went too far i mean james brown was famously an extremely exacting Boss like Bootsy Collins Played with him and lots of other folks would say that He was just not about Messing around with the music and Would like dock the members Of the band's pay if they missed a cue Or like you know off of The beat or whatever what if this guy Was slowly and In a way trying to basically call James Brown like as the tour goes on his intros Become more and more like Real talk about James Brown This man will hook up with a Groupie but pay the band like poopy he's just like he just starts to this like basically air all of his grievances festivus style that james brown who kind of can't do anything about it because it's like on stage i will tell you this in the original video you know after he says you know welcome james brown i took that part out because i don't believe that's your name no james brown comes out and just does the coolest freaking move of all time he just i mean the band just like hits right into the first song and he comes out and he does this thing with the mic where the mic is on a stand and he pushes the mic out and I think he knocks it back with his feet so the mic is like kind of precariously moving now over it's like axis of balance but he spins around and catches it before it falls it's like one of the coolest things I've ever seen James Brown was not messing around when it came to entertaining people this man will make you take

cyber security training But at the end of the day It all just causes paining Okay that's not great That's not ideal But I was trying to think what would it be like to work If you started doing this to me Or just like what it's like to work for James Brown Like for him to be your boss This man will make you fill out a performance review But then he'll tell you Oh I'm stealing yours here That you're working like poo poo

Why is everything rhyming with poo poo today

Because it's an easy rhyme I need to stop doing this because this is not good it's cringy and i need to stop trying to be funny here let's just let the record show as a matter of fact let's strike all of that from the record i thought it was

interesting because you were taking in in a kind of like james brown is overly obsessed with the hr stuff direction which is actually a funny character choice for him right like what like

if he just had to he's like the boss like but not like not like um not like bruce spring's not like bruce spring's but like he's famously lax hr policy or yeah exactly you know what's actually

funny that you that we we've sort of arrived at bruce springsteen and these kinds of moments like where there's some kind of like a a hype you know a sort of a a hypey statement about the band because i guess bruce i'm there's no way i'm going to find this on the fly but bruce springsteen apparently

Thank you.

i'm trying to google bruce springsteen e street band viagra so bruce springsteen has this like thing that apparently he he will yell during the show when he's introducing the e street band like after they've been playing for i might i don't know where it falls during the show i've never seen bruce springsteen live i would very much enjoy to or enjoy that experience but he basically says i think it's almost like a here's what you just saw and he goes like you just saw the earth shaking booty quaking viagra taking legendary e street man and i love the honesty about viagra

taking being in there they're they're gentlemen of a certain age absolutely there's no shame in

the game i love that bruce brinkstein's like throws viagra taking in there also is that still

is well shit why would I even want to have this conversation on the air but I was like is that the brand that fellas go to anymore I sort of had I thought somebody told me that that's not like we say that because it's almost like it's like the saran wrap or Kleenex it's like the brand or what were we talking the HBO maybe it's like no HBO is the wrong thing they're the Tupperware like it's a generic word we use for a certain kind of product but is it true that that product I mean have we seen ads for actual viagra anytime recently because it's all what's the other one is it like cialis is that the

wasn't there one called levitra which i thought levitra was a great name for something that you hope will create a rise in a certain part of your body because it's not exactly the word um levitate oh i see or you know what i mean because lev what is is kind of that i think brings to our mind a sense of like something is something is arriving in the words of borat i thought levitra was a

pretty smart name for a pill that does that i think that one is new to me what was the ad at the very end of the super bowl that was one of my favorites where um oh no no yeah that was for a truck that's right that was that was for a truck but they were parodying these types of ads but

now this andrew is absolutely not the way that you reveal this information but i do happen to have in rolling stone magazine a transcript of bruce springsteen inducting the e street band into the rock and roll hall of fame uh and so i can just read it to you which is of course how bruce intended for this to be experienced yes exactly we were somewhere outside barstow when the drugs we spent a lot of time when quoting the reading of the text of the e street band introduction uh took hold of us okay here so this is this is actually i mean the other thing that i could try to do sorry about that level this what i could try to do is just skip to the end of the speech and see if i can needle drop on it so this is actually the induction into the hall of fame so this is from a while ago probably uh yeah i'm not sure what year this was but the let's see i'm trying to figure out how long it takes it's like the last thing he says which obviously speaks to the question uh or the the the idea that this is how he sort of like sets the band up so here we go i'm just gonna try this and steve was good good so far i'm nailing it april 2014 by the way

and at the end of our conversation he just said yeah yeah i understand so bruce brinkstein and the east street band that's the legend so here we go i think he's

gonna say it here oh my god are you kidding me somehow him saying it is worse than me how's that even possible thanks rolling stone great audio you put on your website here's what bruce springsteen is saying i'm proud to induct into the rock and roll hall of fame the heart stopping pants this is gonna be really impossible for me to do because i have to back the file up each time no pants dropping hard rocking hold on wait for it do you need to send it to me no that messes up booty shaking no i'm getting a system yeah love making yeah right um wait no crap i've lost it now earthquaking viagra taking boop justifying death defying legendary e street band ladies and

gentlemen, Andrew Walsh. I do like that. Obviously, you're going to save that as a drop, right? That's good. That's a good audio. I mean, listen, we're flailing around a little bit here. I don't think so.

That's some of the best sonic work we've done in a while. But I really do like that. It really adds a vibe, right?

This is a new era, man. We need to punctuate everything. Like, what was I beating myself up? the other day for because I ended a sentence in the most unbroadcast-y way. I'm just rambling. And my mic was muted, which made you feel extra sensitive about the whole situation. Here, pump me up. I'm going to end a thought here, okay? Okay. Oh, yeah, I haven't seen that in a while. I should probably rewatch that. Oh, so much better. So much better. It really does add.

It really kind of adds some oomph to the whole thing. You know, July 3rd, TBTL goes independent.

Indeedly do. People should sign up for the TBTL newsletter.

Yeah.

Thank you. Now I'm waiting for it. I'm like, I did the thing. Where's my treat? Go to tbtl.net and look for the button that says extra, extra. Oh, that's it. How is it even with the sound effect that's coming up?

The whole point was this was to add some urgency and somehow we managed.

anyway let me just let me just play words by doves and get out of here all right cool hey by the way um to uh to end maybe this segment or to transition in something i am legitimately excited to hear whatever the hell you were promoting at the top of the show you put a note in the show sheet you're like andrew you know i'm kind of not sending you a link to whatever this whatever that audio you played of people gasping and swearing and staring in the sky i have no idea what that is but your I believe your approach there has paid off because this person wants to know what the hell is going on with that

nice alright well let's do that let's take a quick break and then we'll come back we'll thank some dazzling donors I'll talk about the radio show that I love that's not currently in production and we'll tell you what the heck was going on over Tampa this weekend coming up on TBTL

on your mark on your mark get set get set now ready ready go

All right, let's thank some dazzling donors here. These are the folks who are making TBTL happen. They are donating dough each month. And not only is it how we've been able to do the show for all these years, post having radio jobs, but it will continue to be, well, I'll say this. It'll be vital. And if we can keep doing the show when we go independent on July 3rd. So big thanks to Beth and Kevin Lynn Shumway. of Leighton, Utah.

I like the pronunciation that they offered on how to say their last name.

Like, comma, you've heard of Alph. I believe it was yesterday or the day before that I made a Gordon Shumway reference on this program.

I believe so. I believe so. We're talking about Alphorns.

Oh, yes. You have to say that very carefully. Don't Google Alphorns? Yes, indeed. Beth and Kevin Lynn say, Hey, friendos, I guess I'll just take this opportunity to thank you both for entertaining our household of two 10s and two 5s. Our 5s are getting closer to being 10s each day. That's 30, by the way, right? Yep, that's what that adds up to. Our business model really relies on Anna and Charles becoming 10s and then donors eventually, Andrew.

So right now you're a household of 30 and then I don't know if the 5s are going to become 10s right away. If that's a coordinated thing, you might step it up to 35, but eventually we're looking at turning this 30 into a 40.

That's right. That's where we're trying to go with this. Anna, age 14, never complains when TBTL is on in the car. And Charles, age 11, even has a favorite episode, which is Andrew's Bad Trip.

Oh, you remember that one when I ate all that acid? No, just joking. Kids, don't do drugs. Wow, okay. Kids, don't do drugs. I think that's what we called the show when I fell and I broke my fingers.

Yeah. Oh, man. wait that's a huh okay that's an interesting that that would i mean i thought it was an interesting story i was mostly just bummed for you i think we sort of drew it i think i did tell that story bad trip because you did trip and you saved your camera and i saved my camera and it was

and it was really like this i did spend i was i remember being somewhat embarrassed about how long i took to tell that story but people were like no no it was fine because there's i just remember involved yeah it was a it was a nice it was a relaxing day before the thon it was like my last sort of like free-ish afternoon before a thon we were working on i remember and so i'd really set it up as just having this like lackadaisical day where i didn't really have to be anywhere but that's the day that i ran to catch a bus and ended up breaking bones for the first

time in my life um uh let's see uh they say uh beth says it's a great story and we're all glad that you've recovered now so there you go yeah i can almost everyone was rooting for you kevin lynn usually stays caught up with the episodes but i am perpetually a week or so behind so it's always a fun game when i realize things like why barbecue fritos have shown up in the house hell

yeah i haven't had those in a few weeks i gotta get some and and why we have talk

tacos, or pickled pizza for dinner, and what made him laugh so hard when he had his headphones on last week. Anyway, we all think you're great, so thank you again, and power out. That's very, very sweet. Thank you, all of y'all. Thanks to everybody in the Shumway household down there in Leighton, Utah. Appreciate you. Maestro?

On your mark. On your mark. Get set. Get set. Now ready. Ready. Go. Everybody rattle, rattle.

I'm playing a dangerous game today, Dan-O. As we were setting up our little sound check, there was a hum or a buzz in the microphone that I typically use. And so what I've done, this isn't interesting. Maybe it's interesting to Julie Bayon, who's in Vermont, France. Ooh, la la, indeed. But anyway, I'm using a different microphone. This is the mic that I have had set up here. If we were ever to have a guest on the show that came over to my house. yet to happen in my memory maybe once maybe my nieces or something i mean this house in portland i don't think i've ever had i mean it's the pandemic as well david at your other apartment

to do some to weigh in on some uh song of the summer stuff i believe and some but here in the

hollywood at the hollywood broadcast center i don't think i've ever used it i'm using it today because it sounds better but it's on a different part of my audio board and as you know andrew i'm a perpetual throat clearer and so i am trying desperately to remember to mute the correct microphone but if you hear a big just wait or something that just tells you that i uh unmuted or i failed to mute the proper microphone so apologies couple of quick things before we get

to julie's uh dazzling donor message here first one takes that story and makes it even more in the weeds and boring and my apologies but didn't you tell me before the show that you change the position on the board so that it would be in the same place i thought you said that you

know i have a i have two mics plugged in at all times one is one is labeled luke that's my normal one one doesn't have a label because it's just someday it will someday someday it'll someday

well i i it's labeled elisha i wonder if anybody got that joke i do set the table um yeah so no so

it's it's the the micro actually let's do a little experiment oh i thought you moved that

over because you even told me that you you oh i did you were troubleshooting but then you moved it over i'm sorry audience this is totally on me but yeah okay i just remember you saying something about like checking the other channel but i see you went back to the other one that makes total sense to me yeah and then you said something else that i've already forgotten so it doesn't matter

the good news is this one seems to be working there is a like i said though an elevated chance of me muting the wrong microphone area when i go to do one of my throat clearing i'm hoping it doesn't mess up our thanking dazzling donor julie beyond who again is in vermont on france i don't know where that is but it sounds wonderful julie says bonjour luke and andrew merci beaucoup for your podcast i usually wake up to it in my feed and it puts me in a good mood as i drive off to school to teach french agronomy engineering students english hey luke yo what's agronomy I believe that would be agriculture And maybe the economy of agriculture That's a cool word That totally makes sense

But I've never heard that word before

I love it, agronomy I love it when you genuinely Make each other crack up And it also tickles me when you Agonize over pronouncing French Which you usually do pretty well by the way Well it's news to me I feel like I'm not great with any You know sort of pronunciation of things outside of English but I feel like of the Romance languages French provides me with a specific challenge yeah Spanish it's like you can kind of make your way around a little bit just the pronunciation but like you know just trying to say eggs in French just trips me up

and I feel like their number system or the French language's number system Genevieve was telling because Genevieve's been learning French using an app for years now and she's quite advanced and And I think that she's saying, like, when you're talking about somebody's age, the way you construct the numbers is somewhat laborious. By the way, agronomy is the science of soil management and crop production. Okay. Interesting.

What about the science of crop dusting? Did you mute your microphone on accident?

Nope. Just waiting for the next line of the dazzling donor vest.

Julie continues, I have a little TBTL doodad corner in my classroom. One student actually told me that your bobbleheads were creepy. Oh, well, F.

Excuse me. Someone's getting an F.

I am going to ask my students to do a 20-minute podcast episode, and I'll introduce this assignment by talking about how much I love podcasts, and TBTL in particular. So, my dazzling donor request would be for you to give a shout-out to my students, Julie's Groups 1 and 6 at Vetagro. Sup. Sup. Vetagro. Sup. Vetagro. Sup. Sup. Power out.

Groups 1 and 6.

yeah oh that is that what the sup is it's like what's up i mean i don't well that's why i was confused first of all i don't think that's not helping i don't think that's it that aggro hyphen

sup yeah i don't know i assume that that is the school that is the institution i'm guessing but i don't i um don't know for sure but i'm saying sup to the folks at vet aggro sup but is it possible

also see because this has and this i found a even more interesting than mike position and by the way Groups 1 and 6 This is not the part of podcasting That you want to try to do This is an example It's like Elon Musk's rocket today That blew up right after taking off This is you're learning what not to do That's also important information

He really worked the refs on that one Didn't he It's a good thing By the way I don't want to be cruel But I will say that groups 1 and 6 Rule and groups 2 through 5

drool 100 now um the the formatting here is a little confusing to me because it's vet agro hyphen sup but i don't know if that's just because how the format is hitting my email inbox or if that's really what it's called so that hyphen that's that's that's where it should be yeah now when i

look at when i google it um it in the website it has the hyphen but when it's not like in the actual url but they it's just it's called vet aggro sup ensemble poor nope i'm gonna stop doing that now knowing when it's time to quit i know i was gonna say that that's actually something useful for you aspiring aggro podcasters out there luke can you imagine doing a 20 minute podcast is it possible has anybody ever done a podcast under 90 minutes have we ever done a dazzling donors that's less

i mean who knows all right thank you so much uh julie thanks uh to um all of uh her students who are uh going to be i'm sure in changing the world of agronomics out there or agronomy rather and also thanks to the uh shumways uh there in late and we couldn't do any of this without y'all so thank you very much hello and welcome to top story you know i've been obsessing well obsessing i've been playing

this drop kind of a lot lately in case you're wondering what's going on here i'm having an

absolutely fabulous time do you do you recognize that voice at all um can you play a bit surprised

if you did okay can you play it one more time yes absolutely oh wait let me ask you a question what's going on here i'm yeah do i definitely know who this person is and you'd be when i say

the name you will okay when i i'll give you a hint when i say the name from just having worked in the public radio system for a long time you will be like oh yeah yeah that's that thing okay okay okay

in case you're wondering what's going on here i'm having an absolutely fabulous time

ketzel levine that's a good that's a solid no i don't know i don't know it's marianne mccune oh yeah i nope not marianne mccune that's who i used to work with i was gonna say i only know It's Marianne McPartland.

Oh, then I don't know that. Because I was going to say, is one of those people, they hosted a music show, the first name you mentioned?

No, let's not go down the road of the first one. I just screwed up. I mentioned a person who was like a producer. I worked with at NYC. Oh, okay.

Never mind.

Marianne McPartland.

Nope, that does not ring a bell to me.

Who hosted a show called Piano Jazz for many years. Okay, yeah. All right.

Okay, yes. Go ahead. Does that ring a bell? Well, the last name did not sound right. But when you said Marianne, I'm like, oh, yeah, hosted a music show that I kind of in the back of my head was thinking it was like piano or something. But I never I don't think I ever listened to it. I just knew of it. And I did not recognize that last name. But Marianne, I knew there was a Marianne who hosted like kind of a boutique sort of public radio show back in the like early 2000s, maybe late 90s.

It is so good, Andrew. So, of course, my dad, as we're working away on the remodel, is my dad's like, you know, he loves he loves jazz, but he loves, you know, jazz that's on the more, I would say, accessible side of of life. So lots of Stefan Grappelli and Vince Giraldi and things of that nature. Crab Rangoon and things of that nature. Anyway, so he's got all these episodes of Piano Jazz with Marianne McPartland's Piano Jazz, and it is such a good show. Now, I think Marianne McPartland is no longer alive.

But it's just her hanging out with, like, Rosemary Clooney or Gene Harris or whomever, and she'll just, like, talk to them about, you know, just music they love, and then they'll play a song together, and then the people will perform. And it just has this kind of rhythm to it that it just feels so not how they do public radio anymore because it's kind of not in a hurry. And it's very casual in the sense that they're talking off script about music But the people are just like incredible musicians And Marianne McPartland was an incredible musician in her own right And just hearing these folks talk about why they like a song Or a story about it And then they play the song or they'll play part of the song or whatever It's just so great

I think I worked I think the reason it's just as like vaguely familiar to me Is because I worked at a radio station I think that carried it And so maybe I would hear like promos for it But I don't think I've ever listened to a minute of the show

I am telling you I would It's the ultimate puttering soundtrack I think Maybe you know Maybe TBTL is the ultimate puttering soundtrack But very close A very close second place would be Marion McPartland's Piano Jazz Because like I said It's just like If you're working on a project at your house It's just like It's good music That's enjoyable It's good stories It's just But again it's unhurried I just absolutely love it Now, the other story that I have about Marianne McPartland is when I worked at NPR, they had, I think I told this story fairly recently on our show, but they had this big email list that went around to the whole, everybody that worked in programming, I guess, and it was, this is our current obituary file. so you know what happens with a big news organization is when people are at a certain age um they'll start the news organization will try to have an obituary sort of on file for them that was is ready to go in the event that the person passes away and then you quickly update the specific information about exactly how old they were maybe the manner of their passing something like that but like i had the one for charlton heston that was like done for like years before he passed away or whatever and did yours get published i actually don't think it did if i

remember i don't know why maybe so much time passed maybe by the time i think a lot of time

had passed i think maybe when he died with the same time that i was like persona non grata at npr at that point i don't think that one ever aired but they send this list around and it's this list of notable people who are at an age where we think they might pass away and it says like if you'd like to add a name to this list or if there's someone you can suggest or if you want to you know kind of sign up to do one of these like we're trying to get this list you know developed and also we want everything covered on it and one of the people on the list was marianne mcpartland the thing was marianne mcpartland was alive and on the email list because her show yes piano jazz was on npr so she had found herself yes on the list of people we were trying to do obits for and i think she responded something kind of funny like you know by the way uh you know we can hold off on this one for a while or something I'm not dead yet.

Right? It's just a flesh wound.

I want to correct one thing. In case you're wondering what's going on here, I'm having an absolutely fabulous time.

You know, I said, oh, yeah, I think that's a show that ran in, like, the 90s, early 2000s. Well, that was the only time that, or that's when I started listening to public radio, which is why I would say that. I'm looking now, the show went back all the way to 1978. It started in 1978 and ran through 2011. So that's a great legacy.

And it's funny because I don't think I'd ever listen to the show until like this weekend or something. And I but I knew about it because of the same thing. Like you'd hear the promo or like, you know, it's there's some dat tape somewhere that's got like, you know, Marian McPartland's like in a, you know, it's a KUOW in some kind of a cabinet. You're supposed to play it on Sunday night or whatever. Like I was just aware of its existence, but I never listened to the show. And now that I listen to it, I'm like so into it. And I so understand why this show was so beloved by people, because it was kind of it reminded me a little bit of something like the Thistle and Shamrock or these other kind of.

Yes, yes, yes. Exactly.

These references that I make to sort of like public radio weekend programming that isn't the kind of thing that really goes on anymore. But there was always these there would be, you know, a small number of pretty rabid fans around some of these shows. And I know that the Piano Jazz with Mary McPartland had some really big fans that were really into the show. and uh and now i get it i totally get it it's really good and it was produced by npr right

i closed the wikipedia page but it's not one of those things those station produced it sounds like because if she was on the internal npr mailing list then it was probably like an actual npr production which i don't know that i believe so yeah which npr i don't know that they're well no i shouldn't say that they actually have a huge music program with tiny desk and everything it's

just like the format has changed but it's different you know i mean i don't know each and every show

that NPR does like as far as even just the digital stuff podcasting whatever but two people sitting around a piano telling stories about you know Rosemary Clooney telling stories about Bing Crosby and then they launch into a number it's just like I just it's so it was just I really enjoyed it and I've now been like you know I've listened to like two other episodes but still I'm into it I would recommend

and your dad who I am just fascinated by and feel

feel a kinship which is funny because it's like you've met my mom like the idea it's funny because my mom lives everything on the outside so everything there is to know about my mom has been described on the show my dad lives everything on the inside so he's he's actually like he's still you know there's still some shelf life to walt burbank stories on this well well i've met them

both i mean briefly do you know the last time i think i saw your parents was when um maybe i mentioned this on the show recently i think the last time i actually saw your parents in person and not just talk to your mom on the phone or something, was the day that I crawled out on your roof for the Blue Angels. That was like 2012 or something. They were there that day. Because I remember being a little embarrassed or something as I was crawling out there or something. But anyway, no, what I'm fascinated by here, though, is not that your dad likes the show, but I'm just fascinated and, again, sort of feel a kinship in his media-managing ways. So this isn't like, hey, he found an old stream that he listens to. You said he has these So has your dad been without putting him

No no he's not this content is available But it's a good question

He doesn't have this on a thumb drive He didn't save and archive all these

The content is available at the NPR website I know that because I've been looking at the things But he did say When something was playing And he had been in the other room and he came in He goes oh who's she talking to I said oh it's Rosemary Kuhn He goes oh yeah I forgot I downloaded that one And at that point I hadn't seen his phone Yeah. So I thought it's possible this guy went and like down, like found somehow found some trove of old Marianne McPartland shows and then downloaded them. Because also, let me mention, my dad has the world's jankiest Bluetooth speaker that you can't use it like Bluetooth. You have to plug directly into it with your phone.

That would make it not a Bluetooth speaker. Then it would just be a speaker, right?

Well, yes, but I mean it is allegedly, like theoretically you should be able to use Bluetooth. Oh, I see. It has the capability, but because he got it at the Goodwill in Silverdale, Washington, it doesn't fully work the way it's supposed to. If you're not connected to it, it's constantly this weird voice is going, battery low, battery low, like in the middle of whatever you're trying to listen to. So it's like the phone is plugged into the Bluetooth speaker at all times. And now we're listening to piano jazz with Mary McPartland. It's beautiful. But every time a text goes through the Hawk Squad, you hear you hear like the alert sound going through my dad's phone through the speaker and interrupting the programming that you're listening to. And as you as you've heard on the show, when Hawk Squad starts popping off, when there's like a picture of my niece, Violet or something in there, it is just it's a flurry of those messages. So you're you're you're listening to a show, but you're constantly hearing interruptions from the Hawk Squad texts. If you unplug the phone for any reason, you're getting battery low. Like, it's a lot going on.

I feel like you can turn off those alert sounds without affecting the volume of the media. I did eventually say, Dad, you really got to turn that off because it's making it hard to listen. Okay, yeah, so you guys figured that part out. Yeah. You know, speaking of speakers, like, I like to peruse. Speaking of speakers. It's like a Wilco lyric. Oh, my God. That's our music show on NPR. Pitch it now. Speaking of speakers. Speaking of speakers. It's you and me and a piano and weekly guests. I love it. Neither of us play piano. We're just sitting at a piano. We just have a very gentle, high-minded conversation. Occasionally, I'll do that thing. We just start pounding the keyboard with our face. Well, no.

I'm playing that thing. Did you ever play that as a kid?

No. The only thing I know how to play on the piano is the smoke on the water main riff.

could we learn hearts and souls like in big oh yeah cute

all right yeah let's do that i want to say speaking of speakers i like to peruse the technology i guess uh electronic section of of goodwills as well luke as you know in the various thrift stores in fact was just doing that last weekend um and uh showed a lot of restraint by the way didn't buy anything except for one smothers brothers record for a dollar 99 cents never overpay for a smothers brothers record um but uh smother like my brother but what i was gonna say was you know when you're in that section you'll see these old speakers and sometimes like good brands like bows right which produce like really beautiful sound but they're from that era and you know this is just old man talk like but technology just moved really quickly it just ripped through our 20s and 30s like i know that our parents maybe had the eight tracks for a while then had to move to cassettes but cassettes were there for a long time the vinyl was there as a as a standard medium for a very long time but like we had this whole thing where we would buy expensive bose speakers that had really good sound but you had to they were built specifically to slip your ipod into it and it had a very specific connector and if you had an ipod mini it would come with like oh don't worry they released a mini here's a little like little uh little couch for it oh no it would still sit in there but it would just like kind of take up the extra space that is that that a full-size ipod would take over like and you see these things you're like that would sound really good and i know it has an aux jack in the back of it i could set this up somewhere but it's just so ugly like these speakers that probably sound great would just be sitting you know if you were to take it home and put on your shelf it would just have this big gap in the middle of it with like a dusty port that nothing fits in anymore unless you have an old school unless you have an old school uh ipod it's very interesting like i'm always i'm still tempted by these things i see them i'm like oh i should buy that i bet you it sounds good and i'm like it's just built for technology that is

already just so antiquated right and we got i wonder if we people of our age if we got caught in a particularly sort of quickly antiquating audio environment and really just technology environment, right? Because, like you said, I mean, vinyl is still around. So that was a pretty long-running and durable kind of way of listening to stuff. Cassettes were around for a pretty good amount of time. But, yeah, just something about the – once we went to digital but we were struggling with how to make the digital stuff play and before Bluetooth, now that we're into Bluetooth, unless you're my dad battery low unless you're my dad now that we've made the leap to most of our stuff being kind of wireless right like most of the audio that i play in my house now or in here in this apartment is is just on a sonos speaker so i don't have to worry about the upgrading of the dongles now what i have to worry about is hiding from the sonos updates because every time it will invalidate one of my speakers because he's very old speakers that's right i forgot that was a whole thing and so you're still like they were trying to brick my speakers oh my god bitches yeah hey um i uh i want to play this audio for you of a mysterious situation yes happening over tampa this weekend okay now uh i want to warn people that there are there's some cussing i bleeped the cussing for the promo this is an unbleeped version if you'd like a bleeped version of the show go to thisamericanlife.org So this has the

S words, the F words

I believe this has two F words and an S word. I love that movie Andy McDowell's greatest work If you have children and you don't want them to hear swears, this would be a good time to maybe, I don't know Or if you want to teach them swears, this would be a good time Exactly, this might be a teachable moment I'm not sure As I understand this from over the weekend And these are people, they're in like an apartment complex in the Tampa area. And they're looking up in the sky and they're seeing this big, bright rectangle of light. And this is their reaction.

What the fuck? No fucking way. Holy shit. They're coming for you, Tony. I told y'all they were coming for me

They're coming for you, Tony Now What do you think What would be the things that you think might make A big rectangle of light In the sky over Tampa, Florida

Is it spring break time? No, but that's a decent guess Because you get down into Florida A lot of revelers, a lot of things like that okay so a big triangle of light like up in this what's that oh a rectangle oh actually thank you that that actually uh and are we talking celestial here or like down in the atmosphere i know down in the atmosphere like hitting the clouds like it was actually a slightly overcast night interesting um and it's nighttime i really want to i know i'm belaboring this but i really want to think about because you said in tampa and so okay it is a it is a tom no he's retired uh Tom Brady did have his retirement party though

In the sky I don't know if that was in Tampa

Was it in the sky? Do you know?

I don't believe so But I wouldn't put it past him

Okay I guess I gotta give up here I wanted to give you one intelligent guess But I don't have any Well It's sort of revealed In a sideways Later in the tape Which is why I paused it there Okay It turns out, Andrew It was The light display Of a Taylor Swift concert That was happening in Tampa Oh, okay When she does the song Don't blame me She is surrounded By these crazy lights on stage That are sort of They're surrounding her on stage but when you see it in the sky it forms a big rectangle of light especially if as you i think

smartly pointed out it's overcast because the cloud it can bounce off of those clouds and create like what looks like a shape up there as opposed to just kind of like beams that go up forever and

kind of get dissolved into the night sky now somebody in this group i must say it's a taylor swift thing because this woman who made the recording is not having it that's like four f's by the way this sounds like a pretty fun party i wish i had been there that's five people i mean i'll be honest with you it's weird looking but bro what the fuck

is that you seriously undersold how many f words we're going to be hearing i guess i did i was it what i said you said two i'm up to i'm like counting up to six seven i don't think seven come on that's actually replay it and count do you want to do this no i do that i think it was

now here andrew i think is really the most interesting part of this story so this story of course makes into the new york post because the new york post they have a whole division like they don't cover probably like you know politics in albany anymore the state capital um but they do have someone who just cruises tiktok for videos like this so that they can make a story people in tampa misinterpret taylor swift lights for ufo or whatever but this is the part that nobody is talking about this tiktok page where this woman had posted these comments see now i'm playing the bleep for yeah i think i'm more calm her tiktok handle is your tampa realty this is her professional real estate related tiktok page and it raises the question would you have somebody who had that reaction to taylor swift lights and posted on your tampa realty would you have a second thought about having them be your real estate agent

i thought you were going somewhere else with that i thought you were going to say that this was like it's like cunning of them to like kind of like get the name of their business out there

i just think i can't quite tell if i'm an old man i don't have a problem if my real estate agent swears i don't have a problem my real estate agent has a fun life like they deserve that i do wonder about somebody who has a tiktok account called your tampa realty which again they're trying to use for like hey you know what we're um i wish i knew more tampa neighborhoods and i could throw something down we've got a great uh three-bedroom two-bath uh ranch home in clearwater um that's showing this weekend come on out that's like the vibe generally this person was like you know what i'm gonna put me on there freaking out and telling people that's not taylor swift and just swearing wildly up to possibly seven f words and two s words i'll put that on my i'll put that on my tiktok account that i've set up to try to promote my real estate business now again maybe i'm just old like because again i don't i think people that sell real estate should have every right to be wrong about ufos and to swear but there is something about a person maybe it's generational too like if you set up this tiktok account to try to promote your business and then you put that up on your account is it that i don't understand how promotion works anymore

or is it that this person isn't good at decision making i mean you're asking the wrong person because um my real estate agent has a massive drug problem yet i you know we hired her anyway so just kidding sarah she's a listener yeah wow okay i'm just actual listener to the show i'm just former donor sarah thank you wait have we read her dazzling donor message yet wait can i cut this out um no i'm obviously i kid sarah um anybody who wants the best real estate agent in the seattle area to uh email me i'll get you sarah's contact information but um yeah i don't know i i feel like to me i'm i'm not having the same reaction you are luke to be honest with you which is why i made that bad joke i just sort of feel like i don't know like even though like i'm sitting here like kind of joking about the hearing the the f word although i may be kidding on the square a little bit because i still have that like old

school broadcast like wince sort of when you know what i mean not that i'm not that i'm offended by it i mean not to brag but i've been known to swear myself from time to time it gets pretty spicy um but like i think i still because i'm used to broadcasting over the air like i still sort of like it's it's alarming to hear that but i just think that i i can lose sight of how much our culture has changed as far as like just talking and talking about things we didn't use to talk about and then using language that we might not have associated with our professional business I just sort of think it's social media I just don't think it's that big of a deal but I'm also

willing to say I could be totally wrong about that yeah I just am uh you know I'm just I guess old uh well that's not even I guess I am old but I feel like if I created a like a and we work in a weird business because this is our personalities to the degree that we have any is kind of what we're selling so that makes sense but let's just say my dad's sign company some people are like you know dad you got to get you got to get some more social media presence so he creates like a his business is called sign works he creates like a sign works uh twitter page and then he just puts a video up of himself just like yelling the f word about what he thinks is aliens that would seem like bad branding to me but again i'm old and like we're talking about your tampa realty right now

so i mean maybe that's the vibe as much as i love speaking of speakers as a show title i'm also tempted to call it down by the lady in the tampa i don't know just another option there yeah i mean

it's close lady in the yeah sure anyway i i um in case you were in tampa and you were concerned over the weekend i just want you know it was just taylor swift taylor swift's eras tour swinging

through town luke i made a huge mistake i forgot speaking of era we're in a new era of tbtl here and i like sort of muttered that joke and had no confidence can you please dial up the james brown and i'm gonna give that again get dial up the dave brown horn and we're gonna be like if we can actually change i'm gonna change my energy too to match i'm gonna say hey luke i was gonna call the show speaking of speakers but now i'm tempted to call it lady in the tampa okay nice thank you

for not i think the problem was for my brain had forgotten we were talking about tampa so when i heard lady and t-a-m-p i thought we were going towards like tampon which just threw me because

that's not your kind of humor and also that i don't know that that would be humorous i don't i wouldn't find it humorous that was my joke would be yes i don't i don't either but that's

why i was kind of like you know how sometimes if your brain thinks it already knows what's going to happen so it kind of jumps ahead yeah right yeah i was like lady and the tamp i was

like huh you know what i'm just okay i'm gonna delete this note speaking of speakers it is

there's a right way to rock and a wrong way to roll you can't just listen to your soul Just remember that life is number one You can be having so much fun Just remember that life is much fun You can be nothing but one

Luke, I just had a feeling. I was listening to this Tim Heidecker song that introduces our Blur's Day segment and I was singing along to it, hopefully in the background so you couldn't hear it. Nope, I heard you. Oh, good.

When I was wondering about that, I was like, is that on the tape and I've always missed it? Nope, just me singing along.

I couldn't contain my joy, though. And I was thinking, you know, we're going to have some, hopefully, a live show coming up and hopefully in the later summer months. We had talked about that. Nothing definite yet, but we're working on some ideas. And I thought, maybe we can play this song and we can all sing along to it. And it occurred to me, maybe I was thinking that, Did that happen in our Brooklyn show? The audience, I think that was on a Thursday, right? And we started doing Blur's Days, and John Hodgman is up there with us. And everybody just started singing along to the Blur's Day song. Am I making up that memory? Am I pre-memoring that?

You're asking me to remember something that happened more than 12 hours ago.

Yeah, that's a good point. Yeah, but anyway, someday we'll all be together singing the Blur's Day song together again or for the first time is my point.

yes it's it is very fun when we do live events and we'll play a drop and people will sort of talk along or sing along with the drop yep which is also a unique experience i think to doing this

show they say i was drunk all right let's get to some blurs days here why am i blursing up this segment rachel says here's me wanting to send a shout out to my co-bro andrew for his birthday it's not me by the way i love you my friend and i'm grateful for your consistency in my life like Andrew Walsh. I know you don't want

too much attention for your birthday i have to imagine there's a similar picture of you frustrated about birthday attention as a child so i will leave you with this where's kyle i don't know what that means but i love it i love it when people share inside jokes in the blursday segment happy blursday andrew from me andrew and rachel i wonder if there's

something about being named andrew that causes one to not want someone singing the birthday song Yeah, mothers don't let your sons grow up to be Andrews Maggie, our friend Middle Shelf Maggie says Happy Blur's Day to my sweet daughter Erica Nice I heart you so much My Arlington My good time gal My four leaf clover How are you turning 40? I know I was just putting you in your baby car seat I guess that's why it's called a Blur's Day Happy Blur's Day Erica

And thanks to both you and Maggie for being such big parts of TBTL and the TBTL family over the years. Got another message from Maggie here, but it's a different Maggie who says, I'd like to wish my husband, Matt, a very happy 51st Blur's Day. We've been together for over 20 years, despite my insistence that I wouldn't date anyone under 30. I'm glad I didn't stick to that plan. Beyond grateful for you And for the life we've built together Love ya That's a Blur's Day message from Maggie to Matt Happy Blur's Day Matt

Cute Trisha is up in the Bay City of Bellingham And says I want to wish my five Olive A very happy 14th Blur's Day Olive is the best daughter and big sister That a family could ever wish for And if she can get her nose out of a book Long enough That's a sound effect in honor of people who enjoy reading it like Olive does. She may even hear this message of love on her mom's favorite podcast. Your dad, brothers, and I love you more than you know. Good luck in high school next week. Nice. Exciting times, Olive. You're going to kill it. I wonder if Olive's going to be going to Seahome High School there in Bellingham or one of the others. As you can tell, I can only name Seahome High School in Bellingham. No, that's not true. There's another one. I used to go sneak onto the track with Rudy called Squalicum. I wonder if Olive will be going to Squalicum High School. What about just Bellingham High? Is that a going concern? I don't. Maybe. You know what? I think I might have played pickup basketball early in the morning with the teachers from Bellingham High.

Oh, interesting.

I do think there's a Bellingham High right in the middle of town. Then you've got Squalicum. What I loved about Squalicum was they had this running track, and you could close all of the gates so that it was totally contained by various fences, and then I could bring Rudy there and take her off-leash and run, and then she could just do her thing, and I wouldn't have to worry about her wandering off, and that was really great, except it was technically no dogs allowed, so the whole time I'd be looking to see if anybody else was going to come down on the track and if they were going to get annoyed by her or whatever.

But I'm trying to remember the listener's name. I can't remember if this was an email or a text I received yesterday. But thank you to the listener who I was chatting with who sent me a photo of their cat. I think a somewhat older cat just chilling. It was a video. That's right. It was a video of a cat chilling on the couch next to their neighbor's dog. And the cat was so calm but, like, really close to the dog. While the dog had this very kind of, I don't know if nervous energy, but definitely had a lot of energy and was like chewing on its toy. And I think the listener sent this saying that it's kind of like you're in my energy a little bit, maybe like you're you're like up for things. And I'm just sort of like sitting in the corner, just like seeing how things play out. But it was so goddamn adorable just to see. I love seeing interspecies friendships and knowing that the dog wasn't even like part of the household. You know, it's like the neighbor's dog. But the cat's like, yeah, come on in, share the couch with me, and you go to town on that toy, and I'm just right here if you need me. I really liked that. Absolutely. You know what, have you blurs to that dog and that cat as well is my point. Absolutely. What am I doing? All right, Ash has a special message for our pal Jen in Washington, D.C. I got to read this, Luke. I got to read them as they send them. Cute face. happy birthday my love every day of our i'm sorry that really gets me every day of our decade plus together has been a gift you are the apple of my pie love hub boop

That's very, very sweet. Happy Blur's Day, Jen.

And again, thank you for being along for the ride for so long. Cute cuteness. Robin says, happy Blur's Day to Reed in Denver. Oh, great. Hope it's the best yet. Got a couple of Denverites cutting it up. Love to see it. Chopping it up, as they like to say now.

Happy Blur's Day, Reed.

I don't know when that started being a thing. Have you noticed the ascension of chopping it up as a way to talk about people just kind of talking?

Yes, I feel like we use tape or something. Or do I know that with, well, they always say cutting it up on Levitar, like just a couple, like it's a Stugatz thing, right? Just a couple of podcasters cutting it up. But I feel like chopping it up is something that is in our lexicon, too, as a podcast, is it not?

It is, but only, I mean, I didn't, when I was 20, I would have never said, oh, yeah, you know, just a couple guys chopping it up. Like that wasn't, because it's kind of technically to the side of, I mean, what are we chopping, right? Like what are we actually doing? It's just kind of a fun, casual way to describe something, but I feel like there's been a rise in the use of the term chopping it up to mean two people or a few people just kind of BSing. Just broing down. I love it. I think it's good. I do, too. I think it's actually very fun.

Slicing it up. Ooh, I think it's gross. F***ing it up. What? I'm beeping that.

Was that a scream of somebody singing Taylor Swift? Yeah, that was just a little bit more excitement when I said, I didn't realize that was the unbeeped version. I'm sorry. Now we're up to eight. We're up to eight F's on the show. Two S's and eight F's. During the Blur's Day segment.

Listen, I'm not even joking. I'm bleeping all of that. We are about to wish a very special Blur's Day to a young person. I refuse to let that be the introduction to this Blur's Day. I refuse.

I can only respond in the moment, Andrew. to what the stimuli is. Like, I'm in a flow state, and I have to go where my brain and where the music of the program takes me. Even if we're about to wish a happy Blur's Day to Irene.

I'll go Chicago River on you and just change that flow so that you flow somewhere nice. Wow, hey, dig the reference. I took the tour. Think I'm not going to take the boat tour?

I thought you were going to say, I'm going to go Chicago River on you and dye myself green on St. Patrick's Day.

Oh, yeah.

How's that related to Irene?

Cheryl. Go ahead. I'm going to step away from the mic for a while.

But I'm sorry. You know what? I did the last one. So would you like to? Did you?

I don't think you did. I think I did. I did.

It was Robin in Denver. I thought I did that.

Robin to read. Cheryl says, after all of the bleeps that I am putting in there, Cheryl says, please wish Irene a happy Blur's Day. Hi, Irene. It's hard to believe she's turning 10 this year. You've officially hit the double digies, kiddo. Now, Cheryl wrote double digits, but I wanted to kind of use that kind of language in front of Irene. I'm bleeping that, too. You bleep out the words of your Tampa Bay realty. We are so very proud of you in every possible way and can't wait to celebrate your special day. Lots of love from Mom, Dad, and Julian and the birds. I added the birds. I know they have birds. happy blurs day we know those folks we do we've met these folks we've broadcasted or even maybe narrow casted from their driveway very narrow it was to four people i mean more than that heard it

but hand delivering the podcast i believe was the was the shtick that year indeed all right well happy blurs day to everybody um and even some people who maybe uh we didn't shout out happy blurs hope you have a great uh time great day great week all of that uh we are going to be wrapped up with today's episode but guess what we have a fun show coming your way tomorrow we are gonna check oh yes with paula poundstone who um was tweeting about something and andrew noted it you know i'm not on twitter anymore but andrew you saw it and then you texted me like we gotta try to talk to paul about whatever this is it involves her billy joel and alan rickman yes And we're going to get the story on what went down, lo, those many years ago, on tomorrow's episode of the show. So exciting. It's the resurgence or the re-emerging of our Friday friendo. Yes. Tomorrow's Friday friendo won Paula Poundstone. So tune in for that. All right. Thanks for listening today. We'll be back here tomorrow with more Imaginary Radio. In the meantime, have a great Thursday. Take care of yourselves. And please remember, no mountain too tall. And good luck to all.

What the hell is that? What the hell is that? What's that dang thing doing here? How did that get here? What the hell is that? What the hell is that? How did that dang deal get here? Hey, come over here and look at this deal.

what the hell is that i don't know what the hell that is what the hell is that hey you kids get away from there i would not mess with that thing don't put your lips on it

What the hell is this?

Well, get a photo of me with it anyway. Power out.