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How to be Happy in the Rain with Chris Burandt
309 Plays1 year ago
This week, we interview our first Eagle Scout! Milk musings, inadvertent sobriety, the positive effects of the online menswear community, the social power of clothing, trying to be approachable, embracing your genetic destiny and many other tangents. Link in bio.
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Transcript
Introduction and Listener Gratitude
00:00:00
Speaker
Stalutations! I'm Connor Fowler. And I'm Matt Smith. And you are listening to yet another episode of Apocalypse Studs, which we thank you for. We thank you for listening again. Yeah. Thank you also to all the new followers that we picked up. Oh yeah.
Skepticism about Listener Metrics
00:00:21
Speaker
Yeah, we, I don't know, doing all of this, it's not really the easiest thing to put like
00:00:32
Speaker
a value or whatever, however you want to phrase it on followers to listeners, blah, blah, blah, all the metrics and data. It's all kind of like bullshit.
00:00:46
Speaker
Yeah, that's essentially what I would say. What does listener attention mean? Yeah. Yeah. Now they're talking to us about listener attention and the number of people who listened to the show last week who are listening to it this week, which is kind of interesting, but I have no real faith that much of the data is accurate. And I don't have any proof of that, but that's what I think. Right. Yeah. And that's what we're about here on this podcast is unsubstantiated shit.
00:01:15
Speaker
Yes, yes.
Challenges of Promotion
00:01:17
Speaker
If you play the game trying to promote basically anything from your artwork to a podcast to
00:01:27
Speaker
You know, your handmade goods. Your foot fetish. Your foot fetish only fans. Yeah, your foot fetish only fans. Yeah, we're all just running blind. No one has any idea what is. No, I honestly. Even the Facebook people, even the meta people, like no one has any clue.
00:01:46
Speaker
I mean, it's and it just goes to show that, you know, a lot of this a lot of this shit is just people throwing something at a wall and seeing what sticks. So, right. Yeah, we do like my name as I misintroduced myself. Oh, yeah. Yeah, you did. I didn't even catch that. Yeah. Yeah. Well, it's like I've been saying it for 33 years. Yeah.
00:02:11
Speaker
So it's really in there. And especially with the show, it's reflexive, right? It's like, I'm trying to just say the same thing that we always say. I'm trying to say a different thing now. Yeah. And somehow I'd still say my name the same way, I think basically every single time.
00:02:30
Speaker
It's musical. It is musical. I guess so. I want to I want to make a super cut of us saying the names at the beginning, just like just like a two minute long. I think that that would be pretty funny. It would be pretty funny. Yeah, we could. Yeah, we could do a reel with that with that audio or something.
00:02:49
Speaker
Oh yeah. And we're big into reels on this program. We love to make videos. We love to consume videos. We love to shoot videos and produce videos and edit videos. We love videos. Maybe that will help the algorithm. If we pretend like we really like them. Yeah. If we pretend like it's not just one other fucking thing that we have to figure out how to do.
00:03:10
Speaker
Which it is, it's fucking exhausting. You got to post a story to the Apocalypse Duds Instagram every day. Are you fucking kidding me?
Social Media Frustrations
00:03:16
Speaker
Why can't you automate that shit? Well, we know why you can't automate that shit because they're not getting ad revenue if you are not going to the app. Right. So it's yeah, it's just naked greed as ever.
Introducing Chris Berrant
00:03:30
Speaker
Naked greed. One of my favorite hardcore man's dropped an EP out of nowhere today. The first thing they've released since
00:03:39
Speaker
2009, I think. Nice. And yeah, the Hope conspiracy. And it's fucking insane. Like, I don't know how I don't know how they got even more ferocious than they already were. But I'm into it. It's basically all I've listened to all day today.
00:03:58
Speaker
I'm going to have to spin it once we get off of this here. But we just wanted to check in. We have a good show for you with the wonderful Chris Berrant, who, if you don't know who that is, you will after you listen to this. He's a very interesting fellow and extremely thoughtful person and a very good dresser.
00:04:25
Speaker
Yeah, it was a really fun conversation. We talked about Boy Scouts in a not creepy way. Isn't this what they do in Boy Scouts? Yeah, I don't know. We blow those. Yeah, Chris is an Eagle Scout. Which they don't do this for the Eagle Scout, I don't think. Yeah, we talked about kind of being content with yourself.
00:04:52
Speaker
menswear community and, you know, our usual things as well. And the Midwest, and the white person wearing tan. I mean, we dug deep, we stayed shallow, you know how we like to do? Yeah, yeah, you know, it's a really fun conversation. And we think that some of you, or hopefully most of you will enjoy and get something out of it.
00:05:19
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely. And so I thank you again. We thank you again. Of course, keep those hundred dollar bills rolling in. I was actually going to say we got another donation from a friend of the pod and thank you.
00:05:35
Speaker
for yeah i don't know if we're shouting people out i don't know what we're gonna do we're gonna have to leave a voicemail on your answering machine yeah when people donate that's what we can do we can be a true npr program yeah in true uh our fashion
00:05:52
Speaker
Connor was taken aback by getting 30 bucks from someone. I was not taken aback. Listen, any amount of money is perfect. Oh, yeah. It's great. How else are we going to go to Bermuda again?
Donations and Funding Jokes
00:06:06
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. I don't know who has gotten $30 worth of enjoyment out of this program. I'm just kidding. Well, listen, if we tallied it up, there would be thousands and thousands upon thousands of dollars of enjoyment.
00:06:18
Speaker
Obviously. So, yeah. If you can't tell, this is all just us being stupid and wanting to say thank you. Yeah. Well, I don't know if you can see or not because Matt's video feed is off, but mine is on. And you can see my golden tan that I got this in Bermuda from the donations that we have been getting. Yeah. There you go. Very, very nice. Yeah. Anyway, if you would like to make a donation yourself,
00:06:48
Speaker
I will let Connor give you his information because I don't know if he's changed it yet or not. Oh, no, I haven't changed it. And this is the this is the problem is that it's still the PayPal is Connor Fowler at gmail.com and Venmo is Connor Dash Fowler. Yeah, I'm sure that it's very, very difficult to change your.
00:07:09
Speaker
money account names. No, it might just stay a sad reminder. Yeah, it can stay your dead name. Yeah, that's a shout out to my dead name. Give my dead name the money. Right, right. We love it. Yeah. If you like what we do and want to show some love and support, that is a great way. Otherwise, stay tuned for this episode with Chris. And once again, thanks for listening.
00:07:38
Speaker
We just love the Caribbean. Our next guest, a 3%er, that's top 3% of dressers, we're talking David Bowie, we're talking Kurt Cobain, we're talking the Italian menswear guys, hails from the little town of Cross Plains, Wisconsin, where apparently cranberries and ginseng are grown. He's inadvertently sober, unapologetically bald and ready to kick some ass.
Introducing Chris Morin
00:08:07
Speaker
Chris Morin, welcome to the show. Wow, that is, okay, cranberries and ginseng. I do not deserve, I do not deserve David Bowie, but I appreciate it. Dude, yeah. We'll put him in one. Because you're modest, because you're modest, and that's why you deserve it. Exactly, exactly. See, that, that shit.
00:08:35
Speaker
My small town upbringing tells me I'm not allowed to accept huge. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. What our show is about is huge compliments, if nothing else. Well, there you go. I love it. Fuck yeah. I love it. Thank you for having me. Thank you for coming on. How you feeling today? It's another later recording that we usually do. So yeah. We're late at a talk show now. We're late at a talk show. Yeah.
00:09:03
Speaker
Uh, yeah. I'm doing okay. It is Friday, which is pretty wonderful. Um, I, I spent all day sanding, uh, which is not so wonderful. Uh, yeah, yeah. But you know, I've got, I've got a little drink going. I've got, uh, you know, I put on a fit just and we're ready. Well, where did you, what did you settle on for a beverage?
00:09:33
Speaker
Okay. So I call it a trail mocha. Okay. Uh, it's literally just shitty coffee, uh, mixed with Swiss miss. Yeah. I'm writing this down. That is, that is one of the first like combinations that I ever had of coffee when I was like 12 years old. Like, like.
00:09:54
Speaker
It's okay. It's a trail mocha because it's like when I first was getting into coffee, it was, it was like, I was in Boy Scouts. Uh, and you know, that that's what the adults would make as they're like, nice drink before. Right. Wow. Uh, and I wanted, you know, you want to be an adult when you're like 14.
Positive Boy Scouts Experiences
00:10:14
Speaker
So I decided I was going to start to love coffee so I could, you know, partake in this pre hike. Okay.
00:10:22
Speaker
You were in the Boy Scouts? Yeah, I'm an Eagle Scout. Really? Whoa! What did you do? What was your project?
00:10:34
Speaker
Um, so there's this, I think it's mostly in Wisconsin. It's called the Ice Age Trail. It's like a pretty big thing. It goes all over the state. Um, and it's, its headquarters are actually in that like small town I grew up in cross plains. Um, so we were able to like go to them a lot of the time and be like, Hey, like what works do you guys need? Uh, so I basically did a landscaping project for like a trailhead in town.
00:11:01
Speaker
I made the little kiosks and signs. I ripped up all the side, did some brush cleaning, all that stuff. It was fun. It's good. Yeah. That's sadly a decent-ish organization with very bad shit going on, unfortunately. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Catholic church level of bullshit. Yeah. I mean, oh, it's bad.
00:11:29
Speaker
I mean, we don't have to get into the details of it, but I loved it. It was one of a few things in my life for my entire childhood. My dad was the scout master, but he was the scout as a kid. It always has that heritage aspect of it.
00:11:53
Speaker
families, everyone in my troop had family members that were already in it. It was just this big bonding experience. But not every troop is great. Clearly not every scout master is great. I think they're getting better. They're letting girls in now. I'm not sure if they're letting gay scouts in yet. I really hope they are. I wasn't a teenager that long ago.
00:12:23
Speaker
they still weren't like officially allowing gay kids in. It's kind of rough. No, and it's like, oh, but of course, like we know the whole shot of it really, don't we? Just too precious.
00:12:42
Speaker
Yeah, it's no, it's not it's not great. I think they I mean, they basically went bankrupts like a couple rides because of all the because they can't bankrupt the fucking church. But it's great that they can bankrupt an organization like that. That brings I didn't know that that happened. That brings me some warm feeling.
00:13:02
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, don't quote me on that, but it it there was a significant reorganization after all that started breaking out. So hopefully things are on. Yeah, because I've got no beef with the with the thing, right? Like, I think it's a great idea to learn how to do stuff in an organized
Critique of Boy Scouts
00:13:21
Speaker
way. Oh, yeah. Very good idea. So I'm not bashing them Boy Scouts, certainly. I was a boy scholar.
00:13:28
Speaker
Oh, yeah, it was. Yeah. I mean, I got kicked out. But what you can't do fires. Oh, they teach you how to make a fucking fire. And then it's your problem if the fire is too good.
00:13:45
Speaker
I think a good scout master has to be like a good teacher and like have a pedagogy and all that and like teach you when and where and make sure they're like holding that to you. I don't think you should have gotten kicked out for that. I don't know that I was like formally kicked out or dismissed or whatever like mechanism exists for that in the Boy Scouts. I was not allowed to come around anymore. Yeah.
00:14:10
Speaker
I have my own Boy Scouts story but it's like it's far less entertaining than the one Connor just said so I don't even care about it. I did Cub Scouts through like you know middle school early Boy Scouts and I was like okay this is weird and then in high school I had a bunch of friends that were like Eagle Scouts or like on that path
00:14:34
Speaker
And I already discovered punk rock. It was just like, yeah, like this ain't for me. So I tried to briefly do the thing later in my teenage years. And it was just like, yeah, this sucks. Not into it. Yeah. I also had
00:14:55
Speaker
I think if I had discovered... Oh, sorry. I have one very traumatizing memory for me that foreshadowed the, yeah, this sucks kind of thing. I think I was fourth or fifth grade or something, and we were doing a day camp.
00:15:17
Speaker
not even say overnight but you just go every day and the first day it fucking poured and there was like yeah you can have this poncho and i'm like i'm still wet and miserable and and that was the first first part of me being like yeah i don't think this this shit's for me
00:15:39
Speaker
The the like real skill of like making it to Eagle Scout is knowing how to be happy in the total. Oh, absolutely. That's the fucking episode title. Right. Right. We had a good like year as a troop where I I'm like not exaggerating. It rained every week. We did a camp out once a month, not including our like week long summer camp. We also did that.
00:16:09
Speaker
every single camping trip for at least a year. Right. Yeah. And like, I think like, fortunately, like, you know, the group dynamic makes it easier. Like, you have to have kind of that, like,
00:16:31
Speaker
Sure, yeah, you have to have the right group with like solid friends and a good dynamic and then it doesn't matter that you're raining, you're outside, you're not, you know, you're not having a good time. Yeah, for sure. But it's not always funny. Well, because it's there, there is like a
00:16:53
Speaker
This is my whole thing. Being alone is the worst thing that there is. If you're pouring down rain and you're with some person, even if they're a miserable piece of shit, you're with somebody. It's not that shitty. I understand though, everyone is getting poured upon.
00:17:19
Speaker
Yeah, it's like, it's almost, it's almost fun. It's like, look at all the shit we're in together. How cool is that? You know, that kind of thing. And you're teenagers too. And it's like, you know, you're tough. Everything's just kind of like, yeah, you're tough, but it's like a fun, funny thing. You can like laugh at yourself a lot easier.
00:17:41
Speaker
I don't know. It's great. Oh, yeah. That's interesting. And that's just as a like kind of small look into your worldview, which like you do seem like a very happy person, I must say, of content person. I do my best. Well, so go on.
Contentment and Online Spaces
00:18:05
Speaker
Oh, I don't know. I mean, like, hey, like.
00:18:10
Speaker
I don't know a lot of people that are super into being on Discord all the time or whatever, being into this online fashion space that are completely content with themselves.
00:18:33
Speaker
Hell, I don't know a lot of people in general that are super content with themselves. Not in this country? Like, certainly I'm not. Yeah, not in this country, oh my god. I do, like, I mean, grand scheme, I don't have a lot to be sad about. I think there is something to how you present yourself, like, in...
00:19:01
Speaker
I mean, like this is like the most obvious thing ever. There's something to how you present yourself, but like, I don't think that if I'm going around being mopey, that it's gonna help my situation at
Importance of Positive Interactions
00:19:13
Speaker
all. And I like the best thing to improving my day is having people interact with me positively. And if I'm not interacting with them positively, how's that ever gonna happen? You know what I mean? Yeah, an attitude of gratitude.
00:19:32
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, I you know, there's something like that. I've never even put. I don't feel like I've put this much thought to it before, to be honest. Well, we are. Well, this is a thought program, of course. It is. Yeah. I mean, this is what you get in a late night apocalypse. But I don't know. I think I think that.
00:19:56
Speaker
trying to be approachable and trying to be honest and sincere has gotten me, uh, as far as I've gone, which admittedly is not far, but, uh, I don't seem to have many enemies and that is kind of what I like. Yeah. Yeah. Same. Same here. Same here. You and Shane, you and Shane Curry really like a piece in a pod.
00:20:22
Speaker
Right. Right. Yeah. I actually know I have listened to that. Yeah. He just a fucking saint. He just is like positive all the time. Happy all the time. Yeah. There there was something that I read like years ago that Sid Mashford said. And so I'll leave it up to whatever you want to take from that. I don't know where the quote comes from. But like in in the days that I was like
00:20:52
Speaker
preparing to move to New York and wanted to be in the menswear scene, something he said in an interview was, light attracts light. And I'm a fucking asshole with a heart of gold. This is patently untrue. I mean, I am an angry person in a lot of ways, but there's a lot of righteous anger. But I have never once- You wish you were
00:21:22
Speaker
I wish you were angry. Fuck off, fuck off. But that is something that I have kept in my thought process with how I approach humans as a thing. And it's really true. If you're just trying to be yourself and trying to make friends with people and be a non-threatening entity,
00:21:51
Speaker
you get those types of people that respond to you. And like, that's one of the things that I love about the menswear and like clothing as a whole communities that I've been a part of. Yeah, I mean, it's real. And I think that
00:22:15
Speaker
I don't know, I mean, I am also, and I don't know how it comes across from how we've all interacted, but I am a pretty like interim person. That's, I think, a lot of applause. I don't, I think so. I mean, that's why we're attracted to these spaces, but I don't make a lot of friends generally, or at least like close ones, but like the ones that I do end up sticking around,
00:22:43
Speaker
are really great. And I feel like that's maybe something I can attribute to just that sort of mindset. I'm not going out there and being this social butterfly, but I'm putting on a positive attitude and getting through the day and people respect that, at least I hope.
00:23:07
Speaker
I went to Alfargo's and made an ass of myself, basically, because I was like just in a shitty mood. The transport logistics had gotten fucked up like it was just not a good scene, but everyone was extremely nice anyway. Like and I am an unpleasant person.
00:23:25
Speaker
No, no, no, okay. Connor, Connor. I'm gonna call you out on that one. Just like you did on me. Like Connor is not on me. If I'm in a bad mood, if I'm in a bad mood, no one wants to get around me. And still, everyone was nice. Yeah, yeah, because like- Well, I don't know. I mean, it's like a lesson. I feel like I have learned, but I just like, you can't always do it. No, I mean, it's nobody's,
00:23:55
Speaker
Like how could you? You know, how could everybody be awesome and positive at the time? It's impossible. I don't trust people that are positive all the time. Never have. No, no, God, no. I mean, Alfargo's seems, I like obviously have not been there. It just seems like a place where the energy is right and where people are gonna just like meet you where you are, be friendly. And like, it's all good.
00:24:25
Speaker
I mean, I think, I look at that and like, I've been into the like fashion sphere, I guess, for five or six years. And, uh, Fargo's is like a more recent, uh, uh, component of that, even though it's like, you know, it's not online.
Community-Building Events
00:24:47
Speaker
Obviously it's a new, it's a real thing, but, uh,
00:24:51
Speaker
It does seem to be something that was kind of missing, just like a place for people to go and be together and, you know, make friends. I mean, it seems like a great thing. I don't know. Nobody that I've, I know who has gone has seemed to have a bad time. And I think that's awesome. Like that's what the culture, if you will. Yeah. Yeah. Like these community building experiences are so important and like,
00:25:21
Speaker
like alfarcos being that in in new york and you know like i sell vintage for a living and have seen that grow so much in the past like six and a half years almost seven that i've done this full time and like that's important it's important to connect people that love these these various facets of clothing together and like the the more the merrier man like
00:25:50
Speaker
That's what building community actually is. I hope to make it out. Same here. I'm really bummed that I did not get to go to any of the recent ones with Connor.
00:26:12
Speaker
witness the Grinch. Yeah. That's the kid at the school, Mr. Grinch. They call you Mr. Grinch because I went to school dressed in the Grinch costume, of course, and the kids cried that I got like I got like the most knockoff one possible on Amazon. The thinking being, of course, I would wear it once and then I would return it.
00:26:41
Speaker
Which I did, but the mask was so hideous that these kids who are very tough were sobbing. So I felt poor man, but they still to this day call me Mr. Grinch. But now are you Mr. Grinch positively in their eyes? Yeah, they'd never be scared of the Grinch again. I don't know. I think that they're
00:27:09
Speaker
I think a nickname, I was actually thinking about this in the shower earlier. I have no idea why. I think a nickname is almost always a good thing. You want to be known as something and if people care enough about you to call you something funny, that's great. You're in. Maybe I should have been born in the Midwest. I mean, as someone that has traveled a lot of this country, the Midwestern people are fucking great.
00:27:38
Speaker
I have nothing to say. My extremely good friend, Jake. Yeah. Jake Jensen. He listens to this program. He is fucking awesome. How could someone be so nice? He drinks more milk than I do, which is really saying something. He drinks like three gallons of milk a week. Damn. Yeah. Holy shit. A week? Yeah. Oh my God. Okay. Because I drink probably a gallon, maybe a half a gallon a week.
00:28:07
Speaker
That seems like a normal amount. Like it. Three gallons a week. Three is stretching it. Yeah. Three is screwing with your GI. Hey, Jake.
00:28:17
Speaker
maybe cut back on the milk. I get it. It's really good. Try. I don't know. Try oat milk. Try something else. That's a lot. Yeah. Yeah. Super sweet too. Because I drink whole milk, of course. I can't even get into this. But Matt, you but you like you like a non milk product occasionally.
00:28:45
Speaker
Uh, yeah, yeah, I don't drink milk, uh, cause I'm vegan. Uh, when that, like, there is a stand-in, there are analogs. Oh, there, there, there are many better stand-ins than there were 15 years ago. Uh, I'll give you that, uh, milk was just never anything that like crossed my path growing up. Like we had 2% in the house, uh, or skin.
00:29:13
Speaker
mostly scam the 2% was at my grandma's house so like I've just never gotten the appeal of milk I think I mean and to be honest I probably haven't had a glass of milk in a year
00:29:30
Speaker
Because, okay, so my girlfriend is lactose intolerant. Am I going to drink a gallon of milk by myself, you know? So I've switched to oat milk. It only goes in my coffee. And then I drink non-alcoholic beer as my like dinner drink. And it's great. It's a good life. The NA beer lineup has gotten so fucking big.
00:29:53
Speaker
Oh my god. It's really the right time to be like allergic to alcohol. Like that is like maybe the one thing that's gotten bad in the last 20 years. That's extremely funny. It's true. I don't drink that shit, but I agree with you.
00:30:11
Speaker
Okay. Did you, uh, I mean, okay. There's this stuff called class taller and like, I know plugs are for the ends cause I'm an avid listener, but if, if you can try class taller, it's this like German imported and a beer. I think they only make non-alcoholic and that's the key. They are like perfecting their fucking, holy shit. It is. So this is why you're in.
00:30:37
Speaker
Inadvertently sober because you're allergic to alcohol.
Alcohol Allergy and Drinking Habits
00:30:44
Speaker
Yeah, I mean I mean I don't know allergic a beer and a half
00:30:52
Speaker
No, it's fine. A beer and a half in, I am thrown. Wow. And it didn't always used to be like. Right. Yeah. But it was like, I like 21. All of a sudden it just, which is a terrible time to stop being able to enjoy alcohol. It just stopped working in my system. All right.
00:31:15
Speaker
Yeah, I don't say that from like a judgmental standpoint that's just like that's a Very odd thing to like be a medical condition
00:31:33
Speaker
Which is great. Yeah. Well, yeah. And I told my doctor and I was like, yeah, like I just can't really do it anymore. And she was like, great. And I was like, OK, but what if there's like an underlying condition? She's like, do you feel sick? I was like, no. She's like, OK, it's great. You're good.
00:31:50
Speaker
i don't know wow that's i i mean i was i i was i stopped being sober or straight edge at like nearly 26 and so you know it's just funny so like to hear this kind of thing or not funny but but you know like ironic to hear this and the doctors did not pay any attention just like okay yeah well my theory
00:32:19
Speaker
My theory is that it's just way more common than we think because like why else is all this non-alcoholic beer?
Non-Alcoholic Beer Trend
00:32:26
Speaker
Like there's a whole at my grocery store. It's a whole aisle for it. It's because people are alcoholics. I'm positive of this. Like people have come out in droves really because of COVID that they're alcoholics, right? Because they figured that they were alcoholics because they were drinking at home alone for two years.
00:32:46
Speaker
Oh, that's interesting. Okay. No, that makes a lot of sense. It's a big market. Because I got sober during COVID, weirdly. I figured I was going to die, basically, and then I stopped drinking. So here I am. I mean, it makes sense also because food allergies are very rampant.
00:33:09
Speaker
So it fucking makes sense. Like this has probably been a thing forever. And somehow it's just now like, you know, being researched or whatever. No, for sure. I mean, like you hear all about like tea totalers or whatever. I like back in the day, I'd imagine that they probably just didn't feel good when they had a beer or whatever and probably decided it wasn't for them.
00:33:39
Speaker
I mean, it was like a lot of women who were fed up with their like drunk piece of trash husband. That's also, yeah, I mean, that's fair. There are a lot of, there are a lot of aspects to this. It's deep, I mean, the history of America is the history of alcohol.
00:33:57
Speaker
Oh, yeah. I mean, actually, I see that in Wisconsin. Oh, yeah. All the time. We're like the drunkest state in the country. You can get great beer. You can have a very good time. But drunk driving is pretty crazy here. There's like an absolutely in a culture around drinking that people are like proud of. Oh, for sure. For sure. It's a very weird thing.
00:34:23
Speaker
And the reason, well, you know, I guess there's probably a lot of reasons, but really the reason we don't have legal weed here yet, even though we're like surrounded by states that do, is we have this whole like tavern league thing that's literally just like liquor and alcohol makers and bars that are like, if we gets legalized, we lose business. It's like this union of shitty businesses. Wow. Yeah. Wow.
00:34:52
Speaker
Yeah, they're crazy like liquor laws really all over the place, like blue laws, I guess they're technically. I just like in Baltimore, for example, you can't buy alcohol on Sunday unless you're a certain kind of store that is allowed to for whatever reason sell it on Sunday. Isn't that so? I think you have to be here for like decades.
00:35:21
Speaker
Like I remember in the, like shortly after I started drinking in the like 2009 ish range. Um, yeah, you would have to like stock up Saturday night because nothing was available. And like my hometown was dry until like the early 2000s or maybe mid aughts. I don't remember exactly. Yeah.
00:35:51
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it's such a weirdly legislated thing that you actually like can't buy non-alcoholic beer. Really? Yeah. Because it's like it's legally not different enough for you to be able to like buy it like soda, I guess. But you don't get carded for it. It's a very odd thing. We could do a whole episode on this.
00:36:19
Speaker
Yeah, anyways, we've gotten pretty far in and we haven't even talked about this. So to bring it back home, Chris, so one of the first questions that we usually ask people is, what is your first meaningful piece of clothing that you remember?
00:36:41
Speaker
Um, but I'm going to combine that with, you know, since you mentioned you kind of got into this shit a few years ago, like five or six, like how, like, what, what's the first thing you remember, but also how did you find the community?
Fashion Beginnings and Social Impact
00:37:00
Speaker
Okay. So my first meaningful piece of clothing, um,
00:37:08
Speaker
I mean, if we're going way back, like, I think I started realizing that like, okay, okay. This is like probably the best answer I have for way back. I think I started realizing the social like power of clothes in seventh grade because all the cool kids had Osiris's and I did not. But of course.
00:37:37
Speaker
Uh, so Cyrus is. Oh God. Okay. So they're like the, the like last like flash in the pan of the chunky skater shoe before.
00:37:55
Speaker
I don't know. This was 2012, right? They really blew up. They were really shitty. They were just these massive fucking shoes that came in ugly ass colors. I don't even know if they're around anymore.
00:38:13
Speaker
I was like, shit, like, I need a pair of these because I don't have a lot of friends because it's middle school. And I begged my mom to take me to Zoomies. I got this pair of like neon green, purple and black Osiris's and I wore them into the ground. And you know what? People liked me better for it. I won't even pretend. Yeah, dude. It's like a signal. It's like a class signal.
00:38:41
Speaker
It is. I mean, it is. I think it's objectively stupid, but I got more attention at school for wearing these stupid Osiris's. And I convinced myself that they were really, really cool. And you know what, maybe they were.
00:39:03
Speaker
Um, I'm sorry. What was the second part of what started me getting into like, yeah, like kind of, when did you start to tell like, quote unquote, fine.
00:39:15
Speaker
So I think that I have a very typical getting into closed story.
Fashion Journey and Style Evolution
00:39:23
Speaker
I was at the end of my high school relationship, I was losing all my hair, and I was like, well, what am I gonna do now? I really liked my hair, I was a big fan of it. So I was like, okay, I'm gonna
00:39:46
Speaker
Yeah. I feel you for reasons I will not go into. I feel you for reasons I will not go into. I feel you for reasons I will not go into. I feel you for reasons I will not go into. I feel you for reasons I will not go into. I feel you for reasons I will not go into.
00:40:10
Speaker
yeah it's like it's like most of what you okay so like i didn't care about my appearance i only took care of my hair and then it's like that's my that's how i present myself effectively
00:40:26
Speaker
You know what I'm saying? Like that was such a big part of how I just presented myself in general. So I was like, shit, like, okay, I gotta, gotta pivot. So I started like doing push-ups in my bathroom and like, you know, was trying to follow the like, oh, well, you know,
00:40:46
Speaker
grow a beard, get in shape, and then start dressing well. That classic Reddit advice columnist kind of deal. So that brought me to MFA, which brought me, sorry, Reddit male fashion advice, which brought me to the streetwear subreddit.
00:41:09
Speaker
where all of a sudden I was very like swept up in the idea that I could like not only dress well, but like be kinda cool. And that was a big thing for me, especially cause like I'm an introvert. I was like, I don't really know how to connect with people very well. I wasn't doing like a typical college kind of situation. So I was just like, okay, I can,
00:41:39
Speaker
Uh, you know, join this subreddit at the time there was like a white list. So like your average, like Joe Schmo could not really post a fit in there. It was like, it was like, uh, approved users was looking back on. I'm like, this kind of weird, but whatever. Uh, but it basically gave me this large concentration of really cool outfits that I could like.
00:42:08
Speaker
just scroll endlessly through, and the hooks just got in my brain. And I think that that combo of being a kid, basically, who is recently bald, has self-esteem pretty low, all of a sudden seeing all these people that are really cool, I'm being like, I could figure out how to do that. That's kind of what
00:42:42
Speaker
Look at you now you figured it out You know what I mean? It's like you really are you really are Not there you know what I mean, you're not posting you're not posting every day you're not posting all the time I mean when you post something It's fucking tight you it's
00:43:02
Speaker
creative. It's like a good photo. I think my hit rate would be lower if I wasn't wearing painter's pants and a ratty sweatshirt every day, right? You know?
00:43:20
Speaker
I bet if you started posting those, you would get tons of attention. That's my prediction. Absolutely. What do you mean, what's the point? Do people pay thousands of dollars for shit that is disturbing? Why? Because of your job. That is the point of this show. Yeah.
00:43:41
Speaker
that the the point of the show is is people wearing clothes and like no matter what those clothes are if you if you give a shit yeah no i mean and it's like i don't look they're gonna be cool i am i want to post things that i think are really cool and i'm excited about i've been wearing these painter pants i've been wearing this uniform for
00:44:05
Speaker
Years, and it's like I don't get a lot out of being like look at me in painters pants again Like here. I am looking cool and work wary Yeah, I mean and it's like I feel it I feel it yeah, I am I am but you are wearing work wear like this is work wear You know like it's true the colors on your pants tell a story
00:44:33
Speaker
You know, that's that's the whole thing about vintage workwear. Oh, yeah. No, and I'm with you and I love vintage workwear. I just will never buy something that's paint splattered. And it's just because I am too exposed to it. Yeah.
00:44:51
Speaker
Totally, totally. Dude, 30 years from now, keep the pants you're wearing on one of our projects and you'll be- I've thought about turning like some of my like blown out pants into a bag or something like that. Like, I don't know. I feel like there's something I can do. Hell yeah! Yeah, it's fucking- Because you're a little ahead of us.
00:45:18
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, go on. Yeah, it's fucking cool that like you have a perspective that's like into all of these things that like your literal work clothes could be part of the fashion conversation. I agree in a sense. I just like, I don't know.
00:45:45
Speaker
It's just very hard to like take that work. Can you get, oh, you can hear me, right? Okay, I'm sorry, I saw my line go flat, I got scared. It's very hard to just like take that thing that I do eight hours a day, five days a week and be like, I wanna like keep thinking about this, keep doing it. Yeah.
00:46:10
Speaker
Um, for sure. Oh, yeah. But I don't know if I posted every day. I did. I worked at Indochino for a spell and I had a big mirror and I was wearing tailoring and I was posting every day on like discord and stuff like that. And I got so like burnt out just on like, yeah. Oh my gosh. It's exhausting.
00:46:36
Speaker
It's really exhausting. I mean, talk about something that no one acknowledges or gives any credit for. It's so hard to fucking post every day. I don't know. It's so laborious. I think that there are people that do it and seem OK. No, it's horrible. I mean, Connor, you post a lot, but I love your posts because you're also showing your life. And that's really cool. Oh.
00:47:03
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, I'm trying to. But I don't know. I think that like I post like once every couple of weeks, it's just like a little fit. And I just try to make the photography nice, because it feels like an extra point of care. If it's not, I like I have this mental block of like, well, then who wants to see this, which is maybe more of a me thing than anyone else.
00:47:34
Speaker
Well, it is a you thing actually because everyone wants to see it. You're very handsome. So it's like
00:47:41
Speaker
You know what I mean? It's like, it's fortunate because I don't know. I mean, people theoretically think everyone looks good with no hair. It's just like a normal head, right? Not so. Literally everyone says that. I think I would look insane with no hair. I have never looked at a bald person and gone, wow, you don't look good. Or at least I don't think about it. I'm just like, okay, he's bald.
00:48:08
Speaker
You know what I mean? Like if you, if you shaved your head tomorrow, I'd be like, okay, cool. Kind of shaved his head. He's bald now. Wow. Wow. Someone once told me, someone's told me this psychiatrist once told me, who's my friend's father. He was a huge asshole. He said, cause I was a real motherfucker and he told me like,
00:48:38
Speaker
You know what monks do? He was very into Eastern culture, I guess. They shave their heads to rid themselves of their ego. And I was like, you motherfucker, I'm 13.
00:48:58
Speaker
Yeah. And I mean, I had a huge ego and I had really long hair, but I didn't shave because he told me to. I don't know what he was trying to prove. He was calling me to a 13 year old in a backwards way, but he was like in his sixties.
00:49:23
Speaker
What? Yeah, it was weird. He also told me my sister really turned out. I mean, I know what that I know what it means. I don't like what it means. Do you know what it fucking means? Jeez. Yeah. Wow. Yeah. The more you know, though, where do I go? I so majority. Where do you get your stuff? Of it comes from eBay. Yeah. And the real real.
00:49:56
Speaker
So It's it's all right interesting it's um I never used there was like a golden moment where they were really Undervaluing a lot of their stuff and you could get some really sweet things on the cheap And you still can but uh
00:50:15
Speaker
I'm not sure I have much more. I do shop in person, or I try to. There's not a lot of shopping around. I mean, there are a few interest sources. There's actually a really one that opened up. Where are you going to go shopping anyway? Recently, they're only open a couple months at a time, then they shut down, completely redo this store, new store concepts, and they merchandise.
00:50:46
Speaker
Can you hear me? I saw disconnected. OK, sorry. All right. Yeah, you're good. Cool. I don't know what's happening. They like merchandise impeccably. I like have a cohesive like narrative through the story. That's been really cool to see. But most of the in-person shopping I do now is at the Midwest Vintage Flea, which is like a twice a year. Yeah, it's sick.
00:51:15
Speaker
Oh, nice. Yeah. I've got some friends to do it. It's a party. It's great. It seems fucking awesome. Locals only vintage. Pain and Pony. Pain and Pony.
00:51:30
Speaker
like there's yeah there's a lot of really good people it's incredibly fun it's no like it's not all Fargo's but it is like the biggest vintage flee in the area I think until you get to Lake Chicago
00:51:46
Speaker
And people just have a blast there. The vendors seem like they're having a good time. People remember you like it is the the closest I can get to a sense of community around clothes in this area is when I go there twice a year. And it is like Christmas for me and my girlfriend. Like we always make sure we can go. We always make sure we get something because it's just something like you want to see more of.
00:52:16
Speaker
But yeah, it's a blast. Right. Right. Fuck yeah. Like I, when we were, you know, researching and doing like the kind of template that we do for the interview, it really seems like you, you like combine a bunch of various styles. Um, like there's a lot of, you know, menswear, tailor clothing, whatever.
00:52:46
Speaker
Um, there's some like seventies YSL was that I picked up on. And then some kind of like, you know, Antwerp six, like minimalism. Um, but you pull all of these things off and you, you combine them in, in like interesting ways, like hat, like what's that, that progression been like, how did you go from like,
00:53:16
Speaker
enjoying these styles too, like mixing them and seemingly, you know, pulling them off in a way that like is fresh. Thank you, first. That's very nice of you to say. You're here. But I think that- Of course, of course. I had, when I was really getting into like clothes, I had a really hard time
00:53:44
Speaker
uh not liking something um if it was cool like i genuinely liked something like i convinced myself to get rick owen's shoes on like more than one occasion which was a mistake i had geobaskets i had some i had some like sacramones that sucked they were like made of this like scuba material they were disgusting
00:54:10
Speaker
uh and then i had some those like veja runners or like the the like hiking sneakers or whatever um which i actually still have they're actually cool sneakers um but
00:54:26
Speaker
I don't know. So I kept kind of rapidly going between being really into one designer or another. I was really into this dark avant-garde stuff for a while. I had a very huge phase where I loved Heider Ackerman, who I still love. And then I just started realizing I was never gonna
00:54:52
Speaker
find my spot unless I started calling the herd and being like, okay, do I actually wear this? Does this actually go with any of my stuff? And, you know, you can start selling. And then I think like the POV, as you might call it, kind of comes out of like refining that. But it still ends up with like I have a lot of different. Sorry, a lot of different like represented
00:55:23
Speaker
styles just kind of in my closet. And I think that if I hadn't started from a fashion angle, if I had started from like a menswear angle, I don't think that would have ended up the same.
00:55:36
Speaker
Because designers, you see him pulling a lot from those different influences, collection to collection. You can see like, like Dries Van Noten is gonna be doing like military kind of stuff one season. He's gonna be doing 70s the next. He's gonna be doing like 30s the next. And you love it all and you wanna try it all. And like that pushes you into seeing how do these shapes work together? How do these materials work together?
00:56:04
Speaker
How can I find myself in it or whatever? Yeah, I think that's really all there is to it.
Influences and Style Evolution
00:56:17
Speaker
Cool. That was succinct.
00:56:24
Speaker
That was like a lot of, that was like a lot of time covered, right? That was a lot in terms of years. And I'm glad to hear minutes of, I mean, I definitely could get into more detail if you guys have more questions about it, but I think that's really all there is to it.
00:56:46
Speaker
No, I think that is a great chronology. I agree. I am not sure. I'm not sure it's the answer for everybody, but it's the answer for me. And so that was the answer. Yeah. No, but it's your answer. And I guess you talked about your inspirations. Matt wanted to bring up something.
00:57:16
Speaker
Yeah, so we were looking at your account yesterday and I think it was two episodes ago or maybe one that we talked about the white person wearing tan question, which I have many thoughts on. I feel like I have jaundice as the former coworker used to say when I wear tan clothing,
00:57:46
Speaker
Um, but dude, there's like, there's a picture of you, which we will probably use where you're wearing a tan suit, a, I want to say a cruise shirt. Um, and I don't think you're wearing a tie, but like, okay. Where do you stand on the tan? Okay. So that's funny.
00:58:11
Speaker
It's not a suit, but it is separates. I'm committing the Cardinals in of like, wearing like, okay, that are way too similar in color, but I think it works for the picture. I don't know. I'm not a big rules man. I mean, it definitely does. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:58:32
Speaker
It brought up a question on the show. So I'm gonna say it works. I can either get really concerned about that stuff or I can let it all go and just buy what looks cool. And okay, like I have the lamest reason ever for why I have these things in the first place. I respect that. Which is that, I mean, it's not actually lame. It's like cherished memories, but like one of my like bonding, like
00:59:02
Speaker
Uh, cardinal memories with my boyfriend was going down to try and get into a Harry Styles concert out tickets, just like on a Friday. Uh, she's a huge fan. I have been converted because it's truly like the most fun I've had at a concert. Uh, but people cry.
00:59:26
Speaker
Does everyone cry? Does everyone cry? I went to the Taylor Swift Show and every single fucking person cried the whole time. And you're not, that's the thing. It's like you have to let go of your judgment because you're in their house. You know, you're a guest. So if people are crying, you have to be like, I get it. I understand. Right.
00:59:48
Speaker
Oh, they were wearing suits like really similarly to that in the first concert we went to. So then when we went back to round two, which this is like a picture that we took before we went to that concert, because you know, they'd all do like the dress up for the show thing. So I was like, I have to like bring out these colors. Right. Right. Right.
01:00:11
Speaker
you know commemorate that i i was at that one show and really appreciated the tailoring they had because like it's all gucci up there it's so cool you know like nothing cooler than a tan gucci suit i don't know um so that's my replication uh as far as as far as
01:00:32
Speaker
Thanks. As far as like specifically for my style, which like my answer like cleanly is wear tan.
Fashion Aesthetics and Openness
01:00:42
Speaker
Like I don't know. Like it's fine. It's, it's a great color. It's a neutral. You can wear any neutral you want, but also if you want to do the seventies thing, which I very much do, you've got to wear some tan.
01:00:59
Speaker
you got to do the cream turtleneck and the tan jacket because that is, or like 60s. That is like the color of that time period. That's like the iconic 70s or 60s suit in my mind is like a flared, wide lapel tan suit. And then they have the cream roll neck and it's sick. Yeah, yeah.
01:01:30
Speaker
I can get down with many earth tones. I mostly wear earth tones. Blue being the exception. I don't know why it is. I am very pale and have always just felt like tan does not work from my skin tone. So it's an ongoing project to figure out how it works. I respect it. You gotta do the research.
01:02:03
Speaker
Yeah, but did you look great? And yeah, we've got another vote in the tan camp, which I think Connor also endorses. Tan camp, tan camp, baby. We're in the tan camp. So I was going to ask you what I try to ask everyone, and it's like one of the reasons really that I started this program. You take really good fit pics.
01:02:30
Speaker
You take really good ones. So like, do you have a process? Like, do you have like a whatever? You probably just like do it. You take one picture and then you're like, this is fucking okay. I take good fit. You take like 30 because I spent so long taking bad ones and now I can't look at them.
01:02:52
Speaker
I deleted all of them. I'm still taking bad ones. They're not getting any better. Through my buddy Chris, I have one Chris friend, at least as far as I'm aware. You have a ton of Chris friends, right?
01:03:15
Speaker
I got into this student club for a college I was not a student at called Ulta Zine and it's just this little fashion zine. We're talking about social issues. We're doing our photo shoots. It was so much fun. I really fell in love with the process of
01:03:38
Speaker
putting a photo shoot together, styling that photo shoot, seeing it get published. Nobody read it. That's fine. It was like the best like in-person bonding, creativity kind of experience I could have asked for. And like through that, I'm like, shit, like I want, if I'm taking a picture of an outfit, I want a little bit of like a
01:04:06
Speaker
Like I want to capture that joy just a little bit. So I do have I do have a real camera. I have a real tripod and I go out and I try and set up something that looks at least. It's a bug, sorry. I think so. That looks. Nice to get it.
01:04:32
Speaker
that's like the first on-air kill of the show that was amazing and we got it on looks and feels creative and fulfilling because otherwise like I'm not sure that it's like
01:04:49
Speaker
You know, I'm like really weirdly critical about my Fitpics. So if it's not up to that like standard that I have like created for myself out of no purpose and nothing, I don't really wanna share it. And like maybe I'll post it on like a little chat, but I'm not gonna put it on my Instagram. I mean, yeah.
01:05:13
Speaker
Yeah. It's not feet. It's not for the feed. I changed that standard. And now that I post every day, it's like, I actually get back to my, I don't know if it's effective because I'm like.
01:05:29
Speaker
the daily creative practice. That's awesome. Peter totally said that I inspired him to start to start taking pictures every day. I mean, because now it's like, I don't know. That's the best thing I've ever heard of any person now of like every couple of weeks strapping something on my Instagram.
01:05:45
Speaker
I also am like coming to terms with the fact that my audience is just basically like people I already talked to. I don't have an audience. I'm not really, I'm not like an influencer. I'm just a guy, just a guy from Wisconsin. No, I stopped hashtagging on purpose because I was like pretending to be an influencer. It's so weird.
01:06:11
Speaker
It's disgusting. It's all such an interesting phenomenon because we all just kind of put up with this. And I come from a part of internet clothing culture that was based on message boards and shit. And I'm still just, I'm trying to adapt.
01:06:39
Speaker
So I feel like we're all just trying to adapt and find our people. Call it being 20 or whatever. Not that I'm that much older, but I was just trying to get a lot of followers. I was like, that's what you do on Instagram. You try and get a lot of followers. But now I'm like, what was that building towards? I'm not on some greater creative mission.
01:07:03
Speaker
I'm not getting any money out of this. Why do I want to share with anybody but the people that I already follow and follow me? Yeah. It's basically all of us nerds trying to find other nerds to talk to this shit that we like about.
01:07:27
Speaker
It really isn't anymore. I mean, I love it. I think that it's amazing to be able to interview people that we've never met that shared this thing. I mean, that's what the show is about also. It's just like talking to people.
01:07:46
Speaker
a much more real way and it's like it really is what they're really about like yeah i don't know blammo is not having me on but it's like apocalypse is hitting me up just on a monday being like wanna be on on friday i'm like yeah dude i i mean i like yeah yeah and that's like like i think one of the early things that connor and i um
01:08:15
Speaker
we're scheming on is just talking to people that are in this sphere, but aren't celebrities. Like I'm not really, or none of us are really interested in talking about, you know, about people that we know, you know, that go- Congrats on getting there. Or whatever, but- You had a good street here where it was like, I was like, damn, they got this guy? Ah, yes, yeah. I'm just saying.
01:08:45
Speaker
Oh, yeah, but but also like you should see what we've got planned. Yeah. Also, like my our whole point is that Derek Guy, who we all love, it's just a normal ass person. And, you know, it's about talking to people that are just interested in the same shit. So.
01:09:09
Speaker
Yeah, Chris the painter. We like to talk to, we like to talk to the Joe the Plumbers out there. Yeah, yeah. Like, you're a fucking painter, that's why. Yeah, Chris the painter, fuck. Chris is the painter. Yeah, anyway. Chris, dude, thank you so much for coming on.
01:09:26
Speaker
We we always like to give our guests a chance to shout out what they want to oh sure It's Chris underscore Buran I posted frequently, but you know, I try to make them good you do Shout out the Midwest vintage flee, you know if you can make it there show up I think the next ones in like May I
01:09:52
Speaker
Fuck yeah, fuck yeah. Emily, tell him if you're listening. It's a good time. And then shout out my man Chris, who I mentioned briefly earlier. He has a cool fashion archive page. I think it's like Unrealism Archive or something like that. But he finds the pictures that no one else can of old helmet Lang and Dior and stuff like that.
01:10:19
Speaker
And it's unrealism.archive, I believe. What is it? And he's going to be like so embarrassed if he even listens to this that I'm, you know, mentioning. Oh, unrealism underscore archive. If he listens to this. Our listeners are in the hundreds of thousands. He's doing a really cool thing there. He only has like 200 followers. I feel like he deserves a lot more so.
01:10:48
Speaker
Yeah, that's Chris. There you go. Yeah, this is cool. I'm following it. Oh yeah. We'll share the map. We'll share the map. Um, all right. Once again, Chris, thank you for coming on. Uh, I am Matt Smith at Rebels Rogues.
01:11:09
Speaker
And I am Connor Nunez at Real Connor Nunez. Real Connor Nunez, motherfuckers. I was telling someone, I'm sorry Matt, I was telling someone today about the handle and I was like, oh, it's Connor Nunez. And they were like, it's what? And then I remembered that I made it real Connor Nunez. It's like way, way funnier.
01:11:36
Speaker
Yeah, well, we'll unpack this on another episode. Um, if you have questions, comments, concerns, apocalypse studs at gmo.com. Uh, if you would like to follow us on Instagram and our exploits at apocalypse studs. Yeah. And Chris, one, one more time. Thank you. We'll see you next week.