#4442 This Is So Boarding And Forever Taking

Summary

Podcast Summary: TBTL: Too Beautiful To Live Episode #4442: "This Is So Boarding And Forever Taking" Release Date: April 10, 2025

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1. Introduction & Audio Equipment Update

At the outset of the episode, host Andrew Walsh discusses his ongoing quest to upgrade his podcasting setup. He shares his experiences with purchasing a new audio board from Guitar Center, highlighting both the challenges and the support he receives from the store staff.

Notable Quotes:

• Andrew Walsh [05:13]: "I'm just talking about audio stuff and geeking out... these people are listening to me."
• Luke Burbank [15:04]: "We are already dealing with a new audio board in the near future which will then, of course, give us another spin of this wheel."

2. Dazzling Donors and Listener Messages

The hosts express gratitude towards their listeners and supporters, known as "dazzling donors." They read heartfelt messages from listeners, acknowledging the positive impact the podcast has on their lives.

Notable Quotes:

• Andrew Walsh [65:34]: "Happy birthday, Julie... You've got to stop it."
• Luke Burbank [41:03]: "The only way... your conversation is a relief from it."

3. Advocacy and Self-Censorship Discussion

A significant portion of the episode is dedicated to a message from Christina Homer, an infectious diseases doctor and researcher. She emphasizes the importance of advocating for vulnerable groups and resisting self-censorship. This prompts a broader conversation between Luke and Andrew about the balance between addressing serious societal issues and maintaining the podcast's light-hearted nature.

Notable Quotes:

• Christina Homer [28:46]: "We're rallying to continue to advocate for these groups, to advocate for science based treatments..."
• Luke Burbank [29:24]: "We don't self censor anything on this show because frankly, not that many people are going to hear it."
• Andrew Walsh [32:07]: "Because the topic is so important... I tend to be even less articulate about them."

4. Listener Story: Sally's Recovery

Sally shares a deeply personal story about her battle with septic shock and her miraculous recovery. This poignant segment highlights the resilience of listeners and the supportive community fostered by the podcast.

Notable Quotes:

• Sally [69:05]: "I have to catch up on this podcast... this is where I start to come back."
• Luke Burbank [70:02]: "We are so glad that you beat the odds, Sally... wishing you the best."

5. Top Story: "Chicken Jockey" in Minecraft Movie

Luke and Andrew delve into the buzz surrounding the new Minecraft movie featuring Jack Black and Jason Momoa. They discuss a particularly memorable scene dubbed "Chicken Jockey," where the chaos in the theater—such as popcorn throwing—has become a cultural phenomenon among young audiences.

Notable Quotes:

• Luke Burbank [42:39]: "Chicken jockey... hunters in the movie."
• Andrew Walsh [50:33]: "I couldn't believe this is not an option on this board."

6. Generational Culture and Movie Theaters

The discussion extends to the generational divide in media consumption and the significance of shared experiences like movie-going. The hosts reflect on their own childhoods versus the current generation's experiences, emphasizing the importance of communal activities in fostering emotional well-being.

Notable Quotes:

• Luke Burbank [53:11]: "This could be that for them... Who cares that it appeals to someone."
• Andrew Walsh [55:08]: "Any story about a phenomenon that is getting a bunch of people into theaters to have an experience is a win in my column."

7. Sports Wrap-Up: Mariners Game

Towards the end of the episode, Luke and Andrew transition to a sports segment, recounting an exhilarating Mariners baseball game. They celebrate Julio Rodriguez's pivotal performance that turned the game around, showcasing their camaraderie and shared enthusiasm for sports.

Notable Quotes:

• Luke Burbank [56:43]: "I love that we're going to try to bring it back."
• Andrew Walsh [72:50]: "The Mariners are doing something unexpected... a very exciting end."

8. Closing Remarks

The episode concludes with heartfelt thanks to listeners, encouragement to continue supporting the podcast, and a reminder of the community's strength in combating global loneliness.

Notable Quotes:

• Luke Burbank [75:02]: "Take care of yourselves and please remember, no mountain too tall."
• Andrew Walsh [71:38]: "Indeed."

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Conclusion: Episode #4442 of Too Beautiful To Live seamlessly weaves through technical updates, community engagement, advocacy discussions, personal listener stories, entertainment critiques, and sports enthusiasm. Luke Burbank and Andrew Walsh maintain their trademark humor and camaraderie while addressing both light-hearted and deeply meaningful topics, ensuring a rich and engaging listening experience for both long-time fans and newcomers.

Transcript

[Andrew Walsh]

Can I have the room for a minute?

[Luke Burbank]

Everybody out. My empire is crumbling.

[Andrew Walsh]

All right, everyone, back in tbtl.

[Luke Burbank]

Good afternoon and welcome to Judgment City. You've just had quite a little journey.

[Andrew Walsh]

So for now, relax and enjoy the ride. Dude, you got the best barrels ever, dude. Just like, you pull in and you just get spit right out of them. And you just drop in and just smack the lip, drop down, snap. And then after that, you just drop in, just ride the barrel and get pitted. So pitted like that tomato, tomato.

[Luke Burbank]

It's tomato, tomahto. You say tomato, tomahto. I say tomato, tomato.

[Andrew Walsh]

How can they say this about me? I don't believe it. I show them. I record everything.

[Luke Burbank]

All right. Hello, good morning and welcome, everyone to a Thursday edition of tbtl, the show that just might be too beautiful to live. This might be my favorite podcast, and.

[Andrew Walsh]

I've never heard it before.

[Luke Burbank]

My name is Luke Burbank. I'm your host.

[Andrew Walsh]

You're like the Daniel Day Lewis of.

[Luke Burbank]

Only doing one thing. Coming to you from the Madrona Hill studio perched high above the mighty Columbia. It's not the greatest of weather days here on this Thursday, but it's not the worst. It's not torrentially raining sideways at 38 degrees, which is an actual thing we've experienced recently. So we will take it as we arrive together at episode 4442 in a collector series.

[Andrew Walsh]

Let the fun begin.

[Luke Burbank]

Apparently the youth of America are packing the movie theaters and absolutely losing their minds when Jack Black's character in the Minecraft movie says this. Chicken jockey. We will investigate the chicken jockey phenomenon coming up. Also, speaking of kids and fantasy, it's a Thursday, AKA Blurs Day. We'll do the Blurs Day messages and we will say hello to this young man, longest running cobra of the show, maybe best known for his depictions of the tall ships. Although of late, this other activity of his has been getting a lot of attention. The man who brought the rock and roll edge to the Eagles, he's Andrew Walsh and he's joining me right now. Good morning, my friend.

[Andrew Walsh]

Good morning, Luke. Happy, hopefully new audio board day to those children celebrate.

[Luke Burbank]

Are you using your new audio board?

[Andrew Walsh]

I don't. You know, I said that because I didn't know what to say and I was looking at the radio board. I think it's coming in today. I ordered the audio board through Guitar Center. It's a little audio concern called Guitar Center.

[Luke Burbank]

Well, that's how you learn to bring the rock and roll edge to the eagle. The man who brought the rock and.

[Andrew Walsh]

Roll edge to the Eagles.

[Luke Burbank]

All that time you spend jamming out at guitar.

[Andrew Walsh]

By the way, in all seriousness, I try really hard not to be the old man who goes into Guitar center and asks too many questions. But I've had to buy some equipment over the course of the past. Honestly, since we went independent, I've had to buy more equipment of my own.

[Luke Burbank]

As opposed to being handed it Erik the Viking Stromstad.

[Andrew Walsh]

Exactly. I owe that guy a phone call anyway and they are so helpful there. The Guitar center that I go to in Roosevelt, my old neighborhood and is on Roosevelt, I think by the. Well, it's in the plight car district.

[Luke Burbank]

Actually I consider it the high end audio district. At least it used to be.

[Andrew Walsh]

That's right. Yes, you have definitive audio hi fi.

[Luke Burbank]

There and things like that.

[Andrew Walsh]

So anyway, I, they, I'll go in with a bunch of specific questions, some of which they can answer, some of which they can't. But they entertain them all and they're always very patient with me and I sort of realized like oh, I could just really take advantage of this. Like these people are listening to me. I'm just talking about audio stuff and geeking out and. And again, I don't think that they.

[Luke Burbank]

A social connection for you. A much needed social connection.

[Andrew Walsh]

Exactly. And again I don't. They're not like overly friendly. They're not like, hey, sit down, let's talk about this. But they just entertain me. I don't mean entertain me like they are doing things to entertain me. I just mean they entertain my. My bottomless pit of questions very patiently. And I appreciate that. But anyway, for some reason I was ordering my audio board. I'm like, I'm gonna have it shipped to the store there instead of home. It just seemed like, I don't know, it's an expensive piece of equipment. Why not just have it delivered, you know, from store to store or from factory to store. So I think I haven't gotten the email yet but I think I'm supposed to march on over there. Maybe I'll drive this afternoon and hopefully my new audio board will be there and maybe I'll have it hooked up in time for tomorrow. I don't know. I guess that's something everybody can tune in and find out.

[Luke Burbank]

I want to say this in a way that doesn't sound like I'm slightly roasting you, but today I was going to ask you when we were dialing up and we were kind of chatting before the show if you had your new audio board. But I realized you hadn't mentioned it and there would be zero chance of it going unmentioned if we were operating on that board.

[Andrew Walsh]

You'll see. You'll see the tattoo first. The new audio board tattoo first.

[Luke Burbank]

The new audio boards are here. The new audio boards are here.

[Andrew Walsh]

That's right.

[Luke Burbank]

So, like, that's why I failed to, I failed to wish you the customary Happy audio Board day arrival. Audio Board arrival day. I forgot to do that because you.

[Andrew Walsh]

See what's happening is I'm one of those people who turns in my Audio Board day into Audio Board Week and.

[Luke Burbank]

Then Audio Audio Board month.

[Andrew Walsh]

Because first I got to tell you, I ordered it and then today I said, happy Audio Board day, but it's not even here yet.

[Luke Burbank]

And we found out that you don't even try. You don't even trust the US Mail system to safely get it to your home. So you're having it delivered to the first, the offices of Price Waterhouse in Cooper where they will handcuff themselves to it and then take it to the garage. Excuse me, the Guitar Center.

[Andrew Walsh]

You know how this works though I might have to, you know, while I'm in there, I might have to grab some quarter inch cables, maybe some, I don't know, RCA to Minis, I don't know, just wander around a little bit, see what they got. And it's, I just like that place. It's a happy place.

[Luke Burbank]

I do too. I have a, I get a very good feeling from going to Guitar Center. Although the one that I, when, when we, in fact, it isn't that we had gone independent, it's just that I had sort of up and moved and landed in Portland and needed to kind of like, you know, redo some things. And I started going to the Guitar center that was near me. And I have to say the folks were generally nice enough, but it was a, it was a real audio board information desert.

[Andrew Walsh]

I was thinking about that. Like, I think we have very different Guitar center experiences.

[Luke Burbank]

I wonder if it also has to do with the rise of podcasting because, like, what I noticed when I would go into the one near my house was, I mean, if I would have asked them, like, what kind of strings should I put on this Rickenbacher? I think that there would have been a line of long haired fellows waiting to tell me that they would have.

[Andrew Walsh]

Said guitar strings, guitar strings, guitar strings.

[Luke Burbank]

Like, I, I think that there's some stuff that's really in their wheelhouse. My sense is it's a lot of musicians who work at Guitar center to fund their lifestyle of being musicians. But not a lot of podcasters who are working at Guitar center to fund their podcasting habitat. And so when I would ask them things about that, they would kind of point me in the direction of the audio boards or the cables and they would try to be helpful, but it felt like it was out of their area of expertise. Either you've just. There's a more thorough training process at the Guitar center that's near you or just there. Now are so many podcasters coming into Guitar center, it may be an emerging business for them that they just need to know about.

[Andrew Walsh]

Well, let me. I'll put myself directly on front street here. This is kind of embarrassing, but I'll be honest with you. So here. Here was my. Here is my journey with this. I've had on my to do list for a long time now to look into getting a new audio board because my other one is. It's functional, but it's just getting old and it's getting a little bit like dust gets in the. It's not a super expensive one and dust gets in there. And I think this thing must be. It's probably like 15 years old and maybe even more. And so it's just starting to show. It's starting to. You could hear some wear and tear on it a little bit, but it's still usable. I'm going to use it for like a road kit, but I was like kind of dragging my feet about like, well, do I going to research a new board? Like, I don't know. I. Sometimes I just kind of get locked up on these things because I don't know that much about it. Then I think, well, am I going to spend a whole day researching or am I going to spend a bunch of money and then regret what I got because it might be missing some sort of functionality and then something kind. I don't think I've told you this whole story, but what happened was last weekend or a couple of weekends ago, the people at the. At the Fraternal Order of Eagles, Mother Airy number one, decided to have a big cleaning day. Now I could not attend them. I had something else on my dance card.

[Luke Burbank]

Wow.

[Andrew Walsh]

A bunch of. Yeah, I know.

[Luke Burbank]

LeBron James of Doing that kind of. You did. I believe you. You went. You made an executive decision to do some cleaning of some stairs there once that was not part of a formal cleaning day.

[Andrew Walsh]

They still. Yes. They still treat me like C3PO when I walk in there. They carry me around like the.

[Luke Burbank]

Yep.

[Andrew Walsh]

They're not.

[Luke Burbank]

Remember we had a whole Yubnub.

[Andrew Walsh]

Oh, yeah, they yub my nub. Every time I go in there, they're so happy. Wait, I'm sorry. No, that came out wrong. Listen, let's move on. Point is, I wasn't able to join that party, but Genevieve from that cleaning party. And by the way, would you like to, like, spend some time unpacking the idea that Genevieve goes to other places to clean? Like, she's not a huge cleaner here between you and you know what I'm.

[Luke Burbank]

Saying, That's something for you to deal with in the home environment. I do not want to weigh in on that.

[Andrew Walsh]

I need to have a conversation with our friend Katie as to how Katie got Genevieve to. Was it like the free pizza? Because I can offer pizza. Anyway, so I met my thing. Genevieve is cleaning out the Eagles with a bunch of other volunteers, and she sends me a photo of an audio board that I was familiar with this. I think I'd even maybe used it once or twice at the Eagles. She's like, they're going to throw this away. Do you want it? And I'm like, throw it away. That looks like a working audio board. And so she brought it home and I took a look at it and like, this was not one of those things where it's like, oh, one of the, you know, like one of the pots is taped down and don't use this knob. Like, there's nothing.

[Luke Burbank]

Pots for the non podcast in the audience would be the little sliding thing that increases the amount of sound that's going through a particular channel.

[Andrew Walsh]

I was talking about the drug. In that case. I mean, I appreciate it.

[Luke Burbank]

Okay, I apologize. That's what I get for trying to clarify in your back.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah, I should have said sliders, but in other words, this does not look like something that fell off the back of a truck or that I. You know what I mean? Like, it's a totally working board. And so it took me a while to like, kind of. It's a little bit of a project to tear everything out of the old board and plug this one in. But I did it this Saturday, possibly while there was a guy trying to sell us. Trying to do a hard sell on flooring for us here. Salesperson. I told you about that yesterday. Anyway, I'm in my studio. I'm putting this thing together. Everything is nice. I like the way this board is in many ways better than my other board, but it's lacking a very specific functionality. And this is where I'm going with this. This is really, I guess What I was trying kind of avoiding the details of before. When I tell you these people are putting up with a lot of my questions and even if they don't know the answers, still treating me as if I'm a sane person, which I getting more and more questionable because I'm. Now I put this board together and I'm like, I cannot figure out this one thing. It just. I could not find this one button that would enable me to kind of route my audio out of this board in the various ways it needs to be routed out of this board. And it's a little bit complicated like you and I are doing, it's worth saying, a live call in show on YouTube next Saturday. Not this coming Saturday, but Saturday the 19th at 10am Pacific Time. A little TBTL. Tradeo. More on that later. But anyway, there's a lot of ins, lots of outs about what goes into this board and how it comes out of this board. And I spent about an hour, maybe two hours. Everything is set up, everything is great. But there's just this one piece of functionality and I cannot figure it out. And so I start doing some more research and I'm like literally on PDF files. I know once you're into the PDF and I just sort of realized, oh, I think this thing is just hardwired in a different way than my other one was. I think there was a button that allowed me to do something on my old board and in this one it's hardwired in a certain way. I'm like, you know what I'm gonna do? Screw this. Let me look at the newest version of the board I've been using for 15 years. Let me just see what the latest generation of that thing is. I look it up, there it is. It's not the most expensive board in the world, but there it is. It's brand new. It has all the same buttons and functionality of the one I've been using for a long time now. Only it's gonna, it's going to be clean, it's going to be slightly updated. I just buy this thing from Guitar Center. Do I go online like an adult and buy it from Guitar Center? No. I call Guitar center and I say, hey, do you have this and do you have this in stock? Because if they did, I was already knee deep in cable.

[Luke Burbank]

Can we get the guy from the commercials that teaches people how to not be old people?

[Andrew Walsh]

Yes, exactly. No, this is Dr. Rick territory.

[Luke Burbank]

Can we get Dr. Rick on the case? You don't need to call the Guitar center, sir.

[Andrew Walsh]

That's good. That's a really good example, because I'm just gearing up to the real Dr. Rickiness of this. Like, that's the first joke in the Dr. Rick commercial. But then it amplifies, and you are dead on with this. So I'm like, I call them up. I'm like, hey, do you have this particular audio board in stock? I can't remember the actual model number. It doesn't really matter. I'm like, do you have this particular audio board in stock? They're like, you know what? No, we don't carry a lot of those in the house. But, you know, you can order it online. I'm like, should I order it through you, or should I go online and do it? And, like, you can either way. I'm like, I guess I'll just order it through you. I'm like, you know, while I got you on the phone, I'm like, do you know much about these audio boards and, like, kind of the ins and outs of things? And the guy's like, you know, I know the basics, but, I mean, I don't really know. I'm like, hey, let me just run something by you here. Let me just run something by you. And if you know, you know, and if not, I'll just go ahead and buy this board. I'm like, I have this behringer board that I just hooked up, and it seems like for the two auxiliaries, they're hardwired so that they're both pre. One of them is pre fade, and one of them is post fade. But I just need a button that'll make them both post fade. Would they actually make a that? You can't make that choice yourself. That is hardwired to be pre fader. You know, I don't really know the boards that well. I'm like, you know what? Let's just pull the trigger on this new board and bring this baby home. I'm like, I'll just order it through you, have it delivered to the store, and I'll be there along with Dr. Rick on Thursday afternoon to pick it up.

[Luke Burbank]

I don't want to. I'm not playing this because I want to hurt your feelings, but I do think it would be funny if today's show title was, this is so boarding and forever taking. Yes. No, that is so boring and forever taking.

[Andrew Walsh]

It is perfect. But, yeah, there's this one thing I just need. I need both of my auxiliaries to be post fader. And one of them is. And one of them isn't and you can't control it. And so there you go.

[Luke Burbank]

I want to be clear about something. First of all, all of this, you know, trying to see if you could make this other audio board work. It's all in the service of the TBTL budget, I should say the TBTB budget. I really appreciate you putting in the time to try to see if that could be a solution. And also just how careful you are with the TBTB money and the equipment, and you take it really seriously, and I appreciate that. That's a benefit to all of us. It's a benefit to me and John as your business boys and to the listeners who will, I presume, anyway, hope that this show continues. So I appreciate you doing that. I would also say what we do on this show is actually. It's not the least complex thing that goes on with podcasting because of our remote status. You know, for many, many years, we've been doing the show from different locations, and then all the audio that we play and the show sounds really good when it hits the pod catchers and other places because of all the mixing and work that you put in. So you got a lot going on over there. I don't want to sleep on that.

[Andrew Walsh]

Can I say one thing earnestly here? And it's not earnest about you and I or our relationship or about the human condition. It's just one more earnest thing about this board, and I'll let it go, but it is quite serious because there is a lesson in here for me, and maybe there's. Maybe you can take this lesson and make it more broad and apply it to your life. But this is probably just still about me. But I told you that I was in the market for a while now to do some research on a board and then buy a new one. And I would have been tempted to kind of cast the net pretty wide and not just buy the newest generation of the one I've been using forever. Then this used board kind of fell on my lap and I was really hesitant. Luke. I was telling V. I vacillated in like the two or three days that it just sat on of my record player. I was like, I don't know. Like, one day I'm like, these. I'm going to plug it in and see if I can get it to work. Then other days I'm like, I'm not going to. I don't feel like messing with this. I just want to buy a new one. We have the budget, we've budgeted for it. Like I don't feel like doing a test run on a used piece of equipment. If it doesn't work, then I got to, you know, do all of this. I'm going to say horse hockey again.

[Luke Burbank]

You have really been foul mouth.

[Andrew Walsh]

I really, I'll beep it. I'll be. But anyway, the truth is, when I plugged all this in and then spent a long time trying to figure out that pre fader, post fader output issue, I was really disappointed. I was like, I cannot believe this is not an option on this board. I just, I couldn't get my head around it. But I did more research and apparently sometimes just hardwired these things this way. But then it occurred to me, if I hadn't done this whole experiment on this used board, I could have gone out and just bought a board without even thinking, thinking about that functionality. Just with the assumption that all boards worked like my old one. Like, I almost needed to do this to realize, oh, when I'm buying a new piece of equipment, I have to zoom in and make sure this very specific need is fulfilled. I would have never done it without going on this process, which was kind of a pain in the ass. But I think at the end of the day, I mean, if I had just bought a brand new board, Luke, and it didn't have this functionality, imagine, imagine the co host you'd be dealing with today on board day one.

[Luke Burbank]

Oh my goodness. I mean, we'd have to block out most of next week.

[Andrew Walsh]

We are already.

[Luke Burbank]

That's true. We will be dealing with a new audio board in the near future which will then of course, give us another spin of this wheel. Andrew, if you find that you, in all this, you know, commerce that you come up $4.98 short, I would be happy to loan that to you. And it would be a loan because I have received $4.98 from the betterhelp.com class action settlement.

[Andrew Walsh]

You got the check in hand?

[Luke Burbank]

They PayPal'd me. Yeah. You want to talk about something that looks like a major scam? It's from PayPal, but it says that my, my money from the betterhelp.com settlement has been deposited into my PayPal account and it's $4.98. And I said, well, I, you know, I looked at the, the email from PayPal and it is really from PayPal. It's not from some weird string of numbers and letters that then they've masked. So it says PayPal. It's actually from the PayPal folks. And I looked it up And I, I guess the reason that betterhelp.com had to pay me $4.98 because I was using them for therapy for a while was because I looked this up. They were apparently sharing my personal information and my medical data, et cetera, with Facebook and other third party folks.

[Andrew Walsh]

I heard about, I heard about this thing on the AM radio. Yes. I heard about this story a while back.

[Luke Burbank]

And so that's apparently worth $4.98. The fact that Mark Zuckerberg knows what I was telling my online therapist is worth the overall settlement looks like it was about $7.5 million. And I do like the fact that at no time did I fill out any paperwork or do anything related to this other than use betterhelp.com and then I guess I was in somebody's system somewhere and they just refunded me $4.98. That's such a weird amount of money for something that is so profoundly violating if it goes wrong. I mean, on the one hand it's like I just don't care that much anymore. I've been totally sort of, I don't know what the word is. I've just been inured to the fact that so much of my personal information is, is already in the hands of, of bad actors. But if, like for them sharing potentially what I've said to my therapist with.

[Andrew Walsh]

Very edible, very Mark Zuckerberg, like the.

[Luke Burbank]

You know, the, the, like, if that really happened to me, it is worth so much more than $4.98. What do I do with the $4.98? That makes me emotionally whole from that event.

[Andrew Walsh]

That makes you. Well, I guess you get a new therapist.

[Luke Burbank]

I mean, how much is One of those 99 bananas? One of those little weird, like, like, is that vodka or something? You see those sometimes at the checkout of the store. They're like, it's some kind of a very weird alcohol drink that's called like 99 bananas. But I think it's really cheap but really strong.

[Andrew Walsh]

Is it a rum? When I think of bananas, I think of rum. I've never heard of this before.

[Luke Burbank]

It's. I think the kids 99 bananas. I think the kids were into them for a while. It's a, it's a liqueur and it's 99 cents. So I guess I could get almost 5.99 bananas. The little airplane bottles.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah, if you want to make it an even five, I'll give you the extra two cents.

[Luke Burbank]

Oh, so now you're loaning me.

[Andrew Walsh]

Now I'm Loaning you the two. I'm giving you my two cents.

[Luke Burbank]

I don't know. Yeah, I don't know what the for really gets me, but I do like the fact that I didn't have to do anything other than again, have my personal information shared with Mark Zuckerberg. But it's nice that they just sent it right back to me. That's how more of these deals should work. Right? Because generally speaking, you know, I mean, I don't. We were talking about this the other day. Like, you and I tend to not opt into these things when you occasionally see an email because it's like, well, what am I going to really get from this?

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah, I remember, like in the past, I see there must be different systems because I feel like in the past, as a, you know, maybe a young man, like, literally, like, you know, in my early 20s or something, like randomly getting a check that would be some sort of a class action thing, but it was like minuscule, like less than that. It would be like literally $1.90 or something like that, if that. And being sort of confused but also being like, all right, great, this is a pack of cigarettes. I was probably a smoker back then, and that hasn't happened to me in a while.

[Luke Burbank]

This is one loose cigarette that I've now.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah, right, right.

[Luke Burbank]

Become the proud owner of.

[Andrew Walsh]

But now I don't get that so much as I will get a little postcard in the mail that says, like, hey, you know, if you were the victim of this thing or you were the victim of this thing, you know, check this box, sign this postcard and mail it back. And I just got one. I was telling you I got one of those the other day from the Fred Hutch Cancer Research center or something about my medical data. I've never even had dealings with them directly, but they must have my data through some other partnership or something. And I was like, well, do I. I think we just had this conversation. I'm like, should I fill this out? It'll take me a minute and then send it back. But it's like, what, Then I wait a year or two years and then I randomly get a two dollar check in the mail? Like, I don't even.

[Luke Burbank]

Well, why. Just for the, you know, why don't you just do it for the, for the story? Yeah, for the, for the. Like, see the act of. Listen, I don't know how I would, how I would respond if I got something in the mail like that, but the act of throwing it away seems like it's almost as much work as the act of filling it out and throwing it into the mailbox. I mean, I guess the filling it out is kind of a hassle.

[Andrew Walsh]

But the print is very small. There's something about a lot of very small, dense print. I'm just like, I'm out for that. I'm out.

[Luke Burbank]

But you will read the fine print of a PDF file about a Behringer audio board hardwired.

[Andrew Walsh]

You're gonna hardwire the. Why would that. Why would be pre fader?

[Luke Burbank]

Yeah, why would you even. Why would you not want to give people the option? It's all about. It's about more options, not less.

[Andrew Walsh]

I mean, you've been saying that for years.

[Luke Burbank]

I have. We was hoping for some razzle dazzle. Razzle dazzle. That's right, man. Razzle dazzle. On your mark.

[Andrew Walsh]

On your mark.

[Luke Burbank]

Get set.

[Andrew Walsh]

Get set now. Ready? Ready?

[Luke Burbank]

Go, everybody. Razzle dazzle. All right, let's thank some dazzling donors. The reason that two Beautiful two Biz is able to purchase replacement audio equipment when necessary. Audio equipment that allows you to decide if you're going to be pre fade or post fade. It's not hardwired. Who would hardwire it so that it's pre fade? Andrew?

[Andrew Walsh]

I like to think I'm pre fade right now. As soon as we get done with the show, I will be post fade as my op. So hurry up, read the Dazzlers.

[Luke Burbank]

Gotta get your 99 bananas.

[Andrew Walsh]

That's right.

[Luke Burbank]

We are so fortunate to have these supporters during these wild and woolly financial times that are very stressful and anxious for all of us. And very stressful when you do a podcast that is 100% listener supported like this. And so we're so thankful for folks like Christina Homer, who is dazzling us with her donation of dough all the way from San Francisco, California. Hey, I'm going to be in the. Well, I'm going to be in San Rafael, but I'm going to be landing in San Francisco, California on Sunday. And then I'm going to be interviewing Metallica. Andrew.

[Andrew Walsh]

Oh, that's right.

[Luke Burbank]

I somehow did not completely and absolutely poison the well of that story when I stormed off of the black carpet.

[Andrew Walsh]

Well, Metallica doesn't know that you did that. That never did.

[Luke Burbank]

They do not. They do not. It's really. It was more between me and the crew who should have been, you know, underwhelmed with my antics, but it did not get back to Lars Ulrich that I was being a petulant baby.

[Andrew Walsh]

Now, if you're stealing music off of Napster that will definitely go directly to his Ulrich cave. He'll get an Al Google alert. I just want to say, speaking of Christina, longtime supporter of the show and friend of the show, checking in from San Francisco here. Like, I know that what happened as far as the results of the Mariners three baseball games against the San Francisco Giants, it didn't go the way the Mariners would hope, but my goodness, was it a beautiful series to watch right there? Is it Oracle Park? Is that what it. What a. It's a beautiful.

[Luke Burbank]

They've renamed it.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah, I think so. Was that old candlestick back in the day or.

[Luke Burbank]

Well, I think Candlestick, yes, I think candlestick was. Is that built on the. On the remains of candlestick or. It might be a slightly different area. I'm not sure on that one.

[Andrew Walsh]

But generally speaking it was sunny. I know that there's a tradition where Giants have their home opener during the day instead of the evening and boy, it was just. It was sun drenched. It was probably brisk, but it was sun drenched. It was beautiful. There were people out in kayaks trying to catch home runs and foul balls.

[Luke Burbank]

McCovey Cove.

[Andrew Walsh]

Oh, yeah, right. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Luke Burbank]

That's a great. I mean what a great location for a stadium. And yeah, I mean we got love for the Giants because we don't play them that much. They're not, you know, our natural rivals. So, you know, like, yeah, Christina, if you, if you took joy in the. The Giants playing well and the demise of the Mariners, we're okay with that.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah.

[Luke Burbank]

Cool with that.

[Andrew Walsh]

I mean, I didn't even. And yes, from a baseball perspective. Pardon me, from a baseball perspective, certainly. But just also just it just, it seemed like the city. It just reminded me how beautiful San Francisco is. I especially this time of year.

[Luke Burbank]

Yeah. A phenomenal place where a phenomenal person, Christina is residing. Christina says I definitely struggled with what to say this year because of the day to day. The day to day seems the opposite of dazzling. But as I listen to Luke and Andrew each day and hear all of the great things the tens community is doing, it does give me hope that there are great people out there who want to do the right thing and care about their fellow humans. I am an infectious diseases doctor and researcher often tasked with taking care of the most vulnerable people in our society. We are rallying to continue to advocate for these groups, to advocate for science based treatments that we know are life saving, including vaccines to preserve data that the current administration is attempting to permanently delete from the scientific record. Are you kidding?

[Andrew Walsh]

It's Just bottomless.

[Luke Burbank]

Are you kidding me? The cruelty is the point. Somebody said some years ago and I think that that's been borne out and to treat people as people instead of marginalizing groups based on their identity. I invite you to join us by calling your representatives, speaking out on social media and within your social circles and not self censoring. Not self censoring. Power out. Well, Christina, thank you so much for that work that you're doing. It sounds like it's almost as important as us podcasting here. You know, it sounds like it's definitely up there, there in terms of important jobs.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah, I actually have a lot to say on this topic, but I'm going to hold off.

[Luke Burbank]

Oh really? You don't want to weigh in on this? You don't want to step into this?

[Andrew Walsh]

Just do a little self censoring as Christine asked us not to.

[Luke Burbank]

You know, honestly though, I will be, I listen, we don't self censor anything on this show because frankly, not that many people are going to hear it. But I do and I don't, I don't feel like I self censor myself in with any concern about the government coming after me. I just don't think I'm important enough commentator in the world. But I, I will say that, you know, prob. There are probably times where, I don't know, I don't feel like I'm self censoring but I want to be very mindful if I am doing it and not not realizing it because Christina's exactly right. The only way, I mean this is an analogy that somebody used on one of the many show, other shows that I listened to or some book I was reading that basically what's happening right now is you have, have, you know, Elon Musk and Donald Trump walking into a room of 500 people with two handguns and saying stick them up. And it only works because the 500 people are afraid, not because they're, they're out. We are outnumbering them and we are outnumbering the bad people in the world and the bad people making these decisions. But when we're cowed by them, which is a very natural thing to have happen, I've even felt it in my own life. When we are afraid of them, they get the power. And when you see stuff going on, like what's going on during the hands off, you know, protests and marches, I mean, it's just so unbelievably inspiring. And it's like you, you, you, you are reminded of the fact that there really are more of us than there are of them. Because I don't consider every person who voted for Trump to be a Doge enthusiast. I think a lot of people voted unfortunately because they just weren't informed on the matter. But as far as the people that are really, really the tip of this spear, there's more of us than there are of them. There are more of us than there are Elon Musk's in the world, thankfully. And I think it's good for us to remember that because it's easy to feel frightened and to feel cowed by the threat of all of it because it feels so intense.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah, I think when I could be wrong here, but when Christina says don't self censor, I think there's maybe sometimes you and I will get into a political conversation then apologize for it or we'll actively say, well let's not get into that. And there are a couple of different reasons for that. The reasons are never that we're worried about blowback, about what we say because first of all, like you say like the megaphone isn't big enough. And also there's nothing I wouldn't say. I mean this stuff is really, really important. I think it's, it's like how much of an appetite is there for that? And for me personally, it's just that I, while my convictions are strong, my articulation is. Well, it's like a pre fade or post faith kind of situation.

[Luke Burbank]

Maybe some self censorship. Would it be a consideration?

[Andrew Walsh]

I think that because, because the topic is so important, like more important than, than my adventures at Guitar Center, I tend to be even less articulate about them and I want to be as articulate as possible so I get in my head about the thing. So you know, whenever we're kind of like, well, I'm not going to get into that on the occasion that we do that. But again, I don't, I don't think we have even. I think that gives us too much, too many points for self control there, honestly. Anyway, it's more of me just not trusting myself. Not that I'm worried about how my feelings on these matters will back to haunt me in any way.

[Luke Burbank]

Also, I mean we are trying to balance. I love that we're. Christina was so kind, is so kind to donate to the show and to give us this really great message and now I'm turning it into sort of like a one way conversation with the idea of how much we talk about politics. The other thing that we're trying to balance always is what people are coming to this show for, obviously, you know, and. And because we have all the same feelings that everyone else has. But we also hear a lot from folks that. What they like about listening to TBTL is. It is a break from. From the larger news of the day. So we also have to sort of make sure that this is a place that I was listening. I was listening to Morning Edition today, and there was a story about F. Scott Fitzgerald and some folks that are maintaining, I think, like, an F. Scott Fitzgerald museum or something. It's like the anniversary of. I don't know, of Great Gatsby or something.

[Andrew Walsh]

F. Scott kill. Sorry, you brought that up. The other day. I had forgotten about Scott Fitzkill. I had forgotten about your F. Murray Kill joke, which is. And you said the other day you brought it up, you're like, that was one of the best jokes of my life. And I'm like, it was. I can't believe I forgot about. I was in the grocery store yesterday.

[Luke Burbank]

Never forget, Andrew.

[Andrew Walsh]

Thinking about how you had to remind me about one of the best jokes.

[Luke Burbank]

Never forget.

[Andrew Walsh]

Okay, sorry. I wanted to give that.

[Luke Burbank]

No, but I was just listening to that on Morning Edition, and I was just like. It was like water in the desert, man. I was like a flipping story on public radio about F. Scott Fitzgerald. Hell, yes. Put it in my veins. Because it's not about the fact that, you know, everyone's 401k has been cut in half or teachers. There's a story. The story that preceded it was about a teacher in Oregon who had a poster in her classroom. And the poster was a depiction of different sets of hands of different races of people. And the writing on the poster said, everyone is welcome here. And she was told by her administration to take it down because it was a political poster.

[Andrew Walsh]

Oh, my God.

[Luke Burbank]

And I just wanted to. I just wanted to walk directly into the Columbia river with heavy rocks in my pocket. You know, it was just like. So it's like, that's what most of the news that I'm hearing, unfortunately, still is. And then I just get a nice little, hey, did you know that Great Gatsby wasn't a big commercial success when he wrote it? I was like, I didn't know that. Tell me more. Now I do. This is. I mean, essentially, it's not a meaningless story, but this story does not have a world impact. But I love that I'm getting to hear it right now. And so I guess I feel like that's also something that we hope to provide on this show, which is A little break from the real world out there. That can be pretty overwhelming at times. So anyway, yeah.

[Andrew Walsh]

And yeah, you just even telling that story made my stomach sink. I was reading it doesn't even really matter. I'm like, reading this story in the Seattle Times today about Joe Kent's confirmation hearing, and I'm just like. I was thinking, this is a guy who. Who's ran for Congress twice now in Washington and has lost in your district, I believe. Luke.

[Luke Burbank]

He's the COVID of the New Yorker this weekend.

[Andrew Walsh]

Oh, I didn't know that. I mean, it's just. So, anyway, the point is the detail. I don't even have to. I'm not gonna tell you all the millions of appalling things that are tied into this story, but I was just sort of moping around this morning and just thinking, like, just this story alone 15 years ago would be a political scandal. Just him sitting in front of Congress is kind of quote, unquote, applying for this job. And this is why I don't like to talk about these things. I say, you apply for these jobs. But anyway. And it's just so easy to pull at a tiny little thread and just feel absolute hopelessness, like, ever. I feel like every morning I have to, like, I have to literally distract myself. Like, just like when you're. When you try to sing loudly over a score so that you don't have the game spoiled for you or something. I don't think that's a relatable analogy. But anyway, having said all of that, what I'm gonna do right now to sing loudly over the despair that I'm feeling is I am gonna go back to great jokes that Luke Burbank said at one point that stick in my head. So I had forgotten about F. Murray Kill. But I will never forget that again. Never forget number two, the one I think about a lot is stop remembering that. What was the setup on that was you saw some guy wearing kind of.

[Luke Burbank]

A quasi Italian who was at the International Pizza Exposition in Las Vegas. And it was like. It was something like, you know, Italian Louis Italian pizza. But it was. I believe it was in like, you know, Lincoln, Nebraska or something, right? And it just said forget about it on the T shirt. And just like, of course there are Italian Americans that live in Lincoln, Nebraska. But it doesn't scream, yeah, Sopranos Italian, Vinny's Italian pizza.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah, right, right. So you're like, stop remembering that.

[Luke Burbank]

Yeah.

[Andrew Walsh]

And then the other one, I don't even think you meant it, funny as it was. And I have no idea what the topic was. But at one point, you were talking about something and somebody was being rude to you. Somebody. I can't remember the details at all. And in the midst of your. I'll just say rant, although that's too strong of a word. In the midst of your rant, you just said excuse you. And I had not heard somebody say excuse you in so long. I told Genevieve about it later. This is like years ago. We laughed about it. I still think about how great of a small little bar to say to somebody. And then yesterday, Luke, literally. Okay, here's another little. I'm in the grocery store.

[Luke Burbank]

I love this segment.

[Andrew Walsh]

Buying asparagus and noodles. By the way, you had a huge impact on my dinner last night. I was thinking penne. But anyway, I was shopping. I was looking for some spice, and I could hear a woman talking to her. It was a real dune situation. I was looking for some spice and I could hear a woman talking to her very young child in the aisle next to mine. So I didn't have eyes on them. I could just hear her. And the kid kept saying, peekaboo, Peekaboo. Or something like that. The kid was playing some sort of game and giggling and making themselves laugh really loudly. And then I don't know what the kid said or did, but the mom, who was also having a good time with the kid, suddenly says excuse you to the child. This is just yesterday. And I was like, it's still in the vernacular. Vernacular. I think, excuse you. We got to bring. If maybe it never went away. I feel like I don't hear it enough. I don't think I can hear it enough.

[Luke Burbank]

I think it has gone away. But I love that we're going to try to bring it back. I also. Andrew, thank you. That was very flattering. I appreciate you being the official archivist of the four good jokes that I pulled over the last 15.

[Andrew Walsh]

You're already turning it into four. How did that happen?

[Luke Burbank]

Great inflation, a plus plus of a 5.0 GPS. But also I would like to give you a W that that Oracle park is built in the spot where Candlestick Park.

[Andrew Walsh]

Oh, I didn't say that though. You said that. But.

[Luke Burbank]

No, no, you said that and I said. Well, I don't know about that. You said, isn't it built where candles. Is it. Did it replace candle? You. You posed the question. But you. You were right. Your. Your suspicion was right.

[Andrew Walsh]

It was the same place. Huh?

[Luke Burbank]

It is the same spot according to Wikipedia. So we're all getting some pretty big W's. Today.

[Andrew Walsh]

Fantastic.

[Luke Burbank]

Thank you, Christina. We thank you, Dr. Homer. We appreciate you. Maestro, on your mark.

[Andrew Walsh]

On your mark.

[Luke Burbank]

Get set, get set.

[Andrew Walsh]

Now.

[Luke Burbank]

Ready, Ready, Go. Look who it is. It's Ann Bost in this is Newton, Massachusetts.

[Andrew Walsh]

I think this is going to be a Newton. Not a Newton. I think this is going to be a Newton.

[Luke Burbank]

Get a Newton. Anne says, hey, friendos. So nice to be here for another dazzling ish message. As I ponder what to write while sipping tea out of my TBTL mug, dressed in my tonight pants and my Little Sluggers shirt. And I don't know if you're just doing this, if you're. If you're doing this for effect, if this was really the state of affairs when you were writing this, but I just love to imagine you fully decked out in TBTL stuff. Amazing. It is clear to me that you and the TBTL community have become. And here it is again, Andrew. Integral. Part of my life.

[Andrew Walsh]

Integral.

[Luke Burbank]

It's integral. Which one do we decide on?

[Andrew Walsh]

I think it's both. We just do whatever. Whatever you say. I will always say the opposite. I'll guarantee you.

[Luke Burbank]

Good. I love it. That's your first good joke that you've done.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah. Keep track.

[Luke Burbank]

Many years, at least the part of my life where it's appropriate to wear tonight pants. Ann says, I struggle to express how meaningful it is to me to be able to laugh along with your silliness, to worry about your health outcomes, and then to want to come through the phone at you when you say something I disagree with. To be fair, this occurs mostly when Luke has some customer service complaint.

[Andrew Walsh]

Oh.

[Luke Burbank]

Oh. Interesting. Ann. Okay. I'm open to feedback. I'm here to listen. I've got two ears and they're turned to the listening station.

[Andrew Walsh]

I wonder if Ann works at Guitar center because they have customer service really locked in there.

[Luke Burbank]

Mm. Your consistency and kindness to one another is an example of friendship that I think is sorely needed these days. I'll tell you this. If you wanna really build a bridge with one of your friends, just tell them about the three funny jokes. It's like that.

[Andrew Walsh]

Just tell them about the six funniest jokes.

[Luke Burbank]

This is our version of a Mitch Albom book. The Three Funny Jokes yous Meet in Heaven. The world may be on fire, but for an hour or so each weekday, your conversation is a relief from it. Keep on doing what you're doing. You might not have cured global loneliness yet. Yet. But you certainly helped me. And that's just such a kind thing to say. I want to say more on that, on that global loneliness cure this summer. Big things planned. Yes, big things planned. So tune in for that again, and thanks for your support.

[Andrew Walsh]

We.

[Luke Burbank]

Anything that's positive about this show is only possible because of people like you and your generosity. So thanks for letting us do this. We really appreciate you.

[Andrew Walsh]

Hello, and welcome to Top Story.

[Luke Burbank]

All right, Andrew, this story has everything. Movie theaters, Minecraft, popcorn throwing, kids screaming. It is apparently the phenomenon that is chicken jockey, which I did not know was a thing until I was reading the New York Times today. Oh, by the way, another thing that I've realized, I think this might be is this the aging process. I realized this morning I cannot read the New York Times online and listen to Morning Edition at the same time, which used to be my, you know, my. My typical morning would be read in on all the news and listen to all the news on npr. And what I'm finding is if I'm reading any kind of complicated story, not that this chicken jockey story is overly complicated, but if I'm reading a complicated story, I'm going back. I have to keep restarting sentences. If I have audio content going in the background, that's also commanding my attention.

[Andrew Walsh]

I think that's always been true for me. I think, I mean, to varying degrees. I mean, my job has called for me to have sort of be able to, like, kind of take inputs from different sources at the same time. But, like, I remember working at Cairo, I always used this example, but back then, you were sort of. Somebody described the job of being the desk editor as, like, being kind of a goalie in hockey. I don't know why hockey, but basically a bunch of stuff is kind of coming at you all the time, and you kind of got to deal with it. And, you know, like, we literally had the squawker on the police. The police. What do you call it? Why am I. Scanner. The police scanner. The. The. All the emergency scanners. Plus, like, they're like, monitor these Twitter things. Like, you know, the police release their, you know, arrests on this thing, on whatever it is, and just like a million different things that you got to be kind of like, looking at the same time. And I gotta say, that's never been a strength of mine.

[Luke Burbank]

See, that was something I was kind of proud of. I felt like my brain was pretty good at taking in a bunch of different, you know, information from different streams and sort of synthesizing it or whatever. But I think it's getting less good at that because now we're down to. I'm like listening to Morning Edition. And then I'm like reading in on a really complicated story actually about ankle monitors being deployed as a mean of means of home confinement. And I have to keep going back and rereading the article until I just pause Morning Edition. So I. It's like I got to do one or the other. And anyway, great article in the New York Times today by Esther Zuckerman, Chicken Jockey. How a Crazy Catchphrase Took over Multiplexes. So apparently this new Minecraft movie, called A Minecraft Movie starring Jack Black, there is a scene where his character, I guess he is Steve. Now, this is the thing, Andrew. You know so much more about this world than I do. This world of Minecraft, this is the first that I learned that the default skin in Minecraft is someone named Steve.

[Andrew Walsh]

I'm learning that right now. I didn't know that. I read part of this story as you sent it today. But, like, I don't know anything about Minecraft culture. It's just like a game where I go in and I build things and I don't play with.

[Luke Burbank]

I assumed you knew all of this stuff from all your time in there.

[Andrew Walsh]

No, I really don't. And in fact, I thought it. I haven't really been following this Minecraft.

[Luke Burbank]

Are you a Minecraft hermit?

[Andrew Walsh]

Very close. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, for real, like, it's kind of the. I think one of the reasons I like that game is because it is kind of whatever you want it to be. It's mostly like kind of a. Well, can you build this thing or figure out how to build this thing?

[Luke Burbank]

Like, like the idea of other people in. In your Minecraft world, just like seeing you on this hill building your. That's old man Walsh.

[Andrew Walsh]

Nah, there's nobody. I mean, that's kind of the thing. Like, there's no. There's no inner. The way I play the game. There is nobody else. Like, I know that you're just making a joke sort of, but just for the record, it's not like. I think it can be like that old game Second Life or something where you're kind of playing with other people. I think you can create worlds where it's just you and your friends. I think you can create. I think there are open worlds where you can wander around. I don't mess around with that stuff. It' like kind of. It's just. Yet it's usually a kind of a late night. I'm gonna put my mind at ease by just sort of like digging a cave and looking for diamonds or whatever and Avoiding like these creatures that can hurt you. But like, honestly, everything that you're about to say about this story, about this. What is it again? Chicken jockey. Chicken jockey. This was all news to me. I was a little bit confused about how they were gonna turn Minecraft into a movie because it doesn't have a plot, it doesn't really have characters. I'm just learning that, I guess skin is called Steve. I didn't know that, but I was like, how are they going to do this? And I thought that people were sort of ridiculing this idea. But I will tell you this. I was in the grocery store where all good things, where all my good stories originate. And there were, I think they were both employees, probably young men, I'm going to say in there, two kind of scruffy looking men who were working like in the butcher area or something like that, who are maybe in their mid-20s or something. I just heard one of them shout to the other one, hey, are you going to see the Minecraft movie tonight? And I think it was the Thursday night it was opening. And the other one's like, I can't go tonight, I got to work tonight. He's like, why, are you going to see it this weekend or what? And these two, like kind of just like, I don't, I don't even know how to describe it. Like totally like without any kind of affectation or anything. These two grown men just talking about, well, are you going to go see the Minecraft or not? And it occurred to me, like, this is maybe a cultural phenomenon for young people who grew up with this game. I did not do that. I was an adult who started toying around with this as a lark 10 years ago.

[Luke Burbank]

Yes, I, I'll play this clip for you. So there's a scene where so Jason Momoa is. I don't want to get, I don't want to get distracted with this, but I would just tell you my journey with the idea of a Minecraft movie is as soon as I started seeing like bus shelter ads for it when I was in Los Angeles, because, you know when you're in la, that's when you really find out what movies are, are in the offing. Because there's just so much movie promotion down there. Every billboard, every bus shelter. It's like I just started seeing these photos for the movie and it's like a Minecraft movie. It's like, of course it's Jason Momoa and Jack Black and whomever else. And it just like it filled me with a Deep sadness, like, we really are out of ideas for movies now. Or that's not even true. We have lots of ideas, but we're not funding those ideas because the only way to make money with a movie is to use something that's already popular, existing intellectual property, like Emojis or Minecraft, and then just reverse engineer a movie into it. So that's kind of what I've been carrying around related to this movie is just this feeling of, like, this is just another sign of, like, how messed up the world is because of economic forces. And then I realized it's directed by Jared Hess, who made Napoleon Dynamite. And probably for. Certainly for these teens that are going into the theater and, like, with their friends and having a shared experience where they're basically turning it into, as the article says, their version of the Rocky Horror Picture show, where they're, like, hanging out in the theater and just waiting for Jack Black's character to say chicken jockey. So this is the actual line from the movie Chicken Jockey. It's like they're in, like, a boxing ring. And Jason Momoa's character, who I believe is trying to get a certain something so that he can go back to the human world. Jack Black's character lives in Minecraft. He's Steve. He's the Minecraft dude. And. And this. He's. Jason Momoa is gonna fight this chicken, which looks pretty unassuming. And then this little, like, Frankenstein baby drops onto the chicken and looks very cute and cuddly. And then it snarls and it's terrifying. And that's called Chicken Jockey. And it's something to be very feared. And what's happening now is the. The young people are going to the theater, packing the theater, and they're waiting for that scene, and then they're going off. Here's an actual recording in a theater.

[Andrew Walsh]

Did somebody cry? Laughing.

[Luke Burbank]

I. Yes. And they're throwing popcorn and they're. They're having such a great time together that I really had to kind of, like, check myself on this. Like, just because I don't play Minecraft or know much about it and just because I felt like, well, this is the end. End of, you know, of Western civilization or whatever. I'm so stoked for these kids that are getting to have this fun again, shared experience. Probably a lot of kids who are the age where, like, they had part of their middle school totally interrupted by the pandemic and didn't get to do things like this. Like, I just think I've. I've gone from thinking the Minecraft movie was the worst thing that could be happening to us to thinking, wow, this is actually kind of great. I thought Jared Hess had a funny like comment at the end of the article where the reporter for the New York Times was like, what do you think about all the popcorn throwing? And he said no one's ever died from being hit by popcorn. Which I also thought was some good perspective.

[Andrew Walsh]

Like, you know, more people have died from choking on popcorn than being hit by popcorn.

[Luke Burbank]

Without a doubt. Yeah. The main danger of throwing popcorns, it might go down your throat and lodge in your throat. That's where the danger is. It's not throwing popcorn around in the theater. Oh, I think he said something at the end of the article. This is from Jared. He said, oh, and as far as the popcorn throwing, he's not bothered. No one's going to get hurt from popcorn. He said, look, when I go to the movies with my kids, it's like a popcorn massacre that happens and they're not throwing any, anything but it ends up on the, on the ground regardless. So I think it's a good point like, you know, because it's the New York Times, you've got to say, but on the other hand, or, but some people see the popcorn, you know, the popcorn detritus as a real slipping hat. Like you've got to kind of get serious about it. And he's just like, look, we go to the, I go to the regular movies with my kids in the friggin popcorn massacre. Okay? It's, it's, it's part of the deal.

[Andrew Walsh]

But some people acknowledge the messiness of popcorn, but they don't believe it's man made. That's right, the New York Times.

[Luke Burbank]

Well, exactly. But others, but others disagree.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah, right, exactly. But yeah, this is something we can see with our own two eyes, but others deny its existence.

[Luke Burbank]

So I am, I'm very, I'm very pro chicken jockey and I'm very pro. I guess the other thing too, I, maybe I'm sort of just repeating myself, but it's like it was interesting for me to consider the idea that this movie would be, be really fundamental to somebody's experience who's younger than me, probably likely. Or maybe just somebody who's really into Minecraft. But like this is their Star wars or something. I mean it could be. Or this is their, you know, as Napoleon Dynamite was to me. Like, and I was pretty old when it came out. You know, I was in probably post college but like movies that I was really into that really kind of had an impact on me. This could be. This could be that for them. And I think that's a really good thing. Like, you know, who cares that it's. It doesn't appeal to me necessarily. I'm glad it appeals to someone.

[Andrew Walsh]

I really liked your point about. And I don't know if this was something that you read or this was just you sort of forming this idea on your own, which, if so, congratulations. I did that once with an idea, but this idea that also putting in the context of this generation had a couple of years where they couldn't even go to the theater and so therefore might just not have the same sort of memories or connections to going to the theater that I do now. I'm going to say something here that is going to sound like really, really sort of selfish when you consider everything that's going out, going on in the world and the implications of it. Like, there is so much like we're talking earlier during the dazzling donors, I can't even begin to talk about the depths of evil, depravity, like, whatever the word is, what is going on in this country right now. The last thing I have to worry about probably, is whether or not I will be able to go to an AMC or Regal Theater in the future. Having said that, you know that I love that experience and I love going to the movies, and I do believe there will always be people making movies in some way or another, and there will be places where I can see them. But there's something about also just going to a generic chain theater that has been part of my life that I may have to say goodbye to at some point. But I thought we might be saying goodbye to them earlier because of the pandemic. But somehow there's been closures and some, you know, shrinkage in the industry, but for the most part, like, there's still a lot of AMCs, a lot of Regals, whatever the other ones are. You can still have that sort of suburban experience of just going, you know, driving, parking, going in, buying too much popcorn and a giant thing of cola that you could swim in if you wanted to. I love that experience. And I was just sort of, you know, I'd heard some people sort of kind of like thinking out loud about the implications of the tariffs with China and how, like, China's threatening. I don't know if they're. I don't know if they've actually. You would know better than me if they're actually doing this or just threatening to not show American, you know, Hollywood films in China. Anymore. And that is.

[Luke Burbank]

I didn't know about that.

[Andrew Walsh]

But if you think about the implications of that, that is where the money is coming from for Hollywood now, you know, and you can make an argument of all the things to worry about. Are we worrying about Hollywood? And it's not top of my list, I promise you that. But if they do that, it's kind of like my point here is any story about a phenomenon that is getting a bunch of people into theaters to have an experience is a win in my column. Like, I have no intention of seeing the Minecraft movie. I think this one is a little bit more interesting maybe than just taking like another. Another video game that maybe has some sort of a storyline. Even Mario Brothers or Super Mario Brothers has a princess that's trying to be saved. There are castles, there are dungeons. Like I sort of feel like there's still even a slightly more narrative structure. Whereas Minecraft is. Well, you just start off with just a guy punching trees so he can build a tool out of wood and then you take it from there. Like how do you develop a story about that? I didn't realize that it was directed by the Napoleon Dynamite person. So it sort of feels like the blank canvas of this and the impossibility of turning this into a narrative sort of makes it more interesting to me. Like at least there could do something creative there. Having said that, I still have no interest in going to see that movie. But anytime I hear about a bunch of people, especially this age going and packing theaters and doing this kind of thing, I don't necessarily want to be there. But it might mean that another. A real pain or whatever that movie was you and I loved can come out or something. Like I just want people to keep the theaters in business.

[Luke Burbank]

Yeah, that's a really good way to. That's a good way to look at it.

[Andrew Walsh]

I am long winded though. God damn anybody time that. All I want to say was let's go to the theater.

[Luke Burbank]

I think it's top of my brain because this morning I was listening to the Ezra Klein show and he was interviewing this like researcher and I don't know what his actual title is, he teaches at nyu, but his name is Jonathan Haidt and he wrote this book called the Anxious Generation which is, you know, really looks into sort of the way that like screen time and stuff and just a lot of the things about life these days is not maybe setting the next generations up for like the most emotional well being. And a lot of that has to do with not getting to be together. In the way that, like, we used to be able to be together in our childhoods and just in social situations, just getting, you know, because of. It sounds so cliche, but because of, like, kind of what phones have done to us and stuff. And so. And it was. It's a pretty compelling case that this person is making. And so I was thinking about that, and then I was look, doing the, you know, reading this morning, the paper, and then I saw these clips of these kids having the opposite experience. You know, getting to be in this theater together and getting, like, all geeked up about it. It just reminded me of the dumb stuff we would do as kids. It wasn't exactly like this in the movie theater, but just like, I was very, very. I guess what I was feeling this morning, too, was a lot of gratitude about the era of life that I got to grow up in. You know, first of all, like, the. The politics. Politics probably weren't great, but it wasn't like now. It wasn't like every single day the headline was, somebody's trying to basically end life as we know it. That's gotta trickle down a little bit to the young people in their sense of just kind of doom. And then just. Yeah, just like, I was really lucky that I grew up in a city. City where there I could just ride my bike to anything. That was real, super lucky. I didn't even realize that was happening. I was focusing on the fact that I couldn't afford Jordans or that I had to. You know, I was embarrassed that we had a shitty car or that we prayed before our meals. But, like, I was getting so lucky with the childhood that I was having as far as just, like, having lots of friends and. And having lots of fun, good, wholesome things to do and. And just seeing these kids in the movie theater just waiting, waiting, waiting for chicken jockey before they just throw popcorn everywhere and wild out. I was just like, God, this is. This is great. I love that this is happening.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah. Yeah. That childhood that you describe is like, that's what I. That's very much what I wanted as a kid.

[Luke Burbank]

I.

[Andrew Walsh]

Very jealous of it. Like, I just wanted to have a more of an. In urban or even. Like, even. Even maybe suburban. But, like, I grew up out in the country. Like, we were just so spread out and I would watch movies even. Even, like, this is not urban. This is very suburban. But, like, ET Would be the perfect example of that. Just a bunch of little kids at least living close enough together and having streets safe enough. And I'm not talking about Cleaning up these streets. I'm talking about not having, like, country roads that. No, I. Well, I grew up in the country, so it's just like these windy, hilly roads without any markings on them that some, like, drunk yahoo is going to be trying to open up his, say, a type of a muscle car here. Luke. I don't know. GTO his GTO on and then, you know, making the streets dangerous for you to ride your bike anywhere. So all of that is to say, like, I grew up just looking at, like, oh, look at these kids all, like, with a bit of freedom and riding around and going to the movies or doing whatever they do, playing street hockey or whatever that was. Did you play a lot of street hockey?

[Luke Burbank]

Constantly, yeah. Alternate between stickball and street. What we did, though, we literally played. Played, you know, wiffle ball or touch football with, like, four. We would come up with these crazy rules that would allow you to play, like an entire baseball game with three people or four people. So many ghost runners and that if you hit it over that fence, it's an out, even though that should be a home run by rights. But it's because the woman who owns that yard is mean, right? We don't want to get the ball from her yard. Like, one of the things that this guy was talking about in the interview was something that's really useful for development in young people, is actually spending time with different age groups, particularly older kids. So the ways that we sort of figure stuff out as kids, at least we used to, and the way we're wired to is, you know, it's. Believe it or not, this is just one guy's opinion. And I guess this book was, you know, there were some detractors. A lot of people really embrace it. Other people kind of detracted or didn't really buy everything. But his theory is, like, what you need as a kid is you need your parents to be your anchor. You need to feel you have. They're your attachment, and you need to, like, feel safe and loved by them and. But then you also need to be able to go out and do stuff with other people. You can't have all of every piece of information you're getting and your whole experience be with your parents. It's actually not really how it's designed in that, you know, a lot of people like me got lucky that we could grow up in an environment where you spent a lot of time out of the house. House with people that were different ages. And so you were kind of developing your sense of the world through this Diversity of age groups, which actually is really important. Instead of being maybe at home with your parent, typically it falls to the mother, where that's like your whole day. Another. And I'll stop right after this. But this was really shocking to me, or just surprising, I guess, that even though parents work more and there are many more households that now have, you know, both parents are in the workforce force parents are now spending more time with their children than they ever did in the 1950s, including the mothers. Because the. The. And again, some of this gets into some Mayberry shit. And who knows what was really going on. I don't want to, like, overly. I don't want to, like, do a wipe where everything goes black and white and we're in Pleasantville or something. But this. The theory seems to be that, you know, particularly like in the. The parents would, you know, to get the kids breakfast and get them dressed, and then the kids would kind of. It was the summertime, they'd be off on their life, whatever that was was. And if it was wintertime, they'd be off at school. Like, there was just a lot more things going on outside of the house where the kids were pretty unsupervised. And it actually meant less time of parents spending with kids than they're spending now, even though now we definitely think the number one way to be a good parent is to spend a ton of time with your kids. And he would say. He would say that there's maybe some downside to that. Anyway, two people that don't have young children speculating on parenting is a good place to go with this program today, I think, and a really strong lead into the Blurs days, wouldn't you agree?

[Andrew Walsh]

Will you or will you not explain the birds and the bees to me? That's all I want to know.

[Luke Burbank]

I did it yesterday, Andrew. I said, when a tree loves another tree very much, there's a right way.

[Andrew Walsh]

To rock and a wrong way to roll. You can't just listen to your song. Just remember that life is number one. You can be having so much fun. Just remember. Luke. Andrew, I know you want to do the Blurs days. I want to do the Blurs days, too. But I want to tell you about a special little email that I got just about two minutes ago.

[Luke Burbank]

Oh, wow. Okay.

[Andrew Walsh]

Says your order is ready. It's from a little friend of mine named Guitar Center.

[Luke Burbank]

So this is kind of. This is almost like a birthday for you.

[Andrew Walsh]

This is a happy Blurs day. To the new audio board.

[Luke Burbank]

This audio board is just birthed into the world.

[Andrew Walsh]

It says your order is ready for pickup. I can go pick it up today. And then I'm gonna pick up Genevieve after work and I'm gonna show her the audio board. It's all working out. My whole afternoon is really setting up nicely here. I'm very excited. Excellent about this. Now back to this idea of blurs days. If you'd like to wish somebody or even yourself a happy blurs day, you can email me andrewbtl.net but blursing the subject line like Lisa did. Oh, for our good friend Faren. Lisa says happy golden blurs day to our friend Faren to save time. It was a they might be giant show. She is still an amazing civic leader. Shout out to her work with the Ocean Beach Women's Club. And still an amazing hair goddess. I'm excited to see her and get my hair done when I'm in San Diego next month. I had San Francisco on my mind for some reason when I'm in San Diego next month. I hope you're doing something fun today and hope we can toast to your birthday in a few weeks.

[Luke Burbank]

Happy blurs, Faren. Yeah, I love that we just tldr that they might be giants thing now. Yeah, exactly, because it's like every year I bring it up the origin story of those two fine folks meeting.

[Andrew Walsh]

Was it a cake show? Grace in Ithaca, New York says, I'd like to wish Diane in Beaux Arts a very happy blurs day. She's oh, that's nice. What is that?

[Luke Burbank]

Yeah, it's just something called Charmed on my sample sound effect list.

[Andrew Walsh]

But calming kind of.

[Luke Burbank]

Yeah, it kind of made me think of Beaux Arts Village. A very calming, nice place.

[Andrew Walsh]

Well, that's where Diane is and she is always there for me and the best mom TB tail daddy I could ask for. That's from Grace in Ithaca.

[Luke Burbank]

Happy blurs.

[Andrew Walsh]

Ju wrote in to say happy blurs. Say to Spencer, the person who first introduced me to TBTL back in 2008 when we became office mates. And by introduce, I mean, quote, mention that he was obsessed with this radio show. It took me years, but now I'm the obsessed one. Spencer was the best office mate and has been a great friend since. He's smart, funny, kind, and I wish we could hang out more often. Happy blurs day To Spencer.

[Luke Burbank]

Happy blurs. Thanks for spreading the word, Spence.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah, indeed. Everybody do that. Be more like Spencer. Brandon says, Happy 17th Blurs Day to Aidan. We're proud of the young man that you're becoming, from working to being an honor student. To rowing crew developing brilliant comedic timing. Aiden now listens to TBTL on his own. And with so many above abhorrent people pumping out content, I'm comforted that he's spending time with his west coast friendos.

[Luke Burbank]

I love that. First of all, amazing news to hear that we have a young listener who's voluntarily engaging with this content as opposed to being subjected to it in the car or whatever. Love that. Also love that we can be an answer to the manosphere.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah, right.

[Luke Burbank]

That's what I took from that message. That there's a lot of. There are a lot of nelk boys out there. There are a lot of. Not that I don't know if they're strictly manosphere, but just like there's a lot of guys with. With microphones that are now podcasting to a lot of, you know, a lot of people who are still developing their thoughts about the world and hopefully we can help turn out some. A few more namby pamby snowflakes.

[Andrew Walsh]

That's right.

[Luke Burbank]

We're outnumbered right now. Majorly. But we're doing what we.

[Andrew Walsh]

I like the friend zone. It's very friendly.

[Luke Burbank]

The name of our podcast, Friend Zone.

[Andrew Walsh]

Brian in Portland says big blurs a shout out to my long running CO bro Nate in Tacoma. I hope we can get together in person soon, but until then, we'll just continue to text each other in TBTL drops.

[Luke Burbank]

Love it.

[Andrew Walsh]

That's a tuna, bro. So I don't have the drop. That. That was a terrible one though.

[Luke Burbank]

That wasn't that bad. I'm finding it right now. Hold on.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah, that's a. That's a tuna, bro. Yeah, that's better. It's better than mine. Happy blurs to Nate.

[Luke Burbank]

Another drop. It wanted to auto fire after that. Yeah, that's it.

[Andrew Walsh]

That's a tuna bro.

[Luke Burbank]

The unfortunate side effect is that it makes most movies look like they were shot in high school.

[Andrew Walsh]

Happy blurs to Nate. And thank you to TBTL for bringing awesome friends like him into my life. Happy birthday. Made from Brian and from us.

[Luke Burbank]

We love Brian.

[Andrew Walsh]

Indeed.

[Luke Burbank]

And we love Nate.

[Andrew Walsh]

We love all of. Yeah. Nate's blurs day. Roda says happy blurs day to my longest running coworker bro. Julie. You make everyone's days brighter. I see another chance for you to play a drop here, Luke, if you want to play along. Let's see here. You make everyone days brighter and better with your humor, knowledge and patience, including mine. I don't know what I would do without you. What? I don't know if it's video games until it stops. What? Will you please stop?

[Luke Burbank]

You know what's crazy? I don't think I have video games or what. I just have this so unfair to after something like this backseat or say.

[Andrew Walsh]

They deserved it to after something like this.

[Luke Burbank]

Somebody wrote in today and said I never stop laughing.

[Andrew Walsh]

It's just. It's so. So I think you should leave. The way that language is constructed. I thought I had or what in here do I have. Oh, here. Could this. Could this be it? Oh, no. My audio isn't gonna. This is gonna be a mess. Luke, standby here.

[Luke Burbank]

Okay.

[Andrew Walsh]

No, that's not it. How about Scott? How about this? Come on, Scott.

[Luke Burbank]

I don't know if it's video games or what, but it's so unfair to after something like this to blame people.

[Andrew Walsh]

In the backseat or something. It's so good and I got there so smoothly. That's the important thing.

[Luke Burbank]

So a lot going on. Also, that board is hardwired to pre fade.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yes.

[Luke Burbank]

Ridiculous.

[Andrew Walsh]

Exactly. Anyway, Rhoda says, I don't know what I would do without you. Having a fellow 10 in the workplace is special. It is special. Please have a great birthday, Julie, from your friendo, Rhoda.

[Luke Burbank]

Love it.

[Andrew Walsh]

And one more here. Sally says this is a complicated blurs day message to myself. Last April 9, I was rushed to the hospital incoherent and without control of my body. I was in septic shock due to massive bacterial infection. I was given a 10% chance to survive. I had eight surgeries. I was in the ICU for weeks. And when I finally got home, I started my big backlog of tbtl. And some days it made me laugh. Some days it made me cry. And some days it just made me forget about my condition. I consider today, April 10th, my new birthday. I still have some healing to do, but this is where I start to come back. So, Sally, we're glad you're here with us. That was a journey. I condensed that a little bit. But what Sally has gone through is just breathtaking.

[Luke Burbank]

My goodness. Well, happy new birthday, Sally, out there in North Bend. And. And we'll be thinking about you. I'm so sorry to hear that you've been going through that. I also wonder what the medical professionals said when they asked you about your plans when you returned home and you said, well, I've got to catch up on this podcast. I wonder if they thought that was a useful medical decision for you.

[Andrew Walsh]

I thought you were going to say that. The medical professionals looked down and said, I don't know if it's video games or what is going on.

[Luke Burbank]

I don't know if it's podcasting or.

[Andrew Walsh]

What exactly, but yeah, that. That sounds like a very harrowing journey, man. 10% chance of survival. Wow. We are.

[Luke Burbank]

I mean, we're so glad that you beat the odds, Sally, and so stoked to have you continuing on as part of our listener community. And wishing you the best.

[Andrew Walsh]

Indeed.

[Luke Burbank]

Happy birthday to everybody. I feel like Julio Rodriguez had a rebirth yesterday, at least according to Matt Calkins today.

[Andrew Walsh]

Oh, really? Oh, suddenly your Culkins fan?

[Luke Burbank]

Well, when his takes and mine align, I'm very pro. Maybe. Maybe. I mean, that was. That was quite something, that game yesterday. I had no idea, Andrew. Again, luckily, this is buried at the end of the show. But like, my journey with that baseball game yesterday was I was so frustrated at our ineptitude. And also I had a lot of work to do getting ready for a livewire tomorrow night in Seattle at Ben Roy hall that I just had checked out of the game. I was doing my reading and some other stuff, and then I see a text that you had put on the chain about the fact that my brother, dftb, was at the baseball game with his beautiful daughter and his wife.

[Andrew Walsh]

Her first baseball game.

[Luke Burbank]

Yes. And so I turned the game off when it was five. Nothing to focus on other things. I see a text from you saying something to the effect of what an awesome game for your daughter's first game or something. And I thought, there's no way. Andrew. Is that sarcastic. Seriously, this was the journey I went on. I was like, that would be such a. Kind of weirdly, like, even if you're frustrated about the game, you would never bring Gemma into this. Yeah.

[Andrew Walsh]

Right.

[Luke Burbank]

That would be. So I saw it and I was like, the only explanation for this is that the Mariners are doing something unexpected. And I booted up my fubo. I pulled the.

[Andrew Walsh]

You weren't in public, were you?

[Luke Burbank]

I pulled all of the shades, Andrew. And I booted up my Fubo.

[Andrew Walsh]

Oh, geez. And I was like, fun, sexy time.

[Luke Burbank]

I was like, oh my. It was six to six. I was like, this is incredible. But I. I would have missed that whole thing if not for your text to the group basically saying, this is a cool thing for my. My niece's first baseball game. So thank you for sending that, because I would have just missed the. And it ended up being a very exciting end.

[Andrew Walsh]

It was. I mean, this was a team that was down 5 to nothing, I think, going into the 8th, I want to say. And then a grand slam later. And it's. It's close to being tied. And then, like you said, a two run RBI from Julio. Like, and not. I mean, Julio's gotten a few dingers this year, but not usually in clutch positions or situations or when somebody is on base. And so, yeah, like, suddenly this team just coming to life at the end of this game. And now Luke. And now they rest. I've had today. I. This is how weird I am. I have had their off day circled mentally on my calendar for a while on their behalf. This team needs to rest. I know that it hasn't been like an arduous road trip or anything. It's been. But this team needs to take a breather, see if they can like clone any of their injured players or something and, and get healthy and then be back again on Friday.

[Luke Burbank]

But, I mean, talk about a difference in how the day felt to go from we haven't won a series and we've. We're just looking absolutely pathetic against our hated rivals, the ass Castros, to, oh, we actually won a series. Oh, and maybe Julio is getting off the schneide with runners in scoring position and, you know, and yeah. Enjoy that day off. There's nothing like a day off after something good has happened.

[Andrew Walsh]

Exactly. And then I guess. I guess they're staying at home for this Rangers series. Are they ever gonna go on the road again? Maybe.

[Luke Burbank]

I hope not.

[Andrew Walsh]

Maybe not.

[Luke Burbank]

All right, well, listen. Thanks, everybody for listening. Thanks for indulging that little bit of sport talk at the end of the show. We'll be back here tomorrow with more imaginary radio for all of you. Please do join us for that. In the meantime, have a great Thursday. Take. Take care of yourselves and please remember, no mountain too tall.

[Andrew Walsh]

And good luck to all. Power out.