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- [00:00]
Mark Ellis
Garagelogic isn't just another podcast. It's a trusted voice with a loyal audience. Every day, listeners tune in and pay attention to the businesses we feature. When you advertise with garagelogic, you're putting your brand in front of people who listen and act. We're number one in Anguilla and we'll make your business number one with G Ellers. Here's what one of our clients had to say.
- [00:21]
Pete Arnold
Hey, it's Pete Arnold from Hire it Pro. And I've used garagelogic to promote my business for years. And I have seen great results and new clients for my services from the GL audience. I recommend it to any business looking for new customers. Giles are pretty awesome. You just gotta ask for an introduction.
- [00:35]
Mark Ellis
You just heard how garagelogic delivers results for our advertising partners. Now it's your turn. Reach our engaged audience of g alers and grow your business by contacting account executive mark ellis@mark.ellisbi.com that's mark.ellisbi.com Put your message where it belongs, right in the ears of listeners who trust garagelogic.
- [01:01]
Shannon Maldonado
I'm Kiana and I leveled up my business with Shopify. Once I figured out that Shopify was a thing, I never turned back. I can create a site with my eyes closed. Shopify thinks ahead of us, you know, and it thinks about the customer more than anything. Every day I'm thinking about some other new business, but Shopify is doing it to me because it's so easy to use. It's like, I can't stop. I'm addicted. Start your free trial@shopify.com My name is Shannon Maldonado.
- [01:31]
Yaoi Founder
I'm the founder of Yaoi, a gift shop from the lens of artists and handmade objects. I chose Shopify because when I was testing other platforms, it was definitely one of the most user friendly. It was important to me to think about where we would be in the future. All of the tools for reading your sales, like planning inventory, they're just right there on your dashboard. For anyone starting a small business, the biggest thing I can tell you, it doesn't have to be perfect. Shopify can help you build upon it. Start your free trial on shopify.com.
- [02:07]
Mish Mishke
This show is dedicated to the jasmine in your mind. My name's Mish Mishke. Hoping you people are relaxed, feeling laid back and perhaps experiencing the jasmine in your mind.
- [02:29]
Listener (Aurelia or Angie)
Are you?
- [02:31]
Mish Mishke
I hope so. Well, it's summer. Hope you're doing nothing. I hope very little is getting accomplished and that you're simply just experiencing the
- [03:04]
Co-host or Sidekick
jasmine in your mind.
- [03:08]
Mish Mishke
I was driving to work and I. I experienced it briefly at a stoplight. I looked up at the blue sky and the white clouds drifting by, the dappled sunlight coming through the leaves into my car. And I felt a sense of peace and what clearly was jasmine in my mind. Now I know what Seals and Crofts were singing about in their hit Summer Breeze. I wondered for years, what the devil is that jasmine in their head all about? What's going on in there? You sure that's not a tumor? When I got to work, I listened to the song Summer Breeze by Seals and Crofts. And I realized how easily those lyrics could have been part of a country song. They're so simple. The song tells such a simple story of life with different chords. It so easily could have been a country tune. You know the song Summer Breeze by Seals and Crofts? See the curtain hanging in the window in the evening on a Friday night Little light a shining through the window Lets me know everything's all right yeah the guy's getting home from work, I guess I don't know what's going on, but he's pulling up out front and he sees the curtain hanging in the window. And I guess he's kind of getting off on that. I don't know why. I guess it's affected by the jasmine in his mind. But look at the lyrics from a country point of view, will you? Again, sorry to do this to you, but it's summertime and these sorts of things are on my mind. Look at the lyrics from a country point of view. See the curtains hanging in the window in the evening on a Friday night Little light shining through the window Lets me know everything's all right Got the summer breeze making me feel fine Just a blowing through the jasmine of my mind It's a little bit country and a little bit I'm on acid. See the paper lying on the sidewalk Little music from the house next door I walk on up to the doorstep through the screen and across the floor Got that summer breeze just make me feel fine Blowing through the jasmine in my mind I'm seeing colors I didn't even know existed Sweet days of summer the old jasmine's in bloom July's dressed up and she's playing her tune and
- [05:37]
Co-host or Sidekick
I come home from a hard day's work and she's waitin there not a care in the world See the smile waitin in the kitchen Food's a cookin
- [05:47]
Mish Mishke
and plates for two I feel the
- [05:49]
Co-host or Sidekick
arms reachin out to hold me in the evenin when the Day is through Got that summer breeze Making me feel fine Blowin all around and round the jasmine in my mind how did the jasmine get there? Jasmine's supposed to be growing outside in the garden. It's in my mind cause of the acid.
- [06:15]
Mish Mishke
I was struck by this song when I was a child. The simplicity of it, the picture it painted. I'd watch my pop come home from work with his briefcase, loosening his tie as he walked up to the front stoop. Walking inside, my mother running up to give him a hug, saying to him, would you like a Tom Collins? Why I sure would, honey. It would be a summer evening and the breeze would be blowing he'd pick up the paper Lyin on the sidewalk that would be your St. Paul dispatch. Little music playing from the house next door. Cause they had a young person next door who liked to play the music loud. It was interesting. What they liked a lot of Carly Simon. And then that was also when Jesus Christ Superstar came out. And that album was a big hit. So they were playing that often. I never knew what to make of that. Was it just the cool music or the religious part of it? I didn't know. Then one day I saw him getting stoned. And I thought, well, I don't know if they're into the religious part of it. When I was a kid, I used to think, not everyone has days like this where they come home, the papers lying on the sidewalk, they see the curtains in the window. They come in, have a Tom Collins, get a hug from their wife, Plates for two dad hanging up his tie drinking that first Tom Collins, putting the day behind him mom taking off her apron and joining him in other parts of town the song was different. It wasn't. See the smile waitin in the kitchen Food cookin and plates for two Feel the arms that reach out to hold me in the evening when the day is through no, it was. See the man revealing he's been drinkin' See the woman who's quite upset he went to happy hour what the hell was he thinkin'? She married him but now feels regret
- [08:14]
Co-host or Sidekick
Summer breeze no longer fine Blowin like
- [08:17]
Mish Mishke
a storm in his mind See the
- [08:20]
Co-host or Sidekick
frying pan thrown cross the kitchen See the wine glass broken on the floor See the man grabbed by his collar See the man throwing out the door Summer divorce Now you feel blue fella what did you go and do? Summer divorce the marriage is through Where'd all that jasmine disappear to? Where's the jasmine man?
- [08:49]
Mish Mishke
You ever ask that? On a summer evening when things aren't Going the way you had hoped.
- [08:54]
Co-host or Sidekick
Where's the jasmine?
- [08:57]
Mish Mishke
When life is supposed to be wonderful and instead you're having a hard, hard day. That's when you need to say out
- [09:03]
Co-host or Sidekick
loud to the universe where the jasmine go. We need more jasmine in the world.
- [09:10]
Mish Mishke
People blowing through our minds.
- [09:14]
Co-host or Sidekick
Honey, are we out of jasmine? Yes, we are, dear. Well then this summer evening sucks. No breeze tonight either. No, dear, it's very hot, very muggy, very still. And I want a divorce. What? My God. Wait a minute.
- [09:34]
Mish Mishke
Honey, let's play some seals and crops or something.
- [09:37]
Co-host or Sidekick
That record broke. I broke it. All we have now is Metallica.
- [09:43]
Mish Mishke
Uh oh.
- [09:47]
Jim or Wayne
Summer storm. From the day I was born.
- [09:52]
Mish Mishke
Flowing through the rebar in my brain.
- [09:57]
Jim or Wayne
Summer storm. My brain is worn. The jasmine has gone down the drain.
- [10:08]
Co-host or Sidekick
I'm certifiably insane. You took the jasmine. You took the jasmine.
- [10:19]
Jim or Wayne
You took the jasmine.
- [10:23]
Co-host or Sidekick
Jasmine.
- [10:26]
Mish Mishke
Alright, let's switch to the local newspaper. Picking up the newspaper. See the paper lying on the sidewalk. A little music from the house next door. I'm picking up that newspaper and I'm gonna read it. As a lot of you people know, newspapers have been shrinking and shrinking, and some have been folding altogether. And in my little hometown, the old capital city here in Minnesota, well, our newspaper has been dwindling down to little more than a shopper. It's tough to find good journalists these days, willing to work for a dime an hour or whatever they're paying people over at the St. Paul paper. But I want to let you know what journalism sounds like these days. This is from my good old hometown paper. Here's the. At Shoreview to go restaurant Luke's Soups, Chef Luke Healy serves up. You guessed it, soup. That's a headline. That's a headline from the paper. At Shoreview to go restaurant, Luke's Soups, Chef Luke Healy serves up. You guessed it, soup. What do you do after that? Do you say, well, I got to read that article. There's a Shore View restaurant called Luke Soups where they've just learned that the chef serves soup. I say, they just learned that there's a Shore View restaurant called Luke Soups where a chef serves. Yeah, you guessed it. How'd you guess that?
- [12:20]
Co-host or Sidekick
Soup.
- [12:24]
Mish Mishke
You see, folks, news would be At Shoreview restaurant Luke's Soups, Chef Luke serves up. Well, assault rifles. He sells assault rifles, not soup. Most people would expect him to sell soup.
- [12:44]
Co-host or Sidekick
Nope.
- [12:44]
Mish Mishke
Assault rifles. Then you go to the article. Here's the article. This is what you read if in fact your day is so mundane that this is what you want to do with it. Luke Healy makes soups, so his business. This is real people, and I can't read it without laughing. Luke Healy makes soups, so his business is called Luke's Soups. And that's as good an introduction to the man as any. That's the first line of that article. You didn't think a line could be any more inane than the headline? Then the quote from Luke, the next part of the story. It takes a lot of skill to make, he says. So I make a big batch, and, well, that's Luke's Soups in a nutshell. We've learned nothing, but we're going to learn something, because I ended up doing some research on soup for no other reason than to get that story from the paper out of my head and get something else into my head relating to soup. So I spent some time diving into the world of. Of soup. Did you know the word soup comes from the French soup and the Latin supa? And it traces back to a Germanic source related to sop, referring to dipping bread into liquid to soak it up or sop it up? So sop is related to the word soup and interestingly, also related to the word slope. Slop was originally a word referring to food of little value, something you might throw to your pigs. In farmyards across pre industrial Europe, kitchen scraps were poured into buckets, mixed with water, and fed to pigs, and that was called slop. I've always been intrigued by this line in John Mellencamp's song Pink Houses. There's a black man with a black cat living in a black neighborhood. He's got an interstate running through his front yard, Thinks he has it so good. There's a woman in the kitchen cleaning up the evening slop. So that poor family is eating what normally gets fed to pigs. And the man looks at his wife and says, darlin, I can remember when you could stop a clock. Those opening lines to pink houses always bothered me for multiple reasons. First of all, there's a black man with a black cat. Did he just throw in the black cat because he wanted two things that were black? Why does the black man have a black cat? I don't see a lot of black men in this world with black cats. I don't think black cats are big with black guys. Why did he have to throw that in? There's a black man with a black cat living in a black neighborhood. He's got an interstate running through his front yard, and, you know, he thinks he's got it so good. And then when we get to his wife, here's what bothers me here. There's a woman in the kitchen cleaning up the evening slop. And he looks at her and he says, darling, I can remember when you could stop a clock. Isn't that the same as looking at her and saying, God, you're uglier than you used to be? I mean, that's not a very nice thing to say. And she's cleaning up the slop. He's not doing anything. He's sitting there with a black cat. She's doing all the work. She fed him. She's cleaning up. And then he insults her. Boy, I remember when you were good looking. Ain't that America? Really? That's our country. Black guys with black cats insulting their wives, eating crap. Can I tell you more about John Mellencamp and lyrics of his that bother me? You know his song Cherry Bomb? What's the chorus? Holding hands meant something, Baby, outside the club Cherry bomb, our hearts were really thumping. You know that song Cherry Bomb? It was a hit by John Mellencamp. What's the first line of the chorus? For many years, this is what I thought the first line was. That's when a smoke was a smoke and groovin was groovin. No, that's not the first line. You know what the first line is? A ridiculous line. A line that isn't interesting or clever. That's when a sport was a sport. That's when a sport was a sport. That's what the line really is. Now when you say, that's when a smoke was a smoke. I get that. Remember having a cigarette in high school and how cool that was. I remember when I was 12 years old and first lit up a cigarette. Man, that's when a smoke was a smoke. That was a powerful moment. Now it's just stupid. So I get that's when a smoke was a smoke. But it's not that line. The line is, that's when a sport was a sport and groovin was groovin. Well, that doesn't work. What do you mean, a sport was a sport? How was the sport different back then? I was unhappy to learn that. Recently, again reading the local paper, I came upon this story. Today, one of the city's only dance theater spaces closed abruptly a couple of years ago, and a town hall was convened to assess the state of the whole dance scene in our community. What's the state of the whole dance scene? Several once prominent dance companies have all closed. So the Minnesota Dance alliance, which Provided crucial resources to dancers and dance companies during the heyday of dance, back in the 80s and 90s, they went defunct for financial reasons. The Minnesota Dance alliance, they went defunct. And this town hall that was convened to assess the state of the dance scene got funded by the McKnight foundation to figure out what's going on out there with dance. And they went out and solicited input from dancers and audience members and people who were capable perhaps of raising funds and people who were dance fans, dance aficionados. Anyway, a dance task force has been meeting for months and months trying to figure out what's going on out there in the world of dance. Dance companies are closing, dance theaters are closing. I just love, first of all that there's a Minnesota dance task force. I, I would hope they dance anyway. The dance task force has been meeting with dance folks around the state for months and months. They're in what they call the listening phase, trying to learn what they can. And here's the first thing they're learning. According to them. There's an age old view when people watch dance and it's the following. I don't get it. This is the first thing they're learning, is that people who go to see dance, modern dance, buy their tickets, sit in their chair, watch it and go, yeah, I don't get it. So they say right away we're up against that. The Minnesota Dance task force is right away realizing what we're up against is people who watch what we do don't get it.
- [20:50]
Jim or Wayne
Look at that, Jim.
- [20:52]
Mish Mishke
I'm looking, Wayne, but I. I don't get it.
- [20:56]
Jim or Wayne
What do you mean you don't get it?
- [20:58]
Co-host or Sidekick
What are they doing?
- [20:59]
Jim or Wayne
I guess they're dancing.
- [21:01]
Co-host or Sidekick
What for?
- [21:03]
Jim or Wayne
Well, I think they're expressing something. Something that can't be put into words.
- [21:09]
Mish Mishke
Something ineffable.
- [21:11]
Jim or Wayne
Perhaps they're saying something about what it means to be alive.
- [21:14]
Mish Mishke
I think I don't get it.
- [21:17]
Jim or Wayne
Well, what do you get, Wayne?
- [21:21]
Mish Mishke
Carburetors.
- [21:23]
Jim or Wayne
Uh huh. Well, this is dance. We're a long way from carburetors here. Wayne. Are you able to disconnect from your rational, logical mind and simply experience this moment purely with your emotions? Because I think that's what's being called for here.
- [21:42]
Mish Mishke
I don't know. Is boredom an emotion?
- [21:44]
Jim or Wayne
Wayne, I am never taking you with me again to one of these things. I paid 80 bucks for your ticket.
- [21:52]
Co-host or Sidekick
80 bucks. I could have bought half a case
- [21:55]
Mish Mishke
of sea foam for that. It cleans the fuel injector and the carburetor Passways and the intake valves.
- [22:02]
Jim or Wayne
And in the late afternoon, when you died of that Widowmaker heart attack, Wayne, would you have smiled that soft, peaceful smile that said, this is life right here? Sea foam in my car engine? Because I'll tell you, Wayne, I'd want to die experiencing the transcendental thrill of human dance choreographed by our finest artists. The graceful movement of the human body when set free to express life and living in the most sublime way possible.
- [22:32]
Mish Mishke
Yeah, not me. Not me. When I see people move like that, I assume they have epilepsy.
- [22:38]
Jim or Wayne
Wayne, when do you feel most alive?
- [22:41]
Mish Mishke
Well, when you think the sink is clogged and you think you'll have to snake it out all afternoon. And then it turns out just running the garbage disposal takes care of everything. You feel this sense of having a bunch of free time now in the afternoon. I like that feeling.
- [22:56]
Jim or Wayne
Wayne. How did you and I become friends?
- [23:05]
Mish Mishke
His first car was a beater. Got it in South St. Paul from Fury Motors. Bought it at 17 with money he earned from a summer job. The car got him to the prom. His second car also came from Fury. He was still young. The back seat smelled like French fries. Before long, he learned how to change his own oil. His third car, he also got from Fury. Bigger. He had kids and a wife. Now he had a dog, a roof rack for camping trips. Somewhere down the road, he got another car from Fury. Smaller. It looked sharp, it drove smooth. He loved it. He's never considered going anywhere else because his dad never went anywhere else. Nor did his grandpa. Fury Motors, new cars, used cars. Forest, Lake, Waconia, Stillwater, South St. Paul. They've been there for every chapter of people's lives. You owe it to yourself to at least stick your head in the door there at Fury and see what all the fuss is about. Every day around 4 o', clock, Deborah gets a little anxious. Maybe it's the changing light in the afternoon. Maybe it's something else. A habit that her body remembers even when her mind can't really recall. At the Wellshire Memory Care center, the staff knows Deborah was a seamstress for 31 years. So at 4 o', clock, someone brings her a basket of towels to fold, something for her hands to do. Her shoulders drop. She's not a woman dealing with agitation anymore. Nobody taught anyone at the well shire to do this. They learned it from working with people with memory care issues. And what they've learned about working with people with memory care issues could fill a book. They're the most trained, most knowledgeable, most experienced staff in this Region of the country. They pay attention to details at the Wellshire because that's the difference between a good day and. And a not so good day for your loved one. Tour the Wellshire Memory Care center of Medina and Bloomington. Meet a staff who knows memory care as well as you know your loved one. Okay, time to go to the phones. Time to go through the listener list. Find ourselves a name, find ourselves a number and make a call. Let's spin the big wheel. See which listener we land on.
- [25:54]
Co-host or Sidekick
Spin the big wheel. Angie. Angie.
- [26:31]
Listener (Aurelia or Angie)
Hello.
- [26:31]
Mish Mishke
Well, hello, Angie.
- [26:34]
Bartender
This is Angie.
- [26:35]
Co-host or Sidekick
Yeah.
- [26:35]
Mish Mishke
You know who this is?
- [26:37]
Bartender
Oh my God, it's Mishki.
- [26:39]
Co-host or Sidekick
You're doggone right.
- [26:42]
Bartender
How's it going?
- [26:43]
Mish Mishke
Going alright. How is your afternoon?
- [26:46]
Bartender
Very well. I am relaxing at home. I'm rarely alone and I am right
- [26:51]
Mish Mishke
now, as someone who loves to be alone, I prefer to be alone. That's where I find myself most energized. I. I'm just wondering, are you an extrovert or an introvert?
- [27:03]
Bartender
I recharge alone.
- [27:04]
Mish Mishke
And yet you're telling me you're rarely alone, so that means you're often drained.
- [27:09]
Bartender
True.
- [27:10]
Mish Mishke
So whatever circumstances are coming together to allow you to be alone now, you need to make this happen more often. And I don't mean in your month, in your week.
- [27:20]
Bartender
I absolutely agree. And it's something that I'm working on now.
- [27:24]
Mish Mishke
I realize this will involve sending the kids to a home, and I know that's hard.
- [27:29]
Bartender
Oh, there are no kids. I bartend for a living.
- [27:33]
Mish Mishke
I'm curious to know if you get an insight into the human condition through your job.
- [27:40]
Bartender
Oh, I absolutely do.
- [27:42]
Mish Mishke
How are we doing? I'm worried.
- [27:44]
Bartender
If I want to look at everybody I come in contact with as a disappointment, that's certainly an option. But I'd say we're doing okay. There's some really, really, really good folks out there.
- [27:56]
Mish Mishke
But you're saying it actually is possible to view everyone you meet as a disappointment?
- [28:02]
Bartender
I have a master of clinical social work. I was going to pursue that and be a therapist, but bartending provides me, at this point in my life, a better quality of life. I make a lot more money, but I'd say overall, I tend to look through a lens of empathy. So even the most annoying person I kind of look at as, yes, they're annoying and yes, they're disappointing, but what made them this way?
- [28:29]
Mish Mishke
But think about what you're saying. So you're in a room where people are all relaxing and in that state, all of them are a disappointment on some level. Granted, you can have an empathetic view. I mean, I could look at Hitler and perhaps see what was done to him as a child. But. But forgetting that momentarily here a group of people are relaxing in this environment, there's no reason for them to be stressed or to be angry or anxious. It should be just an enjoyable time. And yet even there, they disappoint you.
- [29:03]
Bartender
They can. I don't know, maybe I spoke to, like, out of turn about that.
- [29:08]
Mish Mishke
I'm sympathetic to the idea that maybe we're all great disappointments, all of us,
- [29:15]
Bartender
I suppose, in one way or another. But who are we disappointing? Others or ourselves?
- [29:22]
Mish Mishke
I think we're a disappointment to our potential.
- [29:26]
Bartender
Yes, I can definitely agree with that. We definitely have the capacity to be a disappointment to our potential.
- [29:34]
Mish Mishke
To rise to your potential takes a daily effort that involves a certain energy and passion and drive. And the default position, if you truly relax, is to backslide into disappointment Country. I suppose, consequently, because over time the energy drains and the passion wanes, you fall back into disappointment Country. And there you are looking at yourself in the mirror one day saying, well, it didn't work out this lifetime.
- [30:08]
Bartender
I don't feel that way about myself
- [30:10]
Mish Mishke
and I don't feel that way about you either. I just feel that way about everyone else.
- [30:14]
Bartender
I think we're one step away from either direction, either being a disappointing person or we're one step away from doing something wonderful. And by wonderful, I simply mean we have the capacity within us to be an uplifting person who could change the course of somebody else's day.
- [30:32]
Mish Mishke
Maybe when we view a whole group of people as a disappointment, I'm wondering if we're expecting too much of them. Say, for instance, you're looking at a group of dogs. By and large, they do about what you expect and your expectations are about where they should be. But maybe with people, we've all watched too many movies or something where people do things that are superhuman or above and beyond the call or extraordinarily heroic. And if you really just turned a camera on and shot humanity day to day, it'd be Disappointment City. The bar is an environment where you should be seeing more happiness than the average person sees.
- [31:18]
Bartender
A lot of the happiness can feel very surface level. I can look and say, oh, look at these people are having a wonderful time and they're laughing and they're having a good time. But I also think that I again, have a tendency to kind of look at the bigger picture of the individual and think they're inherently not happy. But it's an interesting job. Sometimes it's chit chatting with people and serving food and drink, and then sometimes it's basically a nightclub. So that's a lot of 20 somethings who I have an expectation that maybe they're going to behave like an adult. And I have to realize that, you know, they're not emotionally developed enough to behave as an adult despite having the age that would suggest that. And it's just a different generation of people who grew up in a very different environment than I did.
- [32:11]
Mish Mishke
For instance, we made the mistake of declaring 18 adulthood at a time when maybe 18 was adulthood. But adulthood has been coming later and later and later and we haven't been adjusting. I think on the old frontier you could have easily called an 18 year old an adult. Hell, they might have been married four years already. But these days no one should be called an adult before the age of 25.
- [32:41]
Bartender
I concur.
- [32:42]
Mish Mishke
Why wouldn't we wait until the brain was fully developed before calling anyone an adult? Do you know, I heard this recently. I'd like to research whether this is known to be an absolute fact or not. But this was a gentleman who travels the country lecturing on alcoholism and he said if you do not have a drink before the age of 25, if you're able to avoid having your first drink of alcohol until after you turn 25, it is impossible for you to become an alcoholic.
- [33:16]
Bartender
Really?
- [33:17]
Mish Mishke
The idea being that in order for there to be an addiction with alcohol in the brain, the brain has to be in a developing state, not a fully developed state. So if you can avoid that first drink until after 25, you may drink, you may drink a lot. Again, anybody who's gone into AA knows that the amount you drink is not what determines whether you're an alcoholic or not. It's control.
- [33:47]
Listener (Aurelia or Angie)
Yeah.
- [33:48]
Mish Mishke
And so what this guy is saying, it doesn't mean you won't drink a lot, you won't become an addiction.
- [33:53]
Bartender
That's interesting. I'd like to look into that.
- [33:55]
Mish Mishke
Yeah. And feel free to and let me know what you find. I will say this. If that's a fact, if that turns out to be a fact, by God, where'd we come up with a drinking age of 21? Course, if we changed it, a lot of people in your industry would get very upset.
- [34:10]
Bartender
Yeah, it's. I mean, somebody might start drinking at 26, but the reason they started drinking at 26 is because they've sustained some sort of pretty profound trauma, either as a child or as an adult. And the reason behind their Drinking, I think, has an effect on the depth of it.
- [34:30]
Mish Mishke
I've never heard of anybody in my life who started drinking after 25, so you'd have to find one. First of all, I only know people who don't drink or people who started long before 25, so I don't know where you're gonna find your test case there. It's unlikely to me if you haven't had a drink by 25, that you're gonna start hammering them. You got through all of the college years, all of the late high school years with no interest in drinking, with all that peer pressure. But now, suddenly, because of a trauma at 6 years of age, you're starting at 26? I don't know. It's possible, but that's a hard one for me to fathom. I do wonder about this, though. In your perfect bartending environment, what's there? I'll throw you out what I think's there, and you tell me if I'm right. There's only five people at the bar. That's it. Five people total. And it's early in the evening. And those five people are all relatively interesting and responsible human beings, probably older than 30. Am I getting warm?
- [35:29]
Bartender
No.
- [35:30]
Co-host or Sidekick
What?
- [35:30]
Bartender
Not at all.
- [35:31]
Co-host or Sidekick
What?
- [35:33]
Bartender
I prefer high intensity, lots and lots of people and cranking out drinks.
- [35:40]
Co-host or Sidekick
What?
- [35:40]
Bartender
That's why I like my job. Right now. We have say I work a Friday night. I start at 4. At 10 o', clock, we switch to kind of more of a nightclub situation. So it's just very like transactional. So there isn't the need to chit chat.
- [35:55]
Mish Mishke
You're not a chit chat person.
- [35:57]
Bartender
I can, and I'm really good at it. I mean, look at us, we're chit chatting. I don't know you. I've just heard you on the radio and on podcasts and stuff. Like, I'm. I'm good at it. And it's something that I do enjoy doing. But it is also really nice to just crank out drinks and not have to have anything more than real surface interactions.
- [36:17]
Mish Mishke
But is the cranking out drinks just about money? Cause I'm having a hard time believing if you weren't making more money cranking out drinks, that that still would be your preference.
- [36:29]
Bartender
I like the ability to converse, but I also like to have enough going on that I can remove myself from a conversation easily if it gets more than I want to handle.
- [36:42]
Mish Mishke
How many years do you have in bartending?
- [36:44]
Bartender
Oh, God, 26.
- [36:46]
Mish Mishke
Dear Lord. Part of this has to be cumulative. I bet if I'M talking to you. Five years in, we're getting a different story probably. What's the difference between the young you bartending and the current you bartending?
- [37:00]
Bartender
Well, the young me loved to drink and the current me hasn't had a drink in 13 years. I mean, it's been an interesting journey, like I said, with like grad school and stuff. My plan was to get out of the industry and I don't know what happened in the 26 years, but I am like addicted to the adrenaline rush of busy and chaos and mayhem where I am just like very activated and very like adrenaline driven. It's sort of like a high in and of itself.
- [37:27]
Mish Mishke
You know, it's clearer to me now how you function. You're into that high intensity adrenaline rush of working a crowded bar and just going 70 miles an hour. It seems to me that also is something that has a limited lifespan, that you're going to age out of that as well.
- [37:48]
Bartender
Oh, that's why I went to grad school. I mean, I just got my degree in 2023.
- [37:52]
Mish Mishke
Okay.
- [37:53]
Bartender
So I have that now that I can, you know, potentially fall back on something in that, in that field. I don't know if I'll do therapy or not, but that's something that I. My plan for grad school was to educate myself so that I didn't have to be stuck in hospitality forever. Because I think my body someday is just going to say, we're finished here. You can't do this for 12 hours at a time.
- [38:17]
Mish Mishke
Do you think there's any truth to the cliche that bartenders have to be quasi therapists?
- [38:26]
Bartender
Oh yeah, absolutely. I always joke that I am a therapist. Only I can prescribe. I just prescribe alcohol. It's a really interesting environment to be in, truly. And it really is an interesting environment to be in as a now non drinker. But again, I love the chaos. I love it.
- [38:45]
Mish Mishke
I'm talking about where they open up to you and where you find yourself counseling them in a vague way.
- [38:53]
Bartender
Yeah. Oh my gosh, all the time.
- [38:55]
Mish Mishke
It's odd because I don't know that hairdressers deal with that level of intimacy. I think your average hairdresser is having a surface conversation with someone. Unless you're buddies.
- [39:07]
Bartender
Well, yeah, Like I've gone to my hairdresser since I was 27. I'm 49, so we've been together for 22 years. So she's sort of therapist slash friend. I mean, we don't hang out outside of our appointments. That happen, you know. Once every seven weeks, there's an interesting movie here.
- [39:24]
Mish Mishke
You could have a movie where you had three different environments. A bar, a hair salon, and a therapist's office. Three different sessions. A session with a bartender and a customer, a session with a hairdresser and the client getting the haircut, and then a session with a therapist and see how the conversations differed. If the conversations differed, and if what the bartender, hairdresser, and therapist said really
- [39:52]
Bartender
differed, that would be interesting. And what level of comfort we have with the three different positions. You know, like, I might tell my hairdresser something different than I would tell a bartender, and I might tell my therapist something different than I would tell my hairstylist.
- [40:09]
Mish Mishke
And what if we were to alter the lubricant in this case and allow the therapist in the office to serve drinks, but not the bartender? Does the customer at the bar no longer open up now? And does the therapist now have someone saying things to her or to him they never would have heard otherwise? How much of that is part of the story? That's what I'm curious about.
- [40:34]
Bartender
It would be interesting to flip the script, I guess, and see if a therapist was getting people drunk, how those sessions would end versus if a person was just sitting at a bar talking about their feelings. Would they open up? Probably less, I guess, if they weren't lubricated by booze.
- [40:52]
Mish Mishke
It's funny. As the years have gone by, as I've gotten older, I have found fewer and fewer bartenders who are gifted with the ability to carry on a good conversation. There was a time when I was very young where bartenders were so in demand if they could carry on a good conversation, that bars would try to lure bartenders away from other bars with cash, lots of cash. The people who came to drink followed the bartenders wherever they went. I don't think we have those days anymore. I remember a bartender in St. Paul, beloved. And guys from other bars were constantly trying to get that guy, trying to get him moved because you wanted to sit at his bar. What I find these days, no matter where I go, is a bartender will give it a shot. They'll try to converse with you, but they don't really have that much to offer. They're good at getting you the drink. They're pleasant enough folks, but their gifts don't go beyond that. Yeah, I don't know what that says. I just have found that.
- [42:00]
Bartender
I mean, I agree, and I've. You know, obviously I was taught by a different generation. You know, like the people who trained me 26 years ago. That was a different bartending job.
- [42:12]
Mish Mishke
Well, I'll tell you, it sure has been fun talking to you. I've kept you a long time, but I've enjoyed our conversation. Thanks again. And thanks for leaving your name on the listener list. I'm always grateful to people who do that. It's my favorite part of the show.
- [42:26]
Bartender
It's fun to connect with people, you know.
- [42:28]
Mish Mishke
Yes, it is.
- [42:29]
Bartender
It really is.
- [42:30]
Mish Mishke
That's the game right there. Whatever you were expecting from life, life ultimately was just about connecting with people.
- [42:36]
Bartender
Heck, yeah. Have a good one.
- [42:37]
Mish Mishke
Thank you.
- [42:38]
Listener (Aurelia or Angie)
Bye.
- [42:38]
Mish Mishke
Bye. 250 years ago, this country decided to build something. 108 years ago, MSP decided the same thing. MSP, Minneapolis St. Paul Plumbing, Heating and Air. To celebrate the 250th birthday of the United States, MSP in the month of July will take the years of the US250 and the years of MSP108. Combine them and give you 358 bucks off any new heating or cooling system. 358 bucks off. If your air conditioner's been struggling and you've been putting off replacing it, this is the time. Right now, get that $350 off. Celebrate 108 years of MSP and 250 years of the United States. Only in July. Go to callmsp.com he died sometime in the 1980s, they say. Nobody's exactly sure when he's the banker who knew your name. He also knew your father's name. He could tell you which house on the block still owed on its roof, which house had a brand new baby in it. And he didn't need a spreadsheet to tell you that. But he was replaced. Replaced by a stranger in a call center somewhere reading your balance off a screen three states away, mispronouncing your name. In other words, one of these big national bank chains. For years and years, people swore this guy wasn't coming back. He was gone. The neighborhood banker. The big national chains tried to make sure of it. Well, folks, he didn't leave. North American Banking Co. Your neighborhood bank is right here still. Six banks and six banks only, right in the Twin Cities. They still know the families in their community. They still know the businesses, the neighborhoods. And that matters. You're not numbers on a spreadsheet. You're Jane. You're Steve. Turns out reports of the death of the neighborhood bank have been greatly exaggerated. Your neighborhood banker's not dead. He's waiting for you to come home. North American Banking Company Member FDIC Equal Housing Lender.
- [45:10]
Co-host or Sidekick
Back we go to the big spinning
- [45:12]
Mish Mishke
wheel to see which listener is next. Who do we call? Who do we call?
- [45:17]
Co-host or Sidekick
Spin that thing. Hold it.
- [45:23]
Mish Mishke
I'm going to move this by hand. That's right. Rather than it being random, I'm going to move it. Click, click, click, click. Right here. So it's pointing at Aurelia. Why am I doing this? She's 10. In her text to me wanting to be on the listener list, she casually mentioned she listens to my show and is 10. 10 years old.
- [46:03]
Co-host or Sidekick
Come on.
- [46:04]
Mish Mishke
Someone like that has to move to the top of the list, don't they? I think so. Let's give her a.
- [46:31]
Listener (Aurelia or Angie)
Hello.
- [46:32]
Mish Mishke
Hello there. This is Mishke calling.
- [46:37]
Listener (Aurelia or Angie)
Hi.
- [46:38]
Mish Mishke
I'm delighted to learn that you were up for being on the listener list.
- [46:43]
Co-host or Sidekick
What prompted that?
- [46:44]
Mish Mishke
How did you all of a sudden feel like joining the list of people who want to get calls? There's got to be a story behind that.
- [46:51]
Listener (Aurelia or Angie)
There's not.
- [46:51]
Mish Mishke
You just plain wanted to get on the list.
- [46:54]
Listener (Aurelia or Angie)
Yeah.
- [46:54]
Mish Mishke
And you're how old?
- [46:55]
Listener (Aurelia or Angie)
I'm 10.
- [46:56]
Co-host or Sidekick
10 years old.
- [46:58]
Mish Mishke
My favorite age. You know what 10 was for me?
- [47:03]
Listener (Aurelia or Angie)
What?
- [47:04]
Mish Mishke
The only year my mother let me have a birthday party.
- [47:09]
Listener (Aurelia or Angie)
What?
- [47:10]
Mish Mishke
Yeah. In our family, there were eight kids and everyone was told they could have one. One birthday party on their 10th birthday. And that was it.
- [47:20]
Listener (Aurelia or Angie)
Wow.
- [47:22]
Mish Mishke
So it was a big one. Had all the guys over. It was a slumber party, relay races. I mean, my mom went all out, but she only wanted to do it eight times in her life. Now, a real barn burner of a party is an overnight deal. I mean, that's. That's really. It basically is an all night situation. I mean, you hardly sleep at all. But my mother made me invite my brother. She made me invite my brother, who was 22 months younger than I was, but 2 inches bigger than I was. So I had to invite him. And the problem with that is, back in those days, we got in fights every day. Every single day, we'd get in a fight, and I mean a physical fight. And sometimes he'd bite me. And I don't even know why. If he was bigger than me, he shouldn't have had to bite. I should have been the one who was biting. But we got into one of these fights in the middle of the night during my big overnight 10th birthday party where he was choking me. And my buddy Paul, he says, to this day, he saved my life. He pulled my brother off me. This was a party for the ages. All sorts of weird things happened. There was a relay race that my mother put together where you had to put on all these adult clothes and then run around the house and then change into another set of adult clothes that barely fit and hardly stayed on and then you had to run around the house again. And I think there were three times around and I really wanted to win this relay race and I thought I should win it. It's my birthday and it's my birthday party. Well, I didn't win it. My buddy Steve won it. And I felt so hurt that I. I believe I claimed he cheated, that he didn't button the buttons or buckle the belts properly. And. And I did. And my mother says, now, now, Tommy, you lost. We're going to give the trophy to Steve. I don't know what he got. But I proceeded to hide under a bed upstairs and refused to come out. I'm 10 years old, going on four years old, apparently, and I refuse to come out for over an hour. My mom eventually says to everybody, you kids might as well just go home, this party's over. Well, I'm lying under the bed listening to my mom send everybody home, and I'm saying, what have I done? What have I done? All my buddies are going home. This party, which is the only one I'm ever going to have, is coming
- [50:01]
Co-host or Sidekick
to an abrupt end. And I chased all of them down
- [50:04]
Mish Mishke
on this September night, ran down sidewalks,
- [50:08]
Co-host or Sidekick
through yards, got them all.
- [50:09]
Mish Mishke
They were walking with their sleeping bags in different directions.
- [50:13]
Co-host or Sidekick
I found them all, I corralled them, I brought them all back and we
- [50:17]
Mish Mishke
ended up having that party.
- [50:19]
Co-host or Sidekick
Just a classic Mishki gathering with just
- [50:23]
Mish Mishke
way too much drama and absurdity.
- [50:26]
Co-host or Sidekick
But let's forget about me for a
- [50:28]
Mish Mishke
moment and talk about you. Tell me about yourself. What are you into?
- [50:32]
Listener (Aurelia or Angie)
I'm into theater.
- [50:35]
Mish Mishke
You know when someone was about two years older than you and I was on the radio years ago, so this woman would have been 12 then she called and I was talking to her like I'm talking to you. And I said to her, hey, wanna come do the show? And she came and did the show and I left the studio. Wow, at 12 years of age. Well, she went on to become a professional comedian, but years ago she was just a 12 year old kid like you. Just a kid wanting to call. A show called up my show and it changed her life. Now, what if that could happen with you?
- [51:12]
Co-host or Sidekick
What if this call could change your life?
- [51:16]
Listener (Aurelia or Angie)
I don't know.
- [51:18]
Mish Mishke
Okay, well, let me ask you this, let me ask you this. When you wanted to get a call, did you have anything you wanted to
- [51:26]
Listener (Aurelia or Angie)
ask me, how did you know you wanted to be a radio host, have your own show?
- [51:31]
Mish Mishke
The way it came to me was the fun I had calling radio shows. So when I was a younger guy, I used to like to call up a radio show and get on the air and say weird stuff and then I just hang up. I'd say strange stuff and then I'd hang up. And they gave me a name. They called me the Phantom Caller. And they collected my calls after a while. And they played them all together one Friday for a Phantom festival. And I said, man, this is great. I wonder if a fella could make a living goofing around like this. Because if I could, I really wouldn't have to work another day in my life. I'd just play in the sandbox of radio where you can do anything. I mean, really, what I realized once I got my own show is you can do anything, anything at all. Whatever you can come up with, you know, you just have sound. No pictures, but just with sound, whatever you can come up with, you can do. Have you ever thought of anything you'd like to hear coming out of a radio that no one's ever delivered? Just anything weird or odd? You're a theater person. There must be some odd thing you'd like to hear radio people do sometime.
- [52:46]
Listener (Aurelia or Angie)
I've never really thought of that before, but.
- [52:49]
Mish Mishke
Well, I'll tell you when you sit back and say to yourself, let's see, I've got a couple hours with a microphone tonight. What should I do? I mean, the sky's the limit. It was quite fun to come up with the oddest things to do during that time. And there's really an endless list of possibilities. It's just a microphone and the person at home is just listening through a speaker. But, man, the things you can do. Now I want to ask you a question.
- [53:20]
Co-host or Sidekick
Theater.
- [53:21]
Mish Mishke
What are you doing in theater?
- [53:23]
Listener (Aurelia or Angie)
Really like to be in plays and musicals. I really like music.
- [53:27]
Mish Mishke
Are you a singer?
- [53:28]
Listener (Aurelia or Angie)
Yeah.
- [53:29]
Mish Mishke
I like to sing too. I love to sing as well. I'm not very good, but I love singing, always have. My mother sang every day of my life. She did dishes, she sang, she did laundry, she sang. She pushed me in the swing. Outside in the yard, she sang. I still remember that song. Oh, how I love to go up
- [53:51]
Co-host or Sidekick
in the air up in the sky
- [53:55]
Mish Mishke
so blue yeah she'd sing this song and push me. Always singing, always singing. All her sisters sang. They sang in multi part harmony. She said it got her through the Depression. She said that's how they Got through the Depression, all the. All the rough times was singing. So what I'd be curious to know is, do you have a song you'd like to sing?
- [54:16]
Listener (Aurelia or Angie)
No.
- [54:17]
Jim or Wayne
Come on.
- [54:18]
Listener (Aurelia or Angie)
No, thanks.
- [54:19]
Co-host or Sidekick
Really, man.
- [54:21]
Mish Mishke
Well, what's your favorite thing you've done on stage?
- [54:24]
Listener (Aurelia or Angie)
Well, I just finished being in the Little Mermaid. It was a CPA production with Hannafil and In White Bear Lake. That was really fun.
- [54:33]
Mish Mishke
And how long have you been doing this theater stuff?
- [54:36]
Listener (Aurelia or Angie)
A while.
- [54:38]
Bartender
Years?
- [54:39]
Listener (Aurelia or Angie)
Yeah.
- [54:39]
Mish Mishke
For years you've been a theater person in school? Is it broken up to where you say, those are the people over there who play sports, and those are the people there who do theater? And those are the people over there who are just really smart and get A's in every class? Is it broken up like that, or does everybody mix together?
- [55:00]
Listener (Aurelia or Angie)
Everybody's kind of mixed together.
- [55:02]
Mish Mishke
You're in fourth grade.
- [55:04]
Listener (Aurelia or Angie)
Yes.
- [55:05]
Mish Mishke
Is there anything about school you don't like?
- [55:08]
Listener (Aurelia or Angie)
I don't like math.
- [55:10]
Co-host or Sidekick
I hated math, too. Hated it. I absolutely hated it. I never wanted to take a math class ever. Oh, God, it was awful. You know what they would say to me?
- [55:22]
Mish Mishke
They would say, now, Tommy, I've talked to attorneys who have said the most important class they ever took was math. Now, they're attorneys, not mathematicians.
- [55:33]
Co-host or Sidekick
It just shows you that math is important in all walks of life.
- [55:38]
Mish Mishke
I remember hearing that and saying, what
- [55:40]
Co-host or Sidekick
the heck is an attorney doing with math? I don't get it. I don't mind telling you it was just as I thought, a waste of time. I could have learned none of it and been just fine. There was absolutely nothing math did for
- [55:56]
Mish Mishke
me in my life.
- [55:56]
Co-host or Sidekick
Nothing. With the invention of calculators.
- [56:00]
Mish Mishke
It really was stupid.
- [56:02]
Co-host or Sidekick
I want to let everybody know out there is taking math. If you hate it, don't bother. There's no need. You don't have to learn it at all.
- [56:12]
Mish Mishke
If you end up being in the
- [56:14]
Co-host or Sidekick
theater, you'll never use it for anything.
- [56:17]
Mish Mishke
What do you want to be when you grow up?
- [56:19]
Listener (Aurelia or Angie)
I probably want to do something with theater and music.
- [56:22]
Mish Mishke
Oh, that would be great. No one on their deathbed ever said, I'm sorry I got into theater or music. No one's ever said that. There have been plenty of people who said, I'm sorry I became a certified public accountant. I've heard that a few times, but no one's ever said, I'm sorry I got into theater or music. Do you play an instrument?
- [56:44]
Listener (Aurelia or Angie)
No.
- [56:45]
Mish Mishke
Do you want to?
- [56:47]
Listener (Aurelia or Angie)
Yeah.
- [56:48]
Mish Mishke
Which one?
- [56:50]
Listener (Aurelia or Angie)
Guitar and piano.
- [56:53]
Mish Mishke
Piano and guitar. Two most popular instruments in America for kids. To learn guitar, of course. More popular. I was a piano guy myself. My mother played guitar and I'd try it. But let me tell you what I didn't like about it. I had a second instrument that I liked, the drums. Always liked the drums. I banged on everything I could when I was a kid. The refrigerator, the stove, the washer and dryer were particularly interesting to bang on. They each had a different tone, so if you played them together, kind of like two conga drums, you could come up with some pretty interesting beats. Anyway, because I was a drummer, it was much easier to gravitate to piano because piano is a percussion instrument. You bang on it, you pound on it, you hammer on it. Well, my mom played piano as well, so she taught me some piano when I was a five year old. And I never quit playing the rest of my life. But the key is to not end up in a class where a boring teacher is making piano boring. You gotta quit. I quit piano lessons a dozen times. I ended up just asking my brothers to show me stuff because the teachers made it boring. And as soon as an instrument is boring, someone has made a terrible mistake. It should be delightful, fun, enjoyable, pleasant, wondrous. So don't ever let a teacher make it boring. You need to find a new teacher right away, before they kill it, before they kill the spirit, before they kill your desire to learn that instrument.
- [58:22]
Listener (Aurelia or Angie)
When I was younger, I like, played guitar, but I was like five. And it wasn't because of the teacher, it was because I was five. And it was just too much at the time.
- [58:32]
Mish Mishke
Yeah, that's true. That's a little tough. I used to take the guitar when my mom would show me a few chords. I would take the guitar and I would say, mom, I think it's supposed to be played this way. And I'd flip it upside down, and suddenly it was one heck of a drum. I mean, you want to bang on something, flip a guitar over and just go to town. So I would play it that way. Wasn't the way they would have preferred I learned the guitar. Most people want you to play the string part. Nuts to that noise. I said I used to bang on a tuba. My neighbor had a tuba. I'd hit that thing pretty hard with knives, forks, spoons. You gotta have the drummer in you for that. And you sound like you're gonna be far more into melody. Mm, let's see, what else should we talk about before we call it? Do you really listen to my show?
- [59:24]
Listener (Aurelia or Angie)
Yeah, I listen to your show.
- [59:25]
Mish Mishke
That's the craziest darn thing I've ever heard. You're the youngest person who's been on the list. I had a 12 year old, but nobody younger than 12. I don't think I'm going to have anybody younger than 10. I don't think it's possible for someone younger than. Well, to be perfectly honest. In my days on radio there was a seven year old named Luke who used to call. He would listen on his radio under the covers in his bed, up in his room. He wouldn't tell his parents. I should have called his parents and said, there's a seven year old listening to my show. I don't know if you want that, but I just thought it was so great that he was under the blankets listening. I just decided if his parents don't know what they don't know can't hurt him. Ignorance is bliss, that sort of thing. Let's let Luke keep his little AM radio under the blankets. Always wondered what happened to him. And actually that's what I was going to say to you is one day you're going to be my age. I'll be long dead, of course, which is sad. I think dying is a bummer. But anyway, I'll be dead and you'll be my age. And I hope you have a recording of this because it'll be interesting for you to listen to it 50 years from now and say to yourself, I wonder if I'm still a lot like that 10 year old or if I am so different now I don't even recognize that person. Because I'll tell you something, I don't think much changes between 10 years of age and 60 years of age. I think you're more or less the same person with just a few more experiences and a handful of different thoughts. But I'm thinking that you won't change all that much. But I sure would like to know. Course I'm not going to be able to know I'll be dead. As I mentioned, I hate bringing that up. I keep bringing up that I'm going to be dead. I sure hope I die in the way where your eyes are closed. I see so many of these TV shows where people die with their eyes open. I don't like that. I want to look like I'm sleeping. In case you become a hospice nurse when you grow up and you happen to spot me there, let it be known I want to die with my eyes closed. However you got to arrange that, okay?
- [61:34]
Co-host or Sidekick
All right.
- [61:35]
Mish Mishke
Well, Aurelia, great visiting with you, great hanging out with you. Keep singing. Keep playing.
- [61:41]
Listener (Aurelia or Angie)
Okay.
- [61:41]
Mish Mishke
You take care of yourself. You have a swell summer year.
- [61:44]
Listener (Aurelia or Angie)
Two.
- [61:45]
Mish Mishke
So long.