Muse

We just got to ask ourselves, WWJZ do? What would Jay-Z do? Yeah. He'd probably rap about it. He'd rap about it, and he'd rap about it, and then he'd pass the mic to Blake. No, no, I don't want the mic. Give it to Adam. I don't want the mic either, so I'll pass it back to yours. It's back to me. I don't mind that, because I'm a R-A-P-P-E-R. Where's my car? I mean, my whip, guys. Where's my whip, guys? Rapping, stopping. I don't want the mic. 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. My wife saw one of those damn planes these guys are fooling with. That puts me on the playing field. And if you'd have moved your fat feet when I told you to, we wouldn't get hip deep in snow right now.

That's it. Security, you're out of here. 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. Poop, buddy, scoop, scoop, poop, poop.

The story of this situation is, it's extremely personal.

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.

Oh, it might not be good for the mind, but it's most definitely good for the soul.

My name is Luke Burbank. I am your host. Back away, banana breath. What the hell did you just eat, a banana? Coming to you on a beautiful Friday morning. It's Fleet Week in Portland, Oregon. The big ships have moved in. The sunny weather is here, and things are fine and dandy, my friends, here on episode 4,223 in a collector's series. Let the fun begin. Some kids in Ireland, like tweens, some 12-year-olds in Ireland, may have written the song of the summer.

I'm like seriously excited. I'm kind of shy, but mostly excited.

Or at least the song of my summer. You think you can match what we do? I doubt it. It's the opening salvo from these kids from County Cork. I have heard this song in my head for the last four or five days, and now I want to put it into all of your ears so you will only be able to hear these Irish kids for the next three, four days. That will come up later in the show. Also, time permitting, the most famous waterfall in China is apparently at its source coming out of a big pipe, and it's... How dare you? It's actually an interesting contrast in cultures. They don't seem that mad in China about it, about the fact that their most beloved waterfall is just shooting out of a pipe that a hiker noticed when he got up to the top of the waterfall. I don't know if it'd go over that way here in the good old U.S. of A. So we'll get into that. We'll do some music for your weekend. And we're going to talk to this guy, the longest-running Cobra of the show, maybe best known for his depictions of the tall ships. Your voice is like a combination of Fergie and Jesus. He's Andrew Walsh, and he's joining me right now. Good morning, my friend.

I'm afraid I lied to you, Luke. I don't even know exactly how or why. I was pulling that intro package for the beginning of the show, and I told you there's some weird drop in there where somebody's yelling, and I said, I think it's like the TV edit of Die Hard, some guy railing about his wife being on a plane and ankle-deep in snow or something like that. But then I heard, as I listened again just now, I heard a Dennis Franz in there. There's no Dennis Franz or even airplanes in Die Hard, is there?

Or snow. Or snow. It's at Nakatomi Plaza in Los Angeles, California. As Bruce Willis famously says Come to the coast We'll have a good time The whole thing is unfolding in Los Angeles There would never be snow

He doesn't say that in Die Hard Did you say that in something else? He says Rosebud Oh no you're right And he is sledding There is snow You're absolutely right I think there's snow And there's an amazing opening shot

But he has to choose He has to make a very hard choice right It's Die Hard's choice

I think terrorists take over the newspaper That he runs I don't know I'm all confused now I will be honest with you Are you able to play the drop in isolation Well I have to search for it because I don't know what it is But here's what I know Here are the factors that I know I will try to talk and google my machine At the same time Please stop googling your machine That is fair I remember this goes back a long time ago Probably when I was when I made that mix years ago, you were out of office. I don't know why I emailed you and said, what's going on in the show today? And I got an out of office response. And so I said, we'll get Hannah Brooks Olson to fill in host for you. that day and i know all of this because she and i must have already started our cleaning podcast spotless at that point because i did a bit with her i did a quiz with her i believe where i because quote unquote cleaning or cleaned up things are are a raison d'etre um i created a quiz of cleaned up lines from movies as they broadcast on tv so i went on some journey of finding all these, like, wacky examples of movies as they were cleaned up for broadcast. What were you going to do? Were you going to jump in there? Oh, you're clearing your throat. Never mind. Sorry. So all of that is to say, and as I'm Googling around here, I think, was Dennis Franz in Die Hard 2? Was Dennis Franz in Die Hard 2? Okay, let me do something here. I need to get rid of this music for a second here because I may have found it safe.

Yeah, and I can't remember the plot of Die Hard 2. Die Hard 2 might have been Happened somewhere snowy

Die Hard on a snowy plane Is that what they called it here

Somebody better get this snow Off this mother truck and plane

They gotta be close I'll have my men tear this airport apart

Okay I think this is it I have this labeled as Die Hard 2 Bruce Willis edited Jingle all the doors I am getting some very strong notes Of Dennis Franz

They gotta be close I'll have my men tear this airport apart

Lost in the nick of time, huh?

Hey, McLean, I got a first-class unit here, SWAT team and all. We don't need any Monday morning quarterbacks. Hey, forget Monday morning. My wife saw one of those damn planes these guys are fooling with.

That puts me on the playing field. And if you'd have moved your fat feet when I told you to, we wouldn't be hip-deep in snow right now. That's it. Security, you're out of here.

So that voice, okay, now is that supposed to be Bruce Willis? Yes, yes. How amazing is that?

Please, Andrew, could you play that for me one more time?

Yes, I'm trying to maybe skip ahead a little bit here. Here we go. Nick of time, huh?

Hey, McLean, I got a first-class unit here, SWAT team and all.

No, we need to go back because we need to compare and contrast Bruce Willis' voice. I'm just going to play the whole thing. I mean, it's worth it. Oh, my gosh. Somebody swoops in. I mean, you can't really tell where the Bruce Willis begins and ends, can you?

They got to be close. I'll have my men tear this airport apart. Lost in the nick of time, huh?

Hey, McLean, I got a first-class unit here, SWAT team and all. We don't need any Monday morning quarterbacks. Hey, forget Monday morning.

My wife saw one of those damn planes these guys are fooling with. That puts me on the playing field. And if you'd have moved your fat feet when I told you to, we wouldn't get hit deep in snow right now.

That's it. Security, you're out of here.

That guy sounds like they grabbed somebody from Fargo.

I don't know. How is that the best person within reach?

I don't understand it. I swear my, come out to the coast. That's a better Bruce Willis impression.

I should I can't do this on the fly I should transcribe what that line is and you and I should see if we can do better Bruce Willis reads of those words except I gotta say I don't think I can do a Bruce Willis at all

I mean I can't I didn't think I could do one either but now that I know what was passing for a Bruce Willis impersonation

I think that's how Bukowski started writing I remember that that was something that I read in an interview or something a long long long long time ago and it stuck with me was like he didn't consider himself a very good writer but then he was looking at what other people were writing he's like well I can do better than that or at least as good so that's how your Bruce Willis imitation was born

also I mean I know Bruce Willis was a big action star at the time and very busy and very in demand but for all the money that they paid him for Die Hard 2 it did not include him just like stepping into a recording booth for literally two hours and just rip off all of you know just quickly read the lines that they knew were going to need to be changed for television

broadcasts like again i know bruce used because it was so poorly written do you think he didn't want his voice attached to that terrible line read i think there's a certain level of hollywood

stardom where they just don't you know there's a famously there's somebody who who apparently does all of morgan freeman's like adr all the stuff that needs to get recorded later that they didn't film um or that they excuse me need to change by the way apologies for my voice my allergies are once again just absolutely um i'm in some kind of a zyrtec commercial right now i'm the guy who didn't take zyrtec and regrets it but anyway um there's somebody who i've heard like does because you know when you make a movie there's all the stuff that they film and record in the video and audio or the film and audio but then there's adr uh which i think is like additional dialogue recording or alternate dialogue recording or something and there's a lot of that that goes on too and just part of the movie making process but I've heard that there's somebody who does all of Morgan Freeman stuff because they can just do a dead on Morgan Freeman impression

yeah a lot of people Yippee-ki-yay Mr. Falcon

Yippee-ki-yay, Mr. Falcon. I hear that pop up sometimes in other things as well. Yeah, I feel like a lot of people do a Morgan Freeman, right? That's like kind of a...

Because he has such an iconic, distinctive voice that I think it's fairly impressionable. You can do an impression of it. And maybe Bruce Willis is a little bit harder, but I'm truly shocked at how much they phoned that in. Like, they really could have found someone who sounded a little... He honestly sounds like he might be a different ethnicity altogether.

Morgan Freeman was born in 1937. He narrated his own birth, saying, Leaving the warm comfort of his mother's womb, I, Morgan Freeman, enter the world. Soon I will make my first poop, one of many in the life of Morgan Freeman.

So I feel like there was a time when I pulled a lot of Morgan Freeman imitations.

That really is Morgan Freeman? or someone doing a Morgan Freeman?

God, I think that's somebody doing him. That is just labeled Morgan Freeman parody. That's from a long time ago.

I believe that what's about to follow

is really going to amaze. Now, that's really Morgan Freeman, I think, and this is fake Morgan Freeman.

Morgan Freeman was born in 1937. He narrated his own birth.

We also have somebody imitating him.

What about Will Forte saying, truly was a judge? Because that's vaguely a Morgan Freeman. Is that what he's doing? inspired by, well, I think his tone of voice sounds like he's trying to kind of be, have some sort of gravitas that's a little, you know, we associate Morgan Freeman with like the height of gravitas.

Yes. I'm looking for that. We also, oh, here we all, don't we also have him singing the thong song or at least narrating it? Oh, sure. Narrating it. Yeah.

So scandalous. And you know, another couldn't handle it. So you're shaking that thing like rooster-ish with a look in your eye so devilish.

i guess that's all we have of that and that's not all that's also a morgan freeman impersonator

that's just an impersonator and that clears my file so i for people who think that this is going nowhere we have reached the end of anything that is labeled morgan in my except for piers morgan and we don't need to go into that uh here yeah let's not put any oxygen into that fire um i

wonder now that you're playing that i'm thinking like i wonder if the and it's a pretty niche uh pretty niche thing as is but like i wonder if the day of the celebrity impressionist is coming to an end because of ai because pretty soon i mean we've had it happen here like the people have made ai versions of us we've made ai versions of andy rooney it's not quite there but if it's you know if it's following moore's law if it's if it's improving sort of exponentially we'll be able to have an impression of anyone who's ever had their voice recorded and it will probably eventually be

almost spot on you know i that i i had sort of forgotten about this when i was living in la i was like listening to a lot of the kevin and bean show which of course bean is a good friend of ours now um and you've you've known of bean and the kevin and bean show long long before i did but then when i was living there i was listening to it a lot and um i was surprised and then eventually delighted that they still did that old school commercial morning show thing where they had somebody who just did impressions and would you know pretend to call him call into the show as all kinds of famous people and then i would later learn that that is ralph garman who i remember first hearing that and being like this is if only ralph garman could have done an impression of someone who wanted to read our commercial no no i think you're thinking of somebody else ralph garmin has never done a read for us before you're thinking who did who did the world's worst tbtl read the most um it's another fella who has a very long running podcast um jimmy never not funny yeah is that jimmy pardo's never not funny that's his podcast yeah yeah that was him

ralph never not trying to read we had for people that don't know we we had this brief moment of like having the tiniest bit of traction at our old company where they were trying because they did they make that happen or did we make that happen no they made that happen in some way so we were doing some podcast swaps where we do kind of a read you know you hear it on this show too we do ones for other shows that we like and we had done one for never not funny and then they were going to do one for us and when we finally heard the read that this jimmy pardo guy did it was just like it was like they they interrupted a bowel movement he was doing to have him like have and

he wanted to get right back to the bowel movement i am looking all like how did i not save that Maybe it hurt my soul too much. I know that at one point I had that isolated. Him clearly reading it cold for the first time. I mean, ice cold, ice cold. There's ice cold, there's disinterested, and then there's the perfect eclipse of the two. There's whatever Jimmy Pardo did talking about TPTL. Where it somehow the read disincentivized anything.

Anybody who would have potentially listened to the show. I think we lost listeners.

It was like someone handed him a child's finger painting and said, read this. And then he had to just kind of try to math it out on the fly. And he put no effort into it.

Yeah, that sounds about right. But yeah, anyway, I just the Ralph Garman thing. I just remember being like, oh, man, that's so weird. That's so old school. And like, just like you just have your guy call in and pretend to be celebrities. But by like the third day, I'm just like, put it in my veins.

I thought it was so funny. It's the number one thing for me about the Howard Stern show that I absolutely adore is they just and the this is going to be uninteresting to the TV show listeners. But, you know, I guess you all are used to it at this point. Me just talking about the sort of real nuts and bolts of a totally different broadcast. But the the the thing with Stern that's amazing is they've just got like, I don't know, five or ten really good impressionists on standby every single minute of the show. And so when the conversation that they're having, which is just going in all different directions, when someone thinks, oh, you know who would be funny weighing in on this Mitt Romney, they get this knock on the door and it's just Mitt Romney. And the bit with Mitt Romney, first of all, the guy is so, so spot on. Like you would not know it's not Mitt Romney. But the thing is, he's just a freak in the sheets. and so just imagine complete deadpan mitt romney but just describing the crudest the absolute crudest sexual acts but in that very and like and they have you know you name it like they have a it's not all politics but they do have a really good mitch mcconnell they have a doctor now for my 600 pound life they have a joan rivers they have a guy who does andrew dice clay which I'm not into Andrew Dice Clay but I think it's actually a meta joke about how unfunny Andrew Dice Clay is because he just calls in and all he wants to talk about are the kind of gross Andrew Dice Clay sort of jokes they have, who else do they have?

I feel like you might you really don't think Andrew Dice Clay is not funny? Do you think it's too nuanced for you? I wonder if you're missing some of the nuance

You know, I should probably go back when I get done re-watching Sophie's Choice I'll go back and re-examine He was very good in that The last Woody Allen movie I could watch with a clear conscience Which

What was it? I'm trying to think if I would

It was Blue Jasmine I think Okay

Oh yeah! I saw that

It was Cate Blanchett

You know what Luke? I saw that in one of our favorite theaters You and I, I don't think we ever went there together But I know we both used to love that little theater That was kind of on the corner of Capitol Hill On your way out of Capitol Hill towards Montlake where those three streets kind of come together, there was that great The Harvard Exit. The Harvard Exit. I believe I watched that matinee by myself up in the balcony. I watched that movie.

The Harvard Exit was my safety school. In that I was just going to go watch movies there if I didn't get into college.

I actually went to Tufts Exit. I was trying to inflate my CD. I went to a movie in Boston, Andrew, okay? I'm sorry. We must have listeners who went to Tufts, I'm sorry. It's just a go-to. Tufts is a great school. I couldn't get into Tufts, obviously. I think that joke goes back to Seinfeld or something. I don't know why I always put in Tufts.

Was there somebody who was saying they went to school in Boston so that it would seem like Harvard, but in fact they went to Tufts?

I feel like Elaine Bennis might have shouted at one point, Tufts was my safety school, but I'm not entirely sure of that.

But back to these impressions on the Stern show, they're so good and also so bizarre. They have one, they have a Rosie O'Donnell who is, by the way, there is a theme emerging here, which is somehow it all comes back to sex. But there's a Rosie O'Donnell who is sexually aroused by bad news related to Donald Trump because she famously has feuded with him. And so this was their response to the Trump guilty verdict. Well, first of all, they were on vacation for like two weeks because they take a lot of time off on that show. and then they finally come back and that literally within the first three minutes they're like yeah you know trump guilty on 34 counts knock knock knock oh it's rosie o'donnell and she's enjoying herself let's say and they're playing they're just literally playing like msnbc coverage of the guilty verdicts as she's sort of like having a time these these don't sound very interesting or nuanced as i describe them but the old school impression when it's a good impression and also So this is why they will not – these people will never be replaced by AI because what's particularly great about the Stern show Impressionists is they can also improv. So it's not just – because you have people that can do a Donald Trump impression, but can they extemporate or can they freelance in the person of this character that they're doing an impression of as Howard Stern is talking to them, asking them questions.

throwing them curveballs and all of the people that do the impressions on that show can also do

that and that's what really raises it to the next level yeah right what was the name of our boy he had three names who was always doing the trump impressions then he ended up going to snl right um james austin johnson i think his name was is he still on snl i just had a very weird thought he's their trump this is very strange i wonder if he this is not this is so not interesting but for a while there I was getting so much James Austin Johnson in my life because I followed him on Instagram I think that was before he joined SNL and we knew him from the viral videos that he was releasing right and they had kind of gotten uh caught in a kind of an upswell online and so we were obsessed with that for a while and I felt like he was a very avid like uh Instagrammer you ever you must have people like that not even in your life that you've never met before celebrities or whatnot who live a lot larger in your life than they should only because they're prolific on one of your on one of your platforms like for me it's Instagram I mentioned like Egonuotum I've never seen I mean I've seen her maybe in the occasional sketch on SNL on YouTube or something but for the most part I only follow her because I heard her on Comedy Bang Bang once and now she's like one of the only people on the cast that I can that I can name and it has nothing to do with snl it's just because i randomly followed her one time i was because you

let you probably let one of the you know if she put a video up you might let it run and then the algorithm is like okay he wants more ego nuotum content that's a little bit more of a tiktoky

thing i don't play in the it doesn't happen with instagram the same way i think i think you can use instagram in a way that that is the case but that is not the case for me for the most part i don't get randomized stuff in fact every couple of months it starts giving me randomized stuff and I have to say, no, turn this off for another 60 days or something like that. Like, I just like to follow who I follow. That's one of the things that I don't kind of love about. Was that your computer or mine? Did you hear that? I did not. Then that was my computer. What was that?

The call is coming from inside the basement.

It was a very calming sound, but I got to get to the bottom of that because we don't want that. But yeah, there are just certain people. So anyway, I just follow who I follow. I don't like randomized stuff. I like to that that was kind of one of the things that changed on Twitter to Twitter and Instagram at some point just started saying we need to keep these. I don't know. It just feels like they're force feeding us like I'm some sort of some sort of social media foie gras, which is a really dark thing to say. But like they're just like, oh, no, you have to see this. The algorithm thinks you're going to like this. And I just like I really I really cringe at that. I really kind of like so I'm always constantly just trying to follow who I follow. And because of that, like Anthony Bourdain was a good example, too, before he passed away, like I never watched any of his shows. They used to be on in the radio station with the sound down during my night show on Friday. So I feel like I would be staring at him being in very beautiful places in the world, eating great food. But I never heard the show. I didn't watch it. I wasn't necessarily a fan. I just signed up for his Instagram feed. And then because of that, I felt like we were best friends after a year.

anyway on the subject of James Austin Johnson I have to say I like you used to love his Trump impression would he just be like wandering around LA yeah and he's just like he's just his normal self doing this like really funny improv Trump thing that's unhinged the way the real Trump is but also about these things that Trump actually probably wouldn't talk about you know and there was something that was really fun about it I don't really love the version of him on SNL where they have him in a like a kind of a donald trump suit they you know they add some weight to him they do the hair they're trying to make him physically look as much like trump as possible and the thing about it that i find unsettling is i feel it normalizes trump in some way because it makes him not what he really is which is a threat to democracy but just kind of like your loony uncle who says loony things but you know you gotta love him kind of a thing and i don't think that's like what James Austin Johnson is trying to do I don't think that that's his goal but let's feel like it's what's happening because I thought his Trump impression was so great and then he went on SNL and I was like oh cool now they have a really good Trump impersonator but but the few sketches I've seen where they trot him out as Trump the few cold opens again I feel that it really just makes Trump seem less threatening and more just kind of batty like oh that's just Trump being

trump and i don't like that effect yeah i have stuff to say i just don't think we want the only thing i have to say there takes it to a not fun place we move further and further away from the um ralph garments and um and and uh howard sterns and get more into the nprs which is just sort of like i mean that is that is the that that's the tough nut to crack right i mean specifically for journalists i think but also i guess as you're describing a version of this on snl where you know i think most of our listeners would know that a couple of

months ago there was like kind of a lot of like news coming out of npr but not the kind of news that they want not them just doing journalism but you know the editor uri berliner they're sort of like kind of publicly stating that npr has lost its sort of um sort of lost its way as far as representing all sides or both sides of of you know stories and specifically politics and i sort of feel like well that is what like organizations like that that are trying to they're trying to keep a foot in reality and also present all sides but not normalize something that is definitely not normal right and that's kind of always been the problem with Trump is like we don't know how to we don't know how to especially I guess as kind of media people that are maybe trying to not be biased because that is an SNL thing right like SNL in a certain way I feel like back in the 70s they were just like the liberal weirdos but like in the 90s they kind of became like you know we'll have well giuliani was a new york guy so that makes well they had trump host he wasn't

political yeah he wasn't political at the time i guess but i guess they just sort of like yeah

and those are both i guess kind of new york stories but generally speaking like i think snl also kind of doesn't want to be just they they're trying to speak to middle america as much

as as much as the coasts yeah yeah i mean um well let me you know what i'll respond the like my

friend andrew does sometimes yeah yeah that's why it's a bad it's just bad yeah it's just bad all around and i should have left it at yeah actually can i can i actually can i get i took us on this train i don't want to cut you off but if you're as uncomfortable as i am kind of getting into this world on a friday let me bring it back to stern for a second because i is one of my favorite topics as i've mentioned that's why i thought you'd be okay with me steering it back to that um one of the things that you've mentioned recently as you've been listening to a lot of stern and it's sort of popping up on the show is your complaint that like he just takes so much vacation they don't have that much new content when they release shows they're long and you enjoy them but then they'll just go dark for so long well um i don't think i mentioned this on the show luke but i've been enjoying a free subscription to serious satellite radio the past couple of months and this time i've been kind of listening to a lot of various things but not so much stern and the other day i was at the gym and i was like oh this would be the perfect time for me to dip into some stern maybe luke and i can even talk about on the show like what's up with this guy so i go to the app and i play what looks like the latest episode i'm like oh man get it they haven't posted anything in like a couple of weeks but i was on the full episode i wasn't looking for clips so i did find a full episode and so i went to the full episode tab and i'm like i guess i'll play what the latest one was and it looked like it was a couple of weeks ago and i'm playing i'm listening to it and you know it's okay in the back of my head i'm like oh they're talking about sports they're talking about like the basketball playoffs and i know that this is outdated i kind of don't like that i like listening to like that type of programming i like it to be a little bit more up to date but i'm like okay this is fine until we're like 15 minutes into it i realize oh it's all leading up to his controversial comments that we did discuss on tbtl about how he had a theory about how the players don't go up to him when he's at the games because or the black players don't because they don't like him as much because he's white i mean what's funny about that

i i can't believe this is really the show today but i am so here for it i love like when phyllis and i get together and just talk about start it's like one of my happiest places um he every so the knicks come up on the show a lot because well they were you know progressing through the playoffs and everybody there's fans and including Stern and literally every time the Knicks come up he can't avoid he can't hold back on the his theory that none of the players say hi to him when he's at the games because they're black and he's white and you can just hear in Robin Quivers's voice Robin who's a black woman you can hear her just just die inside a little bit because of how unhinged this theory is and like he so I'm unsurprised like if you ever see like if there was met if there was a word cloud around a stern episode and you saw nicks you could also assume that he in that moment in the way that there are the things that we always bring up when certain topics come up the listeners know that like if x comes up then luke will say y or whatever like with him it's if the nicks come up he will go on this thing about how the players don't say hi to him he thinks because they're black and he's white which is absolutely ludicrous first of all if x

comes up luke will say formerly known as twitter um no but wait you're adding some clarification because the reason i bring this up is and i you know i think you and i consume this kind of media in in similar fashions we like it sort of we we like the full show we don't want clips like we'll take the good with the bad on that like just go on the journey and also have it be sort of up to date i don't want this super curated curated i don't like to listen to like greatest hits radio shows the best of radio shows it's just like well no those shows were good in the moment anyway when I started listening to this and it looked like it was an episode from a couple of weeks ago and then I heard him mention this thing again I was like oh this was a repeat a couple of weeks ago and this is like the show where he said the thing and I turned it off but it turns out you're saying oh yeah he just says that all the time this probably really was from

a couple of weeks ago oh okay every single and in fact when the knicks have played or like back when they were still there eliminated now but when they were playing and there would be a big game and i knew there was going to be a stern show i would i would wince because i was like the knicks are gonna i'm sure that the listeners have some version of this with our show many versions of this maybe but i would wince because i think uh the knicks are going to come up on the show tomorrow and then Howard's going to say that thing that just everyone just goes quiet because there's just no first of all there's just there's absolutely no no um sort of uh logic to it it's it's untrue and and it's frankly pretty racist and and but but everybody's kind of just like everybody just goes quiet and hopes he gets through this quickly and they can get on to other things yeah so yeah you heard him just talking about it yeah so it wasn't literally a greatest

hits it's just like howard that's like his him playing the hits what he says now let me tell

you one thing that his other big one is that he anytime his experience of growing up comes up he talks about how he he went to a high school that i guess we you know if we believe him was predominantly african-american and he felt like he was sort of bullied there or was you know people would give him a hard time because he was a white kid in a predominantly black school

and like and a jewish kid right isn't that kind of something that he talks about a lot um no i

don't maybe not okay he don't really chalk it up to anti-semitism okay that i've noticed but he just

like i guess i didn't mean anti-semitism i could be totally wrong for some reason i thought maybe in his like maybe when he had that biographical movie come out or something i thought that was kind of a bigger part of his growing up was that he was a fish out of water as a jewish kid but i

guess i'm wrong about that you know i haven't seen believe it or not i haven't seen private parts in a long time so it might get played up in the movie but as far as like the his go-to on his high school years it's that he was getting his ass kicked at school all the time and that it was very and and again it's like and and that you know his all the the thing the thing about all these stories is they also kind of don't line up because later on you find out that like when his his father passed away he left he had a considerable amount of money apparently that like so you'll always talk about how broke they were growing up or how they grew up really poor But that it's like actually his dad had been saving a ton of money And like I don't know it's like this And so it's like were you really living in an area Where you were under this much threat Like it's just hard to separate fact from fiction sometimes And when it gets With Howard Stern when it gets racial It gets really weird really fast And he sounds all of his 71 years

That's the thing too Yeah it's racial and it's also so generational Like you think those players give a crap who Howard Stern is Like that's not about race my boy And that's about where we are as a society.

You want to throw one more little lanyop of weirdness. There's a player on the Knicks who appears white, but is in fact biracial. Oh, yeah. He brought this up. And keeps talking about this. Well, that guy should like me because he's white. And the guy's not even white, technically.

He brought that up. So again, but again, these are things that he just keeps bringing up over and over. It wasn't that.

Hartenstein or whatever.

Okay.

Oh, my God.

But I will say this. So to turn away from that fraught topic for a second.

In fairness, though, the Portland Trailblazers do not like me because I'm white and because I root against them actively because I'm a Sonics fan.

That is true. Oh, actually, somebody sent in what they claim is a sharp shot, but it just sort of confused me. I want to ask you about it here in a second. But I do want to say, you know, when we talk about Stern, I'm sure there's a lot of people who are listening who just like do not understand what you would like about the Stern show or whatever, especially when it gets into kind of the wrong.

Particularly when it's as fraught as it is.

The little fraud and then also the sort of raunchy stuff or whatever. But, like, I will say that whenever I listen, even that one, I shut that off after about 15 minutes because I thought, oh, this was from months ago when he made headlines for saying this wackadoo thing. But even in that 15 minutes, he will almost always, if I start listening at the beginning of the show when it's just the banter, I know that's your favorite part, too, there's always something that sticks with me. And, like, I mean sticks with me. I remember one of the first episodes I listened to as, like, you know, in the past several years when I kind of revisited the show, him coming back from break, surprise, surprise, and talking about losing a cat, I think. I don't remember the details of it right now. It was incredibly gripping, and I felt for him. And this time he was just talking. It was just kind of a throwaway thing that he mentions. But he mentioned he was watching the Knicks game, and he's like, I can't stand. He's like, I don't like sports. I don't want it to be close. He's like, if I'm going to sit down to watch the game

I just want it to be a blowout I don't like the games I just like winning and he says same thing when I play chess you know I go online and I'll play chess against I don't know if this is again something that he says a lot Luke so maybe you're you're nodding in agreement because you've heard that you've heard him say this a million times but I found it fascinating when he says when I go online and play chess like you're supposed to choose a level that is you know represents your skill set he's like I always play like the lowest level and I just destroy the opponents and he's not talking about playing against a computer he's talking about playing against real people in online chess matches he's like I don't and he's like I don't I just don't I don't want to play I want to win and I just found that to be so fascinating and then I came home and I put my baseball game on the easiest level it just smoked the Yankees got like 35 hits and 22 runs or

something it was great I I will say for the listeners and I'm sorry that the last 20 to 30 minutes have been especially kind of probably inaccessible to many of you i want you to know that i hear you and i see you as tbtl listeners because when when people say well what are you into and i say the howard stern show for the majority of people i say that to the look of confusion that crosses their face and then i'm trying to explain well it's not all like strippers anymore it's you know sometimes it's rosie o'donnell having that herself you know it's not it's not i try to explain it it makes no sense and then i just basically change the topic that's got to be what it's like trying to explain tbtl to people like what is this thing that you listen to 10 hours a week sometimes and and donate money to and you're flying where to go see what and then you try to explain this and then people are like they just kind of glaze over i want the listeners to know that i know that feeling because that's what happens when i try to explain my love

of the howard stern show to the average american although we at least in this case have the benefit of not also having a reputation you know what i mean if i say sometimes i say to people like People will be like, well, what is your podcast about? And I'll kind of try to explain that it's not about anything. And then at some point I might say, you know, it's kind of like the Stern show isn't about anything. You know, it's just a show. But if you say that, you know, most people who don't listen to Stern show, what do they think of? They think of the raunchiest stuff. They think of the strippers in the studio when it was a TV show. You think of early Stern. And, you know, he courted that. Like, and that's not, that's not erroneous. But the show's been around for how long now? 35, 30 years, 35 years? I'm bad enough. I don't know. A long time. Long damn time. So it obviously evolves as well. Not that they've totally from your and Phyllis's description. It sounds like they haven't fully stepped away from this. Well, that's the thing.

I think for a while I was trying to do this sort of like a reputational repair on that guy. And now I'm just done doing that because it's honestly not really true. Yeah. Right. I was going around going, well, he's you know, he's he's not like the guy that was throwing, you know, lunch meat at a semi clad woman in the studio anymore. now he's like you know well he did interview biden by the way oh yeah i heard somebody mention his i mean his politics i think are generally in the right place and i think i don't know who can look into a man's heart i think generally his his heart is in the right place but he's still i mean it is still so problematic and it still often reverts to just like the crudest sexual stuff right it's it's still it's a version of the show that everyone thinks it is it's just there's still there's parts of you know there will be things like did is benji lying about the fact that he recently ran into woody allen in new york and woody allen said benji which is an inside joke on the show does woody allen the disgraced director know who benji bronc is no this was no hours of entertainment hours of entertainment on the show and i was so there for it like that's what i love about and then if and benji if you're lying and then michael rapaport calls in the real michael rapaport oh yeah michael rapaport is a it's so great the kayfabe so michael rapaport the actor is involved in this fantasy football league that all the producers play in and he it's clearly figured out that his role on the show on the stern show is just to be like the villain in everything he calls and leaves these massively unhinged voicemails about fantasy football and about all the things he's going to do to the other producers of stern when he beats them in fantasy football it's i mean it's just like the the layers of that show and the different levels of things going on is um it's impressive i wish we could do that i wish we had more i mean i don't wish we could have more crude sexual content but i wish we if we could have like 20 people work on this show and have all these plot lines related to everyone's lives and you know it would certainly take some of the pressure off of us the problem is i'm out of experiences just the two of us i don't have anything left in the tank we always have people that in fact yeah

we'll have this conversation off air because we we always have people that we say oh yeah we should get you on the show and we even had somebody lined up just like a friend of the show a while back and then she had something pop up the last minute and then i just never followed up again it can be a little tricky like trying to find a good day when you and i are both in the same place and then we can court it's kind of hard to now i'm just putting it on you but it's kind of hard to book people when your schedule kind of changes a lot so thanks for ruining tbtl luke is what i'm saying there but uh no we shouldn't make it we always say that but we should make more of an effort because we have so many interesting people in the audience and in our friend group and everything and we could we could do more of that i want to change the subject um here very briefly before we get to dazzling donors only because i i mentioned this i want to clear something up or possibly muddy the waters uh one of the two things one of the two things is definitely gonna happen you were talking about having some hometown pride when you were in portland uh and i saw the short crest scots marching band you saw the short and they were and they're from seattle and that's why you felt like a sense of pride you're like look here in portland they are representing seattle i don't know what you said but we got this note from a listener named bill and not bill in canada this is somebody else um and it says how dare no it doesn't say that it says you guys have probably been sharp shot on this 100 times already we haven't this is the only email we got but shorecrest is in shoreline we have three high schools that i'm aware of anyway shorecrest shorewood and kings what did you say i don't remember you saying anything that would fly in the face of that

i mean i look bill it's barely over day it is a barely past 145th okay which is the demarcation

in my mind oh did you say seattle and bill i probably called it seattle it's technically

shoreline it's like a hundred feet into shoreline so simmer down stew no i love that okay i didn't

know i thought maybe you said it was in a town called shorecrest or something like maybe you misspoke the fact no i love people in shoreline speaking up and saying correcting me seattle do not know just like shoreline pride sort of just being like seattle you cannot claim shorecrest

shorecrest is ours here in shoreline i listen there's enough this is how love works andrew it's not there's not a finite amount of it there's it can grow there's enough for everyone the more we love the shortcrest scots the more of the shortcrest scots there are exactly doesn't have to be only for people it's an expansive experience not a contracting experience so i was just feeling very proud of this thing that was from let's say the greater seattle area the shoreline area which also the argument could be made that i was culturally shoreline growing up because i the jesus creek the school i went to was in northgate but it was very close to shoreline which is where many of the kids that i hung out with lived and many of the places we would go were in shoreline we spent a lot of time there and then in my adulthood i voluntarily spent hours and hours and hours of my life at some of the finest casinos along aurora in shoreline goldie's parker's um the drift on in now i feel very i've i feel very connected to shoreline but um okay bill my bad it's not a seattle thing it's a shoreline thing but i still felt very proud of the short crest scots the other thing that was funny was i didn't realize how much they were leaning in to the scottish vibe because that's their you know their their mascot like this this marching band which again was very good they had if i remember right they had the whole band and everybody's in like kilts and so then they had scottish dancers that were doing some legit scottish dancing they had um bagpipes like they were and i what i realized was i guess we don't think of scottish culture as something that we're worried about appropriation we have decided that that's not a big deal and i'm i'm personally fine with that but i was thinking if if these were the shortcrest braves yeah right and you had a bunch of people in like native american garb it would be weird but we we have decided that there is not anything cultural about like the Scottish vibe that that needs to be protected or assigned only to people who happen to be Scottish it all people can participate in that which again I welcome I think it's cool but it was I just didn't realize how hard they were going on the Scottishness would you think

it's fair to say that I am culturally Mount Lake Terrace no no no I mean have you been to Mount

Lake Terrace no is it all fancy no I mean I think it's there's probably all kinds of different parts If you've been going to Mount Lake Terrace and not telling me about it, this is going to be a real problem.

I'm just trying to figure out what I am culturally, because I mean, I'm, you know. I think you're culturally, let me, it's a great question. I'm culturally Seattle, I think, right?

Well, actually, I think you're culturally Greenwood.

Really? I don't consider myself culturally Greenwood.

Well, the reason is because you're.

It's like looking at a mirror.

I think, I think.

The reason I think you're culturally Greenwood is because you are somewhere in between. You're not as bougie as I am or as I sometimes can become, but you're also, you know, you have a lovely home that you and Genevieve purchased and take really great care of. You're kind of like right in the sweet spot of like of sort of like you like your good dive bar, but you also like a good meal sometimes. And you like a neighborhood that's walkable, but also you don't mind stepping over a few things on the sidewalk that may or may not be infected. And I feel like that's kind of Greenwood's vibe. Like, I feel like, you know, I don't see you as culturally Laurel Hearst, but I don't see you as culturally. And I can't name the other neighborhood because then I'm saying whatever whatever the opposite is, I'm saying that's a trash neighborhood. And I don't think you're that either. I think you're kind of right in the middle, which is how I think of Greenwood in the best way.

I will take that. And what I'm also trying to take here is a little bit of self-control because there is – you mentioned dive bars. And there is a dive bar that I go to that is sort of on the cusp between my neighborhood and Greenwood. And you know what it is, Luke. You're the one who kind of tipped me to it. I don't know if you've ever been there before, but you saw it on a map. I'm not going to say the name of it because it's kind of my go-to place now, but it's definitely more of a dive bar than Teddy's. I always get a little itchy when people refer to Teddy's as a dive bar because I'm like, it's just a bar. It's not fancy, but it's just a bar. This place that I'm talking about, you know, I was going to tell you. I'm not going to tell you the story. I'm going to tell it to you really quickly. This place that I go to from time to time is not super convenient for me, but probably the most convenient place if I'm on a walk. And I was on a long walk the other day, and I was like, you know what? I'm getting a little thirsty for like a Coors Light. It's out of my way, but I'm going to walk up to this bar. And so I extend my walk by maybe 20 minutes or whatever. I go into this bar. Now, the thing about this bar is it has a pretty – I don't think I would want to go there with you. I think you'd be pretty off-put. I think this has gotten worse lately where it's got a very strong, like, fake aroma of something that seems like they're covering up something. You know what I mean? And, like, a strong, like, urinal cake isn't quite it, but, like, that direction. You know what I mean? Like, a pretty strong some kind of urinal cakey smell that sometimes. Hey, Google, what covers the smell of human decomposition? Right. And, like, Vives and I went in there once. Like, I've always noticed it a little bit, and it definitely is concentrated in the men's room where you can really tell that it is covering up something in there. And then sometimes you go in the bar and the whole bar kind of smells like it. Genevieve's and I one time went in there. We were just like, oof, and we kind of got out of there relatively quickly. Other times, it settles into the background nicely. But I'm also, so anyway, I do like this place. I really like the bartenders. Oh, God. Yeah, one time I was sitting there with Genevieve and some guy, I was looking at the TV above his head, and he was all messed up. And I heard him start saying to me, he was like, what are you looking at? What are you looking at? And I told the bartender about this later. I just went into full like oh I didn't even make eye contact with him I could hear him and I think he was really messed up and he was looking for a fight and I found out later that he had been looking for a fight and I just I have some sort of self-preservation thing that is much like a mole in nature I believe I just locked onto that TV screen I didn't look away I didn't give any indication that I heard him and I heard his brother say calm down dude I think he's just looking at the TV or something but then I heard him like keep on mumbling then he kind of brushed past me later and then i told genevieve and the bartender about it later and they had no idea it was going on and i was like i'm telling you guys this was going on she's like yeah he was itching for a fight this whole time i was like yeah but i am like just like i just i just like slipped

into nothingness i just you guys didn't see it but i just made myself disappear in front of everybody's eyes and i'm here to line has taught you much exactly okay that's not the story the story is i go in there the other day on the on the sort of uh spur of the moment i'm like you know what I'm gonna get I'm gonna get a beer so I go in and the smell is I don't know about what it usually is and I sit down at the bar and then I go into the bathroom and the bathroom again is kind of nasty it always is there's like one urinal and then one stall and it is a stall where you can close the door and everything but I would certainly never use it and I go in the bathroom and it does kind of smell and it's both a combination of something not right and then something trying to make it right and and I use the urinal and then as I'm walking away somebody's leaving no no it's right as i walk in some guy's kind of leaving the stall and he sort of is kind of like ducking out of the stall a little bit i'm like oh hey sorry man whatever and i think he washes his hands i'm not even 100 sure of that um and uh and i use the urinal and then i realize as i'm washing my hands oh i do remember he washed his hands but But anyway, I realize there's a sign on the stall that says this is out of order. Poop at home. And I look in there and I see that this fella has just ignored the sign and just used it anyway, which is why I think he looked sheepish as he was leaving the restroom. And then I go back to where I'd left my jacket or bag or whatever, and I realize he's sitting basically next to me at the bar. There's like a couple of there's like a couple of chairs between us. And by the way, he is not a fellow who looks like super down and out. He looked like he was reading kind of a fancy cookbook or something like that at the bar. You know, he did not. He didn't look like somebody, again, who was cooking up trouble for that.

And the person who works at the bar who has to deal with that. If that toilet doesn't flush, then what is that person going to do? Dude, I kept thinking about it the whole time.

I was like taking glances at him and I was just kind of like, you know, that meme where there's somebody. it's like a very simple like hand-drawn meme and it's like a bunch of people to party and there's one person in the corner and it says they don't know that and then the meme as you fill it in like it might no i don't know okay well i'm not gonna i'm not gonna extend that any further because it's too hard to explain i think some people will know what i'm talking about but like the whole time i'm just sitting at the bar just thinking like they don't know that i know that this guy just pooped in a toilet that literally says don't poop here poop at home and i looked over and there was pooping the toilet and now he's just sitting at the bar i do remember now specifically that he washed his hands because they have a new um i haven't seen one of these since 1984 a new like towel loop to wash your hands and you know those old machines oh wow yeah like air mark yeah you just like pull the new fresh part of it and then eventually like those things i think those are outlawed in many states i think so that's the new one they've added that in the past like five months or so so i remember that guy using that thing because i remember watching him and thinking like oh good it's not busted today because sometimes it's busted so anyway i'm i'm thinking like okay well he's washed his hands but there was something so dirty about sitting next to the bar at the at the next to the mad pooper and i was just thinking i mean i feel bad for the bartenders here absolutely like they're dead and they don't even know exactly i you couldn't i mean just based

on your description of the bar you couldn't pay me enough to poop at this place if everything was working yeah you know what i mean like exactly this we used to say this about the mandarin gate um or we used to go a lot i mean it was the stuff of nightmares if you if you unfortunately had to go number two while you were there i mean you that would be a night ender like i'm just going home yes yes and like you know what i mean like like the idea that this person was able to go it was able to disregard the sign and just go in that toilet is just shocking to me like that I if you you know put a gun to my head I couldn't have pulled that off just out of sort of personal

comfort exactly and and I would say that like if I were in if I were in that position like some sort of emergency comes on it's kind of like oh my god I I have to do this here like you know I will just face all of my demons and I have to do this here I'm not sticking around for a couple

more rounds i'm going well that's the other part i mean and i yeah i am well you know they say that they uh you know they always return to the scene of the crime there's like a suspicious fire and then there's a guy standing across the street going what happened it's like he's probably the

guy that lit it yeah right he's wearing an old crusty fireman's hat it's like really you need some help yeah anyway uh i'm sorry i've gone on a bunch of different tangents and we're almost an hour into this show so sorry we was hoping for some razzle dazzle razzle dazzle that's right man

razzle dazzle on your mark on your mark get set get set now ready ready go everybody razzle

all right let's thank some dazzling donors who are dazzling us with their donation of dough they're keeping this we ain't the howard stern show we don't have that serious xm money so we've gotta hit up people like michelle mcnelly aka michelle mcnelly of edina minnesota i think we did it right did i edina nervous now i'm in my head about me too it but i know i got michelle

right exactly that's right michelle we've changed the course of people's lives we really have is now michelle former the artist formerly known as michelle is now officially michelle and it's very

It's very apropos that McShell is from Minnesota, where the artist formerly known as Prince is from. Good call. McShell says, I, too, am grateful for TBTL independence and the loving 10s, 11s, and 5s. This year, I met up with 10s in real life, despite not being able to get to the 4,000th show. Sadly, I'm not clever like other 10s.

Well, Michelle, don't sell yourself short. But I have two requests. More pet talk going generic so Benny and Pooches do not get their feelings hurt. Is that, let's see, Benny and Pooches. Is that a reference to one of Sklarov's dogs?

I think so, yeah. Yeah, that's what we're, yeah, Benny.

Okay, so more pet talk, all right. We can do that. There's nothing you like to talk about more than bingo.

Well, I like to talk about mad poopers at dive bars.

Honestly, Andrew, that's a good story. I think we should have started with that instead of me talking about stern impressions.

I don't know if that's how we got there.

To me, that's page one. That's above the fold. That's like, I went into a dive bar. The toilet was broken. I caught a guy coming out of the stall. He dropped a deuce, and get this, he stuck around for the rest of the eve. That's a story, my friend.

And the funny thing, like I remember, I remember as I'm like kind of taking this all in thinking I got to tell you about that. But that happened at least that was like at least a week, I think like two weeks ago. And it's kind of funny how, yeah, I should have come in the next day hot with that story. But I think they're better when I have to sit on them for a while. I feel like I sit with it. And so that one had been sort of ruminating and you just conjured it up somehow.

my my move on that is to tell the story in multiple places and then it slowly gets better so like last night when i was at live wire i told the story of being at the pendleton jail and being followed by the guard oh yeah but like for instance i was able to remember that that person is called a guard which i couldn't when i told the story on tbtl for some reason i was calling them like

the correctional oh you said no you said correctional officer i thought that was

yeah but i don't even but guard is just a better word for it yeah yeah like so i'll tell the story on tbtl and then i'll tell the story on livewire and it'll get a little better on livewire because i've kind of like workshopped it on you great and so like last night i told the story thanks for coming just picturing me and you at a party and you've got your sinko And I'm just trying all my stories out Okay Anyway, Michelle says Could you please play Que Sera Sera Whatever will be, will be by Sly And the Family Stone I don't think I even knew That Sly and the Family Stone Do a version of that song

I love the original, which I believe Was it written for, or does it just make an appearance In the movie Vertigo Oh, the Jimmy Stewart Hitchcock film Yeah, isn't it? Que Sera Sera is associated with some Hitchcock film, isn't it?

I think of it as an oldie. I don't think I know what movie it's associated with. Yeah, I'll look it up. But anyway, I definitely want to hear the Sly version. Also, here's some important news if you are in Minnesota. The second annual TBTL Duluth. Who loves you, baby? Duluth meetup is happening at Ursa Minor Brewing Saturday, August 24th at 2 p.m. We had a great time last year. the fives and the elevens had fun too tens not from minnesota or wisconsin should know that duluth is a fun place to visit and is cool during the dog days of summer back to benny yeah by the way duluth uh shows up commonly on lists of places we're all going to have to move to when the climate is largely uninhabitable because duluth has access to fresh water the temperatures uh appear to be in a range that is livable so we're all coming to

Duluth eventually just know that who loves you that's right hey can I take a little victory lap here because I am please do so proud of me I am on Wikipedia right now it says que sera sera whatever will be will be is a song written by the team of Jay Livingston and Ray Evans that was first published in 1955 Doris Day introduced it in the Alfred Hitchcock film The Man Who Knew Too Much singing it as a cue to their on-screen kidnapped son so it was debuted in a hitchcock film now i had the wrong movie i had the wrong movie which is fine that keeps me humble that keeps me human and relatable but i'm pretty psyched that words of kendrick people call me the kendrick lamar of podcasting and hip-hop one guy one time one time but anyway yeah so that is where that is not just it's not just in that movie that is sort of the origin of that song um if you are going to be

anywhere near Duluth on August 24th at 2 p.m., head over to Ursa Minor Brewing for the Duluth Hangout and go see McShell and everybody else from TBTL land who's going to be there. And, McShell, thank you for supporting the show and for being a good sport about me screwing your name up.

All those years ago.

Maestro?

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

Oh, you know who's going to be there, Andrew? Eric Hansen of Golden Valley, Minnesota Oh

Got to be. I mean, I don't want to obligate you, Eric, but I'm just figuring you're already in Minnesota.

How far is Golden Valley from Duluth? And there's just I mean, this is June 7th and the meetup is on August 24th. You have plenty of time to make plans, make arrangements if you already have or change your plans, change those plans.

Exactly. Eric says, hello, friendos. What is there to say that hasn't been said so far? Call out to the great tens community. Check. Call out on congratulations to TBTL going independent. it check call out to solid content check i'll take that my goodness call out to all the great causes to support check so i guess all that is left to reminisce about one of the best compilation albums of 1980 this objectively perfect moment in time walks the listener through top hits like Let's Go Refugee My Sharona Crazy Little Thing Called Love and more Each song is carefully mastered to get out all of the lead singer He is balanced perfectly with the backing vocals and accompanied by the instrumental wizardry of his trio bringing each song to another level in cover artistry It brings chills to me just thinking about it Time was just different after its release Time was just different after we all heard chipmunk punk anyway be well and keep up the good work is this an album released in 1980 that has the chipmunks covering all of those songs i had to look this up you'll notice

there's a link in there i threw that link in there and i found something here called uh chipmunk chipmunk punk mix that's difficult to say you did a great job luke and it looks like this is just a little sample here this is four songs from the 1980 album chipmunk punk oh we're getting so pulled from spotify what song do we think this is i'm trying to place it i definitely know that Is this Refugee? Is this a weird version of Refugee? I don't think so. She's riding away. I mean. Oh, it's a. It's a Cars song, right? Oh, yeah. This might, according to YouTube, this song is called Let's Go, but I don't know who does the song Let's Go. This is the most Friday show we've ever done.

So is this an officially sanctioned Alvin and the Chipmunks type of thing? Or is this just somebody figured out they could turn their record player up to a different speed?

No, I think this is a real thing. Chipmunk punk. I'm looking it up now. I didn't do a lot of research on this. I just found this link. Yeah, look, some people are listing it as a 1980 record. Some people are saying 1981. The full album is apparently available online. I could get this on vinyl right here off of Discogs if I wanted to. So, yeah. All right.

It's almost too punky for me, though, I feel like. Eric, bring a single of this to the Duluth meetup and blow everybody's mind, please. And, Eric, thank you so much for supporting TVTL. We could not do this without you. all right speaking of music andrew let's um do a little music for your weekend but i want to tell you a little bit about my song usually we start with you but we'll be okay if we if we start with the song that i want to play for you oh fine i sit with it yeah of course i have been um seeing this song pop up on tick tock a lot and it's written by uh some tweens in ireland and i'm I'm waiting for this New York Times story to load up. Did a group of Irish tweens write the song of the summer? On a March day, by the way, let's see, who wrote this? Madison Malone Kircher writing in the New York Times about this. On a March day at the Cabin Studio, an arts nonprofit in Cork, Ireland, Heidi, age 11, and a group of other children were trying to write a rap song with the help of Gary McCarthy, who's a music producer and Cabin Studio's creative director. It was part of a weekly songwriting program. It's a safe space for young people in the community to come create music, Hangout and just make bangers Mr. McCarthy said On this day the group was trying to write an anthem For, and my Gaelic is Shite, Andrew A government sponsored day in Ireland Devoted to children's creativity Which is June 15th Everyone was feeling a little shy And the ideas weren't exactly flowing Heidi said Then Gary put on a drum and bass

beat and suddenly it was like a switch flipped and everyone started getting involved she said it was like magic the infectious beat has also captivated viewers around the world the group's song the spark has become a sensation on social media hailed by some on tiktok as an early contender for the song of the summer what could have easily sounded grating to adult ears think kids bop is instead unrelentingly catchy the song's accompanying music video which culminates and all of the kids rapping loudly in unison on the top deck of a bus is utterly charming. I don't know what your take on this song is going to be, Andrew. I actually have it here, too. I've loaded it into my system, so I can just play it for you. I don't know if this is going to need to grow on you, if you're going to like it immediately. What helped me with the song was I first saw this as a video of these kids at an Irish radio station performing it live. You know how they do those ciphers now? You'll see those pop up on social media where somebody is like talking to sway the uh the dj and and radio host and kind of hip-hop guy and then they'll just put a beat down and then someone will just have to rap over the beat you know kind of freestyle like it's sort of that energy it's like these kids i mean these kids aren't freestyling they're doing their song but i saw them in this radio studio doing it like live and it was so adorable and so uh i kind of was predisposed to like this song i'm not sure if you're gonna love it or not but just remember these are irish tweens it's also unrelentingly positive this song called the spark so here let me play a little bit of this for you

Start bouncing, think you can stop what we do, I doubt it, we got the energy, we tell you all about it, I searched for my spark and I found it, everybody in the crowd start bouncing, make it bang us at a young age, Mike Pence setting fire to the page, I'll

show you how to do it, Mike Pence setting fire to the page, wait, oh, I thought I heard

Mike Pence, I was like, are these kids referencing Mike, I'm not even joking, I was like, why

are they dropping mike pence references oh by the way they have bad takes on january 6th where were they on january that is some context that i should have added no the the irish accent will kind of throw you off but it also is to me a huge part of the charm of this definitely here here we go we're gonna chase it that was if we see our dream you know we're gonna chase it i love this so much if you uh if you and the listeners are not waking up with the words i searched for my spark and i found it for the next five days of your life i don't know what to tell you it is to me very infectious and um honestly i haven't heard anything else that that i think is more the song of the summer i mean the summer is early still but um but yeah so there you go that's what i wanted to play for you the spark by uh by these these irish kids nice i'm glad to know that story and i love the

story i don't i don't dislike this song i don't know if i'm quite as taken by it like it's not like there are certain songs that you that are like very very poppy that um might seem like it It would be outside of what my tastes are, but then I'm really drawn to them. This one maybe is not that. I couldn't see myself, and I'm not trying to poop on it, but like that guy in the bar. I couldn't see myself.

Andrew, I just hung up a sign that said, no pooping on my Irish kids.

No, I really enjoy that. I'm glad you played that. I don't see myself playing it in the car or something, looking to revisit it, where it sounds like you would. This adds some pep to your step.

I have been listening to it on my personal time, and I could see if I was having, like, a barbecue, maybe putting it on, but mostly for people in the know. So last night at Livewire, I was backstage, and by the way, we had Lizzie Noe on, who is a really phenomenal musical performer, and they... were recommended to us by a listener it was a music for your weekend some months ago somebody sent in a recommendation of this person lizzie no and i really liked the song and so then i reached out to our producer laura hadden i said hey can you track this person down and uh they did and lizzie no was on the show last night which was incredible but anyway i was playing this song on my phone for somebody backstage and lizzie no came out of the dressing area that they were in and um like other people like everybody in the green room who knew about the song was like freaking out like we were having a real moment so if i were to play the song at a party it would just be for other like-minded people who are aware of it not so much as just a standalone song that i think everyone needs to hear if that makes like it's sort of a slightly an in joke i guess yeah

no i definitely know that vibe for sure um i'm so by the way it was dave i just did a quick little search it was dave in new york city who recommended um the lizzie no song and it was Annie Oakley and I can't I kind of can't remember what it sounds like right now I'm looking at the music video um but I remember liking it that's the one thing about our listener picks for music for your weekend is we don't react to them because it's the final thing we hear on the show and sometimes I'm just like oh my god that was such a good song and I feel like that was one of them so I'm glad that she got to play uh play on stage with y'all that's cool um what song would you like to play for the listeners i was um surprised and delighted to see that our guy old man saxon has a new song out i don't know much about where this is going to fit in his discography i assume that that because of this new song i assume that it's going to be on a new album um i don't remember how i stumbled upon this but um the album does not seem to be out right now but the name of the song is grits now the one thing i like about old man saxon is he is always super smooth super chill super smooth sound i will say this is the most sort of a kind of i mean aggressive is too strong of a word but you'll hear like kind of the the um he's playing with somebody here named i want to say baby gold no it's crouch cream i don't think your name is baby gold a performer whose name has A baby in the title And I really like the vocals But the production on this Has a bit more of a Kind of an aggressive feel Than most of the Old Man Saxon stuff But I do like it At first I heard it I was like Oh is this the new face Of Old Man Saxon And now I've listened to it Like a hundred times And I really like it The name of the song Is Grits

Baby, go get your grip. Baby, go get your grip. Baby, go get your grip. Baby, go get your grip.

Then I'm not around. Focused on a way to get this top down. Hostile. Baby, what you doing with your WAP out? Not now. Just enough hours for the task. Lockdown. This could all be over with a mask, but I'm mad. Tragic. Didn't want to ask it. Why you got the toolie if you still gonna get your ass kick tracking passive aggressive with the action trying to be the greatest but you didn't want to practice that's weird kept another stash of the gears i'm here and again that's the fact of the year what's next said you need a stack for respect say yes tell him shut up cut the check yeah better make moves now you gonna do what they said you can't do see how you feel when they say

It's like he's fronting. Ooh, I like that. I never hear, usually he's just kind of like, you know, he's very inward looking and kind of regretful of decisions or things he said. This one he's really sort of fronting, but I really do like it. And it's Baby Luck who's on vocals there, by the way, not Baby Gold.

Baby Luck, baby, okay.

Is that another Old Man Saxon song?

It is.

I liked it.

Are you familiar with the song Baby Shark?

Oh, is that what that was?

Baby Shark, doo-doo-doo-doo-doo-doo, baby. There are times where I'm genuine. This is going to sound like some sort of a mild diss, and I don't mean it to be. I mean it to be a very obvious diss. No, there are sometimes things in pop culture that I'm surprised you've kind of managed to swerve on. I'm not saying Baby Shark is one of them. You probably know what Baby Shark is, But because you do live such a dart based lifestyle, there are sometimes these things like Baby Shark that could kind of miss your radar, but that the rest of us are just being pummeled with. And it's always interesting to me, the things that have and have not gotten on your radar.

Well, why are you pummeled with Baby Shark as somebody who doesn't have young kids when that was so hard?

Because I just think I dabble in more kind of lowbrow pop culture than you do. So just like people referencing it or whatever. Yeah. Yeah, or like, again, TikToker-y or like... Even people I know that have kids or like, I don't watch the Today Show per se, but I probably, I don't know. I can't exactly say why it is I think I would have known about Baby Shark when you might not have. But I just think it's because I have worse, I just have lower standards for my pop culture consumption than you do.

Well, do you know my one sort of, and it might have been the only time I actually heard it. I'd always heard of Baby Shark. But the one time I actually heard it was actually kind of a notable moment for me. So it was during the time that I was trying to learn how to rollerblade. And so I kind of had a standing date with my buddy, Nikki. We'd go rollerblading in these garages below the university. And I was practicing in kind of a couple of different places. But I remember there was a Friday afternoon where I got done with work early. And I drove somewhere down to South Seattle to a roller rink. Not the cool roller rink that a lot of adults hang out at. But it was actually just like a roller rink. And I showed up, I think it was around that. That's right. It was around the holidays. It might have been like between Thanksgiving and Christmas. And I showed up at this place in the middle of an afternoon with my rollerblades just to practice. And it didn't occur to me until I'm in there how weird this would sort of be because it's I'm the only adult there without kids or any other friends. I'm just this weird, like very awkward on rollerblades guy who shows up while these kids are there. It's nothing but kids in the roller rink. And I'm just like, well, I just want to go in circles and practice. And so I'm rolling around a little bit just thinking, like, this is weird. Like, if I were any parents, I'd be keeping an eye on me. Like, what am I doing there? And then I'm not.

Are you legally required to alert us as to your presence here?

Because I'm not there with friends. It's okay to be there without kids, but I'm just there by myself while kids are having birthday parties and adults, but no adults are really skating. It's just me and kids.

It's daytime, too.

And it's daytime, and they were playing some pop songs. I remember I even maybe told you about this. I remember they played one pop song that I was like, oh, wow, there's a reference in there that would go over kids' heads, but I knew it was a little bit on the dirty side. And so I was like, oh, wow, I'm surprised we're playing this for kids. And then they went from that song into Baby Shark. And I'm rolling around. I'm like, I can't do this anymore. So I immediately got off the rink. I don't know if I ever went back on or if I just like packed it up for the day. I wonder if they played that to get you out of there. To see how I would react, right? Like, what if I got really into it? What if I got too into it? That would be even scarier. But yeah, they started. And I'm like, this is Baby Shark. I got to get out of here.

Well, we got to get out of here. which is why we're going to play Michelle's suggestion of Sly and the Family Stone's version of K. Sera Sera, famously from the Hitchcock film, as we all know and love. So that's how we're going to wrap up this broadcast week. Thank you, everyone, for hanging out with us. Thanks for being part of TBTL. We're going to be back here on Monday with more imaginary radio for all of you. In the meantime, have a great weekend. Take care of yourselves. Go Mariners. And please remember, no mountain too tall. And good luck to all.

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