The Chat
The Chat
#33 Robert Takes On The Cigarette Butt Baron
Chatting about Christopher Nolan, the genius behind the films like 'Following', 'Insomnia', and 'Memento', diving into the depth and layers of his narratives. It's not just about the films, we also explore how his creations stand apart from modern cinematic norms.
Shifting gears from Nolan's cinematic world, we delve into the changing landscape of Hollywood. (Carlos wonders what the hell its all about) Ever thought about how streaming services have disrupted traditional compensation models for writers? Or, how the quest for storytelling sometimes ends up in unsatisfying endings? We draw parallels between modern comedic TV shows and the timeless 'I Love Lucy'. Also, come laugh with us as we discuss the unique style of standup comedy and the comedic genius of Nate Bargatze.
Finally, Robert tells us about his family trip along the East Coast. (FAIR WARNING: he's got choice words for Asheville). From exploring the beauty of Asheville, North Carolina, to the culinary delights of Charleston, South Carolina, we share our experiences and reflections. We also tackle some serious issues, addressing addiction and the responsibility that comes with dealing with substance abuse.
Check out Robert's books HERE and Carlos's books HERE.
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And we're here and we're back back. It's been a while and I want to talk about all of the stuff that's gone on since we've left. But can I make a confession real quick? Sure, I've bought 22 books in the last 30 days. What are you buying? I just keep buying stuff. I something will catch my eye and I'm like I'll, I'll buy it. Like I bought this one called Beatrice's Last Smile that was recommended by one of these history podcast guys. It's a history of the Middle Ages. It's like 500 pages long. When am I gonna read it? I don't know, but it sounds great. I couldn't resist. I bought. I bought, like the Oppenheimer biography. I bought the. You know what else do they get? I got Gibbons decline and fall of the Roman Empire. I mean, I got a Coolidge biography History of the classical world at Costco the other night. I have a problem, carlos. I'm an addict.
Speaker 2:What it what is that? I'm seeing Crusade. Other voices, volume one. What's all that stuff?
Speaker 1:okay, so those are insider books on the Babylon 5. The TV show had a spin-off very short-lived, like 13 episodes called Crusade, and they produced more Material about behind-the-scenes with the scripts and whatnot, and that's what those are. So it's like a six-volume set of all of that stuff. Every single script from the show, all of the behind-the-scenes tales, all that fun stuff. I have a whole set over there of all the Babylon 5 scripts.
Speaker 2:That's the black Binding have you read them all?
Speaker 1:No, I've like read the behind-the-scenes stuff, but I haven't read the individual scripts. I do want to read them at some point. It's just they're scripts, it's not super engaging stuff.
Speaker 2:I do love scripts. I mean, you know cuz that's, that's what I was gonna do.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so I was doing the screenwriting.
Speaker 2:Yeah, to me it's. It's really interesting because it's Compared to what we do, yeah, it's a lot more vanilla. In fact I was listening to some podcasts, they were talking about that. He was a all-centered around Christopher Nolan. Yeah, and Christopher Nolan is apparently like look just the, the, the screenplays, just a shell, like the rest of it is where you make the magic right that you're. You're just getting the, the skeleton out there and then putting the meat and the muscles and everything else when you actually do the Video shoot, yeah, which, by the way, did you hear? We've got a friend, did you know? So Nolan is a big, you know film.
Speaker 1:Just I know this, for Nolan is huge buff.
Speaker 2:I'm a huge fan. So did you know that they've got a like Like real film, like real real tape film or whatever they they call it that is traveling around the country of Oppenheimer and you can see it like on real film. So they're playing at the IMAX at Opera Mills.
Speaker 1:Yeah, there are a few. There are like 16 locations in the entire US that have the proper screen where Nolan says you will see the full, real version of it, and opera Mills is one of the 16. Do you nerd out with that kind of stuff? I want to go so bad, but like I can't really. I mean number one opera Mills is like 40 minutes away. Number two it's a three-hour movie. Yeah, so by the time I get done getting there watching the movie and getting back, that's like five hours out of my day or something ridiculous like that time.
Speaker 1:It's a lot, and I mean especially right now. The wife's out of town for like 10 days, and so I mean, if I get a call from the school, one of my kids is sick, I you know what am I gonna do? Leave in the middle of Oppenheimer, whoops.
Speaker 2:So unfortunately.
Speaker 1:I apologize, christopher Nolan, I'm gonna have to wait till it comes to home theater and just watch it on my 86 inch screen With the theater. I need to go back through his movies again.
Speaker 2:Dude, his movies are sweet. Yeah, because I'd kind of forgotten, until I listen to that podcast, how many amazing movies he's. He hasn't made a lot of movies, but the ones he's made they're all quality, amazing.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean he did what he opened with me, minto. I think he had another movie before that called following. I haven't seen that. I should see that, the short one. I don't know how long it is. It's a movie about a stalker or something.
Speaker 2:I yeah and that was like a.
Speaker 1:That was his first foray, I think, in the film there were some short ones before that, but yeah, memento is like the first one he really broke out with, and then insomnia, which was a remake of right what we do.
Speaker 2:You know movie.
Speaker 1:Yeah, pacino and Robin Williams. Oh right in Hillary Swank I.
Speaker 2:Forgot you was in it. Yeah, she's really good in it too. I totally forgot about that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that actually I really love that movie.
Speaker 2:It's a it's a really kind of slow burn thriller in I don't think I was in, I don't think I was in the right Mindset when.
Speaker 1:I watch that. I need to go back because I mean I'm fans of all of them.
Speaker 1:Well, it's one of the things where it was. It seemed underwhelming at first, but upon subsequent views I was like dang, this is actually just really good. Yeah, and especially if you view it in context of like against anything that's made today, you'll be like, oh, this movie is excellent Really. Oh yeah, it's a fantastic thriller. It flips the noir thing kind of on its head, because you know, in a typical noir film, detective story, it's like it's dark, it's moody, it's atmospheric, like Sin City. Yeah, this is in Alaska in the summertime when there is no darkness, huh. So it's like it flips the visual image on its head.
Speaker 2:It's really good, I was up there. I totally forgot I was in.
Speaker 1:Alaska. Yeah, it's in a very remote part of Alaska town called Nightmute, I believe, okay, which I don't know if that's even a real place, but it's fantastic and Robin Williams is actually. He's really good in it. Man, I miss that guy. I do too. Anyway, so he did Batman Begins, dark Knight, which most people like. Just finally discovered him with the Dark Knight, yeah.
Speaker 2:But I saw that again.
Speaker 1:I loved it the.
Speaker 2:Dark Knight with Heath Ledger. Okay, that was a Heath Ledger. I'm trying to remember which, what they were all cold, obviously. I've seen them all, but I can't remember with all.
Speaker 1:I saw the Dark Knight like two, three days before it opened, because they were Cross-promoting with General Mills and Alicia worked for General Mills at the time.
Speaker 1:And so she got tickets to an early screening because it was all Dark Knight, you know, cheerios and stuff like that, it's actually the sugary cereals. And so I saw it like two days before it opened, and I remember walking out of that movie, number one, in the middle of it I had this visceral reaction in my stomach where I'm like I don't know what's gonna happen. This movie is amazing. It was really really good.
Speaker 2:And.
Speaker 1:I'm like this movie is gonna make so much money and it was like the highest grossing superhero movie in theaters at the time. And I love the third one too. A lot of people knock on the Dark Knight rises, but it is long. That's the one with Bane. Okay, the island. Yeah, we're where. Basically it's a no man's land. Yeah, batman, yeah Comics story that they kind of reflected from. My only knock on it is that they use New York City as the backdrop rather than kind of making it less Descriptive. So every time they switch to an exterior shot of whatever, I'm like that's the Brooklyn Ridge. Yeah, that's Queens. Yeah, that's the George Washington Britain. Like stop, just stop. In the first one they took Sydney and they like Changed it up so that it looked like a completely different city. Oh, is that what they did? That's what they did in Batman Begins, I think so. It didn't look familiar, it wasn't one-to-one. The second one they use Chicago, but they kind of.
Speaker 2:So Batman began, as it was the first one, with yeah, with Christian Bale, that was I love that movie.
Speaker 1:I love that movie, not killed but not saved?
Speaker 2:Yeah, cali, what geez. And then and then, what did he do after the Batman?
Speaker 1:Well, this is funny is in between those Batman movies. He did the prestige right, which is crazy great movie.
Speaker 2:Hugh Jackman.
Speaker 1:Christian Bale, michael Cain, scarlett Johansson, oh, oh right, david Bowie. David Bowie was. David Bowie plays Nikola Tesla. Oh, I don't remember that at all. Andy circus, who is now known as better known as golem yeah, he plays David Bowie's assistant. Oh my gosh, there are so many people in that movie. If you go back and watch it You're gonna be like, oh, that's, that's so and so, oh my gosh, that's so.
Speaker 1:And so, oh my god, oh, it's crazy. And so, anyway, he did that one between Batman Begins and the Dark Knight and between Dark Knight and Dark Knight Rises. He did inception. Oh yeah, which was crazy.
Speaker 2:I gotta watch out with my kids.
Speaker 1:He did interstellar. After that I believe I finally watched that this year. It's solid, it's not, and it puts the emotion above the plot cohesion, in my opinion, a little bit, but it's not a bad film at all and then I feel like I'm missing something. He did something else and then he did tenet, which tenet is probably the that one doesn't hold up particularly.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that one was that one for me. I don't mind a mindbender, but when the mindbender doesn't really complete it didn't deliver you know what I mean, like I was still at the end going wait. So what just happened? And I'm a decently smart guy. I would say you're smarter than me. But I was just kind of like thank you, hey, what?
Speaker 1:happened? Yeah, it doesn't. It doesn't hold together Super well. I'm just gonna say that it's not I don't know it. It makes sense what they were going for, but again, I feel like it was one of things where he got emotionally out over his skis. It was the same sort of thing that I felt like they tried to do with the ending of Lost, where it's like they went for the Emotional ending rather than the one that holds storytelling cohesion. What do you think should have happened at the end of Lost? At the end of Lost? Yeah, it should have ended about two seasons earlier probably Sure but, it was too big a hit to do that.
Speaker 1:No, what needed to happen and this was the problem is they got lost in the middle and they didn't know when it was gonna end, and so they started opening story questions that they didn't have satisfying answers to. So a better bet for them would have been legitimately to have ended it earlier. And there I think we've talked about this before and I just I feel really bad for them Because they they got stuck, they had such a hit and it's like you don't want to end the hit but at the same time, if you don't have satisfying answers to story questions, don't fucking open them up. Yeah, I mean, that's like you know the old Tom Clancy line if you're gonna kick the tiger in the ass, you better have a plan to deal with the teeth. Hmm, and I feel like a lot of times in Hollywood it's like forget it, kick the tiger in the ass and let's watch what happens.
Speaker 1:Okay, well, that's not a great strategy, like have a having a bad plan for how you're gonna end your story, or or you know in the story question that you're Asking is better than having none and then having to come up with it. But the other side of that, too, is when you are telling a story. If you choose to go for emotional satisfaction over complete, like a complete lack of logic, you're like I want to bend this so that this is the, you know, this heartwarming thing happens, okay. But if in the process you break the reality, the storytelling reality, you've constructed, the fictive dream, understand there's a percentage of people like my dad who are going to be like I hate this now because it makes no logical sense to me. And dad's right, I'm sorry, it's correct on that one.
Speaker 2:I wish sometimes I wish I could see. Like you know, a show is made, the pilot is made, it goes for a season and it's one of those things that got green lighted and they're like let's just put it out there, and then it becomes this huge hit.
Speaker 2:And then they're like oh shit we're gonna like write more and I would love to kind of be behind the scenes and like see what, like scrambling to have three times the number of writers and like to really ramp that up and then and I could see how that can get messy too. I mean, we've talked about Marvel. Obviously I think they're very guilty of it, but yeah, I don't know, man, that Hollywood is really interesting. I don't even understand what's going on with the writer strike and all that stuff. Right now it's pretty simple.
Speaker 1:They want more money, yeah, and I don't necessarily blame them, like they have had some people that have that have posted things. Like you know, they made like $395 for writing an episode of a Marvel TV show and I get it. The streaming service isn't making any money, but that's your friggin fault. Like the idea that you make the writer assume the risk for your business decisions is basically means you're trying to get writers to work for free, and I read a few of the other stories. I mean this to me I don't give a shit, honestly, because I feel like the quality of product that comes out of Hollywood is so garbage these days that I don't care if they all fail at this point. Like I have.
Speaker 1:You know, I just got the I Love Lucy collection the other day and I watched one of the I Love Lucy episodes Lucy and the Chocolate Factory. It was great. It's 25 minutes, it's funny, it's wholesome, it's silly. It actually made me laugh more than any TV comedy of the last five years, probably probably longer, harder than anything other than community, or what was that Ellie Kimper show that was on Netflix a few years ago? The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt.
Speaker 1:That one made me laugh some, but, like for the most part, I feel like comedy is kind of a dead letter on television. Like they're not. They're not willing to push boundaries or go to the spaces where funny stuff actually happens and so it's all kind of like canned laughter, the. I don't know if there was a laugh track on I Love Lucy, but I don't think so. I think it was an actual studio audience and they were laughing their freaking asses off because of how funny some of the stuff that was happening was going on. Like Ricky Sticks, he's trying to the other side of the Lucy and the Chocolate Factory story because she ends up in a Chocolate Factory with Ethel and they're like trying to make the line going.
Speaker 1:They're like shoving chocolate down their shirts and they're shoving in their mouth because they're going to get fired if they don't. But the other side of it is that Ricky and Fred are stuck at home trying to do the domestic jobs because the whole plot premise is that they switched places. Like, the men are like ah, you don't know how tough it is to make it out there as a man. So the women are going to go get jobs and the women are like you don't know how tough it is to take care of the house. And so Ricky and Fred team up to make dinner and Ricky's asking Fred in a great setup. He's like ah, how much rice do you need? I put in a pound for each of us. They're messing around with the thing in the foreground and in the background you see the rice just boiling over out of the pot. Oh my gosh, I laughed so hard at that show. I was like, oh man, this is what comedy used to be back when it was funny.
Speaker 2:We've been watching a little bit of stand up, like when we need a break from super serious stuff watching. We were watching what's his name? He's from Nashville, nate.
Speaker 1:Bargassi.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:I don't know if I should even say this, but uh oh, he's my neighbor.
Speaker 2:Oh, is you really? Yeah, okay, I thought he lived somewhere around here, so at first I didn't know what to think, yeah, I was like I should make it clear.
Speaker 1:I do not know Nate personally, he's just like, yeah, he is, but I know people who know.
Speaker 2:Nate. After a while I was like, I really like his delivery. He's hilarious Like, it's just like like, yeah, man, you know it, just it, just I don't know. It's something about his every man delivery that he's not like looking for the gaffaws. It's just like I don't know. And one of the shows the first one we watched was actually right in the middle of COVID and I didn't realize that.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, yeah. And then so he's outside I think he's in LA and there's helicopters going all over the place. And then a couple times I was like they kind of they kind of pan towards the audience and everybody's wearing masks. I'm like I can't even imagine what he, what he had to go through to do that, because it was still a great show. But then we went back and we watched something older of his, yeah, and he was like, oh okay, like he had, he had the you know the crowd in the palm of his hand, but I didn't know who, because I kept seeing the billboards over on 65. I'm like I don't know who the hell this guy is.
Speaker 1:Oh, really, I didn't know who he was. I didn't know who he was until, like, my neighbors are like, oh yeah, nate Barghetti lives right over here, because we were over at their house and they're like, oh yeah, that's Nate's house right there, like across the cult, whatever, and I'm like I don't know who that is. And then I watched this for special and I'm like, oh, that's hilarious. And I watched this one on Amazon and that's even funnier. The end joke he has about losing his front door is freaking. Oh my gosh. And he's a clean comedian. Which right, how in?
Speaker 2:the hell do you pull that off? Yeah, I don't know. I wasn't expecting that either.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, I mean, and well, this is the thing is like I feel like I don't know comedy terribly well. I keep intending to have my friend Matt on the podcast because he was like spent years trying to be a standup comic and was finally like you know what actually real estate is a better place for my talents to be, because standup is a place where you go. I've heard repeatedly standup comics say it is the thing that you want to do if you literally cannot do anything else, because you will suffer like no one has suffered in order to be a standup comedian. I can't even imagine On the road. You know, 300 plus days a year. You know the Miss Maisel stuff is all legit to people in the audience, yeah, Anyway.
Speaker 1:So I was talking to one of my neighbors about him and yeah, he's supposedly a really nice guy, like really approachable, really really good. That's cool. But I've never encountered him because I walk around the neighborhood like in the mornings and supposedly he doesn't wake up until like noon or so, According to him on his comedy show. I'm not a stalker or anything. That was what he said. So there's zero chance I ever meet him because he's he and I keep different, like completely opposite hours. But yeah, my wife, I think, knows his wife. But one of those things were, yeah, that's cool. Yeah, kids go to school.
Speaker 2:I thought he lived in the area, because I thought I'd heard somebody mention the dude's name and I was like I don't know who that is at all.
Speaker 1:I didn't at first either, but now I know who he is and I think he's really funny, that's cool yeah. But standup comedy, too, is in a weird place where it's like you got at the top of the game Dave Chappelle, what's his name? Bill Bill Burr, yeah, yeah, I think it's like boundaries right In a way that traditional comedians, that comedians, traditionally used to like. You know well, I've got an Eddie Murphy special from like 1980s called Raw Eddie.
Speaker 2:Murphy oh, that was so good. Oh yeah, was that the? I got my ice cream, was it that one? I gotta watch it again. Honestly, oh my God.
Speaker 1:But you know, when you saw an Eddie Murphy special, you were going to see some shit that was going to make you go. I can't believe you said that.
Speaker 2:Well, it was back in the day. They didn't pull and they made fun of everybody, everybody. We were better offices outside, but they did not discriminate at all. And now they can't do anything, yeah.
Speaker 1:I mean, and that's the problem and as a result, we've had this bifurcation and you get a lot of, a lot of female comics, do this thing where it's just basically talking about sex in the dirtiest way possible, and some of that I find hilarious. I really do. Nikki Glazer is hilarious. She does it very well.
Speaker 1:Taylor oh, what the hell is her name? Taylor Swift? No, she's not that funny. No, I'm just kidding. She actually is kind of funny, but no, there's a Taylor or something that's big. She's got Netflix specials, the Ally Wong who does the the pregnant lady on Netflix. She's funny, but like, for the most part, it's like this established kind of genre of jokes and Amy Schumer, I think, kind of pioneered it where it's like we're going to make dirty stories the centerpiece of whatever and it's like that is a genre of comedy, but it's not what it used to be. So Amy Schumer had some really edgy material back in the day. Oh, yes, she's completely disavowed at this point, which is tragically a sacrifice in the name of wokeness, but you know, it is what it is. This is just where comedy is at.
Speaker 2:We need to get back to just making fun of ourselves.
Speaker 1:Of everybody Good grief and everybody feels better when as long as you're doing it kind of equal opportunity, because everybody has stupid stuff about them there's somebody like you. You actually used to be really good at like taking the piss out of me, even when I wasn't really enjoying it. Like later on I kind of appreciated it because it was like I'm one of the guys.
Speaker 2:It's a very blue collar thing to do. It is I mean, I say it all the time I give the only people I give shit to are my best friends. Yeah, because it's a bonding thing it is. And then if you don't have that, something is completely lost. I mean, look, in the Marine Corps, we were constantly giving each other shit.
Speaker 2:Same thing with my family, my brothers. Same thing. We give our mom tons of grief and it's funny she always like she knows. So she rolls her eyes but she's smiling. She's like because she knows. That's the way we all kind of it's not mean spirit at all. No, no, no, it's just like everybody's got their thing, everybody's got their little thing that you pick on, because that's what they were as a kid and we're not that anymore. I couldn't imagine not having that with my best friends.
Speaker 1:I did hear that in the Marine Corps the level of roasting that goes on is, especially in the infantry, is like to the point where it would make people who live in their cost-cited newsrooms like run screaming down to the HR department crying into their vinkies.
Speaker 2:It's like it's not appropriate for public consumption.
Speaker 1:Yeah, exactly, it's like it will reference sex, it will reference race, it will reference all of these things at once and your mama combined and it will be glorious. I remember.
Speaker 2:I remember what was I freshman in sophomore in high school, and we used to go. We lived in LA, we used to go basketball like away games right on the bus and it was my first experience with mama jokes. And I remember these guys. I mean for an hour-long trip would just non-stop. And you're just over there like, like laughing your ass off. But you were just hoping, like me as a shy kid, that I wasn't gonna get it singled out.
Speaker 1:Please don't say that about mama. Oh my gosh, they're bad. I mean, there's some really quality ones. Patrick Zabo, who was a writer.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, he and I used to do the yo mama jokes back and forth. Really bad, we would achieve high level of burn. We need to laugh more, man, I just all of us need to chill the freak out the best medicine.
Speaker 2:It really is, you know we. What was I reading the other day was something about humor. Is humor is not nearly as good when you're by yourself? No, it's much better when you're with a crowd, right?
Speaker 1:Every week in my network's community we do a meme drop and I glory in picking some of the least appropriate memes possible. You should join, You'd enjoy it. I would Every Tuesday. Well, because I remember you used to do that on Facebook.
Speaker 2:I know I got freaking banned.
Speaker 1:Oh my gosh.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I was. I always enjoyed that day when you would drop the new meme I was dropping during COVID.
Speaker 1:I was dropping memes two or three times a day, right, right, right.
Speaker 2:Yes, I do remember that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so now it's a once a week thing that I do in my community and I mean I had one this morning that was so dark, I was so delicious, it was like I have to show you afterwards. It's beautiful, it's a thing of an absolute, it's a masterpiece. They should print it out, frame it, hang it in the Louvre.
Speaker 2:Well, you've got some room on your wall. Still, did you see my?
Speaker 1:new one from Charleston. What'd you get? The one over there next to the Paris picture, oh, on the right. Yeah, yeah, did you paint that? No, I got it in Charleston, oh, nice. I got it on vacation. Should we talk about vacation?
Speaker 2:Yeah, let's talk about vacation that sounds like something to put a smile on our face. I still want to talk about.
Speaker 1:Calabash. Okay, so you know how I said. There's like two Calabash buffets, there's like 15. Around the country, no, in the entirety of Myrtle Beach, south Carolina, wow, apparently Calabash is a town north of there and I don't know if it got a reputation for buffets, but I shit you not. There's like 15 seafood buffets and 10 of them have the Calabash name on them, oh my God. And they're all like the something Calabash buffet or something, and it's all clearly like spin offs of the original. People like left that one and said we're going to compete with them. I don't think any of them are, you know, affiliated, affiliated, but I mean, you can't throw a stone in that town without hitting a Calabash seafood buffet, oh my gosh. So so I'll take you the whole thing real quick. Have you been on a vacation since then? Do you want to talk about one of your vacations? Because I know I think no, you know, it's all you. Okay, so we started in Asheville, north Carolina, first day. Technically, we started at Buckeys in Crossville.
Speaker 2:Tennessee on the way there.
Speaker 1:How was it? It was glorious. We spent 200 bucks on gas and all the snacks and stuff and, like I love Buckeys so much, have you been to one of the ones I have not yet?
Speaker 2:Dude you were supposed to go to the one what on the way to Birmingham and then our trip got canceled so we didn't go. Yeah, I might just go like random weekend you should go, should go to Birmingham, go eat it.
Speaker 1:Papados, stop at Buckeys it's. It's such a good time. I love Birmingham. It was so much fun when we went there last year for a couple of days. Anyway. So Buckeys, asheville, the Biltmore amazing have you been I have not been. Dude, the Biltmore is worth going Really. I mean I braved Asheville for it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that I was. I was going to say I couldn't believe you were going back to.
Speaker 1:And I'll tell you something it lived up to the legend. We pull into the hotel and I'm talking about Asheville being a shithole. We pull up to the hotel, I'm starting to unload, and a homeless dude a very homeless dude clearly come stumbling by in a stupor. It's two o'clock in the afternoon on a Sunday and he walks up to the front door of the hotel and, like he had to be in his thirties, I'm assuming fentanyl, but it could be any sort of you know, opiate he sits down on the bench, he takes the thing that has the cigarette butts in it, the cigarette butt holder, it's a little tower thing, you know, with a base. He takes it, he turns it upside down and he shakes it out. And I'm just like sitting there with my kids in my suitcases and I'm not super worried because I'm armed, as always, but at the same time I'm trying to shepherd them by and I know what he's doing, cause he's sitting there and he's picking for the cigarette butt that is the least burnt to the nub and then he lights it and gets his nicotine fix and I'm like, oh, asheville, fucking change. What a great city it would be if it wasn't such a shit hole. All the time. The restaurant's amazing, the site's amazing, the entire mountain's amazing.
Speaker 1:The enabling of people who are on substances that are going to kill them in a very short order Fuck you, asheville. That's not compassion. You're shitty people and you should be ashamed of yourselves, and I wish I could take that cigarette butt thing and beat some goddamn sense into your heads. It's not right. It's not okay. Children should not be exposed to that and people shouldn't be allowed to wallow in their own fucking shit. It's terrible, and you're terrible people for allowing it. You're an embarrassment to the state of North Carolina. Up yours. Tell me how you really feel San Francisco. That goes for you too. I don't think it's compassionate. I really don't. I think it's a shitty thing to do to people. I think that there should be.
Speaker 1:Every addict I've ever talked to has the same story. I hit rock bottom when they put me in the jail and they said hey, you can go to rehab or you can go to fucking prison Every time. There has to be some sort of forcing mechanism where you hit rock bottom and they're removing the accountability. That makes people hit rock bottom and it guts me. It really does, cause people are dying from this shit because they're not confronted. They need tough love and instead they're getting enabled. I'm sorry, I'm getting emotional about it, cause people are literally dying.
Speaker 1:100,000 people died last year from opiate overdoses, and that means people. And again, the New York Times doesn't give a shit, cause they don't know anyone who's suffering from opiate abuse. They've never seen anyone die of an overdose and have to get brought back by a dose of Narcan from some 22 year old who shouldn't be seeing that shit in front of them. But they're carrying Narcan cause they've seen people OD in front of them before. And so fuck you, you enablers, you awful, awful people. You think you're compassionate. You're the worst human beings on the planet. Sorry, I get a little upset about these things and a little, a little keyed up. Anyway, charlotte was the next stop and no cigarette butts there. No cigarette butts. No, I will just say about Asheville. The city has so much potential. It's beautiful. It's beautiful there and the Biltmore is one of the coolest places I've ever seen. It's like a real life down Naby.
Speaker 2:I've seen pictures and I have plenty of friends who've been there, but like when we went, I think we were gonna go, but then I went and played golf with Lee and Jeff instead you probably got more out of it.
Speaker 1:My kid said it was a high point of the trip was the Really yeah. Okay, and it's huge. Right, it is massive. I think it's I forget the square footage 125,000 square feet or something. And how many acres is it on? It's 10,000 now. I think it was 300,000 originally Acres. Yeah, I think that's right, cal. They're joined right up to a national forest.
Speaker 1:It's gorgeous and you get one of the little audio tour things. The grounds are huge, it's beautiful. I mean, I've been to the real Versailles so I have no problem saying it is the American Versailles. It's absolutely amazing, definitely worth seeing. Stay closer to the Biltmore grounds because if you go into downtown Asheville, as many draws as downtown Asheville has, it's a hoard of the walking dead, I'm sad to say. Just not cool, man. The next stop was Charlotte. I had never really been to Charlotte before. I've never really spent a whole lot of time in the Carolinas.
Speaker 2:Where'd you go? Do you go downtown or somewhere else? We went downtown. We stayed in the Great Wolf Lodge, Cause downtown is like just office buildings, right?
Speaker 1:No, no, the NASCAR Hall of Fame was there. Okay, that was kind of cool. We were in like an uptown kind of area where they had it was totally renovated. They've got a mural scene in Charlotte that really impressed the hell out of me, like paintings on the side of the buildings, and I'll show you the pictures. They were on my Instagram actually. Oh yeah, no, I saw them.
Speaker 2:They're better than even modern art I've seen. I love a good like building mural. I think that's beautiful they had so many in Charlotte.
Speaker 1:It was a really cool town in that regard, like I kind of wanted to go around just to see the murals, but nice foodie scene. We stayed out at the Great Wolf Lodge, which is that water park thing. Kids had a great time. Wife and I were able to spend a little quality time together while they were off doing their thing and I plotted a book there, though I needed to put some meat on the bones. The next stop was what? Charleston, south Carolina. Really nice town. I love Charleston. It's one of my favorite towns I've been to in a long time. I really like it a lot. Great food. Rodney Scott's barbecue, particular high point there. Really, really phenomenal barbecue. I don't go in for the vinegar sauce, but like just the rub. I do, you know, I do, I know, you do, I know, you do.
Speaker 2:Did you go, like out to Isle of Palms? You go out.
Speaker 1:We did the Patriot Point Naval base experience with the USS Yorktown's new commission from.
Speaker 2:World.
Speaker 1:War II. The replacement Yorktown, because the first got sunk at Midway Right Really awesome. There's a Medal of Honor museum in there. That is amazing. Some of the stories they have of the citations are just these dudes were absolutely badasses, so phenomenal. That was really cool actually, and they have a Vietnam experience. I didn't get to do it because it was like a hundred plus degrees that day and my kids were melting. The deck of the Yorktown was like it was brutal, it was pretty hot.
Speaker 1:You've been on a deck of an aircraft carrier when it's in a hot place.
Speaker 2:I know Good guess.
Speaker 1:And you're dragging kids around. Yeah, I was dragging kids around, it was just me. I could have stayed there all day looking at the F6, your Hellcats and the. Could you go below?
Speaker 2:decks, yeah, like is everything open? I don't think so. It's stripped.
Speaker 1:It's decommissioned. So I mean, I think you we wander around in places. I felt like we weren't supposed to be mm-hmm, so I don't know how hard they enforce it. Like you can definitely Wander a bit. Like there was the officers ward room we went through and like there was kind of some Suggestion that they tour you around in these other places. But they kind of had left a hatch open and so we were able to just wander around. That's cool, and my kids didn't want to go back above decks after that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I was, I'm like, I'm like is it all air-conditioned inside too?
Speaker 1:very little of it is air-conditioned. Okay, there is a section that is air-conditioned and my kids didn't want to come out of that section of it, yeah. But I was up on the deck and like they've got all these decommissioned like at 14s and a six intruders and wow, it was cool. It was really cool. Wish I could have spent a lot more time there. I'm accumulating a list of places I want to go so that when the kids are out of the house. So Lisa and I are gonna hit the road for like a month at a time and see all sorts of shit. That's one of the places I'll go back to.
Speaker 1:We had a carriage ride in Charleston around the historic district. Yeah, super fun, beautiful, isn't it beautiful? Yeah, beautiful, really nice. We went to the Charleston markets. Oh, I've done that. You've never been there. Oh, it's so cool. It's like this super long Building where it's like all a lot of handmade stuff. That's where I got my oh, inside. Some of it's inside an air-conditioned, a lot of it's outside and not, but it's so cool like. I got a Charleston cookbook there. We got a Christmas ornament. My kids each got something for themselves. My wife got something. She doesn't spend money on anything, so I love stuff like that it was Josh.
Speaker 1:He's not so cool. Yeah, you would dig the Charleston markets. You should go. Do they have food? Of course they do. Yeah, they have glorious food. I'm trying to remember what we ate there, because we ate. We ate at this little place called Gingerline or something like that that had these. What are those seafood things where they fry it up and there's corn in it? Fritters, fritters, yeah, conch fritters.
Speaker 2:They're good. I love a good conch fritter. It's a little different.
Speaker 1:I love a good hush puppy. Rodney Scott's had good hush puppies Really. Yes, they did. They had amazing hush puppies, probably the best I've ever eaten, oh gosh.
Speaker 2:Charleston like donuts.
Speaker 1:I want to go back to Charleston. Some point. I loved Charleston and so anyway, the Myrtle Beach was kind of at least. You got really sick the last night in Charleston, really like Terribly, terribly sick, to the point where we had to extend our check out. It was like like food poisoning yeah. Yeah like really bad. I don't know what it was. No one else got sick at all. Geez like she was throwing up all night from like three in the morning on. Pregnant Is she? I don't think.
Speaker 2:I'm just kidding. Sorry, alicia, if you ever ever listen to this.
Speaker 1:She doesn't. She doesn't care. I've thought about actually having her as a guest on the podcast, but I feel like we would. She's so famous verse that, like she doesn't even like the fact that I used my name no, you know what?
Speaker 2:authoring we should do that, but you shouldn't be here. I'll just talk to her.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, I only fair, then, that I interviewed Katie.
Speaker 2:There you go. Tell me all the stuff that you hate about.
Speaker 1:All the stuff that you don't like. That he writes yeah no, I don't think she would ever do it, because she's so famous verse that I think she would just be like I don't want to do this, which is funny because, like she's one of the biggest talkers you'll ever meet right.
Speaker 2:It's like she just doesn't want to do it in public like that.
Speaker 1:So she's spoken in front of literally thousands of people at a time, she'd be super good at it she would. But I just think it's one of those things where it's like she's so private that she'd just be like I get that she has corporate voice whenever she was in the job and I just I don't know that she could ever be a Candidate she really.
Speaker 2:My Katie used to say you're using your work voice again. When I get on the phone, yeah, I'm trying to get something done. She's like you're using your work voice. I can't.
Speaker 1:I. I don't know when I turn it on.
Speaker 2:I just, I just do I don't.
Speaker 1:Even. If I have a work voice at this point, it's the one where I swear slightly less.
Speaker 2:Probably I've seen you, like I've heard you more serious with people that, like you don't know, like I Would say, more proper. But I don't know I think you are pretty even across the board some people, you know some people who are like complete chameleons and they're like, depending on who they're around, they speak completely different. I used to be way more like that. I'm much less like that now.
Speaker 1:I am a lot more likely to adopt a southern. I'm kind of a mimic in the sense that I'll adopt your accent if I'm around you long enough and I have to like fight to avoid that because most people view it as an insult rather than a compliment.
Speaker 1:But yeah, I mean, I probably talk a little bit different if I'm in like the blue-collar crowd I used to work with it was my clients and whatnot versus if you stick me into a I don't know a corporate party or something when I'm wearing a suit, I'll probably be aware suit.
Speaker 1:I have worn suits in the past. It's been a while. I don't want to wear a suit again. I you know I don't. I've thought about it. I'm like I feel like I kind of need to upgrade my wardrobe. I feel like I'm such a slouch at this point.
Speaker 2:It's funny because I, you know, I say that, not wanting to wear a suit. I want to wear a suit when I want to wear a suit like that's a dress up and feel like a badass, not because I have to. Yes, yes, yes, 100% very different things.
Speaker 1:Yes, absolutely. I just feel like I I've done the cargo pants and t-shirt thing for long enough that I'm like I don't think this is a good look Like I'm not doing a stethysm any. Why do?
Speaker 2:you think I've gone like denim on denim now, right, it's like I just I Needed a new uniform. Yeah, that was really easy. You know I went and I ordered five, six pairs of jeans, five, six denim shirts. Yeah, bunch of you know different colored t-shirts. Actually, I'm on in the market for, like cool t-shirts that I can put underneath. Yeah, same boots that are super comfortable. I can walk a million miles, you know what? You know, it's hard to find really comfortable boots that you can wear everywhere, that go with everything.
Speaker 1:Those are hard for me. You know you probably need to look at like a work boot, probably something like that, because I mean construction guys have to walk, literally.
Speaker 2:I mean these are? These are leather boots, they're toms, mm-hmm, but they were given to me by. I went to some. I think the smartest thing I've ever done is like go to a store and just say bring me what you think I need. And Because if I'm the one choosing it, I tend to kind of pigeon to hold myself into whatever and if I don't like what they bring, then I just won't try it on. But like, these are great example. Yeah, these were one of five pairs great that I got and they've lasted forever. They probably will last forever and they're super comfortable, but they're toms I never would have like. I see Tom shoes as those little slipper things that I don't even know what a toms is.
Speaker 2:Yeah, look him up, there, they're.
Speaker 1:I just like.
Speaker 2:I think their story is really yeah.
Speaker 1:I just really I feel like I've I've hit a fashion rut, and I mean part of me, so I'd like. The other day at Costco I bought a button-up shirt with like a cross I don't want to call them a crosshatch kind of pattern. Oh, like, like a flat.
Speaker 2:Yeah, like a plaid shirt yeah. I had my daughter doing this across your body. I was like you're wearing suspenders. Yeah, no.
Speaker 1:I'm decided to be farmer Bob. I'm gonna plow the field this afternoon. I don't think it would be a good look on me. My grandfather wore suspenders because he had a full-on garden and he had done farming in his life, and so he would wear suspenders from time to time. And I'm like papaw, I love you, but that looks fucking awful.
Speaker 2:Could you imagine if we showed up with wearing suspenders somewhere?
Speaker 1:Yeah, to a writers conference or something Shut up to nink like that.
Speaker 2:Oh man, oh man, that would be interesting. Yeah, I don't.
Speaker 1:Mmm, I don't know, that would be the word for it.
Speaker 2:I don't know. I've seen some pretty interesting people when I like when I went to nink, I remember a couple people were. They had like full-on vans that were like like writer themed vans. Oh yeah drove up in and really very interesting people.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, I mean, I know of at least one guy who he's probably listening to this Tim, who is a farmer and an author, mm-hmm, in which case I hope you're doing well out on your tractor this morning, buddy. What is he from? He's actually, I don't know. He's just right up in Kentucky, right across the state line, so probably farms weed these days. Hey man, hemp makes money. Heck, yeah, it's a cash crop. No, so what was I gonna say? Oh, so the last stop, myrtle Beach. Hmm, seafood buffet that was the last stop.
Speaker 1:That well, technically not. We stayed in Chen'nu the last night, okay, but we stayed two nights in Myrtle Beach Hotter than hell.
Speaker 1:Oh my gosh. I'm used to Florida where the sea breeze comes off the ocean and it's like it'll take 10 degrees off of the. Myrtle Beach is different Myrtle Beach. It comes out of the West and I mean it was 96 degrees and felt like 103 and I'm sitting there the first night and, cuz Alicia's sick, I gotta have my phone in my pocket. I can't go in the water. Did you feel the ocean water? I felt it.
Speaker 2:I went in at the second night, was it bath water. That's what I remember growing up. Oh, is that water? Because it come. I remember my dad teaching me about this.
Speaker 1:Oh, like a swatter stream or whatever.
Speaker 2:The Gulf Stream. It's not Gulf Stream, but something, and it just. I mean, I remember that water being super, super warm as a kid.
Speaker 1:Oh, it wasn't cold. I will say it felt great the second night when I was able to go in, when Alicia's like okay, I feel strong enough that I'm probably not gonna die in the hotel room while you're gone Roodle, oh it was, it was horrible. I, um, I don't. She didn't get to do anything with us in Myrtle Beach at all, yeah, so, like I took the kids to medieval times, we went to this place called Broadway at the beach. Which have you been to? Have you been to Severville, gatlinburg? Yeah, yeah, you know. The island there at Pigeon Forge Island yeah, they call the island at Pigeon Forge is a huge shopping complex, though, oh no, I don't think they got the old smoky moonshine, they got rides and whatnot.
Speaker 1:anyway, they have a place similar to that in Myrtle Beach called Broadway at the beach Okay, it was really cool. They had this like huge boardwalk area with a man-made lake underneath it and they had these fish that would like you could feed them. People were selling the food to feed them and there was so many fish it was you, didn't you take?
Speaker 2:a video I did I posted on Insta. Is that what that was? That's what that was?
Speaker 1:It was a. It was a swarm of fish In a man-made lake. It was the most fish I've ever seen in my life. There's catfish.
Speaker 1:I think they were carp Carp. Yeah, I think they're this terrible carp that you would not want to eat, so gross. Yeah, oh, I got a great story for that. So I had a friend who was up and I think Rhinelander, wisconsin, rhinelander, yeah, and there's a significant Viking population. Well, there was. Now there's actually a significant Asian population, yeah, and I believe they the mung that come over from Laos in Cambodia. But they had settled in there and anyway, one family told me about this they Started a carp farm in their basement. Wow, really, the reek was apparently incredible. Yeah, they just flooded the basement and kept carp down there, holy cow, and they're not a nice smelling fish.
Speaker 2:No, no, I mean that's. I mean there's scum suckers Is what they are.
Speaker 1:Yes, they are bottom feeding that they actually got out into, I think, lake Michigan there were huge invasive species from for a while there. Terrible, terrible fish, the Asian carp no redeeming value unlike the scum sucking catfish do.
Speaker 2:But I mean, don't they put them in like ponds and stuff to Suck the stuff off the bottom.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but again, they're an invasive species, so they kind of displaced I think they displaced the natural scum sucker which is the catfish, and let's be honest, catfish tastes great. Yes yeah, I do like catfish. I don't think Asian carp tastes great. No, even if you fry it.
Speaker 2:So yeah, do they eat them?
Speaker 1:Do they eat them? I assume so I mean they were farming them for a reason. I guess it's probably one of those acquired tastes. I'm sure people would say the same thing about catfish if they're coming over from Asia, they're like just catfish tastes like shit. Yeah Well, have you fried it? Fry me. This is a great hot sauce. Yes, that is the other thing that's that place over in Franklin big shakes. Yeah, chicken and fish.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'm like, oh man, his hot fish are good, mm-hmm, whatever their breading is is really delicious.
Speaker 1:They make a good fish and hot chicken, yeah, anyway. So yeah, we stopped off in Chattanooga on the last leg of the trip, stopped at Popesitos in Atlanta, waded 45 minutes because it was a Sunday afternoon and I guess that place is popular. Huh, it was great. That's so good. So, anyway, then we went to Chattanooga, took the kids to the aquarium in Rock City and headed on home.
Speaker 2:How, was how was medieval times? I haven't been to one in a long time.
Speaker 1:I went in Dallas a couple years ago and it was a blast. Then the one in Myrtle Beach it was the same show, basically. So I think I could do a medieval times, maybe once every five years, and that's about it. I just I was like, okay, I'm ready to be done now. I wish I'd gone to the Brazilian steakhouse or back to the Calabash buffet.
Speaker 2:Oh, so how was the buffet? Okay, so you have because because, okay, I know we built up to it because we had so many texts back and forth just about that, like I have to know now.
Speaker 1:So we Blow into town Alicia still sick. She's like almost immovable. She's sick. Our hotel room isn't ready yet. We've driven all these hours and she's like I just feel like garbage. I just want to get into the hotel room and I'm like, okay, well, they don't have a hotel room for us yet. I'm sorry. She's like all right, we can go to the buffet, I'll wait in the car. So we drove to the buffet. She didn't eat for like three days. I'm not even kidding. It was like grape juice and apple juice. I felt so bad for her. And meanwhile she's like thank you for taking care of the kids. She's like I don't want to ruin our vacation cuz I was like should we drive home? She's like no, where the kids chill about it.
Speaker 2:They were totally chill Okay.
Speaker 1:They were really good about it, they were bomb mom.
Speaker 1:Yeah, they felt bad for her. But I mean, like we're all in one room you can hear her get up in the middle of the night and heave her guts out, like it's just not, yeah, it's not good. So anyway, I Get everyone to the Calabash buffet. The middle child decides he's not really hungry and that's fair. I don't want to pay for him if he's not gonna eat. So thank you for being honest with me. And so it was me, the oldest and the youngest, uh-huh, and me and the oldest did a number on that place and the youngest definitely did not get her money's worth, or my money's worth, I should say.
Speaker 1:But I will say I would go back to Calabash buffet in a heartbeat. It was awesome. They had all you could eat crab legs, oh. They had fried shrimp, they had baked shrimp, they had every kind of seafood known to man. On that buffet there were a hundred and seventy or something items. They had a prime rib out there. They had everything, man, oh, it was awesome. It was like 50 bucks or something like that for an adult and 25 for kids. So you pay through the nose for it. But I said they're cracking crab claws. For quite a while I didn't eat as many of them as I probably should have, because I wasn't Thinking about it, and I ate everything else before I got to the crab claws, because it's such an endeavor to like crack, oh yeah, crab claws. I left stuffed and satisfied. I was very happy with my decision to go there. Did it, did at least gag.
Speaker 2:When you got back into the car no, she was still out. I.
Speaker 1:Left her with a car running so I mean I can't not, it's, it's. You know, myrtle Beach, it's 96. It's brutal, but yeah, thankfully they had our room ready when we got back to the place. But, um, yeah, she, she was in rough shape all the way that we got to Chattanooga basically. I think actually Papa Cetus was the first meal she had. Really, oh yeah, um, it's not good. I felt really bad for her, but two. Otherwise the vacation was wonderful for everyone except Alicia. Highly recommend almost all the spots I've listed for you here.
Speaker 2:And now kids are back in school.
Speaker 1:Yep, kids are back in school. No vacations for a while. Actually, I need to talk to you about the next one, because at some point we're going to Seattle, in Portland, oh yeah. And then we're gonna take a cruise to Port Canaveral at some point, to, I guess, oh cool. So to where? Oh shoot, it's just the Bahamas. Bahamas, yeah, easy, easy peasy, bahamas trip.
Speaker 2:So I just saw Sticking on food, as we usually do, I watched. Have you ever watched chef's table on?
Speaker 1:I never watch any cooking shows, because they would just make me hungry.
Speaker 2:Um, so I love chef's tables because it's it's, yes, it's about the food, but it's way more about the story, about the chef and self right or herself. And so we watched all the chef tables. They're really really well produced, they're beautiful, beautiful shows. So they have a new, newer one out. It's chef's table pizza, which you know is right up my alley. So they do a couple. You know, katie, and I've been watching more.
Speaker 2:The last one is about a woman in Portland, yeah, who has a place called it's like a lovelies 50 50 is what it is the, the restaurants, a pizza and ice cream and Everything is very it's like. It's like even more than farm to table like. I mean, she puts like flower petals on pizzas and everything looked absolutely delicious. The ice cream actually looked Amazing to. Yeah, I can't eat it, yeah, but the the two, I don't know is really cool, just this little pizza joint. That's kind of I've actually never been to Portland, but it may never know I made me want to go. I've just I've been a little leery in the last few years with everything going on out there. Yeah, I want to because everything Speaks to me about the, how beautiful it is, and you know, the water out there, if you can stay in the burbs, it's probably pretty okay.
Speaker 1:But yeah, I mean, the first time I ever saw Homeless guys get in a genuine fight was in Portland and they were threatening to murder each other. Yeah, and I'm like 10 feet away with my sister-in-law going yeah, this isn't really humane or decent, but whatever, not really your vibe. We're standing outside voodoo doughnuts waiting for everybody else to get the doughnuts and some like this is not cool, man, is that downtown? Downtown, it's, I don't know. It's right down from. I don't know the geography of Portland all that well. I've only been there a couple of times. The food scene in that town is amazing and the natural beauty of the surroundings is fantastic. If you get a chance to like, drive out to the coast. It's Amazing, amazing place.
Speaker 1:Last time you got, you went to Seattle 2014. I was there for the Emerald City Writers Conference With a bunch of romance writers, who are all awesome people that were there. A bunch of our friends, actually people that you know to. So the great Rachel Grant, brea Quinlan I don't know what name she uses. She was Mimi strong at the time. Alex Albrink I know I'm forgetting people. Rachel Scherig was there. Whole bunch of awesome. Those are? Those are some names I haven't heard in a while. I know, I know the indie scene is so fragmented, but yeah, we were all out there for that. So yeah, 2014 probably, and I didn't see any of the city. Really, it's time I stayed out Bellevue which I will probably do again this time, just because everybody who Lives out there and who's been out there is like don't stand downtown Seattle, for they are.
Speaker 2:I will say so. I was just out there. You know we went. We were kind of through really quickly. They seem to have cleaned a lot of stuff up. Okay, there's still a lot of development going on. Apparently they're redoing every that whole area down at Pike Place Market. Oh yeah, so the highway used to go like through there. Well, I guess they shut off that that part of the highway, redirected it, so now it's gonna be a much more like, just bigger, like way bigger go all the way down to the water, which it didn't before. So that made me really excited because that area is just really kind of neat. I've never been a pike place market. Yeah, I've always wanted to go. I love it. Man, I don't know was it.
Speaker 1:So you feel like it was a slightly better vibe than it was, because I mean at one point the last time I was in Seattle, it was like my cabbie was like dude, do not stray, yeah, cuz he dropped me off at the Amazon offices and he was giving me I think Bria was with me at the time because we were taking meetings with Amazon and and they're like don't go anywhere, call for a cab. Like don't wander. I think my Amazon rep told me the same thing. It's like this is not yeah Cuz. I mean it wasn't safe then and it's only had gotten progressively worse for a while.
Speaker 2:Hmm, I mean I've like over the years I've walked all over that city. Yeah, I've never really had a problem. Now I will say back in. I want to say probably. You know, the last time I was really there I spent time. There was 2020, right before.
Speaker 2:COVID yeah, yeah, and that was when I was like tent city everywhere, yeah, like everywhere along the interstates I'm like good grief, we didn't see that this time when we drove through Interesting so so I don't know, it just seemed, it seemed cleaner, like they figured something out. I don't know. Again, I didn't spend like an extended time. We literally went in, went to the, to the port and and I was just talking to the, to the driver, as he was taking us but drivers didn't know yeah, they do, but I love walk.
Speaker 2:It's. It's a, to me, a very walkable city. We've stayed downtown a couple times, walked all the way down to the pipe place Eatin. I mean I've had some of the best meals out in Seattle. They have phenomenal food. Yeah, you know, and we have. We have. We have a few family members that live out there. Ballard is a really cool area. If you ever get out there it's, you know, kind of fishing, like old fishing area, but it's now, like you know, it's kind of a cool place to live.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we're gonna run a car and see the whole thing. I take the kids for a few days and just kind of try and see the best Parts the city. Like the art museum is supposed to be amazing, I've heard, yeah, and then there's this place I don't know if we'll get to it, but there's like Cahooli at the glass or something like that, where it's a Glass-blowing kind of exhibition. It's supposed to be really cool. I forget. I mean I'd like to see the Space Needle and and whatnot, but I mean, again, it's one of those things where it's like I love going through cities and I love being able to show my kids all the cool sights in cities and I've heard this like refrain over the last few years where Kind of drives me nuts. Where it's like, oh well, you're just, you know, privileged if you're complaining about your safety in a city and it's like, oh Uh, what? Like no, I would like everyone to be safe. This isn't just about me like, okay, I live in a pretty safe suburb. I live in probably one of the safest suburbs in the entire US. My concern is not just myself, but like I really think that it's decent to extend safety to everyone. And there's this weird feeling, this weird vibe and like the I want to say the ultra progressive side of politics at this point, where they're like no, policing is so evil that that safety is not guaranteed and it's just part of being a city.
Speaker 1:And there's this one, because there's this author, fellow author, kat Rosenfield, who was talking on a podcast or something about New York and how it's kind of gone downhill the last few years and I love New York, I know you love New York and she was talking about, like, riding the subway and she and her friends had a joke that was not really a joke. I think this was Kat. If this is wrong, I apologize for attributing it to the wrong person, but she had a joke among her friends that it's like you're not a real New Yorker until you've been ejaculated on on the subway and I'm like that is absolutely disgusting and I don't really think that that's okay, frankly, and the fact that there are and this is a shot at Kat, because Kat was pointing out that it's not cool that things are unsafe, but like there are swaths of people that are like will actually attack you on Twitter if you complain about the safety concerns on the subway and it's like no, I would like the safety umbrella of my nice safe suburb to be extended to everyone. The the.
Speaker 1:The weird place that we're in right now is that we went from like wanting to actually extend the safety to everybody to like being in a position where it's like maybe safety for nobody, like no, that's, that's the dumbest shit I've ever heard. No safety for everybody. People shouldn't have to worry about themselves as they walk along the city street.
Speaker 2:And the fact that people are okay with that, like they just take it as, oh, it's part of where I live, is bizarre to me it's some whack ass.
Speaker 1:progressive cope, I'm sorry, it's like everybody has their excesses on their political side and that seems to be the one on the progressive side right now. If you're in the deep policing movement is it's like police are so inherently authoritarian or corrupt that we can't really have them. We need to re reconsider it. Blah, blah, blah. And their, their philosophy seems to be that if you just you can like talk people out of it or something, yeah, clearly, tell me you've never met a psychopath without actually telling me you've met that.
Speaker 2:That's the thing I want more people like. I wish more people could experience being on the other side, like you know, being a cop for a day, yeah, and and having to deal with a lunatic who's who's rushing you, you know, and hopped up on whatever they're hopped up on yeah, that puts a different perspective.
Speaker 1:We're just experiencing a mental health break which happens a lot more nowadays.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that that needs to be somehow figured out. We we definitely lack in this country of taking care of people who need that kind of help.
Speaker 1:Well, I mean, yeah, I've got a book on my shelf that I keep meaning to get to one book best minds. Yeah, you're right, it's a lot of books, you a lot of books.
Speaker 2:Do you know what I want? I want, before I come in here next time, I want you to tag everyone that you have not read yet. Oh, it's the ones that are horizontal.
Speaker 1:Oh, okay, that's the system. Okay, all right.
Speaker 2:So all the vertical land flat, those those you've read the ones that are.
Speaker 1:No, the ones that are vertical have been read. The ones that are horizontal or horizontal, see me and me. And except on the lower shelves, I've had to put it, I've run out of space. So some of like the crusade ones that I haven't read are vertical, but the lower shelves are okay. All right, now I see it. Now you see it.
Speaker 2:I thought, I thought you were just. That was the way you decorated.
Speaker 1:No, no, that's, the TBRs are horizontal and the red books are vertical. I like that.
Speaker 2:I like that. So how do?
Speaker 1:you decide which one you read next. I have a stack up in that middle shelf up there that I went through this morning and I was like, oh, shall I get back to Napoleon? Because I'm about 20% in Shall I get back to the right stuff? I'm about 20%. And then I read through like the beginning of it, and so I ended up. What I did is I pulled this one, which is what I decided to go with, and I read the introduction of it. It's Tombstone by Tom Clavin, and it got me instantly. I'm like that's it. I'm reading that Cool, but I tend to kind of meander a little bit, the only exception being so, I read this book called the Fleet at Floodtide by James D Hornfisher, and it's about the last two years of the war in the Pacific during World War Two, and it's immediately after that.
Speaker 1:I was like I need more World War Two and so I read Flyboys. Oh, okay, you ever read that one? No, oh man, that one is amazing. They made a movie I heard it wasn't terribly good, but it's by this. Flyboys is about the same guy who did Flags of Our Fathers, oh, yeah. So I immediately bought that book as well. But between that and the Fleet at Floodtide I was like, oh, I need to read more World War Two. This is so good.
Speaker 2:Have you? Have you ever read? Well, you don't read a ton of fiction, though.
Speaker 1:I, so my fiction shelves are over here, yeah, but I used to read a ton of fiction. It was all I read for, like the first 35 years of my life.
Speaker 2:Yeah, me too. And then you start writing it and I'm weird about it. I've actually gotten back to reading some fiction as like paperback. Oh, I couldn't for a long time.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so, like so far this year, I've read those three Brandon Sanderson books that he did for his Kickstarter, and those have been awesome, have they really? Oh, they were so good. In fact, his book Trest of the Emerald Seas is one of the best fiction books I've read in years. Really, it's one of my all time favorites. Now, good old Sandin Brannerson man, oh man, yeah, I wish I had more time to read fiction. Actually, I just feel like there's so much to know, so I need to read my own stuff so much I know.
Speaker 2:I know it's like I had to read because I started writing yesterday. I had to read the book before last week and it was like I found myself by the end just skimming because really I just needed to know basically what had happened. I don't need to read every line.
Speaker 1:Well, I'm going to have to read Southern Watch one through eight or seven here in order to write book eight Really.
Speaker 1:And those are some long books in there, but once I get down I'm done. Like last year, I had to read all the sanctuary books over again. That's right, I forgot you did that. One quick note, because I think we're about to end, is Robin Haynes. I want to give her a quick shout out because she took it on herself to organize a giveaway of signed books for a bunch of fans and a couple of my fan groups, and she went.
Speaker 1:Yeah. So she got the orders, she collected the money and it was not a profit thing, it was just a you know, she did it out of the kindness of her heart. Break even kind of thing. Paid for shipping, paid for the books, had them got to me, I signed them, she came and picked them up and then shipped them all out and they're showing up to people's houses. Final.
Speaker 2:That's amazing.
Speaker 1:I wanted to thank her for that, because she didn't have to do it. There was nothing in it for her, and so cheers to Robin, cheers to Robin, good grief, all right. Friend of the podcast. She's been on two episodes. Heck, yeah, maybe I need to talk to her next time.
Speaker 2:Yeah, there you go. Yeah, cool, all right. Well, with that, we're out.
