← TBTL: Too Beautiful To Live
TBTL: Too Beautiful To Live
#4501 Twisted In The Wind
01:24:29
Luke is weirdly intrigued by a new Tiktok food challenge that he might try live on TBTL. Andrew is breaking open container laws in an attempt to win the title of Mr. North Aurora 2025. And an artist is fooled into thinking she’s selling her work to...
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- [00:01]
Luke Burbank
Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, as you prepare to go back and deliberate, I would just like to take one more opportunity to let the evidence speak for itself. They say a picture's worth a thousand words. I think we can all agree this one's worth at least 2,000. This one's also very good. It's framed quite well. Could arguably be upwards of 3,000 words. This one, ladies and gentlemen, I'm not gonna lie to you. I'm not here to lead you astray. This photo is a little blurry. This one's worth about 25 words maximum. But if you take a look at this one, this is. This is actually a photo of me. I'm not sure how this got in here, but I look great. You can see here I cut my ex husband out of it. This one might be worth no more than 25 words or so. Here's the defendant. Again, not a great photo. 50 words, max. This is actually me further after the divorce when I've got a bit more color back in my face and my smile is reaching my eyes. That's about 9,000 words. You can see that I'm really coming. I'm turning my life around. I'm coming back from the heartache in this one. I can't. I can't show you that photo.
- [01:06]
Andrew Walsh
If you do.
- [01:07]
Luke Burbank
If you add up. If you do the. If you add up and do the math of all the photos, there's a lot of. It's a lot of words in here. I'll give you a chance to look those over, take a good look at those. Actually, could I have the one of me and my ex back? It's a really nice photo of me. I need this for a dating profile.
- [01:25]
Andrew Walsh
Tbtl.
- [01:30]
Genevieve
I was shaking. My tummy was shaking, my head was shaking, my arms were shaking, and my legs. My feet, too.
- [01:38]
Andrew Walsh
Well, he bit all the he dogs.
- [01:40]
Genevieve
And winked at all the she dogs. The town never knew such a hullabaloo as that little dog raised till the.
- [01:47]
Andrew Walsh
End of that day. Oh, I see.
- [01:49]
Genevieve
Dirty monkey. Not okay, but dirty monkey D. I don't know, man.
- [01:55]
Andrew Walsh
You know, it's just living truthfully in imaginary circumstances.
- [01:59]
Luke Burbank
Have a good show, dummies.
- [02:00]
Genevieve
What you do is so important. Well, all right. Hello, good morning, and welcome, everyone, to a Wednesday edition of tbtl, the show that just might be too beautiful to live.
- [02:10]
Luke Burbank
Isn't that for techno geeks with spreadsheets?
- [02:13]
Genevieve
My name is Luke Burbank. I'm your host. I feel cute today. Look at my outfit coming to you from the Madrona Hill Studio, perched high above the mighty Columbia.
- [02:22]
Andrew Walsh
Oh, Ma. Pa. It's just beautiful.
- [02:26]
Genevieve
Well, actually, right now it's a little gray outside, but I have been checking the weather forecast and it is going to be beautiful this afternoon. I got the hot tub operational yesterday, and my life has changed forever. Never lived anywhere with the hot tub. And I don't know if it's just, you know, first day hot tub feelings, but I. Right. I mean, listen, I'm excited to be here doing episode 4501 in a collector series, Let the Fun Begin. But if I could be doing it from a hot tub, I would be. I might have spent three to four hours in that thing yesterday. So today we're gonna do some work here around the Madrona Hill studio. We're gonna. We're gonna toil away, and then we're gonna reward ourselves with a little. A little hot tub time. Also, we're going to reward all of you by bringing you this top story that we didn't get to yesterday about an artist who received a message from Lady Gaga, or who she thought was Lady Gaga. Well, we know you're good at lying. And then what happened after that will shock you. Or maybe not shock you, but it's an interesting story. Also, while I was sitting in the hot tub, probably scrolling on TikTok, let's be honest, at least I was. I was alternating between being angry at the Mariners decision making when it came to runners in scoring position and then looking at TikTok, and I saw something on TikTok that has me kind of fascinated, and I might want to try it live on the show tomorrow.
- [04:02]
Andrew Walsh
Let's take on projects that we know we can't do and do them.
- [04:06]
Genevieve
So we'll get into that as well. Oh, and we are going to talk to this guy. The longest running cobra of the show may be best known for his depictions of the tall ships. The guy can talk.
- [04:14]
Andrew Walsh
Yeah. He is a very talented communicator.
- [04:16]
Genevieve
He's Andrew Walsh and he's joining me right now. Good morning, my friend.
- [04:19]
Andrew Walsh
You could do worse than to introduce me with a piece of Chris Hayes seemingly complimenting me every show. It puts me in a fantastic headspace to start this program with you, Luke. Thank you for that.
- [04:31]
Genevieve
Well, the better that Mamdani does, the Democrat nominee for mayor in New York City, the more drops like this we're going to have to play for you.
- [04:42]
Andrew Walsh
He's got Riz like he just does.
- [04:44]
Genevieve
See, that's what Chris was talking about. In both cases, the guy can talk.
- [04:47]
Andrew Walsh
He is A very talented communicator. You know, this really speaks to the difference between your audio collection and mine. Because I don't have any clips of people talking about Mamdani. But I do have a lot of Eric Adams that has been sent to me by. I believe. Can I call her out? Does most of this come from Phyllis Fletcher? I don't know why I have these.
- [05:10]
Genevieve
No, you're being serious. You have Eric Adams, the. I would say semi disgraced mayor of New York City. You've got Eric Adams tape.
- [05:19]
Andrew Walsh
I guess I've only got.
- [05:20]
Genevieve
I totally thought you were joking.
- [05:22]
Andrew Walsh
I guess I've only got one piece.
- [05:23]
Genevieve
I thought I had to remember that. I don't know what to do with.
- [05:26]
Andrew Walsh
Yeah, I got this one. And I think Phyllis said I hate rats. Rats.
- [05:30]
Genevieve
Rats, rats.
- [05:32]
Andrew Walsh
Let me tell you how scared I am of rats.
- [05:33]
Genevieve
The rats may be listening.
- [05:34]
Andrew Walsh
I'm terrified of rats. So I think that was great. I think by P. Fletch. Although I. That's amazing. For sure. Yeah. So anyway, that reminds me of the guy, the.
- [05:45]
Genevieve
The Kansas City Chief who's afraid of horses.
- [05:48]
Andrew Walsh
Oh, yes, yes, yes. I was going to go back.
- [05:50]
Genevieve
I forget his last name, but I.
- [05:51]
Andrew Walsh
Don'T know if you want me to.
- [05:52]
Genevieve
Oh, they're both named Eric, by the way. What are the chances you got two guys named Eric that are afraid of animals?
- [05:57]
Andrew Walsh
What's Eric? What is the horse guy's name again? I'm looking it up.
- [06:01]
Genevieve
His first name is E. Just do Eric. Kansas City Chiefs afraid of horse.
- [06:05]
Andrew Walsh
Eric Barry. Okay, here, you want the long version or the short version? I don't know if it's long and short or part one and part two, but.
- [06:12]
Genevieve
Because for those who don't know, the Kansas City Chiefs with all the sort of fault they used to. I don't know if they do this anymore, by the way, but at a time, at a certain time they had like. There was a horse that was associated. I think it might have had a regrettable like Chief writing on it or something.
- [06:29]
Andrew Walsh
It's possible.
- [06:30]
Genevieve
Listen, I don't. We've got fans in Kansas City and I don't want to. I don't want to, you know, say something that's not true. But there was for some reason a horse that used to be on the field. And Eric Barry was really afraid of the horse. And he happened to be miked up one game, right?
- [06:42]
Andrew Walsh
Yeah, I think so. And I. At first I thought this might have been from Hard Knocks, but it's not because this is like mid season. I believe you Know all the cartoons and all the TV shows you see when you're young. Like, horses and ponies are always really, really cool and happy. They always got like a rainbow or some stars flying behind it. You know what I'm saying? Like, oh, it's a pony.
- [07:02]
Genevieve
It's a pony. So like I'm at the petting zoo.
- [07:05]
Andrew Walsh
And for some reason that music, the pony came and bit me when it happened and I turned around and looked at it. Aside from the fact that the horse.
- [07:16]
Genevieve
Didn'T look anything like the cartoon or.
- [07:18]
Andrew Walsh
What I saw on tv, it was like, dang horse. Like, I trusted you. I forgot about that ending once you.
- [07:28]
Genevieve
He's always watching for the horse, making sure the horse doesn't look at him.
- [07:31]
Andrew Walsh
Or do something crazy. As long as it's like 10, 15 people between me and the horse, I'm good. Everybody is born with a choice, and I'm making the choice not to deal with the horse.
- [07:42]
Genevieve
There's no whining in football, but every.
- [07:45]
Andrew Walsh
August, football comes to one country. For a second I thought that was my computer just auto firing things. I.
- [07:55]
Genevieve
So good.
- [07:56]
Andrew Walsh
It's really good. I was thinking about you during the intro, which I guess makes sense because you were doing an intro and you would think, oh, I'm thinking about you because I'm listening to you talk. But let's not be naive.
- [08:04]
Genevieve
It's not a given, though.
- [08:06]
Andrew Walsh
No, it's not a given. I was thinking about you because I was trying to pay my. My City of Seattle bill. Here, let's see. This is for, I don't know, some sort of utilities. And I thought it went through. But anyway, I was sort of thinking, despite the issue that I'm having right now, I think paying bills has come such a long way. Like when I was a young adult and I was first responsible for things like utility bills and stuff like that. And in Concord, New Hampshire. It's actually just outside of Concord, wasn't it? It was. Can't remember the first little town I lived in. It was just outside of Concord. I'm embarrassed. I can't think of it. But I would have my little checkbook and I would like get all the bills there and I would take all of the receipts that I was collecting in my wallet from the atm, and it was mostly atm, not even like debit card purchases. And I would lay them all and I would, you know, put it all in the little. What do you call the little register thing and do all the math. And it's like, that's how much money I have in the bank and.
- [08:59]
Genevieve
Oh, yeah, balancing your check.
- [09:01]
Andrew Walsh
Balancing my checkbook. And then cutting checks and putting them in an envelope and then putting. Finding a stamp and addressing it like I paid a bill while you were talking before, which is kind of a miracle of modern science. But it reminded me of you in two situations. We never got follow ups on one. About, like three months ago, you said you lost your. Your ID at a gas station somewhere.
- [09:26]
Genevieve
Well, that's the leading theory because that was the only place that I had taken my. That I remembered literally taking my wallet out of my back pocket. It was at a gas station in La Center Washington, in St.
- [09:35]
Andrew Walsh
Butter. That's where it was.
- [09:36]
Genevieve
By the process of elimination, I have decided that because what I was. I was throwing out, like I had one of the hotel key cards from a recent trip in my wallet. And while the gas was pumping, I was mindlessly just trying to do something productive. And so I was kind of cleaning my wallet out. And I think in the process of that, I must have somehow thrown my ID into the garbage can.
- [09:54]
Andrew Walsh
You have any updates on that, though? I mean, I have a new id. Is it. Did you get the. Did you get the special ones? You get the real id?
- [10:00]
Genevieve
I already had a real id, so they just replaced. They replaced my real ID with a new real id.
- [10:05]
Andrew Walsh
I gotta get a real id. Oh, yeah.
- [10:08]
Genevieve
It's the only way to go.
- [10:10]
Andrew Walsh
I worry about the backlog. I think everybody's trying to get it now because the deadline just past our friend broadcast.
- [10:16]
Genevieve
Barry was texting me. He was driving home from Bellingham, Washington, which was the only place he could get a DMV appointment.
- [10:22]
Andrew Walsh
Oh, see, that's exactly. Yeah, that's what I'm worried about. And then. Did I tell you, And I do have a follow up for you, but I thought I lost my ID at the ballpark yesterday or. When was I there? Monday night. And it is such a bad feeling. I had. I had left a credit card one time at a. At. At one of the concession stands after I paid for whatever I was buying, I had left it there. And then I had to like, track it down, but I got it back this time. I had bought like one beer when I first got there. And then it was like. I. I don't know, it was much later. And then I went to get. I would like to tell you I went to get another beer, Luke, but this show's about honesty. And what I went to get was a twisted tea. And I decided I wanted to get twisted in the. It was a Spur of the moment thing. I thought I was getting a be, but I was a little bit more thirsty.
- [11:17]
Genevieve
TBTL Breaking news. I don't think you'd think I'd get.
- [11:20]
Andrew Walsh
A water and a beer.
- [11:22]
Genevieve
Heard of you consuming a twisted tea.
- [11:24]
Andrew Walsh
You know what?
- [11:25]
Genevieve
While we're on this twisted tea guy.
- [11:27]
Andrew Walsh
While we're on this topic, let me say something even more surprising that I'm sort of just recalling now that you will be very interested in and very appalled by, as I will be appalled by. So every now and then I would say, like, maybe once a summer, I will go to, you know, buy a beer or something at a ballpark, and I will see a twisted tea, and it sings a little siren song to me. And I think what happens is maybe I'm a little bit thirsty. There's something about the idea of a sweet lemon flavor.
- [11:55]
Genevieve
Is it like iced tea flavor?
- [11:56]
Andrew Walsh
It's like it's iced tea with a pretty strong lemon flavor to kind of probably mask some of the malted alcohol in there or whatever set in hot water. I mean, I'm hooked. I do like when they're very sweet, you know, so you don't go in for a whole bunch of them. But listen to this. So I'm at the ballpark the other day. You know, forget about the losing the ID thing. It was just in a different part of my wallet. Just freaked me out for a little bit. I had to go to customer service, and then they didn't have it. And then I eventually find it in my wallet. I go back, and I end up buying that twisted tea. I had one twisted tea at the ballpark on Monday. Then cut to yesterday. Listen to this dirtbag behavior. Luke. I am leaning. I am.
- [12:34]
Genevieve
You unleashed a beast.
- [12:35]
Andrew Walsh
I am. I am going for the award of Mr. Aurora 2025, because.
- [12:43]
Genevieve
So I like how Bill Belichick's girlfriend was running for Miss Maine.
- [12:46]
Andrew Walsh
That's right. And did not win. I came in third, I believe third place. I had to record a couple of extra shows with Genevieve yesterday for the after these Messages podcast coming soon to a pod feed near you.
- [12:58]
Genevieve
Get it wherever you cast your pods.
- [13:01]
Andrew Walsh
And then afterwards, I'm like, okay, I'm gonna run to the. I'm gonna run to the AM PM ARCO station up there at the corner grab. We're like out of Coors Light. I keep Coors Light in the house usually these days, and I'm buying myself a half rack of co. Course, like, this is last night. This is about 8, 8 o' clock last night. I'M going to say that I know it was still light out but it was evening and I know we'd been recording for a long time. So I'm going to say it's like 8 or 8:30 and I'm in that a.m. p.m. And by the way, the entire. Do you know about the motorcycle gang that rides up and down Aurora? It's like they're all in like they're not like a Harley gang. They're like those little me, little what we used to call crotch rocket gangs or whatever. They speed up and down like a whole crew of them.
- [13:42]
Genevieve
You know how I feel about that. Weirdly though, that sounds noisy.
- [13:46]
Andrew Walsh
It's noisy but it's that more high pitched noise that is.
- [13:49]
Genevieve
Do they do wheelies?
- [13:50]
Andrew Walsh
They do wheelies. They scream up and down. I don't think, I don't think they're teens but you know, they're younger than me and they'll get together in like packs of like 10 or more and just.
- [14:00]
Genevieve
Yeah, I see those kids like when I'm in New York in particular, there's all those roving gangs of teens doing wheelies on motorbikes. Sometimes they'll be in Central park on basically like electric bikes, but really fast ones.
- [14:12]
Andrew Walsh
Oh really?
- [14:12]
Genevieve
Oh, I haven't seen like e motorcycles and they'll just be. The wheelieing is what tells you what the group is all about in my experience.
- [14:20]
Andrew Walsh
Yeah. And so. And also they just take over the, you know, both lanes going in one direction. So anyway, it doesn't really bother me too much. For me it's all the colorful pastiche of living here.
- [14:31]
Genevieve
As a person running for Mr. Aurora. You have to embrace all of your constituents.
- [14:35]
Andrew Walsh
Absolutely right.
- [14:36]
Genevieve
The wheelie people, dancers at Dancing Bear, the people making pizza at a Pizza Mart.
- [14:41]
Andrew Walsh
I need to win them over. Okay. A Pizza Mart. I would kill for a Pizza Mart to be in this neighborhood. A Pizza Mart is in the U District in Capitol Hill and a couple other places.
- [14:49]
Genevieve
Joint that's next to the strip club.
- [14:51]
Andrew Walsh
It depends on which sign you look at. Like everything on Aurora. It's unclear.
- [14:56]
Genevieve
Maybe that can be your platform bringing some consistency to the pizza signs on Aurora. That could be a plank.
- [15:01]
Andrew Walsh
I think like you look at the campaign, look at the sign above the door and it says something different than the sign that hangs out. I don't know. It's the only pizza in Seattle I won't eat. I mean I've had it a couple of times.
- [15:10]
Genevieve
You've had it and you've.
- [15:11]
Andrew Walsh
You found it to be it's just inedible that it's not great. I got it a second time, so I guess not totally inedible, but to make sure. But it's so close to the fact that I've only gotten it twice. I've lived here for three years and it's so close to me tells you that like, even for me, that's. It's just not very good pizza. But it's literally next to the Dancing Bears strip club. So anyway, I'm like, Genevieve, I'm going to go get some Coors light at the a.m p.m. and she's like, okay, you go, Mr. Aurora. So I go to the a.m p.m I'm surprised to see that the entire motorcycle gang going to say about like 20 to 30. Well, yeah, no, I'm going to say 20 to 25 of these bikes are all just parked in the parking lot of the gas station and everybody's just sort of hanging out out there. And my first thought is the line in this place is going to be nuts. Right. But luckily my timing was okay. We it I did. They weren't lined up in that way.
- [16:03]
Genevieve
Poke one of the motorcycles, try to use that phone.
- [16:08]
Andrew Walsh
Oh my God. Now that I'm remembering more and more details about this little quick trip to the gas station yester so I show up and they're all hanging out. Like, I guess they're having their snacks or whatever. I mean, a snack time for the motorcycle boys. Yeah. And so luckily the line isn't too bad. There's maybe a couple more people.
- [16:25]
Genevieve
Tom Robbins novel. It really is.
- [16:27]
Andrew Walsh
Rest in peace. And so I go back and I grab my Coors light and then Luke, I just had this little like that little voice in the back of my head and it's like, well, what about a. What about a twisted tee?
- [16:40]
Genevieve
Were you trying to show off for the motorcycle guy?
- [16:42]
Andrew Walsh
I was like, what about a little twisted tea?
- [16:44]
Genevieve
Twisted tea.
- [16:44]
Andrew Walsh
So I'm like, could I get a single of a twisted tea? And it's like, yeah, you buy a 24 ounce of a Twisted Tea, which is like two Twisted Tees. I don't know how well you are at math.
- [16:51]
Genevieve
Well, that's the thing. I was. I assume that it's only sold in whatever the. I don't think I've ever seen a regulation twisted tea. I've only seen them.
- [17:00]
Andrew Walsh
So that's a giant.
- [17:01]
Genevieve
The. The giant guy.
- [17:03]
Andrew Walsh
That's a really good point. That probably does speak to the target audience.
- [17:06]
Genevieve
You know, like the giant guy at the baseball game. When you get at the Baseball game. Is it the biggie?
- [17:10]
Andrew Walsh
I feel like that one might have been a 16 ouncer, because a lot of beers of the baseball games are between 16 and 24, so I don't recall. But the thing about a twisted tea is it goes down pretty easy, you know, but yesterday, listen to this. So then I'm in line. I've got my Coors light and my big ass can of twisted tea, and then I'm in line. There's only a couple of people in front of me. One of them, I think the guy who's right in front of me is not a motorcycle guy. He is a large man with some unnatural redness on his face that I'm still worried about and some big face tattoos. And he's a little bit hard to understand. He's. He kind of sort of daps up the guy behind the counter, so he must be a regular customer. But I'm also unclear how much the guy behind the counter is able to follow what his customer is saying because it's really hard to hear what he's saying. I pick up on the fact that this Customer is down 80 cents. He's buying something. It's like 20 short. Yeah, he's short. So I. And then the guy behind the counter is like, I don't worry about it, but I already had a dollar out of my wallet. I'm like, here's, you know, for that guy. Just a little. Again, I'm trying to win over the constituents.
- [18:17]
Genevieve
If I'm going, yeah, no, I mean, honestly, buying votes.
- [18:19]
Andrew Walsh
But that almost confused things. More like this guy kind of. I already handed the dollar to the, to the cashier, but this guy's like, no, no, I got some more in my pocket, I think is what he was saying. And he pulls out like 50 more cents. I don't know what ended up happening with all of that. That's all fine. I like to think I won one more vote. The guy starts, the cashier starts checking me out. He admires my purchases. Of course, the man with the face tattoo and the unnatural redness around his ears starts, I don't know, great Stig Larson. I don't know if he's talking to me, the guy behind the counter, or his compatriot who's standing next to him, but he starts talking about how he's got this great rabbit fur coat in this bag that he's carrying. And I think he's now trying to sell somebody this rabbit fur coat. This is all happening while I'm just trying to buy my Twisted tea. That's my entire interaction. I'm like, wow, that was a lot. I feel like that's a short story right there. The trip to the anpm. But here's where I really modern day Bukowski here' where I really win you over, Luke. I'm walking home. I've got the Coors Light 12 pack in my backpack. It can fit in there. And then I'm going to put the iced tea in the backpack. And then I think to myself, you know what? You know what?
- [19:30]
Genevieve
Enjoy this. I'm going to enjoy this on my stroll.
- [19:33]
Andrew Walsh
5. Walk block, walk home. 4. I don't know, whatever it is, let's do this. I almost asked. I'm not even joking. I had a split second of thinking, should I ask the guy behind the counter for a paper bag so that I won't get busted? I am leaning into the lifestyle. I did not. I'm like, you know what it looks like I'm drinking a can of soda. I don't think any cop is gonna pull me over and harass me on Aurora because I'm drinking an open twisted tea. But I even had a split moment of being like, well, if I'm gonna just have this open carry situation going on, should I mask it in a paper bag? And it was not. I was not. Nobody was around, and I did not even think I was gonna be talking to you about this. I'm just remembering it now. But I mean, the twisted tea really did its job on me. And so I just. It was not. It wasn't me trying to cosplay, but it really was a moment of like, well, if I'm gonna drink this twisted tea, should I just put it in a bag? But I did not. I made it home. I did not get busted by the police. And I am now Mr. Aurora.
- [20:34]
Genevieve
You're turning into Carol Kane's character from Unbreakable, Kimmy Schmidt. You can tell I've been watching that show a lot lately.
- [20:40]
Andrew Walsh
Oh, that's right. Yeah. She hates gentrification.
- [20:43]
Genevieve
She's deeply against gentrification. She loves every little sketchy detail of the neighborhood. That's totally.
- [20:49]
Andrew Walsh
Nobody's even been stabbed here in two.
- [20:51]
Genevieve
I see you asleep on a bulldozer.
- [20:53]
Andrew Walsh
Yes.
- [20:54]
Genevieve
And then you get memeified. The Carol Cane ification is complete.
- [20:58]
Andrew Walsh
Are you to the point where she's trying to block the construction of a new natural grocery store called Big Naturals? Yes. She's like, there's already a Big Naturals here. They're like, yeah, that's a dance club. I think. Right, exactly. That. I forgot about that sort of subplot of Kitty Schmidt. I do love it.
- [21:16]
Genevieve
It's so great. But I also do. But seriously. And I'm not going to go back. I know yesterday I, for some reason had to get back into my feelings about the home environment and the neighborhood environment, all of those things. But I like that you're running for Mr. Aurora. Instead of, like, trying to figure where my brain would go with that would be like, how do I. Let me put it this way. There is a house in my neighborhood that is. How do I put. Appears that there is illicit activities going on in this house based on the number of different vehicles that are parked there at different times at all kinds of odd hours, and the fact that the house itself appears very close to just collapsing. Like, it has no siding on it. So it's basically like there are the better parts of it. Still have some amount of tar paper on there, but then the less preserved parts are literally just straight up plywood that's just getting hit by the rain day and night.
- [22:14]
Andrew Walsh
Is there a chance that this is, like, a new trend and Kanye west actually owns the house? And it's just, like, so far in the future of home design that you just don't get it.
- [22:25]
Genevieve
Poop, Diddy, whoop, scoop, poop. It's like that house that he tore everything out of in Malibu, that concrete house that was made by that Japanese architect. Yeah, it's possible. And if that's happening, give me about five years when they write about an Architectural Digest, I will be extremely impressed. But as of right now, it just looks. It's such an eyesore. And it's. Every time I drive by it, I fantasize about buying the property and bulldozing it. I fantasize. This is very. By the way, I want to be clear. I don't necessarily like this part of my personality, but one of the fantasies I have is whoever's doing drug enforcement or something swooping in and saying, hey, we can't have a trap house here. Also, there are apparently children that live there, which is actually legit, kind of upsetting. Like, there's a lot of. You know, I'll see, like, a car with a car seat with no kid in it, but the car seat sitting on top of a car. But then the car's on blocks, but then there's, like, children's toys in the yard. But then there's, like, a bunch of other random stuff and, like. But instead of embracing, instead of running for my version of Mr. Aurora, here. I just fantasize about this not happening in my little area that I live. I like that you're just, like, leaning into it instead of trying to kind of nimby up your. Nimby up your environs. You're just like. You're like, I know. I'm gonna embrace this. I'm gonna. I'm going to become. I'm gonna become part of this world.
- [23:47]
Andrew Walsh
Yeah. It's like when Genevieve and I first started dating, I was supposed to take on her better characteristics. I mean, she was a vegan at the time. She was living a very healthy lifestyle, very, like, living in Boston. And just, like. Just like being very an urbanite and just like. And I'm like, oh, this is going to be great for me.
- [24:06]
Genevieve
Erudite urbanite.
- [24:07]
Andrew Walsh
Yes. And instead, I just turned her into a dirt bag. And that's.
- [24:10]
Genevieve
Next thing you know, there's a photo of her with 34 Costco pizzas in a shopping cart.
- [24:14]
Andrew Walsh
You looked at the show pick yesterday. I did.
- [24:16]
Genevieve
That was yesterday's show.
- [24:17]
Andrew Walsh
That was from. I got that, by the way, photo credit to broadcast. Barry. Yes. I knew we were talking about pizza mountains yesterday, and I wasn't sure what to use for a show pick, but I had remembered right before the TBTL at Sea show that we did lo. Those many years ago now. I was like, there's a photo of Genevieve buying tons and tons of pizzas from Costco for that. For that show. Because we had to have food on. We learned at the last minute we had to have food on the boat in order to serve drinks.
- [24:43]
Genevieve
There'd be alcohol or something.
- [24:44]
Andrew Walsh
Yeah, exactly. And we were like, we are not doing a show in front of a bunch of sober people. That is. That is. We will getting zero laughs.
- [24:50]
Genevieve
We will be. We will walk the plank. There will be a mutiny, and we will be straight up. Captain Blyde, to answer your question, Andrew. Yes.
- [25:00]
Andrew Walsh
Okay.
- [25:00]
Genevieve
I am having to reenter my credit card information on a number of bills, including the local utility district, who is blowing up my email right now. Here's the problem. This is what's complicating things now.
- [25:11]
Andrew Walsh
This is. Remember, we never set this one up, right. Except for the other day. You. Somebody basically got your credit card information. Didn't steal it physically, but got your information and ran up, like, more than $10,000 worth of charges.
- [25:24]
Genevieve
Yeah. On some. At some kind of a Microsoft Online type of thing. Again, the irony. The irony that the money that I had in the account that actually doesn't even work because it's a credit card was from a large software. I make my money, Andrew, from a large software concern on the east side. And also that's where they were running up my credit card.
- [25:41]
Andrew Walsh
Yeah.
- [25:42]
Genevieve
So I reported it. They've refunded the money, so props to them. They are supposedly sending me a replacement card, although yesterday I got an update that said it's out for delivery. And then it did not seem to be delivered yesterday. So I don't know what its exact status is. But the bigger problem is I am now. I just had no idea how many things were auto because this was also. This credit card is associated with Alaska Airlines. And so what I had done at some point was just set it up to pay pretty much everything because every dollar I spend on it, I get miles. And then I just pay it at the end of the month. So it's the default card of my life. And I'm learning that as I get all manner of email saying, you know, from Netflix and from the utility folks and from everybody else saying, hey, we can't get our payment. Amazon can't get paid by me. Maybe that's not a bad thing. But the other problem is I'm working off of two relatively new computers and they don't have. So, like, for instance, the utility folks emailed me to say, we can't. We're not getting paid by you. And I want to go to the account portal, but it doesn't remember me there because this computer is too new. So now I've got to figure out the whole thing there. Like, I. I've said this on the show many times, but, like, for me, convenience is sort of king, and I should be. Look, I had my credit card information stolen. This is an example of how I should be more concerned about my privacy and my data security, et cetera. But, like, what I would really like is just for every device I use to remember all of my passwords for everything, because there is no chance of me doing it.
- [27:20]
Andrew Walsh
So this doesn't solve the password thing. Although I will say Genevieve bought us, like, one of the password manager things. Like, I'd had one for a long time, but I always use Dashlane. Yeah, I was using Dashlane because we advertised for them and I found it to be handy, but I never paid for it. I only had, like, the free version, which would only live on, like, one computer or whatever. It wouldn't kind of follow your devices. But then Genevieve got us a subscription to one of them, and we're on, like, some sort of family plan now. We're family planning, I guess regarding our passwords, and I gotta say, it was a game. I don't know how much we pay. I don't think it's very much. But just like knowing that when I'm on my phone I have access to every password or if I'm behind my computer and that it kind of follows me around with my Google Chrome, I'm worrying that I'm saying too much and making myself a target. But regarding the credit card thing, and I don't know how much this would apply to you, but I have found myself slowly sinking into a practice that I didn't think I was going to sink into. But it is kind of a huge game changer. And I guess this is just another convenience of modern living. But I wanted to mess around with the paying with my phone technology that everybody had already been doing for a long time and I know you have been doing. Yeah, like tapping it. So in order to do that I had to set up a Google Wallet, right? And everything I use is already kind of tied into Google. I have a million YouTube channels and whatever which is a Google product. And I have, you know, email for three different podcasts, etc. I just, I'm very much in the Google world. So I'm like, okay, so it's very easy to set up a Google Wallet and connect it to my credit card. And I originally just did that so I could use my phone to pay for things at the store. But what I found is it changes everything because now when I'm buying something online, instead of putting in a credit card, it's just like, do you want to use your Google Wallet? So everything is now defaulted to my Google Wallet. So on the occasion that something goes sideways with my credit card and I get the new credit card, all I have to do is update the credit card information in one place, the Google Wallet instead of having to go to all. And it not every single place. You know, I don't know that the utilities are connected to my Google Wallet because I don't know if that works that way, but eventually it will. And I gotta say, it is a pretty huge convenience.
- [29:31]
Genevieve
I have this problem with one of the. It must be like, I don't know if it's Shopify or it's one of these, you know, things that it usually involves me being on Instagram and then being motivated to try to buy something and then for whatever reason, it has my old Brooklyn address saved in it. And if I'm not very careful, it's one of these Frictionless. Sorry. By the way, we have a. I.
- [29:56]
Andrew Walsh
Can'T even hear it. We have a little, very, very large.
- [29:59]
Genevieve
Helicopter that is flying very low. Like, I'm talking. I don't know if it's a Chinook or a Huey, but, like, can you hear that now?
- [30:06]
Andrew Walsh
I can. I mean.
- [30:10]
Genevieve
Holy. Holy guacamole. It's one of those ones that's got two sets of rotors.
- [30:16]
Andrew Walsh
Yeah.
- [30:17]
Genevieve
Got rotors at each end.
- [30:18]
Andrew Walsh
Yeah. I love that. Then you start wondering, boy, what are they doing right now in Trump's America? And then you're like, I don't want to look at that anymore. I know I just took the fun.
- [30:26]
Genevieve
Out of it, but I have. So I have to be very careful because this has happened on more than one occasion, which is. I'm ordering something, and it's so frictionless now, like you said, because it's like my. My. My payment information is in there, and I like to just order it before I think better of it. I like to just try to. Yeah, just buy it. Buy it before my brain realizes it's a bad idea. Y.
- [30:46]
Andrew Walsh
Send that email while you're still angry.
- [30:48]
Genevieve
Exactly. That's my policy. So sometimes I'll just be like, I want it. And then I'm hitting go. And then I realize it's sending it to my old address on 6th street in Brooklyn, and that's happened two times. That's such an old.
- [31:03]
Andrew Walsh
That's such an old address for this technology. I didn't know they had Shopify back then.
- [31:07]
Genevieve
I. I don't know how it's in there, because, yeah, I was at one. That was many years ago. Phyllis would know how many years ago that was. She's officially the archivist of my life, as we found out recently.
- [31:17]
Andrew Walsh
Yeah.
- [31:18]
Genevieve
But, like. And what I really need to do is just go in to whatever that program is and delete out that address that should. Should not be in there. But there's. Whoever lives there has gotten. I think they got a rug one time from me.
- [31:30]
Andrew Walsh
That's nice.
- [31:31]
Genevieve
And there was something else that went there. And in both cases, I think that the companies just must have refunded me the money or sent me the replacement. So. So it's a pretty good deal. Living in my old address there on 6th in Brooklyn. You're getting a lot of free stuff.
- [31:44]
Andrew Walsh
You know, I'm looking forward to a delivery that I believe is supposed to come today. I don't know if I've ever tracked a delivery so much before, because apparently this thing was coming from the east Coast. And I kept getting all these. Well, I wasn't getting updates. I would go to, like, the track your order page. And it was just like, it was just moving slowly state by state by state across this great country of ours. And then it was actually in. In Washington for a moment, but then moved south down to Oregon yesterday and is now heading back to my place and is supposed to be here today. Luke, it is a. Wait for it. Modern boombox. Not even that. Modern boombox boombox that will play CDs and cassettes, but is not from the 1980s or 90s. So I have a decent amount of cassettes, and I have a decent, you know, kind of a decent amount of CDs. And they're worthless to me because I keep buying these. Like, you know, I'll be at Goodwill or something. I'll be like, oh, maybe that's a decent boombox. But they're all, like, kind of vintage in some way. But none of them first of all, look that great. You know, if I'm gonna get a vintage boombox, I want one that is kind of designed in a way that speaks to me, not some of these things that came out in like the late 90s or early 2000s with a bunch of angles or whatever. Like. Yeah, you have a. Now that's a kind of. That's a boombox. That's sort of a retro 80s looking one. But it was made in the modern era.
- [33:10]
Genevieve
Right. I think I tricked APM into buying this for us, by the way.
- [33:13]
Andrew Walsh
Oh, that's right. We took that on the.
- [33:14]
Genevieve
This was our PA speaker when we were driving around in the Delica.
- [33:18]
Andrew Walsh
Yeah. So that what. Luke is holding up, like a very 1980s looking, like kind of B boy kind of style boombox. But doesn't that have, like.
- [33:25]
Genevieve
I'm also in a B boy stance for the listeners?
- [33:27]
Andrew Walsh
Yes, you are. I enjoy your. I enjoy the tracksuit that you're wearing. But doesn't that have like USB ins and stuff on it? Isn't it kind of like. Yeah, so this thing that I ordered, like, basically I've been going around looking for good boomboxes that can play just cassettes and CDs. And I keep on looking, and the stock of the old ones are getting fewer and fewer. The stock is getting less and less. I don't know how to phrase that in your general Goodwills. And I think you have collectors going in there snatching stuff up the second anything good lands. And so I'm like, I don't know what to do. So I started Going online and looking at refurbished things. But then it's like, if it's refurbished, do I trust it? Like a lot of these, the technology with a lot of cassette stuff is even like if it's generally working, you get these loud hums. I don't know why, but anyway, I've just been really frustrated and so I went online last week or a couple of weeks ago. I'm just like, what is the most modern, what is the most like new version of a machine that will play CDs and cassettes so I don't have to worry about the age issue. And as long as it's not horrendous looking like I'll buy it. So I track down Sony, I believe is still making one.
- [34:37]
Genevieve
Can you send me a link to this? I got to get eyes on this. I'm very curious.
- [34:40]
Andrew Walsh
Yeah. And it, I mean it's pretty standard looking. I believe it's.
- [34:44]
Genevieve
It's making its way north on i5 right now. It might be passing my house on.
- [34:47]
Andrew Walsh
Its way to you. It could be down into Oregon here. I'm gonna give you. If you have a computer open in front of you, I'm gonna give you how we do the show, the term. So you can look it up and then the listener can get eyes on this as well. This is a Sony. And then this is the. The product number and letter, I guess. CFD S70.
- [35:10]
Genevieve
Yep.
- [35:10]
Andrew Walsh
CD, cassette, FM, AM boombox, black. So it just looks like a very standard little boom box. It's not fancy, it's not retro looking, it's not necessarily super cute. But it's going to be about just over, I think maybe a little bit more than a couple of feet wide. I think one cassette. No, I won't be able to make mixtapes from cassette to cassette on it, but it should work. It's. We couldn't find it. It's still on the Sony website, but I couldn't buy it directly from Sony unless I lived somewh on the African continent. It looked like I wasn't on like the Sony USA page. It was all. It was a whole journey, Genevieve.
- [35:48]
Genevieve
And you only buy it if you're wearing a Buffalo Bills Super Bowl Champion T shirt.
- [35:53]
Andrew Walsh
Yes.
- [35:54]
Genevieve
From. From 1987.
- [35:56]
Andrew Walsh
A Mariners World Series T shirt. Right. Yeah.
- [36:00]
Genevieve
One of those towns.
- [36:01]
Andrew Walsh
Yes. Another thing that I could buy on ebay probably. But anyway, so I we. Genevieve found this thing that is supposedly new in the box but is being sold by a third party on eBay, the Sony CFD S70.
- [36:14]
Genevieve
I'm looking at it.
- [36:15]
Andrew Walsh
And so it's a very basic little black box, but it should do its job. And I'm going to put it up and then I'll be able to play all of my media. And I'll tell you, I made a special map on Google Maps the other day as I was putting pins in the map, tracking this thing as it was coming across the United States, because I'm so interested in my little baby coming home to me.
- [36:34]
Genevieve
I feel like I already know the first CD you're gonna play, and it's gonna involve the B52s.
- [36:38]
Andrew Walsh
I don't know. It's funny because when you said that, I don't. You know, what are you gonna. I don't know. I. Because it should be here tonight. And this is a weird answer. This is totally random. And I don't know if this is.
- [36:50]
Genevieve
You're twisted Tea decide.
- [36:51]
Andrew Walsh
I'm gonna let. I'm gonna go. I'm gonna put this on my shoulder. It does take batteries, I believe. So I could put this on my shoulder, I think so. I was at the record store the other day and I saw the album Red Medicine by Fugazi, which is an album that I used to love but haven't listened to in a really long time. And I almost bought the record and then I didn't. I bought something else instead. I had to kind of choose, and I didn't want to just buy everything. And so I've been thinking about Red Medicine a lot lately, and for me, that was like kind of a fundamental cd. And so I'm thinking I might put on some Red Medicine tonight.
- [37:22]
Genevieve
Luke, I love the idea of you with the boombox on your shoulder, a twisted T in your left hand, just rocking on down to Electric Avenue.
- [37:34]
Andrew Walsh
Ooh, Electric Avenue. Yeah.
- [37:36]
Genevieve
AKA Aurora.
- [37:37]
Andrew Walsh
Yeah.
- [37:37]
Genevieve
I just love the idea. This is all. This all plays into your run for mayor of Aurora, or Mr. Aurora, as it were. The boombox just. Absolutely. Just assaulting people's ears with music they didn't ask to hear.
- [37:48]
Andrew Walsh
Yeah.
- [37:49]
Genevieve
So culturally, Aurora, I love it.
- [37:51]
Andrew Walsh
It really is. That is the one part. Well, that's one of the things I'm going to change about. Well, I'm going to change this when I become President of the United States. I'm going to write a law. I'm assuming I can get this through Congress. Congress. I'm going to help usher through a law, I guess I should say, that will outlaw people not using headphones in public, because that is my. Of course, that is my.
- [38:11]
Genevieve
Honestly, that is very politically salient. I think you could get elected on that.
- [38:15]
Andrew Walsh
Possibly, yes.
- [38:16]
Genevieve
For the people who. People who are bothered by that, which is. I think, most people in the world. Do you think the people who are just like, FaceTiming on speakerphone in public or. Or listening to their music loud on the E Line or whatever, do you think they're unbothered when other people are doing that? That's a real.
- [38:34]
Andrew Walsh
You know, what I do. The truth of the matter is, and this is where it gets a little bit iffy for me, is I do think it's a cultural thing. I think the vast majority of people, when I'm in. And usually it's like a situation, like it's kind of a quick lunch place, you know, like a teriyaki place, like. Or something like that. Like, kind of a. More of a what I would describe as sort of a kitchenette vibe, you know, not. Not like a nice place where you're just rushing in for. For a sandwich at Subway or some quick teriyaki or pho or something like that, or you're riding a bus, like the E Line or whatever. Not even the E Line. I think almost any bus. And if there's somebody who's, like, listening to something or talking on their phone, like, so often, those folks, I notice, are speaking English as a second language or not speaking English at all, at least in the cases that I'm hearing it. And I just think that maybe in other countries, people aren't as sensitive to their little privacy that I am kind of coddled by or whatever. And so for me, I hate it. I'm not justifying it. But I do think that, in fact, when we were in Mexico writing public transportation, which is something we do, like, that was one thing. Everybody's just listening to what they're listening to. In fact, when we were in Mexico, did I tell you this? Some guy just got on with a boombox on the bus. It was a real rattle. Track of God, too. No. Put down a beat and was just rapping. It was terrible. It was just absolutely awful. Just rapping in the back of the bus. And then did the standard thing where they came along and looking for tips from us, and I offered no tips. Yeah, it was like an actual performance. So anyway, I do think that it's maybe a bit of a cultural divide.
- [40:03]
Genevieve
That's been my experience as well. But what I wonder about. And I mean, I guess this. I'm not answering the question here. I'm just posing more questions. But it's like, to me, it feels. And maybe this is just how culture works. It feels almost physical and human to me, if that makes any sense. In other words, it feels like the natural human response, because this is my response. That's why I assume this applies to everyone. The natural human response to hearing a sound that you didn't ask to be hearing, that's possibly loud or repetitive or whatever, that. That's a universally negative response to have that experience, and yet it probably isn't. It's just probably whatever you're used to.
- [40:42]
Andrew Walsh
I do think it is that, and it doesn't. Again, it doesn't make me enjoy it more. I do. You know what I mean? I try to, because it really irritates me, like, especially if I'm taking my break and I'm kind of like, well, I just want to come here and eat some teriyaki in silence. And somebody, like, has no issue, you know, being on hold with a bank and having that bank music blasting that something, or just, like, literally arguing with a customer service person. There's, like, it happens all the time. And I just find. Or just listening or watching their media at full blast. Like, I am so irritated by it. I am so irritated by it. But I do think that it is. It is something that, like, from. It's almost like. I almost think of it as, like, culture, like, audio clutter, maybe, because I think about. I think about, like, how I. Right now, I'm a little bit uptight because the house. I haven't really, like, vacuumed in a little bit and probably, like, you know, maybe close to a week. I just. The house is a little bit cluttery right now, and I came into the studio today to do the show wishing that I could have maybe about an extra half hour or maybe like three and a half hours just to get the house tidy before I could come down. Maybe a couple of twisted teeth.
- [41:55]
Genevieve
Tidy up the place.
- [41:56]
Andrew Walsh
Tidy up the place a little bit, then come on the show and just get twisted. No, I just. I feel a little bit on edge when things are not put away. But I. From my Rare experiences on TikTok, viewing TikTok or Instagram, and, like, sometimes you, like, see other people's living spaces, and I'm like, oh, I'm really outside of the norm as far as what. I need everything to be in its place. And Clint. And I'm not saying that to take a. To take a jab at people, people who have absolutely no issue at all about having laundry on the couch behind them when they're doing a TikTok dance or, like, Any of the. What I look at as, like, kind of clutter and chaos in a home. I know that I'm on the outside of that, and I almost am. What I'm trying to do here is make that comparison from an audio standpoint. I think some people are just okay living in more like, kind of chaotic environments, you know? Yeah, yeah.
- [42:51]
Genevieve
You know, if you wanted to be nice, you could say dynamic environment.
- [42:54]
Andrew Walsh
I could, but I was looking for the word chaos there. That is what I was looking for.
- [42:57]
Genevieve
Well, that was my. In the early days of TikTok, you know, particularly, like, the pandemic came along and then a lot of us started looking at TikTok a lot. And I was. I probably said this on the show. I was shocking to me the way that a lot of folks are living and again, they get to choose how they want to live. But it would. It would be unsettling for me as well, like to have things as disordered or as, you know, as as much laundry piled up in the background of life as it seems like some people do. But, yeah, hey, if that's. If it's not bothering them, it's certainly not impacting me negatively, so. So go nuts. Hey, speaking of TikTok, this is a real thing I want to discuss with you. There is a trend going around on TikTok of people trying to eat an entire McDonald's Big Mac in one minute.
- [43:46]
Andrew Walsh
Oh, okay. Yeah.
- [43:47]
Genevieve
And I'm completely fascinated by this. Was this probably started by, like, a McDonald's PR firm? Probably. So is McDonald's making America a better place? Debatable. But I don't know if just because I haven't had a Big Mac in years or I also think of myself as being able to really hoof some food down. Maybe it just looks appetizing to me again, because I don't usually have that kind of stuff, but I think I could do it. I've only seen out of, like. I've probably watched 20 people try to do this. I think I've only seen, like, one or two of them be successful. So I don't know where it is that I. I get the idea that I would be able to pull it off. But should I get a Big Mac tomorrow and try to eat it in one minute on the show?
- [44:28]
Andrew Walsh
It's interesting when you first said that I'm like, one minute of Big Mac, that shouldn't be an issue at all. I tend to think of these fast food burgers as being relatively small, even though I know this is supposedly the big one. I'm looking at photos of it now. I've never had a Big Mac because, you know, it comes with the special sauce and cheese, which I call beef patties, special sauce.
- [44:47]
Genevieve
Lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions on a sesame seed bun.
- [44:49]
Andrew Walsh
How did you know that? Now do it in reverse.
- [44:53]
Genevieve
Any of my siblings birthday.
- [44:56]
Andrew Walsh
But anyway, so I've always been like, no, I would always get like a double quarter pounder, which is also a lot of meat. But this has that extra, that extra bun.
- [45:03]
Genevieve
That's what's getting people. I think what appears to happen to folks is they, they start out real fast and about the 32nd mark. I don't know if it's jaw fatigue. I don't know if it's just what it's like. Getting the Big Mac into your mouth in a minute does not seem to be the challenge. Challenge. Chewing it and swallowing it appears to be the hang up. And I don't know why I feel like I could do this, but would that be interesting? Content?
- [45:32]
Andrew Walsh
Well, my question is, if you're gonna do it, am I gonna do it too? And can I order one of these without the sauce? I mean, if I order a Big Mac without, I believe, sauce and no cheese, they're not gonna laugh me out of there. They're not gonna.
- [45:45]
Genevieve
Well, I don't know. I've never tried to do that.
- [45:46]
Andrew Walsh
I'm not Big Mac. How can you have a Big Mac without the special sauce and the cheese?
- [45:50]
Genevieve
I have a feeling that that would be not even the top five weird orders that they dealt with that day. So I think you could get. You would be cheating technically, because you're, you're having. There's less of it for you to eat.
- [46:00]
Andrew Walsh
What if I got it? What if I got a half calf, skinny Big Mac, no sauce, flat white cheese, Flat white. What about that?
- [46:08]
Genevieve
That would annoy them. That would very much annoy them.
- [46:10]
Andrew Walsh
It feels a little bit unfair if I'm getting less content.
- [46:13]
Genevieve
No, I mean, no, no, no. Only, like, only minimally. I don't think that. I think that it will be. Be equally hard or easy to eat minus the sauce. Plus the sauce, whatever. In fact, the sauce is probably, and I'm sorry to use this word again, as it relates to food, it does probably lubricate things. In fact, if I asked for extra sauce, I'd probably be doing myself a service. So I think you going sans sauce, you might be making it harder on yourself. Think it's drier then.
- [46:40]
Andrew Walsh
That's true. Yeah. Maybe I add a little barbecue sauce. Luke, I'M having an idea.
- [46:45]
Genevieve
Okay.
- [46:46]
Andrew Walsh
You know what this feels like to me? This doesn't feel like a Thursday show. This feels like a Fourth of July show.
- [46:52]
Genevieve
A Fourth of July special.
- [46:53]
Andrew Walsh
Because that's when people have the eating contests. Right. On the 4th of July.
- [46:57]
Genevieve
The Nathan's hot dog. My friends, two days away. You're right. Okay, so for Friday show, which we kind of.
- [47:03]
Andrew Walsh
Because we want to keep Friday's show, we should tell people this. It is a holiday.
- [47:06]
Genevieve
On Friday's show is going to be one minute.
- [47:08]
Andrew Walsh
It's going to be exactly one minute long.
- [47:11]
Genevieve
Starts with us eating these Big Macs.
- [47:13]
Andrew Walsh
And to be honest with you, you asked is this a good idea for content? No. The more I think about it is terrible. Especially if we're doing it at the same time. That's a question.
- [47:20]
Genevieve
Let's not do it at the same time.
- [47:21]
Andrew Walsh
What if we maybe switch off but.
- [47:23]
Genevieve
One person narrate and the other person try to get the thing down?
- [47:26]
Andrew Walsh
No, I think a lot of listeners will just absolutely hate this. If not skip it because they hate the sound of people eating on the show. But we're do. It's going to be a special show on Friday. There's a tradition of this type of eating contest test. And we're gonna put.
- [47:40]
Genevieve
We're gonna put super hot sauce on one of the Big Hell Big Mac.
- [47:45]
Andrew Walsh
How will we know if you have the one with a hot sauce or me?
- [47:47]
Genevieve
We're gonna have the mummy come over and dose one of the Big Macs.
- [47:52]
Andrew Walsh
Place and then my place. So anyway, I would be into this maybe for a special Friday show that.
- [47:57]
Genevieve
Do it for Friday show. And I'm just excited because I. I feel like I'm professionally obligated to eat a Big Mac. Something that I very rarely do in my life.
- [48:05]
Andrew Walsh
Yes. Say now does McDonald's offer. You're just gonna get the beef one. You're not gonna get. Can they. Does McDonald's. Did they follow in the Burger King footprints? They don't have.
- [48:15]
Genevieve
Not that I'm aware of. I think they were developing it for a while. That's a good question. Like, I feel like maybe this is just because I don't eat as much of it anymore, but I feel like the sort of faux meat industry really kind of plateaued.
- [48:29]
Andrew Walsh
Yeah.
- [48:29]
Genevieve
And it's almost kind of there it was. And I feel like. I mean, I think it was kind of a fad. I think what probably happened for a lot of people. People, if they really did make the switch like I did to mostly not eating meat at some point they just realized, you know, all of this stuff that's like almost like a burger and almost like a chicken nugget and stuff. It's like it's fine. But like if you're particularly if the interest in maybe not eating as much meat is sort of health based, a lot of this stuff is really processed on its own and it's not a particularly healthy alternative to some actual like meat that was raised ethically or whatever. So I don't know, it just feels like there was this period of time where it was like we have like the fake meat technology was growing by leaps and bounds and I feel like you rarely hear about it anymore.
- [49:16]
Andrew Walsh
Yeah, I remember the build up to it. I mean more than 10 years ago when we were doing the show with Dave Ross on Cairo and I was producing you guys. Like I remember there was a lot of stories we did about like the fake meat technology regarding actual like steaks and like how they were getting growing.
- [49:33]
Genevieve
Cells and stuff that was part of a, like a, A sentient animal.
- [49:38]
Andrew Walsh
Yeah. And, and, and then like kind of recreating the like non processed version of meats where you'd have like the grain or whatever.
- [49:45]
Genevieve
Marbling.
- [49:46]
Andrew Walsh
Marbling and all that. And it seemed like they were so close to that. Everybody was so hot to trot on it. Then Burger King came out with whatever their fake meat.
- [49:52]
Genevieve
Impossible.
- [49:54]
Andrew Walsh
Yeah. And people really love that. And everybody was so like taken by the novelty of it and how good it was. But I'm with you. I, as somebody who. I did have an Impossible burger one time. I might have had. What is the one that isn't called impossible?
- [50:07]
Genevieve
But they were beyond.
- [50:08]
Andrew Walsh
Yeah, I had one of those. I think it might have been a Beyond burger at a pub one time.
- [50:13]
Genevieve
Yeah. That was not probably.
- [50:15]
Andrew Walsh
It was good. It was.
- [50:16]
Genevieve
Oh really?
- [50:16]
Andrew Walsh
Yeah.
- [50:16]
Genevieve
My problem with the Beyond Burger versus the Impossible is that the beyond, the patty would often come as a pre made patty and it was too thick for me.
- [50:24]
Andrew Walsh
Oh, I like a thick burger. Yeah. It was like a big.
- [50:27]
Genevieve
But it was the problem with it. It was it. You could taste that it wasn't a real burger because there was too much of it, if that makes sense. Whereas Impossible was thinner. So therefore you didn't have, you didn't have as much surface area for your tongue to notice that this is not really a hamburger kind of thing.
- [50:42]
Andrew Walsh
It might have been what was on mine. I don't remember. Like if I just got a regular hamburger for it had barbecue sauce on it or what. But I was, I Only had one once and I'm pretty sure it was beyond. And it was thick. I like thick burgers. But I did not have that experience. I was just really. Even though everybody had been telling me forever, this technology has come so far. It was like little pink in the middle. Like it had the texture and the.
- [51:03]
Genevieve
Oh, that was everything. Like beet juice. So that it's got like. It's kind of almost like it's bloody. Which again is a. It's a weird thing to try to, you know, recreate that so that the verisimilitude is high. But that was a thing they were doing.
- [51:15]
Andrew Walsh
But I remember like, legit liking that and being like, why wouldn't I get this from now on? Now, it is true that I don't usually get a lot of burgers. It's not like usually a go to for me. Not saying I never get a burger. I don't want some 10 to see me in the wild eating a burger and say Jacques. But it's not like a.
- [51:31]
Genevieve
You're just scrolling down a. With a twisted tea in one hand, a burger in the other. Look at that guy boombox strapped to your back.
- [51:37]
Andrew Walsh
I'm not. Can I just go back to this for a second? I want to say that walk home with the twisted tea was one of the best walk homes I've ever had.
- [51:45]
Genevieve
I absolutely believe that. It was ice again.
- [51:47]
Andrew Walsh
Cold. It was so great.
- [51:49]
Genevieve
It's a warm summer night in Seattle. It's still light out. You've got those. All of your extra recording you were doing kind of like under your belt.
- [51:57]
Andrew Walsh
My only concern was the neighbors. As I got closer to my house, I'm like. Because we have some very respectable neighbors who you, you know, are raising little families. And they're so cute and everything, and they're. They're like real adults. And I was a little bit worried about them seeing me walking down the street with what could pretty easily be identified as a twisted T and just saying like, well, that guy. That guy who most of my neighbors hopefully don't even know what I do for a living. Probably think I'm unemployed because I just spend all of my time in the basement walking up and down the street drinking twisted tea. Like, I just think a paper bag would be.
- [52:31]
Genevieve
Depending on their age. I think a paper bag would be a worse giveaway.
- [52:35]
Andrew Walsh
That's a really, really point. And I'm glad I didn't do that. I don't even know if they have the. I. I feel like if there's any place that has Those paper bags. It would be the a.m. p.m. I'm talking about. But I'm glad I didn't do that. I think that would have been a little bit weird. But all of that is to say, yeah, I. I am into this idea of trying burgers. Yep. I think we should do this challenge. Okay.
- [52:55]
Genevieve
Very excited about this. There is a deer, Andrew, that is in the yard and is eating a bunch of the things that I need to weed whack. So I have to be very quiet because I would like this deer to just go ahead and go nuts.
- [53:07]
Andrew Walsh
Speaking of animals that eat grass, can I just tell you about something that happened yesterday? I wasn't even sure I wanted to tell you about this, but it's kind of like it doesn't really have much of a narrative arc, so I don't think it's much of a good story. But so you know that sometimes Genevieve. I'm trying to develop a narrative arc here. You know how Genevieve sometimes takes Bingo outside on a leash in a harness, and he goes on little walks around the yard, and it's something that he's kind of friends with the neighbor dog, Maggie name now. And they'll kind of talk between the fence. The only problem is Maggie got really excited last time and started barking too much. And so we had to, like, kind of. I don't think that it was at all aggressive or defensive. I think she was just too excited. And she's like a full size dog. You know, she's not one of those mini dogs. She's like a full sized dog. And so, like, I think that Genevieve had to maybe separate them a little bit. But all that is to say, Bingo is very comfortable in our little yard. It does have a fence all the way around it, but not a. Not a fence that would contain a cat if a cat were to want to get out. But luckily, he's pretty familiar with our yard. He'll go around, he'll eat tons of grass, and then, I don't know, they'll go outside for 10, 15 minutes and she'll bring him back in. He never wants to come back inside. She has to scoop him up and bring him back in. Yesterday, I'm sitting here working at my computer. My headphones are on. I'm listening to tape, My headphones are on, and I hear a crying of a cat outside my window. And I'm like, wow, that's. I'm like, veeves, do you hear that? Veeves is also working in the basement kind of around the corner. She's like, no, I'm like, do you hear that cat? I'm like, is Bingo outside? She's like, no. And I'm like, okay. And then, like, I keep hearing the cry. I'm like, veebs. I hear, like, a loud cat outside. She literally laughs at me. She's like, he's not outside. He's probably on top of the tower. The tower is what we call the stacked washer and dryer. He gets way up there to the ceiling, and he just spends his time on this tower a lot of the time. But I open up our little basement door here, which is right outside my office door, right? The little stairwell leads down, like, four stairs. There's Mr. Bingo wait outside in the stairwell, crying to be let back in. I say, genevieve, Bingo is sitting here by the door, ready to come back in the house. She's like, how did he get out? I'm like, I have no idea. We think that Genevieve went outside to water the garden about an hour earlier, and he must have darted out, darted out, because he does do that sometimes. Now behind her, she never knows. Noticed this cat, this cat, which is the absolute love of our lives that I think about so many times. I'm like, if he ever got out, it would shake us to the absolute core. Also, what are you more worried about? The coyotes or the other animals of prey that could get him or just some neighbor being like, oh, this is the world's coolest cat. He's ours now. I've just been like, we must protect this cat. Never let him outside off the leash. He apparently got outside, died, had his little walkabout for an hour or so. Probably never left the yard, ate a bunch of grass, and then just came back to the back door and cried until I let him in, which is honestly such a good scenario as far as those things are concerned. And I think absolutely. Probably speaks to wisdom is too strong of a word. But why? I'll bet you that outcome is better because he was familiar with our backyard, because Genevieve takes him on these walks because he didn't feel like he was going to be in trouble if he came back in. I just can't believe I keep on thinking about these because we let him back in, and we went about our lives. But every now and then throughout the night, as I'm sipping my twisted tea, I'm like, this night could be so much different if Bingo just got scared by something and bolted off. You know what I mean? In this neighborhood, there really are coyotes and all kinds of in cars and all kinds of things that could harm.
- [56:51]
Genevieve
My little guy and publicly intoxicated people. I mean, that's just his dad.
- [56:56]
Andrew Walsh
People walking around the street, motorcycle roving. Motorcycle gangs. Yeah, me.
- [57:02]
Genevieve
Guys who were 80 cents short at a.m. p.m. That's right.
- [57:05]
Andrew Walsh
Yeah. So, anyway, I told you to have a narrative arc, but I was like.
- [57:10]
Genevieve
That should be a relief. I mean. Well, obviously it's a relief, but what I mean is, in the larger context, that should be a good thing, because what it means is you don't have to be as worried about Bingo getting out because this has already happened and it's resolved itself. Doesn't mean you probably want to let Bingo out intentionally, but it.
- [57:26]
Andrew Walsh
It does.
- [57:27]
Genevieve
It's not like. Like, if Bubbles got out. Forget it. I don't think you'd ever see that cat. Yeah, I had to chase her down the one time she somehow got off her leash here. I had to chase her all the way down this hill and. And grab her, and it was like, literally, like. It was like I was like a receiver diving into the end zone to, like, try to pull down a hail Mary pass. Like, if I had not gotten her when I got her, totally done and probably never coming back. The good news for you is that it seems like Bingo actually likes you.
- [57:55]
Andrew Walsh
Yeah, well, I think actually wants to.
- [57:57]
Genevieve
Return to the home environment, unlike Bubbles, I think.
- [58:00]
Andrew Walsh
I mean, it has to do with the personality of cats. I think it has to do also with our reaction. Like, I think that Theo. Theo would get out sometimes. In fact, as was well documented on the show, he was gone for an entire five days and nights, I think. Or am I confusing that with the story of the ark? No, I don't know. But Theo got out. He was gone for a long time. And I wonder if part of that was because I had scolded him so many times before for getting out that he knew if he was outside, he was doing something wrong. Right.
- [58:31]
Genevieve
That's an interesting theory. That's giving these. And maybe you're right, but that's giving these animals a lot of interior life. I'm not saying you're wrong. I'm just saying I haven't thought about it that way.
- [58:42]
Andrew Walsh
They do have different. I mean, I'm always shocked at how different. Different cats personalities are. Even me, who's always been a fan of cats. I'm not like, a dog person, as they say. I still always thought, you know, cats are. Cats are kind of aloof. Some might be a little bit more snuggly than others, but, like, just in the past several years now, having had three cats as an adult. Bananas, Theo, and now Bingo. And also cat sitting for our friends. I've really gotten to know their cats and everything. I'm, like, always surprised at, like, how they really have their own personalities now. A lot of that is baked in, right? So I don't know for sure that my. My nurture argument here with Theo totally pans out. But I do wonder if with Theo, if I had not. I do think that if Bingo knew he was being really naughty, like, he's not allowed on the countertops, right? And so if Bingo is on the countertops and I walk in, he knows he's in trouble. Like, I don't really do anything. We'll squirt him every now and then. I don't even think we have a squirt bottle anymore. But he just knows that he's breaking a rule, and so he will go run and he will hide, right? Because he was caught on the counter. And I do think that if we had that attitude with him, like, when he would. On the occasion that he does dart outside and we grab him right away, we try not to overreact and be like, you're a bad cat. Which I think I would have done, like, as a younger person. And because of that, I think he was much more just like, oh, yeah, I'm outside. He didn't bolt and feel like he had to get away from us and also knew that he would. He could come back in. And when he got. When I opened the door, I mean, it was so cute. I opened the door, and he's, like, sitting there looking at the door, just waiting for me to open the door so he can come back. Back in. And so I screamed at him, just shook him, and, no, no, of course I picked him up. I'm like, your little buddy. Don't go out there. But, you know, I didn't make it an owner's thing to come home. I do. I don't know. I can't prove it, but I. I feel like there's something there.
- [60:28]
Genevieve
Well, I am really happy for you, Andrew, because, yeah, we would be having a very different show today if Bingo.
- [60:32]
Andrew Walsh
Was in the wind. I can't even.
- [60:34]
Genevieve
Do you have.
- [60:35]
Andrew Walsh
He is. Think about it.
- [60:35]
Genevieve
Chipped, right?
- [60:37]
Andrew Walsh
I believe he's. I. He's a chip on the old blood lock. I think he loves that twisted tea. He loves that twisted tea. I should have asked. Maybe that's where he went. He went to the AN.
- [60:46]
Genevieve
He went down to the AMP.
- [60:48]
Andrew Walsh
He was 80 cents short.
- [60:50]
Genevieve
You just, like. You just see him on the back of one of those motorcycles.
- [60:53]
Andrew Walsh
Yeah, just little.
- [60:55]
Genevieve
He's just got little goggles on.
- [60:56]
Andrew Walsh
Wearing his scarf, wearing his new rabbit fur coat. Dubious origins. That is a true story. This guy starts pulling some sort of like nasty looking fur thing out of a brown bag. I'm just like, I am out of here. But anyway, yeah, I am. I can't even imagine doing the. That was again, one of those. It was such a non event because we didn't know he was gone. Right. But once he came back, we had to kind of keep reminding ourselves like this day would be so much different if we just went upstairs and realized Bingo is in none of his places.
- [61:27]
Genevieve
Yeah. Protect that cat at all costs because I don't think you're going to be able to do this show if that cat is in the wind.
- [61:39]
Andrew Walsh
Hello and welcome to top secret story.
- [61:42]
Genevieve
64 minutes in. Feels like the right time to get to the first top story. Andrew from the New York Times. Robin Pogrbin writing about this artist who is named, I believe, Emma Webster, who's a painter. And Emma Webster was starting to get some attention for her paintings and got an email that was signed Stephanie Germanata, which is Lady Gaga's real name. And the email address that it came from was ladyandkoji mail.com which was a reference to one of Lady Gaga's beloved French bulldogs, Koji. I'm assuming one of the same French bulldogs that was almost dog napped. Remember that, Right?
- [62:22]
Andrew Walsh
Certainly do. Which is why that email address, why that dog's name would be so public.
- [62:27]
Genevieve
Right, Exactly. It's a pretty genius. By the way, fake email address. I mean, we can. People have already gotten a sense that this is not going to ultimately be Lady Gaga who's buying this painting, but whoever was doing this scam was pretty clever with it. So this is the email that Emma Webster gets. I am such a huge fan of your work. I'm wondering if you might have any paintings available. The message continued, I'm expanding my collection, which is anchored by powerful female artists such as Kusama Frankenthaler, Louis Bourgeois and Linda Benglis and many more. Your work would complement it so delightfully. It would be very special. Thank you kindly and looking forward to hearing from you. Signed Stephanie. And so this artist, as the New York Times writes, was elated because, you know, it's pretty cool to have one of your paintings in Lady Gaga's collection. And so she asks at some point if she could have a little more proof that she's really talking to Lady Gaga. And this person sends a selfie, a very convincing selfie, by the way. I thought. Did you see that in the. In the New York Times article?
- [63:29]
Andrew Walsh
Yes. Yes. Like it?
- [63:31]
Genevieve
I don't know where they got this from, but it looked like the kind of thing that Lady Gaga would have sent you if she was trying to prove she's Lady Gaga.
- [63:37]
Andrew Walsh
They got it from her Instagram. That's why I wasn't sure if you. I guess it's convincing because it's something. I think Instagram may be X, but I'm pretty sure the article said Instagram I don't have in front of me right now.
- [63:48]
Genevieve
And so anyway, this woman now is convinced that she's dealing with Lady Gaga, and then they agree. Well, so basically the issue was this woman's art was so popular that she was mostly sold out, except for this one particular painting. And if you were someone else trying to buy her work, you were gonna have to sort of like. If you were like a civilian, you'd be sort of waiting for a long time to get some of this art because she was sold out. But because it was Lady Gaga and she had this one piece, she sold it to lady Gaga for $50,000, and she gave her a discount, too, which I guess is also pretty typical for celebrities, because it's seen as a cool thing to have your art in a celebrity's collection. And so the one thing that this painter asked this Lady Gaga person was to not sell the art for, I think it was five years, maybe, because there's a lot of art speculation. And, you know, this woman just wanted Lady Gaga to own and enjoy the art and not just buy it and then quickly flip it, as it were.
- [64:43]
Andrew Walsh
Yeah. Which is kind of the heart of the story. Something that I didn't kind of realize. The article does a good job of kind of explaining that, like, artists like this, especially, once they're starting to catch a little bit of spotlight and are developing a name for themselves, they don't want. Want to flood the market with their stuff. They don't want all these art speculators to buy up their stuff. And so that is why she's very concerned that she's selling this to a celebrity because that will be great for her career, but it's actually bad. I mean, that's something that I didn't ever think about. Like, it's bad to sell too much of your art if it's a bunch of people who don't truly care about it and are gonna flip it right away.
- [65:18]
Genevieve
Yeah, exactly. So she sells the painting. This was the part that I kind of scanned by too quickly the initial time, which I thought this was a story about somebody who basically, basically tricked her into sending a painting and never paid. No, she got paid $50,000 for the painting. This is not a question of if the person paid or not. It's a question of if it was Lady Gaga or not, which it wasn't. Her dad, I guess Emma Webster's dad at some point notices that there's an art auction going on and that this painting of hers, and this is a short time later, certainly within the five year thing. And this painting is now for sale at auction. Exactly the thing this Emma Webster person was hoping to avoid. And so she reaches out to Lady Gaga's people who explained, explained to her, we have no idea who you are and no, you did not sell this painting to Lady Gaga. So she is now in the process, Emma Webster is of trying to basically get the painting back by saying that it was essentially fraud that the person who pretended to be Lady Gaga to buy this painting defrauded her in some way and that she should get the painting back. Which again, the whole thing is so interesting because it isn't the case that she was unpaid for the painting. She just sold it it to. She just thought she was selling it to Lady Gaga and she wasn't. And I kind of, I guess you could say there's a certain harm to her because of the thing we talked about about them flipping it and they had agreed she wouldn't or whatever the. But like, I don't know, this is kind of really on the line for me as far as. I mean, you shouldn't lie to someone and say you're Lady Gaga. But it isn't like this person, like, it isn't like this person just fully scammed her and got the painting for free and then tried to sell it. Like she got paid $50,000 for. For the painting.
- [66:50]
Andrew Walsh
Yes. And that's where. And I'm now, I'm trying to hurry up and scan it now while we're talking, because I kind of didn't read the. Probably the last bottom quarter of this article and I'm interested in the legal implications here because I said this on the show yesterday when we were sort of teasing the story. Like I. And I think it makes sense that the art world does not just mimic average everyday commerce, you know what I mean? Or capitalism or whatever. Like it's a different thing. The value is just different and it's inherent or it's less Inherent, maybe, but either way, my point is, if I'm buying, what did we say yesterday? A new Ryobi tractor or something like that, like, it doesn't matter who I am buying it as long as my money is green. Right?
- [67:35]
Genevieve
Right.
- [67:36]
Andrew Walsh
As long as my Google wallet is digital, you know, like, it just doesn't matter. This is the only. I mean, it's the only example I can think of off the top of my head where it matters who, who the buyer is. Now, if I'm buying something and somebody claims to be somebody they're not, I know that there are instances where that would probably be. Be illegal. Like, and probably in. In real estate or something along those lines. Like, you can't. You can't pretend you're somebody or not if you're selling something or selling something that you got illegally or whatever. So sometimes the seller. It matters who you are and what your identity is and who you say you are. But why would the buyer ever matter? And I'm wondering, are there any laws that the. The. Whoever this person was, who was. I mean, I guess the law would be you're not allowed to take on somebody's identity.
- [68:24]
Genevieve
Generally, you're not allowed to create a fake email with your dog's name, and.
- [68:27]
Andrew Walsh
You'Re not allowed to do that. Certainly it has to be a real dog. And a real dog. It can either be a fake email with a real dog or a real. One of the other, whatever. But I just, like, I don't know if any laws were broken here or, or just a rule of the art world. Like, did something rude happen here and possibly damaging and unfair to an artist or were laws broken?
- [68:49]
Genevieve
Well, that remains sort of unclear, I think, in the article. I mean, that's what they're trying to. That's what she's certainly asserting. And I think it's gonna be a matter for like, the courts to decide or something like that. But it also, and I don't wanna be critical of this artist, but it also sort of shines a light on the fact that being a celebrity is different. You know what I mean? It's kind of like, I don't know, you were jazzed about the fact that you thought this was Lady Gaga, so you gave who you thought was Lady Gaga kind of special treatment, and then it turned out it wasn't Lady. It's sort of like if you were to call a restaurant that was booked for the night and you were to say, can I get a table for two? And they were like, sorry, we don't have any Reservations, you're like, but I'm Lady Gaga. And they're like, okay. And then you show up and you're not Lady Gaga. It's like, who's this really on? Like, they gave special treatment to this person they thought was a celebrity, therefore displayed replacing some other normal person is. You know what I mean? Like, it feels. It feels to me, like, again, not to be critical of this artist who sounds like a very nice person and very talented, certainly, but, like, I don't know, you were kind of like, playing this little celebrity hookup game of giving special treatment to somebody that you thought was a celebrity. And then it turned out to not be the case. Again, the fact that she was still paid for it, I don't know, that seems to really reduce the harm. Obviously, if she was unpaid, then just like, then that's just theft and it's one painting.
- [70:07]
Andrew Walsh
And so, like. And again, I'm kind of learning about this world. Like, I think I'm a little bit. Maybe it's because I'm taken. By the way, the New York Times wrote this story and, like, kind of presented the argument up front about why. Like, the one thing about the restaurant analogy is you're probably, well, I'm going to set up this and then I'm going to take it back. But in a certain way, it's not as much of a business decision to give preference to a celebrity. If you're a restaurant, there's some. There's some halo effect of that. And if Layli Gaga is at my restaurant, well, then it makes my restaurant more appealing to other people. So I guess there's a bit of a business decision, but it's also just a little bit like, ooh, I'm. Well, I'm Gaga for Gaga. And it's just kind of a status thing and it's fun. And so I'm giving preferred treatment. Whereas this article really did a good job of sort of explaining, or at least it won me over in explaining that, like, well, this was a business decision. It wasn't like, well, I'm just a big fan of Lady Gaga, and so I'm feeling like, kind of tickly feelings about it. This. It's more like, no, no, this is a business decision, and we wouldn't sell it to somebody else because we really don't want this thing flipped. I mean, it's almost more like, I'm going to go back to real estate for a second. Luke, what if you had a home that you absolutely loved and it was really, really important to you that you Sold it. Maybe you don't have it and maybe you don't have a lean on it, maybe you don't have any kind of legal standing here. But it's really important to you that this house, house is sold to a family that's going to live in it for a long time because it has historical value. And then somebody like tears it down and builds a Blockbuster video because it's 1991 apparently. You know, like, I don't want to argue against multifamily housing here in my own argument, but you know what I mean? But tears it down and builds something there that is kind of against your values or what. You had a kind of a, some sort of an agreement on that you were going to keep my long standing historic house standing and you just raised it right away. You would feel really bad about that and you would feel sort of took in even though you got whatever the price of your house was.
- [72:07]
Genevieve
Yes. I mean, but then that just. I don't know. That just. I guess it would have to do if it was in the contract, if somehow you contractually. And that's the other thing that I'm a little unclear on is if this was just like a, hey girly, could you not just do me a fave and don't sell it? And then the Lady Gaga person said, okay, like, is that a binding contract? The pretend Lady Gaga person? I'm not really sure. The other part of this story that's kind of interesting is that the, you know, they've basically figured out the person who owns the painting and he is claiming like that's really who they. If there's a real crime has been committed here, that's the guy that they need to figure out. Where did you get the painting from, bruh? And were you pretending to be Lady Gaga to get the painting? And by the way, really good job with that. Like again, I can't get over how smart that like citing all of the other art that Lady Gaga has the email address. Like this was a well executed lie.
- [72:59]
Andrew Walsh
Yeah. And I'm wondering again if there, if there is a legal thing here, it might be in the impersonating somebody else. Like there are their laws just protecting, like, I don't know, it's just so, it's so scary being in the world today. But like, you know, like there are people who are much less famous than Lady Gaga whose identities are stolen, whose women whose photos are stolen, and then people make fake accounts for them on social media or whatever. Like it's pretty gross and scary and in this case, it had to. They were just like trying to sort of like, if not rip off, manipulate an artist. But I don't know, I kind of don't love the idea of people just like saying, here's a photo of me and basically catfishing other people. That should be illegal.
- [73:38]
Genevieve
What should be illegal, Andrew, is this thing that I keep seeing on TikTok now, which is AI generated. I sent it to our buddy Chris Hayes. He just had a great episode of why this Happening with Gia Tolentino from the New Yorker, who wrote an article for the New Yorker called like Something to the Effect of My Brain finally Broke. And it's just about the sort of AI sloppification of everything, but particularly social media. And you know, you now have these, these ways that people can just kind of set ChatGPT free to then generate images and music and stuff. And it's just this kind of like you don't even need a human being involved in it anymore to even make the decision. You just kind of set it on its way. And it's basically content farming is the term term for it. It's just trying to get people to like spend more time looking at whatever this thing creates. And it creates the most insane thing that is coming up constantly on my TikTok feed. It is a baby, sometimes with a prosthetic leg, sometimes not. And then Jesus Christ. And the baby is holding a microphone and it's singing, singing that's the Lord of My Soul, which I believe is a totally AI made up song. And I can't get this song out of my head. Andrew. I walk around all day working on my yard thinking that's the Lord of my Soul. Which is the thing the AI baby sings while Jesus is standing next to it.
- [75:04]
Andrew Walsh
He's just chilling. He's just in the cut.
- [75:07]
Genevieve
There's so many versions of it. I sent it to our buddy Chris. Let me see if I can scroll back in our conversation and put this evil inside of all of you. It is. Oh yeah, here we go. Okay, this is Tick tock. So, you know, this might be a little bit annoying to try to get this thing to play, but let's see if this works. Oh, wait, no, this is, this is a baby singing Leonard Cohen. This is an AI baby who's dressed as like basically a. Some kind of a. Would you call it like a clergy person? So a baby dressed like the clergy singing Leonard Cohen into a microphone. This is at least a song that exists. Hallelujah. So that's total AI slop. Let Me get though to the that's the Lord of my soul one. Okay, here we go. So in this one, Andrew, it's a baby at a hospital or it's like a toddler at a hospital who's hooked up to an IV and has a prosthetic leg. Jesus is pushing a wheelchair behind the baby and the baby I think is going to be singing that's the Lord of my Soul, a song that I think AI invented.
- [76:13]
Andrew Walsh
That's the Lord of my soul.
- [76:15]
Genevieve
Soul, oh my soul I worship his holy name. I am going to send you a picture of this Andrew, and I swear to God your brain is going to, your brain is going to hate me for doing this.
- [76:32]
Andrew Walsh
I think I might be looking at it right now. I'm just, I'm just googling this. It is so. Okay, yeah, so I'm seeing. This is. Does Jesus appear? The one I'm seeing, he's got like a little stand up mic sort of. He's got an iv, can't you see.
- [76:45]
Genevieve
Behind him Jesus with the wheelchair and dove.
- [76:48]
Andrew Walsh
No, the version, that's what I'm saying.
- [76:50]
Genevieve
There's so AI is just slopping out so much of this. There's like, it's like the multiverse. There are a billion versions of this. So you're probably looking at one where Jesus isn't in the background.
- [77:00]
Andrew Walsh
But is this kid wearing like a ruck, almost like a rucksack shirt, like it's like really frayed and not the.
- [77:05]
Genevieve
One that I'm looking at.
- [77:06]
Andrew Walsh
Oh man, I gotta show you.
- [77:07]
Genevieve
Look at what I just sent you. Look what I just emailed you. Okay. Actually, so the baby has. The baby has what appears to be a prosthetic leg from the hip down to the knee joint. But then it has a cast on its foot which is a regular non prosthetic foot.
- [77:24]
Andrew Walsh
Okay, I'm sending you by the way, a link back to what I was just looking at. I'd like you to describe that. Oh, this is a very different scene. This baby, the one I was looking at was he looked like a stand or the baby looks like a stand up comedian on a dark background with this little mic stand but like wearing a little baseball cap and a shirt that is like ragged. This one, the baby has the prosthetic leg but is wearing it like kind of appropriate baby attire. This is.
- [77:51]
Genevieve
Your baby is like Larry the Cable Guy.
- [77:54]
Andrew Walsh
Yeah, right, exactly. And then now I'm looking at yours here. I guess. I mean, I hate to say it but is this the show pick?
- [78:02]
Genevieve
I mean 100%.
- [78:03]
Andrew Walsh
What are you going to do?
- [78:05]
Genevieve
But, like, what's fascinating to me is that this is what the AI is doing because it wants to get clicks. So it's just going, what are things? It's learning what gets clicks. And I guess things involving Jesus get clicks and things involving injured babies or injured toddlers. Right. So this is. This is just purely a thing that the. That the algorithm has figured out has a high probability of getting engagement and you know what I mean? This is the purest essence of essentially the attention economy, in a way, or what gets attention because it makes no sense whatsoever. Like a toddler singing that's the Lord of my Soul, while Jesus pushes a wheelchair and a dove flies in a hospital hallway. It is complete lunacy.
- [78:49]
Andrew Walsh
I don't like it.
- [78:50]
Genevieve
No, I don't either.
- [78:51]
Andrew Walsh
I know.
- [78:52]
Genevieve
I kind of.
- [78:53]
Andrew Walsh
I don't know what to say.
- [78:54]
Genevieve
Like, in the kind of like the.
- [78:55]
Andrew Walsh
Song of all of the, like, problems that AI presents, like, creating is. Was that me or you? I wasn't even sure. Yeah, just keep talking while I play the music. Use a little bit of this underneath me. Thank you. This is like, probably this doesn't do necessarily harm and it's also so obviously fake, but it gives me a bad feeling. Yeah, that's basically it. That's my take on it.
- [79:19]
Genevieve
Well, there's.
- [79:20]
Andrew Walsh
It gives me the best feeling.
- [79:20]
Genevieve
The ones that are getting me. This comes up on Chris's episode with Gia are the ones that are getting me that. That are. I have to really, like, kind of focus in on if it's real or not. Are there are all these ones with, like, athletes. Like, he was talking about one with Jokic, the Denver Nuggets basketball player, where they're doing like a post game press conference, but they're just absolutely roasting their teammates, but they get the voice totally down and they do it in this way that you kind of can't see the mouth movement. Precisely. So it was really convincing. And I keep seeing these different athletes just like. And for some reason, and they. Again, this is what the algorithm is figured out. If you have a favorite athlete and they're just going off on their teammates, you will be compelled to watch it.
- [80:03]
Andrew Walsh
Yeah.
- [80:04]
Genevieve
So that's what the algorithm is also.
- [80:05]
Andrew Walsh
That's what the AI is figuring out. And then. And then when you start saying, well, oh, well, I saw, hey, your favorite basketball player was really getting roasted or whatever. Like, you know what I mean? That's where even if it's just in the. In the sports or culture arena, that's where I get really concerned about people just not knowing, myself included, what is real anymore. I mean, people have been saying that for a really long time, but like, yeah, it's just happening, man. I mean, we didn't. We in the intro today sort of coincidentally, like have an AI Andy Rooney doing the he dogs and she dogs thing. A listener sent that into us a couple of years ago. It sound even probably better today.
- [80:40]
Genevieve
Yeah, that's. We only use this technology for good. For making Andy Rooney say things that were once scatted by Kim Cattrall.
- [80:47]
Andrew Walsh
That's right. I've kind of backed off that for a while there. We were getting so many so, so, so many submissions of things that people created with that was often voice things. And like we had some fun with it. But then I kind of backed off it after a while. I'm like, I don't know how much of this again it all. It all is a little bit unsettling, you know, And I didn't want our show intros to become like all AI jokes.
- [81:12]
Genevieve
Yeah. We are going to use this song though as the new dazzling donor music, aren't we?
- [81:17]
Andrew Walsh
Oh, I think so, yeah. I mean that's. If you donate during the thon, you will be.
- [81:33]
Genevieve
I'm really obsessed with. And somebody will be able to tell me this. I'm obsessed with if that's a real worship song.
- [81:38]
Andrew Walsh
Well, that's what I was googling when I found that weird other example of the. Of the Larry the Cable Guy. What did they used to call the Larry the Cable Guy? Didn't he have like a couple of other friends and like they would do like a redneck comedy tour or something? Is that what it was?
- [81:57]
Genevieve
Absolutely. By the way, this does appear to be a real song. Oh, it called 10,000 reasons and it's not. That's the Lord of my soul. It's Bless the Lord, oh my soul. I worship his holy name. So this is a real song and I don't know why that feels a little better to me.
- [82:13]
Andrew Walsh
But are we.
- [82:14]
Genevieve
There's something about the AI writing worship songs about something about the very real AI writing worship songs about the very imagined Lord O my soul. That somehow just really unsettles me.
- [82:25]
Andrew Walsh
I saw this. I'm going to play a little bit of this. This is a YouTube video of 10,000 reasons. Bless the Lord by Matt Redman.
- [82:35]
Genevieve
Don't leave Steve Angrisano out co writing credit.
- [82:39]
Andrew Walsh
See, I'm not. I'm just. I want to hear. Oh, this is. Yeah.
- [82:49]
Genevieve
Worship his holy name.
- [82:52]
Andrew Walsh
Oh, it's Bless the Lord.
- [82:54]
Genevieve
That's what I just said.
- [82:55]
Andrew Walsh
I'm sorry, I thought I. I guess. Yeah, I was. I was mishearing that. Okay.
- [82:59]
Genevieve
I. I thought it was. That's the Lord O my Soul. Until I saw the lyrics here. But yeah, that's the same song. And again, I don't know why that kind of makes me feel. If the AI starts writing worship music, I just think we've. I just think it's over. I just think.
- [83:14]
Andrew Walsh
Yeah, I. I mean, if. If the AI starts writing fugazi songs, then it's over.
- [83:18]
Genevieve
Well, then you'll have a new CD to play.
- [83:20]
Andrew Walsh
Then I'll have a brand new CD to play. Exactly. That is weird. But thank you for poisoning me with that. I appreciate that.
- [83:25]
Genevieve
You're very welcome. And also, you're welcome to the listeners.
- [83:28]
Andrew Walsh
Yes.
- [83:28]
Genevieve
Okay, that's gonna do it for today's show, but we're gonna be right back here tomorrow with more imaginary radio and then Friday. And Andrew, here's the thing.
- [83:37]
Andrew Walsh
Thing.
- [83:37]
Genevieve
Friday's going to be great video content. I want you to wear a beautiful shirt.
- [83:43]
Andrew Walsh
On Friday.
- [83:45]
Genevieve
I'm going to dress like a. I'm going to dress like a toddler who's in a hospital. I want you to dress like Jesus. This is what the algorithms are telling us. Because the Friday show, when we try to eat the Big Mac in under a minute, that's. That's visual gold. That's going to absolutely break the Internet.
- [84:01]
Andrew Walsh
Is scar off to play the. The dove. The Holy Spirit.
- [84:06]
Genevieve
That's right. Okay, I'll be the baby, you be Jesus. John scarf. Be the doves.
- [84:09]
Andrew Walsh
That's right. All right, Good.
- [84:11]
Genevieve
Sweet. All right, we'll see you tomorrow. Have a great Wednesday, everybody. And please remember, no mountain too tall.
- [84:16]
Andrew Walsh
And good luck to all. Power out.