#4568 Kicking And Streaming

Summary

TBTL #4568: "Kicking And Streaming"

Hosts: Luke Burbank & Andrew Walsh
Date: October 3, 2025

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Episode Overview

This Friday episode finds Luke and Andrew in classic TBTL form—riffing on everything from home repair gripes and Yelp reviews, to movie soundtracks and the labyrinthine lives of modern sports fans. With a Mariners playoff series looming, Andrew faces a streaming crisis, while Luke recounts his own recent drama with HVAC repairmen. Interwoven throughout are the hosts’ signature blend of nostalgia, self-deprecation, and good-natured griping, with regular musical and pop culture digressions. The pair also weigh in on the controversy surrounding the Riyadh Comedy Festival, closing the show on a thoughtful, if somewhat melancholy, note.

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Main Discussion Points & Insights

1. Bag Hutch Goof (00:00–00:23)

• Luke and Andrew open with a tongue-in-cheek commercial for a "bag hutch," poking fun at the proliferation of unnecessary products.
• Sets the playful, irreverent tone of the episode.

2. Friday Check-In/Banter (00:24–02:11)

• The hosts celebrate Friday, riffing on “Friday” by Rebecca Black and referencing pop culture (e.g., AM radio vs. FM in the '80s).
• Luke references his ongoing saga with HVAC repairs at his home and promises more updates.

3. Yelp Reviews & Listener Connections (03:27–09:32)

• Andrew brings up Luke’s “journalism crank” tendencies and his recent turn toward policing local journalism and writing Yelp reviews.
• Listener Kate texts in to inform the hosts that TBTL is, in fact, on Yelp—complete with (mostly) five-star reviews and one notable one-star review from "guest producer Doug Schreckengast," a long-running inside joke.
• The pair reminisce about the history of the show, its transition from radio to podcasting, and their relationships with listeners.

Notable Quote:
“It's unfortunate this show has not taken more of my guest producer segment ideas. I have many guest producer Doug Schreckengos and they are good.”
– Luke, reading from the fake one-star review (06:51)

4. Movie Talk: Soundtracks & Pynchon (09:35–17:30)

• The hosts deep-dive into the use of Tom Petty’s “American Girl” in recent films, its connection to “Silence of the Lambs,” and personal associations with the song.
• They dissect the music choices in Paul Thomas Anderson films, link them to literary influences (notably Thomas Pynchon), and discuss the quirky character naming style endemic to Pynchon.
• The pair nerd out on musical cues and discuss their favorite moments of soundtracking in Magnolia and Inherent Vice.

Notable Quote:
“We always say the boring part first. That's a big part of this.”
– Andrew (03:49)

Timestamps:

• Silence of the Lambs & Tom Petty: 10:09
• PT Anderson’s song choices: 17:31
• Johnny Greenwood & Inherent Vice: 18:44

5. Andrew’s Sports Streaming Crisis (20:01–32:36)

• Andrew reveals that the illegal streaming websites he relies on for watching sports have been shut down by the FBI, leaving him bereft just as the Mariners enter the playoffs.
• Discussion about the fragmented nature of broadcast and streaming sports rights—even LeBron James has resorted to stream sites for convenience.
• Andrew debates whether to venture out to crowded bars to watch the games, weighing his “jostle aversion” against playoff FOMO.

Notable Quote:
“I don't know how I'm going to watch the game this weekend... This is the first time I've actually been panicking about this. I don't have that option anymore. I'm like a normal—”
– Andrew (25:41)

Timestamps:

• LeBron streaming story: 23:08
• Andrew’s site shut down: 21:18

6. Cutting the Cord: Streaming Service Debate (25:41–31:48)

• Luke offers practical solutions (“Just get a Fubo trial!”), sharing his own positive experience with cord-cutting and digital sports access.
• A humorous aside covers “Burbank Math”—the rationalization method for adding new expenses in life without actually cutting old ones.

Notable Quote:
“This is called Burbank Math. Okay? It's like, oh, you want to have something and it costs money. Well, you just tell yourself what you can eliminate that will net that out. And then you just don't eliminate the other thing.”
– Luke (31:16)

7. Mariners Playoff Mania, Bars vs. Home Viewing (32:49–38:17)

• Andrew and Luke discuss the unique pleasures and pains of watching playoff baseball in public, with “real fans” versus at home, and the anxiety about missing key moments.
• Luke gets excited about a rare chance to watch with his brother—someone who shares his obsessive fandom.

8. Luke’s HVAC Saga: Good Contractors vs. Bad (57:07–68:27)

• Luke finally gets professional, polite, and effective service on his “mini split” system after a disastrous experience with a previous heating & cooling company.
• The generational divide in tradesmanship comes up: younger contractors are more familiar with modern tech like mini splits, while the older ones (in this anecdote) seem surlier and less adept.
• Andrew encourages Luke to balance out his Yelp usage by posting positive reviews, too.

Notable Quote:
“They were trying to figure out the problem. By the way, again, they had all of the devices, Andrew, that they needed. ... They filled it all back up, and it has been working like a charm.”
– Luke (61:00+)

9. Local Journalism Rant: The Portland ‘Hellhole’ Narrative (41:01–53:35)

• Luke reads and reacts to local articles that quote rural Washington residents on Portland’s “troubles.” He criticizes the journalistic laziness of asking people with no direct experience rather than reporting from the site itself.
• Andrew agrees, noting parallels in Seattle’s reputational narratives.

Notable Quote:
“You might as well say Castle Rock residents weigh in on if the Mars rover is stuck on a particular... In a particular valley on Mars, it's like another place that they are not going to and have no insight as to.”
– Luke (48:51)

10. Riyadh Comedy Festival: Free Speech Hypocrisy in Stand-Up (92:00–103:32)

• Both hosts dissect the controversy over the “Riyadh Comedy Festival,” where major American comics (e.g., Chappelle, Bill Burr, Pete Davidson) are being paid large sums to perform in Saudi Arabia under contractually restricted speech.
• David Cross’s public statement is praised; Dave Chappelle’s claim that “it’s easier to talk here [Saudi Arabia] than it is in America” is sharply criticized.
• The contradiction between “First Amendment warrior” posturing and tacit acceptance of censorship for a check is explored.

Notable Quotes:
“That's just that, that might, that might have to end my, my relationship with Dave Chappelle's comedy. ... For some reason, I feel very let down that he said that in Saudi Arabia.”
– Luke (100:49–101:34)

“And it always irks me in Saudi Arabia, in this Saudi Arabia gig.”
– Andrew (98:29)

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Notable Quotes & Moments (with Timestamps)

• [06:51] “It's unfortunate this show has not taken more of my guest producer segment ideas.” – Luke (reading Yelp)
• [10:09] “There’s a powerful moment at the beginning of ‘Silence of the Lambs’ … Now we've got one of the most interesting closing scenes to a movie. And they're both using ‘American Girl’ by Tom Petty.” – Luke
• [17:31] “Dirty work suddenly showing up. It seems almost random. Like truly random. But it's not... Why does that work so well?” – Andrew
• [25:41] “I don't know how I'm going to watch the game this weekend ... This is the first time I've actually been panicking about this…” – Andrew
• [31:16] “This is called Burbank Math. ... You just don't eliminate the other thing.” – Luke
• [32:49] “I can't be watching it with people who are kind of like half plugged in and want to talk about anything unrelated to, you know, like if Spires change up is actually hitting tonight or not...” – Luke
• [48:51] “You might as well say Castle Rock residents weigh in on if the Mars rover is stuck in a particular valley on Mars...” – Luke
• [61:00+] “They were trying to figure out the problem... They filled it all back up, and it has been working like a charm.” – Luke
• [92:00+] “I don't want to make this out to be ageist, but I stand by my belief that the really grumpy guy ... does not enjoy dealing with the complex electronics of the mini split ...” – Luke
• [100:49] “In America, they say that if you talk about Charlie Kirk, you'll get canceled ... I don't know if that's true, but I'm gonna find out. ... It's easier to talk here [Saudi Arabia] than it is in America.” – Dave Chappelle (quoted by Luke)
• [101:34] “The hot air balloon that is Dave Chappelle is unmoored... and he's now floating in just complete bullshit land.” – Luke

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Key Timestamps for Major Segments

| Time | Segment/Topic | |-----------|-------------------------------------------| | 00:00 | Opening Bag Hutch Skit | | 02:11 | HVAC Saga Intro | | 03:27 | Yelp & Listener Correspondence | | 09:35 | Movie Soundtrack Deep-Dive | | 18:44 | Inherent Vice, Magnolia Music Analysis | | 20:01 | Andrew’s Streaming Crisis | | 25:41 | Cord-Cutting Discussion | | 32:49 | Mariners Playoff Anticipation | | 41:01 | Local Journalism and Portland “Hellhole” | | 57:07 | HVAC Saga Resolution, Generational Divide | | 92:00 | Riyadh Comedy Festival Controversy | | 100:49 | Chappelle’s Controversial Statement | | 105:10 | Mariners Playoff Prophecy, Happy Dance | | 106:41 | End of Show |

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Episode Tone & Dynamics

• Language & Tone: Playful, wry, at times indignant, with moments of earnest critique and nostalgia. The hosts tease each other, quote inside jokes, and blend serious media criticism with self-deprecating humor.
• Structure: Loosely structured but well-paced, with each major topic getting time to breathe and spiral naturally into related subjects.
• Memorable Moments: Andrew’s honest panic about being forced into “normie” viewing for the baseball playoffs; the hosts’ contemplation of the ethics of well-paid comics performing under censorship; their celebration of listeners’ ongoing role in the show’s ecosystem.

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For New Listeners

This episode is quintessential TBTL: wide-ranging, funny, and heartfelt, combining personal stories (Luke’s HVAC woes, Andrew’s streaming setback) with broader cultural conversations (movie soundtracks, journalism, sports fanaticism, the ethical waters of celebrity). The show’s community focus shines in their engagement with listener feedback, even as the hosts poke fun at themselves and the very nature of their discourse.

If you missed it:
You’ll laugh at their tribulations but also get a sense of the quirky, supportive community TBTL has built—a blend of pop culture, local color, and relatable grown-up angst.

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Power Out.

Transcript

[Andrew]

Bags, bags, bags. It always seems like you've got too many bags. Help me. You can't just throw them away.

[Luke Burbank]

Now. There's new bag hutch. Bag hutch is specially made for bags and holds up to 12 bags. Honey, where are all the bags? In the bag hutch.

[Andrew]

Oh, shit.

[Luke Burbank]

Bag hutch by Flitz, a division of Globo Camp. TBTL.

[Andrew]

Guess what day it is. Guess what day it is.

[Luke Burbank]

It's Friday.

[Andrew]

Friday. Gonna get down on Friday Everybody's looking forward to the weekend don't you latte.

[Luke Burbank]

Sipping leeches understand I've seen enough of these Hollywood super hunks. We need a dumpy, unappealing loser.

[Andrew]

I used to be number one in this town, but people don't listen to AM like they used to. Seems like it's more about FM and color tv.

[Luke Burbank]

That's stupid.

[Andrew]

It sure is, Kevin.

[Luke Burbank]

In fact, I've got a tattoo here.

[Andrew]

That fully illustrates my point. It's of this rebellious young man and he's urinating on an FM radio. I tell you two, go, go, 80s Reagan OTS like us. We could rule this world.

[Luke Burbank]

All right. Hello, good morning, and welcome, everyone, to a Friday edition of tbtl, the show that just might be too beautiful. It's an audio files nightmare. My name's Luke Burbank. I'm your host, Peace and Love.

[Andrew]

Peace and Love.

[Luke Burbank]

Coming to you from the Madrona Hill studio, perched high above the mighty Columbia, where we are looking at a foggy day. We've got the fog. It's one of those days where you hear the boats, the large ships on the mighty Columbia utilizing their fog horns so they don't run into each other. We've run right into. We've run smack dab into an episode of TBTL, which is the number 4568 in a collector series. Let the Fun Begin. Had this ongoing saga this week of trying to get people out here to repair this heating and cooling system at my house.

[Andrew]

They can't stand the heat. Get out of the bedroom right now.

[Luke Burbank]

Yeah. And of course, I had a very negative experience with the first folks that came out. And so then I had hired some other folks that were going to be here yesterday. And I was feeling very positive about that, how that was going to go, based on one kind of hunch that I had. I'll tell you how that hunch played out coming up. Also, moments before the show today, I was reading one of my local papers online here in Southern Washington. And once again, the. The number one journalism crank has logged on.

[Andrew]

I think this guy's sense of humor.

[Luke Burbank]

Never developed past junior high school. And by that, I mean me. I mean, I'm the number one journalism crank in the region now. I'm the guy who feels like it's his job to police how all the journalism is going here in my. In my neighborhood. And maybe we'll talk about that, too. I will definitely talk to this feller. Longest running cobra of the show. Maybe best known for his depictions of the tall ships and. Well, I've got a hunch about how he might be spending the next couple of days. Hey, Lloyd, do some delivery for the truck to the airport. He's Andrew Walsh, and he's joining me right now. Good morning, my friend.

[Andrew]

Good morning. You know, I have something important I want to tell you because I told you before the show, I have something important I want to tell you about my weekend, but you reminded me. Because my brain is just always looking for an excuse not to say the important thing first. You said something that reminded me of something else.

[Luke Burbank]

They always talk about saying the quiet part loud. Yeah, we always say the boring part first.

[Andrew]

We always say the boring part first. That's a big part of this. You just mentioned kind of your habit of writing into newspapers, which reminded me of your burgeoning habit of writing into Yelp. You've only written one Yelp review, and it was a Yelp review of a. You've only done that once. But I made a quip on the show. Or maybe you did. I'm not trying to take credit here. This isn't that situation. But I said, boy, we should have TBTL on Yelp so that people can write us good reviews.

[Luke Burbank]

That was you, by the way.

[Andrew]

It seemed like a dumb idea to have a podcast on Yelp. Well, after the show, I got a text message from listener Kate of Greenwood Strength and Conditioning.

[Luke Burbank]

Green Lake.

[Andrew]

Green Lake. I was so focused on the Green Day.

[Luke Burbank]

One day, Andrew, you or I, or maybe a combination of us both, will say the proper name.

[Andrew]

How is it that I got the.

[Luke Burbank]

Day is not that day location wrong.

[Andrew]

I was so focused.

[Luke Burbank]

I'm always confused as the conditioning or the strength comes first.

[Andrew]

I always think it's strength, but then sometimes we say strength and fitness. Either way, it's in Green Lake. You should check it out. If anybody ever needs to use the restroom in that area. Kate says they're on the open door policy. But also, you should support ten's local businesses. Anyway, Kate wrote in to say, are you kidding me? Of course you guys are on Yelp. I don't even know Kate might have even been the first person to put us on Yelp way back in the radio days. Luke. And apparently we have all good reviews except for one one star review.

[Luke Burbank]

Felt in cooling and heating.

[Andrew]

No. Somebody named Doug S who was mad that you weren't taking enough of his pitches on the show. Somebody was pretending to be.

[Luke Burbank]

Oh, LOL Doug Schreckengas.

[Andrew]

And it's actually kind of funny. The one one star review. We have guest producer Doug Schreckengas. Have you found it yet? A TBTL 18 reviews on Yelp.

[Luke Burbank]

I'm just looking at it now. I'm trying to find.

[Andrew]

Oh wow. And somebody updated it. It's from the APM days or at least that the latest photos are from the podcast.

[Luke Burbank]

Maybe I'm getting. I'm searching on Yelp, but I'm getting a lot of.

[Andrew]

If you just type into Google Yelp tbtl, it should be the first hit. That's what I got. Oh, and yesterday's show a cry for Yelp next hit. But yeah, we have nice look.

[Luke Burbank]

There's a photo of us.

[Andrew]

There's a picture from like that's like 2015 era. But I think these were. I think the comments are going to go back to the radio days back in 2008.

[Luke Burbank]

Thanks everybody.

[Andrew]

Yeah, so that's very cool.

[Luke Burbank]

You might also consider the Snoqualmie Casino and Hotel and the Emerald Queen Hotel and Casino. Well, Andrew, I have a brand fits.

[Andrew]

Like a hand in a glove.

[Luke Burbank]

I have a brand, my friend.

[Andrew]

I Love that. All five star reviews except for Doug S who wrote on June 8, oh, 2021. By the way, it's unfortunate this show has not taken more of my guest producer segment ideas. I have many guest producer Doug Schreckengos and they are good.

[Luke Burbank]

I don't know why, I don't know how this came about, but I am almost positive that this is our friend David Bowes saying guest we there was never, we never had audio on guest producer Doug Schreckengast. If I remember right.

[Andrew]

Guest producer Doug Schreckengast and I think.

[Luke Burbank]

I wanted a sound. I wanted a sounder because we did a whole. I think Doug Schreckengast was somebody who emailed in with a bunch of pitch ideas, like a listener, not a PR person. And I think that Jen took that and ran with it and created like a week of segments that were from guest producer Doug Schreichengass. I don't believe we ever spoke to him, but we needed a sonic ID for it. So I believe I asked Our friend David Bose. I don't know why, but to just give me an extremely flat read of saying guest producer Doug Schreckenghas Guest producer.

[Andrew]

Doug Schreckengas clearly via landline phone too.

[Luke Burbank]

Well, you know me, I love me a piece of landline phone tape as well.

[Andrew]

Kate Wilson wrote back In May of 2009am I seriously the first Yelper to review TBTL? This is Kate who texted me. TBTL too beautiful to Live is an amazing radio show on Cairo 97.3fm. Yes, Cairo. This from a girl who used to absolutely refuse to listen to anything but KEXP or KUOW commercial radio. It goes on from there. So anyway, yeah, Kate is the one who first I guess reviewed this, but then the reviews go through the late 2000 2000s, I guess all the way through the 2000 and twenty ones, which is very.

[Luke Burbank]

I do think it's funny that somebody came in with the guest producer Doug.

[Andrew]

Schreckinghost humor guest producer Doug Schreckengast.

[Luke Burbank]

But I wish that they would have figured out a way to do it so that it didn't actually reduce our stars, our rating. Like what they could have done is said, this is guest producer Doug Schreckinghouse or this is Doug S. But I'm giving TBTL five stars. But that's on the hopes that they start using my producer ideas like so do the bit but leave us our pristine five star because basically you feltoned us. Like what I did to Felton Cooling and heating of Longview, Washington. I personally reduced their Yelp score to a 4.8 because they were so bad. Oh, by the way, more on that coming up because my experience with the folks from Cava Heating and Cooling, very good. And it made me.

[Andrew]

Oh great.

[Luke Burbank]

But it made me more angry about how bad my experience with the other company is and how they just took your gut.

[Andrew]

Damn. $280, $70.

[Luke Burbank]

And, and, and anyway, more on that coming up. But in the meantime, Andrew, might I ask on this Friday if you have any big weekend plan? You know, I was using a Tom Petty song when you were out because I didn't have the big weekend plan song. It's not good.

[Andrew]

Very Paul Thomas Anderson Y of you. I was reading a review of the movie that we can't stop talking about.

[Luke Burbank]

And I can't stop.

[Andrew]

There is a little bit of Tom talks about it. I won't give it away, but there's a moment where there's some Tom Petty that plays in a pretty pretty, I think, powerful way. And the reviewer Said like, I thought I was so jaded on any Tom Petty in a movie at this point. Not as. Not, you know, an insult to Tom Petty. It's just that it's such good music that you can really punctuate scenes with it. It's been done so many times. Thought he was done with it, but then once again, PT deploys it perfectly.

[Luke Burbank]

What I thought was interesting was it's. The song is American Girl by Tom Petty. And I'm not giving anything away here to say that it is a powerful moment at the end of the movie. And there's a powerful moment at the beginning of Silence of the Lambs where a person who's about to be victimized by Buffalo Bill is singing along to American Girl in her, like, truck. And I always thought that was one of the, like most enter. It's a dark movie, but one of the most interesting opening scenes to a movie. And now we've got one of the most interesting closing scenes to a movie. And they're both using American Girl by Tom Petty.

[Andrew]

When Genevieve and I first met, we were just before we were a couple, Luke. We were just two individuals out there in the world. By the way, I woke up mad at her today because she'd done me dirty in a dream. Last night I woke up and I said, you done me dirty in a dream. Wow.

[Luke Burbank]

That's your move. I've always been the. I've been the dream. I've been the person who transgresses in other people's dreams. I don't think I've ever had a dream about somebody being somehow treating me poorly.

[Andrew]

It's very rare. I usually have very pleasant dreams about Genevieve, but I told her she's on notice for a while because you wake up from that stuff. It feels real. Anyway, when we first met, she was a huge Silence of the Lambs fan. Like, huge. Like, read the book a whole bunch of times in the movie. I was a huge Tom Petty fan. Our very first date. Date, she made us ravioli and we listened to the Tom Petty box set while we sat on, like, milk crates in my un. Un. Still to be unpacked living room. But anyway, I thought you were going.

[Luke Burbank]

To say on your first date, it put the lotion in the basket.

[Andrew]

I won't respond to that. I won't. Maybe I'll not dignify that. Maybe it did, maybe it didn't. I don't know. I'll let you figure that out. But anyway, it was interesting because when she heard American Girl, it had such a creepy Sound. You know what I mean it.

[Luke Burbank]

Yeah.

[Andrew]

Fear in her. Because that's what she wants associating with anyway.

[Luke Burbank]

Yeah. Can I say one other quick thing about the soundtrack to that movie? First of all, I really, really loved all of the, like, instrumental music.

[Andrew]

Oh, you're going back to one battle. Yeah.

[Luke Burbank]

Because here's what's happened to my Tick Tock feed, Andrew, is it's yesterday my TikTok feed decided to become an absolute monoculture of people trying to talk about their feelings about the movie. One battle after another. It was all I was getting. And then people finding Easter eggs. Like, one guy thinks he's figured out something about the Christmas Adventures Club, which is if you take those words and you translate them into. I believe it may be Romanian, it may be Hungarian. There's another language that if you translate, the letters that come up are kkk. And the idea that that's an incredibly subtle, incredibly brilliant reference from Paul Thomas Anderson. So this is where this is what I've been living in. The Last Day is just like meditation on that movie. So that's why I'm not ready to be done talking about it, but.

[Andrew]

Well, do we know that that would be a PT thing or is it a Pinchon thing? The Christmas Adventurers Club.

[Luke Burbank]

I am, you know what, as the. As an emergent Pinchon scholar, Andrew, who's read zero of his books but is considering buying the crying of Lot 49. I ain't going to start with Gravity's Rainbow, that's for sure. What I noted is that the characters in the Pinchon book are not. They don't have the same names as the characters in the movie because I thought. I didn't like the name Lockjaw.

[Andrew]

Yeah, well, that was. That was from the book, though, right?

[Luke Burbank]

Well, I don't think the review.

[Andrew]

I thought he chose some and changed some. I could be okay, because I couldn't get.

[Luke Burbank]

I couldn't get confirmation on that. I was reading. I did a Google for main characters, Vineland, and the person who was the name of the character who was the bad guy in Vineland. It didn't say Lockjaw, but I don't know if maybe that's because there's a different bad guy. Like, for instance, the character of Leo's daughter Willa, played by Chase Infinity. Has there ever been a person who was more destined to be a star than someone named Chase Infinity?

[Andrew]

Yeah. And that's the name her parents gave her. Right.

[Luke Burbank]

Presumably her name in the movie is Willa, her character's name. But in the Book. It's Prairie, so. But that, that doesn't answer the question about Lockjaw. I was. I. I'm again, because I've now been like, weirdly, other than actually reading any of his work, which is the most Luke way to get into someone, to get into a writer is to not actually engage with the main thing the person does, but engage with all of the other rings that are the Saturn of Thomas Pynchon, which are. He worked for Boeing. There are very few photographs of him. He was apparently very insecure about his teeth and had a painful procedure done to try to fix his smile, because he was. And maybe that has added to a bit of his kind of camera shy nature. These are all the things about him that I'm like obsessing on. None of them are at the core of his work because that just sounds like. That sounds hard to me to read Gravity's Rainbow.

[Andrew]

By the way, I was reading something by Vince Mancini the other day and so rereading this paragraph about the names, I'm not exactly. It doesn't answer. Answer any. And if you went through and looked at a list of names from the book and you didn't see Lockjaw, well, then I think that's all the answer we need on this. But I guess I had not known before this that. That Pynxon was known for using silly names himself. Apparently that's what this.

[Luke Burbank]

I only learned that in the last two days. And. And I have to say that it's because then when I was reading again, not reading his other books, I don't do that kind of thing. Reading about his other books, I was seeing a whole string of names that were. That were kind of comical in a way. I guess that's part of his style. And I have to say, like, for me, I think I would rather a more straightforward name than a name that is kind of plays as a joke when you read it. But again, who am I to. Who am I to question this thing? That's. Anyway, here's the point about the music from that movie. Boy, not that they needed it, but did Steely Dan ever get a come up from Dirty Work?

[Andrew]

Yes. Right. And. But I heard people talk about Steely Dan. I heard a lot of. I thought a lot of the music we heard was Johnny Greenwood. Right, that. That sort of. I assumed so, but I. Yeah, the Radiohead guy. Where was Steely Dan? I can't remember.

[Luke Burbank]

When we cut to 13 years later and we see Willa doing martial arts in the dojo.

[Andrew]

Yeah, right, right.

[Luke Burbank]

Which is a very random song in that moment. There's nothing lyrically about the song Dirty Work that would tell me, you know, 13 year old or 15 year old karate expert. Like, it's. I mean that song is just. I mean that song is just a banger, but it is also very oddly put in that scene. But of course I love that song, so I'm. I was here for it.

[Andrew]

Yeah, but.

[Luke Burbank]

But you know what I mean, like it's. It was.

[Andrew]

It's like you never in a million years would you have chosen it yet. You hear it there and you're just like, oh shit. Why does that work so well?

[Luke Burbank]

Yeah, totally. And that happens in a lot of P.T. anderson films. It also happens to, for my money, in a lot of Quentin Tarantino films and also Wes Anderson. Let's just go through the holy trinity of filmmakers that I tend to go in for. But like, I mean, I actually even more Wes Anderson maybe than any of the other ones. Where like I feel like Wes Anderson would just like insert some song from the Kinks somewhere or like Concrete and Clay in Rushmore. Like just these songs that are totally random. But like you said, Andrew, once you see them with the moving pictures, it feels like, oh, that's the perfect song for that moment.

[Andrew]

I would say. And could be talked off of this ledge. I would say that when. Why am I blanking on his name, the director? You're just talking about Wes Anderson when Wes Anderson does it. It's gotten to a point with Wes Anderson as with. This is kind of the take on all of his visuals as well. Is that like it doesn't seem random anymore, like. Right, exactly. It seems like, what did we name yesterday's show it was? Takes one to no One or something.

[Luke Burbank]

Oh, nice thing.

[Andrew]

But I. It's like it doesn't seem as random with Wes Anderson anymore, is my point. Because he's clearly carved out a certain aesthetic and that music fits that and that. And so you know what you're getting. That's not. I'm not even saying that as a complaint. I'm just saying that Dirty work suddenly showing up. It seems almost random. Like truly random. But it's not. He's so. And again, when you sit down, one of the reasons I love the beginning of Inherent Vice is. And actually he first of all, think about how he uses the song one by Amy Mann and Magnolia. It's like the first 10 minutes of the mov is golly a loop on that. Which like that changed how I think about music and movies. Like it's just like, yeah, this is so indelible in my brain now.

[Luke Burbank]

Yeah.

[Andrew]

But he does something kind of similar at the beginning of Inherent Vice. It starts very, very quiet with. With no music, if I recall. But then when, when like the kind of the first opening scene sort of ends. This kind of serious conversation between the main character and a woman who reappears in his life for the first time after a long time. She goes speeding off in a car and then that song by can begins. I don't know if you know this song, but it's I'm see if I can just play a little bit of it and not get pulled down. And this song, I became obsessed with this song. Like, basically picture a door slamming and somebody driving away quickly while another person is standing outside the car. Yeah. Just imagine this kind of. That you see us kind of got that rhythm thing. The nest is going to propel the movie forward for like. And this is going to. This is going to stay. Scenes are going to change, but this is just going to stay underneath the movie for a while. I love when he does that, Luke. It's like a drug to me.

[Luke Burbank]

I almost watched Inherent Vice last night after I was watching the football game on Amazon prime because it's on Amazon Prime.

[Andrew]

Who won that?

[Luke Burbank]

Are you genuinely asking?

[Andrew]

I really don't know. Yeah, I knew it was our two divisional rivals, but I wasn't San Francisco.

[Luke Burbank]

One on a. I got us. I got to give him credit, man. Sean McVeigh, the coach of the LA Rams, has bedeviled me as a Seahawk fan for many years by out coaching us at times. But it was overtime and they had a chance to kick a field goal to tie it. The Rams did and they. And they were like on the 10 yard line, it was 4th and 1 and they went for it and they did not get it. And so San Francisco won by a field goal in overtime.

[Andrew]

Goodness gracious. Anyway, that's my big weekend plans. No, I. Let's get back to this weekend. So I had something and I'm not trying to set this up as being overly dramatic. I'm being quite serious. I had something that is a well literal game changer in a bad way to me yesterday. Luke, regarding my sports weekend coming up, as listeners might have heard us mention, we both like the movie One battle after another. We've mentioned that once or twice this week, I think. And also we're very big fans of the Seattle Baseball Club called the Seattle Mariners and they're. They're in the playoffs. What's that It's.

[Luke Burbank]

I can't believe you forgot their name. It's the Mariner. Oh, okay.

[Andrew]

It's Pike Place Marine, Mariners Place, Market Place Mariner. No, I was trying to think of baseball club. Anyway, as you know, I'm very excited. The playoffs finally begin. The playoffs have been going on for other teams, but the Mariners Day in the. In the Light will start on Saturday tomorrow, and then on Sunday. I'm very excited because I'll be able to get home from my volunteer gig in time to watch the game. I've been obviously very, very excited about this. Last night I decided I was going to catch the end of the Red Sox Yankees game, which I'd been listening to on the radio. I'm like, well, I'll just throw that on my computer while I play darts. And I went to the website that I watch sports on, which is, you know, illegal streams and FBI notification. This has been taken down by the FBI.

[Luke Burbank]

Oh, I thought that you got an email from the FBI. No.

[Andrew]

Although my. My computer was like, don't go here. Don't go here. And I was like, why don't I want to go here? I go here all the time. And then I went through. And so clearly something is flagged about this site now. So maybe they can see that I was hitting it. I don't give a shit. I'm allowed to go on websites. I wasn't running the website. But anyway, yeah, it's like that still.

[Luke Burbank]

Hash Patel is noticing huge, like, old.

[Andrew]

School, just FBI logo that takes over the entire site. That says this site has been seized. Now, the interesting thing is this is a website that I've been using for several years that got very popular, called Stream East. And I sent you an article about this about, I'm gonna say about a month ago. Cause it was at the very beginning of football season, huge news that the US Government hunted down the folks who are running Stream east in some other country and took the whole thing down. Yeah, exactly. And then handed out Punisher pins to everybody who did it.

[Luke Burbank]

Yeah, right. Make sure nobody can stream the NFL for free. But, you know, that should be job one for the FBI.

[Andrew]

The article that talked about this takedown was very interesting. In fact, it said that one of the things that kind of triggered the. I don't know if it triggered the investigation, but the widespread popularity of it was that LeBron James was seen at courtside, basically in between plays, watching some other basketball game via Stream East. And somebody documented that, which then I think helped it blow up.

[Luke Burbank]

That's one of the funniest things I've ever heard.

[Andrew]

Well, it really goes to show, I mean, to me, that exam. This is what I wanted to talk about a month ago. To me, that is the perfect example of how people are not bootlegging this stuff because they're just poor or don't want to pay the money. It's because they've set up the networks and streamers and everybody has set up a system that is so unbelievably Byzantine, you gotta chase through various networks. Where is the game today? Well, it's Thursday Night Football, but it's an NBC production. Oh, okay. Then they'll take over after. It's just like, it's so incredibly complicated that even LeBron James, who could buy the network. This is for you. Is just choosing that. So it wasn't even just a money thing. It was a convenience thing. It should be them taking a moment to say, how badly have we effed up this model? But instead, it's kind of like, well, the FBI has to shut it down. How I was still able to use my particular link, which led to a whole bunch of other links for a full month after this news story broke, I don't know. But I was unprepared for the moment because I. These things tend to move around a little bit over the years, but there's always another vine to grab onto. Yeah, I've been doing this for 15 years now. You know, one goes down, another one pops up, or there are mirror sites or whatever. This was the first time last night where I'm like, well, what if I go to Sports Surge? Totally gone. That had been gone for a while. I think this other one that I sometimes go to was, like, the only one that was actually not taken down. Said we're experiencing just too high, high of a volume right now. It was Red Sox. Everybody had to go over there and said, sorry, try back later. Which I'd never gotten that message before. So, like, I'm a little bit like, I don't know how I'm going to watch the game this weekend. Like, I could go to a bar, but then, like, there's so many unknowns. Like, will it be absolutely packed? Like, is there a. That is interested enough in the Mariners that will have the game on with the sound on, but also won't be so unbelievably packed that it's uncomfortable in there? I don't. I honestly don't know what I'm going to do. I've always had in my back pocket, like, I'll just Stay home and watch it on tv. There's always a stream out there somewhere. This is the first time I've actually been panicking about this. I don't have that option anymore. I'm like a normal.

[Luke Burbank]

Here's what I think you should do. You should do a trial streaming thing with Fubo.

[Andrew]

Hmm. Maybe start.

[Luke Burbank]

Well, I'm looking at their website. Start watching for free. Yeah, I bet you could probably get a month out of them before you have to really pay for it. And I. Again, I will give. I will give some credit where some credit is due. When I did the switchover, probably a year ago or whenever it was where I just cut the cord and I went all online with this Fubo. I there. I have not ever had a game that I can't watch. And that's if it's on espn, if it's on. It was when it was on root.

[Andrew]

Rip or still exists because they charged me $20 two days ago.

[Luke Burbank]

Oh, I'm sorry. You're right.

[Andrew]

I wasn't mad at that at the time. But, like, now, after yesterday, I'm, like, retroactively more mad about. It's only $20. But, like, I'm looking at root sports still exists. You know what they're showing right now? Fish Hunt Northwest. But don't worry, Luke, in about three minutes, that's going to wrap up. And then we're getting into talking ducks. Oh, I thought that was actually duck hunting.

[Luke Burbank]

That's actually Nike University.

[Andrew]

Exactly.

[Luke Burbank]

Yeah. Well, that's what happens when you buy a football team.

[Andrew]

So that's what I'm. That's what I'm paying for my. My last month. And then. Oh, and then talking cougs. Okay. Then rides with Jay Thomas and then Perfect Game and the pro football tour. That's volleyball.

[Luke Burbank]

That is actually pretty volleyball. Those guys do. But yeah, like, I would. I will say this, like, this Fubo thing, the other thing about it, and I don't receive any remuneration from this company. You know, I forgot I was talking to a friend of ours who's a real stock whiz, who's a real finance knower and crypto haver. You probably think of who I'm talking about.

[Andrew]

Yeah.

[Luke Burbank]

And I was talking to this person, and we're texting about something, and they were like, oh, yeah, sorry that I led you wrong on that Fubo stock. And I remembered that, like, years ago, I was asking this person because they were, like, playing the market a lot. I was like, what are you putting your money in? They were like, Fubo and I bought all this. And then it was like, this is.

[Andrew]

Long before we even had the conversation where I talked you into buying.

[Luke Burbank]

Yeah, all of our conversation about Fuba. I forget that I was once a Fubo stockholder.

[Andrew]

Oh my God.

[Luke Burbank]

Purely because it was on the come up. And our, our friend said very correctly, I think I had sold before. I don't even know how the stock is doing. I think what happened was basically the Fubo stock kind of cratered, believe it or not. But then I also had Amazon and they balanced out. And then I got out of all of it. But this person said, I'm sorry I led you wrong on the Fubo stock. I was like, first of all, no harm, no foul. Second of all, I'm now a loyal customer to the product.

[Andrew]

Yeah, right now you're putting the money's going the other way.

[Luke Burbank]

But what I would say is it really has. And I don't know if you want this to become your life, but what it has done, I've kind of talked about this a little bit before is because it used to be that my sports that I was watching lived on my television at my house. And so if I wasn't at my house, I couldn't really watch it. It really just lives on my phone now or on the website or wherever. So my life has been. I have actually been like, for instance, Sunday Becca is running the Portland Marathon. I'm going to be down there cheering her on and then providing her with whatever comfort and, you know, assistance she needs in the aftermath of something like that. Now the Seahawks are playing at 1. Would I like to know how that game goes? Yes. But I'm not locked into being here watching it because I can just put it on my phone while we're, you know, hanging out or convalescing or whatever goes on. Like, and that's something that's been kind of great for me. Like I'm much more liberated out in the world because I know if there's a game on, I can always just look at it on my phone and I don't have to go on a. I don't have to try to use my phone to hack into a, like a non legal site or whatever it is for me personally. And I'm only speaking for myself. It's been well worth the, I don't know, hundred bucks a month that I'm spending on it because it's, it works exactly as advertised. I'll be in the airport and I'll be waiting for a flight and there'll be a Mariner game. And then I'm just watching the Mariner game on my phone while I'm waiting for the flight. It's been pretty handy.

[Andrew]

Yeah, definitely. Trying to watch any of these janky streams on mobile devices is a real problem with all the pop ups and everything. But I am just throwing it out there. I am.

[Luke Burbank]

It might be worth checking out because there's so many. There's going to be so many sporting events. I mean, so many Mariners games in the next month. Ideally.

[Andrew]

Ideally, yeah, that.

[Luke Burbank]

Sorry, that's fate. They're knocking at the door, Andrew, and they're telling me it's the Mariners season.

[Andrew]

You make me nervous. Your confidence.

[Luke Burbank]

Then don't read, don't, don't read any of the prognostications that have the Mariners going very deep, including one in the Times today pointing out why this Mariners team is different. It's built different, Andrew. This team is just built different. 90% of the time if somebody tells you that they're built different, don't believe them because they're probably. They're probably built very similar.

[Andrew]

Do real, you know, the way that they're people. That's what I.

[Luke Burbank]

Real people steal people and they're built different.

[Andrew]

I'm also like. I'm also on a website now that lists all kinds of other, like, maybe other stream services I could use. You know, like kind of, as I like to say, gray market stream services that I was messing around with a little bit last night and was getting kind of stymied on. But I'm, as I look at this.

[Luke Burbank]

Thrill of the hunt pirate.

[Andrew]

Well, well, it's also the thrill of not trying to get Genevieve to sign off on a dollar a month subscription. On the other hand, she did me dirty in a dream last night, so she.

[Luke Burbank]

Well, I'm just saying. Yeah, she's got to make that up to you somehow now.

[Andrew]

Exactly.

[Luke Burbank]

So I just feel like. I feel like the. For, you know, like you like to say, Andrew, it's a round of drinks. It's like two rounds of drinks a month. Or not ever having to give up.

[Andrew]

My two rounds of drinks a month, though. That's the thing. Are you taking anything off the table?

[Luke Burbank]

Don't you understand how the logic works, Andrew? This is how the logic works. This is. This is called Burbank Math. Okay? It's like, oh, you want to have something and it costs money. Well, you just tell yourself what you can eliminate that will net that out. And then you just don't eliminate the other thing.

[Andrew]

You just never. And Then the next time something comes up, you're like, well, what is that? It's like a.

[Luke Burbank]

It's like a month. Two rounds.

[Andrew]

It's like a month of Sports Surge or Fubo or whatever.

[Luke Burbank]

Yeah, it's a month of Fubo. And then I'm going to. You know, and then you just. But then you don't give up the other thing. And then everybody wins. Just putting it out there.

[Andrew]

This is where I was yesterday. I'm. Now I'm back in this. I was trying to watch an ad to unlock my Sports Surge experience. Let's see if this works. I was going to say something else to you regarding my hunting around for this stuff, but I can't find it. But, yeah, maybe it will be. So maybe, maybe I'll be able to hunt around. I don't know. I'm just a little bit. I also, you know, a lot of people are like. People are like, are you. Are you going to go to the games? And it's funny. Like, I'm not even. I don't have any. I don't have any FOMO or fubo. I definitely don't have any Fubo and I don't have any FOMO about not being at the stadium for the games. Like, that sounds like it would be an adventure. But I'm also like, I'm not a super adventurous guy. I love going to that stadium, but I also love going to T Mobile park on a random Wednesday when it's not an absolute zoo there.

[Luke Burbank]

I actually get on the E line, get Jidenna in the headphones, get there way early, get kicked out of the kids zone.

[Andrew]

Well, that's the library.

[Luke Burbank]

Typical Wednesday.

[Andrew]

But anyway, you know what I mean? Like going there and it's sold out when it's just absolutely wild. Like, this isn't even an age thing. It's just. I have a boring personality thing. I just. If somebody. If tickets landed on my lap, I'm like, okay, sure, yeah, I'd go. But like, I'm not. I am not at all concerned about not being at the stadium for these games. I was happy to watch at home. Now that that may be off the table, I'm like, well, maybe I should embrace this idea that the city is doing something. Like, everybody's in this. People who don't even care usually about sports that much are in this together. And I think that's a good thing. By the way, that's not me kind of turning a nose up. I think that's great. I love seeing everybody come together. I've been seeing so many more, like Mariners hats in the wild and Mariners gear. People are just. I love seeing the city kind of buzzing like this. So being in some sort of public place, like a bar where it's on TV would be great, but I'm also just really. I'm so. I just dislike crowds so much. The idea of going someplace where it's a bunch of potentially young people all, like, crowding a bar somewh and you gotta wait, like, 45 minutes in between drinks or whatever, and you're jo. I hate being jostled, Luke. God, I hate being jostled.

[Luke Burbank]

Oh, I know. And also, where to put your empty pint glasses.

[Andrew]

Well, then that's gonna get. And then you're gonna get in trouble with the guys who are sitting at the bar.

[Luke Burbank]

I need to be. I'm. I have to say, I'm. I'm going into this weekend with a level of excitement about this that is frankly frightening for me, because not only am I, of course, heavily invested in how the Seattle Mariners do, but it's really lining up for me. So something that needed to happen in order for me to be able to watch tomorrow's game in real time was the New York Yankees needed to come back from a 10 deficit against the Red Sox, and they did. And that means that my brother, DFTB and his wife Alicia, and their beautiful daughter Gemma will actually be here tomorrow at the time that the game starts. And, like, I am so excited to watch it, but I'm especially excited to watch it with David because David is as obsessed as I am. So it will be. What I don't want to be doing is watching the game with. I. Listen, I absolutely. You know, I love Walt Walton's coming over on Sunday, and because he's going to be working on the house with me next week a bit. And he said, okay, I'm not sure what time I'm going to get there on Sunday. And I said, dad, just a heads up, the Mariner game is on Sunday afternoon. I'm going to be fully locked into that, because what I. What I. What I personally cannot be doing is I can't be at a bar, restaurant environment where the sound isn't on and. Or where people are partially interested. Yeah, I need. I need to watch every single pitch. I am thinking for Saturday night about the food that I'm going to make for dinner for us, for me and David and Alicia, as far as where it will put me in the kitchen environment. I was going to do a barbecue thing. I was like, well, maybe it's be the last semi nice Saturday of the year. Maybe I'll throw a few shrimps on the barbie. And then I was like, no, I can't go outside to the barbecue if it's a critic. If it's a leverage situation. Yeah, you gotta have everything set up. I need to. I am going to watch every single pitch that is pitched in this baseball game. You know, like, that's where I'm at with it. So I can't be watching it with people who are kind of like half plugged in and want to talk about anything unrelated to, you know, like if Spires change up is actually hitting tonight or not, you know, is working. Like, I can't. And also I can't be watching it somewhere where it's not the total and complete focal point.

[Andrew]

Right. Which is kind of. That's why I was so looking forward to watching at home, because I was like, you know, I don't need to. I felt. I'm actually kind of glad to hear you say that because I don't need. I think the viewing experience, if you can view it, is really great. You know what I mean? The way you can analyze literally every single pitch, just don't have that at the ballpark. What you have instead is a whole bunch of like, people who are as just insanely into it as you are. And so you can lose your voice, you can lose yourself in the music.

[Luke Burbank]

Music. The moment. The moment you want to never let it go.

[Andrew]

You want to.

[Luke Burbank]

You only get four shots in 50 seasons or whatever. It's 49 seasons. That was a stunning number today. They're like. I think they were like the Mariners fourth. Is that our fourth playoff appearance? They said in like whatever it is, 40 something years. I thought, God, those are. That's a bad ROI for me.

[Andrew]

You know what you might want to watch. And I almost texted the sports gang this last or the text chain this last night, but I was like, everybody can just prep for this weekend however they want. They don't need my suggestion, so I'll save it.

[Luke Burbank]

Oh, I'm open. I'm open to suggestions.

[Andrew]

I don't think you've ever watched that long. Kind of like quasi documentary made by John Boys. Yeah, Yeah, I watched the first. I rew. I watched it during the pandemic and I rewatched the first episode of it last night when I couldn't find any. When I couldn't get any of my streaming services to work. No joke. I'm like, well, screw the Red Sox and Yankees Anyway, let me just get into some more of this. Like, they do such a fun job of recapping the entire Mariner's existence and there's a little bit of humor in there, but it's like, it's data analytics. But to tell a story in such a good way, I really think it's up your alley.

[Luke Burbank]

Maybe I'll watch that tonight because it's on YouTube obviously, right? Yeah, maybe. What I'll do, I'm actually going to be doing some, some, some last minute home improving and I'm going to be putting up some curtains and, and things in the upstairs of the house and maybe I'll put pop that on the laptop while I'm assembling curtain rods and curtains and things like that. That sounds like a nice little backdrop.

[Andrew]

Yeah.

[Luke Burbank]

Because you don't get me fully hype mode tonight.

[Andrew]

Going into, into the weekend, it's like an enhanced podcast. Like every now and then they'll reference and they'll try that. Sometimes there's, there's a lot of visuals that are interesting because the way they break down the data and they visualize the data, but it's very much though, like a podcast, so you can listen to it and then glance over every now and then. I remember that's how I watched it the first time.

[Luke Burbank]

Nice.

[Andrew]

Actually. Great puttering material.

[Luke Burbank]

I'm gonna do that tonight. Thank you, babe. Time to thank some donors. These people are supporting TBTL generously with their monthly donation. It's how this thing exists. Yesterday I was talking to my, my new favorite H vac guys, Andrew, we're standing out by the, the unit. It was. Darkness had fallen and they were working away on it. Talking, of course, about my buddies, Julian and Cole. And Cole said, what. What do you do for a living? Earlier we had been talking about this mini split and I said. And we were going through various possibilities of what was broken. I said, well, you guys, are you familiar with Occam's Razor? You know, like, the simplest explanation is probably the one that's true. And Cole goes, you sound like you read a lot.

[Andrew]

I thought you were gonna say, oh, we left. We left Hockam's Razor in the truck. We'd have to come back.

[Luke Burbank]

Exactly. We'll come back another time and charge you again. No, Andrew, I'm happy to say these guys had all the tools they needed to do the job. What a novel concept.

[Andrew]

Yeah. I was gonna do literally what.

[Luke Burbank]

But I had a, I had a flashlight with me because I was standing outside with them. And Cole said, what do you do for a living anyway. And I said. And I took the flashlight and I flashed it right up to this area that I'm sitting, and I said, I do a podcast. And I said it, Andrew, with something that's unusual for me. Pride.

[Andrew]

I thought you were going to put the flashlight underneath your face and say, I collect souls.

[Luke Burbank]

Yes. It was a night just like this 40 years ago when the Mariners first started playing baseball. No, I flashed the flashlight right up into this room and it illuminated this little setup here. And I said, I do a podcast. Also. It helped that these guys were in their 20s, so I felt confident saying to them that I do a podcast and having them understand that that's not the craziest thing that anybody could ever maybe do for their job. And I was only able to feel that sense of pride because of folks like Amalia Talty in Half Moon, New York.

[Andrew]

Hey, thank you, Amalia. You know, now Amalia's name is very familiar to me, but Half Moon isn't as familiar.

[Luke Burbank]

That sounds new to me.

[Andrew]

That seems new to me.

[Luke Burbank]

That seems like maybe Amalia has. Has. Has moved. You get Half Moon, New York, and you put it together with Half Moon Bay in California, Andrew. And you.

[Andrew]

Yeah.

[Luke Burbank]

Got a full moon.

[Andrew]

You got a full moon. Exactly.

[Luke Burbank]

That's how that works. Thanks also to Sarah Templeton in Portland, Oregon.

[Andrew]

Hey, Sarah. Thank you.

[Luke Burbank]

That was. Portland, Oregon was related to my comment that I left on my local newspaper's website.

[Andrew]

Oh, this was a. This was a public comment you left this time. You're no longer. You're no longer writing directly to. No, no, no.

[Luke Burbank]

I gotta. Honestly, I can't be. I can't let them gatekeep my. My editorial insights we're currently trying to do with the Colombian.

[Andrew]

You're gonna make a message.

[Luke Burbank]

Colombian said. They did respond, by the way. It's not a joke, Andrew. My emails are not a joke. You don't send them as a joke or give them as a joke.

[Andrew]

They did respond to your first. To your first note.

[Luke Burbank]

I got a response from the Colombian about my letter to their editorial staff saying, please don't say that a Vancouver megachurch has been choosing love for 50 years because you just can't say that as the newspaper. You can't prove that to be true or untrue. They responded to me. I think they might have changed the headline. I can't find that article anymore with that headline. But the editorial people said, or the person said, we'll forward this to our editorial staff. We do not publish. There's something about the way that I had sent the email. They said, like, we don't publish emails about our editorial process or we don't. So it's not going to get published in their paper. But I think they might have changed the headline.

[Andrew]

Actually, I'm going to look for this here because I know that listeners were posting it, posting the article online and sort of like, like discussing it somewhere in social media. I'm looking for that now. I just want to find out if the link still works and give you.

[Luke Burbank]

That's a good question. Yeah. The depth of my research was scanning the website like a day after and not just seeing it as it was at one point, one of the most read articles and it suddenly wasn't. So I don't know if that was just.

[Andrew]

I can confirm here.

[Luke Burbank]

Okay.

[Andrew]

The headline has not changed. It says, 50 years of choosing Love. Crossroads Community Church celebrates half a century. But it was our pal Lynn who said it sort of does come from a quote. It's like a. Almost a paraphrase of a quote in the article itself.

[Luke Burbank]

Let's put it in quotes.

[Andrew]

Yeah, no, no, I'm with you on that. I don't think anybody is challenging where you stood on this.

[Luke Burbank]

You're the number one journalism crank in this town.

[Andrew]

For what it's worth, I guess the quote, Quote from the article was, we can still choose love. We can still choose to be a family. He said, I'm assuming that's a pastor. We can choose not to say, I'm never going to talk to you again. So I guess that's what inspired it. But you're still right. Like, you could still put choosing love and quotes. That would be more.

[Luke Burbank]

Yeah, that's all. That's all. I. That's my only request from them is that they make it clear that that's just something that someone in the article said that they're doing. Like, it's so, so easy to just add in a couple of quotation marks. That's all you got to do. But anyway, somebody else says that they.

[Andrew]

Just came across that you've been living in the monkey house. Drop in the wild. Alana says that. What does that drop from? You've been living in the.

[Luke Burbank]

From Project Runway.

[Andrew]

Oh, so somebody's going back and you've.

[Luke Burbank]

Been living in the monkey house.

[Andrew]

It's so good.

[Luke Burbank]

It's Tim Gunn telling somebody that their. Their design on Project Runway is, you know, it's gotten a little kooky, I guess.

[Andrew]

I love it. Okay.

[Luke Burbank]

Okay. So the email that I sent or the comment that I posted this morning was, or actually really far too close to Showtime was related to an article in my different. My other local paper that I also subscribed to. And the headline was Castle Rock. These are small towns near me that are about 45 minutes from Portland, Oregon. And of course, Trump has deployed troops to Portland to where this ICE facility is, to a particular street that happens to also be the street that my girlfriend lives on. And so I feel very, very invested, engaged and connected to this story because it's one of the few times where I have a lot of lived experience of the exact area that is, that's, that's. That's the national sort of conversation now and can tell you unequivocally there was nothing going on there. We would walk down that street with Gigi the Poodle constantly, like it was a non. It was a non event. It was literally like two or three people sitting in folding chairs, occasionally saying something into a megaphone, like from across the street. Sometimes a guy would show up in a chicken outfit and stand out on the busier street and wave at people like it was.

[Andrew]

And I saw some hilarious footage of people putting donuts on the end of fishing rods and sort of dangling them right over the line where you're not allowed to cross.

[Luke Burbank]

Even that involves more activity than I had been seeing in the week. I mean, this is classically one of those things where there was no there there until it was declared that Portland was lawless and then the troops were sent in. And now, of course, a bunch of people have gone down there to see what's up.

[Andrew]

They're creating the chaos.

[Luke Burbank]

It was created by the military intervention. I cannot, I cannot be clear enough about that based on. I've got actual eyes on the situation myself. Okay, that being said, this is the article from. And I want to say. I want to say thank you and sorry to Sarah Templeton of Portland, Oregon, who has got me on this one, because the article in my local paper was Castle Rock, Ridgefield, Longview Residents Weigh in on Troops in Portland. Now, here's what I know. Living out here, Andrew. Nobody, except me, just about who lives out here has been to Portland in the last five years. And the number one favorite activity of most of the people out here that I talk to is saying definitively that Portland is a hellhole. It's the main thing that people in Southern Washington like to say about Portland to make themselves feel better about living in Southern Washington is that Portland is a hellhole. And it is based on no actual personal observation. So first of all my hackles are already up at the premise of this. If you go, if you go around Castle Rock, Ridgefield or Longview, Washington and you ask people how's Portland these days? 99% of the people are going to tell you, oh, Portland, you'll get knifed. You'll get, It's a, it's a hellhole. That's why I like to say I don't even like to go to Vancouver, that Vancouver is now it's overrun with MS.13. Like that's the general vibe out here. Not everybody, you know, my neighbors have a Harris Waltz sign up still. So there's pockets. But first of all, I was just annoyed at the premise because I knew what it was going to be. I will give them credit. My local paper, by the way, there's no byline on this article. I will give them credit that they did get a combination. They got a variety of responses. They got some of the obvious ones I was expecting, which is someone saying, ah, Portland's been a hellhole for years. I'm so glad that they're finally cracking down. Then you got some people that are saying, Trump thinks he's a king and I don't think he should be doing this. It was a balance, the feedback was balanced. I think maybe there was four people and maybe two of them were pro doing this and two of them were against. Okay, I'll give them credit on that. But what I wrote, and I can't actually get to the comment because I'm logged in on my other computer, but what I wrote was basically like whose idea was this article? I go, it would have been a better use spending $20 to have a reporter drive down to Portland to look at this themselves would have been a better way to approach this story. That's what I wrote. Because I don't like, I know that they think that they're like making it local but it's pointless, it's absolutely pointless to me to ask a bunch of people who have not been. By the way, nobody in the article, if I remember right, nobody who was cited reported having been to Portland in the last year. So in other words, you're asking a bunch of people who self identify as people who haven't been to the place they're speculating on. Yeah, why would you, why would you, why would that information be useful to the readers of this newspaper?

[Andrew]

Yeah, no, I'm totally with you. I mean it's, it's, I mean the.

[Luke Burbank]

Worst idea for an article ever.

[Andrew]

Same exact thing happens here in not the Journalistic side of things. But that whole thing of people who live outside of Seattle just spend all of their time talking about what a hellhole Seattle is and never coming here. When those of us who live here, like, this is great. I just took a scooter downtown to watch a play.

[Luke Burbank]

You might as well say Castle Rock residents weigh in on if the Mars rover is stuck on a particular. In a particular valley on Mars, it's like another place that they are not going to and have no insight as to.

[Andrew]

I can't remember what the publication was, but I snipped something and posted it to Blue Ski last week or about maybe two weeks ago. I'm looking at it now. The headline was says news. Why does TikTok think the rapture is happening? Local experts explain. And I posted and I wrote. Thank goodness they're local.

[Luke Burbank]

Like rapture.

[Andrew]

I mean, this goes back to like the. I remember my earliest days in radio and like, people trying to figure out, well, what's the local angle here? Or whatever. Like this idea. Like, well, we. We serve a local audience. And I'm not saying that you need to dismiss that idea wholesale. That, you know, to examine that as good. I did sort of appreciate. I remember I had a boss one time who said, what if, like, for your editorial kind of process, you flip that on its head and you look at kind of local stories and say, how does that fit into kind of a bigger national picture? Like, that's a way of, like, that's a good sort of looking at things locally. And I always. I always thought, o, okay, that's really smart. That's. And again, just think about these things. But generally the shortcut is just kind of like, I don't know, we have. Tim has. Tim. Tim's not doing anything today. Right. Like, just send. And this is not. I'm not going after Tim Hake here. I just picked him as a random name. Although now I've called it out, I feel awkward about the whole thing. Sorry, Tim. I think you're a great journalist and so is your brother. What's. Tim Hakes. His brother. Weren't there. Oh, no, there's a.

[Luke Burbank]

There's a Richard Hake who was the morning host on wnyc, but different spelling.

[Andrew]

No, you know what? It's not Hake. There. There were. There was a reporter who worked for Cairo Radio and a brother who worked.

[Luke Burbank]

At a different place.

[Andrew]

Como Radio, I thought, or something like that. But it wasn't Hake. Anyway, maybe it's Hake. It doesn't really matter, Luke. I Can't believe you brought this up. I did. The idea of trying to find these local, like, let's just send some random person to get, like, some vox pop so they can write it up. It's absolutely worthless. It doesn't offer anything to the conversation. It doesn't shed any light on anything. It's lazy at best, you know, pernicious at worst.

[Luke Burbank]

I understand that. Like, for somehow in the last, like, week or two, just because I've decided to start spamming every local publication with my thoughts. So then, of course, it burbles over into this conversation. But, like, we've also said, hey, there's my mail person.

[Andrew]

Oh, nice.

[Luke Burbank]

Letting me know that there's mail here. Thank you for that and terrifying me. There's nothing scarier than when I'm engaged, wearing headphones, talking to you, and somebody knocks on the door of the Madrona Hill studio.

[Andrew]

She knows what you do for a living.

[Luke Burbank]

I don't know if it's totally clear. She understands that I talk into this microphone, but I think it might stop there.

[Andrew]

She might. You're crazy. She's like, that's.

[Luke Burbank]

That's what I was gonna say.

[Andrew]

She might listen to the newspaper all the time.

[Luke Burbank]

And honestly, I'm getting closer to that every day.

[Andrew]

There could be nobody on the other end of the line.

[Luke Burbank]

I mean, how would she know? I mean, this. She sees me in here, and it is again, unclear if there is someone I'm talking to. But you're real, right, Andrew?

[Andrew]

I'm. Hold on. Yeah, I seem to be real.

[Luke Burbank]

Okay, good, good. But, like, I know that local journalism is so hard to do right now, and newspapers are. Local newspapers are strapped, particularly in small towns like Longview, Washington, or Vancouver, Washington. But I honestly think it would have been so much better of a piece if you sent whoever went out and got this vox pop. Whoever went out and kind of did this round of like, why do. What do people around here think of Trump sending troops into Portland? If you got in the car and drove to South Water street and just with your own eyes just looked around and wrote a piece about what an afternoon at ICE looked like. How many did you see? Military troops? How many protesters were there? Did they seem aggressive? Did they seem laconic? Did they have donuts on fishing lines? Like, just go down and do it like a. Let's do a little scene setter. Just go observe it, write it up, come back home, publish that in the paper. That's not a super hard piece to write in my mind. And again, they don't have Endless numbers of reporters. But. Or how about this? Go around the local towns here and ask people why it is that they have stopped visiting Port Portland. What's going on for you that you don't. When's the last time you went to Portland? Okay. Do you know Portland is 45 minutes away? Yes. When's the last time you were there? Four years ago. Why did you stop going to Portland four years ago? That's a reasonable question. And they might say I'm. Because it's gang infested. Okay. Have you observed that with your own eyes? No. Where did you get that information? Well, Fox News. Okay, like, great interview people about why they don't go to Portland but have opinions on it and where are they getting their information? You know, just do that. Make that the vox pop.

[Andrew]

Yeah, yeah. No, I'm interested to read that.

[Luke Burbank]

You know who else would love to read that? Our friend Zach Rouse in Jackson Heights, New York.

[Andrew]

Hey, and also, I gotta say, Luke, you nailed the pronunciation. I forgot Zach included a pronunciation here. And I forgot to include it when I was sending this to you, but it says rhymes with house and he loves you. Nailed that. Zachary Zach.

[Luke Burbank]

For years. That's right out there in Queens. Jackson Heights, Queens. Now, I have to admit I have a bit of insight because. Because a good friend of mine who was long ago a member of the Livewire creative team was my friend, Jason Rouse. So I'm kind of cheating because I've got. I've had experience with this last name and had experience with Zach. Thanks, Zach. Also my friend Alex Meyer in Seattle, Washington. Long, long, long, long time friend of mine. We're talking pre. Are we talking pre TBTL days? I think Pre TBTL days. I think I've known Zach since Metro Traffic. I mean, Alex. Excuse me. I've known Alex since Metro Traffic days. Amazingly. What up, Alex? Thanks, man. And then Jordan. Now Rocky.

[Andrew]

Oh, my gosh. Jordan J Dog.

[Luke Burbank]

Wait, no. Jdog is Hauser. How do I come up with these?

[Andrew]

Jordan Naraki. I was tech.

[Luke Burbank]

This is in Portland, Oregon, by the way.

[Andrew]

In Portland, Oregon.

[Luke Burbank]

The Hellscape.

[Andrew]

Portland, Oregon. But rooting for the Detroit Tigers, who actually won their playoff game yesterday and are advancing and now coming to Seattle for the big games we were talking about this weekend. Think it's. I think it's fortunate that Jordan is the person that we are. I'm trying to think of, like, what is the word for kismet? It feels like kismet. That is Jordan.

[Luke Burbank]

Or feels like a car crash. Because Jordan's. Jordan's hopes and dreams are smashing directly into our hopes and dreams.

[Andrew]

No, it's in the. First of all, Jordan has signed the pledge along with other Tigers fans who were texting me yesterday.

[Luke Burbank]

Oh, okay.

[Andrew]

Who said that they will continue their donation to TBTL no matter what happens during this series. Yes. So thank you to everybody who.

[Luke Burbank]

I thought they signed a pledge to root for the Mariners. That's the only pledge that I care about.

[Andrew]

But Jordan and I have an agreement, and it comes. I think that whoever. If. If. If the Mariners win, Jordan promises to put all of his rooting power behind the Mariners for the rest of the. For the rest of the playoffs and the series. And I will do the same for Detroit.

[Luke Burbank]

That's fair. I will. Unless something truly unexpected happens during the series. Yeah, but as long as. Yeah, I'm fine with that. Like, listen, we're talking Detroit Tigers, we're talking. They're not in the playoffs, but Kansas City Royals, we're talking certainly Minnesota Twins. There are so many sort of smaller market teams that I would love to see go far. Brewers. I'm not mad at the Brewers. Like, I know that's. They're not even in our division or our league, but you get. You get my point. Yeah, I would.

[Andrew]

If we.

[Luke Burbank]

If the Mariners are not moving on, I'd have no problem rooting for the Detroit Tigers as long as there's not a situation where there's a bunch of bean balls thrown or something. Something truly crazy.

[Andrew]

Yeah.

[Luke Burbank]

But you know who will make sure that doesn't happen? Margaret Spanny, who's in Ashland, Oregon. She's down there at the Ashland Shakespeare Festival, monitoring every bit of MLB baseball and making sure that there are no bean balls thrown. Thank you, Margaret, for doing that. Not only are you supporting tbtl, but you. You're running point on keeping everything friendly and everything in the spirit of competition for these Major League playoffs.

[Andrew]

Hello, and welcome to Top Story.

[Luke Burbank]

All right, Andrew, just to kind of, I guess, put a bow on this or give some finality to this story I've been telling all week about having this device called a mini split at my house, which is like a heater and cooler, and that, it. It's been giving me problems. Basically, it's brand new, just installed, and when I turned it on the first time, it seemed like it was working. But then after that kind of stopped working, I got these guys out here, some local dudes who I don't want to. I don't want to besmirch both of the guys from Felton's Heating. I want to besmirch two people. But they're just the one guy that was a grumpus. And then whoever Al is over there, those are not. Those were not very nice guys for me to deal with. The one guy was. Was kind of mean and lecturing me and annoyed to be here. And then when they couldn't fix it or figure out even what was wrong with it, and then I called to try to see if they could come back out and work on it and maybe not charge me again for that because they should have diagnosed it in the first place. This guy Al hung up on me. So I called this other company and I was going on about how I felt positive about this other company because the photos of the people that worked there, there, they all seem like they were mostly guys in their 20s. And I had this theory that these are guys that have been raised in their professional life working on these mini split things, which are, I think have really kind of increased in frequency and popularity in, like the last 10 years. And so one of the things I was nervous about, Andrew, was because I bought some of those little booties that you slip over your shoes. I was nervous about. About making those. Making the guys wear booties when they came over because the previous dudes from Felton didn't even ask, didn't take their shoes off. Just tromped up and down the stairs hundreds of times and really put it, put a dent in my new white Berber carpet. Some people would say, why would you pick that color for your stairs, Luke? I don't have a good answer to that, but it looks nice. So anyway, these guys came over. First thing they did, Andrew, when they came in, they're like, hey, do you want us to take our shoes off?

[Andrew]

Hmm.

[Luke Burbank]

I was like, yeah, that. If you don't mind. They said, yeah, no problem.

[Andrew]

Oh, you didn't say or put on these?

[Luke Burbank]

I did. And they said, oh, we'll just take our shoes off. It's no problem. So I said, I have these little slip on things. They're like, nah, this is just as easy. And they were both wearing, like, work boot kind of things, but the kind you can slip on and off, if you know what I mean. So they weren't. They didn't lace.

[Andrew]

Yeah, they're prepared for this.

[Luke Burbank]

Eventually they were prepared for this.

[Andrew]

And I gotta say, as somebody who is not a fan of, like, shoes off off parties or whatever, I actually actively try to avoid hanging out socially like people.

[Luke Burbank]

Thankfully, most people in your friend group aren't shoes off people.

[Andrew]

Well, more than you'd think.

[Luke Burbank]

But anyway, that was the nature of that comment.

[Andrew]

Oh, I see. Yeah, too much of it. But anyway, it gets me out of social jams, I guess. But anyway, all that is to say, I do strongly believe that as a. If you're a professional operation like that and you're going into people's homes with work clothes on, I've never had a person. Maybe we've had some contractors offer to take off their shoes, but usually it's just, like, part of the deal. They just bring the booties. And, like, that is professionalism. That is expected.

[Luke Burbank]

That's one of the times bring the booties has ever been said in that context.

[Andrew]

Sure, yes, absolutely.

[Luke Burbank]

But this was the thing, and I already said this earlier in the show, Andrew, my experience was so positive with these guys. Again, shout out Cole and Julian. I missed Cole's name the first time. I go, is it Colt or Colt? He goes, well, I go by either, because Colt is also kind of a dope name. So if people want to call me Colt, I'm cool with that. I was like, okay, I'll go with Cole. But whatever this is. This was the vibe. They show up and they were like, oh, should we take our shoes off? And I was like, well, I got these booties. They go, whatever, we'll just do our shoes off. That was the vibe throughout. And it was making me retroactively so mad at the previous guys, the guys from Felton, because they just didn't even. They. They just. Not at any time did the grumpy guy go, hey, should I take my boots off? Or do you have anything?

[Andrew]

They were mad at you for hiring him.

[Luke Burbank]

The whole time the guy was mad at me for hiring him. And. And by the way, not that you have to say this, but it was like the guys from this other place, the guys that came out yesterday, they. They said, oh, wow, this is really cool house. Did you do this? I go, well, my dad did a lot of it. But, yeah, me and my dad. And they were like, wow, what a view. And I was like, well, thanks for coming out so late, because they. The appointment started very late because I had a busy day. And they were like, listen, man, we're happy to be out here working, looking at this cool view. I was like, this is how this should be going. This should be how these interactions are. And so, sure enough, they sort of got in there, they took the stuff apart, they chased down. They were trying to figure out the problem. By the way, again, they had all of the devices, Andrew, that they needed. To try to figure it out. And without getting too much into the very boring details of this, what eventually we sort of figured out, I think, is that when this thing was shipped from the manufacturer, it's supposed to be charged up with a certain amount of refrigerant. And the refrigerant is. This is so counterintuitive to me, but the refrigerant in this device is both what allows it to pump out cold air and allows it to pump out hot air, which I can't wrap my mind around, but that's how it works. And so it needs to have a certain amount of, like, you know, psi of this refrigerant. And it had none of it. And so after they had tried everything else, after they had checked for leaks, they didn't find any leaks, they said, well, let's just. Let's recharge it. Let's fill it back up with this refrigerant, and we'll see what it does. And they filled it all back up, and it has been working like a charm. Now it's totally fixed. Like, it's. It pumps out super cold air. It pumps out super warm air. It's amazing. Everything is now, I think, gonna be going just great with this. And like, even, like, last night and this morning. So I was running it overnight. I don't sleep upstairs in the house, but I was running it overnight night at, like, 70 degrees, mostly to test it out. This morning, got up, went upstairs to the upstairs area to do something. It was just like. It was great up there. It was like the whole upstairs area, the common area upstairs. It's just like a very nice, comfortable temperature that if you were going out to use the restroom early in the morning, you would feel like you were in a house. And for many, many years that I've had this house, the upstairs did not feel like a house. It felt like a construction zone, just based on temperature and smell and just various things. Okay, so all that is to say, shout out to the guys at Cava.

[Andrew]

What did it end up? I don't know if you feel like saying this, and it's fine if you don't, but we know that for a company to come out, be rude to you, sort of yell at you, and then fix nothing costs $270. What does it cost to have nice people come out and actually do a job?

[Luke Burbank]

It's not cheap, Andrew, to be totally honest with you. But I felt fine about paying. So what they said was. And they were very clear about the whole thing, they said, okay for Us to do a very thorough leak search on this and to source this whole thing. It's $600 now they said and, but, but if we do that then we don't charge you for the diagnostic. So in other words it was going to be like $120 to come out. But that's there, that's folded into the cost of fixing.

[Andrew]

And even their diagnostic is less than half of what other company charge, of course. Wow.

[Luke Burbank]

Because another company sucks.

[Andrew]

How does the other company have. So they only have like five reviews, right? Like four good ones? Like no, maybe they have like six now they have like five, five star reviews and one one star review. Do you think those other five but.

[Luke Burbank]

That one star reviews got heat?

[Andrew]

Yeah, tens are really unlike you. Unlike your upstairs. Do you think that the other ones were sort of plants like people just like.

[Luke Burbank]

No, I think that. I think that basically a lot of people are cucks. And I've read.

[Andrew]

Okay, I said enough.

[Luke Burbank]

I've read the. I read some of those other reviews and they were basically like people who were having some sort of H vac problem at their house. And then this company came out and fixed it and maybe somebody else had not called them back quickly. A lot of the reviews seemed to be like I couldn't find anyone to come work on this. And then these guys came out and they fixed it and it's like, well, well that's what they should do. That's the bare minimum they should come out and fix the problem that you've hired them to fix. So I feel like a lot of. I don't think they're plants. I don't think that every time these folks show up somewhere it's the disaster that it was at my house. I think it was a collision course of things. And I really do think, and I want to again be careful because we have listeners of all ages to this show and I don't want to make this out to be ageist, but I stand by my belief that the really grumpy guy from the first company does not enjoy dealing with the complex electronics of the mini split device. Because what these younger guys said right when they came out, they go. In our experience this is almost always an electronics issue because otherwise it's a fan and it's a metal tube that's gotta have some. Supposed to have some charging some chemicals in it. It. And then it's a fan on the other end. It's a pretty simple mechanical device. The issue is almost always with the electrical. And I just think that these guys Work on this stuff. They literally said to me, yeah, we'll get this fixed. And then they did and now it works. And yeah, I had to pay $600. That doesn't bother me. What bothers me is the 270 that I paid to the other guys to dirty up my carpet and do absolutely nothing. So, you know, and then hang up on you. You and hang up on me. It really did make me want to go back on Yelp and like write like an update or like a.

[Andrew]

Can you write a nice review for this company?

[Luke Burbank]

I do think that I'm writing it right now.

[Andrew]

Yeah, you are. You're working on. I do think that you should.

[Luke Burbank]

No, I'm. This is the review.

[Andrew]

Oh no. But I mean if you're sending it.

[Luke Burbank]

Out to the 10.

[Andrew]

If you're on Yelp and you want people to take your review seriously again, you should kind of remember that like when you have good experiences, you should also spread the love around. And you.

[Luke Burbank]

That's right. That's what I'm gonna do.

[Andrew]

You really should do that. I'm not joking.

[Luke Burbank]

It's a very good call because that's also. That's just like they loved me. Right?

[Andrew]

Oh geez. So you're even writing good reviews out of a sense of like vengeance?

[Luke Burbank]

Oh yeah. I want felt. I want eat your heart out. Felt, eating and cooling like you're kava guys did me. Right?

[Andrew]

You're like the person who finally goes out on like a nice date with somebody who treats them well, but the whole time you just complain about your ex girls.

[Luke Burbank]

If he wanted to, he would. That's a whole side of TikTok that.

[Andrew]

I've stumbled into toxicity with you into your new good relationship.

[Luke Burbank]

No, no, no. I'm not bringing toxicity. I'm appreciating finally be being in a non toxic relationship.

[Andrew]

Right. But if you're, if you keep on obsessing and like over drinks, you know, just kind of like, oh, this is so great. My ex would never bring me to a place.

[Luke Burbank]

I kind of did that. Honestly last night I literally said to the guys from the new place, I said, because I presented them, Andrew, there's just so many, so many beats to this story. So I handed them the paperwork from the previous company. The like basically the report, right? The thing that cost me $270. And the guy reads it and he goes, well, there's no useful information in this.

[Andrew]

Yeah, right.

[Luke Burbank]

He goes, all they said was they came out and they couldn't figure out what it was.

[Andrew]

Yeah.

[Luke Burbank]

And like I Said, yeah, I know, they sucked. And I go, and I think this is generational. I go, I. I go. Because first I dealt with this technician who was really mad to be here, and then I talked to his boss who was also really mad to be talking to me about this, this. And I go, I have a theory. They go, we work on this stuff all the time. And I go, yeah, I have a feeling this is generational. So.

[Andrew]

But they think that theory because, I.

[Luke Burbank]

Mean, they were non committal because again, they're professionals. They were not like, have a professional who.

[Andrew]

That's the one thing about what you're saying that I would at least like to personally distance myself from, because people always will assume that the shit you say that I also stand by. I just think that there are. In other areas, there are plenty of people who are older in the workforce who keep up with technology. I think that you ended up. Absolutely, you ended up with people, people who didn't want to learn. But I don't, I don't. I would be uncomfortable saying that. It's. This is a sign of the generation. I think this is a sign of these particular people not keeping, not doing a good job and keeping up with what they need to keep up with in their industry.

[Luke Burbank]

I am not trying to say that all people over a certain age are brittle and stuck in their ways. And in fact, what I would say is if someone is listening to this show right now, and you are a person who is maybe considerably older than Andrew and I are, you are by definition a person who is still growing, learning, in flux. Like, you're exactly the kind of person that we want listening to the show and that I want to be friends with. You're right. Unfortunately, ran into a person who was not part of that and then turns out his boss, it turns out a fish stinks from the head. Yeah, his boss was also somebody who was not interested in, first of all, considering the fact that maybe I was provided with less than great service and it really came from a blame the customer kind of mentality. I'm not trying to say I think this is both, in this particular case, generational and it is not. Also not. It is not instructive in like how all people are at all times based on their ages. I want to be very clear about that, but I also want to be.

[Andrew]

Very clear because those people could write a review on our Yelp page saying that we're ageist. Luke, I don't want that.

[Luke Burbank]

If I get a, If I get a, A Yelp review from Doug s saying that TBTL has become ageist. I. I'm going to be very, very angry about that. So anyway, all is well. That is. Has ended well. And. And this morning, Andrew, when I walked around upstairs and again it. Between the new carpet smell. This is why, by the way, you and Genevieve should really. Should really jump on that project that you. Although you're not. Are you talking about putting in hardwood down or some kind of a engineered flooring or are you talking about putting new carpet in down?

[Andrew]

No. Like a lamp laminate, probably.

[Luke Burbank]

Okay. Yeah. Well, that would exactly find.

[Andrew]

It's hard to find laminates. I'm excited about, though. Every. Ever since we started looking at them and we've looked at. Through various companies, it's just like, what's out there. I. I now have this like, very almost allergic reaction to anything that isn't that gray. That fake. Oh, yeah.

[Luke Burbank]

As well you should.

[Andrew]

That's like. But like, everything is just kind of like if it's not. I don't know, man. You. Well, you know better than. Than. Than I do that this stuff, if you want something that is just slightly better, going to start paying a real premium for it. And now I'm in this mode of. Whenever I'm like, sometimes I'll be in an elevator and I'll look down, I'll be like, oh, they're using this laminate. And like now I just sort of like. I don't know, like, I sort of see bad laminate all over the place now. Oh, yeah. Like in weird places where I'm like, well, I don't want my house to live.

[Luke Burbank]

Isn't he playing the Super Bowl?

[Andrew]

Bad laminate. I mean, so. Yeah. Well, by the way, can I ask a quick question?

[Luke Burbank]

Yeah.

[Andrew]

Bad Bunny, like, I saw like these headlines of the day, Bad Bunny is going to play at the Super Bowl. And then all these pieces like, who is Bad Bunny? And am I having deja vu? I swear. Bad Bunny made an appearance in another super bowl performance at one point, and we already did the whole who is Bad Bunny? Thing. I thought we all knew who Bad Bunny was. Now, did Bad Bunny not make it like a. Didn't he feature in somebody else's super bowl appearance once? Or am I making that up?

[Luke Burbank]

It seems possible. I mean, and it seems to me that it would. I mean, let's think of some of the.

[Andrew]

He didn't come out with the Weeknd. I think the Weeknd did a totally solo, which I kind of like. Like, and I think it's kind of cool sometimes I thought The Compton super bowl halftime show was really cool, Kendra. You just all. You had 57. They had all kinds of people coming out, obviously Dre and Snoop and everything. And so that was cool. But then sometimes it seems like it's a little bit too much. It's like, why? Well, you know, and then this becomes.

[Luke Burbank]

Kind of like this. Like we're going to run every famous person on, onto and off of the stage that we can think of.

[Andrew]

Yeah, Kendrick was cool, of course, with his. With his couple of cameos in there. But the weekend, I got to give him credit, and I think Katy Perry were just kind of like, no, this is show. We're going to do it solo. Which I kind of thought was cool.

[Luke Burbank]

But it's amazing that Katy Perry jumped.

[Andrew]

She.

[Luke Burbank]

She know, allegedly like ziplined or she did like a crazy dive off of the kind of roof of the stadium. And then they cut to her. Remember, that was how it began.

[Andrew]

No, I didn't remember that.

[Luke Burbank]

She was just trying to get ever closer to space. And then to find out that that would be the undoing of her career stayed at the level of the arena.

[Andrew]

The undoing of her career was the God awful song that she produced with Dr. I almost said Dr. Nick was a Dr. Luke. That came out right before all of that. That was just like an absurd parody of Girl Power is so gross.

[Luke Burbank]

By the way, the. The AI overview says no, Bad Bunny has not performed at a past Super Bowl.

[Andrew]

I feel like Bad Bunny had some very high. I don't know, I was just maybe a little bit annoyed. I just sort of felt like we'd already done.

[Luke Burbank]

Oh, really? You didn't like the discourse of a bunch of right wingers saying that we shouldn't have. Have Bad Bunny play the Super.

[Andrew]

I didn't even get that deep into it, although that doesn't shock me either. But I just sort of thought we all knew because I. Isn't he like one of the biggest names in the world now? Don't get me wrong, I can't name any songs. It's not, you know, I'm not deep into. Into that kind of music, but I just. I thought that in 2025 we didn't have to do explainers, but I guess we do.

[Luke Burbank]

I. I'm. My main experience with Bad Bunny is he's in Corona ads and he's now on SNL all the time. Oh, really?

[Andrew]

Really?

[Luke Burbank]

Yeah, because he's like, the thing with him is for being this like, international music star, he's also very funny. Like, he has a really Good. He's very self aware and they love putting him in snl. Like, I think he was the musical performance on snl. Maybe he was the host and the musical performer, but he's been great on that show. So I see him in bits on that show and he's always very funny. Also, I could. I'm sure that I've heard ten Bad Bunny songs and know them, you know, from the radio and also couldn't tell you the names of any of them. And also couldn't possibly be less upset that he's playing the super bowl halftime show.

[Andrew]

Oh, yeah.

[Luke Burbank]

Good for you. Know what I mean? It's like cool. Like I don't have to know every song by the. By the person who's playing or I have to know them by name. It'll be a fun show and I'll watch it and it's great. Like, you got to get up pretty early to be mad about Bad Bunny being the Super. Super Bowl. That was a thing this week though, of course, because it's like for a certain set of folks, it's. I almost grabbed this. Like I told you yesterday, my tick tock feed was constant, constant. One battle after another, people just walking out of the theater, trying to process it. Kind of amateur film reviewers, which I guess is also what we are to a degree, although we're getting paid for this, I guess you could say we're professional film reviewers.

[Andrew]

I'm not putting that on my resume, but okay.

[Luke Burbank]

But then there was just one guy who, like, I don't want to stereotype, but just like, right when I saw him, I was like, I don't think this guy's gonna have liked that movie. And his post had like 4 likes or something. He's not somebody who's big in the culture, but he's just like, you know, a white guy who looked a certain way and was just like, I don't know what everyone's saying about this movie. I thought it's one of the worst movies I'd ever seen. I was like, I just didn't. And then the funny part, I almost sent it to you as intro tape because the funny part was, was like he couldn't put into words what he didn't like about the movie. Like, why would you. I'm getting, I'm kind of getting on thin ice here because I feel like we do this or I do this on the show sometimes, which is, why would I decide to talk about sports or a film or something when I don't necessarily have the exact language to do it. But like, this guy was just like, wanted to post this film review, but also couldn't in any way elucidate why he didn't like the movie. And I was like, I got an idea. There was too many black people in it for you. Like, this is probably why you didn't like this movie, because you didn't get it. And you also didn't like that it was a lot of non white people who had important roles in the film. Like, that would be my guess for this particular reviewer. Like, that's. And that's also. I feel what the pushback on Bad Bunny is. It's like, oh, it's not Kid Rock. They couldn't get Kid Rock to do it.

[Andrew]

I gotta say that that's what's been going on in the back of my mind a little bit before. I thought you were gonna say. What you actually said, I think a moment ago is, why would you be mad that Bad Bunny is playing the super bowl halftime show? I thought, what? You're gonna be mad about anybody playing the super bowl halftime show? And you didn't say that. But it made me question myself. I'm like, oh, there are. Because in a certain way it's like, yeah, who gives a shit? But then I'm like, oh, wait, no, there are things like there. I, I realized something the other day. I heard some, like, country music playing somewhere and it wasn't like it. You know, like, obviously the, the. The. The whole of country music is so diverse. There's so many different kinds. And there are time. There are kinds that you and I like and things that are maybe a little bit influenced by country music, but maybe wouldn't. Would be more like Americana or whatever, but you know, obviously old classic country. Like, I like some stuff. I don't want to be that person who's like, I like everything except for rap and country, which is something I heard a lot growing up in the 90s, right. I don't want to be that guy. But I will say that, like, and I'm just being honest here, I'm not saying it's right, but like, there is a certain kind of like, I'm going to say modern country music, but really going back decades now, that sort of just embraces idiocy in a way that just hearing the very sound of it. I don't know if you can hear that, but that is the woke police coming from in.

[Luke Burbank]

I was just going to say, dude.

[Andrew]

Did you hear that through the.

[Luke Burbank]

That's the cancel police. And they're coming For.

[Andrew]

Yeah, that's right. But anyway, it is. I guess I could say, if you want to use the derogatory term, like, sometimes. I guess I am quote unquote, triggered when I just hear some idiotic country song about, like, this is why I hate cities or just whatever, you know, and it's just kind of like, ugh. And I guess part of me would be mad if, like, if kid. Well, part of me, I would be mad if Kid Rock were headlining the super bowl this year. So I guess I can't pretend like I'm better than that to have feelings about it.

[Luke Burbank]

But there are people who. And again, I just. I just said that. I don't know. I couldn't tell you the names of Bad Bunny's songs. So I guess I. I'm sort of flying blind here a little bit. But, like, there I am guessing that there. First of all, I'm guessing that Bad Bunny has never been recorded late at night yelling racist things the way Morgan Wallen has been the number one country artist going. I mean, a guy was caught on camera yelling the N word repeatedly at his neighbors when drunk and just continue so there. If you want to know about Cancel Culture, just understand that Morgan Wallen is the most popular country music artist in America and is on tape yelling, it's.

[Andrew]

A white guy, by the way.

[Luke Burbank]

Just point that out. Yelling the N word. My guess is that Bad Bunny has never done that or whatever the. The, like. I don't know Bad Bunny's politics. I know he's from Puerto Rico, and that itself is like a political statement at this point because of the way that we've absolutely mistreated Puerto Rican Americans. And so my guess would be. And I'm totally guessing here, my guess would be that Bad Bunny's politics are to the left of Morgan Wallen's. But I also. What I would say is that there are plenty of. The reason that I think we would be triggered by putting Kid Rock rock in the super bowl halftime show is because Kid Rock, among other things, set up a bunch of cans of Bud Light and demolished them with an AK47.

[Andrew]

Because the company did a promo with a trans person. Right? Like, that's the thing that always bugs me. Is it never. I don't understand what anybody was mad.

[Luke Burbank]

Dylan. Dylan. What is it, Mulvaney? Wait, no. Is that the. Anyway, sent. Yeah, sent that trans influencer a can of Bud Light.

[Andrew]

It's not like. It's like if you wanted a. That's what I always. I really always thought I missed something about this story, but I don't think I miss anything. It's just hatred. It's like, it's not like for a.

[Luke Burbank]

Month was Dylan Mulvaney.

[Andrew]

By the way, nice job. It's like for a month the only Bud Light you could get would be in some Pride wrapped can. And even if it was like, who cares? Rainbows are cool. But like, but like, you know what I mean, it's not kind of like, hey, we've turned all of our beer pink for a month. Like, it just didn't affect the, it didn't affect the purchaser's experience in any way. There was just some other promotional thing that was happening in a totally different part of the culture. That's what always. I always felt like, what am I missing? But the thing is, you're not missing anything. It doesn't make sense. And trying to make sense of it is just going to drive you even more batty.

[Luke Burbank]

And the thing is, I don't. To my mind and my understanding, Bad Bunny has never like set up a bunch of, you know, I'll use. I've been referencing this company a lot lately, but like Black Rifle Coffee Company, right? Because it's like a very conservative coded thing. He's never set up a bunch of cold brew cans of Black Rifle Coffee Company and then shot them up because he doesn't like the politics of that company. Like, so in other words, I do think that Kid Rock is distinct from, from Bad Bunny because Bad Bunny is just a pop star and whatever his politics are his politics. But like, I think being triggered by Bad Bunny is, is so crazy because it's like, I can't think of a reason other than the fact that he's non white that you'd be triggered by that. It's not anything he did. Whereas being triggered by Kid Rock is like, Kid Rock has a long and proud history of just being an absolute goon, you know, and like just like derogatory grade A moron that, that, like it is, you know, that to me that would warrant being like, hey, wait, what? You know, and there he's a friend.

[Andrew]

Of Trump's and he's been in the White House and all those photo ops. So in a certain way it would feel very much like, it would feel very much like the hand of Trump influencing things. Like, I sure'd be a lot of. It's funny you and I are spending all this time on a made up scenario that I brought up. But yeah, no, by the way, 100%.

[Luke Burbank]

Believe that kid Rock has played a super bowl halftime. At least as a. A bit player.

[Andrew]

At least as. As a cameo that Bad Bunny didn't get. I mean, I guess the. And I'm not trying to just like both sides this, but I guess the thing is, if he's bad, why would you deserve to be on the super bowl stage? Yeah.

[Luke Burbank]

Good money. That makes sense.

[Andrew]

Good Bunny makes sense to me, Luke. That's what.

[Luke Burbank]

And that's. That's not a left right issue.

[Andrew]

If I'm trying to like sort of see this from both sides, I can kind of see it's like, yeah, why would you put somebody who's bad on stage for just millions and millions of Americans to enjoy? But maybe, maybe it'll be a learning experience and he'll get better.

[Luke Burbank]

You know, Kid Rock performed as part of the Janet Jackson halftime show.

[Andrew]

Oh, huh. I wonder why that's lost to history.

[Luke Burbank]

Kid Rock performed Ba Widda Ba oh my. And then Cowboy while the Janet Jackson show was. Was going on. Although I don't know if that was the same. I don't.

[Andrew]

Oh, could it be if that.

[Luke Burbank]

Because the Janet Jackson quote unquote issue came along with Justin Timberlake. And my feeling was maybe that was. That was. Has Janet Jackson played more than one Super Bowl?

[Andrew]

But again, not that I know of. Although it could have been one of those things. Where was. Was she the headliner and JT was one of her cameos or was it. I think that it was her. So maybe she just had a whole bunch of people coming out. I don't know.

[Luke Burbank]

Yeah. Who knows? I mean, honestly, I just watched super bowl for the commercials. Andrew, that's that.

[Andrew]

I read it for the articles.

[Luke Burbank]

That's right. Hey, we are. Let's see, we're 84 minutes into the show, give or take. And I think we've been very disciplined today about not fully geeking out about the Mariners. But since we're sort of at the end of the show and I've got a little more time, I've got. I've got another few minutes and I. I do really enjoy when we go long and then people are excited, even if the people are people we work with. John Sklarov put out like a two hour episode. I don't even know if he was excited. I think he was noting it. Poor guy has to listen to these for his job. He's like talking to his wife. He's like, it's gonna be a long day. They went three hours.

[Andrew]

Yeah.

[Luke Burbank]

Shit. It's a lot of stuff for me to sift through, but since we're kind of at the end of the show and we're going into this weekend where, like I said, guess much like when, when, when you were out. But my brother David and I, this was going into the Houston series, we're talking on a Friday and it was a, it was a weird experience because it was like the before times. You know, it's like this is, we are right now in the moments before we know what will happen and on Monday we will be in the moments after we know what happened. And it's weird to think that, like, we could just be so ebullient on Monday or we could just, just be in a dark, dark place or it could be one on one and then we'd be somewhere in the middle. What do you, what do you, what do you think is the most likely scenario for how we're going to be feeling on Monday related to these Seattle Mariners?

[Andrew]

I literally don't know if I can make a prediction. I can tell you like my, I told you this the other day on the show that, like just being a Mariners fan for so long, they're always the underdogs and so I'm just feeling very protective of my feelings right now and that like, and trying to tell myself, hey, listen, if this doesn't get off to a great start, like, it's not the end of the world. I guess I am, I am glad that we're playing Detroit. And again, that's a vibes thing. That's not digging into D2, right? It's not me digging into the numbers or the analysis, but it just feels better to me. For some reason. I think I would feel more anxious about the Guardians coming to town because, just because of our recent, like, literally very recent history with them, how they kind of really messed us up this season. Like, and I'm kind of like, I'm just glad that they're, they're not bringing that energy to T Mobile. We actually had a better record against Detroit, like against all odds. I'm not saying we want to face Scubal again, but we did have his number two time, so it's not a fade accompli that he's going to own us necessarily. So I sort of like that and I do think it's a mental game and so those things are not the worst things for all the players involved to have on their mind on both sides of the ball, you know. So anyway, I'm, I was very happy with the. Sorry Guardians fans, was very happy with the outcome yesterday also knowing that I probably would feel Better rooting for Detroit if they do end up beating us in the long run. That's sort of where I am. But that's not the same sort of, what is the word you're using? Ebullient vibes that you and your brother got to share. And I'm sorry that I can't be more like David.

[Luke Burbank]

Well, no, we, we were both very, very sort of tentative. We were feeling tentatively optimistic, you know what I mean? And that's probably where I am today going into this. I mean, the things that I think are good for us are, that are positive are. I don't think we see Scubal until maybe game three because they're not going to run him out on short rest. So that's kind of good because if we can, if we can, you know, start hot, they may be bringing in Skubal as almost a sort of last, a kind of last ditch effort to try to, you know, so we don't have to go in against their very arrested Cy Young level pitcher. Game one. That's always really stressful. And so the idea that we don't have to really cross that bridge for a couple of games is positive. Here's what I also think. I think that this is why this Mariners team to me is different than previous playoff teams we've had and also why, why I feel pretty good about our chances is because it is. I don't see this being Cal Raleigh is going to hit five home runs and the Mariners are going to, you know, be triumphant because Cal Raleigh is just grand slamming left and right and 360 slam dunk pointering. We have like this could be Dominic Canzone Hero Series. Like this could be like, you know, Victor Roblest just gets hot.

[Andrew]

Did you hear that he ran with the salmon during the, the scrimmage game they played a couple of days ago. You know, I don't like that really they're playing. I, I haven't seen it yet.

[Luke Burbank]

I don't know. Please don't do any extra physical. I mean, I like it from its fun standpoint. I, I, I worry, I want, I want Victor Robles at full, at absolute full, you know, health, etc.

[Andrew]

Well, he threw, he threw his bat at the King at the, yeah, he's.

[Luke Burbank]

Been suspended for his community services. He has to go to Pike's Place Market and catch salmon for one afternoon.

[Andrew]

Pike's Places Market.

[Luke Burbank]

I feel like the, here's what I like about this, this team is that it doesn't have to be Cal Raleigh Hero Series. It doesn't have to be even Julio Rodriguez hero series. We have now enough weapons that I just feel like I'm not going to be. Every single time, every single time Julio comes to the point plate, I'm not going to be just like freaking out if he doesn't have a great at bat, because I feel like someone else might have a great at bat. Like, you know, that's, that's. We've. For so long we've only had like maybe one or two offensive weapons that it's like, if those two folks aren't hitting well, we're just. We're in so much trouble. And I don't feel like that's. I also think that. I feel like that Houston series was transformative to this team, to the, to the. How they think of themselves, to their ability to operate under pressure. Like, I just think. I think something shifted fundamentally in this team and in me, certainly as a fan, where I'm not going into this super duper scared. I feel like the Mariners are a better team on paper than a lot of the teams they're going to play in the playoffs. And I think we're going to win this series. And I. And I hope the next series. Now here is my hottest take, Andrew. And I've carefully buried this 90 minutes into the program.

[Andrew]

You think they're too old?

[Luke Burbank]

You know how the Mariners had a scrimmage? Had a couple of scrimmages.

[Andrew]

Yeah. I didn't really follow it much beyond the robless running with the salmon.

[Luke Burbank]

Well, I. I saw like on the Internet, everybody was really excited because Ichiro played in it and he made a catch and he did the no fly zone thing.

[Andrew]

Oh, he did. I didn't see that.

[Luke Burbank]

We love Ichiro being funny, but here's the thing.

[Andrew]

Yeah.

[Luke Burbank]

It'S a little thirsty. Has anybody told each row he doesn't play for the team?

[Andrew]

I thought you were gonna go. I thought this was gonna be. I thought this was gonna be a takedown. This is an Ichiro takedown. This is.

[Luke Burbank]

I. I worry for. Like, we've pointed out the fact that Ichiro appears to still be suiting up every day and going and doing drills.

[Andrew]

I'm guessing he sleeps in his uniform.

[Luke Burbank]

Years, years after he retired from professional baseball. And I just. And now it's like he can't play for the team anymore because he's retired. And I don't think probably he's operating at the level of a major league ball player. But then it's like they're doing a scrimmage and he's out there playing. Play. He's out. Do you see this guy? He's out there playing. I'm at the Riyadh. I'm Savannah Sebastian Maniscalco at the Riyadh Comedy Festival. You see this guy? See this he tr. Guy. He's out there playing. Like.

[Andrew]

I feel like one of the people who's doing that.

[Luke Burbank]

Really?

[Andrew]

Yeah.

[Luke Burbank]

You see these. You see these murderous regimes that did 9 11.

[Andrew]

I knew that there are a lot of people were mad at a lot of comedians for doing that. I did not have Sebastian on that list. I hadn't seen the.

[Luke Burbank]

You know, the one that really bums me out is Bill Burr.

[Andrew]

Oh, because of the. Just the First Amendment warrior of the whole thing?

[Luke Burbank]

No, because I feel like Bill Burr is. I feel like he does actually have a moral compass. Bill Burr is somebody who's very. No nonsense. He's very Boston coded. But he also. And he probably says a lot of things I don't agree with, but he also says a lot of things I do agree with. And he's not like, I feel like he's on the right side of a lot of large issues. And. And he's not really worried about, I don't know, the repercussions of saying that. Whether it's about Trump or other people. Like, I don't know. I think of Bill Burr as somebody who actually has, you know, who says that they were offered a spot there and I believe this very much so. And they turned it down. And then the people came back and doubled the money. He turned it down again. Is Shane Gillis.

[Andrew]

Oh, really? Really?

[Luke Burbank]

Shane Gillis.

[Andrew]

Okay. I get a. I will not. Of the hat. I don't know if you not have.

[Luke Burbank]

Tip of the cap.

[Andrew]

Tip of the cap, Absolutely.

[Luke Burbank]

He. He, you know, obviously was pulled from SNL because of stuff he said on his podcast. And it's, you know, he's. He's sort of. He's Trump adjacent in that I don't think he's a Trump fan. But he also is not put off by Trump enough. He kind of thinks the whole thing is funny, which I find to be a. Kind of a dangerous worldview, actually. But to his credit, you know, he didn't. He's not in the Riyadh Comedy Festival right now.

[Andrew]

And I truly believe that they would try to get him. He is a. He would be the name to get, or one of the biggest names to get. It's not like some mid level comedian who's like, well, they doubled the money and I didn't take it you're like, really? I could use the receipts there, buddy.

[Luke Burbank]

I would imagine that like Nate Bargetzi was at the top of their list. And I don't have this on any kind of official whatever documentation, but if you're going with like stand up comedians that are very huge in the. In the zeitgeist, it's like he's big right now and Shane Gillis is really big. And you'd imagine they would go after those people. People. Marc Maron has been kind of one of the leading. And also, by the way, David Cross released, I thought, just an absolutely great sort of statement on this whole thing.

[Andrew]

Oh, yeah. Oh, I'll probably end the tiki talks and I'll tell.

[Luke Burbank]

I think it was a written statement. David Cross on Riyadh Film Fest. You know, I was sort of mad at David Cross when he got like, when people were slamming him about being in like Alvin and the Chipmunks three Chipwrecked. And then he wrote like people were just kind of roasting him because it was like, what a. What an artistically bereft project. And his response was, it bought me a My weekend house.

[Andrew]

Yeah. Yeah. You didn't like that? I always thought that was kind of funny.

[Luke Burbank]

I kind of didn't like it because I kind of thought like, I mean, I may have to revisit what the actual thing was. But like, my thing with David Cross has always been, I think he's one of the funniest people I've ever seen in. When he's performing in things. Whether it's Mr. Show or Arrested Development or a lot of other things. Things. I have found him as a person in the world to be kind of hard to deal with. Like, I don't know him. I've never met him, but he just. He seems a little bit prickly to me.

[Andrew]

He seems like a difficult person, certainly as part of this whole thing.

[Luke Burbank]

Yeah, but. And so when he was. When he was responding to people that were roasting him about Chipwreck at that time, I was thinking, David Cross, kind of difficult person. But now that he's roasting the people that did the. The Riyadh Comedy Festival of all, which, by the way, let me just run through this really quick. I can't believe this is such a dangerous game for me to try to do this visually because I don't know everyone's name, but some of the. I'm looking at the poster for the Riyadh.

[Andrew]

That was my problem, Luke. The poster didn't have names. It only had faces And I saw all these people reacting, and I was kind of like, I can't really follow this conversation because I don't know who a lot of these faces are, but I recognize their names.

[Luke Burbank]

Well, it looks like it's got Tom Segura in it. Pete Davidson, Sam Morel. Now, there's a guy named Nimesh Patel who's on the poster, but who pulled out of it. And I saw him doing a bit about how he pulled out of it, which is like, hey, high five to you, my friend.

[Andrew]

Can I jump in, though? Because you mentioned Pete Davidson and I saw a lot of criticism there, and I'm not even. I'm not necessarily putting myself behind this because I didn't even know this, but I just saw a lot of people saying that Pete Davidson talks a lot about how he lost a family member, possibly a dad, in the 9 11.

[Luke Burbank]

His dad. His father was in 9 11.

[Andrew]

And so people were especially kind of appalled to see that he was going, yeah.

[Luke Burbank]

I mean, again, here's what I would say if anybody gets to make their decision.

[Andrew]

Yeah.

[Luke Burbank]

About this. It's somebody who lost their dad in 911. Like, I'll.

[Andrew]

Yeah. That's why I sort of said I'm not co signing that. That was just part of the conversation that I had been hearing.

[Luke Burbank]

Totally. But then it's just like, you know, it just. It's like, Chappelle is going to be there. Aiz Ansari, Chris Destefano, the guys from the Bad Friends pod, which is like Andrew Santino and Bobby Lee, Bill Burr, as I mentioned, Jo Koy, the pride of Tacoma, Washington, Russell Peters, who's like a. But Andrew, I'm doing this, by the way, by face. I want to be clear. This is messed up. Why do I know all of these people's faces this closely?

[Andrew]

Good for you. Because I did not.

[Luke Burbank]

Sebastian Maniscalco will be there. My buddy from. Wait, Wait. Maz Jobrani will be there, which here's the thing. I don't. How do I. How do I put this carefully? It makes a lot more sense to me that Mazda Brownie would do it than Kevin Hart, who's also going to be there. And the difference is, like, Kevin Hart is probably almost a billionaire and as is probably Dave Chappelle at this point. And like, I don't want to count other people's money, but it's like, you don't have to. As I think maybe Mark actually might have been. What David Cross said basically, like, is, oh, yeah, here. So David Cross says, I'm Disgusted and deeply disappointed in this whole gross thing that people that I admire with inarguable talent would condone this totalitarian fiefdom for what? A fourth house? A boat? More sneakers? That's the thing. Like so many of the people on this list are because of the weird rise of stand up comedy, because of the Internet. Like if you're Sebastian Maniscalco, you have gone from being somebody who was probably barely eking along 10 years ago to like, you make, I don't know, $100 million a year doing stand up comedy stadium tours or arena tours. Like the amount of money that is now in play for the top 1% of standup comics is just absolutely stunning. And it means that you do not have to go to Saudi Arabia to put food on your table. Whereas I know Maz pretty well. I love Moz. Maz is more of what I would say is a sort of a working community comedian. And like if I'm Maz and I've got a family and I'm offered a life changing amount of money to go do a performance and I look and I see. Well, and also, by the way, Chappelle's doing it and a bunch of other people who, I think David Cross put it well, comedically, he admires them. There's a bunch of people on this list that I really like their comedy. But if I'm Maz, I look at this and I go, I'm going to take some heat over this. But I'm also going to, I'm going to pay for my kids college for one night. That to me is a compelling argument. If I'm Kevin Hart, what's the compelling argument for Kevin Hart to do this?

[Andrew]

Like, but for me it's not even, I mean, I'm with you on that, but for me it's the First Amendment warriors that really drive me crazy. Because it's public knowledge that there's a list of things you can't talk about. Like there's so much controlling over what you're allowed to say. And, and it always irks me in Saudi Arabia, in this Saudi Arabia gig.

[Luke Burbank]

This particular reaction, I don't think I even knew that. I sort of assumed.

[Andrew]

And when you have the Bill Burrs and all these people who have, who really seem to subscribe to this thing that I don't necessarily believe, but that, that, that standup comedy is the last bastion of, of, of like holding people's feet to the fire and holding everybody accountable and not falling for just wokeness. But we can say, we can say Whatever we want. We can make rape jokes up and down the aisle. I don't know why you up and down the aisle, but, you know, because, because it's so important. It's almost like we. There are some people who think that like, the standup comedians are the true warriors or like the true heroes way more than journalists when we still had journalism in this country, you know, like, it's kind of. And I've always cringed at that. I'm like, you yourself, your sense of self importance is way too big here. You don't have a blank check to say anything about anybody at any time. Because sometimes you make people laugh. Like, I really hate that. So sort of inflated sense of self importance. And to see these people very quickly saying, like, oh, you want me to not say some things, but you're going to write me a huge ass check. Oh, absolutely, I'll sign the bottom line there. That's what really galls me.

[Luke Burbank]

This is so depressing. Andrew, I'm reading the New York Times write up of the Riyadh Comedy Festival, which maybe because of time differences or something, it's like already happened. I don't know, it's very confusing. But this is from the Times. This is Ismail Naar and Erika Solomon writing about Dave Chappelle's set. This is the quote from Dave Chappelle. This is on stage in Saudi Arabia right now in America. They say that if you talk about Charlie Kirk, you'll get canceled. The comedian Dave Chappelle quipped on Saturday at the Riyadh Comedy Festival, the first event of its kind in Saudi Arabia. I don't know if that's true, but I'm gonna find, find out. A headline act. Mr. Chappelle was met with whoops and cheers and applause as he told an audience of 6,000 people, it's easier to talk here than it is in America.

[Andrew]

Oh, my God.

[Luke Burbank]

That's just that, that might, that might have to end my, my relationship with Dave Chappelle's comedy. You know, like, just as a cons, just as a consumer of it or whatever, as a, as a watcher of it, as an observer of it. Because that, that is one of the dumbest things I've ever heard anyone say in my life. Like, it is. Is Dave Chappelle of the opinion that there is more free speech in Saudi Arabia than there is in America? Is he truly of that opinion? Because if he is of that opinion, he is, he's so wrong and he is so unbelievably dumb. I cannot, I just can't like, just his law.

[Andrew]

Through his own, like, fame and like, wit, he's lost. He's lost a view of reality.

[Luke Burbank]

Yes. Has become untethered from reality. The hot air balloon that is Dave Chappelle is unmoored from those ropes and stakes that were pounded into that state fair grassy field, and he's now floating in just complete bullshit land. Like, the fact that, I mean, I don't have to remind everyone of the fact that Saudi Arabia killed and dismembered Jamal Khashog Yogi and that there are comedians in Saudi Arabia who have been killed and disappeared for making fun of the ruling regime there. Also, if you are a LGBTQ person and you literally say anything, you can be imprisoned and killed for existing. Like, the idea that Dave Chappelle would say that is so just really bums me out of my core. I don't know why that bums me out so much, but I am not, like, I haven't been, like, the world's biggest Dave Chappelle, Stan. In fact, honestly, like, even when the Chappelle show, when everybody was worshiping at the altar of the Chappelle Show, I always remember thinking, there are some funny sketches. But it never, it was. I was never quite at the front of the line of people that were, you know, obsessed with him and his comedy the way some folks were. And then his standup. I've always thought it's interesting, his approach to it. It's not been the stuff that I've been the most taken by comedic. But all that to say, for some reason, I feel very let down that he said that in Saudi Arabia and that.

[Andrew]

And boy, I'm just trying to fact check myself on the fly about list of banned topics. I want to make sure that that's true before we end the show.

[Luke Burbank]

Yeah. This is what brought me to that.

[Andrew]

Did you? Did. Can you confirm it? Because I want to say, though, in my poking around here, I'm seeing that that is the headline now, Dave Chappelle, if you type in Riyadh like that is the main headline now, and that is going to be quoted by knuckle dragging idiots. Have you found any, any indication that anything I said about this list of banned topics actually exists? Or am I just like, I gotta get off a blue sky?

[Luke Burbank]

Well, that too, but. But unrelated to this. Yeah. The Riyadh Comedy Film Festival, or comedy festival rather, has strict speech restrictions that prohibit performers from making jokes critical of Saudi Arabia, the royal family, or religion. Okay, well, comedians invited to the festival reportedly must adhere to these content restrictions as part of their content contract. Well, There goes my 12 minutes on Saudi Arabia that I was going to do that I used to close with. I'm sure that these meetings that some.

[Andrew]

Princes drive like this, but other princes drive like they're right. We're so lame.

[Luke Burbank]

Feels good to laugh.

[Andrew]

So, anyway, Mariners. How do we end up on that.

[Luke Burbank]

If the Mariners are 2 and 0 on Monday? It means that the. It means. Means that. Actually, you know what? Here's one thing that I want to end on. I want to prophesy something really, really fun for the weekend that I really hope happens. And it's unrelated to the Riyadh Comedy Festival. I would love to see a moment. If the Seahawks score a touchdown. I would love their. And they will. Against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. I would love their celly, as we now call it, to be the Mariners happy dance. I think that would be. That would be. I love these moments where you have an. And I give Mike McDonald, our football coach, real credit. He's like. They were like, well, you might have to move your game on Sunday. He was like, okay, cool. I'm stoked that we have a lot of fun sports happening in this town this week. I love it when it's like one of those. It's like a superhero movie where there's a crossover. I love the idea of the Seahawks rooting for the Mariners and the Mariners rooting for the Seahawks, but so look for it. Let's see if they got them memo to do the. I know you don't like the Mariner happy dance, but put that aside.

[Andrew]

Oh, you know that. Because you know what I was wrote. I was writing down here because I don't. I don't disagree with what you're saying. If the Seahawks did it, I think that would be a different thing. But I was. I said, I don't even want to say this on the show, but I was writing down that sentence as a deep, dark secret of mine that I don't like the happy dance.

[Luke Burbank]

No, I don't. Listen, I'm the one that said that Ichiro needs to hang it up.

[Andrew]

I. Yeah. Oh, by the way, I got the.

[Luke Burbank]

Hotter take than you today.

[Andrew]

How did we. I can't figure out how we got into Riyadh. But, like, you were. You were saying that. And I gotta say, I'm not somebody who hold. Who holds these former Mariners who sort of enshrines them in this certain way. Like, I'm the one who, like, I mean, honestly. And again, I feel bad saying this. Like, I don't want Felix Hernandez anywhere near this series. I do not want to celebrate him. I know that he's a Mariner great. I know that he kind of got screwed his. But his entire tenure seemed cursed. That we had the best pitcher in baseball during a time when we had absolutely no offense. And, like, because of that, that has. And, like, he just seems to bring such bad luck to the club. Like, I did not want to see any. So, anyway, I'm saying that to say I'm not just, like, reacting to your Ichiro thing, because I think that we need to, like, celebrate all things Mariners pass.

[Luke Burbank]

Right, right, right. But you genuinely feel that way about Ichiro, but you're willing to go to the mat on saying Felix is a Jonah and we got to throw him out.

[Andrew]

I mean, I. I'm. I. I just think that the Ichiro thing is kind of fun and cute, and I just take it for what it is and then. And that he is unlike anybody else in the world when it comes to his relationship to baseball. And he's.

[Luke Burbank]

I just worry for him. I worry that he's okay.

[Andrew]

I feel like he's never been okay, though. He's never been okay.

[Luke Burbank]

That's a very good point in terms of his singular dedication. Okay, I got to get out of here. Andrew. And I'm sure the listeners have had quite enough of this today, so I say we go ahead and call that good for today's episode and for our broadcast week. Thank you so much, everyone, everyone, for spending this time with us. We are going to be back here on Monday with more imaginary radio for you, so please do join us for that. In the meantime, have a great weekend. Take care of yourselves. Go Mariners. And please remember, no mountain too tall.

[Andrew]

And good luck to all. I'm going to check out Buff streams. Luke, maybe Buff streams.

[Luke Burbank]

They're goosing. Andrew, they're goosing.

[Andrew]

Power out.