#4494 Gratuitous Knolling

Summary

Podcast Summary: TBTL Episode #4494 – “Gratuitous Knolling”

Title: TBTL: Too Beautiful To Live
Hosts: Luke Burbank and Andrew Walsh
Episode: #4494 Gratuitous Knolling
Release Date: June 23, 2025

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1. Opening Banter and Setting the Scene (00:00 – 03:00)

The episode kicks off with Luke Burbank and Andrew Walsh engaging in their signature playful banter. Luke humorously introduces his son studying at the nonexistent "New York Pizza Academy," setting a lighthearted tone for the show.

Notable Quote:

• Luke Burbank (00:57): “Tbtl.”
• Andrew Walsh (01:02): “In a few hours, you're going to be smarter than anyone you've ever met.”

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2. Celebrating Milestones and Upcoming Events (03:00 – 05:00)

Luke shares exciting news about the show's progress, highlighting that they are approaching 4,500 episodes. They also announce the successful completion of the TBTL Billboard Hunt, where participants have been searching for a hidden billboard across the country.

Notable Quote:

• Luke Burbank (02:18): “We're getting close to 4,500. 4,500 shows. My goodness gracious.”
• Andrew Walsh (04:14): “...maintaining that engagement throughout the course of the program.”

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3. Deep Dive into “Kimmy Schmidt” and Contemporary Television (05:00 – 17:00)

The hosts transition into a detailed discussion about the television show "Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt." They critique its portrayal of "woke" college culture, with Andrew expressing discomfort over the show's heavy-handed humor.

Key Points:

• Critique of Woke Culture: Andrew and Luke discuss how the show satirizes modern college environments, debating whether the humor effectively addresses issues of political correctness.
• Character Analysis: They analyze characters like Titus and Amy Sedaris’ cameo, applauding certain performances while critiquing others for being cringy or over-the-top.
• Artistic Intent vs. Audience Reception: The conversation delves into whether the show's creators intended to push back against contemporary social movements and how that impacts viewer reception.

Notable Quotes:

• Andrew Walsh (11:20): “...some parts of it that I found a little bit cringy.”
• Luke Burbank (12:22): “...making fun of what we would say woke college life.”

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4. Exploring Wes Anderson’s Cinematic Choices (17:00 – 33:00)

Luke and Andrew engage in an in-depth conversation about director Wes Anderson, questioning his apparent repetition of stylistic elements in his films. They debate whether Anderson is intentionally refining his unique aesthetic or stalling creatively.

Key Points:

• Consistent Aesthetic: Discussion centers on Anderson's distinctive visual and narrative style, pondering why he continues to employ similar techniques across different projects.
• Artistic Journey vs. Audience Engagement: They explore whether Anderson's focus on perfecting his vision might alienate audiences seeking variety.
• Comparison with Paul Thomas Anderson: The hosts contrast Wes Anderson’s consistent style with Paul Thomas Anderson’s evolving directorial approach.

Notable Quotes:

• Luke Burbank (28:02): “...Wes Anderson is on this, like, lifetime art project to perfectly crystallize what his creative vision is.”
• Andrew Walsh (30:35): “...I can maybe group in movies and music together in a certain way because, like, you're making an argument for...”

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5. Autonomous Vehicles and Personal Experiences (33:00 – 47:00)

The conversation shifts to the topic of self-driving cars. Luke recounts a tense experience with a Waymo autonomous vehicle making an abrupt left turn, sparking a discussion about the safety and decision-making algorithms of autonomous technology.

Key Points:

• Near-Miss Incident: Luke describes a scenario where a Waymo car almost collided with an oncoming truck due to an unprotected left turn.
• Emotional vs. Mathematical Driving: They debate how autonomous cars rely on mathematical calculations, potentially leading to aggressive driving maneuvers that differ from human intuition.
• Future of Driving: The hosts ponder the implications of widespread autonomous vehicle adoption, balancing efficiency with personal comfort and safety concerns.

Notable Quotes:

• Luke Burbank (38:31): “The robot car is going to drive different than we humans are... it was the mathematically correct decision, but it scared the patootie out of me.”
• Andrew Walsh (45:28): “There will be gore. Yes.”

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6. Personal Anecdotes and Reflections (47:00 – 67:00)

Luke and Andrew share personal stories related to their time in Los Angeles, reminiscing about favorite spots, changes in the city’s landscape, and nostalgic memories of classic locales like Amoeba Records and the ArcLight Cinemas.

Key Points:

• Memories of LA: Andrew recalls enjoying Amoeba Records and ArcLight Cinemas, expressing sadness over their closure.
• Community and Lifestyle Changes: They discuss the transformation of Hollywood and the impact of corporate changes on beloved local establishments.
• Social Habits: The hosts reflect on their personal habits, such as Andrew’s experience with 24 Hour Fitness and Luke’s preference for silence during long drives.

Notable Quotes:

• Andrew Walsh (59:46): “What can make interviewing this guy seem better? Well, how about we put you on an assignment where you have to eat a bunch of mayo first...”
• Luke Burbank (62:32): “It's like judge the people who aren't exercising.”

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7. TBTL Billboard Hunt and Upcoming Announcements (67:00 – 72:00)

Towards the end of the episode, Luke provides updates on the TBTL Billboard Hunt, revealing that the final clue has led to a correct guess. They announce that the winner and the location of the billboard will be revealed in the next episode, with additional exclusive content available to newsletter subscribers.

Key Points:

• Billboard Reveal Plan: The hosts build anticipation for the next episode where the winner and billboard location will be unveiled.
• Exclusive Artwork: Andrew highlights the unique graphic design of the billboard artwork, thanking his team and encouraging listeners to subscribe to the newsletter for early access.
• Community Engagement: They encourage audience participation and interaction through the newsletter signup to stay updated on TBTL activities.

Notable Quotes:

• Andrew Walsh (54:58): “It is not 100% sure I want. Let's just say it's a good product.”
• Luke Burbank (55:06): “...there's not one person that I have showed the artwork to who has not audibly yelped.”

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8. Closing Remarks and Teasers for Next Episode (72:00 – End)

In their closing, Luke and Andrew tease future content, including an upcoming report from Luke’s trip to Vegas where he will interview Dana White and partake in a mayonnaise taste test. They wrap up by reminding listeners to subscribe to the newsletter and tune in for the next episode’s big announcements.

Notable Quote:

• Luke Burbank (70:49): “Sometimes you got to eat the mayo. Sometimes the mayo eats you.”

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Conclusion

Episode #4494 of TBTL: Too Beautiful To Live offers a blend of humor, personal anecdotes, and in-depth discussions on contemporary television, film, and emerging technologies. Luke and Andrew’s engaging dialogue, punctuated by memorable quotes and timestamps, provides listeners with insights into their perspectives while maintaining the show's characteristic playful spirit. The episode successfully balances entertainment with informative content, making it worthwhile for both regular listeners and newcomers alike.

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Transcript

[Luke Burbank]

Welcome to Federici's. What can I get for you guys? Well, as hard as it is to believe, given our apparent ages, this is my son. Seems about right. Okay, good. My son is currently studying at a local pizza academy. Really? Which one? New York Pizza Academy. Well, then I hate you. Cause I'm a pizza academy in New York, man. Wonderful. So what fraternity are you pledging? I'm not.

[Andrew Walsh]

There are no fraternities at New York Pizza Academy.

[Luke Burbank]

That's right. You correctly answered my trick question. Now, I'm bound by Pizza Academy tradition to grant you any request. Wow, this could not have gone any better.

[Andrew Walsh]

We need to see all your delivery receipts from the last two months.

[Luke Burbank]

Oh, you got that delivery receipt exam coming up, huh? What a bear. Here you go. Take your time. I'll be in the back trying to think of other ways to help you.

[Andrew Walsh]

Tbtl.

[Luke Burbank]

In a few hours, you're going to be smarter than anyone you've ever met. Do you like to see what I see?

[Andrew Walsh]

A talking duck. Yeah, that's it.

[Luke Burbank]

I've been doing too much toot. This is malicious fecal distribution.

[Andrew Walsh]

You know, you're overthinking it, buddy. I mean, just kind of see this.

[Luke Burbank]

As a fun thing to do where.

[Andrew Walsh]

You make a little bread.

[Luke Burbank]

Our apologies.

[Andrew Walsh]

It's okay.

[Luke Burbank]

Okay. We'll be right back. You're off to an awesome start. Thank you.

[Andrew Walsh]

Well, all right.

[Luke Burbank]

Hello, good morning and welcome, everyone to a Monday edition of tbtl, the show that just might be too beautiful to live. That was the fanciest sentence I've ever heard. And I used to watch Frasier. My name is Luke Burbank. I am your host. You paint your bald spot?

[Andrew Walsh]

What bald spot?

[Luke Burbank]

Coming to you from the intersection of Wilcox and Sunset Boulevard. California. Got sunshine in Hollywoo, California. It's a beautiful Monday here in Southern California. We have managed to escape the so called June gloom that comes around this time of year. And things are just looking absolutely spectacular. Oh, ma pa. It's just beautiful. Perfect weather to bring you episode 4494 in a collector's series.

[Andrew Walsh]

Let the fun begin.

[Luke Burbank]

We're getting close to 4,500. 4,500 shows. My goodness gracious. Hey, we've got some fun news today on the show. We have received a correct answer to the great TBTL billboard Hunt. I'm in it to win it, of course. We've been giving clues for the last five weeks about the whereabouts of a TBTL billboard somewhere in this beautiful country. And people have been guessing and somebody guessed it right. We'll tell you the latest on that whole situation when we are done recording. Today, I'm heading over to what would have to be probably Andrew's. Maybe like, Andrew's idea of the worst Monday he could go through, which would be to be filmed on national television doing a mayonnaise taste test. There's a Hidden Valley Ranch party in my mouth. We'll talk about that, too. Oh, and speaking of my good friend, AKA the longest running cobra of the show, possibly best known for his depictions of the tall ships soulful rocker from New Hampshire. You know that guy? His name is Andrew Walsh, and he is joining me right now. Good morning, my friend.

[Andrew Walsh]

Good morning, Luke. If you, like most people listening and like myself, were wondering, who is that voice who plays the pizza Academy guy in the 30 Rock Club?

[Luke Burbank]

You know, it sounded to me. Can I put a guess out there that I already know is incorrect?

[Andrew Walsh]

You can. I will set it up. I was looking it up while you're talking. I don't think I recognize this name, though I do believe maybe it's a character actor whose face we all recognize.

[Luke Burbank]

Okay, I already know it's not this person. But just purely to make our friend Phyllis Fletcher, to engage her in this conversation, because that's been a big problem for us over the years, is attracting the interest of P. Fletch and maintaining that engagement throughout the course of the program.

[Andrew Walsh]

And not just listening, but interacting with.

[Luke Burbank]

The content, having thoughts about the show. That's something. That's a nut we've yet to crack with our friend Phyllis. But it sounds like. And I know it isn't this guy, but it sounds like Artie Lange one time of the Howard Stern show. Now, the reason I know it's not Artie Lange is because, first of all, you're probably familiar to some degree with that person.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah.

[Luke Burbank]

And. And also, I believe at the time of the making of this, Artie Lang was either holed up in his penthouse in Hoboken, New Jersey, with copious amounts of drugs, or he was in sober living. The result of the time he was holed up in his place in Hoboken with copious amounts of drugs. Like this was during a period when Artie Lang, the comedian and performer, was not really up for. For performing. So anyway, that was a. Again, that was me guessing at a person who I already know isn't the person. So why did I do that? Who knows? Please reveal the real answer, Mr. Walsh.

[Andrew Walsh]

Well, it is an Artie Lang type, I will say, and I just want to say this, too, about Artie Lang. I'm not somebody who follows the ins and outs of that man's career very well. I know who he is. I know about some of his struggles. I am now reminded that he is kind of or was a regular on the Stern Show. And there was a lot of drama. There was. That is one of those names where you say it, and I get immediately worried about that man. Like, how is Artie Lang doing? Like, for real? Like, it appears to be doing better.

[Luke Burbank]

It is the strangest thing. Now, this is me speculating on someone that I've never met in real life and who I don't have any particular, like, insight into. But these are things I can tell you. I love that we. We've got the great TBTL billboard hunt. I went in a robot car yesterday with Adelaide, which almost killed us. We have so much to talk about. And this is where I'm gonna speculate on the. On. On wither. The performer Artie. Language. Here's what I can tell you that I have gleaned from the Internet. Of course, he. He was doing very well professionally. He was a very successful standup comic. He was on the Stern Show. He was selling out comedy shows, making huge sums of money, and. And then also struggled with addiction and kind of sort of at some point after he went to sober living, I saw he was doing some of his community service. And what he was doing was pumping gas in New Jersey. Somebody saw him in New Jersey at a gas station, pumping gas, which was somehow part of. I don't know if that was actually technically part of probation or just something they did with sober living, where it was like, you need to just go do a job. And the other thing about Artie Lang is that his use of cocaine caused the full collapse of his nose.

[Andrew Walsh]

I know.

[Luke Burbank]

Which is a visually really kind of unsettling thing to see, obviously. And he's had surgeries on it to sort of repair it from its most extreme kind of degradation. And here's my point in all this. You see this clip. Somebody's videotaping. Somebody's talking to Artie Lang, and he's pumping gas at a station in New Jersey, a gas station. And his nose is still bearing some of the effects of what his lifestyle was. And the guy is beaming. The guy is totally happy because he's actually sober. And the fact that we haven't seen him in public, I think is a good sign. It seems like his life completely changed from the things about a life that many of us might think would give the life. I don't want to say meaning, but like, could you be a comedian earning $300,000 to perform at Harrah's and then turn around and blow $300,000 at the tables? Which was the kind that he did a lot, you know, and have this kind of level of fame with a certain demographic, me being in that demographic. Or could you be pumping gas in New Jersey, but sober? And it would appear that that's the road to happiness for the guy. So I feel. I feel, I feel encouraged on his behalf and as a fan of his work.

[Andrew Walsh]

I'm looking this up. He was spotted at this gas station, I'm guessing here, multiple times, although I'm not sure. But there's a write up about it may. Oh, really?

[Luke Burbank]

I haven't seen a write up. I only saw little quick cell phone video.

[Andrew Walsh]

Well, it was a write up in the Philly voice here from May of 2019.

[Luke Burbank]

By the way, that was my mom's nickname.

[Andrew Walsh]

The Philly Voice. Yeah. Once you. The Philly voice, she moved away from there. Yeah, I always wanted one of those. I actually did somebody once call me Ohio. And it filled me with life because I really felt like, oh, your nickname.

[Luke Burbank]

Being where you're from now, that.

[Andrew Walsh]

That's very. Yeah, that's very N. Right.

[Luke Burbank]

Yeah.

[Andrew Walsh]

I'm trying to think, was I on, Was I visiting Vietnam just as a tourist and somebody called me Ohio? And I really felt. Really felt like I was in it. Oh, by the way. Yeah. So that was six years ago. I don't know what art is doing now, but you're right, it looked like it was kind of a people. It was part of his rehab program in some way or how, I'm not exactly sure. But that was. That's the thing, right? It's like 2019 as last year. No, wait, that was before the worldwide pandemic. Let's see here. Jimmy Palumbo would be sure. Do you know that name?

[Luke Burbank]

No, that was a joke.

[Andrew Walsh]

Well, I mean, you might. I wouldn't know, like, if you had interviewed Jimmy Palumbo, but. Jimmy Palumbo? Yeah, he's the pizza guy from that 30 Rock bit. And when you see his face, you're like, oh, yeah, I've seen. It looks like maybe he played a doorman in Arrested Development. It looks like he's a working actor who, like, really fits there. His headshot, I will say. He's wearing a fedora and I only see. Oh, you're looking at that too. Yeah, that kind of bowling shirt, which is that. You know, that's A choice that I probably wouldn't make. But aside from that, I'm happy for him.

[Luke Burbank]

Yeah, I love that scene too. That scene from 30 Rock. You know what? I have been just. You heard me playing some of the audio from something that I said was 30 rock adjacent. But I have been really getting into unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt. Speaking of things from six years ago, I had like, after we did the show on Friday, I had like hours and hours and hours of CBS travel expense reports to file, which just involves like so much tedium where it's like go into concur and then it says this is how much the Lyft ride was. And then I have to go into the Lyft app and I have to find the ride and then I have to screen cap the receipt and then I have to text the receipt to myself on my other computer, drag it into the system, enter all the info. It's very time consuming and I'm always kind of putting it off until I start getting emails going, we're going to turn this credit card off.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah.

[Luke Burbank]

And so I decided on Friday to make the time go by faster or just by watching Kimmy Schmidt. And I must have watched an entire season of that show. And it is so good. So unbelievable. I know I'm not really telling you anything, but like, I just throw that out there. Next time you have to do something tedious that doesn't involve a lot of intense thought. It's just repetitive. Throw some Kimmy Schmidt on there and it will. The time will fly by.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah, I think that's a good use of that show as well. I like that show a lot too. There were some parts of it that I found a little bit cringy. Parts that had to do with like. And I feel like this Tina Fey spot her boyfriend. I don't know.

[Luke Burbank]

Dong you didn't like.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah, well, that, that, that's, that's rough in and of itself. But also like this depiction of college life. I don't know if you got into that and sor of like almost like they weren't using the word woke, but sort of like making fun of what we would say woke college life. Some of that stuff is just like so, so cringy. And I, it just feels like, I don't know, the Tina Fey. That's always something that seems like it's it she wants to make statements on, but I feel like always sort of clumsily sort of so that sort of.

[Luke Burbank]

It's weird that it was a little heavy handed. Although. Yeah, I Thought it was interesting. That's literally the season I watched. I thought what was interesting about that, honestly, is, is that definitely, like we get. Okay, we get the joke. And like, you're just going at this over and over again. I do think it's. When do you think that season of Kimmy Schmidt was being broadcast or was.

[Andrew Walsh]

Being put out there? Well, I was gonna ask you. I don't think that this sort of storyline is limited to a season. So I don't know exactly what you've seen and what you haven't, but I think Kimmy Schmidt probably was like mid 20 teens. I'm gonna guess maybe.

[Luke Burbank]

I think it's interesting. Well, what I was thinking because, yeah, basically what happens is one of the characters, like Jane Krakowski's stepdaughter, I think, or ex stepdaughter, or the stepdaughter of her ex is going to college, is going to Columbia, and then Kimmy Schmidt, the main character, ends up going to Columbia. And all of these students are very like kind of getting consent for everything and talking about kind of feminism and all this stuff in a very like the joke being or the, the. The critique being that like college students are too woke and are using too many, are too obsessed with. I don't think actually pronouns comes up in it, but the kind of overall vibe is like college kids are using this made up language to navigate their world and made up ideas to navigate their world that are silly and mockable. Right. Would you say that's the general energy?

[Andrew Walsh]

Okay, so this is the one where she has the three roommates or the two roommates? Yeah, yeah, I think that is kind of. Okay. Yeah, that, that is the peak of it. And what's his name and the one sort of saving grace is. Who's the really charming guy from Hamilton?

[Luke Burbank]

From Hamilton, yeah.

[Andrew Walsh]

Is he in this season as well? I do like that.

[Luke Burbank]

He's like her love interest.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah. Okay.

[Luke Burbank]

Yeah, but, yeah, I guess I agree with you. I thought that the comedy was really heavy handed. I thought it was interesting, the timing of that critique, because I feel like I think that's a critique that's kind of now come out into the open and is being given some more consideration, probably by people who at a certain time would not have publicly given it consideration. Like, I think there was a period of time on the left where any critique of that kind of basically saying maybe some of these public institutions have created an environment that in trying to be inclusive has actually become stifling. I think there would have been a time that making that critique would have actually kind of put you on the outside of the way that the movement was thinking. And. But. And that now I think that nowadays you can. People can say that, and there's probably very little pushback on it because everything is just in complete disarray. But I. I was wondering while watching it, like, was Tina Fey making that critique? And again, I don't think it's that funny, and I think she overdid it. But was she making that at a time that that critique was actually kind of edgy? In other words, at a time where. When you. When you were pushing back on that, you could kind of. I don't want to say find yourself canceled, but that there would be a strong reaction to it, that would actually maybe carry some weight.

[Andrew Walsh]

I do think that she was doing it before a lot of people were talking. I mean, she might have rankled some people. I think, you know this. But I will just say, for the record, like, I think that those jokes can be made. Well, I just. What. What I cringe at isn't even her trying to make the point, because I would feel like if somebody could win me over with some humor, that it would be somebody like Tina Fey. But it's because I've seen this in some of her other projects as well. Like when the sort of, like, kind of, you know, even before people called it, whoa. Kind of like what she might have called political correctness or whatever. Like, lots of times when that is brought up, it is sort of cringy. I feel like 30 Rock was a really interesting example because here's 30 Rock, and she is actually portraying a character who is sometimes a little racist, right? And, like. But knowingly so. And the joke isn't like, look how funny it is to be racist. It's kind of like, oh, she sort of said something in front of, like, there's these little things of, like, I can't. This is such a dumb example to go to, but it sticks in my head. Like, she pronounces Donald Glover, Denald Glover, and I never understood why, but a friend of mine said I think it's because she's kind of like, because he's a black man, she assumes his name, and it just goes by very quickly. And I actually think that sort of, like, that is a. That is. That is not a racist joke. That is a joke about somebody who's just a little mildly racist, maybe in your brain. And there's little moments of that. And I can't think of other examples right now throughout 30 Rock that I actually think are pretty, like, pretty cutting and sharp, and they just stick. And then you have this Kimmy Schmidt version of it, which is. It's just. It's so corny and over the top. And I hate to say it, I don't want to call anybody out specifically too much, but the, the actor who plays the. The college student, the. The stepdaughter or whatever, who's kind of the college age girl in this young woman, like, just can't handle it. Like, just can't what? Whatever is being asked. I don't think that actor can handle it. And I really think the script is not doing any favors. It's so clumsy and clunky and cringy.

[Luke Burbank]

I agree with you. It was like. It was very. I was like, oh, we're still doing this. Like, I kept coming back to the joke and I just like, okay, can we.

[Andrew Walsh]

Can we.

[Luke Burbank]

Can we move on to Titus doing something funny, please?

[Andrew Walsh]

Right. And then who. Who steals the show but, you know, the gay. The over the top gay black man, you know, Titus is like the star of the show. And talk about, like, just when Kenny Schmidt is just doing. This is doing everything right. Right. Is when he's on screen.

[Luke Burbank]

I would argue that Amy Sedaris steals that season. Amy Sedaris character is like adrenochrome of comedy. Like one tiny drop under the tongue and that's all it takes. She probably has 10 lines in the season, but they're like, each one is so funny now to me.

[Andrew Walsh]

She also had, I believe, a couple of cameos on Broad City. I could be wrong about that.

[Luke Burbank]

Oh, okay.

[Andrew Walsh]

But where. Which show, do you know, does she claim to be bullied with or cyber bullied within an inch of her life? Was that.

[Luke Burbank]

That would have to be Broad City.

[Andrew Walsh]

That was Broad City, I think, because.

[Luke Burbank]

Well, you know, I'm saying that because I think I've seen all of her performance in Kimmy Schmidt now, and I don't remember that. I mean, I remember that line from this show.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah.

[Luke Burbank]

So by the process of, like, elimination, I'm going to say broad. Broad City.

[Andrew Walsh]

But is this the one, though, where she. I think it's. I think it's Kimmy Schmidt. There's just one moment, and if you're doing, like, paperwork, you might not notice it, but it's so. It happened so quickly where she walks into an apartment and flips off her shoes without stopping before she walks on a new carpet or something like that. I don't know why it's so. A bit. She just walks into so full of energy and doesn't stop for one thing. And like the next thing you know, her shoes are just like both flipped off. Do you have any idea what I'm talking about?

[Luke Burbank]

Yes, I think that's been memeified.

[Andrew Walsh]

Oh really?

[Luke Burbank]

I think I might have seen it as a clip at some point, but it's. Yeah, she just is like, she is just the lines that they write for her and her delivery of the lines is just like so amazingly perfect. By the way, speaking of, I don't know, cinematic experiences, probably today's not the day to get into it because we have a lot to do. And also, I don't want to spoil anything, but I did see the movie 28 years later this weekend.

[Andrew Walsh]

Oh, interesting. I've been wondering whether or not I'm going to see that.

[Luke Burbank]

I did not think this movie. So Saturday, I'm not sure how it was in Seattle, but man, Saturday was an absolute weather shit show in Portland. It was just like the sky was black, it was raining, it was, I guess there was a new record set for the coldest day on that date or something. It was just miserable. And so Becca and I went to see a movie and it was like basically that was the seemed like the most intriguing movie available at the time. We wanted to see a movie. And so I have, so I've seen it. I didn't realize though. Like, it's like I was hanging out with Addie yesterday here in LA and she was saying how she's thinking about going to see it and like it's been coming up on a lot of lists. Like it's getting a lot more buzz than I was expecting it to get. And yeah, it's really something is what I will say about that movie. It's something and I want to talk about it with you, but I'm also a little bit worried about spoilers. And I don't know, maybe we wait to see if you end up seeing it, which again, no pressure, but then if you do, then we could do an episode where we just say, look, this is going to be spoilered and so don't listen to the next 20 minutes. And by that I mean two hours. Let's just say this, I'll just put this out. This doesn't spoil anything. Anatomically correct. Alpha Zombie.

[Andrew Walsh]

Those words sticks in your head a little bit, huh?

[Luke Burbank]

And, and in your mind.

[Andrew Walsh]

I, I, I loved the first one. I saw the, I did too. I saw it twice in the theater because they re released it with like an alternate ending or whatever. So Vivs and I were very into the first one. I remember the second one, I think, had a different director or something. So we saw it in the theater and then, you know, sort of thought, that is okay. But now, is Danny Boyle back for this one? Is this.

[Luke Burbank]

He's directing this one?

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah. So this was his original thing, which makes it tempting, but, Luke, do you know the reason I'm hesitating about going to see it really doesn't even have to do with whether or not it's going to live up to the first one or whether or not I'm going to enjoy it. I'm not the same person I was when the first one came out. I am such a wimp these days. I never loved horror movies anyway, but I did have a soft spot in my heart for, like, zombie movies because of the George Romero stuff and Night of the Living Dead and all of those. Like, I really loved those in college.

[Luke Burbank]

Plus, every party that we used to have back in the day, you and I, you would constantly go, should zombies be allowed to run? That would be like, one of your icebreaker questions. You would never shut up about that.

[Andrew Walsh]

Well, you're kind of painting that in a somewhat obnoxious light. My icebreaker used to be brains. And you were like, andrew, that's getting a little bit. I was on your advice that I changed it. You're like, turn it into a question. And so you're here. You sat me down one time. It was like, what's the famous? You were trying to teach me how to be at parties and have kind of be, you know, how to handle social life. And you sat me down and you said, listen, what you're doing is you're opening with a statement. You're saying, brains. And that doesn't give the person anywhere for the audience. Yeah, nobody's going. So, like, if you come in and you say, brains, colon, zombies. Should they be fast or not? That gives people something to, like, talk about. So that's why I did that, apparently. It sounds like I leaned on it too much for your taste.

[Luke Burbank]

A little bit. But, you know, I mean, people were into it at the time, if I remember right.

[Andrew Walsh]

Well, it started off okay, certainly. Then I went to. Is bowling a sport? Yeah, yeah.

[Luke Burbank]

Anyway, the classic.

[Andrew Walsh]

You know what I was going with there. I'm just too scared. I don't know, man. It has to be like a really, really good MO movie in order to get me to go to see a scary one.

[Luke Burbank]

I would say it's interestingly enough. And again, now we're just sort of talking about the movie, but I'm doing it in a very kind of 30,000 foot way, so it's not spoiling anything. There is, you know, a certain amount of kind of gore and I guess you could say I don't even know if it's gratuitous gore. It's because like it's a movie with zombies. And so the idea is there will be. There. There will be gore.

[Andrew Walsh]

There will be gore. Yes.

[Luke Burbank]

That's a good name for a movie. So there. And I don't watch a lot of movies like this, so there were a couple of times where I was like, ooh, did we have to see that? And I was like, well, we kind of, I guess did. That's the point of this kind of movie. Yeah, it wasn't. I felt like it wasn't horrific actually. Like what it didn't have were like, you know, 15 scenes where the person is hiding behind a wall in the zombie slash alien slash predator. You know, put it. Fill in your like scary sort of character in one of these movies. You know, there's a classic, you know, Ripley hiding behind a thing as the alien is going by and looking for her. And is the alien going to figure out that she's there? That kind of thing. There wasn't as much of that as you might have expected. So I don't.

[Andrew Walsh]

It did.

[Luke Burbank]

The movie wasn't super scary to me. It was more like. It was like I said it was something because it's 28 years in the future and there's this community of people that are, that are living kind of almost like a Middle Ages kind of existence or maybe more like a late 1800s existence because they're quarantined on this island because they're still, you know, there's still zombies out there and so they, they're not allowed to leave because they could be infected. And it's kind of about this like community life of these people. And then there's this one main character and he kind of goes on this vision quest or whatever. But like it's not just kind of like, it's not just zombies from front to back. It's a lot of other stuff that's kind of not zombie actually. And that's. And then that's good.

[Andrew Walsh]

That's what I like. I like, like post apocalyptic, like how do you survive as humans?

[Luke Burbank]

Yeah, it's, it's some of that. I wanted there to be more of it. And then, and then the movie just kind of like it takes what to me Felt like a wild. Kind of a wild turn maybe three quarters of the way through where it just felt like it kind of became a different sort of movie. And then at the very end, it was just kind of like I looked over at Becca and I was like, oh, is this how this is? Okay, this is what's happening now in this film. That's all I'll say so does not give it away. But let's just say if you do find yourself seeing it, maybe we'll talk about it then. Which will also give it a little more time to kind of marinate and also for people to see it. So we will spoil it for a few less. Folks.

[Andrew Walsh]

It would be amazing if it was a reverse Sinners. I don't know if I can make that joke. I don't know if I can make that joke without spoiling it too much. But I think people mostly know what the deal with Sinners is. And it's been out for a little bit now. But it starts as a pretty straightforward movie where you're meeting all of these characters and falling in love with them and. And like in just like kind of really getting into this groove of this plot. And then it becomes like halfway through, like supernatural. Like there's no hint of supernatural. And then boom, it becomes a supernatural movie. And I think most people know that it would be really interesting. And by the way, you'll be unsurprised, even though there are some spectacular things that happen throughout the film and there's a reason it be described as a tour de force. I definitely was a first half of Sinners kind of guy. Like, that's my vibe. I'm not into the supernatural as much, but it'd be really amazing to start a movie that has all this supernatural action and then just settle into a nice little more like kind of dramatic. Get to know these characters and their background situation.

[Luke Burbank]

What if supernatural people were trying to sell real estate?

[Andrew Walsh]

Right, Exactly.

[Luke Burbank]

It just starts out Sinners and it just downshifts into Glengarry Glen Ross, which is extremely grounded. Like practical real world issues with trying to get people to buy overpriced real estate.

[Andrew Walsh]

This is a torture joke too. But as you were just. You said something about. You said something about being like gratuitous gore. Then you're like, could it be gratuitous gore? I mean, that's sort of the point of this kind of movie. And I started thinking about the Wes Anderson film that is out now because I'm still on the fence about that one. I was like, what if somebody had, like, gratuitous gnolling like this? This is gratuitous. Well, it's a Wes Anderson Knolling.

[Luke Burbank]

A font? Is that a font?

[Andrew Walsh]

It's that. It's that. It's that, like, photo technique where you're like, the camera's above something flat and every. Like, you have your pocket watch and your comb and your thing, you knowling. I think it's called Noli.

[Luke Burbank]

I had no idea there was a name for that. Exactly what you're talking.

[Andrew Walsh]

You know what I'm talking about? The overhead shot of a bunch of trinkets that are laid out. Oh, yeah, sort of way.

[Luke Burbank]

No. 100%. I just didn't know that was that.

[Andrew Walsh]

But I love the idea of gratuitous knowing. Like, do we really need more of this null. I mean, Wes Anderson is just like, okay, you go. And it's just gratuitous Knolling.

[Luke Burbank]

Can we take. Can we take five minutes on that movie? What's the Phoenician dilemma?

[Andrew Walsh]

It's a Phoenician scheme or something. Let me look it up. I have not seen it. Have you?

[Luke Burbank]

I have not seen it either. I was actually talking about it with Addie yesterday, who has also not seen it. But she, I thought, made a very interesting point about it because I said, I don't understand what the point of going to see this. This new Wes Anderson movie is, because it's just. It's every Wes Anderson movie. And I said to her, I go, you and I could make a Wes Anderson movie at this point. We would know who to cast. We would know how to write the dialogue so that it was very sort of like, reserved and kind of withholding in a way, and understated. We would know how to frame the actors. We would know how to costume them. Like, we know how to do a Wes Anderson thing because we've all seen so much of it. And she said, yeah, but think about it this way. He is just going further and further into his world, and he is basically perfecting this thing or whatever that means to him, as opposed to. Cause I was using Paul Thomas Anderson as a counter. I was saying, the difference between Boogie Nights and There Will Be Blood is really interesting to me. Or Punch Drunk Love. These are all Paul Thomas Anderson movies. And I love that he makes these movies that look really different. And she said, yeah, but that's not what Wes Anderson is trying to do. Wes Anderson is on this, like, lifetime art project to perfectly crystallize what his creative vision is. And it's this stuff, and that's okay. Like, you don't want, you know, it's not necessarily expected that a great painter, you know, sudden, like Cezanne. We're not asking for Cezanne to suddenly start painting. Exactly. Or painting more like Picasso or more like, you know, Da Vinci or something. It's like, you know, you. And anyway, so I thought, oh, that's actually kind of a good point. Like, I was thinking of it like, why is Wes Anderson doing this anymore? Why is he making these movies that are. Feel so similar to me and so in a way, predictable? But it's. He's on some kind of artistic journey about getting it's. And the other thing she said was she goes, do you think he hasn't heard the feedback that these movies. Do we think that Wes Anderson, the filmmaker, is unaware of the fact that his movies have a similar aesthetic? Of course not. He. He's. He's way ahead of us on that whole thing, and he is deciding to do this for some reason. And the other thing is he has made a couple of my favorite movies in the history of the world, specifically Rushmore. So I. It's like, I don't know. I don't know why it is that I've been. I spent the last week just kind of ruminating on that Wes Anderson movie, being like, what are you doing, Wes? It's like, I don't know, but I'm gonna let him do it because the man made Rushmore. That's all he has to do for the rest of his life for me.

[Andrew Walsh]

Well, I think you're getting into an interesting question about, well, how are we judging these things? And obviously, I love Wes Anderson. And like you said, like, for me, my favorite one would be Royal Tenenbaums. That one is. I don't think that's a super unique take on that. But, you know, obviously love Wes Anderson, but I can't draw the connection or the parallel to art that you collect like a painting, because that's not my world. But I can maybe group in movies and music together in a certain way because, like, you're. You're making an argument for, well, I don't want to go see that because I've already seen it before. And your daughter is saying, yeah, but this is his artistic journey. And I just sort of feel like those are two very different arguments. Like, are you going to let him make it? Of course. Everybody can make whatever art they want. The question is, like, is it still entertaining to me, and is it something that I'm going to want to put on my record player or sit in a movie theater and watch. And I'll be honest with you. And it is the Phoenician Scheme. I don't know what it is, but I saw the trailer for this one and I'm like, oh, yeah, maybe I will go see the Phoenician scheme. It seemed like a pretty fun romp. For some reason, I was not interested in Asteroid City. I don't know why. I have no idea. I haven't read that much about either one of them. Maybe Asteroid City is really good and Phoenician scheme isn't. I don't know. Maybe I'll see them both at some point. But it's kind of like, what is the argument here? The argument of an artist being allowed to follow their creative endeavors? Of course, every artist is allowed to do that. But is it entertaining to me? And you might have a musician who's doing something similar too, who's just getting. Instead of, like, kind of being very vast in their scope or whatever. Like, even Beyonce releasing at Western. You know what I mean? You might instead have the artists who are just. I'm just gonna keep drilling down on this one specific thing I do until I perfect it. And at a certain point, you might lose the audience because the audience is like, well, I've kind of heard this already, but you're maybe not doing it for the audience. So.

[Luke Burbank]

But see, I hadn't thought about it that way. So basically my argument was, my question was, why is Wes Anderson making the same film over and over instead of branching out and doing other interesting stuff? And Adi's response was, because he's trying to perfect this one thing, you know, not the question of should he be allowed to make it or even will I go to the movie or not? But, like, I hadn't even considered the idea that, like, oh, yeah, Wes Anderson is. He knows. Like, I hadn't considered the idea that he's aware that his movies look similar. Like, somehow in my mind, I was like, has anyone told him? Has he, like. Because, Wes, we're starting to notice some similarities here in how these films are presented and how the characters tend to behave, which is insane. That I hadn't really considered the fact that he's aware of that and that he's doing something very intentional here. Whether it's for me or not, at this point, it's not unintentional on his part, just based on everything we know about the guy.

[Andrew Walsh]

Do you remember we talked about this a little bit? I think the last Wes Anderson I saw might have been the last one you saw. I'm not sure. The French Dispatch. Yeah. And remember we talked about how he actually includes, I think in the last scene or certainly the last sort of like part of that movie. I feel like he does this dialogue or he writes this dialogue that is in the movie that is like literally sort of addressing this stuff. It's more like addressing maybe not the style of his movies but the fact that some people feel like they lack an emotional substance or lack emotional substance. And there's some scene. I don't remember it that well because I only saw it way back then, but I remember talking to you about it that like I think Bill Murray might play a writer and somebody else's as an editor or vice versa. That in. The editor is saying like there's no, there's no emotional weight here. There's nothing. And in the. And the writer is saying that is the point. That is the point. What I am doing. And the emotion is in the lack of emotion or something along those lines. I'm butchering.

[Luke Burbank]

I remember us having that conversation because it's kind of like a New Yorker parody, right?

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah.

[Luke Burbank]

And so. Yeah, yeah. Well, I probably won't see the Phoenician scheme but. But I'm not. I'm. I'm. I'm basically. I'm going to stay open minded and open hearted to the. Speaking of these filmmakers. By the way, the new P.T. anderson film looks with Leonardo DiCaprio looks.

[Andrew Walsh]

Really kind of interesting.

[Luke Burbank]

Well, I don't really know what it's about except Leo DiCaprio is some kind of. I watched the trailer like two times. He's some kind of a gun shooter guy who's down on his luck and his I think maybe wife or girlfriend who at one point is pregnant. But firing like an AK47 is like, I don't. I'll say they're running around doing stuff like I don't really have any clarity on what the movie is about. But Paul Thomas Anderson is one of those directors for me that I will just see any movie that he makes. Like, I'm like, I don't like the trailer was. I was more confused about the movie after watching the trailer than I would have been if I just heard the name of the movie. But I was like, I'll allow it. I'm going to go see this when it comes out. Because this person has consistently made films that I find extremely compelling. Even if a lot of the time like There Will Be Blood's a Perfect example. I didn't know what the hell was going on in that movie for 97% of it, but I still watched it. I was quite intrigued by watching it.

[Andrew Walsh]

I'm back. And the worst mistake the devil ever made was showing me that I have access to Inherent Vice on like one of the streaming services. I am now in a mode where just this weekend, once again, like, I just put it on sort of in the background. I think I am going for some sort of like Guinness Book of World Records. The man who has watched the beginning of Inherent Vice the most without really making it past the 45 minute mark. Because then I just like, sort of like wander away or whatever. It is just such a beautiful movie. And yeah, this new one coming out is called One Battle After Another. And I saw a trailer or something for it.

[Luke Burbank]

Crazy DiCaprio's like on that payphone.

[Andrew Walsh]

I have a vague memory of him being in a hallway, like looking over his shoulder and being like, I gotta see this movie. But that's. Is it a movie about a man who's in a hallway looking over his shoulder? Because that's all I remember about it. And it got me that style that.

[Luke Burbank]

Only Paul Thomas Anderson could make it. And we've all seen. Listen, we've seen a lot of movies about a lot of guys in a lot of hallways, but this is getting the PT Anderson treatment.

[Andrew Walsh]

Andrew, wait a second. This is based on a Thomas Pynchon novel.

[Luke Burbank]

Are you kidding me?

[Andrew Walsh]

His name, right, isn't Inherent Vice.

[Luke Burbank]

But isn't that the guy who wrote Inherent Vice?

[Andrew Walsh]

I thought so. And am I saying his last name correctly? I might be embarrassing myself, Andrew, if.

[Luke Burbank]

You think I know how to say that person's last name. You have not spent the last 4,000.

[Andrew Walsh]

Episodes of detail with me. So he's doing two pinchons in a row. If I'm saying that name right. Because this one is another.

[Luke Burbank]

Throw Gravity's rainbow in and you've got the Holy Trinity.

[Andrew Walsh]

Oh, man. So I'm excited to be confused again.

[Luke Burbank]

Yeah, I'm going to give this one a day in court. As our good friend Camaro Kev likes to say. Yesterday, Addie and I, I know we need to get to the TBT Billboard hunt little announcement that we have in a moment. But Addie and I took a waymo yesterday from her place back here to the hotel. Those are the driverless cars which they now have here in Los Angeles. And something happened, Andrew, that I thought was kind of interesting. Which was at a certain point, we were driving along whatever road Here in. In Hollywood. And we were. There were basically, we had a green light. Our car had a green light. And yet there were other cars. We were taking a left at an intersection. So imagine you're riding in a car. You're approaching the intersection, and now you're going to take a left. There's also oncoming traffic. Now the oncoming traffic has the right of way, right. You can imagine this like when you're taking a left at a green light. You let the oncoming traffic come through, and then you take your left. And we're riding along in this robot car and we get to where we're do our left turn, and this thing whips a left turn practically right in front of an oncoming truck.

[Andrew Walsh]

Good lord.

[Luke Burbank]

And I'm in the back passenger side seat. So, like, I am the person most likely to get T boned in this. In this scenario, if we were to get T boned, obviously we did not get T boned, because I'm here talking to you. But it was way closer than I thought a robot car would allow for. And my theory of the case is the robot cars are going to drive differently than we humans are, because what the robot car is doing is constant equations about physics. And what the robot car did was it said, this oncoming truck is going X number of miles an hour. We are X number of feet from oncoming truck. Taking a left takes us X amount of time. And it's just doing this equation. And we didn't get hit. But it felt really dicey to me. But it's what you make if you are not a person, but a robot. It is the decision that you make because you are just doing the physics and the geometry on. We can make this left turn based on the rate of speed of this vehicle oncoming, etcetera, and how many feet we need to cross. It was the mathematically correct decision, but it scared the patootie out of me.

[Andrew Walsh]

Well, that's my question for you. And I don't want to be.

[Luke Burbank]

Okay, T bone, time for some serious crunching.

[Andrew Walsh]

Just need to get that out of the way. What's that? I know you just said T bone, so if you say T bone three times, I got to play this.

[Luke Burbank]

Time for some. Some serious crunching. I. I'm into it.

[Andrew Walsh]

I. I know who you are. I'm into it. That's another drop.

[Luke Burbank]

I get it.

[Andrew Walsh]

I. I get it. Is that Jenny Marbles? Is that.

[Luke Burbank]

Who is that Jenna Marbles?

[Andrew Walsh]

It might be Jenna Marbles.

[Luke Burbank]

God, we're going back early influencer. Days.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah, I guess I was going to ask you and I'm trying to set this up the right way. If you were in a car with a human driver and they pulled that, especially if it's somebody you kind of know, you know what I mean? Because sometimes I, I'll be in the car with a human driver who's like a, a Lyft driver. Pull a move like that, I'm like, oh God, this guy's a little aggressive or whatever. But you know, maybe you're in the car with somebody, you know, that you trust. You don't have that feeling of like, who is this person? I'm wondering if this unprotected, unprotected left would have felt as jarring or if you're also just on edge a little bit more.

[Luke Burbank]

Yeah.

[Andrew Walsh]

Because you, you're like constantly aware of the fact that you're in a self driving car.

[Luke Burbank]

I was definitely more on edge. I think this is maybe the third or fourth time I've been in one of these and I was more on edge because a, I had my daughter in the car and this was my idea. But I was like, have you ever been in one of these waymos? And then I realized at some point, oh, I'm throwing, you know, my one and only child and like one of the most important people on this planet to me, at the mercy of a robot car driving an electric Jaguar. And so I was a little nervous. And also LA is a crazy place for this because the thing is, there's so many times that you need. By the way, as I'm talking to you, I'm observing a Waymo sitting on sunset right now, just hanging around, looking for, looking to pick up a fair. Oh, by the way, on my jog this morning on sunset, I also jogged past a samo. It's not called a samo here. But you know the little moving box that they had a version of on the John Mulaney show, this one was called Connor, which was way too human for me. Don't name the box Connor.

[Andrew Walsh]

I think Connor is. And I know we have listeners named Connor. There's just something about that as just being such a. Just down the middle name. You know what I mean? It's not even like, I don't know.

[Luke Burbank]

It'S not somehow robotic or like it's not futuristic.

[Andrew Walsh]

We call it Trevor Connor. This is Trevor and this is Connor and they're robot.

[Luke Burbank]

It was just. And you know, again, this is now, by the way, Andrew, two waymos. Two waymos. Ah, ah, ah. Sitting at the intersection, I'm now looking at two of them. So, boy, there's a lot around here. But the thing about driving in la, as you know, having lived here, is there are so many times where what you kind of have to do is, is go a little bit out of your lane, because let's just say there's a large moving truck and it's parked on the right hand side of the road, but it's sticking out so far that you can't just stay exactly in your marked lane. You've got to go a little bit into the other lane, like, you know, the other lane of traffic for whatever reason. And people are doing crazy stuff all the time. And basically I was thinking the number one thing you would think you would program into one of these autonomous vehicles is stay in your lane. Like, that is like the prime directive, right? It's just like, do not go outside of the lane, because then, then we have chaos. If you've, if you've authorized this vehicle to just start going out of the lane, how does it know when to do that and when to not do that? And yet that's what it was doing. It was like it was just doing whatever it needed to do to get us where we were going and kind of bump out of our. But anyway, it had me. I was definitely on edge. So to answer your question, if I was in the car with you and you made this left turn, I might have responded to you like, oh, all right, all right, Speed Racer. But I wouldn't have felt visceral fear. I felt visceral fear as this thing decided to, like, gun it for this left. Because I just thought, like, has. Did its brain break? Does it know what it's doing? And the thing is, it kind of does. And there's a similar or something that's kind of analogous to this, I guess, is like my car, I have a Mazda. It's got a cruise control setting because it's got all that radar and lidar and stuff as well. Not to the degree that a waymo does, but it has enough of it that if you put it on cruise control, then. And I don't know if you're. You're in. Genevieve's car has this. But, like, it will stop. You can tell it. I want to make sure that I never get closer than three car lengths to the car in front of me. And so if you're coming up on, like, you're on the freeway and you're coming up on, like a traffic jam, as you get closer to the stopped Traffic, the car will slow down and it will maintain the distance because it's, you know, checking in. But let me tell you Andrew, it always starts braking later than I would have because it's a robot and it understands physics and it's like this is the point at which you actually need to start braking to be to slow down and then make a stop before these cars. And I always think it's not going to do it. And it's like I end up oftentimes overriding it because I think as a human being I have a different read of the situation which is probably a little bit more sort of fear based and much less math based. It understands mathematically again I keep going back between. I don't know if this is physics or math, maybe it's both and maybe physics is mathematically path. But it understands that you don't actually have to start braking as far in advance as I typically brake. But I don't like that. It makes me very uncomfortable. So I think that that's what these autonomous vehicles are doing is in a way it seems like they're driving more aggressively but they're probably driving more sort of realistically because they're not emotional about it. They don't have fear, they just are like this is the rate of speed that we're at. This is the number of feet between now and we need the rate of speed to be something else. And the math on that is just. It is what it is. Yeah.

[Andrew Walsh]

Although there are probably people listening and I'm not even making this argument because I don't know enough about this and I don't have like really intense feelings about it one way or the other. But I know some of our listeners do and are very anti these self driving cars because you know when we talk about them we just get kind of like not outraged at us but just emails just saying these things are just dangerous. Like they should not be on the road.

[Luke Burbank]

Should we not have sponsored a self driving car for our bit for next year now that we've done the billboard.

[Andrew Walsh]

You know the thing that you mentioned seeing one of the little robots that. Oh I guess you saw Connor. You saw, you saw Connor out there. Yeah.

[Luke Burbank]

And again it just the thing was Andrew was seven in the morning on Sunset. It wasn't.

[Andrew Walsh]

And it was smoking. It was doing a stroll of shame. It was doing a roll of shame.

[Luke Burbank]

Exactly. It was just so, it was so normalized. It was so like not like it's not on stage at like CNET in Vegas and somebody is demoing that this can happen. This is just a thing that was taking somebody some shit at seven in the morning on Sunset. It was. The banality of it was. Was really kind of crazy to me.

[Andrew Walsh]

I was gonna say, I always cringe when I think of that because you called it a samo. Like, I. I hate it when I think something really dumb and then realize my dumbness publicly on the show. The norm Charlatan would be a huge. That would be like, I think the uber example of that. But also, you telling me after we talked about Same O and the John Mulaney show so much on the show, realizing that Same O wasn' real brand, that that was just something that they made up for the show, that Same O was just like, you know, it sounds like Waymo. I'm like, of course Same O isn't Because I knew that those robots were a real thing. Like, they've been a real thing for a while. I didn't realize that they weren't actually called Same oh. So when you say that, I always cringe a little bit, like, oh, God damn, that's right. I had that embarrassing moment on the show, but I have not had the chance to really take advantage ride in.

[Luke Burbank]

One of these way mos.

[Andrew Walsh]

I think I would. One thing that I was also sort of contemplating as you were asking about, like, or sort of sort of hinted at the functionality of the car that Genevieve and I have. We don't have any of that stuff. Like, we don't. We don't even get a beep if you go backwards and get close to a car. And then it occurred to me, I'm like, well, our car is not super new, but it's. I think it's a 2017, you know, it's less than 10 years old, I guess, but it's also a manual transmission. And I started to get a little wistful there. I kind of. Part of me wants to get a new car eventually because I've been seeing those vives and I are both a little bit in love with those new electric VW buses that are real retro looking.

[Luke Burbank]

Yeah, I saw one of those.

[Andrew Walsh]

Oh, my God, they're so cute.

[Luke Burbank]

Yesterday. I'd never. They're called an I.D. buzz. I'd never seen one in real life. And I was like, it was like the blue angels were flying over Daddy. It stopped. Electric bus. A yellow one of those.

[Andrew Walsh]

They're like Candy Luke. And I see it. I'm like, I want to get that. But then the other part of me is like, no, I literally want to drive the 2017 Golf that we've been driving until it literally can't drive anymore. Which would probably be near the end of my life because these things last forever. Because it's probably the last manual transmission we'll ever have. Like there you can't have any of this self driving stuff or the beeps and the bops without, you know, if you're just driving a manual transmission. Which really makes me just want to like hang on of this thing forever.

[Luke Burbank]

Yeah, I was, you know, I'm. I kind of. I go back and forth. Definitely riding in this wayo yesterday made me feel like we're very clo. It seems like we're very close to a lot more autonomous vehicles happening because again with the. The like kind of dicey left turn notwithstanding, this ride was flawless. Came and picked us up, we got in, drove us to the place without any incident really, other than that left turn. But like it was just like, oh, this is like possible. This thing is totally effective at doing this job. Now maybe there's, you know, it's harder to try to have it drive you to Denver or something, you know, because of a whole bunch of things. I don't know if this is. If you can put. It seems like the freeway would be easier, right? Like if you. If this thing can drive around Los Angeles, it seems like getting on i5 and going north is a much easier ask for it in terms of, you know, just like stuff that it's got to figure out. But like it definitely felt like, oh, this is, this is where it's going. And in a lot of ways it's better because, you know, you could just be sitting in your car and watching TV or I don't know, working or doing whatever you want. I mean it just, it just completely changes the experience of going from point A to point B potentially. But also, I don't know, I mean, I'm also almost 50 now. I. There are a lot of elements of the common driving experience that I really don't mind. I like, I like driving a car. I like looking around, I like listening to the music. You know what I actually find myself doing in the car a lot lately? Not listening to anything, just silence in the car. And I live in the middle of nowhere, so it's usually an hour for me. If I'm going to Portland, if I'm going to Seattle, it's a couple of hours.

[Andrew Walsh]

So you can just listen to your brain screaming this whole time.

[Luke Burbank]

This is what I've decided, the reason I can do it in the car Is because there's just enough going on. And the enough is me looking at the other cars, me checking my speed, me. Like, it's. It's the perfect amount of engagement of my brain. So I'm not just sitting in a room alone with my thoughts. I am kind of sitting in a room alone with my thoughts. But there's enough happening outside of that room that it doesn't. Then it's not frightening for me to not have any audio. It's like the closest I get to, like, I guess maybe meditating or I don't know, reflective, like sitting in quiet reflection. But something when I'm just driving and I don't have the radio on. And I've done this. I drove like, all the way to Seattle once doing this, like. So that would be like two to three hours silence in the car. And it was weird. It was calming. It was like a thunder shirt for me or something. And I found myself doing that more and more now. And I don't know what that. That says about me, but it's. I. Again, my theory is that it's just. There's just enough going on that. That I'm. That I'm engaged, but not so much that I'm distracted or something.

[Andrew Walsh]

Is the same for when you're on your bike. I could see that being something because you don't listen to music on your bike. Right? That's too.

[Luke Burbank]

I do.

[Andrew Walsh]

Oh, you do? Oh, I was trying to.

[Luke Burbank]

That's the vibe I love now. The funny thing is being on the bike and I'm like, bombing down the hill by my house or whatever, and I'm listening to the arcade fire. I feel like I'm in a R. Kelly.

[Andrew Walsh]

I'm like, oh, okay, that's a choice. I am surprised. I thought that that would be. Because I guess I'm just a bit. I probably would, too, If I had my own bike and I was doing it a lot. I probably wouldn't think twice about putting some earbuds in. But right now, as somebody who doesn't ride bikes a lot, like, when I do, I'm just like, grabbing one of those green ones or whatever. I usually. What I'll do on those is I'll, like, strap the phone to the front of the bike and then just play it out of my phone as loud as possible. Because there's something plugging headphones in that just makes me feel a little too disconnected from the world.

[Luke Burbank]

That's probably. And particularly, like, where you are, you're in a much more urban environment. So you probably got to kind of keep your head on a swivel. And you're right. Somebody, probably our friend Lee, who runs the Cascade Bicycle Club, will say, yeah, we don't recommend it or whatever because, like, headphones. That is because your lack of awareness. But I love having my AirPods in and listening to, like, a really epic song and feeling like I'm in a. Like a Richard Linklater film. I'm in the movie Boyhood.

[Andrew Walsh]

Sure.

[Luke Burbank]

Just really having something happen to me. Yeah, I love. I love that, that, that experience. All right. Should we, my friend, talk about the latest in the great TBTL Billboard hunt? Should we update folks on.

[Andrew Walsh]

I think we should. Can we? But do you want to make this a story? Feel like this top story? To me, this is.

[Luke Burbank]

Okay, but wait, let me play the top story. Sound effect.

[Andrew Walsh]

Everywhere. My apologies. I forgot that we had an intro package for this.

[Luke Burbank]

Yeah, those are. All. Those people are all singing about signs, which is why I picked those songs.

[Andrew Walsh]

Oh, now I get it for the. Yeah, you keep telling me that. I keep forgetting.

[Luke Burbank]

I know. That's why I try to remind you every time I play it. I wanna. I want the listeners to understand how much thought went into.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah.

[Luke Burbank]

Incredible smart audio jingle. So. Yeah. So. So Friday was the fifth and final clue, and it appeared to get at least one person over the line on guessing where the TBTL billboard is. Where in America it is. And so if I have this right, Andrew, here's the plan. We are going to reveal who the winner was. Who the winner is.

[Andrew Walsh]

Not today. Tomorrow we will.

[Luke Burbank]

Yes. With TBTL employee numero uno John Sklaroff will stop by. He's been kind of running this whole thing. And then this is the part that I think is actually very fun. And I want to just salute you on this, Andrew, because this is kind of like changing your workflow this week. And this is kind of making pushing some deadlines up for you. But I think as almost as much fun as finding out where the billboard is and also who the correct answer came from. I think the actual art or of this billboard. I am extremely proud of it. As a person who did not do anything at all on the artwork.

[Andrew Walsh]

You provided some of the content.

[Luke Burbank]

I provided some element of it. But this was 100% an Andrew Walsh production.

[Andrew Walsh]

And it is not 100% sure I want. Let's just say it's a good product.

[Luke Burbank]

So good. Here's what I will say about the artwork when people see this.

[Andrew Walsh]

You're building this up. It's got a little bit of Graphic design is my passion energy about it. Let's not There is not one person.

[Luke Burbank]

Including my daughter, my famously withholding 31 year old daughter yesterday, Andrew, there's not one person that I have showed showed the artwork to who has not audibly yelped.

[Andrew Walsh]

Well, she was, she was feeling euphoric after the we survived after our near.

[Luke Burbank]

After Final Destination 6. Waymo Colon Waymo.

[Andrew Walsh]

That's how you Whenever I want to laugh, I'm going to try to scare somebody right beforehand so that their brain.

[Luke Burbank]

The dopamine is coursing through their brain just out of a near death experience. No. I am so tickled by the actual artwork of the billboard. And so here's the thing. On Wednesday there's going to be an early edition. Much like the television show starring Kyle Chandler, there's going to be an early edition of the TBTL newsletter. And if you have not subscribed to the TBTL newsletter, this is a perfect time to do it because you will be on the list of the first people to actually get an example of the Basically you'll get to see the billboard. You'll get to see what the art is for the TBTL billboard on Wednesday if you subscribe to the TBTL newsletter. How do people do that?

[Andrew Walsh]

Andrew? People can go to tbtl.net and sign up for the newsletter there. There's a nice box right at the bottom of the main page. You can also go to the Contact Us page. Just tool around there a little bit. We have some fun stuff online. But yeah, sign up for the [e-mail] if you're somebody who used to be signed up maybe in the old system like back in the AP and you realize, oh, I haven't gotten it in a few years because everything switched over when we went independent. This would be a good time to sign back up. Now listen, here's the plan. I obviously have the art that I'm going to show you in the newsletter on Wednesday as well. But it sounds like things are timing out okay. That we will also, if everything goes according to plan, on Wednesday in the newsletter you will actually see photos of the billboard along the side of the road, not mockups. I will show you. I will show you the art that we made.

[Luke Burbank]

I haven't even seen that.

[Andrew Walsh]

But yeah, we will hopefully have that.

[Luke Burbank]

You've got confirmation of what it will look like. But I have, I have not seen a photo from the ground level of.

[Andrew Walsh]

This thing and by Wednesday that should be a reality. So sign up for the newsletter and you will be the first to see it. And then, yeah, definitely tune into TBTL tomorrow. We will try not to review about two decades worth of movies before we get to John for the big reveal tomorrow about where the billboard is and who our winner is. We'll try to probably move that up a little bit before we start reviewing Bottle Rocket. Let's say.

[Luke Burbank]

Listen, I'm in Hollywoo, California.

[Andrew Walsh]

That's right.

[Luke Burbank]

I've got the. I've got the. Oh, dude. It's the. For you considerationing that goes on in this town even right now. I mean, for all of the stories about the sort of decline of the film industry, which I do believe are. Are accurate, you know, I mean, the, the here in la, it's, it's. It's like the industry has really, really been shrinking because there's so many other places where the tax breaks are better and they're making, you know, TV and stuff in Atlanta and Vancouver and Romania and whatever for all of that. There's apparently still enough in the budgets for hundreds, if not thousands of billboards right now that are asking for you to consider voting for like Beyonce bowl, which I guess that was some kind of live concert that Beyonce did.

[Andrew Walsh]

Okay, sure.

[Luke Burbank]

But it was like, but we. I was considering it today as I was jogging on Sunset. I was considering getting into whatever, whatever guild gets to vote on best live concert movie or something and vote for that one. Because like, yeah, they are really. They spend a lot of money trying to get people to consider things.

[Andrew Walsh]

I have a question for you. I'm trying to consider going to Hollywood. I, you know, when I lived in la, this might seem counterintuitive based on my personality, but Hollywood was my favorite part of Los Angeles. Like literally just going and hanging out in Hollywood. It just seems so cool in almost its normalcy in a certain way. I would tell you I'd like you just go to like a Bed Bath and Beyond and where there's like a sketchy spider man trying to sell photos. But I used to. My favorite thing on a Saturday would be to go to Amoeba Records, wander around for a while. I believe that's gone now. And then I would go into the ArcLight Cinemas in the big dome and watch movies.

[Luke Burbank]

I'm looking at the Arc Light Cinema.

[Andrew Walsh]

What is going on with it? It's literally boarded up. They haven't even turned into another. Like no other chain has bought it. That breaks my heart.

[Luke Burbank]

It's a Chipotle.

[Andrew Walsh]

Oh, God. It's the world's dummiest.

[Luke Burbank]

It is literally boarded up. But Addie said something yesterday. No, but Addie asked me. I didn't know the answer, but she's a little more plugged in now. She lives in la. She's kind of monitoring these things. She goes, aren't they reopening that or something? And I said, I do not know the answer.

[Andrew Walsh]

I hope so.

[Luke Burbank]

So what I have as a message of hope is that my daughter thinks she might have overheard that it's being reopened. That's what I can tell you. I'm looking at that.

[Andrew Walsh]

I'm looking at photos of the dome, the Arclight dome, but I'm also looking at photos of, like, the entrance, which was kind of like, it didn't. I think the main entrance sort of didn't face the sidewalk. Maybe for the dome it did, but for the attached building it didn't. And I don't know if I ever told you this, but, like, you wanted. I lived in LA for, like, two years, right. Very small period of time. But that sort of means that some of my memories there are very sort of condensed. What analogy did you use before? Like some sort of drug that is so powerful you just need a drop of it.

[Luke Burbank]

Adrenochrome.

[Andrew Walsh]

Adrenochrome. I don't think I'd heard of that.

[Luke Burbank]

Before, but, like, I don't know if it's even real. I think I learned about it from Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. I think they're taking Adrenochrome.

[Andrew Walsh]

It's Unobtainium. It's like just taking a Unobtainium, but, like, I'm looking at this at the kind of side or maybe rear entrance of Arclight, which, by the way, I never realized how terrible their font was. I wonder if that's one of the reasons they went out of business. Boy, what a terrible font it is.

[Luke Burbank]

Speaking of, like, Papyrus, which is famously. I believe that was the font for the Avatar. Yeah, Avatar. Yeah, it's a font. That ArcLight font is screaming early 2000s. We're being kind of. I don't even know what that font says, but it ain't good.

[Andrew Walsh]

It ain't good. But seeing it reminds me. And I must have said this to you at some point, but, like, I belong to 24 Hour Fitness during that period of my life, which I liked because I could go to any 24 Hour Fitness. I went to a couple of them in Seattle. And then when we moved to la, I didn't have to switch my account. And there were like. There was one in Santa Monica near work. I would Go to. There was one in Koreatown by my house I'd go to. But sometimes if I did a little extra time, I would go to the 24 Hour Fitness that was in Hollywood or Hollywoo, and it was on the second floor and overlooked the entrance of the Arc Light. And one of my favorite things to do, like on a, you know, like, let's say that it's like maybe a Friday after work or a Saturday, whatever it is, it's still like kind of daylight. Get on one of the elliptical machines that is right in the window on the second floor, looking down at the entryway to the Arc Light and just watch people come and go.

[Luke Burbank]

It's like judge the people who aren't exercising. Yeah.

[Andrew Walsh]

At a. It's like at an airport you can tell when planes have just landed or come in because everybody's sort of going in. You can tell when movies were sort of like being let in and let out or whatever. And I would be up there on my little. On my little exercise machine always listening to, like, I remember at this time I'm listening to, like, I'm listening to. The Pink Print by Nicki Minaj was a huge one for me here. And I'm just like exercising away and just. I love people watching and I love movies. I love the idea of going to the movies and just like people watching, going to and from the movies. Just, it was like my. It was my small, happy place during a time that had a lot of unhappy times.

[Luke Burbank]

I'm glad to hear you had that though, because, yeah, I think of your time in LA as being a lot of things that were kind of like challenging for you and that you didn't, you know, really love. So. And I know you've said before that there are lots of things that you really liked about la. So I know it was not just like a bad experience, but that. I know exactly what you're talking about. That kind of thing that was like where just everything kind of is aligning and it's like, this is a thing that is going to make. For me, it was. We had a shower at NPR west and on Fridays because we had to go in really early when I worked on day to day. So I think we got done at like maybe one or two or something. And it'd be like I would go on my jog after work and then I would come back and then I would take a shower at the shower at NPR west and then I would get all redressed and then I would be heading down to the tattletale yes.

[Andrew Walsh]

Right.

[Luke Burbank]

It would be like a Friday. The whole work week is done. I've got my little exercise in and now I'm going to spend some quality time with Roger and the gang down there. Like probably after that, maybe end up at Hollywood park, maybe eat a Pink's hot dog. Like just. That was like. I mean, it's actually really sad that that was peak Los Angeles for me. I think your peak Los Angeles is better. Well, this is one of the classic movie house.

[Andrew Walsh]

I mean, let's say there were also a lot of liquor stores in LA too. Do you know that I was like drawn one. It's funny, like in Seattle when I need more whiskey or vodka or whatever it is, like you just get it at the grocery store, you bring it home, whatever. But there was something about la, like having like. And they were often like pretty shitty establishments, but I kind of didn't care. But like there was just something about seeing the signs for like liquor mart, liquor store, booze. Like it was, it felt like it activated parts of my brain that made me want to go in and buy liquor. Not even a bar like you're talking about, but it's same with the sandwich shops. Like, well, there's a pastrami shop right next to this liquor store and be like, well, that's all I need to be happy.

[Luke Burbank]

Well, yeah, because in the state of Washington and a lot of other states where now of course, as you mentioned in Washington because Costco decided to dump, you know, a billion dollars into the lobbying effort, you can buy hard alcohol in the grocery store. But for many years when I was, you know, younger, you didn't have that. And what you had were state run liquor stores. And I think there's a lot of places where that is the case. And those are very sterile. It's like the DMV of getting your much needed medicine.

[Andrew Walsh]

I forgot when I moved here they still had those. I kind of forgot that when I first moved here there was one on Capitol Hill, I think. But yeah, you could not be more right. It was just so unfun.

[Luke Burbank]

Yeah, it was like it was just because. And that was, I think kind of by design. They were like, we are the state of Washington, we are selling you liquor, but we are not going to enjoy it. And so in California, if I have it right, I don't think you can buy hard alcohol in grocery stores. I don't think that that was changed. And so, or at least for many years you couldn't. But the place you would get it was not a state of California Liquor Dispensary. It's just these as you're right. Absolutely. Just beat to shit buildings on a corner that somehow got like 75 weird Jameson posters blocking up the window and like one tiny door in the back and it just says liquor. But that's all they need to. That's all they need to say to let you know that they've got your stuff in there. It's just this whole kind of weird. It's like almost like the crappier the liquor store that appears to be the better. And again, because let's be honest, many, not all, but many of the people going in there are probably addicted to the liquor. So. So again, you don't have to sell them on the product. That's a weirdly specific to LA thing that I think of too.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah, there's just something about like, seriously, it was like being a kid and seeing a candy store sort of. It's like, well, we have liquor at home, but. Yeah, but shouldn't we stop at this liquor store that has this. A big bright sign that says liquor in like the most like basic font.

[Luke Burbank]

Can we have liquor, honey? We have liquor at home.

[Andrew Walsh]

We have liquor at home. Then you see the liquor at home and it's Costco brand.

[Luke Burbank]

It's not good. It's like homebrew. It's something your mom made. It doesn't taste the same. It's not as good.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah, so there you go. So anyway, sign up for the newsletter.

[Luke Burbank]

Absolutely. So you can be amongst the first people to get to see the. The TBTL billboard. This will be on Wednesday, but tomorrow we are going to have John on and, and we'll, we'll get an update on who has won the contest. I'm sorry, Andrew. That I like. I'm sort of trailing off here. My hotel happens to sit above this place called sir, which is, I think it's an equipment rental place. Like it's, I think a pretty well known in LA kind of music equipment. But they might also have some kind of a recording studio. I don't know because they have something called the alley that I'm looking out on says Sir Artist entrance. And there are four guys getting out of like a Mercedes Benz right now who if they are not, not in Spinal Tap, if it is not Ronnie James Dio. And they've got instruments like I think. I don't know, I think they're going in to play a sesh and they look like it's like they could be in Dawkin, it could be Tommy Wiseau. From the room. It's definitely a whole thing. Like, these are dudes that have their hair dyed jet black. They're not super young. They're going into the artist entrance of sir, and I want to know the full story. I want to know. Know what they are going in there to record or do you know what.

[Andrew Walsh]

I need you to do now? I'm just. Now I'm just reliving my Hollywood dreams here. Luke. I need you. And it looks like it still exists. And I've never known how to say this, but I used to talk about it all the time when I live there. Aimatron or aimtron. This is the audio video store that's right in Hollywood. It's like, right off of Sunset, but my sense of direction is bad. Like, I can totally picture where it is, but it would be like when I needed a new mic stand, a new microphone, any kind of, like, audio video stuff. You went to aimatron, if I'm saying that correctly. And it's a very unassuming little place. But it was so cool to go there because it's like, it's the place in Hollywood. It's where everybody is going for this stuff. But it's also, like, it's not super expensive. It's not fancy. It's just what I needed. And I don't have anything in my life like that anymore, especially as all the brick and mortar. I mean, Guitar center is my closest thing. And I love the people at Guitar Center. They've been good to me, but it's no Aimatron. I need you to go to Aimatron and just see how. Just check the pulse for me. See how it's.

[Luke Burbank]

Do you need anything there?

[Andrew Walsh]

That is a really good question.

[Luke Burbank]

I'm racking my upcoming thong.

[Andrew Walsh]

Maybe buy. Buy us a bunch of XLR cables. We always need those.

[Luke Burbank]

Okay. How about mini?

[Andrew Walsh]

Load it up.

[Luke Burbank]

How are you on Mini to Mini?

[Andrew Walsh]

We're good. I mean, you know what? Throw a couple in the bag. Maybe they'll just throw a couple in for free. Let's see.

[Luke Burbank]

Yeah, I'm looking at this place. I'm with you. Like, this is the kind of place that. I mean, you would geek out more because you're kind of in charge of the tech for the show. But this is also stuff that just like. Oh, a whole wall of basically wind screens for your microphone.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah, right. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. And again, nothing fancy about it. Nothing too Hollywood will be popped here. No, that' no.

[Luke Burbank]

All right, well, you know what? I've got to go down and investigate who this band is. And I also have to go out and eat a bunch of mayonnaise, which I'll give you a report on tomorrow. Andrew.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah. Or don't. And when I say don't, I mean just don't do it like. Well, you don't have the same aversion to it.

[Luke Burbank]

For me, I got to try to deftly interview Dana White. I got to eat mayonnaise.

[Andrew Walsh]

Is that happening in LA too? Is that.

[Luke Burbank]

No, that's in Vegas. I'm going to Vegas tomorrow afternoon right after the show.

[Andrew Walsh]

Show.

[Luke Burbank]

And then I'll be there for the week working on that thing. So people think this TV job, you know, it's all glitz and glamour, but no, sometimes you got to eat the mayo. Sometimes the mayo eats you.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah. So what can make interviewing this guy seem better? Well, how about we put you on an assignment where you have to eat a bunch of mayo first and then.

[Luke Burbank]

No. Yeah, it's all about kind of like. Yeah. Setting things up in a certain way so that this actually feels like. I mean, the thing is. And we'll talk about this more as the week on unfolds, the thing about this is, you know, one of the things that they're. That is on the schedule to have happen is for me to play baccarat in a high limit room at the Fountain Blue with this guy. And it's like, to be honest with you, I love everything about that sentence, you know, except for the particular context of this thing. It gets much more complicated. But it's like if this was. If it was me and Wayne Newton.

[Andrew Walsh]

Right? Yeah, yeah.

[Luke Burbank]

It'd be like, yeah, this would be my literal dream come true. There is so much about this that is for me, except for the concerns around what the ultimate journalistic output will be.

[Andrew Walsh]

Right, right, right. Well, it'll be okay.

[Luke Burbank]

We'll talk more about that line for the week.

[Andrew Walsh]

Well, good luck. I'm picturing you eating spoonfuls of mayo. I don't know if they're going to put it on anything for you, but. Well, I guess we'll get a report tomorrow. Yeah.

[Luke Burbank]

Yes, you'll get a full report. I'm going to Waymo over to the shoot location, quite literally, I think. All right, thank you for listening, everybody. We will be back here tomorrow with more imaginary radio for you. So please join us for that. In the meantime, have a great Monday. Take care of yourselves and please remember, no mountain too tall.

[Andrew Walsh]

And good luck to all. Don't bully me.

[Luke Burbank]

All right? I can't take it I was cyber bullied within an inch of my life last night.

[Andrew Walsh]

Power out.