#4512 It’s About Tim

Summary

Podcast Summary: TBTL: Too Beautiful To Live – Episode #4512 "It’s About Tim"

Release Date: July 17, 2025

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Introduction

In Episode #4512 of TBTL: Too Beautiful To Live, hosts Luke Burbank and Andrew Walsh delve into a variety of engaging topics, blending humor with insightful commentary. Joined by a special guest/co-host, the trio navigates through discussions ranging from classic film inspirations to modern-day media critiques. This summary captures the essence of their conversation, highlighting key points, notable quotes, and the dynamic interplay between the hosts.

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1. The Art of Impressions

The episode kicks off with Luke sharing his playful take on impressions, sparking laughter and setting a lighthearted tone.

• Luke Burbank [00:00]: “This is my impression of a person doing impressions. Do you guys like impressions?”

Andrew and the guest respond enthusiastically, appreciating the humor in Luke's attempt to mimic an impressionist's repetitive style.

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2. Reflections on Nature and Nostalgia

The conversation shifts to Andrew's musings about nature, specifically standing in a meadow at dusk, blending poetic imagery with personal anecdotes.

• Andrew Walsh [01:21]: “What happens when you stand in a meadow at dusk? It does everything. It’s beautiful.”

Luke humorously interjects with a nostalgic reference to finding E.T., linking back to Spielberg's classic film.

• Luke Burbank [01:30]: “I was just trying to find E.T.”

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3. The Simpsons and Matt Groening’s Inspirations

A significant portion of the episode is dedicated to exploring the inspirations behind The Simpsons, particularly focusing on Matt Groening's influences from Portland.

• Guest/Co-host [05:05]: “A lot of the references in The Simpsons are from things in Portland. There's Lovejoy Street, there's Flanders Street, stuff like that.”

Andrew recalls learning about Matt Groening's background through the show, emphasizing the deep connections between the creator's hometown and the animated series.

• Andrew Walsh [05:45]: “I was very old by the time I learned all that. I think you taught me that on this show.”

They discuss the iconic cooling towers of the Trojan nuclear facility and their possible influence on the design elements of Springfield.

• Guest/Co-host [06:31]: “I remember being a kid... nuclear was scary. I associate it with scariness.”

• Andrew Walsh [09:15]: “He probably was aware of the imagery of it. But just the idea that maybe Matt Groening saw those towers or that tower from here and it inspired him to put it in Springfield.”

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4. Office Hours Live with Tim Heidecker: A Critical Assessment

The hosts transition to a critique of Tim Heidecker's podcast, Office Hours Live, discussing its format and personal reception.

• Andrew Walsh [18:15]: “We got to talk about Office Hours Live with Tim Heidecker.”

Luke shares his initial excitement to explore the show but expresses disappointment after his first attempts at engaging with the content.

• Andrew Walsh [19:00]: “I watched the latest episode... Tim isn't even in this one. It was like very, very almost sketch comedy-esque.”

• Guest/Co-host [30:29]: “I can kind of can't figure out the Tim Heidecker character that he's doing as the host.”

They debate whether Heidecker is performing a character or genuinely hosting the show, highlighting the challenges of connecting with its current format.

• Andrew Walsh [34:55]: “They seem to take no care for the audience or acknowledge in any way that there are other people listening.”

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5. Movie Theater Advertising Shifts

A noteworthy segment covers AMC's decision to increase the number of advertisements shown before movie trailers, discussing its implications for both theaters and studios.

• Guest/Co-host [44:20]: “This is a story you sent me a while ago... AMC is going to start showing more commercials before screenings.”

Andrew expresses surprise at this development, highlighting its potential impact on movie-going experiences.

• Andrew Walsh [44:53]: “I think they're just adding more ads before the trailers. Why would I come sit in a movie theater to watch a Silverado ad?”

They explore the industry's concerns about how increased ads might deter audiences from attending premieres, which rely heavily on trailers to boost viewership.

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6. The Evolving Landscape of Malls and Theaters

The hosts reflect on the current state of malls and movie theaters, contrasting their personal experiences with media narratives about their decline.

• Guest/Co-host [53:05]: “The animation style changed, too... Once their heads have stabilized, then I'm in for it.”

• Andrew Walsh [54:11]: “I find that interesting. I have not experienced that. I have definitely seen, like, theaters. I think we've seen...”

They discuss how certain malls remain vibrant despite predictions of their decline, and how movie theaters are adapting to new trends like reserving seats and enhanced amenities.

• Guest/Co-host [56:25]: “Well, the original idea of the mall was to make it so that... Now the trend is totally away from that.”

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7. Personal Stories and Shoutouts

The episode is interspersed with heartfelt shoutouts and personal stories, adding depth and warmth to the conversation.

• Andrew Walsh [65:08]: “Natalie says happy Blurs day. Shout out to my amazing sister Emma in Minneapolis.”

• Guest/Co-host [76:03]: “Happy blursday to Rusty. Our dad is kind and accepting of everyone...”

These segments celebrate listeners, friends, and family, reinforcing the community aspect of the podcast.

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8. The Future of TBTL: Announcements and Teasers

As the episode nears its end, Luke and Andrew build anticipation for upcoming events, including the TBTL Thon and future episodes featuring special guests.

• Guest/Co-host [81:48]: “Tomorrow's going to be a really special show. We're going to have John on the show...”

• Andrew Walsh [82:31]: “But tomorrow's going to be a really big show to launch us right into the Thon on Monday.”

They encourage listeners to stay tuned for exciting developments and express enthusiasm for the show's direction.

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Conclusion

Episode #4512 of TBTL: Too Beautiful To Live masterfully balances humor, nostalgia, and critical discussion. Luke, Andrew, and their guest navigate through diverse topics, from classic TV inspirations to contemporary media trends, all while maintaining a personable and engaging rapport. Notable moments include their deep dive into The Simpsons, candid critique of Office Hours Live, and thoughtful reflections on evolving entertainment landscapes. The episode concludes with warm shoutouts and teasers for future events, leaving listeners both entertained and looking forward to what's next.

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Notable Quotes:

• Andrew Walsh [01:21]: “It’s beautiful.”
• Luke Burbank [05:45]: “If I'm driving down a street and I see that it's Flanders...”
• Andrew Walsh [34:55]: “They seem to take no care for the audience...”
• Guest/Co-host [44:20]: “...two biggies have been doing this for a while apparently.”
• Andrew Walsh [54:11]: “We were really checking it out every day...”
• Guest/Co-host [76:03]: “Happy blursday to Rusty...”
• Andrew Walsh [82:31]: “We're going to have John on the show...”

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Timestamp Highlights:

• 00:00 - 02:02: Introduction and impressions discussion.
• 05:05 - 09:15: Deep dive into The Simpsons and Matt Groening’s inspirations.
• 18:15 - 34:55: Critique of Office Hours Live with Tim Heidecker.
• 44:20 - 58:01: Analysis of AMC's increased advertisement strategy in theaters.
• 65:08 - 81:09: Personal shoutouts and reflections on audience engagement.
• 81:48 - 83:04: Announcements for upcoming events and episode teasers.

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Final Thoughts

Episode #4512 encapsulates the essence of TBTL: balancing humor with substantive conversations. Whether reminiscing about beloved TV shows, critiquing modern media practices, or sharing personal stories, Luke and Andrew offer listeners a relatable and entertaining experience. This episode stands as a testament to their ability to engage with diverse topics while fostering a sense of community among their audience.

Transcript

[Luke Burbank]

Do you guys like impressions? Oh, good. I love when people do impressions. They tell you the name of the impression and then one second later they tell you the name of the impression again. Like you're gonna forget. So this is my impression of a person doing impressions. My impression of a person doing impressions. Do you guys like impressions? Yeah. You do? Okay, good. This is my impression of a person doing impressions. My impression of a person doing impressions. Do you guys like impressions? Oh, good. You're gonna like this.

[Andrew Walsh]

Tbtl.

[Guest/Co-host]

You're talking about socialism. No, I'm not.

[Andrew Walsh]

I'm talking about not covering every square.

[Guest/Co-host]

Inch of populated America with houses and strip malls until you can't even remember.

[Andrew Walsh]

What happens when you stand in a meadow at dus.

[Luke Burbank]

What happens in the meadow?

[Andrew Walsh]

It does everything. Everything.

[Luke Burbank]

Everything.

[Andrew Walsh]

It's beautiful. It's beautiful.

[Luke Burbank]

I was just trying to find E.T.

[Andrew Walsh]

Hey, E.T.

[Guest/Co-host]

Classic Spielberg, Weaver of dreams. I love when his finger lights up. That's how you can tell he's an alien.

[Andrew Walsh]

And his face. And his face.

[Guest/Co-host]

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

[Luke Burbank]

Dynamic me fall.

[Andrew Walsh]

No. Definitely.

[Luke Burbank]

Yeah.

[Andrew Walsh]

Literally no.

[Luke Burbank]

Yeah, yeah. No for sure no.

[Andrew Walsh]

And boom goes the dynamite.

[Guest/Co-host]

Well, all right. Hello, good morning and welcome everyone to a Thursday edition of tbtl, the show that just might be too beautiful to live. Meet the next generation of podcast stars. My name is Luke Burbank. I'm your host, Peace and love.

[Andrew Walsh]

Peace and love.

[Guest/Co-host]

Coming to you from the Madrona Hill studio perched high above the mighty Columbia, where things start off a bit cloudy, a bit cloud fog this morning, but looks like it's burning off now. I'm seeing some blue sky. It's like the opening credits of the Simpsons. As I look out over the mighty Columbia.

[Andrew Walsh]

Oh, ma pa.

[Luke Burbank]

It's just beautiful.

[Guest/Co-host]

Here we are folks at episode 4512 in a collector series. Let the fun begin. On these hot days, sometimes it's fun to sneak away and get in the air conditioned comfort of a movie theater. But if you go to really any of the leading movie theaters now, including AMC for a movie and you are there early, there is a good chance you'll be watching a bunch of advertisements. And I don't mean movie trailers, I just mean straight up ads.

[Luke Burbank]

Somehow hotbreak feels good in a place like this.

[Guest/Co-host]

And the filmmakers of America and the movie studios are outraged, very angry about this development. We will talk about it. It's a Thursday, AKA Blurs Day. So will it do the blursday messages and we'll also say howdy doody to this guy. Longest running cobra of the show. Maybe best known for his depictions of the tall ships. He's freshly back from the barber shop in advance of next week's TBT Elephant.

[Andrew Walsh]

You've got cute hair.

[Luke Burbank]

I'm gonna say, damn, girl, you got some cute hair.

[Guest/Co-host]

He's Andrew Walsh and he's joining me right now. Good morning, my friend.

[Andrew Walsh]

Good morning. So let me get this straight. When you look out your window, you see a small yellow child writing the same phrase over and over on a blackboard? See, you always talk about the view and you said it's Simpsons esque, but I don't know if I've ever really like, kind of pictured it that way before.

[Guest/Co-host]

That is really a game kicked out of. Out of band practice because they're jamming too hard on the sax.

[Andrew Walsh]

On the saxomophone. Okay. You know, actually, Andrew, I gotta say. I get it now, Luke. I get it.

[Guest/Co-host]

Hold on. Please stop the tape. What you're seeing is Luke Burbank. No, I didn't really mean stop tape. That's what the guy says on the thing. I like the tape. It helps me.

[Andrew Walsh]

Did you feel.

[Guest/Co-host]

By the way, that's very responsive of you.

[Andrew Walsh]

Did you feel like you were really floating in space there for a second? It's funny how I kind of did.

[Guest/Co-host]

I didn't like it. I didn't like it.

[Andrew Walsh]

We'll do the majority of the show without that music underneath us. But somehow you gotta ease out of it.

[Guest/Co-host]

You can't goes away too early. I believe the guy on the Tim and Eric thing says stop the tape.

[Andrew Walsh]

Right. Stop the tape. That's a bad.

[Guest/Co-host]

What you're seeing is a bad.

[Andrew Walsh]

What you're seeing is a bad hug. We. That's a very funny sketch from Tim and Eric featuring the guy who plays Leland in. In Twin Peaks. But I think we stopped playing it because, like, there became too much real news about workplace misconduct and bad hugs.

[Guest/Co-host]

Yeah.

[Andrew Walsh]

At the workplace. We kind of retired that for a while, but I think it's. I think it's safe. Anyway, go ahead. What were you going to say?

[Guest/Co-host]

Okay. Speaking of the Simpsons, I just had this realization the other day. I actually forget who hipped me to it. Somebody said this. And I never thought of it this way. In fact, might have been siblings weekend. I'm not sure. But speaking of the Simpsons.

[Andrew Walsh]

Right.

[Guest/Co-host]

And the. The. The. The iconic opening scenes and just the whole layout of Springfield, of course. Matt Groening famously is from portland, the creator of the simpsons. And a lot of the references in the simpsons are from things in portland. There's a lovejoy street, there's a flanders street, Stuff like that.

[Andrew Walsh]

I was very old by the time I learned all that. I think you taught me that on this show.

[Guest/Co-host]

I have to say, it never stops being fun for me. If I'm driving down a street and I see that it's flanders. And I realize that's what gave matt groening the idea for that person being named flanders. Well, from where I live, perched high above the mighty columbia, I can look across the river into oregon. I don't say oregon. I say oregon because that's how you say it. And over across the river is what used to be the trojan nuclear facility. And when I was a kid, it's now it's gone. Most of it is gone. The cooling towers are now gone. It used to provide a significant amount of power to the state of oregon. And then I think what happened at some point was a little rod got.

[Andrew Walsh]

Caught in one of the workers jumpsuits. Right. And he went home with it. And they had to shut down.

[Guest/Co-host]

Yes, I'm seeing that actually in the sky right now. The whole thing's playing out. Someone's scanning a baby at the grocery store. That's gotta be bad for the baby. If people don't know the opening credits of the simpsons, they think I've just fully lost my mind right now based on the words I'm saying. But anyway, and so I remember being a kid and we used to go down to, you know, we'd go from seattle, we'd go to various church related things in oregon every year. One thing was called the festival of the sun. And that was s o n like the son of God.

[Andrew Walsh]

Oh, I had it. Oh, I had more of a dothraki kind of thing going on. Oh, interesting.

[Guest/Co-host]

There were blood writers there. But no, it was the festival of the sun. As in we are getting together to worship jesus. To camp out and worship jesus. Which I I friggin loved that thing as a kid because it was a chance to hang out with a bunch of kids I didn't know and like make new friendships and run around and play fun, you know, little games and stuff. But anyway, on our way down, I remember being a little kid and we'd be on i5 and we'd be driving past. I mean, how could 10 year old Luke have ever known that that section of i5 would be one day where he would. Well, well, there'd be a thing called podcasting. And he would live in a house up on the hill above I5, and he would do that thing called podcasting for his job. But in those days, I just remember being in the back of our Ford van and. And looking over and seeing those cooling towers of the Trojan nuclear facility and getting a very kind of uneasy feeling because I didn't know how nuclear power worked. I just knew that nuclear was scary. I knew that there was a chance that maybe the Russians wanted to nuclear bomb us and that that would probably. That would kill everyone in America or something. Like, I just. I associate it with scariness.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah. I mean, we were. We associated the word nuclear with hiding under our desks for a nucle drill. Right, Exactly.

[Guest/Co-host]

And so I just remember there was a. I remember that pretty vividly from my child just looking across the river and seeing this thing. That filled me with fear. Anyway, I was retelling this story to someone recently, and they said, you know, that's probably where Matt Groening got the. The nuclear. The cooling towers for Springfield. I mean, that's a standard look. I think all nuclear power plant cooling towers had a similar look. So he probably was aware of the. Of the imagery of it. But just the idea that maybe Matt Groening saw those towers or that tower from here and it inspired him to put it in Springfield, it's kind of funny to me. It makes me feel connected to the Simpsons, even if it's not true. And by the way, nobody emailed me with evidence to the contrary, because I like this now. I need this in my life.

[Andrew Walsh]

Well, I'm trying to remember, and I'm looking now at what the cooling towers look like in the Simpsons opening, because I felt like as you were talking, I thought what you were going to say was, in an. In a parallel universe, if they hadn't shut that thing down where you're sitting right now, you would be looking down at those cooling towers. I would be. Not unlike the opening shot of the Simpsons. So I wanted to see, like, is there a river nearby? But no, in my head, I was. I was catering it too much to your situation. But it is kind of tucked in a kind of hilly area, and you kind of get a view down at the cooling towers that you would potentially have had had they not shut it down. Which is why I've always been really like, I'm out there protesting for nukes. That's kind of what I'm always protesting for. So that you can. This reality.

[Guest/Co-host]

Yeah. You asked people to stop visualizing world peace.

[Andrew Walsh]

I did. And start using your turn sign.

[Guest/Co-host]

And you also had that bumper sticker that said, some nukes.

[Andrew Walsh]

Some nukes, Question mark. My favorite bumper sticker still is visualize using your turn signal. And I think it's just funny. I think it's funny just because my friend Paulie was really into that, but he didn't have it or anything. But I think that it was his favorite bumper sticker. And so somehow, like, I'm drafting off of his joy about that. You know, of all of my. Of all of my irritations in life, I guess, actually, to be honest with you, I do see something here that I've never seen drivers do anywhere else, which is. Which is somewhat irritating, but not enough for me to. I mean, there are so many things to rant about, like, whatever. But it's very strange. I noticed here in the pacific northwest, people do not turn on their turn signals until it's no longer helpful, and then they'll turn it on at the very last minute. So if you're at a light behind a car, right. And you're waiting for that light to change, if they're signaling that they're going to take a left when the light turns screen, you might know to give a little bit of distance because you're going to go around them in the intersection. Also, a lot of them don't pull into the intersection.

[Guest/Co-host]

That's wonderful information for them to provide for you.

[Andrew Walsh]

But what they do is they don't. They'll sit there for two minutes or a minute while the light is red, and then it turns green. And then when they're about to make the turn or already making the turn, they turn on their turn signal. You're like, that's not what signaling means. Signaling means you're communicating something that's about to happen. You're signaling it.

[Guest/Co-host]

Yeah, I don't like that at all. I also don't like that. I think my theory about this being the inspiration for Matt Groening is kind of falling apart, because, for one thing, there was only one. Looks like there was only one cooling tower.

[Andrew Walsh]

Oh, in the one.

[Guest/Co-host]

In real life, I think in this. In real life, there's only one cooling tower. Of course, the Simpsons. There's two of them, I think.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah. I'm looking at them. So.

[Guest/Co-host]

So I. I don't know. I mean. And again, it's not like Matt Groening was unfamiliar with the concept of what a nuclear cooling tower looked like. He probably didn't write it into Springfield as a plot point for Homer Also, I wonder, because this is where I'm going to go on. Just. I'm going to try to guess at the history of the simpsons.

[Andrew Walsh]

Good.

[Guest/Co-host]

Obviously it started with a cartoon called life in hell. That Matt Groening.

[Andrew Walsh]

Right.

[Guest/Co-host]

I mean, was that his first thing that he did?

[Andrew Walsh]

That's my understanding. Now, I don't know if these simpsons characters ever showed up in something called life in hell. I don't know if that's what you said, but I do know that that was his earlier project, life in hell, which I think existed for a long time, well into the existence of the Simpsons as well. Right.

[Guest/Co-host]

It was printed in free press and was not funny.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah, I never. I always thought, like, someday I'll get it.

[Guest/Co-host]

A day has yet to come for me. Like it's, you know, I mean, it's one of those funny things where first of all, of course, I like all, like all God fearing people in America. I am so grateful that the Simpsons exist. It has. That show has provided me with some of my greatest entertainment and joy and comedy over the course of my life. And I say that really and seriously, like, I love the Simpsons so much. I'm so glad it exists. I don't know how much credit Matt groening gets for it, other than he drew the characters initially and then I think a bunch of Harvard lampoon grads took it and ran with it.

[Andrew Walsh]

That's interesting theory because. Yeah, like the. It first of all, the earliest. Like you said, I never was a huge life in hell person. I'll bet you, just knowing our audience, I'll bet you there are people who adore that in our audience and may, you know, and I'm willing to say, like, maybe I kind of just don't get it or it's just I'll never understand the context for it. But I agree with you that life in hell always, like, had like the kind of contours of something that should be funny, but I don't ever remember it making me laugh. And then those earlier simpsons days from the Tracey ullman show. Yeah, they weren't particularly funny again, at least not for me at my age. Like I did. It eventually became funny because you had people like Conan o' brien writing for.

[Guest/Co-host]

Right, exactly. I mean, that's sort of my sense of the thing is that, like, Matt Groening was. Was writing life in hell. It was being published in like, you know, I don't know, like the willamette week or something or probably was going on in a bunch of like, free weeklies. And then I think it was James L. Brooks, the producer, was maybe approached by the Tracy Ullman show to go try to find animated content or something. Somehow James L. Brooks and Matt Groening start. And I'll give Matt Groening credit because I think he did create. You know, James Brooks comes to him and says, let's. Let's create some animated content. And then he has this idea for a family called the Simpsons. I'm looking now at the Wikipedia page. It says, let's see. He thought Simpson was a funny name because it sounded close to simpleton.

[Andrew Walsh]

Oh.

[Guest/Co-host]

The shorts became part of the Tracy ullman show on April 19, 1987. And then after three seasons, the sketch was developed into a half hour primetime show and became Fox's first series. It just feels like one of those things where it's like Matt Groening gets credit for birthing the Simpsons. I mean, it wouldn't exist without him. It was his idea. But then luckily the show got put into foster care and was raised by a different family. That was funny.

[Andrew Walsh]

And again, when I try just to sort of shadow box a little bit with what maybe some people who love those early seasons might be thinking is, I guess the idea was American content at the time is a lot of very treacly family sitcoms where, yeah, they have their little troubles here and there because somebody got an f on their report card or our maid is a robot child for some reason.

[Guest/Co-host]

I mean, that sounds pretty dark in.

[Andrew Walsh]

That was a really bad one to bring up, I'll be honest with you. But anyway, the robot.

[Guest/Co-host]

The child. Robot maids are unionizing.

[Andrew Walsh]

Don't.

[Guest/Co-host]

And Reginald Vel Johnson is putting it down.

[Andrew Walsh]

Listen, it sounds dark, but don't worry. She slept standing up in a closet, Luke. Like, they took care of her. Don't worry about it. She got her downtime too. Like, just. It never made sense to me why we're talking about small wonder for people who just think this. This is a continuation of the aphasia that Luke and I are both sharing right now. We're talking about a show called small wonder where a family had a secret robot, but in order to pass her off as a human, for some reason, they dressed her up like their little daughter who was also a maid and wore a maid's outfit. Right. Am I wrong? As I'm saying it out loud, that can't be right. Why would you not want anybody to know that she's a robot? And if you didn't want people to know she's a robot, why would you make her Your personal maid.

[Guest/Co-host]

I've got to be honest with you, Small Wonder is a huge blind spot for me. I know that it existed. I know that her name was.

[Andrew Walsh]

Was it Vicki? Maybe? Good call.

[Guest/Co-host]

It's one of those things that's been talked about so much by our generation, because I think so many people our age watched it and were either, like, thought it was amazing or thought it was ridiculous or somewhere in between. So I'm aware of it in the culture. I don't think I've ever watched an episode of it. So I'm really, really going to be. I'm unhelpful on the plot points of Small. Wonderful.

[Andrew Walsh]

Anyway, I could go into my story about how Small Wonder actually led me to run away from home, but we'll save that for another day. Also, you can go back probably to the 2012 episode where I was a guest and I told that story. But I do guess that the humor, the original sort of subversive humor of the Simpsons wasn't the Conan o' Brien writing before he got there. It was just kind of the look, what if you turned all these cheesy tropes on their head, and the one kid actually was a little demon kid, and the father was a bad dad who's literally strangling his kid? I mean, I guess it was a reaction to that. But again, you know, when I go back and watch that early stuff, it just doesn't. It just doesn't make me laugh.

[Guest/Co-host]

Yeah. The rule of thumb for me, I've said this many times on the show, is if their heads are too wavy.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah.

[Guest/Co-host]

I'm gonna go get some gravy.

[Andrew Walsh]

Oh, yeah. You always say that.

[Guest/Co-host]

I do. I always say that. No, like, there was. The animation style changed, too. And in the earliest days, it was like there was this kind of sort of. I don't know if it was because literally, it was harder to animate things in those days or because. Or as a stylistic choice, but, like, the tops of their heads kind of vibrate differently than later than what I. Than the kind of Conan era. So, like, once you get into. Like, once their heads have stabilized, then I'm in for it.

[Andrew Walsh]

You sound like a doctor. So this is very. I came into the show today literally thinking, do I want to get into this? I don't know if I do or not.

[Guest/Co-host]

That's always a good sign.

[Andrew Walsh]

Well, sort of. It's a good sign for you and me. I don't know that this is really super, super great for the audience. But in. The problem is that sort of the point that I want to make. But it's time to do it. We got to talk about Office Hours Live with Tim Heidecker. Okay, so this you and I adore Tim Heidecker. At least I adore to Heidecker. I did. He's one of my. I would put him up there with one of my favorite comedians and just like comedian contributors to the culture during my adulthood. Right. I think that he's a genius in a lot of ways. And for a long time now, he's been doing this podcast called Office Hours Live. And it is a podcast, but they stream it live and there's more visual kind of presentation to it. Like often I think he's like kind of standing and using like a stand up mic or something.

[Guest/Co-host]

And his producers, it's almost sort of a little reminiscent. Reminiscent of tmz, the TV show. I think that's kind of what they're sending up a little bit because, you know, the TMZ TV show, Harvey Levin, the founder of TMZ and also his kind of co host guy whose name I don't know, they're often kind of standing in the middle of like the TMZ newsroom and there's kind of a, you know, the producers are kind of sitting around at their desks and they're kind of like firing show ideas and pitch ideas and it's a kind of a rambunctious conversation. I think that's a little bit of what's being parodied with Office Hours.

[Andrew Walsh]

I could totally see that, especially from the visual standpoint. And you and I have mostly been exposed to it. You more so than me at this point, although I think it was starting to trickle into my feeds early on. But then on TikTok, you started just seeing a lot of clips from it. They'll have guests on, like, you know, famous comedians, but also just like him, like his buddy and producer, Vic Berger. And then I love DJ Doug Pound. DJ Doug Pound. I think those are the three main characters. Right. So it's like three friends and they're like kind of. It is kind of cool. They're playing drops all the time. I love that part. And. And you kind of. And Vic is really like focused on playing weird audio and playing drops and then also visual drops too. Like they'll be talking about something. They were talking about how bad the bad Kansas was in an episode I was watching last night. And so they're pulling up photos of Kansas of like the guy, I guess he would jump while playing the piano. So they're just pulling. And it's kind of fun to see these visual drops being sort of pulled up. And so it is show. You could draw some comparisons between what you and I are doing, which is two people talking with a lot of audio drops. I mean, it's kind of a classic chitter chatter, you know, kind of podcast, right? And you and I have mostly, as I said, been exposed to the eclipse and, and you keep saying, like, I've never really sat down to watch a full episode of this and neither have I to watch or listen to a full episode. And yesterday I was kind of in a funny mood. I kind of like got done with some stuff and I was like, you know, I'm going to throw some darts. And I don't know what, I don't know what I saw or what triggered me to think, oh, maybe this is the time to check out office.

[Guest/Co-host]

Well, there's no Mariners.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah, I do. You know, that's a big thing too. I was listening to, I was listening to a lot of Chad and Jeremy while watering the plants yesterday. Luke, you want summer vibes you put on your Spotify or whatever.

[Guest/Co-host]

Don't you know that it hurts me?

[Andrew Walsh]

So say goodbye to you, create an algorithm using that as the starting song and go outside and water your plants. Luke. Luke. That is Andrew.

[Guest/Co-host]

I almost sent you a picture of my star jasmine yesterday.

[Andrew Walsh]

I almost sent you a photo of me watering my.

[Guest/Co-host]

It's blooming. I'm getting actual star jasmine on there. And I was like, I felt like I was hitting you up too much with pizza content. I was like, oh, that's like, I'll leave this poor man alone. But I was out there watering my star jasmine, thinking about you out there watering your tomatoes.

[Andrew Walsh]

It's the best smell in the world. It's literally my favorite smell of star jasmine. So anyway, so yeah, but anyway, I was listening to like oldies and then I was. Then I pulled out my Chad Jeremy record, literally, and I'm listening to it and then I'm like, but you're right, that's what it was. I had a baseball shaped hole in my, in my listening schedule. And so anyway, something was like, oh, office hours. So I'm like, I want to find a full, a full episode. And then I make a decision, like, do I want to just like listen to the podcast version or watch the podcast as they put it on YouTube? And I decided, you know, why don't you, why don't you just put your phone up, like kind of like balance it up on this bookcase. Here and just like kind of watch it. So I put on the latest episode that was like, you know, an hour plus or whatever and I'm like, I'll just start with our latest one. Now for shows like this and especially because you and I produce a show like this and because I like shows like this, I don't mind a little barrier to entry when it comes to inside jokes and the rhythm of shows or whatever. Like, I think that's the fun part of it. And maybe I just haven't broken through yet. But I also sort of really like to dip into the. I just like to dip into like sort of the, the height of what they do on a regular basis, if that makes sense. So in other words, I'm going to get into the show. I don't want to dial back to episode number one and catch up because I want to hear what they're doing now, what they've evolved to do. But the problem is I put on the latest episode and I'm like 10 minutes in before I realize Tim isn't even in this one. Tim's like, they had some fill in people and it was like very, very almost sketch comedy esque. I'm not even going to get into it, but it was kind of funny but kind of weird, had my attention. But then when I realized, wait a second, second, Tim is gone for this episode, I'm like, this is not gonna give me an example of what the show is really like. I want to know what the show is like. So then I watched the one prior to that and this one I stuck around with for maybe 10 or 15 minutes. And I gotta say, Luke, it might just not be for me. And I have, this is something where I, you know, maybe I know Tim Heidecker has been on the show before. I don't think with me on it, probably never again.

[Guest/Co-host]

Now they'll be gonna roast him.

[Andrew Walsh]

But like it was hard for me. Well, first of all, when I hit play on this YouTube gave me an auto generated ad that I guess was sort of telling. Now keep in mind like this is Tim Heidecker. He's a very like progressive minded guy who's, you know, outspoken on issues that I really appreciate.

[Guest/Co-host]

Yeah, he probably has our politics.

[Andrew Walsh]

Oh definitely. Like, you know, I follow him on social media. He's out there and he's not quiet about things either, you know, but this is a kind of a bro y feeling show because you have him and his two bros behind him and they definitely. This is where I'm trying to separate out what we do with what they do because there's tons of inside jokes or whatever. But there is something that seemed a little bit broier about it, and maybe it's because this auto. I've been served millions and millions of ads in my life, and I've literally never seen this one. I've seen other ads that are sort of toxic in some ways, but it's like some dude bro. This is the automatic ad before the show plays. And this is not on them. This is on what YouTube is serving up based on. Right? Exactly. It's just like, agreed to allow YouTube.

[Guest/Co-host]

To use this real estate for whatever it sees fit.

[Andrew Walsh]

And honestly, not even allowed. We don't control it anymore. We have a YouTube page. We can't keep their ads off it. YouTube is just putting ads on shit now. Like, I'm. I'm furious about the fact that our viewers and listeners have to watch an ad before a hey Dummies video that we're not getting any money from. But anyway, the algorithm said, hey, play this ad for people who like to watch this. This Office Hours Live. And it's like one of those bro y guys, kind of a mustache, kind of a bearded guy, not in like some sort of fabulous shape or something. And the whole thing is he's TJ Mackie. He's like a real life TJ Mackie from Magnolia. He literally says he's. He's not.

[Guest/Co-host]

So he's like a speed seduction expert.

[Andrew Walsh]

Well, it's not even speed seduction. It's about, well, maybe, maybe I. Maybe that's the wrong characterization. Then he starts talking. It's unclear what he's talking about at first, but it's very like, kind of motivational, like, you got to do this. And then he says you're addicted to the pee, and it's about being addicted to women. It's like some sort of incel thing. And I should have hit skip immediately, but I was so, like, astounded by what I was seeing. It was like, it's almost like parody tape that we play. I thought it was parody at first. I thought it was Tim maybe doing something that was some next level parody about. But no, I guess there. I guess I was exposed to this part of the Internet that I'm just protected from of just dude bros talking in that way of like, maybe you like the way I'm being aggressive here. Maybe you need confrontation in your life because it's time you're realizing there's a reason you're seeing this ad right now. Join our program and no, this isn't going to be easy. You're not just going to watch this for an hour and maybe enjoy it? No. There's homework involved. We are going to do it and think about it. Why are you still watching this right now? Because you're addicted to the pee and you're just like. And by the way, in saying that quote, I'm not cleaning it up, okay? Like, that is what he's saying, literally. And I was like, what does this say about what YouTube thinks the audience of this show is? That's not on them. But it was a hell of an introduction. I was blown away.

[Guest/Co-host]

Now there is a chance that next week when we are broadcasting TBT 16 live, that could YouTube put that ad in front of our show?

[Andrew Walsh]

Theoretically, I don't have an answer for that, Luke. Well, they wouldn't put an ad for the live show. They couldn't interrupt our live feed with ad ads. But when we do hey Dummies videos, sometimes you click on them and there will be some. But all the ones I see are for like, I don't know, lawn care stuff or whatever. Because actually they're pretty dialed into our show, you know, so I've never seen anything offensive. I do wonder what would happen if. Because I found this like, again, he didn't say anything specifically, like, controversial. You know what I mean? Like, it was just like, it's the guy in this guy in this ad. It was just like shocking that like, you hear about this incel culture and these dude bros are going to teach you how to be incels or whatever. But it's also like theoretical to me. And it was just weird to be watching it. Then I kind of put you in.

[Guest/Co-host]

A weird state of mind. Rolling into Office Hours Live, I was like, whoa.

[Andrew Walsh]

But then, so, so now keep in mind. So I'm watching an Office Hours Live that is now the second newest one because I want to hear, you know, Tim on it. And then I noticed that this, this is the only one that I watched the most of. And again, maybe 15 minutes it might not have been the show they would want us to start with because Tim was remote. He's usually in studio with them, but he's clearly something's going on. He said like, like, you know, we're just back from our little summer break. Usually we have guests. We're not having guests today because we're just going to be catching up after our summer break. So again, like, if you and I are doing a show after we've been gone for a week or two, or something like that. That first show might not be the show that we want everybody to hear as a new listener. So I'm just, like, trying to give them as much coverage as possible. But the thing that I really took away from this was, yes, you have three guys who are funny, or I know for sure that Tim Heidecker is funny. He's made me laugh a lot, more than most people in my life. But, like, there was just nothing there for me. And it really felt like. And this is where I'm going to compare it to what we're doing. And maybe I'm in this mindset because we're getting into the TBTL a thon, and maybe I'm belying what I'm about to say with this long ramble that I'm in the middle of. But, like, they seem to take no care for the audience or acknowledge in any way that there are other people listening. And I know they are because they have so much more showmanship around a lot of the things they do. One of the episodes I clicked on, they were all dressed as clowns. You know what I mean? Like, they're putting work into this. They're not phoning it in, but whatever the style was. And again, people feel that when they listen to our show and you break on through. But I feel like you and I are at least presenting, like, guys who know radio or something. Like, I'm. Even now, while I'm embarrassed about this, I'm still thinking about the audience laughing at me. You know what I mean? Whereas they just seem to have this sort of sarcastic, like, kind of grunting communication with each other and just kind of like, it feels much more like maybe it's just like you, Camaro Kev is a great podcaster, too, but you and Kamaro Kev just being in the car laughing at something that you have 20 years of history on, jokes about, and there's nobody else in the car, so you don't have to bring them along with you. That's what this felt like. There felt like no bringing the audience along at all. And it just. I watched it for, like, 15 minutes. I was like, well, I think I'm gonna stop this now. And I still. I want to like this show so much. It has all the elements I like. I like things being live. I like Tim Heinecker. I. You know, I just. I like this partnership that they have. I like. But it's just. It was really shocking at how. At how inaccessible I found it.

[Guest/Co-host]

Well, the thing for me that has been tough and I've expressed this to you off air when we're talking about it, is that. That I can. I kind of can't figure out the Tim Heidecker character that he's doing as the host of Office Hours Live. Like, I'm not sure because it's. It's a little bit more. It's kind of bro y and kind of acerbic in a way that I think it's a very, very subtle character that he's doing because I don't. You know, we did ever so briefly have Tim and Eric on this show by phone, and they were both lovely, which was such a relief because going into the interview, I was like, I don't. I mean, I don't know if they're going to be in character the whole time. I don't know if they're going to be. Be intentionally making this hard on me because they're doing a bit or something and they were just like super nice, normal people. So my assumption is that in real life, Jim Heidecker is like a nice, gracious person, but he also does a lot of characters. Like, there's this. Have you seen the. The thing where it's actually very, very funny, where it's clearly a setup, but it's like Tim Heidecker is doing some kind of presentation. He's doing like a theater show or something. And then they do a Q and A in the audience and it's. Tim Robinson is in the audience.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yes, yes, I have seen that. I've seen that clip going around or that winner.

[Guest/Co-host]

It's really funny. But the, The. The energy that Tim Heidecker is bringing in that moment in that clip where he's on stage and he's acting. I mean, he set this up. Obviously, they set it up so that Tim Robinson would be acting. Like he doesn't really like Tim Heidecker's act, but the way that Tim Heidecker is kind of dismissive of him and kind of like, it's weird. It's. It's a very subtle character that I'm, you know, I'm just not quite sure how I feel about it. And it makes me. I'm nervous that it is a little bit too much of how Tim I. Decker might really actually be. Cause it's so subtle that I don't know if he's doing a bit or not. And so that's the hang up for me, is that he's just kind of sort of standing. I don't know. Again, I don't know if he's Doing an impression of a guy who hosts a show like that, or if that's just him hosting the show and the not knowing that part throws me a little bit.

[Andrew Walsh]

So I don't know what lies in the hearts of Heideckers, but I've, you know, watch a lot of his stuff and I've seen the stuff that. I know what you're talking about when he's doing characters, but he does the characters so well that you can't tell. Like he does some over the top jerkiness. Like his last stand up special or whatever, standup special.

[Guest/Co-host]

Even on cinema, he's being ridiculous. So, you know, you can tell that he's doing a bit. This, this is, this is different for me.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yes. And. And then he did the whole stand up thing where his whole Persona is the standup guy was this sort of like toxic, dumb stand up guy. And that's, that's a bit. And then you're right. There are other things where it's a little more subtle than that. I will tell you this, and I could be wrong. And again, the only way to find out is to have him on the show and say, I didn't like the episode I was watching. Can you defend yourself? So, I don't know, send the email. Email. Nobody's on the email. But he.

[Guest/Co-host]

Everybody be cool.

[Andrew Walsh]

But he did not seem that. There did not seem to be any character going on in this. This really did seem like three guys who kind of have their own little friendship language. And like, like I said, they. A big chunk of it was them talking about how they don't like the band Kansas. And I guess actually now that I'm talking about a little bit, I mean, there was some charm in that, I guess. I think it was Tim, one of them told a story about how some guy, some friend of theirs had a. Had a little routine when they were on road trips. You would go and you'd buy a cassette or a CD at a gas station. And the rule this guy had is you would just pick one up at random. But you would have to listen to it all the way through two times to really give it its day in court during the road trip.

[Guest/Co-host]

That's an interesting idea.

[Andrew Walsh]

And something about like they got this Kansas record and then Vic keeps dropping just like this tiny little clip of an organ solo. That is just so bad. And I gotta say, now that I'm talking about it again, maybe if I watch this all the way through and then watch a couple more episodes, I would maybe feel more like I'm Hanging with my friends. And I would like it more, but I was a little bit shocked at the lack of. Again, sort of even at the very beginning, anything that would bring the audience along. And so. And it just sort of. Now, Heidecker also was remote, and he said, I usually am in the studio for this. And I think they also had a delay issue, which you and I know that from doing this show, if you're on a spotty Internet somewhere in a hotel, it really messes up the rhythm of a conversation between friends if you're like, oh, you know, like you're starting and stopping. And so I want to give him a lot of kind of coverage there. And maybe I got to go back and just find the right episode to watch. But, like, I was. Like, I was both a little disappointed in that and a little bit. A little bit proud of what we do.

[Guest/Co-host]

A little bit less shame to get back to the Simpsons.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yes. Like I said, I'm not saying that we always hit it out of the park, but we are doing this for people in a way that that show felt like they were doing it for themselves. Completely. Yeah.

[Guest/Co-host]

You know, not to pat ourselves on the back too much, because so much of the time I spend just kind of denigrating the show to anyone who will listen to and just being like. Like I had a. Had a conversation yesterday with somebody who's. It's complicated, and I need to be a little bit vague, but there was a. There was a. A gig that there was somebody. Somebody reached out to CBS pr, The PR wing of cbs, to see about hiring me to do a job next year, like a kind of like an appearance. And that person reached out to me. And then somehow I got looped in with somebody who does. Who basically represents people to do speeches and appearances and whatnot. And that person called me and we were talking and. And the reason I'm being kind of vague is because it's like I somehow found out that in the. Basically this person calling me, they then get some huge percentage of this. What money that would be paid to be for the job. Like, this person went from someone I didn't know existed to being like, well, my cut of it is this. And I was like, wait, what? I don't even know you.

[Andrew Walsh]

You.

[Guest/Co-host]

But anyway, that's all complicated and. And boring and probably will end up costing me the job if I get too detailed about it. But I was trying to explain the other stuff I do to this person, the other kinds of jobs I have. I was explaining tbtl and. And you know, he was like, oh, really? I'll have to tune in. And I was like, yeah, well, you're gonna hear it and you're gonna just kind of not understand why anyone listens to this. But. So that's kind of my general stance with the show. That being said, I'm with you. That, like, actually low key. You and I are both. I'm sorry, but professional broadcasters who have been doing this for like a long time and are thinking constantly, even in these moments, even as we're saying this is boring, we're thinking, how do we make it less boring? We're thinking, how do we. It's. It's like I. I sometimes will describe people. It's like. It's like a conversation with your friend, but turned up by, you know, by 15 clicks or something. Because if we were. If you and I were to actually talk on this show the way that you and I might just talk on the phone, like if I called you about something, if people heard that conversation, they would go, oh, wow, they are kind of turning it on for the show, you know.

[Andrew Walsh]

No. Yeah, I mean, we have to pretty nasty to each other off air, to be honest.

[Guest/Co-host]

It's. It's real. Martin and Lewis, I don't even know what that is. Oh, well, they famously hated each other.

[Andrew Walsh]

They didn't get along. It took me a second to remember who Martin and Lewis were. They didn't get along. I did not know that.

[Guest/Co-host]

There was a long period of, of, I think, estrangement between them, which I. And then I think there was a period of time where they, like, they didn't talk, but they would perform together. So they would just like go on stage and do the show and then leave or something. I think it was. It was tense there for a while. But the point is what this sounds like. When people hear this show, you and I, it sounds like we're just talking and that is what's happening. But there is actually some oomph behind it, because if you heard us actually just talking about, you'd be like, even the hardcorest of TBT listeners would be like, okay, this one's a clunker. I gotta move on. Like, the only way for this to work is for it to be performative to a degree and for it to be us thinking, yeah, people are hearing this. This is a performance. And, and, and so it might sound like we're just turning on the line and just, just BSing, but there is a little bit that goes into it. And when you hear someone else doing it where they Literally are just talking. You kind of notice the difference.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah. And I. I want to give this more of a shot, and maybe they're just getting. And they'll ease into something that. That is more accessible. And again, they often have, like, famous comedians on as guests and stuff. And I'm not even somebody who tunes in for. I'm not somebody who, like, kind of hunts for celebrity episodes of podcasts. I actually, that's what's interesting here is usually, let's say, most of the programming, I listen to a sports programming. I don't want the interviews. Usually my favorite parts of any kind of show that has multiple hosts is those hosts talking to each other, you know, or if there is an interview, my favorite part is when the interviewee leaves and they start talking about, how did that go? You know, like, that's more my vibe anyway, so it's not like I'm waiting for stars to come back to Office Hours Live, but I don't want to, like, totally dismiss it after giving it one shot. And it might have been one of those shows where, again, there are a lot of weird factors involved with a delay in him not being there and everything, but it's just that you and I have had many conversations off air where we both end up by saying, yeah, we really got to give that show a shot, because we'd only been seeing clips of it. And it's the first one that I, like, really started from the beginning, and I'll say I made it 10, 15 minutes in, and then I was kind of like, you know what? I. It's just not. It's just not entertaining me right now, so.

[Guest/Co-host]

Well, the problem, too, is the larger. I think there's a kind of content that you and I like that I think is going away, whether it's a talk radio show, whether it's. I mean, you still. I think you still dip in and out of Le Batard, or maybe you listen a lot. I. I listen to Stern, although I'm. Somehow. This is the first time they went on summer break. They went summer break for, like, three months or something. I still have, like, 15 episodes I've got to get through. So I'm actually in okay shape with that show for a while somehow. I don't know what's going on with my lifestyle, but it just hasn't lent itself to me listening to as much of that show as I used to. But all that is to say, I feel like you and I are also just kind of, like, subconsciously on the hunt for a new show to latch onto or to fill, you know, to fill our time with. Because there used to just be a lot of shows out there that were the kinds of shows that we liked. And this Office Hours Live has a lot of promise to it. Because it does. They take phone calls.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah.

[Guest/Co-host]

And it's live. That's a rare thing in this, in this day and age.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah.

[Guest/Co-host]

You know what I mean? So I feel like you and I are, are like the, the kind of content that we tend to gravitate towards is just. There's just less and less of it. I had a conversation when I was taking my hour plus long Lyft ride, or I guess it was an Uber ride from Topeka, Kansas to Manhattan, Kansas. I got in the car and I was like. It was one of those things where I was like, this is going to be a really long ride. And I kind of am tempted to not engage a whole bunch at the beginning because if I engage too much and then we get in a conversation, like, I don't know if I want to have an hour and 20 minute conversation where I'm potentially managing it because that's just like a habit that I have where, where it's like whether I'm talking to the Lyft driver or Bridget Everett, who I'm on my way to talk to, honestly, the effort that I'm putting out to make the conversation happen is about equal. And I'm like, one of these things is my job and the other is me getting a ride to my job. But that being said, the guy was actually really outgoing and we ended up chatting and he was totally nice guy and it was a fun chat, but we spent the whole time talking about coast to coast with Art Bell because he used to love that show. And we were just like. And we were just like name dropping and talking about Richard C. Hoagland and Linda Moulton Howe and remote viewing and just all the stuff. And, and, and then we were kind of lamenting how there's just not as much of that. I mean, not that I'm that and not that I want there to be more conspiracy alien talk radio shows, but this. I don't just felt like there was a time where you could turn on your radio and there was just myriad talk shows and some of them were okay, some of them were lousy, but there was just like a lot more of the kind of spoken word content that I just like appreciate and like and enjoy. And I don't think they make much of it anymore.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah, the more I think about everything, I just Blathered on about I'm not done giving this show a shot. And my actual hope is. Cause you're right, it's got all the elements and also it is live. There is that live thing that kind of. When I was first listening to it, I was thinking about you because you and I had talked about somebody at some point has to sit down and watch this thing or listen to this thing from the beginning, not just see clips on YouTube to get a sense of it. And that's usually what I like. I don't like any. I don't like clip shows. You know, like when I used to listen to the Kevin and Bean show, I like to try to catch on the radio so that I heard all the music and everything. I wanted to hear all the context around it, not just like the best bits or whatever. So this show has so many things going for it that I like and it's got that like live Mulaney thing sort of. I was like, you know, that's what I. That's why I started saying I was thinking of you because of the obsession with the live Mulaney show. And you and I like both cringing at, but loving and embracing the awkwardness of it because it was live and because there wasn't a so called net there. And so that's another thing I should remember for this. Maybe there's every couple of shows I might clip something out. The other day, just so you know, I clipped out part of our cake talk. I can tell you more about it later. Not a big deal, but a story I told about a cake that Genevieve made, I was like, yeah, I don't want that in there. And I cut it out. And I had the ability to do that because we weren't live. So I don't know, I feel like maybe what I hope is a year from now I look back on this conversation and I'm embarrassed about it because I'm a total hide head. I don't know what they call listeners of that show. That I am totally into the culture and I get it now and I'm speaking the language. I love it. But this one wasn't the one to get me there.

[Guest/Co-host]

Well, I want you to get into the show because then you can report back on if he's doing a bid or not.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah.

[Guest/Co-host]

But that's going to take like watching many, many episodes.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yes.

[Guest/Co-host]

And to really figure it out. And I think you're just the person for that job. So I appreciate. Thank you for your service. You may now board the airplane.

[Andrew Walsh]

Hello. And welcome to Top Story.

[Guest/Co-host]

This is actually a story you sent me a while ago, Andrew, but I've been thinking about it a lot. It's pretty interesting. It's basically the announcement by AMC that they are going to start showing more commercials, like just regular straight up advertising before the trailers for their, for, you know, before they, they show a film in the amc. And it turns out the other biggies have been doing this for a while apparently. Like this has been the case with Regal and I don't know who's, who's the other one? Anyway, those are the two.

[Andrew Walsh]

I know. That's the one thing that I find sort of confusing about this is I thought that, I thought that they all did this anyway. I mean I go to a fair number of movies and I, and I don't hate it, I never complain about it, but I always sit down and watch like the new V or whatever. And it's got all these ads and.

[Guest/Co-host]

All these other things with Maria Menounos.

[Andrew Walsh]

That one has Maria Menounos. We did this whole conversation already but like we used to call it the. What do we God Vee's and I would try to catch the seven. I think they called it the seven or something like that before the new V. But anyway, so this didn't seem new to me. I guess they're just adding more ads or, or one of these theater chains didn't have as many ads as the other. Is that what they're saying?

[Guest/Co-host]

Yeah, AMC apparently didn't. This is Michael Buckner writing in variety. AMC's decision to increase the number of ads before screenings epitomizes the concept of short term gain in exchange for long term pain. This is I think kind of an op ed piece because you know, Variety is an industry mag and I think that the. In the industry of making movies is upset about this. It provides the cinema giant with much needed revenue at a time when the exhibitor is strapped for cash and laboring under nearly $4 billion in debt. And it comes as Hollywood is still struggling to consistently produce movies that people want to see. So I guess, yeah, they're going to just start showing. I think it's going to be significantly more ads before the trailers. And then the reason that the studios are mad about this is because, and this is the part that I didn't know until I read this article article. I did not realize how big of a deal movie trailers are for getting people to go see that movie. It appears to be pretty much the number one sort of advertising vehicle. And there was a Stat somewhere in this article that I don't, I can't find right in front of me. But like that essentially like a huge percentage of people, when they go see a movie, it's because they saw a trailer for that movie at a different time when they're watching a different movie. And the studios are super pissed because they're like, look, if. If the movie's supposed to start at 1pm and people start to learn that starting at 1pm is a bunch of commercials, like advertisement, not even trailers, just straight up ads that like, why would I come sit in a movie theater to watch a Silverado ad? Or whatever. People are just gonna like start coming to the movies later and later and then they're gonna miss the trailers. And we desperately need them to see the trailers because. Because it's how we get them to go to those movies. And so this is a huge problem for our business is what they're saying.

[Andrew Walsh]

That is the part that I find the most interesting. And by the way, I think you found a better article about this. I think when I stumbled on this the other day, it was some write up that I remember sharing it with you and it was like you had to crawl through some really terrible writing to even get to the point of it. Maybe it was on Office Hours Live, I can't remember. But no, but this is really interesting. I did not know that thing about a trailer being the biggest motivator to get people to the theater. At first I was gonna balk at that. Balk is that I was gonna, I was gonna. How could that possibly be? But I guess it is true because you're talking to somebody, you're talking to an audience that is already predisposed to go to the theater. Right. Cause they're in the theater. And so, you know, this is somebody who does leave their home. Television theater, you know what I mean? Or whatever. You are talking to a group that is ready to leave their home and go into a theater. And so. Yes, shouldn't you see this new Indiana Jones reboot? That's really fascinating. But the thing that was in the article I read too that you just mentioned, which is this idea that it's gonna retrain audiences to show up at a different time. I've been seeing that and didn't realize what I was seeing. Like for me, going to the movies, which I like to do. And it's not like some rare event. It still is. Like I still have a bit of childish kind of thrill of going to the movies. Yeah. Wonder is maybe a step too Far. But, like, I still am in the mindset that I've been in my whole life, which is, this is fun. I'm going to the movies. I'm gonna get there early. I'm gonna see all the trailers. I'm gonna have a huge thing of popcorn on my lap, and it's gonna be half gone at the very least before the movie even begins. Like, yes, people have been complaining about commercials before. Movies that never really bothered me that much. I just always get there and I chomp on my popcorn and I watch the whole thing and. And people aren't like me. I'm learning that more and more in life. And one thing I've been noticing, especially with, like, pre, I think it's also. I'm just realizing this now. It might be that combined with choosing your seats in advance, you might back up.

[Guest/Co-host]

That's also in the article.

[Andrew Walsh]

Really. You probably would have had to get to the theater, and you wanted to get there early, so you wanted to pick your seat. But now one thing I've been noticing is I'm there at the movie theater. I'm watching New Me. I'm watching Maria. I'm eating my popcorn.

[Guest/Co-host]

Nobody's heartbreak is feeling good.

[Andrew Walsh]

Heartbreak is feeling great. And I'm like, how am I the only person in the theater right now? And then at the last minute, sometimes, while the movie has already started, the theater is filling up around me. This happened with that movie Friendship, which I went to see myself because it was like, it started off being an empty theater, then a few people trickled in, and they all sat around me, and I was like, oh, that's interesting. But anyway. Sort of. But anyway. So, yeah, I guess we are already seeing audiences adapt to this, and it's kind of of that affects me more than watching the Silverado ad.

[Guest/Co-host]

Yeah. And you're also on the record as not liking. I mean, I guess there's a difference between being able to reserve your seat and the. The sort of, like, restaurant defication and living room ification of the theater, which I know you are very, very much against.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah, I don't like choosing your seat in advance. I like walking.

[Guest/Co-host]

You don't even like choosing your seat.

[Andrew Walsh]

I like walking in, taking a lay of the land, seeing who's around there. Do you want to sit there? Do you want to sit there? Because when you have to choose your seat in advance, there are rules. Like, you can't. You can't leave one seat between you because, like, the computer's like, well, then we can't sell that One seat in between these two people. Like, it just seems way too corporate. Control over my decision making.

[Guest/Co-host]

You're such a purist. I would think that you would. Because sometimes you're not a fan of kind of chaotic situations or unknown situations or situations where politeness.

[Andrew Walsh]

Sure.

[Guest/Co-host]

Kind of. You know what I mean? Like you're walking towards the seat and someone else is walking towards it.

[Andrew Walsh]

Or.

[Guest/Co-host]

Or you're. Am I going to sit right in? I feel bad when I get in the theater and I sit right in front of someone else. This actually happened when we went. Rebecca and I went to see Friendship also the last movie I saw in a theater. I think. No, I guess 28 years later. But I feel bad because you walk in and like, you know, obviously like what I'm looking for is what everyone's looking for. Which is middle of the row of seats. Not so like. So in the actual middle of the row because you're centered with the screen. But the. But then not so close to the screen. That is too close. But not in the back of the theater. There is a recognizable sweet spot of kind of middle, middle. And of course there was a couple people there before us and they're sitting in what their version of middle middle is. So now I'm going to have to go. My best thing I can do now is to go right in front of them, one row closer to the screen, which is still fine. And then in front of them because they have their middle middle. Now I'm middle, middle plus one. And it's like I sit down. But what I always try to do is because there's a million empty seats in the theater and now I'm gonna go sit right in front of them like a jerk. But it's like I also want to have the best view. So then I slouch way down. I try to. I try to like signal to them that I'm gonna really slouch it out this movie so they, they needn't fear that this robust, virile, 6 foot 1 inch man is gonna be like lurking in front of them. Can you lurk in front of someone? I feel like lurking is inherently done from the rear.

[Andrew Walsh]

That's a really good point. I was lurking in front of him. I don't know, I feel like you.

[Guest/Co-host]

I don't think that's lurking anymore. But anyway.

[Andrew Walsh]

But you know, you're right though. It's like I wouldn't want that on an airplane. Right? Like, I don't want to fly southwest. I don't want to like go on an airplane and take a lay of the land and choose my seat. That sounds awful. So I don't know why. I mean, you know, the choosing the seat thing. I don't want to over index on my irritants with or irritation with that. I would prefer just to go in, but that's. That's the least. I hate the big, cushy chairs that are just filled with other people's farts and everybody just, like, looking like they're in there. They all look like Wall E. Remember in Wall E, everybody's just like, on.

[Guest/Co-host]

Like, like on a bark. A lounger bark on a lazy boy.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah, that's. Save it for home.

[Guest/Co-host]

By the way, the third cinema chain is Cinemark.

[Andrew Walsh]

Oh, okay. Yeah, I've heard of. Of course. And Cinemark. Weren't they kind of on the. Kind of on the cutting edge of the. The ones that bring you, like, serve beer or bring you food? Or am I.

[Guest/Co-host]

Maybe I don't. I. If I've been to a Cinemark. But this is just in the article. They're saying basically that. That Regal and Cinemark were already doing this. They were already playing more and more commercials before, and that this is. Like I said, this is AMC just finally getting on a board with it.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah.

[Guest/Co-host]

I mean, I don't know. I feel like the movie industry and the mall industry are two industries that I can't seem to wrap my head around. Are they dying? Are they doing okay? Because I think we always hear about the demise of the American mall and you. And yet there's still tons of malls around. And when I go to them, like, Becca and I go out to the. The one that's like Washington Square Mall out in the kind of greater Portland area. It's frigging packed with people, you know? Don't you feel like you were hearing articles about how the mall was just, like, officially dead and no one's going to the mall anymore? And then it's like, I don't know, it's full of stores that are selling stuff and there's tons of people there.

[Andrew Walsh]

I find that interesting. I have not experienced that. Like, I have definitely seen, like, theaters. I think we've seen. We've heard the demise of theaters. That. That's been coming for a long time. But then two summers ago, you just had everybody out to watch the Barbie movie and.

[Guest/Co-host]

Oppenheimer.

[Andrew Walsh]

You know, I mean, what a. What a summer. I mean, what. I can't remember a summer of movies like that since, like, Jurassic park or Batman or something. You know what I Mean, so I don't know. Malls I just haven't seen. And it might just be this, you know, I guess if I were to head over to the east side and I'd go to like, Bellevue Square Mall. Yeah, that would be. That would be. And that's kind of more what I used to think of as more kind of a fancy mall, an upscale mall. Maybe that's not true, though. I don't know.

[Guest/Co-host]

Well, or like you've got University Village not too far from you.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah, that's true. That's.

[Guest/Co-host]

That's super fancy to me.

[Andrew Walsh]

But like, I guess.

[Guest/Co-host]

I feel like.

[Andrew Walsh]

I guess that's a mall.

[Guest/Co-host]

Well, that's a good question. It's a. It's because it's so broken up and it doesn't have big hallways. Like, it's. It's not like the. The Northgate Mall of my childhood, which was the rumor was. It was the first mall in America. That was always the rumor about Northgate Mall because basically the, the. The weather in Seattle made it such that they need. They wanted to have this big kind of shared covered indoor walk space. I don't know if that was ever verified or not.

[Andrew Walsh]

We tried to look that up on the show and we got some clarification. I think what it was, this is. I'm shooting from the hip here. I'm not looking it up, but I remember we had this conversation, we looked at it up, and I think what we learned was it wasn't technically the first mall, but it was the first enclosed mall because of the reasons that you're talking about. And that actually gets to what I wanted to say about University Village. Like, I don't think of that as a mall because I don't think of the Grove in LA as a mall. But maybe I'm wrong. I mean, because you're not in one building with a bunch of stores. You're in an area where a whole bunch of stores. Like my parents have that right, practically across the street from where they live. And they absolutely love it. And it's like Crocker park and it's got a movie theater and it's got million stores and a Gap and a this and it's all outdoors and there's a fountain. But that, to me, isn't what I think of when I think of as a mall where you walk into a building and there are a whole bunch of stores connected and potentially a food court or something like that.

[Guest/Co-host]

Well, that's the funny part is that it seems like the original idea of the mall was to make it so that, you know, it was covered and enclosed and you could walk to all these different stores, different kinds of stores, and you never had to get rained on or snowed on or sunburned or whatever. And now the. That's like, the trend is totally away from that. The trend is to build a series of different, like, California pizza kitchens that are near an Apple store, that are near enough, but it's all kind of beige and you have to walk outside between the things.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah.

[Guest/Co-host]

Like, it's strange that that's the trend because it seems to be anathema to the entire concept of what a mall was supposed to be.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah. But it is nice again, when you think about the Grove, especially because the weather in LA is. You don't have to deal with weather. So you can go to the Grove. And it does seem like an upscale experience. I told you that some of the best bathroom usage I ever had was at, like. I don't even know if it was technically the Grove or like, this hotel that was off of the Grove. And it was like, you would go in there. There wasn't. There was not an attendant.

[Guest/Co-host]

I'm surprised that this happened multiple times.

[Andrew Walsh]

For you at the. I think because once I clocked it being there, I went back to it. It was so nice. They had, like. Each stall was like a tiny little mini apartment, like, with a door that went floor to ceiling. It was like, I lived in there for a couple of weeks, and then they eventually told me I had to leave.

[Guest/Co-host]

You know, the places that have, believe it or not, really good bathrooms are the casinos in Vegas. At least the kind of nicer casinos. I believe that they also have that, like, single stall, but the door goes all the way down to the floor. So you are, like, completely private.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah, yeah.

[Guest/Co-host]

And like, I mean, and they're just like. I remember my. In my youth being in Vegas. And, you know, it'd be like just eating all manner of just horrific food and drink and then just being, like, I'm sure already drunk by 11 in the morning, and then just feeling the call of nature and then just being sitting in some, like, really nice cleaned, very private stall and just thinking, this is the life.

[Andrew Walsh]

This.

[Guest/Co-host]

I also. Did you go. So do you have the Grove? But then did you also go over to the Farmer's Market? Because the Fairfax Farmers Market, those are kind of connected. I think the Farmer's Market is really where it's at. They used to have this little.

[Andrew Walsh]

I don't think. Are they connected, Luke? For sure. I mean, you know, LA better than me.

[Guest/Co-host]

I don't know.

[Andrew Walsh]

I don't.

[Guest/Co-host]

I think they're, are they close to each other?

[Andrew Walsh]

You know, I feel like we've had this conversation before and I was loud wrong about it, so I want to be very careful here. But the farmers market has more of a, definitely an old school feel to it because it's been there for so long and it is an open air market thing. Is it, is it pretty close to the grove?

[Guest/Co-host]

Yeah, it looks like it's, it looks like they're Both on West 3rd. I think they kind of are, are because I, I, I have memories of kind of going between the two, but that the farmers market used to have this. You know me, I'm not a huge beer guy, but for some reason I got into it for like a summer or two in la and I would go to that farmer's market with my ex and we would kind of do a little shopping. Then somehow we'd always end up sitting. This feels like very Andrew behavior. We'd be sitting at this like kind of beer counter that would have like the game on, on. And like you'd sit down to have like one beer and then next thing you know it'd be like, it'd be about four or five beers and you'd be like really invested in like some soccer match.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah. That you're talking with some guy care about. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Guest/Co-host]

Because the guy next to you is into it. And now you're chatting and it's just like a warm LA day and you're like four, four to five beers deep now. Just like sitting at this kind of counter in the farmer's market, like those are some of those moments where I was just like, this city is awesome.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yes.

[Guest/Co-host]

I love this place.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yes. Yeah, sorry. I was wrong about the. I forgot. And again, this is driving me bananas because I think we had the same conversation. I said that they weren't close together. Think Hollywoo. Mike wrote in to say. Yeah, yeah, they're, they're right. And I'm looking at a map now. This makes total sense.

[Guest/Co-host]

You know, what's behind them?

[Andrew Walsh]

Is it. Well, I was wondering.

[Guest/Co-host]

Television City, that was where c. That was where I. The first things I ever recorded for CBS was in Television City. And when I tell you, it was like my mind exploded. Like I went from, you know, not having any association with CBS to Mo Rocca kindly dropping my name with some of the bosses and there to them saying, okay, send in your little ideas for a commentary. I sent in five ideas. I think didn't hear back for months. Thought, well, that didn't go well. And then just get an email like, can you come to LA to record these tomorrow? And I was like, I'd never, like, been in a TV studio. I'd never read from a teleprompter. I had no idea how any of this worked, but I was pretending like I knew how to do it all because I didn't want them to take the opportunity away.

[Andrew Walsh]

And then I remember, stop watching video games. Go out and outside and touch grass.

[Guest/Co-host]

Exactly. Hey, I was ahead. I was ahead of that whole thing of dissing Twitch.

[Andrew Walsh]

Dissing Twitch Now.

[Guest/Co-host]

No, but I mean, people are all about grounding. I just mean the idea that, like, you know, maybe our lives have become overly digital, digital. But I just remember, like, they. The. The travel person goes like, is the Beverly Wilshire okay for you to stay in?

[Andrew Walsh]

And I'm like, okay. I was like, fine.

[Guest/Co-host]

Fanciest hotel, hotel. I. It's like, if that's all you can do. And I remember, like, staying in that hotel and then, like, a car coming and getting me and taking me to a place that's called Television City.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah, right. It sounds like something out of a verandah. Right. It's like, well, and then I get there. Television City for that.

[Guest/Co-host]

Yeah. And it's all. It's. This is that CBS headquarters is up in Burbank now, but this is where it used to be. And it's like. Like you're walking around and it's just like people are lined up to get into the prices. Right. With Drew Carey. And then you just sit, see various actors and people walking around, and there's posters of all the CBS shows. I was just, like, completely agog. I was like, this is the coolest thing I've ever been a part of in my life. And then I went in there to say that people should stop being on Twitch. And then everybody wished me and my whole family a swift death when I got on Kotaku.

[Andrew Walsh]

I remember those days of Kotaku, or however you say it, which is. I think that's the first time I've ever tried to say that out loud. My biggest regret of my time in la. I'm not somebody who goes around, like, regretting not doing certain things, like, oh, I wish I could have done this while I had the opportunity. But I do wish that I had sought out an opportunity to go to a taping of a. Of a game show. I do love game shows, and that'd be fun to head over to Burbank. I don't know where they do them now, but that. That would have been a fun thing.

[Guest/Co-host]

I think they do them on the Warner. Maybe the Warner Brothers lot. I don't know. But I think that could be arranged if you're ever down there.

[Andrew Walsh]

It's true. Yeah. No, it's.

[Guest/Co-host]

I can, I can, I can make a call and if it's a CBS project, I can probably try to get you.

[Andrew Walsh]

I can make a call to Ticket map. Oh. Suddenly feel guilty playing Tim Heidegger here.

[Guest/Co-host]

There's a right way to rock and.

[Luke Burbank]

A wrong way to roll?

[Andrew Walsh]

You can't just listen to your song. Just remember that life is number one.

[Luke Burbank]

You can be having so much fun?

[Andrew Walsh]

Just remember that there's life is much fun?

[Luke Burbank]

You can be nothing but one.

[Andrew Walsh]

Are you ready for a blurs day? Have you been.

[Guest/Co-host]

I am so ready. I was born ready.

[Andrew Walsh]

Have you been waiting all day for a blurs day night? I sure that's what's going on here.

[Guest/Co-host]

I was having thoughts. I don't know why. It's the middle of summer. The baseball season is about to ramp back up, by the the way. Big weekend plans, big Houston series. Nervous.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah. Does that starts tomorrow, right?

[Guest/Co-host]

I think it might. Does it start tonight?

[Andrew Walsh]

No. No. I don't know if I'm emotionally ready for that. Okay.

[Guest/Co-host]

I don't think I'll ever be emotionally ready, but I. But. So I don't know why in all of that my. A man's thoughts turned to football season. I was just like, oh, man, almost. They're almost time to report to minicamp and then it's going to be be preseason and it's going to be real season. I'm going to be here. I'm making vegetarian chili, watching football. Why can't I ever just live in the now for two despite all the tattoos, trying to remind me to be present. Why can't I ever just be in the now?

[Andrew Walsh]

That is interesting because you're somebody who is very, very focused on not fast forwarding summer. I feel like, because I was. I know I'm more like, because I really love. I think I love fall more than I love summer. And I, you know, I like summer. I'm having a great summer right. Right now. But I noticed that the blackberries are popping. That apple tree I told you about is still producing. These apples are getting beautiful and they haven't pulled them all down. So maybe I just. Maybe I was just wrong about the apple tree owners being protective of their apples because I've been eating a lot of neighborhood apples. Anyway, I always associate those things with a little bit more like the end of the summer and I'm like, it's only July. Should these things be blooming already? But I kind of, that doesn't bother me because I like the fall. But you are usually one to say don't even, don't even talk about the fall in July.

[Guest/Co-host]

Well, I do.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah.

[Guest/Co-host]

I love me the summer. And, and that's what I'm saying. I don't understand why, why I'm somehow speeding through it in my mind. Like I should just be, I should be soaking up every second of this. Because what I can tell you is that when it's, you know, like next November or something, I'm going to be like just clinically depressed. And like when it's getting, when it's getting dark at 4:30, I'm going to be like, oh, I should have enjoyed the summer more. So like I feel like I'm betraying myself by my brain getting excited about football season.

[Andrew Walsh]

Well, anyway, let your brain be your brain. By the way, if anybody would like to wish anybody else or themselves a happy birthday, email me andrewbtail.net put birthday or Blurs day in the subject line and write a little message. Natalie says happy Blurs day. Shout out to my amazing sister Emma in Minneapolis.

[Guest/Co-host]

Oh, we're going to Minneapolis on Sunday.

[Andrew Walsh]

Before we go to Friendship Wisconsin into. She's smart, creative, an amazing mom and most importantly, she's a proud 10. Thanks to me. Introducing her to TBTL is one of my greatest accomplishments. Has become a shared language. A mix of drops, hot takes and inside jokes that always help us feel a little bit more connected.

[Guest/Co-host]

That's really sweet.

[Andrew Walsh]

Thank you for that. And happy blursday to Emma. You get an Emma. You get an Emma.

[Guest/Co-host]

Daytime Emma award winning podcaster Luke Burbank.

[Andrew Walsh]

Howard says happy Blurs day to Julie and Lake Stevens, the archest of arch nemeses and cheeriest of cheerleaders. When it comes to the New York Times crossword and the dreaded Connections game Little side, a lot of people are wondering, did I get purple first yesterday? Yes, I did. Of course.

[Guest/Co-host]

Also, wait a sec. That's in Connections.

[Andrew Walsh]

That's in Connections. You have to group those.

[Guest/Co-host]

Is purple the hardest?

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah, purple's the hardest. So it's a little spring in your step if you get purple first.

[Guest/Co-host]

I see.

[Andrew Walsh]

I think it was something because I'm on to their tricks now. I've been secretly playing. You know, I boycotted Connections for a long time and so now I secretly play. But I don't share my results with anybody except in the middle of the blurs day segment.

[Guest/Co-host]

But you still do. You buried it here in the blurs day section. We're no will find it. Yeah, but you do. You still do wordle, right?

[Andrew Walsh]

What's your streak? I do wordle every day. But the streak got busted by not korror. Korror was last atrocity. What was the one that it broke? Many of us upon the shores Many of us crashed upon the shores of whatever word that was. But right now it says my streak is. Oh, I solved it in three today, so that's pretty good. And I can't tell you what it was, but it says my streak is 60amere 60 days in a row. So I need to get to 180 so I need to get to 182 to break my streak. So not even halfway there. What were we talking about? We were talking about Julie and Lake Stevens.

[Guest/Co-host]

Yeah, we were.

[Andrew Walsh]

I don't know if Julie got purple first yesterday, but probably. Howard says Julie also a phenomenal and patient resume coach. All made possible because of a TBTL 10s meetup. Hey, love that we helped with this friendship. Power out, friendo. Happy blursday, Julie from Howard and us. Sarah says wishing of. Oh, this is our pal Sarah, the realtor here in Seattle wishing a very happy 8th birthday to my first five. Ryan, you're the best adventure buddy and big brother to Arlo. Wow, your dad and I are so proud to be your parents. Parents. Oh, and chicken jockey. Oh sure, I could have you have that there.

[Guest/Co-host]

Chicken jockey.

[Andrew Walsh]

Wow. I actually put. I actually put too much English on that.

[Guest/Co-host]

I was dming with our friend Sarah yesterday because she. I tell you what, I should be getting a commission on these for friggin stupid meta glasses because my buddy Evan is like buying them now. Sarah bought them apparently, and she's loving them. Except one of her kids, maybe it's Arlo, the little one was like completely commandeered the glasses and was manhandling them in a way that looked very dangerous, like they could get broken.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah, not dangerous for the child. Dangerous for the.

[Guest/Co-host]

No, no, no, no. The child will be fine.

[Andrew Walsh]

Kids heal. Happy blur, Chris says. Another happy blursday to my Oregon state alum and Oregon coast loving dad, Ken. Happy blursday, Ken. Love Chris and Kathy. Isaac says hi there. I hope it's not too late. This one just came in this morning. Hi there. I hope it's not too late to get in a blursday shout out for my Amazing wife, Trisha.

[Guest/Co-host]

Aw.

[Andrew Walsh]

Happy blursday, Trisha. She's a longtime listener and donor and huge fan of her birthday. Oh, no, no, no. I'm sorry, she's not a huge fan of her birthday. That's really funny. She's a longtime listener and donor and a huge fan and her birthday is on Sunday. Her family just wants to let her know that we love her and appreciate how hard she works to keep this clown car on the road.

[Guest/Co-host]

Cute. That's, I think, one of the highest. That's one of the greatest demonstrations of love. I mean, it says in the Bible, of course, greater love hath no man than he lay down his life for his friend. This is right underneath that, which is greater love hath no partner than to email into some weird ass podcast that you know they like.

[Andrew Walsh]

Exactly. What verse is that tell us to.

[Guest/Co-host]

Say happy birthday to them.

[Andrew Walsh]

What verse is that so I can write it on my baseball cap.

[Guest/Co-host]

It is enclaved.

[Andrew Walsh]

I was wrong about his era. He's not having as bad of a season as I said yesterday. A couple of people let me know.

[Guest/Co-host]

That you just want him to be having a bad.

[Andrew Walsh]

I do think that it's because I get. So mostly what I read about him is from people who hate him. So I think that a lot of people were angry that he made it to the. Made it to the All Star Game. But I do not apologize for his. For calling out his bigotry.

[Guest/Co-host]

Well, you know what's crazy? Well, actually, that's not that crazy. I was googling him and then I'm seeing a picture of him at some sort of a charity event. He looks much younger. I think he might be there with, like, his wife. And then he's with the actor Eric Stonestreet, who was on Modern Family and who himself is not, as I understand it, a gay man, but he plays a gay man on the show. And I would put him in the company of people who think that we should all have equal rights and, you know.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah.

[Guest/Co-host]

Et cetera, et cetera. So it's like, weird to see Clayton Kershaw and a guy who I associate with sort of, you know, a gay character and an equal rights thing, standing on the same red carpet, smiling broadly together because it's like, who. Who would have known that he would be writing some bullshit on his hat? Because heaven forbid he's wearing a pride hat from MLB years later.

[Andrew Walsh]

Well, that's why the thing. And I got some emails from folks saying, like, you know, have grace towards this guy or whatever. I'm like, yeah, like, there's not a lot of grace to coming from that side towards others. Now, I will say that Clayton Kershaw, there are no, as far as I know, no, like, damning evidence of, like, him saying literally hateful things. But, like, I don't know, there was some queer night where there was some, like, group of, like. I can't remember what they were called, like, the queer nuns or something, I have that wrong. And he was, like, really offended by that because he's a man of the cloth. He's a man of religion. He's not a man of the cloth. He's a man of the glove. But anyway, so he, like, really pushed to have either his team or the.

[Guest/Co-host]

Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence or whatever.

[Andrew Walsh]

Whatever.

[Guest/Co-host]

That's that kind of, like, particular group that's been around forever in the San Francisco area.

[Andrew Walsh]

Oh, see, I didn't even know about that. But I know that, like, when they had some night where they attended. So then he pushed the team or the league to have, like, Family and Prayer night earlier in the calendar because of that. And again, so all of his stuff tends to be, like, kind of religion based. But when you're religion, which is, like, really something that is a very personal thing. If you're. If you believe in something that I can't put eyes on, if your religion is, oh, I can't allow the rainbow to be anything but a covenant of God. Like, because I know if a little kid is in a kindergarten class, right? I haven't been thinking about this, Luke. If a little kid is in a kindergarten class and they draw a picture of their family with a rainbow over the family, and it has nothing to do with religion at all. It's just because rainbows are fun to draw. I don't think Kershaw's taking out a Sharpie and writing the Bible quote unquote there. It's clearly because he doesn't want gay people to live their life freely. Like, there's just no getting around that. That's why you write that verse on there.

[Guest/Co-host]

And if it's because of verse Genesis 9, 12, 16, which is basically talking about the rainbow that God showed Noah the covenant.

[Andrew Walsh]

Exactly. And that's what I'm saying. It's like you can say, no, I just believe that the rainbow should only be used in biblical context. I'm like, yeah, but are you writing that on the car wash across the street that happens to have a rainbow archway that the cars go through? No, it's because it's directly linked to this thing that you don't like.

[Guest/Co-host]

Anyway, Happy birthday, Clayton Kershaw.

[Andrew Walsh]

It's been like I had my little. It's funny, I said like two sentences yesterday and then it's been living in my head for 24 hours, obviously. Then suddenly in the middle of the blurs days, we just get this like, blister of Kershaw talk.

[Guest/Co-host]

I'm sorry, that was me. I brought that up.

[Andrew Walsh]

No, it's clearly though, it's. I've been shadow boxing. Kelly. This is the final. This is the final blurs a message. And I love this one because this is from our friend Kelly saying happy blursday to my dad, Rusty. Our dad is kind and accepting of everyone.

[Guest/Co-host]

Oh, see, it was kind of an answer.

[Andrew Walsh]

Rusty knows the way. Our dad is kind and accepting of everyone and truly badass lifting weights. Wow. The music went away. Luke. I guess that.

[Guest/Co-host]

I think Tim Heidecker heard what you were saying about.

[Andrew Walsh]

I know.

[Guest/Co-host]

Of all the days.

[Andrew Walsh]

I know. I told you I might leave tomorrow.

[Guest/Co-host]

Off with Ridged.

[Andrew Walsh]

I love Tim Heidecker. I'm gonna love that show. That's my new. That's my new goal is to love.

[Guest/Co-host]

Oh, by the way, you were absolutely right, Andrew.

[Andrew Walsh]

The.

[Guest/Co-host]

The first game of the Houston series is tomorrow night.

[Andrew Walsh]

Okay. Yeah, I had a feeling. Okay. Yeah. We are going to do this without the music. Underneath, a very special blurs. A happy birthday to my dad. Rusty says Kelly. Our dad is kind and accepting of everyone and truly bad. Badass lifting weights daily and carrying my stuff for me. Still, at the age of 75, our dad has had a big impact on a lot of people through his work. And I was always happy to share him with my degenerate friends throughout the years. He's the best to his cat Emmett, and constant companion to our mom ranting Mary. Can we get that to stick? She will hate it. This, of course, is our pal Mary, who writes into the rants and raving.

[Guest/Co-host]

Into the ranting and raving.

[Andrew Walsh]

Now listen, Luke, I have had a little story about before. First of all, happy blurs day to Rusty for sure. I don't want to steal the spotlight away from Rusty, but I do want to tell you about Mary. So Mary has been voluntary, has been voluntari. When somebody named Mary volunteers. It's called voluntarying. She's been volunteering at the pop up that I do on Sundays and we've had chances just to really hang out. I'm a huge fan of Mary and have been ever since I realized that she writes into the Seattle Times rant and Rave column so much and often gets published. Something that I've not been able to to do. Here's where I think you might be interested. About two weeks ago, I realized, man, I haven't read a rant or a rave in a while. We were really checking it out every day there. So I open up my phone, I think it was like a Thursday. I open up my phone and I just start checking out some of the rants and raves that have been published recently. And I read one and it says something like the headline for the whole column is reader wants you to stop calling your pets fur babies. Or something along the lines of that. And it was a very short. And it just said like, if your baby has fur, your baby has a problem, call your pets your pets. Or something like that. It was actually less judgmental. I thought it was really interesting that the ranter did not call out people. It only called out the behavior. You know what I mean? It was written in a very deft way, I thought, where you're not being insulting or saying you shouldn't do this. It was just kind of like a rant towards the term fur baby. And I read that and I said, that's Mary. That's Mary. That's gotta be Mary. And I opened up my email app on my phone, Luke, and I started to write to Mary to say, was this you? I think this was you. And then I closed it. I literally deleted it and said, you know what, I'll probably see Mary on Sunday. I'll just ask her. Then about two hours later, I get an email from Mary, did you see my rant? It was published. Did you see my rant? She's like, boy, the readers don't like this one. Apparently I didn't get to see the backlash, but apparently the comment section was on fire with people saying, do you don't call my fur babies my fur babies if you want.

[Guest/Co-host]

We've learned that the hard way. Do not get between people and their love for their pets.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yes, but what I love is. And again, happy birthday to Rusty. But I also got to give a put up to Mary to write with such a distinct voice that I can now read in an anonymous. Now let's face it, not a lot of people are probably getting published in that. So maybe there's always a 25% chance it's Mary anyway. But I was able to recognize the voice immediately with hardly any doubt that that was Mary's rant.

[Guest/Co-host]

Does this sound like Mary from yesterday's rant and rave rant to the man who shoplifted a 15 croquet set from my yard sale which was a fundraiser for a non profit community chorus. Rave to all the generous people who bought stuff and donated.

[Andrew Walsh]

Oh, that does not sound like Mary because Mary would have told me if she had a yard sale.

[Guest/Co-host]

Does this sound like her? Rant2scammers. I am so tired of receiving emails and text messages from strangers. Parenthetically, scammers telling me how they can help improve my website. I don't have a website.

[Andrew Walsh]

I get at least 10 emails a day from people who want to tell me how I can like boost my podcast.

[Guest/Co-host]

I block the senders, but others keep sending the same message. I really want to respond to them, but I know better.

[Andrew Walsh]

Argh.

[Guest/Co-host]

You know the one that I'm getting right now? Constantly it's a scam call that is something about a loan that they're trying to. They're always like, you know, we just got all the approval. We just need you to sign to get your. Like they try to act like I've been like trying to take out a loan somewhere, which I haven't. Okay, But I don't know how I got on their list, but they are just bombarding me with calls every day and it's, you know, I can see it coming as spam and so I delete it or I, I decline the call but then it goes to voicemail and then at some point, person trying to tell me about this, about the paperwork on this loan and then I reported as spam. Let's see. Here we go. This is one of them. Let's see if this will play to.

[Luke Burbank]

Speak with me or someone from underwriting directly. Your file is nearly complete. We just need to confirm a couple quick details. If you've already secured funding elsewhere, that's totally fine. Just let us know. If not. This approval is set to expire in the next few days, but you're more than welcome to reapply any time. Time again to move forward. Press 2 to connect with underwriting now.

[Guest/Co-host]

Do you think that's AI?

[Andrew Walsh]

Oh, that's interesting. Why? Yeah, I guess. Why wouldn't you use AI?

[Guest/Co-host]

Sounds pretty good. If it's AI, it's pretty convincing. It sounded pretty human to me.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah, it does sound human. I will agree. It's actually not a bad read either. By the way, here's the rant in question. Rant to the phrase fur babies. If your baby has fur, seek medical help. If your pet has fur, all is well. Try not to mix them them up. I gotta say I was expecting people to really come after in the comments, but these are mostly some people are just kind of like I like my fur babies more than my real babies.

[Guest/Co-host]

Hahaha.

[Andrew Walsh]

But pretty.

[Guest/Co-host]

It's fairly tame.

[Andrew Walsh]

It's relatively tame. Yeah. I think also I'm sure the times probably has pretty strong moderation. But anyway, happy Blurs day everybody.

[Guest/Co-host]

Happy Blurs day everybody. That is going to do it for today's episode. Tomorrow will be our final show before for the TBT and in fact tomorrow we're going to be making some cool announcements about yes, the Thon, the theme, the thank you gifts. I was looking at some mock ups yesterday. I was looking at some stuff that has not gone live yet, Andrew, that you were putting together. And I was being. I was filled with delight at the stuff that. I mean this thon has been quite a production, honestly putting it together between the Friendship Wisconsin thing, the billboard and then the thank you gifts are are. You know, there's a pretty some pretty involved elements to it. So I am really psyched about this actually.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah, me too. In fact, I sort of vague blue skied yesterday on our on our TBTL account. I just said, I said, I know it's still only Wednesday, but we're very excited about Friday's show. So let me reiterate that now if you've listened, if you've listened to this far into Thursday's show past the Blurs days and the Kerr's Day days, which is what I call it when I take a little break in the middle of the Blurs days to rant about Clayton Kershaw, then you're probably going to tune in tomorrow anyway. But tomorrow's going to be a really special show. We're going to have John on the show and he's going to walk through this year's thank you gifts, which all surround a theme, a very exciting theme. And yeah, tomorrow's going to be a really big show to launch us right into the Thon on Monday.

[Guest/Co-host]

Absolutely. So please do join us us for that. In the meantime, have a great Thursday everybody. Take care of yourselves and please remember, no mountain too tall.

[Andrew Walsh]

And good luck to all.

[Guest/Co-host]

No etiquette in the workplace is changing at an alarming rate. But don't worry, I'm here to make sure you know the correct business hug for the right occasion. Let's begin now.

[Andrew Walsh]

Power out.