Ep. 598: "Prescription Sandwich"
Merlin:Hello.
Merlin:Hi, John.
Merlin:Hi, Merlin.
Merlin:How's it going?
Merlin:It's going good.
Merlin:How are you going?
Merlin:Ah, pretty good.
Merlin:Pretty good.
Merlin:Pretty good.
Merlin:Pretty good.
Merlin:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Merlin:No, I'm fine, you know.
Merlin:Yeah.
Merlin:I'm not sure it would matter that much one way or another.
Merlin:What?
Merlin:Well, I mean, interpersonally, we, you know, are concerned about those things.
Merlin:But, you know...
Merlin:I'm at that age.
John:Are you talking about in the world?
Merlin:I'm talking about in the world, the broader landscape, you know?
Merlin:Yeah.
Merlin:No.
Merlin:But no, I'm fine.
Merlin:And, you know, I'm the soul of self-satisfying.
Merlin:That's what they say.
Merlin:I've never heard that.
Merlin:And what does it mean?
Merlin:I don't know.
Merlin:But it might be Walt Whitman.
Merlin:The soul is self-satisfying.
John:That sounds Walt Whitman-y.
Merlin:Yeah, I've got others.
Merlin:They only help so much.
John:Did you learn parts of Leaves of Grass?
Merlin:I read Leaves of Grass.
Merlin:But you can't say them out loud.
Merlin:I mean, just the quotes everybody knows, but I don't have a song of myself memorized or anything like that.
John:Wouldn't that be something?
Merlin:I did quote Allen Ginsberg.
Merlin:Wow, this is an obscure double bounce.
Merlin:I think what you might in snooker, you might call it a bank shot.
Merlin:I did make an Allen Ginsberg reference this morning, which I only think of because he's got that lost in the supermarket poem.
Merlin:Maybe that's the clash.
Merlin:He's got that poem that's kind of, you know, where he sees Walt Whitman at the grocery store.
Merlin:And, you know, Walt Whitman was a big influence on Allen Ginsberg.
Merlin:Right, right, right, right, right, right, right.
Merlin:I refer to my family as angel-headed hipsters.
John:And did they, like, smile broadly?
John:No, no.
Merlin:I think they know better than to acknowledge, because, you know, I think that, you know, I feel like it helps improve the algorithm for them, but it might be them pretty soon, you know, I'm quoting everybody, I'm quoting all kinds of things, and I'm, you know.
John:No, it's SEO optimization.
Merlin:What would it be?
Merlin:Yeah, it would be search engine optimization, but for the human mind or soul or vis-a-vis relationship.
John:What do you think?
John:Well, I think the AI that's all over your house is probably listening and heard that and cross-referenced it and said, ah, okay.
John:Yes.
Merlin:Yeah, as long as it's beneficial to my future searches.
Merlin:Do people like it when you quote things?
Merlin:You're probably not a big quoter.
Merlin:You quote some things.
Merlin:You quote.
Merlin:Small.
John:Small things.
Merlin:Yeah, I don't... All the small things.
John:See?
John:Music's funny.
John:I think I probably quote music more than anything.
Merlin:You know what?
Merlin:It's funny how it only takes two syllables of a lot of things to make your brain finish it for you.
Merlin:Every time.
Merlin:So I go, all the...
Merlin:Small things.
Merlin:Right.
Merlin:What about it's been?
Merlin:Seven hours and 16.
Merlin:Oh, yeah, sure.
Merlin:You could go a million ways with that.
Merlin:It's been seven hours and 15 minutes.
Merlin:Yeah, but no, everything's fine.
Merlin:I think I'm a little bit tired all the time to the point where I feel like I need to re-level.
Merlin:Uh-huh.
Merlin:Recalibrate, if you like.
Merlin:You know, I think in order for this to stay useful, I need to figure out, like, you know, what if I needed a thing that detects way fewer than three Ronkin?
Merlin:You know what I'm saying?
Merlin:Like the amount of available energy.
Merlin:My rods.
John:Have you tried turning it off and turning it back on again?
Merlin:Uh-huh.
Merlin:You mean the AI?
Merlin:No.
Merlin:Oh.
Merlin:You.
Merlin:Me.
Merlin:Oh, yeah.
Merlin:Oh, yeah.
Merlin:I would like, yeah.
Merlin:No.
Merlin:If nobody's around, I'll sleep all day.
John:Yeah, I did that yesterday.
Merlin:Oh, it's a Sunday thing for me sometimes.
John:Yeah, I woke up and I looked around and I said I could get up.
John:It's the morning.
Merlin:I mean, here's the thing.
Merlin:Societal pressure, you know, the regard of your family and your colleagues, all those kinds of things.
Merlin:Who am I trying to impress?
Merlin:Yeah.
Merlin:Whom?
Merlin:Whom?
Merlin:Whom?
Merlin:Whom am I trying?
Merlin:Here's the thing.
Merlin:Like, if I do everything right, you know, the reaction's still the same.
Merlin:Here's the basic reaction.
Merlin:No matter how well I do, I have a very low ceiling to, I think I have a low ceiling and a high, well, low ceiling and I've actually, honestly, a fairly low floor in terms of, like, how I'm regarded by people.
Merlin:And, you know, so, hey, what am I going to do?
Merlin:I'm going to brag.
Merlin:I didn't sleep for 24 hours.
Merlin:That'll get me laid.
Merlin:You need tomato boys, it sounds like.
Merlin:You need tomato boys.
Merlin:I could have used it when it mattered, back when I had self-esteem, integrity, wholeness, sense of active cognition and engagement with the discourse.
Merlin:But now, you know, if I sleep for more or less 18 hours on and off, because you really should have a sandwich in between.
Merlin:Sure.
Merlin:In and out.
Merlin:Yep.
Merlin:I've learned that, though.
Merlin:I've learned you have the 10 a.m.
Merlin:sandwich and you're back in bed by noon.
Merlin:If you eat a Reuben not long after rising at 10 a.m.
Merlin:and don't have too much coffee, you can easily go back to bed at noon.
Merlin:It's going to put you right back to bed.
Merlin:It's going to turn you around and back to bed.
Merlin:It is a functional sandwich.
John:yeah a prescription sandwich if you like i have not had enough rubens if you go back over the last three months and count the rubens i've had it's near to zero and i don't i don't know how i'm living i i i
Merlin:I like a Reuben.
Merlin:My problem is, like, if you get a Reuben, it really helps to go out for it.
Merlin:I feel like it's one of those sandwiches that really doesn't travel.
Merlin:One of those kinds of foods in general that doesn't travel very well.
Merlin:But, yeah, man, I love me a Reuben.
Merlin:And, you know, you can eat half of it now and have half of it later.
Merlin:That's the best.
Merlin:So you really feel 60.
John:That's the best.
John:If you go to Katz's, you can eat it all day.
Merlin:I wasn't going to say it.
Merlin:My family's in New York right now, and they did go to Katz's.
Merlin:Really?
Merlin:And that's also why I refer to them as angel-headed hipsters.
Merlin:I will only talk about anything anyone does on the day people are traveling back.
John:Did you see that they found a Kerouac two-gager?
Merlin:Hey, Jack Kerouac.
Merlin:No, but they were, you know, my kid's aware of some things.
Merlin:My wife used to be aware of things.
Merlin:They went to some musicals.
Merlin:They had a real good time.
Merlin:That's nice.
Merlin:That's nice.
Merlin:I had dinner last night.
Merlin:They really get their cleats in for a three-day trip to New York.
Merlin:I mean, as with so many things, I am excused slash not invited, which is so fine with me.
Merlin:Because my idea of that kind of trip would be really different from their idea of that.
Merlin:And that's their thing.
Merlin:I mean, mom didn't tell us how to navigate the comic book store, if you know what I mean.
Merlin:Yeah, I used to have a relationship with my family.
Merlin:And now they're going to musicals, but they also had a big-ass sandwich.
Merlin:I think they sent me a photo of it.
Merlin:It's a big-ass sandwich.
Merlin:What did you do yesterday?
Merlin:Yesterday is Indigenous People's Eve.
John:and eve yeah yeah i met a couple of people from new york uh for dinner and we talked about new york and i remarked that i had not been there since the pandemic and we all bowed our heads and looked at the table and looked at the floor with sorrow yeah that because i miss it i miss new york it's hard to get around get there yeah i'm glad i'm glad i'm not flying around today woof what happens today nor'easter
Merlin:Oh, there's a nor'easter?
Merlin:Yeah, there's a nor'easter.
Merlin:Also, we're getting rain here today, which is unusual.
Merlin:So there's a lot going on in weather.
John:We had rain all weekend.
John:You know, the best kind of Seattle rain where it's like, you know, do you want to go out?
John:Because it's going to get you.
John:But there was a funeral.
John:There was a funeral yesterday for a guy who, his name was Dwayne.
John:He was the singer of the Derelicts.
John:Which was like one of those, you remember when punk bands were like, fuck it, fuck it?
John:They were like, let's get drunk and fucking break stuff.
Merlin:More parts, more parts for a million.
Merlin:That era?
Merlin:Yeah.
Merlin:Yeah, yeah.
Merlin:All those bands Eric liked.
Merlin:Yeah.
Merlin:Like a Thermals.
Merlin:Is it like a Thermals or a Libertines?
John:Oh, no, I'm sorry.
John:No, nothing like that.
Merlin:You mean punk rock, old punk rock?
John:I'm talking about 1988 punk rock.
John:Oh, yeah.
John:grunge when people like you know like yes yes when you went to see a band and you expected guys to be missing teeth in the band especially ones named Dwayne if I'm being honest yeah Dwayne Dwayne they were like friends with the dwarves and that whole scene and and uh they were they were drunks and they were they were uh they were
John:yeah and then junkies was a memorial or a burial no it was a it was he died a little bit ago but this was like yeah they get together let's remember duane yeah exactly we're gonna have a we're gonna have a show at the at the biker bar and it's gonna be uh it's gonna be everybody's gonna get up and and go and what the rest of the guys in his band still like the drummer that's fun gun
John:And it was fun.
John:It was very crusty.
John:Like they were a little bit, their scene was a little bit before mine.
John:So everybody there was like 62 and lifers, like a whole room full of 62.
Merlin:You got like some purple dyed braids and stuff like that.
John:Yeah, a lot of that.
Merlin:A lot of guys just... Well, as against, I guess I'm thinking as against, say, like, you know, Prime Minister Harold Wilson, kind of with a bowler hat look.
Merlin:Was it a distinguished 60s look or like flying your freak... Freak... Flying?
Merlin:Flag?
Merlin:I find it incredibly difficult.
Merlin:It's also why I could never have a child.
Merlin:It's why I could never have a child named Lily.
Merlin:I can't say it.
Merlin:You can't say Lily.
Merlin:I sound like Tom Brokaw.
Merlin:Hi.
Merlin:Hi.
Merlin:Is it more Harold Wilson or Mr. Heath, Mr. Wilson, or is it more freak flag flying?
Merlin:There was one guy.
Merlin:Guys who look like Santa, I'm guessing.
Merlin:Who?
Merlin:Well, no, it's that age.
Merlin:It's that age when everybody, all the old guys who still leave the house look like Santa.
Merlin:A lot of them.
John:Oh, well, there was one guy who looked like Rob Zombie who had the leather hat that was leather.
John:I don't know.
John:It's not a cowboy hat.
Merlin:I know what you mean.
John:One of those Los Angeles hats.
John:Yeah.
John:There was one guy and then his gal and they were having that.
John:They were looking all freak flagged.
John:But then, no, everybody else was like...
John:they were punkers you know they had they were they were but they were old they were like yeah they were just punkers and of course i was never a punker as we've discussed many times but i was i knew everybody there i bet you can be polite at a funeral if you have to be and well it was a great rock show and dwayne was one of these guys
John:Everybody in his band hated me, especially the guitar player.
John:The derelicts, you say?
John:The derelicts.
Merlin:We used to glare at each other.
John:Well, after the band broke up, they started a band called Zip Gun.
John:But Dwayne was one of those guys, when I first moved to Seattle, who was just really nice.
John:Just nice.
Merlin:Yeah.
John:And he had no reason to be nice to me.
Merlin:Oh, I love that.
Merlin:I love that.
Merlin:That means so much.
Merlin:It really does.
Merlin:It means so much.
Merlin:There were people like that with me in various scenes.
Merlin:People who were kind to me in totally unnecessary ways, and it meant the world to me.
Merlin:Right.
Merlin:It's a very lonely business, getting into rock and roll.
John:When I think back to the when I first arrived in Seattle, I can honestly think of there's like six people That were just that had no reason to be nice to somebody like me and they were and I remember it I remember all six of them because they were people that were when I say had no reason I mean they were already they were doing stuff, right?
John:They were known quantities they had bands or they were DJs or
John:and and most people i guess looking back most people who had those that kind of position were not nice and and this little group was nice and i'll go to every one of their funerals if i'm still alive yeah yeah yeah i'll go there with a with a flower and i'll lay it down on the grave and they'll be like i would go if it's convenient like it was a walkable sure sure but they'll be like who's the woman in black and it'll be like that's john roderick
Merlin:oh that's that's so interesting like maybe it it'd be interesting if i don't know why this only occurred because i suddenly saw you looking like um i don't know if this is the right term like uh la llorona i imagine you're looking like some kind of like an alejandro yodorowsky witch a bruja i imagine you showing up with a big with a big hat not a not a los angeles hat but a yodorowsky hat like a holy mountain hat or a del topo hat like a tall hat
Merlin:I imagine you kind of like a cross between an Abraham Lincoln and a Captain Beefheart.
Merlin:You show up with that, but you're totally... You're almost like somebody in the movie Coco.
Merlin:You're mainly like a silhouette.
Merlin:And here's what I love for you, John.
Merlin:You show up as a new and different... It doesn't have to be a specter of death, but a new and different character every time such that when you roll into the funeral...
Merlin:Either they absolutely know it's John Roderick or they have no idea that it's John Roderick.
Merlin:I think it'd be fun eventually if every time somebody came in, you know, there's a stilt man, you know, who's a unicorn.
Merlin:Oh, that must be John for this one.
Merlin:But that would be your way of showing your tribute to the decedent.
John:I feel like if I lived in Europe, I would be, I don't know.
John:What do you think?
John:How different would your life have had to have been for you to be a member of a clown culture?
Yeah.
Merlin:It depends on how early you started.
Merlin:I think with anything where your sensibilities are broken by Europe, it probably is best to do it young.
Merlin:But on the other hand, if you had late onset clown interest, then you're going to be one of those people who's super into it, like you bought a bike.
Merlin:And then you'd be like the clown guy who's really into clowns.
Merlin:As far as it having like, you see, if you do it now, France, France is a MacGuffin, which technically should be Scotland.
Merlin:But France throws you off because, you know, they're into actual real clowning, like the three different kinds of classic clowns in the theater dell'arte or whatever.
Merlin:But as far as like dressing up like, you know, like Bozo or something.
John:Oh, but I mean, like, you know, we were that era where... Yeah, the big political puppets and shit, right?
John:That's what you're thinking of, like big protests and stuff, huh?
John:Yeah, but also we were into close-up magic when we were eight years old, although I couldn't spend the time to actually figure out how to do it, but I really wanted to.
Merlin:You and your pals were?
Merlin:Like, you would be, like, into it?
John:oh no i think i got a book for christmas i bought his card deck from the walgreens that's right take the top card and they all turn to the ace of spades but you know so if you had if you had gotten into magic at eight years old or something yeah yeah yeah yeah you know how long before you got into juggling like what would the path have been for you to be like a serious
John:seriously interested in the art of clown, but like somebody that went to clown college or something that, but was serious about it.
John:Like that's, I'm not kidding around.
John:This isn't a birthday party thing.
John:Like I'm doing this as art.
Merlin:I'll bet it's something that you start out.
Merlin:It's one of those things, at least the way I think of it, because I have such a impoverished imagination.
Merlin:But like, to me, there's those things where you start out and you're doing a thing and you don't even know it has a name.
Yeah.
Merlin:Like being into clowns or being gay or whatever, where you're like growing up and you're 11 and you're like, I'm just really attracted to this certain kind of thing.
Merlin:I was attracted to magic stuff.
Merlin:I was attracted to like the moves and the stuff like that and things.
Merlin:But like even before it has a name, you might be a proto clown or a pre clown.
Merlin:A proto-clown or a pre-clown?
Merlin:I don't know.
Merlin:I mean, those do sound kind of like Scientology terms, but like you— Excuse me.
Merlin:I got a little phlegmy there.
Merlin:No, that's fine.
Merlin:If you become an OCA, that means you're an eighth-level operating clown.
Merlin:Uh-huh, uh-huh.
Merlin:Yeah, no thetan's going to stick to you.
Merlin:But I don't know.
Merlin:I do think it is interesting.
Merlin:It's one thing to grow up.
Merlin:Like, for example, there's many things I aspire to as a young person.
Merlin:I aspired when I was in probably fourth or fifth grade, I aspired to go to West Point.
Merlin:because I think I craved order.
Merlin:That's right.
Merlin:Well, this is before military school.
Merlin:You went to military school.
Merlin:Well, different things, different things.
Merlin:That's two years before that, I checked a book out of the Anne Weigel Elementary Library about West Point.
Merlin:I also, at one point, wanted to be around that same time, wanted to be in the French Foreign Legion.
Merlin:I had a book about that, and I'd read about that.
Merlin:Now, in that case, you start with the name of something and aspire to it.
Merlin:I think you're talking, if I could say, you're talking about something different to that, which in this case is, like, you're doing some fucking clown shit, and you may not even know you're a clown.
Merlin:You may not know that you have pure clown blood.
Merlin:Oh, right.
Merlin:You know what I mean?
Merlin:You find yourself juggling when it's out of your way.
Merlin:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
John:How did I get here again at the juggling store?
Merlin:Oh, geez.
John:Do you think if you had gone to West Point, like, is there a warrior in you, like a violence warrior?
John:No.
Merlin:No, but I think I could be sliding doors if I'd taken another path that had been forced upon me at a certain age.
Merlin:I could see myself, I don't know, being like one of those guys in a commercial who stares at a screen with the arm sweeping around on it.
Merlin:Yep.
Merlin:We don't ask for experience, we give it.
Merlin:I remember that song.
Merlin:That's what I used to say to girls.
John:Jesus.
John:I could see you being an officer in the military, absolutely.
John:And a gentleman.
John:And a gentleman both.
Merlin:I've lived us up where we belong.
Merlin:One goes the other way.
Merlin:I don't know.
Merlin:Now you, see, but this is, I don't know.
Merlin:It's just, it is interesting to me in the sense that like, it's easy to make too much of this, but like, you know, there was only so much information in the world when I was a young person.
Merlin:And all the information that was in the world,
Merlin:I only had access to some of it.
Merlin:And of the stuff that I did have access to, I didn't even know the name of a lot of information.
Merlin:I was attracted to things sexually from a very young age that I didn't know how to name.
Merlin:I didn't even know what to look up.
Merlin:So you come across a book on West Point and pretty soon you're doing like, you know, hospital corners.
Merlin:But in that case, I'm aspiring to this noun, which is West Point.
Merlin:But then other times I think one finds oneself living a verb and not knowing that it might have a noun associated with it.
Merlin:Well, like in a lot of the basic clowning behavior.
Merlin:Yeah.
Merlin:Have you ever known a clown?
John:Personally?
John:Oh, I think because I was a member of alternative culture, there were clowns, but they were way out.
John:But you never had one as a roommate or something.
John:No, no, no, no.
John:I was never, because grunge didn't have clowns.
John:It's not like hippies have clowns.
John:Rainbow gatherings have clowns.
John:I'm sure there are clowns at fish shows.
John:There for sure are at dead shows, but there aren't at sound garden shows.
John:Or if there are, they're just like Rob Zombie clowns, but they don't think of themselves as clowns.
Merlin:I'm not talking about those showy clowns that go out to be entertaining.
Merlin:I'm talking about a lifestyle clown.
Merlin:Like somebody who's been in the clown closet a long time and they finally came out and maybe they're in their 60s now.
Merlin:They have a clown partner.
Merlin:Oh, well.
Merlin:But isn't clowning more than clowning?
John:When I was King Neptune, of course, there are seafare clowns.
Merlin:The phrase means nothing to me, and I'm so reluctant to even say those words because I'm concerned that you'll tell me what that means.
Merlin:Seafare clowns.
John:Well, seafare being the King Neptune festival, and there are pirates...
John:who are in the old days, they were actually like biker types who dressed like pirates and rode around town in one of those World War II era amphibious duck boats.
Merlin:What a confusing paragraph this is.
John:And they had an actual cannon.
John:They still do.
John:But they had a bigger cannon.
John:And they would just drive around town and just shoot this.
John:They wouldn't put any.
Merlin:The bikers would dress like pirates and go around in a little mini parade shooting a cannon.
John:Shoot it in a cannon.
John:And then they would walk into bars and they would tear the bar apart.
John:But everybody laughed or laughed because it was Seafair.
John:And then there was another group of clowns, the Seafair clowns, that had a bus, a school bus.
John:And they would drive around town and do clown shit.
John:And they were proper clowns, big shoes and red noses.
Merlin:Sense of mischief, especially when you get them in a crowd.
Merlin:They get very mischievous, don't they?
John:Yeah, a lot of mischief.
John:They're doing tricks.
John:There's a lot of stealing of kids, I think.
John:I bet they hide things, hide children.
John:And so as the king of Seafair, I presided over all of these.
John:Did you smite the pirate and clown alike?
John:I smote the pirates.
John:I celebrated the clowns because that's the kind of ruler I was.
John:But yeah, a lot of those guys, the pirates and the clowns have been in it for 20, 30 years.
John:A lot of them have been doing it for years.
John:I was just the next king that they'd seen.
John:Yeah, they weren't impressed until I made them impressed.
John:Until I...
John:laid down the boom on them.
John:But yeah, so I knew a lot of clowns.
John:But it was only briefly, and I never saw them out of their makeup, which I guess is because they're true clowns.
John:They're true clowns.
John:And you're not allowed to kiss them on the mouth, no matter how much you pay.
John:You couldn't even get to their mouth.
John:There's so much nose in between.
Merlin:Oh, you kidding me?
Merlin:But I love you, honk.
Merlin:I assume their noses go honk.
Merlin:I don't know.
Merlin:That was probably racist.
Merlin:Oh, against clowns?
Merlin:I don't know.
Merlin:I mean, do their noses actually honk or is that just, are they throwing their voice?
Merlin:I don't know.
John:I think maybe the horn is in their shoe.
Merlin:The horn is in your, because you get those big floppy shoes.
Merlin:It's like really like a two shoes length shoe.
Merlin:Yeah.
Merlin:And that honks.
John:I had one of those childhood clown experiences where I went to a birthday party and there were clowns there and I was just a little too young and the clown scared me.
John:And then I think for a long time I had the I don't like clowns thing that you hear so much about.
Merlin:I believe it's called calorophobia.
Yeah.
John:I had it for a long time and then I realized that I needed to overcome that and welcome clowns back into my life.
John:And now I'm fine with all clowns.
John:I'm down with the clowns.
Merlin:You're down a clown.
Merlin:As long as you don't think about it too much.
Merlin:Because if you think about it, clowns can be pretty upsetting.
Merlin:I mean, not just the whole like, with the drippy makeup, but the whole like, oh, so like, that's your, so you, hmm.
Merlin:And like, if you didn't do that, what would you be like?
Merlin:I'll bet you that's a valve for a lot of people.
Merlin:I bet it's a clown valve.
Merlin:I think there is.
John:We were down at the waterfront on Lake Union the other day because it was a prom.
John:We were there escorting the little one to a prom.
John:And what she wanted...
John:was for me to be to drop her off at the prom and then immediately be 50 miles away yeah and what i wanted to do was be like not 50 miles away not where she could see me right because i'm a because i've got tradecraft
John:But I didn't want to be a thousand miles away.
John:So I'm standing down by the water.
John:And this cruise ship, and it's a cruise ship that people, you know, corporate events, it's a thing that gets rented.
John:Is it like a booze cruise type situation?
John:It's like a little, it's an old ferry boat.
John:So it is a booze cruise.
John:Yeah, they put a band on it.
John:You take your team out, team building.
John:But you can put 300 people on the boat.
Yeah.
John:So it comes in.
John:It's like one of those red and black boats from your Berkeley, California there.
John:What are those?
John:There's the two lines, right?
John:There's the red and... Jess King.
Merlin:Oh, the blue and gold?
John:Blue and gold.
Merlin:I'm not sure.
Merlin:I don't know if we have those anymore.
Merlin:I'm not sure.
Merlin:But I take your point.
Merlin:But the idea is you can get up to 300 clowns on that thing for some kind of like you do a low ropes course or whatever it is, some kind of team building exercise on the ferry.
John:So the boat's coming in and I look and it is 100% a furry cruise.
John:Oh.
John:All furries.
John:And so I'm like, I don't even care about my kid's prom anymore.
John:I am parking myself here to watch the furry cruise unload.
John:And the boat comes in and the, you know, the gangplank goes down and it's, you know, it's very much like the party's over.
John:People have their heads off or, you know, they're in and out of costume.
John:Is there a term for that in the community?
John:I think so.
Merlin:Look, you know what I'm saying though?
Merlin:Like, you know, like out of character, like other times when it's like considered de classe to remove your animal head, do you think?
John:Yeah.
John:I feel like this was one, because what I realized was that this was an enormous convention that happened in Seattle.
John:People had come from all over the world.
Merlin:Like a fur con.
John:Like a fur con.
John:Yeah.
John:And it had a name like, I don't know, Paw Patrol or something.
John:I don't remember what the name was.
John:That's sweet.
Yeah.
John:But so there were a lot of people there who clearly had packed up their costumes into what were like purpose built flight cases.
John:And they were Pelican case.
John:It's like seriously big, like, like roadie level stuff.
John:So, but then there were others in answer to your question who had taken off their big furry costume, but then they put on a smaller mask and
John:Because they were still, like, think what you're saying.
John:They weren't going to... They're not going to go to the airport in a giant outfit.
Merlin:Well, the peacock had all of his feathers spread all the way out all the time and did that little dance.
Merlin:He'd be pretty tired.
Merlin:There's got to be times where he's got to just go, like, I need a break, and maybe I'm going to just chat with this peahen for a while without having to flap my feathers around.
Merlin:In that case, you take off the...
Merlin:Maybe, I don't know if you're a jackal or a ferret or some kind of a creature, you take off that head and then maybe you slip into a different head.
John:Right.
John:A slightly different character.
Merlin:Like a dressing gown.
Merlin:Yeah.
John:But of course, because of, because of how, I don't know how that works by the way.
Merlin:And I'm sorry if I offended, I'm kind of sorry if I offend anybody.
Merlin:I'm mostly sorry if I offend anybody.
Merlin:Like, I don't know if there's anybody who's like a lifestyle ferret and that was hurtful and I didn't mean that to be.
John:I think we're being respectful because it is, you know, it is, it is now another way to,
John:Another way.
Merlin:Yeah, there were furries at the Jeff Rosenstock concert.
Merlin:And he would point them out.
Merlin:And I guess he's got a contingent.
John:What's a Jeff Rosenstock?
Merlin:He's a singer guy.
Merlin:And he's one of my favorite rock performers.
Merlin:Oh!
Merlin:Was he in a band that I would know?
Merlin:No, I don't think.
Merlin:He was best known for a... No, no, no.
Merlin:I don't think it's your thing.
Merlin:I think he's fucking great, but I don't think he's your thing.
Merlin:But I don't know.
Merlin:But I don't know.
Merlin:Look it up.
Merlin:Jeff Rosenstock.
Merlin:He covers my favorite song, Not Too Soon, by Throwing Muses.
Merlin:Oh, nice.
Merlin:No, no, no, no.
Merlin:But in that case, and so, no, sorry.
Merlin:So I stood there at the dock.
Merlin:You've got to situate me here.
Merlin:You've got to put a hex map down here.
Merlin:Out there somewhere is a ferry full of furries.
Merlin:And then you're trying to stay out of any way that your kid could see you.
Merlin:Where are you in relation to the furry ferry?
John:Well, so the place where the prom was happening was actually the building where my dad was inducted into the Navy.
John:Whoa.
John:So it's a big, it's an old armory that's been turned into a museum.
John:And now they also have proms there, which I didn't know.
John:This was the first time I was aware of the prom.
John:But then there's a center for wooden boats.
John:And then there's a collection of old ships that they are trying to restore that they kind of, some of them don't know what to do with.
John:It's hard to get the money to restore an old ship.
John:and so there's like this sure yeah it's like this mosquito oh that sounds interesting so it's one of those places where like if a paul allen came along in 10 years that might be really something but right now they're in kind of a collecting mode sort of yeah and this was paul allen's uh fingerprints are all around this space um
John:But somehow there have been several boats where they put out this call like, hey, all we need is $50,000 or this boat's going to sink to the bottom.
John:Everybody's like, huh, really?
John:Not this magazine or the dog gets it.
John:Yeah, but they're like, and actually it would be $2.5 million to get the boat back to good.
John:And then they raise $1,500 and they're like, well, that keeps the lights on for another week, but...
John:But this ferry boat was one of the early ferries, and somehow they've got it up running, and it's making money for people.
John:Oh, the hornswoggled.
John:Yeah.
John:So I parked myself over by where it was landing, and then I did the thing where everybody that kind of walked my direction, I asked them a question.
John:I was like, hey, was that pretty fun?
John:Did you have a good time?
John:And...
John:Everybody wanted to stop and talk because... Were they in character?
John:In various forms of robed and disrobed.
Merlin:It's one of those things where probably everybody who was there was dressed up.
Merlin:It wasn't like a fancy dress ball or a costume party.
Merlin:It was something where everybody was there because that's a thing they like to do.
Merlin:There's no tourists or spectators probably, right?
John:Yeah, I think it's like going to a very specialized con...
John:And everybody there is either.
John:I think there's got to be a kind of furry friend who isn't themselves a furry, but is a furry accompanist.
Merlin:A furry panion.
John:A furry panion.
John:A furry panion.
John:Yeah, right.
John:Because, yeah, there's got to be, right?
John:I mean, I would love to go on that cruise, but I don't have a. Oh, you could be like the helper.
Merlin:You could be like the.
Merlin:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
John:and i talked to some of the crew and they made a point to stop and say this was one of the best groups i had the best time on this so i uh i came away i already have a fair amount of furry knowledge from all my years in the uh in the nerd trenches
John:But just watching this boat unload, I got, like, another big dose of, like, furry friendship.
John:Mm-hmm.
John:And I feel like, yeah, I'm a furry friend now.
Merlin:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
John:Fur friend.
Merlin:It's nice that you had something to pay attention to while you were waiting.
Oh.
John:Oh, because otherwise I would have been like, yeah, tiptoeing around.
Merlin:My mom waited in the parking lot at the Go-Go's and a flock of seagulls.
Merlin:I thought it was a little bit embarrassing.
Merlin:1982, she dropped Sam and me off and she just waited in the parking lot.
John:Did Sam know that she was there the whole time?
Merlin:Sam, my best pal from high school?
Merlin:Yeah, she had dropped us off.
Merlin:We'd driven down from Newport, where she had a Bayfront Center down in St.
Merlin:Pete.
Merlin:And that was my first concert.
John:It was the B-52s?
Merlin:You saw the B-52s for your first concert?
Merlin:No, no.
Merlin:A Flock of Seagulls opening for the Go-Go's.
John:Oh, that's a great first concert.
Merlin:Yeah.
Merlin:Yeah, it was pretty good.
Merlin:It was pretty good.
Merlin:Neither of those bands came to Alaska.
Merlin:$10.50.
John:My first concert was Dio and Dokken.
Merlin:It rhymes with rockin'.
John:Rockin'.
John:That's right.
Merlin:I had the 12-inch for breaking the chains.
Merlin:Breaking the chains.
Merlin:You know something?
Merlin:Breaking the chains.
Merlin:Nobody else can find you.
Merlin:Wait, no.
Merlin:Did they do Paris is Burning?
Merlin:Paris is Burning.
John:Boy, I love...
John:Um, who?
John:You know, I don't remember names.
Merlin:Oh.
Merlin:Anyways, yeah, that music was, uh, I enjoyed it a lot.
Merlin:George Lynch, he had good hair, too.
John:Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's right.
John:He had a, he had a sticker on his guitar that said, Balls.
John:Huh.
John:And I remember being very... Balls.
John:Balls.
John:and i remember being very uh impressed that i thought that that was a good term balls and at the time it seems like it can mean so many things yeah right balls at the time everybody in in my social group uh chewed tobacco uh-huh and so everybody's genes had the the tobacco can ring
John:And my friend Kevin, his mom, it's that weird time in life when you chew tobacco, but your mom still does your laundry.
John:And his mom said, what is this ring in the back of your jeans?
John:And Kevin says, the condoms for my giant cock.
Merlin:He said, it's a disability mom.
John:He didn't chew tobacco, mom.
John:He carried the can around for his friends because he didn't want them to get in trouble with their moms.
John:He was a snuff bearer.
John:He's a snuff bearer.
John:And Kevin's mom was, she was one of these Catholic moms who was just, she was so sweet and she did so much for us, but she was the type of mom that would believe that story.
Merlin:Oh, geez.
Merlin:No, really?
Merlin:You have to be gentle in how much you lie to a person like that.
John:yeah and i and i don't know how much of that kind of momming is like i'm just going to believe him like it has to be right she can't be that uh like culpable because she was a smart lady i i had a i had a similar experience that i is not
Merlin:the same but similar which is I was in at that point probably high school and I was mostly doing my own laundry but sometimes you know there would be a mix of stuff anyways I had left my Adam and the Ants wallet in my back pocket and on the dryer there had been a towel laid out
Merlin:And like, if you know that term knolling, you know, where people like put things in rows and stuff like that.
Merlin:Basically, the entire contents of my wallet, which had been washed, had been taken out and laid out in this extremely organized way.
Merlin:Like, here's all of the little paper cards.
Merlin:Here's the photographs.
Merlin:Every single thing had been taken out of my wallet and laid out except for one thing.
Merlin:Because I guess my mom didn't notice the condom that I had in my wallet.
Merlin:See, I feel like that's self-preservation.
John:Yeah, that's right.
John:She didn't notice it.
John:She found everything else, and then she just didn't notice it.
John:I've done stuff like that.
Merlin:It's just for a quiet life.
Merlin:It's just easier.
John:That's right.
John:So Kevin then introduced this concept that he was carrying chew around for his friends.
John:And so I was like, interesting, interesting.
John:So I asked Kevin for a chew can and I took the chew can and I started using it as like a wallet for like little stuff, stuff that you could fit in a chew can.
John:um which was nothing right like coins one key ten sided yeah that's right coins and a ten sided dice is exactly what i used it for and so i started putting it in my pant the pocket um partly because i was intrigued by this idea that you could have a chew can ring in your jeans and not it's kind of like when the spooks put a big stone in their shoe and it alters their gait and then you don't recognize them
Yes.
Merlin:I mean, in that sense, right, isn't that?
Merlin:Aren't you doing a little bit of a little subterfuge, a little bit of not subterfuge, but right.
Merlin:You're doing a little bit of misdirection.
John:A little misdirection, right.
Merlin:Is that Chewbacca in my pocket or is that a 10-sided die?
John:I was such a sweet summer child.
John:And I didn't want to be accused by anybody of being like a poser or like trying to act like I chewed.
John:And so I got a sticker that said balls.
John:that i found at a head shop and it had to be where george lynch it was same sticker and so i put the ball sticker on my chew cam b-a-l-l-s balls balls balls and it's a sticker
John:It was a sticker.
John:And I had this chew can that said balls that had coins and a 10-sided dice in it.
John:And I don't know how long I carried it around, but it was not for no amount of time.
John:No.
John:Did you eventually get a ring?
John:No, I never quite ever.
John:That's a lot of commitment.
John:It's a lot of commitment.
John:And I, yeah, I mean, getting a ring, I'm not sure how, I guess you just have to have one pair of jeans and wear them every day and chew all the time.
Merlin:So no, I never, I mean, I've got, I've got, um, in back when I used to wear, I call them hard pants.
Merlin:Um,
Merlin:When I used to wear pants, you know, I would have a very clear shape of whatever the latest, you know, not latest, but, you know, my iPhone in my left hip pocket.
John:Well, you're the one that taught me to carry my wallet in my front pocket.
Merlin:Oh, yeah.
Merlin:That way they can't get you.
Merlin:Yeah, I was a back pocket wallet.
Merlin:I do that in the inner cities.
Merlin:I'm not sure.
Merlin:Paul Robbins says it doesn't make a difference.
Merlin:But, like, I've got the taxi wallet shape in my back left pocket.
Merlin:Right.
Merlin:I used to keep a comb in my back right pocket when I went to school.
Merlin:Like a goodie comb?
Merlin:I mean, at one point, yes, absolutely.
Merlin:A mini goodie comb, but usually just like a straight comb.
Merlin:Spin on it like Paul Wolfowitz.
Merlin:And then I've always had my keys in my right pocket, which worked out well because I don't want my keys in the same pocket as my phone.
John:Well, you remember when I was in my chain wallet.
John:I certainly do.
John:Right.
John:Which was like a long time I had a chain wallet.
John:My brother Bart gave me my first chain wallet.
John:And then we were on tour all the time.
John:And so the chain wallet had everything in it.
Merlin:It had the money from the tour plus like 10 kinds of foreign currency.
John:That's right.
John:I used to carry a folded up bill.
John:Just in case you need a bot.
John:That's right.
John:Of every country that I had ever been to, I folded up bill that was first in the denomination closest to $20.
John:And then as I became more successful, Merlin, I replaced those bills with the equivalent of $50.
Merlin:That's self-awareness.
John:If I was going to get off the plane in Athens with nothing but my wallet, I wanted that.
Merlin:Oh, you could live for a month on $50 in Athens.
Merlin:See, that's exactly right.
John:But I remember driving along on some long tour and just my back just killing me.
John:Was it in your back hip pocket?
John:As I drove.
John:That's insane.
John:I was sitting on a book that was basically the size of a dictionary.
John:You're a chiropractor's dream.
John:In one back pocket.
John:That had $2,500 in cash.
John:What's like sitting on two Rubens?
John:It was insane.
John:It was like sitting on two Rubens.
John:and i said wait a minute i can't what am i doing like this is and so i i took this chain wallet apart and i took all the the money and put it in a chew can that said balls and then from then on and that was right during your taxi wallet days where you were like look at this taxi wallet pretty cool uh-huh and i got a taxi wallet you might have even given it to me no no and i and i what happened
Merlin:Oh, you gave it to my mom.
Merlin:That's right.
Merlin:And your mom, your mom gave it to you because she didn't.
Merlin:Yes.
Merlin:Why did Merlin give me a men's taxi wallet?
Merlin:You said, Mrs. Roderick, I love you so much.
Merlin:And I got you this wonderful gift.
John:Yes.
John:My mom was like, I don't, I carry my driver's license in my shoe now.
John:That's the only thing.
Merlin:I still felt really bad because I couldn't understand her bathtub.
Merlin:Oh, her bathtub.
Merlin:Her bathtub was very confusing at the time.
John:When we, when we fixed that bathtub up, we were like, well, let's, let's find the 19th century.
Merlin:It's just the, the, the work in the, I mean, this is true.
Merlin:Anywhere you go, anywhere you go, working the knobs, it's, it's anywhere you're not accustomed to can be very overwhelming.
John:We put the knobs in that you would find in a house where there was a flush toilet that had a wooden box that you pulled a chain.
John:Yeah, you put a gun behind it.
John:So there were three knobs at the bottom, hot, cold, and on.
John:And then there was a knob in the middle.
John:And then there was like a knob up high.
John:There was so much to think about.
Merlin:It was very, yeah.
Merlin:I mean, like almost steampunk.
Merlin:It was very, it was very close.
Merlin:I don't feel bad about that at all.
Merlin:I mean, I'm just, the thing is when you give a gift, you always give a gift without expectation.
Merlin:That's the thing.
Merlin:So like whatever happens to it, you know, it's not about you.
John:Well, but the taxi wallet ended up transforming all of our lives.
John:It's a good-ass wallet.
John:I still use one.
John:Yeah, I used it for years.
John:I wore it out.
John:Wore it out.
Merlin:Mine still has... I went to the cash machine the other day, and I was thinking, realizing, noticing, appreciating that time was every time my kid would start, we would start a new roll of tape, scotch tape, and you get the little...
Merlin:little plaid thing off the end thing i've got every single one of those we ever took off in my wallet still oh and a couple some some orange or like you know some um cuties stickers and stuff like that it's great it's like a little it's like a little um it's a sad sad memorial of my kid's childhood except it's by my butt how many how many of them do you think there are in there
Merlin:Oh, gosh, I could go get it in Cali if you want.
John:I feel like this would be a great show art, the look inside your wallet.
Merlin:Oh, it's going to do a sad clown.
Merlin:If you can stand by a minute, I'll go get my wallet.
Merlin:Yeah, I want to see it.
Merlin:Okay, I'm not going to edit this, so be cool.
John:Okay, all right.
John:he's back um yeah and so i will take a photo of this um you know but you know oh yeah yeah i went to costco the other day yeah i didn't have my costco card and i said well i'm a member of costco i have been for a long time and they were like gotta have the card
John:And I said, all right, well, what about if I had a picture of the card?
John:And they're like, nope.
John:And so Ariella sent me a picture.
Merlin:It's not their first day.
John:That's right.
John:She sent me a picture of her card and she was like, this is fine.
John:And then they were like, no.
John:And so I was like, well, I'm here to come on.
John:Here's proof that I can get a woman to send me a photo.
John:Yeah.
John:Here's somebody else's card where we don't have the same name.
John:And then he said, you can go over and get a temporary card.
John:Oh.
John:And so I went over and the man there was very nice.
John:He gave me a temporary card.
John:And then he said, guess what?
John:What?
John:I was like, what?
John:And he said, if I were doing this right now, I would have paid for it in crypto.
Merlin:If I were doing this right now, the $45 fee or whatever it is now.
John:Yeah.
John:If I were getting a Costco card and I wasn't getting one, I was just printing.
Merlin:He just offered that up to you.
John:Yeah, wait a minute.
Merlin:Wait a minute.
Merlin:This doesn't add up all day long So is he at that little desk where they do stuff like make cards for people at the little desk?
Merlin:So all day long he does nothing but interact with people who just got a Costco card and Apropos of nothing to you.
Merlin:He says if I got if I got one of these today, I buy it with crypto That's right.
John:And then he pulls really an odd thing to say he pulls out of his wallet a card and
John:And he says, and he holds it up and he's like, it's a crypto credit card.
Merlin:Oh yeah, right.
John:And I said, huh?
John:And he turned it around and he said, see, no numbers, no numbers on it.
John:It's just crypto.
John:And I was like, you're a crypto evangelist.
John:And he was like, I was lucky.
John:I was lucky.
John:I got in early.
John:But of course he's working at the card desk at Costco.
John:So I was like, huh, huh, uh-huh, uh-huh.
Merlin:There's a lot of questions there, none of which I would be asking.
John:Yeah.
John:I mean, I was in a hurry.
John:I had to go get a thing.
Merlin:You ever get that hot dog they got there?
Merlin:It's a pretty good hot dog.
Merlin:Of course.
John:You get it every time.
John:You got to get it.
John:It's a good-ass hot dog.
Merlin:Get the hot dog.
John:Although, I hate to say this, they stopped carrying Pepsi products.
John:Costco does this every once in a while.
Merlin:I hope you're not looking to me for consolation on this.
John:We only do.
John:And then they switch and they're like, we don't do any Pepsi products.
Merlin:That's so weird.
Merlin:McDonald's, stop putting thorns in the fries.
Merlin:You're a Pepsi hater.
Merlin:I am.
Merlin:Well, I'm a Pepsi disliker.
Merlin:I mean, if I can find something, the problem is you get something like our KFC and what they're doing there is just unconscionable.
Merlin:They've got one little shitty machine and our one little shitty KFC.
Merlin:No disrespect.
Merlin:Sorry, Paulette.
Merlin:Same woman's worked there since before my kid was born.
Merlin:But, like, you get Pepsi.
Merlin:You get Diet Pepsi.
Merlin:You get some kind of, like, fun bunch or whatever.
Merlin:And Baja Mountain Dew, they don't have Dr. Pepper or regular Mountain Dew.
Merlin:Yeah, that's not acceptable.
Merlin:Well, that's not okay.
Merlin:The least you can do is have Mountain Dew, regular Mountain Dew.
John:Yeah, this was a situation where they only had Diet Coke.
John:I got two hot dogs, and then I go over to get my Coke, which I'm fine with.
John:I'll drink a Coke all day.
Merlin:Yeah.
Merlin:They only had Diet Coke.
Merlin:Of the colas in the machine, the only one they had was Diet Coke.
Merlin:Diet huh, and I can't quite the opposite I would have thought they had more like one of those which call suicide machines where you can mix anything you want Of all different kinds of things like in a movie theater.
John:No, huh?
John:That's what I would if they had the machine it just was like diet coke diet coke diet coke diet coke You can make a suicide.
Merlin:It would just be a diet coke called a self-harm now Did you get my Costco card?
Merlin:Oh, let me see.
Merlin:Let me see.
Merlin:Let me see
Merlin:That's my Costco card from the early 2000s.
John:Beep, boop, boop, boop, boop.
John:Look at that.
John:2003.
John:That was the time.
Merlin:Yeah.
John:Are those the glasses I gave you?
John:Or is this one small moment where it was captured on film?
John:That's a good question.
Merlin:I would have been that era.
Merlin:Well, okay, here's the problem, though.
Merlin:Reverse engineering this.
Merlin:This expires June 2003, which is around the time we met.
Merlin:so 2002 oh yeah but i wouldn't have the glass would i it could be a replacement card i don't know i got a gold star i guess i was a good boy you were a good boy you were a member of the costco gold star club look at this wall with all of the little stickers and bleepers and bloopers yeah yeah life is short and it's a museum of the life i thought i had taken the morning says the label
Merlin:there it is um connect on and connect so you went to the punk rock funeral you saw the furry con fairy i did would not be confused with chili con carny yeah furry con fairy wasn't that uh like a like a cat stevens record
John:I also went to a party the other night.
John:I think you'll like this.
John:It was one of these things where the local arts center here that's called Town Hall.
John:They wrote me and they said, will you do a event called talk of the town?
John:Ooh, I love the sound of that.
John:I know, me too.
John:And I said, of course.
John:Town hall's always been great to us and to me.
John:And so I always say, it's a Christian science church, a cathedral kind of, that they converted into like an arts community.
Yeah.
John:and so i was like yeah i'll do your talk of the town that's whatever you need and so you know several weeks went by and then they wrote and they said okay your talk of the town is happening at the following address and i said oh it's not at the town hall they're like no it's a we're doing a thing okay where there's a rich people house and you're gonna and there's gonna be a chef
John:And the chef is going to make dinner at a rich people house.
John:And then you're going to go and be a conversation instigator.
Merlin:Is this the first time I've done this?
John:Yeah.
Merlin:Well, the first time I've heard of it.
Merlin:Oh, I mean, have other people done this before to success?
Merlin:It's a pretty odd, pretty odd thing.
John:It's a little odd.
John:And I was like, is this a fundraiser?
John:You've got a bunch of rich people and a chef in a house.
Merlin:And then I'm going to be like, hey, and then imagine somebody sent you an invitation to say there's a charity event coming up.
Merlin:We would like you to come to a dinner and there will be a center of attention TBD.
Merlin:You're kind of the center of attention for the dinner.
John:This is what I didn't know because they were like, there's a question.
John:We're going to pose a question.
John:And then everybody's going to talk about the question and you're going to be there to hear me.
Merlin:This sounds like something nobody's done yet.
Merlin:This sounds like, oh dear.
Merlin:No, this could go very bad.
John:Well, and then they sent me the question.
John:And it was a question that had been, I don't know, I don't know whether AI came up with the question or whether it was a committee question or something, but it was a very, the question was so hard to parse that I wrote him back and said, but what is the actual question?
John:And then he sent me the thing again, the paragraph again.
Merlin:It's a leading question or a, that's not the word I'm looking for.
Merlin:You know what I mean?
Merlin:But it's deliberately an open kind of question where people can choose to answer it the way they want.
Merlin:But it gives people an opportunity to learn how other people think about something from different POVs, kind of.
Merlin:Sort of.
John:And it was, basically, you boil the question down.
John:It's like, things are really something these days.
John:What should we change?
John:And what should we keep the same?
John:And I was like, oh man, this is really you're really this you're making this hard You're setting this on hard mode and I at all and so I said is it a fundraiser and they were like, well Here's the thing with people like this.
Merlin:Everything's a fundraiser That's right For like a 501 c3 but you know, everything's a fundraiser
John:with this level of rich people you don't pass the hat you don't at the end of the night say hey give us some money you just do this and then they know we all know that there's money and money is needed and so you don't have to say you never have to say the word money talking to people talking and so it's happening at the house of the husband and wife who invented the razor scooter
John:I didn't even know it had an inventor.
John:Mr. Razor's my father.
John:I feel like the Razor scooter just came down from heaven.
Merlin:Yeah, it used to just be a scooter.
Merlin:Yeah, there was a day before them.
Merlin:Is it the fancy wheels that make it a Razor?
John:I think so.
John:I think the innovation was that he put... Polyurethane wheels or something?
John:Yeah, or like inline skate wheels on a scooter.
John:I think that was the big... But it's multi-million... No, I'm familiar with the name.
Merlin:But I mean, you could also say like...
Merlin:What's the company that makes the wagons you could say radio flyer?
John:Yeah, the wagon yeah, although there's other kinds of wagons, too So it was an interesting dinner there were people from all over at one point I said I can ask how many oh 20 people at the table oh And and I said at one point how many of you are lawyers?
John:And you know about five people raised their hands like I could I don't know what was what gave it away then everybody left and
John:But so we talked about what could change and what could stay the same.
John:And it was a smart group.
John:They didn't need to be led in conversation, but here we were.
John:And I was like, don't mind me, but...
John:but that's why I'm here.
John:But so we spent a very scintillating evening in conversation.
John:And at the end of the night, we're walking out and there was this guy that was like an art professor at the university of Rhode Island that I was really interested in kind of like getting away from the rest of the group and like, Hey, you know, like I'd like to hang out with you sometime.
John:He was one of those people where you meet and, and you're just like, Oh, this is weird.
John:I haven't met somebody like this in a long time where I'm just like, I want to totally know.
John:And maybe, maybe RISD.
Yeah.
Merlin:he wasn't RISD though that's the thing he was part of he was University of Rhode Island Rhode Island University I know what you mean though sometimes you're just like hello hi I'm lonely can I be your friend you seem cool yeah and he's exactly our age and he's like oh you gotta find him that's why that's why I'm so game bones for Jason he's all I've got
Merlin:He's not to minimize Jason, but he is all I've got.
John:He's a lot of fun too.
John:Jason's a lot of fun.
John:And this guy was the exact kind of not a lot of fun that I love where every time somebody said something, uh, you know, cultural, some other person there would turn to him and go, what do you think about that?
John:And he would kind of chew on his finger and
John:Because he obviously was known to them as like, oh, this guy, he's got some cultural thoughts about things.
John:But so as we're leaving...
John:uh a person who had kind of stayed quiet or at least maybe he'd been sitting in a far enough away from me that i hadn't really gotten a bead on him he's like hey let me walk you out and i was like oh i was kind of chasing the the rhode island guy but yeah sure let's you and i walk out together because the house was down on the water and it was dark outside and we get outside and he goes john roderick oh no oh no
John:oh oh no like what is what what comes next you know like well well well so here we are look who it is and i was like you don't remember me exactly exactly i was like oh you will but he was a person who
Merlin:wanted to say that roderick on the line had made a huge oh no way yeah no no seriously does it like i really say that hey hey guy you probably just were bullshitting but if you weren't thank you so much for saying that to john that's super cool he wasn't he had that he had that you don't know that you don't even know if he's listening people say shit all the time well people are busy john except somebody who's
John:who's a certain age that was listening to our show when they were a younger person and were vulnerable and susceptible and needed.
Merlin:I do a podcast with somebody who listened to my shows when they were like 14.
John:Yeah, exactly.
John:Mind-boggling.
John:And I've heard this before, and I know you have too, where it was like, you helped me become a better man.
John:I'm just glad people listen.
John:That's so nice.
Merlin:I know.
John:But I wanted to tell you that because he also was very complimentary of you and us and the hard work we did, the hard lifting we did to bring him into adulthood so that he could be at this party.
Merlin:And he was like I had no idea this was so you could you eventually call upon him to be part of your unholy army of the night if you needed to I Think so somebody you could activate in a respectful way.
John:He did a very Roderick on the line thing where he was like, I'm going to Contact you I don't know how yet
John:But I'm going to hope we can get together for coffee or something.
John:But he did it in that way that was consistent with, like, I'm not asking you for your number.
John:And I know you're not guaranteeing.
Merlin:Oh, I completely get that.
Merlin:And I respect that.
Merlin:And I understand that.
Merlin:I grok that.
Merlin:Yes.
Merlin:Somebody's saying, I'll be in touch with you.
Merlin:And you go, mm-hmm.
John:I'll be in touch with you.
Merlin:That's right.
John:There's nothing to be worked out here.
John:And in fact, he has made no attempt to get in touch with me.
John:I have probably spent more time trying to figure out who that Rhode Island art professor was.
John:Like, I was like, who the hell was that guy?
John:Are you sure he was real?
John:I was pretty sure.
John:Everybody was like nodding when he talked about art.
Merlin:I've seen a lot of movies where people seem to be nodding at somebody who's not there.
Merlin:I'm not saying that they literally weren't there, but it's possible that they literally weren't there.
Merlin:You might want to get in touch with the Talk of the Town host people, maybe go through the list and discover whether there's anybody in there who might be a ghosty.
John:Well, see, I don't watch scary movies, so I don't have a lot of experience.
John:I haven't been trained properly to know how to tell a non-meal person.
Merlin:Identifying ghoulies and stuff.
John:Yeah, as far as I could tell, it was just a nice evening.
John:The food was very good.
John:The chef came over.
Merlin:And there were only 20 of us, so a lot of us sort of... Could have been a... What's the thing where you tell people they have to go to rehab?
John:Right, an intervention where they were like, will you do a talk of the town for us?
John:And I'm like, sure.
John:And then you get there and it's everybody.
John:Pretty soon they're making you turn your pockets out.
John:That's right.
John:And it's like, John, we've been meaning to sit you down.
John:I'm like, wait a minute.
John:I thought I was doing a thing.
John:I thought I was doing an event that I wasn't getting paid for.
Merlin:Did people seem to enjoy themselves?
Merlin:I bet they especially enjoyed, you know, if there are people who knew the, knew the program.
Merlin:So they show up and suddenly somebody who has a podcast they used to listen to is hosting a talk of the town.
Merlin:That must be weird as hell.
John:I think it was for, I think for that one person, it was like, what the hell is happening?
John:And then there was some, there was somebody else there that I knew their husband and we talked for a long time, uh, about, you know, yield and times, but people, you know, people like, no, um,
John:who uh who we are in the world but it was but these were rich people they don't really but because it's seattle i started off just right out of the gate just like all right well if we're going to talk about what's what needs to change and what needs to say the same let's just get started we're not gonna i'm not gonna sit here and like let us all feel around in the dark uh three blind mice about this let's just start talking
John:And everybody there is an affluent progressive, right?
John:There was nobody that was like, oh, I think what this country needs, you know, everybody already started at a pretty high level of idea.
John:They didn't need to walk through like, what's wrong with our country today?
John:You know, they all had put all the thought that we all have into it and ready to start talking up here.
John:And so I was like, that didn't need much help at all.
John:And it was, yeah, that's the kind of event that you hope to go to.
Merlin:Yeah, it sounds ideal.
Merlin:I mean, for a variety of reasons, I would say having things like that on your calendar is a very productive, generative thing.
John:yeah yeah yeah it's good oh my god merlin we're talking about things yeah am i in trouble am i in trouble no two days ago somebody said uh or or somebody this person had been saying this to me for six months i want you to play at my friend's wedding okay and i was like okay six months ago you know you say yes and then um and then when it's three months out you're like did i say yes to that and then like it's a week out you're like oh my god did i
John:really i think also it's customary for those people to contact you after the event when they offered it to you yeah well and so he and he was and he's a good friend and he's like this is my best friend okay and he and his wife met or their song is cinnamon it's their it's their love song oh their song as in their song their song will you play cinnamon at their wedding
John:And the reason I'm telling this story is because somebody at the wedding said to me, you sure go out a lot.
John:And I was like, I guess so.
John:I think of myself as- You do go out a lot.
John:I think of myself as being so sedentary.
John:You leave your house more than I do.
John:This is known.
John:Yeah, well, and so this was one where I drove down to this wedding.
John:And I walked in and my friend was there and he was like, okay, stand behind this curtain.
John:And I was like, so where's the wedding?
John:And he said, it's right on the other side of this curtain.
John:I'm about to.
John:And they have already.
Merlin:This is how people die in Shakespeare plays.
John:I know, right?
John:I don't watch enough movies.
Merlin:Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
John:Yeah, exactly.
John:You could get killed by a spook.
John:and he said the husband knows but the bride thinks that their first dance is going to be sorry john this is at the literal wedding the wedding oh this is risky as i know she thinks their song that they're going to dance their first dance to is cinnamon
John:right but then you're gonna step out from behind the curtain and play it to gondolas to carry us and she's never you know and they're like younger so okay that's that is that is that is sweet yeah and he he this this friend the mutual friend set it all up and so i'm behind the curtain and he's like wow that's neat gets on the microphone and he says all right everyone for the first time it's the first dance and every you know and then he's like
John:And he says, and here we go.
John:He came on to the chicken dance.
John:Yeah.
John:So I, I'm like, I haven't even looked in the room.
John:I'm standing behind a curtain this whole time.
John:I can't a back door.
John:And so I step out from around the curtain and it's a whole wedding.
John:And I'm like,
John:oh son through the curtains i gave you a sign and she looks over at me like completely uncomprehending and i don't know whether it's entirely possible that you would know the song cinnamon enough that it would be your wedding song and not recognize me
John:Like you could absolutely not know who that is.
John:Is this the guy from that December's video?
John:Exactly.
John:Is that the teacher?
John:Or like who or whose dad is this?
John:And it's a proper wedding.
John:So there's lots of old people there.
John:They're like kids.
John:It's like a whole room full of people that don't know who the loan is.
John:A little girl dancing on Abe Vigoda's shoes.
John:That's right.
John:Yeah.
John:and so and i'm just playing cinnamon and then she realizes that's kind of funny and she just breaks down and is like oh like like falls into her husband's chest just like like total she just totally loses oh that's so nice and i'm in the middle of the of the first verse and i lose it i'm like
Merlin:i'm trying i'm trying to sing the thing you know i'm not like i'm not trying to like stop and cry like that little i like that little bass change eric does on the last last i wish he'd been there you know what i'm talking about yeah he does a little he does i don't know if you know your songs but he does this nice little bass change up on the last i guess verse or pre-chorus or something it's
Merlin:It's so good.
Merlin:And so we broke down as in she cried happy.
John:She cried happy.
John:And then it was one of these things where I was thinking, this is a five-minute long song if I play it with all of its permutations, which seems a little bit too much.
John:Nobody wants the guy to keep playing after the moment has happened.
John:And I play the first verse, and I do the Her Skin is Cinnamon, and then they're dancing.
John:And she's crying, and he's crying, and they're dancing.
Merlin:Three, four time, right?
John:Or six, eight?
John:Three, four time.
John:And so then I play the second verse.
John:And I'm like, this is all still fine and good.
John:You know, the third verse is about a wedding.
Merlin:St.
John:Paul was there to marry us, yeah.
John:We lied, we were already married.
John:And so I'm like, I gotta sing the third verse.
John:And I get to the second chorus, and it is clearly done.
John:Like, that is all they needed for me to keep going.
Merlin:And you knew that?
Merlin:You knew that?
Merlin:I could just feel it.
Merlin:The fact that I'm even thinking about this means it might be too late.
Merlin:You know what I mean?
John:But you can't stop before the second chorus.
John:That's the whole thing.
John:But I could see that they were still staring deeply into one another's eyes.
John:They stopped at the end of the second chorus and kissed.
John:And I was like, and scene.
John:And that was it.
John:I played for 45 seconds or a minute or something like that.
John:And, uh, and it was, it was, uh, that's sweet.
John:And somebody said like, uh, like you seem to get out a lot.
John:And I was like, I guess, but every one of them is like this.
John:It's like some, like a little pixie, like a little troublemaker.
Merlin:You're like a little puck.
Merlin:You're a little, you like little show, show up, show up.
Merlin:Cause a fuss guy.
Merlin:Yeah.
Merlin:Like a clown.
Merlin:Like a little clown.
Merlin:What if you're a fourth kind of clown?
Merlin:It's a fourth kind of clown.
Merlin:And then you sprayed her with seltzer.
Merlin:What?
Merlin:Things need to change.
Merlin:What should change and what should stay the same?
Merlin:That's the talk of the town.
Merlin:Come on down into my basement.
Merlin:You like when people read you the Bible?
Merlin:Oh.
Oh.
Oh.
Merlin:All our best to everybody on this, the holiest of days.