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Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff you Should Know, a production of I

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Speaker 1: Heart Radio. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark,

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Speaker 1: and there's Charles w Chuck Bryant, and there's Jerry out there,

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Speaker 1: and this is Stuff you should Know. That's pretty good

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Speaker 1: Theraman impression, don't you think? Hey, not bad. I am

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Speaker 1: a little bit proud of myself because the Theraman, it

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Speaker 1: turns out it's very, very tough to play, and it's

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Speaker 1: even tougher to imitate. So that was something of an

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Speaker 1: accomplishment for me. Have you ever tried to play one? No,

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Speaker 1: I haven't. I have not know. It's weird that you

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Speaker 1: had to think about that. Well. I mean I was

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Speaker 1: just trying to think, like, I think there's one in

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Speaker 1: the house, Stuff works office somewhere though, Stuff Podcast Office.

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Speaker 1: I want to say that they're is. Well, I'm there, man,

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Speaker 1: let's go get it, Okay, So look around, we'll wait,

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Speaker 1: we'll wait. We won't edit out you going and wandering

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Speaker 1: around and looking for I'll just talk to the people

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Speaker 1: to keep them busy. Uh, that's weird. I mean, I'm

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Speaker 1: obviously not gonna go look for it, but I had

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Speaker 1: no idea that was one here. I think so I

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Speaker 1: could be making that up. It doesn't seem like the

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Speaker 1: kind of thing that would be there. So for those

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Speaker 1: of you who don't know what we're talking about, we're

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Speaker 1: talking about theramans. And if you still don't know what

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Speaker 1: we're talking about, let us describe this. We'll be able

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Speaker 1: to do that, right, Oh yeah, sure, sure, um, well,

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Speaker 1: here you go. We'll play a clip of something that

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Speaker 1: we'll figure out what it is later. Ready, So there's

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Speaker 1: whatever we selected post production to put into to demonstrate theremans.

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Speaker 1: But that that eerie, high pitched kind of whaling sound,

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Speaker 1: that's a theremin. And the theraman was the world's first

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Speaker 1: electronic musical instrument and it was created by accident, as

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Speaker 1: we'll see. But um, it uses electromagnetism, actually electromagnetic interference

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Speaker 1: to produce a changing pitched sound, changing and pitch and

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Speaker 1: changing in volume. And you can create this, this sound,

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Speaker 1: this music, I guess you would call it without any

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Speaker 1: kind of mechanical energy whatsoever. You're just moving your your

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Speaker 1: body or your hands in and out of the electromagnetic

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Speaker 1: field around the theramin and that's what produces the sound.

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Speaker 1: It's pretty cool. Yeah, And as we will also see

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Speaker 1: it's Uh, it's key that you use a hand because

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Speaker 1: your body it has to be something that conducts electricity.

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Speaker 1: Like you could technically could use metal or something like that,

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Speaker 1: but you wouldn't have the nuance that you're able to

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Speaker 1: achieve by you know, very sort of micro movements in

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Speaker 1: your hand and your fingers. Uh. And when you're playing it,

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Speaker 1: it sort of looks like almost like you're conducting an orchestra.

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Speaker 1: The way you hold your hand, it's very evocative of conducting.

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Speaker 1: I think. Yeah, And it's funny you say that because,

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Speaker 1: um thereman who's actually named Terman um he he said

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Speaker 1: that it was like creating music out of thin air,

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Speaker 1: just like a conductor does. So that was very astutive you, Charles,

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Speaker 1: thank you. So yeah, you mentioned Urman. This guy his

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Speaker 1: his Russian name, I guess was Lev Sergey Yavic Terman

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Speaker 1: t E R M E N. I guess leon Thareman

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Speaker 1: sounds a little more western. Did change it? I I

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Speaker 1: don't know it. You know, here in America we just

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Speaker 1: change it for you. You know, you come through Ellis Island,

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Speaker 1: you get it basically a whole new name that Americans

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Speaker 1: can pronounce more easily. I'm pretty sure, that's what happened.

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Speaker 1: That's a good point. So when Lev was in his

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Speaker 1: early twenties, in the sort of early nineteen hundreds and

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Speaker 1: nineteen nineteen ish, he um was working at the Physical

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Speaker 1: Technical Institute in St. Petersburg, Russia, and he was working

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Speaker 1: and as you'll see, he did he you know, for

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Speaker 1: the majority of his career worked for the Russian State.

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Speaker 1: But he was working on an invention that was supposed

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Speaker 1: to measure the density of gas and a chamber, and

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Speaker 1: essentially he was trying to develop like a land based

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Speaker 1: sonar device that used electromagnetism to detect objects that came

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Speaker 1: within a certain area. And he was like, hey, I'm

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Speaker 1: a pretty young, hip creative guy. I wonder if I

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Speaker 1: add sound to this thing, uh, and not intending to

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Speaker 1: create anything musical, but just let me add sound to

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Speaker 1: it to indicate that this thing is even on. And

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Speaker 1: he did it and bought a being bada boom bon job.

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Speaker 1: He was like, that sounds pretty cool, yeah, because I

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Speaker 1: mean like it it would make sense that you want

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Speaker 1: to add sound to because if you're detecting something coming

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Speaker 1: within proximity, it's kind of like a metal detector. As

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Speaker 1: you get closer and closer to the metal. That sound

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Speaker 1: that it makes um increases. It's basically the exact same thing,

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Speaker 1: except you're not detecting metal. You're to acting electro magnetic

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Speaker 1: interference basically with the theremin. But because he was a young,

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Speaker 1: hip guy like you said, and also a classically trained cellist, um,

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Speaker 1: he said, I think that I could turn this into

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Speaker 1: a musical instrument, and he did pretty quickly. He um

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Speaker 1: fiddled with it a little bit, maybe uh did a

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Speaker 1: little put another do Hicky or two on there, and

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Speaker 1: all of a sudden he had, like I said at

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Speaker 1: the beginning, the world's first electronic musical instrument. Like, if

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Speaker 1: you're into dance music or electronica or anything like that,

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Speaker 1: you owe a great debt of gratitude to to love Terman.

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Speaker 1: Sure should we use some of these things that you found,

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Speaker 1: some of these descriptors. Yeah, so this this initially had

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Speaker 1: like two or three, and I just started adding to

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Speaker 1: One of my favorite things to do is to go

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Speaker 1: around collecting people's hapless descriptions of of what a thereman

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Speaker 1: sounds like, because nobody nails it, but all all of

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Speaker 1: them come close, and their hilarious in their attempts. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: so here's one across between a violin and a soprano voice.

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Speaker 1: That's that's not bad. I think that was the original one. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: I mean you can get I mean, especially when you

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Speaker 1: get some vibrato going, you can see how one might

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Speaker 1: liken it to a voice. Oh yeah, it doesn't sound

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Speaker 1: like a voice to me, but I get the I

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Speaker 1: get the comp um. Okay, how about this one, a

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Speaker 1: purified and magnified saxophone. I think if there was ever

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Speaker 1: a complete failure in describing a Theramin sound, it's that one. Yeah.

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Speaker 1: It sounds like a saxophone, like a cheap keyboard. The

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Speaker 1: saxophone button on a cheap keyboard sounds like a saxop. Yeah. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: maybe that's what they totally missing their point. Uh. Let

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Speaker 1: me see the howling of a haunted wind. That's pretty good.

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Speaker 1: I love that one. This one I think comes from

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Speaker 1: Therman himself. A cello lost in a dense fog and

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Speaker 1: crying because it does not know how to get home.

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Speaker 1: For cello just walking around in the dark by himself,

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Speaker 1: how do I get home? Let me see here across

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Speaker 1: between an amplified child slide whistle, so it doesn't say

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Speaker 1: and what that was a that was a mistake. I

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Speaker 1: put or inky okay, slide and a human voice and

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Speaker 1: the squawks that emanated from early radio speakers. That was

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Speaker 1: pretty That was pretty good because it's uh. The the

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Speaker 1: one of the key components of a theoreman is that

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Speaker 1: slide because it is um. As you will see, and

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Speaker 1: if you listen to theorem in music, it's all about

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Speaker 1: that slide. It's not they're not punctuated with staccato notes. No.

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Speaker 1: And as a matter of fact, I was watching um

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Speaker 1: tutorial by currently the world's foremost theoremnist. I believe her

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Speaker 1: name is Carolina Eck e y c K. She's German um,

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Speaker 1: so however, you pronounced that into German um. And she

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Speaker 1: makes finger motions to cut off the last more ship

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Speaker 1: to to create a space in between notes, separate notes

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Speaker 1: rather than she uses the technical um jargon for what

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Speaker 1: she's talking about. I'm not quite familiar with it. But

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Speaker 1: another way to put it is she's cutting spaces into

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Speaker 1: the notes, so she's not sliding it around like a trumbone. No,

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Speaker 1: or slide whistle that's lost in the dark. You do

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Speaker 1: a pretty good slide whistle to your slide whistle beer.

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Speaker 1: I had one of those when I was a kid.

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Speaker 1: That was the best thing ever I never even did.

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Speaker 1: I'm self taught. Oh boy, I know what you're getting

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Speaker 1: for Christmas? Oh nice? Remember that time you got me

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Speaker 1: an empty can of billy beer? Oh yeah, that's right

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Speaker 1: years ago. Oh no, it wasn't billy beer. I'm sorry,

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Speaker 1: it was just plain generic beer. My can was just

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Speaker 1: the black like helvetica font that just says beer. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: my friend Eddie's favorite beer of all time. Has he

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Speaker 1: actually drank it? Yeah? When we went to uh there

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Speaker 1: was like four of us that went to l A

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Speaker 1: for spring break in college and stayed with my brother

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Speaker 1: and we went to the store and they had the

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Speaker 1: generic beer and Petty is a beer guy, and he

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Speaker 1: just flipped. He bought like three cases of it. Wow

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Speaker 1: for fifty cents. Yeah exactly. Yeah. So, um thereman has

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Speaker 1: got this instrument going. He's pretty proud of it. Word

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Speaker 1: gets around Mother Russia, and word gets to Lenin, who

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Speaker 1: at the time was chairman of Russia's uh sort of

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Speaker 1: newly In I guess installed as one word for it

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Speaker 1: the Bolshevik government, and he flipped over it. Lennon was

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Speaker 1: a theoreman nut and he was like, you know what,

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Speaker 1: I'm gonna send you on tour, comrade, And uh, this

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Speaker 1: thing is gonna want people to champion electricity as a

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Speaker 1: whole just by these demonstrations, right, just so that they

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Speaker 1: can possibly get a theorem in themselves. They're going to

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Speaker 1: install electricity in their house. That's my plan. Forget reading

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Speaker 1: lights or warmth, right, it's the theoreman that they'll want.

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Speaker 1: So he tours Russia for a while basically promoting you know, electricity,

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Speaker 1: electronic music, Soviet know how, that kind of stuff, and um,

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Speaker 1: his tour is so successful that they send him on

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Speaker 1: to Western Europe. And he toured Western Europe with what

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Speaker 1: we're known as his um ether concerts. Ether wave concerts,

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Speaker 1: not ether concerts. Those are totally different. Um. And the

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Speaker 1: one of the less known things about Left Harman is

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Speaker 1: that while he was touring Europe just wowing crowds, he

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Speaker 1: was also spying for the Soviet state, which he did

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Speaker 1: for a while. Actually, yeah, I know this, I say

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Speaker 1: this a lot, but this this has got the makings

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Speaker 1: of a pretty good movie too, don't you think sure? Yeah?

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Speaker 1: I think so. I mean I'm not quite sure. You'd

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Speaker 1: have to really be a master to to to pull

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Speaker 1: out the um, the humanity and the compassion and the

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Speaker 1: viewer for this guy, because he's morally ambiguous in a

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Speaker 1: lot of places, I think. But in the end, you know,

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Speaker 1: just the kind of treatment he got, I think kind

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Speaker 1: of makes him a sad sack case that he'll do

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Speaker 1: lock treatment feel bad for. Yeah, all right, well we'll

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Speaker 1: get to that. But so he's touring around he, like

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Speaker 1: you said, as a spy for the Soviet regime. And

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Speaker 1: because of this tour, he's being allowed he's getting all

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Speaker 1: this access two places where he can be a pretty

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Speaker 1: good spy actually on pattent offenses and um like industrial

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Speaker 1: complexes and stuff like that. So he's getting access and

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Speaker 1: doing a pretty good job spying for for the Soviet regime.

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Speaker 1: And he ended up taking up residents in the United States.

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Speaker 1: I didn't see whether that was a part of the

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Speaker 1: Soviet plan or his own plan. I'm not sure, but

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Speaker 1: he found himself quite at home and in New York

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Speaker 1: when he he showed up in the US and started

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Speaker 1: becoming kind of the toast of the town. Um. I've

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Speaker 1: read that Albert Einstein kept a lab at Um Terman

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Speaker 1: apartment in New York on fifty four Street. When he

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Speaker 1: visited him, he would just do some work while he

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Speaker 1: was there. Um. He became pretty well known, especially among

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Speaker 1: like avant garde musicians and composers. Um. He was just

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Speaker 1: kind of a known as like a cool guy. Um.

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Speaker 1: He had a very scandalous marriage in that he married

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Speaker 1: an African American prima ballerina whose name is Lavinia Williams Um.

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Speaker 1: And I think he lived in the United States for

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Speaker 1: a good decade. He showed up in and he lived

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Speaker 1: there until eight I believe, and along the way because

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Speaker 1: he became such a toast of the town. And his

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Speaker 1: his theorem in um, which had been known for a

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Speaker 1: while as his theorem in vox, which is theoreman's voice,

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Speaker 1: finally got shortened to Theraman and R. C said, you

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Speaker 1: know what, I think these things are going to be

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Speaker 1: a hit. We're going to We're going to buy the

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Speaker 1: rights from you, or at least, um least the rights

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Speaker 1: from you and start producing our own. Yeah. Because he

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Speaker 1: obviously was wise enough to get a patent in the

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Speaker 1: US in um. That was his second wife. By the way,

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Speaker 1: I didn't I couldn't get a whole lot about his

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Speaker 1: first wife other than it was clearly in Russia because

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Speaker 1: her name was a Katerina Pavlovna. Okay, that's a pretty

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Speaker 1: Russian name. And he was married three times. He had

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Speaker 1: a couple of daughters, I think with his third wife,

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Speaker 1: and um, I'll talk a little bit more about his

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Speaker 1: kids later. But he, uh, he gets his patent. R

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Speaker 1: C a like he said, jumps on board the Theoreman

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Speaker 1: bandwagon and manufactures a a version of the theorem, like

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Speaker 1: an at home Theoreman for a d seventy five bucks,

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Speaker 1: which is a really expensive musical instrument that's bucks today,

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Speaker 1: especially during the depression. Yeah, I mean, I don't know

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Speaker 1: who they thought they were going to sell him to everybody. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: r C made it sound like they were onto something really,

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Speaker 1: really big, but it was such an expensive price point.

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Speaker 1: It was such a niche product. Um I think. I

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Speaker 1: mean they sold the first run that they built, but

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Speaker 1: only to like rich people who wanted to like throw

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Speaker 1: parties in wow people with their theorem. And basically I

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Speaker 1: guess one of the other big problems with it is

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Speaker 1: that they marketed it like there's no strings, there's no frets,

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Speaker 1: there's no you know, there's nothing, it's just like strings. Yeah, basically, Um,

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Speaker 1: they said that anybody can learn to play this, make

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Speaker 1: music with the wave of a hand. Um. And the

246
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Speaker 1: problem is the theremin is really really hard to learn

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Speaker 1: because it doesn't have things like frets or strings or

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Speaker 1: um chord progressions or anything like that. Um. And there's

249
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Speaker 1: no other instrument like it on the planet. So um,

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Speaker 1: it's very difficult to learn. And I think our c

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Speaker 1: A made a first production run of like four hundred

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Speaker 1: units and they managed to sell three and eighty of them,

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Speaker 1: some of which are still in existence today, and I

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Speaker 1: was looking them up. Apparently, Um, if you can find

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Speaker 1: one that's just in terrible shape, you could still proba

256
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Speaker 1: probably get thirty bucks for it, and one that's in

257
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Speaker 1: really good condition mint condition would be about thirteen grand

258
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Speaker 1: because there's such collectors items. But also because of the

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Speaker 1: original um them electronics inside of the circuitry. Yeah that

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Speaker 1: that it makes a sound that's really difficult to replicate

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Speaker 1: because we have such an embarrassment of riches with advancement

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Speaker 1: in in electronics today that it's hard to make something

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Speaker 1: sound old timey and original, you know what I mean?

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Speaker 1: Everything sounds so rich and in advanced UM. So I

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Speaker 1: think that's one of the reasons why people will pay

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Speaker 1: thirteen grand for an original R C A theorem, and

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Speaker 1: that Jack White has one. Yeah, I'll bet he does too. So. Um.

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Speaker 1: When he was in the United States, living there, doing

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Speaker 1: some spying and doing some theorem and playing like he

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Speaker 1: would put on big, big concerts, he put on a

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Speaker 1: full theorem and orchestra, which is to say, I think

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Speaker 1: they were like six of them, um at Carnegie Hall.

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Speaker 1: So like these were big, big, big events. Um. And

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Speaker 1: like you said, he got married to a second wife

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Speaker 1: there and was leading this double life really like no

276
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Speaker 1: one knew what was going on obviously as a spy,

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Speaker 1: and he got a little more and more nervous his

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Speaker 1: World War two approaches that he might get ratted out.

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Speaker 1: He's he's really enjoying this life in America, and he's like,

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Speaker 1: I don't want to I don't want to do this. Uh,

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Speaker 1: the FBI has got a file on me. He didn't

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Speaker 1: say that because he didn't know that, but the ghost

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Speaker 1: of Leon Thereman said that later on, right. And he

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Speaker 1: was getting pretty deep into debt, and so in nineteen

285
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Speaker 1: thirty eight he left the US after ten years there

286
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Speaker 1: didn't even tell his wife he was leaving his second

287
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Speaker 1: wife and stayed gone until the early nineties. Yeah. Part

288
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Speaker 1: of that was not by his own decision, like he

289
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Speaker 1: stayed gone in part because as Stalin came into power,

290
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Speaker 1: he was not very he didn't fancy the old regime,

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Speaker 1: and Thereman was definitely associated with that old regime. He

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Speaker 1: was a favorite of Lenin's um, So he was throwing

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Speaker 1: and into the goolog as the the USSR really started

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Speaker 1: to gain strength and power um and apparently as World

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Speaker 1: War Two started to approach, the Soviets realized that they'd

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Speaker 1: actually thrown a lot of valuable scientists in their minds

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Speaker 1: into goolog So they went and got them out, including

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Speaker 1: leve Terman, and put them in a different kind of

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Speaker 1: goolog called the Sharashka. Yeah, I got it. Sharashka, which

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Speaker 1: is basically like a prison for scientists, like science camp

301
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Speaker 1: that you can't leave exactly, and you can't see your

302
00:17:34,160 --> 00:17:36,919
Speaker 1: family or friends are connected with the outside, but you

303
00:17:36,960 --> 00:17:39,320
Speaker 1: can't spend all of your time thinking about ways to

304
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Speaker 1: come up with new devices that the Soviet state can use.

305
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Speaker 1: And that is actually where leve Terman Thereman came up.

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Speaker 1: With his other great invention that he's known for, which

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Speaker 1: is called the Thing or the Great Seal Bug. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: I think, uh, that's a pretty good time to take

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Speaker 1: a break, Okay, and we'll come back right after this, Okay, Chuck.

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Speaker 1: So frankly, you really left everybody hanging with that last thing.

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Speaker 1: So let's talk about the Thing or the Great Seal Bug. Okay.

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Speaker 1: Uh yeah, boy, all these years in I gotta teach

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Speaker 1: you about the cliffhanger. Yeah, I like to. I like

314
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Speaker 1: to plod along at the most boring pace and stop

315
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Speaker 1: at the most boring, predictable time. So before the Thing,

316
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Speaker 1: he invented something called a baron b U R A N.

317
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Speaker 1: And that was a list another listening device, um that

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Speaker 1: sort of functioned as a laser microphone that you would

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Speaker 1: use today where you would point it at a at

320
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Speaker 1: a piece of glass like someone's you know, behind that

321
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Speaker 1: glass talking and it would sense the vibrations in the glass.

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Speaker 1: That's wow. He invented that. Yeah, he invented the barn

323
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Speaker 1: I've heard about that thing, but that was um nothing

324
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Speaker 1: sort of as far as impact goes compared to the

325
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Speaker 1: Great Seal Bug or the Thing like you mentioned. And

326
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Speaker 1: this was really pretty extraordinary that this actually worked. Um,

327
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Speaker 1: not that his invention worked, but that the scam worked. UM.

328
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Speaker 1: So what he did was he put a passive bug

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Speaker 1: inside a wood carving of the Seal, the Great Seal

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Speaker 1: of the United States. They presented it to Avril har Harriman,

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Speaker 1: who was the American ambassador to Moscow, and he hung

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Speaker 1: it on his wall and it allowed himself to get

333
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Speaker 1: spied on for years. So so in Harriman's defense, um,

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Speaker 1: he was, like you said, It was like you said,

335
00:19:48,480 --> 00:19:50,840
Speaker 1: he was a very trusting sort, which made him a

336
00:19:50,920 --> 00:19:54,359
Speaker 1: terrible choice for the ambassador, American ambassador to Moscow. But

337
00:19:54,400 --> 00:19:56,840
Speaker 1: it was a passive bug. It didn't use electricity, so

338
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Speaker 1: there was no possible way for anybody to sweep for it.

339
00:20:00,200 --> 00:20:02,600
Speaker 1: So I'm sure they swept this Great Seal, you know,

340
00:20:02,680 --> 00:20:04,879
Speaker 1: eight ways from Sunday and turn nothing up and they're like,

341
00:20:04,920 --> 00:20:08,439
Speaker 1: all right, put it up, um. And the reason it

342
00:20:08,480 --> 00:20:10,840
Speaker 1: was passive is because it didn't use electricity, and it

343
00:20:10,920 --> 00:20:16,160
Speaker 1: was activated by microwaves. The microwaves would turn an antenna on, UM,

344
00:20:16,200 --> 00:20:18,239
Speaker 1: and you could be a few doors down and just

345
00:20:18,359 --> 00:20:21,440
Speaker 1: beam like a microwave beam towards this thing, and it

346
00:20:21,480 --> 00:20:24,159
Speaker 1: would activate the antenna and then the place that it

347
00:20:24,240 --> 00:20:27,560
Speaker 1: was put in, the eagle's beak created kind of like

348
00:20:27,600 --> 00:20:31,080
Speaker 1: an ear, a wooden ear that amplified the sound in

349
00:20:31,119 --> 00:20:32,879
Speaker 1: the room, and the antenna would pick it up and

350
00:20:32,920 --> 00:20:37,639
Speaker 1: transmit it automatically. Seven years they were able to spy

351
00:20:37,800 --> 00:20:40,640
Speaker 1: on these conversations, and it was It could have gone

352
00:20:40,640 --> 00:20:44,160
Speaker 1: on forever, but it was. It was discovered by accident.

353
00:20:44,160 --> 00:20:47,440
Speaker 1: There was a British radio operator who picked up the signal.

354
00:20:47,960 --> 00:20:51,639
Speaker 1: It's like, hey, something's going on here. And I guess

355
00:20:51,680 --> 00:20:54,440
Speaker 1: they eventually, you know, probably just tore that room inside

356
00:20:54,480 --> 00:20:57,000
Speaker 1: out until they found it. Would be my guess, right

357
00:20:57,600 --> 00:21:01,600
Speaker 1: that radio operas like is that is that Avril Harriman talking?

358
00:21:02,359 --> 00:21:05,080
Speaker 1: I know that voice and the great The best part

359
00:21:05,160 --> 00:21:07,959
Speaker 1: of that story is that they got the Soviet equivalent

360
00:21:08,080 --> 00:21:12,159
Speaker 1: of the Boy Scouts, the Young Pioneers, to present the plaque.

361
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Speaker 1: And I was raised as a child the Cold War,

362
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Speaker 1: so I strongly suspect the Young Pioneers were in on it.

363
00:21:17,760 --> 00:21:20,600
Speaker 1: They knew full well what they were doing. Of course, yeah,

364
00:21:20,600 --> 00:21:23,920
Speaker 1: they were in on it. It was a young Vladimir

365
00:21:23,960 --> 00:21:30,520
Speaker 1: Putin probably probably chuck, you never know, Uh so thereman

366
00:21:31,000 --> 00:21:35,800
Speaker 1: was um he kind of disappeared from public view because

367
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Speaker 1: of the gulag experience and being in science prison camp

368
00:21:41,080 --> 00:21:43,680
Speaker 1: uh and then Uh. Nineteen sixty seven, a New York

369
00:21:43,720 --> 00:21:48,320
Speaker 1: Times critic named Harold schoenberg Um found him quite by

370
00:21:48,320 --> 00:21:52,040
Speaker 1: accident at the Moscow Conservatory where he was working at

371
00:21:52,040 --> 00:21:54,639
Speaker 1: the time. He was writing a story a road, a

372
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Speaker 1: story that basically kind of out of him, and said, hey,

373
00:21:57,400 --> 00:22:01,240
Speaker 1: here's Leon Thireman. He's right here in the Soviet Union. Yeah,

374
00:22:01,280 --> 00:22:04,080
Speaker 1: and he was probably like, finally, I've been waiting for

375
00:22:04,119 --> 00:22:07,080
Speaker 1: you guys to dig me up. But the Soviet state said,

376
00:22:07,119 --> 00:22:08,520
Speaker 1: you know what, this is not a good thing. We

377
00:22:08,560 --> 00:22:10,639
Speaker 1: can't have this guy talking to the press and becoming

378
00:22:10,680 --> 00:22:13,800
Speaker 1: a cause ce lab again. He's just done too much dirt.

379
00:22:14,240 --> 00:22:18,440
Speaker 1: He's been in a goolag before. He bugged the ambassador

380
00:22:18,520 --> 00:22:20,280
Speaker 1: like this. He just knows too much. We don't want

381
00:22:20,320 --> 00:22:22,880
Speaker 1: him people paying attention to him. So they ruined him.

382
00:22:23,040 --> 00:22:26,840
Speaker 1: They ruined his career, They had him fired from the conservatory,

383
00:22:27,040 --> 00:22:29,880
Speaker 1: They trashed all of the inventions he was working on,

384
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Speaker 1: and he ended up spending the next couple of decades

385
00:22:32,600 --> 00:22:35,640
Speaker 1: living um in poverty in a in a group home,

386
00:22:35,800 --> 00:22:39,200
Speaker 1: in a room in a group home. Um, basically because

387
00:22:39,240 --> 00:22:41,840
Speaker 1: of that New York Times critic finding him and writing

388
00:22:41,880 --> 00:22:44,640
Speaker 1: that article again, which is sad on the one hand,

389
00:22:44,680 --> 00:22:46,840
Speaker 1: but at the other hand, on the other hand, it

390
00:22:47,200 --> 00:22:49,840
Speaker 1: um brought him back from any sort of obscurity he

391
00:22:50,000 --> 00:22:53,880
Speaker 1: kind of been pounded into. Yeah, so this last until

392
00:22:53,880 --> 00:22:56,959
Speaker 1: about the eighties, when the Soviet Union opens up just

393
00:22:57,000 --> 00:22:59,879
Speaker 1: a bit and he leaves and goes to Europe. He

394
00:23:00,080 --> 00:23:01,560
Speaker 1: is to the US, like we said at the beginning

395
00:23:01,560 --> 00:23:05,280
Speaker 1: in nine and uh then was able to sort of

396
00:23:05,320 --> 00:23:08,920
Speaker 1: reap a little bit of his reward as uh as

397
00:23:08,960 --> 00:23:13,320
Speaker 1: a you know, pioneer and electronic music or music period. Um.

398
00:23:13,359 --> 00:23:17,959
Speaker 1: There's a documentary called Thereman Colon an Electronic Odyssey from

399
00:23:17,960 --> 00:23:22,200
Speaker 1: the early nineties that is not great, but it does

400
00:23:22,280 --> 00:23:24,760
Speaker 1: feature him in the end, which is which is pretty cool.

401
00:23:24,760 --> 00:23:27,240
Speaker 1: Like the last third of it has actual interviews with

402
00:23:27,359 --> 00:23:30,360
Speaker 1: Leon Thereman and him playing it and stuff like that. Sure,

403
00:23:30,359 --> 00:23:31,960
Speaker 1: I mean, he must have known that he needed to

404
00:23:31,960 --> 00:23:34,520
Speaker 1: show up his legacy while he could, because you know,

405
00:23:34,560 --> 00:23:38,040
Speaker 1: he visited the US and he was dead two years

406
00:23:38,119 --> 00:23:42,159
Speaker 1: later back in Russia, UM, and he was still working

407
00:23:42,160 --> 00:23:44,159
Speaker 1: on stuff to to the end. He was working on

408
00:23:44,200 --> 00:23:48,240
Speaker 1: a dance floor that was made up of his turpos stone,

409
00:23:48,280 --> 00:23:51,440
Speaker 1: which was another invention of his, which was like a thereman,

410
00:23:51,720 --> 00:23:53,760
Speaker 1: but rather than using your hands, he used your whole

411
00:23:53,800 --> 00:23:57,240
Speaker 1: body and you danced. Well, he was making an entire

412
00:23:57,320 --> 00:23:59,040
Speaker 1: dance floor out of these. You could have a bunch

413
00:23:59,080 --> 00:24:02,720
Speaker 1: of people dancing making the worst possible sounds you can imagine,

414
00:24:03,000 --> 00:24:05,880
Speaker 1: all at the same time. And he was in his nineties. Yeah,

415
00:24:06,040 --> 00:24:09,480
Speaker 1: he was like nine seven when he died, so yeah,

416
00:24:09,520 --> 00:24:11,240
Speaker 1: he was working on this in his nineties. So he

417
00:24:11,280 --> 00:24:15,159
Speaker 1: was a hip cat until the end. So while he

418
00:24:15,240 --> 00:24:17,920
Speaker 1: was gone, something happened in the US in the nineteen

419
00:24:18,080 --> 00:24:22,600
Speaker 1: forties and fifties. Um, the Thereman kind of blew up

420
00:24:23,400 --> 00:24:25,520
Speaker 1: and blew up. As far as the Thereman goes. It

421
00:24:25,560 --> 00:24:29,080
Speaker 1: wasn't like it became a staple in in music or

422
00:24:29,119 --> 00:24:32,840
Speaker 1: a staple in pop music, but it was used largely

423
00:24:32,880 --> 00:24:38,240
Speaker 1: at first in movies science fiction, the Alfred Hitchcock Spellbound,

424
00:24:38,400 --> 00:24:43,199
Speaker 1: most notably maybe um The Lost Weekend, And unless it

425
00:24:43,240 --> 00:24:45,800
Speaker 1: was science fiction, it sort of came to be a

426
00:24:45,840 --> 00:24:51,399
Speaker 1: signal for psychological distress, like if somebody was under the

427
00:24:51,440 --> 00:24:55,080
Speaker 1: influence of drugs, or if that was somebody like locked

428
00:24:55,080 --> 00:24:57,200
Speaker 1: away in a in a what they would have called

429
00:24:57,240 --> 00:25:00,320
Speaker 1: an insane asylum back then. You might hear a Airman

430
00:25:00,400 --> 00:25:03,400
Speaker 1: kind of say, by the way, this character is off

431
00:25:03,400 --> 00:25:07,160
Speaker 1: their rocker. You're right if you if your drug trip

432
00:25:07,520 --> 00:25:09,879
Speaker 1: sound feels to you like a Theoreman sounds, you're on

433
00:25:09,920 --> 00:25:13,960
Speaker 1: a bad trip, buddy, you think, sure, alright, but you

434
00:25:14,000 --> 00:25:17,119
Speaker 1: can you could trace the kind of the breakout popularity,

435
00:25:17,240 --> 00:25:19,880
Speaker 1: at least the introduction to the general public of the

436
00:25:19,880 --> 00:25:23,879
Speaker 1: Theoreman to basically two people back in the forties and fifties.

437
00:25:24,160 --> 00:25:27,920
Speaker 1: Um miklosh Roscha who was the guy who scored The

438
00:25:28,000 --> 00:25:32,159
Speaker 1: Last Weekend and spell Bound, and Samuel Hoffman, who was

439
00:25:32,200 --> 00:25:35,120
Speaker 1: a theoreminist and composer who worked with some other kind

440
00:25:35,119 --> 00:25:38,600
Speaker 1: of more popular composers Less Baxter and Harry Revel to

441
00:25:38,720 --> 00:25:42,720
Speaker 1: make some really great music. Um in a couple of

442
00:25:42,800 --> 00:25:48,439
Speaker 1: new new types of music, lounge and exotica. UM. I

443
00:25:48,520 --> 00:25:51,520
Speaker 1: listened to music out of the Moon today, like eight times.

444
00:25:51,680 --> 00:25:55,040
Speaker 1: I listened to Perfume set to music how is It?

445
00:25:55,040 --> 00:25:59,359
Speaker 1: It's okay? Not as much therapy Thereman as h I wanted.

446
00:25:59,400 --> 00:26:02,119
Speaker 1: I wanted more Airman. Well, a little Thereman goes a

447
00:26:02,119 --> 00:26:05,560
Speaker 1: long way, for sure, But there were parts of music

448
00:26:05,600 --> 00:26:07,240
Speaker 1: out of the moon where you have to like really

449
00:26:07,320 --> 00:26:11,840
Speaker 1: listen because it just it um merges so well, harmonizes

450
00:26:11,880 --> 00:26:14,960
Speaker 1: so well with the other stuff like maybe vocalists harmonizing

451
00:26:14,960 --> 00:26:17,320
Speaker 1: the theremin WI harmonize with it, which is now that

452
00:26:17,359 --> 00:26:22,199
Speaker 1: I know about Thereman's that is incredibly masterful to be

453
00:26:22,240 --> 00:26:24,880
Speaker 1: able to harmonize with a human voice using a theoremin.

454
00:26:26,480 --> 00:26:29,240
Speaker 1: But those two guys definitely kind of introduced that to

455
00:26:29,359 --> 00:26:32,719
Speaker 1: the to the public. And one member of the public

456
00:26:33,480 --> 00:26:36,399
Speaker 1: that got introduced to the theremin who was really responsible

457
00:26:36,480 --> 00:26:39,160
Speaker 1: for breaking it out was a guy named Robert Moog

458
00:26:39,880 --> 00:26:44,760
Speaker 1: might recognize whatever you might recognize from his um synthesizer

459
00:26:45,080 --> 00:26:47,600
Speaker 1: that he was the guy who invented the synthesizer. Well,

460
00:26:47,640 --> 00:26:51,720
Speaker 1: apparently Robert Mog his first and last love I saw

461
00:26:51,760 --> 00:26:55,000
Speaker 1: someone say was the theoreman. Yeah, he got together with

462
00:26:55,040 --> 00:26:58,280
Speaker 1: his dad and he built theremin kits to sell to people.

463
00:26:58,920 --> 00:27:01,080
Speaker 1: Um it's kind of one of the cool thing about thereman.

464
00:27:01,520 --> 00:27:04,800
Speaker 1: You can buy one ready to go, but all along

465
00:27:04,800 --> 00:27:07,720
Speaker 1: since the beginning and up to this very day, you

466
00:27:07,760 --> 00:27:09,560
Speaker 1: can buy a kid to kind of build it yourself.

467
00:27:09,600 --> 00:27:13,240
Speaker 1: Because they're very uh, they're very much cater to circuitry

468
00:27:13,280 --> 00:27:16,879
Speaker 1: and electronic walks who love to get in there with

469
00:27:16,920 --> 00:27:19,720
Speaker 1: her soldering iron and mess around. So kids were very

470
00:27:19,760 --> 00:27:22,560
Speaker 1: popular from the beginning. And that's kind of how Moe

471
00:27:22,640 --> 00:27:25,600
Speaker 1: got it start as a company, Yeah, by selling these

472
00:27:25,640 --> 00:27:29,080
Speaker 1: theorem and kits um and I think it was uh

473
00:27:29,520 --> 00:27:33,639
Speaker 1: n when he started selling them. And by the sixties

474
00:27:33,680 --> 00:27:36,200
Speaker 1: they were like really ready to be used. They were

475
00:27:36,240 --> 00:27:38,119
Speaker 1: you know, there's a lot of there's a lot of

476
00:27:38,200 --> 00:27:42,200
Speaker 1: room and psychedelic music for the Thereman. Um. And so

477
00:27:42,240 --> 00:27:45,920
Speaker 1: it pops up on some Rolling Stones albums apparently, um

478
00:27:46,040 --> 00:27:50,600
Speaker 1: uh Brian Jones, right, Yeah, Brian Jones played the Thereman

479
00:27:50,680 --> 00:27:53,120
Speaker 1: for a couple of albums. Um, it's on a whole

480
00:27:53,160 --> 00:27:57,760
Speaker 1: Lot of Love where Robert Plant has his climax. Um.

481
00:27:58,400 --> 00:28:01,679
Speaker 1: And then don't tell me that's meant to represent anything

482
00:28:01,680 --> 00:28:05,800
Speaker 1: else but that everybody knows that. Could you imagine It's

483
00:28:05,880 --> 00:28:09,160
Speaker 1: like if you were, you know, having sex with Robert

484
00:28:09,160 --> 00:28:11,959
Speaker 1: Plant in the nineteen seventies and and that's literally what

485
00:28:12,080 --> 00:28:14,600
Speaker 1: he started doing. Jimmy Page just comes out of the

486
00:28:14,600 --> 00:28:19,480
Speaker 1: closet playing the Thereman along the company. My lord. Um,

487
00:28:19,520 --> 00:28:22,000
Speaker 1: there's a couple of places where you think it pops up,

488
00:28:22,040 --> 00:28:25,840
Speaker 1: but you would be wrong, Chuck, Yeah, I mean it's

489
00:28:25,840 --> 00:28:29,439
Speaker 1: it's uh, well, it's not controversial. The Beach Boys song

490
00:28:29,520 --> 00:28:34,040
Speaker 1: Good Vibrations is probably the most popular song ever too

491
00:28:35,119 --> 00:28:40,120
Speaker 1: really heavily feature very distinctly what you think is a theoreman. Um,

492
00:28:40,160 --> 00:28:44,240
Speaker 1: it's actually something called an electro theoreman. Brian Wilson calls

493
00:28:44,240 --> 00:28:46,280
Speaker 1: it a thereman. Everyone sort of calls it a thereman,

494
00:28:46,320 --> 00:28:49,120
Speaker 1: but it's a trump bonus named Paul Tanner invented it.

495
00:28:49,840 --> 00:28:52,520
Speaker 1: Um basically a very simplified thereman that you could play

496
00:28:52,560 --> 00:28:55,960
Speaker 1: with knobs, uh, to make it easier to hit the

497
00:28:56,040 --> 00:28:59,120
Speaker 1: right tones. That that to me makes it not not

498
00:28:59,280 --> 00:29:02,800
Speaker 1: a theorem. And yeah, it's an electro theremin. So um,

499
00:29:02,840 --> 00:29:05,240
Speaker 1: there's not a theoreman on Good Vibrations, as a lot

500
00:29:05,240 --> 00:29:07,880
Speaker 1: of people think. It's also not a theoreman you're hearing

501
00:29:07,880 --> 00:29:10,800
Speaker 1: in the Star Trek theme. A lot of people apparently

502
00:29:10,840 --> 00:29:13,560
Speaker 1: think that it shows up in that Trek theme and

503
00:29:13,640 --> 00:29:17,200
Speaker 1: that it turns out is soprano lulli Gene Norman hitting

504
00:29:17,240 --> 00:29:20,080
Speaker 1: all those incredible notes. I don't even I don't think

505
00:29:20,080 --> 00:29:28,480
Speaker 1: i've ever heard that theme. WHOA Okay, that was Beaker.

506
00:29:28,520 --> 00:29:34,040
Speaker 1: Apparently we just made a cameo in that in that version. Yep. Um,

507
00:29:34,160 --> 00:29:37,240
Speaker 1: so those are two places the theremin doesn't show up.

508
00:29:37,720 --> 00:29:40,320
Speaker 1: It does show up elsewhere in movies like Edwood and

509
00:29:40,400 --> 00:29:43,080
Speaker 1: Mars Attacks both I think Tim Burton movies. Right, yeah,

510
00:29:43,320 --> 00:29:46,640
Speaker 1: he's all over the thereman. Hell boy. Um. It was

511
00:29:46,680 --> 00:29:49,480
Speaker 1: also in First Man, which I have still not seen,

512
00:29:49,560 --> 00:29:52,600
Speaker 1: but I guess it's a scene where Neil Armstrong throws

513
00:29:52,720 --> 00:29:57,440
Speaker 1: his um his young dead daughter's bracelet into a crater

514
00:29:57,520 --> 00:30:00,440
Speaker 1: in the moon and they use theoreman, which it seems

515
00:30:00,440 --> 00:30:03,360
Speaker 1: like a very bold choice for a recent movie to make.

516
00:30:03,480 --> 00:30:07,040
Speaker 1: I'm surprised you haven't seen that. I'm a little surprised too.

517
00:30:09,920 --> 00:30:12,040
Speaker 1: I'm surprised I haven't seen it because I have a

518
00:30:12,040 --> 00:30:16,680
Speaker 1: crush on Gosling, who doesn't. No Man, Lars and the

519
00:30:16,720 --> 00:30:19,520
Speaker 1: Real Girl is just one of the best movies ever made. Yeah,

520
00:30:19,600 --> 00:30:21,920
Speaker 1: also starring a a friend of us stuff you should know,

521
00:30:21,920 --> 00:30:30,240
Speaker 1: Paul Schneider. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, that's great. So a

522
00:30:30,280 --> 00:30:32,959
Speaker 1: bunch of you know, pop music really latched onto it.

523
00:30:33,040 --> 00:30:36,400
Speaker 1: And UH and the nineties and two thousand's group called

524
00:30:36,400 --> 00:30:39,720
Speaker 1: the Silver Apples use one. Uh. One of my favorite

525
00:30:40,400 --> 00:30:42,960
Speaker 1: records from the nineties is a band called Mercury Rev

526
00:30:43,800 --> 00:30:46,960
Speaker 1: and their album Deserter Songs heavily features the Theoreman and

527
00:30:47,000 --> 00:30:50,040
Speaker 1: a couple of their songs, there's a Sepulcher, a song

528
00:30:50,440 --> 00:30:53,560
Speaker 1: that has a theoremin and it's played by um Jason

529
00:30:53,640 --> 00:30:56,160
Speaker 1: now Stead, who is the basis of Metallic at the time.

530
00:30:56,520 --> 00:31:01,040
Speaker 1: There's a trivia answer for you. Seriously, he's like, standing back,

531
00:31:01,200 --> 00:31:04,720
Speaker 1: you can't crowd the Theoreman. It changes the pitch. It's

532
00:31:04,800 --> 00:31:08,720
Speaker 1: also that was your Jason Newstead impression. Sure, I guess

533
00:31:08,800 --> 00:31:11,800
Speaker 1: he just looks angry, didn't he. That's Hetfield you're thinking of.

534
00:31:12,200 --> 00:31:15,360
Speaker 1: Oh Newstead always had that frown. Oh really, well, all

535
00:31:15,360 --> 00:31:19,160
Speaker 1: of them literally they were metal, don't you know. Um.

536
00:31:19,240 --> 00:31:21,760
Speaker 1: And then there was a band called Lothar and the

537
00:31:21,840 --> 00:31:25,320
Speaker 1: hand People, And Lothar was the name of the Theoreman,

538
00:31:25,600 --> 00:31:28,360
Speaker 1: who the band considered the lead singer in the hand

539
00:31:28,400 --> 00:31:32,440
Speaker 1: People were the people playing Lothar the Theoreman. Yeah, that

540
00:31:32,480 --> 00:31:34,239
Speaker 1: annoyed me so much. I didn't even look it up

541
00:31:34,240 --> 00:31:36,960
Speaker 1: to listen. Oh really, I think it's awesome. Man, that's

542
00:31:36,960 --> 00:31:39,800
Speaker 1: just so sixties to me. I love it. I think

543
00:31:39,800 --> 00:31:43,960
Speaker 1: it's two thousands trying to be sixties. No, but they're

544
00:31:43,960 --> 00:31:47,080
Speaker 1: from the sixties, so they are Yeah, yeah, yeah, they're legit.

545
00:31:48,480 --> 00:31:52,800
Speaker 1: I'll look into it. Then. Have you seen what what

546
00:31:52,960 --> 00:31:55,200
Speaker 1: was the name of that band that um they just

547
00:31:55,400 --> 00:31:59,480
Speaker 1: beat up like appliances. I think they're Swedish and they

548
00:31:59,560 --> 00:32:01,800
Speaker 1: made the Hounds. They were like kind of viral, like

549
00:32:01,880 --> 00:32:04,800
Speaker 1: several years back. They did like a total eclipse of

550
00:32:04,800 --> 00:32:08,040
Speaker 1: the heart cover but beating up an oven in a dishwasher,

551
00:32:08,480 --> 00:32:11,960
Speaker 1: Oh my god, you'd actually like him pretty great. And

552
00:32:11,960 --> 00:32:14,600
Speaker 1: one guy, he's like so scrawny that he can't keep

553
00:32:14,600 --> 00:32:17,200
Speaker 1: his pants up, so his pants keep falling down every

554
00:32:17,240 --> 00:32:20,440
Speaker 1: time he hits the stove with the sledgehammer. It's like,

555
00:32:21,120 --> 00:32:24,760
Speaker 1: I mean it's a stove with his belt. Yeah, basically

556
00:32:24,920 --> 00:32:28,320
Speaker 1: put the belt on. That guy needs a belt more

557
00:32:28,320 --> 00:32:30,479
Speaker 1: than he I don't even think a belt could service

558
00:32:30,560 --> 00:32:32,800
Speaker 1: him any longer. I think he needs like an extension

559
00:32:32,880 --> 00:32:35,800
Speaker 1: cord length. He's got a tie it as tight as

560
00:32:35,800 --> 00:32:38,800
Speaker 1: he possibly can. He's thin. And you just unknowingly made

561
00:32:38,800 --> 00:32:43,560
Speaker 1: another music reference. What the great great band Silver Juice

562
00:32:44,640 --> 00:32:46,800
Speaker 1: from the late great Dave Burman. He has a line

563
00:32:46,800 --> 00:32:50,520
Speaker 1: and one of their great songs, uh, holding up your

564
00:32:50,520 --> 00:32:54,080
Speaker 1: trousers with extension cords? Well, that's funny. I wonder if

565
00:32:54,120 --> 00:32:58,040
Speaker 1: he's when are they from the nineties, uh, two thousand's

566
00:32:58,080 --> 00:33:01,840
Speaker 1: and also featuring friend of the show Amnistanovic. Yeah, no,

567
00:33:01,920 --> 00:33:05,200
Speaker 1: I knew that. It's basically Pavement, isn't it. No, it

568
00:33:05,320 --> 00:33:08,320
Speaker 1: was Dave Burman, But Malcolmus is on the one Great Great.

569
00:33:08,320 --> 00:33:11,120
Speaker 1: I mean, they're all good albums, but Great American Water

570
00:33:11,240 --> 00:33:13,800
Speaker 1: is one of the best albums of that decade. I

571
00:33:13,840 --> 00:33:16,240
Speaker 1: wonder if he was making a syphasis reference, because that's

572
00:33:16,240 --> 00:33:18,719
Speaker 1: what I was making reference to this. I think Nelson

573
00:33:18,800 --> 00:33:23,960
Speaker 1: Muntz has a he uses an extension cord for a belt. Yeah,

574
00:33:24,000 --> 00:33:26,920
Speaker 1: he's neglected. I knew this is gonna take us down

575
00:33:26,920 --> 00:33:29,920
Speaker 1: some musical side roads. Sure, And I knew you were

576
00:33:29,920 --> 00:33:33,040
Speaker 1: going to mention Robert Plant climaxing because you say that

577
00:33:33,080 --> 00:33:36,280
Speaker 1: like every other week. I can't. I can't stop talking

578
00:33:36,320 --> 00:33:39,360
Speaker 1: about it. Should we take another break? I think so,

579
00:33:39,440 --> 00:33:41,520
Speaker 1: and then we're gonna come back and explain how theremin

580
00:33:41,600 --> 00:33:45,040
Speaker 1: works and then how to play it. How's that for

581
00:33:45,080 --> 00:34:12,760
Speaker 1: a cliffhanger? I'm hanging okay, Chuck, so a Theraman works

582
00:34:12,800 --> 00:34:16,400
Speaker 1: through um electronic magic. Basically, I think we should just

583
00:34:16,480 --> 00:34:20,440
Speaker 1: leave it at that. Now we can't. I really went

584
00:34:20,480 --> 00:34:22,080
Speaker 1: to a lot of trouble to try to figure out

585
00:34:22,239 --> 00:34:27,080
Speaker 1: how these things worked in the most simplistic terms possible.

586
00:34:27,600 --> 00:34:30,640
Speaker 1: And that's really saying something because the people who write

587
00:34:30,640 --> 00:34:33,360
Speaker 1: about how Thereman's work are the people who build thermans,

588
00:34:33,640 --> 00:34:36,960
Speaker 1: which means that the people who understand things like amplitude

589
00:34:37,120 --> 00:34:42,279
Speaker 1: and currents and electro magnetic interference and all that stuff. Basically,

590
00:34:42,680 --> 00:34:46,319
Speaker 1: you've got two different um circuits. You've got a pitch

591
00:34:46,400 --> 00:34:48,680
Speaker 1: circuit and a volume circuit. And if you've ever seen

592
00:34:48,719 --> 00:34:51,759
Speaker 1: a theorem in it's basically like a box and on.

593
00:34:52,120 --> 00:34:55,120
Speaker 1: If you're standing at the box getting ready to play it,

594
00:34:55,440 --> 00:34:58,440
Speaker 1: on your right, the player's right is it a single

595
00:34:58,480 --> 00:35:02,239
Speaker 1: antenna going up vert clee that looks like one of

596
00:35:02,280 --> 00:35:04,480
Speaker 1: a pair of rabbit ears that you would use on

597
00:35:04,520 --> 00:35:07,840
Speaker 1: an old timey tv UH antenna. Look it up, kids.

598
00:35:08,320 --> 00:35:11,000
Speaker 1: And then on the other side the left there's like

599
00:35:11,040 --> 00:35:16,279
Speaker 1: a round metal, horizontally oriented antenna that comes out the

600
00:35:16,320 --> 00:35:18,799
Speaker 1: other side of the box. The one on the left,

601
00:35:18,800 --> 00:35:21,600
Speaker 1: the round one that's for adjusting volume. The one on

602
00:35:21,640 --> 00:35:28,320
Speaker 1: the right, the vertical rod, is for um adjusting the pitch. Yeah,

603
00:35:28,360 --> 00:35:32,120
Speaker 1: it's it's sort of volume slash attack and an attack

604
00:35:32,200 --> 00:35:35,520
Speaker 1: is one of those words that unless you're sort of

605
00:35:35,560 --> 00:35:37,680
Speaker 1: into playing music, you don't know what it means, but

606
00:35:37,719 --> 00:35:40,440
Speaker 1: you'll see it pop up on various instruments labeled attack,

607
00:35:40,520 --> 00:35:43,320
Speaker 1: and that's they're sort of It's called the musical envelope,

608
00:35:43,360 --> 00:35:47,720
Speaker 1: the four stages of sound. Uh, and it starts with attack.

609
00:35:47,840 --> 00:35:49,880
Speaker 1: That's the sort of the beginning of the sound, like

610
00:35:50,000 --> 00:35:52,359
Speaker 1: right when you strike a piano key or right when

611
00:35:52,400 --> 00:35:55,439
Speaker 1: you plug a guitar string. Uh. And then it goes

612
00:35:55,480 --> 00:35:59,239
Speaker 1: from attack to decay to sustain to release and the

613
00:35:59,360 --> 00:36:02,520
Speaker 1: volume and its heck, it's not quite the same thing.

614
00:36:02,640 --> 00:36:05,600
Speaker 1: But uh, as far as what we need to know

615
00:36:05,640 --> 00:36:08,920
Speaker 1: about the theremin that right, I'm sorry, the horizontal and

616
00:36:09,000 --> 00:36:12,480
Speaker 1: controls volume and attack, okay. And then the one on

617
00:36:12,560 --> 00:36:15,279
Speaker 1: the right, the upright one, it controls pitch and the

618
00:36:15,320 --> 00:36:18,879
Speaker 1: way that it produces pitches. It's got two different oscillators

619
00:36:18,880 --> 00:36:21,160
Speaker 1: in there, and an oscillator is just something that produces

620
00:36:21,280 --> 00:36:26,000
Speaker 1: alternating current electricity in wave form. Right, it produces waves,

621
00:36:26,239 --> 00:36:29,920
Speaker 1: and one of those oscillators produces one at a static frequency.

622
00:36:29,960 --> 00:36:32,879
Speaker 1: It's always the same frequency no matter what the other

623
00:36:32,960 --> 00:36:36,680
Speaker 1: one adjusts. And so when you get your hand. Oh

624
00:36:36,800 --> 00:36:39,080
Speaker 1: we left out a really important thing. The the way

625
00:36:39,080 --> 00:36:43,320
Speaker 1: this whole thing works is because you live human person

626
00:36:43,719 --> 00:36:47,239
Speaker 1: are holding an electric charge right now and so oh

627
00:36:47,280 --> 00:36:50,120
Speaker 1: we did. Okay. So that's called your capetence, and when

628
00:36:50,120 --> 00:36:54,239
Speaker 1: your captence, your electric charge, whatever that may be, and

629
00:36:54,239 --> 00:36:55,840
Speaker 1: it's going to be different for each person. So I

630
00:36:55,880 --> 00:36:59,640
Speaker 1: think kind of the implication, Chuck, is that every different

631
00:36:59,680 --> 00:37:03,480
Speaker 1: person new walks up to a particular thereman is going

632
00:37:03,520 --> 00:37:06,880
Speaker 1: to produce a different sound. Doesn't that seem right? Oh?

633
00:37:07,120 --> 00:37:08,840
Speaker 1: I don't know. I never really thought about that. I

634
00:37:08,840 --> 00:37:10,919
Speaker 1: would think so, because I wouldn't think we're all walking

635
00:37:10,920 --> 00:37:12,919
Speaker 1: around with the same capetents. Although I could be wrong,

636
00:37:12,960 --> 00:37:16,560
Speaker 1: but regardless, just if that's wrong, totally disregard what I

637
00:37:16,640 --> 00:37:20,200
Speaker 1: just said. The point is is that UM, when you're

638
00:37:20,680 --> 00:37:24,399
Speaker 1: your electrical charge presented in the form of your hand,

639
00:37:24,760 --> 00:37:29,120
Speaker 1: interferes with the um, the oscillating current that's being created

640
00:37:29,320 --> 00:37:32,720
Speaker 1: and generated and run through this antenna. UM. It changes

641
00:37:32,760 --> 00:37:37,279
Speaker 1: that oscillating frequency, and so these two things subtract or

642
00:37:37,400 --> 00:37:42,080
Speaker 1: add together their frequencies to produce this sound that raises

643
00:37:42,120 --> 00:37:44,200
Speaker 1: their lowers and pitch depending on how close you are.

644
00:37:44,200 --> 00:37:47,239
Speaker 1: The closer you get the higher the pitch, the further away, um,

645
00:37:47,719 --> 00:37:51,160
Speaker 1: the lower the pitch. Uh. And that's basically how it works,

646
00:37:51,200 --> 00:37:53,839
Speaker 1: the same thing basically with your with your left hand

647
00:37:53,840 --> 00:37:58,600
Speaker 1: with the volume attack. That's it. You're just basically interfering

648
00:37:58,640 --> 00:38:02,680
Speaker 1: with the electric electric magnetic fields produced and carried through

649
00:38:02,680 --> 00:38:07,600
Speaker 1: these antenna's using your own electrical charge. That's how they work. Yeah,

650
00:38:07,680 --> 00:38:10,480
Speaker 1: and it's um. If you watch the documentary, there's one

651
00:38:10,800 --> 00:38:16,200
Speaker 1: UM scientists that attaches it to a wave form visualizer

652
00:38:17,080 --> 00:38:19,439
Speaker 1: sort of explain it a little better and he um,

653
00:38:19,480 --> 00:38:21,239
Speaker 1: not better than we did, but just more in more

654
00:38:21,280 --> 00:38:25,799
Speaker 1: detail and no, no, no uh and he uh he

655
00:38:25,920 --> 00:38:29,360
Speaker 1: was just said, it's it's remarkable that that Leon Thereman

656
00:38:30,160 --> 00:38:32,759
Speaker 1: or Terman invented this thing without the use of one

657
00:38:32,760 --> 00:38:35,439
Speaker 1: of those Like he was going completely by ear. And

658
00:38:35,560 --> 00:38:38,360
Speaker 1: I think if had it not been for his training

659
00:38:38,400 --> 00:38:42,040
Speaker 1: as a cellist, uh, it may not have ever even

660
00:38:42,160 --> 00:38:45,120
Speaker 1: been anything. Because you have to have a really in

661
00:38:45,320 --> 00:38:48,799
Speaker 1: this sort of segues into actually playing the thing, you

662
00:38:48,840 --> 00:38:50,840
Speaker 1: have to have a really really good ear for pitch

663
00:38:51,520 --> 00:38:54,000
Speaker 1: to play a Thereman because like you said earlier, there

664
00:38:54,040 --> 00:38:57,279
Speaker 1: are no markers like frets to look at to know

665
00:38:57,520 --> 00:39:00,359
Speaker 1: where to go to hit a g it's got a yeah,

666
00:39:00,480 --> 00:39:01,799
Speaker 1: four and a half. I saw four and a half

667
00:39:01,800 --> 00:39:03,920
Speaker 1: octave range and also saw five and a half. But

668
00:39:04,440 --> 00:39:07,680
Speaker 1: you gotta know in the the air surrounding you in

669
00:39:07,840 --> 00:39:11,719
Speaker 1: space where exactly to put your hand to get the

670
00:39:11,760 --> 00:39:14,920
Speaker 1: tone that you want, and if it's off a little bit,

671
00:39:14,960 --> 00:39:18,840
Speaker 1: it's not gonna sound right. So the learning curve is long.

672
00:39:19,200 --> 00:39:21,560
Speaker 1: It's a tough instrument to to really get good at.

673
00:39:22,080 --> 00:39:24,799
Speaker 1: Extremely so yeah, because I mean, if you if you

674
00:39:24,880 --> 00:39:26,400
Speaker 1: know how to play a guitar, you can walk up

675
00:39:26,440 --> 00:39:28,080
Speaker 1: to a guitar and be like, oh, here's the frets

676
00:39:28,160 --> 00:39:30,360
Speaker 1: or whatever. I can put my fingers here here and

677
00:39:30,440 --> 00:39:32,359
Speaker 1: I'm going to make this sound. With the theramin, it's

678
00:39:32,680 --> 00:39:37,319
Speaker 1: it's literally different places in the air. Um. And so yeah,

679
00:39:37,360 --> 00:39:39,040
Speaker 1: you do have to have a good year. One of

680
00:39:39,080 --> 00:39:41,160
Speaker 1: the other things you have to have. It's essential to

681
00:39:41,239 --> 00:39:46,680
Speaker 1: playing the theremin is um a steady hand, yeah, or

682
00:39:46,760 --> 00:39:50,040
Speaker 1: I guess not necessarily, but it definitely helps. Because, um,

683
00:39:50,080 --> 00:39:52,359
Speaker 1: if you see somebody kind of moving around like they're

684
00:39:52,400 --> 00:39:55,360
Speaker 1: just totally whacked out or whatever, playing a theramin with

685
00:39:55,480 --> 00:39:57,960
Speaker 1: the sounds they're making is not what it's supposed to

686
00:39:58,000 --> 00:40:02,359
Speaker 1: sound like. A theramin is aid very delicately. There's a

687
00:40:02,520 --> 00:40:05,640
Speaker 1: very famous um there menace named Clara Rockmore who said,

688
00:40:05,880 --> 00:40:08,680
Speaker 1: you play with you play a theramin with butterfly wings.

689
00:40:09,040 --> 00:40:11,520
Speaker 1: And she was basically saying, like, your fingers are supposed

690
00:40:11,560 --> 00:40:15,680
Speaker 1: to be delicate and controlled like a butterfly wings. And

691
00:40:15,719 --> 00:40:19,440
Speaker 1: so if you watch people playing theramin, they're they're just

692
00:40:19,680 --> 00:40:23,000
Speaker 1: like they're standing totally straight and still. It's just their

693
00:40:23,040 --> 00:40:25,760
Speaker 1: hands and their wrists basically that are moving and making

694
00:40:25,800 --> 00:40:29,680
Speaker 1: these really delicate motions through the air that is producing

695
00:40:29,719 --> 00:40:32,400
Speaker 1: all of these different sounds. Yeah, and the reason you

696
00:40:32,400 --> 00:40:35,319
Speaker 1: have to stand still, obviously, is because any movement of

697
00:40:35,360 --> 00:40:38,160
Speaker 1: your body is going to affect the sound. That's why

698
00:40:38,160 --> 00:40:40,480
Speaker 1: I made the Jason Newstead joke in that documentary. There's

699
00:40:40,480 --> 00:40:44,279
Speaker 1: an old I don't know who she was. It might

700
00:40:44,280 --> 00:40:47,520
Speaker 1: have been Clara Rockmore maybe, probably was Clara rock or

701
00:40:47,800 --> 00:40:50,839
Speaker 1: Lucy Bigelo Rosen maybe, but she was like back off

702
00:40:51,880 --> 00:40:53,640
Speaker 1: in her accent, and she was like, I'm not you know,

703
00:40:53,680 --> 00:40:55,319
Speaker 1: I'm trying to be nice about it, but you can't

704
00:40:55,360 --> 00:40:57,560
Speaker 1: you you can't come any closer. And I tell the

705
00:40:57,600 --> 00:41:00,319
Speaker 1: first violinison an orchestra the same thing, like you have

706
00:41:00,360 --> 00:41:03,360
Speaker 1: to have space around the instrument itself or else is

707
00:41:03,360 --> 00:41:06,160
Speaker 1: going to affect the sound? You're right, hey, you know

708
00:41:06,200 --> 00:41:09,800
Speaker 1: who else played the theremin? Who's a theremin master? M?

709
00:41:11,280 --> 00:41:17,399
Speaker 1: My friend Toby really yes, so he is very cool.

710
00:41:17,520 --> 00:41:20,160
Speaker 1: He was from Dallas and the Polyphon Experience from Dallas,

711
00:41:20,200 --> 00:41:23,000
Speaker 1: and apparently like half of Dallas was members of the

712
00:41:23,000 --> 00:41:26,600
Speaker 1: Polyphoning Spree except for poor Toby. And so he went

713
00:41:26,640 --> 00:41:29,000
Speaker 1: to the dude from Tripping jay Z Days. I can't

714
00:41:29,040 --> 00:41:31,200
Speaker 1: remember his name, but the leader of the Polyphoning Spreence said,

715
00:41:31,280 --> 00:41:34,239
Speaker 1: you know, I want to join what what what? What

716
00:41:34,360 --> 00:41:36,640
Speaker 1: instrument do you need? And the guy was like, I

717
00:41:36,680 --> 00:41:38,560
Speaker 1: don't want you to go learn to play theraman and

718
00:41:38,600 --> 00:41:41,120
Speaker 1: come back. And so Toby went and taught himself thereman

719
00:41:41,160 --> 00:41:44,160
Speaker 1: and came back and joined the Polyphonic Spree. That's right.

720
00:41:44,200 --> 00:41:46,200
Speaker 1: I think it's Tim something or other. Yeah. I was

721
00:41:46,239 --> 00:41:48,560
Speaker 1: into them for those first two albums quite a bit.

722
00:41:48,600 --> 00:41:51,280
Speaker 1: Oh man, they were so great what what great music?

723
00:41:51,480 --> 00:41:53,640
Speaker 1: Because it was so earnest too, you know, like they

724
00:41:53,640 --> 00:41:57,840
Speaker 1: weren't being ironic. It was this kid, a sharp guy,

725
00:41:58,080 --> 00:42:01,640
Speaker 1: and that band of hippies who is he Edwards Sharp?

726
00:42:01,680 --> 00:42:04,000
Speaker 1: And the Magnetic Zeros, you know it was the same

727
00:42:04,080 --> 00:42:05,880
Speaker 1: kind of deal, like, hey, let's get forty people in

728
00:42:05,920 --> 00:42:09,880
Speaker 1: a band and uh not have one bar soap between us. No,

729
00:42:10,040 --> 00:42:11,920
Speaker 1: I never heard of you know that they had one

730
00:42:11,960 --> 00:42:15,880
Speaker 1: big hit that you would know. Uh what what? Oh?

731
00:42:15,920 --> 00:42:20,120
Speaker 1: That home? Won't you come home? Home is where I

732
00:42:20,239 --> 00:42:25,120
Speaker 1: really want to be. I mean I wasn't into him

733
00:42:25,120 --> 00:42:27,360
Speaker 1: and it was a huge, huge hit. So was that

734
00:42:27,440 --> 00:42:37,719
Speaker 1: Judy Garland? Oh boy? So yeah, So Toby Toby was

735
00:42:37,840 --> 00:42:42,279
Speaker 1: the greatest theremin player I've ever met. That's awesome. Uh So,

736
00:42:42,400 --> 00:42:45,399
Speaker 1: you know, you play, like we said, with that um

737
00:42:45,440 --> 00:42:47,040
Speaker 1: you know a lot of times, like I said, it

738
00:42:47,040 --> 00:42:49,000
Speaker 1: looks like you're holding a little whatever you call it,

739
00:42:49,040 --> 00:42:51,520
Speaker 1: the conductors. I'm want to do a show on conducting,

740
00:42:51,520 --> 00:42:53,160
Speaker 1: by the way, just to learn what that thing is,

741
00:42:53,280 --> 00:42:56,080
Speaker 1: the little stick, the stick, But it looks like you're

742
00:42:56,120 --> 00:42:58,080
Speaker 1: sort of holding that because a lot of theremin players

743
00:42:58,120 --> 00:43:00,920
Speaker 1: tend to touch their thumb and their four fingers together

744
00:43:01,480 --> 00:43:03,400
Speaker 1: and you're, you know, you're sort of wiggling your fingers

745
00:43:03,400 --> 00:43:06,400
Speaker 1: for vibrato and you can learn basic theorem and and

746
00:43:06,480 --> 00:43:10,120
Speaker 1: make the sounds that sound good. And then there's like

747
00:43:10,160 --> 00:43:14,280
Speaker 1: the next level theremin ng where you really get involved

748
00:43:14,320 --> 00:43:18,680
Speaker 1: with your fingers and very subtle movements to create different sounds. Yeah.

749
00:43:19,040 --> 00:43:22,520
Speaker 1: So it is like a really difficult thing to do

750
00:43:22,600 --> 00:43:25,160
Speaker 1: and to learn to play, in no small part because

751
00:43:25,200 --> 00:43:28,160
Speaker 1: there aren't frets or anything like that. Um, but also

752
00:43:28,200 --> 00:43:32,640
Speaker 1: because of the the just precision movement of your fingers

753
00:43:32,680 --> 00:43:36,399
Speaker 1: and in hands. Um. And you also can't really get

754
00:43:36,440 --> 00:43:39,120
Speaker 1: into the music either. You have to stay still because

755
00:43:39,480 --> 00:43:42,359
Speaker 1: if you sway or you know, swing your head left

756
00:43:42,440 --> 00:43:45,440
Speaker 1: or right or anything like that, Um, you're going to

757
00:43:45,520 --> 00:43:47,920
Speaker 1: mess with the that that part of your body is

758
00:43:47,960 --> 00:43:50,960
Speaker 1: going to come into the electromagnetic field and you're going

759
00:43:51,040 --> 00:43:53,839
Speaker 1: to mess up the sound of the music. That's right.

760
00:43:53,920 --> 00:43:57,040
Speaker 1: And that's why hip hop concerts they say, throw your

761
00:43:57,040 --> 00:43:58,480
Speaker 1: hands in the air and wave them like you just

762
00:43:58,520 --> 00:44:03,440
Speaker 1: don't care. Except for that they aramanist right, throw your

763
00:44:03,440 --> 00:44:06,239
Speaker 1: hands in the air and wave them like you just

764
00:44:06,280 --> 00:44:09,520
Speaker 1: don't play there. And I think we should decided this

765
00:44:09,560 --> 00:44:12,839
Speaker 1: part out very well made. I'll be very surprised if

766
00:44:12,840 --> 00:44:15,799
Speaker 1: that ends up in the final cut. Chuck. One thing

767
00:44:15,800 --> 00:44:20,399
Speaker 1: we didn't mention that seems obvious unless you know about

768
00:44:20,480 --> 00:44:24,160
Speaker 1: musical instrument or might seem obvious. I don't know what

769
00:44:24,200 --> 00:44:26,520
Speaker 1: I'm saying. It's obvious to me. But it's going through

770
00:44:26,520 --> 00:44:29,040
Speaker 1: an amplifier, like if you're sitting at home, like, yeah,

771
00:44:29,120 --> 00:44:32,240
Speaker 1: but how does the sound come out. It's an electronic instrument,

772
00:44:32,280 --> 00:44:35,280
Speaker 1: so it's plugged into an amp. It is. And actually

773
00:44:35,320 --> 00:44:39,280
Speaker 1: that volume circuit that you're interfering with, you're actually changing

774
00:44:39,360 --> 00:44:43,800
Speaker 1: the voltage I believe of the amplifier. UM. That's how

775
00:44:43,880 --> 00:44:46,080
Speaker 1: when you move your hand closer and further away, you're

776
00:44:46,120 --> 00:44:51,320
Speaker 1: affecting the voltage that's that's released by that that UM

777
00:44:51,440 --> 00:44:56,160
Speaker 1: whatever transformers is supplying the amplifier with the electricity. Yeah,

778
00:44:56,200 --> 00:44:58,560
Speaker 1: Like you can get a thereman for not a lot

779
00:44:58,560 --> 00:45:02,319
Speaker 1: of money, or a Theoreman kit, or I would say

780
00:45:02,400 --> 00:45:04,719
Speaker 1: get a one of those new theorem any is that

781
00:45:04,800 --> 00:45:08,720
Speaker 1: Moga is building because those are just super super cool

782
00:45:08,760 --> 00:45:10,520
Speaker 1: and they sound amazing and they make it a little

783
00:45:10,520 --> 00:45:16,000
Speaker 1: bit easier on you. Yeah, because they they they recognize chords. Right,

784
00:45:16,080 --> 00:45:18,080
Speaker 1: So when you move your hand like through the air

785
00:45:18,120 --> 00:45:22,680
Speaker 1: at a certain way, like it goes through the chromatic scales.

786
00:45:23,080 --> 00:45:25,719
Speaker 1: It's not it's not just random stuff. It actually kind

787
00:45:25,760 --> 00:45:30,160
Speaker 1: of is like a UM very forgiving and corrective of

788
00:45:30,200 --> 00:45:31,840
Speaker 1: what you're doing and figures out what you're trying to

789
00:45:31,920 --> 00:45:33,759
Speaker 1: do and it makes it sound like it like you

790
00:45:33,800 --> 00:45:37,480
Speaker 1: want it to. But the the most amazing thing is

791
00:45:37,520 --> 00:45:40,960
Speaker 1: there's a dial where you can dial back that level

792
00:45:41,000 --> 00:45:44,200
Speaker 1: of forgiveness as you get better and better at playing

793
00:45:44,200 --> 00:45:45,880
Speaker 1: the theorem, and you can just make it so that

794
00:45:45,920 --> 00:45:47,719
Speaker 1: it's not doing that for you at all and you

795
00:45:47,719 --> 00:45:50,080
Speaker 1: have to do it yourself, which is pretty awesome. Yeah,

796
00:45:50,120 --> 00:45:53,920
Speaker 1: and it also sounds synthy and cool. Yeah. I mean,

797
00:45:53,920 --> 00:45:55,719
Speaker 1: I like the sound of a regular theremin, but that

798
00:45:55,760 --> 00:45:57,960
Speaker 1: there are many. I had never heard of it until today,

799
00:45:58,000 --> 00:45:59,480
Speaker 1: and I was like, I'm gonna have to get one

800
00:45:59,480 --> 00:46:02,759
Speaker 1: of those at some point. All right, if you're like

801
00:46:02,800 --> 00:46:05,399
Speaker 1: a maker kind of person and you like music there,

802
00:46:05,440 --> 00:46:08,160
Speaker 1: you've probably already made theremans. But if not, check out

803
00:46:08,160 --> 00:46:12,319
Speaker 1: a guy named Arthur Harrison's site thereman dot us. He

804
00:46:12,440 --> 00:46:15,759
Speaker 1: sells kits and like has all sorts of articles and

805
00:46:15,800 --> 00:46:18,280
Speaker 1: stuff like that. And then there's a guy named Ken

806
00:46:18,320 --> 00:46:23,120
Speaker 1: Moore who hacked into like the Xbox Connect and the

807
00:46:23,400 --> 00:46:27,000
Speaker 1: Nintendo we and figured out how to turn them into theramans.

808
00:46:27,080 --> 00:46:30,359
Speaker 1: And there's one where he does like a you know,

809
00:46:30,560 --> 00:46:33,640
Speaker 1: really admirable attempt at the Star Trek theme using his

810
00:46:33,719 --> 00:46:36,960
Speaker 1: wee Theoreman. Just look up Ken Moore we Thereman star

811
00:46:37,000 --> 00:46:40,360
Speaker 1: Trek theme and thank me later. It's it's a cool community.

812
00:46:40,440 --> 00:46:46,120
Speaker 1: Like I love circuitry and electronic gadgetreat uh wanks, and

813
00:46:46,560 --> 00:46:49,160
Speaker 1: those communities were of like the Hams, Like they just

814
00:46:49,239 --> 00:46:52,319
Speaker 1: really get into their shutting the door to their little

815
00:46:52,400 --> 00:46:57,800
Speaker 1: room and working on very small, very difficult to understand

816
00:46:57,880 --> 00:47:01,360
Speaker 1: projects and hacking stuff and creating new things. It's just

817
00:47:01,480 --> 00:47:05,160
Speaker 1: really really in the in the spirit of creation and invention,

818
00:47:05,200 --> 00:47:09,000
Speaker 1: I think, in which it was always intended. Nice. Yeah,

819
00:47:09,160 --> 00:47:11,760
Speaker 1: I mean the Theoreman is all that and then some chuck.

820
00:47:12,360 --> 00:47:16,080
Speaker 1: It's a whole bag of chips. You got anything else? Yeah,

821
00:47:16,200 --> 00:47:18,439
Speaker 1: I sort of promised earlier a little bit of talk

822
00:47:18,440 --> 00:47:23,040
Speaker 1: about Thereman's legacy with his kids and grandkids. And he

823
00:47:23,080 --> 00:47:24,880
Speaker 1: did have a daughter, he had a couple of daughters,

824
00:47:24,880 --> 00:47:28,360
Speaker 1: but he had one named Natasha Thereman from his third wife,

825
00:47:28,400 --> 00:47:32,919
Speaker 1: who was a Thereman master in Russia, and then nine

826
00:47:33,000 --> 00:47:34,920
Speaker 1: she's seventy two now, and then twenty nine year old

827
00:47:34,920 --> 00:47:40,040
Speaker 1: Peter Theoreman, his great grandson, is also a Russian composer

828
00:47:40,800 --> 00:47:45,440
Speaker 1: and uh Theoreman master. Pretty cool, It's pretty cool. Yeah,

829
00:47:45,880 --> 00:47:48,759
Speaker 1: that's neat also that they just adopted the Western Ice

830
00:47:48,920 --> 00:47:53,279
Speaker 1: version of their grandfather's name too. I guess, yeah, absolutely. Uh,

831
00:47:53,320 --> 00:47:56,799
Speaker 1: now you've got anything else? Nothing else? Well, before we go,

832
00:47:56,960 --> 00:48:00,279
Speaker 1: Chuck um, because it's that time of year, uh, in

833
00:48:00,320 --> 00:48:02,960
Speaker 1: this episode is going to come out around you his birthday.

834
00:48:03,120 --> 00:48:05,240
Speaker 1: I want to take a second to say happy birthday

835
00:48:05,239 --> 00:48:09,280
Speaker 1: to my dear sweet wife you. Happy birthday MS, thanks,

836
00:48:09,520 --> 00:48:12,600
Speaker 1: Happy birthday you me. And since I said happy birthday

837
00:48:12,600 --> 00:48:14,439
Speaker 1: you me and Chuck did two, that means it's time

838
00:48:14,480 --> 00:48:21,640
Speaker 1: for listener mail. So this is a This is a

839
00:48:21,640 --> 00:48:27,120
Speaker 1: listener mail from Richard Roberts, and this was just supremely heartwarming. Uh.

840
00:48:27,280 --> 00:48:30,279
Speaker 1: Our book is out Stuff you Should Know colon an

841
00:48:30,280 --> 00:48:34,920
Speaker 1: incomplete compendium of mostly interesting things. Huge, huge thanks to

842
00:48:34,960 --> 00:48:38,759
Speaker 1: everyone who pre bought it or bought it after its

843
00:48:38,800 --> 00:48:43,680
Speaker 1: release an audiobook or or hardcover form um. But the

844
00:48:43,680 --> 00:48:45,520
Speaker 1: Stuff you Should Know Army page has just been lit

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00:48:45,600 --> 00:48:48,160
Speaker 1: up with people posting pictures of them with a book,

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00:48:48,200 --> 00:48:50,640
Speaker 1: of them reading it, of their kids reading it, of

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00:48:50,680 --> 00:48:55,520
Speaker 1: their dogs eating it. Already, that's happened. And this comes

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00:48:55,520 --> 00:48:58,600
Speaker 1: from Richard Roberts from the Stuff you Should Know Army. Hey, guys,

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00:48:58,960 --> 00:49:01,440
Speaker 1: thanks for doing what you do. Podcast is wonderful. I

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00:49:01,560 --> 00:49:02,920
Speaker 1: just want to email you'll let you know about a

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00:49:02,960 --> 00:49:05,000
Speaker 1: lovely gesture I just witnessed on the Stuff you Should

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00:49:05,040 --> 00:49:08,440
Speaker 1: Know Army Facebook page. One member posted to say they

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00:49:08,480 --> 00:49:11,440
Speaker 1: didn't buy the book due to their financial constraints at

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00:49:11,480 --> 00:49:13,400
Speaker 1: the time, but that they were so excited that it

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00:49:13,440 --> 00:49:16,120
Speaker 1: popped up in a search at their local library. Uh

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00:49:16,160 --> 00:49:18,080
Speaker 1: and before you know it in the comments, that was

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00:49:18,120 --> 00:49:20,839
Speaker 1: a fellow Uh many fellows Stuff you should know Army

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00:49:20,840 --> 00:49:23,520
Speaker 1: fans scrambling to buy a book for this complete stranger

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00:49:24,520 --> 00:49:26,960
Speaker 1: so that she could have her own copy. I think

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00:49:26,960 --> 00:49:29,279
Speaker 1: I took some screenshot or I took some screenshots which

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00:49:29,280 --> 00:49:31,919
Speaker 1: I attached. I know you don't always do shout outs,

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00:49:31,920 --> 00:49:35,160
Speaker 1: but the philanthropic book buyers and the original poster might

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00:49:35,200 --> 00:49:37,120
Speaker 1: get a kick out of it if you did. And

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00:49:37,160 --> 00:49:39,400
Speaker 1: it's a nice story that people might enjoy. And that

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Speaker 1: is Richard Roberts from down Under. And uh, Jacko du

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00:49:43,320 --> 00:49:47,120
Speaker 1: Bois is who stepped up first and is buying this

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00:49:47,160 --> 00:49:49,320
Speaker 1: book for this person and sending a book to this person.

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00:49:49,440 --> 00:49:53,400
Speaker 1: So Jacko, send us an email and we'll send you

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00:49:53,480 --> 00:49:56,600
Speaker 1: something nice. I don't know what it is yet, but um,

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00:49:56,800 --> 00:49:59,879
Speaker 1: just send us an email Jacko, and we wanna pay

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00:50:00,000 --> 00:50:03,439
Speaker 1: it forward right back to you. That's a lovely idea, Chuck.

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00:50:03,600 --> 00:50:06,120
Speaker 1: Very nice and thanks Jacko, and thank you. That was

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00:50:06,239 --> 00:50:10,239
Speaker 1: Richard that wrote in. That was Richard. Thank you too, Richard. Uh.

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00:50:10,640 --> 00:50:13,840
Speaker 1: If you want to call out a very um nice

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00:50:13,920 --> 00:50:17,160
Speaker 1: example of paying it forward or a random act of

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00:50:17,239 --> 00:50:20,440
Speaker 1: kindness or anything like that, we love hearing about that stuff.

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00:50:20,520 --> 00:50:23,239
Speaker 1: You can send us an email to Stuff podcast at

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00:50:23,239 --> 00:50:28,960
Speaker 1: iHeart radio dot com. Stuff you Should Know is a

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00:50:29,000 --> 00:50:32,280
Speaker 1: production of iHeart Radio. For more podcasts for my heart Radio,

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00:50:32,360 --> 00:50:35,000
Speaker 1: visit the iHeart Radio app. Apple podcasts are wherever you

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00:50:35,040 --> 00:50:36,200
Speaker 1: listen to your favorite shows.