BONUS The Radio Days - Ben Folds and Toby Maron
Hey folks, these are more interviews from Morning Sedition on Air America Radio from back in 2005.
First, a few segments from Friday, May 13th.
We had Ben Folds in the studio for an interview, but also my mom was hanging around and we brought her into the studio to get her on the microphone.
Then from the following Monday, May 16th, this is a good example of the opening segments we would do to get the week started.
Some weird stuff happens at 6 a.m.
And what I learned to do on the mics here is a lot of what led me to doing the podcast the way that I do it.
This was where I learned it.
You'll hear me, my co-host Mark Riley and Chris Lopresto on the board.
And a reminder about these old clips.
These are all from compressed digital files.
So the audio quality isn't up to our standards, but it's not too bad.
We'll be right back.
Six past the hour.
It's morning sedition here on Air America Radio.
I'm Mark Maron.
That's Mark Riley.
Good morning.
Good morning, philosopher kings and queens, working-class heroes, geniuses, progressive utopians, working conservatives.
Good morning to all of you.
Wake up, sheeple.
It's Friday.
I hope it's okay.
It's a beautiful day here in New York City if you're listening to 1190 WLIB.
It's been a very exciting show, and it's going to get more exciting.
We are pleased to bring on the man behind Ben Folds 5, obviously, and his...
He's also the producer of William Shatner's latest CD.
His new solo album, Songs for Silverman, was just released.
He'll be playing in Philadelphia tonight, Boston tomorrow night, after which he heads off to Europe.
Ben Foles is here.
All right, Ben, so I want to start with something that jumped right out at me right away.
You grew up in the south, and now you're living in Australia.
I mean, did the last four years really freak you out?
Did you just have to, like, jump ship?
I'm really far south now.
I've gone as far south as you can come.
I'm in Nashville some of the year.
Okay.
And the other part of the year, I'm in Australia.
Okay.
And I guess it could be said that all the people that threatened to leave the country, I may be the only person I can name that actually did it.
But I didn't really because I still live in Nashville.
Do you like Nashville because of the songwriting scene or because of the musician's community or the recording equipment?
Why Nashville?
It's the recording equipment, first of all.
I mean, it's...
For me, it's like really central, and I can get to New York quickly and get out to the West Coast.
It's good.
Now, Adelaide is a little off the beaten path, even by Australian standards.
What made you pick Adelaide?
It's remote, and I live in a remote part of Adelaide, too.
Oh, wow.
It's like I live like a remote from the remote from the remote.
Would it be the south of Adelaide?
Actually, yes.
I do live south of Adelaide.
I live down the south of the beach.
Yeah.
Yeah, I mean, Adelaide, my wife's from Adelaide, and so that's where we ended up.
That'll do it.
Love will move you every time.
Yeah, move me all the way there.
Actually, she is from almost exactly the opposite coordinates on the globe from me.
If you drew a straight line through from North Carolina, where I'm from, down, it would just about make to Adelaide.
Wow.
11,000 or 22,000, I can't remember how many miles.
You guys had your charts done?
Yeah.
Yeah.
Mine doesn't look too good, though.
Because I'm like the asshole sign to begin with.
Virgo.
Hey, wait a minute.
That's my sign.
We're the asshole sign.
Have you ever noticed there's nobody we get along with?
If you read the charts, it's like you kind of find some comfort in Capricorn.
Sort of.
And that's about it.
But everyone else is like, you get along well when they give you like eight or nine differences.
I was almost a Virgo.
I'm a Libra.
You're only three days off a Virgo.
Yeah, I'm a Libra.
I'm half a... Yeah, I go back and forth.
I try to balance my... You were on the cusp of the anus.
Cusp of the anus?
Can you make that a song, please?
I'll write it down for you.
That's going to be my book.
Benfold's song title, Cusp of the Anus.
Sounds like a good album title.
One of your songs, couldn't it?
It could be.
I had a couple of good ones last night I won't go into.
We were sitting on the bus just going right to that place you go to on tour.
Sure.
And?
No.
Come on.
Did you want to ask about William Shatner?
Yeah, because I've always found Shatner to be a fascinating character.
And when he first started doing music,
I was just... It, like, totally freaked me out.
And he played on his record.
Is that the deal?
I wrote and produced his record, basically.
And, I mean, he wrote a lot of stories and lyrics and things.
And then I set that to music, and I would bring in, like, Amy Mann to do a song with him, or Henry Rollins, Joe Jackson.
He wrote to Pop Heavy.
Yeah, he wrote a song with...
Nick Hornby, the guy that wrote High Fidelity and Bad Boy and all those things, and he just kind of cooked up out of his head this really cool story that happens to be really pretty close to Shatner's life without even knowing it.
So it was cool.
Yeah, things came together in a really cool way.
It was really neat.
Somehow he just cooked up a story about a Jewish guy from Canada who became a Starfleet commander?
Yeah.
He had no idea.
Because he's like the Nostradamus.
I guess so.
Well, what was it about Shatner?
Was this done with a campy sensibility or some sort of honest respect for his musical talents?
Or is there a difference for you?
I think it was honest respect for his life experience and his acting talents.
He's a really talented cat.
Yeah.
I mean, I think you can take that for granted with someone who's kind of been a thing in the business for that long.
And he's amazing.
It's a good record, but it's got some funny stuff.
He's funny, and he can't help that.
So that's in it, but it's also serious as well.
Well, in this last record for Songs for Silverman, you played with a band that you brought together, and you recorded in Nashville at the same RCA studios that Johnny Cash, Elvis Presley, and other dignitaries of early rock and roll once performed in.
I guess I have two questions.
Do you believe that there are ghosts in the studio?
Do you believe that studios have a certain tone and sound and feel because of what went on there before?
Could be.
I mean, there's something at least to, if something lasts for that long, there's something to it, I think.
But you didn't think that going in?
It feels pretty cool in there.
It really does.
It's got a great feeling to it.
I think the yoga people call it Akashic Energy, right?
Yeah.
It's like the stuff that's in the walls.
I don't know.
It really does feel great in there.
I like old things.
Was there old equipment as well?
Were you able to use some microphones that were different?
I use old mics.
It's all my equipment in there.
I've set up camp in there for the last four years.
Oh, okay.
It's been my place.
That's where I recorded Shatner's record.
Now, Nashville, at least for me, has always evoked that whole country music thing.
Is the music scene there as segregated as country music might suggest?
Well, it kind of is.
It used to be.
I think there was a really awkward growth period in Nashville where...
The country music business decided to be a little more open-minded and try to sign some pop acts.
It was really probably not good for the pop acts because they were all trying to do things really in a way they didn't understand.
And it probably killed a few acts that I can actually name.
But now there's East Nashville over the river.
and that's where all of the sort of original pop goes on, and they stay in their own zone.
And it's really good stuff.
There's some good bands.
I mean, I don't keep up with a lot of music personally, but I hear a lot of tapes, you know, from my friends, and I say, this is so-and-so.
I go, wow, that's really good.
So there's some good stuff coming out of there pretty soon.
So the spectrum is basically you have country, you have modern country, and then, you know, over on the left bank of Nashville, you get pop.
Yeah.
Which is not.
So what's really missing there in the gap is just, you know, standard rock, I guess, because you would differentiate between, you know, what has come to be known as modern pop and just rock and roll.
Right.
Yeah, I guess so.
I don't know.
I guess rock and roll is kind of like, I mean, it's like ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding.
But I don't really think about that too much anymore.
I think that there's, yeah, I mean, basically it's just people do things one way on the one bank, like you say, and the one thing.
There's the Judea is people's front, and then there's the people's front of Judea.
Yeah, I get it.
And they throw spears across the banks.
So you have a new song on your new record, Songs for Silverman, called Jesus Land.
Was this inspired by Nashville?
Not Nashville as much.
I live in a rather blue neighborhood, and I just stay there and I walk.
I don't really drive a car very much at all.
I don't really see the ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding.
That's not rock there.
That was the Dixie land kind of deliverance.
That was the toothless thing.
I don't go out the toothless area of town too much.
Yeah.
Yeah, it's like, I mean, Jesus Land was probably inspired more by touring than anything.
And I just wanted it to be really more about a feeling as you walk through an inner city out to the outskirts and just the quality of what you see.
I just think...
If I go, if I write a song, you know, you see the title is Jesus Land, and one would assume it's going to be a preachy song, but I feel as a musician I should stay away from that because everyone knows what my point of view is likely to be because most musicians are, you know, on the proper side of things.
At least if you're on the left bank of NASA.
That's right.
Yeah, I would reside on the left bank, and everyone knows that, so it's just predictable for me to take a swing.
But Jesus Land is just like, it's all that stuff out there that you see in America.
Well, let's hear some of that song then.
This is Jesus Land from Ben Folds' new album, Songs for Silverman.
Down the tracks, beautiful new glances on a hill.
Head of the mud to fly away.
This river above the sea knows any still.
You'll get to see your soul.
Jesus' name.
She's our friend
We're going to take a quick break.
We'll come back with more Ben Folds.
We'll hear some more from Songs for Silverman, and we'll find out how political Ben's fan base really is.
It's 16 past the hour.
This is Air America Radio.
No one knows your face Billboard's voting things you'd never say You hang your head and pray Morning Sedition on the air and on
Morningsedition.com Air America Radio.
Who's got the look?
Who's got the break?
Who's got all the pain?
I got this pain in my heart.
That's all.
21 past the hour.
Mark Merritt.
That's Mark Riley.
Hi.
It's Morning Selection here on Air America Radio.
We're talking to Ben Folds.
That, of course, is Underground by Ben Folds Live.
It was a song that first put Ben Folds on the map.
All right.
I've got to ask you, what is your perfect song?
I mean, not a song you've written, but a song you listen to.
I think I can think of a couple.
Marie by Randy Newman, I think, is a damn near perfect song.
And...
You know, Wichita Lyman is a great song.
Yeah.
The Will and Glenn Campbell sing.
What about politics?
It seems like you're not afraid to have a song like Jesus Land on the first, on this album, on Songs for Silverman.
You've dealt with abortion and abortion.
sort of muted way in another song.
And what do you feel about your audience?
Do you find your audiences are politically motivated in any way?
No, I don't think they are.
And I try to keep my political views to the emotional level because I think that that's my job as a songwriter and not to make speeches, kind of like what I was saying earlier.
I mean, my job on Brick was just to, you know, draw a portrait of what it feels like to be a teenager and be going through an abortion.
I mean, that could be construed as either side of the fence, and it shouldn't be a political statement.
It should just be a human statement.
And then the same thing with Jesus Land, or there's a song on an EP I've got called All You Can Eat, and it's...
It's a pretty sarcastic song, but it never really, it just, to me, it's just about, you know, the audience, I think, you know, because my audience is really young, and the only complaint I have is I feel like people at 18, 25 years old ought to be a little more idealistic, and I feel like we're getting a little jaded now.
Like the kids can say, like I'll get picked up from the airport, say, by a college kid to go play a university show.
And I'll talk about what's going on or something.
They'll likely go, don't you know all politicians are corrupt?
So that's just the way it is.
You know, like grow up.
And I think, well, you're 18 years old.
How do you know that, first of all?
And don't you think you should try to do something about it, second of all?
Yeah, that's better than saying, George W. Bush is a genius, and we think he's God.
It's not better.
It's more dangerous, I think, because if you just go, okay, well, we know what he is, and that's okay with us because that's just the way it is.
I think that's worse.
You think that's worse?
I do think it's more dangerous because it's just a total write-off.
You're giving someone a blank check.
Oh, so they're dismissing politics altogether.
They're dismissing it because they feel like it's...
They feel that it's out of their control, and they think that somehow he is looking after them, and he's being crooked on their behalf.
I get you.
You want to say...
He's screwing you.
He's not being... Right.
This is not on your behalf.
This is on his behalf, and that's what the problem is.
Real quickly, you mentioned earlier a bit about Nashville and the scene there.
What do you listen to when you're in Australia?
Are there groups there that maybe we don't hear in the States that are... Yeah, that's right.
That looks like the bong, actually.
You play the bong.
That's better.
Yeah, well, Australia has this really amazing...
national radio station, public-funded national radio station that's run by kids.
And they'll play anything they want.
And, in fact, one of the amazing things about that network is that they really get into politics in a really – there's no – I don't want to say censorship –
They don't restrain anything.
And it's really interesting.
I learn a lot by being over there and listening to what, you know, teenagers are listening to in Australia and their view of what goes on over here.
And they do that once on the hour.
And they'll give you... There are both sides to it.
And it's really... I mean, the music is like all over the road.
They don't have...
They really don't have a chart to speak up on this station, which is awesome.
They just play whatever.
And as a result, my records get played a lot, even like the Internet ones that aren't even available in the stores, just because someone will request it and they'll play it one time.
And I'd rather get played one time among some other stuff than have it be like this big race, you know.
Right on.
The album is, the CD, I still say album because I was brought up back then.
That's a record.
The record, Songs for Silverman, is going to be out on, it's been out since April 26th, I guess, so it's out now.
You can get it.
Thanks for joining us, Ben Folds.
It was great talking to you.
Good to talk to you, Sam.
Thanks.
And before we go to break, let's hear a little bit more of the first single off, Songs for Silverman.
This is Landed by Ben Folds.
I was still in love.
48 past the hour.
Let's land this thing.
I'm Mark Maron.
That's Mark Riley.
Yeah.
It's Morning Sedition on Air America Radio.
I love this song.
Yeah.
This is a great record.
There's my mom.
That's Toby Maron.
How are you, Mom?
I'm fine.
Thank you.
Thanks for coming.
Did you remember this?
You know this album?
We used to have this in the car on 8-track when we had the Capri station wagon.
Do you remember that?
Never.
Never.
No, no idea.
She has no idea.
What station wagon?
It was one of the big ones, you remember.
He and Dad was compulsive with the eight tracks and, you know, just one of the many things.
How was the trip up in Florida?
Everything okay?
Everything's great.
More importantly, do I look thin?
How do I look?
You look so great.
Yay!
There you go, there you go.
You got taller.
Oh, yay!
So, um...
I guess, you know, now let's talk about me for a second because it's one of my favorite topics.
Now, wasn't I always as charming and wonderful as I am now?
Take your time on that.
I don't want you to rush into an answer.
No.
Oh, boy, it's getting honest to me.
But from what I recall, you know, Grandma always said that I was just a happy, wonderful kid full of joy and love.
What went wrong?
No.
I have no idea.
I'm a productive student.
You're not going to take any responsibility.
No, I understand.
But look at you now.
I know.
Thank God.
You know, my father was in here a few months back, and he came into the studio and immediately fell asleep.
It was very encouraging.
It's nice to have so much parental support.
So what are we going to do in New York?
Do you want to go to the Museum of Modern Art?
Yes.
That's the one thing that you did do well when I was growing up is that you made sure to take me to lots of art museums.
And you gave me a good – listen to me, I'm making up for lost time here.
Yeah, I'm making up for the best of the world.
Yeah, and you gave me a great open mind.
You made me a progressive.
I remember you took me to see George McGovern in Old Town in Albuquerque, New Mexico when he was running for president.
What was that, 1972?
1972, sure.
Do you remember doing that?
No, I don't, but I'm sure I did.
That's not something I would do.
You definitely took me to that.
And then there was all the times that you, you know, left me in the parking lot of Hebrew school because you apparently had other plans.
Of course, there was the never-ending husky section issue.
But George Montgomery did.
We talk about that.
You always talk about the husky section.
Yes, yes.
But that's behind me.
That's true.
Because now I'm not that.
Look at you now.
Oh, this is great.
You look so terrific.
And funny, right?
How funny am I?
I am so proud.
I'm sitting here just...
Excelling?
Yes.
Excelling.
That's what they say.
Excelling.
Excelling.
Can we get some real estate tips from you, Ma?
Sure, sure.
I mean, is the market done or what?
I don't think it is.
Really?
I really don't.
From everything I hear in Florida, it's not.
Oh, okay.
Because, you know, there's about to be an article coming out next week in some magazine or newspaper here in New York.
It says it's almost all over here in New York.
But they do that every six months, I think, just to scare people.
So that means, you know, but what does all over mean?
Does that mean I can get a two-bedroom for $1.7 million as opposed to $2.1 million?
That's it, $400,000 savings.
And what happens if you sell your house?
Where are you going?
Under a bridge?
Oh, that's much cheaper.
And they can wash the clothes right in the water like the Indians did.
Mr. Marin, is it true that you caught Mark smoking pot once?
And what did you do?
Did you actually tell him to go upstairs and play guitar?
No.
Well, yeah, maybe.
It was across the street.
I was over at, you know, I don't know if I should mention people's names.
No.
Yeah, so I smoked pot and I came home and you got that weird look on your face where, you know, you thought you were going to disappoint me and then, you know, you got afraid of that.
You're like, Mark, and then I knew I was safe.
She goes, are you stoned?
And I said, yes, I am.
And you just got all flustered and you said, well, then why don't you go play guitar?
They say you played better when you're like that.
I said that.
Yeah, you did.
I did.
In retrospect, did that seem like punishment to you?
No, I wanted to see if it was true.
No.
She was experimenting on you.
And in your recollection, was it true?
I thought you always played guitar well.
Oh, my God.
You know what?
This is a whole different, Mom.
You know what?
Now I'm going to have to send you more flowers.
Thank you for being here, Mom.
The other ones never came.
So the next ones will be the first ones.
Well, you know, maybe there's a delivery problem.
I'll call.
Hang out for a minute.
Let me do these.
Good morning, geniuses, philosopher kings and queens, working class heroes, progressive utopians with no sense of humor.
How are you doing?
Lurking conservatives.
Welcome aboard, self-important people.
How are you?
And also just you people who are just...
Getting over the weekend, moving into work.
It's Monday morning, and I'm already crawling out of my skin, Riley, but it's going to be all right.
Why are you crawling out of your skin?
Because, my friend, I'm still a little sick.
This cold has gone on for a week and two days.
There's still something.
I think there is a bunch of trolls living in my bronchial passages.
I don't know what is going on, but I'll get on these coughing jacks.
I'm not going to the doctor.
You know why?
Why?
Because I don't like to go to the doctor, Riley.
Did you go to the sauna like I told you?
All they have is a dry sauna at my gym.
They don't have a steam room.
I think you need a steam room to loosen stuff up.
You got a steam room at your gym?
Got both.
Okay, see, I don't have both.
I could have went into my bathroom and did the steam thing, but I did not.
So here's what I'm just a little cranky about that because it's kept me out of the gym for two weeks.
And not that I'm a compulsive gym goer, but it makes me feel a little...
You know, I'm just like, I just want to do, you know, I got to do something.
Chris Lopresto, you know why he's doing this, don't you?
Why?
Because his mom was in town.
Oh, of course.
No, apparently she said, I look good.
There was a defense made.
My wife, Mishina, made a defense that I don't like Mark when he's too thin.
And my mother said, yes, reluctantly said, yes, I know what you're talking about.
And my wife said, yes, because he gets scrawny and his head looks funny.
And my mother said, yeah, I know what you're saying.
He gets too gaunt.
And I'm like, great.
What's up?
What's up, Chris?
Oh, you know, did she mention anything else to you?
Like anything negative?
Like, I don't know, maybe your gray hair or something?
You mean like right when I walked in?
I hadn't seen her in a year and a half.
She comes down to the show.
She goes, hi.
Oh, look, you're getting gray.
Da-da-da-da.
You know, I don't mind.
What else did she say?
She said, Mark, are you the oldest one here?
Boy, that made me feel great.
She hasn't seen you yet.
That's what I'm talking about.
What is that?
It'll be all right, man.
I hope it's going to be all right.
I'm done with it.
I don't know what it is.
I don't even smoke anymore.
You know, at least when you smoke.
Every time I used to get a cold like this when I smoked or get the bronchial thing going, I was so excited because I thought it was actually doing something.
Like, it's erasing it.
It's erasing everything out of my chest.
But when do I give up, right?
Look at this.
I'm going through the New York Times.
I'm going through the New York Times Magazine, and I'm going to show you this.
You can't see this, obviously, if you're just listening to the radio.
But you see this, Riley?
You see what that is?
You see what that is?
Oh, yeah.
The Big Dean.
Let me explain it to the people out there.
Please.
This is called The Ball.
It's a Dyson vacuum cleaner.
It's called The Ball.
Now, I just bought a Dyson.
What was it, less than a year ago?
Not even.
Right.
I got the top-of-the-line excellent Dyson.
I love the thing because it helps me with all the cats.
I got the three feral cats.
We're all doing fine.
I can touch them all now.
It's all very exciting.
But the Dyson is the excellent vacuum cleaner to vacuum up the can here because it never loses suction and you can just pull the canister out.
I was very excited about it.
But now, less than a year later, they got one.
Look at that.
It looks like this thing.
It's got this big ball on it.
How fun does that look?
So you can turn corners with it.
It moves around.
I don't even know what it does.
I can't even explain it.
And I'm not pushing Dyson here.
My point is this.
All right.
Everything becomes obsolete.
Right.
Planned obsolescence is screwing everybody.
All right.
Now, iPods, we've had iPod discussions.
I'm now completely comfortable with the fact that I'm not going to have one.
I'm not going to get any of them because I know in a year or two, you're going to have a Betamax in your pocket.
All right.
That's what you're going to have, Chris.
I don't know what the next thing is, but I don't care.
My phone, I'm not going to update the phone as long as I can call people with it.
I don't need to take pictures.
I don't need to fly.
I don't need to be able to play games.
I'm one of these people.
Even with the computer on some level, I do email and I do a little research, but I tend to like my time.
Well, I'll tell you what.
What?
Because I know that with all of this technology and all of this kind of foolishness, there's one story this morning, Mark Barrett.
One story that warmed the cockles of your heart the minute you heard about it.
Which one is that?
The Jackson Pollock story.
No, I know.
I know.
Well, that to me is a lucky thing.
And that, you know, that to me, I'll get into that in one second.
You know, this, maybe the ball vacuum would be better.
But do you want to buy the other Dyson?
Does anyone want to buy the other Dyson?
How much?
How much?
I'll trade you for the iPod.
let's trade obsolete technology they're both going to be out in a few days anyways but this thing's got a ball it swivels around look how cool that ad is i'm in but this is the same thing with uh with anorexic men i'm tired of this stuff the low carb crap forget about it you know i have now there's sections in this in the supermarket for low carb stuff i'm starting to notice literally you watch tv i was watching regis and kathy for some reason for two minutes and the uh the producer guy gelman
Yeah.
He's an anorexic man.
You see this all the time.
You literally see men who are like in their 40s who are gone.
Their head looks too big because they're addicted to low carbs.
They're in a constant state of keratosis.
Is that what it's called?
Carotic ketosis.
Okay.
Well, you know, my wife.
Now, my wife bought a loaf of this low carb bread last week.
Still sitting there unopened.
A week later.
It's just a repackaging of the diet craze.
It doesn't mean anything.
And this ketosis situation is apparently not that healthy.
I think this is where, I better do some research on it because I don't quite understand it.
It happens a lot in diabetics.
It's where you start to utilize, I think you no longer, you burn all your, what am I going to make something up?
You start to metabolize your own body fat.
Yeah, right.
It's something like that.
But apparently it's not that healthy.
And the thing that scares me, not unlike the Dyson and the iPod and everything else, is that when do you just surrender, for God's sake?
I'm wearing a pair of Levi's that I've had for years.
I'm not ashamed of that.
That used to mean they had integrity.
I don't buy them already broken in.
When do you just sort of...
When do you just relax, for God's sake?
Broke it in, Levi.
Go ahead, Maren.
Keep going.
When do you relax?
When do you relax?
When do I just let my belly go?
When can I just do that?
When you're 80.
Oh, no.
Then you won't have one.
I so much want to relax.
I don't want to be part of this competition anymore.
Is there something wrong with that?
But then people laugh at you.
You know, when you pull your phone up, they're like, what is that?
That's cute.
Who's laughing at you, my friend?
Huh?
laughing at you.
Watch out the guy in my head who's laughing.
He's laughing right now that I'm even talking about this.
And then some guy is a forger like you were talking about.
I had this dream, and this is something I get from my father, my poor father.
Jackson Pollock, this guy, apparently his family, this guy, Alex Matter, whose family knew Pollock out on the vineyard.
They found in a warehouse, like these things were in a bundle next to a boiler or something, like some 32 previously unknown works by abstract art icon Jackson Pollock.
That's what it says right here on the press.
But you know what that means?
That's like $100 million.
It's a treasure-finding thing, man.
Don't you just want to come upon that?
But I know it's not going to happen.
But you know what?
At a point, man, I really believe that Jackson Pollock's art transcends how much you can get for any single...
It's been an extraordinary find, 32.
Very exciting to see these early pieces.
Some of them were not even finished.
And this guy is doing the right thing.
He wants to tour the country with them as an examination of these new look into the art and the mind of Jackson Pollock.
Absolutely.
But there's something interesting and exciting on a treasure finding.
Everyone wants to have that moment.
I know, I know.
Where you're like, oh, my God.
Look at what I have.
And this guy's not even going to sell it.
They're going to keep it in the family.
But, you know, obviously very excited to see the work, but would love to, because I have a couple of pieces of art that I got from my great aunt in New Jersey.
I don't know if they're worth anything, though.
You know, but there's still the dream that you're presenting.
To the store that does that?
Well, I mean, if you get an appraiser to do that.
Right.
We're thinking about it.
I don't want to say the name of the artist.
But it rhymes with Paysan.
I'm kidding.
No, it could not be.
How could it be Paysan?
Can you imagine if it sounded like Paysan?
It's not even a matter of selling it.
It's knowing that that thing that you have, there's so few things in life that you have that so much integrity, that so much value, that we'll never lose our value.
But everything, I guess, fades away into dust and we just rot.
Have a good Monday.
We'll be back with some talk about the Senate and what they're up to.
And actually, you know, it's going to be a great week.
I have some other things I want to talk about later, but we've got to get into the filibuster struggle.
We have some good guests.
On today's show, Greg Proofs is going to be here later in the hour.
We've got Noah Feldman, one of the co-drafters of the first Iraqi constitution, who is very up on what is happening in terms of the Civil War and the movement towards Civil War.
And when do you call it Civil War?
He's the author of What We Owe, Iraq, War and Ethics of Nation Building.
Very bright guy.
In just a few minutes, Tom Hodgkinson is going to be on the phone with us from England about his book, How to Be Idle, which, let me tell you something, is a lifestyle that I miss more than you can ever imagine.
Likewise.
15 past the hour, Air America Radio.