Muse

Some people are living a life that I don't understand at all, like wearing matching rings with their boyfriends or putting everything in their little briefcase and going to a building that looks Greek for some reason. some people are making a smoothie and they got two kids crawling on the floor next to them some people work in a cubicle and ironically hung up one of those like cat posters but it kind of does inspire them some people are popping all these off a half pipe some people are in like a bunch of snow and they're like that's fine and normal some people saw the house of horrors at the county fair and they were like i'm gonna be that what are you guys up to?

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

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

Hey, good looking. And what we did see is we took them turds and we crammed them in between the number there, so that's 1-30-2-30-3-30. It's embarrassing and it's gross, but at least it's kind of funny. A year ago, this is exactly what Greg Kinnear was doing, but now he has an Oscar for Sliding Doors 3, colon, jingle all the door.

We have a story to tell, so listen. Okay. And write it down. I was saying blue words.

Alright, hello, good morning, and welcome everyone to a Friday edition of TBTL, the show that just might be too beautiful to live.

This place is great. You know, it's whimsical and fun.

My name is Luke Burbank. I am your host. I'd like to grow a pair sometime. Coming to you from beautiful Seattle, Washington, and the sauna of sound right here at Andrew's house. It is a truly spectacular day in Seattle. I was motoring up Interstate 5. Just the sky is blue. The mountains are out. I feel like you can see when it's nice in the wintertime, when it's clear, it's somehow more clear. I don't know if there's less particulate matter. I don't know what's going on. I can just tell you that it's a spectacular Friday here in Seattle. And I am so excited to be here for so many reasons, including getting to kick it with Bingo, my second favorite cat in the world. That's not true. My third favorite cat in the world. God, if Holly hears this, I'm in big trouble. And because, of course, we've made it to episode 4143 in a collector's series. Let the fun begin. And whenever I have the honor and pleasure of being here at the broadcast studio with Andrew in person, we get to play a little round of What's in the Box, where we open up some mail that has been sent to us by the wonderful TBTL listeners. I'm checking the mail. Did you know that you can still get mail? You can, and we do. And we're going to open some of it coming up. i'm also going to try to uh sort of focus on today's show and and not focus on the fact that as of tomorrow i will be the father of a 30 year old person human person that's that's something that i think i knew was um hypothetically possible but now it's it's become a real world concern for both me and the 30-year-old in question, so I don't know. Maybe that'll come up as well. And we'll talk to the aforementioned Mr. Andrew Walsh. Longest-running co-bro of the show, maybe best known for his depictions of the tall ships. I can eat a hot dog pretty quickly, but that's just out of gluttony and enjoyment. I don't know what he has planned for this weekend, but it may involve hot dogs. He's not quite sure yet. Sitting right across from me. Good morning, my friend. Congratulations, Luke. I didn't know you were adopting a 30-year-old this weekend. I am. The courts tried to stop me wow yeah no i mean i mean unconventional that's what is 2024 that's how my attorneys described it how are you going to define family you know and that was how we were able to eventually get the uh get all the paperwork cleared fantastic yeah that's gonna be a that's gonna be a good time for you i'm up here uh because tomorrow is my daughter's 30th birthday and uh and so we're going to be spending some quality dad daughter time together i don't want to give too much away about the nature of my errands this afternoon because there's a very very very very insignificant chance that addy would hear this but more of an after these messages listener yeah more of a

almost called your other show mr clean no that's my name i'm the show that's my character There have been times when Addy has dipped in and out of the show I've caged

I'll get a text from her going, oh, I totally know that thing you were trying to think of. And I'm like, we have listeners to correct me. I don't need my daughter, my actual daughter weighing in. But I will tell you that I, you know, she's turning 30. It's a big number. And one of the gifts that I have gotten for her is something I think she's really going to like. But I'm already nervous about giving it to her. I'm already trying to decide where to give it to her because I am 17 years older than her and there are certain times where it is confusing to people what the nature of our relationship is because of our you know 17 years is a big distance in age between you know like people who are romantically involved but it happens and love is love is love I mean just like Linda Manuel said and so So she and I, Addie and I have developed a kind of a little, a little shtick that we do usually for out to dinner. If it's a kind of a nice place where it looks like it could be vaguely like a date where they'll bring the menus and she'll say something like, well, dad, what looks good? Yeah, get it out. I'll be like, I don't know, daughter. Loud and proud. In a way that is like totally unnecessary for us, for each other. But just to make sure everyone within your shot knows what the deal is. And one of these little gifts that I got her is something I'm very excited for her to open. But it does, if you're handing it across the table.

Handing it across the table. Yes, I see this.

In the container that it's in, in the box that it's in, it could take on the notion that I'm proposing. Sure. Which would be weird for the Applebee's in SeaTac that we're going to. Because that makes the thanks, Dad, even weirder. Right. You have to really. And I think at this point, yeah, you know, dad and daddy, that's been burned. Yeah, I know. We have to go to father. Father, yes. And luckily daughter is still in the, you know, public domain. It's fine. I can say daughter. That's not going to give people the wrong impression. But Vives and I do sort of a father forgive me for I have sinned thing.

Yes, I know you do. You never had to experience confession, right? Like that's not something that your Christianity kind of deals with.

had a version of it that was completely self-regulated and by that i mean when i was a kid i i believed very much in heaven and hell and i believed very much that i was going to hell because i was always walking around with a lot of sin on the on the kind of running tab of my behaviors and i was under the impression that if i went to sleep at night and died in my sleep without repenting for these things it was a pretty good chance that i was going to hell um and so this would build up and build up and build up to the point where about i don't know once every maybe five or six months something inside me would just shift and i'd be like i gotta go i gotta go clear the decks yeah and i would go upstairs would always then you have to ask forgiveness for that yeah exactly so then i would quickly clear the decks then pray Andrew do you understand this show is no longer explicit are we going to talk about that is another question maybe at some point maybe when the time is right how and when to talk about that but anyway I um I would go upstairs to my parents and I would like sit on their bed you know 10 o'clock at night and I would say I need to tell you about and these the things that I would be admitting to would be things along the lines of I uh stole five dollars from the um you know um lunchroom i don't know why they put me on i mean i was the worst person for them to put on the lunchroom duty at the elementary school where you were anywhere near the money they that was a real mistake so i had like i had nicked five bucks unfortunately i think that my friend chin hung took the fall oh you've told that was really bad that was a bad part of that i don't mind stealing from bagley elementary school but someone else

taking the fall stealing from the public education system no no um but anyway so i would you know i

would or i you know stole a candy bar from craigen's pharmacy or whatever it was so i would um i would go and i would tearfully admit all of this stuff to my parents and i have to tell you it felt amazing like i would go to bed so you tell your parents yeah i didn't have to go to a member of the clergy well for a period of time my dad literally was the pastor of our church so i guess but but in these days it wasn't we had a different pastor i was just telling my parents and i remember i would just be just a ball of tears and thinking i was going to be in so much trouble and really if i was the parent in that situation i'd be like god damn it's working yeah right this mind control we got this kid we got this kid copping to his own shit yeah like wow this worked you know like i thought like i'm they may kick me out of the family for stealing the $5 And in fact, they were like, oh, my God, he's internalized all of this BS. So I just remember going to bed on like the night, you know, of having gotten all this stuff off my chest and just even at, you know, 10, 12 years old, just feeling so unburdened by so light, just like and just being so happy. And then, of course, the next morning, immediately coveting something or looking at a hustler. those are the things right the coveting the the sins of the mind like that's like i remember and then it would build back up and build back up and build back up so my question to you is because you did grow up very catholic did you ever actually do the sitting in the the phone booth with the

little lattice between you deal well that was the real son of a gun too because i i believe you have your you get your first communion at least in my church around first grade and i can't remember when you're first like kind of i can't remember the proper word for confession it has a more um highfalutin term um and it's somewhere i think maybe a little bit you're a little bit older before you do that and then it's okay and i believe there is a special ceremony for like

the kids who are now of the proper age i see so they don't have like their three-year-olds are not being brought into confession no although that would be both hilarious and tedious for

the priests right exactly well i was not to make excuses but i was teething at the time and i was just wasn't myself i put a lego in my starfish um but the thing is i went to a small church and i so i my point here is i believe i was already an altar boy maybe before my first confession or if not that like the priest knew me really well yeah because it was a small country church we were really involved in it and in our church you always had the option of just sitting down without that screen between you and just face to face and i just remember early on like feeling like i didn't have the option so and i wanted it so i wanted to be behind the screen even though father dunphy would know my voice and know everything i didn't want to look at him i felt like a counseling

session i mean to be honest with you yeah that whole and i've only seen it in movies and television that whole you're sitting side by side you're talking through that little window or whatever it is yeah i really could have got into that i would have liked that better than sitting on my parents bed bawling my eyes out talking about how i listened to acdc hell's bells are you kidding me

um yeah so that i remember then at a certain age realizing well listen i'm old enough i can take agency or agency here so then i would go behind the screen but then it was ridiculous like father dunphy knew me really well you know what i mean it was like why am i doing that but isn't it wasn't

It wasn't performative for almost everyone involved, like at any church that wasn't, you know, St. Peter's in New York or something, any reasonable size Catholic church, the likelihood is the priest would know who the person talking to him is.

Yeah, and that's the tough thing about it. But I was going back to the idea of the sins of the mind. I remember being of in a like I'd been going to confession for years already and it was I never liked doing it. It always really stressed me out and I didn't do it all that often. But I remember learning in some sort of catechism, I assume Catholic school, but I don't remember who taught me this. But somebody at some point said, of course, your sins are only forgiven during confession if you know in your heart that you won't make that sin again or do that sin again. And I was like, what the?

See, now that honestly is really a distant. And I was considering converting to Catholicism because what I liked about it, because my cousins, you know, my mom is from a very, very sort of entrenched Irish Catholic family in Philadelphia. I mean, you know, 12 years of parochial school, the whole thing. And my cousins were all raised in the Catholic Church. My Aunt Kath, you know, weekly, probably every other day attendee of mass. and they would tell me all this you know stuff about confession and they'd be getting okay you got like 12 herald marys and x number of whatever things with the rosary beads my cousin kellyanne and i thought this kind of sucks but also i like this system where you can go in and you can confess all your sins you you clear the accounts you clear the ledger and then you can just go right back to sinning i thought this is a this is a system luke burbank can operate within But you're saying that wasn't the advice that they gave you, because I was not going to commit to never doing it again. I was going to commit to doing it every single week and then just going in for a little oil change on Sundays. Like going to the gym once a month, but then at night just eating a stack of pizza. Precisely.

Because you feel so good after that first trip to the gym.

Those are the kinds of systems and religions I can embrace. Right, yeah.

Well, that's the thing. I mean, I think that, you know, that is often the quick takeaway or, you know, whatever, the shorthand of confession is. Oh, then you're free of that guilt and you have a lighter conscious or whatever. whatever but then somebody said well it's not just magic like you do have to if you're confessing to a sin if you're truly sorry for that sin you can't just say that sin knowing that you're gonna go out there and do it again like whatever it is because then you're not truly sorry you're not truly like what is the proper word for contrite or whatever and so like and i mean it makes sense from that perspective to try to instill that but also it's a real son of a gun to learn that it's like wait hold on a second now like so i you know got into a fight with my sister like so i have to confess that but also say like i'm gonna make every effort to never do that again it's like come on i'm gonna

go home we're gonna fight did you ever get like assignments you know okay give give me 10 hill marys and then you'd have to go yeah penance did you ever get penance and yeah did you do the

penance well that's that's the other thing i'm really digging up a lot here like i wanted it Like it was in the movies. I wanted the screen. I wanted anonymity. I wanted to say what I wanted to say, and I want to get out of there and have to do like four rosaries and be good, right? Yeah. But I remember like it was just too, it was too modern. And again, we went to a very small church in the country. I'm not talking like, it wasn't like modern in the way that some of the Christian traditions you talk about are more modern. But our priest was younger at the time. He's no longer with us, Father Dunphy. And he came from a different background, I think. And it was a little bit more... Was he like a cool priest? Yeah. Because he was younger? He was younger. Did you do folk mass?

Did you hear any Simon and Garfunkel? No. My mom lived for when they would do Simon and Garfunkel at mass. That was like all that got her through her experience as a Catholic.

No, nothing that would be considered pop music. Every now and then there would be a mass with like an acoustic guitar or maybe some sort of accompaniment. But anyway, like, so the easy tradition of just, like, almost the transactional nature of confession, it wasn't like that. It was supposed to be a little bit more substantial than that. So, like, the priest would say, again, and now I'm sitting down with, like, kind of an elder in my life whom I know. In completely the bright light of the church? Oh, no, no. We are back in a little booth, but we're not through a screen. So we have privacy, but it's just like, but we're just sitting in chairs next to each other. and then the penance I'm just remembering this now like the first penances were like okay well I want you to like they were more things of action like I want you to let's just go with this stupid example of fighting with my sister because I don't know if like getting into an argument is a sin but whatever it would be like okay I want you to talk to this person about that or I want you to sit down with your parents and do that that's exactly how Father Dunphy said it was that tape of Father Dunphy so anyway it was just like come on man I just want to go in there I want anonymity I want to do the tell me how many prayers to say and but instead it was kind of like no you need to actually think about this like you didn't want a counseling session yeah and you wanted to like it to be

dark and anonymous even if you were just playing you wanted to drive through experience where you could kind of pull in get the stuff off your chest yeah not a lot of like being looked at right and and not a lot of like counseling and then go out and having to do something right like

and have a conversation with somebody or whatever it was. It's just like, I want to be like, well, here's my tithes.

Right, right, exactly. Now, did you have, was your church a modern building or was it what we think of as a Catholic church, which tends to have some ornate architecture and things like that?

It was a really, it's funny, like now the community has grown. So there's a, this doesn't, you don't need to know this, but now the services are held in a big, more modern church that is built next to this little church. But we went to a little church that was, like, your quintessential small Catholic church on a country road somewhere, like, very ornate, very small. It was really beautiful. It was called St. Martin of Tours. Did it have a baptismal?

Baptisms happen, but not for adults, like for little babies. So there wasn't – are you familiar with this idea of the baptismal, the, like, hot tub that's in the church? I mean, I've heard tell of it and various kinds of churches. upsetting i don't know why it gave as a kid as we never had that we didn't have baptismal money at gospel outreach christian fellowship but if you went to a slightly more successful church they would have like so you'd have the stage always very carpeted you'd have the pulpit and then behind there behind the stage or at the back of the stage there would be some curtains and you could pull those curtains apart and there would be what was essentially a jacuzzi surrounded by carpet again they they couldn't put enough shag carpet in the churches that we attended in the 80s fantastic and as long as there's a lot of water around the well this is the thing even as a kid there was something that was uncanny about it i was like this is not where we should have this much water like you it was something you know and this is long before i knew about just how invasive black mold can be and other such mildew and the like

Thank you.

i just remember going to and i think what it was is one time i went to visit a church with you i don't know why we're there some some kind of a thing and i feel like i went up i was just like exploring it like you know we weren't in a service it was just like i'm killing time and i think i remember going up and and seeing that the back because i don't think the baptismal was full of water all the time it was literally like a giant kind of bathtub thing you would fill up and then you're gonna do baptism and you'd bring adults up there and baptize them like in front of everyone right and i think i remember going around and seeing like the empty baptismal and i don't know why the just physicality of the whole thing just gave me the saddest yeah yeah as a kid i'm kind of getting it right now put i could not put my finger on it but there was something about it was like there shouldn't be a swimming pool here it's also doesn't even have any water in it i this place is so boring i hate it here like i don't know just this collision of kind of emotion that i to this day is still ineffable for me did it almost seem like home medical equipment sort of oh you know what like that's a really yes it's almost and i want to be careful here because people deal with all kinds of stuff but a little bit like the experience of yeah putting up needing to put like a hospital bed in a main room of a home because someone is getting towards the end of life there's something about that just i that's exactly the feeling that was going off in my brain of this baptismal hot tub now that being said if anyone has a line on one of those i would really like to get my hands on it because yeah how are the how's the power on the jets i have i had this you know i i bought that um internet like inflatable hot tub oh yeah that i was very excited about and then it um it would never hold air so i had to mail it back to amazon i don't remember this whole saga but uh i i would just like to i was very very pro inflatable hot tub on this show for a while because i bought one on amazon and inflated it and sat in it and it was so awesome for the like the four hours it was working i don't know you know i i only vaguely remember this would have been in the past like four years or so in the past year i did it out at the madrona hill studio huh yeah so i bought one of these i of course i probably saw it on tiktok or something and it looked intriguing so i bought one of these it's a made it was made by the coleman camping company and you blow it up uh and it's supposed to be very rigid and you fill it with water and it's like it's like a soft sided inflatable hot tub that could hold like two or three people maybe like two probably and i filled this thing up with water and brought the temperature up and the first you know time it was usable i sat in there and i looked at the stars and it was awesome like i was totally pumped uh the problem was the hot tub was not totally pumped or it was not possible to keep air in it it kept losing air little by little and i have to keep trying to refill but the problem was the thing the pump that put the air in the hot tub is also the pump that circulates the water so if you wanted to oh

yes and you have to switch it yes if you and you had to do this crazy procedure where you take these kind of um little discs and you you basically plug up the holes in the hot tubs you reach like shoulder deep into this hot tub you plug up all the all the little pipes and holes then you undo the pipes on the outside then you take the thing that is circulating the water supposedly and now you use it to inflate the thing and then you hook it i mean it's awful yeah it was a total it was totally awful and i was i was pretty sure that when i told amazon i wanted to send it back they're gonna be like you know what this one's on us oh yeah because it would you have wanted that though because it sounds like a pain in the ass no but what i didn't want to do which i ended up having to do was deflate it oh yeah repackage it put it go to the u-haul store buy a gigantic refrigerator box because even deflated this thing was massive get it into the refrigerator box tape it all up take it to the ups store and send it back to amazon which i was talking about this yesterday uh about how you know uh i bought some some rugs from there and uh got them out of the package and they didn't look like what i hope they would look like so i sent those back the bummer about sending stuff back to amazon is i particularly this like hot tub situation which they did refund me for when when they when they got it they did try to make me a deal they offered me like 20 back they were like you keep it and we'll refund you 20 of your money and i was like i don't want this it doesn't work well actually um but they were i thought they were going to say keep it and you get 100 of your money because we have no use for this because they don't You've already sat in it, yeah. I've already sat in it. It was getting green. That was the other thing. It was growing, you know, it was getting, it was like growing little kind of tendrils of algae very quickly. Like, I had all the tablets. I was doing all, you know what I mean? It was covered. How long did you have this thing? Like, six hours. Probably a month, maybe. all together i probably sat in it three times again when i was in it i was enjoying it it was kind of it was great but all that is to say i think that those maybe it was just the one i got or something but like i think those might be a little bit unreliable i would take a baptismal though yeah right well because you know i had this big this grandiose scheme that i remember now what feels like a lifetime ago telling you and genevieve we were somewhere getting drinks and i was telling you how i had got bought this little cabin and how i was going to fix it up and how my big dream was to put a shipping container swimming pool oh yeah yeah in there because of course i was trying to basically recreate the burbank springs broadcast center because we had a pool up there and i really really loved it and i was like well what i need to do is rebuild and reenact every element of my previous life that i can so that i can finally feel okay again and part of that was going to be this idea for this shipping container swimming pool what what ended up happening was I realized that they're very expensive and also very hard to get down to

where I want it to go at my house because I'd have to crane it over that. I'd have to hire an industrial crane and have this converted shipping container like craned over the house and then down by itself. That's a ludicrous sum of money. Then there's probably, I mean, it sounds like this would be pretty low on the concern list, but also would jack up your insurance. i assume having a pool like that at your home no i'm not a big insurance guy but they don't know they can't it's not like it's not like my insurance agent listens to the show five days a week no no no um that as well and so i basically what's happened is everything else about the project the costs have spiraled out of control and so this idea of this like shipping container swimming pool which was always kind of like the the last this idea of like i'll sit on the deck and i'll look at the swimming pool and then it'll be enough uh that's now gone off the table but what i have considered doing is getting maybe like a like a very big hot tub or something that's kind of installed something that doesn't need a giant industrial crane at some point um or a baptismal yeah or anybody if anybody has a line on a gently used baptismal yeah wouldn't that be full circle for me the thing that gave me this kind of wistful sad feeling looking at it as a kid is now the thing that gives me a sense of okayness in the world. I mean, you would never allow that even near your property, the baptismal. As I'm picturing it, it would have, like, the design of it would be against everything that you've been building towards. Well, the thing is, there was nothing holy about it. That's the deal. It looked like it had that kind of plastic, which they had treated with something, so it looked almost kind of marble, like blue. Oh, I was picturing it, like, this is why I asked if it was almost, like, home medical. I was picturing it very, like, beige with, like, handles. Know what it would be? The ones that I would see, there was carpeted stairs up to it. I'm telling you, they couldn't get enough shag rug close enough to the water where people were being baptized. And so it would be like you'd – it was like a throne or something. You'd walk up these carpeted stairs and you'd get – I also, when I would witness this – But again, my point stands. You would never allow this near your design-y house. Well, I don't know. Maybe I could repurpose it. Andrew, the more you run out of money, the more you get into the idea of repurposing. I was thinking. I'm just going to dig a hole. I mean, I was thinking maybe like a giant galvanized tank. There are these things they call cowboy pools that people do sometimes where they get a giant galvanized tank that's, I think, used for like putting water out for livestock. I think I can picture it. But you can like cut some holes in it and create a little kind of circulation of filtration. And it's three feet. But hey, you know, like De La said, three feet high and rising. You could just kind of lounge in it. I think what I realized is this whole, the swimming pool situation that we had at Burbank Springs, which of course I loved deeply, I didn't really need, I don't need, A, I can't afford, and B, I don't need that much water activity. You know what I need to be able to do?

Float on a little inner tube, read my New Yorker, you know, drink my drink, whatever that might be. Like, I, you know, that's all I really need. And even if it's like three feet of depth of where I don't need like that pool, the one in Bellingham, I think it was like 10 feet deep in one end of it. It's like that's more than I really need. Mostly I was floating on that pool, reading The New Yorker, drinking alcohol. Have you considered two clawfoot bathtubs side by side in the woods overlooking the river? What have you heard about my boner problems? Luke, we lost the explicit. Oh, we just got it back. Yeah, I wonder if those commercials have really gone the way of the dodo bird. Yeah. Like, I think that they learned their lesson. You mean that particular, like, style of, that trope, yeah. I just mean the trope of where I feel like there were so, there was at least a couple of commercials for erectile dysfunction treatment where it always seemed like the best thing they could come up with, which was both erotic but non-offensive, inoffensive, was a couple of cloth.

foot bathtubs hooked up to zero plumbing in some kind of orchard or in a like a you know in a meadow somewhere or overlooking a bluff right like that's where you're gonna i mean who knows how you're getting the water out there yeah how's that even work but they you get in one of those bathtubs with your partner and something fun's gonna happen that's right absolutely it's all back baby yes

this is my box this is my box i never travel without my box oh what's in the box in the first draw, I keep my magic stones. Ah, what's in the box? Licorice! Licorice! Black sweet licorice! Black sweet licorice! Have some.

Alright, Luke, you know what this sound is. Some of David Cross's finest work. You still picture David Cross. Always. This is the sound of the X-Acto blade. It's actually, um... Oh, the brand is See-Through. You're going to be using a blade called the See-Through U-480. Are you cool with that?

It's not my sort of number one choice, but I'm going to deal with it. I'm also moving my coffee very far away. I really am, dude. And guess what? I'm liding it up. Okay, my coffee now has its lid on. I've got my... Nice.

Now, I'm going to just say a couple of things here, Luke.

By the way, Andrew, if the bathtubs are rocking,

don't come a-knocking. I don't know if I fully get that, but let's just move on. Let's not explore that deeper. So I have had some packages sort of building up here in my studio, So thank you, everybody, for sending in stuff and thinking of us. And sorry it's been a while since we've been able to open these. I do like to wait until Luke and I are in person. So let's start with this one, which I think is one that we've had for probably the longest. This came in mid-December from Johnny in Honolulu, it looks like here. It's a big box. What is this, like two by two? Yeah. Maybe it's a big U.S. Postal. Oh, it's also substantial.

Yeah, it's definitely got a little heft to it, a little weight.

Nice. So I'm going to let you open that one. I'll see if there's a smaller one over here for me to open in the meantime. It's always kind of like Christmas. It's got Christmas vibes.

This is the moment, and I probably have said this in previous What's in the Box segments, but this is always the moment where I just am blown away at the generosity, love, and attention from the tens of listeners. Like for somebody to take the time to get a hold of something or find something in their house or buy something or whatever the process is box it up and address it to us send it i mean

that is just like such a sweet thoughtful thing and just the idea of seeing something and thinking of us you know like that to me that's my favorite kind of like just even even with folks uh you know in my life personally just like you don't have to wait for a special holiday or a birthday just like i saw this thing and i thought of you and to know that there are people doing that with us

really kind of means a lot did i tell you this last time that how nervous using one of these uh what would you call it utility knives or exacto blades makes me because of a particular experience

that i have you want the scissors instead no no it's okay i have some safety scissors i'm just

very i'm left-handed so i can never the scissors never work for me um years ago when i was not yet divorced but i was i in a moment and may you never know this andrew but there's a moment in a in a in a marriage where when divorce is on the horizon where what i've always said is when you're in a good relationship it can withstand anything and when you're in a relationship that's kind of reaching its end often you can't it can't stand anything yeah right like you just kind of like because the smallest thing is about the biggest thing exactly and i remember buying um buying this person a uh they were kind of getting into photography a little bit and i so i got this digital camera that they wanted and then also this vintage like a really cool kind of leather case for the camera i mean oh yeah the kind that screws i think you've talked

about this but it kind of attaches to the camera right yeah it goes around it surrounds the camera

it's got some snaps on it and they're very cool they were also very in style uh you know five ten years ago and i i'm not saying i thought that this was going to save the relationship but i was definitely like this will be good you know this will be a good thing because this was thoughtful of me this was me listening this was me you know getting ordering something well in advance so we can have this moment of presentation another thing that had come up in this relationship a lot was that this person said that I opened packaging and stuff like a werewolf which is not not true I just am like I sounds kind of cool to me honestly I just kind of tear things apart and like am not particularly careful and then you slam dunk a basketball for some reason and then i just doing a handstand on a on a van as it drove through town as a beer as a beer can fell off i wonder if that was a beer can in that scene or if it's a soda can meant to stand in for beer does teen wolf drink i've never seen it i only know of the so there's a there's a scene where, and I believe this

is in the first one what the legit teen wolf peace and love to jason bateman but teen wolf 2

oh wow yeah okay but it was still the same era right yeah same era but i don't think you get

michael j fox to do the second one so it was teen wolf t-o-o and it was with jason bateman i think it's the first one where there's a scene i don't know why this is the kind of thing that burns in your brain but like a scene where this is when teen wolf is has fully taken over the school he's in he's you know at his absolute apotheosis of his powers and he is i think a van or a car a vehicle is coming around a corner in like this in the town and the teen wolf is doing a handstand on top of the vehicle because that's just how cool he is and a can of some kind kind of flies off the roof is this is my i haven't thought about this in 25 years and my memory is oh, that's a beer can. As a kid, I was like, that's a beer can. But I wonder if actually, if they ever showed a close-up of a soda can, because I don't know if they wanted to necessarily have a drunk wolf in the movie. I don't know if they-

I'll bet you there's enough plausible deniability. I bet you you're supposed to think beer, but don't. It absolutely worked.

It read to me as the wolf is drunk. Right, the wolf is drunk.

But probably it wasn't. Anyway, all that is to say. It was a squirt can. I love squirt. It's probably my favorite soda, but isn't it the most, Like, if beer is cool in this context, wouldn't a squirt can be one of the lamest cans possible?

And again, no disrespect. I love squirt. Of the major brands? I mean, are we including Craigmont? Are we including Shasta?

Shasta. I almost feel like those have a little street cred, though. Probably now. Yeah, maybe not then. With the rise of Fego. Yeah, right.

The tide has risen for all of the questionable sodas.

This is a New York seltzer can.

So the things that were going on were the relationship was falling apart, And I had been previously criticized for werewolfing things open. So, of course, I order this like not not particularly cheap leather vintage case for the camera that I've bought. And I'm so excited. It comes in the mail and I have something much like this and I'm being too fast instead of just taking my time and being careful. And I accidentally when I'm opening the box, I cut through the box and make a big slice right across the what's going to cover the lens, the leather, right? The leather of the lens cap, the worst place I could do this. Yeah. And I just looked at it and then I was like, is that going to buff out? Can I do, you know? And then I was like, will this even be noticed? And then I, you know, put it all together and then I, you know, give this to the person for whatever it was, whatever holiday or birthday or something. And I remember them just kind of going like, did you cut the leather cap of this? and i was just like i remember being so furious because yes i did but that wasn't the point but how could i do that like it just was the it was the confirmation yeah of all of my impulsiveness and lack of and even when i was trying to do something right i still managed to kind of screw it up excited about i was excited my excitement was what led me to do this thing anyway so the point is i cut too far into johnny's packaging and my relationship with johnny is not going to make it bad news bears i know i do get a little stressed out about using one of these

like look at i think look at how far into this thing i cut actually that's too much cut too far into that what are you all where what are you a teen wolf what teen wolf two wow what's in there

man again in the box substantial smokes this is some of the uh this looks like just a some of the beautiful bounty of the hawaiian islands okay first of all it's got a card um it's uh signed from the first initial J, last name Kim. Look at this handwriting.

Can we talk? That's beautiful, yeah.

Let me talk to you about this handwriting.

It says Johnny on the outside of the box.

Oh, that would be Johnny then. And Johnny, by the way, amazing handwriting.

Yeah, I like that. I wish this was a font I could use.

That is solid. And there's a card which says Mela Kalikimaka.

Oh, okay, yeah, so this came in right before the holiday.

Aloha, Luke, Andrew, and Jen. Oh, and John. But we'll pass your regards on to Jen as well Please enjoy and share These stickers and snacks The TBTL sticker is for John For helping me with shipping But split the rest I don't know John I'm looking at some pretty sweet ass candy That may or may not get split up Please split the rest as y'all see fit I see fit to keep it Thanks for all the laughs this past year And fighting the fight against global loneliness See you same time next year aloha signed Johnny oh Andrew look at this a couple of Hawaii public radio

stickers oh nice I listen to HPR when I sleep in too late to miss my

morning edition I've done it myself I'm friends with a guy named Nick Yee who's out at Hawaii public radio and thank you very much

for that I'm going to put this on my computer right now there must be

some kind of inside joke between Johnny and our John because he's got this sticker which just says for Jonathan Michael Anthony Murray Sklaroff.

I have no idea what that means.

I mean, are those the official names of TBTL? It's not what's in the operating agreement. It's also not what's on the W2.

Oh, we're supposed to sign that today, by the way. Oh, good, okay. Okay, so here we go. I saw some lawyers in our audience freaking out that we haven't signed that yet.

Holy guacamole, Andrew. We've got some Island Princess brand Melee Crunch Chocolate Toffee Crisps

There's gotta be some macadamia nuts in there too, right?

And, oh, we do Look, this is all from the Island Princess brand Toffee-coated macadamia nuts Covered in luscious milk chocolate Nice Here you go Oh, thank you I'm handing that to you Working on this public radio sticker I don't trust myself with that Ooh, and I've got a bag as well Nice Sorry, Sklarov Actually, there's three Well, no Oh, check this out We gotta try this Kona Coffee Macadamia Nut Brittle. Oh.

We're doing it. Okay, the Hawaii Public Radio sticker is on my gigantic computer that I use for editing over there.

Oh, my goodness gracious.

All right. It's a little early for brittle for me. I'll let you handle that. Yeah, I'm not going to get into brittle because I won't trust myself to talk after eating it. Good?

It's really good. Good. It's amazing. This is just going to be me the rest of the show.

Okay, you do that, you know. I'm going to do a little thank you here as you continue to go through that box.

Johnny, thank you so much.

To Nikki in Bellevue who sent us. You okay? Oh, oh. You okay? Uh-oh. This is real. Do you know the Heimlich? Is the only beverage you have that coffee? Do you need me to go get you some water? I'm going to make it. I can go get you some water. This is a podcast. It's not live.

Where's my cough button? I feel like this is also kind of action-packed.

Oh, my gosh. You really don't look great right now. You look like you're dying. Like, your face is really red. I have a piece of peanut brittle. Can I go get you some water? No. I'm going to push through this. Why can't I get you some water? Why is this not a thing that we're doing?

Because I wanted to see if I could just kind of, like, push through. Mm-hmm. How, I mean.

How are you doing? Is this. Yeah, no, thank God we kept rolling. The coolest I've ever been on the show.

Listen, Andrew, I'm telling you, this is action radio. You ate that like a werewolf. Okay, I'm back.

Wow, okay, great.

And he's going for more brittle.

Oh, my God, he's taking a bigger bite. So if the first one doesn't get you the second one, will Nikki in Bellevue, thank you. She sent us, I don't think it's a game. It's called Cat Gurus, and it comes with a bunch of cards, and it's almost like in the style of tarot cards, I'm going to say, and they have cats on them, and it looks like they give you advice. I need to look deeper into how to properly use this because I don't want to accidentally like. Can we try it? Yeah, let's see here. So there's a cat here named Snowball Hemingway who says, Friends will keep you afloat in a storm. Celebrate your difference. If you want to eat fish, then you have to catch them first. I don't think I'm just supposed to read them straight like that. I think I'm supposed to ask a question. I don't know. That was pretty entertaining. Is that pretty good? I don't know.

By the way, we also got some Hawaiian shortbread variety box. Should I go on to this one next?

Oh, sure. Yeah. Is there any toffee? toffee. What is the worst thing you could possibly eat right now? I didn't think

that the brittle was going to be so, other than sticking in your teeth, the brittle did not seem like an issue in terms of talking and then I did exactly what you were worried about, Andrew. I was trying to co-host a show and I inhaled an entire chunk of peanut brittle, which may still be in my lungs currently.

Let's get an x-ray. Like, what is this thing? So anyway, I don't want to give Nikki short shrift. Nikki, thank you for the cat gurus. Luke and I will dig into that a little bit more later But that is really sweet And Nicky says I saw this and I thought of you guys And the kiddies Thought you'd find a funny Thanks for the show and all you do Nicky in Bellevue Thanks Nicky Appreciate you

And also I didn't choke on any of your gift

Hey Nicky I was reading the newspaper That I might be able to visit you in Bellevue It was weird The Seattle Times had a headline Andrew may be able to visit Could visit listener Nicky in Bellevue

Talks increasing over Andrew visiting listener Nikki in Bellevue.

There's been, unfortunately, though, there's a funding shortage. No, it relates to the light rail extension. Apparently, they have announced some time for light rail line number two. And it's going to start just within the east side from like Redmond to Bellevue or something. But eventually, I think they said by late 2025, connecting Seattle to the east side. And I went on this flight of fancy today. I was like, I mean, I can see myself. Like I live about, I don't know, between a mile and a mile and a half from the train station in the summertime. It's a nice little walk. Hop on that. Once I'm on that line, I can go all the way down to the stadium or whatever. But if I could just switch trains, go over to the east side, like I just sort of I know that I have a car and I could go there. But like I just don't drive that. much and the idea of like the east side seems so far away to me and the idea of just kind of like oh it's still just a mile walk from my house and then I can go to the east side by just sitting on

the train like I love that do you want to know how weird and delusional I am Andrew this morning as I was on my way to your house I happened to tune into KUOW and they were talking about this exact thing the fact that they're cutting the ribbon on the sort of east side part of it they think they're going to have 6 000 people a day using it when it's sort of contained on the east side and then once it expands and connects up with the the larger thing uh that's going to be like 50 000 people a day and i listened to that and i thought man you know i grew up in seattle and i lived in seattle a lot and there's always been this um giant body of water in between seattle and the east side and that has presented problems it has always been a traffic situation even with the new bridges and it's always been this kind of thing where if you lived on the east side and worked on the west side or vice versa you were just in for it you were in for some bad traffic and now there is a way that you could totally work on the east side and totally live on the west side and all you have to do is get on a you know when this is all connected up yeah just get on a train and you know do your work or listen to a podcast or stare out the window at lake washington and that's never existed before yeah in seattle and what my thought was maybe that'll be my life maybe i'll just start working at microsoft and just take this train like i literally i'm 47 years old this you don't know how to use computers there's that i have a criminal record there's so many things that make this not possible somehow the existence of this train the or the existence of this of this mass transit because you know when i lived in new york i i loved riding the subway and what i loved was you would get on and then you would kind of turn your mind off because it was like i know where this is going we were talking about public transit the other day and sometimes on buses you may not know exactly like where the route is or where it's dropping off the subway is a fixed thing and you just get on the subway and then you just go somewhere else in your mind you listen to your music you read your book you might see fran leibovitz and then you just get off and now you're like i don't mind that kind of commute at all it's so much less stressful than being in your car yeah and being like you know someone's trying to zipper merge with me don't let them in and the idea that there will now be that kind of service available between cool it's amazing and it really made me think maybe that could be my new life although i am definitely not at the age for starting new lives right but that's i live

You're sort of knee deep into a project right now where you currently live. I don't think the train's going to go all the way there.

I'm knee deep into the project of trying to clear this peanut brittle out of my lungs. But I mean, I'm not kidding you. I had this weird moment of being like, I could be someone who lives anywhere along that corridor and the commute will no longer be the issue. That's how my nutty brain works.

Yeah, yeah. You could have a house on Mercer Island. you have one I don't think it will I don't know the exact route

Mercer Island is a little bit to the south oh okay my thinking is if it's like Redmond I think it's more of a Bellevue situation Mercer Island they use their choppers

yeah right

I think that they've got that kind of handled are you going to do the next one or do you want me to do

yeah so let's trade tools here this is not a reflection of how you open that box but you now have a big envelope I'm giving you the scissors can you give me that blade And I have a little box over here. It looks like this box is coming from-

I want everyone to know I handed Andrew the blade with the sharp side towards me.

You could have closed the-

Do you remember that from grade school?

Well, in this case, you could have closed the blade before handing it to me.

But do you remember there being a very big lesson around always handing scissors to another student with the handle part towards them, never handing scissors to someone with the sharp side?

I vaguely remember that. what i remember more is being in boy scouts do you know this thing do you know in boy scouts like when you hand somebody a knife you have to say like thank you like the person receiving the knife has to say thank you yes chef you have to say yes you have to say yes daddy uh no but like and it's not a politeness thing but it's like you you saying thank you is a confirmation that you are now holding the knife and the other person can let go of it it was like part of the totenship badge that you needed in order to use a knife or a hatchet in boy scouts but i think i remember the scissor thing as well maybe even from like romper room um but i will mention this this little box i'm holding here is from listener russell and the date was from december 13th and i remember russell emailing about this and saying hey i just sent you something for the holidays can't wait for your big holiday gift opening show and i said i don't think that we're going to be in the same room anytime soon but we'll get to it and so here it is

Thank you.

It's February 13th or 16th, rather, a couple of months later, and we're going to open up Russell's gift. Okay. Oh, it was a puppy. Okay. I really should have opened this sooner. No, let's see here. What do we got in here? Oh, this is exciting. We have inside the box are more boxes that are bubble wrapped. Oh, and they're gift wrapped. Here, I'm going to give one to you.

Oh, thanks. Oh, this is heavy. I hope this is soap for Andrew.

There might be even three of these.

It's roughly the the shape of a bar of soap, but a little bit bigger bigger. Whoa. Whoa. What is this? This is also something that seems vaguely Pacific Island the thing that I'm opening it's a

Like is it like a cribbage set? Oh, it's some sort of a game Yes, let me see here if there's any explanation in the box. It looks like there might be three of these Oh, it's a card game. Wait hold on. It's a card game as well. Maybe John's really making out like a bandit on this stuff see here. Let's see. Okay. It's a note One present, okay, one present box for each Luke, Andrew, and John. Open this bag last for instructions from Santa 10, Russell. Thanks, Russell. Happy New Year, Merry Christmas.

Oh, this thing is fun, whatever this is. I've got something that involves playing cards and little what I would call cribbage pieces.

Yeah, does it say what the name is? So these are all the same. It's unclear what the name of the game is, and I have to take off my glasses to read this. Game pieces are stored away magnetically. push from the bottom to score lift and slide the game pieces along the track at the new point okay this is too complicated to read on a podcast right now but i'm sure i can dig in more for the i think

you and genevieve might need to bring this to the eagles this little game that you oh do we have

two copies of the same game yeah i think all three of these are the same game oh yeah then i'm taking this i'm taking this back to the madrona hill studio you take yours but once you learn how to How do you play it? Will you hit me to it? Do you ever play the game? I know you don't like to play card games that aren't like high-stakes poker, but do you ever play the game?

Thank you, by the way, Russell.

Yeah, thank you, Russell. Santa Russell.

These are really awesome. I'm going to play this game at my house and give you a full report on the show.

Yeah, this is the type of thing I would like to play with Jenna. I was going to play Phase 10 with her the other day. That's an Uno game. I wasn't sure if you've ever played that before. It's kind of along the lines of like a gin rummy-ish kind of game. I think I have played it.

By the way, look at this thing, Andrew. So I don't know yet how, but these little kind of cribbage pieces are part of the thing. And look, you go like that.

Oh, I like that.

You pop them up, and then you pop them down. Oh, just that. I'm telling you, just the mechanical aspect of it is pretty dope.

That's the game, yeah. All right, fantastic. Thank you, Russell. Appreciate you. I'm not trying to rush this, but I do want to kind of, as you were saying earlier, clear the deck. So I'm going to open it.

Wait, hold on. Do I need to leave?

I'm going to open up another envelope here. I've got one here. Can I open one?

Yeah, please open that up. This is from a listener who's in Brasstown, North Carolina. Wow, brassy. And I'll see if there's a card in here, because they've got their first initial and their last name on the return address, and I want to make sure that, let's see. It looks like, oh, it's Gabe. It's from listener Gabe. Hey, look at this. How cool is this? this is a postcard that I believe is maybe of Gabe and Gabe's dog hey friendos last summer I visited Cass Railroad State Park in West Virginia and they are hoarding all the vintage candy in the gift shop huge barrels 10 cents each let's see a dollar for an ounce enjoy I'm guessing Gabe might have sent us some candy from the Cass Railroad State Park oh wow and then look at this picture of gabe and his banjo and his dog oh wow very cool oh very cool wow yeah okay

gigantic vanilla charleston chew oh charleston chew i love a charleston can we uh start can we

each start eating this from either end andrew and then just lady in the trumpet right in the middle

do you remember about five minutes ago when i said what is the worst thing to eat on the air than brittle and it's literally a charleston chew listen i'm i'm ready i've seen the other side

with the peanut brittle. I'm ready for anything now. I love Charleston Chew. I'm new to it. I did a whole Hay Dummies about it a while ago. Maybe that's why this was sent in. Let's see here. Okay, we got some Pearson's Mint Patties. Nice. We've got some sour candy that's blue raspberry called Toxic Waste. Okay, because I'm- You're going to eat it? Yeah, I'm nothing if not stunty. Okay. There we go.

Okay, that's sour. It's sour? Woo! But is it good? No. Does it taste like solid waste or toxic waste?

I'm a solid waste myself. Oh, my God. It is. Wow. That is so sour.

Is the sourness you're responding?

to here i'm i'm responding to the sourness i'm getting a photo of you with your sour face first they're sour then they're sweet only this one is never sweet it's starting to turn sweet oh it is turning sweet nice it's pretty good i got a note here from bruce you know what i think this i'd hate to take up um tbtl real estate here but here we are i think this is spotless related it says hello andrana or is it handrew it's actually handrew i came across this while thrifting and obviously thought of the pod is this content love the show Bruce and this is a it's a book it looks like it might be from the 70s or 80s and it says Don Aslett answers do I dust or vacuum first and 99 other nitty-gritty housekeeping questions by Don Aslett author of is there life after housework this is my jam this looks great it's wrapped up in plastic does this mean it's never been opened or did Bruce just wrap this up for me but I love the art on this

it reminds me a little bit of this cookbook that my mom had called the I hate to cook book did that ever make its way into your home no I don't think so it had the same kind of um by the way would recommend the candy it's coming around yeah because what happens is then when you get to the sweet part you're so relieved the sour parts over it really amps up the experience like if you If you just give me a hard candy, and you're like, hey, Luke, it tastes like whatever, strawberry, I'd be like, all right. But if you make me crawl through a river of whatever that sour phase was, it really, I'm, the endorphins are coursing right now.

I love a good sour candy, although that one looked like that was like an intense one.

Again, I'm also in a bit of a fragile, I'm in a medically fragile state after my brittle.

After almost dying on the air. Yeah. Is that the closest you've come to dying on this podcast? Let me think, this week? Mm-hmm.

Thank you for the book, Russell. Would you have, Andrew, would you have felt comfortable giving me the Heimlich if, if like, okay, so I was still able to take in oxygen, if only barely. I was turning red. We all agree. It was pretty cool. But if I would have gotten a larger chunk of peanut brittle, like lodged in an airway and I was like doing that thing, like in a movie where I'm just like, what would your move have been? Perfect crime. that will by the way be an episode of like special victims unit like podcaster kills

another podcaster my move is to grab your hand to put a pen in it and have you sign the operating

agreement right before your final breath would you have given me the heimlich i mean if you had to

have you ever given the heimlich no i i don't i i don't think i would be good i've been waiting

my whole life to do it it's never i've never gotten the chance i don't think i'd be good

at that and i'm not good with like um touching people honestly i can't think of a better word than that like um that idea of how i've heard i've heard the reviews some of my some of my exes have been talking um i uh but you know what i mean that idea of like kind of just like grabbing someone like just sort of taking control in that way like i'll even say like genevieve is better even with like the cats in that way than i am i mean i mean i i feel like i'm not making sense here obviously i touch and struggle the cats but when there's something that is like wrong i don't leap to get involved physically usually and it's not like i'm afraid of something it's just my instincts are wrong there sort of i'd freak out i call 9-1-1 well i don't think

that there's anything wrong with calling 9-1-1 should i do it right now yeah you should have

done it you should have done 15 minutes ago you should have seen this that's why i'll tell you

what i saw a few minutes ago i need by the way i'm gonna need um full uh i'm gonna need final cut on that picture you took of me in the sour candy oh yeah no we won't we don't have to use that if you don't like it but um uh i have i actually don't think your instincts are terrible that you're thinking first and then grabbing some because the thing is somebody could just be having a mild choking fit and if you grab them and heimlich them you could break a rib you could also just touch them and they don't want to be touched like we're talking about like a stranger you know you're at old country buffet and they've you know inhaled a prawn down the wrong pipe or something like so i don't think i think that there is the opposite uh problem that you have of the one you have which is somebody who's just like their first reaction just like get involved grab someone start shaking them start doing whatever that might be a little over the

line as well yes i mean i think there's a line there somewhere i think my reluctance is on the wrong side of that line but then yeah but if you're just like somebody who's grabbing some guy out of the line at old country buffet who's just like putting salad on his plate to just start

he was like clearing his throat and you're like intubating him with a pen

Like the red pony, that Steinbeck, that boy, that traumatized me. Oh, I didn't read that. And also, it traumatized me and also, again, went into the back of my mind as a thing I may have to do at some point in my life. Oh. So that's the name of the, I think that's the name of the Steinbeck, like, book, you know, story we had to read when I was in, you know, middle school. This kid has a pony and the pony has some kind of obstruction and the kid has to basically do, to save the pony's life, You've got to do some kind of a, you know, basically create an air intake below where whatever the problem is is happening. And the description is so vivid in this Steinbeck book. And then I'd also... I should ban that. I just burn it and then no one can read them because there's no digital record of any of these books. But then I remember hearing some years later a doctor, I think a doctor, he told me it was a doctor. Get in this van. We're looking for a red pony. that he was driving the bus and if you had to use the doctor if you if in in case of absolute unavoidable uh airway obstruction unfixable airway obstruction so somebody has like a something in their they're choking and they're choking maybe let's say mid part of their throat and they absolutely cannot get oxygen and you've done the heimlich and there's nothing that can you know the nine ones on the way you could take a pen like a bic pen i feel like the bic pen is really the traditional white bic pen we grew up with which had the little plastic cap on the butt end i feel like that's really fallen out of favor the round one yeah the the ballpoint cheapo the cheapo like i feel like that was just everywhere when i was a kid yeah but then you get one and

somebody's been chewing on a little that someone was me yeah so uh what i heard was you could take

one of those you could basically pop out you know the little ink cartridge and stuff and you could use it because it's pretty rigid it's just like a little straw it's like a straw like a very rigid straw you could theoretically pop that down in through the skin it seems like that'd be hard to do but and then make kind of a you know create an air passageway for people that one I don't want to try but I would love to try the Heimlich which is why I've just been hanging out at Old Country Buffet

honestly this whole conversation just makes me want to go to Old Country Buffet I'm getting so hungry right now I have one more thing I want to share. This is from, let's see here, listener Wenki and Catherine. I don't know if I'm saying that name right. W-E-N-Q-I. Am I saying that right? That looks like Wenki. Yeah. And Catherine, does it say? And it looks like a hand-knit little pouch, and I believe this is a little nest for our eggs when we play the Birds Actually game. That's exactly what it's for.

It's a nest to hold eggs for wingspan, or as you call it, Birds Actually, or as I call it, birds with friends.

Birds with friends.

You can tie it as a drawstring bag for egg storage in the box. Then when you're playing, fold the basket weave part over and tuck away the strings to make a cute nest.

This is really well done. Can I see? Yeah, please.

Oh, wow.

Yeah, you can put your weed in there too.

I'm going to store my melee macadamia nuts in there.

Nice. This is cool. Well, thank you, everybody.

That was like Christmas in February. thank you yeah very well it's so nice of all of you thanks uh thanks again for for mailing us stuff and thinking about us when you're out in the world we really do appreciate it all right how about a little music for uh our weekend your weekend the listeners weekend as uh

as we we slide into that weekend yeah i have a song that i heard on um you know i heard it in a store when i was shopping the other day and i shazammed it on the spot because i thought it was it sounded very much like my bloody valentine but i knew it wasn't my bloody valentine did you ever mess around with the my bloody valentine oh yeah kevin shields yeah like that very fan um very shoegazy washy sound that's kind of like probably my default setting musically and the song that i heard uh it turns out was a song called donut by the the band wishy which is out of i want to say indiana and um i was reading some reviews today and people were confirming that there's definitely a kind of a my bloody valentine meets like the sundays and a couple of other things that you and i just absolutely love the the song donut is the one that sounded like my bloody valentine the most but i'm actually going to play a different song for you this is just a five song ep that i think just came out in 2023 at some point i think somewhat recently uh the ep is called Paradise. Again, the band is called Wishy, and I'm going to play this very first song off of it for you. It is called Paradise. Take a listen to this. I think... I don't want to raise expectations for you to be disappointed, but I think this is really going to push all your right buttons, Luke. Okay. Okay.

We'll be right back. Yeah, I'll just away Our secret island's not to put away if we want it Looks like we're landing straight to paradise All we need to do is close our eyes

I don't know what instrument makes that little whining sound. My heart. Yeah, but that is definitely what reminds me of the sort of Kevin Shields touch. But, like, honestly, it's five songs every single one of them hits. You should take a listen to it. It's called Wishy, and the EP is called Paradise. And I think this is sort of their first kind of foray in this version of these musicians' lives of Wishy.

That is so, so up my alley. Yeah. I would like to play a song. It's a cover song. It's by a guy named Alejandro Bravo, and it's a cover of Always Something There to Remind Me, which I didn't realize is a cover, like when Soft Cell did it.

Oh, that was already a cover?

That was a cover because this is from 1971.

Oh, interesting.

And I now, of course, can't find my intel on Alejandro Bravo. But what I remember from reading about him the first time was he was this guy who just was, you know, making music, I think, like, in his house somewhere. I don't think I think the only album he put out was a self-titled album, an eponymous album called Alejandro Bravo. the entire album is just this like really great kind of bossa nova vibe or whatever but he was kind of that I would say forgotten to history to the larger history and then that that label numero group that I've been kind of getting into by way of my daughter numero group kind of does what light in the attic does which they'll go find folks who put out a record a long time ago and maybe didn't get a lot of attention they'll unearth stuff and one of the things they unearthed was this guy alejandro bravo who appears to have just done this one record in 1971 the whole thing is really really great but this particular cover of always something there to

remind me so oh wait this is the cover or this is the original this is i believe a cover by him as

well oh okay gotcha okay i i don't think this is i think he'd be more famous if this was the original i'm trying to think of hold on let me let me um see if i can find who wrote i'm yeah

i'm sorry i kind of lost the thread there i thought you were saying that this was the original that Soft Cell then originally.

I'm guessing, I haven't looked at this yet, but I'm guessing it's a Burt Bacharach song. It is. Isn't everything a Burt Bacharach song? It literally is. Okay.

Burt Bacharach and Hal David. Hal David?

Yeah. Okay, so this is Alejandro Bravo covering Burt Bacharach, or at least doing his song, a song that would then years later be covered by Soft Cell.

Interesting. More famously. The original recording was a demo by Dionne Warwick, but I don't think it was released, and then it first charted for somebody named Lou Johnson. So this song has been around for a long time.

Wouldn't you have totally thought it was a soft sell original, though?

Yeah, I never thought otherwise. Why would I? Yeah. So are you playing that from your end? I can, if you'd like me to hear. Sure, yeah, why don't you do that? I'm interested in hearing this. All right, if Spotify agrees here. If not, I mean, I can look it up on my end, too. I just saw you poking around over there.

I walk along the city streets. You used to walk along with me. And every step I take recall How much in love we used to be And how can I forget you When there is always something near to remind me Always something near to remind me I was born to love you And I would never be free You'll always be a part of me

I love the album cover of this self-titled Alejandro Bravo record. He's just standing near a lake in some really tight white jeans, and I think he might be shirtless. It's a very old photo. He's just looking like sex on a stick doing his little cover of Hal David and Burt Bacharach

I'm digging around there's not tons about him online either which is always very intriguing

well that's the thing his music has come to at least some attention but it's not like he's somebody who's well documented there's not like different websites but I think this might have been the only record that he put out by the way the rest of the record is really good it's just if you dig kind of bossa nova summertimey vibes I know it's not summer yet but for me Andrew culturally it's summer

now I see this album cover that you're talking about yeah that is amazing with the sun behind him he's almost like he's cutting almost a silhouette figure you know can I ask the listeners for a favor here Luke? I'll allow it I've kind of hit some hard financial times you talking about finding this record reminds me that I've been you know I've been going to record stores that's where I heard that wishy song On the speakers the other day And I love having a record player now And sort of that just sense of going into a record store Without any preconceived notions About what you might be walking out with Just the sense of discovery and you find something And so I'm not trying to go in too deliberately Looking for specific records But there is, there are I should say A few records that I really want on vinyl And one is like a jazz record And I've sort of found it in various places online And I'm sort of like struggling With whether or not I actually want to there's something that seems so antithetical to me about going online and buying a vinyl record. I don't know why it sort of just sort of seems like it's the opposite of

digging in the crate. Yeah.

I just feel like I should be out there beating the bushes, digging in the crates or whatever. But you know, but probably my favorite jazz record is that money jungle, money jungle record. And I was listening to that the other day and like, Oh, that'd be so great to have on vinyl. And so I ended up on this website that I'm on a lot called discogs. That'll kind of give you the background of records. And it also kind of show you what's out there on the marketplace. You can buy through discogs. I think I might have bought a Motley Crue CD off of Discogs in, like, 2015 because it was out of print. But anyway, if anybody has any suggestions, because I definitely don't want to just buy, like, a reprinted version of a record off of Amazon. Like, I can buy Money Jungle, some reprint of it on Amazon right now. But that's not why I play this game, Luke. I don't know what game I'm playing. But I don't know. It just doesn't feel right to me. But if anybody has like some sort of like, oh, yeah, there is this place that is independent record seller or, you know, a compendium of independent record sellers or some organization that is really cool to support that has used records or whatever that you would like me to check out. Get at me because there's a few that I'm sort of hunting down.

There is a cool place in Portland. The problem is when Becca and I went there, it happened to be record store appreciation day. Oh, yeah. like we didn't even know this we were going to a birthday for her brother and he loves vinyl and has you know dj's things and stuff and so we went there and didn't realize it was the day that this place was it actually wasn't even record store appreciation day it was this place's particular like hey one day a year we're gonna set up a bunch of barbecues we're gonna just have everyone down and just say thank you for supporting us and that was great for that record store i will never go back there i was furious the entire time yeah because you couldn't actually navigate no you couldn't navigate through thousands of people and there was like the worst possible experience of a thing that's supposed to be the height of of sensory like i don't everything we stand for of like a record store and obscure tracks and people that love music and uh brick and mortar experience and i was like i'm running right back to the internet and then celebrating that community

like exactly one day of saying hey we're more than just a record store we're a community and this is the day of celebrating that and that happens to be the day that you just want to show up to buy a gift on your way to a party literally it was like an errand yeah this is the worst but

anyway uh our listener suggestion this week comes from listener nate who is in i think tacoma who says hey luke uh i'm not sure how many degrees of separation we're at now but um here's another group that's in our lives because of you playing emma hill on tbtl those many years ago the group is called glitter fox out of the beautiful city of portland oregon they recently released a song titled TV and I think it's great for everyone's weekend especially if you can make it out to a show but even by streaming it from all the streamers including this link here do you have that link by the way Andrew I do but I've also found it I think okay good here and then Nate says PS if you dig them I think they would be a great fit for a live wire performance they would be Nate and they were last night when they were on live wire when they mentioned you to me backstage oh really they did they said are you friends with someone named nate uh he's a big fan of our band and he told us to say hi to you and i said nate nate nate and then they said nate's last name and i was like i am by way of our podcast i was like i know exactly who that is

what is the m what is the emma connection here i'm not actually sure on that i mean i know who

emma hill is yeah i remember we've had we've had her on the show many times over the years i'm guessing that nate uh became a fan of emma hill's stuff but emma isn't connected to this no okay gotcha no not not that i'm aware of if she was it was i was very rude last night and not saying

hi to her no i think it's a it's a different style of music i don't know glitter fox um they

they were great um i i think we should just play the song and people can kind of hear it for

themselves no good i would rather talk about it i'd rather talk about a song i've never heard

before let me talk to um all right so that's how we're going to go out this week with a suggestion From Listener Nates A little Glitter Fox And we'll say thank you For listening to TBTL This week We will be back here On Monday With more imaginary radio For you So please do join us For that Meantime have a great weekend Take care of yourselves Please remember No mountain too tall

And good luck to all

Take me higher To that holy fire I can't find the spirit anymore The sun is setting And these things are building harder Just to make it out the door

And I

it's like christmas except happy power out