In this episode, Mike and Pete talk about some of their first memories of audio gear, vinyl and Mike touches on his first exposure to true audiophile gear. Pete talks about his Sony Discman and Mike reminisces about his dads first hi-end stereo setup by H.H. Scott.
Mike discusses his first Heathkit radio kit which was a Christmas present from his father when he was 12 and how as a kid, he disassembled every flashlight in the house. Mike and Pete talk about a future episode where Mike is going to give Pete a pair of Monolith M565C headphones and a couple of different cables for Pete to listen to and report back on the differences. The different cables will include a set of cables designed and built by Mike.
Pete talks about how his artwork is on display in the social media lounge at the NBA playoffs in Chicago. Mike teases about how he wants Pete to tell the story of how and why Pete started creating his artwork that ended up being used in the NBA.
#autoish #autoishpodcast #mikeandpete
In this episode, Mike and Pete talk about some of their first memories of audio gear, vinyl and Mike touches on his first exposure to true audiophile gear. Pete talks about his Sony Discman and Mike reminisces about his dads first hi-end stereo setup by H.H. Scott.
Mike discusses his first Heathkit radio kit which was a Christmas present from his father when he was 12 and how as a kid, he disassembled every flashlight in the house. Mike and Pete talk about a future episode where Mike is going to give Pete a pair of Monolith M565C headphones and a couple of different cables for Pete to listen to and report back on the differences. The different cables will include a set of cables designed and built by Mike.
Pete talks about how his artwork is on display in the social media lounge at the NBA playoffs in Chicago. Mike teases about how he wants Pete to tell the story of how and why Pete started creating his artwork that ended up being used in the NBA.
#autoish #autoishpodcast #mikeandpete
Pete: 0:12
Welcome to the autoish podcast with Mike and Pete.
Mike: 0:17
That's me.
Pete: 0:18
How's it going Mike?
Mike: 0:19
It's going great, man. So happy to be starting episode for in our ah, in our new studio space.
Pete: 0:27
Yeah, this is great. This is perfect. Um,
Mike: 0:31
yeah. I can't wait to hear this back just to see if it's, um, quieter, which I think it will be.
Pete: 0:36
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. So from time to time. If you hear this noise, that's because that's me having an iced coffee from Black River Roasters, our favorite local coffee spot. And if you don't hear Mike make the sound,
Mike: 0:51
you're not gonna hear it. Because mine is gone, mine is empty.
Pete: 0:57
It is the best coffee. We were just talking about it for a little bit there that they, uh the light roast Ethiopian is my go to
Mike: 1:05
Absolutely, it's awesome.
Pete: 1:08
You know, I used to be really into the dark espressos like they used to do the stove-top expresses all time,
Mike: 1:12
Right
Pete: 1:13
and I was like the darker bitter. That bitter is the new sweet. I used to, like, joke around
Mike: 1:18
No man, that light roast, that Ethiopians just to die for
Pete: 1:22
It's like it's almost a more dynamic tea like than it is an actual full on coffee. It's It's great. Um, so in our last episode, we teased, talking about audio, some high end stuff, and, um, it got me thinking about my first Walkman.
Mike: 1:47
Oh, awesome. Yeah. Analog. I could talk about analog for days.
Pete: 1:51
Yeah. Um, it was a silver Sony CD player slash radio.
Pete: 2:02
Wow!
Pete: 2:03
It had, like, chrome buttons on it and a little like digital screen. Very small. I mean, not even like a full
Mike: 2:13
Was it a Discman?
Pete: 2:14
Yeah.
Mike: 2:14
Okay. All right.
Pete: 2:16
Um, my first actually buying CDs on my own. I bought Metallica, Uh, the black album. I bought it. um it was Courtney Love's band, whatever they are, the album was celebrity skin.
Mike: 2:37
Okay, I Don't know that one
Pete: 2:39
You're not missing anything, and, um, and the other one was, I believe, was the Sex Pistols.
Mike: 2:48
Okay,
Mike: 2:49
Because some girl said I have to listen to the Sex Pistols. I was like, Okay,
Mike: 2:51
I had a discman back in the day and I remember it being black. I know it had a little display on it for, like, the track. I don't remember having an FM radio, though
Pete: 3:02
this I love the FM radio. I would listen to K-rock like and the radio took up less battery than running the CD did. Okay, so if battery wasn't strong enough to run the CD, I could we switch over to the radio?
Mike: 3:16
Right
Pete: 3:17
Um, but, uh, there were a few quirks to this CD player, right? And I think everyone experiences kind of the same thing. Kind of. We're gonna go with this. The skipping.
Mike: 3:27
Oh, absolutely. I mean, such a small form or, you know, such a small device. There's no way that could have a really good shock protection in it. It's something you're carrying around. And it's a disc that's spinning in there. Yeah, it's gonna skip
Pete: 3:41
in the car, like, you know, if my dad was driving like I'd be like dad, stop hitting the bumps. I'm trying to listen to Metallica,
Mike: 3:47
right?
Pete: 3:48
And he's like, what are you talking about. But, you know,
Mike: 3:51
That's one thing that the Walkman did not have with the cassette.
Pete: 3:55
Yeah, that's true. That's true. So you know, we're talking about all this stuff with audio. We're kind of getting ready for the episode, and and here I am and all ending in a man like we've come such a long way now where you would go on a road trip and you pack your little your CD pack. So you would have maybe 14-15 CD's with you. That was it. That's what you had. And now you have in your pocket every song ever right there available to you through Spotify or Apple music.
Mike: 4:22
Yeah, it's funny. Um, I remember this so vividly, and this is mid eighties, something like that. CDs had just come out They were the, you know, the latest and the greatest and, um I remember being in well, it was a record store, of course, but, you know, they they had CDs. I remember, um, the clerk saying, This is it. You know, there's no other format in the world. This is, you know, they're compact and small. You know, this is gonna end the era of the cassette, which, you know, it certainly did. But, um and then I remember relaying that to somebody else like a you know, an older person. And I remember if it was a teacher. Might even been my dad. I don't remember, but I remember saying, Yeah, this is it! This is the future. There's no other format, and I remember that person saying "everything goes away, everything has cycles and something will replace the CD and the CD, you know, we'll be doomed at some point in time." It lasted a very long time when you consider other formats, like eight tracks and even the cassette, probably. But it was replaced. Yeah, of course. And now it's streaming. It went to, um, you know, the iPod or some of those other things like the zune and whatever else. But now it's streaming. Now it streams all over the place phones and......
Pete: 5:48
yeah, it's interesting to, to have seen the vinyl sales because there was, like, this time where it was only vinyl. Then you had the Cassette, vinyl sales go down. Then you had, you know, CD's and vinyl sales go down, and then it was like vinyls gonna go away, and I remember making fun of it. Who's going to use that big thing? What's that about?
Mike: 6:06
Yeah, I mean, look how archaic it looks compared to what we use today,
Pete: 6:09
right? And then now, if you go to Urban Outfitters, you can go to target right now. They don't have CD's, They have vinyl.
Mike: 6:17
Sure
Pete: 6:18
It's on the end cap in the music section. They have, you know, whatever brand record player and you know your top 10 albums in vinyl, and that's a quality thing. It's an nostalgia thing, but there.......
Mike: 6:31
there's some nostalgia to it, and, um, I know we touched on this in the previous episode, but if you listen to vinyl, it's noticeably warmer.
Pete: 6:43
Good word.
Mike: 6:44
It's not digitized and for me, there's a lot of nostalgia, because that's the sound that I remember growing up with, um, in in early exposure to audio. So and because you talked about your first, um, experiences of your first, you know, um, music device. Let's call it that, Um, my first early memory of audio. My dad was ah, very talented musician. So I grew up around music, and, um, he played I don't I don't even know how many instruments. I mean, he could play everything from a mandolin to a banjo. He played ah, acoustic guitar. He played electric bass. He was always in a band that I can remember growing up. He was always in some band, um, usually country, bluegrass, that kind of stuff, which you know, I grew up with in Vermont, but
Pete: 7:39
I don't know that's awesome.
Mike: 7:39
And, um I mean, he had crazy stuff like a Hawaiian guitar which had 52 strings that he could play, and he played the pedal steel guitar. And so I grew up around music. Um, with that he he purchased this very high end audio system, which was really the in thing in the seventies. Expensive high-end audio systems and rack systems and things like that were were, you know, the rage at that time. And I remember going to the store with my dad, and I remember him actually taking out, like, I think he made payments on this system like that's how expensive it was back then. Um and I remember my mom's reaction, which wasn't good, but yeah, that's a That's a whole different story. Um, but it was. It was made by a company called H.H. Scott, at the time they were, you know, probably not the top of the top, but they were very well known, very reputable, probably what we would refer to today's mid-fi. Um, you know, it's certainly well above consumer grade audio at the time, and he bought a turntable a, um, an integrated AMP which today would be like tuner amp combined, pre-amp in It as well, and, um, and a set of their speakers, which I remember them being tuneable that, you know, switches on the front where you could you could modify the amount of treble and stuff like that, which I don't remember seeing a whole lot of that after that. But, I remember that sound. I remember the sound of vinyl from back then, Um, and as a kid. Oh, yeah and he had a cassette player, um, or, you know, cassette deck. So I would record my albums on cassette and then take them on my walkman. Um, but I remember that that sound of vinyl and that hi-end analog sound and that's kind of drawn me back into this, and I know we talked about it before, but, you know, one of these days we'll have you over to the house and we'll we'll spin some records. Yeah, yeah, but for me, it's not just a nostalgia of the vinyl and the piece of vinyl. It's the sound that is identifiable and recognizable is analog.
Pete: 9:58
Yeah, absolutely. Well, so thinking back to that time, what are some albums that stand out for you?
Mike: 10:06
Um, well, you know, at that time for me, it wasn't about sound quality like it is today. Like, you know, I'm drawn to specific artists. Um, today, because of the way they record or the, you know, the high level of engineering that goes into production back then it was, um, there was AC/DC, It was Billy Joel. Um, it was all primarily rock, but, um, you know, it was all those those typical Poppy, um, everything from Nazareth to rush. I mean, growing up in Vermont, we're very close to Canada. Um, we listen to, ah, an FM station out of Montreal. That was, you know, all of us kids at the time it was the coolest station. And, you know, on a good day, you could get it in, like, pretty clearly. Um, and of course, they played nothing but rush. I mean, Rush was from that area, they were Canadian, and it was a big deal. Um, so ah, so rush was definitely Ah, a big influence on me early on.
Pete: 11:07
Well, It's so when we talk about vinyl, obviously sound quality. But then the other side of it, too, is the listening experience where you know when you're even. If you look at the musicians right now, like what they're putting out and it's not about good or bad, it's just a matter of change. Very frequently, you'll see an artist command with, like eight singles in a row before an album ever drops
Mike: 11:30
Right
Pete: 11:30
And they just, you know, can release it streaming or however they do soundcloud, whatever. It's one individual song where you know there is a whole different set of skills that come together with putting together an album that plays all the way through. That has some continuity to it that has a message or a story, or is a concept that in its own, um, I think it's a unique, um, thing at this point.
Mike: 11:55
Oh, absolutely, that that aspect of it is lost,
Pete: 11:59
I think, Yeah, I think the CD started to kill that you would see that, like in the nineties, the single would come out. The rest of the album was just kind of thrown together to sell the single
Mike: 12:11
Sure
Pete: 12:11
At least in pop music but then we have seen that kind of come back a little bit and at least in the indie artists of the time, were pretty thorough about putting together some more interesting concept albums and telling a story whether it be a riff on Alice in Wonderland or, you know, whatever it was, it was a nice kind of way to kind of keep that going. And now, with the reemergence of vinyl is we're starting to see that a little bit, which is great.
Mike: 12:42
Yeah, definitely.
Pete: 12:42
You mentioned that that high end audio system, and I don't know how good this system was. I don't know all the details of what my dad had a Kenwood system
Mike: 12:52
Sure
Pete: 12:52
that it had. You would probably be able to identify what these things were, had three components to it. Outside of the speakers, one had a whole bunch of dials on it that went up and down there all vertical.
Mike: 13:05
All right, that was an EQ. So it had a bunch of slider controls on it, so you could vary the different frequencies. Um, yeah, that was pretty common. Um, today you would not see one of those in a system because the idea in an in an audiophile system today is to put as little between the source and the speakers as possible that you want to hear what was going on in the studio. You want to hear what the engineer put together, and you don't want a color that in any way, shape or form. And you want. And I think probably one of the one of the ways that it was described to me best early on when I started getting into this and I think it was in a book, I read, Um, and I'll try and think of the name of the book as we're talking about this. But, um, the guide said, Think of each component each piece of wire, each piece of anything between the source and the final um, output at the speakers as being a pane of glass. And regardless of how clear or clean each piece of glass is, each one of those is slightly distorting the end result and each component piece of wire each everything that touches that is impacting its its sound quality of the end. So back then you would have any EQ. You would tune it. You're like, Oh, that sounds good to me. But that doesn't mean that it was good
Pete: 14:28
Right
Mike: 14:29
That just means it sounded good to you in particular. Which is another thing that that I should probably talk about. Everybody's different. Everybody hears things differently. Everybody has different hearing. Um, and each system that you listen to is in a different room, which has different acoustics. There's so many things that go into this. Um, but at the end of the day, the fewer things in between the source and the output generally the better. And, you know, back then that would have been an EQ. So he had some sort of an amp an EQ and then whatever the source was, we're probably the three components would be my guess.
Pete: 15:06
Yeah. Yeah, right.
Mike: 15:07
So CD player amplifier EQ and then out the speakers,
Pete: 15:11
right? And I remember the speakers were huge, like they were massive....
Mike: 15:14
They all were back then.
Pete: 15:16
Yeah, Um, and actually it was funny. He.... it's a weird story, but he, um, helped out the local police. They had like an undercover sting, so they he knew one of the police officers. They're like, Hey, Eric, like, do you use that those speakers for anything anymore? And he's like I'm going to junk them, all right. He's like, we need to it. We actually could we take them and put like, a hidden camera we're gonna use them for our sting operation and was like, thank you. After they were done with it, they showed my dad what they did and where they put the camera and it was so obvious that there was a camera in there. It was like poking out of the little screen where the speaker, Well, it's fun. But it worked so right, but But the speakers were gigantic.
Mike: 16:02
Yeah, most of the speakers back then were even if they weren't, like, really higher end. Um, you know, big wolfers were they were in and the cabinets were large because most of them back then were sealed and have a sealed cabinet that actually had some bass response needed to be fairly large, but speaker design's a whole different topic for a different episode if we want to do that someday. But, um, I've built a number of speakers designed crossovers, um, built from scratch and have a pretty good understanding of enclosure. Um, you know, um, a effects on sound and stuff like that, but that's that's a whole different thing.
Pete: 16:44
That's something I didn't even know that that means. So I'm interested in that. Because I see the speakers that come out right now, like so the sono speakers that I have, like, they got this, like, giant metal grate in front of them. Like, how is the sound gonna be better with this? You know, plastic metal grate, right covering it. And I'm sure there's a reason for it. Maybe, but
Mike: 17:04
yeah, I'm not familiar with that speaker, but I would be happy to take a look at it because it's, you know, you're peeking my interest as somebody who's designed speakers in the past. But for me, the the calculations for speaker design are cool and you know that that plays to my analytic part of my brain, where I'm like, you know, hey I think this would sound better if I tweak this or, you know, I'll design the crossover to cross over at a different point because I think the speakers are matched better in this area. That's a whole different thing though man, we could You go on for days talking about, um the components that I used or the higher end components that I would use in the, um in the cross over the different types of wiring is pure silver, and it's, I could go on and on.
Pete: 17:53
So you were introduced to this higher end audio at a relatively early age. That's like your first kind of introduction to it. But at what point do you take it upon yourself to start building these things out? And what kind of inspired that, cause I know in my side, as far as I ever went with audio, was I had a friend whose parents had their entire house wired with speakers like, That's what I want. Like, I want to go to walk into every room and hear the song that I want to hear indecent enough quality, and that's been like, my goal to build up my system. But that never went any further than that. You're talking about wires.
Mike: 18:34
Yeah. Um, so hey, um, I was, I think I was about 12. Um, and my dad for Christmas gave me a heathkit radio and ah, you're you're probably too young to know what a heathkit is. But, um, back then a Heathkit was a kit to build something, and you got a box with a bunch of parts in it and some instructions. And at the age 12 I learned how to solder electrical components on a, on a board. Basically. So my dad helped me, um, in house 12. So it was a pretty extensive kit It was probably It was definitely not made for 12 year olds, and probably because he wanted to build it as much as you know, he wanted me to build it. It was probably more the case than anything, but, um so at 12 years old, I was soldering electrical components to put this radio together. And I think if if nothing else, and my dad knew that I was the type of kid who I took everything apart, I mean, there wasn't a flashlight in our house that worked because I had already disassembled the thing. Pieces were spread out. All I needed to know how it worked and that that's pretty much anything I got my hands on. So he gives me this radio and, you know, there's you open a box and there's just components. There's resistors and capacitors and just stuff spread out all over the place in this big instruction manual. Um, and we put it together, you know? And he he certainly helped me with some of the more difficult stuff, but it worked. And at the end of the day, it was Ah, it was a short wave radio kit. So it, you know, I was listening to people all around the world on this short wave radio and
Pete: 20:24
You hear anything cool?
Mike: 20:25
I don't remember. I do remember hearing foreign languages. Um, but I don't remember anything specific. I just remember that the fact that that thing worked and I don't remember the time frame it took for us to put it together, you know, maybe it was a week or two or something. It was a long process, and it was very detail orientated, of course. But at the end of the day, when we turn to switch on, the thing worked. And I think that's what hooked me right there. And after that, it was a bunch of, um, you know, stuff. Then I got into how to design circuits my own circuits, like simple things. My dad got me a kit after that. Where, and I don't remember what they're called, but it was like an experimental board. And it came with all these components and instructions on how to build these different circuits and had little springs. And you'd put the wires. There's little jumpers and you do this and that, and it would come up with, um, like a siren so you could have this. It had momentary switches, and you you could do all these different things, and I took it to a different level. I took these little cardboard boxes. These, um there were probably, like, jewelry boxes or something, and I would take all the components and I'd would hard-wire them and put it in the little box with the speaker. And I would take it on the bus, and I would play it. And I I believe I may have freaked out my, ah, my bus driver at the time, like, you know, sitting behind him and, you know, sounding the siren. I kind of vividly remember doing that I was a mischievous little kid.
Pete: 22:01
Well, it's such an interesting. Just I have to just jump in with us. Because what an interesting story for me to hear. Where with my my God daughter and God son, their idea of this hands on thing is they have little coding kits.
Mike: 22:22
Okay
Pete: 22:22
So they're basically doing the same thing with their dad but their coding to build, like, worlds digital worlds.
Mike: 22:32
Oh, that's awesome
Pete: 22:33
So it's just a cool little parallel where, how, how far things have gone. But how they stayed so much the same. I'm sorry it had to interject with that.
Mike: 22:41
Yeah. Now that is interesting. That's cool. Yeah. So, you know, early on I had this, You know, um, it's interest in electronic circuits and then, you know, later in life and I told the story a little bit before, but later in life of a friend of mine introduces me to that like very hi-end audio and I'm not talking about, you know,mid-fi, I'm talking now, like I mentioned in one of the previous episodes his cables between his CD player and his amplifier or $2000 and that was the level of the system. And he had tube amps and, you know, $10,000 to $20,000 amplifiers. And at one point he had a $10,000 CD player, which had a single CD player. I mean, you know, to me, I've never seen that that level of of, um, audiophile grade equipment. But those $2000 cables prompted me to do all that research and I know I mentioned it before, but I had some background in electronics already, and I had an understanding of electronics and soldering, and, um and, you know, it kind of spoke to me and I went down that road. So right now, and to bring this to today, right now, I'm working on a design for a headphone cable that I want to give to you for one of our future episodes and say, Here's ah, and I'm going to give you, um, I've got a pair of monoliths M565C headphones, which are planar headphones, and I'm not gonna get too much into describing that but it's not a typical speaker in there. There's, um it's like a plate. I'll leave it at that, we'll talk about that another day.
Pete: 24:25
The name of the headphones.
Mike: 24:28
It's monolith, Is the manufacturer
Pete: 24:30
okay
Mike: 24:31
And the model is an M565C it's a closed back. They've got, um, like a wood. It's actually would, um, surrounding the headphone. Um, and they're planner based, Like I said. So it's not a typical driver. And the they're very, very quick. So you don't have the cone moving in and out that you would have it a typical driver or speaker, they're super quick. Their precise and their frequency range, range is well outside of the human hearing range. I think they go down to 15 hertz, which people can't hear. And I think they go up to 50,000 hertz, which is way beyond human hearing. Human hearing as a young person cuts off in, like, 20,000. And you know, for me, I think at this point, I'm I'm like around 15,000 and that's that's all that's left
Mike: 25:22
at my age,
Pete: 25:23
Well we'll trade...my headphones also have a really long name. They're called air buds. And so we'll trade, we'll trade.
Mike: 25:31
Okay, thank you. Just for a week.
Pete: 25:34
And they go from like a low hertz to maybe a higher. So I don't know and they play music, and they, um, are white.
Mike: 25:44
Yeah. I think what I really want is, you know, these headphones I think you're gonna gonna introduce you to probably send you down a rabbit hole of really bad things. Because ignorance is bliss when it comes to audio.
Pete: 25:58
I'm Just gonna keep them
Mike: 25:59
yeah, but what I really want to do. And, um, you know, we talked about this before we started this episode. But what I really want to do is give you the cables that came with the headphones from monolith and then give you another set of cables that I designed and tell me what the differences are between them in terms of how you hear them differently. Because, um, they they will be different, and they're gonna sound very different. And they may or may not be better in in terms of what you like or what you you hear, Um, some people don't like the sound of a very revealing system. And some people like warmer. It's just you know it. But what I really want more than anything is I want you to experience the fact that wires do sound different, right and that different designs can impact sound.
Pete: 26:53
Yeah
Mike: 26:53
And I think that's something that most people probably wouldn't even believe. That the difference in the wire that carries the sound from the source to the headphones or any other you know, component as well could impact the sound. And it will, and it does. And it's not a placebo. It's there, it's there. And, um, what I really like when A and B something with somebody or they come over to the house and, like a listen to this cable and then listen to this cable is that they hear the same differences I do which, which kind of solidifies to me that it's not a placebo effect. There is, You know, the bass is more noticeable or the highs are much cleaner. Or I can hear the person's fingers on the guitar strings, the things that start popping out when you when you're exposed to a different sound. I think that's that's cool. That's something I enjoy.
Pete: 27:52
Yeah, absolutely. So we'll get into, um, into that probably for Episode six. I think we're gonna do
Mike: 27:59
That's probably about right. I definitely want you to live with them for a little while, because I think, um the one thing that I've always found is it'll take a little while before you start to really, I mean, there's a kind of a learning curve as well. Initially you're gonna put on these headphones, You're like, Wow, it's I didn't know that this was there or this. My favorite tune is sounds I didn't know there was. Ah, you know, I don't know there's a flute midway through or whatever the case might be here. I never heard that before, but over time, your hearing will change a little bit. You'll learn different things. You'll become exposed to sound stage that you never knew was even there that you know how expansive the sound actually is. Um, so I do think you need to live with it for a little while and then go back and forth between the cables. So, yeah, I'm gonna say a couple episodes down the road. I mean, we'll have to come back to that a little later, but I want you to live with them for a little while and kind of get, you know a more, lengthy exposure to it instead of I listen to this one, tune and I listen to this tune over here. Yeah, they sound different, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. I think it's something that deserves a little more time. So, yeah, least a couple episodes down the road.
Pete: 29:09
That makes sense. Yeah, we'll give it a good listen and then and then that'll give me plenty time to come with a good story.
Mike: 29:15
Yeah. Yeah. Well, I think you described things really well. So that's what I'm looking forward to As much as anything, I think, you know, going back to your, um, bouquet.
Pete: 29:25
Oh, yeah right.
Mike: 29:25
um, kind of analogy. I mean, that that to me, was perfect. I mean, that was a really good explanation. And I think you're really good at those things. Um, but before we wrap this episode up, uh, I just want to talk about what I saw on your instagram page this morning because I think this is really cool dude
Pete: 29:42
Uh, thanks
Mike: 29:45
And if you want to shout out your instagram page now's the time
Pete: 29:47
Yeah, That's a good call. The Instagram is @floppyaction The name comes from a basketball play. Um, where your best shooter kind of goes underneath the basket while the point guard has the ball at the top of the key and the shooter could either roll off the left side and get a pick and get an open shot at the elbow or can go to the right side, get a pick and go to the corner and get a corner three. And it's become a very popular play. And I think it was the funniest name like it's just like we need something floppy action
Mike: 30:20
that I never actually heard that before, so I didn't know that's where it came.
Pete: 30:25
From my God daughters basketball team. Her mom is the coach and we were talking and she was like ah, we got to come with a good play for these kids whenever I was like floppy action, like it's so easy and your daughter is a good shooter like this is perfect and that's what we were drawn up. Please, While we were having pizza...
Mike: 30:41
That's cool, as a previous high school basketball player, we never had a floppy action play
Pete: 30:45
Um, yeah, I made the freshman team and then after that, I stopped growing. So that was it for me. I.....
Mike: 30:54
well have have somewhat similar story, and I want to get off of your instagram page. But, um, I grew very early, so I believe I was 5' 6" in the six grade or something like that. So I was the I was the center. And, you know, I was the one of the tallest kids in my class. Play basketball, Um, freshman in high school, I believe I was still 5' 6"ish. And, um, you know, became a forward. And by the time I was a senior in high school, I was a guard. Yeah, because everybody go right past me and in ah, in high school are our center, I think was 6'7" or something. So, um and, you know, I only grew a couple more inches after all that. And, you know, I'm still. I think I'm 5'9"
Pete: 31:42
Yeah, Yeah, I I did not grow. And I remember trying out for the for the JV team on. There was a kid that I was the same size as the year before, and he was, like, six inches taller than me. And I was like, I got no shot I'm not making this team. Yeah, but the instagram it includes just a lot of sports inspired artwork, and, um, just kind of been having fun with it for about two years and got some pretty cool recognition. So, um, if
Mike: 32:14
No! Awesome recognition man, awesome recognition in the NBA as well I mean.....
Pete: 32:19
Yeah, if the thing I keep thinking about is I never even I don't think I've told you this. So when I was in fourth grade, So my grandfather had passed away and my grandmother was living with us and she couldn't sleep. So to me, I was like, Well, I get to hang out with my grandma longer and then yeah, sure. So on TNT, I get to watch the West Coast basketball games were usually my parents would make me go to sleep. My parents like, Well, he's keeping grandma company we'll let him stay up to watch the Lakers play and that was Magic Johnson is great, and I would stay up and I would draw pictures like on computer paper, and then I would show her them, as I like, you know, as the game was going on.
Mike: 33:05
Wow, that's cool.
Pete: 33:05
And, um, the ones that she liked the best I'd bring them to school. And I would show my friends and, you know, whatever. And then I would hang My desk was by the wall. I would like to bring, like, the sticky tack from home. And I would tack them on the walls until the teacher, like with it, Come on, you know, And then I would just do it again the next day. So I always, like, kind of like doing this thing. And now it's insane because my artwork is tacked up on the walls of the Social Media Lounge at the NBA. All-Star game. And it's like,
Mike: 33:38
Dude, that is just awesome.
Pete: 33:40
Parallel kind of full circle kind of thing. It's so cool on. I just I feel really lucky. So I appreciate the shout out. Thank you. And, um
Mike: 33:48
yeah, no, I mean, this morning, I opened up my instagram and I see those Ah, you know your artwork in that lounge and I just thought you know it. I needed to bring that up this morning. That's just such an awesome accomplishment.
Pete: 34:01
Really cool. They're so congrats. Thank you. There is a picture of Derek Jones Jr. Who plays for the Miami he laying on this couch and in the background behind it is this poster that I didn't like that that guy, like I've been drawing him for the last year, dunking on all these different people and there he is like chillin' He's holding a diamond studded basketball like hanging out, it's a crazy thing. It's really cool. Um, so I I appreciate that. And, you know, maybe we'll do some stuff when we talk about, you know, some basketball, some art, and we could talk about some of the digital are absolutely because there's so many super talented artists. And that's the coolest thing about this is all of the people that I've met who are other digital artists who I talked to all the time. Ah, lot of them are there right now. Like messaging me like, Are you here like let's hang out like I've never met them before. But I've talked them so frequently on Instagram on face.
Mike: 34:56
Sure, Yeah.
Pete: 34:57
You know, in all these different art sites that it's a really cool community and everyone, like, is really supportive. So, like, um, I don't know if I told you this but this, uh, companies stole some of my stuff and was selling t-shirts and another artist found it, and he submitted the cease and desist for me. he's like I saw this and it's already down. But here and oh, my God. Like, thank you. Like I didn't even know that that was happening. And it's really cool, really good community
Mike: 35:30
that I was just going to say, It sounds like a good community of people looking out for each other. Which you don't find every day anymore.
Pete: 35:36
Yeah, yeah. Really, really special. So, um,
Mike: 35:40
so I would like to at some point. Maybe we will start the next episode talking about how you started this Because I love the back story about, you know how you ended up doing this artwork and and where it came from and I've told that story before to other people. So, yeah, I think it's just good a good story.
Pete: 36:00
Absolutely. Thank you for listening. Um,
Mike: 36:04
yeah. Don't forget to subscribe so you can hear the next one's coming out. The one thing is, were we were just talking about before looking at the analytics and checking out all you people out there listening. Um, if you subscribe, you get the next one up front you get at first. So please do that. And please thumbs up if you like this or five star whatever. HOPEFULLY,
Pete: 36:24
yeah. An episode three. I called this the audioish podcast. And I think this episode really was audioish.
Mike: 36:33
Yeah, you're absolutely right. I'm sticking. I don't think either one of us said audioish
Pete: 36:37
Yeah. You were good this time.
Mike: 36:38
Yeah. Now we're both good this time. Thanks for listening. Thanks, everybody.