Muse

Yeah, so? Can I help you?

Hi, I'm George Newman. I'm the new station manager.

You know, when I first took this job, they told me that this position was only temporary, and that eventually, when the time was right, I would be moved up to news, which is really my forte. You know how long I've been working here? Two years! It's kind of hard to get promoted when every other week you have a new boss! This job really sucks.

And this is my friend Bob. Hi, nice to meet you. T-B-T-L. You wanted to see me, sir? That's right. I guess you know why I called you in here.

Uh, because you're lonely? Their program is loose, but it is prepared ahead to be casual, with heavy references to sex, drugs, and rock and roll.

Now look at some of these outfits. I mean, we used to wear some really outrageous clothes. You know, these heavy metal bands in L.A. don't have the market cornered on wearing their mother's clothes.

I don't know what this is, but Jay says it's a f***ing big sea turtle. How do you know this? That's what I do. I drink, and I know things.

Well, all right. Hello, good morning, and welcome, everyone, to a Friday edition of TBTL, the show, that just might be too beautiful to live my name is luke burbank i am your host i'm trying to

connect with people and i really put myself out there on the airwaves coming to you from the

hollywood broadcast center right here in portland oregon where it's absolutely a stunning day oh ma

pa it's just beautiful i've started watching these a couple of british folks that's like

boyfriend and girlfriend on tiktok and their whole thing is just showing all the food that they eat every day but the way they describe first of all i love that people over there called mcdonald's they call mcdonald's mackie's and everything they order is just like it's just like regular food but they're so into it and they're like got the got the mcnuggets from mackie's stunning we got the We got the Wendy's Baconator Lush. I'm trying to use stunning and lush more in my daily conversation. Oh, you know what? Last night, we did Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me at the Schnitz here in Portland. And we had a genuine, bonafide celebrity as the Not My Job guest. And I have to be honest, I don't get starstruck all that much, but I was kind of freaking out.

Oh, my God, I'm freaking out!

We will talk about that here on episode 3993 in a collector's series.

Let the fun begin.

And one of the, I don't want to give anything away. I don't want to make anyone have the worst day ever at their job. People get mad sometimes if I spoil things for that show. But I will tell you that last night I was asked a question about an interesting story from Canada involving a court ruling and legal contracts. and does a thumbs-up emoji constitute a legally binding thing? Huh? And I'll tell you what, I was very prepared for it on Wait, Wait last night because we were supposed to talk about it on TVTL yesterday, and we didn't get to it, so we will talk about that today. Oh, and we'll talk to this guy, the longest-running co-bro of the show, maybe best known for his depictions of the tall ships, their grace, their splendor, and all that intricate rigging. He's got some advice for all of us, really, as we head into the weekend.

Tell him the bone sent you.

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

Hey, good morning, Luke. I have a question for you. An anecdote, I think.

More of an anecdote than a question.

I don't know if I need to declare my intentions before I open up my mic every day, but I guess that's just what I do now. But I have a question for you that goes like this. Do you ever, in these various media outlets that you work on, including TBTL, including Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me, what have you, Do you ever talk about a story, like maybe even in depth, and then not realize until much later, like, oh, this directly affects me, but I've only been thinking about it as sort of a remote story. It didn't even occur to me that, like weather events will sometimes maybe be like that. Like weather events be like that sometimes. They really do. You heard it too, right? Like I had to say that, like the way I structured that sentence, I had to close the loop of that. I can't explain it. Like, you might be, I'm thinking even in my days of working in commercial radio, maybe doing, like, my three-hour night show and preparing, you know, special coverage for some sort of weather thing, but not really realize until I, like, get off the air and I'm driving home through terrible weather, like, oh, shit, this affects me, too. Not just as a broadcaster, but, like, I don't know. That probably doesn't happen to you as much as it happens to me.

Only because we talk about such unimportant things on this program. And, well, okay, LiveWire, you know.

do get into serious topics um but i i can't remember i mean the the weather example that you gave is a good one sure i've had you know an experience of of thinking about it as a breaking news situation when i worked in you know commercial radio or whatever and uh and then realizing oh i also live in the breaking news but where this is what happened to you well it's sort of happening

to me in slow motion right now it's not a it's not a big deal don't worry there are no major weather events that i know of um but we didn't the earth literally well yeah has andrew ever said anything less accurate than don't worry there are no big weather events happening um no but uh what i'm talking about here is something we haven't talked about on tbtl yet but you and i talked about off air and i was on that kuw podcast or i'm i guess i'm on it you're there right now i

bet literally everyone eat your tbtl before you go listen to this other show seattle now is one

They have kind of a casual Friday panel to talk about some of the lighter news of the week. And one of the things that we talked about a lot was this, and you know this story well because we're talking about it off air, Luke, this idea that the Blue Jays are coming to town from Toronto and they're kind of a rival of the Mariners at this point, but their fans travel so well and because there are so many of them, basically one team representing Canada, they all come down, I guess. Did you know that it's called the Blue Jay Migration, by the way? I didn't, but that's actually pretty clever. It's pretty good, right? I learned that on the show. And how they come down and they take over the stadium. And it's always kind of irritating. If you're even listening at home, like, you can't tell what's going on in the game because the home crowd is really cheering for the away team. And it's just really irritating as a fan. And I've never gone to any of those games. And it's kind of a conundrum. Like, I avoid going to Blue Jays games when they're in town here because I don't want to be, like, kind of in the minority of Mariners fans. That might be a slight exaggeration, but it's an uncomfortable feeling for me, like, leaving the stadium after a loss. And let's face it, there's a good chance that the team will lose to the Blue Jays. And having the opposing fans, like, singing and dancing and being excited in the streets while I'm leaving miserable, I always sort of avoid that kind of situation. On the other hand, as a Mariners fan, I should probably just represent more. Maybe we wouldn't have this issue if we bought the tickets earlier. Having said all of that, the Mariners were now going to sell Blue Jays gear in the team shops. And there was an outcry about that. And so they've pulled it off the shelves. I've been talking about this a lot all week. And it just occurred to me before we dialed up, like, oh, I'm going to the game tonight. That's the Blue Jays game. Like, I'm going. Like, Genevieve the other day said, hey. Are you picking up a cap? Yeah, a Blue Jays cap. Exactly. Like Genevieve the other day said, oh, a co-worker has a couple of extra tickets. And it's, I think, maybe connected to their work. So there might be some sort of a, I'm hoping we might be in that VIP area where I always pass it. It always says, like, private event, you know, like the open air one. Like, maybe it'll be there. I don't know. But in the back of my head all week, I've been like, okay, yeah, I guess I'll be going to this game. And then I've also been talking about, oh, this thing when the Blue Jays come to town. It's awful. and then it wasn't until this morning that I'm like oh wait that's the game like I'm there at the game tonight and Genevieve already told me which I don't think she needed to but she knows that I get pretty hot under the collar in these situations when the red socks are in town and I start yelling at fans when we come from behind to beat them Genevieve said like listen this is a work event like you need to lock this shit down like I don't want to

like I hope I'm not taking this to an overly serious place or putting you in a kind of an awkward position but i definitely think that some of your childhood experiences and maybe the feeling of being bullied and not a feeling the actuality of being bullied i think it gets really triggered yeah by this by the idea of these like i don't like it either by the way like you're not crazy for finding it unpleasant when your home stadium has more of the other people's fans in it but i think it hits you in a place that because you're so much calmer than i am in normal life so much less aggressive you're like able to get along with people like you have a lot of good social skills but you the times when you've described kind of feeling almost like not in control of your emotions it seems like it's been in a situation where you're at a mariner's game and the other fans are riding you and it seems

like it really triggers something yeah especially that i mean that that one red socks game was like really bad because like they were winning almost the entire game and like and literally like these boarish Red Sox fans kind of came over to these empty seats behind us and kind of was loudly saying to Mariners fans like not enough Red Sox in this section and like literally doing chants and stuff like literally doing Red Sox chants

classic asshole behavior

and you're just like and you know different fan bases are different I heard that the Blue Jays fans even though Canada has a reputation for being you know super polite I've heard that they oh no these get pretty rowdy too

I've been in I've been in a couple of near physical altercations with blue jays fans i'm not kidding oh absolutely

is that because you were bullied what's going on no i was the bully and i didn't like them i didn't

like them cutting in on my action yeah no but i that's i'm not even exaggerating like i have had i think two like pretty heated yelling matches because it we are whatever you think of the of the overly polite canadian who's always apologizing and saying excuse me and stuff that's not the version of canada that comes down to watch the toronto blue jays play baseball in seattle it's the the drunkest rootness tootness it's a bunch of people from like the oil fields of alberta or something like it's some it's some tough hombres they're one of the most pleasurable moments of

my life and this is awful this is absolutely awful and listeners especially listeners who aren't sports fans should hate me even more for this but one of the most um satisfying feelings I, uh, ever had. Wow. What a sad statement. I was driving somewhere on a Sunday in my old neighborhood. I think I was volunteering doing my usual gig on a Sunday. So I don't get to follow the, um, the, all the ins and outs of the Sunday afternoon games, but I believe it was a final game of a, a blue Jays series here in town. Yeah, that would make sense. You'd wrap up a, you would wrap up a series probably on a Sunday. Right. And so, um, I think that the Mariners might've swept the series or either way they had won that sunday game and again i have some animosity towards the the the gaggle of of blue jays fans that migrate down and i was in the neighborhood and we my neighborhood is not by the ballpark just so you know like this is up in north seattle i was driving around the roosevelt neighborhood and i just saw two blue jays fans like walking back somewhere in blue jays jerseys and not you know not being obnoxious they didn't have like i don't know how you'd just be obnoxious while you're walking on the street but they were just like fans in jerseys walking down there were existing probably a couple you know like i don't i don't know like a young man a young woman and i just rolled down my window and just screamed go mariners great game woo like i was just so obnoxious but i was like so happy i was like man these guys are just walking down the street wearing their blue jays uniforms so are you going to comport yourself properly

tonight i am like do you have a plan going in to not get triggered i'm ready for battle i have

that's what i wanted to you know what i have and i think i can give this through the metal detector i have one of those um medieval gloves that has a metal ball with spikes attached to it by a chain yeah sure i think i'm good i can comport myself i remember when oberon had to fight a guy doing

that oh my oh no remember the early days of the pedro pascal movement yeah we exactly before we knew what a what a heartthrob and hunk that guy would become no but i will not be i will not be

the mountaining anybody so don't worry about that no i'm gonna be on my best behavior in fact i'm thinking about just taking my um i told you i just went to another game on sunday i'm going to a lot

of games these days you are that's how that's how you find yourself smack dab in the middle of the news because a lot of it relates to the mariners and you go to a lot of games yes and i'm thinking

about just taking that soda cup that refillable soda cup that i bought at the last game i was at

and maybe just filling up on soda jack daniels mostly floater of floater of coca-cola on top yeah a little that should help with the decision making no i you know like honestly i had a really

good time on sunday and it's kind of like i don't know like there's something about i think sometimes because they stop selling beer like the seventh inning you like by the fifth inning you start thinking like when am i gonna make my last run before cutoff and it's kind of like you know if you free yourself of that a little bit like it's not a distraction just so that i can chug down another beer like i don't i can't explain it like i enjoy beer at the ballpark but it occurred to me recently oh it doesn't have to be a quintessential part of the experience no i mean and in fact in

the periods of time when i have been like not drinking at all like you know for pretty long durations months or whatever it's amazing i'm not saying anything that our sober listeners don't already know but it's quite incredible how how how much less calculating you have to do on a lot of levels if alcohol is not part of the process you're not like well I can't I got this tomorrow so I better not do this tonight or I'm going to be a landing there and I've got to get a rent like just just the amount of mental math that one has to do if one is a pretty you know uh sort of heavy

imbiber is amazing when you take that off the list yeah driving is a big part sometimes Genevieve does dry January and Jan-U-L and sometimes January we'll be like talking about something well we're gonna go to this thing or we're gonna go to I don't know we're gonna go to Roden's thing yeah okay that sounds good okay should we call a car and then it's like Jim would be like wait a second we have a car and I can drive like I don't plan on drinking any wine like oh okay yeah jalapeno

jalapeno I'm scared

how much wine I won't be drinking

hey I have a question for you Andrew and this is something that has been Thank you. Uh, kind of bopping around in my head for the last couple of days. My question to you is, do I, without realizing it, talk to myself when I am doing stuff?

Not as much as me.

And the reason that I think you might have an insight into this is because of something that happened the other day. You and I, uh, the, this connection that we use, this internet program so that we sound like we're in the same room. Sometimes it'll just be sort of the connection will have been left open overnight. And I was here in the broadcast center and I was doing some other work. I was quickly, in fact, what I was doing was the folks at Wait Wait had asked me to send them what I wanted my intro to be. Like, how did I want them to introduce me? I did have them mention the 4,000th episode, by the way. So if you haven't gotten your tickets yet, get them today because tomorrow we're going to get that Wait Wait bump and there will be no tickets left. but anyway you sent me a text message i was sitting here at my computer i was doing this and that and you sent me a text message that said oh hey by the way you're the line is open i can hear you and then when we started talking you said something like i heard you composing your bio and it didn't even click in that moment that like the only way you could have known what i was doing is if i was completely unconsciously like without being aware of it if i was saying out loud what it was i was typing into the computer and like this is not something that i have ever thought that i do but how did you know that i was writing my bio or my intro for wait wait don't tell me here's

what i heard so yes i heard various things i heard you doing a lot of singing so here's what i heard okay well the singing i know about i thought i thought that you knew you had a mic open because you'll do that sometimes like you'll dial up but if i'm not right there you'll like dial up and then that way you can officially be on the clock but then you walk away to get coffee or something

Exactly. The exact thing that got me in trouble when I worked at Storable's Extra Space at University Village.

So sometimes I'll hear you whistling and that's like sort of a key. And sometimes I even wonder if you're subconsciously doing that so that, you know, or that's your way of telling me, like, I am here. The line is on. I'm sending some audio, but I'm in the kitchen right now or whatever. I don't know if that's subconscious or not. But what I heard the other day was we were dialed up. I assumed you knew your mic was open and that you were coming to it. So I didn't realize that's interesting. So I heard you in the I heard a public radio program coming through the speaker of like your iPhone somewhere way, way in the distance. You weren't listening to that, though. You were singing loudly something else over top of it. But that was kind of, again, pretty far away from the mic. And you're going around. Then I think I heard you talk to the cat once or twice. Yeah, that'll happen. And then singing. And then I heard you, yeah, composing this one line. And that was a very much a writing thing.

But you heard me saying it out loud

Yeah you were saying Luke Burbank is host of the daily I guess TV show And then I heard you say something About like kill them of course I did You were kind of mumbling And muttering there

But that was when I was in the bathroom My lavalier was still on

And you were just like

No but I'm being totally serious About this one part which is that I did not Realize that I was doing that like I did not realize what that means is 10,000 other times when I've been by myself in this apartment just like typing things I'm probably verbalizing some part of it and have no idea that I'm doing it like that is I'm 47 years old and that's kind of blowing my mind because I don't self I mean the singing the talking to the cat that's all stuff that I'm sort of aware i'm doing but the idea that i was out loud saying like burbank is the host of the daily public radio right here and 4000 like the fact that i was making that sound such that you were able to tell what i was doing because what i thought you would have just heard was me typing and i was like how does this guy know what i'm typing is my intro on wait wait don't tell me like that is legitimately kind of crazy to me because if if a week ago you would have said hey hey, Luke, when you're typing stuff, are you saying it out loud? I would have said, absolutely not. And now I've just learned that that's a thing I do through this bizarre scenario where you were listening to me and I didn't realize you were hearing me.

Yeah, I mean, honestly, that's not... I thought you knew the mic was open and you were just sort of like kind of buying some time. So now it actually is a little bit uncomfortable because I'm glad that you weren't having a private conversation. Like if somebody, if you were on the phone or if Becca was over there or something, Because I really that would make me very uncomfortable. Of course, I guess if I picked up on that, I would stop listening and maybe text you. But but OK, so having said that, you and I have also spent a lot of time together, like working, like especially during TV telethon weeks. Like we just ended a couple of weeks ago where we're actually living in the same house together and working on things like I don't hear you doing a lot of mumbling and talking to yourself. Then I know that I definitely. do that because i'm always kind of working things out and when i work things out i'm talking in fact it's it was not a shock to me but it was revealing to me like our friend and and colleague may stopped by and there were a couple of times i was working behind my computer and john just said to may that's his process like don't worry about that's just he's not talking to you that's just his process and so i didn't realize that we needed to tell people that like oh andrew just talks to himself like i i kind of didn't realize it was at that level but it is and i'm i just kind of got

to be fine with that you know what i mean no but i mean i've worked a lot with you at this point and in a lot of different hotel rooms and the backs of vans and you name it you and i have

to sound sexy honestly when you put it that way hot tubs saunas massage chairs at airports

all the different ways we really do get around but like i it's i it's not bothersome at all and it's it is your process and you're often doing a lot of complicated steps and what you're doing is just kind of like being methodical you're like okay gotta do this and this and this and like that makes total sense and again you're aware of it the thing that is really kind of again i'm not trying to make too much out of this but the thing that's that's odd or the thing that is a little bit of an intense awakening for me is just that this is a thing that I'm doing and I was 100% unaware that I was doing that. Like, I was making sounds with my mouth that my brain did not know, was not aware was happening. And that's just kind of a weird thing. So, again, presumably that's a thing that I'm just doing all the time. Now, maybe I turn it off.

I would really like to reiterate, though, this was writing. This wasn't like you were in the kitchen, like this is something i would do like i'm like bob from bob's burgers i'd be making a turkey sandwich and saying oh you look good today turkey i would like be talking to the tomato and be like oh you're a little bit ripe or whatever like i talk to my food when i make like that's sort of weird you were writing and like i didn't hear you just randomly like sharing thoughts about the turkey sandwich you're about to eat you were like and i think that's a pretty natural thing to be kind of like and i realize it's a little shocking to to not realize you're actually making sounds But like the Luke Burbank, like, I mean, that is a very kind of typical writing thing, especially if you're trying to jam something out under deadline, I think.

I think also part of that is if I'm writing for radio, either for me or someone else, like when I do for Livewire, you know, I I'll go in and write the what they call the billboard. That's the thing. If you're listening right at the beginning of the show, it's the thing. It goes for one minute and then it's time for the news. and i know for a fact that that i like talk that whole thing out because it's one thing to write something down it's another thing to hear it out loud like what's that going to sound like when someone says it so this also was something that like peter was going to be reading so maybe i was trying to like uh kind of sound it out maybe maybe i would be less likely to do that if i was writing an email to like my um you know my tax person or something um but i don't know again it was just it was it was one of those moments where i was like how wait and it didn't even hit me in the moment when i was talking to you it hit me like a few hours later and that's the other weird thing about conversation is that like in the moment i was like oh yeah i'm here let's uh you know let's get started and then like for some reason two or three hours later i just like was like wait a minute how did you know i was how did he know i was wait what he is this encyclopedia brown is he bugs meanie how did he know it was root beer in the cup well also i'd like to tell you that's a really nice shirt you're wearing that's where you're wrong i'm not wearing a shirt hello and welcome to top story um so uh i've been talking a lot already about the the the sort of um wait wait thing last night that was here in portland my god andrew that crowd at the uh arlene schnitzer concert hall was absolutely wilding out like it was packed i don't know how many people that thing holds a few thousand three thousand that they were on fire and the reason they were amped was because damian lillard was there the guy who plays for the portland trailblazers he's one of the best players in the nba um and is i mean the mo without a doubt the most popular human being in the city of portland i mean it's not even close um i don't even know who would be second place in portland but uh maybe the unipiper the guy who rides a unicycle and

plays bagpipes start reading every name that was on that uh poster for the for the

48 hour drag show i can tell you who it ain't luke burbank it ain't luke burbank but um so uh and the whole thing with damian lillard is he's like he's in like probably one of like the top five players in the whole league he's and he's also probably gonna leave Portland so it was a very touch and go thing first of all they

told us we couldn't mention it to anyone they tell us you know the people that are working on the show they're like here's the not my job guest it's going to be damien lillard but you can't say anything about this because it might not happen and so everyone was kind of like nervous is he going to show up or not and because he could have been like you know they could have announced on wednesday that he's going to miami or something like it was very and and again it's like i you know i don't get the sense that damien lillard is a wait wait head per se so it's not like somebody who's like obsessed with the show and they're just like so stoked to be a part of it it's somebody who his you know manager said this would be a good opportunity to engage with the public or something so like leading right up to like i don't know 6 30 it's still unclear if this is going to happen or not and uh we're all about to go on stage i feel like i can let people behind the curtain on this i thought we couldn't even promote it and then i noticed like wait wait is instagramming out that dame lillard was there our buddy lynn fam is putting on all the people that i look to for my direction on what i'm allowed to talk about related to wait wait they were all blasting it so i feel like i can i can get into this so at like the show starts at 7 30 it's like 7 29 we're all standing on the side of the stage we're ready to go out and colin miller the cfo of the show like runs up he's like peter green room now and and so peter leaves and i'm like oh well this is a chance for me to go um go use the restroom because this is you know i got i got a minute here and i'd rather get that handled than be on stage and realizing i need to pee so i go downstairs and i just see peter go into the green room and i just see everyone is standing around with very somber faces and someone just said damien lillard and i'm like oh my god this is the moment when they're realizing that damien lillard is not coming because no people just looked really serious and so i go and i use the bathroom and then i come back and as i'm going back i pop my head in the green room and i realize oh no damien lillard is here and the people are just serious

because kind of how their nervousness or excitement i think it's nerves i think everyone's just trying

to be like yeah everyone's just trying to like like damien lillard is like a beautiful woodland creature no one wants to spook him nobody wants to do anything that would cause him to be like yeah i don't really want to do this so but i pop my head in and i and i can hear too that peter is kind of giving him the spiel of the show like hey here's what we do and he's like they got this panel and then we're going to give you a quiz and all this stuff and i look in and damien lillard is sitting on a couch peter is standing and damien lillard has his hood up and he's just staring at his cell phone yeah and i'm like oh shit yeah this is not going the vibes are not immaculate right now this isn't going to be a situation and um and so i go up there and then peter comes back we go we start doing the show and um and when when he i leaned over to paula and i said when because peter was doing the warm-up now which is where he's just kind of talking to the audience the show hasn't really started and that's when he always tells folks here's who our special guest is this week and i turned to paula poundstone and i said when he tells these people it's damian lillard this place is going to there's gonna be a seismic event in here and sure enough he says it's damien lillard and the place andrew went fucking why like nuts people were like hanging from the rafters it was like wow somebody was just like banging their head against a wall for no reason someone else was just like punching a chair it's like everybody's like there was a

punk there yes people just just just lost their minds and um one of the one of those old timey guys punched his fist through a styrofoam hat exactly because his horse didn't come in or it

did who knows so it was it was it was it was bedlam it was pandemonium there because again he is with in the city of portland he's the biggest public figure there is and he's beloved because he's not only really good he is the kind of person who like has hit game winning three pointers from the logo in the playoffs like he has endeared himself to the citizens he's the all-time leading scorer for their basketball team which they love okay so now it's time for dame lillard to come out and all i can think is i'm doing my like bluff the listener i'm interpreting everything we're doing on stage through the lens of is damian lillard impressed with this because he's like now at this point on the side stage and i'm like if i screw up this bluff the listener and it causes damian lillard to have a low opinion of what we're doing out here from an entertainment standpoint we're screwed like i'm taking a lot of this very like a lot of personal responsibility um and by the way this was all in my own head i don't think any of this matter but i was really thinking like what is this guy like i don't get starstruck very much

but i was legitimately geeked that he was there it's also a very different sort of um genre of guest right that's the wrong word but in other words Thank you.

Like public radio crowds and public radio, you know, hosts and panelists and your role there are very used to famous people who certainly are famous authors, obviously, but also even famous musicians. Like you've talked to some very, very, you've shared stages with some incredibly famous musicians before, but you're also just sort of used to that. Like, yes, it's kind of in the realm of arts, you know, and public radio and sports don't overlap all that often. It's only a game. um and so like this bill littlefield and so this and so i think that that's probably part of it as well too right like dame lillard is there acting like a sounds like you know with his body language there backstage just like a young nba player would act like living on your phone and at another event with a bunch of people who are geeked to have you there and like i mean i just think that like the excitement level must also be because it's not just the size of the celebrity i guess literally and figuratively but also the fact that like this is sort of rare air of celebrity exactly like this

is a legitimately across various platforms famous person who also couldn't need us less like a lot of times it's somebody is you know like you said an author they move a lot of books if they come on wait wait or maybe it's you know it's a it's a it's an actor and they really want this movie to get a great response or to have a lot of you know box office sales this is a guy who's already fabulously wealthy owns a variety of businesses in portland including a car dealership he's putting out his fifth rap album wherever he goes next he will sign a a deal that will be in the three hundreds of millions of dollars like this is this is a person who i mean anywhere he goes in portland he would be mobbed in fact i heard later that like he had pulled up like you You know, his people had pulled him up to the front of the theater and the executive producer of the show, Mike Danforth, had had was texting and go and went out there and met them and said, do you want to get out here? And he was like, yeah, no, I can't because it'll be a situation. Like if he walks into the theater from the front door, it's like, again, that that guy who was just like punching a chair, he's just going to run over and start crying and like just he's going to grab grab onto the hem of Damien Lillard's sweatpants and just make him dress. sorry like that's his level of fame so he's like this is it's like so asymmetric the who like who needs who in this situation okay but anyway he comes out and when i tell you andrew he could not have been sweeter he could not have been more engaged more thoughtful with his answers he was unbelievable and what i realized was this is a person who is knows exactly when it's time to turn it off like whether it's the fourth quarter of a basketball game or this weird ass radio thing that he's being on he was so charming like i was so in love with this guy by the end of his time on stage because he was just again his answers were thoughtful they were interesting he was playing along when when people made jokes so paul poundstone you might be surprised to hear not super plugged into the nba and uh had gotten on this whole like kind of like and the other thing that paula does a lot is she'll just sort of say something sort of out of left field and then she'll just keep coming back to it so here we are it's dame willard on stage and it's like peter's got his whole interview plan and i'm over there like oh the other thing is they gave me a pep talk they pulled me aside and pep talked me before the show andrew and said do not bring up or make a joke about trades or about him in the NBA. They're like, and they didn't do that to anyone else. They didn't do it to Helen Hong. They didn't do it to Paula Poundstone. They were like, Luke, you're the only person who has any awareness of the NBA and who would potentially mess this up for us. Do not do that. And I was like, okay.

I said this to you in a meeting yesterday when this came up. You mentioned that Dame Lillard was hopefully going to be on Wait Wait. And I told you, like, I don't follow the NBA at all. Obviously, just as kind of ambient sound, I constantly have sports radio on in the background or whatever. And so for folks who are not familiar with this, like, I don't know anything about the NBA. I can't name any players. The only, I think the two storylines I can mention, and I'll probably mess up his name, but the recent drafting of Victor Webinyamba, is that it? Yes. I put an extra B in there, Webinyamba. No, I think you nailed it. Anyway, that's a huge story. And that I guess his summer league debut didn't go all that great, but like, who gives a shit?

like does summer league matter well no his second game was so good that they pulled him oh really okay yeah like his first game it was a little quiet and then the second game he just dominated like we get it okay proof of concept we are not risking this frail seven three foot growing growing

boy's body yeah in the summer league let's not break an ankle um but anyway so there's that this This is why they had to warn you. And then the other.

story that i know is where will dame lillard end up like that and i don't know i don't have an opinion on it i don't care like i listen to a sports show out of miami so i guess that's a good uh like topic on the miami sports show so maybe i root for that but i i don't care but i know about it and my point is if i know about it this is like huge like the trade rumors of dame lillard

is huge international news right now and they told me directly do not bring it up i did try to make a side joke about it yeah how'd you do what'd you do i did fine with it oh the thing let me just mention the paula thing real quick which was sorry at the very no that's fine at the very beginning peter said something i don't know how much of this will be in the the show that people might hear this weekend but peter said something i heard that like your um how you got started with basketball had to do with a game of horse and damian lord said see this is this is how rumors get started um i don't that that's not how i got started he goes this is because let me correct the record or whatever and then he tells the story of him getting into basketball in a quite charming way about i don't know like we're like 10 minutes into the interview and again it's just like i'm feeling like my job here is to not do something that interrupts the flow or brings us to a halt and paula just goes hold on i haven't heard one thing about horse and then everyone's just like kind of laughing but also it was like very abrupt and then i don't know like again another 10 minutes go by and then he's telling these really great kind of I wouldn't say emotional but certainly inspirational stories about things and then Paula's like jamming again like so you got an H you got an O you got an R it's like it's getting funnier but it's still

and he's already said like horse is not part of my back story

and not every time he's getting into a flow but there are points where he's like in the middle of a story and Paula is you know one of my favorite people on planet earth but she's dressed essentially like Colonel Sanders. She has these kind of outrageous glasses on. I don't think she's Dame Lillard's demo. And this, like, again, she's the Dame Lillard of Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me. That's the funny part. Like, she is the only person who got an applause that was even close to what Damian Lillard got was Paula Poundstone. But again, she doesn't know his world. I don't think he knows her world. There's just this kind of quirky character on stage who just keeps yelling at him about horse.

pretty funny and it was funny but i'm also like laughing he's playing along but also i can tell

he's sort of sizing it up but he's and then i can't i don't remember the exact joke i my guess is that this will definitely make it into the interview but like at the very end and they've talked to him now for like a half hour and he's just covered a whole range of topics and and it's again has been really thoughtful interesting and i forget exactly how he does it but at some point he just says and that's how you play horse it was like the best i was like can you is it can there be one thing you're not world class at dude yeah that's dude i mean i'm heavily invested in him not leaving portland now based on just being on a stage with him because i was like oh he was

the crowd the crowd must have went bananas they lost their fucking shit dude like it was what if and paula are just like best friends now what if they're like at brunch right now and i'm not invited that hurts but he was just and he was telling her all the dirt about where he how he wants to go to miami and he can't stop talking about it i was just like oh my god this motherfucker

he was he he was he understood the joke he had stored it away somewhere and he was just like and then he just deployed this callback at the most perfect moment i was just like i mean it really great because i mean it really made the it made the whole thing work but it was also just like this guy is really this guy has really got it together um i was i i was fighting my personally what i was doing was fighting the urge to fan boy out and also to try to prove to him that i sort of understand basketball like there was there was like two moments that i just involuntarily said something at one point he was talking about when he was a um i think when he was a freshman at weber state uh which by the way i had to really he was talking about the college weber state in utah and peter was saying that's a pretty small school right it's like d3 and he's like no it's division one and i had i had to stifle going and it's where bobby wagner went i was like this is not relevant to this conversation even though i would like to get some points from dame lillard for knowing that bobby wagner went to weber state but at some point he was talking about practice and he was saying i didn't want to go to practice and the coach was talking about practice i go oh you're pulling an iverson because you know famously iverson had a rant where he was like he was getting criticized for his behavior in practice as he was also averaging like 35 points a game and iverson famously said practice we're talking about practice it's one of the like more kind of well-known viral press conference moments so i I had to slide in. I learned that. I learned that on my favorite podcast, which was you and John talking around a fire during the TV telephone. Yes.

So I said, oh, you pulled an Iverson. He went, yeah, yeah, I pulled an Iverson.

I was like, yes, he knows that I know. And that is 100% not making it into the show because nobody knows, right?

No, I bet it is because I talked to Danforth about it afterwards and he goes, yeah, I was thinking the same thing. Oh, really? So I was like, well, you better. Okay. But then, but I actually don't know if that means it'll be in the show or not. But then there was one other thing. oh he was talking about he he apparently had for a little while a um kind of rap rivalry going with shack because like shack makes hip-hop music and dame willard makes hip-hop music and he said something about check and i go oh you beef with shack diesel and he kind of laughed and then i was like please tell me that's that is shack's rap name right i think it's shack diesel but other

than that i was able to look that up do you know i mean i'm no i actually haven't at this point i

mean shack isn't still doing that you mean back in the day right i don't know if shack is doing like you know i guess what you would call rap music or hip-hop music but what i do know is that shack is still uh occasionally djing like electro djing like music festivals i mean like as a sort of as a fairly regular thing like it's it's happened much more than once where shaquille o'neal and he's you know to the degree that any of those djs are are playing the music and and you know mixing and cross-fading and picking the songs he does that shit like he's pretty into it it seems um but anyway i was able to my point is i was able to mostly stifle my need to let damian lillard know that i um get it and that we could be best friends i was able to kind of try to keep that at bay but it was hard because i was again i don't get that i just don't get that sort of worked up about famous people particularly in that context because they're not there to meet me or anything but i was just like i was really starstruck i guess is what i'm trying to say

yeah well i mean just maybe paula will put in a good word for you

now one of the stories that i got last night uh was the story out of canada which is a kind of an interesting one i think you sent it to me did you send it to me yeah i think you did basically what you have are these a couple of guys who um are in the agriculture business and over the years they've done a number of deals where one of the guys buys i don't know exactly what it is i don't have the story in front of me but i remember the important parts the one of the guys was buying seeds i think from the other guy and this is something that they had done a few times they had transactions and at one point this one guy was going to buy whatever these were some kind of seeds or something from the other dude again and they had agreed or like he had said how about this much money in these terms or whatever and the guy who was selling the stuff just sent back a thumbs up emoji and then he eventually didn't do the deal and the guy who had wanted to buy the stuff was you know felt like he lost money so this ended up going to court and a Canadian court ruled that a thumbs up emoji in this context could be interpreted as an agreement to the deal so they found in favor of the person who wanted to buy the whatever the seeds or something were now what i thought was really fascinating about the story and i don't know how deeply into this you read andrew but one of the things the court considered was that the guy who sent the thumbs up emoji was a very terse texter historically like he just mostly responded with like yep or okay and like you could go back and look at the texting history between these two guys and the one guy would be like okay so i'm gonna buy this sorghum from you and it's gonna be this and then the other i'd just be like yep and the fact that this guy was a dry ass texter really worked against him because it indicated that like they had had these they had like agreed to these deals multiple times with as something as little as a yep so a yep isn't that different than a thumbs up emoji was basically what the court found and the reason this hits me where i live is because i I am very insecure when dealing with a dry texter. Like, I send overly verbose, overly explanatory texts.

Especially because I think you send a lot from your computer, too, right?

That's a huge part of it. And you could probably even tell, Andrew, just, you're probably, other than Becca, you're maybe the person I end up texting the most in the world. If I'm on my computer or if I'm on my phone, because the computer, it's just, yeah, I'm typing away. And if I'm on my phone, it's a little bit harder. but i i'll spend an entire afternoon worrying that someone's mad at me because their response is yep like the contractor that i'm working with who let's just say he's not a he's not a super tech savvy dude richard it'll be like i'm see by the way previous quote unquote hot girl comments i'll send this whole long text that's like hey so if you could go ahead and um get that that roof going And that would really, boy, that saved my life because I'm always trying to butter him up and it'll just be kind of, and he's a very-

nice guy in person it's like he's terse in person but he's just not someone who is used to sending a you know four paragraph text it's just kind of like okay you know and then I'm like is it gonna he said okay but he didn't like explain it's like okay I can't wait to do that you didn't say okay with an exclamation point that would well that's it too I overuse that as well I'm in the I'm very insecure about those types of communication and for some reason i found it very gratifying gratifying might be the wrong word i found it very comforting to know that the petard that hoisted this guy who sent the thumbs up emoji was that he's just been dry texting this other dude for

years and it's finally so dirty when you say that jesus he's been raw texting this guy for so many

years i guess i invited that i felt like it was a it was a it was a repudiation of that kind of behavior and it was a uh what's the word i'm looking for it was i felt like it struck a blow against the dry textures of the world and i as an over texter an overly verbose texter

i welcome it that's an interesting take i i wanted to just to go back to the article though because i i didn't have i didn't have a personal connection to this although and again all i did was read the new york times story i did read the whole thing not to brag so i felt like i was pretty well read on it and i i really sort of disagreed with the court and i sort of always hate that oh interesting because i'm always like you know like what who am i to disagree with the court you know but um like so here was the actual text exchange i think this is important the person sent the contract and then the person wrote in the text please confirm flax contract he replied with a thumbs up emoji and that it seems to me would mean like okay we'll do please confirm the flax contract like we'll do uh confirmed i got it it just doesn't seem to me that like yes i've read and agreed to the terms of this contract that you attached here like i just i don't know a thumbs up emoji i mean i see what you mean i see from your point of view why it's sort of vindication but and maybe this guy's now going to be the longest texter in the world but like it just sort of seems like a real stretch to me like a thumbs up emoji usually means it's like okay got it i'll get back to you like you know you know john and i will often be texting hey john um are you still planning on um reaching out to the donors about x y or z um thumbs up you know like yeah i'm going to or something i just don't feel like that is like hey john did you read the the operating agreement and sign off like just like i just don't think that the thumbs up means i am signing

paperwork like a contract i guess it comes down to how you interpret that confirm thing is because are you confirming that you're going to confirm it like thumbs up yeah i'm gonna confirm it when i get a chance to when i read it or are you confirming it are you just doing it right there like please confirm the flax contract thumbs up i am in this moment confirming the flax contract or is it like i'm confirming that i'm going to do that at some point like it's the nature of what is being confirmed that i think this whole thing hinges on yeah definitely and i think i'm a little

bit on the other end of it than than you in the court i just feel like also you're also i want

to say this i'm pretty long texter sometimes no you're no sometimes you're you're you're quite to the point oh which is interesting because i think you and i are both similar in that we're very talkative and we we sort of you know can maybe be overly talkative at times but like i will i'll send you a text it'll be like hey um i got a late start on my run so it's can we dial at 10 15 but also if you can't do that that's fine and then your response will be yep and that's a reasonable response but it's it's like the one of the few times where like you'll respond with one

word like if we were talking you wouldn't do that it is true i'm looking back at our text messages and um i think of myself as like you can see the ones that i was sitting behind the computer on you know like hey just copy you on an email to so and so to see if they're going to do this with us this person isn't available like blah blah like I'm looking at one that I sent you from the other day that's like four lines long but I do see that you sent me some long thing and I just wrote gotcha good to know by the way no rush I said today like I guess sometimes I am kind of

but you know but I know because I know you

that it's just also in my text history is me sending you this story I said this is a week old but interesting Anyway go ahead sorry

No I know coming from you that It's you know again You're probably in the midst of something And you're sending me the information That I need like you and I have enough history And we talk enough on a daily basis That I don't read anything Into it but that's just because I know you so well At this point anyone else who I don't know and I get those kind Of like you know even Sometimes Becca who is, again, it's very weird dating a person who is super emotional.

balanced i don't really know how to how to handle it sometimes because like sometimes uh okay is just an okay like it's just saying sure that sounds fine we could do that okay like hey we have these plans but like i'm like you know this cbs thing they're putting this oh my god dude this week that by the way r.i.p tony bennett yeah and also r.i.p all of the plans of cbs sunday morning

like you want to talk about an overhaul so does this mean that you were you working on projects that like screwed up your week that are no longer relevant well not to center myself in the story of

tony bennett passing away but um there was a i had a story well there was a whole episode that was going to re-air on sunday that uh that got scrapped at the last minute which means they're trying to build an entirely new show now which does also involve a story that i did they're moving the whole money episode that was going to be this weekend that's moving to next week which means The stuff that was going to run next week is all now kind of up in the air. It's like the entire apparatus of a TV show that's viewed by, I don't know what, 8 million people or something is, as we speak, people are losing their minds in New York City because of the passing of Tony Bennett on a Friday.

You think there's overlap there in the audience? There sure is, Andrew. There sure is.

I mean, I'm not saying they're making the wrong decision, and also I'm not trying to be glib about Tony Bennett passing away. He seems like he was a really Sweet human being And he pleased So many people with his music Also we Andrew you and I Have a slight connection to Tony Bennett That I don't even know if you know about

Does this have to do with our favorite Steak house in It sure does Mancini's char grill it sure does He was the guy who performed there Like the owner worked hard to get him in Tell me the story I don't remember

So remember when we got a ride home from the owner of Mancini's Char House, who is the son of Mancini?

I remember that happening.

Yes, we got a ride home in his Escalade. This is when you know you're in the right place. We played pull tabs. We met the foremost amateur wrestling historian of the upper Midwest. Of the Twin Cities of the upper Midwest. World's expert on Baron Von Raschke, a.k.a. The Claw. and then we shut that place down so hard the owner gave us a ride home i know dropped you off at your hotel then dropped me off at my hotel that is in my life never happened before hotels

too drop me off first i think i i yeah i mean that was a really special night and it was also that led to the most hungover i'd ever been around colleagues before the next day and so You and I had a live show, I believe, the next day or two days later at the at the at the brew pub place there in St. Paul, I believe. And I told the embarrassing story of how I had to throw away my Browns T-shirt because I was out. I was out with colleagues the next day and I was like so nervous and hung over and everything that I was like basically sweating through my shirt. And I was wearing like I always wear like a button down shirt and then a T-shirt underneath it. and I happened that day to be wearing a Browns t-shirt and I was sitting at the table and I got up to use the restroom I looked in the restroom mirror and I just had the swampiest armpits I've ever seen so I disrobe in the bathroom and again like my colleagues who I'm meeting for the first time and I'm very impressed with me they seem like cool people and I am in the bathroom disrobing taking off my Browns t-shirt throwing it in the garbage but trying to bury it in the garbage so that somebody, so that some, like, Minnesota fan doesn't come along and, like, find my Browns t-shirt in the garbage. Somehow I just sort of thought that would be even more humiliating. And so, yeah, anyway, I do remember that night.

Like when someone shits their pants and then they just throw out their underwear. They just, like, use it to wipe.

And then it's just like, you've got to get rid of this. All of the events related to the night were both, like, very fun and ended up being kind of a funny story. but also I still have some shame related to how I felt the next day. But I don't work for that company anymore, and I didn't get fired, so I'm fine.

That's a—I treasure that night. I think that was—I know what you mean, and believe me, I was a hurting unit the next day as well. But one of the stories that the owner of Mancini's Char House told us was that, you know, Tony Bennett pretty famously had a big career lull, right? Like, he was sort of, you know I think he was kind of a hit in the era of Sinatra He sort of had a career And then I just think the style of music Kind of fell out of favor And there just wasn't a lot of appetite For what Tony Bennett was selling And in that period of time The guy who founded Mancini's Char House In, I think it's St. Paul Yeah, that's St. Paul for sure I'm always a little hazy on the borders of the Twin Cities but

anyway um he basically was a big tony bennett fan and he hired tony bennett to come perform there in this i mean they do have that place does have a weirdly large like kind of stage area and stuff for what you think is like a steakhouse and then you go and you're like wow this is pretty

significant yeah they have like a banquet room like an old school very kind of red banquet room

with like some you know tables and like round tables and chairs but a place that like you know let's say tony bennett of 15 years ago when he was still performing i mean he would be in like he'd be playing in an arena somewhere this would have been very very very um you know pretty small place for him to perform and basically the dad did it as sort of a favor to tony bennett he knew that tony bennett's career wasn't going well and he knew that it would be popular but he also did it really more as a favor to tony bennett than anything and the story that his son told us as we were driving in that escalade was that tony bennett never forgot it and anytime tony bennett was in like the twin cities he called the guy's dad and brought him out to shows and brought him backstage and for the rest of tony bennett's life he was like indebted to and appreciative of the mancini's char char house guy for basically doing him a solid when his career wasn't going

so hot and i just thought that was a cool story that is a cool story because and i have not read any of the obits and i'm not super familiar with tony bennett's career but i feel like he kind of had a resurgence in the 90s as people sort of rediscovered music from that that earlier era and kind of kind of swing became big not that he was a not that he was a swing musician but it was just sort of like this this and you had those like kind of duets that were coming out um what am i thinking of with um who recorded the duet with her dad lady oh yeah natalie cole yeah exactly

But he also did, Tony Bennett did stuff with Lady Gaga. He did a lot of, but you know what I heard? I think Sonari Glinton, who's not at NPR anymore, if I know this, but I think he did the obit for, he did some sort of obit for Tony Bennett, like, which happens. In fact, I heard a piece from my friend Shireen Marisol Maragi the other day that was this very long piece about, I forget who it was, and then I texted her, I was like, hey, great piece. She goes, yeah, that's been in the can for 10 years.

Whoa, whoa, 10 years.

maybe she was exaggerating a little bit but she doesn't even she's like a professor at cal now or something but anyway what i think i heard sonari say in this this was a newscast obit was that or whatever wherever i heard it was that part of tony bennett's resurgence was basically performing before like alternative rock bands like he would be the opening act like there was some moment where this kind of like hipster culture and and you might say indie music or alternative music culture embraced tony bennett in some way like it was this sort of yeah and it's just i don't remember it and that just seems like such a bizarre pairing like okay we're gonna go see the offspring but first tony bennett but it was like he became sort of hip and embraced i think by a an unlikely kind of music fan base and then that brought him back into the mainstream and then you know he became incredibly popular and beloved from there and you're saying you got to keep them separated that's all I'm saying you know that guy was like famously a what biochem major or something one of the things I'd love to tell you about the offspring is that the guy who's the lead singer has like a PhD or something I am just so proud of my joke all right a little speaking of that's actually I have a song by the offspring that I want to do for music for your

I am hey I want to say something before my music for your weekend my music for your weekend your music for my weekend um i i was speaking me being proud of my jokes i posted something on our instagram channel today or whatever you call it and um here's the deal since john joined the team a few weeks ago our instagram has been popping off he is so like you and i are pretty bad at or i guess you didn't even have a login so i i've always been bad at maintaining social media for the shows i work on including this one i don't know why i enjoy it generally speaking but i just don't have the discipline to like post stuff regularly and that's really bad i always hate having like sort of these somewhat ghost accounts floating around that'll go dormant for a while but having said that john uh got the keys to the instagram the tbtl instagram and he's been um doing some really funny fun stuff with the audience and it's been really cool so if you haven't checked that out check it out and then today i was texting a friend of mine and friend of the show matt becker um who and matt writes these um book reviews that he sends out in the sub stack and in a in several of his recent book reviews he has mentioned like why do authors always have to talk about dreams so much nobody wants to hear about your dreams and so i texted him today i'm just like listen you can stop taking shots at me via your little art criticism blog you You know what I mean?

mean like some people love dream talk and then we started just in our private text chain making memes about me like kind of blabbing into his ear like that meme of the of the young girl or that young woman like blabbing into the ear of the young man at a concert somewhere I think you're familiar with it and so I made that and like only it's like me blabbing a dream into Matt's ear so anyway I made this uh meme he said if you're gonna get into a meme more you better be ready he sent back a bunch of memes uh related to dream talk and not liking it i loved my little photoshop so much that i posted it to our instagram page and i said andrew wants to bring you know dream talk back to tbtl call your congressperson and tell them no to vote no or whatever and then that's a funny joke and i included on instagram and i'm looking and you you can see who's viewed it and you can see who's liked it right yeah so you and so it's always weird instagram stories are interesting because it's hard not to take it personally like you can post a story that you think is good and then you can say okay who liked it and you hit this little button that shows you everybody's who's looked at it as well as who liked it and you start saying to yourself well that's funny it seems like luke would have liked that like why did luke not like that okay and it's such a weird mind f for me to like because like i don't really care about likes that much but clearly i do and i'm like wait cat solen just zipped right past my photo and didn't like it hey cat you know um and uh so that's always high praise when when your direct when your hollywood director friend likes your photos right so anyway all of that is to say this is not getting the engagement i thought it would and i think it is because i might have there might be an implication here that this is john posting it and taking shots at me and i don't think it's clear that this was me taking shots at me you so this was a very long boring story about an old man struggling with social media but i just want to say if you looked at that and you didn't heart it and it was because you thought john was taking shots at me go back and heart it because it's me taking shots at me and it's the funniest joke you've ever seen so that's why i just wanted to get that off my

it's very funny i'm not 100 sure that the girl in the meme isn't a 19 year old becca oh really It's like a dead ringer for, like, Becca, you know, when she was 19.

You've seen this meme before, though, right? I don't think I have, actually. Oh, really? Oh, it's one of my – this was going around, like, I don't know, as a year old now or something. It was – because, you know, like, the stew bottle retweeted out with just, like, well, what a lot of people don't know about the second Ramones album is that it would have been better if it was produced – you know, it's always somebody, like, sort of over-explaining something that they're overly nerdy about. It's one of my favorite memes.

I also like that it kind of flips the gender dynamic on that idea, you know, because I've seen other things like that, but it's a guy, you know, doing the same thing. I think it's kind of fun to know that young women at music festivals can also be annoying.

Yeah. In fact, Becker sent another one back to me that was the Astros fan, like talking at a woman while he's like holding her neck in an uncomfortable looking way. That sounds like a strangling. I don't mean it that way. They're sitting in like in basketball seats somewhere or something. But it's just like an uncomfortable looking like this guy is being way too intense. And this woman is not really into what he's saying. And you can apply whatever you want to that. Enough mean.

How does any of this relate to the offspring?

It does not. I just wanted to clear the air in case people are thinking that our friend John is being too mean to their friend Andrew. I just wanted to make it very clear that, yes, I am. Andrew is with the memes and it's OK. I'm laughing at myself. OK. You want to know about music for your weekend? i have not been listening to music lately luke um i don't know why i'm just kind of we go through these various periods um and so i haven't been like kind of listening to anything new to introduce you to but i do realize that this is part of my journalistic responsibility to provide music for your weekend um and so i was thinking well it's summertime and often like if i think back on certain eras of my life like what is a what are some songs that i relate to various summers of my past and the first thing i thought of was this song it's not going back to my childhood it's just going back to i think 2005 this came out i'm i must have played this on the show before it was once probably in my favorite song rotation and it's by a band called the cloud room i don't know much about the cloud room they're one of those like 2005 like brooklyn bands or whatever and you'll definitely hear that sound in here um the only song i know by them is their most popular song hey now now my friend schwa put this on a mixed cd for me back in 2005 and we listened to the hell out of that cd one of the best mixes i ever got and it began with this song hey now now by the cloud room We'll be right back.

What you dreaming now, now Cut it up and slip it back in And I know, and I know, and I know it Hey, now, now The smallest things are crushing me now The crush, crush, crush It's so comforting now With the earth just slimming the sun And I know, and I know, and I know it One, two, three Passed by walking and talking backwards Hey, now, now Going down, down

Man, when that chorus drops, that is like a time machine and my heart skips a beat. You know this song?

Only from you. Yeah, I probably played it a long time ago. You know what? Remember that you made a mixtape that I think we listened to in the RV, maybe?

I made a two-part mixtape, yes, that was, you know what I made it for, I think? It was trying to convince people to drive to Minnesota to see our live show. Some people were like, I don't know, it's kind of a long drive or whatever. So I promised to make a road trip mixtape with drops and everything that I think I put up on sound. It was, oh, no, it was called Meet Me in St. Paul is what the name of that was. And so, yeah, I bet you I put this on there. That makes a lot of sense.

It's so good. I wish you could have seen me. actually i'm glad you couldn't see me andrew because so in my right hand is uh the stupid feather cat toy that i'm always trying to entertain the cat with all show long and that song is so catchy that i just started involuntarily in the middle of the room kind of doing a dance this now the cat was no longer part of the situation where i was just like like doing this kind of figure eight movement with the stick that has a feather on a string you know and just kind of dancing and doing almost like if if it were my mom she would have the song that my mom would have sang when doing this exact dance move is and what really who i was channeling was little ed from gray gardens

i think that's what the cloud room was kind of going for that was the vibe well it worked

if you could have seen me it was it was giving as the kids say was giving strong little ed From Grey Gardens When she's doing some kind of dance With like a flag or whatever That was just me Because of how good that music was

I love it Yeah, no, that's a great That is a good song It's a good song to kick off a mixtape, man So shout out to Schwa

I don't have any particularly fascinating You know, backstory on how I got to the song I want to suggest this week Other than Spotify started sending me some list That's basically like Bands you like That just put something out Which is actually a very smart idea Whoever thought of that one Over there at Spotify Good thinking Because I looked at it and I was like Oh, I do like all of these artists Who I didn't know had put out a song Including like Courtney Barnett

Oh, I'm listening

Courtney Barnett And also MJ Lenderman The guy that I finally got hip to The You Bought Yourself a Boat guy Anyway, but It's interspersed in this playlist was also bands that I don't really listen to. But I guess I just figured, you know, Courtney Barnett's only releasing so much music, so let's fill this out a little bit with other things that we think Luke might like. And I clicked on a song by this band, His Golden Messenger. Now, I've seen this name of this band kicking around, and I was always a little like, hmm, I don't know about that. Like, it feels like a joke about, and I'm not offended on a religious level, but it feels like it's sort of a Jesus joke, Like instead of his golden messenger of being something vaguely religious, his golden messenger. Like, I don't know. I just thought it was maybe trying to be a little clever or ironic in a way that somehow when I saw his golden messenger, it just never quite connected for me. But they're, by the way, like a kind of a folk act out of Durham, North Carolina.

This is one of those bands. We've played them before in the show. I'm going back and looking. They've been submitted by listeners, I think, for music for the weekend a couple of times. And I'm just looking at that now. And this is one of those bands that stands out to me You would never have to tell me this But I would look at that band name And say that is the type of band name That Luke does not like Like you wouldn't have liked it as a kid And you wouldn't like it now

And the funny part is It's not because I think it's sacrilegious In fact I don't even know If that's the origin of the name I guess when I would see it I would think oh that's like You know like I wouldn't I'm trying to think of I'm trying to make up another band name That's like Jesus adjacent That I wouldn't be charmed by No, I actually really love them.

Oh, that's what I'm saying. And you're saying I thought you were looking for that, something that does not bother you.

Oh, no, no. I was trying to give another example of something that would be a play on words and kind of vaguely religious that I would not like. That you would not like. Oh, okay.

Because, again, I can't even put my finger on why I didn't get a good vibe off of his Golden Messenger. Anyway, all that is to say, this band has put out a, just basically like a, well, it's funny because it's a single, but it's got a B-side, which I love that. I mean, I think it's amazing we're still doing that because what are the chances that someone's getting the 45 of this and then they want to. My mom's biggest, like, compliment to my Uncle Chuck is always like, he always liked the B-sides. He always liked the B-sides. My Uncle Chuck used to sell TV guides door-to-door in Philadelphia, in the Mayfair neighborhood of Philadelphia, and he used to use all his money to buy 45s, and then he would play them for my mom, but he would always play the B-sides. That's my kind of guy. Right? Old Uncle Chuck. But anyway, this, I think, is the B-side of Shinbone. So Shinbone is the single that was released recently by His Golden Messenger. But this, what I would like to play, is New Grape, the B-side of this new single. Could you give that a spin?

Well, that's how I run my way Someone does a miracle Give me a stone that sits Don't cry, it's only a joke That feels true enough for you Make me a headline of your love I was fired Said I couldn't live without water You were water, water Put up the fire I'm just a nail In the house of the universe Drink a new grape With a $5 bill

So there's a little His Golden Messenger. Are we like, nothing has changed about Spotify possibly dinging us for playing music, right, Andrew? No, nothing has changed on that. We still got to be careful, right? I still got to make sure I'm not letting things run too long.

Yeah, I think that we will now get the messages directly. But first, I need to. So you just reminded me of something that I was supposed to do when we made the transition that I haven't done yet, which is tell Spotify that we're in charge now so that when we do get copyright violations, they don't go to our old colleagues at 8 p.m.

Oh, send them there. Those jokers are still going to get in trouble. Why in the world would we want those emails?

Well, if we get, but I mean, if they need to reach out to us about anything and we need to, if we need to resolve anything, I don't want them just going to some dead letter office at APN.

You and I have very different approaches to life. And I, for one, am glad that this falls under your responsibilities because I'd be like, eh, let Beth deal with it.

But how would they deal with it? It would just be like, hey, we're going to pull down your podcast. And they would just be like, we just wouldn't know that they're pulling down our podcast.

The question is, would we continue doing it to no one? just if this is just you and me oh i mean i mean i'm sorry i meant an episode in other words like

there might be it's this is so goddamn boring i'm sorry but there's the types of emails that we would usually get from spotify would be like hey on this episode you know three thousand whatever whatever whatever uh you have copyright dings on these songs that you apparently played like do you want to contest this or we're going to pull the episode off of spotify and so that's how we started losing episodes on spotify and so that's what i'm trying to avoid and the only thing that would happen is if we don't change like where these emails go is they're just our episodes are just going to start disappearing and we won't even know it ah okay well then it is good that

we're getting those yes thank you for being responsible yes uh our listener suggestion comes from listener lisa who says okay guys i've been hearing this song over and over again on canadian radio and just can't get it out of my head i have no idea what the lyrics are but i love it so i'm sending this bright happy earworm out to you and all the tens as a celebration of a thawne gone well the song is by a guy who plays under the name alex cuba i think his real name is alex puente he's from cuba i was doing this a little quick wikipedia-ing on him he uh moved from cuba up to british columbia um when he married a canadian woman and uh has been living in canada and in different parts of British Columbia and winning all kinds of awards and, you know, Grammys and Junos and whatever up there, playing under the name Alex Cuba. This is a super catchy song called No Puede Ser. I don't think I know what No Puede Ser means. Do you?

I don't. I really should know what No Puede means. Does that mean that's not, um, is that like, what does No Puede mean? That I should know. That's really embarrassing.

It just can't be. Oh, really? the uh no i had to look it just can't be oh with the serum um on the end of it um so this yep so so cannot no puede cannot okay i see no putting yeah oh because si se puede yes we can yes we can that's why yeah that's what was i think tickling my brain there like i should know this but i don't it's really embarrassing like why don't i just download one of those god darn apps and learn me

some Spanish. Do I look like I know what a

gall-dying gray peg is?

So we're going to go out with a little Alex Cuba doing No Puede Ser. That's how we're going to wrap up this broadcast week. Thank you so much, everyone, for listening. Thanks for being part of TBTL. I was last night talking to Paula Poundstone and Helen Hong about the fact that we're getting to our 4,000th episodes, and their jaws hit the floor. And Helen just kept saying, that is, that must feel amazing. that must feel amazing that these people have stuck with you and I said it sure does so thank you for sticking with us we'll be back here on Monday with more imaginary radio for you until then have a great weekend take care of yourselves and please remember no mountain too tall and good luck to all

si se puede Do I look like I know what a JPEG is?

I just want a picture of a god dang hot dog. Power out.