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Overview
Some name dropping going on today – Weird Al and Armin Shimerman specifically.
But before that, we discuss getting a new car and what the options are. Plus, we don’t get the big RV’s and why people get them.
The Weird Al concert was awesome if you like Weird Al. There weren’t too many of the big hits, but for Al fans, its awesome.
Recommndations
Armin – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armin_Shimerman
Weird Al – https://news.yahoo.com/weird-al-yankovic-postpones-detroit-192554435.html
http://www.emophilips.com/
YouTube
Transcript
How’s that? You’ve got the California background and the,
[00:00:07] Alan: this is my parents’ kitchen where I’ve set up the sky net mobile node. It’s funny. I might’ve talked about this a little bit, maybe a month. It’s I have a laptop, a Mac book air that I bring with me everywhere I go. And I was discovering that it just wasn’t going to be sufficient to the task of handling my parents’ bills or staying fully connected, checking into things that doesn’t matter.
But I’ve discovered that by buying like a nice 24 inch HP monitor and are better mouse and a backup drive, I could for just a little bit of money. 250 $300. Duplicate most of what I wanted, which was free real estate, which was know, it didn’t make my process or any faster. And I still have some limitations, but I was much.
And of course you’re going to have to go, okay, do [00:01:00] I have all the adapters that I need to be able to go from the Mac video out to an HTMI port and that kind of stuff. But. My getting capable out here in California was such an interesting exercise of, okay. So I got this working. Let’s see. I don’t really like their cable TV because it’s largely with commercials.
If I bring my own Roku box or my own Chromecast. Yeah. We’ll be able to have that boat that late night not be a terrible exercise and trying to find a movie that’s not been butchered by comedy central by loading it with commercials and whatever else it might be. It’s cool to be able to in my laptop bag that’s the, I have everything I need to set up a pretty full Al’s virtual environment for just a little bit of money.
This being in the tech field, it’s just a wonderful thing. Things become more capable and for less money and that isn’t the case with so much of the rest of the world. We’re getting so much inflation now in all kinds of mechanical thing. [00:02:00] Good Lord. I just saw an ad on TV and they actually showed the.
On TV, $91,000 for some kind of SUV wagon near some kind of to go anywhere. And aren’t you
[00:02:14] Stephen: ashamed?
[00:02:15] Alan: That’s not like a Porsche or a Lamborghini. I’m sure that those things are long past a hundred thousand dollars, but a regular car that you would advertise to regular folks is $91,000. I wish I had command to the statistics, but that’s more than some big percentage makes it a year. And they’re saying, go ahead and buy this car. And now it’s not a four or five-year loan. It’s seven years and you’ll never pay it off because you’ll sell it before you buy just. For a depreciating asset. It’s such a bad deal. And yet America has become shameless with the big car that only gets 14 miles a gallon.
It’s not a hybrid. I don’t know. There, there are good ones out [00:03:00] there. It’s not that everything, even a big Subaru Forester gets good gas mileage might even be a hybrid. I’m not sure, but no. So many things coming out of Detroit are still running a 15
[00:03:12] Stephen: years. Fail playbook. We got our
[00:03:16] Alan: butts kicked by the Japanese back then the PD.
And here we are in 2022. And we still haven’t figured out. It’s not about adding fans. It’s about having a more efficient car, a
[00:03:26] Stephen: safer. Logically, but what they have through marketing embedded in people’s minds, and we’ve talked about marketing, how it can control people. It influences the way people think and people still, oh yeah, you’re right.
We got to cut down. Yeah. I want that huge camper. They don’t see even, they don’t even see. That they’re like talking out of both sides of their mouth when they do an incredible disconnect
[00:03:53] Alan: between what they say they want and what they go ahead and do.
[00:03:56] Stephen: I was gonna say, I’m situation where because of [00:04:00] life circumstances, I’ve gotten a few bills added to me that I didn’t have before. So I’m like, okay, I need to just really get things under control. We’ve talked a lot about My car, the car I have is like the one that was falling apart and it’s really falling apart.
It’s okay, it’s worth about 800 bucks. But if I put 1200 into it, it’ll run for another six months. Yeah. I don’t know if that’s worth the money so I’m looking for something. I don’t want to go get a brand new car. I may look into leasing. That’s an option just because of the cost, but I’m like, look, I just want to use car something.
I could put a couple thousand down and get paid off in a year or less, and just have it run with no cost when it starts falling apart. And I have to fix it. Then I just trade it in because I don’t want the. But it will help me get ahead for the next thing. Cause I really, and what you were just saying, I totally [00:05:00] get it, but I’d really love to get another BMW.
I absolutely love driving my BMW in that car was just fantastic. So if I’m going to have to pay for something and get it and all that, I want something I enjoy and I know they’re not the best gas mileage. I know they’re expensive to fix I also want. Enjoy it a little bit.
So there’s a, I
[00:05:24] Alan: mean, that’s the consumer reports does a great job of here’s the best used car. We’re in for all different price brackets from $70,000 down than a thousand dollars or something like that. And so that’s based on the reliability ratings on the initial quality of the car and on all those factors, it doesn’t necessarily account I take it back.
Some of the rating is the joy of driving. They talk about does it translate road, field and stuff like that. But sadly, like I didn’t have him. I think I’ve ever seen a chart. Here’s the consumer reports ratings, and it wasn’t for each individual car, but it was, let’s say [00:06:00] four brands. You know what I mean?
Which is Lexus and all that kind of stuff. And the correspondence between what America is buying and what the quality of the car just didn’t exist. I guess that always boggles my mind. BMW is a good car, even if more expensive and a used version of that, you’ve driven away the depreciation that somebody else paid for a $50,000 car and then resell it for 25.
But that happened in the first year. It’s amazing depreciation kicks in. So I hope that you find a good one. It’s your seems in this era of everything is online. So the Carvana’s and the callbacks and the everything else, you can find exactly what you’re looking for. And don’t even ship it to you on a train or something like that for the right number of miles.
And it was driven by a little old lady from Pasadena, gently news, that kind of thing. The lady
[00:06:51] Stephen: from Pasadena was breaking up the quarter mile. So let’s not get that car. It probably needs new valves. Crap in there. Come [00:07:00] on. She probably
wasn’t
[00:07:01] Alan: deep down at the drag strip before going through the dead man’s
[00:07:05] Stephen: curve, man,
actually that’s a Jan and Dean reference. You’re exactly right.
[00:07:10] Alan: There we go.
[00:07:11] Stephen: And there’s a, there’s an old song by the debt. Not dead. Milkmen maybe it is no, not dead. Milkmen one of those like punk rock, almost comedy I’ll think of their name later, but they were talking about jumping on the table and. California dreaming came on and they talk about the beach.
Why’s no, that’s the mamas and the Papas, not the beach boys. It always bothered me the lyrics in that song. I’ve worked for
[00:07:35] Alan: recording forever in history. You know what I mean? That they didn’t do their due diligence to make the attribution. Yeah, let’s not chair.
[00:07:46] Stephen: And you were mentioning the traveling and we did talk about that, but we didn’t mention things like a Roku and you get a little Roku’s.
And you can plug it into almost any TV [00:08:00] now and you’ve got all your stuff to stream so
[00:08:03] Alan: exactly. And that’s I think I mentioned last time I came, I brought a Roku, but somehow I didn’t have the right power supply, even though it was like laying on the back of my desk as a set. How did it get substituted?
Who knows what? But this time I brought the right one. So right now I have a Chromecast by hanging on there a dongle, I’m going to switch it to the Roku. And then just that my virtual environment for TV will be better, more. It’s I’m running out of room on my laptop and so I have to get home. I can go and get an eight terabyte hard drive at Costco for a hundred, hundred and 20 bucks.
That’s like a star Trek number compared to when I first started buying hard drives with a hundred megabytes for $300 and stuff like that. To return to that theme. It’s wonderful to see how everything is coming down in price and apply our quality. You gotta be a little bit careful in terms. Where you’re buying things from, because there [00:09:00] hasn’t been a lessening of quality based on sometimes the adapters don’t work.
If they’re made in a no-name far Asian place. And I wish I don’t mean to give same an entire region of the world, except all my bad experiences have been where the quality control was not good. And it wasn’t from the United States or Australia, or, it was always from. Slave shop sweatshop type places.
They’re not trying to make things in quality. They’re trying to be dissonant quality. So Amazon will carry them. And then it’s up to you to find the good
[00:09:38] Stephen: one. Yeah. Yeah. So I get a couple of dates. I told you a little bit about it. I’ve had an interesting week with big names.
So
[00:09:50] Alan: my older brother’s named Arman another army.
[00:09:53] Stephen: Yes. For most of the people listening probably doesn’t need a lot of explanation. But I got to talk [00:10:00] to Arman, shimmer men. It’s not Shimerman. I always thought it was Shimerman who played quarters. On a star Trek and it’s quite differentiate
[00:10:11] Alan: with the ears.
Exactly that and the head,
[00:10:15] Stephen: he actually was one of the Frankie on the next generation episode that had the cork on it. It wasn’t quark though. It was a different character. And he said that they always felt they were flat and they didn’t know much about him. So he was glad he was able to expand the characters, the race.
On and then when you got nog and rom on there and they had, he said they actually had better character arcs than he did. He was a little bit flat through the whole thing so we had a really good talk, not a lot about star Trek. I didn’t want to make it into a geek.
[00:10:53] Alan: And he’s also done so many other things.
And so you want, wanted to walk him through his career
[00:10:57] Stephen: title? Yes, a little bit. We [00:11:00] mentioned Stargate. He was the Knox. He was principal Snyder on Buffy. Also the voice of one of the ratchet and clank characters. And it was just so many things, but one of the cool things he did because next week, oh man, this ties right in, I’m coming up to see you guys in Cleveland and doing a talk for your monthly meeting.
And he was talking about this theater group. He was in that they would go to boys lock up juvenile that being incarcerated as teenagers and introduce them to story and writing, which I’m like, oh, that’s perfect. But get them to write their story. Almost like an autobiography thing. The story of them.
Teaching on how to make it expressive and interesting. And the parts of the story just that, but then they would do like a talent show and have people come and listen to these boys, read the stories. And he said, these boys that were nervous. Some of these boys had even killed people and they were [00:12:00] nervous about reading in front of, about being
[00:12:01] Alan: up on stage.
Exactly. That’s such a huge fear.
[00:12:05] Stephen: Absolutely. And They got people clapping telling them good job. Congratulations. And they’d never gotten that before. He says there are so many boys that were just astounded, that people were really like that they thought it was a myth that it wasn’t real.
And the number of them that once they got out that were like, they didn’t go back. They saw a different life. Let’s see. That’s
[00:12:26] Alan: wonderful. You know what I mean? A new possibility other than being a. Recidivist going back in after you find a worst crime
[00:12:36] Stephen: like that. Okay. And you said it on my time last time, that’s one of the points of it is offering kids an alternative.
We tell them, Hey, go get a good job, too bad. There’s no good jobs out there. Hey, go get a job while you’re in school to bed. There’s nothing out there you can pay for school with, Hey, go to school so you can get a job well, too bad. You won’t be able to get a job with your degree to actually pay off your school.
[00:13:00] It’s no wonder the depression and anxiety levels are so much higher in 20 year olds now than they’ve ever been, but there’s alternatives. We just aren’t showing it to them. We are helping them find the alternatives. And that’s what some of this is. So I was very excited to talk to him and he did it for me.
He was talking a little bit, he says, boom on Eddie did it. I got Arvin Timmerman saying that so it was great.
[00:13:25] Alan: But it was oh
[00:13:26] Stephen: yeah. Discovered wordsmiths. My, the one I talked about with the authors he was just getting over COVID so he was still in lockdown at the hotel. Cause he’s in Kansas city doing a play and it was his last day.
Then he had to go get tested. He’s and I don’t have anything to do. And he turns his camera around. Bookshelf. He like brought books with him and he’s if you got some time, we can just sit and talk for awhile. Hell yeah. We talked to 45 minutes off camera afterwards, just chatted.
And I’m like, Where do you get this opportunity? I can go to every convention and me every star Trek character, [00:14:00] never once would I be able to sit for 45 minutes? Just chatting about whatever. Oh man. That’s so
[00:14:07] Alan: cool. And you think of the gift you gave them? He’s in lockdown, even company and you’re not just, how are you?
How’s the weather. You were someone that could really have a decent conversation with about, and not only his own stuff, but about what’s the state of the world. What else do you like reading in science fiction? What you want? You had a, mostly been a tonic of a conversation
[00:14:28] Stephen: for him. It was wonderful.
He is a Shakespearian scholar and he teaches at UCLA. I did not know that. And talking about that and finding out about his book and stuff, it was good. Name dropping, I thought talking about bill all the time but sorry, bill, but you talked about you all the time. We got other people to talk about.
Now. I
[00:14:53] Alan: say the longer you keep doing it, the more these opportunities are going to happen. Sometimes it will be because. Sometimes we, because it [00:15:00] falls in your lap,
[00:15:01] Stephen: along with that, either
[00:15:03] Alan: you become well-known for doing it, people will be like, Hey I wouldn’t mind getting a chance to break out over on this cool show.
That’s undiscovered, wordsmith.
[00:15:14] Stephen: Yeah, it was great. I’m glad, happy. And then last night I went and saw a weird out
[00:15:20] Alan: maybe a little bit more discovered at this point, but still there really are levels of celebrity. Known, but he sure isn’t like Beyonce level. He’s got a niche that he fills really
[00:15:33] Stephen: well.
Anyway, please. That is so funny. You say that because Colin and I had a conversation, we both thought the same thing during the concert and brought it up in the car that if you really think about it before we were to Al there were comedy pop songs that were comedy rock and roll that type of stuff.
Exactly. The
[00:15:51] Alan: Allan Sherman dates, the Bob and Ray date.
[00:15:53] Stephen: Yeah know, but it was novelty records one-offs but he [00:16:00] really brought the whole thing into a genre that people knew about and listen, it was him almost single-handedly you could say,
[00:16:07] Alan: I’ll tell you being a long time, Dr. Demento listener. You’re exactly right.
There was an incredible variety because most of them were one. And then we’re allowed with one of the few people that you’ve started to hear. Oh, a new song for weird out. You never heard that it was a new song from flying this one, flying toasters. Some people that I’ve come to know they were actually some people in the doing repeats, but boy, he was really.
Not only do song getting better each time. He already, almost from the start had whipped, but he had better pop songs to work with. He had the band got better and better at what they did. So he went to see what’s the exact name of
[00:16:47] Stephen: the super indulgent absurdly
[00:16:50] Alan: self-indulgent. And I didn’t go.
And it’s Pittsburgh incarnation. The last time they did this tour. So if so, [00:17:00] tell me if this is right from whatever. It, wasn’t a standard weird Al show where he actually has the videos and does the costumes, and does his song parodies. It was more his originals that he includes 1, 2, 3 on each of his albums, so it was one more minute that I could start leaving my favorites of his, where you still got the same width, but it’s actually an original song instead of
[00:17:21] Stephen: apparently. Yes. And it was the band was all there. And let me just say about the band, Colin and I were talking about. What better gig. Cause it’s the same band for 40 years now.
That’s
[00:17:34] Alan: right for you to Schwartz. Exactly. I just start naming the band.
[00:17:37] Stephen: What a great gig for a musician. Now I know you get people like rush they did that their whole career and even Bon Jovi. There’s tons of bands out there. I think of the uniqueness of weird now that they play every style of popular music.
That’s probably ever been pokers and the doors and heavy metal and dance [00:18:00] stuff, and they actually
[00:18:01] Alan: pull it off. You know what I mean? Be able to do a gentle little carpenters number and then break into the grungiest of gross. And still, they sound great. They’re incredibly talented. And to be that kind of musical chameleon, that no matter what weird Al has asked of them was like,
[00:18:17] Stephen: and it’s not just the covers.
They cover people and it sounds like the real thing you put on, you could do karaoke using weird Al lyrics to the original songs so good. But there are original stuff. When you hear it, you’re like, oh my God, that’s the doors. I can hear the doors there. It’s an original or oh yeah.
That’s definitely a rage against the machine. I hear the little stuff going on, yeah. So that’s interesting because that really is what music is all about. It’s not like the right notes in the right order. It’s the atmosphere they create. It’s the thing that they do. Textures to the music, then you really need to be able to play guitar.
[00:18:58] Alan: Like Steve hall plays [00:19:00] guitar and Neil young plays guitar talk about wildly disparate styles, and yet they pull it off the doors that kind of thing.
[00:19:09] Stephen: So much credit as they probably deserve it. For me personally, I think I’ve told you this story before as a nerd in high school, we were a big sports school.
So if you weren’t in sports, you were a lesser citizen and very much but me and my buddy, when we were in marching band freshman year were on the bus going to a game Friday night to play. And he and I are just sitting there singing weird Al songs. What are you singing? And we’re like what is that?
So we sang them louder. And then by year two, they’re requesting some of these songs. Hey, sing that one thing that, so for four years on the bus, we were like the pivotal star for 20 minutes. I like, but to hear some of those songs that we used to sing, that I’ve never heard him sing live was so good.[00:20:00]
Like Christmas at ground zero, it was wonderful, but then he did. And here’s even more of the musicality. They took dare to be stupid, which is a wonderful tune, but saying it like it was a Vegas lounge act and it’s, it was just fantastic. That’s what I remember too, is that they did here’s a bossa Nova version.
[00:20:19] Alan: Here’s a scarf or. Wonderful.
[00:20:22] Stephen: And then they did Albuquerque, which is Colin’s absolute favorite weird Altoon and I don’t know if you’ve ever heard that one. It’s like a 12 minute song. Oh yeah.
[00:20:31] Alan: Hey
[00:20:34] Stephen: Kirky or not. You’re out of finishes. So we get almost all the way through it and he’s wait, I forgot how we end up.
I’m sorry. We have to start over. It’d been 10 minutes visit that. He goes we got to start over and you’re like, oh my God, are they really? So they did like the first round and then they’re like, oh wait, I remember the end. And they went and jumped into that. [00:21:00] That’s hilarious to me.
I love that. And that’s funny.
[00:21:04] Alan: Not only the individual pops on three minutes each, but he’s got those epics, he’s got those star wars, he’s got the MacArthur park that, like the fact that he listens to a song and said what’s what would go with this, if you will, what’s going to be.
Right in line with it or the exact opposite of it. Cause that’s what makes for a good parody is that dynamism, what I mean? And one of the best parts of the night was he goes there’s a rumor going around that there’s a movie coming out about me this fall and everyone’s yeah, So if things hold up, that means the next movie will be coming out in 33 more years.
[00:21:41] Stephen: So
my career is on the same trajectory, so they asked me to write some new music and we’re like, oh my God. He’s so what we’d like to do today is play that new song. But we’d have to have you sign an NDA or we’d have to kill you. So I guess we can’t do that. [00:22:00] Oh my God. Are you kidding me?
[00:22:02] Alan: I know that we’ve done a hundred episodes. I don’t know if you remember what little bits I’ve mentioned before that I went to Alcott a number of times in Chicago there was a super fan there. I think grace. Put together this whole thing at a convention, it became like the comedy music, maybe the funk Fest is now the grown version of that.
But the first time that I went, they it’s everybody’s a big fan of that. And they have on a monitor where to Al saying oh, I just can’t tell you how flattered I am. You got this whole convention for me and I’m sorry. In the middle of the studio, we’re finishing up the song. I just won’t be able to make it.
Maybe I have time and then it comes up through the curtains. So it was just this wonderful. And of course the crowd go wild. I think it was only him. And there wasn’t a full band. It was him. And I think Bermuda Schwartz as a matter of fact, but instead of it being, Hey, they didn’t number. And then they went back to being [00:23:00] stars.
They hung the entire weekend. They sat at the tables, having meals with everybody. They loved like they have a song contest there every year and we’re at Al was a judge and he wasn’t just the Sabbath. There’s so many judging shows now where he had constructive criticism, he had constructive love it.
He would just was so much a part of the event and so approachable and so much fun. I like. If I remember correctly, it was, I’d been Loke, Secor, Chicago area Mensa for multiple years. And this was the first year where I had stepped back. Someone else got elected and I didn’t have to be at that meeting on the Saturday night at the end of the month.
And so it was like, wow, I couldn’t have asked for a better breakaway of not having to go to the meeting. Oh, no, I wouldn’t because all my friends were there. I would have missed the chance to go see we’re not Yankovic. It was wonderful. Anyway,
[00:23:59] Stephen: I’m [00:24:00] sure that the people listening, we don’t have to twist too many arms to go listen to weird Al, but if you really haven’t listened to them since you were a kid or for years or only the hip.
Check it out. He’s on Spotify. His albums used on Amazon are good prices. I find to make the exchange he’s very accessible to find exactly that. And there’s different phases of his career. And many albums is you have 15 albums or something like that. Maybe even more. But I think at least.
[00:24:31] Alan: And to, to my sad shame, I have his first box set called permanent record, where it has your collection of all things that I think maybe there’s one or two quotes besides and rarity. So there’s some stuff on there’s. Nowhere else. What I don’t have is he had a career retrospective box that they came out in an accordion box and I didn’t get that when it came out and then immediately was unfundable without spending serious dollars.
And I just when I have money and I, I have so much money that I’m stupid. [00:25:00] I’m going to find somebody on eBay to sell me a weird L you recording,
[00:25:04] Stephen: which one of your key comics are you selling for that? Because I did look and the LP version of the accordion box set is going for $7,000 on.
[00:25:17] Alan: 300, 500. No.
[00:25:22] Stephen: Yeah. I’m looking at cars that cost less, honestly.
[00:25:27] Alan: When I was making good money as a consultant, I have all kinds of box sets for much of that reason. Not only that I wanted to have the music, I want to have the music that had been released before, but then it was like, I know if I don’t buy this, then it’s got the cool, like libretto inside.
It’s got all the liner notes. It’s got material in there that I really wanted to have. And then every other collector like me is going to want to have it. And it’s not going to get reissued if I don’t buy it. Now, when it’s coming out at 30, 50, 70, I’ll never get it. And unfortunately, there was a couple of things that were like that when money was tight and I was being very careful that things came out.
So [00:26:00] there’s a gentle giant box. And even if you’ve never heard of them, they’re a really good prog band that never had anything on the radio, but they have 30 albums. So maybe not that many, but this box that is a 30 CD. Where it was like live performances and in the work studio version and stuff. And same thing, that thing came out and I think it was expensive, but when he came out and $300, and now it’s probably $3,000, there’s so many copies.
And when someone dies and it has their estate sale, that they put that out on the market, that’s the only way I’ll ever get a shot. You
[00:26:33] Stephen: know what I mean? Yeah. Depending on cost. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. Al is always great to the vet and they do everything in a humorous way. Oh, it’s opened up with emo Phillips.
If you haven’t seen him in awhile. I
[00:26:49] Alan: love him. In fact, he opened in Pittsburgh as well. There’s some wonderful love relationships there, but whenever else tours, he’s if I need an opener, And he’s [00:27:00] boy, he’s unique. He’s so funny. He writes jokes so perfectly. You’re going to hear this delivery is not the, some people
[00:27:06] Stephen: think, no, it’s definitely a weird hour type of comedian, but immense and comedian.
And it was wonderful because Colin, the only thing Colin knew of emo Phillips was the 30 seconds he was in a UHC. Clear back. And so this was the first column was just busting a gut for the whole half hour and just laughing. He’s I got to look him up. I got to get some of his stuff when
[00:27:31] Alan: Colleen and I’ve seen them multiple times now.
And one of the great comments that she made was there’s some convenience that there’s. But that there’s a lot of buildup lead in to the final joke with emo Phillips with Stephen writes certain ones it’s like greatest hits. Bam
[00:27:48] Stephen: Bam.
[00:27:49] Alan: Every single line is. Parapros dokie. And it’s only like a three-line joke, but it’s just so perfectly crafted and you’re really, your sides are hurting because you’ve [00:28:00] left solid for an hour.
You know what I
[00:28:02] Stephen: mean? Wow. Very good. Yeah. So then of course, on the way home, we had weird out plan and it was like a sing along. You know what? We did something when we first started that we were creating like, Pages. And we started to do one called bodies of work and we never completed it. And we never did.
Another one says we need to do that because we’re now really should be in a bodies of work commemorative list page because all of his albums, I can sing along to just about every song there. Isn’t a weird Al song that I hate. There’s a few, I don’t like as well as others, but.
[00:28:37] Alan: I think I’ve mentioned, I have the concept of the perfect album where it’s like, there’s no bad cuts.
Any number of times, if somebody comes up with one or two radio friendly hits, then the rest is filler, maybe. But boy, he has been incredibly consistent. He doesn’t put on that model until. To share with the public.
[00:28:53] Stephen: And I’ve been with him since the second album. I’ve gotten every album since I’ve loved [00:29:00] some of them more than others, obviously.
And there’s some really good my two favorite albums are his last two albums. The last two are my absolute favorites. And what’s that tell ya, yeah. But he’s
[00:29:11] Alan: still making great stuff that he’s not being in a couple of the roadies are going to ride the coattails for as long as we can
[00:29:17] Stephen: vital.
Yeah, I can step backwards. Back in the days of email being more popular, I regularly use the quote feature where had a whole bunch of quotes loaded. And I would agree with randomly apply to the end of my email. But the one that I had is my default that I’ve put into what else it was for me more.
[00:29:33] Alan: So it was some mornings. It just doesn’t seem worth going through the leather strap. That’s just so perfect from him and pretty much how I think
[00:29:43] Stephen: of the world and the way he delivers them. Again, half of comedy is it’s delivery.
[00:29:50] Alan: In fact, I hope you don’t mind. Of course, it’s emotes don’t let me, I attributed. One of my favorite ones is [00:30:00] I went up with a girl and I didn’t get a second date because instead of opening the car door for her, I just swam to the surface,
[00:30:09] Stephen: just take such a left turn
[00:30:13] Alan: and you’re ready to be like, oh, daddy dilemmas and that kind of stuff.
And instead, I think I might’ve said it with the same economy. He really has crafted every one of his jokes. So that. 15 words, he sets up the premise and then takes that left turn to hear the word, the parapros dopiest. I think it’s like Greek for goes down to the guard from task. You want to be where it gets that’s something up and then surprises you and then he does it so perfectly.
[00:30:40] Stephen: And you mentioned Steven, right? He’s another one of those meds. Type of comedians that everything he says we love and enjoy any so dry when he delivers it. And it’s that same left turn all the time. That’s right.
[00:30:54] Alan: Exactly. Everything’s within walking distance. If you’ve got the time philosophical, [00:31:00] it’s just funny.
It’s deep.
[00:31:02] Stephen: Yeah. He’s what was he on? He was on a, what show was he on for a little bit? Wasn’t Seinfeld Steven, right? Oh, wait, wasn’t he on mad at mad about you for a couple episodes in the early season? I didn’t watch that one. So I don’t know riser. I think so. I think Steven Ryan, if I remember, so let me ask if update you had before this, a group meeting a diabetes type thing. So what’s going on in the diabetes world.
[00:31:31] Alan: I think I mentioned last time I have, so here I’ll show my little guy. That is, what’s called a freestyle Libra too. And it is a little patch that you put on and has a little filament that goes in and monitors your blood glucose. And it’s been an incredible useful thing in terms of showing me just what are my kryptonites, what are the things that really cause a spike in my blood sugar that I have to be careful about?
And for instance, this sweeping statement, is there any [00:32:00] airport food that doesn’t cause that, you can find like an apple or banana, but most things are going. Burritos and burgers and just the, and all of it, deep fried or whatever else it might be. So I’m now in a controlled environment here, out in California.
There’s nothing in the house that’s going to be here besides what I’m going to bring in and you want to go to Costco. I’m going to be okay. Don’t get the burrito, get something that doesn’t have as much simple carbs rice, et cetera. I like the feedback because I’m really getting new information.
I’m. Without going into it a lot, I really am in a frame of mind of, and maybe this is a lot of people, sorry. One of the things that was talked about at this meeting was there’s a whole bunch of new drugs in the pipeline that attack diabetes in different ways, and really are helping people. And you see them on TV because the people with type two diabetes is an enormous market in the United States because we are.
Conditioned to eat things that have fat and [00:33:00] sugar and salt embedded in them by the fast food industrial complex, if you will. And that these drugs are now according to come. But the way America is. So how do you get in good shape, diet and exercise and all of America goes, but is there a pill instead?
Can I just take, because I so much don’t want to do the work of it. I don’t want to discipline myself. I just want to have no matter how I screw myself up, that I can take a morning after pill and get out of trouble. No matter what the activity is. If you say, oh, what I want to do is not being. I don’t want to be, then I’m having I talked about this a little bit.
Last time I had a good sign of, I found Jardiance, the drug that I take that helps with the relation with diabetes. And this is a good combination for helps your heart as well. So for diabetes, it’s expensive because it’s not an engineer. And so I had to like can I find this in science what’s available in the United States?
Yes, Canada doesn’t have. The [00:34:00] crazy profit motive that some of the company here do. So I was very happy to find it for 300, $300 instead of a thousand dollars for a 90 day supply. What I want to do is not spend $300 on anything. I don’t want to be on drugs that they’re keeping me alive. I’m very incredibly thankful that they exist and that smart scientists that found ways.
Get blood out of your system increase how your mind handles the feeling of satiation puts up more gray than in your stomach, so that you feel fuller and will often help your liver help your pancreas, help your kidneys. Having said all that, if I didn’t weight 290 pounds, but I weighed two 60 or two 30, you don’t take 10% off each time you get remarkable health benefits.
And so it’s isn’t that what I should be doing is find a way so that I’m never worried of. Blood pressure or diabetes or any of the lifestyle diseases, if you will. It’s not only a matter of avoiding salt, it’s that your body’s a wonderful machine that is self-correcting [00:35:00] and give it a chance instead of keep like throwing sand into the gas tank.
You know what I mean? I’m my worst enemy.
[00:35:07] Stephen: We all
[00:35:08] Alan: aren’t. We all exactly. So we’ll see that’s kinda like the, maybe a regular feature on the speaker is going to be, even if you’re. Loves reading and loves watching TV and et cetera, et cetera, get up and go for a walk because that’s the only way you’re going to keep the weight off my friend.
You know what I mean? Stop thinking that pizza is paradise. You got to find a way to stop eating the worst things for you. And I’ll talk to myself, but I suspect it’ll echo lots of other
[00:35:36] Stephen: people. It’s really something I’ve heard a lot with writing books and publishing that. It gosh, let me try and get those exactly.
And I’m going to screw it up. I just had it in my head and it just slipped away. It’s it’s something like it’s easy, but it’s not or it’s,
[00:35:55] Alan: it’s not, it’s simple, but it’s not easy.
[00:35:58] Stephen: It’s simple, but it’s not [00:36:00] easy. Exactly. Yes. I’ve heard that a lot and that, and it’s funny because doctors, they want to say.
Cut out this, eating this, eat more green stuff and double your exercise every day. Meaning even if it’s walking or something, but then you get people like I used to work with people that would say, wow, we went and walked today at lunch, you walked around the parking lot. One time. And you got a Snickers bar and a Coke.
You reward
[00:36:28] Alan: yourself for having done that exercise.
[00:36:31] Stephen: Yeah. Doctors don’t do that because people get argumentative. They think the doctor’s not doing a good job so they give up and then they just prescribed stuff. Let me tell you, and I may have mentioned him before, and I know he won’t mind me mentioning this. I have a buddy author, buddy. Jay thorn he lived the party lifestyle.
He he’s a long hair rocker. He plays guitar lived his teens and twenties as you would think
[00:36:58] Alan: very much yes, [00:37:00] exactly. So
[00:37:01] Stephen: in his mid forties, he developed gout and was having a lot of health problems related to that. And he goes to the doctor and the doctor said, okay, Here’s what we got to do. And he prescribed the medicine and Jay’s how long do I have to take this? He’s like the rest of your life.
I don’t want to do that. Unlike it’s not only expensive, but I don’t want to be stuck on medicine for the rest of my life. The doctor said that’s just how it is Jason. I don’t believe that. And he did his own research and. He said, basically I had to not just change my diet, but I had to get radical, but radical in the sense, compared to the average American diet.
But it’s not radical when it’s, when you compare it to what you really should eat that’s what it comes down to. So he doesn’t have hardly anything that has. At all, anywhere, anything, he doesn’t get boxed, anything to make. [00:38:00] It’s all meats and vegetables and organic stuff. He can go to the farmer’s market and get all of it.
Pretty much. I heard
[00:38:07] Alan: as a truism, if you go to the grocery store, you want to circle it, the produce section and the dairy section and the meat section and get out, don’t go to any of the processed foods.
[00:38:17] Stephen: Okay. And he got it was a willpower thing that he had to just, I, this is what I’m doing and I will not do anything else.
And he started running and he now runs about five miles a day. He lost. A ton of weight. I don’t know how much, but it was significant amount and he takes no medicine. He has no symptoms of gout or anything. So when people say stop. I at least know this man that did it. So I can’t hear that we all can’t I’m as guilty as anybody I know my father’s health history.
I know that’s inherited through him and I know a large part of [00:39:00] my problem is because of that. But I know also doing a little bit more exercise and a little better eating would probably help me, like you said, immensely, but it has to be. Long-term it can’t be a except on weekends,
[00:39:12] Alan: I’ll tell you everybody there’s always nature versus nurture.
It’s the fact that it’s set up as versus it’s one’s got to win. It’s no, you start off with whatever gifts and difficulties you might’ve been inherited from part of your genetic makeup. And then there’s still so much that you can do with how your genes get expressed with how what kinds of things.
Have a higher possibility of Yeti, but you’re not to do to get it. And so you do the work, you do the work, find it all. A lot of it’s funny. We’re in an odd time in society where talking about losing weight almost immediately, often immediately gets a backlash in terms of, oh, now you’re fat shaming and that’s look at them and it’s all about.
And I’ll tell you what, I’ve never had a problem with [00:40:00] that by that meeting. I think people are beautiful of all kinds of shapes and races and creeds and colors, religions, and tights, and all that kind of stuff. And when I talk about what is attracted to me, it’s never a certain body. It’s always I want of that for a walk with me.
Some of that we’ve got to move a couch, they can grab the other end of it and they don’t have to be my equal cause I’m a big strong guy, but what do I lose about a big strong guy. I can’t go crawling around under the couch without hunkering down to my knees. You
[00:40:30] Stephen: know what I mean? So I got a question though.
I got interrupt you because we’ve talked about this. How many couches do you move? Cause that’s always your example for
[00:40:39] Alan: how many times I’ve been asked to help people. I was always the guy that said. Especially, not just the couch is this sleeper so far where it’s all fucking
[00:40:52] Stephen: steel and it’s is this me not a white dwarf material?
[00:40:57] Alan: What the hell are we [00:41:00]
[00:41:00] Stephen: getting
[00:41:00] Alan: ready for the lifts? Then he realized. Like my trust. I don’t want to,
[00:41:05] Stephen: let me tell ya. It’s not an, it’s not a party moving a truck until you’re holding it over the banister and lowering it. And the cops drive in. So let me just
[00:41:18] Alan: also other fun things to move or things like a king size mattress, because it’s got flection in it. And if it starts to bend the wrong way, it’s amazing how much that.
Moment of inertia. It’s you really have to apply yourself to not have it complete. It’s lost.
[00:41:36] Stephen: There’s the life choices you’re either the guy that’s moving the couches, moving the king-size Mack. You were tired. You have a good business, run it yourself, make control your money and you pay those people.
Exactly.
[00:41:51] Alan: That get a couple big Bohunks over here. That’s not an insult for Bohemians. It’s the term for a big guy. You know what I mean? [00:42:00] The guy that goes and gets. Yeah,
[00:42:03] Stephen: my cousin and I sent him a picture because we go camping a lot. We hang out a lot, we do stuff. But we’re still, we get in trouble a lot.
We’re definitely, we have stories that people tell about us, but w I sent them this picture. It’s a. It’s a, it’s like a nerve soft gun or something, but it’s like a machine gun. They use these little pellets that you soak in water, so they expand. But when they hit, they explode into a fine powder.
They’re eco friendly. They don’t leave waste. And you can have fun shooting everybody. Cause they’re. But I found glow in the dark bullets for them. And so we’re going camping and I’m like, Gary, why haven’t we gotten these yet? He’s because if we get them, the kids will get them. And you remember the last time they killed us with the airsoft guns.
I’m like, but we’re adults that have better jobs than they are. We can get to. And we can have more ammo
[00:42:55] Alan: peace by superior.
[00:42:56] Stephen: So that’s our plan, but how [00:43:00] cool is that? ’cause you have like water balloons. It always leaves the balloons. Yeah. Yes. There’s squirt guns and stops. You get wet. They’re fun. But now the airsoft are like a little bit like paint ball. But they don’t leave paint. They just leave little marks. But if you’re wearing clothing, you don’t even feel them.
This is a combination, you know where it’s okay for them. There’s no denying, you got shot a little Boosh on you. You know what
[00:43:25] Alan: And actually. We often talk about what kind of travel we want to do. One of the things that I really would like to do, even though I’m so much. Of this culture or this religion, isn’t there a cool assessable in India, I believe where they have colored powders that they splash on each other.
The celebration is this kaleidoscopic beautiful, colorful thing. Like I’m not a Hindu. I don’t know. Why that’s a cool thing to do, except I want to be part of I this, the character, and look at all this color. It’s so beautiful. [00:44:00] There
[00:44:00] Stephen: are groups I’ve seen. I get togethers in groups and events that do it in the states.
Other people from that culture or people have appropriate is
[00:44:09] Alan: what a great idea let’s do it.
[00:44:11] Stephen: So I have seen,
[00:44:13] Alan: yeah, just like they have bubble parties, they’re like full parties and bars and stuff. There must be also a crazy color party, probably at a rave. Cause that’s where you really have people talking about.
We’re looking
at
[00:44:23] Stephen: the colors I think I’ve seen it in conjunction with burning man. Out in the desert that
[00:44:28] Alan: might make okay. That makes sense. Exactly.
[00:44:31] Stephen: And you were talking about losing weight and all that and how it’s not just the looks and all that. Honestly, I know a few people that I thought looked better, a little heavier than they do now that they’ve lost so much weight.
So it part of that’s my perception and me but then you’ve got a balance. I’m not saying they look ugly or hideous that it was it looks a little more off. I don’t even know how to put it I don’t need [00:45:00] to
[00:45:00] Alan: lose so much weight that you get to God, you look like wow. Either sandwich, but I don’t know.
And again, I guess for my own self. I want to be around a long time and having extra weight is not necessarily a formula for that. I want to go for my hikes and not have my feet. My ankles occasionally hurt because Hey, you’re lifting 290 instead of two, three, like there’s, there are certain things and I’m now 62.
I know everybody’s read the stories about as you get older, you gain like a pump a year. You’ll lose the ability to. The higher metabolism and stuff. I have to do it now because it’s not going to get any easier. It’s only going to get harder and I want to be around to be with Colleen. I don’t want her to pick a clicker and then I get it’s funny.
That’s why I had a melanoma and beat it. I’m I have April fibrillation and beat tonight. But I’m going through the list of things that can kill you. And I don’t want it really, what killed me is that I couldn’t control my mouth,
[00:45:57] Stephen: that I really couldn’t stop. It’s totally under your [00:46:00] control. You know what I mean?
It wasn’t like the bad luck of going,
[00:46:03] Alan: getting melanoma for what? I had too many tans when I was young. It’s really there’s something about, I like cried almost. I don’t want to be the goof that like you knew what to do when you chose not to. And then you like left your loved one behind. Oh man.
I just, I only got a certain number of years. I’m not going to be immortal. Maybe we really want. Nanotech and ordering replacement and I’ll make it to 1 41 so that I can see 2100. That really is something that Colleen and I have talked about. She’s got to make it the 1 43 and me 1 41. So we make it through.
A hundred year turnover. I want to see that odometer rule one more time to all those zeros, but it ain’t going to get there without medical miracles that insure isn’t going to get there without mine, not having
[00:46:49] Stephen: a big Mac, all the.
I haven’t been my father had open heart surgery, like at age 42. So I didn’t I’m beyond that now, does that [00:47:00] mean I’m not going to have that hit me? Who knows? I don’t, I haven’t looked inside all my veins I could be building up to,
[00:47:06] Alan: I have to caution from him that you said be more
[00:47:08] Stephen: careful.
Yeah. So I still develop the pre-diabetes, but I am trying to. Keep on track. I do take the Metformin and I try not to keep the carbs. I try not to overdo anything. So yeah it’s not impossible and it really isn’t that hard. I know people are like, oh, that’s too hard. No, this is really not.
It’s just the point. If I lived
[00:47:30] Alan: in Willy Wonka where there was nothing, there’s more than enough stuff everywhere in every good restaurant and grocery store and everything, I just need to. The defendant
[00:47:42] Stephen: myself. Here’s a really good example. Back when I was in high school my father with his open-heart and stuff, they said, look, he’s got high blood pressure.
He’s got artery disease. You’ve got to make these changes. And one of it was the sodium. So my mother went on a kick and [00:48:00] we cut out a lot of sodium. A lot of people will try her cooking. And even I do at times, it’s wow, that’s really bland. And stuff. I remember at the time going really? I think it tastes wonderful because your tastes change.
Absolutely. You can
[00:48:14] Alan: train your,
[00:48:16] Stephen: and the funny thing was like on Easter, we go to my cousins or something and they’d have a ham, I get a piece of him and I’m like, oh my God, how much smoke is on this? They’re like the
[00:48:26] Alan: desert, just like a
[00:48:27] Stephen: skull from the desert. So it’s, to me, it was too salty and I didn’t like.
But to other people, it was just right. Whereas the one that tasted good to me, they thought was bland and stuff, but the point is my taste buds changed. So the food tasted fine. Tasted good. And it was healthier. Yeah. That’s
[00:48:49] Alan: the, one of the reasons that I think this really is like a geeky time. It’s because there really is science behind.
He is proof that you can change their taste buds and what you desire. They really are. What [00:49:00] chemicals, what things help you to control your appetite? Or I got to know, instead of salt, we always have a little like Italian seasoning mixture or something like that. And not only are those, but every one of them there’s any number of things like, yes, you want to have a certain amount of olive leaf or whatever I regularly put things if I make low card pasta, I don’t make it only Italian.
So everybody else talks about my input. Pretty much every ingredient that’s supposed to help you put some cinnamon in there, put some garlic, I put cinnamon. Yeah. Because you don’t taste it amongst all the other cool things. And why not have this big magic curative combination that I do.
It’s an incremental. Only stopped doing everything. It’d be totally deprived. It’s that? Everything that you do, that’s in line with that. You don’t have to be perfect. You don’t have to fall off and on the wagon, but just by making certain changes and being more conscious about it, [00:50:00] I’m regularly making little changes that then when I want to have a pizza, I can give myself a pizza once a year, big, deep dish, Chicago style, et cetera.
And not worry about that. Oh my God, that killed me. But because you don’t have it every week, you have a
[00:50:15] Stephen: special treat or whatever else it might be. It’s also people think, oh, I can’t have pizza. That’s not true. And you mentioned science the way we think about diabetes now is because of science. My father was totally avoiding like the candy was sugar or ice cream was sugar and all that.
But he ate a lot of mashed potatoes and a lot of bread. And then they started finding out how that, or realizing that’s just, yeah. So having a Snickers once a week, people are like, oh my God, don’t you have diabetes? I’m like, yeah, but I haven’t eaten carbs and stuff that I can have a snack. Again, we’ve talked about that a million times and the Bita just don’t eat three or four pieces, eat one, eat to eat another piece tomorrow, spread [00:51:00] it out.
You know that, that works.
[00:51:03] Alan: Yeah. Yeah. So what else do we
[00:51:06] Stephen: have on our list? I don’t know. We really didn’t talk about anything, but I have a trivia question if you’d like. Okay. It’s not even weird as singing a weird album, but this one came up and I was like, oh, that’s cool. So you’ll probably get this.
We’ll see. What was the first Mickey mouse?
[00:51:25] Alan: A Steamboat Willie, I think, right?
[00:51:28] Stephen: Nope. That’s the one everybody goes for. So tell me what the first one was called plane crazy with airplanes with him in it. But here’s the, what it is. And this is people’s thinking, we talked about memories and stuff.
So playing crazy was a silent cartoon. Steamboat. Willie is where they got the first synchronized music and sound effects and all that. That’s what people remember. And then they retrofitted the playing crazy with a sound, but it’s not a complete landscape [00:52:00] of sound. Steamboat Willie is so it’s actually something different.
Yeah. So you lost on jeopardy.
[00:52:07] Alan: Exactly.
[00:52:09] Stephen: Yeah, I thought that was pretty cool to learn that. And we talked a while back. There’s a trivia about the. Computer. It was not the great mouse detective. That was just a particular way they used it. There was several before that, so there’s a, oh man.
There’s some good history of computer graphics in movies out
[00:52:29] Alan: there. The first animations, the first dish. So like I was saying, I’m pretty sure. Sherlock Holmes younger brothers, smarter brother. I’m present with the name of that one is that it’s the first word where they had the real integration of computer generated graphics into film.
You know what I mean, long before. Why is this
[00:52:48] Stephen: darn it? Exactly. And then also there’s a spectacular one. Sorry, Bob Hoskins and all the different
cartoons, Roger rabbit,
[00:52:56] Alan: Roger up, who framed Roger rabbit. Exactly that, and [00:53:00] since that will be the only thing I’ve seen that could even compare to that is the ready player.
One where they have all the video game characters, like everything during the big March to take the castle at all. You know what I mean? Like it, that’s one of those where I hardly ever do this. I don’t really I want to buy it and I want to freeze frame my way through it and just. Okay. They did include this from final fantasy and this from marathon and all the things to point out between computer games and video games and that kind of stuff.
[00:53:34] Stephen: Did you actually read ready player one? The book I did. I really liked exactly.
[00:53:40] Alan: That there’s a SQL. Now I think already player two. If I remember you did another book in between that
[00:53:46] Stephen: as
[00:53:46] Alan: magic to me, but I already play her too. I’m waiting to see what he does to recapture. Yeah.
[00:53:54] Stephen: And the book they did a wonderful job with the movie to get the feel of the [00:54:00] book and the major points of the book.
I know people are like they didn’t put this. And then they like, oh my gosh, it’s a two hour movie. You got 400 pages. It doesn’t work out folks. I trust
[00:54:09] Alan: Steven Spielberg’s taste as to what makes a good movie. And that’s why you put things in and left things
[00:54:14] Stephen: out. The majority of it, it felt good, but the book just has some little things in it all over the place that it’s a great read if you’ve never read it.
It’s fun. Exactly.
[00:54:26] Alan: I will say this. I mentioned probably a couple of months ago. I was discovering an author named Richard cadre would have the Sandman slim books. And he also has another series about Charlie Cooper. That are heist books. You know what I mean? And Sam and his cronies stealing various different, difficult to get to the same and a different cast of characters than Sandman slim, but the same irreverence that’s if you wear the same great phrases that have never been printed before, he’s really, I recommend them highly. So the fortunate one was called the everything box. Second one is [00:55:00] called the one dead guy. If I remember right. They’re really good. So Richard cadre for my latest. Very happy in the airport to have a book that you could really yourself in and have time worldwide.
And that was the latest thing that I was reading. All right. There we go. We got trivia and we got recommendations. Yeah,
absolutely. Okay. We’ll see you next week.
[00:55:20] Stephen: Have a good week.
