Speaker 1: And I invited you here. I thought I made myself
Speaker 1: perfectly clear. But you're a guest to my home. You
Speaker 1: gotta come to me empty And I said, no guests,
Speaker 1: you're our presences presents enough. I already had too much stuff,
Speaker 1: So how did you dare to surbey me?
Speaker 2: Welcome to I said, no gifts. I'm Brigard wineger Ah.
Speaker 2: We're in the studio. We were supposed to be in
Speaker 2: the backyard, but Annalist got in touch and mentioned something
Speaker 2: about flash flooding and the rain, and it is raining.
Speaker 2: I don't know about the flash flooding. I don't know
Speaker 2: if this is something on at least cooked up just
Speaker 2: to spend more time in burbank, as they love to do.
Speaker 2: But we're here in the studio. I drove over using
Speaker 2: surface streets. I took off highways on Google Maps, and
Speaker 2: it took twice as long. It simply took thirty five
Speaker 2: minutes compared to seventeen. I drove through ten miles of
Speaker 2: Los Angeles neighborhoods and it felt incredible. I'm here safe,
Speaker 2: our guest is safe, We're all safe. For now. It's
Speaker 2: an absolute. I mean, it's just a The storm outside
Speaker 2: is historic I think we should get into the podcast
Speaker 2: because I love today's guest. It's George Severis. George, welcome
Speaker 2: to I said.
Speaker 3: No guests. Hello, it is an honor to be here.
Speaker 3: You're the first person I'm speaking to today.
Speaker 2: What time did you wake up?
Speaker 3: I woke up like at a normal time, Like maybe,
Speaker 3: but I'm in an airbnb by myself. Actually I did
Speaker 3: speak to the person that I ordered coffee from, Okay,
Speaker 3: and I went up to him. Right after a woman
Speaker 3: that went up to this is just a normal coffee shop.
Speaker 3: And she went up and she goes, do you guys
Speaker 3: have just like water? And I just thought it was
Speaker 3: like such a beautiful Los Angeles statement, like do.
Speaker 2: We know if she was thinking of like she wanted
Speaker 2: a cup of water, she wanted a bottle of water.
Speaker 3: I think she ended up getting a cup, but it
Speaker 3: just was really such a like there's we've become so
Speaker 3: complex in our specialty drink orders that it's now gotten.
Speaker 3: It's like horseshoe theory, where it's now actually the most
Speaker 3: insane thing you can order is just a glass of water.
Speaker 2: Is the base of everything.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's like how I you know, I get dairy
Speaker 3: milk with my coffee.
Speaker 2: Sorry, oh boy, we can get it to that too.
Speaker 3: And so, but there was a time. You know, now
Speaker 3: that Trump is back in office, dairy milk is legal again.
Speaker 3: But there was a time when you actually had to
Speaker 3: like ask if they that was even off or places right.
Speaker 3: So I had to become the girl that's like, do
Speaker 3: you guys have just like cow Milton, what is your order?
Speaker 2: My order?
Speaker 3: Actually, I'm now just drip coffee hole, which is the
Speaker 3: most basic. It's like borderline Republican. It's like diner. I'm
Speaker 3: like just an all American cup of coffee.
Speaker 2: I don't feel like that is borderline republic And I
Speaker 2: feel like, you know, going super extreme if you have
Speaker 2: like more than four words in your order, I think
Speaker 2: you're starting to you're closing in on conservative territory.
Speaker 3: Sure, I mean I think it's tough because basically what
Speaker 3: I have slowly realized in the same way that like
Speaker 3: skinny jeans went from being gay to being straight or
Speaker 3: whatever like to being oliver truly like Republicans. Yes, everything
Speaker 3: that used to be a sign of like hippie dep by,
Speaker 3: you know, like New Mexico liberal or whatever is now
Speaker 3: is now like rfk coded it's the weird.
Speaker 2: Yeah, like spirituality, Chiro, pract everything has just become a
Speaker 2: complete muddy mess exactly. It's impossible to tell what anyone
Speaker 2: is at this point, and so it's strange.
Speaker 3: I was thinking about that. Sorry, I promise I'm not
Speaker 3: someone to talk about politics as much. I keep politics.
Speaker 3: I'm actually gonna stop.
Speaker 2: This to pod save America.
Speaker 3: This is the last thing I would say. But when
Speaker 3: Tim Walls, remember him, when Tim Walls this thing was like,
Speaker 3: they're weird, We're normal. I was like, this feels like
Speaker 3: a real shift, like sour thing. Our thing as the
Speaker 3: Left is that we're normal. That's like that is our
Speaker 3: official talking point. That cannot end. Well, and honey, you
Speaker 3: did it.
Speaker 2: It s imp they didn't, but it's kind of true
Speaker 2: at this point. Yeah, at least, or maybe we're just boring. Yeah,
Speaker 2: maybe that's the word.
Speaker 3: We should be doing, which again can't be the messaging.
Speaker 2: As boring. I think that the what should have the
Speaker 2: word he should have been using is pervert. Yeah, we
Speaker 2: should have been labeling them pervert. That's kind of what
Speaker 2: weird was code for.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and then you're sort of claim I mean, it's
Speaker 3: tough because obviously the stereotype is like gay people are
Speaker 3: perverts and now and now we're like no longer perverse,
Speaker 3: no longer perverts.
Speaker 2: I'm a pervert.
Speaker 3: Well, same, And that's the thing. It's like, how much
Speaker 3: ground are you willing to seed right to like prove
Speaker 3: that we're normal?
Speaker 2: Yeah, And I what, I don't know that there's even
Speaker 2: a model of normal at this time. I think it's
Speaker 2: just literally it comes down to minding your own business,
Speaker 2: which I've always been very good at. Yeah, except for
Speaker 2: I'm also extremely nosy and a giant gossip I know.
Speaker 3: How do you feel about the like reclamation of gossip
Speaker 3: as like no longer bad? Like, don't you think there's
Speaker 3: like this thing It started with people being like gossip
Speaker 3: is feminist because it's like whisper networks, the truth be
Speaker 3: told and the truth is being.
Speaker 2: Just getting out somehow.
Speaker 3: And I feel like then that became almost like cliche
Speaker 3: And now I don't know where we stand with gossip.
Speaker 2: Well, it's weird with gossip because I think there was
Speaker 2: this giant drought of it during COVID when we were
Speaker 2: so separate from each other totally. We were whenever I
Speaker 2: would have a friend come over to the house, it
Speaker 2: was like news of the world. You were just desperate
Speaker 2: to hear anything about any other person, and it felt
Speaker 2: it was so electrifying. Yeah, and now it does it
Speaker 2: just feels like it's almost entirely conversation. It's like there's
Speaker 2: nothing else to talk about. I think it's also because
Speaker 2: still nobody's ever working. We're never in an office with
Speaker 2: each other. Yes, so like what used to be like
Speaker 2: this spicy thing during the day is now you're still
Speaker 2: kind of desperate to hear it, and it's almost always
Speaker 2: I mean, it doesn't make you a better person than.
Speaker 3: You, No, no, it does it.
Speaker 2: I loved I still love to hear it.
Speaker 3: It's better than small.
Speaker 2: Talk, yes, but it almost is just essentially Yeah, but
Speaker 2: that's kind of all anyone wants to hear anymore. Have
Speaker 2: you heard any gossip?
Speaker 3: I know, you know, for a while before where it
Speaker 3: became public, I had heard about the Barack Obama Jennifer
Speaker 3: Andison rumor, and I really was like every time people
Speaker 3: will be like, do you have GUSSA, I'd be like,
Speaker 3: boy do I like for months and now I can
Speaker 3: no longer have that as And then people were like
Speaker 3: do you believe it? And I'm like, it's not about
Speaker 3: that for me, Like.
Speaker 2: Well that that and that rumor has also taken on
Speaker 2: new life in other categories which I feel like we
Speaker 2: can't even talk about the cat and they're not again.
Speaker 2: This is also goes back to minding your own business
Speaker 2: sort of thing where it's like if I had heard,
Speaker 2: if I just knew Barack and knew Jennifer Andison as
Speaker 2: people who were not public figures.
Speaker 3: You would love them. You would love Barrock.
Speaker 2: They dropped you off at the suiting, Yeah, yeah, No.
Speaker 3: Jen always is driving me around.
Speaker 2: She was the person asking about water this morning.
Speaker 3: She's it's her guest room. I'm staying at my Airbnb
Speaker 3: that I was talking about. She actually needs some extra
Speaker 3: income and she's been renting out her guest room. She's
Speaker 3: in this two bedroom. She has a housemate and it's
Speaker 3: just them and the dogs, and it's always nice to
Speaker 3: be there, you know, she and she always has whole
Speaker 3: milk for me.
Speaker 2: It's tough times in home. Yeah, yeah, But it is
Speaker 2: one of those things where I like, if they weren't
Speaker 2: public figures, I'd be like, yeah, they're in an opener,
Speaker 2: somebody's in an open relationship. I don't care it sounds
Speaker 2: like they're having a wonderful time. They're both great looking people.
Speaker 2: But it what I think, celebrity gossip is also also
Speaker 2: kind of boring to me. I agree, because it's I
Speaker 2: don't care, it has no effect on me whatsoever. I
Speaker 2: might as well be talking about fictional characters.
Speaker 3: Here's a question for you. Do you care more about
Speaker 3: gossip that's like cheating, interpersonal marriages, or gossip that's more
Speaker 3: like professional This person, like you know, got a book
Speaker 3: deal but didn't submit a draft like that kind of thing.
Speaker 2: That's I'm more interested in professional and they're just generally
Speaker 2: a bad person behavior.
Speaker 3: I agree, And I actually think that is the more
Speaker 3: moral type of gossip.
Speaker 2: Absolutely because I do it.
Speaker 3: Yes and well of course. But then also the other
Speaker 3: type of GUYSIP took care to think cheating and open
Speaker 3: and like non monogamy as scandals, you actually have to
Speaker 3: have conservative family value.
Speaker 2: You have to essentially have the brain of a child exactly.
Speaker 2: It's like you just don't understand that relationships are complicated.
Speaker 2: Everything is complicated in that way, yes, whereas the other
Speaker 2: sort of gossip, it's like if you're a if you're
Speaker 2: acting like a shithead it's pretty cut and dry. You're
Speaker 2: just being a bad person and I love to talk
Speaker 2: about it. Or if you're like, see now there is
Speaker 2: so much gossip. I would love to talk to you
Speaker 2: right now. There are like certain specific things I've heard
Speaker 2: about recently.
Speaker 3: We just excuse. I recently heard someone who wrote a
Speaker 3: terrible book got six hundred thousand dollars advance on it.
Speaker 3: And I've been telling you everyone I know.
Speaker 2: Oh, can you say there any when we could beep it?
Speaker 2: Or is this just something we can talk about after
Speaker 2: the podcast?
Speaker 3: You know? I wonder if it's someone you would know.
Speaker 3: It is actually a fellow podcaster, but not a fellow comedian,
Speaker 3: so it's not someone in our immediate community. But I
Speaker 3: am sure, Okay, can I say that we'll beep it?
Speaker 2: I mean, on Sam, your co host, it's some tag famously,
Speaker 2: his is the only episode of the show we've beeped
Speaker 2: another name. Really, we might as well have it be match.
Speaker 3: Okay, Yes, let's keep it.
Speaker 2: It's interesting. Oh what a shame.
Speaker 3: It would be iconic if then you just didn't beep it.
Speaker 3: And then and then I this random person that I
Speaker 3: literally never met my life, was like furious at me.
Speaker 3: Because I A said their book was terrible. That wasn't
Speaker 3: some sort of pronoun joke. By the way, I'm just
Speaker 3: like wanting to uh.
Speaker 2: Yes, yes, of course, and will analyse will tastefully this
Speaker 2: make it exactly what it is.
Speaker 3: You know, it's funny. Okay, Actually, now I'm gonna stop
Speaker 3: talking about it because if I keep talking about it,
Speaker 3: then we have to keep beeping it. The point is
Speaker 3: one of my favorite types of gossip, which is also
Speaker 3: I feel like a very New York kind of gossip
Speaker 3: is gossiping about specific number like what people got paid
Speaker 3: for their book deals of course, for books that like
Speaker 3: ultimately no one will read, like no one reads.
Speaker 2: Books unless it is that the thing that became the
Speaker 2: Blake Lively movie.
Speaker 3: Yes, well, of course yes. And fiction is different because
Speaker 3: it can be optioned.
Speaker 2: Right, I mean, it's almost built to be optioned. Fiction
Speaker 2: is sort of basically like a pitch document. Truly.
Speaker 3: It's crazy sometimes because I will, even though I know
Speaker 3: new novels are mostly bad, I do fall for the
Speaker 3: marketing campaigns and I'll read them and I'm like, this
Speaker 3: is at a second grade reading level, and it's like, right,
Speaker 3: it's made for Ryan Murphy.
Speaker 2: But it's made to be easy, so people will read.
Speaker 3: It, yes, and so specifically Hollywood people will read it.
Speaker 2: Yeah. I fall for it for that reason, and because
Speaker 2: I'm like, well, everyone else is reading it, so I
Speaker 2: need to know what's going on. I know, And then
Speaker 2: it's just this massive waste of time and I'm mad.
Speaker 2: The biggest example of this and I can't. I mean,
Speaker 2: I only read probably ten pages before being like, wait, oh,
Speaker 2: I know what's going on. Was there was like a
Speaker 2: big New York Times thing about the fireflies or what
Speaker 2: was that thing that was that horrible? I mean, it's
Speaker 2: truly a bad piece of literature that became.
Speaker 3: Oh, I know what you're talking about. Is it the wait?
Speaker 3: Is it the one that.
Speaker 2: What's it called set in a swamp or something?
Speaker 3: Hmmm, the Fireflies of Swamp.
Speaker 2: I remember. It was just like huge thing about it
Speaker 2: becoming like a runaway bestseller, and I was so curious
Speaker 2: and I started reading. I was like, oh, yeah, it's
Speaker 2: because most people stopped literally stopped reading books in eighth grade. Yes,
Speaker 2: and God bless, but that like that's all they're capable of,
Speaker 2: and so the big books become these things that are
Speaker 2: written for young adults.
Speaker 3: I actually feel so alienated from it because I was
Speaker 3: about to say the sentence I think of myself as
Speaker 3: a reader, Please bleep that.
Speaker 2: But like whatever Brook the book where the Crawdads, that's
Speaker 2: the one I was, okay, where the close fireflies in
Speaker 2: the swamp, where the thank you?
Speaker 3: Yeah? What is it?
Speaker 2: Where the crowd dancing? Right?
Speaker 3: And they made a movie out of that with It's
Speaker 3: like not Blake Live, but it might as well have been.
Speaker 2: The person from Big Little Lies?
Speaker 3: Was that?
Speaker 2: What's her name, Shyleen shale Lean.
Speaker 3: Yes, by the way, Shalleen very good on stage? I
Speaker 3: saw her on stage and she was very good.
Speaker 2: What was she doing on stage?
Speaker 3: She's in the She was on Broadway right now on
Speaker 3: a show called Cult of Love, a written by Leslie
Speaker 3: Headlind And it actually I just read is being made
Speaker 3: into a film.
Speaker 2: Okay, And again another thing that's kind of a it's
Speaker 2: like here's a proof of concept and we make it
Speaker 2: on TV or film.
Speaker 3: Yeah okay, so wait, you were talking about something before
Speaker 3: as whatever we.
Speaker 2: Were talking about gossip?
Speaker 3: Oh, no, books I feel alienated by Like when I
Speaker 3: look at what is selling well, like it's romanticy is
Speaker 3: the big oh?
Speaker 2: Yes?
Speaker 3: So Romanticy is huge. I don't even know a single title,
Speaker 3: but that's like what everyone's reading.
Speaker 2: But you can almost like the second you see a
Speaker 2: title of a book, you're like, oh, that's that must
Speaker 2: be romanticy.
Speaker 3: Yes, And of course the woman who wrote Blake Lively movie.
Speaker 2: Yes, Colleen Hoover, Colleen Hoover, Colleen, Colleen.
Speaker 3: Colleen, Colleen. I would actually love to be named Colleen
Speaker 3: and be like it's actually pronounced.
Speaker 2: Yeah. I think there's like there will rare just very
Speaker 2: occasionally be a book that breaks through. That's like Sylie
Speaker 2: Rooney's Yeah, like Sally Rooney. But other than that, And again,
Speaker 2: Sally Rudey is an interesting one because her I think
Speaker 2: her writing is I really love her writing her novels,
Speaker 2: but it's also very clean, pros and easy, not in
Speaker 2: a bad way, but like it's not well. Her latest
Speaker 2: is probably difficult for people to read. There's a little bit.
Speaker 3: Really, it's the only one I haven't.
Speaker 2: Read almost stream of consciousness or like you're in different
Speaker 2: people's heads at different times. So it's probably her most
Speaker 2: challenging for the general reader. Yeah, but she's one of
Speaker 2: the few that can actually break through.
Speaker 3: I know it's like, and it's sort of the best
Speaker 3: we can hope for. I actually really don't like it
Speaker 3: when people will shit on Sally Rooney because I'm like,
Speaker 3: do you understand how she's the only one we have?
Speaker 2: I know, true, we have got to support this.
Speaker 3: There is one smart woman writing books that are being read.
Speaker 3: There are many smart women writing books, but only one
Speaker 3: is being read. And like, at the end of the day,
Speaker 3: like they are good.
Speaker 2: Yes, and she's writing to her own intelligence level in
Speaker 2: saying the things that she wants to say.
Speaker 3: Same thing she wants to say, not like appealing to
Speaker 3: some like Yes, her books have become series in films
Speaker 3: and whatever, right, but I think she's challenging herself with
Speaker 3: each one.
Speaker 2: Yes, And I mean I think it also helps that
Speaker 2: they're sexy.
Speaker 3: Yes, they are.
Speaker 2: Almost everyone has something that's relatively sexy that you get
Speaker 2: to picture, like an Irish hunk, totally, and I think
Speaker 2: that helps in some way. I agree this latest one
Speaker 2: has two irishmen, so hopefully that will help.
Speaker 3: I have to say Chess is challenging for me, Oh sure, sure,
Speaker 3: because it makes me feel dumb, Yeah, of course, which
Speaker 3: is also how about cross for puzzles?
Speaker 2: Oh? Interesting? Many crossword, but I refuse to do a
Speaker 2: big crossword.
Speaker 3: So my husband is one of those people that like
Speaker 3: has been doing it for decades and like prides himself
Speaker 3: in his on his time right record or whatever, and
Speaker 3: like every morning, like in bed, he does it in
Speaker 3: six minutes.
Speaker 2: Wow, that's amazing.
Speaker 3: And when we were first dating, I was like, I'm
Speaker 3: going to try to impress him by starting to do
Speaker 3: it myself.
Speaker 2: And I was so bad at it it actually.
Speaker 3: Made me resent him. I was like, I don't why
Speaker 3: this first makes me feel bad.
Speaker 2: But the thing about crosswords, the big secret, is that
Speaker 2: it is a puzzle that you learn how to do,
Speaker 2: which uh and no, nothing about your husband totally, but
Speaker 2: it's not entirely about intentionally.
Speaker 3: He's a complete idiot. He's just literally like pressing buttons
Speaker 3: like a monk.
Speaker 2: Barely function. He just figured out how to do this
Speaker 2: one thing.
Speaker 3: No, I mean, that's also what he says. But then
Speaker 3: I'm like, okay, but then even that shows the level
Speaker 3: of commitment.
Speaker 2: My problem same. I refuse to commit to anything that's difficult,
Speaker 2: take any level of time.
Speaker 3: No, I feel the same way, and I actually don't
Speaker 3: know how to fix that. And that's why I'm here.
Speaker 2: Do you play connections I have.
Speaker 3: I definitely am more into something like that than the
Speaker 3: crossroad I do, like I went through a world affairs
Speaker 3: like everyone else. I do spelling the occasionally, and I
Speaker 3: can get into that kind of thing, but I've never been. Okay,
Speaker 3: let me know if you if this like resonates, there's
Speaker 3: a type of gay guy that's like it's like word games, trivia.
Speaker 3: Like I used to be part of this thing called
Speaker 3: Learned League, which is like a trivia league. Do you
Speaker 3: know anyone who doesn't know it's It's one of these
Speaker 3: like kind of nerdy trivia things. And then you find
Speaker 3: out this person you thought was normal is randomly amazing
Speaker 3: at trivia. And I tried doing I would always be
Speaker 3: like in the bottom like fifth of all rankings, And
Speaker 3: I was like, this is just making me feel bad
Speaker 3: about myself. Of course, But then I've been reading have
Speaker 3: you ever read Amusing Ourselves to Death?
Speaker 2: Yes? Of course.
Speaker 3: Okay, So I've been reading it for the first time
Speaker 3: because I thought maybe it would make me feel sane
Speaker 3: or about like social media and stuff. It's not.
Speaker 2: I mean, it was written in the.
Speaker 3: Eighties, in the eighties, but it is still very lot
Speaker 3: of it's extremely rong. But one thing that he says,
Speaker 3: which I think is interesting, is that like television and
Speaker 3: you know, by extension, new media has made information into
Speaker 3: entertainment and that gave rise to like trivia culture and
Speaker 3: like trivial pursuit and things like that, because it's like
Speaker 3: you learn all these things, but you don't learn them
Speaker 3: in context, and you don't learn them as part of
Speaker 3: like a broader worldview. You just know little facts and
Speaker 3: all that prepares you for rather than being like an
Speaker 3: informed citizen is just like being good at trivia. And
Speaker 3: so that made me think, like, oh, so it's actually
Speaker 3: like flop to be good at trivia, Like so I'm
Speaker 3: I'm actually the smart one for reading, like for you know, reading,
Speaker 3: let's say like a couple of books where I learn
Speaker 3: about a topic in depth, but not having broad trivia knowledge.
Speaker 3: And people that know trivia are basically sorry, amusing themselves
Speaker 3: to death, pernial postman.
Speaker 2: They have there's nowhere for that information to go for them,
Speaker 2: Yeah they have. They have no actual skills. They're essentially
Speaker 2: worthless to society totally except for their kind of fun
Speaker 2: at parties or really annoying at bar trivia. Now, yes,
Speaker 2: I mean I will say well, I won't say that
Speaker 2: this for all people who are really good at trivia,
Speaker 2: but a lot of people I know who are good
Speaker 2: at trivia are largely deeply unpleasant people to be around.
Speaker 3: Well, it extends to other parts of their personality, yes,
Speaker 3: because it's like a it's a sort of you gotta
Speaker 3: be number one. Yeah, and it's very got to catch
Speaker 3: them all. But with like pieces of information, with everything,
Speaker 3: and I don't know, I used to think of myself,
Speaker 3: for example, as someone who like knew about the oscars
Speaker 3: and then you meet other gay guys and you're like,
Speaker 3: I'll get it, and christ like I just knew that,
Speaker 3: Like you know, Julia Boche won for the English patient.
Speaker 3: Wait no, wait, no, that is not Wait that's not
Speaker 3: like you're exposing both Scott Thomas. That's Christmas closer, it's
Speaker 3: Christmas Scott Thomas.
Speaker 2: But no, she must have won for something.
Speaker 3: She definitely has.
Speaker 2: She's I mean, she's maybe wow, this she was great.
Speaker 2: Do you actually know about the oscars? I know so
Speaker 2: little about the oscars. I mean I have a very
Speaker 2: hard time. For whatever reason, my brain cannot consume celebrity names. Sorry,
Speaker 2: English patient, English patient. What'd you say?
Speaker 3: Did I say English patient?
Speaker 2: I feel like you said you possibly said.
Speaker 3: I don't know. All right, go ahead, I'm actually we're
Speaker 3: beeping all of that.
Speaker 2: Go ahead, there's going to be a lot. It's going
Speaker 2: to sound like a flash flood warning to those large
Speaker 2: amber alert. I don't know anything about like, I have
Speaker 2: a very hard time holding celebrity names in my head
Speaker 2: or celebrity facts, even about celebodies I really love, And
Speaker 2: I don't understand why.
Speaker 3: I think that. It's like whatever I learned by the
Speaker 3: age of like, let's say, twenty seven, is really burned
Speaker 3: in there. Yes, I certainly can't learn about anything new. Ones.
Speaker 3: The other day, someone was trying to talk to me
Speaker 3: about Brianna chicken Fry. Do you know does that resonate
Speaker 3: with you? It is apparent. I can't even get into it.
Speaker 3: But it's apparently like a barstool sports podcaster who used
Speaker 3: to date a country musician and they've had drama that
Speaker 3: is like on the front page of every tabloid, and
Speaker 3: everyone somehow knows about her.
Speaker 2: Chicken Fry her real last name.
Speaker 3: It is not her real last name, but it's a
Speaker 3: name she like. I think maybe people. I called her
Speaker 3: that and then she like reclaimed it and now she's
Speaker 3: Brianna chicken Fry. I mean it is sort of an
Speaker 3: iconic name. I guess I would love to be named
Speaker 3: Brianna chicken Fry. Maybe I would be, like, you know,
Speaker 3: on every billboard if.
Speaker 2: That was, well, that's the name I'll be able to
Speaker 2: remember for the rest of my exactly because one of
Speaker 2: those things is not a name, right.
Speaker 4: Also, I just have just to make you feel better words.
Speaker 4: Kristen Scott Thomas and Juliet Banoses were both nominated for
Speaker 4: the English Patient. Juliet Binoche won. Oh, Scott Thomas was
Speaker 4: just nominated, so you werel I.
Speaker 3: Got to wow. So I'm basically, uh, Lewis Ertel, that's
Speaker 3: like my go to for someone who knows Lewis Bertell.
Speaker 2: I mean the mind is yeah, it's an absolute No,
Speaker 2: it's crazy, it's really wild what he's able to conjure. Yeah,
Speaker 2: it's unpleasant person, just one of the worst. No, Like
Speaker 2: I think, and going back to trivia a little bit,
Speaker 2: I think maybe you can relate to this as a
Speaker 2: gay person. Like growing up, you're probably during trivia games
Speaker 2: with friends, usually probably the best at it. Which probably
Speaker 2: inflates your ego in some way.
Speaker 4: Uh.
Speaker 2: And then you get out into the real gay world,
Speaker 2: and that's when you really get demolished. You come out
Speaker 2: being like, well, I know some pop culture trivia and
Speaker 2: a little bit that was decent enough in history.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean. So here's the thing though, my parents
Speaker 3: are both engineering pH ds, so that creates a different
Speaker 3: element to all of this, which is growing up I
Speaker 3: was and I'm the only one in my family who
Speaker 3: did not pursue the sciences. I was always like, you don't.
Speaker 3: It's like everyone else would know about you know, the
Speaker 3: details of mathematical like you know, the sort of like
Speaker 3: math and science part of trivial pursuit or whatever it's called, right,
Speaker 3: And I would be struggling. And my mom is like
Speaker 3: a huge history buff and like like has very encyclopedic
Speaker 3: knowledge of geography, and so she would like shame us
Speaker 3: for not knowing like country capitals and stuff. So actually,
Speaker 3: to your point, I grew up being very insecrat that
Speaker 3: I didn't know that stuff. And I'd be like, well,
Speaker 3: at least I know who won the oscar for the
Speaker 3: English patient. And then as soon as I graduated from
Speaker 3: being with my family to being with around gay people.
Speaker 3: I also felt insecure about not knowing enough about Juliet Pinoche.
Speaker 3: So I'm actually I've never felt so confident about trivia.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I just kind of I guess I tried to
Speaker 2: avoid it at this point, and we'll just be very
Speaker 2: quiet during Jeopardy until I know an answer. And then
Speaker 2: when even when I know an answer on Jeopardy, I
Speaker 2: don't really say it because then it's a parrot that
Speaker 2: I didn't know any of the other answers. Yes, I'm
Speaker 2: just not meant for that world. I don't know where
Speaker 2: I'm meant to be, and hopefully I'll find it some Jay.
Speaker 3: Same. I mean, we're running out of time.
Speaker 2: I'm rapidly.
Speaker 3: It's crazy.
Speaker 2: I feel like it's basically I basically am the person
Speaker 2: I'm going to be until I die, and I uh
Speaker 2: am I happy with it?
Speaker 3: Probably not right, I know. I go back and forth,
Speaker 3: like do you when you wake up? Like, are you
Speaker 3: like we're on a good track.
Speaker 2: Currently. Yeah, that's a very good question. I feel like
Speaker 2: we're in such a period of this. This is kind
Speaker 2: of a true answer of like what is going on anywhere?
Speaker 2: And it's hard to base where my life is in
Speaker 2: any respect.
Speaker 3: I agree, it's weirdly like A. It's almost like a
Speaker 3: death of all context or something. Yes, every move I
Speaker 3: make in every word I say exist in a vacuum.
Speaker 2: It means nothing.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it actually goes back to the weird versus normal thing.
Speaker 3: I'm like, what is normal?
Speaker 2: It's nothing, it's nothing, it's nothing. There's I don't even
Speaker 2: aspire to another person that I'm like all that person
Speaker 2: seems pretty normal.
Speaker 3: Okay, so two things. A exactly what you're saying. I
Speaker 3: don't aspire to anyone else's life or existence. Wait what
Speaker 3: was the second thing? I was gonna say? Fuck, damn, Okay,
Speaker 3: it's gonna come to me.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I feel like maybe the like outside of me.
Speaker 2: The two categories people fall into this point are either
Speaker 2: boring or psycho. Yeah, and so I'm well, I don't
Speaker 2: want to what am I supposed to do? And I'm
Speaker 2: certainly not going to become my own thing?
Speaker 3: I know.
Speaker 2: So what's the what's the third option here? Oh?
Speaker 3: I know what I was gonna say. So A, you
Speaker 3: can't aspire to anyone else's life and be there are
Speaker 3: no leaders that you like. There are no like moral
Speaker 3: or even like rhetorical leaders, like in the way that
Speaker 3: like it used to be that likeasically public intellections, like
Speaker 3: who am I looking? Okay, so all these crazy things
Speaker 3: are happening, Who am I looking to? Who's the gnome
Speaker 3: chum Ski? Yes?
Speaker 2: Who will bring some comfort in this situation?
Speaker 3: And like you know, when you watch old clips of
Speaker 3: like a Susan Sontag or something, You're like, oh, people
Speaker 3: would turn on the TV and just watch this, listen
Speaker 3: to the whole prime time And now we have Brown
Speaker 3: a chicken.
Speaker 2: Fry and the only reason we know about her is
Speaker 2: some other thing that she's not even yeah, like what
Speaker 2: what information am I supposed to derive from the chicken
Speaker 2: fry family?
Speaker 3: Totally? Yes, exactly, or even like at least you could
Speaker 3: be like, oh, we used to have like John. I mean,
Speaker 3: I know John Steard is still alive, but it's like
Speaker 3: times are different, Okay, I'm not actually being comforted. As
Speaker 3: much as I love and respect John Stewart, I'm not
Speaker 3: actually being comforted.
Speaker 2: He went away for a very long time and now
Speaker 2: he's come back, and I'm like, I don't even know
Speaker 2: what for. It's a pet cemetery situation where I'm like
Speaker 2: I don't even know. And also I don't I'm not
Speaker 2: going to watch a full episode of the Daily Show.
Speaker 2: What are we talking about? I'll see a random clip
Speaker 2: and uh, and then again going back to amusing ourselves
Speaker 2: to death. It's like, well, if I didn't know any
Speaker 2: of these people or any of the things are saying
Speaker 2: would have any effect on exactly what I'm doing right.
Speaker 3: Now, I'm so glad that amusing ourselves to death got
Speaker 3: like a big response from you, because it could have
Speaker 3: gone so in the other direction.
Speaker 2: I had to just like, so, I see some tissue
Speaker 2: boxes on here, what should we talk about this? It's no,
Speaker 2: it's a very good book. It's great, and there are
Speaker 2: a few kind of rusty things you've come across, but
Speaker 2: of course it's forty years old or something.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 3: I mean, it's very funny to remember which things people
Speaker 3: had moral panics about, like he loves on a chapter
Speaker 3: where he's talking about like religion on television and like televangelism,
Speaker 3: and it's like, oh, boy, like you have no idea
Speaker 3: how bad it's gotten. Like imagine him like like introducing
Speaker 3: him to the concept of a megachurch.
Speaker 2: Oh, you would have no they're in arenas. Yeah, they're
Speaker 2: arenas like bigger than rock concerts. It's crazy rock concerts
Speaker 2: with I don't know. I don't know. Well, I feel
Speaker 2: like there's something else we should talk about. I don't
Speaker 2: want to. I didn't even I've been trying to delay, delay, delay,
Speaker 2: because I'm not comfortable bringing this up on my podcast.
Speaker 2: But you're here. I feel like we should just get
Speaker 2: through this as quickly as possible. I was excited to
Speaker 2: have you here today. I thought, George will come on
Speaker 2: the podcast, we'll have you know, we'll catch up, talk
Speaker 2: about things that are important to us and the listener,
Speaker 2: and move on with our days. So I was a
Speaker 2: little shaken, borderline upset when you walked into the studio
Speaker 2: the podcast is called. I said, no gifts. I feel
Speaker 2: like you must know that you were holding a gift.
Speaker 3: I was, yeah, I I sort of have so irony
Speaker 3: poison that I actually do the opposite of what I'm
Speaker 3: asked at all times. And I thought, consider it like
Speaker 3: my edge lord tendency. I said, I'm gonna fucking bring
Speaker 3: him a.
Speaker 2: Gift when you're not on a message board. Yeah, you're
Speaker 2: taking that behavior.
Speaker 3: I have a Reddit personality, I would say, I might
Speaker 3: not be good at trivia, but I am good at
Speaker 3: saying slurs on the internet.
Speaker 2: Can we take one moment, though, and to talk about
Speaker 2: how redda has had such an interesting for the for decades.
Speaker 2: I thought horrible website run by the men I would
Speaker 2: not listen to in any way, and now I'm crawling
Speaker 2: to it for any sort of real information.
Speaker 3: I know. It's kind of crazy, isn't it.
Speaker 2: It's humiliating for me.
Speaker 3: Yeah. Reddit is such a fascinating like part of the
Speaker 3: culture too, because its influence spreads so far. Like I oh,
Speaker 3: I'm a huge tennis fan. I always think about the
Speaker 3: fact that Serrina Williams is married to the founder of
Speaker 3: redd hit. I didn't know that, and it's like it
Speaker 3: just goes It's like and also I don't know much
Speaker 3: about him, so please don't come for me, but I'm like,
Speaker 3: compared to so many other tech CEOs and tech founders,
Speaker 3: he actually seems relatively like normal and is married to
Speaker 3: Serena Williams, which is more than I can say for
Speaker 3: And so it's like then also read it had like
Speaker 3: one of the first female CEOs, which is so so
Speaker 3: goes against their like the sort of reputation they have
Speaker 3: in the evaluation. Yeah, it weirdly is one of the
Speaker 3: only social media platforms that wasn't like overtaken by advertisements
Speaker 3: and like promoted content and just like slop right, like
Speaker 3: Instagram is a hellhole.
Speaker 2: It is so awful, so unbelievably poisonous in so and
Speaker 2: literally everyone it's crazy and it's become inescapable. And but
Speaker 2: also I don't know, I don't know what to do
Speaker 2: with that aspect of my Yeah, yeah, I wish I
Speaker 2: wasn't tied into it professionally.
Speaker 3: No, I I every day I wish I would. And
Speaker 3: also sometimes I'm like, is that even a cop out
Speaker 3: that I even pretend I am right.
Speaker 2: Doesn't have any effects?
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 2: I don't know, But what if it does. Let's bring
Speaker 2: out the gift it's in this beautiful little white bag.
Speaker 3: I would say the store that it's from is very
Speaker 3: misleading because it's actually has nothing to do with read.
Speaker 2: How have I never heard of this? It's called Bestie's
Speaker 2: Vegan Paradise. Is it a vegan grocery store?
Speaker 3: So it is a vegan grocery store or like a
Speaker 3: vegan sort of specialty food store that also sells hot dogs. Okay,
Speaker 3: but they also do, in fact have non vegan hot dogs, oh,
Speaker 3: which is strang's a huge line because it's on the
Speaker 3: one hand, like, obviously it's great to appeal to more
Speaker 3: communities and to be inclusive, but don't call yourself a
Speaker 3: vegan paradise if you specifically do also have hot kind
Speaker 3: of one of the most like you know, meat forward that.
Speaker 2: Palatable vegan hot dogs and sausages vegan Like, I feel
Speaker 2: like almost no one can tell the difference. Yeah, so
Speaker 2: why bother with a real hot dog?
Speaker 4: There?
Speaker 2: Is it a cost cutting measure?
Speaker 3: I honestly think it's that. I think vegan businesses realize
Speaker 3: very early on that actually the vegan population is much
Speaker 3: smaller than they think.
Speaker 2: Right, that's gonna be a rude awakening when you're like.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so I think. And then a hot dogs. Honest,
Speaker 3: they are probably pretty cheap, right, They already have the toppings.
Speaker 3: I'm sure the toppings are vegan. Anyway, I don't want
Speaker 3: to delay this further. The point is the gift has
Speaker 3: nothing to do with vegan or food.
Speaker 2: I hope it's just a non big hot dog.
Speaker 3: They also have like little knickknacks and stuff. Okay, I
Speaker 3: mean it's a story in Los Angeles, so you know
Speaker 3: they're gonna stell candle.
Speaker 2: Yeah, okay, let's reach in here.
Speaker 3: And I tried to go for maximum unwrapping potential.
Speaker 2: Oh I love thank you the listener appreciates that. I
Speaker 2: appreciate it. And it's especially crinkly, I would say the pain.
Speaker 2: I love this. I just don't even want to look
Speaker 2: at this. I kind of pets the rapping.
Speaker 3: Okay. And it's multiple parts okay.
Speaker 2: Oh should I take them out in particular order?
Speaker 3: No? No, I mean it's like it all comes together. Okay,
Speaker 3: so see that's the most exciting part.
Speaker 2: This is kind of should I describe it yet?
Speaker 3: Sure?
Speaker 2: Like a little Adobe house, yes, with a ladder. And
Speaker 2: should we talk about this or should I keep opening,
Speaker 2: keep opening, keep opening.
Speaker 3: It's a little miniature house.
Speaker 2: Okay, yeah, it's a miniature house with a little chimney.
Speaker 3: It's it's apparently made in New Mexico, so it sort
Speaker 3: of has that like New Mexican.
Speaker 2: Like what we were talking about earlier. Yes, exactly, it's surfling
Speaker 2: back to its anti vax.
Speaker 3: Yes, it's an anti vax woman selling her ware. So
Speaker 3: that's the bottom you can put it.
Speaker 2: On top like this.
Speaker 3: Okay. The one thing is it doesn't like click into place.
Speaker 2: It does not click into place.
Speaker 3: It does not click into place, which I found interesting
Speaker 3: but also more charming.
Speaker 2: Does it click into place at No?
Speaker 3: I know because I tried in the store and I
Speaker 3: had to accept that it doesn't. There is one more
Speaker 3: thing in the bag.
Speaker 2: It simply doesn't. It just makes it look lopsided. Yeah,
Speaker 2: it looks like the house is built on a bad boundary.
Speaker 3: But that's how you know it's you know, handmade, authentic. Yeah, okay,
Speaker 3: So basically these are like incense that you put in it.
Speaker 3: That's what it is.
Speaker 2: Like food.
Speaker 3: It definitely looks like or rabbit droppings.
Speaker 2: Can I smell them?
Speaker 3: Sure? I haven't. Do they smell good?
Speaker 2: They don't smell like anything. I have a bad sense
Speaker 2: of smell though.
Speaker 3: Let's see. I think they maybe will only smell when.
Speaker 2: You like to burn.
Speaker 3: Yeah, no, I definitely not. Okay, So so yeah, things
Speaker 3: like the I think you put them there. You can
Speaker 3: also cut them in half if you want.
Speaker 2: I was told, if you want to be thrifty. Yeah,
Speaker 2: it's a Again, they don't. Yeah, so it almost feels
Speaker 2: like a fire hazard totally because sparks will be flying
Speaker 2: out of it. Yeah. I love this. So but did
Speaker 2: this come from Vegan Paradise? Yes, so you were kind
Speaker 2: of just browsing.
Speaker 3: So here's what I'll say. I can tell you my
Speaker 3: thought process. I was like, obviously, the prompt to get
Speaker 3: you a get to quote unquote not get you a gift.
Speaker 2: I don't know. Beep all that is beep to gain.
Speaker 3: The prompt for a a.
Speaker 2: Oh, there's a lighter. Should we light it?
Speaker 3: Yeah, let's light it. I would love to see how
Speaker 3: it works.
Speaker 2: This is unbelievable. I didn't think it would be allowed
Speaker 2: to light up. I mean, this could lead to some
Speaker 2: sort of disaster.
Speaker 3: I'm really not a like an incense type person. So, okay,
Speaker 3: so it's being lit. I think you just burn it
Speaker 3: a little bit, a little bit and then it just
Speaker 3: it just smokes and then.
Speaker 2: I just want to look into the camera.
Speaker 3: Yeah, okay, and then it sort of comes out of
Speaker 3: the chimney and.
Speaker 2: We'll come out of the chimney. How much do I
Speaker 2: need to burn it? I'm not saying any smoke yet.
Speaker 2: I see now I'm burning my thumb, which is okay,
Speaker 2: let's see.
Speaker 3: If damn, maybe if I oh, but I smell it.
Speaker 2: You smell it, do you? And again I okay, it's
Speaker 2: almost like a cedar, yeah, cedar chip. I really want
Speaker 2: it to keep going. But I know same, I should
Speaker 2: not be allowed to use a lighter. I'm not. I think,
Speaker 2: just like, keep just keep going for a minute.
Speaker 4: So you just keep just until it catches on fire basically, and.
Speaker 2: Then oh on a Leasa is trying to vacate the
Speaker 2: studio essentially, I mean you it is. Oh, there we go,
Speaker 2: here we go. Okay, it's on fire, and now it'll
Speaker 2: all be great.
Speaker 4: Blow it out.
Speaker 2: Oh I blow it out?
Speaker 3: Okay, Oh there okay, now oh and now it's okay.
Speaker 3: That is stunning. There we go.
Speaker 2: Oh and it's got the smoke. It's a very cozy
Speaker 2: little place. Okay, now you know what.
Speaker 3: I know it doesn't click, but you've actually placed in
Speaker 3: a really great way where it looks intentional. I think, yeah,
Speaker 3: it's not lopsided.
Speaker 2: And now I'm starting to wonder if it's not supposed
Speaker 2: to click. I wonder if it's definitely not supposed to click,
Speaker 2: but like almost on oh as in like you want
Speaker 2: the smoke to just be I wonder if there's some
Speaker 2: sort of design element where they that makes sense. I
Speaker 2: can't speak to lighting fires or how any of this works,
Speaker 2: but it looks intentional.
Speaker 3: Definitely. I actually think it looks really amazing. Okay, so
Speaker 3: do you want me to tell me you projects? So
Speaker 3: you know, the prompt is wow, the smell is actually pretty.
Speaker 2: Well, this as close to it Joe Rogan episode as possible.
Speaker 2: I've got a cigar in my mouth.
Speaker 3: Yes, So I was like, all right, getting a gift.
Speaker 3: There is something that feels so desperate as a comedian
Speaker 3: to go to be like what can I get? That's
Speaker 3: so crazy? That's like it's like, oh, I'm getting you
Speaker 3: like a giant dildo and like and or you know,
Speaker 3: I'm getting like a big giant sombrero, like you know,
Speaker 3: you you. The instinctive force is to go big and
Speaker 3: to be either like borderline offensive or like so all
Speaker 3: comedy that it's like I got you a paper click.
Speaker 2: Right, and then it's literally not a conversation.
Speaker 3: And so I was like, Okay, maybe the most radical
Speaker 3: thing I can do is get like a cliche, faceless,
Speaker 3: completely lacking personality, like housewarming gift, like a candle, a
Speaker 3: picture frame, something like that. Right, So my intent, and
Speaker 3: I saw that this place had a whole candle section.
Speaker 3: I was like, I'm going to get him like a
Speaker 3: vanilla candle, and that'll be like the joke is just
Speaker 3: like it's so personality less that it's like if your
Speaker 3: aunt that has not seen you since you were four
Speaker 3: came to your wedding and like brought you a gift.
Speaker 3: But then I mean, I'm sorry, but I just have
Speaker 3: such amazing like esthetic impulses that you know, you see
Speaker 3: a diny little so I was in the candle section
Speaker 3: right with the intention of buying a boring candle, but
Speaker 3: then I see a little maide in New Mexico, God
Speaker 3: made in New Mexico miniature house that you put a
Speaker 3: little thing in it and then the smoke comes out
Speaker 3: of the chimney, and I'm like, well, I can't not
Speaker 3: get that.
Speaker 2: It's so charming, So I really this can actually go
Speaker 2: in my home.
Speaker 3: And actually I completely shot myself on the foot because
Speaker 3: it's like this is no longer funny in any way.
Speaker 3: It's just like a cute little object.
Speaker 2: Which I appreciate. I think that this is kind of
Speaker 2: a secret for guests on this podcast, is if they
Speaker 2: bring something that's genuinely interesting or interesting to them. I
Speaker 2: mean this is a shock, yes they want to talk
Speaker 2: about yeah, which I think. I mean, this is something
Speaker 2: I actually want to talk about because I've never been
Speaker 2: to New Mexico and I have anything that's obsessed with
Speaker 2: the idea.
Speaker 3: I have no connection, no connection with New Mexico. I
Speaker 3: literally don't like incense, Like I'm much more of a
Speaker 3: candle person at home. Ever, with incense, I don't know
Speaker 3: anything about, like ceramics, Like this is completely for an
Speaker 3: object to me, and yet I'm looking at it now
Speaker 3: and I'm like, you know, sorry, but you're never gonna
Speaker 3: throw that out, Like you're gonna you're that's gonna be
Speaker 3: part of your life forever, and you're gonna have to
Speaker 3: move apartments or move houses with it.
Speaker 2: You're gonna happily move houses. And it's also something I
Speaker 2: can carefully put in a box. It's not going to
Speaker 2: overtake anything. Yeah, you know, there are some There are
Speaker 2: different categories of gifts that I get on this podcast,
Speaker 2: Things that are actually in my house that I can
Speaker 2: put up and just leave and I don't feel ashamed
Speaker 2: of It doesn't detract from the rest of what's happening
Speaker 2: in my home. Then there are things that I that
Speaker 2: are interesting to look at but I certainly wouldn't put
Speaker 2: out sure, And then there's garbage. Yeah, and this is
Speaker 2: number one.
Speaker 3: I'm so happy. No, And I really to think about
Speaker 3: the garbage question because I was like, is it funny
Speaker 3: to bring like a complete like a cup of coffee?
Speaker 3: Because right, because, by the way, let me say this,
Speaker 3: generally speaking, this would be a very easy prompt, like
Speaker 3: bring anything and we'll talk about it. I am visiting
Speaker 3: with no access to my own things, staying in a
Speaker 3: completely like faceless airbnb, and it is pouring rain, and
Speaker 3: I don't have a car, so actually hell, Like I
Speaker 3: woke up to me and I was like, oh, I'm
Speaker 3: like I should cancel. Like it would actually be easier
Speaker 3: to cancel than to think of something I could like
Speaker 3: either walk to from my airbnb or get an uber
Speaker 3: to a store.
Speaker 2: No, that's a I mean, this podcast for me obviously
Speaker 2: is not that difficult. But I think about when there's
Speaker 2: any level of homework or anything for a podcast, I
Speaker 2: have to think about it. The way I spin out
Speaker 2: is unbelievable. It's like the only thing I care about
Speaker 2: in my life. For the week leading up, just trying
Speaker 2: to think of the thing. And so I try to
Speaker 2: just ignore what my guests have to go through because.
Speaker 3: But I appreciate it though. I think like it's very
Speaker 3: you're almost like deconstructing, like the idea of a conversation,
Speaker 3: because the conversation has to have a topic. Sure, and
Speaker 3: you're like, okay, so what object can we talk about? Yes,
Speaker 3: that's completely random.
Speaker 2: That's the absolute hope that it, like it will force
Speaker 2: a conversation in a way that no natural conversation would Africa. Yeah,
Speaker 2: but back to New Mexico definitely.
Speaker 3: And by the way, I also want to say, there
Speaker 3: were other options. One was like more of a TP,
Speaker 3: and other I could have. I was like, I can't
Speaker 3: go in a direction that feels almost like I wouldn't
Speaker 3: say appropriative, but like, well, if I give you something
Speaker 3: that's shaped like a TP, then I would have to
Speaker 3: like make jokes about the idea of the TP.
Speaker 2: Yes, TP is a complicated territory.
Speaker 3: Complicated territory.
Speaker 2: I think it's not what we went through an elementary Yes,
Speaker 2: we've societies kind of figured out the TP's not just
Speaker 2: a generic symbol.
Speaker 3: And of course I'm sure it has different connotations in
Speaker 3: New Mexico, again, a state I have never been to.
Speaker 2: Of course, there may have never been a TP in
Speaker 2: New Mexico.
Speaker 3: Who knows. So so I was like, and then there
Speaker 3: was a log cabin that was the other.
Speaker 2: Oh, okay, which is boring and stupid.
Speaker 3: Thank you for saying that to me. I'm like that
Speaker 3: I could imagine living like if I was to move
Speaker 3: to New Mexico, I would want my house to look
Speaker 3: like this.
Speaker 2: If you live in just kind of a new build
Speaker 2: in New Mexico, why are you in New Mexico right exactly,
Speaker 2: You've got to be in something that looks like it's
Speaker 2: made from clay. Yeah, it should be in the sun
Speaker 2: at all times.
Speaker 3: I really like the little top. So if you turn around,
Speaker 3: you see that there's like a ladder that leads.
Speaker 2: To yes, yes, and this little door.
Speaker 3: Imagine a dinner part, like an outdoor dinner party. The
Speaker 3: natural wine is flowing, you have everyone there, you can
Speaker 3: see your view of just like the desert, I guess,
Speaker 3: and people are smoking.
Speaker 2: Hash too much ash. No, this is almost a reason
Speaker 2: I can't go to New Mexico, because I've really created
Speaker 2: the ideal version of what that state is, and I
Speaker 2: will just briefly say they do have the absolute best
Speaker 2: state license plate.
Speaker 3: Oh what is it?
Speaker 2: It's stunning. I'm going to show it to you because
Speaker 2: recently my home state switched their license plate to the
Speaker 2: most boring possible.
Speaker 3: You're from Utah, yes.
Speaker 2: And it's infuriating for me because we used to have
Speaker 2: a kind of a fun license plate, and it's upsetting
Speaker 2: for me. This is the New Mexico plate. The coloring,
Speaker 2: the design, Ah, that is stunning. Why every states it's like, oh,
Speaker 2: we're going to go for it. Why wouldn't you go
Speaker 2: for it.
Speaker 3: There's something about New Mexico and Arizona where like they
Speaker 3: were so ahead of the curb, just graphic design wise,
Speaker 3: oh yeah, and like design trend wise, oh yeah. And
Speaker 3: it's interesting that people always call that family of aesthetics
Speaker 3: like Scandinavian, like the sort of minimalist whatever, clean lines,
Speaker 3: and it's like yeah, but it's also.
Speaker 2: Southwest, extremely southwest. Look at this little house, so.
Speaker 3: You look at that. You don't get that in Copenhagen.
Speaker 2: Yes, absolutely. And you can't be out on the deck
Speaker 2: in Copenhagen.
Speaker 3: You cannot be out on the deck in Copenhagen.
Speaker 2: Maybe for a week a year.
Speaker 3: Oh my god, God, when I went to Copenhagen, I've
Speaker 3: never been more ignored in a gay club in my life.
Speaker 3: I might as well have not existed, is that true? Yeah?
Speaker 3: I don't know what it was. I mean I also
Speaker 3: probably had a sort of air of desperation about me.
Speaker 3: I was like pretty young and like didn't have the
Speaker 3: you know, disarming confidence I have now. I mean I
Speaker 3: would never dare to bring this as a gift to someone.
Speaker 2: What was the general vibe in the Copenhagen club?
Speaker 3: I just think there's something about this was probably like
Speaker 3: twenty fourteen. Let's say, there's something about like the cliche out.
Speaker 3: It's like imagine like a Japanese architect, you know, like
Speaker 3: clean lines, issimiaki, like sort of like kind of wide
Speaker 3: legged pans, yes whatever, also really tall because it's media. Yeah,
Speaker 3: and so everyone was dressed like that, but as though
Speaker 3: they had like woken up that morning. That's trick. And
Speaker 3: I just like was very like American apparel because that
Speaker 3: was what was going on over here. You were drinking
Speaker 3: land of American apparel, I'll admit.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that was we were. That must have been post
Speaker 2: article about that guy.
Speaker 3: Creep.
Speaker 2: Yeah, the mustache.
Speaker 3: By the way, they have great clothes now at Los Angeles.
Speaker 2: Angelis Apparel, but the company has kind of been taken over.
Speaker 3: We hope I will not be looking into it.
Speaker 2: Good cotton, yes.
Speaker 3: Yeah, great cotton, great basics, great basics. Great. Uh, I've
Speaker 3: in my old age. I'm experimenting for the first time
Speaker 3: in my life with like a I wouldn't call it
Speaker 3: a muscle tea, but like a sleeveless interesting.
Speaker 2: I wonder if ever I'll wear a sleepless thing to
Speaker 2: the gym.
Speaker 3: I think you could absolutely put you have God blessed.
Speaker 2: But I don't know that. I just I don't know
Speaker 2: that I could go out in public in just polite
Speaker 2: company wearing it and be like not thinking about it
Speaker 2: the entire time.
Speaker 3: No, I know. And you know what else, when a
Speaker 3: gay guy wears a sleeveless shirt, I literally have to stop.
Speaker 3: I have to my instinct as though it's like an
Speaker 3: as though it's like the doctor hitting my knee and
Speaker 3: my knees going up and my legs going up. Literally,
Speaker 3: I cannot stop myself from saying okay, arms like it's
Speaker 3: it's shocking. It's like you think you're not that cliche
Speaker 3: or what you know, you think you're not someone who
Speaker 3: would say arms. And it literally happened to me in
Speaker 3: Chicago recently. My friend Parker was very sleeping and I
Speaker 3: genuinely it was as though I was suddenly hypnotized.
Speaker 2: Okay, arms, And then like if someone were to say
Speaker 2: that to me, I don't know what I would even
Speaker 2: do with the information because it's like half a compliment.
Speaker 3: Half of just like it's not saying yeah.
Speaker 2: But I'm like, now I'm now even thinking about it
Speaker 2: even more than I was. I know, I'm gonna go
Speaker 2: stand in the bathroom something. You're flexing like, yeah, it's
Speaker 2: a strange, but you're experimenting with this.
Speaker 3: I know. I'm oh, yes I am. I'm experimentedless. There's
Speaker 3: something about it that feels I mean again, I wouldn't
Speaker 3: go on a you know, I wouldn't go to like
Speaker 3: a wedding in a sleeveless I very much am against
Speaker 3: like red carpet like vest only on a red carpet.
Speaker 2: Yeah that it simply has never worked. I don't care
Speaker 2: how many it's not. You will look back and feel
Speaker 2: bad about wearing.
Speaker 3: That where And also no bare chest under a blazer,
Speaker 3: like just wearing sure and.
Speaker 2: Sleep because it's just that is not that's not clothing,
Speaker 2: not accepted, and it's you would not wear that to
Speaker 2: the grocery store. No, And I know that the red
Speaker 2: carpet and grocery store are different things, but they are
Speaker 2: both in public.
Speaker 3: It's also like, clearly you're wearing it to show off
Speaker 3: your arms, but it weirdly actually makes you look less. Okay,
Speaker 3: what do arms denote? Like a sort of like good masculinity.
Speaker 3: But then when you just wear a vest, it's like, okay,
Speaker 3: well you're Katie laying.
Speaker 2: You're dressed like a fifth grade tea.
Speaker 3: Yeah, like it has the opposite intended effect.
Speaker 2: Yes, exactly, And almost no vest ever looks good in
Speaker 2: any situation, so fully exposed, just seeing pure vest feels crazy.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so I would not wear it in like It's
Speaker 3: more just like if I'm going to a gay bar,
Speaker 3: I will occasionally do it and be like, well, this
Speaker 3: is my big arm day. I'm actually kind of gonna
Speaker 3: I'll let you know a secret. I'm gonna do it
Speaker 3: on Friday because I packed one and we're I'm going
Speaker 3: to some sort of gay party on Friday.
Speaker 2: You're invited it's completely appropriate and I'm gonna show up
Speaker 2: in the same thing. Yeah, yeah, I feel like that.
Speaker 2: Maybe that's a place to kind of try it out. Yes,
Speaker 2: get comfortable with it.
Speaker 3: And actually, in that context, you're the most conservative one
Speaker 3: because everyone else is shirtless.
Speaker 2: Yeah, everybody's or in a vest with nothing under it.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's just like being fisted.
Speaker 2: Exactly.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's like I'm in that. I'm Tim Walls being like, well,
Speaker 3: I'm normal.
Speaker 2: I don't know about you freaks exactly. The other thing
Speaker 2: this is, I guess just the existing in general thing
Speaker 2: is like the amount of thinking about myself I'm doing
Speaker 2: is simply not what anybody else is doing. Yes, they
Speaker 2: might just glance and be like, I mean if I
Speaker 2: guess if the shirt looks good, they think, oh, that
Speaker 2: looks good, and they move on. They didn't think about
Speaker 2: the days of planning you had and putting it in
Speaker 2: your suitcase and being like, I'm gonna do it totally.
Speaker 3: That said, there is a point at which they do, like,
Speaker 3: if you are dressed stupid enough, they do start thinking
Speaker 3: about it exactly, And that's actually it's like I think
Speaker 3: I'm I could get away, I think you or I
Speaker 3: could get away with like a sleeveless tea from Los
Speaker 3: Angeles parents. Okay, okay, but then let's keep going further.
Speaker 3: It's like, all right, maybe then after that, it's like,
Speaker 3: could we get away with spaghetti straps? No, I actually
Speaker 3: think if your eyes showed up to a function wearing
Speaker 3: like a sort of limited two spaghetti straps of a little.
Speaker 2: Flower over here losing friends rapidly.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and everyone would like keep commenting on it, and
Speaker 3: it would not feel good.
Speaker 2: Because it's so far out of the realm of possibility
Speaker 2: for what I wear. Yeah, not that there's anything wrong
Speaker 2: with that, but for what I've trained people to believe
Speaker 2: about who I am. I know to show up and
Speaker 2: that would be too much for everybody, and it would
Speaker 2: be an evening ruining experience probably for everyone.
Speaker 3: But if you were if you and I showed up
Speaker 3: in matching limited to there we go. Now no one
Speaker 3: knows a bit, Yeah, no one knows what to do.
Speaker 3: But also it's like it's also like, you know, we
Speaker 3: know each other, but not that well. But then like
Speaker 3: us showing up in matching outfits at a party and
Speaker 3: then everyone's like, oh, I didn't know they were like
Speaker 3: best friends.
Speaker 2: I didn't know they were so clothes, and then people
Speaker 2: start wondering like should I wear that? It actually kind
Speaker 2: of does look good And this is how you break
Speaker 2: down social north totally and create a new reality. Yeah,
Speaker 2: maybe it's time for me to get one, but I'll
Speaker 2: have to be bround gay people first, gay people and
Speaker 2: women wearing it before I hang around with a straight
Speaker 2: people because straight people love to raz.
Speaker 3: Yeah, well it's I know, it's it's complicated because it's
Speaker 3: like they do love to raz. But then it's also
Speaker 3: I feel like, at some point sort of post you
Speaker 3: know Jonathan Vaness, straight people were like, all right, just
Speaker 3: to be sorry, I'm not commenting on any clothing, so
Speaker 3: they actually, you can show up wearing a truly like
Speaker 3: a cow Halloween costume with utters, and a straight I
Speaker 3: will just be like looking at you, dead in the eye,
Speaker 3: being like, so like, what do you do? Because he's
Speaker 3: so afraid.
Speaker 2: There's no idea what's going on in the culture. But yeah,
Speaker 2: I guess that's probably true.
Speaker 4: Hmm.
Speaker 2: Interesting. I feel like it's purely intention if if it
Speaker 2: looks intentional, it's always intention But yeah, this I don't know.
Speaker 2: We'll see what happens with my future fashion choice. But
Speaker 2: I have been wearing them to the gym and it's
Speaker 2: felt I'm getting more comfortable with the idea. We'll see
Speaker 2: what happened.
Speaker 3: What the future I mean at the gym, you know,
Speaker 3: it's like you are flexing by design, right, and it's
Speaker 3: always nice to get a little peak of yourself mid
Speaker 3: flex with the Yeah.
Speaker 2: What are you working in with here?
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 2: Also, my gym is very inconsistent with the air conditioner,
Speaker 2: and it truly initially was out of necessity because it's like,
Speaker 2: what are they doing with the ac?
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 2: I am. I feel like I have the flu when
Speaker 2: I'm in this place. I love the place, but there
Speaker 2: are some issues with air flow. And so I started.
Speaker 2: I got on YouTube. How do I make a sleeveless shirt?
Speaker 3: Oh? You made it yourself?
Speaker 2: I made it myself. I made several. Wow, they look great.
Speaker 3: I I gotta tell you, Los Angeles A Parel will
Speaker 3: do it for you.
Speaker 2: I'm gonna pop in there and see what they've got.
Speaker 3: I would be remiss not to say that this has
Speaker 3: stopped fuming.
Speaker 2: There's absolutely no smoke. Is now just let's slide it
Speaker 2: up for the rest of the episode. Why not? And
Speaker 2: is there anything left we have to say about. I mean,
Speaker 2: travel wise, I really would like to go to New Mexico.
Speaker 2: Is there anywhere you're looking forward to going?
Speaker 3: Ooh great question. Well okay, I am allegedly going to Japan.
Speaker 2: Oh that's exciting.
Speaker 3: When allegedly in the fall. Okay, I have not planned
Speaker 3: it yet. This would be our honeymoon. Oh how excited,
Speaker 3: but like a year after we got married. Okay. Sure.
Speaker 3: The reason I'm being hesitant about it is because every
Speaker 3: single person I know is going.
Speaker 2: To Japan or has been in the last or has
Speaker 2: been in the.
Speaker 3: Last twelve months. And it's like, I'm almost old enough
Speaker 3: to not care about being part of a trend, but
Speaker 3: not quite there. But I also it feels crazy to
Speaker 3: be like rolling your eyes talking about Japan because it's
Speaker 3: literally the most expensive trip I will ever take in
Speaker 3: my life. So I do need to be like excited
Speaker 3: and ready to go.
Speaker 2: It's very funny to me talking about travel as trendy,
Speaker 2: oh country that's existed since forever. The other sad that's
Speaker 2: gonna blow over.
Speaker 3: Exactly, which is how I feel about. It's like, when
Speaker 3: I went to Mexico City, I was like this, you guys,
Speaker 3: this is what you're going to, Like, you're all just
Speaker 3: going here to like go to like vintage stores that
Speaker 3: sell like Rolling Stones t shirts, and it's.
Speaker 2: Like the Vindo stores in Mexico City, by the way,
Speaker 2: are extremely expensive. I was shocked.
Speaker 3: I just want to say, there's there's no right way
Speaker 3: to say this, so I will try my very best.
Speaker 3: Mexico City, as curated by gay guys in Brooklyn and
Speaker 3: Los Angeles is a completely overrated sham. I obviously Mexico
Speaker 3: City more broadly is like a beautiful historic city and
Speaker 3: like I think it's like a lovely place to visit,
Speaker 3: great food, whatever. When you get one of these Google
Speaker 3: docs where all these fucking fashion people and like random
Speaker 3: people that are like music producers are like you know,
Speaker 3: randomly work for like Andy Cohen or whatever. There are
Speaker 3: millions of these Google docs and people will not be
Speaker 3: shy about sending them to you. They all have the
Speaker 3: same exact recommendations. You go to those places, you're like,
Speaker 3: are you fucking kidding me?
Speaker 2: My secret? I went with a straight man who spoke Spanish.
Speaker 3: Well, there you go.
Speaker 2: You have incredible experience.
Speaker 3: Now you actually have to go with a specifically straight
Speaker 3: man who is Mexican or at the very least speaks Spanish.
Speaker 2: Yes, he's uh spoke Spanish and loved loves Mexico in general.
Speaker 2: So it felt it was two gay men and a
Speaker 2: straight man, and the two gay men didn't care what
Speaker 2: we did, so we just got to follow the lead
Speaker 2: of this person. And it was a perfect trip. But
Speaker 2: what you're describing as hell.
Speaker 3: It's hell. And I actually like, I mean, we ran
Speaker 3: into multiple people we knew from Brooklyn, and I was like,
Speaker 3: I was humiliated, was.
Speaker 2: Like, Mexico.
Speaker 3: Kidding me? And then we were like what are you, Like,
Speaker 3: what have you guys been doing? And they just mentioned
Speaker 3: the same places that we were going to go to
Speaker 3: from the fucking Google spreadsheet that like Anthony Proowski uh created.
Speaker 2: The last person in the world I want dictating my
Speaker 2: travel Oh my, oh so Japan could have I mean,
Speaker 2: that could happen to you in Japan.
Speaker 3: So this is this is my big goal, is like
Speaker 3: I really don't want it to happen to me in Japan, right.
Speaker 2: So do you have goals within Japan that you want?
Speaker 3: So we really have not started planning it yet, but
Speaker 3: I actually am this close to like looking into a
Speaker 3: travel agent because I read. I read an article on
Speaker 3: the Wall Street Journal that said that gen Z is
Speaker 3: reinventing travel agents.
Speaker 2: I've been saying this. We took them for granted for
Speaker 2: so long, and then the Internet collapsed and you no
Speaker 2: longer can count on yourself or the internet, right, none
Speaker 2: of that matters anymore. You need somebody who actually knows.
Speaker 3: Yeah, So I want, like, uh, you know, I want
Speaker 3: like a Japanese woman who's maybe forty seven years old.
Speaker 3: You have extremely detailed file of this person, and I
Speaker 3: want her to have already had a career in Japan
Speaker 3: as like something cool like museum curator or something. And
Speaker 3: then you know, she had she married, had maybe got
Speaker 3: Marritian American, Yeah, and was like, you know what I've
Speaker 3: I love the art world, but it's gotten so toxic,
Speaker 3: like I need to, you know, I need a second act.
Speaker 3: And she threw her experiences in the I actually I
Speaker 3: am loving this person. I'm describing through her experience in
Speaker 3: the art world and traveling and basle and all this stuff,
Speaker 3: she actually has really developed amazing taste in food culture
Speaker 3: or whatever. And so then she was like, what if
Speaker 3: I become a travel agent. I know all these wealthy
Speaker 3: people from the art world. They can be my first clients.
Speaker 3: This is like, and that's how she sent her kid
Speaker 3: three kids to college.
Speaker 2: Japanese travel agent reach out. Yeah, exactly, she exists, she's
Speaker 2: got to be out there. Of course, there's something within
Speaker 2: that ballpark.
Speaker 3: She had to toe com to Garsan. I can picture her.
Speaker 3: It's like, so I really need her to reach out.
Speaker 2: Do you have cities in mind within Japan?
Speaker 3: See, I shouldn't have brought her up because literally we
Speaker 3: have not started talking. Like I just I think because
Speaker 3: we are obviously using money people gave us for this.
Speaker 3: Like it's the first time my life that I feel
Speaker 3: like I can really go for it, go for it. Yes,
Speaker 3: So I don't have any sense of geography, but I'm like,
Speaker 3: if we can do multiple cities and do like two
Speaker 3: or three days in each and we can really like
Speaker 3: book like two weeks of travel, like, It'll be the
Speaker 3: first time in my life that I'm doing anything that ambitious.
Speaker 2: Right. The travel agent is writing, all.
Speaker 3: Yes, exactly, thank you so much. Have you been to Japan?
Speaker 2: I have? I was there in twenty fifteen.
Speaker 3: Okay, did you enjoy it?
Speaker 2: Hated it?
Speaker 3: Wow?
Speaker 2: You kidding? It's out?
Speaker 3: Y're so careful about about like my uh, you know
Speaker 3: review of Mexico City, and now you just hate the
Speaker 3: entire country of Japan.
Speaker 2: No, I mean it was unbelievable.
Speaker 3: I'm sure that's what everyone says.
Speaker 2: It was kind of this experience of like I left,
Speaker 2: I was like, oh, no, I've ruined going anywhere else
Speaker 2: for the rest of my life because that's the only
Speaker 2: place I want to go. It was. Everything was just wonderful,
Speaker 2: endlessly fascinating. The food was so good, it was not
Speaker 2: as expensive as I expected. Around was so easy. There
Speaker 2: are just so many different parts of like Japanese culture
Speaker 2: and entertainment that like, I was there for ten days
Speaker 2: and I saw, you know, the smallest thumbprint of all
Speaker 2: of it. And I went to Tokyo and Kyoto and
Speaker 2: I was alone, and I was just wandering around and
Speaker 2: it's the only place I've ever felt safe completely just
Speaker 2: being like I can get lost and it does not matter.
Speaker 3: Well, that's great here. I mean, it really is one
Speaker 3: of those places that ever again, it's an entire country
Speaker 3: that is one of the most like one of the
Speaker 3: literally most populous countries in the world, and I keeping like, yeah,
Speaker 3: it's just like everyone that's a great place. I'm also
Speaker 3: very conscious of sounding like a dumb tourist because I
Speaker 3: am from a place that is such a tourist this
Speaker 3: thing because I went I like mostly grew up in Greece, right,
Speaker 3: and so tourism is such a big part of the
Speaker 3: culture that I as a Greek person and as someone
Speaker 3: who went to high school in Greece, I know, I
Speaker 3: roll my eyes so easily at like cliches that people
Speaker 3: have about it. M hmm. But there's no if you're
Speaker 3: not there's no way to know what the cliches are
Speaker 3: about other places.
Speaker 2: Those are the big things you hear about and you're like, well,
Speaker 2: I guess that's what I see. Yeah, do Greek people
Speaker 2: resent tourists?
Speaker 3: You know, actually they don't, I actually think. I mean,
Speaker 3: you know, obviously to an extent, if like a place
Speaker 3: is overrun by tourists, then you can no longer go
Speaker 3: to your favorite beach or restaurant or whatever, then obviously
Speaker 3: that's bad. However, because Greece sort of doesn't have any
Speaker 3: other huge parts of its economy, no offense right right
Speaker 3: to the country, tourism is so like when tourism is booming,
Speaker 3: that just is such a good sign for the health
Speaker 3: of the country. Yes, yes, And so I think Greek people,
Speaker 3: like especially compared to you know, Italian, French, like other
Speaker 3: places where maybe there's more scoffing at tourists. I actually
Speaker 3: think Greek people are incredibly hospitable and like really go
Speaker 3: out of the way to learn English, and hospitality is
Speaker 3: really seen as like a serious industry and right and whatever.
Speaker 3: So yeah, it's sort of like shipping and tourism are
Speaker 3: the only two industries. It is the only things you
Speaker 3: ever hear about, unless you're like lucky enough to like
Speaker 3: own Faye, right, which is huge.
Speaker 2: It's one of the biggest h that's a crazy success story.
Speaker 3: Insane and it is. The people sometimes ask me like, oh,
Speaker 3: Shirley Faye is like in America. It's like that's not
Speaker 3: what Greek people eat. I'm like, no, it is like.
Speaker 2: You can find that in grocery stores in Greece.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's like the number one.
Speaker 2: Wow.
Speaker 3: Yeah, like that's what I grew up eating.
Speaker 2: Wow, that's amazing. Yeah, how long did you live in Greece.
Speaker 3: I lived in Greece for most of my early childhood.
Speaker 3: Then we moved here for like six or seven years
Speaker 3: and then we moved back when I was thirteen, so okay,
Speaker 3: I went to high school there, so it's sort of
Speaker 3: like it bookended my experience in America. But then because
Speaker 3: I lived as formative years here, I feel pretty American
Speaker 3: and I don't have an accent.
Speaker 2: What part of the US did you live in?
Speaker 3: New Jersey?
Speaker 4: Oh?
Speaker 2: Okay, fantastic, Yeah.
Speaker 3: Oh definitely, yeah, Yeah, it was so amazing.
Speaker 2: I have no problem with New Jersey.
Speaker 3: It's just it to me. It's so like I lived
Speaker 3: in like suburban New Jersey almost like almost imagine Connecticut.
Speaker 3: Not as fancy obviously, but like that was the level
Speaker 3: of suburbia just right of like adjacency to country clubs,
Speaker 3: you know, sort of a commuter town for New York City,
Speaker 3: Like my dad worked in Manhattan.
Speaker 2: Right, what city did you live in?
Speaker 3: I lived in? Uh, it was in Morris County.
Speaker 2: Okay.
Speaker 3: We lived in New Providence and then Chatham. Okay, if
Speaker 3: that means anything to.
Speaker 2: Your li, Like, my boyfriend's from Lyndhurst. You know where
Speaker 2: that is. It's near Giant Stadium Okay, okay, cool, cool, cool,
Speaker 2: So that's my one.
Speaker 3: Yeah, little I do feel like connection to people from
Speaker 3: New Jersey okay, and like there's something about New Jersey
Speaker 3: that is so perfectly like normal to me. I'm like, okay, well,
Speaker 3: you're from the East coast, but you don't have the
Speaker 3: like specific wasping New England nests right right. But then
Speaker 3: you're also not like New York City kid that like,
Speaker 3: yeah there's some money. He was literally doing coke at
Speaker 3: four years old. It's just sort of and it's like
Speaker 3: a obviously it's like a blue state, but it's not
Speaker 3: like so you're not, you know, in San Francisco or
Speaker 3: something crazy.
Speaker 2: It's a little I mean, as far as I guess
Speaker 2: I'm trying to as far as La goes, it would
Speaker 2: be like growing up in I would say maybe Arcadia
Speaker 2: or al Here. Sure close enough, but like far enough
Speaker 2: away from.
Speaker 3: Honestly, even people who grew up in the Valley I
Speaker 3: find are so normal when I meet because they're like
Speaker 3: just far enough away. I guess I'm just thinking of
Speaker 3: Kirsten Dunce.
Speaker 2: I don't know, she does seem like a good egg. Yeah,
Speaker 2: let's say no, I've never heard a bad thing about
Speaker 2: the first.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's like, can you imagine if what would the
Speaker 3: rumor be? Like I do I would love gossip about
Speaker 3: Kirsten dun Right.
Speaker 2: I feel like it would be like she wants to
Speaker 2: go to dinner too often.
Speaker 3: Yeah, or one of my favorite things about here and
Speaker 3: done so that she endorsed Bernie Sanders and then he
Speaker 3: immediately dropped down and no one remembers it. And I
Speaker 3: actually one time looked through her Instagram. I think she
Speaker 3: might have deleted her endorsement.
Speaker 2: She embarrassed.
Speaker 3: She was just like she was. It was so funny
Speaker 3: because she clearly came from a good place. I think she,
Speaker 3: you know, earnestly supported him, and she like posted a
Speaker 3: little tile and she was like hashtag feel to burn
Speaker 3: and then he like dropped at him.
Speaker 2: That's a rough feeling. Anytime you support something and then
Speaker 2: it falls apart. You're a little like, yeah, where do
Speaker 2: we go from?
Speaker 1: Yeah?
Speaker 2: Let me ask you this. I feel like, and this
Speaker 2: has been brought up almost exclusively by me on this
Speaker 2: podcast multiple times, but the pronunciation of yero, Oh my god.
Speaker 3: You know what's funny. I was just listening to your
Speaker 3: episode with Katya and you were talking about it with Kata.
Speaker 2: Oh okay, and what I feel like You're the first
Speaker 2: person that comes close to being an expert on this.
Speaker 3: It's just I mean, it is Euro. It's just like
Speaker 3: with a Greek accident, it would be.
Speaker 2: Ro, right, like a rolled ar. Yeah, like we just
Speaker 2: I've tried to. Yeah, it's just I feel like I'm
Speaker 2: shocked by how far Gyro has spread.
Speaker 3: It's actually one of those things that is like a
Speaker 3: never ending conversation. Somehow I'm trying to think of another.
Speaker 3: It's like how people pretend they hate the word moist
Speaker 3: or something like. I had been hearing about the pronunciation
Speaker 3: of Euro for legitimately my entire adult life, and I'm like,
Speaker 3: don't you guys, Like, didn't you guys are some much
Speaker 3: Just learn what it was, how it was pronounced and
Speaker 3: move on with your life like you did. Like it's
Speaker 3: it's very confusing to me.
Speaker 2: And people really plant their flag in Gyro.
Speaker 3: Which is like, obviously that is not how a Greek
Speaker 3: word would be pronounced in what way that said, It's
Speaker 3: like I don't know we for example, why is the
Speaker 3: university called Notre Dame. That is psychotic That one has
Speaker 3: gone too far, but everyone just knows, like you would
Speaker 3: you say Notre Dame if you're talking about the church
Speaker 3: and Notre Dame. If you're talking about the university.
Speaker 2: Well Notre Dame, Notre Dame, and a Notre Dame. I
Speaker 2: feel like there's a very like the French take it
Speaker 2: even further. Yeah, so, but I feel like Notre Dame
Speaker 2: it was somebody who had a an axe to grind
Speaker 2: pronunciation totally.
Speaker 3: So I so I you know, when we lived in
Speaker 3: New Jersey because my parents were four, and there were
Speaker 3: like little things that I like didn't understand and like,
Speaker 3: you know, sort of would step in it sometimes because
Speaker 3: we didn't speak English at home. And one of them
Speaker 3: actually was I had heard someone pronounce it Notre Dame,
Speaker 3: and I was like, okay, so in America that's how
Speaker 3: they say those words. And then I was separately talking
Speaker 3: about the church and I was like so yeah. And
Speaker 3: then like we were in Paris and we went to
Speaker 3: Notre Dame and then suddenly I sound like a fucking
Speaker 3: loser that doesn't know how to pronounce it, because I
Speaker 3: thought that that's how you say it in America.
Speaker 2: You shouldn't have to hold both things in your brain.
Speaker 3: It's and I actually I think I even like learned
Speaker 3: that difference, like in my late twenties.
Speaker 2: Like well there's a very like there's a thing about
Speaker 2: like if you were at one of the football games
Speaker 2: and you said I'm going to notere Dominame, people will
Speaker 2: be like, oh, look at mister book's over here. It's like, well,
Speaker 2: fuck off, who cares.
Speaker 3: I'm from Europe.
Speaker 2: But Yero, for whatever reason, haunts me to this stay totally.
Speaker 3: No, it is. It is. I mean, and it's like, yeah,
Speaker 3: you could go up and say like you know, but
Speaker 3: it would be why would you do that?
Speaker 2: Like you would sound like nobody rolls. There are in
Speaker 2: the United States, I mean in English, in English, yes,
Speaker 2: in American English. Uh, well, I'm glad that we have
Speaker 2: kind of the final word. Yes, it's important.
Speaker 3: You know what's interesting to me, People talk about euro
Speaker 3: all the time. People don't care about how you pronounced azeki,
Speaker 3: which to me is a much more difficult like t
Speaker 3: z together right, I guess it is more fanatic. It's
Speaker 3: like you literally pronounced it's a zeke, but like.
Speaker 2: Wait, so what is the actual Greek pronunciation that's zeke?
Speaker 2: That yeah, and I would say like tetsik.
Speaker 3: Sure, but well, people have a difficult time. So my
Speaker 3: real last name starts with the T S, and I
Speaker 3: change it to a CE because no one can. People
Speaker 3: have a hard time with T S and t Z,
Speaker 3: which appear in Greek a lot, right, and so.
Speaker 2: How would you say your name in Greek with a
Speaker 2: Greek X see.
Speaker 3: Like it would just be like my real last name
Speaker 3: is Severiotis And then I shortened it to wow. It
Speaker 3: was like the video at this and I was like,
Speaker 3: all right, vets severs, Oh, okay, okay, but like there's
Speaker 3: a very successful tennis player named seat Bus. It's like
Speaker 3: t s I t s I p as and it's like,
Speaker 3: forget about it, Like you think John McEnroe is going
Speaker 3: to pronounce it.
Speaker 2: It's no way, not in the heat of the moment. Yeah,
Speaker 2: oh well whatever, Yeah totally, I just needed an official pronunciation. Yeah,
Speaker 2: I think it's time to play a game. Okay, unless
Speaker 2: we have anything left to say about Adobe houses, I'm
Speaker 2: sort of like.
Speaker 3: It's beautiful pictures worth a thousand words.
Speaker 2: And a clay sculpture's worth even more. Thank you, Vegan Paradise.
Speaker 3: Thank you Vegan Paradise. Great hot dogs?
Speaker 2: Did you have a hot dog?
Speaker 3: Not this time around?
Speaker 4: It?
Speaker 3: Wait? Can you actually remind me what their actual name is?
Speaker 3: It's best friends or something beesties, I do you actually
Speaker 3: want to shout them out? Because I've say that this
Speaker 3: airbnb before and it's one of the places that's like
Speaker 3: walking distance from it. And I do really like their
Speaker 3: hot dogs and they have a great selection of like
Speaker 3: fun snacks and treats and stuff that's good to know.
Speaker 3: And it really is run by like an authentic kind
Speaker 3: of like funky vegan guy.
Speaker 2: Okay, I like that, and kind of Greek colors and
Speaker 2: a great color is interesting. It all comes back to you.
Speaker 2: We're gonna play a game called Gift You a Curse.
Speaker 2: I need a number between one and ten from you.
Speaker 3: Seven. Okay.
Speaker 2: I have to do some light calculating to get our
Speaker 2: game pieces right now. You can promote, recommend, do whatever
Speaker 2: you want.
Speaker 3: Wow, Okay. I want to say I am the only
Speaker 3: person that has watched the film Amelia Perez twice, and
Speaker 3: it was kind of by chance. So the first time
Speaker 3: I watched it, I was in a hotel room in
Speaker 3: Toronto and it had just come out and I felt
Speaker 3: like I should I should be part of the conversation,
Speaker 3: and so I had sort of taken an edible by
Speaker 3: myself and watched it on my own and I was
Speaker 3: very taken aback by it. I did not particularly think
Speaker 3: it was a good film, but I was kind of
Speaker 3: glad that I saw it. And then the second time
Speaker 3: I saw it, I was it was my husband's birthday
Speaker 3: and we had a big lunch and then we're sort
Speaker 3: of like, you know, just like wanted to sit on
Speaker 3: a chair, go to a movie, whatever, and the only
Speaker 3: thing playing was Amelia Press. I was like, sure, I'll
Speaker 3: see it a second time. And now it's kind of
Speaker 3: all I can talk about. And I again would not
Speaker 3: necessarily endorse the film. I don't think it's a great movie,
Speaker 3: but I really wanted to be a larger part of
Speaker 3: like I want lines from it to be part of
Speaker 3: the conversation more so I can reference them. And it's
Speaker 3: it's like I keep cornering people and talking about it,
Speaker 3: and everyone keeps being like, oh, yeah, like she you know,
Speaker 3: her tweets and like, isn't that terrible. I'm like, yeah, no,
Speaker 3: I totally agree, Like I definitely don't support anything she
Speaker 3: has said, but like what about in the movie where
Speaker 3: she says bingal, Like why are we not talking about that?
Speaker 3: Because that's iconic. And also the first time I saw it.
Speaker 3: I thought Zoe Saldania was great, and I still do.
Speaker 3: The second time I saw it, I think I was
Speaker 3: prime because it was that the scandal to really pay
Speaker 3: attention to Carlosovia has gone performance And I'm sorry, like
Speaker 3: I definitely disagree with all her political views, but she's
Speaker 3: actually really phenomenal in the film.
Speaker 2: I mean, I have not seen it yet, and I
Speaker 2: would like for you to kind of just even briefly
Speaker 2: explain why, because it seems so universally hated. Yes, why
Speaker 2: anyone has voted for this? So is it just money
Speaker 2: that's driving this.
Speaker 3: I'm sure Netflix has a big you know, has a
Speaker 3: lot to do with that. However, it already won Best
Speaker 3: Actress that Can before it was even boppy.
Speaker 2: Oh okay, okay.
Speaker 3: So this is exactly the kind of a conversation I
Speaker 3: want to have with my friends and peers because I
Speaker 3: think it's fascinating that it's gotten this big response. Because
Speaker 3: you would think, oh, it's like old liberal boomers who
Speaker 3: want like a heartwarming tale of self actualization. But that's
Speaker 3: not what it is. She's a villain. It is about
Speaker 3: this woman who is a like a drug lord who
Speaker 3: like murders.
Speaker 2: Oh wow, I didn't know that.
Speaker 3: And then she like, I mean, I don't want to
Speaker 3: ruin it. But she attempts to get her life in order,
Speaker 3: but her past comes back to haunt her, let's say,
Speaker 3: and she is a morally complicated character, Like she's not
Speaker 3: you know this like inspirational symbol of you know, an
Speaker 3: empowered woman or something like. And so I actually think
Speaker 3: in its own way, it's like sort of desp matter
Speaker 3: of fact that it's not a good movie. I'm sort
Speaker 3: of like, oh, how funny and almost good that it
Speaker 3: has gotten people's attention.
Speaker 2: Right, and the music is bad? Is any of it memorable?
Speaker 2: Because I have a defined have.
Speaker 3: You seen the clip of Penis to Vagina?
Speaker 2: I've seen a clip, and I'm not sure if this
Speaker 2: is it or not. I can't I remember someone sending
Speaker 2: a thing to me. I was like, what am I
Speaker 2: looking at or hearing?
Speaker 3: Zoe Saldana is basically hired. I realized I was supposed
Speaker 3: to promote my own work. That whatever, maybe when this
Speaker 3: comes out, this will bempletely irrelevant. So I apologize for
Speaker 3: talking about a minute press. Zoe's Aldania is hired to
Speaker 3: figure out a way for this woman to uh transition, okay,
Speaker 3: And as part of that, she goes to a clinic
Speaker 3: that specializes in gender affirming surgery, and she is in
Speaker 3: this number, she is in conversation with a doctor and
Speaker 3: they are talking about it in the most like ridiculous
Speaker 3: cartoonish way. So she goes the doctor's like men to
Speaker 3: woman or woman to man, and then Zoe's Holdania' is
Speaker 3: like man to woman, and then the doctor goes panis
Speaker 3: to have vagin.
Speaker 2: Like rocky horror.
Speaker 3: Literally. But here's what explains Sorry, I'm gonna stop talking
Speaker 3: in one second. What explains it is that it was
Speaker 3: actually initially an opera that they turned into a musical.
Speaker 4: Oh.
Speaker 3: And the thing with opera is that, like the songs
Speaker 3: are not like musical numbers, like they're not they wouldn't translate, like,
Speaker 3: they're not pop songs.
Speaker 2: They're people just singing words yes, without any like songs
Speaker 2: exactly yes.
Speaker 3: And it always sort of sounds off like when you
Speaker 3: see an opera, you're like, wait, so this is what
Speaker 3: opera is. This is what I've been hearing about all these.
Speaker 2: Years, just people almost yelling yeah.
Speaker 3: So I think that does explain. Again, I'm not endorsing
Speaker 3: anything about this film, but I do need everyone to
Speaker 3: see it so a week and finally have a conversation
Speaker 3: about it. That isn't like you know, that's true. In fact,
Speaker 3: I'm tired of the y. So anyway, that's what's going
Speaker 3: on with me. Listen to Stradio Lab.
Speaker 2: Listen to Radio That's Georgie's podcast.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm recording a special on April first at the
Speaker 3: Slipper Room.
Speaker 2: Go see George recording a special.
Speaker 3: Yes, you know, what do you think about me recording
Speaker 3: special on April Fool's Day. I'm being very joker revibed.
Speaker 2: It's a tough thing to get.
Speaker 3: It's not my intention.
Speaker 2: I think that's going to work against you in a lot.
Speaker 2: I definitely agree, unless you you can't embrace it, because
Speaker 2: then people start to wonder. You can't ignore. There's no
Speaker 2: winning with this.
Speaker 3: No, it's bad. It's bad.
Speaker 2: April Fools is We've got to move on from that. Holidays.
Speaker 2: I know it's no one has a good time. It
Speaker 2: ruins everything. It's just a waste of every twenty four
Speaker 2: hours of a day. The news cycle becomes very difficult
Speaker 2: to follow. You can't trust anything.
Speaker 3: Yeah, but you have to trust me when I say
Speaker 3: that is when the recording gets happened.
Speaker 2: Actually, everyone goes see George.
Speaker 3: Okay, and that's it.
Speaker 2: Okay, Yes, this is how we play gift a curse.
Speaker 2: I'm going to name three things. You'll tell me if
Speaker 2: they're a gift or a curse and why, and I'll
Speaker 2: tell if you're right or wrong, because there are correct answers.
Speaker 3: Gift or curse.
Speaker 2: Okay, okay. Number one, This is from a listener who
Speaker 2: we have no idea who it was. This must have
Speaker 2: come from Instagram Live, so deal with it. Gift or
Speaker 2: a curse. When someone sneezes multiple times in a row.
Speaker 2: Curse why?
Speaker 3: I think, just on a literal level, it feels like
Speaker 3: they're being possessed, Like it's someone is like acting normally
Speaker 3: and suddenly they're just like making weird noises and movements
Speaker 3: and you know, and it feels like a devil is
Speaker 3: like either entering or exiting. I just can't imagine that
Speaker 3: being a gift. Wrong.
Speaker 2: Oh, okay, it's a gift. Oh This is why, because
Speaker 2: I feel like it really separates people from the people
Speaker 2: who have a problem with the sneeze and people who
Speaker 2: are seeking attention. I think one sneeze is a natural
Speaker 2: thing to do. Two sneezes is a natural thing to do.
Speaker 2: But that's where we stop. Once you go past two.
Speaker 2: You're an attention seeker. You're looking for the spotlight, and
Speaker 2: I know exactly who you are. You're just trying to
Speaker 2: make noise and get I'm not going to say bless
Speaker 2: you more than twice. I usually will say once and
Speaker 2: then do a polite laugh at two. Three. Now I'm
Speaker 2: getting annoyed.
Speaker 3: So then what's the gift about it?
Speaker 2: Because I know if somebody is doing three, this person
Speaker 2: is I didn't get enough attention from their parents' side.
Speaker 3: It's a gift for you because you can judge them
Speaker 3: more accurately.
Speaker 2: Yes, I can absolutely separate people from they had some
Speaker 2: dust in their nose and oh they don't need to
Speaker 2: do standing them. Okay, so wrong Number two. This is
Speaker 2: from a listener named Megan. Gift your a curse, saying
Speaker 2: tld R in a verbal conversation.
Speaker 3: Oh, I think curse and I really don't like.
Speaker 2: It.
Speaker 3: Really is one of my big pet peeves when Internet
Speaker 3: language makes its way to the real world. And like
Speaker 3: I would and I see this with myself, like because
Speaker 3: I can't resist doing it, and I really think that
Speaker 3: it should be punished by the government. Like we show
Speaker 3: all we wearing little dog collars, and if you say
Speaker 3: honestly any cliche, you should be hurt a little bit. Obviously,
Speaker 3: cliches are part of life. But like I think, just
Speaker 3: a little punishment, just like when you eat something really unhealthy,
Speaker 3: like you get you know, you get diarrhea or something, so.
Speaker 2: You learn yeah, so your body becomes aware of yes.
Speaker 3: So that's how I feel. Correct, Oh, okay, curse.
Speaker 2: I mean, it was difficult for me to even say it,
Speaker 2: to present this information to you. That was a very
Speaker 2: I don't think I've ever actually heard the settle out.
Speaker 2: I mean I've heard other I turn out slang and
Speaker 2: this sort of thing settle out, and it's never not
Speaker 2: been unbelievably grating, and I've lost respect for whoever said it.
Speaker 2: I can't imagine any scenario where someone says those four
Speaker 2: letters in my face. For so many I just it
Speaker 2: is the most excruciating behavior and it's something we're going
Speaker 2: to just have to deal with for the rest of
Speaker 2: our lives.
Speaker 3: Yeah, okay, here's a question for you. What And I'm
Speaker 3: trying to think of my own answer to this. What
Speaker 3: currently would you say, is like the number one thing
Speaker 3: you hate hearing someone say, like in terms of cliches
Speaker 3: like that.
Speaker 2: Oh that's a very good question.
Speaker 3: Oh I know, okay, I know what mine is.
Speaker 2: M let me think for a moment here. Did you
Speaker 2: tell me that maybe it'll spark some.
Speaker 3: I think mine currently and this can change? Is we
Speaker 3: love to see it?
Speaker 2: Oh?
Speaker 3: I really? It really bothers me. And what is it
Speaker 3: that I don't like about it? Like I as a
Speaker 3: tick I I often will say it is what it is,
Speaker 3: which I don't love about myself, but it just I
Speaker 3: can't unlearn it. And one time, like a close friend
Speaker 3: of mine was like one of my biggest pet peeve
Speaker 3: is when people say it is what it is? And
Speaker 3: I was like, the fuck? And so I get it
Speaker 3: if it's something like I think sometimes you just like
Speaker 3: these things go inside of you and you can't escape them. Yes,
Speaker 3: but there's just something that is so meaningless about we
Speaker 3: love to see it and and weirdly like like not
Speaker 3: quite sarcastic, but almost like cruel, and like it's like
Speaker 3: you just I just said something and then someone's like, oh,
Speaker 3: we love to see it. Oh, it's like are you
Speaker 3: making fun of me?
Speaker 2: Right, what does that mean?
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 2: I think part of the problem with that particular phrase,
Speaker 2: and I think there was just like a whole category
Speaker 2: of those is they came from nowhere, whoever saying them.
Speaker 2: It has nothing to do with their actual personality or
Speaker 2: how they speak. It's like they read it on something
Speaker 2: or heard it on a podcast from someone who read
Speaker 2: it on something, and it's Yeah, I feel it does
Speaker 2: feel like a tick. It's just like a thing that
Speaker 2: they can't you can't control. And it's not even slang.
Speaker 2: I don't even know what category of useless language that is.
Speaker 3: But like internet language.
Speaker 2: I hate it so much, But it's the sort of
Speaker 2: I don't know where you stand on LOL, Like it
Speaker 2: was saying, oh, were you ever did you ever use it? Yeah?
Speaker 2: Of course, Okay, I've never used You've never used LOL
Speaker 2: maybe once in my entire life. I remember very early
Speaker 2: on being like, that looks stupid. I've totally yeah, And
Speaker 2: I'm what I'm really shocked by is when people who
Speaker 2: are like decades older than me will use an LOL,
Speaker 2: and I'm like, what's happened to society? But I just
Speaker 2: I could never naturally type LOL.
Speaker 3: Do you do lmao.
Speaker 2: Maybe I've probably done one of those, both of those
Speaker 2: ironically at some point. Yeah, but I just like I
Speaker 2: never go to those.
Speaker 3: I go to ha ha, which is the more respectful option,
Speaker 3: of course, And of course lol comes with the baggage
Speaker 3: of like sometimes you're basically like undermining your own It's like,
Speaker 3: I'm almost there, lol, Like you're just like undermining a
Speaker 3: statement you like have some self respect, right.
Speaker 2: Right, Okay, you've gotten one right so far. And this
Speaker 2: is the final one. This is from a listener named
Speaker 2: Martin Gift or a curse Rotten Tomatoes.
Speaker 3: This is interesting. Obviously the obvious answer is curse. You know,
Speaker 3: it's like you you know, you can't rank or rate art.
Speaker 3: The only way that I think it could be a
Speaker 3: gift is Sam Taggert and I, my my beloved co host,
Speaker 3: we have this thing where we love sixty percent Rotten
Speaker 3: Tomatoes movies.
Speaker 2: I love to hear this, so we keep going.
Speaker 3: So this is like it's like a classic example is
Speaker 3: Darren Aronofski's mother or Vox Lucks is a great example.
Speaker 3: No one fact check how what their actual scores are,
Speaker 3: and so in a weird way because of how flawed
Speaker 3: and how much of a curse rotten Tomatoes is. There
Speaker 3: is this weird paradox, you know, counterintuitive corollaria where actually
Speaker 3: it does point you to interesting movies because those movies
Speaker 3: have is fifty to sixty percent un rotten tomatoes. Right, So, okay,
Speaker 3: I should give you a final answer. I will say,
Speaker 3: to be provocative gift.
Speaker 2: I mean, you are wrong. It is. It is a curse.
Speaker 2: But everything you're saying right now is essentially exactly how
Speaker 2: I think I when someone tells me it got one
Speaker 2: hundred percent on rotten tomatoes, there is no metric that
Speaker 2: is more meaningless. That means if it's something got a
Speaker 2: ninety to one hundred percent, that means it's boring almost
Speaker 2: ninety eight percent of the time. It means it's just
Speaker 2: a nothing thing that everybody gave a bee. Yes, and
Speaker 2: the secret is between fifty and I would say upper seventy. Sure,
Speaker 2: Sure that's a that's a movie that will be interesting
Speaker 2: and probably good. Yeah, or it's not going to be
Speaker 2: a completely dull time. But I cannot I can't see
Speaker 2: another thing on the internet that says you have to
Speaker 2: see this one hundred percent rotten tomatoes.
Speaker 3: I agree, we're on the same page, but I accept
Speaker 3: that I was wrong in my We're wrong.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and you've only got one out of three.
Speaker 3: All right, well so not even the fifty percent mark.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you're not. Everyone can trust this rotten to me? Yes,
Speaker 2: damn all right, no one's going to see you poorly played.
Speaker 2: I'm sorry. This is the final. Oh honalis do you
Speaker 2: have yours? Onalise has a gift, he a curse that
Speaker 2: they're going to present to us, and we both have
Speaker 2: to answer, and they have their answer. Okay, this is
Speaker 2: the fairest we can get on this podcast.
Speaker 4: So today obviously we just passed me not today today,
Speaker 4: but this episode is coming out right after Saint Patrick's Day,
Speaker 4: so it's only appropriate that I say gift or curse
Speaker 4: Irish goodbyes.
Speaker 3: Oh oh okay, I'm just gonna go literal with this one,
Speaker 3: rather than try to be you know, controversial. I think gift.
Speaker 3: I think just lee like leave them wanting more, leave
Speaker 3: when you're ready. I don't the like performance of suddenly
Speaker 3: having to give seventeen hugs in a row. It doesn't
Speaker 3: do anything for anyone. I will say. I wish it
Speaker 3: was socially acceptable to just like go give one hug
Speaker 3: to one person that you were like especially happy to
Speaker 3: see it. But you can't do that.
Speaker 2: But I'll say gift and I'm going to say curse
Speaker 2: because I love them. So it's the only option I
Speaker 2: ever want to use. And I know that some people
Speaker 2: aren't okay with you just vanishing, and some people will
Speaker 2: comment and they're usually very irritating. But I for me,
Speaker 2: it's become almost a disease in my life where I
Speaker 2: never say goodbye to anybody at the party. I'm just
Speaker 2: taking off, And it's it's almost given me too much
Speaker 2: permission to leave a party, I see. But I do
Speaker 2: love it so much. On alease, it's a gift.
Speaker 4: They're a gift. I mean at the end of the day,
Speaker 4: Oh my god, I said the word I said. But
Speaker 4: at the end of the day, I can't say that.
Speaker 2: Ok, at the end of the day, at the end
Speaker 2: of the shohow.
Speaker 4: That's another one of those buzz phreezes.
Speaker 2: Classic. It is a classic.
Speaker 3: You're getting buzzed. Yeah, your collor is going off exactly.
Speaker 4: So the way that I see it is that if
Speaker 4: you don't say goodbye, if you do an Irish goodbye
Speaker 4: at a party, the real friends of yours will understand.
Speaker 4: They will forgive you, and the ones who wouldn't are
Speaker 4: the exact kind of person that it's appropriate to give
Speaker 4: an Irish goodbye too. So your your reasoning is absolutely
Speaker 4: justified for doing it in the first place.
Speaker 2: All right, Yeah, I totally understand that an at least
Speaker 2: you are wrong. George, you are wrong, I'm correct, But
Speaker 2: it seems like we all appreciate the Irish goodbye in
Speaker 2: some way, and that's what is important.
Speaker 3: Yeah. I would even say your answer was in favor
Speaker 3: of it, and then.
Speaker 2: We're all in favor of it. Okay, where are we
Speaker 2: in the We have to answer a listener question, and
Speaker 2: I just want to say to the listener, please start
Speaker 2: writing in about with questions other than things about what
Speaker 2: to give people. I'm so tired of giving gift advice.
Speaker 2: Ask me and the guest anything. I am ready to
Speaker 2: answer other questions. That said, let's answer a question I said,
Speaker 2: no gifts at gmail dot com. Okay, this says, let's
Speaker 2: see bah deer Bridger and guest. How do I deal
Speaker 2: with a mother in law who is a Debbie Downer.
Speaker 2: She knows how to turn any topic into a painful one.
Speaker 2: She i can't invite her to our little celebrations. Is
Speaker 2: there a way I can steer her away from saying
Speaker 2: something that will shit all over our get togethers? Any
Speaker 2: suggestions would be helpful. Thank you so much, Danny. So, basically,
Speaker 2: Downie has this mother in law who sucks, who's causing
Speaker 2: trouble at all of the parties and just making everybody
Speaker 2: feel bad all the time. Is there something that she
Speaker 2: can do to keep her from ruining every event that
Speaker 2: she's ever been invited to.
Speaker 3: No, you think someone's gonna change, people don't change fucking real.
Speaker 3: And also, I'll tell you what else, There is no
Speaker 3: elegant way to be shitting on your mother. By the way,
Speaker 3: I don't say this from experience because I love my
Speaker 3: mother in law, but my mom, my mom, and my
Speaker 3: grandmother on my father's side, I just have different personalities.
Speaker 3: They are perfectly cordial. But like anytime you get into
Speaker 3: the space of basically doing mother in law humor, even
Speaker 3: when you think you're coming out on top, you are
Speaker 3: the like. You seem like the mean one, the problem
Speaker 3: because you're mad at an older woman who has sacrificed
Speaker 3: so much and in fact, the reason you're married Yes
Speaker 3: to your husband, Greg, and I it's just one of
Speaker 3: those things that like, if you don't like your mother
Speaker 3: in law, you gotta suck it up, right right.
Speaker 2: I mean, I will say, the way I deal with
Speaker 2: somebody who is just a NonStop negative force, well, I
Speaker 2: feel like I fall into that category a lot of
Speaker 2: the time. But when I have somebody who will not stop,
Speaker 2: what I do is I lean into whatever they're complaining
Speaker 2: about and I go too far to the point that
Speaker 2: they have to be like ooh that's good, Oh this
Speaker 2: seems bad. Yeah, And then I mean I makes me
Speaker 2: seem insane or horrible, but at least we're like hopefully
Speaker 2: of course, correcting this person's behavior because they're like, oh,
Speaker 2: now I'm questioning my own opinions and what I'm doing
Speaker 2: because Bridger's going so far and so hard with this
Speaker 2: negative opinion.
Speaker 3: I mean, unless they call your bluff and they really
Speaker 3: just like get you lower and lower, and then you
Speaker 3: both are just like you're saying, yeah, I know, but
Speaker 3: it is obviously I get it. And and to your point,
Speaker 3: I've also been that person and I had to really like,
Speaker 3: I mean, it's still within me, but I had to
Speaker 3: unlearn or I had to learn that, Like, it's not
Speaker 3: inherently interesting to hate everything, right, which I used to
Speaker 3: genuinely think it was.
Speaker 2: Well, but I'm also going to say, there's a category
Speaker 2: of person that will say you just hate everything. You'll
Speaker 2: say something critical about something. I bet you've dealt with
Speaker 2: somebody like this where they say, well, you just like
Speaker 2: to hate everything. That category, that sort of person is
Speaker 2: very much you have too much time on your hands?
Speaker 2: How do you think of these things?
Speaker 3: That kind of thing, I mean talk about a cliche
Speaker 3: that thankfully is on its way out, is like, let
Speaker 3: people enjoy things.
Speaker 2: Oh, because that was a poisonous period of time. That
Speaker 2: is a bad, bad philosophy.
Speaker 3: What if I enjoy constructive critique?
Speaker 2: Yes, you can't give everything a free pass. Some things
Speaker 2: are bad.
Speaker 3: Yeah, And actually it's I think the thing is most
Speaker 3: people that that that let people enjoy things thing is
Speaker 3: yelled at don't deserve it. Like it's like most people
Speaker 3: are perfect like you and I, and we're just like
Speaker 3: very critical. But then when we do like something, we
Speaker 3: have a thoughtful we will express that and will be
Speaker 3: thoughtful about it, and and it'll be like there's evidence, yes,
Speaker 3: but then it is true just inevitably that there are
Speaker 3: some people who do hate everything right, but they make
Speaker 3: it worse for the rest of us that are just
Speaker 3: like really kind of smart and critical right, who.
Speaker 2: Have standards exactly Yeah, but just once when I criticize something,
Speaker 2: I'd like someone to say, you have standards, yes, rather
Speaker 2: than you hate everything.
Speaker 3: I know.
Speaker 2: I need more compliments, Danny, do whatever you want with
Speaker 2: the mother in law. Don't write back. In beautiful we
Speaker 2: answered the question. I have this gorgeous little thing that
Speaker 2: will be in my kitchen very soon, and I've had
Speaker 2: such a lovely time with you.
Speaker 3: To me too, this has been so lovely.
Speaker 2: Thank you for taking part of your trip out to
Speaker 2: come here in the rain. Listener, the podcast is over.
Speaker 2: I need you to just figure out something to do
Speaker 2: with your day. I have no suggestions whatsoever. I love you, goodbye.
Speaker 2: I said No Gifts is an exactly right production. Our
Speaker 2: senior producer is on Alise Nelson, and our episodes are
Speaker 2: beautifully mixed by Ben Tolliday. The theme song is by
Speaker 2: miracle worker Amy Mann, and we couldn't do it without
Speaker 2: our booker, Patrick Cottner. You must follow the show on
Speaker 2: Instagram at I said No Gifts that's where you're going
Speaker 2: to see pictures of all these wonderful gifts I'm getting.
Speaker 2: And don't you want to see the gifts?
Speaker 1: But I invited you here, thought I made myself perfectly clear.
Speaker 1: When you're a guess to my home, you gotta come
Speaker 1: to me empty. And I said, no guests, your own
Speaker 1: presences presents enough. I already had too much stuff, So
Speaker 1: how do you
Speaker 2: Dare to surbey me?