#4383 Blazing Sandworms

Summary

TBTL: Too Beautiful To Live - Episode #4383: Blazing Sandworms

Release Date: January 17, 2025

Hosts: Luke Burbank and Andrew Walsh

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Overview

In episode #4383 titled "Blazing Sandworms," hosts Luke Burbank and Andrew Walsh delve into a diverse array of topics, blending humor, personal anecdotes, and thoughtful discussions. From tributes to the late David Lynch and his iconic works to introducing a new community-centric segment, the episode offers listeners a rich and engaging experience.

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1. Daily Present Philosophy ([00:00] - [00:58])

The episode kicks off with a lighthearted exchange where the hosts discuss the idea of treating oneself to a daily present without planning, emphasizing spontaneity and simple joys.

• Andrew Walsh: "Every day, once a day, give yourself a present. Don't plan it, don't wait for it. Just let it happen." ([00:00])

• Luke Burbank: Adds humor by suggesting everyday items like "two cups of good, hot black coffee." ([00:17])

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2. Friday Vibes and Weekend Plans ([00:58] - [05:35])

The conversation shifts to Friday moods and weekend plans, highlighting Andrew's consistent volunteering every Sunday, with a humorous backstory about a planned but canceled volunteer activity.

• Andrew Walsh: Explains the origin of their non-existent "Big Weekend" and his commitment to volunteering despite initial reluctance. ([03:29] - [05:35])

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3. Introducing the TBTL Community Calendar ([05:35] - [57:50])

A significant portion of the episode is dedicated to launching the "TBTL Community Calendar," a new segment aimed at informing listeners about upcoming events, meetups, volunteer opportunities, and book club meetings. This segment underscores the podcast's commitment to fostering a vibrant community.

• Luke Burbank: "We have so many tents writing into us about upcoming meetings, meetups that they're planning, and various events and volunteer opportunities and book clubs." ([53:55])

• Andrew Walsh: Details specific events in the Seattle area, including meetups at local breweries and a Valentine’s card exchange project, urging listeners to participate by signing up through the podcast's website. ([53:56] - [57:50])

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4. Tribute to David Lynch and His Legacy ([02:24] - [36:17])

The hosts pay homage to the late filmmaker David Lynch, discussing his impact on cinema and television, particularly through works like "Twin Peaks" and "Mulholland Drive." They explore Lynch's unique style, his storytelling techniques, and his influence on contemporary media.

• Luke Burbank: "David Lynch has passed. We'll talk a little bit about the life and times of a singular, singular filmmaker and television creator." ([02:24])

• Andrew Walsh: Reflects on watching "Mulholland Drive" and shares insights from a New York Times tribute, emphasizing Lynch's emphasis on questions over answers. ([10:22] - [16:10])

• Notable Quote:

  • Andrew Walsh: "David Lynch understood that the point wasn't answers. The point was questions." ([11:10])

• Luke Burbank: Describes Lynch's intentional casting choices and his distinctive cinematic flair. ([14:58] - [17:05])

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5. In-Depth Discussion on "Mulholland Drive" ([36:17] - [87:18])

The hosts engage in a detailed analysis of Lynch's "Mulholland Drive," discussing its narrative structure, character development, and the enigmatic elements that make it a masterpiece. They share personal experiences of watching the film and highlight its lasting impact.

• Andrew Walsh: "Mulholland Drive lulled me into a sense of... I wish I knew a little bit more because it tricked me." ([12:47])

• Luke Burbank: Appreciates the Los Angeles setting and the film's portrayal of the city's unique ambiance. ([42:05])

• Notable Quote:

  • Luke Burbank: "Everything was very intentional, whether it worked for me or not, as a viewer." ([15:38])

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6. Listener Stories and Emails ([69:06] - [95:54])

The episode features compelling listener contributions, including a dramatic recounting of an in-flight incident titled "Sky Jinx." Andrew narrates an email from a listener who voluntarily took on the responsibility of managing a disruptive passenger, highlighting themes of selflessness and unforeseen challenges.

• Andrew Walsh: Reads the email from John detailing the chaotic experience on a flight, where he had to restrain a disruptive passenger. ([69:06] - [77:02])

• Luke Burbank: Reacts with humor and empathy, pondering the logistics and emotional toll of such situations. ([71:25] - [84:44])

• Notable Quotes:

  • Andrew Walsh: "This is John's reaction. Like, you're gonna alert us if this guy tries to leave." ([73:05])
  • Luke Burbank: "I have no effing idea why they go to Solamente... It just stuck in my head." ([75:59])

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7. Donor Appreciation and Future Plans ([57:07] - [95:54])

The hosts extend heartfelt thanks to their listeners and donors, acknowledging their crucial role in sustaining the podcast. They hint at ambitious future projects and events, expressing excitement about expanding the show's reach and impact.

• Luke Burbank: "Thanks to all of our donors for making TBTL happen. We absolutely couldn't do this without you." ([43:04])

• Andrew Walsh: Discusses upcoming initiatives and the potential for the most ambitious "TBTL a thon" to date, relying on community support to bring these projects to fruition. ([43:47] - [44:16])

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8. Closing Remarks and Final Thoughts ([95:54] - End)

As the episode winds down, the hosts share personal reflections on flying experiences, alcohol consumption on planes, and the humorous aspects of dealing with in-flight personalities. They conclude with reminders about upcoming episodes and a light-hearted farewell to their listeners.

• Andrew Walsh: Shares his past experiences with alcohol on flights and the social dynamics involved. ([80:11] - [91:29])

• Luke Burbank: Relates with humor about interacting with flight attendants and regular flyers. ([91:35] - [97:00])

• Notable Quote:

  • Andrew Walsh: "Rest in peace David Lynch. And what a legacy." ([35:27])

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Key Takeaways

• Community Engagement: The introduction of the "TBTL Community Calendar" underscores the podcast's dedication to building and nurturing a vibrant listener community through shared events and activities.

• Tribute to Creativity: The in-depth discussion on David Lynch highlights the enduring influence of visionary creators in shaping modern storytelling and cinematic techniques.

• Listener Connection: Sharing listener stories like "Sky Jinx" fosters a sense of connection and relatability, showcasing the diverse experiences within the TBTL community.

• Future Aspirations: Expressions of gratitude towards donors and listeners signal exciting future endeavors, promising more engaging content and community-driven projects.

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Notable Quotes with Timestamps

• Andrew Walsh: "Every day, once a day, give yourself a present." ([00:00])

• Luke Burbank: "My name is Luke Burbank. I am your host. Your voice is like a combination of Fergie and Jesus." ([01:20])

• Andrew Walsh: "David Lynch understood that the point wasn't answers. The point was questions." ([11:10])

• Andrew Walsh: "This is John's reaction. Like, you're gonna alert us if this guy tries to leave." ([73:05])

• Andrew Walsh: "Rest in peace David Lynch. And what a legacy." ([35:27])

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Conclusion

Episode #4383 of "TBTL: Too Beautiful To Live" offers a multifaceted exploration of personal growth, creative legacy, and community building. Through engaging dialogues, thoughtful tributes, and interactive segments, Luke Burbank and Andrew Walsh create a captivating narrative that resonates with both new and long-time listeners.

Transcript

[A]

I'm gonna let you in on a little secret. Every day, once a day, give yourself a present. Don't plan it, don't wait for it. Just let it happen. Could be a new shirt at the men's store, a catnap in your office.

[B]

Chair, or two cups of good, hot black coffee. TBTL.

[A]

Guess what day it is. Guess what day it is. It's Friday Friday Gonna get down on Friday Everybody's looking forward to the weekend Listen to me. While I will admit to a certain cynicism, the fact is that I'm a naysayer and hatchet man in a fight against violence. I pride myself in taking a punch, and I'll gladly take another because I choose to live my life in the company of Gandhi and King. My concerns are global. Listen, crackerjack, if you're gonna be televised.

[B]

You gotta be easy on the eyes. It's no good if people hate looking at you. Tie and some brill cream. Let's get to the jokes. All right. Hello, good morning and welcome, everyone, to a Friday edition of tbtl, the show that just might be too beautiful to live.

[A]

Ooh.

[B]

My name is Luke Burbank. I am your host. Your voice is like a combination of Fergie and Jesus. Coming to you from the Madrona Hill studio perched high above the mighty Columbia, where it's. It's a chilly day, a chilly Friday. We're looking out at Cottonwood island, where a number of different kinds of birds are kind of bedding down, I guess, or kind of hanging out, doing something.

[A]

About the soul of a bird.

[B]

Seems cold, but I'm gonna try to put that out of my mind. I'm gonna try to push my intrusive animal empathy out of my brain long enough to bring you episode 4300 AA and 83 in AA collector series.

[A]

Let the fun begin.

[B]

Hey, we got a new segment today, the TBTL community calendar. We're going to tell you about fun, important events that you can take part in with fellow TBTL10 ready to laugh and drop till your socks come off. Also, as you probably know, and as you certainly pieced together, maybe listening to that intro package, David lynch has passed.

[A]

Away, so who needs a movie?

[B]

We'll talk a little bit about the life and times of a singular, singular filmmaker and television creator. Speaking of singular content creators, let's talk to this guy. Longest running cobra of the show, maybe best known for his depictions of the tall ships. Oh, hey, y'all fit my name. His name is Andrew Walsh and he's joining me right now. Good morning, my friend.

[A]

Good morning, Luke. You know how for a. For a long time you would put at the top of a show sheet on a Friday, you'd write, hey, Andrew, any big weekend plans? Usually at the top of the show, she just says, hey, Andrew, how's it going? And then on Fridays it would always say, hey, Andrew, any big weekend plans? And, yeah, I don't know if we ever even asked that question. It was just there as a placeholder. I think we might want to go back to that and maybe formalize it a little bit or something, because my friend Paulie sent me a song today from. Well, the Internet says it's from 1960, question mark by Rod Rogers and the Swingin Strings. And this is the song weekend.

[B]

The biggest one I've ever had. I mean, big Weekend.

[A]

How can we not do a segment called Big Weekend?

[B]

Listen, do you want to know? I. I don't want to. I don't want to start the final show of the week off on anything that sounds even mildly critical because, you know, you and I both respond poorly to that. But I think what happened was there was a couple of Fridays where the. Your answer was, yeah, not much. And. Or maybe something was happening on the weekend that you were like, I don't actually necessarily want to get into that. And I think I just decided it was a bad conversation starter. But now that we have that theme song, you need to really, really start doing crazy stuff on the weekends. I will. Or I will. I will do whatever it takes to justify that theme music.

[A]

I literally, when I set this up in my head, I was like, lucy gonna say it's because I don't do anything on the weekends. Well, Luke, thanks for asking. Yeah.

[B]

What do you got big weekend plans, Andrew?

[A]

Well, every Sunday I volunteer, Luke. That's something I do every single Sunday, except for this one, because I will be only working half a day on Sunday.

[B]

It did have Anna to cover for you.

[A]

Sort. Anna.

[B]

I mean, not cover for you, but to sort of take on the full. The full lift.

[A]

It was actually. It was actually a whole thing at the very, very end of yesterday's show, which I don't believe anybody got to, because I think we. We ended up in a. I think.

[B]

Employee numero uno John Sklarov got there, but only because it's part of his deliverables.

[A]

Part of his KPI. Exactly. Because we cut into his paycheck, if not. But it was a whole thing. At the end of the show, you and I were talking about a silly football game that not Even any local teams are playing in at 3:30 on Sunday. And I said maybe I can kind of get out of sticking around a pop up. And so I sent an email and saying, Anna, that would kind of put a lot on you. And she's like, oh, I can't be there either for some. Oh no, she's got some other things going on. And so I'm like, no problem, you know, it's okay. Like this was just a silly little notion anyway. But then some other volunteers were just like, no, you guys both are here every week. We're forcing you both to take the weekend off because you raised it. And so I was. I'm forced into fun times, Luke. I will be doing that.

[B]

You know, my favorite part of yesterday's show was towards the end. And this just flashed back to me this morning during my jog. It was when I was going down Greenwood Avenue on Google Street View asking you if you were also looking at a car that was like, Camaro Kev.

[A]

I know. And that was a new second, my friend. I really thought it was him. Like I. Everything was coming together so.

[B]

Because what people don't know is for somebody who's nicknamed Camaro Kev, the man does not drive a Camaro any longer.

[A]

I've never known him as.

[B]

But he does drive. And he does drive an immaculately maintained, very like pretty old car at this point that he just takes really good care of. But you don't see that car on the road very often. Which is why I immediately thought, oh, this could be him.

[A]

Oh, by the way, I want to ask you about your weekend plans, but I do want to say something coming up that I'm excited about that is also related to the, well, maybe middle part of yesterday's show. We were talking about that documentary dig about the Brian Jonestown Massacre and the dandy wars that's 20 years old. And I said, I'll never like probably sit down. People have been telling me for decades to watch this. I'll probably never sit down to watch it at home. I wish it were in theaters. And then we Google it. It turns out it is in theaters for like one day only. But also only in England for the 20th anniversary celebration. I got a note from a listener saying, no, no, it's coming to SIF for like two days. So it's not this weekend. But I already bought my tickets for like, it's like a Monday night Vis and I are going to go, oh, that'll be great. I had to crack open the piggy bank. The tickets were $6, Luke.

[B]

Oh, no.

[A]

$6 to go see a movie that I've been wanting to see for a long time. Very excited.

[B]

Now here's the thing. When I actually watched that trailer that was at the SIF website that the listener submitted a link to.

[A]

Oh, you got the link too. Okay.

[B]

Well, I mean, I, I think I was on that email and I clicked on it and what I didn't realize was this is a re release, like with extras or something. This is being called like dig 20. So what? I, I have not seen this version of the movie. I have seen the original and, and, and I'm sure that this will be really, really good. But I get a little worried when they're like updating it. Like, I hope it doesn't have like a Nickelodeon slime component. I hope no one's getting slimed.

[A]

I, I don't have it in front of me right now, but I noticed that it just says like an extra, you know that just like an extra extended cut or something. But it doesn't. I check the runtime. It's not like some three hour ordeal, so.

[B]

Okay. I just wanted to. I was hoping that in it they weren't changing it fundamentally because the original version I thought was really, really good.

[A]

Yeah, no, I don't think it's anything like that. I think there's probably just some things that maybe they're like, Ah, 20 years later. I wish I'd left this in or something. But again, I don't have it in front of me. But it wasn't like, oh, join us for this four hour exploration of the tape that hit the floor.

[B]

I was just worried that maybe it'd be like, cut to current day interview with Anton or Courtney. Courtney Taylor or whatever.

[A]

Oh, I would be shocked. I will let you know. But I would be shocked if I'm.

[B]

Guessing on Deter who made that is a very, very talented filmmaker who would not mess the movie up with like modern Day. Like, I think it's. It needs to be rooted in and wholly exist within the time that it was shot, you know?

[A]

Yeah, I do want to say so I just looked it up. That was from listener Wendy. Wendy, thank you for that.

[B]

That.

[A]

That was one of those emails that you just shot off and like, you legitimately, like, kind of changed my plans. I'm very excited about this, Vee.

[B]

I love this for you and Genevieve.

[A]

Yeah. And I asked Veeves, I'm like, have you seen it? She's like, no, I've always been wanting to see it. I'm like, guess What? Baby got two $6 tickets in a dream. So anyway, yeah, dude.

[B]

Hey, speaking of movies.

[A]

Hey, speaking of movies and films, I.

[B]

Watched Mulholland Drive last night. I started at 10 o'clock, which is now the new hour that we start all films in this friendship.

[A]

Although that might be the right time to start Mulholland Drive. Honestly, you don't start that at noon.

[B]

No, no, you don't. You. You, you sure don't. You know, I don't think I'd ever seen Mulholland Drive. I had seen Blue Velvet, which, which as you might imagine, was kind of a tough watch for me. By the way, we're saying all this because David lynch passed away yesterday. And, and I have to say, like, it might just. It might have to do with the kind of media that I consume or the parts of the Internet that I hang out on or social media, but the death of David lynch has reverberated in terms of the people that I follow online, in terms of the newspapers I read. Like, because I was a person who a lot of David Lynch's content was a little bit, like I said, a little bit of a tough watch for me. But I was always really, really happy that he was doing it and that he was out there. I think I might have underestimated how really important he was as an idea to so many people. Like, I mean, people are really, really kind of wrecked over this.

[A]

Yeah. And Kyle McLaughlin, did you read his tribute? As I was thinking, oh, I could read this on the show and I'm like, I literally can't read this on the show. I could get through one sentence before I.

[B]

Would you mind also cribbing that for when you wr my.

[A]

Kind of just change the name when.

[B]

You memorialize me, would you? I mean, that's one of the most beautiful descriptions I've ever heard of. And, and there was something in there, if I can, really quickly, that I didn't even think about when I read it. But then I thought about it after I watched Mulholland Drive, which was Kyle MC. And I'm paraphrasing here, Kyle McLaughlin said something to the effect of David Lich understood that the point wasn't answers. The point was questions. And I was, as I was thinking about Mulholland Drive and I had a shit ton of questions. I was like, oh, that's what he's talking about. That's this. The guy's organizing principle was questions are more interesting than answers.

[A]

How did you find that movie? I saw that movie in the theater with Genevieve. Now when we saw that movie and that movie is probably. Is that around the same time that, like, 2005. 2005, yeah.

[B]

Which. Which is shocking. Just when you look at the vehicles, the cars that people are driving, the film stock, all of it, it feels like it's from 35 years ago, but.

[A]

Yeah, and I remember. So I. We went into that. I think I was a pretty big lynch fan going into that movie. I think Genevieve was a little bit more skeptical, you know, her taste in films not being kind of as weird and dark as mine. But I remember she. She really liked that movie. I mean, it's such a beautiful movie. I love the music in there. It's got all of the hallmarks of like a David lynch film. It's got the, like the 1950s sort of sock hoppy kind of style and music, but also the really, really dark stuff. And of course, the man with no eyebrows. But then I will say, even though I do like my cinema without wrapping up loose ends. Like, for example, we were talking yesterday about the movie, a real pain. Like, for me, the way that movie unfolds and then ends is like, kind of perfect. Not everything is wrapped up. In fact, there are questions at the end. But you know, what happened? Whereas you get to the end of Mulholland Drive and you're like, oh, a blue cube. Is that from the Transformers movie? Like, like, what's. What's going on? I gotta say, I even. I would like something I did. Leave that thinking. I wish I knew a little bit more because it tricked me. You can watch some lynch stuff. You're like, oh, don't even try. Like, don't even try. It's fine.

[B]

Right, Right.

[A]

But Mulholland Drive lulled me into a sense of. I think, wait, I think I got.

[B]

It's like, I think I got done it. These two plucky ingenues are going around trying to figure out who one of them is. You're like, okay, this is a plot.

[A]

Yeah. And then it does really sort. And this isn't a critic as we pay tribute to the man, but I do. And I don't know that I've seen that since I saw it in the theater, but I do remember thinking, like, I could have used a few more answers there.

[B]

How about you? Well, I hear I benefited from having spent the day reading a bunch of different kind of, you know, sort of tributes to David lynch and appreciations of him. And again, things like what Kyle McLaughlin wrote. So I think I went in being like, I'm just going to experience this I'm just going to, like, watch it for what it is. I'm going to enjoy the performances. I'm not going to try to make too much sense of it. So I was in a sort of ideal and I was feeling very, you know, supportive of David Lynch's legacy, if that makes any sense. So I sort of enjoyed it. I mean, there were plenty of parts where I was like, this makes no sense. I mean, the thing also that. That I found so interesting about it. And again, I'm guessing this is a theme in a lot of his work, which you. I'm sorry I'm taking up so much time talking about him when you're really the person who knows a lot more about his stuff than I do.

[A]

No, I don't know that much. Much.

[B]

What I thought was so interesting about Mulholland Drive was so like, Naomi Watts character is like. It seems like David Lynch's thing was to write characters that were almost sort of like 1950s Doris Day levels of good versus evil, of sunshine and almost kind of, oh, golly gee. And like, not naturalistic dialogue to where at the beginning, I'm almost like, why is everyone in this movie bad at acting? Why is Naomi Watts being bad at acting? And then, I don't know how much you remember from the film, but her character is also auditioning for a movie. And when she does this weird. She does this scene in this room with a bunch of producers, her acting is so phenomenal, phenomenal in the audition within the movie. Right. That it's like lynch is doing something obviously very intentional. It's not like these other performances are what he thinks are the most naturalistic acting performances he can draw out of someone. He clearly understands what that is, too. He's doing something else.

[A]

I think he's matching a soap opera is what he's doing. Right. Like, I think because, like, that's what twin. And I got to say, everything I'm saying is just like, I don't know the last time I've sat down and watched David lynch movie. And I'm not somebody who's done a lot of reading about it, so anything I say here is probably potentially very wrong. I'm just saying what I think when I'm watching it, and it sort of feels like that's like, again, that night I described it as that 1950s sort of that music and vibe that you have, those singers, I believe, almost saccharine. Very saccharine. And you had a lot of that in Twin Peaks, too. And I think it was like. Because he was like he was making a soap opera and soap opera acting isn't that good, you know.

[B]

Right, right. But it wasn't because he somehow didn't understand what was going on. It was an intentional choice, I guess that was the thing. It seems like with him, everything was very intentional, whether it worked for me or not, as a viewer. It wasn't. It wasn't because he was just kind of like throwing stuff against the wall. He had a pretty. It sounds like he had a very, very. He was very exacting in what it was he was trying to do. He also. And this was something that I'd already read about him years ago, but it was really making the rounds yesterday, which was the whole thing with him and the stuffed woodpeckers.

[A]

No, I don't know anything about this.

[B]

Oh, really? There's this kind of iconic photo of him, I believe, maybe in like his production offices or something. And he's got, I think, like four or five stuffed, like kind of Woody Woodpecker type of things. And apparently the story goes that somebody, you know, maybe a reporter asked him about these stuffed woodpeckers. And he said he was driving, I want to say, in the Southwest somewhere, like in New Mexico. And he went by, like a gas station and he saw them in the window and he did a U turn and rescued them. And he named all of these stuffed animals. And then at some point, he had a falling out with the stuffed animals and they were no longer part of his life.

[A]

I do remember hearing about the fallout. And as you were saying that, I was like, oh, yeah.

[B]

I mean, every part of it is pretty quirky, but the falling out is a really. Is really. Is really something.

[A]

Seems like a really fun person to know.

[B]

I mean, that was. The other thing is, I feel like, you know, again, I don't need to keep saying this, that. That a lot of the stuff was. Was. Was a little bit difficult for me to access as far as the creative output. But the other stuff that he did where he just like, used to do that weather report every day and like, just the wet. The places that he would sort of show up. By the way, his fashion, his. His sense of style is absolutely iconic.

[A]

Like, the guy was.

[B]

The guy had something going on with his look that I'm very envious of. I wish I could commit to something like that. But, like, so this, like, everything about David lynch in the world, I was like, being in the world, I was very intrigued by. And yeah, I mean, I think he. The piece in the Times that I put in the show Sheet. I mean, this is. You'd be unsurprised to find that the person writing the obit for David lynch in the New York Times did a good job. But if you, like me, don't know a lot about him. Andrew, this is the part where I complain about the New York Times on this computer. Hold on, I'm gonna log in. Let's see.

[A]

I would help you out here, but I don't think I did not read this. God, that head of hair, though. When you're talking about being envious of his look, I've. I've been envious. He was 78 years old when he passed away and has such a head of hair.

[B]

I'm God ahead for days. For days. Anyway, I can't get to it because the problem is, Andrew, that the New York Times. I know we talked about this yesterday and by the way, that was another thing that I remembered was that you were kind of shading me yesterday on this and o appreciate it one bit.

[A]

You said, oh, on the New York Times.

[B]

Yeah, I was complaining. I have it on my phone. I'm logged into the app. I have it on my other laptop. I'm logged in. I pay for it. This laptop, for some reason, every time I try to click on a link for the New York Times, it wants me to put in my password. Do you think I know what my password is? Of course not. It's saved in the thing. Point is, if you, like me, are a kind of a novice when it comes to David lynch and where he fits into the larger sort of world of film, please just read the New York Times, kind of obit slash, just career retrospective. Because what this writer did, whose name I don't have right in front of me, did a really, really nice job.

[A]

I can give you that. J. Hoberman is the writer.

[B]

He did a really nice job of, of contextualizing David lynch as compared to like Steven Spielberg and George Lucas and these other. He was part of this kind of. This just like sort of brat pack of directors that all kind of burst onto the scene at around the same time. He kind of puts Scorsese in this as well, I guess. Which I guess makes sense if you think about the timeline. And, and. And then he points out the ways in which David lynch just kind of never fully. Do you know that George Lucas wanted David lynch to direct? I think it was either Star wars or Empire Strikes Back.

[A]

No, I didn't know that. And then Dune came out.

[B]

Yeah, Dune was not first.

[A]

Right.

[B]

I. I think, actually, I don't know the timeline of which was.

[A]

Which.

[B]

But like, there was. The guy writing the piece in the Times is like, basically, yeah, if you would have had David lynch direct Empire Strikes Back, we wouldn't be talking about Star wars right now.

[A]

That's right.

[B]

Kind of the end of the line for the franchise.

[A]

For what it's worth, Dune came out in 84, so I'm pretty sure that. So obviously the first Star wars already came out. And I think. Wouldn't the. The first Empire. The first. Wouldn't the first Empire Strikes Back. I think Empire Strikes Back came out long before 84 as well. Yeah. So, yeah, I get. I don. Know the story of how lynch ended up with Dune, but I do know that it didn't end well and that he didn't really finish the cut.

[B]

It goes by way of Mel Brooks.

[A]

Oh, of course. Well, you see a lot of. Not to talk down to you, but you see a lot of Mel Brooks in Dune. You see a lot of the, like, kind of classic hallmarks of that. It's Blazing Sandworms. Blazing Sandworms is great.

[B]

So Mel Brooks saw Eraserhead and was this. By the way, this is to Mel Brooks's, I guess, eternal credit. Thank you. Thank you very much. This is what's so interesting to me about somebody like Mel Brooks, which is that you look at Spaceballs and all the other Mel Brooks stuff and it's so kind of slapstick and whatever. And the idea that he also went and saw Eraserhead and was like, I don't really know what's going on in this movie, which I think would describe most people's experience with it, but something interesting is happening. Like, and the fact that Mel Brooks valued Eraserhead in some way such that he went and found David lynch and was like, come direct the Elephant man is an interesting view into Mel Brooks's mind, because he wasn't. I mean, he obviously had a lot going on in there other than just like, you know, Spaceballs jokes, you know, like. Anyway, so then I forget who it was. I don't know who it was who greenlit the Dune thing, but my memory of just reading this New York Times article was that even though Dune was kind of a flop, I don't. I mean, obviously that didn't fully. That didn't like, ruin David Lynch's reputation. I was at a different time too, I think, like, I think you could direct a movie and it could not go great. And it wasn't like, well, now you have no talent and you suck. And we're done with You. The other thing that is so interesting to me was what a massive hit Twin Peaks was. Think about that. I remember this from my childhood. I didn't watch it, but I knew about it. I was like, Twin Peaks was a whole thing. And like thinking about that show and how kind of high art it was or what, I don't know how I didn't watch it. You did, Andrew. But like, isn't it insane to think that enough American people were tuning into Twin Peaks, that it was a breakout hit?

[A]

Because I didn't watch it until long. Well, at the time it seemed so long after was on TV. But looking back, like it was on TV in the 80s, I started watching in the 90s, you know, like 2014 seems like a blink of an eye to me now, but at the time that I finally sat down to start watching Twin Peaks on VHS tapes that I rented from the local library after I kind of got done with my shift. I think I've told you this before just to paint a little picture. When it was spring break, you know, people are like, spring break? Woohoo. My spring break. And this is not a complaint. I love Kent State. Everybody else went off somewhere and I stayed in my tiny little like studio apartment just off of campus. And I was working at a fiberglass factory at the time, which I think David lynch would appreciate. And I get off of my shift at the Fiberglass factory, drive 20 minutes to one of those. They called it the Kent Free Library and it was just a regular library. And I would rent like maybe like three VHS of Twin Peaks wherever I had left off. And then I would stop at the Hess gas station, was it, or a bp and get myself like a half of Red Dog beer, the cheapest beer that would come in bottles. And I would just like go sit on my little bench that was taken out of my minivan and stuffed underneath my bed and I would put on Twin Peaks on the VCR that was connected to two different televisions in my tiny little studio.

[B]

Interesting stereo optics.

[A]

It was very uncomfortable for people who'd come over and watch movies because I had two TVs and they sort of faced in different directions. So when you sat down to watch a movie at my place, out of the corner of your eye sort of looked like your friend was looking at you. I had.

[B]

Was that.

[A]

No. You could write friends?

[B]

No, but I mean, was that. Was the two. The two television solutions so that you could be lying or relaxing and look in either direction and see it. Was it to double the. It didn't Double the. It didn't double the size of the screen because it was the same image on both screens just happening at the same time.

[A]

I think it was just because I could wires. I had the TVs, I had one VCR and I was learning, you know, and so I was plug things in. And no, it didn't work well because one sort of face, they were sort of facing 90 degrees. So one person would sit on a bean bag or something on the floor and sort of look past me. Our vision would sort of cross in a very small space, too, I'd like to point out. Oh, and it just smelled like Freon and cigarette smoke as we chain smoked and watch it. Anyway, that was my experience of watching Twin Peaks. And my problem with Twin Peaks is.

[B]

Actually sounds pretty ideal. And I'm not shitting you, it sounds like the environment to watch it in.

[A]

But I still think. I can't tell you how many times in my adult life I've gone back and said, I don't remember where I left off on Twin Peaks because it gets really complicated. And they started a second season, but I believe. Or was it a third? I get very, very confused in the timeline of Twin Peaks. I believe there's some Twin Peaks where Agent Cooper is no longer involved. I'm not.

[B]

Yeah, they did a reboot, and I think he shows up in the final episode.

[A]

Oh, are you talking about the new new one?

[B]

Oh, yeah.

[A]

I'm talking about some season that was concurrent, like in the 1980s, and I never. That's the thing with the new one that was produced, I want to say, for hbo, but maybe some other streamer. I want to watch that. But I keep telling myself, well, go back. You have Twin Peaks at home. We have Twin Peaks at home, Mom. Exactly. And then I'm like, yeah, but where to pick up? Because it's just not the type of thing that you can just delve right back into and remember. Remember where you left off. Even Twin Peaks.

[B]

Like me with severance. Last night.

[A]

Oh, you posted something on Blue Sky. A photo that's dropping now, huh? That's.

[B]

The first episode's out. I watched it last night.

[A]

Yeah. Yeah.

[B]

And I had almost no idea what was going on. I should have. I should have pulled an Andrew and gone back and, like, rewatched the final three episodes. I think by the end of this latest one, the one that was just released yesterday, I think I sort of had pieced it back together, kind of what was going on. But, I mean, it's complicated and it's getting Ever more complicated. But I was, I was chuffed, chuffed to see that when I'm not giving too much away here, I'm not giving anything away that you don't find out in the first five minutes of watching this. But like, you know, Adam Scott's character, he's, you know, he's going back down below to his workspace and he comes in. What's different about it now is he sort of. He has an aware, he has an awareness that everything is not right top side. You know what I mean?

[A]

Yeah, yeah.

[B]

But it's still. But he's still severed, I guess. So it's still like, like his innie just has more conflict. Right. But he knows there's more going on with his Audi, but he doesn't really know what it is. But there was this moment, if you remember. Sorry, this is so boring. If you don't care about severance. This is what I pieced together at the end of the last season. There was this tiny window of time where John Turturro's character, I believe, throws a switch and everyone is on the outside becomes fully sort of conscious of everything.

[A]

For a moment though.

[B]

For a moment for like, for like 10 minutes. And then that, that, that lever gets thrown back. So they're all working. They're now, they're all, they're all inside. Right. They're back down in the, you know, in. At their job. But they're all, they all had a glimpse. So their innies had a look, five minute window into the outside world and they know something about their lives out there.

[A]

Remembering.

[B]

Yeah, that's what they're working off of. But, but before, before the, the gang all gets back together, there's a moment where Adam Scott goes back to his workspace and he's got three new co workers and one of them is Ali Shawcat.

[A]

Yes.

[B]

And the other is Bob Balaban.

[A]

You posted a photo of that.

[B]

I did not know Bob Balaban was alive, but I am here for it.

[A]

Yes, absolutely. Of course I think of him first and foremost from Seinfeld, but he's really famous from Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Right. Which I've never seen. Or am I confusing him with another white guy, Richard Dreyfus? I thought Bob Balaban was.

[B]

Here's my, my Bob Balaban canon is as the music teacher in waiting for Guffman, who Corky kind of elbows out of the way. Yes, yes, yes, that's, that's for me, that's like. That's when I became aware of Balaban. But he, he. He's in this and he's great. And yeah, I mean, I'm. I'm. The thing about the severance is he.

[A]

Is in Close Encounters. By the way, I've never seen Close Encounters. I just think it's funny that, like, I'm of a generation like, oh, Bob Balaban, right? The producer. The guy who plays the producer, the TV producer in Seinfeld, where I think he was already super famous before then. Anyway. Go ahead. Sorry.

[B]

I watched Close Encounters, I want to say, on television when I was. I would have been pretty young. And all I can remember is the scene that everyone remembers from that movie, which is Richard Dreyfuss warging out and building a monolith of mashed potatoes that, like, represents something that he doesn't even understand. That just like Total Recall should be the movie where the lady has three boobs, Close Encounters should be called the movie where Richard Dreyfus does the thing with the mashed potatoes.

[A]

And do you know why I know about that scene with the mashed potatoes? Because I believe, and I'm trying to see when it was published. I think I. One of the first Mad magazines that I was allowed to buy.

[B]

Oh, that would be very much a thing they would parody.

[A]

I think it was, because this would have already been in the 90s. And I think it was like a compendium of parodies that they. Of movie parodies that they had done over the years. I'll bet you I still have that magazine somewhere. And so the most exposure I have to Close Encounters of the Third kind is whatever the gang at Mad magazine, however they gave it the treatment in 1979 or whatever that that would have been.

[B]

Of course, I wasn't allowed to own or possess Mad magazines, but, you know, I get my hands on them through various extralegal means and same thing. There was so much stuff in that magazine that was referenced that I had, like, be it political or pop cultural stuff that I literally had no context for. I've never seen it myself, but I just saw it parodied in there and that shaped my ideas of it.

[A]

Do you know how. And I think we've talked about this before. In fact, we have a voicemail. Maybe I'll play it next week from a listener who has kind of a similar. Similar story. The things that really stick with me, like some of the memories that I have that my brain won't shake, are because they were somewhat. Well, as your family would say, fresh or dirty. And you saw them at a young age and so you were Maybe both. Like titillated or just confused about it. And I remember, much like the movie the Godfather, Mad magazine was something that my dad absolutely loved but would not allow me to take part in because, you know, he's like. You would talk about how he loves the Godfather, how he loves MAD magazine, but I was a kid and I wasn't ready for that kind of, you know, MAD magazine. Luke, famously not for kids, right?

[B]

No, no, no.

[A]

And so I remember, like, I think may, we knew that MAD magazine was funny and something beloved, but we also knew that it was, you know, it was pretty. Yes, pretty on the edge and we were too young for it, but somehow, I don't know if we had one as a fan. Somehow a Mad magazine came into our life. And I remember looking at it and thinking it was funny. But then my. You know how they would have little cartoons almost in the margins. Am I remembering that? Right? They had little, like little sketch cartoons, like kind of in between the main content, which I just love that format. And there was one. And this is gonna get real dirty real fast, everybody.

[B]

So get your mouth, get sleep ready.

[A]

Because I remember having a moment with a Mad magazine and my dad and kind of being like, oh, look, we can all enjoy Mad magazine. But then my dad kind of pointing. See, see, this is the kind of stuff that, you know, kind of makes it not right for kids. Because in one of these little sketches that I believe was like maybe a three part, very rudimentary cartoon, you see a man and woman fooling around in bed. It's pretty clear somehow that they're having an affair. The husband comes home. Classic scene, right? The husband comes home, but the wife is alone in bed by the time he gets to the bedroom. So where is the philanderer, right? Where is the other man? And then we see an outside shot of the building and the man is hanging outside the window. They're in some sort of a high rise, right? And so the man is hanging. So we see. And he's naked, but we just see his buttocks. But the real dirty part is in the window below him, the one that he's hanging in front of. There's a cat playing with his ding a ling. So you just sort of see a cat, like, kind of reaching out and you don't.

[B]

The cat is playing with the man's dingling. The cat is not playing with the cat's dingling.

[A]

Exactly. The cat is playing.

[B]

I mean, that'd be a really evolved cat.

[A]

The cat is reaching out the window and you see the guy Sort of fidgeting because suddenly there's a cat toy for this cat as this man. And again, all we see, the only thing that we see that's dirty is like a very rudimentary sketch of a man's buttocks, you know?

[B]

Right, right. You don't even see, you don't actually even see the front side.

[A]

Right, exactly. But like just like I remember thinking that was like funny and like, you know, and also dirty and also the thing that made me not be allowed to watch MAD magazine for another five or read MAD magazine for another five years. But anyway, that just stuck in my head.

[B]

Also breaking news. I guess they're still somehow printing MAD magazine. It's still happening. I'm looking at one here. That's the. It's their love issue. But of course they've stamped stinks between the word love and issue. So it's their love stinks issue. And who do you think the COVID couple is, Andrew? Who's the. Who's in the most high profile relationship maybe in America, possibly the world right now?

[A]

Why am I Taylor Swift and Travis.

[B]

Kelsey but Travis Kelce's face is as Alfred E. Newman? It's like, I mean, God bless it, God bless that this is still happening.

[A]

But I love it. I think, I think they have ads now. I know that MAD magazine has really struggled like ever since the dawn of the Internet. I think Cracked, which, growing up we were like even on the playground or whatever. Like MAD magazine was one thing, but Cracked was the one that like all the bad kids really liked. You know, like if the, if the Beatles were MAD magazine then, then CR. Cracked was the class, you know, or something. Yeah, I don't know, but maybe, maybe I messed up that analogy. But having said all of that, I feel like Cracked did a better job of sort of easing into the Internet age. I feel like.

[B]

Absolutely. They kind of ate the onion. They figured out how to be Onion esque, I think.

[A]

Yeah, exactly. So how do, how do we get here? Rest in peace, David Lynch.

[B]

Rest in peace David Lynch. And what a legacy. Honestly, like, like I said, a very singular creative vision. Who, who sort of, you know, who really stayed true to whatever it was that he was, wanted to sort of project to the world also, by the way. And then I'll stop with the whatever, but like it was really interesting reading in that New York Times piece. Just the, the sort of all the different kinds of movies that he made. Like he, he was the guy who made that. The straight story about the guy who drives his lawnmower two States to visit his estranged brother.

[A]

Which you've seen, right? I've still never seen.

[B]

I don't think I've seen it. I just know it's one of those things that was, you know, I think, kind of big in the culture for a while because it was just a. It was a. It was an odd idea for a movie. And again, I did. Totally forgot that was directed by David lynch, of all people.

[A]

Now I'm gonna. This is. We are in a good place to wrap it up and you know how I'm wrapping things up. But I wanted to. There's one more intersection that I just think about sometimes that is not interesting to anybody but me. I might be able to get you slightly interested in it because of your love of Mac Miller.

[B]

Do you know that I know exactly where you're going?

[A]

And do you know that the song that opens up my other podcast after these messages is a song that I absolutely love, and it's Mac Miller rapping over. Even though we don't use the lyrics on the show. Rapping over the 1950s song that appears, I believe in Mulholland Drive. Right. Every little star or something. Something like that.

[B]

But what's interesting about that, you're at. I went on this exact journey last night, Andrew, because I was like, oh, why do I know this song? And then it was like, oh, because Mac Miller raps over this.

[A]

It was one of his earliest songs. He's like a kid. Have you ever seen this video? He's like a child rap.

[B]

I think I have. But what's interesting is. Okay, I don't. We don't have to. This is what happens when, like, I've watched something in the last 12 hours. It's so at the very front of my brain, you know. But, like, what's interesting about that scene? So Justin Theroux is this director who's sort of being strong armed into casting a specific person in his film. And he's, you know, kind of one of these Hollywood types who thinks he knows better. And so when we, when we're. We're on the, on the sort of sound stage and there's an audition going on and this actor, actress, rather, is doing this kind of doo wop 50s thing. And then they bring the next actress in and this is the one that he's supposed to cast. But what's weird is she's doing a totally different song than the actress who auditioned before her, which makes no sense in how auditions work. Like, because the first one she comes over to, Justin Theroux character And she's like, you know, I want this job. And he's like, yeah, you know, I gotta audition everyone. I can't just give it to you, but you're the top of my list or whatever. And she's done a whole thing with back singers and dancers. It's one kind of doo wop song. And then this other actress comes in, the one that he's sort of under pressure to cast. And by the way, another thing that's weird about it is she's also great in her lip syncing of the song that you start after these messages with. Right. Like, I was expecting it to be like, oh, she's terrible. It's going to be like Bullets Over Broadway. It's like the joke is some. Some shadowy mob guy in LA is trying to put his, like, you know, lame girlfriend in this movie. No, she's also awesome and she's great at it. And that song. What's the name of that song again?

[A]

Ever? I want to say every little star, but I don't know that I'm right about the original one. The Mac Miller was called Knock Knock. I know that.

[B]

Right. But whatever the original one is, I mean, what a song, first of all. And I don't think that I had ever heard it out of the context of the Mac Miller version or after these messages.

[A]

So now is. It just occurred to me, and this is gonna be a bad question. I can't remember the details of it, but there's a very, very iconic scene in a David lynch film. And now I realize it might be Mulholland Drive because I feel like I saw this scene in a theater because to kind of answer your question or your sort of like your whatever, your ruminations on that, like, why would you use two different songs for this? Is because I think David lynch just loves a good performance. Right? And it's just like wonderful to see two different songs instead of the same one. But isn't this the same one where is this the movie also where there's a woman in a solo spotlight just.

[B]

Performing one of the songs singing Crying by Roy Orbison in Spanish.

[A]

And it is.

[B]

It is a jaw dropping.

[A]

Now again, I've seen her perform that live. Whoa.

[B]

Really?

[A]

I believe our friend Leni brought her into. She was performing. What's that? Beloved, unfortunately now gone. Little Italian restaurant that was on First Hill that just closed. It had a fire and then something.

[B]

Dino's.

[A]

Is it Dino Vitos. Vitos. Vitos. Yeah. Anyway, I saw her perform that. There it was.

[B]

Are you kidding me?

[A]

That moment in that movie is it's jaw dropping.

[B]

I mean, it sent me down a whole rabbit hole about that because, I mean, again. And that I think. And maybe this is how we can sort of wrap this up. I guess that's a perfect example of why I think David lynch mattered. Because I have no effing idea why they go to Solamente. Why do they just. Why does the, you know, the one character start saying Solamente in her sleep? And then they go to a poorly attended, dimly lit movie house in downtown LA where a lady comes out who seems half drugged at first and then sings maybe the most impactful version of the Roy Orbison song crying I've ever seen in my life.

[A]

Maybe the most impactful song I've ever heard in my life. Like, it is amazing.

[B]

I'm better for having experienced it. And I have no idea why it was happening.

[A]

Same deal. That's why I was like, I don't know. Was that in. That. Was that in Fire Walk With Me? And I had a feeling it was.

[B]

It in the Straight Story, I will.

[A]

Say that that the one that you. Mulholland Drive, I feel like, is God. And I haven't seen all of his films, but, like, that is the height of sort of lush filmmaking by David Lynch. You know what I mean? Like, I love some of his early stuff. Like Blue Velvet is funnier and kind of weirder in a different way, but just, you know, earlier on. But like Mulholland Drive, just like. Like I do sort of. I sound so just pedestrian saying it. I do wish I had a little bit more closure on the storyline, but, man, that. That movie just kind of cradles you in the lush.

[B]

Well, you should also, now that you've lived in la, you should watch it again. Because what I realized was. Well, again, I don't know if I'd ever seen it before, but I just enjoyed the Los Angeles ness of it. I just enjoyed that, like, this one character is like in a car crash and then she wanders down from Mulholland Drive to Franklin. I'm like, I know that. I know where Franklin is and that would work, right?

[A]

And like, I believe so.

[B]

I mean, it was. It's a treacherous. It's not. She's like wandering through the, like, sort of like hills of Hollywood, you know, in the. In the grass and whatever.

[A]

But Jay Leno's shouldn't attest.

[B]

Precisely, precisely. This is a. One of the main. One of the main hazards to Jay Leno's existence. But she sort of makes it through. Okay, anyway, yeah, so, yeah, RIP David lynch, thank you for being. Speaking of our friend Leni, the great, great performer, prom queen Leni Celine Ramadan. She's many names and many talents, including being our donor theme song.

[A]

That's right.

[B]

Which is the time in the show when we thank folks who are supporting TBTL with their donations. This is 100% listener supported podcasting going on right here, right now, thanks to folks like Shay Daly, who's out there in Van Buren, Arkansas.

[A]

That's right. Thank you. Shay. Want to say, you know, you're talking about financial contributions to this show. You know, we are. You know, I think we're kind of being good business boys. By the way, I don't know if.

[B]

We'Ve given John credit for most of that.

[A]

Most certainly, John, but you know, we're already, it's only January and we're already well on our way talking about out some plans for this year and in the summer and things that we want to do. You know, we're, we're blue sky and now. But we're circling around some things and I will say some of these things which I think are going to be really fun and they're going to excite the TBT community. They're going to cost us some money, you know, and. Yes. And that's why this isn't. But I'm. Boy, if we pull some of this stuff off, I think it's going to be fun.

[B]

I don't want to, I don't want to overhype it, but I will say I believe this may be the most, in a certain way, the most ambitious TBTL a thon to date, potentially.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Or at least maybe one of the more interesting ones.

[A]

Yeah. You know, I think it's gonna be.

[B]

I think it's gonna be really, really fun and I'm excited that we're. That the wheels are already turning on that. But the only way that we can, you know, turn our wheels on this and dedicate the time to it and make this our job is because of donations from folks like Shay and also Bryce Yocum, who's in Visalia, California.

[A]

Oh, have you heard of Visalia?

[B]

I sure have. I feel like Visalia. Visalia is agriculture country, if I've got this right. I think Visalia is. Although I also, when I see Visalia, I want to say Vidalia, like the onion, which I don't think.

[A]

I don't know about that yet. They haven't told me about that.

[B]

Vidalia onion.

[A]

No spoilers. I haven't gotten to that part in the Onion book yet.

[B]

Let's see here. Visalia is. I'm looking at. It's in the San Joaquin Valley. And it is. And you know, the San Joaquin Valley, I believe is that's where that's, you know, the salad bowl, right? Is that the salad bowl?

[A]

I'm not sure. I'm not, I'm really not familiar really with this. But. Oh my gosh. I'm looking at photos, though, some beautiful photos.

[B]

I do think that's, that's where they grow a lot of. A lot of different things that grow well in the Central Valley of California because it gets real, real warm there.

[A]

So is it always the golden hour there? According to these photos? It's always the. The golden hour.

[B]

And Visal, I'm. That's what it's known for. Always. That's why Bryce moved there.

[A]

It's beautiful. Thank you, Bryce.

[B]

Thanks. Thanks, Bryce. Thanks. Robin Boggs in Frankfurt, Kentucky.

[A]

Indeed. Thank you, Robin.

[B]

Sometimes I have to fly to Frankfurt, Kentucky in December to get my miles, Andrew. And it's.

[A]

Have you.

[B]

Actually, I still haven't written. I still haven't written my strongly worded email to Alaska Airlines. I better strike while the iron is warm.

[A]

Honestly, if you strike while the iron.

[B]

Is tepid or I'm gonna lose this whole momentum on this thing. Thanks, Robin. Thanks to Christina Mayer, who's in Wenatchee, Washington. Interesting, because Wenatchee, Washington is kind of the Visalia of Washington. Grow all kinds of crops there in Wenatchee, particularly apples. Well known for its apple.

[A]

They should put that on the signs.

[B]

This part of Washington. Christina, get on that. Thanks to. Oh, Andrew.

[A]

Oh. Oh, Sally.

[B]

Look at how apropos. This is Sally Rasmussen checking in from. Guess where.

[A]

I'm gonna guess North Bend, Washington.

[B]

You're gonna guess correctly. It helps that you have the list in front of you. Exactly what else happened in North Bend, Washington, my friend.

[A]

Oh, of course. Twin Peaks. North Bend, Washington.

[B]

The cafe. Some mighty fine pie. That's all happening. And you don't believe in a David Lynch.

[A]

I mean that. Can we. Actually, that's one other thing about David lynch that we didn't really talk about. Or maybe Twin Peaks specific that I don't think I had an appreciation for until I moved out here is just the Pacific Northwest of it all, you know, and he would take some, some, you know, this story of strange happenings and darkness and murder, but to put trees. Yes, but to put it up here, the, the open. Have you seen the opening sequence of. Of Twin Peaks before? It's all just like Some like, close ups of logs being cut in the lumber industry, but, like, kind of slowed down, set to that. That music by Baladacci. I'm saying his name wrong, but.

[B]

Oh, but I think you're pretty dang close. That was his longtime collaborator. I learned that guy did the music for a lot of his stuff.

[A]

Yeah. Why am I blanking on the name? But anyway.

[B]

Yeah, but it's an Italian name.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

I thought you got pretty close. That's. I think that's what I read the other day.

[A]

That's the one.

[B]

That's the one. But no, I haven't. I actually probably will. I actually might go back and like, just give the first, like, the pilot of Twin Peaks. You should watch how I feel. But. But one last thing about old Dave Lynch. I think his friends called him Dave. Feels like a real different guy if he's Dave Lynch. Oh, hey, who's coming over later? Oh, Dave's gonna be here.

[A]

That is interesting, Davey. I'd almost. I'd expect more than just Dave.

[B]

Dave Lynch. He. He grew up partially in Spokane, Washington.

[A]

Oh, okay.

[B]

Which is where his. So I think his family kind of moved around a bit. But in. But he spent a significant part of his growing up years in Spokane, which is where he sort of connected with this Pacific Northwest vibe. And then even though he. He moved around and he spent a lot of time in Philadelphia and he was kind of. He was a painter first. Like, he went to art school for painting and was kind of. That was sort of his thing. And he was part of this, like, as you might imagine, this real, like, believe me, they would have thought that your digs in Kent State were bourgeoisie. He's part of a real out there kind of art collective in Philly that were just basically squatting and stuff. And then that's when he sort of decided to make a Racerhead or whatever. But anyway, he's always had this Pacific Northwest connection because of his time in Spokane.

[A]

I'm really excited about this idea of. Because I do think that Twin Peaks, like the entire series is a bit to maybe bite off all at once. But like. Like, I actually love the idea of you at least watching the pilot and getting a sense of Agent Cooper who's always. I mean, it's so. It's dark and weird and all that. But it's so funny, Luke. Like that. That tape we played at the beginning of, like, that person saying, I. I follow in the footsteps of Gandhi and King. Like, he is.

[B]

Yes.

[A]

The reason that's so funny is because he is Such an asshole. The entire movie. He's like this big dog and federal investigator who comes in and just talks down to everybody in the town. He is jerk Luke. And then he like, then he comes clean. He's like, the reason I do it that the reason I treat you this way is out of love. And it's just like such a great moment.

[B]

I had no idea that was a Twin Peaks thing until yesterday when like clips were making the rounds and suddenly I saw that scene and I was like, oh, this has been from Twin Peaks the whole time. I had no idea what. That I choose to live my life. Whatever. Whatever. Gandhi.

[A]

Yes. Like, think you're. I think you're going to get it. Yeah. I think you. You'll really love the. The first, like, maybe couple of episodes.

[B]

Yeah, I'll give it a shot. I wonder what Jonna Beving makes of the whole thing. Jonna's in Camarillo, California.

[A]

I always think of Janna wanted to think Jonna and her kiddos waved to us from like, maybe when we were driving the van around. We were driving somewhere where it would have put us in Camarillo, I think, but just for a moment. Camarillo, Sorry. On the highway. And so the plan was to try to wa. From. From like.

[B]

That sounds about right. That sounds like something that we would have done.

[A]

Thank you.

[B]

Anyway, thanks, John. Thanks to all of our donors for making TBTL happen. We absolutely couldn't do this without you. And speaking of the tens of listeners, Andrew, we've got a new segment that we're rolling out today, right.

[A]

It's the TBTL community calendar.

[B]

Now, why are we spelled community and calendar both with K's? I'm not sure. It's just. It just felt right. Can you kind of explain the sort of origin story of this new segment and this incredible theme song?

[A]

Yeah. Well, obviously we want to be on the cutting edge of digital content, right? And we thought, like, what do podcast listeners want? And we thought, well, sort of an AM radio style swap shop style segment. But the truth of the matter, Tradio.

[B]

God, if we take this far enough, Andrew, if we tradio this, we might get prank called by the Howard Stern show, which would be incredible.

[A]

Wait, Luke, I'll tell you why we're doing this in a second. But could we do a trade? Could we do a one time only tradio episode of tv?

[B]

Absolutely.

[A]

People call in and say, I got this snow blower I gotta get rid of. It's pretty good. It's like a 2013 snowblower. And I'm asking about 350 bucks for it or best offer. And then we get that person's email address, and then people just call in and talk about what they're. What they're selling. I don't see any reason I can't do that.

[B]

Abs. I think we could. I mean, geography may be a challenge because usually these are hyperlocal.

[A]

Yeah, of course.

[B]

But that's. Let's not let that. Let's not let that stop us. I love this idea of a tbtl. We got to come up with our own spin on it. So Swap shop is taken. Tradio is taken.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

But. Yeah, this music's really got me in the mood for some Saturday morning. This would be about 8am on a Saturday morning. Yes. And you're people are just kind of getting rolling with their weekend and they're calling in that they just heard about something that. Hey, do you guys still. Do you have the number of that guy that was selling the. The. You know, the freezer. Oh, by the way, I'm in the market for a. For a freezer to put in my basement.

[A]

Whoa. Really? Looking at a.

[B]

Well, my whole plan.

[A]

I don't like the kind of.

[B]

Yeah, but you know what?

[A]

Let's.

[B]

I know we're doing community calendar right now, but later I can tell you about why I'm looking into deep freezes.

[A]

I like the fact that just you mentioning that you're getting a freezer to me can totally derail the show and the brand new setup.

[B]

Not with this music account. This is what keeps us focused.

[A]

The truth of the matter is we have so many tens writing into us about upcoming meetings, meetups that they're planning, and various events and volunteer opportunities and book clubs. And I thought, you know what, let's just combine this into a community calendar that we do right here on the air. And we're going to start with the Valentine's card exchange project here. Luke Jamie in Mississippi is coordinating this. This year, if you would like to sign up to receive a bunch of Valentine's from Valentin and send some out yourself, all you have to do is sign up at a special link which I am going to put right at the top of tbtail.net by the time you hear this, there will be a button at the top of tbtail.net that says Valentine's sign up, click that button and sign up. And you do have to do that before Sunday, January 26, at midnight Central time in order to get in under deadline.

[B]

Midnight Central.

[A]

Exactly. We also have a bunch Bunch of meetups happening here in the Seattle area, all coordinated by listener Krista. Thank you. This is our pal Krista in Eastlake who I run into from time to time. I'm gonna read a bunch of information here. And I do want to say this. We're going to be, you know, throwing a lot of dates and times at you here during this community calendar segment. If you have questions about any of these things, I think the easiest thing to do is just email me andrewbtl.net and I will will be the per. Then I'll forward on any questions you have to the people because I don't want to give out a whole bunch of different email addresses here if you guys have any questions. But let's start up in Everett. Up from where I am. She's up in Everett tonight.

[B]

Everett. Everett. Let's see if you ever say just do this. I don't know. I don't know if you have big weekend plans or not. We haven't covered this. But if you find yourself hanging out with Kamaru Kev, just say the word to everybody, Everett casually and wait for.

[A]

Him to reframe it as Everett the Mandalorian. Let's see here. Let's we have a meetup coming up on Thursday, January 23, up there in Everett, 6pm it starts at Scuttlebutt Brewer, Scuttlebutt Brewing, I should say. It says the restaurant on Craft Brewery Way, not the Tap Room. So it's in the restaurant of Scuttlebutt Brewing in Everett on Thursday, January 23, 6pm Fun. Also Tacoma. She's down in Tacoma tonight, Saturday, February 1, get together with Kristen the gang, 4pm At Seven Seas Brewing on Jefferson Avenue.

[B]

That's nice.

[A]

Seven Seas Brewing in Tacoma, February 1 at 4pm That's a Saturday. So you're getting, getting your drink on a little bit earlier there.

[B]

Okay. And then right here, Tacoma, folks. I'm guessing you said that Chris running that.

[A]

I think Krista is. Krista's the one who emailed me about all of these.

[B]

Oh, nice. And I know, I think Pam, I think listener Pam's is a, is a critical component of the Tacoma 10 experience. I thought I had seen her name maybe floating around with this too. I think, I think we know at least two people are going to show.

[A]

Yeah, Pam is definitely going to be there and wanted to let listeners know that as well. And also so right here in Seattle, which is south of Everett and north of Tacoma, right here in Seattle on Sunday, February 9th, 4pm Again, Stoop Brewing that's on Capitol Hill. 4pm On February 9th. Okay.

[B]

Do you know anything else about that?

[A]

Nope. So there you go. There's your Everett, Tacoma and Seattle meetups at various breweries in the greater Seattle area. But we have more. Oh, busy calendar, we've mentioned. That's why we had to do a roundup. We've mentioned this on the show once before, but I want to remind people that Annie is getting people together. So for a volunteer opportunity at Food Lifeline in Seattle's south park neighborhood, that's Saturday, March 1, from 9 to 11am People are going to be sorting and repacking nutritious food for neighbors who need it. Again, that is Saturday, March 1st. You do have to sign up. You can email me and I will get you to the right place for that.

[B]

Volunteers must be 10pm Central Time. That's the deadline.

[A]

That's right. Sign up. No, it's Saturday, March 1st. 9am is when it happens. But just sign up. And you do have to be 10 years old or older. And finally, this is from listener Cecilia, who runs the TBTL Book Club, where she organizes things on Slack and the Stens page on Facebook. Wanted to let us know that the next book for the TBTL Book club will be James by Evert.

[B]

Boy, is that book ever light in the world on fire.

[A]

I was familiar with it. Maybe I should read it. I don't think I can read it for the book club because I'm too slow of a reader and I'm.

[B]

Are you familiar with the premise?

[A]

Well, I believe it has something to do with this count who's going around getting revenge on all the people who sent him to prison erroneously. No. What's it about?

[B]

The. It's. It's Huck. It's the Huck Finn story told from the perspective of Jim the Slave.

[A]

Oh, yes. I. I do think that Cecilia mentioned that in her original email to me. I did not realize that I might.

[B]

Want to be in that book club. I've been meaning to. You know, I've been meaning to actually sit down with that book. I'm. I'm. Right now, I'm working my way through, well, various workbooks, but also Salman Rushdie's book Nine Knife, which is about him being attacked at Chautauqua, which is not for an interview. It's just because Becca got it for me. But after that, after that, I'm starting in on James, so maybe we'll join up.

[A]

Let me give the date on this one. So the next meeting is going to be Sunday, March 9th. It's going to be sometime in the afternoon. They're still working out the details, but they'll post the zoom link.

[B]

Oh, nice. So it's virtual.

[A]

So it's a virtual book club. Anybody can join. And I'm not sure if there's a signup situation. If you have any questions again, email me andrewbtl.net but that's going to be on March 9th, sometime in the afternoon. And keep an eye on the Slack and Stens page if you're there so you can synchronize schedules.

[B]

I'm going to try to make it. That's going to. That's a tough Sunday for me because I'm coming off of the G Love and Special Sauce show that I've attended the night before, and it's a mere four days before the birthday of our friend Katie Beck.

[A]

Oh, okay.

[B]

So you're kind of sandwiched in between a couple of big events for me.

[A]

Oh, yeah. This is Genevieve's birthday. It just occurred to me, isn't March 9th Genevieve's birthday? I think. Yeah. Not that anybody has to celebrate that in the book club, but. Wait a second. Are you really going to see G Love? That's interesting.

[B]

I am. It was a gift. Becca's family is big on giving experiences, which is actually, I have to say, kind of a cool thing. Part of me is like, I mean, here's what happens. Historically, they're always giving each other tickets to things. Like, because they're all people who basically have the stuff that they need. They don't need a new air fryer or whatever. It's like, we, most of us, if we've been fortunate, we don't need a lot more stuff. And so they're big on, like, a ticket to this thing, and they'll buy everyone a ticket for it. And everyone's always. And it's been the case a couple of times that I've been, like, included in this. And the day has come for the thing, and I've been like, all right, I guess I'm going to Bright Eyes. Or okay, I guess I'm going to. Who did we go? I'm going to see Slick Rick. And it's, you know, like a Sunday night, and I am so glad that I ended up going to the thing. You know, that's kind of how it usually works. I think, for most of us when there's a social engagement, there's just like, there's always that point in the day of where you're like, could I lie on the couch here indefinitely or go to this thing. I would choose lying on the couch. But I'm always glad that I went to the thing and there big. They're big on going to the thing in that family. So I'll be going to G Love and Special Sauce.

[A]

That's cool. I was trying to find like every now and then I get this notion to see if I can find any record of a concert that I went to in the 90s. Because you know, these bands, especially if you have a pretty strong following, people will put together like archives of everywhere they play bootlegs and sometimes you can actually even find the set list or whatever. I can't find this, but I know I saw G Love I think still in high school. I'm almost positive it was still in high school. And it was. He was. You know, that was when he was blowing up. And you know, cold beverage was huge right then in a very specific circle. But I do remember he wasn't so big that like he was filling up huge rooms. And it was such a small. I feel like we were like kind of like just sitting around him sort of. I must be somewhat wrong on that, but I don't remember it being even like a. That much of a raised stage. I feel. Could that have been at the Agora in Cleveland? I'm not sure where it was, but it was such an intimate performance. I remember, I mean being. Being super psyched about it. And again I was probably like 16 or 17 years old.

[B]

I have a similar experience which was when the song Baby Got Sauce started blowing up on kcmu. It was still called KCMU back in the. I remember. I literally remember like where I was. I was driving my 1980. My brown 1980 Honda Civic and I was parking it on the street in front of my parents house. And that song came on my little tape deck and I was like, I had to sit in my car and wait until the whole block of music was over so the KCMU DJ would identify what this magical sound is I just heard. And I swear to God he was like, that's G Love and Special Sauce with Baby Got Sauce. And I was like. Started the car up and drove to Silver Platters to purchase that compact disc and then just wore it out from there. Flash forward to I'm a freshman in college. I. And I feel like I had. It was really early in the school year, so it's fall, but it's still like really warm weather out. And I was very, very lucky in that I had a pretty idealized. Other than the fact that I Had a secret baby. I had a pretty idealized kind of freshman experience of moving into the dorm. And I just remember getting all my stuff set up in the dorm and realizing I now live here and I decide when I go to sleep and where I go and what I do and. And critically for me, because my whole life revolved around playing pickup basketball. There was this outdoor pickup basketball court that was kind of positioned between all of the different dorms and stuff. And I remember just like getting all set up in my dorm room and then putting, putting on my like tennis shoes or my basketball shoes and then walking over. Because when I was a kid I was so obsessed with pickup basketball. And I was always looking for a good, reliable pickup basketball game where it was like fun, it was competitive, but there was enough players so you had two teams and a team waiting. It was all happening here on this warm September afternoon. And I remember it was probably a week or two later that I heard G Love and Special Sauce were coming to play at the Hub, the Husky Union Building. And I remember going out to the basketball court on the day before the concert and there was G Love shooting hoops with us.

[A]

Oh, wow.

[B]

And we played. I played pickup basketball ball with. At that point I would have said the greatest music star in America. G Love.

[A]

That's the perfect time to. I don't, I don't think I knew that story. I knew you love G Love. By the way, this is a small thing and I might be reading too much into this, but I wanted to see the track listing on that first record, which I think is just self titled. And on Wikipedia it actually even it says in describing this first record, it says, you know, it had Cold Beverage, the song, which became a college radio staple, as well as Baby's Got Sauce, which Seattle's KEXP FM called Song of the Year. So now of course, it wasn't KEXP back then, as you just said. But that's interesting that I wonder if like KEXP actually had a bit of a star making role in.

[B]

Oh, I bet they did. I bet they did. Because even in those days it wasn't the sort of cultural juggernaut that it is now as kexp. But I think it probably had some pretty good sway as far as kind of college radio. I'm guessing that the biggies at that time would have been like WXPN and Philly, the current still in Minnesota. I don't know if they called it that then. And. And KCMU would have probably been kind of a biggie I don't know if.

[A]

KTRA was around then down in Texas. That's a big one now too. Yeah, I do. I'm legit excited for you, Luke. I don't know what the venue is, but here's what I'm thinking and maybe you have more information and.

[B]

But like, I have less information.

[A]

Like, if.

[B]

I literally didn't even realize this was happening until I looked at my calendar for when the book club is meeting.

[A]

If the venue is good. Like, I have no idea what G Love is doing these days or how he sounds, but it's the kind of music. And this is gonna sound like I'm being sarcastic is obviously there's a little bit of. There's a little bit of like, I guess, influence of rap in there, but like, he's the kind of musician that could. His music could evolve well as he ages. We've talked about this on the show before and it's this vague notion that I have that I need to be careful not to be ageist when I discuss these things. But there are certain kinds of music where. And I'll say, like my beloved B52s is an example of music that doesn't age well as the musicians age and perform it. You know what I mean? There seems to be sort of a disconnect between the music that this band made.

[B]

It suffers from the Mickey Avalon syndrome.

[A]

Yeah, I would guess so. But then you have things like Wilco or Jeff Tweedy, more specifically, or, you know, Tom Petty, Rest In Peace or like the people who, you know, had their. Had their early days of rock and roll or whatever it was. But like, their music lends itself to something that you could see evolving. And I could totally. With the music, I could so totally see G Love leaning more into, you know, like the. The. Because mostly it's like kind of blues and it can just be a guitar and a small little backup band.

[B]

Yeah, I. I totally agree. I think it has the sound of particularly some of the, like, you know, maybe less well known tracks. I really only know that first record and then I think the one after that was called like, oh, yeah, it's that easy or something. I don't think I was also. I was extremely, extremely into. But there's a lot of tracks that. You're right. They're just kind of like. It's almost just kind of a groove and like a bluesy thing or whatever. It doesn't. It doesn't. It's not a ton of complex instrumentation and it's not something that feels necessarily Rooted only in youth. It feels like it's just kind of, you know, kind of music that you could play for your whole life and maybe even add a little more kind of emotional resonance to it as you get older. Yeah. It's at Rev hall, by the way.

[A]

Okay. So that's a pretty. That's a, you know, decent sized venue.

[B]

Decent sized venue.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

You know, that's a big venue for us when we do livewire there.

[A]

Yeah. So I guess so you said that's March 8th. I see that. He's hitting. Look, if I. If I'm right about that, he's hitting the croc here in Seattle the night before on the 7th. So that would be a Friday night for me, a Saturday night for you.

[B]

Two step.

[A]

I'm actually sort. Well, I didn't mean it.

[B]

I love this.

[A]

You know, what if we did? What if I did? And then listen, no pressure Monday, no.

[B]

Pressure, but I'll be curious. I'll be seeing them on the 8th because those tickets are bought. So if you. Again, no pressure, but if you do, if you feel like doing that, I'm totally down for the plan.

[A]

Yeah. Let me see if I can find some buddies or something that. Or see if this is interested. I might. You've really piqued my interest.

[B]

Something is this. Buying these tickets to Dig has really changed something inside you. And I love it. Yeah, I love it, Jim. All right, my friend, what do we want to do here? Do we want to try to delve into top stories that we didn't get to this week? Do we want to talk about skeletons in Tennessee? Do we want to do emails and V mails? Do we want to relax into the weekend? What do we want to do here? You know what occurred the last 15, 20 minutes of the show?

[A]

I do at some point want to talk about that top story. Maybe we prioritize it on Monday. Sure. You know, because it did occur to me, I had set something up as an email, a kind of a longish email involving Sky Jinx that I wanted to share, and I had totally forgotten about that. Could we do that today? Like. Yeah, so let's do that. Now. Hold on.

[B]

I've got a theme for this.

[A]

Yeah, I was gonna say. You get that? Thank you. Go once again with the email. Every week. I hope that it's from a female.

[B]

Oh, man.

[A]

It's not from a female. All right, all right.

[B]

You had me intrigued yesterday. You said you were on the edge of your seat. I was reading this. You said very. It was a transcription, I believe, of A very, very long.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

So the message.

[A]

This is a note from our listener Jeanette, who says, this is what just happened on a. On a flight to my husband. So I believe it's the husband who's. Who's actually writing this. John is his name. This was just on January 4th a couple of weeks ago. I almost wonder, Luke, I don't know what you have at your fingertips. If you have any dramatic music. I be reading for a while here.

[B]

Okay.

[A]

And I'm going to try to resist the urge to speed up, which I sometimes do when I get insecure because that's not going to do anybody any favors. So if you want to add some dramatic music underneath for it right now, I'll just start and I'll trust you to maybe just sneak that up underneath me. This is written by John. I get on the plane. This is Sky Jinx, by the way. I get on the plane and two women ask if I will switch seats with their friend because she has a little one with her. I agree, thinking the little one is a kid. But no, it's a dog. But okay, whatever. I move from 29A to 26C, losing my window seat, but I'm being nice. But then nobody joins me. I have the whole row to myself. There are only a few empty middle seats anywhere else. So this is a big win for me. For two hours I'm all spread out in my row, all by myself. By the way, this is a flight from. From. I'm thinking this is from Seattle to New York. And I think this is a flight. So for about two hours. And I'm gonna say this is five hour flight, full row to John himself. Then a flight attendant comes over and says, we're gonna need your seats. I move my stuff back under my own seat to clear the other seats and the attendant says, okay, so. So are you willing to be an able bodied passenger? I say, okay, do you need me to swap seats with an exit row person? She says, no, we need you to watch over someone for us.

[B]

Oh, wow.

[A]

I'm again thinking a little kid. Second time I wrongly thought that. So I say, sure. She says, okay, he'll be cuffed and we'll put him in the window seat seat and you'll sit in the aisle seat and alert us if he tries to leave.

[B]

What I mean, I have already a million questions, Andrew and I.

[A]

All I have is the text in front of me, so I don't know if asking them is going to do any good.

[B]

What I'm wondering is how in the World. Was there already a law enforcement event on this plane that John. John was unaware of?

[A]

I am.

[B]

I mean, I guess planes are very long, so maybe it was in the way back. I just feel like you got a guy zip tied.

[A]

Mm.

[B]

I'm gonna. I feel like that's gonna. I'm. That's gonna reverberate through the plane.

[A]

All right, so that what was not from me, that was from John. So that's John's reaction. Like, you're gonna alert us if this guy tries to leave. What? But I've already agreed, so. Okay. She says if you don't want to do it, we'll put an all call and ask a volunteer to swap seats with you. You. Well, if someone has to do it anyway.

[B]

Hey, if anybody on this plate isn't a giant wuss.

[A]

Yes. Right.

[B]

Would you switch with John, who's being a giant wuss? Right. Of course. You have to do it.

[A]

Yeah. John says I already agreed, so. Okay, I agree. They bring a normal looking guy back in zip tie cuffs and put him in the window seat and buckle him in, and I take my seat, and again, I think that's on the aisle there. He's quiet for two minutes and then starts screaming and yelling and thrashing his head into the seat and front. They come back to calm him down, but he breaks out of his cuffs and is trying to get away. No, they got him back down and they redo the zip ties and then they leave, asking me to alert them if he tries it again.

[B]

You mean the. You mean the Hulk strength maniac who's already broken his zip ties once? Yeah, I'll keep you posted.

[A]

Oh, that's right. You know what? When I was going to read this to you the other day, I was going to look up the. The Con Air music. That's what we should be listening to because I'm now I'm picturing like Steve Buscemi here.

[B]

Yeah, right.

[A]

What again? Okay, though. In for a penny, in for a pound. I love John, by the way.

[B]

I do, too. But I want to know, John. I mean, listen, I want to know. I'm also looking up the Con Air soundtrack. This is big in Romania, so, you know, we're going to definitely get pulled down over this. Although, you know, the Con Air soundtrack is a lot of Trisha Year one.

[A]

Oh, really?

[B]

What?

[A]

Isn't there like a. Isn't there a theme? Isn't the first track a theme, though? Like, the first track is How Do.

[B]

I Live by Trisha Yearwood.

[A]

Oh, I was looking at a Different. I think I'm looking at it. There's another, like, original motion.

[B]

Oh, yeah. The Con Air theme is that you're talking about?

[A]

Yeah, I think that's the one. Okay, I don't know if.

[B]

Now I got you.

[A]

Okay. A few minutes. Oh, wow. This is better than I could have possibly imagined. Good call, dude. A few minutes later, the same thing happens again. He doesn't get out of his cuffs, but he thrashes about so much.

[B]

I mean, I'm sorry I keep interrupting, but, like, I can just. I can empathize so much with John in that he's got this row to himself. I mean, if he wants to lie down, he can. He's stretching. And he is going from the ultimate relaxation to the ultimate stressful situation. You know what I mean? Like, this is so much pressure to put on poor John, who was doing nothing wrong other than enjoying his road to himself.

[A]

I don't know if this is. Well, I mean, I will say that Jeanette wrote back into me and said, oh, if you do happen to read that email on the air, it's maybe on your theme. It's worth noting. Do she said, under no circumstances use any Trisha Yearwood. Okay. She says, John, for whatever it's worth, is not soup. A very big guy and he's not a particularly young man is how she described it, I believe.

[B]

Right. So this was like, you know, John wasn't going to be the one taking this guy down when he breaks out of his manacles.

[A]

Right, right, exactly. So anyway, a few minutes later, the same thing happens again. This time he doesn't get out of his cuffs, but he thrashes about so much that his keys fall out of his pocket onto the middle seat. When they get him calmed down, I point out the keys and they say that they can't take them away, but I should keep an eye on them to make sure he doesn't get them. What?

[B]

They can't take them away.

[A]

You're saying what, in the sync with John now. I love this.

[B]

Yeah. Parenthetically, John, voice. What? You can't take them. Is that law of the sky?

[A]

I guess so again. And I. I mean, I do believe that there are probably certain rules about, like, you know, you're a flight attendant. You're not a law enforcement official. You have to for the safety.

[B]

I feel like you've.

[A]

Safety.

[B]

You've hog tied the dude across the Rubicon.

[A]

But there might be some specific rules about, you know, like what people own.

[B]

John's allowed to. But random citizens who have not been deputized are allowed to for some reason.

[A]

Well, it says again, they leave the scene. They leave, and the scene replays itself. When they come back, though, I pick up the keys, which seem like a sure weapon to me, and I give them to one of the attendants, saying, I'm not going to have them sitting next to me where he could use them as a weapon. This time, it takes a very long time to settle him down. While I'm standing in the audience, people are offering me empty middle seats in their row, telling me just to say no and walk away. The lady. I love this. The lady across the aisle is like, I feel sorry, but I don't know what to do. Want my chips? It was cute, sad, and funny all at once.

[B]

Oh.

[A]

This goes on for a long time, and finally I start talking with one of the flight attendants about taking one of those other seats. She says that might be a good plan, but she feels so bad for me that she wants to find me a big better seat. I tell her it's okay, but she insists. Now the other three attendants are trying to get this guy to sit still. She's running back and forth trying to find me a seat. These poor flight attendants of the plane.

[B]

So they are not getting paid enough for this.

[A]

No. Neither is John. I would say. John paid for this.

[B]

Actually paying to be there.

[A]

Yeah. She keeps. But I. But that is not to undermine what you just said about the flight attendants. I agree. She keeps coming back, and I keep saying I don't need a better seat. A middle seat in the back is fine, but she keeps insisting that I deserve better. I. I kind of love this. This part has to be a comedy farce, I think. I quietly walk back to row 30 and I take a middle seat. She keeps coming back to check on me, and I tell her she has enough on her plate and to stop thinking about me. One flight attendant takes the aisle seat that I was in and tries to keep this guy settled down. Finally, after about an hour, the pilot comes on and announces that we're diverting to Minneapolis. We make a very fast drop from 33,000ft, and then we're on the ground getting him off the plane. On the ground. And after takeoff, the attendant comes back to see if I want to move to the front of the plane, but I say I'm just fine in the middle with everyone else. Wow. John is the American hero we don't deserve, but he's the American hero that we got.

[B]

Yeah. This is the soundtrack of John walking off that plane in New York.

[A]

And then for some reason, the plane explodes behind him.

[B]

Exactly. But nobody sees Steve Buscemi again, which is until he shows up at a craps table in Vegas. That is a wild story. You know, I was actually, I had this thought on my flight the other day with, with the amount of time that I, I am spending on airplanes in a typical year, I am surprised that I have not seen somebody getting, you know, somebody getting zip tied through either a mental health crisis or a just being really angry. It seems like it was happening a lot. I see a lot of clips online. I just think the, the law of large numbers says I should be on a plane where that happens at some point.

[A]

That's a really good point. I mean, you must have been on a flight with a Baldwin win at some point. No, that's a really good. God. That's going back a ways too.

[B]

I mean, didn't he like urinate in the aisle, I believe or something?

[A]

Drunk as a skunk.

[B]

Oh, off of his skunk. Yeah, I, Yeah, I was thinking about that the other day. Just kind of like, I wonder if at some point in my, in my time of, of of flying so much if I will be on the plane when something goes down. And also kind of what my response will be be, I would not.

[A]

Well, you'll want zip tied. Well, I'm the person, you know, I.

[B]

Assumed I was going to be the John, but you're right, I might be the person who's being zip tied. Particularly for my comments about the carbon offsets. Get back to them.

[A]

Right, exactly.

[B]

You haven't heard the last of this.

[A]

You know, I know that crazy story. Very, very, very personal question, but I don't think that, you know, you used to talk about flying all the time and a big part of that for you was like kind of your well timed gin and tonics or whatever they were. Gin sodas or whatever. Vodka soda probably. But whatever it was, I don't think you're doing that as much these days. Has that actually as you look back on those boozier days of flying, are you almost kind of like, oh, it's almost easier not having to plan in for that or do you sort of.

[B]

You mean plan for the drinking?

[A]

Yeah, sort of.

[B]

Oh, hugely.

[A]

Look back, you're like, oh God, I'm not getting off the plane and having to worry about like, oh yeah, my presentation.

[B]

Oh yeah, big time, dude. There was a pretty, you know, a substantial. I will say this for the rest record, there's nothing I love more than drinking alcohol while flying. Yes, it is my very Favorite place to consume alcohol. I don't do it very frequently anymore just because of general lifestyle changes. But in. Back in my day when I was really going hard and heavy with it, I. I used to get. I would be so drunk on the plane and in fact, if I. Not if I was in coach, because you just, you can't, your access is limited in coach. It's only when they come around, you know, in the words of Billy Joe Armstrong, so you kind of can't really get there. But if you're in first class, you can, if you handle yourself well. And if you kind of, if you get a kindly flight attendant and you kind of, you play it right. It's sort of in the way that I used to order a steak medium well without anyone realizing I was ordering it medium well. Well, you kind of turn up the water on the frog. I could get pretty bombed on some flights. And then the problem is when you're of a certain age and you're quite bombed, you have to pee a lot. And I'm not. I would never defend Gerard Depardieu, who seems by all accounts to be a truly repellent person on a lot of levels, but the whole thing of like almost having a needing to go to the bathroom accident, like pee accident was not far from my mind a few times because. Because there's so many rules about the lavatory and access to the lavatory and like we're having turbulence so it's locked or where the pilots are using it. So now the flight attendant is blocking it. Like a whole variety of things can block your access to the restroom. And if you're like, you know, if you've got about 10 to 12 vodka sodas in you through, you know, maybe pre gaming and then getting on the flight and then getting a kind of friendly flight attendant attendant, it can be a real situation. And I had a couple of close calls in my day and not having to factor that in is kind of nice. Not having to worry about getting off the flight and being like, legally, should I be renting a car? Not worrying about, like, you know, how am I going to feel tomorrow? I mean, one thing I, I was. If I was flying to something that I had to do that day, I was pretty good about, about leaving it alone on the drinking. But certainly like, like if, if it was just. If my whole job that afternoon and evening was to fly to the location. Yeah.

[A]

And then I have to get up and then. Yeah, yeah.

[B]

It's definitely, is definitely a thing that I, that I enjoyed doing. But That I also very much see the benefits of. And you know, the other thing that I noticed and I don't want to get into sounding like I'm moralizing here at all, but like, here's what's actually pretty funny about it. When I stopped drinking on flights, I realized, realized no one else was drinking the way I was on flights. Like I think I had got it in my mind that like, oh, we're up in first class and we're all just like getting absolutely sloshed as I don't, I can't remember the last time somebody who's sitting next to me in first class has even ordered a drink. Like when I went from drinking a lot in first class to not drinking very much or not drinking at all up there, I thought I'm gonna look like a weirdo when I ordered order my big drink now, and I love it so much, is a club soda. And they have these little lime packets. I get a club soda with ice and if you're up front, they give you a real glass which is just spectacular. And you put this lime packet in and you. And it's like it's all you need in the world. It's so satisfying. And I thought that's going to make me seem weird. Like people are going to be like, what's up with you, dude? I realize now very few people are even actually drinking. There might be a person getting the glass of red wine here, there. What almost no one is doing is like trying to actively black out. You know, I was way outside of the norm up there for a lot of years.

[A]

I don't think I realized that you had that much to drink on planes because my whole thing. And again, I don't fly first class. So that is probably a big reason maybe why there are some built in limitations for me. But I enjoy having a cocktail or two on a plane. My go to usually and this is sort of, well, it's sort of airplane specific. I enjoy this in the summertime as well. But I'll get like a cranberry juice and vodka. Usually I'll get a double. And first of all, I always feel like then they hand you like kind of two cups. It's always like awkward. You never know what you're gonna get. Sometimes you get like one small glass of cranberry juice and two shots of vodka. I'm like, I could use more cranberry juice. Well, whatever you just take.

[B]

The ratios are a little dicey.

[A]

Yeah. But then I, I sometimes I feel the eyes and, and this could Be totally invented on my part. But sometimes I feel a little sheepish. Like the people around me are like, look at this guy juggling, like, all these booze bottles or whatever. But I also know that I have led people to drink on planes before because I know. I just. I can't explain how I know this, but I know the ideal for me is if I'm on a plane and if I'm not flying with Genevieve, if I'm flying solo, it's like me on the aisle, empty seat, and then like, window seat. And so.

[B]

And then a person in a mental health crisis, can I take away on the window?

[A]

But no, I know you're holding a.

[B]

Cattle prod for some reason that they've given you.

[A]

I feel like the people next to me at times have been planning on getting some sort of a beverage, but then they hear me order alcohol, and I can hear in their voice, like, permission do that. Oh, well. Oh, well, there's an idea. This fella to my right is going to be getting a cocktail. Why don't I get one as well?

[B]

Yeah, there. That is a dynamic. I wonder if part of my. My. If part of how this sort of evolved for me was that in the early in my 20s, honestly, you know, the place that I probably flew the most was Vegas.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Like, I didn't travel for work a whole lot, and I did, you know, everyone that I knew was in the Pacific Northwest, so where was I flying to? We would go to Vegas, you know, three, four times a year if we could scrape the money together. And that's the whole point of the flight to Vegas is sort of, you know, is drinking. And so I wonder if somewhere in my mind I thought, well, that's what you do on airplanes. And it's also fun, at least for me. And. And yet I carried that over into. Yeah. Like, a place where it's definitely, like, I was. Yeah, I was under the. I was under the. The mistaken thought that everybody on the plane is drinking as much as humanly possible for most of the flight. And it wasn't until I stopped doing that I realized no one's doing that except, weirdly, believe it or not, a flight attendant that I. It was absolutely. That SNL sketch, the. The woman at the party that you wish you didn't get stuck talking to. I was at lax. This was a few months ago. I was at lax, flying home. And I was sitting. I was sitting at the bar. I wasn't drinking, but I was just sitting there eating, like, a pizza from the Wolfgang Puck Pizza at lax and a woman sits next to me, and she is just all over the map. She is just making so much conversation that I so don't want to be a part of. It's just.

[A]

Is it all directed towards you or is it sort of everything directed towards me?

[B]

Because I was the only person sitting there. And she's like, oh, that pizza. That pizza. My brother makes the best pizza. That pizza can't be as good as the pizza my brother makes. And I thought, you know what? I'd believe that. It's actually pretty lousy.

[A]

Yeah. I'm sitting in an airplane.

[B]

I don't know what the response to this is. I don't know how to respond to how much better your brother's pizza is. Then she was going on and telling me about how she wisely bought a condominium in Los Angeles near where the Olympics are going to be held, and so she's going to airbnb it. I was like, this all sounds great for you. Like, just a bunch. Just a torrent of information that I did not ask to be a part of the receiving of. And I noticed that she had a water bottle. Bottle with her. And at some point, she like explains to me that, A, she's a flight attendant for Alaska Airlines, and B, the water bottle is full of booze.

[A]

Whoa.

[B]

She's not on duty.

[A]

No, she's.

[B]

She's like. I don't know if deadheading is the right term. You know, there is a certain thing where you're going to your. Your destination to then go to work or whatever she's going from. I don't want to give. I don't know. I don't. I don't know. I actually should bust this one because it was pretty unprofessional. But basically, she wasn't.

[A]

She's not getting drunk. Right?

[B]

She wasn't in uniform. She's not getting drunk and going to work. She's just has to go up to San Francisco, which is, I think, her hub. And. But she is. She's totally unapologetic. And I'm like. I said to her, I was like, you know, one of the main things you guys say to us is no bringing your own booze on the flight. She goes, I know, but they never check us because we work for the. I was like, you gotta be kidding me. So, like, I was like, I can't believe I'm witnessing this. This at. Sort of at the ground level, like, oh, you. Because I always assumed this kind of went on, like, in that if you work for the airline, you go. Go through your own, like, special security thing, because obviously we can't bring. We can't bring liquids through security. Like, how did she get her water bottle of booze through? Well, she didn't go through security. She goes through the special airplane stat airline workers, one, which apparently they let you bring liquids.

[A]

Oh, wow.

[B]

And then she's over there just, like, unapologetically telling me how she's got, like, she's. And this would also, by the way, explain why she was so annoying to talk to because she was just lit.

[A]

Yeah, that's kind of sad, too. I mean, unless. Unless you got the in, which I do not think you got the impression. Not that I should in any way weigh in on some stranger's life whom I've never even met, but, like, unless this is like, a young person who's, like, going on, like, kind of like, oh, really? Like once in a lifetime I'm getting lit on this airplane. This person who is, like a professional, you know, somebody who works probably my.

[B]

Age, if not a little bit older.

[A]

And is carrying water bottles full of booze like that. That sounds. That sounds rough to me, man.

[B]

I mean, I will say. Yeah, no, I'm not gonna say it is rough. It is rough. Like, I was thinking, like, also, what happens if there's an emergency? And, like, they're like, we know that there's two flight attendants that are, like, not working that are on this flight and we need them or something. What if we need to zip tie a guy? I wonder if it was John's flight. I wonder why the zip tie. Yeah, maybe this lady was in charge of the zip tie.

[A]

Or maybe. Maybe this lady was the person. No, it doesn't fit the description. But yeah, because you also think that, like, if I'm. I don't know why I'm just hammering home this woman's life situation, which I shouldn't be doing. I feel weird doing it. But, like, you just sort of feel like if you're just having a good time and you're a flight attendant who's off duty, but you're friendly with all the other flight attendants, you know that they'll bring you the little bottles. You know what I mean? Like, if you just want to have a couple of drinks, like, I don't know, a water bottle full of booze, it sounds like, funny. Like, if it's a lark again, if you're going to the Solstice Day parade and you're. But, like, I don't know, it's just.

[B]

Sort of if you're flying to. If she is flying to Vegas, using her, using her kind of like airline privileges and she's going to start her vacation and have some fun and she's kind of pregaming or whatever. It's like fine. But yeah, like the. Yeah. That was again, I was just struck by. I was like, I can't believe that I am. You're telling me this voluntarily when your guys entire spiel is no bringing your own alcohol on the plane. I'd never seen power abused so flagrantly.

[A]

You're also a little jealous. I think there's probably a little bit of that. I mean retroactively watch those people. You know, when I'm in line and I'm not pre check. So I'm waiting in that full security line and then I always see the. Whoever it is, whether it's pilots or flight attendants or any other, you know, like professional in the industry who's flying on the plane.

[B]

Plane.

[A]

And they walk up that little ramp that is sort of like that runs alongside. I'm picturing specifically in sea tac. There's. I'll just sit there while I'm in line watching all of these like sharp dressed airline workers just kind of zipping up the ramp next to me, going right in, going right past security, by the way.

[B]

I actually think it's. I've never, I don't think I've. Well, it's not since those like early in our 20s Vegas flights where we would absolutely bring our own alcohol. We'd bring Ziploc bags, bags full of airplane bottles of booze. Like I don't think it was even prohibited in those days really. I mean, what I mean is an, like an airline like a little airplane bottle but in a Ziploc bag. The mummy would always have, like this was his only contribution financially to these trips would be like, okay, I got everyone their little bags of their. Of the booze that we're gonna drink on the flight.

[A]

And you were putting them in the bags because of the TSA rules. Post 911 or this is pre 9 11.

[B]

This would have been post 911 probably.

[A]

Okay, so maybe it's like because you were allowed to bring a certain. You know. Yeah, there was.

[B]

I think you could bring your own at some point or at least it was very, very unenforced. I think to this day though, you can. As long as it's less than 3 ounces. I mean theoretically, I think you could bring airline bottles of booze through the tsa presumably. Right. As long as it's Each individual One is under 3 ounces.

[A]

I thought there were two rules. I thought there was the liquid rule, which you're addressing there, but I also just thought that there was an anti bring your own booze rule. But maybe I'm wrong about that.

[B]

I don't think. I don't think there is. I mean, again, I haven't tested this, and the window is sort of, for me on it, but I do think you could probably bring your own stuff and. And probably kind of get away with it if your seatmates were. Were chill and cool.

[A]

Well, that's good.

[B]

But. But yeah, I. I don't miss. I don't. I don't miss the chaos of getting off of those flights and being like. And also, by the way, getting on a couple flights. I don't want to belabor this, but getting on a couple of flights where I was like, if these folks knew how actually drunk I was, they wouldn't let me on the flight. And that's. Maybe I had a connector. So it was like, I already had a flight and now I'm changing planes or like a flight got delayed. So I just posted up at the bar where, by the way, airport bar culture and the whole. Do you want to double for 50% more? Or whatever. It's like the. The liver doctors of America, I guess. Thank you for creating business for them. Like, how that became an airport staple is so weird to me. Like. But all that is to say there was definitely a. More than. More than a handful of times where I. And I was. The thing was, I was very good at keeping my shit together when I needed to. Like, I knew. I knew exactly how to act so that nobody would get wind of. Of. Of. Of what I was really going on for me. Because if they would have been aware of it, they would have been like, yeah, you can't get on the flight. You know, And I don't miss having to make that calculation.

[A]

I'll say one of my favorite things, and this is not something you're supposed to do, but one of my favorite parts of flying, if I can get away with it, is tampering with the smoke detector in the.

[B]

Tampering with disabling or that's the third one. There's like three. We're tampering. Tampering with, disabling or dis. Something else.

[A]

Yeah, right.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

I'm just thinking about things we're not allowed to do. So. Yeah, I guess I'm hitting the music here because I assume we're wrapping. Yeah, we should probably sort of sounds.

[B]

Like I got a flight to. I got it. First of all, I got to get bombed and then I got to get on a flight.

[A]

I know that the. I know that the airlines have a rule that you're not allowed to bring your own booze on, but you're saying the TSA doesn't enforce the airline rules, in other words. I don't think that's interesting.

[B]

I don't think. Well, here's something. This is great that the music's playing. So I elaborate on this.

[A]

No, no, this is good.

[B]

No, I need to be hemmed in on this. I can tell you this, Andrew. I have done some research on this from prior lives and one of the things the TSA literally says is we are not a drug enforcement organization. They are clear about it. Like, they are not the dea and they don't really want to get into that game. Game. And one of the things is basically, if you're not throwing something in their face when, like, if you're not trying to move bricks of cocaine or something, I think that they generally would rather not get tied up in drugs and alcohol. So I think I, I think it's, I think it is a liquid and if it's less than 3 ounces, they're not really messing with you.

[A]

But yeah, that makes.

[B]

I don't, I don't. Again, I'm not testing that.

[A]

I heard somebody on Another podcast, probably LeBatard, although I'm not sure, like talking about, about how they get. Yeah, I'm almost positive because I think put it on the pole gear mode. You get nervous when you see the drug sniffing dog at the airport and I'm yelling at the podcast, they're not drug sniffing, they're bomb sniffing dogs. Bomb sniffing dogs.

[B]

Yeah, I, Yeah, I, in my younger, wilder days, flew a few times with things that were not strictly supposed to be on the plane, not bombs, and was never messed with.

[A]

So.

[B]

But again, that's a young man's game and I'm an old man wearing a Mr. Rogers sweater who's reached the end of the broadcast week here on tbtl. And I'd like to say to everyone, thanks for listening. Thanks for hanging out with us. We are going to be back here on Monday with more imaginary radio for all of you. So please, if you can, make some time for that. In the meantime, have a great weekend. Go sports, football teams of whatever stripe that you root for. And please remember, no mountain too tall.

[A]

And good luck to all. Just because you like laying around your house in your underpants doesn't mean the.

[B]

United States of America has to see it. Power out.