Muse

Baby, have you ever wondered, wondered, whatever became of me? I'm living on imaginary radio. I'm living on that T-D-T-L. T-B-T-L!

This is the part where I'm supposed to do the whole intro thingy.

Yeah, I just came here to hit dingers and have a good time. That's about it.

This is a show for dogs, about dogs, starring one dog, and one dirty dog. Expect to feel several bone tremors and be perceived by all around you to be a disgrace.

The comedy factor speaks for itself. It's just painfully obvious. It's an unfulfilled prophecy. It just has to be played out.

Oh, this is fantastic. I've been waiting for this moment for months and it's finally here.

well all right hello good morning and welcome everyone to a thursday edition of tbtl the show that just might be too beautiful to live on the magic carpet and ride my name's luke burbank i'm your host i can't believe you're still on the air coming to you from the south waterfront of portland oregon today where we bought a zoo i am surrounded by animals right now got gigi the standard poodle that holly the tuxedo cat and then we've got bubbles the um bangle who's really trying to help co-host the show today as she rubs the side of her face against the laptop i don't know if that's going to help or hurt things here on episode 4597 in a collector series let the fun begin we'll see how it goes uh we tried to talk about television yesterday on the show when we ran out of time i love television i've got to have that thing on 24 7. i love the patter there are two programs that andrew and i are both watching currently uh one the chair company on hbo and the other um pluribus the new show from vince gilligan the guy that brought you breaking bad and better call salt uh so we'll get into that and we'll get into the blurs days It's my birthday today. Because it's a Thursday, and we do that on Thursdays. And also, speaking of Mr. Andrew Walsh, he's the longest-running co-bro of the show, maybe best known for his depictions of the tall ships.

Deal with it, Cate Blanchett!

He's joining me right now. Good morning, my friend.

Good morning, Luke. With all due respect to listener Christina, whose email I'm reading right now, I love that you love apples in your cereal, but I don't think I'm willing to make that leap. Have you ever put apples in your cereal, Luke? It seems like a textural minefield to me.

Well, it seems honestly like a sin against nature.

Okay. I was trying to be delicate.

But on the other hand, I do like cereal that has apples as, you know, Apple Jacks. Sure. Like, I could see a kind of a... Uh-huh. Things of that nature. of that nature uh we're about to get a drop activated by a very curious bangle yeah i just

saw bubbles walked right across the screen that was right across the screen before the show is

over she will have unplugged the broadcast and or fired off some drops that we didn't mean to play but um i you know i'm not against the flavor of apple in a cereal and i could even see like maybe some kind of a um a granola or something where you've got maybe some dried apples in there even a spiced apple thing so while it never occurred to me to just straight up oh by the way i welcome to apple talk i stumbled upon an apple the other day that i'm like obsessed with now i just grabbed they were just like in the grocery store they sort of looked not like a granny smith exactly but they're kind of a green apple and they are i tried i think i took a picture of this actually because I looked it up later. They're basically some kind of a hybrid apple that is part apple, part pear, and it's only available for like a couple of months. And it's so good. I wish I could tell you the name of it right now, but I'll figure it out before the show's over. Anyway, it was like, it was such a treat. It was like the perfect combination of an apple and a pear. And I looked it up, and this place somewhere in Oregon, I think, grows them anyway.

Well, I would just like to say to the listener, Christina, You know my vibe is not to tell people that they're eating food wrong. I love that you love apples in your cereal. I just don't think that it's going to be a textural combo that's up my alley. But maybe someday somebody will sneak some apples into my cereal, and I'll try it. And I'll love it, and it'll change my life forever. I appreciate you reaching out.

I know you've had kind of a stressful 24 hours because you've been, as you said to me in the sound check, you went real cherry.

company on it i did go involving something having to do with our tbtl greatest hits album yeah it's

not usually it's comparing yourself to the tim robinson character in anything is never usually yeah it doesn't usually speak too well of you but you've had a morning yourself well yeah my story

is is is fairly hopefully can be fairly contained um so this morning i was on um am portland i believe it's called you know one of those local kind of morning uh talk shows where they have people on who are promoting stuff or i've written a book or what have you i was on there talking about live wire we're doing this um fundraising campaign for live wire we're trying to raise like 150 000 before the end of the year because that's the amount of funding that we have lost due to grants and cpb stuff and things like that have you considered just being less woke and getting that money back from the government i have been personally reaching out to the white house through back channels okay for weeks offering to throw anyone and everyone under any bus to get our money back and it's not i've not heard back yet okay okay so now you're going to the people now we're going to the people and so uh the folks at this tv show i've been on this tv show a bunch of times you know to promote the new season of livewire or whatever and there there was actually a story on opb here in portland about how livewire is trying to raise this money And so people actually heard about it, and they reached out and said, hey, if you want to come on our TV show and kind of talk about this and maybe generate some interest and support, you can do that. I said, of course. So this morning, I get up, and I'm checking Waze on my phone. By the way, I did go for a run this morning, which I'm not proud of.

That reminds me of a question I had yesterday because you said you're having some pain in your legs. and I was going to ask you it sounds like the pain comes not during the run but after the run so is it hard to be disciplined because I have some things in my life that I'm not going to derail you by getting into it but I know it's going to cause me physical harm later but in the moment I say that's a tomorrow problem and I do it anyway and you're kind of doing that with your running

what I realized today was because my plan was not to do any running this whole week and to see if that would like heal it up since as I mentioned yesterday the appointments that Kaiser was willing to offer me in physical therapy one was a half hour from when I logged on to the website and the other is in March I think so I thought well maybe I can fix this myself by just staying off of it but what I realized this morning was my vanity and also this really unhealthy connection in my mind between oh I'm going to be there's going to be these tv cameras on me and i'm going to want to look a certain way and somehow in my mind unless i have done my jog i won't look this certain way which by the way makes absolutely no sense like that's not how any of this works like there's no difference in my appearance from having gone on my little run versus not on a given day but that's why i realize it's unhealthy because it's it's an it's an obsession or it's a it's it's an it's an what what is the word i'm looking for here It's just it's not it's not based in reality. It's based in something else. Some feeling I have that if I haven't done my jog, I'm going to look a certain way and therefore have less value. But if I do my jog, then I look a different way and I have more value or something. It's really I didn't feel good about it because I made a rule for myself, which was don't do any jogging this week. And then I thought, well, I'll just do this one day so that I can look skinny on TV, which, again, it's nonsensical. That's why I don't like it, because I understand that it is nonsensical, but I'm doing it anyway. And leg, not feeling great now. I mean, it's not as bad as it was at its worst, but it's, you know, it's definitely, I noted when I got out of the car to go into the TV station that I was definitely, I could feel the effects of having done the jog.

And the jog you did yesterday in advance of today or actually this morning?

This morning, yeah, before getting on the road to come down to the TV station. So I'm checking Waze on my phone because they send out this whole sheet and basically says, like, you have to be at the radio station by 840 and in the green. What's that TV station? Oh, TV station. Excuse me. If it was a radio station, it'd be extra weird that I had to jog. Yeah, I've got to get slim before I go on Como 1000.

But about the same level of, you know, I mean, yeah, exactly.

It's crazy both ways, but even maybe more crazy if it was a radio station. And yeah, they have this whole sheet that's like, this is what time we need you there. This is the kind of clothing that we recommend wearing. We do not have hair and makeup, you know, and this is the address. It's like a whole kind of one sheet they give everybody. So they send that to me. And I'm checking ways to make sure that I'm going to be there in time for the, you know, in time to do the thing. I don't want them to be stressed out. I have been a producer in my life. I don't like stressing out producers by being late for these things.

So I leave my house at a time that the Waze is telling me will get me to the TV station on time. And then I get out on the road, I get on Interstate 5, and all of a sudden Waze just keeps doing this thing where it says like updating, like it says like updating destination or something or updating timing. It's basically kicking me off of Waze because it's telling me that all of a sudden it's giving me, it has a new idea of when I'm going to arrive there. And it goes from being, originally I'm going to get there at 840, which is when I'm supposed to be there. Then it goes, new time, 8.45, and then eventually new time, 8.50, and then new time, 8.54. Now, I'm supposed to be, at 9 o'clock, I'm supposed to be sitting on the set in the studio, like, talking to the host of the show. And so, at one point, and it's just telling me, Waze is telling me, there's unusually heavy traffic on southbound I-5. and the thing is there's no side routes between like the washington state and oregon because you have to go across this bridge that crosses um the willamette river and it's the only way to go from washington to oregon well that's not true you could take 205 but the point is it's not the kind of thing where i can jump off on a side street because it all gets filtered back to funneled back to this one bridge that goes across the river now you can't afford it though right

That's what I learned from whatever it is. What is it? Portland Crossing? What is the old video game where you could ford the river or you could float across it?

Oh, really? You know, I never – Oregon Trail. Oregon Trail. I never played Oregon Trail. Do you know that?

Portland Crossing. I'm glad I interrupted you for an Oregon Trail joke, and I couldn't even remember Oregon Trail. But I remember you had various options.

Portland Crossing is the new mall I'm trying to open.

Will there be football?

And there's not going to have any football.

Anyway, yes. No, I know exactly what you're saying. Like at a certain point, there is just literally as much as I hate using this term.

But it's crazy when you're sitting on the freeway, and it's so backed up, and there's just no better option. It's like Waze is telling you, yeah, this sucks, but this is all we got. But it felt very out of control because I'm watching the number go up, and I called the producer, and I said, hey, there's something going on with the traffic, and now it's telling me I'm going to be there at like 854, which was kind of a lie, because it was saying 8.55, but I just felt like I didn't want her to be unduly stressed, and she said, okay, well, thanks for, first of all, she paused for kind of a long time. I wanted her to say, oh, no sweat, 8.54, oh, great, you know what, you're not even on until 9.20 or something. No, I was the first guest up. She paused a little bit, which made me think, oh, that's a stressful time to hear for her, so then I say, okay, well, I go, I'm just going to come right in and i can throw a mic on me i'll be ready to go she goes okay so then i hang up and then i'm just sitting in traffic and now it goes up to nine o'clock now it goes up to 901 it's 902 it is now i'm going to be arriving two to three minutes into the interview and i'm starting to come i'm really starting to freak out also i have gg in the car with me Gigi would not for some reason Go to the bathroom But she would not do a number two On our walk this morning So now she's in the car And I'm stressed about this She has to go because she's also ripping ass Which is telling me That she needs to go to the bathroom Like in that way She's such a dainty lady I know And by the way I hope she doesn't hear this Because she would be mortified It's very off brand for her Yeah. But so I'm sitting stuck in traffic. I'm now like seeing that it's it's telling me I'm going to arrive later than the time that I'm supposed to be. Forget just running in and jumping on set. It's like I'm now we're in a real crisis moment and I don't really know what they're I'm like, do they just keep around some tape to run in case of emergency?

You know, they've got to have something they can they can play. But it's like chef in the back who can come out and just like cook something up. But real question for you, and this doesn't really matter that much, but I'm just curious. So you're telling us updates on what the estimated time of arrival is. What time is it right now? Is it like 10 minutes to 9, and you're seeing arrival is 9.03?

It's like 8.

No. It's like literally an hour?

Oh, there was a period of time where I was 15 miles from the destination and one hour from the destination. Oh, wow. yeah that's what was insane i kept double checking like did i put in a different television station that's in medford like it was i couldn't understand what was going on because i was like it's i'm not that many other than the fact that there's a river that is going in between the state that i'm in and the state

that I need to be in literally and figuratively. I couldn't figure it out because I was geographically close to the thing, but it was going to take so much time.

And I did forget how far you are away from it. So this is a bit of a morning road trip for you anyway, which was something that I was sort of forgetting about.

It should take about 45 minutes. And I got into the car probably an hour and a half before. Wow, okay. So basically double the time that I normally would. And that's just because this is what Waze was telling me to do. and i'm down there i'm like practice i mean like now i'm in like vancouver washington so i'm again i'm fit i'm i'm 15 miles if that from the tv station and i'm an hour from being there based on what ways is telling me and now it's saying 902 and and i'm like shit like i i'm i'm like composing a voice to text telling the producer like i just you're gonna have to try to move some things around because i'm not gonna physically i'm not gonna be there until probably and and it's and it's getting worse like i don't know is it gonna be 9 30 like by the time this is done is it going to be telling me my arrival time is 9 30 is my arrival time going

to be 10 at least though the the one upshot here with your kind of clarification there about how much time is actually left on the real clock if i'm a producer and i've never worked in tv before as you know but if i'm a producer at least getting notifications from you saying hey i'm probably going to be late but you're giving those notifications an hour early at least it gives you an hour to scramble around call your b guest get your b segment guests see if they can come in early or bees um you know what i mean it gives you and yes and your move here to contact them well in advance that's something that i do a lot maybe even to an annoying degree when i'm running late for somewhere honestly for me it's often w or when i'm going out to kuow you and i get done with a show on a thursday and then i'll tell them like i think i'm gonna make it there by 12 30 but i try to let them know as soon as possible so that people kind of know what the score is as soon as

possible and then maybe i was a hundred percent doing that yeah my radio producer brain was in overdrive i was like thinking could i be on the phone and could they just like put up a static shot of me and could we make it a joke yeah like i'm like trying to produce my way out of this in my mind like so yeah i wanted them to have as much heads up as possible and so i'm starting to compose this but then the other thing is if by some miracle i am going to make it i don't want them to reorder their entire show basically throw the whole thing out and then i actually get there by nine right so I'm trying to I'm trying to figure out the right amount of panic to create for them and so I'm I'm doing this voice to text thing this long thing that's saying it's telling me now that it's and I'm also just at this moment like kind of disappointed in myself because it's like I'm supposed to be a professional how am I showing up late to this thing but also I left my house at a time that the phone told me I would be there on time I didn't it wasn't like I left the house knowing that i was late i was i was using this as a reference point and it was telling me if you leave now you'll be there at 8 40 and then it lied to me essentially like it was was changing its mind and so i but i also felt bad like i'm hanging these folks out to dry they're doing me a favor they're letting us come on the show to talk about how we need to raise money so right as i'm composing this long message saying like i don't know what's going on but you're going to have to rearrange things or whatever ways start spinning again and it just goes we found a new

route told you you're gonna ford the river yeah exactly distant terry yes exactly we found a new route good news is you can ford the river well you'll travel later because two of your children

just died of consumption but the good news is the the wagon will make faster time yes and you did not break an axle that's the important thing that's um and it's i mean i still have to slog through this traffic to get across the bridge to get to the to get to the oregon side of things but it has now somehow magically found some like side street back road situation that now has me back on track to get there at 8 54 which is doable and so i'm i'm racing to get there now i get i get across the bridge and now i'm on also there was there was a i really need to work on this because i don't like this about myself but there was when we when i got onto the actual bridge that goes from washington to oregon this i-5 bridge there was a car a disabled vehicle but this had not been listed in the literature this was not on ways it wasn't telling me hey there's a pulled over there's a car up ahead that's pulled over but there was a car that was broken down on this bridge the worst place you can break down there's no shoulder there's no shoulder it's taking up a lane it's taking up a lane and like and then immediately after that the traffic frees up okay now here's the thing it's thursday morning traffic it's gonna get bad again when i get down into portland but there was this moment where i started to think was all of that traffic that i just sat in because of this disabled vehicle and then i became so mad at the life choices of the Thank you. person whose vehicle was disabled that they didn't just have their shit together they weren't taking their car in for their 3 000 mile maintenance look i know this is not a good look for me like i've had many cars break down in many inopportune places you have had a car break down sure not once but twice on like what the verrazano bridge or something washington bridge george washington bridge that was a nightmare like that's not like i if anything i need to find empathy for that person. They're having the worst morning they've had in a long time. That's how I need to respond to that. Not like you did that to me. You, you're part of why I'm now stressed about getting to this silly TV appearance, you know, but that was a thought that I had in my head. But so I, I make it to the, um, I'm amazingly, I make it to the TV station, but now I've got a dog that I think needs to go to the bathroom. So what I really should be doing is running into the TV station, But instead, I'm walking around the block of the TV station with the dog trying to find somewhere grassy where she'll deign to do her business. And she never did. So I don't she still hasn't to this point. I don't know what's going on with her, but she's now had ample opportunity because here is the thing. I presented her with many places that she could have gone to the bathroom and she chose not to. So that tells me I guess it wasn't as urgent as I thought it was.

I don't have a dog, as you know, and so I hate to sound like I know what I'm talking about here. You don't have a dog on this flight? No. She was probably stress farting, though. That's something that poodles do.

Uh-huh. She probably sensed the stress radiating off of me. Yes. And then was just empathizing.

She is sort of a support dog.

I did bring her on set, by the way, which was basically told the hosts. I was like, if this radio thing, if we can't raise this money, I'm going to try dog sitting as a backup job.

Were they nervous at first about bringing a dog on set?

No, they were surprisingly chill about it. I thought I was going to have to talk everybody into it. The guy that puts the mic on me, like the kind of the, who, Gelman from, I know you weren't a big Regis and Kathie Lee guy, but there was a guy named Gelman who was kind of a character on the show. He was the director of the show. We had a headset on, but he also was a character, so you know what I mean?

Yeah, I know what you're talking about. I think I remember that name from you.

The Gelman came in, and he goes like, oh, you got a dog. Are you bringing the dog onto the set? And I was like, if I can, he was like, sure. And so, like.

So, and what about your yo-yos? Were you getting your yo-yos ready ahead of time, or were they waiting for you on the set?

I wasn't doing yo-yos this time. I was doing chop. I was doing chop and steel. Oh, okay, good. So, like, sometimes you have to let life.

You bounce off of you, and that's literally what we're doing.

I brought these baskets that I was going to crush really, really fast. Anyway, all is well that ends well, but that's why I'm here in Portland at Becca's Place, because i came directly here from the television appearance um and um yeah it all it all ended up working out everything was fine now my question to you sir is is everything fine for you because let me just give the quickest setup if i can for the listeners and then i'll hand it off to you because this enters a world that i know nothing about we have put together this greatest hits tbtl vinyl album which i'm so excited about you have just done a ton of work on this andrew on the production side as has John Sklaroff on the whole like you know getting the actual vinyl figured out who's going to press it all of that stuff there's been a lot of technical stuff to this that I have

not been privy to um and we should say this is a gift for folks who donated in the last TB Telephone yes the one worry I have here is it's almost like we're promoting this more after the fact and it's not really available to anybody but the folks who already donated at that level so I feel sort of even bringing this up on the show but for those folks who did donate at that level they are well into the works now and we're getting close and i think we might and i don't want to put john on the spot here but if everything goes according to plan we might be shipping them out maybe mid to late december now but things are definitely moving on them and there's one other element of it which

is um i think if folks care to like if they maybe they get the record but they don't have a record player or something, they can do a digital download of this so they can still hear what's on the record. Um, but you don't have to even have a record player. And so John sent us a little note saying, Hey, do you want to test this out and make sure it works? And you and I each had sort of like login, you know, codes because that's what we'll do is we'll send people a code so they can get the digital download. I plugged my code in and I got the record. And then I also got the individual tracks and that to me seemed fine and dandy and i said no problem or it worked for me great you know moving on and and then over the course of the next 24 hours there was a kind of a flurry of activity between you and john what has been going on with this so i just had a couple of

notes about the download thing so i want to give a little bit even more background for folks who are familiar or i guess more importantly unfamiliar with this concept this is something that i feel like when vinyl records kind of made one of its comebacks, I sort of. feel like the trend kind of comes and goes over the years and i feel like kind of in the maybe mid 2000s i i think of this because i think of my best coast record that i bought recently it had one of those cards and it was around that era of the best coast debut album era so i'm thinking like kind of mid 2000s or whatever um you would get you would get this vinyl but you might still want to be able to download it literally onto your like ipod you know what i mean this isn't streaming this is like you want to download the digital tracks as well so you can listen to the album on the go and that was kind of common there for a while and this one particular brand that you could partner with was called drop cards so let's say you're best coast i've always wanted to be best coast let's say that you're best coast and you you uh partner up with like you know uh somebody to press your records and then you partner up with somebody to kind of create these digital download cards that you can literally slide inside with the record right and so um we when we were first talking about this you me and john said like how are we kind of forgot about this old technology we're like how will listeners be able to listen to this if they donate because they want to support the show but they don't actually have a record player they want something that they can hold or maybe put on their mantle with this vinyl but they don't actually have a record player i'm sure that there's more than one person in our audience who maybe made that made that decision and so we were talking about that and then the company that we're partnered with the the record pressing company is called Pirates Press and I'm saying their name because they have been amazing to work with like John and I don't really know what we're doing this is our first record we actually Luke one thing that I thought was really cool was pressing this record we had to come up with like a catalog number so this is record number tbtl 001 and I gotta say I was not tempted to make more records until we came up with TBTL 001, because now I really want to make 002. There's something that I'm being compelled to make more of these things, this idea that TBTL has a vinyl catalog number. But anyway, we were talking about, well, how can people listen to this if they don't have a record player? And John came back and said, hey, Pirates Press, they actually offer, I think for maybe a little bit more money, they offer to create one of these cards. And one of them will go into each record. And it's like it's kind of password. Everybody gets an individual randomized code. So in other words, it's not like, hey, you can just post this and everybody can share it. Not that we're super worried about people pirating this digital content. You know what I mean? And, like, we want everybody to be able to enjoy it, and we're not trying to—you know, Luke, to put it frankly, I was gatekept one time, and I didn't like it at all. Uh-huh, you didn't like it. So we're not trying to gatekeep other people from— Nah, fam. Nah, fam.

But anyway, I guess— The cheat code? I only eat at places that look like an orange theory. I kept seeing orange theories in Cleveland, and I kept thinking, oh, I wonder if they have good tacos. Anyway, I'm repeating myself here. I lost myself. But anyway, point is, John says, oh, Pirates Press says they can put those drop cards into each record. That way people can download and listen to the tracks. And so we're like, that's fine. So that is what John sent us a couple of samples of, like an individual code for me, an individual code for you. You click this link, you punch in your code, and does it work? And like you said, I assume that you did it on your computer and it worked well for you. I tried it first on my phone just because I feel like a lot of people are listening to things on the go these days. And there was no real mobile site for it, so it was really janky via phone and kind of not really workable via phone. But I kind of figured that's fine, and then I tried it on a laptop, and it mostly worked okay. I had a couple of tweaks. I'm like, let's not have the artist be our names. Let's have the artist be TBTL because, you know, just like small things like that. But one thing that I definitely did not like was when you punch in your code, you automatically get a screen that says the artist has requested your email address. And so you have to put your email address in in order to download the tracks. Now, the thing is, below that, very small, in very small print, and in parentheses for some reason, it says, no thanks. And you can opt out of giving your email address. But it's not super obvious. And it irritated me. And it was one of those things where in the moment it felt wrong. And then the more I thought about it last night, it felt more and more wrong. We are the artists. I never get to say that, Luke, but I'm an artist here. We are the artists. And we did not request anybody's email addresses. and the more I start thinking about it we're sending this to our listeners listeners who have gone out of their way to voluntarily donate to a show they could get for free listeners whom we are very protective of one of the reasons we lost we left American Public Media was because we just We wanted to make sure that everything just stayed in-house with us and our listeners and that nobody got in between that relationship and potentially mishandled that relationship, right? It's always been very important.

We didn't need anyone calling our listeners, asking them to put TBTL in their estate plans.

Exactly. That was a part of it.

Literally, I think, a thing we were trying to stall.

Literally, you know, having conversations of people saying, hey, you have some really, really generous listeners. They could be more generous. And then, you know, how about we respect what the relationship that we have with them now? And anyway, so I don't know how much we've gotten into that in the past, but that was one of the reasons we did leave, because we're very protective of our listeners and our relationship. And I hope the listeners appreciate that for whatever it's worth. And I start thinking about this more and more. And I tell Genevieve, I'm like, so our listeners, who already have given us money for this record and to support us, are going to get this little card and it's going to say, the artist wants your email address. But we're not getting that email address. We already have it. Like, you supported us. Yeah, good point. Who's getting this email address?

Teca.

Who at Teca? It's a chair company reference. But that's why I said I'm going full chair company. For people who don't know, essentially the plot of that very weird show on HBO is a man gets obsessed with trying to reach customer service for a chair company for reasons that you'll figure out if you watch it. And he gets very, very obsessive about it. And the name of one of the parent companies is Tekka. And Genevieve said, yeah, you got to call Tekka. And I'm like, okay, we got to, this is wrong. Like the more I think about it, where, who's collecting these email addresses? Why are they saying it's our choice to collect these email addresses when it's not? We're not seeing this. Where are they going? I just really started to irritate me. Even though you could opt out of it, I started thinking, you know what we could do is we could put a letter along with the records when we send them out that say, if you try using the digital download card, it will ask you for your email address. That is not necessary. Just hit no thanks. I wanted to maybe let listeners know. I thought maybe we could talk about this on the show. And this is where I got real Tim Robinson. I said, well, what happens if we just Google drop card? Who is this company? Because I want to make something very clear that I don't think I've made clear. It's not Pirates Press that is collecting this information. Pirates Press has been an amazing company to work with. They're just partnered with this company called Drop Cards. And another thing that I noticed was even though John had already said to Pirates Press, yeah, we want this digital download option, two days ago we got a note from our contact at Pirates Press that said, do you guys really want this digital download option? Like everybody else just puts it on Spotify or YouTube. You could even monetize your tracks that way. You know, and we're not looking to monetize our tracks. And we're just like, no, no, we like this card idea. And at the time, I didn't really realize kind of how antiquated it was or it would seem to Pirates Press. But I do think that that was my first indication that maybe we're just playing an old man's game here. They're like, do you really want this? We're like, yeah, we want this. So then John reaches out to Pirates Press, like, what's with this email thing? And they're like, we can't change that. It's not our company. It's just it is what it is. And then last night at some point, I look up drop cards. I'm like, maybe they have contact information. And so I'm clicking around like Tim Robinson. And I mean, it's exactly like the TV show. I scroll to the bottom and I'm surprised they actually have a phone number and they have an email address and they also have that sort of automated like kind of, you know, kind of help FAQ sheet you can go to or something. But I'm like, there's actually a phone number. So I call last night, but it's after hours and it's like, you know, there's nobody to take your call. You can leave a general message or we can, you know, get into our phone tree if you know the extension of the person you're trying to reach. And I'm already like, I don't know who I'm trying to reach. And I already know if I reach anybody, they're not going to help me. Like, they're just not going to know what I'm talking about, whatever. The other thing I noticed when I called this company was the phone number leads to a company and drop cards is not listed first. I can't remember what the name of the company is, but it's like you've reached such and such and home of drop cards or something along those lines.

Seeming like drop cards are definitely sort of a second thought at this point, right? So I don't leave a message last night. And then this morning, I got another note from John kind of responding to my critique on this thing. And he's like, yeah, it just kind of is what it is. I'm like, yeah. But then I'm like, I'm going to call them again before the show. And I'm like, I know this isn't going to do anything but probably ramp me up even more. Like, I'm going to probably get on the line with somebody who definitely doesn't care. Maybe they're at a call center. They're not even going to know what I'm talking about or what my complaint is. I'm never going to hear back from anybody. Well, I will say this. for better or for worse and maybe in this case both it was not like that at all i feel like i might have talked to somebody who runs the company because i have a feeling this is a very small company and i'm mad that i never got his name when i call the number they're like uh you know press one for customer service i'm like all right customer service fine so i hit one and

Thank you.

pretty quickly somebody picks up and they're just like hello or maybe they say the name of the company again that is not drop cards and i'm i'm expect i pause i'm waiting for them to say how can i help you this phone call is being recorded for insurance what did they say this call is being recorded for quality assurance or something but there's none of that it's like i've just reached a dude and he's like hello and i'm like yeah and then there's nothing more i'm like can you hear me he's like yeah yeah what's up and i'm like oh uh i am an artist who is pairing up with a vinyl pressing company and we're going to be using drop cards so that people can get the digital download of this i don't identify myself ever in this and he doesn't either and we're going but there is a screen that you have to click through that says the artist requests your email address and we're the artists and we definitely don't request that so i'm wondering where that email where those emails are being collected and how we can get around that screen how we can skip that screen it's like oh man no no no no no like we haven't like we're we're not even doing drop cards anymore like this is just a legacy we're here for support for our old customers you must have teamed up with like somebody who used us in the past we'll keep the you know we'll keep the customer support going but we are i'm gonna be frank with you we're not doing any updates you can't change this screen there's nothing we can do for you and i'm like okay i understand that but let's answer the question why does it lie i think i used the word lie or something along the lines of being dishonest i said well why is it why does it untruthfully say that the artist is requesting this and where is that information going we don't want to ask our listeners to submit and you know their personal information for you know for something that we don't know where that's going and it says that we're asking for it and we're not. And he kind of just repeats. He's like, listen, man, you can – he literally said at one point, listen, man, you can use us or you can't or you don't have to. We're just not making any changes to this thing. Honestly, we're just here to support it. We did this like 15 years ago. We're not really in that business anymore.

I have to say too, by the way, when I clicked on this stuff, I did think, boy, this looks pretty antiquated.

Yes, and that is what I'm realizing.

of everything of that little like speaker and stuff i was i mean i felt like who cares but it definitely feels like space jam 91 yes i almost i mean i'm glad i didn't do this i almost asked

john like can we replace that little icon of a speaker that literally looks like a windows 95 turn up the volume icon um with our album artwork i'm glad i didn't get into that because clearly like and now i'm starting to understand why pirates press was like you guys sure you still want to do this like basically nobody does this anymore and that's why it wasn't optimized for mobile right why it basically didn't work on my phone because in what who wouldn't want this optimized for your phone if you're talking about like downloading something and listening to it on the go you know so yeah anyway but i was really shocked by the tone of this fella and again it almost felt like maybe he's the guy who founded this way back in the day and maybe it just rang through to his cell phone or something although it was a clean line which is very important to me And I was just sort of shocked, but I just said again, yes, but where is this information going? I said, where are these emails going? We don't want our listeners just like giving their personal information up for some third party. Are you using it for marketing? Are you collecting? He's like, no, man, it's just all going in your dashboard. I mean, we collect it so that it goes in your dashboard so that you can collect all the emails. And I'm like, this is the first I'm hearing of any kind of dashboard. But now it's sort of like, and I said, all I want you to tell me is, can you say that nobody else is receiving these emails? This isn't for marketing. You're not collecting them. He's like, we're only collecting them for you and your dashboard. And then it was one of those weird things where, and I get into this with customer service sometimes, I want them to say goodbye. I don't want to say thank you. What they're waiting for me to do is say thank you and goodbye, but I am not satisfied with this conversation. So I'm trying so hard not to use the word thank you. But I basically got what I wanted, which was an understanding of why everybody is so weird about this, which is it's just old technology and they don't give a shit about it anymore. And I do trust that this he wasn't lying to me about some third part. Like, you know, if they're collecting this and then selling the email addresses of our listeners to some third party marketing company, like I know we're all used to that now. but it felt really shitty for me to be participating in that to our tbtl audience again i'm just very weird about these things so i got assurance from him that it's only going to some dashboard that i don't have access to and that is why it says the artist requests it and so at least it makes sense i that's the thing that pissed me off the most if you don't mind me using that um crude word let's earn that explicit rating exactly like why would it say the artist has requested this if it was some marketing. thing and we don't ever even see those email addresses but i guess it does make sense back in the day it was a way for artists to probably get information so they could do direct marketing to their listeners hey you liked our first album we're coming out with an ep you know what i mean and that doesn't seem quite as pernicious to me so anyway that that is what my morning was like but that and eventually i think i just ended the conversation by saying i've received i said i got

the information i need thank you and i do think i said thank you and i hung up but um but that was But, man, it was the opposite of some detached person at a call center. It was some dude who was just like, dude, don't use us if you don't want this. We're not changing the system for you. And it was a little bit shocking to be talked to in that way.

Well, a couple of things. One, obviously what we need to do is put an additional card in that explains what's going on with the other card. We need to put something in the packaging that explains what you just explained.

Yeah, and it doesn't have to say that much. It says, you'll be asked for your email address. You don't need to do that. Just opt out. Last night, I was having fantasies of putting a letter in there that says, we don't agree with this policy. Here is the phone number for the people that drop cards if you would like to reach out.

What about this? What about a letter? What about a new card that has a link to this episode? So they can listen to this and they can get the full explanation of how much we don't, we're not trying to harvest their email address. So one card is a link to this.

I could isolate just this part of the show, just this conversation, and just throw it up on Dropbox or SoundCloud or something like that and just link to the SoundCloud. For more information, listen to this episode from November 13th where Andrew is breathlessly explaining his fight with Tecca Industries.

Well, that's the thing, too. And we should – you know what we should do? Maybe we thank some donors and then we can start talking Tecca because really I do think the timing of this is so funny because you and I are very much living in this world of this HBO show, The Chair Company, and then you're having an experience that is so similar. I mean, you know, the stakes are a little bit lower. There's nobody hiding in a closet in your house that we know of. That we know of. But just this idea of, like, you made a call, and, like, instead of it being the thing that we're all used to in this day and age, which is your call gets either an AI assistant tries to pick it up or you just get some phone tree that's impenetrable. This is the opposite. that you just got the guy at his house who worked for Tekka for two weeks and they made him work naked. Like, you know what I mean? Like, this is so similar to something that would be happening on this show that you and I are so obsessed with right now. It's really weird timing.

Oh, no. She's gorgeous!

All right, let's thank some donors. Some of these people may be receiving not only a vinyl album, but a code to listen to the audio and also a request for their email address.

The irony is if I roll to the right On this spreadsheet I'm using I have their email addresses I'm not going to give them out I'm not going to give them out right now

Yes, we've got the email addresses And most importantly we've got the donations From these people That's how this is a job for three people You, me, John Sklaroff It's thanks to folks like Sidney Goldberg In Tacoma, Washington

Hey, thank you Sidney

And keeping it down in Tacoma Town How about we thank Matt Estrada who's also there in Tacoma

look at you like jazz Luke your trip to the

improvising, jumping around the list, I'm trying to find connections between the donors thank you Sydney and thank you Matt, thanks also to Don Bly who's in Seattle, Washington you know where that is, that's right in between Tacoma and Tacoma we have an Arlington on the list that was like oh man if that's Arlington, Washington we're set but it's in fact Arlington, Virginia that's where Michael Sean Gardell is Thank you Michael Thank you Michael Sean Thank you also to Harrison Beale Who's in Burke, Virginia Look at that, Arlington, Virginia And Burke, Virginia

And I don't know what's between those I do know that Beale rhymes with eel Because Harrison Put it in the pronouncer form Which I really appreciate

If I remember right, I had a nice, lovely conversation With Harrison and his wife Outside of the venue where we were all meeting up after the Philadelphia live show oh nice had a nice chat with Harrison and his wife so thank you Harrison for supporting the show thank you also to Matt and Michael Sean and Eileen and Dawn and Sidney

did we do a full Eileen thank you?

did I miss that? Eileen Gormley of Renton, Washington

I wasn't sure if we had

mention that Eileen lives in Renton and has the last name Gormley, but I could have been just blacked out. I think you're right.

Okay, starting tomorrow, Andrew, I'm going back to just reading the list in order. Because I tried to get creative. I tried to jazz it. I tried to be the king of the tuk-tuk sound. And I just ended up in a disaster where I almost forgot to thank Eileen Gormley in Renton, Washington.

That's the most jazzy thing in the world though, right? You kind of veer off and then you come back.

Are you the drummer or the bass player? You're keeping the rhythm going.

I like to think of myself as probably the bass player, probably.

Just keeping this whole thing going, keeping us in time, in rhythm, reminding me not to forget to thank Eileen Gormley. You're doing a very important job here in this band, sir, and I appreciate it.

The Charles Mingus of thanking the donors. That's what I've always said.

And that's what I've always thought, but I wasn't brave enough to say it. Thank you. But here I am for the first time, brave enough to start calling you Mingus. You know, Charles Mingus apparently was like very good friends with Annie Leibovitz. No way, really? Yeah, she's like a Mingus expert.

Oh my God, I didn't know that. I guess I would say if I had a favorite, and I don't know enough about jazz to really make statements like this, but if I did have a favorite jazz musician, it would probably be Mingus.

Are you ever tempted to name a cat Mingus? I feel like I've known at least one or two cats named Mingus in life.

No, but Charles would be a good name for a cat.

Okay.

Bubbles? Are you happy with Bubbles?

She's ignoring me now because I won't let her on the show, but whatever. There she is. All right, thank you to all of our donors. We couldn't do TBTL without you.

Hello, and welcome to Top Story.

All right, we've been kind of dancing around it already all morning by making hundreds of weird references to things like, oh, no, she's gorgeous. and teka and other such things these are all uh i guess you could say characters plot points or catchphrases from this tim robinson show the chair company which andrew you have now just become a

bonafide super fan of yeah it was interesting because you watched i think the first episode of the chair company before me and then i watched it on i can't remember what kind of mental struggles i was having that night but i remember it was kind of tied into oh i know it was a night where I had some real issues with the folks who we were dog-sitting for. Oh, sure. And I was sort of in kind of a quasi-beating-myself-up mode, sort of, and then to see this show based on a Tim Robinson character where he's both being kind of obnoxious and being very self-righteous, but then also beating himself up for, like, embarrassing himself. It was just like, it was an emotional stew that I wasn't ready for, especially thinking, like, is this just going to be kind of like, not a lot of people, I mean, I don't know that everybody agrees with this, so I'm not trying to state it as a fact, but that was sort of my issue with the movie Friendship, which he was in, which was like a long, extended, I think you should leave sketch, where motivations didn't really line up for me, and he was just a very, very difficult person to watch on screen for 90 minutes or whatever it was. But I ended up finishing that first episode of The Chair Company, and they sort of introduced the sort of driving principle of the plot near the end of episode one, and it's a mystery. And you're like, oh, okay, now I'm interested in episode two. So I watched episodes one and two, but somewhat like, I don't know, like too far apart or whatever, and I kind of started to lose the thread. So on this recent trip to Cleveland, I had a lot of time in the air, and I had airplane streaming, which is good enough to stream HBO now, Luke, which I was very happy to learn. And so I just rewatched episodes one and two. I binged three and four. And then episode five dropped while I was there. So I watched that on the airplane and then came home and watched it with Genevieve. So I've now watched every episode twice. And yeah, I'm pretty obsessed with it. Like, I wouldn't say it's for everybody, but it's for me.

it's definitely now that i'm caught up it's getting you said this to me i think off air the other day that it's it feels a little bit like elements of the tim and eric awesome show how that with the casting like they had this ability to go out and find people who are very quirky a lot of them not you know necessarily trained actors or maybe people who were trying to be actors but hadn't found a ton of success and um in fact even like his the the not i guess you could say his sidekick right that i forget the guy's name but the person that tim uh robinson's character ends up kind of hiring to help him solve this mystery of what's going on with this chair

company what's that guy's name i'm blanking on it right now uh is it ron maybe okay culturally no he's right tim robinson is ron right here i'll look up chair company i'm so bad with the names of

characters but this guy that's kind of his sidekick i was curious and this guy's in every episode because it's like the two of them trying to solve the mystery. It is Mike, by the way, Mike. And I was looking him up and he's, he has not been in like anything else that I've ever seen. You know, he is himself seems to me. And again, I want to be careful that I'm not sounding like I'm roasting the guy, but it strikes me that this might've been like one of the, this is like the first major thing he's really been in. He's been in a little kind of here and there bit parts, you know, maybe, but, um, that seems to be something that the producers of the show really like is like putting people who look a little unconventional and whose acting style, whose delivery style is kind of, unconventional i would say that this last episode i guess it's the fifth episode i enjoyed it it hit right up against it was like it was for me like an amount of unconventional kind of weirdness that i like i was enjoying it if it went one click more it would start to become for me less enjoyable

that's just my personal take like was this episode five in particular or just the whole run so far

five because i feel like it's ramping up i feel like it starts off i'm just laughing thinking about jim downey's character's situation with his wheelchair yes his character has reached its peak

that's what i told you all there i was like episode five for me it's funny we look at it somewhat differently for me i feel like episodes one one and two i was like do i like it i think i do three and four get in some backstory they even do flashbacks to kind of get you up to speed and then for me episode five you're back in the present day and for me the the show just really hit its stride with episode five like the weirdness is really weird but also it doesn't seem totally random like most of the things that happen like they're going to come up in the plot in some way again without creating a spoiler but tim robinson is forced to do something at gunpoint in a closet, if you'll recall, that involves, let's say, kissing. And I have a feeling that's not just going to be a random weirdness. I have a feeling that's going to come back. I trust, I kind of trust the show right now. Let's see if they continue to earn my trust.

Yeah, that was, I think, when they're in the bar and he's got this, like, there's just one character that he's been looking for that's in the bar, and that guy's, I found that guy really funny, and I liked his delivery. He's kind of very untraditional line delivery. yeah but then he gets into it tim robinson's character gets into it with another person in the bar who's got a very distinctive head shape and then he's again none of this is spoiling anything he's he stumbles into a room in an in a the basement of an apartment building where a guy is trying to have an affair and it's like there was a kind of like a boom like a like a rat-a-tat of like extreme extreme quirkiness that again i was there for it i was writing it For me, as long as that's the most quirkiness we'll have compacted into 15 minutes of the show, I'm into it. I had the tiniest bit of fear that it was maybe going to go off the rails for me, but they got it back together. They pulled it together in time, so I'm still very much interested in the show and very excited to see the next episode. How do you feel about shows like this where they drop it on the weekly instead of—because the other one I'm watching, Pluribus, I think all the episodes are out.

No, no, Pluribus comes out on Fridays.

Oh, it's also, I guess I just got to it late enough that it seemed like it had enough episodes.

Are there, what, are there three Pluribus episodes? No, I think episode three drops on Friday, and I think...

Oh, so I'm caught up on that, too.

Yeah, if you've watched episodes one and two, you and I are both caught up on that, and I think that I could be wrong about this, because I saw so much... I mean, everybody on Blue Sky, I just remember Mina Kimes, I think, was the first person who was like, if you're not watching Pluribus, oh my God, what a perfect opening salvo for a show. I'm not sure if they dropped episodes one and two simultaneously sometimes they'll do that drop the first two get you hooked and then dribble them out weekly generally speaking i you know this comes up from time to time i think i like it because it it honestly not just for podcasts but real conversations as well like it's nice to have everybody on the same page like i think of white lotus very much was like that white lotus kind of maybe i took it a little less seriously it was just more of a soap opera but it was fun to have those conversations in between episodes where everybody is speculating and talking and peeking out together. And also, no joke, for TBTL, I love that you and I are on the same page with both of these shows now, and we're both waiting for the next ones to drop.

I can't exactly decide how I feel about Pluribus, if I'm being honest. I love Vince Gilligan's work, although, believe it or not, I haven't watched Better Call Saul, which is, I know, insane, because that's such a beloved show, and I really liked Breaking Bad. Um, but I really like Vince Gilligan's work. I really trust him. Speaking of like, you know, trusting the filmmaker, the TV maker, um, and everything I read about Pluribus had me really intrigued about it. And I don't know. I mean, I'm going to keep watching it. Definitely. I'm not turned off to it, but I don't know. I feel like it, it feels to me like, sorry, Bubbles is, um, registering.

her displeasure with my tepid uh review of pluribus so just for folks that how much can we say about pluribus without we're not are we spoiling it if we try to describe the broad

strokes of the show you know i don't know i um you know i know i'm super annoying about this but i remember my i i had mentioned pluribus to my dad he's like oh yeah somebody else mentioned that too neither one of us had seen it at this point and he said the next day oh i was reading about it do you know the general scope of what it is and i said i don't want to know he's like he's like I haven't seen it I'm just going to tell you what it's about I'm like I don't know I don't want to know and so I and I've heard from some other listeners about other conversations that we have about things I do think there are people who are just like I want to go into this without any knowledge here's what I knew going into it I knew that it was a sci-fi show so it was going to be a different genre than what we knew from Vince Gilligan but I will tell you this and I was almost nervous to tell Genevieve this because I was ahead of her on this as well I I watched the episode one of Pluribus on the plane on the way home the other night, and it was like pitch black in the plane. It was like, I don't know, 10, 30, 11 o'clock at night. And when I hear sci-fi, I just expect it to be like, I don't know, sci-fi nerdery. And I mean that in a good way. I like sci-fi. I didn't realize it was going to freak my shit out, which is what happened to me. Luke, at one point, and maybe I was just feeling those emotions because I was up in the sky.

I bet you were, yeah, being on a plane.

At one point, I raised my arm up and the hair was standing straight up, like just like creepy, kind of scary, but most creepy factor. And then I came home and I watched it with Genevieve either that night or maybe I think the next night. And she was like, oh, it's funny that you're so creeped out by this. I'm not creeped out. I think it's interesting and I think it's funny. There's like some comedy in it as well, the way it's portrayed and it's shot so beautifully. But that first episode really scared me. And then I think from your description of episode two, I think I'm on board with you. I'm like, let's see where this goes, because I loved episode one. I thought it was like perfect. It made me it is funny at times. It makes you laugh. It creeps you out if you're on an airplane at 11 o'clock at night.

It's also the kind of show where you could see an airplane falling out of the sky on the show. Yeah, right. The fact that you're on an airplane. Yes, exactly. It's just a layer.

It's so weird. But the way it lays out, like the way it slowly lays out what's happening, speaking of airplanes, there's just one incredible shot where you see, you know, those. If you say if you say contrail, is contrail a non-controversial word to describe? Yes, it is.

I think contrail is the technical term for condensation. OK. That's coming off of the, you know, the engines of the planes. And I think chemtrail is the.

Oh, chemtrail is. Chemtrail is the more loaded one. Yes. OK. So you see the contrails going across the sky, but all of them are straight lines. That's a great shot. And it just does this wonderful job of slowly revealing to you what's going on in the world through various perspectives like that, some very macro perspectives. And it's so amazing. And so episode one, I was just like, oh, yeah, I'll die for this show. And then episode two, again, I don't know how much we want to kind of get into it, but I sound like a broken record with this. when the main protagonist, Rhea Sehorne, who I just love from Better Call Saul.

I don't think I knew Rhea Sehorne before this. What else was she in?

Better Call Saul. She's one of the main in Better Call Saul. And I fell in love with her and her character in that show. It's amazing. And I think she does a really good job in this one. But anyway, she ends up connecting with some people who are in the same situation as her. and the absolute lack of concern from the other people is so unrealistic to me that that was a huge factor in me like the motivations of some people make sense and again I'm sorry that I'm talking around this I'm trying not to spoil it for people but for the people who have watched it because it's been out for a little bit now this episode and you've seen it Luke I motivation of characters is really important for me to believe something and the way some of these people are acting without any kind of acknowledgement of the fact that strange things are happening really took me out of it and now i am kind of where you are and i'm like well i'll watch episode three but they better start explaining some of this stuff a little bit better at least

yes i keep thinking i keep thinking of the thing that um i think george saunders once told me in interview which is that you know like storytelling is sort of juggling and it's relatively easy to put a bunch of balls up into the air but the real trick is catching them and i feel like we're a lot of balls are being put up into the air with this show and it's like it is really taking its time again now in episode two you're trying to get some some clarity about what the heck's actually going on but it's like it just feels like it's it i'm gonna keep trusting vince gilligan i'm gonna keep watching it but i'm i'm kind of like we'll see where this goes because i feel like they're building up a lot of stuff setting up a lot of stuff and i it's going to take some really expert ability to land it all and bring it all in in a way that seems you know to make sense to me and also i guess what i feel like too is that there's just this heavy metaphor for basically politics that lies over the entire thing yes like it just feels to me and i don't think i'm giving anything away by saying this it's like what if you made a sci-fi show that represented the feeling of being somebody who lives in trump's america and is the only person yeah you feel like you're the only person who gets how just absolutely unhinged

what's going on is that is exactly right luke and that is why that's why i think those and i never

get subtext that tells you how how much they're hitting you over the head with it this is my worst thing is figuring that stuff out and even i figured it out yeah no and that is clearly what's

going on with those characters like i said like they're if i say nonplussed here it's the way that everybody thinks it's used but i can't even use nonplussed anymore because it's so confusing But everybody's nonchalance about this situation while the main character is looking around like, what in the world? Why are you not seeing this the way I'm seeing it is such metaphor and heavy handed. And honestly, now this is going to make this conversation even more sprawling into a show that you haven't seen. But you told me that you dipped your little toesies into the TV show Peacemaker, which I accidentally referred to as a Marvel property on the show, which sent some people spinning in our listening audience. But obviously a part of the DC universe coming out of the – what was the movie that launched it now? I'm so in my head now because I know John Sklaroff is listening and just judging me. He just leaned in and he's like, what is he going to say? It's the one that's the Suicide Squad, right? The Suicide Squad. Thank you. I was just blanking on it. Anyway, and so I really liked that movie because it was like a – it's an action movie. It's a comic book movie, but it was done in this very beautiful cinema, you know, cinemagraphic way. I don't think that's the right form of that word I'm looking for. And it made me really like James Gunn, that being my first exposure to him, I think. And then I really liked the show that came out of it, Peacemaker. And you said you weren't quite into it. I don't know if you watched the first. Well, here's the problem.

I watched it with my dad and there was one scene. Oh, yeah. in the very first episode there was a scene, a sex scene that came kind of right out of the blue and was fairly graphic so I think that made me feel uncomfortable also I think I had listened to an interview that James Gunn did with Howard Stern and he said of all the things he's ever made, he thinks that Peacemaker is his favorite, and he's a very compelling guy, James Gunn is, like he's a great interview he sounds really smart and funny and so I went into that with like a really unrealistic expectation I should watch it again. I should, you know, wipe my, you know, wipe my memory on this and just watch it again, not with my dad there and just see if I like it. Because I was thinking I'm about to witness something that's like one of the greatest things that's ever been committed to celluloid.

Expectations can be rough, but also I also want to say that, you know, I'm trying to think the last time I felt so strongly about something that's a piece of art like this, that I would try to convince somebody that they're wrong about their opinion on it. You know what I mean? People like different things. I guess the last thing was about 15 years ago when I basically decided our friend Durst doesn't have good taste in TV because he didn't like the first season of The Wire. I was like, well, you're just wrong about that, which is not fair. Actually, Durst has great taste in TV, and I don't know how he feels about The Wire anymore or what mindset he was in when he watched it. But anyway, I really think that, like, it's OK if you don't like I don't think you're wrong, Luke, if you try Peacemaker again and you don't like it like it's it's comic booky. It's silly. You know, it uses music that you and I do not like. It's this whole thing is it's like it uses this hair metal music throughout. But that's why I like it is because I think good filmmakers can take that kind of music that you wouldn't usually like, but make you like it in the context of the show. They use it so well. And I think he's famous for that, I would guess. All of that is to say, season two of Peacemaker is now out. I assume it all dropped at once. I don't know. I was behind on it. I wanted to rewatch season one, and I'd never finished season one. So while I was binging television at my parents' house, after they went to bed, I did not watch Peacemaker with them. I finally watched the last two episodes of season one of Peacemaker. And you want to talk about heavy-handed allegory. it was specifically about our current situation and coming off of being pretty meh about how they handled the moment with the Superman movie as well I don't know if we talked about Superman and this is another James Gunn joint

yeah I think you did actually and it felt like it was

trying to be of the moment but it didn't meet the moment is what I've been telling people and I don't know if that makes sense but like it doesn't not everything has to be of the moment it could just Mm-hmm.

be its own artwork it could be its own movie that exists on its own but if you're going to try to make it of the moment you need to like like you were quoting Saunders you need to land it you need to you need to be able to land that plane and I it this the huge like kind of climactic scene in the last episode of season one of Peacemaker was so ham-fisted I was almost choking on it Like you want to talk about like Pluribus being a little bit like over the top with the heavy handedness of the messages trying to send. Oh, my God. And like that is the kind of stuff that has always been cringed to me when it's just kind of like we're teaching you a lesson. We want you to look around the world right now. I mean, they literally an alien uses the word you you elect your populist leaders. I'm like, oh, my Christ. like really you're just gonna like just say it all you're just gonna say and don't show and that is not the vibe of that show i really enjoyed everything up until that point until the last episode i was like oh my god this is rough i don't even know if i'm gonna watch season two now so anyway i just thought of that because then pluribus did it the pluribus didn't do it as bad as i would

say that last episode i'm just like i have to say i'm i'm i'm saying it's a little heavy-handed but honestly it's such a cool experience for me to actually pick up allegory to actually go oh this is the this is what they're really saying because again I have never I'm never able to do that so it's nice for me to get a W every once in a while but we

should let's you know let's continue it sounds like you and I are both going to watch episode three and so maybe we can come back and check in on it and I guess they drop on Fridays

there's a right way to rock and a wrong way to roll You can't just listen to your soul Just remember that life is number one You can be having so much fun Just remember that life is much fun You can be number one

Well, look at this, Luke. This isn't Blur's Day related, but I literally just got an email. from a listener, Jenny, that says, greetings from Somerville. Remember we were talking about Somerville yesterday, and I was talking about the Anna's Taqueria that's there. Anna's Taqueria is still going strong. However, the burger place that I was thinking back to, I couldn't think of the name of it, R.F. O'Sullivan's. It was next door to R.F. O'Sullivan's. It was a place called Wendy's. Do you hear they're closing a bunch of Wendy's? Bums me out. That's probably my favorite place.

You know they're closing a bunch of Red Robins.

No, I didn't know that.

I didn't know how many Red Robins there were. So I saw this story in the Tacoma News Tribune, and it said that they're closing 70 Red Robins, and I was like, well, that would be all of them, right? There's like 400 and something of them.

Yeah, you know, I think they have, where did I see? I saw one in Arizona. I wasn't sure, when I was in Arizona a couple of months ago, I wasn't sure how far their reach was, but they're at least there.

I think they must have done that thing where, because when I was growing up, I think there must have been like maybe 15 of them in the Northwest. Oh, really? And then I think probably what they did was they got a bunch of investment and did a giant expansion kind of a deal. And now they're having to eliminate some of those less profitable locations. But anyway.

Well, RFO Sullivan's is also closed. Yeah, this is a bummer. I'm looking at it now. I guess I've had my last RFO Sullivan's burger, but it's been 20 years. What was so good about the RFO Sullivan burger? It was unlike, and I don't think you would like it because it's a lot of meat, but it was a burger that was so thick it was almost a ball. Not quite spherical, but it was, and then they would, you could order, various burgers that they would infuse with a flavor like I think I would get I can't remember what it was I think they probably did have a teriyaki one but instead of just putting sauces on top I think you could get burgers that were kind of flavored in the way that they made them and uh oh I think I would get what I get the Chinatown burger I think so I would tell Genevieve forget about it anyway thank you for checking in there was a burger that I saw somebody making

online the other day that I thought oh if I'm gonna eat a burger that's the one I want and I I think it's a, I feel like it's definitely a southern thing, maybe an Oklahoma thing, but it's an onion burger. And I guess that the origin of it was basically a guy was during, I don't know if it was the Depression or whatever, a guy who owned a diner was trying to make the burgers go a little further. So you basically, you cut these onions up super duper duper thin. And then you've got your patty and it's kind of a combination of a smash burger. But then you cook the onions along with the patty in such a way that they kind of meld into it.

That sounds good.

I'm not doing a super great job explaining it, but man, when I saw this guy making this, I thought, oh yeah, I would eat that.

No, that sounds good.

Oh no, it's gorgeous.

I've never... And it's dangerously good. I know I've never made meatloaf before, although I don't know why. I feel like I would...

I feel like I've made homemade meatballs before. And it's kind of similar, right? You're kind of mixing meat up with other things. So anyway, Jenny, thanks for your support. Thanks for checking in from Somerville. But we are here to wish people some happy Blurs Days. Be careful, though. It's spicy. If you want to wish somebody a happy Blurs Day, you want to wish yourself a happy Blurs Day, you can email me, andrew at tbtl.net. Put Blurs Day in the subject line. We only have a few Blurs Day wishes today, Luke. We have this one from Lucian, who says, I'd like to wish my five, Rose Wynne, a happy, no, not just a happy, a very happy 11th birthday. She has grown literally and figuratively in the past year, and we're so proud of her. I'm learning the cat's eye dance this month so she can be proud of me. Next birthday, you'll be in middle school. Happy Blurs Day, Rose Wynne.

I'm sorry, Andrew, if you keep hearing talking in the background. There's a Bluetooth speaker. Are you hearing that? No, no. Okay, good. There's a Bluetooth speaker that is desperately searching for a connection, and it just keeps going, device ready to connect. And then it'll be like, no, device connected. And I'm like, okay, we get it. And then it'll just like, device ready to connect.

Luke? There's been something that I've been wanting to ask the listeners for a while, but I literally can't figure out how to bring it into the show because it's totally inappropriate as content. I just need some technical help with something. Okay. And I don't want to start it at the beginning of the show. And I sort of feel like here, we don't have very many Blur's Days today. And so for those of you who stick around for the Blur's Days and have technical minds, help me with something. It's not fun. There you go. That's the perfect drop for what I'm about to do, as a matter of fact.

I don't even know where that came from. I'm just working with what I have here on this web computer.

What is the drop of Kenan from SNL saying, are people interested in this? No.

Is this something people are interested in? No.

But this is such a mystery to me. So Genevieve got me this record player several years ago now for Christmas, I think. And I love the damn thing. And it's a Bluetooth record player as well. You could wire it to speakers. But I always connected it to my Bluetooth speaker that I had out in that room. And it worked beautifully. It worked fine. But the Bluetooth speaker I was using was a smaller one and one that I was using in a different room. So I was constantly shuttling it back and forth, back and forth, which I didn't want to do. So about two months ago, I went to Best Buy to pick up something else, and then I ended up just browsing the Bluetooth speakers, and I saw that Marshall speaker that you later told me that you have the same model as me.

I think mine is a little bit earlier than yours because I don't think I have all the same bells and whistles. Addie got it for me as a gift like probably three, four years ago, so I think yours is a more updated version.

Yeah, it's probably whatever they're selling now. I can't – it's called – I can't remember the actual model number, but it looks like a little mini Marshall amp, and it's got about, I think, four knobs on the top. You can control bass and treble, and they're actual knobs. They're not those new kind of buttons. I just don't like the modern buttons, whatever. I really like this thing, and it now sits in its permanent place in my little dart slash record area, record playing area, and it's always connected to either my record player or my phone. When I play, you know, when I'm listening to my phone through this Bluetooth speaker, no notes, it's perfect. When I listen to records through it, it's pretty good. It connects to my record player very easily. Everything's great, except periodically, and I don't know how often it happens, but let's say maybe once per side of a record, the Bluetooth just blitzes out for about two seconds. So you're listening to a record, and you're like, oh, this is good. I like this. I like this song. What do you think of when you're listening to music? Is that what you think? I like this song. This is good.

Yeah, my brain's usually going, do we like this song? I like this song. I like this song. Okay, keep playing. We like this song.

And then all of a sudden it just goes away for like two seconds for a dropout, and then it comes back. And it's not-

So it automatically reconnects.

It just drops out, and it doesn't make any of the bells or whistles sounds like it's disconnecting. You know what I mean? it doesn't seem like it's actually disconnecting it's just losing the signal for about two seconds and it's not like the record is still playing you know it's not technical like or mechanical I should say it's clearly something is interrupting but it does when I play the record player on other speakers it doesn't happen when I play other audio sources on my new speaker it doesn't happen it's only between these two devices Luke it's exactly like Smilex Gas The Joker put it in some products But not all products So you didn't know if you got deodorant and hairspray Maybe those two will combine to kill you With a smile on your face

It's like when you drop one M&M on the ground And then you put it in the Ziploc bag and send your son to school I was going to say, don't eat that one. So anyway, I assume you don't have any answers for me, but if anybody has ever come across, it's so frustrating.

It's possible that there's too much passion between the record player and the speaker and that it heats up, and then they have to take a step back. That is true. Because it's, you know, it's almost, it's like it's too sexually charged.

I do hose them both down every now and then. Yeah, that's a good. It's a little too roachy. Yeah. Thank you for letting me put that in the blur space. If anybody can help me with that, reach me at andrew at tbtl.net, where you also can send your Blur's Day wishes. We've got the fog. Karen says, wishing the blursiest of Blur's Days to my sweet cousin Melissa. She lives close, but we only seem to see each other at TBTL shows when they're in Seattle. Perhaps there should be more shows so I could see her more often. All right.

That's not a bad idea. I've been meaning to talk to you and John about that. We should probably do a show. We should probably get one of those on the books.

All right. Sounds good. Well, in the meantime, happy Blur's Day to Melissa. You're going to like this one, Luke. This says, hey, this is Maddie, Luke's eldest niece, sending out a Blur's Day to my little sister, Marion, who turned 17 this Tuesday. That is true. Hopefully mom hears this on Thursday's episode and makes you listen to it. I love you so much, Marion, and I hope you have an amazing day. I miss you tons, and I hope you have a blast celebrating with the family back home enjoy your last year of official childhood nerd love sissy

oh my goodness how great is that come on how great is that that is my adorable i hope she's okay with me saying that niece maddie who is in scotland that's right doing a study abroad program but taking the time to reach out to old unk to old uncle luke well really old uncle andrew to uh to celebrate Mary's birthday right here on this frequency. So, yeah, happy Blur's Day, Marion.

Yeah, I loved seeing that Blur's Day. Thanks for sending it in, and happy Blur's Day to Marion. Hope all is going well at the Fringe Festival, Matt. You still working on your one-woman show, I assume?

Yeah, she was going to call it Middle-Aged Reindeer. She was going to pee off of the success.

And I have the same exact—that's exactly what I was thinking of, Luke. And finally, a message here from Doug that says, happy birthday all the way across the country to my little brother, the freakishly large Aaron from your brother, Doug in Bothell for a lifetime. Happy Blur's Day, Aaron. I think you're perfectly large.

I was going to say, I hope that's some kind of inside joke between them and not.

Yeah. Doug even said same exact message as last year. So apparently we're locked in on this particular birthday message and it didn't estrange them last time. Gotcha.

All right. Well, happy Blur's Day, everybody. I think that's going to bring us to the end of today's program. But we are going to be right back here tomorrow with more Imaginary Radio. There's a couple of things I want to talk about with you tomorrow. One, the end of the penny. The last pennies ever have been minted.

I did not hear that.

You did not know this.

I literally did not know this.

The last pennies ever to be created were just minted in Philadelphia on Wednesday.

This is crazy. How did I not know this? God, I live under a rock.

So we'll talk about, we can talk about that tomorrow. And also some kids from New Jersey broke into an amusement park and stole like 2,000 of the stuffed animals. Oh, nice. And there's a detail about the story about the stuffed animals that I was quite shocked by this morning in the New York Times. So we'll try to talk about that stuff. That's a hell of a forward promotion. It's like we're, I'm promoting it 24 hours before we even do the show.

I'm interested in both of these.

What are the chances of us getting to the stories? I have a hard enough time when I promote the story in the episode we're actually doing, let alone 20. So much could have changed between now and the show tomorrow.

Well, I'm deeply interested. And I said, oh, nice, not because I'm a fan of thievery. But I just assume that anybody who steals 2,000 stuffed animals puts them all into a pool and then dives into them. So we'll find out tomorrow whether or not my instincts are right about that.

So everyone, please tune in for that. In the meantime, have a great Thursday, everybody. Take care of yourselves. And please remember, no mountain too tall.

And good luck to all. See, it's annoying when the music just goes out for two minutes, right? Power out.