Episode 29 - The Boys of Bacon Town

Welcome back! Join us for a candid conversation filled with personal anecdotes and reflections on modern life. In this episode, we explore the fascinating world of music, social media, and poetry, sharing insights and personal stories that highlight their impact on our lives.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:18

Yeah, I think the I think the yeah, I think the only thing that actually bothers me or sort of scares me a little bit about social media, not not immensely, but it's a in the back of my mind it's a it's a concern. But you know, it does and especially younger kids like Jen Alpha, Gen Z, whatever, they spend a they spend more time than us on social media. Like they're scrolling all day long on like TikTok and these things. And I guess my only concern about it is um I just think that when you're constantly scrolling through these really short little micro videos, it and there's so many of them out there, I feel like it sort of trains them. Uh I I worry, you know, does it I guess it's more of a question than a worry because I don't know and I don't want to overreact to new things. Right. But does it does it train their brains to have a way shorter attention span to all general things in life? Um movies, music, everything. Um, because I mean obviously it trains them to have a shorter attention span in that context of scrolling on social media. That's not a question. But my question is, does that training for their brains to have this shorter attention span, does that translate into all things in life, or does it only affect how they view social media videos? I I don't I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 1:48

That's a good question. There's two things I'm gonna say to that. One is I'm seeing a lot, lot more apps coming out um that actually uh that actually um talk about Doom scrolling and saying like, hey, instead of Doom scrolling, use this app, which actually, you know, maybe educate somebody about a certain topic, or I'm basically I'm seeing that angle being pitched out, pitched a lot, which is like stop Doom scrolling.

SPEAKER_02 2:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 2:15

Um I heard about this company that actually was immensely they were actually doing they were really successful, and this was all this was their product. They put an app on your phone that like uh it it basically just blocks uh blocks your phone or something after like half an hour. You can set how much you want to do. So like you know, even if you're doom scrolling, at like in like half an hour, it just stops it. It like blocks your phone, or like it is, I think one of their product also is like it comes with like an uh like with like a device, like an alarm clock or something. So like interesting in 30 minutes the alarm clock goes off, and you have to put your phone on the alarm clock for it to stop. And it's basically like a way to tell you like stop doom scrolling kind of thing. Snooze that bitch. Snooze that bitch, yeah. So and the fact that those are getting popular kind of tells me like there is a bit of like a push against it because clearly, clearly, like yeah, the world is ex is waking up and saying uh social media is addictive. Yeah, well highly addictive.

SPEAKER_01 3:16

It is well, here's the here's the problem with it. Um we were pitched this whole notion that it's good for us and that it helps connect us, and it it doesn't. And we know that now. People are starting to realize that, thank God now. That's a good thing. So that's positive. I think that the only entity, it's kind of like with well, I don't know if this might not be a good analogy, but with self-driving cars, we're sort of pitched this notion that this is gonna be good for us.

SPEAKER_00 3:44

Right, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 3:45

But really, the only people it genuinely benefits the most are the giant mega billionaire owners of companies, you know. And I do think social media is the same way, and I'll tell you why. I think that I think that capitalism and consumerism is fueled by envy. Um, if you remove envy, I don't think it exists. I don't think it can exist, at least not even close to the scale that it does now. Because it's about comparison and it's about look what they have, look what he has, look what my neighbor has that I don't have, you know. And that FOMO, that fear of missing out, that envy, it just wells up inside you, and it happens to all of us, and it it drives you to want more, more, more. And I think that with social what I see about social media is it's just this constant uh sometimes feels inescapable, but it actually is escapable, and that's the positive side. You can escape it, you don't have to get on TikTok and scroll. You cannot do that, so that's it, uh it is escapable, but it is like you said, there's an addictive property to it or habit-forming property to it, and and um there's this dull, numb comfort in doing it. Um and what what I see is that it I do think it trains people to be in a state of constant comparison to other people's lives that that aren't even accurately portrayed through the social media, but nonetheless it it just gives everybody FOMO constantly. Uh and it's all based on lies because the the it's just an image that's being projected. But my you know, my hope is that you know people are realizing more and more that it really is just a projected image and a facade for the most part, and uh it's it's all bullshit, you know. So I think I don't I don't think everybody's a bunch of idiots. I think people, as you said, they start to catch on to things and you know they realize they realize, look, this is not good for my brain, and I'll tell you the other, and and so the it because the thing is, it's it's it is beneficial to these billionaire owners of companies to throw Tinder on the fire and stoke us all up into a state of hyper consumerism so that we and and how do you do that? You fire the flames of envy in us and and FOMO and options and barrage of possible possible things you could own and or buy, or you know, if you get this filler, you'll be this person, you could look like this person, you could use this filter, you could be someone else, you know. And and I think that the only people that's and I I I guarantee it is benefiting a small handful of very rich business owners who are trying to sell stuff. I mean, look, in a in a hyper capitalist society, like you have to get people to want stuff, you have to get them to want more stuff.

SPEAKER_02 6:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 6:48

And it's like, how do you do that? Well, social media, I think, fuels help. I think it helps to fuel that.

SPEAKER_00 6:55

Yes, I think most people are getting kind of annoyed by it. In fact, uh there has been a push. I think um Australia has already done it. I think the UK and Canada are gonna do it soon where they're going to restrict social media use for kids. Because it's almost established at this point that there are people who prey on kids using social media. Um, it's actually pretty horrendous.

SPEAKER_01 7:20

Uh and yeah, like so I think And as a father, that's gotta be uh real very scary. Yeah, not a good thing for you to hear.

SPEAKER_00 7:29

You know, like Megs puts puts photos of uh our daughter on social media on her on her Instagram and stuff. I don't. Yep. And um I'm not saying what she's doing is wrong, but I I don't because like it I saw somewhere that I don't and you know, people do a lot of like fear-mongering too, but somebody posted that you know you you posting your videos of your child online, you know, like predators can get a lot of information about them by by looking at the pictures, like they can tell where they, you know, like kind of like where they spend time, um, you know, where they go to daycare, like all those things. And it kind of scared me. And I was like, you know what? Uh I'm just not gonna do it. I'm not gonna share any any anything about my daughter online. Like, I'm just gonna let let you know, just you know, I'm not gonna stop my watching.

SPEAKER_01 8:18

People could take too people could take your wife's face or my wife's face and create an AI porn slot out of it and jerk off to it. It's really messed up, it's really messed up. It's totally within the realm of possibility. Um, and they could do it with us too, and I bet they are. Yeah, I'm sure. I'm somebody's jerking off to uh my face photoshopped onto that costume Pamela Anderson's wearing on the cover of that uh barb uh movie, whatever that movie is, with all the black leather.

SPEAKER_00 8:44

Whichever one of our listeners is doing that, stop it. You stop it immediately. Stop it. Stop it. Get some help. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 8:54

But yeah, no, it's true. It's super creepy. I think some ex-girlfriend of Elon Musk's was like suing some company because uh she had got wind that some guys were doing that with her. We're like making AI stuff to, you know, so it's yeah, pretty gross.

SPEAKER_00 9:09

It's disgusting because you know the thing is, um, and I mean you can't you can't blame technology for this. You gotta blame people, unfortunately, because you know, technology is just a tool, but there are people who will absolutely abuse it and use it to do all kinds of things. And uh this we're just getting started with AI. Like we're just getting started with with all the content creation that AI can do. And yeah, you're seeing some amazing things that people are doing, but there's a flip side, there are also people doing kind of skeevy things with it because there are absolutely AI generators that will do sexually explicit videos. Um, and I don't even want to think about the shit people are doing on there. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 9:50

But but there are but that's also what laws are for, and we're in an awkward adjustment period, but I think there will definitely be laws to protect people against some in invasions of privacy and things of this.

SPEAKER_00 10:02

I think if I'm not mistaken, I feel like it's already kind of um kind of like slowly starting to be. I think somebody already mentioned that I yeah, I I I I'm I'm I'm I'm gonna say 100%. I heard about a case where where somebody was sued because they use someone's image um kind of without consents. That's why I think now even if you go to like Gemini, Chat GPT, or Claude and you try to like use uh tell them to create like you know something out of like something that's copyrighted or like a famous person, sometimes you will get a message saying that this is not allowed, this is not allowed to be able to do that. That's true, but that's true.

SPEAKER_01 10:41

It's not that easy to breach copyrights. I mean, you social media is, you know, it'll it'll stop you. I mean, I used some, I don't know, I wanted to post a clip from one of our episodes. It was episode 20 specifically, where we were excited that we had made it to 20 episodes as a podcast, and I had that goofy, funny like musical clip to accompany the speech I gave about it, and it was like um it was just this famous, it was the graduation march theme, whatever it's called. Um Pomp and Circumstance. That's the piece, Pomp and Circumstance. And you know, it was just this goofy orchestral thing of that, but I tried to use it in a clip, and uh I I mean I wasted my time making that clip because I could not post it anywhere. It was stopping me because I had gotten that uh song from a YouTube uh clip, you know, of like the of Pomp and Circumstance, and I tried to use it, and I honestly didn't think anyone would care. I mean, it's like a classical piece, it's like public domain, you would think it would be public domain or something. But apparently the way that works is although classical compositions, let's say by Johann Sebastibach or Beethoven or Mozart or whatever, although those are public domain, the recordings of them are not. So if the San Francisco so and so orchestra did a physical recording of a performance, right, there are legal repercussions to using that without permission or without payment. But the song itself, you could make a recording of it yourself and put it in something, and um it's like par for the course.

SPEAKER_00 12:21

Yeah, this it's I always I wondered about that because like uh like I obviously have a little girl who you know she's getting into princesses and Disney and fairy tale stuff right now. So, you know, I I I do this all the time. When we were uh in Mexico, we were at a restaurant and um she was getting antsy because kids don't want to sit around a restaurant, they want to you know run around do things. So yeah, I pull out. That's like my wife.

SPEAKER_01 12:44

Once we finish eating at a restaurant, we gotta get up and get out of there. She doesn't want to be there anymore.

SPEAKER_00 12:51

I mean, what's the point?

SPEAKER_01 12:54

We're not eating. Let's go. Like, don't you want to people watch a little? No, I want to go home. Get out of here. This is a nightmare. Get me out of here. We are done. We're done here. We did what we came to do. Let's get out of here. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 13:10

So yeah, I was I would use Gemini to say, like, make me like a an image uh with like a find the animal kind of theme. Uh so like make an image with like jungle animals, so make me an image with like jungle animals, like hidden. So I would like hold it up to my daughter. I'd be like, okay, find the tiger, find the bear, find this. And it's it's great. Like it kept her busy, it got us through a lot of meals uh with very little friction from her side. Uh but then I would do the same because now she's into fairy tales. I would be like, okay, make me an image with all the fairy tale uh characters, like Snow White Red Riding Hood, and immediately would say, Nope, this violet's copyright. And I'm like, how? I thought those were all public domain stories. Like, I guess, you know, maybe maybe some way, some way, like Disney or or maybe someone's blocking it. I don't know. There's no German company that's like no one's gonna use our fairy tales. Yeah, the Brothers Grimm Foundation. The Brothers Chat GBT Halt Stop Do not use our monk. Isn't that funny that so many fatals came out of Germany?

SPEAKER_01 14:24

I know it it is, it's so weird, and so many of them like the way they sort of teach the lesson to the child will be like somebody's on fire or someone fell into a well and got eaten by snakes. It'll be like the worst, the most horrendous nightmarish death. Yeah. And it's for like a seven-year-old to fall asleep to, you know. Like, what are the Germans thinking?

SPEAKER_00 14:49

I know, I know. I guess like, yeah, what does it like? Is it normal for them to think about that stuff for children? What? Like is this there must be a better way to teach your kids like not to like trust strangers or something? Yeah, without the trauma.

SPEAKER_01 15:04

Yeah. Spare my child the trauma.

SPEAKER_00 15:06

Yeah. We need to tone it down a little bit.

SPEAKER_01 15:11

Oh, yeah, a lot of it. Well, that that castle in Disneyland is uh is based on Neuschwanstein, which it was King Ludwig's castle over in Germany, in southern Germany, Bavaria.

SPEAKER_00 15:23

Have you gone there? I have.

SPEAKER_01 15:25

I've been there like two or three times, yeah. Nice to Neuschwanstein. It's a gorgeous castle. He King Ludwig uh or Ludwig, he was uh he was sort of the black sheep of his family, and um he spent a lot of money and time working on making that castle. And back in his day, his family would deride him about it, and they wanted him to stop. You're wasting your time, you're wasting our family money, you know, making this giant, gorgeous castle, nobody gives a shit. What are you what are you doing? And he's just like, I have to make this castle, and he never completely finished at least the interior of it, okay, uh, which is kind of sad, but they so they've had to pick up some of the slack where he wasn't able to leave uh finish. But um the but it's a absolute it's uh gorgeous from the outside. It's such a an insane, uh like I idyllic castle that draws tourism from all around the world. And it's just funny that in his day where he wasn't accepted by his family and they didn't understand what he was doing, they thought he was just wasting their money and time. But man, that thing has become one of the biggest tourist attractions in the world. And and it draws so much money for somebody is making a lot of money because he had that castle designed and built. So it is funny that in his family just they just hated him for it. You know, what are you doing? You're wasting our time. Yeah, but it's a gorgeous castle, and that's what so that's Neusch Fawnstein, and that is what that princess castle, that Disney castle in Disneyland, uh, that's what it's based on. And um uh, but it is funny because when you yeah, it's like you have these horrible stories that are based around these gorgeous buildings, and you're like, how is this juxtaposition happening? Why is there a goblin eating the the liver of a child and and then right across from this beautiful castle? But um the when you read those stories, it does help you to understand how Werner Herzog uh turned out the way he has as the psyche that he has. He may have been he he may he may have been spoon-fed a few of those bru brothers grim stories in his childhood.

SPEAKER_00 17:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 17:50

More than a few, maybe.

SPEAKER_00 17:53

And probably the original ones, not the uh wimpy Disney ones.

SPEAKER_01 17:57

Yeah, not the watered down ones where you know, oh, he just fell off a building, no big deal. Quick death.

SPEAKER_02 18:04

Yeah. In the original one, vines grow out the side of the castle and eat his flesh.

SPEAKER_01 18:09

Yeah, it's like what? Yeah, it's awful.

SPEAKER_02 18:13

Yeah, I know.

SPEAKER_00 18:15

Burn this book. Uh we're just gonna put this one away. This is that that's gonna table story time. Story time time.

SPEAKER_01 18:26

Yeah. Save this for when you're older, like 35. Yeah, fairy tales sure have come a long way, but uh I wonder if they're I wonder if there are people who write uh modern day fairy tales. That would be cool. I hope there are.

SPEAKER_00 18:40

Yeah, yeah. You know, as a dad, like I there are some really good children authors out there who have like now you know become um almost legend because like they have been doing it for a while. So they have like really great material. Uh there's this woman called Julia Julia Donaldson. I wish I didn't butcher her name. I'm sure any parents knows about them, knows about her. She is uh her books are great. Um my my kid loves them. Um from what I know here, multiple lot of kids love her stuff. Uh so I'm sure at some point she's going to become quite quite big, but like at the same time, uh I I yeah, I'm trying to think of someone uh who's maybe a little bit more famous, but um yeah. She's definitely someone who's interesting. Yeah, has like a she has a bunch of work that's out there and Bob Odenkirk has a children's book he wrote and published. I who played Better Call Soul?

SPEAKER_01 19:40

Yes, yeah. Maybe you should uh maybe uh fun fact by the way, and my my wife reminded me of this, uh, but he he wrote Bob Odenkirk actually wrote the Matt Foley skit with Chris Farley down by the river, the motivational speaker. Yeah, Bob Odenkirk apparently wrote that. Oh my goodness, that's it's amazing.

SPEAKER_00 20:00

You know, he's I've I've you know, I first time I saw him was Better Call Saul. I'm sorry, in Breaking Bad. He was great obviously in Breaking Bad, and I I saw a little bit of better calls, he was great there too. But then um I saw other shows where I started to see him and I was like, man, this guy's pretty funny. He has like a cameo on arrested development in one episode. He's just he's absolutely hilarious in it.

SPEAKER_01 20:24

Like he's always he's always good, yeah. He's awesome, he's great. Yeah, um, I even and I liked that movie. He was in Nobody, wasn't it called Nobody?

SPEAKER_00 20:34

I never I never saw it, but uh I heard a lot of great things.

SPEAKER_01 20:38

It was good, it was really entertaining. It was a good tight, well done. Yeah, it was really good.

SPEAKER_00 20:45

Um Yeah, we're um we're about nearing about one and a half hours on this. So I think what why why don't you put that poetry book in your lap? Some good use. Yeah, maybe top us off, top off the episode with some nice poetry. I know our listeners love that.

SPEAKER_01 21:00

Yeah. And uh well, I wanted to I wanted to uh real quick say that I do have a song of the day. Oh um, so I just want to throw it out uh there. Uh Whiskey in the Jar by Thin Lizzie. Thin Lizzie. Um this is uh Thin Lizzie's 1972 hit Whiskey in the Jar, did not chart in the USA upon its original release, failing failing to make the Billboard Hot 100. While it was a massive success in Europe, reaching number one in Ireland, not surprisingly, and number six in the UK in 1973, the band did not achieve their first US top 40 hit until 1976 with the song The Boys Are Back in Town. And we've all heard that song too.

SPEAKER_02 21:46

Yeah. The boys are back in town, boys are back in town.

SPEAKER_01 21:51

You know? And for the longest my whole life I thought the words were The Boys are Bake in Town, the boys are bacon town. Boys are back in town.

SPEAKER_00 22:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 22:02

Um, and and and I thought that it was because I thought the words were the boys of Bacon Town, I thought that it was about Kevin Bacon and his brothers uh celebrating together and do and getting into mischief together. And it has nothing to do with that, and it's not about Kevin Bacon, and the word bacon's not in the song at all. And in my mind, for years hearing that on like classic rock radio stations, I thought it was the boys of bacon town. I just thought it was about Kevin Bacon. The Boys Are Back in Town was a US top 40 hit which came later after Whiskey in the Jar. And Boys of Bacon Town. I still can't stop saying it. The Boys Are Back in Town in 1976 was a hit. Whiskey in the Jar was released in 1972 and did not chart until early 1973. So it was one of those songs that didn't get huge right away when it was released. Uh Creep by Radiohead was that way too, actually. It was not a massive hit overnight when it was released. It took, I think, like a year or something for it to gain steam. It's funny when you hear those stories. Um but yeah, Thin Lizzie, the band, uh, they are credited with being one of the first and most influential hard rock bands to use double lead guitar in their songs. In other words, if you have a lead guitar part, you play the same part again, maybe with a different guitar or a different tone or a different amp, and change it slightly, and you just record it, you double it. You double you record the same part over itself to give it a fuller, fatter, bigger, wider sound. It's an extremely commonly used studio technique. And so apparently so Thin Lizzie is credited as being one of one of the first uh and most influential hard rock bands to use that technique of doubling lead guitar or doubling guitar like that. Um they weren't the first to do it, but they were very influential in doing it on some songs that got huge, and uh hard rock was really huge back then. So yeah. Um so yeah, it had been done before, but not by a hard rock band, or at least not such an influential uh famous band. And um yeah, it seems like in music the biggest bands are not the ones who invented those sounds first, they're just the ones who refine it and employ it in a hit song and get credit for it. Um it's interesting how that goes. But yeah, yeah. So yeah, that's kind of the just a little backstory on the song Um Whiskey in the Jar and the band Thin Lizzie. And I love that song Whiskey in the Jar. I love that riff. And I bet you, as a Metallica fan, I bet you've heard the Metallica cover of that song.

SPEAKER_00 24:52

I was gonna say that's how I actually uh came across the song in the first place, is through uh Metallica, because Metallica came out with like uh I think an album called Garage Incorporated, where they just covered a bunch of songs from like a bunch of famous bands. Whiskey in the Jar was one of them, and that's that's the first version of it I heard. It's it's pretty much the same except way heavier, um and you know has the Metallica kind of like um twist on it. But yeah, I liked it. I and I remember um in college on St. Patrick's Day, it was usually always played somewhere. Because why wouldn't you? Right? Why wouldn't you?

SPEAKER_01 25:34

Yeah, such a so uh no, I mean, yeah, no wonder that song when it came out in 1972 was successful in Ireland. Makes perfect sense. And I think Thin Lizzie was yeah, I'm 99%. I think they were from Ireland and Lizzie. Yeah, it's cool because the lead singer of Thin Lizzie, and he has a really cool voice, but the lead singer of Thin Lizzie was a black dude, or at least part black. I mean he he looks black-ish, and he was uh he was probably a mix of white and black, but he's uh he's he's he's a black dude, and he um uh and he was like from he was like Irish. He was like a black guy from Ireland, and he was like, you know, the lead singer of this band that went on to be this huge hard rock band. So that's kind of cool.

SPEAKER_00 26:20

That's pretty cool. Yeah, I don't I didn't I don't think I knew that.

SPEAKER_01 26:23

Yeah. That's really cool. He's a great singer.

SPEAKER_00 26:26

Yeah, I remember like um for for that reason, like my it's funny you say that. Like, even like my dad, for the longest time, he thought the guy from Dire Straits was a black dude. That's funny. Yeah, because this is you could like, yeah, you couldn't just look up things, you had to like listen to the song and that's fine, you know, and look or look at the album art, and yeah.

SPEAKER_01 26:51

Yeah, there were more mysteries, yeah. That's really funny. So, what when when he found out it was a a white dude, what was his reaction? He was just like, Whoa, blow my socks off.

SPEAKER_00 27:04

Yeah, he was like, Wow, his voice, he's like, It doesn't sound like a white guy and all that. Soulful. Yeah, it took a while for him to get to wrap his head around it, but you know, yeah. Um he like, but you know, he he he I think but dire straits was one of the best bands he introduced me to uh in terms of music. Like I love them. I mean too.

SPEAKER_01 27:23

I love them. You and yeah, you introduced me to that song, Brothers in Arms, which I love that song.

SPEAKER_00 27:29

Oh, yeah, it's a great song. Great song. And I mean, yeah, I'm sure even if you if you for those of you guys who don't know the Dire Straits, uh, go listen to either Money for Nothing or Solence of Swing. You've probably heard those songs played somewhere, either in like a in like for sure, money for nothing, you've heard in like a party. Money for nothing.

SPEAKER_01 27:48

I love that riff.

SPEAKER_00 27:49

Yes, yeah, yeah. And interesting thing about that guy, he never used a pick. He was actually he played with his fingers. Oh, I think. And he that's that's why he can play so well. Like if you listen to Stalm's Swing and you try to like learn it, it's hard, it's not easier to learn that song. Like, you need to be pretty good at the guitar to learn some of the things that he does, and it's because he doesn't use a pick. He plays an electric guitar and he you know he finger picks the whole thing.

SPEAKER_01 28:15

That's so crazy. I forgot, I forgot about that. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 28:18

Even money for nothing, that's a great riff, and you're like, oh, that's gotta be a pick. No, it's not a pick.

SPEAKER_01 28:24

Well, that's so interesting. You know, a little change like that can just make it possible to get a certain sound that you just wouldn't get without it. Yeah, it's really interesting. I love that riff to Money for Nothing. It's so it's so cool. It seems so I've never tried to play it, but it sounds so simple, and yet I bet it's a lot harder to actually make it sound like that than it seems.

SPEAKER_00 28:47

Maybe, yeah. But uh I I will say, like, in terms of uh a guitar, like a distortion tone, in terms of a song intro, it's really really good. Like it really it makes you like sit up and like pay attention because you're like, what is that sound?

SPEAKER_01 29:02

I'm like, I want to go on this ride.

SPEAKER_00 29:05

Yeah, yeah. If you're in the car, forget about it. You're definitely going increasing your speed by at least five kilometers five miles per hour.

SPEAKER_01 29:13

Yeah, rock music is the best for long for car rides, it's the best for the car.

SPEAKER_00 29:19

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 29:20

Just feel like an adventure.

SPEAKER_00 29:22

Yeah, it's just the right amount of amount of adventure. Cause like, yeah, I mean, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 29:27

Because you're going on an adventure, but you and you're traveling somewhere, but you're also kind of introspective because you you might be alone in your car, you might be with one friend, but you're not in like a club and you're not in a crowded shopping mall, you're just trapped alone in your car, but you're also on an adventure. So there's the there's an introspective side of like an internal side of what's but then there's also that external fact of the adventure you're on physically. So that so rock is just perfect for that, you know? Yeah, it just works in that mindset. But yeah, um, so I think uh if if we have time, I'll just I'll read this poem. Let's do it. So this is from a little book of poetry called Fool's Sermon.

SPEAKER_00 30:10

Nice.

SPEAKER_01 30:11

And this Fool's Sermon, this poet poetry book was written by Daniel Higgs. Uh uh, he's a musician and a poet. And you should Google him if you've never heard of him, Daniel Higgs, H-I-G-G-S. He's a he's a very interesting, eccentric guy. He's really talented with wordplay. And I was introduced to him by Zashi's brother, Alex, who I interviewed on this show. And Alex is a huge Daniel Higgs devotee. He's a huge fan of Daniel Higgs, and he's followed him. He's like sort of a disciple of Daniel Higgs. I mean, he's followed him around the planet or around the country uh uh to see quite a number of his shows. I mean, when there's a when Daniel Higgs is in town or or anywhere near town within two hours drive, Alex is getting in that car and he's going, he's gonna see Daniel Higgs. And he took me once to a Daniel Higgs show uh at a venue called, I think, Zebulon, maybe in LA area, the Los Angeles area, because when Alex was in town, he knew Daniel Higgs was gonna be playing and he had to seize the opportunity to see him. And he was like, Matt, if you want to come, you can. And I went and I I actually did go uh and uh and saw Daniel Higgs perform, and it was quite a uh speaking of an adventure, it was quite a uh a journey of of the of the mind and soul uh watching this eccentric performer in that venue. Uh but it let it definitely left an impression on me. And so Alex uh I mean one thing he did was I rode with him in my car on the morning of my wedding when I'm you know marrying Zashi, his sister, and he you know, we're suited up in our outfits and stuff, and on the long car ride, he played for me a Daniel Higgs song, and it was a really weird experience, but it was also a cool experience. Uh, it was a song called Love Abides, and Daniel Higgs will play like it's just him with a guitar and his voice, and he kind of sings in a way like this, and he like plays these kind of like Indian-influenced guitar licks, uh almost sounds like a sitar the way he plays, but he's playing it on like a guitar. Okay, and so Alex played, and it's like a lo-fi recording, and the song was like nine and a half minutes long. I mean, it was a long song, and it didn't have a chorus or verse kind of structure, it just kind of goes with itself and takes you on this adventure. And Alex played that for me on like the way to my wedding when I'm like in a tuxedo, and it was just a really funny moment that uh that I look back on fondly, but it was like, and then after the song ended, uh when it was like 11 minutes long, after the song ended, Alex turned to me and he's like quietly like, I think there's a lot about love we can take away from this, or something something like that. So Daniel Higgs, uh yeah, um, this is a book of poetry Daniel Higgs uh wrote and published A Fool's Sermon, and his name is nowhere in his book. Um, there's no way to know who wrote it. He does not credit himself in the book anywhere that I can see. Uh there's just a picture of him on the last page, but that's it. No name. Anyway, um, so I'll read this poem by Daniel Higgs. This is called Great Universe A Droplet Upon the Brow, as rare and as fragrant as catastrophe will allow. I am the sanest man I ever met. Please, driver, hold the door, and when we board that worthy vessel and journey another day, heartbreak is as joyous as the mighty oak uprooted, the slender reed springs upright. Here better take this song with you and remain vigilant throughout the night. As the dreaming intensifies and the symbols grow more dense, keep to the open spaces where you might feel less immense, where holographic specks whisper the rest in weird enfablements, flotsome, chaff and tender, stubble in the field, ruins, fragments, potsured beneath the dust concealed, trampled by the convoy of nature's holy caravan, ashes thrown into the wind, tears sprinkled on the sand, fair dawn blushes rosy, yielding to the blue, one more resurrection till I reunite with you. So think about that everyone and figure out how it relates to your life and why it's important to you.

SPEAKER_00 35:29

Yeah. So if you need to listen to that again, you just rewind it by 20 seconds and you should.

SPEAKER_01 35:36

Yes. Do it once a day. Um, but anyway, do did you want to send us into the week with a positive note, Karen?

SPEAKER_00 35:45

I mean, I I think it's best to leave with that. Yeah, maybe you're right. That was good. Yes, uh it's that was uh that was you know a good piece of poetry. Yeah. Uh something worth like like you know, like leaving with, I feel.

SPEAKER_01 35:58

Yeah, check out Daniel Higgs. Google that man if you get a chance. Look him up.

SPEAKER_00 36:03

It's nice. I like making recommendations on here because I mean um all Matt and I are good friends, but I I didn't know much about Daniel Higgs. I think I'll check him out a little bit because I do like poetry and I do like um yeah, I just poetry poetry with good music, yeah. That's a that's a combination that I'm always about. So yeah, yeah, I check that out, especially when I go for a drive.

SPEAKER_01 36:26

You know what we should try one day when we do this is have you recite a poem, and I'll like play some nady little guitar thing in the background while you recite it. That might be kind of fun. Combine music with poetry, that would be cool. All right, well, if you don't have anything else, I suppose we can bid the good folks adieu for today.

SPEAKER_00 36:49

Adieu, everybody. Thank you for listening. Nice that riff, I think we can call it. Thanks everyone for stopping by. Yeah. And yeah, we will talk to you later.

SPEAKER_01 37:14

I think after the Daniel Higgs vibes.