Speaker 1: Pushkin. Yeah, have you ever done like an RV trip
Speaker 1: Lan life? You mean Van Life? Yeah, I think we
Speaker 1: can't do van life. I go, van life got ruined
Speaker 1: this summer COVID. You can't get a sprinter or a
Speaker 1: VW like in any reason price. And then it became
Speaker 1: like a hashtag Instagram tiktoki thing like van life. Right,
Speaker 1: it just feels like the van life got gentrified. I
Speaker 1: hope you enjoyed. These five highly produced episodes of Not
Speaker 1: Lost in between seasons will be tackling such diverse topics
Speaker 1: as the gentrification of van Life. Turn in next week
Speaker 1: for a conversation. This is Not Lost California so far,
Speaker 1: how everybody feeling. I'm Brendan France has new him feel
Speaker 1: great that it's not New York. That's my friend, the
Speaker 1: audio producer John Delor, just like it is an incredible
Speaker 1: joy to just be out of the city. It's April
Speaker 1: twenty twenty two, and after a two year hiatus spent
Speaker 1: hunkering down in New York City due to COVID, we're
Speaker 1: heading toward the opposite of the Big Apple, Big Sir,
Speaker 1: eighty miles of vodness along the rugged coast of Central California.
Speaker 1: Look at these beaches, taking in the coastal beauty. It's
Speaker 1: hard to remember why I ever left California, Like, what
Speaker 1: do we do in their lives? Oh, that house is
Speaker 1: for sale. Maybe the world speaking to me? Live right there,
Speaker 1: work remotely, make podcasts, eat soup. So you've been to
Speaker 1: Big Sir? How many times I was thinking about on
Speaker 1: the plane. I think like eleven or twelve times. What
Speaker 1: was the first time? Big Sir is not new to me.
Speaker 1: Years back, when I lived in California, I would visit
Speaker 1: it all the time, and like many before me, I
Speaker 1: was seduced by the areas looming redwood forests and mountains
Speaker 1: on one side, the bananas wow and the drama of cliffs,
Speaker 1: rock and ocean on the other. Look at the shoreline.
Speaker 1: It's accessible for like a stretch, and then it just
Speaker 1: turns into the sort of cliffs. It is hard to
Speaker 1: overstate house dunning, Big Sir is. It is an Edenic wilderness.
Speaker 1: It is Beethoven, the taj Mahal for let Mignon, Queen
Speaker 1: em On, all of it all in one. And yet
Speaker 1: what really makes the special for me are the thinkers,
Speaker 1: artists and writers who live and visit here. Despite being
Speaker 1: remote in Big s a book of poetry or a
Speaker 1: good conversation are not hard to find. I can't believe
Speaker 1: I can't find parking in Big s Okay, come on out,
Speaker 1: you lay in your horn, no want to You can
Speaker 1: take the guy out of New York City. I'd rather
Speaker 1: live a life that's a little on edge, like wildfires,
Speaker 1: mountain lions, and then paradise and elation, those two ends
Speaker 1: of the spectrum, then this monotonous middle of the road
Speaker 1: stuff that I was ever mentioned. When we arrive in
Speaker 1: Big Sir village, we strike up a chat with a radiant,
Speaker 1: even beatific looking stranger named Jake Podour. How did you
Speaker 1: end up in Big Sir? I ended up here by accident,
Speaker 1: which most other residents of Big sur will say the same.
Speaker 1: They didn't actually try to live here. Jake is young,
Speaker 1: has a short beard and baggy clothes, with the touch
Speaker 1: of Bohemian flair, music and spirit. If I do say so,
Speaker 1: is really the reason why I ended up here? Yeah?
Speaker 1: I found myself in La trying to do the music
Speaker 1: thing and it just was making me feel lost, and
Speaker 1: I was luckily cradled by this beautiful land. I mean
Speaker 1: is there enough to do as just a big sur
Speaker 1: like young guy living here, Like you can get off
Speaker 1: work to get by? Oh now I can before you know,
Speaker 1: living in my car saving money on rent. That made
Speaker 1: it work out for me in that sense. But are
Speaker 1: there there a lot of car life going on? There is.
Speaker 1: There's a lot of car life, a lot of transients,
Speaker 1: and a lot of multi millionaires and not much more
Speaker 1: in between. But right now I have a work trade situation.
Speaker 1: I garden for this lady's property and live in a
Speaker 1: little shack and play music, and people seem to enjoy that.
Speaker 1: My journey is I ended up in the middle of
Speaker 1: the road, and I've kind of been digging it because
Speaker 1: I spent so much time not but I'm remembering those
Speaker 1: old feelings of what it's like to be on the
Speaker 1: road and to be someplace so dramatic. How is how
Speaker 1: what is it like being in a place where people
Speaker 1: are like travelers like us are coming through constantly, constantly,
Speaker 1: Like is it it's a beautiful or is it it's invigorating.
Speaker 1: I'm meeting people from all over the world. I feel
Speaker 1: like I'm touring through vast lands, but really I'm just
Speaker 1: on this eighty mile stretch of coastline, and I'm just
Speaker 1: meeting all the most wonderful characters. As Henry Miller said
Speaker 1: in Big Sirs, they put and watch the world go
Speaker 1: rounds to these people who are going to be here
Speaker 1: for decades. Who knows it's transitory, as you said to me,
Speaker 1: it is. It's it's fun to think about some visions
Speaker 1: or the future. But um, I notice, I'm happiest one.
Speaker 1: I'm just right here right now. Yeah, day by day,
Speaker 1: hour by hour, moment by moment. When we left Jake,
Speaker 1: his words rang in my ears. Yeah, let's be right
Speaker 1: here right now, which I interpreted to mean let's get
Speaker 1: into the nature we travel so far to explore. Took
Speaker 1: it right off the one. It was time to visit
Speaker 1: the beach, driving directly off the continent of North America, said,
Speaker 1: come up to the edge. Do you know this one?
Speaker 1: Beach Boys? Right? So I found this song when I
Speaker 1: was making a playlist for the trip. I knew one
Speaker 1: of them lived up here, but I didn't know they
Speaker 1: were in a song about it. Yea, before we can
Speaker 1: hit the beach, we stop at a little gatehouse to
Speaker 1: buy a day pass for our car. Good morning, twelve dollars. Yeah,
Speaker 1: we take cash or card whatever. Okay, is it busy
Speaker 1: or slow today? Starting to pick up a little bit? Yeah,
Speaker 1: slower than it was yesterday at this time. Right, still
Speaker 1: a weekend. All right, thank you for this, got a problem.
Speaker 1: You guys are all set to go have great afternoon?
Speaker 1: All right, thank you you. What do we think his
Speaker 1: life out of a scott one to ten? I'm thinking ten? Right,
Speaker 1: It seems like super happy. He seems happy. He's like
Speaker 1: living near the beach. I'm trying not to be jealous.
Speaker 1: Oh wait, oh dick, I'm gonna go put my feet
Speaker 1: in the water. Okay, yeah, all right, let's do it.
Speaker 1: But we're gonna have to. It's not sure it's what
Speaker 1: we're gonna show some calf all right, urt your eyes
Speaker 1: because my calves have not seen the sun and years.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, wow, this feels like the opposite of a
Speaker 1: zoom call. It's good to touch the water. That sounds
Speaker 1: a little bit like the beginning of creation. There's like
Speaker 1: mist these beautiful flowers, these purple piano, the edges in
Speaker 1: the green right into the water. It looks like this
Speaker 1: is where man sprung forth. Yeahs such an interesting beach. Experience.
Speaker 1: Though you come here, you're not swimming today because it's cold.
Speaker 1: I don't think you could swim here, could you? Are
Speaker 1: the waves too much? You can do whatever you want here.
Speaker 1: But it's so goddamn beautiful that that is enough. There's
Speaker 1: something something about over there. I can't tell if it's
Speaker 1: a lot you actually look up right, if that's a
Speaker 1: piece of driftwood or crazy seaweed. The large brown thing
Speaker 1: down there, Yeah, that it's moving. I don't think that's
Speaker 1: a long Let's go check it out, all right, Oh,
Speaker 1: check that out. Those are the elephant seals. Wow, Oh
Speaker 1: my god, look at these these things are massive. Wow.
Speaker 1: Like when you come up to this, it looks like
Speaker 1: a battlefield with all these like fallen soldiers. Yeah, you
Speaker 1: see battlefield. My read is like Rockaway Beach, like sort
Speaker 1: of mid August on a Wednesday, when there's not too
Speaker 1: many people and everyone's really quiet. Everyone's got enough space
Speaker 1: for their blanket, but everyone they're just all very chill.
Speaker 1: Right now. I feel like they just parted their brains
Speaker 1: out right. It's got that five what I'm saying. Trapsing
Speaker 1: between the blobs of napping elephant seals was a figure
Speaker 1: holding a clipboard. John and I waved and they approached us.
Speaker 1: I'm Brendan Arena. John. Nice to me, what are you
Speaker 1: doing here? So? I'm currently working on my PhD, and
Speaker 1: this morning I was actually just out doing recites, and
Speaker 1: so I was out looking at their flipper tags. Oh
Speaker 1: no way, Well, look at this guy scratching his side.
Speaker 1: Get How do they move? It's like such a dumb
Speaker 1: basic How do they move? We have a very scientific
Speaker 1: term for that on land. It's called glumping. So it's
Speaker 1: galumping galumping. Have you ever seen that dance move the worm? Yeah,
Speaker 1: really looks like that. That's incredible. So why do they
Speaker 1: come here this spot? Yeah? So they actually come back
Speaker 1: to each of these colonies because that's where they were
Speaker 1: born and that's where they know to go. Is there
Speaker 1: a scientific word for that sort of thing, like that
Speaker 1: behavior of like going back to where you came from. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's known as like Philopatrick, Philopatrick. I like that. It's
Speaker 1: like like after college, I was Philopatrick. I just ended
Speaker 1: up in my dad's basement. And so where do they
Speaker 1: go when they're not here? So they spend most of
Speaker 1: their time out at sea? Okay, the adult females will
Speaker 1: go out to the middle of the Pacific Ocean. I
Speaker 1: think their round trip can come in at about ten
Speaker 1: thousand kilometers that they're doing, and then after about two
Speaker 1: months they come back to molt and while they're on land,
Speaker 1: they're fasting the entire time, and then they'll go back
Speaker 1: out to see for seven months, putting on a ton
Speaker 1: of mass to then come back for the breeding seasoning.
Speaker 1: I'm looking at them, I'm like inspired, Like I feel
Speaker 1: like I moved way too much in New York that
Speaker 1: I need to spend a little bit more in my
Speaker 1: life focusing on the basics, which is napping. It looks
Speaker 1: to me, maybe finding a good mate, maybe having some
Speaker 1: kids for me. I was drawn to them by what
Speaker 1: they can do out in the sea, because that is
Speaker 1: really like how they make a living out there, you know,
Speaker 1: Like it's really if they don't do well out there,
Speaker 1: they're not going to be able to come back on
Speaker 1: land and do well online. Right, So this is classic me.
Speaker 1: I'm looking at them just chilling out after the result
Speaker 1: of all their hard work, and I'm like, I want that.
Speaker 1: I don't want to do the ten thousand hours of
Speaker 1: work that allows this to happen. It's pretty amazing. Do
Speaker 1: you know any of the like these ones that are
Speaker 1: laid on the beach, any of them are familiar? We
Speaker 1: do have. Yes, there is this one girl eighteen eighty
Speaker 1: five who I believe is twenty this year, all right,
Speaker 1: and I think she held the record for the deepest
Speaker 1: dive of the seals that we've instrumented, Yeah, which was
Speaker 1: about two hours and down to one thousand, seven hundred meters.
Speaker 1: That's so cool. We know we have her her track
Speaker 1: from that year, and then we actually chacked her several
Speaker 1: years later. It seems like she's doing the same thing
Speaker 1: every year. And it was where to go. The idea
Speaker 1: that they keep coming back to where they came from,
Speaker 1: like ISRAELI intriguing to me. But thank you so much
Speaker 1: for yeah, sharing your work with us. Yeah, this is beautiful.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much. Yeah, it's nice to be able
Speaker 1: to come out on the beach and run across someone
Speaker 1: who just hangs out with these credits all the time.
Speaker 1: You guys are heading south, right, Well, we might go
Speaker 1: to there's this place in Pescudero. Have you ever been
Speaker 1: to Duarts? No? Oh my god, it has He's got
Speaker 1: this supup So there's this soup I used to again
Speaker 1: every time I visited Big I might have mentioned it
Speaker 1: once or twice while planning for this trend inflatable soup
Speaker 1: cream of artichoke made from artichoke they pick in the cart,
Speaker 1: cream of vartach utter garlic. I first encountered it in
Speaker 1: years two pounds of artichokes, and now I make a
Speaker 1: pilgrimage to eat it anytime I'm nearby. If you know,
Speaker 1: if you've been there, you can order off menu the
Speaker 1: fifty fifth blended with this chili verde soup, which is
Speaker 1: more pecant and spicy, chick in stock, heavy cream, salt, pepper.
Speaker 1: In my mind, it contains more than just neutri super
Speaker 1: grounding and almost woods like a metaphor for the ideal life.
Speaker 1: It contains wisdom for living. You know, the soup's grounded
Speaker 1: but spice. I've kind of been thinking about this soup
Speaker 1: for five years, and soup is not the main reason
Speaker 1: I decided to visit California. Soup that you talk about
Speaker 1: all the time, but I just want to make sure
Speaker 1: we hit it if we're traveling there, certainly played a
Speaker 1: role in my decision. You gotta do the math this
Speaker 1: even makes sense to go back. Unfortunately, because we have
Speaker 1: to backtrack and go the other way, we didn't have
Speaker 1: time to stop there. On the way down to being Soup,
Speaker 1: and after our jount to the beach, the jet lag
Speaker 1: hit us like a wave of molasses. So we checked
Speaker 1: into the cabin, unpacked the car, and when we were
Speaker 1: settled it was dark, and not bluish city dark, but
Speaker 1: squid ink black dark. We lit a fire, opened a
Speaker 1: bottle of mescow, and continued to try to be in
Speaker 1: the present. Big God plans and mine, I'll go into
Speaker 1: ourselves to your Dave two Walmond cappuccinos. Some people know
Speaker 1: the best fishing spots or a good place to catch waves,
Speaker 1: to surf. I'm like that for coffee shops. Even in
Speaker 1: the wilderness, I can hear the siren call of a
Speaker 1: milk frother. And thus the next morning we proceeded to
Speaker 1: Big Sur Bakery, a casual eatery nestled in the hills
Speaker 1: off of Highway One. So, John, I've been to Big
Speaker 1: Sur Bakery dozens of times. What was your what's your experience?
Speaker 1: All right? So, first of all, it's across from the
Speaker 1: most beautiful gas station of all time, like it makes
Speaker 1: gas look probably good for the planet, Like you imagine
Speaker 1: that the person who works in there is like extremely
Speaker 1: fit and doing yoga in between a humping gas bakery
Speaker 1: is good. I mean, I've got like this, what is it?
Speaker 1: What did you order? Why am I? It's a blueberry
Speaker 1: strudle bluebers at least like two pounds of blue blueberries. Seriously,
Speaker 1: but I had to give it to you because they
Speaker 1: did not announce there was almond flower, right, and you
Speaker 1: you like you threw it down like like it was
Speaker 1: like a wet ragular. This is going to close off
Speaker 1: my throat. But yeah, or you could just say I
Speaker 1: threw it down like what you know. Either way you
Speaker 1: could act like I'm being pretentious, or we can talk
Speaker 1: about a medical condition. Yeah, but no. The pastry cabinet
Speaker 1: here is like of the gods, and there's like a
Speaker 1: little pursudo greer cheese loaves and vegetable for tatas. Let's
Speaker 1: since you have a question though, you so when I
Speaker 1: gave you my blueberry, it's going due to my medical emergency.
Speaker 1: You were like, oh, well you can eat my ginger skull,
Speaker 1: which is very generous of you, right, but ginger is
Speaker 1: like kind of a coffee killer, you know. I mean
Speaker 1: it's like the flavored ginger intersecting the coffee. To me,
Speaker 1: it feels like I'm taking a pill. It's like gingers.
Speaker 1: So huh. I don't know. I found the collision a little.
Speaker 1: I think it's like having like a cookie or like
Speaker 1: a you know, it's like it's like here toothpaste in
Speaker 1: our shoes. But thank you, You're welcome, You're welcome, Thanks
Speaker 1: for this. It's good. It's good. I'm sorry about the
Speaker 1: almond flower thing. Like all your glance is your throat
Speaker 1: closing up at all. John snark rolls off me as
Speaker 1: I happily watched the line of people in yoga pants
Speaker 1: and hiking boots stifle yawns while waiting for their coffee orders.
Speaker 1: Often there's a flat white John Diggins texting his wife
Speaker 1: in New York, who he left home alone with their
Speaker 1: two kids. You can almost feel the like, as I'm leaving,
Speaker 1: like I'm just taking this huge like sixty pound like
Speaker 1: flak jacket combination like old hair shirt. You know, it's
Speaker 1: like uncomfortable and it's heavy. I just like take mine
Speaker 1: off and like, all right, you're gonna have to wear
Speaker 1: both of them five days already, Like I can just
Speaker 1: feel the space or it's it's like it's quieter in
Speaker 1: my head because there's not that like it's like you
Speaker 1: need to get up now, you need to get their pajamas,
Speaker 1: and then like you wake up and you open your
Speaker 1: eyes and you're like, oh no, no, I'm in California. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I don't have to do that today. Yeah, all right,
Speaker 1: let's um get out here. Let's go check out Henry
Speaker 1: Motor Library. And it's a little nonprofit because Henry Moller
Speaker 1: used to live here. And so we'll take with Magnus,
Speaker 1: who I've known over the years. He's seen me in
Speaker 1: different states with different hairlinths, different partners, in different cars,
Speaker 1: and now it's years on and I'm still still here.
Speaker 1: You'll be the harriest partner I bring to him yet. Amazing,
Speaker 1: Let's do it. I'm glad you're here with me. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm glad. We got you out black coffee for Chelsea.
Speaker 1: Anaphylactic shock avoided, bellies full. We hop at our rig
Speaker 1: and mosey further down Highway one. But it's that same thing,
Speaker 1: like do you go to those natural places to recharge
Speaker 1: and come back Yeah, but I think like if you
Speaker 1: do the opposite, where you're living in the country most
Speaker 1: of the time and then going to city and coming back,
Speaker 1: that's just like it's like the inverse of like the
Speaker 1: thing that I think I aspire to. That's that's like
Speaker 1: the chili verde soup is the majority and in the
Speaker 1: middle is just a little bit of artichoke. Right, you're saying,
Speaker 1: I'm just trying to figure out, like, if I acknowledge it,
Speaker 1: does that mean we're going to keep talking about the soup,
Speaker 1: or if I just we come to a little turnout
Speaker 1: where a tiny cabin sits amidst redwood trees at the
Speaker 1: edge of a shady glade. This is perfect. Look, there's
Speaker 1: this old wooden sign painted yell at Henry Miller Library,
Speaker 1: Book Music, Art. All right, let's go check it out.
Speaker 1: The Henry Miller Library is not an actual library. It's
Speaker 1: a nonprofit art center, bookstore, and performance space set up
Speaker 1: as a kind of memorial to the writer. Miller had
Speaker 1: had his fill of city life and moved to Big
Speaker 1: Serve back in the nineteen forties. Yeah. I'm just so
Speaker 1: happy to be here, man. I think this is the
Speaker 1: first trip in two years and I wanted to come
Speaker 1: right to the most beautiful place I could think of,
Speaker 1: what do you mean, first trip in two years because
Speaker 1: of COVID, because so the show we were making it
Speaker 1: and then stopped right And then in that time I
Speaker 1: got a normal job, got my hair cut, my girlfriend
Speaker 1: moved in, bought a car, started watching TV, became an American. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and now it's kind of tapering right, and I'm back
Speaker 1: out here. My name is Magnus Taurum, and I've been
Speaker 1: here at the library since nineteen ninety three, and I
Speaker 1: come I came here from Sweden. Magnus is tall, Cladden
Speaker 1: Denham and has a full head of silver hair doing
Speaker 1: this kind of cool scarecrow shag thing. All right, so
Speaker 1: can you give us a lay of the land here? Um? Well,
Speaker 1: the library is here. It's been like this since nineteen
Speaker 1: eighty one. Very few things have changed. People don't like
Speaker 1: things changing here. Oftentimes people would comment on a rock
Speaker 1: that used to be in one place and now it's moved,
Speaker 1: and they get slightly perturbed. See that railroad tree right
Speaker 1: there is actually classic redwood that. See how the branches
Speaker 1: are drooping, like really drooping, hanging down. That's like the
Speaker 1: cover tree for a book about Sequoia Sampavillians, which these are.
Speaker 1: And when when David Crosby did his concert, which was
Speaker 1: not that long ago, he stood on this stage and suddenly,
Speaker 1: in the middle of the concert he stopped like this,
Speaker 1: and they looked up and he suddenly noticed that tree,
Speaker 1: and he said, this song is for that tree. Do
Speaker 1: you mind telling John the story of how you ended
Speaker 1: up in Big Sir? Initially? Initially I hitchtaged down the
Speaker 1: coast in the nineteen seventy eight the first time, and
Speaker 1: then I sailed for seven years in the mainliness of Pacific.
Speaker 1: And then on August twenty eight, nineteen eighty four, I
Speaker 1: had a motorcycle accident right outside of Fernwood here in
Speaker 1: the valley, right in Big righting A downtown the valley,
Speaker 1: Big Sir. And I lost my consciousness and I was
Speaker 1: laying I sprawled myself on the hood of this car,
Speaker 1: bleeding profusely out of certainly my nose and mouth. And
Speaker 1: I wake up and I'm holding somebody's hand, and I
Speaker 1: opened up my eyes and I see this beautiful young woman,
Speaker 1: and I said, how did you get here? And then
Speaker 1: she went with me in the ambulance, and I'm still
Speaker 1: with her a four months south of here on Parlington
Speaker 1: Ridge where she brought me up. So that was that's
Speaker 1: the reason I'm here is having met her, it fell
Speaker 1: in love completely and fell in love with her and
Speaker 1: the place. And I had so many stitches on my
Speaker 1: lips that it took it took three weeks for us
Speaker 1: to finally be able to come gently kiss. Magnus walks
Speaker 1: us around the grounds of the library. There's a ping
Speaker 1: pong table, a small stage for performances, and various folk
Speaker 1: art sculptures nestled beneath redwood trees. This is the iconic thing.
Speaker 1: This piano has been taking a beating for years. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's entropy. It's a it's a piano that's slowly rotting
Speaker 1: in front of our eyes. Here, I had three of
Speaker 1: those mannequins surrounding a redwood stump on which I had
Speaker 1: a cup, and in the cup I had a Rubik's cube.
Speaker 1: So a lot of these are is you bathe these
Speaker 1: and they're kind of just ready maids inspired by your
Speaker 1: wild mind. Yeah. Now that orange thing there that actually
Speaker 1: comes from the bowling alley where they shot with the
Speaker 1: Botskid movie. Yeah, Yeah, that's from the big sort of
Speaker 1: fashion show that we have here, like jellyfish. All right,
Speaker 1: And now we approached the the mL White House, which
Speaker 1: as we converted into this beautiful little library and bookstore.
Speaker 1: I've been poking our heads in here. So we're basically
Speaker 1: in this place and it's like a really handsome bookstore
Speaker 1: in a cabin, but this kind of nice warm lighting.
Speaker 1: Is there an organization, what's the what's the roads, the selection?
Speaker 1: It's a little bit. It's you know, they're on the shelf.
Speaker 1: We have books that are essentially by author, pretty much alphabetical,
Speaker 1: and then we have displaced on the tables and they
Speaker 1: they change all the time depending on how we feel. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but the books themselves are all kind of rotating in
Speaker 1: and out modern classics, moniting classic classics. Yeah, it's like
Speaker 1: an education humanities on one level. And this poster here
Speaker 1: is from the Wild Year of twenty eleven where we
Speaker 1: had she like Peppers and John Waters and oh my way.
Speaker 1: So this is these are people performed at the library.
Speaker 1: Red Hot Chili, Peppers, John Waters, MGMT, Henry Rollins. Remarkable
Speaker 1: three and a half hours Wow. After our chat with
Speaker 1: Magnus we Linger on at the library. This tree is
Speaker 1: probably what about a thousand years old? How is the Redwoods?
Speaker 1: John finds a spot of cell reception and calls his
Speaker 1: kids before nightfalls on the East Coast. Hi, guys, where
Speaker 1: am I? I'm in California? Hi Indi boo? How are you?
Speaker 1: Are you tired? You're busy right now? Are you too
Speaker 1: busy to say hi? Yeah? Meanwhile, I browsed the bookshop
Speaker 1: and find a copy of Big sur and The Oranges
Speaker 1: of Hieronymous Bosh Henry Miller's memoirs from when he lived here.
Speaker 1: I sent you a video. We saw an elephant seal.
Speaker 1: It's really big and it makes a noise like it's burping.
Speaker 1: We whiled away the day. How tall do you think
Speaker 1: it is? It's like a It looks like, Oh, here's
Speaker 1: how I could do it. It looks like a fifteen
Speaker 1: story building. Right after a while, we got ourselves together,
Speaker 1: Hi guys, and pushed off to another iconic big surf spot.
Speaker 1: So we're in Nepente. It's a little bit foggy out,
Speaker 1: but we will there will be a shift when this
Speaker 1: goes down in about a half hour's time. Designed by
Speaker 1: a student of Frankloyd Wright, a Pente Restaurant was built
Speaker 1: around the cliffside cabin in nineteen forty nine. In any
Speaker 1: other setting, it's modern redwood structure and expansive terrace would
Speaker 1: catch the eye. But here it's beauty is dwarfed by
Speaker 1: the views in the wake and there is something stinking
Speaker 1: set up over there, whether it's a whale or we'll seal.
Speaker 1: Nepente's perch on a cliff allows a miles long view
Speaker 1: of the horizon out there. See that bump, yeah, believe.
Speaker 1: In eighteen eighty five, John and I stare males the
Speaker 1: gape and Napente's greatest attraction the sunset. We've got sunsets
Speaker 1: on lakes in the Midwest, which are nice, but they're
Speaker 1: like a specific thing. This is just huge. The thing
Speaker 1: about it for me that strikes me as like how
Speaker 1: far it goes from left to right? Do you know
Speaker 1: what I mean? Because the body of water is so
Speaker 1: much larger that that pink band it's along the water
Speaker 1: for a lake. It's like you know that big in
Speaker 1: your in your view, like, but this is like left
Speaker 1: to skit of two inches. It's like absolutely the entire screen,
Speaker 1: the entire screen the Penthe pulls off the rare trick
Speaker 1: of being a tourist destination as well as a spot
Speaker 1: where locals meet and mingle. What is it, Jade, Jade? Yeah? Nice?
Speaker 1: People looked at me now they go, God, Rudy, you
Speaker 1: are local. Sometimes they even talked to each other, Alexander,
Speaker 1: do you live in Big thir two? No, I don't.
Speaker 1: I live in Santa Barbara. Actually, Santa Barbara is beautiful.
Speaker 1: Yesterday I put out a prayer because I knew I
Speaker 1: was gonna go jan thing today. Yeah, what about you? Nice? Yeah?
Speaker 1: New York seems really inspiring. Three different people over the
Speaker 1: day brought me jee like. One guy gave me one,
Speaker 1: one guy gave me two, and then the other guy
Speaker 1: gave me like. I don't think I would survive there intense.
Speaker 1: As I sat into penthe I thought out of a
Speaker 1: passage I'd read in Miller's memoirs earlier that day. Surely
Speaker 1: everyone realizes, at some point along the way that he's
Speaker 1: capable of living a far better life than the one
Speaker 1: he has chosen. Those words stirred up an old feeling
Speaker 1: deep inside of me. Before COVID, I had a raging
Speaker 1: case of wanderlust. I spent years thinking there was a
Speaker 1: better life somewhere else, if only I could find it.
Speaker 1: But the fourth stillness of the early pandemic seemed to
Speaker 1: inoculate me from the need to rome. I began to
Speaker 1: enjoy the quieter pleasures of domestic life, the burble of
Speaker 1: a stovetop espresso maker, reading on a couch with my
Speaker 1: partner's legs in my lap, a day on a park
Speaker 1: bench instead of a day or airplane. But here in
Speaker 1: the penthe I was getting a sort of contact high
Speaker 1: from past memories of when I was more footloose and
Speaker 1: fun seeking. I mean, if you want to get drunk
Speaker 1: or smoked ope and get high, you come to big Shirt.
Speaker 1: And I have to admit, that's been a big shirt
Speaker 1: for the weekend. Okay, that's good with me. I did
Speaker 1: feel pretty good. Something's never changed. John was enjoying himself too.
Speaker 1: But this is great. I mean, look at that fucking sunset.
Speaker 1: Man his dad brain on pause, if only for a
Speaker 1: brief moment. Living on the East Coast, he's seeing the
Speaker 1: world closed for the day on the West coast once
Speaker 1: in a while, like I think, kind of it's grounding
Speaker 1: another beautiful day. Yeah, those red woods. If we get
Speaker 1: out for a walk on the glade side, A walk,
Speaker 1: a hike on the glade side. Those trees are just
Speaker 1: I don't know what they are, but they're they're such
Speaker 1: a presence. After a good night's sleep, our bodies felt refreshed,
Speaker 1: and it was time to tend to our spirits. Now.
Speaker 1: I don't necessarily believe in the New Age spirituality that's
Speaker 1: as plentiful here as sunshine and poppy flowers. But I
Speaker 1: would be remiss if I came through Big Sir without
Speaker 1: checking in on the neu veaux hippie scene you see
Speaker 1: at Big Presence Here is the Esslin Institute, a kind
Speaker 1: of bougie New Age resort founded in the sixties that
Speaker 1: involves a lot of bodywork and hot springs. But John
Speaker 1: and I weren't going there. Nope. I like John, but
Speaker 1: not enough to spend nine hundred dollars to hang out
Speaker 1: with him in a towel eating macrobotic food. Instead, we
Speaker 1: were heading for some bespoke spiritual maintenance. So we're going
Speaker 1: up this hill brandcho Rico. If forgot sound healing session.
Speaker 1: It's a little bit mysterious, the healing part. If even
Speaker 1: if this had been called a sound bath, I would
Speaker 1: have done it, but it happens to be called a
Speaker 1: sound healing session, right, and I'm sure I could figure
Speaker 1: something that needs to be healed. Paused on that and
Speaker 1: just like look to the right, like maybe don't drive
Speaker 1: a Ship's just beautiful, beautiful hills and their mountains right
Speaker 1: are these mountains mountain the mountains, they're Satia mountains. Hills
Speaker 1: is not doesn't do it? And this is again one
Speaker 1: of those roads I would appreciate you in a little slower.
Speaker 1: I'm afraid of heights and the fact there's no guardrail
Speaker 1: to our right. It makes me feel a little bit nauseous.
Speaker 1: What do you need to heal today? We'll just the
Speaker 1: nausea from the drive up your driveway, I know, and
Speaker 1: you're gonna lose all the things you gain when the
Speaker 1: drive down away. I think left, but but that doesn't
Speaker 1: look safe. Doesn't proceed about a mile and that the
Speaker 1: three way forks stayed in the far right. This feels
Speaker 1: like it's not the three way fork. That doesn't even
Speaker 1: look like it's drive. We want to drive on it,
Speaker 1: like I think this is yeah, followed this right? I
Speaker 1: mean this looks like a road, right, That's what I think.
Speaker 1: All right, I guess we got to just choose pick one, right,
Speaker 1: I mean hashtag not going there half while cattle grade,
Speaker 1: that's the cattle gray big Sir, fiddle camp. That's the
Speaker 1: worst that could happen. We end up like in a
Speaker 1: field of kids practicing fiddles. Well, I need to go here,
Speaker 1: but I need to do a k term without falling
Speaker 1: off that cliff. Yeah, I don't do that. You want
Speaker 1: me to get out of the car first. That was
Speaker 1: a journey. Sorry, we're late. Really, this is such a
Speaker 1: beautiful little place in the way you're in the Shangari
Speaker 1: Lana devil Mine is the owner of Sacred Sound and Wonder,
Speaker 1: where she does sound healing sessions and sells crystal singing bowls.
Speaker 1: Her home. She calls it the Starbarn is on a
Speaker 1: huge ranch, and if John weren't feeling woozy from the drive,
Speaker 1: he could look out and see a stunning view of
Speaker 1: the ocean raging one hundred feet below us. I should say,
Speaker 1: we're now peeking out of the ocean, which is just
Speaker 1: on the other side here of sunrise sunset. It's kind
Speaker 1: of the place to be foot So where are we?
Speaker 1: What is ramcho Rico, which is my dear friend's family ranch.
Speaker 1: How long have you been up in Rancho Rico? A
Speaker 1: little over nine years now. Yeah, And I started off
Speaker 1: living in a small cabin with a murphy bed, and
Speaker 1: then I moved to an old renovated wine barrel. Did
Speaker 1: you say renovated wine barrel? That's like van life, but
Speaker 1: Diagnet doesn't move with the ocean views. That's square footage
Speaker 1: than a New York apartment. Deva has long brown hair,
Speaker 1: blue eyes, skinny jeans that flare at the bottom, and
Speaker 1: the easy manner of someone who has nama stayed her
Speaker 1: way around a yoga mat once or twice. Every culture
Speaker 1: has some form of sound that they use in their healing.
Speaker 1: Just shamanstrum rattles are another one that are really odd.
Speaker 1: She gives us a sonic tour of her audio healing tool. Kid.
Speaker 1: This one is called a sharkunak from Russia. And this
Speaker 1: one's from the most recent ones that I got. Are
Speaker 1: the Egyptian systems that won't feel so satisfying. I don't
Speaker 1: know the same. That's like my favorite so far. There's
Speaker 1: something about the tone of it. And today we're going
Speaker 1: to You're going to deploy bowls, so if you guys
Speaker 1: are ready, We're ready. So here's my question before we
Speaker 1: begin this journey. Do are we supposed to think about
Speaker 1: what we need here? Like? What? How are we supposed to? Yeah?
Speaker 1: It helps because intention is everything. Right, just to name
Speaker 1: what is an area that you're seeking harmony in your life?
Speaker 1: Over the course of COVID, I feel like I've become
Speaker 1: normal and it's been pleasant and some ways, and I'm
Speaker 1: not completely chafing against it, but coming out to big Sir,
Speaker 1: I'm remembering the kind of more adventurous, the wonderlust, the
Speaker 1: kind of more roaming free character I was previous. And
Speaker 1: I just want to make sure I calibrate properly so
Speaker 1: I don't find myself too much one or too much
Speaker 1: the other. All right, If I give you one that's
Speaker 1: like an opposite flavor, is it going to muddy the
Speaker 1: sound healing? You know what I mean? Like? No, they're
Speaker 1: kind of like adaptogens that okay, they'll work towards your
Speaker 1: individual constitution. I think probably my top line anxiety right
Speaker 1: now is just like pure mortality, fear of death. I
Speaker 1: was like never afraid of death until after I had kids,
Speaker 1: So that's just like I think about death way more
Speaker 1: than I ever have in my life. Is that why
Speaker 1: you had a salad for lunch? Yeah? Right, Yeah, that's
Speaker 1: a really big one for people right now. Is facing
Speaker 1: our mortality. Well, if you could just solve all those things,
Speaker 1: we could get thanks. Let's you know, we'll dive in
Speaker 1: and see where it takes you. Well, go ahead, and
Speaker 1: I'm going to invite you to take three nice long, deep,
Speaker 1: slow belly breasts inhaling deep into your belly and as
Speaker 1: you exhale, letting out a side or a sound, releasing
Speaker 1: your jaw. Maybe rock your head just a little side
Speaker 1: to side, and again, nice deep, full belly breaths, bringing
Speaker 1: through great clarity balance being a little too hot, inner
Speaker 1: peace and tranquility, Bay by day, hour by hour, mom,
Speaker 1: by mom, and by mom, and by mom and my
Speaker 1: mom and my mom, and in beauty we begin again
Speaker 1: and it want to become right, Yeah, those beautiful place
Speaker 1: I can think, so may be and so it is
Speaker 1: God Mother, god Father, gond of Iceberg already where to
Speaker 1: just feel the basically, I love all these purples and people.
Speaker 1: Whereas it's like it's quiter sameles s tranquil. You want
Speaker 1: to get drunk or Spain. How you come to big
Speaker 1: sixty fast time? What is it? Ja? Yeah? Redwood trees,
Speaker 1: a pure mind. I see this beautiful young woman in
Speaker 1: the endless joy he be and I said, how did
Speaker 1: you get here? Here? Is this one be et faboush free?
Speaker 1: This one girl? Eighteen eighty five? I am can you
Speaker 1: tell me that word again? Like why they come back
Speaker 1: to the same place? And Philip Patrick Patrick both didn't
Speaker 1: you find bashi below or something? Every year? And knows
Speaker 1: where to go? So we had plans. I'm gonna go
Speaker 1: put my feet in the water. Well that rabbit tisted
Speaker 1: to take mountain night studio beaches avoid for reces, must
Speaker 1: go back to a t the giant prize, screeching sirens
Speaker 1: and back home in New York seems really inspired. That's
Speaker 1: not an uncommon thing in New York to go drawn
Speaker 1: to it. Now you're a New Yorker, I mean, there's
Speaker 1: no doubt about it as a city that fits you. Well.
Speaker 1: Are you too busy to say? Hi? Black coffee for Chelsea? Okay?
Speaker 1: The wind is he at fifty fifty? Do you go
Speaker 1: to those natural places to recharge and come back? What
Speaker 1: are we going in our house that's got a big
Speaker 1: share for the weekend. Okay, that's good for me. For me,
Speaker 1: while in Big Sir, I communed with nature, vibrated away
Speaker 1: some city grime, and marveled once again at this area's
Speaker 1: utopic vistas. I I also realized that traveling feels different
Speaker 1: from me now. The pandemic forced me to stay in
Speaker 1: one place, and during that time I began to lay
Speaker 1: down some roots. I still find roaming around exhilarating and
Speaker 1: mind expanding, but I no longer see it as a
Speaker 1: trial subscription to living in a new place. So instead
Speaker 1: of going back to New York, now that my trip
Speaker 1: is over, I'm returning home. So that's rapid tested to beaches.
Speaker 1: Flood rush is oh myself, it's not. Oh but first
Speaker 1: So John, I don't know if you can understand. You
Speaker 1: had one more stop to make. How excited for two
Speaker 1: miles to be entering Pascadero. Remember I told you about
Speaker 1: this little roadhouse pretty much because du Art's tavern. This
Speaker 1: place's got a good look. Oh it's got that like
Speaker 1: sort of old L shaped spot tavern sign on the
Speaker 1: first car. Look at these people already line it up.
Speaker 1: It doesn't know until noon. Do you think these people
Speaker 1: are here for the soup. They're here for the soup.
Speaker 1: You look at those people, Look at old They are
Speaker 1: gonna tell you guys about this soup. So can I
Speaker 1: get the soup? And do you still don you do
Speaker 1: half and a half? Yeah? Yeah, thank you. I'm gonna
Speaker 1: do the exact same thing. That's the right move. Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 1: See how it's in the middle it's like light green,
Speaker 1: and then in the middle it looks like a little
Speaker 1: bit of Florida lee. All right, all right, that's the
Speaker 1: heat art choke on the outside, Thank you very much.
Speaker 1: You gotta get a little bit of both in this boon. God,
Speaker 1: this has been a long time coming. Man, you have
Speaker 1: no idea. All right, it's a good, sue, Oh fuck
Speaker 1: you good? That's good sounds. The lead producer on this
Speaker 1: episode of Not Lost was the brilliant Bart Warshaw, who
Speaker 1: also sound designed to mix the episode like what I say,
Speaker 1: it's good, sue, Like that wasn't me? A good is
Speaker 1: not a lesser adjective than great, it is said. The
Speaker 1: show was also produced and written by me Brendan Francis Newnham.
Speaker 1: Our associate producer was the wonderful Amy Gaines. Editorial guidance
Speaker 1: was provided by Julia Barton. Production assistance on this episode
Speaker 1: also came from the unflappable Jacob Smith. Literally, but this
Speaker 1: is the big Thanks to my friend and this episode's
Speaker 1: travel partner, John Delore, I can say this. I could
Speaker 1: say it's great soon you know argue that is good too.
Speaker 1: If you'd like to hear one of our earlier collaborations,
Speaker 1: head to the Parish of You podcast. If you check
Speaker 1: out season one, you will get a sense of his
Speaker 1: sound design brilliance. Or you could say he's son of
Speaker 1: a bitch. You were so right. I underestimated you. His
Speaker 1: studo Slafe changing but not lost. As a co production
Speaker 1: of Pushkin Industries, Topic Studios and iHeartMedia, was developed at
Speaker 1: Topic Studios. The show's executive producers are me Christy Gressman,
Speaker 1: Maria Zuckerman, Lisa Lyne Gang and Lata mullad. Our theme
Speaker 1: song was created by Alexis Georgiopolis aka ARP. He has
Speaker 1: a new album coming out this July on Mexican Summer.
Speaker 1: It's called New Pleasures. There's a single out now, be
Speaker 1: sure to check it out. I've never had anything like it.
Speaker 1: It's become CREAMA artichoke is like a mushroomy hug, but
Speaker 1: then it's gotten this, like this little vinegary like little
Speaker 1: sass mushroom. And a special thanks to everyone in Big
Speaker 1: sur who made us feel at home while we were
Speaker 1: away from home. Jake Badour, Arena Favilla and the Coastal
Speaker 1: Lab at the UC Santa Cruz Deva Mune, my friend
Speaker 1: Magnus torn at the Henry Miller Library, and of course
Speaker 1: do Art's Tavern for making great soup. Thank you. It's
Speaker 1: a thing, people, please check it out. Plus a special
Speaker 1: thanks goes out to eighteen eighty five, who at this
Speaker 1: point has returned to See to attend her epic dinner
Speaker 1: party for one. Good luck out there. If you want
Speaker 1: to see some pictures or learn something about our guests,
Speaker 1: you can head to not Lawshow dot com. And if
Speaker 1: you're still listening to this, you've either fallen asleep or
Speaker 1: you really like it. And if it's the latter, do
Speaker 1: us a favor. Head to Apple Podcast and Radium View.
Speaker 1: It does seem like a silly thing, but it's actually
Speaker 1: an important thing. It helps us stay on the charts,
Speaker 1: and also I get to peak at them every once
Speaker 1: in a while and see what you guys think so,
Speaker 1: I'd really appreciate it. And after that, if you still
Speaker 1: want more information, you can learn more about Topic Studios
Speaker 1: at topic studios dot com and to find more Pushkin
Speaker 1: podcast And there's a lot of great podcasts happening over here.
Speaker 1: Listen on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you
Speaker 1: listen to podcasts. I'm Brendan Francis, Newnham. Until next time,
Speaker 1: bon voyage. I could have a good life from Bascadero.
Speaker 1: You could have a great life Pascadero