WEBVTT - Heavyweight Encore: #2 Gregor 0:00:15.210 --> 0:00:28.729 Pushkin Johnny to what do I owe the pleasure? So 0:00:28.930 --> 0:00:30.890 you know why I'm phoning you. 0:00:31.450 --> 0:00:32.089 I really don't. 0:00:32.530 --> 0:00:35.169 Well, I was intending. 0:00:34.730 --> 0:00:38.330 To re release the Gregor episode for which it is 0:00:38.409 --> 0:00:41.769 named for you, Okay, so that a new generation of 0:00:41.810 --> 0:00:43.729 heavyweight listeners can enjoy it. 0:00:44.569 --> 0:00:45.850 Oh, okay, when. 0:00:45.690 --> 0:00:47.249 Was the last time you listened to the episode? 0:00:51.610 --> 0:00:53.409 I mean, to be completely honest with you, and why 0:00:53.450 --> 0:00:56.010 should I be anything other than completely honest at all times? 0:00:56.010 --> 0:01:01.050 And forth right? Yeah, almost disturbingly vulnerably frank with you. Yeah, 0:01:01.130 --> 0:01:02.890 I've never actually listened to the episode. 0:01:04.690 --> 0:01:05.530 I can't believe that. 0:01:06.090 --> 0:01:07.970 I really don't want to break last streek. 0:01:08.650 --> 0:01:10.289 Of never listening to anything I make. 0:01:10.410 --> 0:01:11.810 But I'm told those good I mean, a lot of 0:01:11.810 --> 0:01:13.610 people paid me, a lot of compliments, people I'd meet 0:01:13.610 --> 0:01:14.370 in the supermarket. 0:01:14.850 --> 0:01:17.770 So so what I was thinking might be sort of 0:01:18.130 --> 0:01:20.130 a nice thing for us to do is maybe listen 0:01:20.170 --> 0:01:24.570 to it together. I guess for you for the first time. 0:01:24.810 --> 0:01:26.330 I'm willing to do this. But are you telling me 0:01:26.370 --> 0:01:33.450 that your concept for your brand new Alexander Pushkin hit show. Yeah, 0:01:33.490 --> 0:01:35.410 it's going to be a podcast of me listening to 0:01:35.450 --> 0:01:39.610 a previous podcast. I mean, I don't mean to like 0:01:39.690 --> 0:01:41.850 ridicule you on your own hit show. But no, of 0:01:41.890 --> 0:01:44.450 course not, are you out of your mind? We're going 0:01:44.490 --> 0:01:46.690 to listen to a podcast. Who wants to listen to 0:01:46.730 --> 0:01:48.890 a podcast, let alone listen to me listen to a podcast? 0:01:49.130 --> 0:01:51.410 Well no, I mean we're not going to say okay, 0:01:51.490 --> 0:01:55.250 all right, well with that. With that, I guess I'll 0:01:55.290 --> 0:01:58.250 speak to you on the other side. Okay, all right, 0:01:58.290 --> 0:02:00.810 I'll talk to you at the end. Oh but before 0:02:00.810 --> 0:02:04.490 we get to this encore presentation, a word from our 0:02:04.490 --> 0:02:14.490 sponsors bad time. 0:02:15.049 --> 0:02:16.809 I was just just stepping out. 0:02:16.810 --> 0:02:21.090 I was just you enjoy music, right, Yeah, this week's 0:02:21.090 --> 0:02:23.770 show kind of deals with music, and it got me thinking. 0:02:24.570 --> 0:02:25.890 I have a confession to make. 0:02:26.210 --> 0:02:28.930 You know how sometimes like you have dinner parties and 0:02:28.970 --> 0:02:32.570 they're great. I wanted to say, sometimes how you sometimes 0:02:32.570 --> 0:02:36.450 play music? Yeah, sometimes I'm a little hesitant to come 0:02:36.490 --> 0:02:37.410 over for dinner. 0:02:38.010 --> 0:02:40.250 You're always hesitant to come over for dinner. Well, it's 0:02:40.290 --> 0:02:43.010 not including Mary clods forty fifth birthday. 0:02:43.010 --> 0:02:43.570 Do you remember that? 0:02:43.930 --> 0:02:45.730 I do you know that Bumballeo song? 0:02:45.930 --> 0:02:48.010 I can't find my Gypsy King CD because. 0:02:47.770 --> 0:02:49.730 Your husband hit it. 0:02:49.730 --> 0:02:50.770 It's killing me. 0:02:50.810 --> 0:02:51.650 Killing everybody. 0:02:51.890 --> 0:02:54.730 The reason Sometimes I have some difficulty with my digestion 0:02:55.570 --> 0:02:58.210 these dinner parties. Is it's the Bumballeo song, It's the 0:02:58.250 --> 0:03:01.250 Gypsy Kings. Oh this is great. You know what bumbalao? 0:03:01.330 --> 0:03:03.250 Bumbalaya translates as. 0:03:03.610 --> 0:03:04.970 What wobble wobble? 0:03:05.770 --> 0:03:06.570 All right, we'll speak to. 0:03:06.530 --> 0:03:08.930 You one thing before we go. Okay, I'm going to 0:03:08.930 --> 0:03:11.130 say bum and then you say bumbalaya. 0:03:11.690 --> 0:03:21.889 I do it, and then I'm. 0:03:23.210 --> 0:03:24.290 From Gimblet Media. 0:03:24.810 --> 0:03:31.169 I'm Jonathan Goldstein and this is Heavyweight Today's episode, Gregor. 0:03:40.770 --> 0:03:42.570 This guy's gonna ram you from behind because you're going 0:03:42.570 --> 0:03:45.330 eleven miles left, although you usually don't do it from 0:03:45.330 --> 0:03:48.050 the right line. But okay, let's not get kill. Do 0:03:48.090 --> 0:03:49.130 you have a driver's license? 0:03:52.010 --> 0:03:54.050 This is Gregor and Me on our way to lunch, 0:03:54.490 --> 0:03:58.210 and what you're hearing is typical when I'm driving. Gregor 0:03:58.290 --> 0:04:01.610 comments on my speed. When I eat, he comments on 0:04:01.650 --> 0:04:05.010 my table manners, and when I eat yogurt, he comments 0:04:05.050 --> 0:04:07.290 on the way I lick the inside lid, calling it 0:04:07.330 --> 0:04:11.450 both letchrous and unmanly. Some might say that Gregor is 0:04:11.490 --> 0:04:16.570 overly critical, possibly even prickly, but I would not. I 0:04:16.610 --> 0:04:20.850 love Gregor for many reasons. His loyalty, his generosity, his 0:04:20.969 --> 0:04:22.770 being the kind of person will pick you up at 0:04:22.810 --> 0:04:23.490 the airport at. 0:04:23.450 --> 0:04:25.410 Four in the morning without even complaining. 0:04:25.969 --> 0:04:28.409 But it's perhaps his courage to say the things that 0:04:28.450 --> 0:04:32.330 were all not exactly thinking, but maybe thinking about thinking, 0:04:32.810 --> 0:04:38.650 that is most thrilling. And so when he showed up 0:04:38.650 --> 0:04:41.969 at my office mocking himself instead of me and speaking 0:04:42.049 --> 0:04:44.810 in biblical parables, I was concerned. 0:04:45.330 --> 0:04:47.449 Was it the Pharaoh and the Joseph story who said 0:04:47.609 --> 0:04:49.449 the seven lean years and seven fat years? 0:04:49.570 --> 0:04:49.849 Yeah? 0:04:49.890 --> 0:04:51.930 I had this insight today that the fat years are 0:04:51.929 --> 0:04:52.570 about to end. 0:04:53.049 --> 0:04:54.490 Would these have been the fat years? 0:04:54.489 --> 0:04:57.049 That's what I realized Literally this morning. I woke up 0:04:57.089 --> 0:04:58.809 and I was like, wait, those were the fat years? 0:04:59.929 --> 0:05:05.049 You know, in every conceivable way, financially, stability, prestige, all 0:05:05.089 --> 0:05:07.529 the job stuff, and like creative accomplishment stuff. I just 0:05:07.570 --> 0:05:10.529 feel like it's like going up and spoking. I'm watching 0:05:10.529 --> 0:05:11.369 it go up and smoke. 0:05:12.690 --> 0:05:15.650 Gregor is forty eight years old and by profession he 0:05:15.729 --> 0:05:19.369 makes marketing videos for a cleaning product usually found in 0:05:19.369 --> 0:05:21.849 the bathroom. I can't tell you the name of this 0:05:21.929 --> 0:05:25.609 product for fear Gregor will lose his job. In other words, 0:05:25.849 --> 0:05:28.249 he's not the Filmo tour he dreamt of being back 0:05:28.289 --> 0:05:33.330 in his college days, underlining back issues of Kye to Cinema. 0:05:33.529 --> 0:05:35.689 On top of that, he says that over the past 0:05:35.690 --> 0:05:39.210 few years he's seen his career slowly sucked downward, not 0:05:39.330 --> 0:05:43.049 unlike Oh, I don't know, the spiraling waters of a 0:05:43.089 --> 0:05:46.770 sink unclogged by a chemical drain opener designed to flush 0:05:46.770 --> 0:05:48.650 pipes and attack clogs at their worst. 0:05:49.729 --> 0:05:52.330 What's that children's game where everyone goes around the chairs 0:05:52.929 --> 0:05:57.570 musical chairs, chairs, and everyone sits down and you're like, oh, 0:05:57.929 --> 0:06:00.689 that friend of mine became a CEO. These four friends 0:06:00.690 --> 0:06:05.449 are like EVP, SVP senior whatever at their things. That 0:06:05.609 --> 0:06:07.330 friend of mine wound up sitting in the president of 0:06:07.450 --> 0:06:10.650 Estonia's chair, and then you're like the music stops and 0:06:10.690 --> 0:06:12.169 you're left standing. 0:06:13.330 --> 0:06:16.089 I've heard him reel off this list before, and Gregor 0:06:16.130 --> 0:06:19.210 fully admits it. The success of anyone he knows, no 0:06:19.289 --> 0:06:21.890 matter how thin, his connection to them, feels like a 0:06:21.890 --> 0:06:25.770 reflection of his own shortcomings, including the ascension of his 0:06:25.890 --> 0:06:31.009 elementary school's librarian son, who is now the president of Estonia. 0:06:31.489 --> 0:06:34.489 The point of the story is, where's my presidency of 0:06:34.529 --> 0:06:37.690 my Estonia? My circumstances I was. I was like, oh 0:06:37.770 --> 0:06:40.289 things will you know, about to break through, about to change, 0:06:40.849 --> 0:06:44.249 And now like you could say, well, this is just 0:06:44.250 --> 0:06:47.009 to setback, it's you know whatever. Soon your ship's going 0:06:47.049 --> 0:06:51.089 to come in. But it's just not you know. I mean, 0:06:51.089 --> 0:06:54.249 that's just the simple truth, the uncomfortable truth. 0:06:55.169 --> 0:06:57.890 Of all Gregor's stories about the success of his acquaintances 0:06:57.890 --> 0:07:00.770 and friends, there's one story that he returns to most, 0:07:01.169 --> 0:07:03.729 and not only is it the greatest success story of 0:07:03.770 --> 0:07:05.969 them all, it's the one that touched his life the 0:07:05.969 --> 0:07:09.250 most intimately. The story all begins about twenty years yars 0:07:09.289 --> 0:07:12.010 ago in Manhattan, when Gregor was living in a small 0:07:12.050 --> 0:07:16.010 apartment in Chinatown with his older brother Dimitri. One night, 0:07:16.410 --> 0:07:18.970 they had a friend of theirs over for dinner, a 0:07:18.970 --> 0:07:20.450 techno musician friend. 0:07:20.970 --> 0:07:22.570 He was really poor at the time. He was living 0:07:22.570 --> 0:07:25.330 in like I think in like a basement in a 0:07:25.410 --> 0:07:29.530 warehouse or something for forty dollars a month. He was 0:07:29.570 --> 0:07:32.210 an articulate, smart guy, still an articular smart guy, but 0:07:32.250 --> 0:07:33.890 he's sort of an unlikely rock star in that his 0:07:33.970 --> 0:07:35.569 hair had mostly fallen out even when we were still 0:07:35.570 --> 0:07:38.250 in our twenties. But I watched his ascent. He played 0:07:38.290 --> 0:07:41.329 the bigger and bigger crowds during this techno kind of stuff, 0:07:41.929 --> 0:07:47.450 and then eventually he got a record contract, and I 0:07:47.530 --> 0:07:49.850 at the time got hold of a very obscure set 0:07:49.850 --> 0:07:53.249 of CDs which were field hollers Oooh. 0:07:54.650 --> 0:07:56.770 Trouble, So I. 0:07:56.690 --> 0:07:58.330 Thought it was really interesting stuff. I loaned him this 0:07:58.369 --> 0:07:58.890 box set of. 0:07:58.890 --> 0:08:02.129 CDs Ooh Lone Trouble. 0:08:02.250 --> 0:08:09.290 So he then sampled it very heavily Trouble God and 0:08:09.369 --> 0:08:12.690 created a record which got him very rich and very famous. 0:08:14.810 --> 0:08:28.929 This guy you're speaking of, This guy's Moby, Moby, bald headed, bespectacled, 0:08:29.130 --> 0:08:41.490 castle dwelling, multi million records selling Moby. But back then 0:08:41.690 --> 0:08:44.530 he was just Gregor's pal who spent weekends at Gregor's 0:08:44.570 --> 0:08:49.010 family's place and attended family birthday parties too. In bars 0:08:49.050 --> 0:08:51.970 and during long car rides, Gregor and Moby had long, 0:08:52.010 --> 0:08:55.610 earnest conversations about God and the things they believed. They 0:08:55.650 --> 0:08:59.970 were living their twenties together, and those CDs Gregor lent Moby. 0:09:00.650 --> 0:09:03.530 The box set Sounds of the South was recorded by 0:09:03.570 --> 0:09:08.010 the ethno musicologist Alan Lomax. Beginning in the nineteen thirties. 0:09:08.170 --> 0:09:11.610 Lomax and his fam John made thousands of field recordings, 0:09:11.930 --> 0:09:15.450 mostly in the American South. These recordings are among the 0:09:15.450 --> 0:09:19.850 most important in American music, preserving dozens of African American 0:09:19.930 --> 0:09:26.290 songs from the early years of the twentieth century. Wait Sometime, Better, 0:09:26.410 --> 0:09:31.090 Nola Sometimes. Another hit on Moby's album is called Honey. 0:09:31.490 --> 0:09:34.690 It makes use of the song sometimes sung by Bessie 0:09:34.690 --> 0:09:38.410 Smith Jones. Jones was taught these songs by her grandfather, 0:09:38.770 --> 0:09:44.290 a former slave born in Africa. This is Moby's version, 0:09:44.730 --> 0:09:51.050 So everybody feeling like I've here elected to play for you, 0:09:51.130 --> 0:09:53.410 the live version of the song with all of its 0:09:53.450 --> 0:09:57.130 foot stomping and audience cheering. It's how I imagine Gregor 0:09:57.170 --> 0:10:00.450 hears it echoing in his head during those sleepless nights 0:10:00.770 --> 0:10:04.130 when his Kishkas are slowly being corroded by battery acid. 0:10:05.250 --> 0:10:10.970 Sometime when I discovered this, but I was like an evangelist. 0:10:11.010 --> 0:10:12.490 I was like, this is amazing. You got to check 0:10:12.530 --> 0:10:13.930 this out. He was over the house and I was like, 0:10:13.930 --> 0:10:15.730 you got to take this home. This amazing stuff. This 0:10:15.810 --> 0:10:17.890 is the best CD I've heard. I don't know how 0:10:17.930 --> 0:10:19.929 long I've been listening to a NonStop rotation. I love 0:10:19.970 --> 0:10:22.410 the CD. So it wasn't just laying in a pile, 0:10:22.450 --> 0:10:23.770 and he happened to put it in his bag and 0:10:23.810 --> 0:10:33.530 walk out the door. I said, I sold him on it. 0:10:26.730 --> 0:10:37.890 And Moby makes use of several Lomax recordings on his 0:10:37.970 --> 0:10:42.170 album Play, which went multi platinum. Play eventually became one 0:10:42.170 --> 0:10:45.730 of the most commercially licensed albums ever recorded. At the time, 0:10:46.210 --> 0:10:49.050 the songs were used to promote everything from luxury cars 0:10:49.170 --> 0:10:53.810 to credit cards. And before Play, according to Rolling Stone magazine, 0:10:54.130 --> 0:10:57.170 Moby was quote bumbling around New York as it has 0:10:57.290 --> 0:11:01.530 been and then was there an intermediary step before that, 0:11:01.650 --> 0:11:03.730 and then hearing it on the CD where he said, hey, 0:11:03.930 --> 0:11:05.130 by the way, thanks. 0:11:04.930 --> 0:11:08.650 No, I said, this is amazing thing. Next thing I 0:11:08.690 --> 0:11:10.690 heard it's on the radio and I said, hey, can 0:11:10.730 --> 0:11:12.890 I get that box setback? And then years of not 0:11:12.970 --> 0:11:14.010 being friends. 0:11:14.490 --> 0:11:17.250 And according to Gregor, that was all he wanted to 0:11:17.290 --> 0:11:20.570 get his CDs back. He was looking for neither riches 0:11:20.610 --> 0:11:25.090 nor credit, just the CDs, which he claims were only alone. 0:11:25.730 --> 0:11:28.330 And so this is how it went. He began leaving 0:11:28.330 --> 0:11:32.090 Moby voice messages by Gregor's count, about a dozen that 0:11:32.210 --> 0:11:36.290 all went unanswered. Then, in a final act of desperation, 0:11:36.770 --> 0:11:39.890 Gregor penned a song called Moby give Me Back My CDs, 0:11:40.650 --> 0:11:44.650 which he sang into Moby's Answering Machine with accompanying karaoke 0:11:44.810 --> 0:11:50.210 music to the tune of Brian Adams Heaven. After much cajoling, 0:11:50.490 --> 0:11:53.650 Gregor dug up his lyrics, which I will now perform 0:11:53.730 --> 0:11:54.050 for you. 0:11:56.170 --> 0:11:57.890 Moby give Me Back my CDs. 0:11:59.170 --> 0:12:05.090 The Recordings from the Field, the Alan Lomax box set CDs. 0:12:05.530 --> 0:12:06.730 I think there were seven. 0:12:09.490 --> 0:12:11.370 Those discs are all. 0:12:11.130 --> 0:12:15.250 That I need, the ones I gave you from my house. 0:12:16.530 --> 0:12:22.010 I think you'll be sure to see there were seven. 0:12:22.330 --> 0:12:25.450 And that message, Gregor says, was met with over a 0:12:25.490 --> 0:12:29.650 decade of silence. Did he ever explain, like, did he 0:12:29.850 --> 0:12:32.290 just ever come out and tell you, honestly what became 0:12:32.330 --> 0:12:34.170 of those CDs? No? 0:12:34.770 --> 0:12:37.210 I think he was busy, like playing, like, you know, 0:12:37.290 --> 0:12:39.930 a concert to ninety thousand people in Rykovic and drinking 0:12:40.010 --> 0:12:45.250 champagne out of a prostitute shoe. Couldn't be bothered. Obviously, 0:12:45.290 --> 0:12:48.170 I put an exaggerated value on the CDs. I'm sure 0:12:48.170 --> 0:12:50.570 he could have sampled anything, and he had a plenty 0:12:50.610 --> 0:12:53.010 big career before that and after that. I mean, I'm 0:12:53.010 --> 0:12:58.050 not insane, but it was more that displaced feeling of 0:12:58.130 --> 0:13:01.210 like I had this thing go off and bloom without me. 0:13:02.330 --> 0:13:05.290 I'll tell you an interesting detail on that. Yeah, whenever 0:13:05.370 --> 0:13:07.210 MOBI music comes on, I can't listen to it. 0:13:08.050 --> 0:13:09.330 But do you think if you get it back you 0:13:09.370 --> 0:13:10.130 won't feel that way. 0:13:10.170 --> 0:13:11.930 I feel like I could work it through like therapy, 0:13:11.930 --> 0:13:13.970 where I could then listen to the music again. You know, 0:13:14.010 --> 0:13:16.410 there's a sense of what about my you. 0:13:16.330 --> 0:13:19.570 Know, where's my gold album? 0:13:19.770 --> 0:13:23.329 Yeah. 0:13:24.810 --> 0:13:27.410 Gregor has theories about why nothing ever happened for him, 0:13:27.650 --> 0:13:30.570 and they revolve around an aspect of his personality, an 0:13:30.610 --> 0:13:34.610 aspect he refers to as a lack of affability. 0:13:35.010 --> 0:13:38.050 Like a lot of times I'll say something completely earnestly 0:13:38.210 --> 0:13:43.330 mm hmm, like past the water, and they're like, are 0:13:43.330 --> 0:13:45.930 you being sarcastic? Like that happened to me all the time. 0:13:46.650 --> 0:13:48.810 How could you ask for the water sarcastically? 0:13:48.930 --> 0:13:51.890 I come across as being sarcastic when I'm not. 0:13:52.770 --> 0:13:55.610 So it's almost like a handicap of it's a huge handicap. 0:13:55.810 --> 0:13:58.810 I think it's fundamentally, as I understand my own life, 0:13:59.130 --> 0:14:01.490 that is my cross to bear, that's what's wrecked my life. 0:14:01.650 --> 0:14:04.570 Well, I think you would even like you told me that. 0:14:04.530 --> 0:14:09.050 Story about where you were in the conference room at work. 0:14:09.450 --> 0:14:12.050 They're like complimenting you on your new glasses or something 0:14:12.050 --> 0:14:14.689 and saying, hey, what does your wife think of those glasses? 0:14:14.730 --> 0:14:16.450 And you were like, how the fuck do I know? 0:14:16.650 --> 0:14:18.570 I whyn't you ask my wife to find out? 0:14:18.770 --> 0:14:19.330 Do you remember? 0:14:19.770 --> 0:14:19.970 Yeah? 0:14:19.970 --> 0:14:22.930 I don't remember. I mean so they said, like, what 0:14:23.050 --> 0:14:24.130 is your wife think of that? I was like, how 0:14:24.130 --> 0:14:25.970 do I know? Ask my wife? 0:14:32.730 --> 0:14:35.890 Recently, Gregor and Moby have found themselves back in touch, 0:14:36.290 --> 0:14:40.690 though in the most tangential impersonal way possible through group 0:14:40.770 --> 0:14:41.930 emails and texts. 0:14:42.530 --> 0:14:43.690 Gregor's older brother. 0:14:43.530 --> 0:14:47.090 Dimitri, remained friends with Moby over the years, and Dmitri 0:14:47.210 --> 0:14:50.410 recently had a baby, so he loops in Moby, Gregor, 0:14:50.490 --> 0:14:53.770 and one other old friend on updates. This has evolved 0:14:53.770 --> 0:14:57.010 into a small group of friends exchanging witticisms and fun 0:14:57.090 --> 0:15:00.490 facts like did you know that the fatty flesh around 0:15:00.530 --> 0:15:04.090 the elbow is called a wenus? So while the new 0:15:04.130 --> 0:15:07.210 group email friendship isn't the same as the old close one, 0:15:07.690 --> 0:15:10.930 it's still an open door. And so I couldn't help 0:15:10.970 --> 0:15:15.130 asking the question, now that that door has swung open again, 0:15:15.370 --> 0:15:17.610 do you see this as an opportunity to ask for 0:15:17.650 --> 0:15:18.890 those CDs once again. 0:15:19.050 --> 0:15:21.690 I was thinking about it, were you, just because it's 0:15:21.730 --> 0:15:24.610 kind of a little symbolic of what I don't even 0:15:24.650 --> 0:15:26.850 have a CD player anymore, right, But I was just thinking, 0:15:27.890 --> 0:15:30.690 for talismonic purposes, it would be interesting to have them back. 0:15:31.250 --> 0:15:32.170 Say more about that. 0:15:32.770 --> 0:15:34.010 I think that it might soothe me. 0:15:34.850 --> 0:15:35.930 Do you really think it would. 0:15:36.410 --> 0:15:39.410 I'll actually give you the clarity which just came to me. Now, okay, 0:15:40.010 --> 0:15:41.650 it's not instead of the money and the fame and 0:15:41.650 --> 0:15:47.970 all that stuff, what it is is tangible evidence. Understand 0:15:49.050 --> 0:15:50.890 you did this, you exist, you did it, you pulled 0:15:50.930 --> 0:15:51.290 it off. 0:15:51.890 --> 0:15:54.330 You want to be able to say, see these CDs 0:15:54.370 --> 0:15:55.450 on the shelf. 0:15:55.090 --> 0:15:57.530 That's the ones that I gave to mommy, Because for me, 0:15:58.010 --> 0:16:00.810 this would just be a version of proof. 0:16:06.370 --> 0:16:09.770 Wanting the CDs you lent someone decades ago and expecting 0:16:09.810 --> 0:16:14.970 them back is of course insanity, but insanity's repeated often enough, 0:16:15.330 --> 0:16:20.250 especially between friends, can begin to feel pacifying, lulling, even. 0:16:21.570 --> 0:16:24.490 Excuse me, in a way, you just want your due. 0:16:25.210 --> 0:16:29.930 Yeah, Do you think you can articulate that in a 0:16:29.970 --> 0:16:32.810 way that would make it understandable to him? 0:16:32.810 --> 0:16:35.170 Do you think I'm pretty confident I can't, because he's 0:16:35.170 --> 0:16:36.490 still pretty sensitive. 0:16:36.890 --> 0:16:41.250 Okay, pretty sensitive, pretty sensitive. Like the time Moby seemed 0:16:41.290 --> 0:16:45.210 to bristle when Gregor emailed him about something totally innocuous, 0:16:45.770 --> 0:16:50.650 a condolence for the death of Moby's friend David Bowie. 0:16:50.850 --> 0:16:53.010 You know, I said some witty thing about David Bowie dying, 0:16:53.090 --> 0:16:55.410 he wrote, like texted back, like the picture of him 0:16:55.410 --> 0:16:56.970 and David Bowie in the cover of entertainment. 0:16:57.090 --> 0:16:57.970 Let's back up for a moment. 0:16:58.010 --> 0:17:00.410 What was the witty thing you said about David Bowie's death? 0:17:01.210 --> 0:17:02.650 You know, like good night, funny man. 0:17:04.930 --> 0:17:06.050 What does that even mean? 0:17:06.930 --> 0:17:09.250 That's usually what I say when people die. 0:17:14.090 --> 0:17:16.369 If this is a sampling of the hot takes Gregor 0:17:16.449 --> 0:17:19.290 has in store, I fear that this newly opened door 0:17:19.330 --> 0:17:23.090 between Moby and Gregor might not remain open forever. I 0:17:23.129 --> 0:17:25.290 also knew that if he has any hope of ever 0:17:25.330 --> 0:17:29.850 getting back those CDs, he'll need a middleman or interlocutor 0:17:30.530 --> 0:17:35.409 or interlocutor. So, perhaps, against my better judgment, I allow 0:17:35.490 --> 0:17:38.009 myself to be swept up by the moment. I just 0:17:38.090 --> 0:17:40.170 don't know if this is going to lead to anything 0:17:40.169 --> 0:17:44.210 but heartbreak. But why don't we go after the CDs 0:17:44.810 --> 0:17:48.409 all right? And with that ringing call to arms, my 0:17:48.530 --> 0:17:55.489 path was set and the mission begun. Say I'm Moby, Like, 0:17:55.570 --> 0:17:58.010 how would you ask, Hey, Moby. 0:17:58.209 --> 0:18:01.210 Can I have back those CDs? I've never understood any 0:18:01.209 --> 0:18:03.209 approach other than a direct approach, So that's what I 0:18:03.250 --> 0:18:03.570 would do. 0:18:04.730 --> 0:18:07.929 After the break the Hollywood Hills, a surprise encounter with 0:18:08.050 --> 0:18:25.690 Rue Paul and maybe Moby. Maybe the airline tickets were purchased, 0:18:25.889 --> 0:18:28.649 the hotel was booked, but a couple days before we 0:18:28.649 --> 0:18:33.369 were set to leave for La, I got nervous. If 0:18:33.409 --> 0:18:36.330 Gregor already was in a bad place, could my meddling 0:18:36.570 --> 0:18:37.850 possibly make things worse? 0:18:38.290 --> 0:18:39.970 Hello, hey Annika? 0:18:40.250 --> 0:18:41.090 Yeah, Jonathan. 0:18:41.490 --> 0:18:43.530 I decided to reach out to the person who knows 0:18:43.570 --> 0:18:46.410 Gregor best, his. 0:18:46.409 --> 0:18:47.649 Wife, Annika. 0:18:48.169 --> 0:18:51.729 So do you know about this this little project that 0:18:51.810 --> 0:18:53.609 your husband and I are undertaking. 0:18:54.970 --> 0:18:58.129 So I think that the is a strategy to like 0:18:58.169 --> 0:19:01.330 ambush Moby and try and get him to give back 0:19:01.369 --> 0:19:04.529 the CDs that he lent Gregor thirty years ago or 0:19:04.730 --> 0:19:07.209 however long it was ago. Is that true? 0:19:08.050 --> 0:19:12.330 You make it sound like such a classy operation. Yeah, 0:19:12.810 --> 0:19:15.769 has Gregor brought this issue up to you before this 0:19:15.810 --> 0:19:18.609 whole Alan Lomack CD issue. 0:19:19.330 --> 0:19:25.249 So I met him on November eleventh, two thousand. Yeah, 0:19:25.290 --> 0:19:31.609 and it came up pretty early in our relationship, so. 0:19:31.570 --> 0:19:35.209 He yeah, like first date conversation, it was. 0:19:35.209 --> 0:19:38.090 Definitely early on. It's very hard for him to let 0:19:38.169 --> 0:19:42.449 stuff go. And like even like early on in our relationship, 0:19:42.490 --> 0:19:47.929 we went to Spain together and we bought a bottle 0:19:47.970 --> 0:19:50.889 of olive oil in some town or something and we 0:19:51.010 --> 0:19:53.689 left it by accident in the rental car and it 0:19:53.850 --> 0:19:55.290 still bothers him. 0:19:56.409 --> 0:19:58.729 Do you know, I think I actually know that olive 0:19:58.730 --> 0:19:59.649 oil story. 0:19:59.770 --> 0:20:05.249 Oh yeah, Yeah. There is something that is in his 0:20:05.369 --> 0:20:08.369 character that is very much like the Larry David character, 0:20:08.409 --> 0:20:12.210 where it's like, you know, like obsessing about a very 0:20:12.250 --> 0:20:15.850 small point. But you know, he's a very he's like 0:20:15.889 --> 0:20:19.889 a very sensitive person, so it's just part of who 0:20:19.929 --> 0:20:23.689 he is and part of his wonderful package. 0:20:24.090 --> 0:20:28.010 Does this undertaking have your blessing or do you think 0:20:28.010 --> 0:20:28.809 it's foolhardy? 0:20:29.570 --> 0:20:32.889 I don't. Sometimes I worry about Gregor's feelings because he 0:20:33.090 --> 0:20:37.570 is very hurt, very easily, and I don't know if 0:20:37.609 --> 0:20:48.250 Moby is really that sensitive to his feelings. 0:20:50.689 --> 0:20:54.449 I Gregor flew in from San Francisco. And I was 0:20:54.449 --> 0:20:57.369 there to greet him at the Bob Hope International Airport 0:20:57.449 --> 0:20:58.129 in Burbank. 0:20:58.330 --> 0:21:00.249 So this is the dream factory I've heard about it. 0:21:00.770 --> 0:21:01.730 It's beautiful here. 0:21:01.850 --> 0:21:06.169 Even the underground parking lots smell like sentent lotion. We 0:21:06.250 --> 0:21:09.450 have four hours before our appointment with Moby. We set 0:21:09.490 --> 0:21:13.489 off in our economy sized carrio or similar to experience 0:21:13.609 --> 0:21:15.489 everything LA has to offer. 0:21:15.889 --> 0:21:16.929 Are you excited? 0:21:18.649 --> 0:21:21.450 Yeah, you don't sound excited. 0:21:22.250 --> 0:21:24.050 No, I'm full of anxiety. And let me tell you, 0:21:24.929 --> 0:21:29.169 I feel an increasing sense of dread about the futility 0:21:29.209 --> 0:21:30.050 of this undertaking. 0:21:30.850 --> 0:21:32.729 You can get those CDs back, my friend. 0:21:32.929 --> 0:21:34.890 Okay, whatever you say in a. 0:21:34.810 --> 0:21:36.810 Plastic bag, which he'll supply. 0:21:38.050 --> 0:21:41.769 You're gonna negotiate this look manage at which time of 0:21:41.810 --> 0:21:47.609 my client's choosing the one plastic bag recycled acceptable, plus 0:21:47.850 --> 0:21:50.929 one coupon good for any flavor from basket in Robin's 0:21:50.929 --> 0:21:55.210 ice cream or any substant that too. 0:21:57.889 --> 0:22:00.249 With just three hours and fifty nine minutes to go, 0:22:00.770 --> 0:22:02.609 things were off to a rollicking start. 0:22:03.490 --> 0:22:04.409 It's like not moving. 0:22:04.649 --> 0:22:06.530 There's always traffic in Los Angeles. 0:22:06.649 --> 0:22:07.290 Look at the traffic. 0:22:07.330 --> 0:22:08.409 Are we gonna make it for movies? 0:22:08.810 --> 0:22:10.449 Yeah, we're gonna be stuck in horrible traffic. 0:22:11.129 --> 0:22:14.450 We have until two, No, we have until one. 0:22:14.770 --> 0:22:16.010 Oh, really, we'll never make it. 0:22:19.689 --> 0:22:22.889 Oh look there's the big Hollywood sign. Wow, what a sight. 0:22:23.010 --> 0:22:26.129 Huh used to say hollywood. 0:22:25.649 --> 0:22:29.129 Land Actually before that it was called hollywood Landville. 0:22:29.169 --> 0:22:34.489 Is that true? 0:22:35.090 --> 0:22:37.090 Do you want Mexican food? Do you ever eat Mexican food? 0:22:37.129 --> 0:22:38.129 I love Mexican food. 0:22:38.369 --> 0:22:40.649 And to make you turn yeah, go go go? This 0:22:40.730 --> 0:22:43.129 is like a four lane uie, it's six? Really, go 0:22:43.129 --> 0:22:48.970