THE LAST EPISODE EVER

Transcript

Speaker: The American Craftsman Podcast is sponsored by Haefla. Haefla offers a wide range of products and solutions for the woodworking and furniture making industries. From hinges and drawer slides to connectors and dowels, sandpaper, wood glue, shop carts, and everything in between.

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Speaker: Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to the show. And a couple surprises. you might have You might have recognized that.

Speaker: We got Rob Barone in the house today. hey And it's also the last episode of the podcast ever. but I figure the title is probably gonna be something like last episode. Last episode ever. Clue. So you may have known ah prior to hitting play, but yeah, it's the last episode of the podcast. We're going to hang up our hats.

Speaker: What a run. yeah We're going to do some lives though. And and oh yeah we'll be doing some more fun stuff. Yeah, I figured we'll definitely reconvene in some capacity at some time. For sure.

Speaker: But the American Craftsman Podcast, 208 episodes Wow. Yeah. Remember the early days? Oh, yeah. So I reached out to a couple people. i should have done it a couple days ago. I just did it this morning.

Speaker: A couple people that I know listen. And I said, ah hey, just a heads up. Today's going last episode. Consider yourself you know one of the first to know. i said, if you have any you know favorite moments or anything, ah let me know. So i have a couple of people send me so we can we can talk about those.

Speaker: which would be good. Yeah, it was fun. ah I think it was ah the beer of the day or the beer of the episode. Yeah, yeah. Beer of week. Beer of the week. That was it. I'm going to turn my... Your headphones good? Yeah, no, mine are good.

Speaker: Mine are good too. Mine's little bit loud. There we go. That's better. i'm missing I miss the beer of the week, but I think once we would have like one or two beers, you're like, I don't know if I'm doing much else after this. Yeah, it turned into, now I've got to turn it back up. It turned into like, ah you know, it was like the whole rest of my day is shot.

Speaker: And two beers with an IPA that's like a seven point or whatever. You're like, whoa But they were good. Yeah. Yeah. And I don't think I ever laughed as hard as when I did some of those episodes. Oh, yeah.

Speaker: Even, you know, the first ah he didn't make it the whole first season, but with Deadwood, Rich, our first partner, I went back and and listened to or watched one of them. And, you know, we were having it. We were having a ball. It was a lot of fun.

Speaker: Yeah. um And in the beginning, it was just like we were just going for it It was fun. The Manny episode. Yeah. Yeah. Four hours. Oh my God.

Speaker: Yeah. We had some good times. Yeah. Yeah. All those episodes in the, in the old shop, you know, first we were at the work bench in the corner and then we made that, I made that weird triangular shaped table so that we could sort of frame, and frame the shot. Right. The green screen. Yeah. We had the green screen. yeah.

Speaker: Then we were in your basement. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Then we moved into the basement and then we moved into that creepy room over there. That room was crazy. Yeah. That was right out of like a serial killer's life. It was like, i always say it was like if you had like a ah an older brother or something and their friend had like a basement where everybody smoked pot. yeah That was like what that looked like. Yeah. Like the, you know, tapestries all in the wall. I did an episode in there in the early days. And I know that Walter was in there once too. And he came back. He's like, wow, that room's really different. That's like all musty, you know, but it was like, it was really, the sound was pretty good because it was just soft everywhere.

Speaker: Oh yeah. Um, at the, the piece of homosoda is still in there. I got to pull that out, do something with it. Um, Yeah, you know, all the after shows, the the Amazon reviews. God. one guy. yeah i should actually With the cat harnesses. Yeah, yeah, the toupees. got a clock in every room. Oh, my God.

Speaker: Yeah, the paper plates. ah Oh, God. We did the one where we ah we read the reviews for, um yeah, it is it is ah getting sound. oh Oh, shit, you know what?

Speaker: One second here. Okay. We just had to double check that we were actually recording through the microphones. Imagine the last episode was just like, I don't think we could keep it the last episode. i think we'd have to do it again. Yeah. yeah Uh, the, we put out to like that several weeks ago that were, it was just like, well, that's where my choice my confidence was way down here. Yeah. You know what it is? I didn't change the settings from last time. So they were still there. I didn't, I didn't check. So a good eye for thinking of that, but.

Speaker: um Yeah, we did the one where the ah the secret space program, you remember that? The vampires? Yeah. People were being abducted by the government. I got sent to Mars to fight the vampires. Yeah.

Speaker: And the lady who reviewed the motels? Yeah. The Ronkongama days in. it's like It's like you're making this stuff up. Or the Hooters King of Prussia. Yeah.

Speaker: I don't know if you ever heard any of those. Those were on the Patreon. I probably didn't then. So, I mean, man, we were really doing a lot back then. It was like we would do an hour at least. Would you have a few more beers during the after show then too? I think sometimes, yeah.

Speaker: And we would just, you know, we'd be sick of talking about woodworking at that point. So we'd be like, today we're going to go on Google and and read random reviews for places. Like pick a city and just Yeah. You know, zoom in on the map and just, you know, the Bojangles in Durham, North Carolina. Wow.

Speaker: I mean, there's some there's some gems in there. Oh, my God. I know. People are just, ah I mean, well, we if you're out in the world, see, now I'm out in the world.

Speaker: And it's it's tough out there. To think of the time you must have on your hands to, you know, to review the Hooters King of Prussia. Yeah. I know, man. It's just, oh, well, I guess it takes all types.

Speaker: Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Let me see what a but we got here, if I got any more that came in. um So the first to respond was ah was Matt Viz.

Speaker: Ah. And he said, incredible that you've got Rob coming back. He ought to perform the intro during the recording, and you and Peters are the backup singers. Yeah.

Speaker: And then he said, ah favorite memory was Jocko Bean. Probably the hardest laughing I remember while listening. yeah try Trying to pronounce the word and mispronouncing it over and over and over.

Speaker: that So that was season two, the Jacobian era i thought you were talking about the Jacobian stain. Yeah. Well, it's Jacobian. Oh, that what it is? Yeah. Oh, see, I didn't that. Like a Jacobian monk.

Speaker: Yeah. okay Or did we settle that it was Jacobian? don't know. I don't know. Yeah. It's a mystery still, but it was funny. That was like rectilinear. had that one episode where said rectilinear about 75 times in the episode. ah And what is the correct ah pronunciation?

Speaker: ah Rectilinear is, but it was just like the word just it was just in the episode. Super heavy. ah That must have been one of the earlier American Furniture episodes. Those are good to have on on recording. yeah Just so people, it's like you could go to school there. You could listen to the podcast.

Speaker: and then have your laptop open and and do Google searches for images. yeah i mean i think that's such a great way to learn. I wonder if we can compile that into like an audio book almost.

Speaker: yeah i mean It was a lot of research that went into that. 52 episodes. I can't believe that. You covered and everything too. I really can't believe we did 52 episodes. yeah i mean you could just do you If you didn't want to deal with the whole entire thing, you could just pick a section like,

Speaker: You could start with ah like shaker furniture and maybe have the the transcript, have a transcript written from the podcast, send that through AI, pull some images.

Speaker: I mean, and we could even make a couple of little pieces of furniture and build a little book around that. Yeah, that'd be cool. That would be. I'll look on my computer. I bet I have all the notes. Yeah. I have some of them because you were emailing them to me because we're putting them on the Patreon, I think.

Speaker: um That's a project. Let's do that. Yeah. I mean, yeah, with AI now. Let's just do that. Let's do it with Shaker and make a couple simple pieces. That'd be fun. Yeah. And you could have a, what do they call that when you print on demand or whatever? Yeah. Like, yeah, you can print a book through Amazon. Let's do that. Let's do the Shaker one and and make two or three pieces that are simple.

Speaker: That'd be fun. That'd be cool. There was, so we had, was the Shaker thing was that, Were they overrated or something? The Shakers, right place, right time.

Speaker: Yeah, we uncovered some interesting facts through all that. We we were learning as we were going along. Yeah, you know the Shakers made a lot of claims to things that were sort of unfounded. Oh, really? Yeah.

Speaker: Well, I wasn't even aware of their claims as much as I just like their simple lines on a lot their stuff and the utilitarian purpose of things. Yeah. ah my My taste in furniture...

Speaker: I don't like like all that Queen Anne stuff. I'm just not into it. like I'll look at i look at pieces of furniture or architectural buildings and think the amount of work that goes into it.

Speaker: And then I think, I just don't like it. yeah Like the Chippendale stuff. like I can appreciate it, but and we have the book right here. You open it up and it's like, man. I couldn't put this in any house no right now.

Speaker: You know, you, would you, have it would have to be in a room by itself. Where do you, you can't build a room around one of these pieces. They're just, they're so ornate, so intricate, just so much going on. It's like your eye is going to go right to that every time.

Speaker: I totally agree. I've always been a less is more, and as I get older, it's just less. I saw a ah post on Instagram or Facebook. I don't know exactly what the point of it was, but it was ah was like a toy horse with a ribbon on it hung on a ah stair banister.

Speaker: And next to it was this ornate carving of a horse carved into the stair banister. And I guess they were just kind of making fun of the – are just saying like one is a simple thing and one is more complex.

Speaker: And if you look at the carving of this horse on this banister, you're like, holy cow, the amount of time. And it is just ugly. And I'm just like, you know, it's just it's just amazing how just because something is a lot of work doesn't mean it's good. Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker: And Chippendale was so influential. That was another thing because of, you know, mass business acumen and all these other things that I had no idea. Yeah. And the whole Nicholas Disbro thing, like, you know, finding out that my ninth great grandfather is just like literally one of maybe not the one of the most famous, but, you know, he's one of the renowned American furniture makers. like Yeah. You know, he was credited as the first.

Speaker: nameable american furniture maker i mean that was like mind-blowing isn't that crazy it's a small world who it really is it's amazing how like you you end up meeting somebody that somehow is you know it's like six degrees of separation kind of thing yeah yeah i just uh i had one of those the other day i can't remember who was maybe ah it'll come to me but Yeah, it's funny how you you um you run into somebody and then it's like all of a sudden, and you go to left field, some reference, and then it's like, oh, yeah, I went there too. It's like, what the hell?

Speaker: Well, the place that Walter's working at now, Central Metal Fabricators, 20, 28, 29 years ago, I i bought a full-scale plywood base for a table.

Speaker: built out of three eights plywood, dropped it off. I remember talking with Frankie, the owner of the place. They were in Red Bank at the time. I met with him, met with his brother, Anthony, and, um, really nice guys.

Speaker: And they built this table base from my model, same exact size. And, uh, 27 years later, Walter's working for them. Yeah, that's cool. It's wild.

Speaker: How's he liking it? He's liking it and he's learning a ton. Yeah, that's cool. mean, he's just deep in it. That's sort of like every day you're learning and you're just in the business of it. And those guys are super busy and super, like everybody is super talented.

Speaker: That's cool. I see he's still doing stuff too. And I'm sure he'll pick up stuff from there, you know, cause they'll get, somebody will call because, you know, you search on Google machine shop, they're going to be at the top because they're, you know, and they're going to be like, Hey, i need three of these things. And they're going to say, we don't do three. He's going from, he's going from where they are. I forget. I think it's, Farmingdale Farmingdale. Yeah.

Speaker: He's going from there to his shop quite often and spending a lot of weekends at his shop because, uh, He does. He just has work coming in. i you know, he does work for Jersey Central Power and Electric.

Speaker: He's doing some work for a designer. He better raise his prices 19.9% because that's how much the power is going up. Yeah, I know. It's crazy. crazy. John got to meet Tom. Oh, yeah.

Speaker: Was that last week, two weeks ago? Yeah. I thought he was a nice guy. I was impressed with how he worked that saw. He actually, yeah, I haven't seen the video. I i i didn't want to watch when I was talking to Lou because I didn't want to um and't want to throw Tom off as his game.

Speaker: you know, it's Frank and the but Fred and Ginger. Fred and fred Ginger, yeah. he He thinks he's Fred Astaire and the saw is Ginger Rogers. Well, I tell you what, he moved around that saw like I was impressed. He cut it pretty fast.

Speaker: He cut it fast. We didn't check the parts, though. we all know are out of square. And you go and try and build a cabinet box out of it, and it doesn't work.

Speaker: But yeah, so I met Tom and then we came back here and still have to edit that together. That's one of those videos that I'm not really looking forward to editing. Yeah, it's a lot. And you met Lou. Lou was super excited to me. Lou's so cool. Such a nice So he had shoulder replacement surgery yesterday. texted me last night.

Speaker: Such a mellow, relaxed guy. He must have been fun to work with. Oh, great. Yeah. um And partial rotator cuff reattachment. So they found that when they went in, he said. So he's going to be out for long time. And then he's going to have to do a lot of rehab. It's going to be a lot of pain involved in that.

Speaker: The thing is, Walt, not Walter, Michael had so shoulder surgery and he had to do all all that stuff. And you're talking about a 21 year old kid. Lou, I think is my age, right? Yeah. He was like 57 or something like that. Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker: It doesn't get easier. No, I can only imagine. He's the bionic man. He's got two knees. he's a shoulder. He's probably going to get the other shoulder done. Yeah. Well, going back to Tom and the slider, to me, that's a like a ah crucial element where you got to check the square and the and the accuracy of the cuts as opposed to the street bigs. The street bigs. Yeah.

Speaker: not to say it's not just about speed it's about you know accuracy and uh like ergonomics and wear and tear on your body you know the street just is not to take anything away from the operator but it's sort of idiot proof it is you know i mean you just like that is the hardest thing because a lot of times if i'm making a box if i'm doing like a veneer project it's a lot to get all square cuts to make that box and then have the veneer have it all go together if everything is square, it's easy.

Speaker: If it's not square, now your job is so much harder. yeah yeah And so like I was saying to my wife, I said, well, I could build that because I could just go over to Jeff's and I can cut that piece of plywood in no time. Yeah. you know Five minutes, 10 minutes. It's like boom, boom, boom.

Speaker: Where literally to cut those parts could take me all morning because I might have to square it up with a track saw. Then I might have to use my my cross cut sled or whatever it is.

Speaker: And then, you know, you're running a full sheet through the table. saw So I'll take, I'll cut it quarter of an inch or half inch heavy, whatever. So I can run it. cut it yeah So I can like, okay, once it's a little bit smaller and it's not going to take so much muscle, I can flip it over and clean up that factory, you know?

Speaker: So yeah, that thing's great. Yeah, we went to Tom's and recorded him cutting on the slider. Then we came back here. i cut one on the saw stop. Oh, my God. It kicked my ass. That was a disaster, too. haven't done that in so long. Those cuts.

Speaker: Those cuts. Are bad. Those cuts are really bad. Yeah. good So you used the hall sheet on a Yeah. A melamine. Oh, God. Those days. I mean, we used to do There be two of us on it. i'd be, like, holding, like, the outfeed on there. It would have the shaper. We'd have to move the shaper. Yeah.

Speaker: All the cross cuts too. I mean, like that's, ah it's one thing to do a rip, but then you're doing those cross cuts and you know so you have everything to the left side of the blade. You're trying to muscle with your left hand. And I didn't use the sliding part because i figured it would be unfair. You know, like what did it take? 17 minutes or something.

Speaker: Something like that. I still have to figure how I'm going to make that video look at all. Interesting. I'm bored thinking about the editing. Yeah. Well, you know I don't think we don't have to put that on our channel if it's not, you know.

Speaker: I'll get it. i I was happy to get the Edge banding video up. I thought that was good. Yeah, Eric is great. Yeah, he's really good. um He's got a good, like, he's got a good a voice that's good to listen to, you know. He does.

Speaker: He really does. And he's very natural. I think there was one edit maybe had a clear throat or it just lost track of. his thoughts for a minute. Um, but it just like little B roll in there. You never notice. I mean, when I'm doing my videos, holy shit, I'm, I'm like editing so much.

Speaker: It's, and I think a lot of that though, it's like when you hit that record button and walk in front of the camera, you're like a deer in front of the headlights. I mean, what the hell was I going to say? You're talking to nobody. You're talking to yourself. And it's just sort of like, like when we did the shop tour video, that was easy.

Speaker: Yeah. One take. It was all one take. Excuse me. It was 30 minutes. I cut it down to 20 just because we got sidetracked a lot. Yeah, I know. Yeah, a couple things I saw that got cut out. I was like, yeah, we didn't even need Yeah, and my feeling is leave people hopefully wanting more instead of like leave people like, okay, when are you going to shut up? and yeah Press the fast mode. Yeah, exactly.

Speaker: I find myself doing that sometimes, 2Xing some videos. Yeah, yeah, so – Anyway, I think it'll be a fun video, the shop tour video. What's amazing is is ah how much the shop has changed since I started with you know these YouTube videos.

Speaker: And how old I look compared to when I started. Yeah. So you're entering that phase that I was in um where you catch yourself in the mirror and you don't recognize yourself. Who's that old guy?

Speaker: That's exactly the thought that goes into your head. It's like, who is that old guy? Yeah. Because, you you know, you have this image of yourself from like seeing photographs and stuff like that.

Speaker: And then at one point, it just, your face changes oh my god drastically. And you're like, that's me? Well, i was listening to I was listening to Steve Martin's book, Born Standing Up.

Speaker: And um he was saying something, he said something like, ah you might be thinking that these girls were young and beautiful, but we were all young and beautiful. We were 20.

Speaker: yeah And that's so true. It's like youth is beautiful. You don't even have to be in great shape. Youth is just beautiful. That's just how it is. It's as simple as that.

Speaker: Yeah. it's it Getting old is funny. It's a weird experience. It is. you um You have to take it, you know, You have to deal with it.

Speaker: And as I get older, my focus becomes more and more about just trying to stay healthy and exercise and ah just, you know, bending, stretching, stretching.

Speaker: Pete, you notice that a lot of people in their fifties become very self-aware of fitness and that's because they're really having to deal with it. They can't just rely on their youth. It's no different than when you're in high school, you can go out and drink a 12 pack and then go to work the next day. If I did that today, I'd be done for three days. i was just like And yeah, you'd be totally done for three and then feel like crap for another. three Oh my God. Yeah.

Speaker: Yeah. So it's, Age is a funny thing and you just have to, you have to just kind of deal with it. Yeah. It's ah interesting to navigate all these things.

Speaker: You have to think about things. Like I remember jumping onto my pickup truck tailgate and jumping off. Like I would just jump off the tailgate without thinking twice. I would never do that. I'd be like, I'm probably going to blow my knee out if I do that. So I, I like gingerly get out of the truck or, you know, jump off the truck or,

Speaker: Or if I have to climb into the truck, i'm sort of like I look at it as like, oh, I have to climb into the back of the truck. I don't want to do that. I started being really conscious of how I'm lifting things in the shop and on installs and stuff because my back i mean my back was messy really messed up for a while.

Speaker: And it's it's starting to feel better. um Trying to actually use my core instead of just lifting with my back you know or and my legs. So, yeah, it's a hard lesson learned.

Speaker: Plus, you're always in an awkward position trying to fit something into the van or fit it into the house, you know, trying to avoid like slamming into the wall. You're like, you know, sometimes you have to like cantilever something out with just your arms.

Speaker: I know. Yeah, you'll always sacrifice your body before the piece of furniture. Oh, yeah, or like the clients, you know, trim in their house or something. ah Keith helped me out with an install, that that blue job with the docking drawer.

Speaker: You saw that. i mean, that stuff was heavy. yeah I think we moved the base cabinet, yeah the the bench. I mean, that thing was heavy. So like we only had like a Friday to put it in and I wanted to get it in and get paid.

Speaker: And Leilani only works three days a week. So i i called up Keith and we did it. And i I told her on Monday, I was like, I don't think you and I could have like gotten this into the house. It was like, it was like all the strength Keith and I had. yeah And we're both pretty short guys. But you're both strong. Keith's strong. Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker: Yeah. yeah We had it had to have this thing over our heads to get up the stairs because it's a tight winding stair with ah with railing. and we you know It's a perfect example of sacrificing your body because it just takes like one weird movement.

Speaker: Next thing you know, your back or your shoulder messed up. And it it happens like in a split second. And down a hallway, 90 degree turn into a room where the wall is, you know, like, ah like there's a wall on both sides right inside the door. So it had to like go up really high and down low on the other and get it in at an angle.

Speaker: i mean, those, those days just kick your ass. Yeah. There's nothing fun about installing, you know, the only, the only thing worse than installing is having to drive into New York city and install. Yeah.

Speaker: you know then Then it's like you got two stresses. It's like, okay, well, three stresses. the the The potential traffic on your way in, probably not going to be able to get a parking spot, probably going to get a ticket. And then figuring out how going to get this thing in the place and install I remember I didn't install furniture, but I installed artwork.

Speaker: And a lot of the pieces were heavy. And I would often be installing on French cleats. And then I'd be like, holy cow, what's behind this wall? you know Plaster. Plath and plaster in New York.

Speaker: And you're dealing with really um wealthy customers. And ah most of them were always very nice. But you're off also sometimes having to entertain the customer while you're doing the work. So you're trying to act as if it's like so everything second nature and smooth as can be.

Speaker: At the same time, you're like measuring and like freaking out a little bit and like, is this going to work? Yeah. We know that. Yeah. Yeah. The install yesterday in North Bergen, I've been to that building so many times now that that's like a breeze. You know, I know I can park in this one area in the yellow and I'm not going to get a ticket or get towed because it's the buildings, you know, and, and the, uh, you know, the guy at the service entrance recognized me now. yeah He's like, Oh, you got, you're done for the, you know, and done with this project. Yeah. I got some cards.

Speaker: So, i you know, I got to start bringing him coffee or something and really get in. more Yeah. Well, it's amazing. That comfort level can just kind of set your mind at ease and like you can enjoy the drive to to the job. Yeah. Until you have that experience, you're sort of stressing the whole way. Okay, where am I going to park? How's it going to be getting into the building? Yeah. familiar um Familiarity is comfort, you know? Yeah.

Speaker: like I'm just saying no familiarity is a tough one for me. I said it wrong and I can't say it right. Even like going out to the Hamptons, we knew what to expect. So, all right, we'd leave at 345. We knew there'd be traffic here. and you know so But you could park.

Speaker: Yeah. The first time is a nightmare. And then you're like, okay, at least knowing what to expect is comforting. I don't know if I told you this one, but ah shortly after the first time,

Speaker: attack on the World Trade Centers back in maybe... Was it 93? Yeah, 93 or something like that. i I did a job for a building right next to World Trade Center for a security, they called it a security kiosk.

Speaker: So I had a phone in it, a TV, a camera, and all this sort of stuff. And it turned out to be like a really large, heavy project that took three trucks to get in there with the base. And it was a total nightmare.

Speaker: No, no, two trucks, two trucks and four guys. And um it was the whole time. was just so stressful. And we got in major traffic on the Holland Tunnel on the way in.

Speaker: And then and that was leaving at like five o'clock in the morning or maybe even earlier. And then when we got out of the place, this is funny. We got out of the place and the four of us went to a bar and one of the guys was pretty lit and we're driving and I didn't drink because I was like, I'm ah just not going to drink andtrive and drive.

Speaker: And we're driving home and I see them driving and they're driving like maniacs, like listening to like heavy metal music. And I'm just like, I just can't wait till this day is over. And yeah and everybody's set. And, you know, I've already been paid, so I didn't have to worry about that.

Speaker: But it was like ah one of those. And also down in downtown Manhattan where the yeah the streets are almost like eight feet wide. Yeah. It's crazy. They're not built for today's vehicles. no. I'm ah bidding a job right now in a co-op in Midtown.

Speaker: I got to make some drawings and stuff. It's very early in the thing, but she's like, have you ever done work in a co-op? She's like, you know, i'm going to have to send drawings. and but I'm like, haven't worked in a co-op, but definitely dealt with jobs where we did that stuff for Grand Central Terminal or Grand Central grand central Station, and they needed like a ton of information and drawings. Are you going to have to do the install then too and everything?

Speaker: It's sort of like ah it's just like a bookcase that kind of sits on like a step. Okay. So it should be pretty simple. But yeah, you know, I just got to charge it. All that fire rating and stuff like that. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker: I'm always blown away i Tim over at True Trade because not only is – Those doors. He's so talented. Brooklyn every time. But then, yeah, so not only does he make these amazing doors – But then he has to yet he has to drive in there, find a place to park, and then do these installs on these old buildings.

Speaker: Sometimes he does that by himself. I know. It's amazing. and It looks like he's got a few people in the shop done now. Yeah, i think he's got two guys right now. um He's using that Williams and Hussey all the time. Oh, yeah.

Speaker: Like, it's funny. I tried contacting Williams and Hussey and they're just like a no-go, but they would be a great sponsor for a shop tour at Tim's place. Yeah. i know that I know that he uses Gleam a lot. So maybe... maybe um Total Boat. Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker: Yeah, that'd be cool. We're going to go to, you ever heard a Como CNC? No. so It's an American made CNC. um They used to be in Grand Rapids, but now they're in Lakewood.

Speaker: Really? think they've been there for a while. We got ah the green light to do a tour over there. They're going to let me know. I don't know if I told you this, but I, so I got on a call with um Lara and i want to say Mike is the production manager.

Speaker: She's the marketing manager. um They don't have a woodworking machine to demo right now, but in the next like week or two, they will. So I said, yeah, i said there's no rush. I said, let me know when you have one ready to go. and And like the vice president wants to be there. we' do a i said, it'd be best if we had like someone to show us around. We can mic them up, mic me up. and then Yeah, that's the whole thing. Two people on mic.

Speaker: It gets beyond that. yeah It gets to be a mess. This is funny. I shot a video with um Michael Malpass Jr. So Michael Malpass is a sculptor passed away, I think, in 1991.

Speaker: um But I've been friends with the family for years And they had a they have an exhibition that's going on right now at Monmouth College. that was cool. Oh, thank you. Yeah, the guy's so talented.

Speaker: It's a shame that you couldn't interview Michael Malpass because he seemed like a really cool dude. Super, super cool guy. You could tell, very down-to-earth guy. So um I went to the exhibition to...

Speaker: mic up Michael Jr., you know, his son, and the curator of the the show. So I thought that I would follow them around and they would have a conversation.

Speaker: And so right away, followed them and I mic'd them both up. And there was another person there as well who just sort of wanted to be in it.

Speaker: But I said, well, maybe if you stand super close together, that'll work. So we walk into the place. we start talking ah They start talking about the first sculpture. And Michael starts talking about the sculpture.

Speaker: And the other two kind of peel off and start having a conversation. and i said And I'm wow wearinging a my so i'm like, well, you guys can't do that because because you're on mic. It's no different like when somebody goes to the bathroom that's mic'd up. Right.

Speaker: ah So, so, so we tried one more time and then I said, you know, why don't I just mic up myself and I'll interview. And it was was way, way better.

Speaker: It's so funny, but you got to kind of get to that thing. Like it's like Jeff's going to be great on camera. yeah And if they get somebody where they can have ah an intelligent conversation with you, it'll be a great video.

Speaker: But getting past that initial like, okay, we don't need everybody on the microphone and in this video. Yeah. Not everybody can do it. It just seems like it's easy. Too many cooks in the kitchen. Yeah, absolutely.

Speaker: Especially on video because people are peeling off. They're walking off camera and you're like, holy shit. Taking a phone call. Yeah. No, it should be cool. Maybe we can convince them to send one over to ah today's Craftsman Central. There you go. That'd be great.

Speaker: Yeah. Well, I think that'd be the door opener. They're expensive machines. We'll see. I mean, you got to create a relationship. so That's what i mean. That's how we get started. you you know Because maybe we start with this one video, then maybe they do a project for you in their house.

Speaker: Then maybe they say, okay, you know what? You've got the space. You've got the on-screen talent. let's just give you a machine. Yeah. Because they're, um you know, people in the industry know Como, but you know, there's not the brand recognition like there is for um Anderson or CR on Shrude shop saber or anything like that. Any of these domestically produced CNC's um Como isn't in the, the mind of, of just sort of layman. Where are they in price range compared to those ones you just mentioned?

Speaker: I haven't found like exact pricing, but they're they're probably in the same range as like an Anderson, probably 140. It sounds to me like they would really need the exposure.

Speaker: Yeah. I wonder um like the parts, even though there're they're made here, I wonder how many parts. It's a lot of imported parts from what I understand. Yeah, yeah and probably be affected. yeah Oh, yeah.

Speaker: Yeah, with the tariffs and everything. yeah everything's going to be. I've been getting emails. Yeah. um Eggers did send an email and they said, you know, we've invested heavily in the US, so we're not, you know, they're doing all that production in North Carolina now. So that's good.

Speaker: um You know, Tafisa comes from Canada. Columbia Forest Products is in North Carolina, thankfully. All the Haefela stuff is imported from Europe. Oh, yeah. apparently I don't think there's any European tariffs yet.

Speaker: Uh, so we'll see. Well, mean, a lot of stuff is made in China, even like the, you know, the legs that we use on the cabinets from Hayflot made in China, sure black legs. Yeah. Yeah. The, all the led lighting is made in China. Um, so we'll see, you know, I have that escalation clause. That's it's a COVID relic, but I've kept it there. It says more anything, any increase more than 10%, you will be the bearer of the expense. Like, you know, so that's all you can do. Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker: Yeah, if I bid something now and you come to me in six months, well, the prices have changed. I'm sorry. My son, ah Jack, bought a bike, not a bike, a boat a couple of years ago.

Speaker: And he bought a new motor when he did it. think he's thinking about selling it. I don't know. He might change his mind when the nice little weather gets here. But I wonder if that'll make it easier for him sell that motor. because when the tariffs come, because those motors might be more expensive and his is relatively new.

Speaker: Yeah, maybe. Might be easier. I don't know. Yeah. Like my lease is up in a couple of months and my wife's car, I think we only have two or three payments on it and then we own it.

Speaker: Yeah. So we're interested in maybe going and getting something else. And, You know, we've had that Volkswagen relationship going for like 20 years. And the guy said they're looking at maybe as much as $10,000 increase on the I heard that like the super duty Ford, uh, because all those parts, a lot of those parts go back and forth between Canada and the U S a bunch of times. So like we'll do part of the production in Canada. It'll come here. Something else happened to it. It'll go back.

Speaker: So imagine that thing gets taxed 25, 35%, six times, or even twice. If they said $20,000 additional costs. people do People can't buy, you know, what's interesting to me is,

Speaker: the Ford Lightnings, like, ah are anybody gonna, is anybody gonna those things? they i think they're having a hard time selling them right now. they They were. So when I, I leased my truck, so I'm only on the first year.

Speaker: It's just about coming up the first year. And when I walked the lot with the guy, we just walked past lightning after lightning after lightning. And he said, you don't want one of those. And I said, you're right. I don't.

Speaker: I mean, it's full electric, the lightning. Yeah. But my, my issue is I can't, I can't have an electric car for the only car. if If it was a second car that I was just going to kind of cruise around in or, you know, not go more than a hundred miles.

Speaker: ah Fine. But, i I just don't have that. You know, I need a car that I can drive 400 miles and not worry about it. You know, how long does it take to like, if let's say you had to drive to Florida and you had to stop say twice to charge. Like how long does it take to charge?

Speaker: It depends. Like a half hour, nine hour. That's the thing. I think it depends on the charger and it also depends on where they are. So you have to really plot out your course. Yeah. You know, what are you going to do? it's like or a lot of people, what they do is they, uh,

Speaker: put a hitch and they have a trailer with a yeah diesel generator on it. I'm kidding. it's I'm kidding. You could just hook it up while you're driving and then you just never lose charge.

Speaker: I was looking at infrastructure for it. Yeah. Yeah. There's, there used to be some funny videos where you'd see the electric ah charging stations with a big diesel generator, like right next to it. Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker: yeah I was looking at Rivian. Oh, okay. Those are nice. So ah we've talked about it before. My wife was in an act. you know She got hit and totaled her car back in October. And we just we haven't gotten anything else because it was like, well, we'll just wait and see what happens and figure out.

Speaker: So I've been driving the van and I've been driving my truck again since she um had her shoulder surgery. But so it's getting to the point where she's going to be back at work and she's going to need a car. So, you know, either she's going to keep driving the truck and I'll get something or vice versa.

Speaker: So I was looking at, I'm just like poking around first. It was like the mini truck that I was looking at. And then ah Steve Pellegrino actually ended up passing away. I didn't tell you. yeah um He was in a car accident couple weeks ago and he was in a coma for a week and he ended up passing away. But that's really sad. Yeah. I mean, young man. 34. It got me thinking. I'm like, these mini trucks are not really like, what was he driving?

Speaker: ah You know, he drove that Ford F-150. It was like a 90s F-150. But I think he had like another vehicle, ah a ah ah car. I'm not sure which, but, you know, where he lives is, you know, like on the Delaware River. Every road is super windy. It's like a ravine off the side, every literally everywhere.

Speaker: Um, but those mini trucks are not like rated to get in an accident. You know, if you're in an accident, if I crash into somebody or somebody crashed into me on 36, like it's not going to be good. So I was like, you know what? i was like, this is a bad idea.

Speaker: Um, so I'm not sure what I'm going to do, but I was looking at the Rivians because I only drive 50 miles a week and we have the Tacoma. They're great vehicles. I think. Yeah. I've heard great things about them.

Speaker: And the Polestar. Yeah, yeah. The Rivians start at like $71. Yeah, so that that's the downside. yeah But I mean, I heard they're really good, but they are expensive. And they're like 500 horsepower or something for the base model.

Speaker: That's wild. Yeah. Well, that's what all the Amazon trucks are made of by Rivian. vans, yeah. Those are cool. Yeah, but they're all made by Rivian. Yeah, yeah. So that's they've it's not like they're... um and It's not like they don't know what they're doing. Yeah. I mean, I see a lot of them out there. I do now too. A friend of mine was telling me how good they are. And it's like anything, like once he sort of pointed that out, now I sort of see them. Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker: I, uh, I saw when they had all those, uh, floods from Helene and in North Carolina, one of them got like picked up and like swept down this town. It was like all full of mud and like, and it was totally fine. Yeah.

Speaker: Like a guy just was able to just like clean it off and it was good to go. I mean, you could get away with riding an electric bicycle work, weather permitting. Oh, yeah. ah It's just not ideal. No. no No, but you could you could definitely do that because you have the work van. Yeah.

Speaker: You could sort of be like, you know what? If you wanted to take a break from like, I don't want a car payment right now or it's not the right time. Because you have the work van, you could be like, okay, today I'm going to take the bike.

Speaker: And then you could be like, yeah at work you could be like, okay, the weather doesn't look good tomorrow. I'll just take work at home. um yeah You know what I mean? vice versa. and you might enjoy that because it's not really that far from you on a bike like mine.

Speaker: It would probably take you 30 minutes to get here, maybe 20, 25 minutes? i could I could ride here on my bike in probably about 35 minutes. So I think on my bike, you'd probably do it in 25 minutes. Yeah.

Speaker: That's still, that's 10 precious minutes. No, it took me eight minutes to get here. i I agree with you, but in the summertime, you might. So when I worked, I was a kid at the time too.

Speaker: ah I worked, I think, 13 or 16 miles from where I lived. And I used to ride my bike to work and I started start at work, I think at eight o'clock. So I'd leave it like whatever, five or seven or whatever.

Speaker: ah But I didn't have anything to think about. You know, I just, rode my bike to the cabinet shop and then I would ride my bike home. ah But the only thing now is the ride that you would take, you would be on a bike path 90% of the time.

Speaker: The ride that I was doing back then was on the road, where you're dealing with traffic and today with distracted drivers, I would not ride a bike on the road. No, no, no, I don't even like getting to the trail.

Speaker: Well, that's my, the most dangerous part of my ride is when I cross, um, I forget the name of that road. Locust Point. Locust Point Road. Yeah. That is a really dangerous road.

Speaker: And you have to just be very offensive, you know, like just like, okay, there it is. Well, you know, cause you used to be a cyclist. Oh yeah. i was a bike messenger. Yeah. So, you know, you gotta, you can't worry about it. You gotta just take advantage of it. It's almost like being a running back. Yeah. You gotta take advantage of every little hole. And like you, when I was young, I didn't have a car and I used to live like underneath the Brooklyn bridge.

Speaker: If you know Brooklyn, And I worked at the other end of Brooklyn over by past the Varzano Bridge. So I used to ride to work. was about 11 or 12 miles every day wow through the streets.

Speaker: You know, rain, shine, winter, summer. It's amazing, isn't it, that you did that? It is. It's another thing like getting old. Those circles around. it like it's not a thought in your head when you're in your 20s.

Speaker: It's like you just do it. and Do what you got to do. Yeah. um But, yeah, i would I wouldn't even get on a motorcycle nowadays. Not around here. I would love to get a motorcycle. And I wouldn't get, like, a street bike. I would get some kind of ah an enduro.

Speaker: but Yeah, like ah like a GS, a BMW GS. Yeah, something like that. Or a KTM makes a really nice bike. Oh, KTM's are awesome. I like them. The Dukes. Yeah, the KTM Dukes.

Speaker: That series. I think once you get, like, 15 minutes west of Route 35, you start to get into, like, a nicer area. And then ah the the roads open up. But still.

Speaker: People are distracted. i i know a guy who lives out in Pennsylvania. And he's a Harley driver. So he's riding his bike in Pennsylvania on a two-lane road. The other guy coming this way, wasn't paying attention, head-on collision. Killed him? Jeez.

Speaker: Didn't kill him, but almost. Oh, my God. I mean, he's you know he's totally messed up. Well, that's the thing. like You get totally messed up when you're 50. You don't bounce back from it. No. Yeah, and he's just like, you know, taking his ah bike out for a ride as a hobby. It's like, yeah you this hobby thing that you did, now your life has been totally upended, you know?

Speaker: We were at Monteith Lumber about two or three weeks ago, and Dimitri, one of the guys who works there, he's got – I think it's – should I forget the name of the Ducati. Ducati. Yeah. It's like Ducati, like one of those upright kind of – I didn't know they made bikes like that. Oh, yeah.

Speaker: And he commutes an hour and a half, right? I thought he said two hours. Yeah, almost two hours. He comes from ah um East Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania. Holy crap. Why would he – Why would he choose that as a job? i mean, you're talking a four hours.

Speaker: He's riding that motorcycle in the wintertime. Yeah, and that that's not a good ride, like riding those highways and stuff. That's not enjoyable at all. 287 to the parkway or something? It's totally insane. Yeah, that means that's not a – there's no joy in that riding. Monteith must be paying well.

Speaker: Right. I would, um if we ever moved back, if we ever moved to Vermont or get a second house there or build something on the land that I have there, I would get one of those bikes that we were talking about.

Speaker: When um maybe about 10 years ago, my brother Jim's a big ah motorcycle rider and he has a Husqvarna and KTM. And he came to the house in Vermont when we had it.

Speaker: And I didn't have a motorcycle license. I just went and got a permit because then you could ride with somebody. And we mapped out these like 60 and 70 mile rides, it like loops.

Speaker: And i would say 80% of the rides would be on dirt roads. So class three roads and then class four roads and class four roads were like things that fire road. kind Yeah. Like fire road, like really like hardcore, like enduro riding, like mo not motocross. Cause it wasn't like jumps and everything.

Speaker: But you could not ride to pay attention. You could not ride a car on these. Like, you know, you could take a four-wheeler on them. But it was really – was like riding in Harchorn Woods, you know, little paths.

Speaker: But it was great because only occasionally you'd be on a like a Route 12 or something where you'd have to maintain 55. And maintaining 55 on like a knobby tire was like, holy cow. phil you know you'd be like You'd be in the you know fifth or sixth gear, or whatever the bike was.

Speaker: And then if you had somebody behind you, you really felt the pressure. Oh, yeah I can imagine. Yeah, because I owned a couple of bikes when I was living in California. And i had, of course, the big triumph.

Speaker: But I also had a couple of six fifty s which were Enduros and like riding on the highway on those, it's just, you're just full war on. Yeah. it's just, you're just, and there's no like, there's no safety factor. Like on a, on a fast bike, you know, you can maneuver and, you know, pull yourself out or maybe a dangerous situation and things like that. But you don't have that flexibility on a bike that's tapped out like a 650.

Speaker: Absolutely. What do you think guys want to hear some more? um Oh, questions. Yeah. We got one here from ah Mike at Broken Lead Woodworks.

Speaker: He said, this stinks for sure. One of my favorite pods I listen to every week. Got to do what you got to do. One thing I enjoy about the pod is the feeling I am sitting in the room around the table engaged in the conversation.

Speaker: I normally listen when I'm in my shop working. It helps pass the time and keeps me focused. I also find myself responding to the conversation in my ear. Yeah. Thanks for the time, fellas. Luckily, pods don't go away so I can go back and listen to previous episodes. All the best.

Speaker: That was very, very nice. Yeah, they'll definitely stay up. You know, I'm always amazed at how nice people are. Like he like that comment right there, the comments in the video the YouTube videos.

Speaker: I mean, people really are nice. Yeah, oh yeah. Yeah, you know, you always ah you remember the worst of people. You can't and you can't respond to them because for some reason that sticks in your craw. It's no different than a comedian going out and having a great show and getting heckled once over a you know, a three year period. He's going to remember that, that guy who heckled them.

Speaker: It just sort of stands out. It's no different. Like I'll get a comment. i'm like, And then I'll find myself thinking I'm going to respond to it. Sometimes I'll start typing and then I just delete it. And I'm like, I'm not going to respond to that. I usually start typing that what I really want to say. And then I just respond with like this facetious, like really nice response, you know, which is clearly passive aggressive.

Speaker: It's like, well, there you go. Jeff's great with the comments. He is. He is. Thanks for the constructive criticism. Tune in next week for a new episode. Yeah. Uh, we've got one from Keith who didn't follow the instructions. Cause I sent this in a, in a group of people and I said, do in all caps, please do not respond in this thread. Cause I didn't want, know, I didn't want to blow up everybody's phones.

Speaker: Uh, he said the American woodworking history episodes are phenomenal, but Rob telling his stories and the Amazon review saga were always fun. I'm sure I'm missing some stuff too. I'm excited. Rob is coming in and tell him hello.

Speaker: Uh, yeah. Keith is a good, good man. And his dog. Oh, yeah. Dr. Watson. We got Rob DeMarco here. Jeff, I'm definitely going to miss the podcast. The Beer of the Week reviews were great between you and Rob and listening to Rob talk about his motorcycle ride across the country and all the interesting people he has met.

Speaker: ah He has met over the years. Tell him I said hello and I hope he's doing well. This is a fitting way to end the podcast with the three of you guys. I'm honored to have been on with you guys and to call all three of you friends. ah His episode was great. yeah Rob's episode was awesome.

Speaker: He's a really, really nice guy. he's yeah He's like one of those just unique people that yeah this' is just they don't make people like him very often.

Speaker: Absolutely. Yeah, he stopped by with his wife a couple weeks ago. um You never met his wife, right? No, I just dropped her off. You would like her. Yeah, she's really nice. Yeah, she's a piece of work.

Speaker: I mean, he remember when he helped me with the doors out, the garage doors? Oh, yeah. Yeah. Picked them up and we went out there. he He's just that kind of guy. It's like, yeah, Rob, i I need help. I'm like 700 miles away. Okay. Give me directions.

Speaker: You know, that that's him. He came and helped with the salt boxes for two days. Like drove out here two hours. Yeah. Yeah. He's amazing. Yeah. Yeah. Um, and i I only got one more here. It's from Andrew Hatch.

Speaker: I really enjoyed the deep dive into the history of furniture. It was what really set you guys apart for me. That's why I really started listening. I always enjoyed the show. I love the idea of dissecting all those episodes and coming up with little books. I think it's, yeah I think it's,

Speaker: an enjoyable project. And I think, uh, it's a very doable project, you know, at least for two or three of the different styles, you know, some things we probably wouldn't want to touch, but other things I could see being very,

Speaker: very um enjoyable. And I think people would really like them. And it's something we could talk about on, on live videos and yeah cross promote on the channels, whatever. Yeah. Like, you know, Shaker, mid-century modern. yeah ah there's I mean, there's 12 periods. I can't remember them all. You know, the, the colonial, you know, that, and Victorian, those are probably not really great candidates. um Early American, maybe some early American kind of stuff.

Speaker: Isn't that, isn't that kind of what Norm used to make? o Yeah, I guess so. I mean, he was heavily influenced by the Shakers. Yeah. i mean, everybody yeah starts out like Shaker, Craftsman. Yeah. I think. Oh, yeah. Craftsman is a good one. Maybe that's what.

Speaker: Art Deco. See, Art Deco, I kind of not love an Art Deco. No. Maybe I need to look at it a little more. Maybe you can make like a little compilation one with all like those and more like all those crazy Rococo and Baroque. The Art Nouveau stuff. Yeah, there's a lot of like really interesting well things that are just tidbits.

Speaker: I think the fun thing about the project, too, is to go back. like i'm going to look I'm going to enjoy going back and listening to those episodes and getting inspired to make something. Because I listened to a lot of them, but I didn't listen to all of them.

Speaker: And it's so easy to go back into the podcast and do a search. and And that' that's often what you need when you're creating content is like ah just an idea, just something to start riffing on.

Speaker: Otherwise, you can dry up There's no reason to dry up, but you get so close to yourself that you just be like, okay, I don't know what else. you know But then somebody outside you can be like, oh, no, you should do that.

Speaker: And that's kind of the experience I'm having right now just with talking about the old episodes. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, there's like a minimum of 48 hours of podcasts there because it was four hours for each of the 12. It was at at least an hour. Yeah, so yeah.

Speaker: And I think on my um outlines, I have all the links. who Nice. So I'll send it to you you could like pull up the pictures and stuff like that that I was referring to.

Speaker: yeah I like that. I like that idea a lot. see if I have um anything here.

Speaker: um

Speaker: It's nice reminiscing. It is. oh yeah. Life goes by so fast. It does. It's like it's 2025, John. I can't believe it's Friday. it was just It was just Monday. yeah Yeah. You know what I mean? like but I don't even know what day is a day anymore. you know I don't have that like super routine.

Speaker: So it's hard. Like the weekend and the weekday, there's blurs now. Yeah. i took Well, the weird thing is you would think that that would – You and I would be recognizing that because we're older.

Speaker: But my son, Michael, who's only 23, he's always like, time is just going by so fast. Yeah. No, he's a young dude. Like that didn't exist when we were young. I don't remember being like, like affected by time and how fast it goes by when I was in my early twenties. I don't remember having that.

Speaker: Not a stress, but just like, Holy cow. It's, you know, another, and another season has gone by. like it's all Is it spring now? Is winter over? Almost. Daylight saving is yeah Sunday. Oh my gosh. next week it's going to go into the 60s. Yeah, I know. Next week's going nice. That's going to get me out into into the yard, do some yard work. I'm looking forward to that.

Speaker: Yeah. It makes one of us. yeah Yeah. Exactly. For me, it's a mental, like, the idea, like, of going out and putting in two hours of work and then actually being like, okay, that got done.

Speaker: And so my yard's pretty big. You can let it overwhelm you. If like, you could either be like, I'm not going to get anything done, so I'm not going to do anything. Or you can say, here's this, you know, hundred by hundred foot area.

Speaker: I'm going to take care of that area. And then you move on to the next area. And for me, it almost becomes like therapeutic to tackle that and be like, okay, that's done. ah It was a good way to spend time. um I wasn't like looking at my phone. I wasn't, you know, I just wasn't wasting time or something. yeah But you could also look at it like,

Speaker: Well, that was a waste of time because it's just going to be shitty in another couple of weeks. And why am I bothering anyway? And once I'm dead and gone, now everything's going to be changed. So there's two ways to look at it. You can either say, okay, I'm going to enjoy this time, be outside.

Speaker: And that's the other thing, being outside. i love i love that part. Yeah, yeah. It's nice. I got a bunch of brush that I guess brush pickups should be pretty soon, right? Yeah. I'm going to have a big fire.

Speaker: I'm going to, I think it does come up. I never know when it's coming. And so. You don't get the postcard? I just don't pay attention. And it's like the zones. It's like, don't know what zone in. Yeah.

Speaker: it Zones a B, C, and K. Yeah, yeah. like Let me go online and look at the map. I'm always amazed at how much how much and how fast you material you can get rid of with a fire yeah with a good hot fire you could just feed that fire and like literally in two hours a brush pile is as big as this room you could get rid of oh yeah we burned up all the all the scraps from the first laser a thousand thousand of those things like in a half of a day yeah it just goes away and i just like ash dug a shallow hole in the gravel in the driveway was just burning them

Speaker: Yeah, it's, um I mean, I've never been, I've never had any issues like with having an outdoor fire, but it seems like a lot of people have outdoor fire pits these days. yeah So what I do is I don't do things that are stupid. So like we had that real dry spell. I would never have a fire.

Speaker: I have a fire after it rains. Sometimes i'll have a fire during the rain. Um, During the winter months, my neighbor can sort of see where my fire pit is.

Speaker: And so I don't, she's older, so I don't want her to freak out. So I'll i'll be like, you know what? I'll wait till the leaves are on the trees. Yeah. Just because I don't need her being like, oh my God, the forest is on fire and then the cops come over. ah My feeling is if you're sort of smart, the other thing too is,

Speaker: seems better to have fires at night because then you're just dealing with the light of the fire and not the smoke. Yeah. Because you get, you know, you throw something and like a lot of a pine brush or something in there You're going to get a lot of smoke and that might throw out some concern.

Speaker: That thick, super thick smoke. Yeah. I, um, when it was leaf cleanup time, it was like the day before they were coming and I had to get all the leaves out from behind the shed and stuff. And so I blew them out. I have a gate on the side where the highway is. So I blew him out there.

Speaker: And then I started pulling up all the brush that was underneath of it at, you know, at the same time and after. So I had this big brush pile and I have a solo stove and I was burning it, but you know, you have to break them into such small pieces to get them in there.

Speaker: and don't really have a spot where I could just like burn this stuff. So I'll probably end up dragging it out to the. Yeah, I understand that. It's, The whole purpose of the fire is there's something fun about burning stuff.

Speaker: And I'm just always amazed at how much material that you can get rid of. Behind the barn, right now it's lawned. But years ago, that was all brush. And I think I have a video of me and Michael and Walter cleaning that up. And I think it's like three three months of work and three minutes or something like that.

Speaker: And we just sort of cleaned everything up. And I remember we were getting all this brush. And well I was thinking we were going to bring it out to the curb. And I said to Michael, and he was a little guy at the time, maybe 10 or something. said, let's just burn this.

Speaker: And then we just burnt this gigantic fire. Next thing you know, the thing's gone. While it was burning, I'm like, oh, man, I hope nobody shows up here. But it was only like for about a half hour to 45 minutes where the fire looked like kind of scary to somebody else.

Speaker: But once it kind of burnt down, it was fine to go. Yeah. My neighbor's a psycho, like a like a literal psycho. So I try and yeah not. Make waves. Yeah.

Speaker: That's the thing. Like you with neighbors, it's sort of like the best neighbors are the ones that you sort of know what they look like, but you don't really know them. Mm-hmm. I only know her. I've never talked to her, you know, but she like likes to call the cops on like she the other neighbor. You know, the dog is barking and, you know, she has these episodes where she freaks out and there's yelling and like, holy shit.

Speaker: Yeah. When I was in college in Arizona, we go out into the desert because there was a lot more space back then. I believe it. And we would, you know, and you get beer and you build these massive fires that were, you know, 20 feet high.

Speaker: And you like throw your beer bottle in the fire and it would melt. That's how hot it would get. We had a fire ripping at maker camp the whole time. yeah We didn't even go down to the to the main fire. I brought the solo stove and we set up camp outside of the room.

Speaker: Yeah, that was good. You guys did have a good fire and you had plenty of wood for it. Oh, yeah. Yeah. So I brought, I forget, two or three pails and Viz brought a couple. How's Viz doing? Good. Yeah. How's his job? He's got second kid now. Oh, wow. Yeah.

Speaker: We're going to do a shop tour there. Yeah. Because i was talking to him a little bit on Instagram. He goes, I'm totally ready. And he is like his shop, like with that time saver. And he's got some of these big old tools.

Speaker: Yeah. That'll be fun to mic up to both of you guys. He's got like three guys working for him now, I think. Wow. Yeah. He's got a big job. I think i think he's... ordered a bunch of veneer from geo veneer. hope he did. yeah He said he was going to, unless he maybe found another place. I was on their website this morning.

Speaker: Geo veneer. Yeah. I'm bidding some work um for a new, new designer and ah was looking at some white oak. Okay. Riffs on. Yeah. That's what I was figuring. I was looking at that two ply that they have rather than paperbacked.

Speaker: um You know, it's funny. I just got a comment on one of my ah veneering videos. that said, it was a guy, I forget. he he doesn't live in the country. forget where he lives. Hungary. I'm hungry.

Speaker: Anyway, he goes, well, I live in Hungary, but I worked in a cabinet shop for a little more than a year. We did a lot of veneer with contact cement, no problems where I'm at now. They don't have paperback.

Speaker: So the glue can go through the the ah thing. So my feeling is I might stick with paperback, yeah you know? Um, What's interesting about veneer, like expansion and contraction is such a real thing, and people do not pay attention to it. Like that's why I'm not trying to beat a dead horse with this these epoxy projects, but I honestly believe they will all fail because wood expands and contracts, and mostly it contracts. And I have an interest interesting story. It ages, yeah. ah um

Speaker: About three years ago, Jimmy DiResta made this knife that he had made in China, I think, with the the name DiResta, his logo on it. And it was a project for Maker's Mob ah where they sent a lot of us in Maker's Mob these knives and we would make a video about it.

Speaker: So I made a half rosewood, half ah epoxy handle so you could see the DiResta name. Fast forward three years, when I shaped that knife, everything is plain. Everything is exact same.

Speaker: The handle is you know is ah shaped on the on the belt sander. you know totally Everything is smooth. Fast forward three years, where the epoxy is, it's a slight, slight bump up.

Speaker: Right. So if you put calipers on it, you would know you would see a difference and you can feel it. Now, it didn't crack or anything, but we're talking a tiny scale. We're talking of really tiny scale. so half the side of the blade is probably only an inch, a half of an inch of rosewood.

Speaker: like It's probably half inch on each side. So that's only a half inch by one inch of epoxy. So what happened is the rosewood contracted just a little bit. Right? So magnify that on these gigantic – and you're not even talking about – A five-gallon epoxy board. And you're talking about live edge and these cookies. and So I just – I don't know what got me on the ah the whole thing. Oh, I know. Veneer.

Speaker: I'm of the mind that Baltic birch plywood – moves more than regular ply. And the reason for that is I've built a few veneer projects with Baltic birch, and then I filled the the screw holes with Bondo.

Speaker: And on those projects, I can sometimes see the fasteners. So my opinion is the Baltic birch over time has contracted just a little bit. The Bondo did not. yeah And so you can see that little bump in a certain light.

Speaker: Other pieces that I've built in regular, like poplar core, what would that be? Like seven cores, seven veneers? Like apple ply, where it's, yeah, multi-ply. but No, whatever. Like a regular? Yeah, like a Garnica.

Speaker: Yeah, it's like seven or nine. Yeah, usually five or seven. Something like that. I've never had the telegraphing on regular plywood. So anyway, that's something to consider when you're doing any veneer work. So even if you were- I would use Glacier Green.

Speaker: What is Glacier Green? The hd the ah HDF. Okay, that makes sense. you know so So to fasten the parts together, what are you going to use?

Speaker: Dominoes? You could use confirmat screws. You could use yeah whatever you want. You could use confirmat screws. That wouldd be good. I mean, that stuff is so flat and so stable. That's the big thing is it's stable. does it work on a span?

Speaker: ah Just as good as plywood, if not better. So like a 40 foot, a 40 inch span isn't going to get a sag. Oh, I think any material is going to get a sag. And guess you're right.

Speaker: So why? mean, I know what you're talking about, even with hardwood. Like when I was first, like figuring out how to make some stuff, I would peg the breadboard ends and through the years, because, you know, the grain direction on the pegs is,

Speaker: more stable, the pegs sort of look like they come out little bit because everything condenses and peg stays the same. They probably use a quarter saw, which changes in the thickness direction. Yeah.

Speaker: Well, that's the, so that's the whole thing. Like wood moves. That's like the number one rule with woodworking. And that rule is a hundred percent ignored by all these epoxy projects.

Speaker: I got to think, I got to think every one of these slab river tables is a failure. And aside from that, they're just ugly. Well, wait. I did see one I liked. So Chris from Third Coast Craftsman.

Speaker: so Okay. He posted a video of a river river table. ah He had he had um had some wood sawn, and it had bullets in it. And so it had all these lead marks in it. was pretty cool.

Speaker: So in the center, he put a piece of steel. And so that's not a river table in my, it is a river table, but it's not an epoxy river table. And it actually looks really cool because the the steel is cut into where the sapwood is. So you have like the sapwood of the walnut, then the dark heartwood. Does the steel undulate or just like a two piece? Okay, cool. It undulates. You know, the original river table was glass. I know that, yeah. And those look a lot better than the epoxy. The worst is the blue swirl.

Speaker: Yeah. The blue swirl is just, I think they're all going to you know fail at the time that you would be embarrassed to have it in your house stylistically. And so they're just going to all go out to the dump. So 10 years ago? Yeah. 100% think they fail from an aesthetic point of view. But I think within the first 18 months in a climate-controlled environment of someone's home, they're failing.

Speaker: They're going to get hairline cracks. The epoxy is going to be at a different level than the wood. It's just going to change. and i And nobody with any authority in that world is talking about that because epoxy is extremely expensive and they're probably getting paid a lot of money to make these epoxy pour tables. Yeah.

Speaker: Yeah. I mean...

Speaker: Just to spend $500 on some goop that you're going to pour between these two just seems crazy. yeah Yeah. agree 100%. And there's something about making something that you know is just ultimately a waste of time yeah and space and material. Resources, yeah. And that's going to end up just taking up more space somewhere down. Because you can't burn that.

Speaker: No. No. And yeah, I mean, you're goingnna it's going to get chopped up and thrown away. Yeah. Yeah, nuts. there and And I think a lot of those videos are really good. Like Cam, I think, makes really good videos.

Speaker: ah The guy from Blacktail, I mean, he's a very talented video creator. And I think he's also a really talented craftsman. um But I don't, I'm just saying those those those tables will not last the test of time. Yeah.

Speaker: So like you take a ah George and Nakashima table, somebody's going want that. Oh, yeah. Like that bench, and I'm not patting myself on the back. somebody one day will want that bench that I made. And if they don't, you can burn that.

Speaker: You mean like there's not going to be 13 periods of American furniture somewhere down the line? We're going to get into epoxy furniture today.

Speaker: The dark age of furniture. Yeah, that's right. Came right after the Palletwood era. Yeah.

Speaker: uh yeah we talked about it when i think when walter was on you know we got deep into like the whole like live it you know like i can appreciate live edge i love what george nakashima did but you also have to have a space that it can accept that kind of furniture that i couldn't put that in my house i agree i mean for me furniture above all else has to look elegant you know kind of light um and i think george nakashima had achieved that in some pieces. And I think some pieces he did not achieve that. Yeah. And he didn't always do live edge work.

Speaker: No. Um, so I think that it's a very, um think it's a very unsophisticated taste that leans towards live edge. Yeah.

Speaker: You know, there's a place for imposing pieces of furniture for sure. Yeah. There is a place for heavy, you know, things that when you walk into the room, that is the, that's setting the tone for the room, but you need to have a big open expansive room.

Speaker: Otherwise, you know, imagine having that in, in just a regular old, a living room that's this size or smaller. You can't do it It's going to dominate everything. But if you have this big house where there's 20 foot ceilings and it's all white and it's just on a, you know, up against the wall right there, you can get away with it. But, but even then, like, let's say like the most beautiful, like all white refreshing type of dining room with great views and everything.

Speaker: I wouldn't go towards a live edge table. I would go for some kind of heavy cantilever. Um, but I, I don't really enjoy the live edge that much. I don't really, uh, I like sort of just sleek and clean. Yeah. I like a subtle live edge. I don't want it to have a whole lot of that. And like when there's like a crotch on one end, that's crazy.

Speaker: Yeah. Oh yeah. it's I mean, we'll see. I, I, um, a big challenge for me is, is coming up with something that I actually really want to make.

Speaker: And I think like, um, Once you find something that think, okay, that's actually aesthetically going to work, that's that's a good thing. ah Because then you're putting all this time into it. And like I'll say that a lot of people end up buying the woodworking plans on on my website because they're generally simple projects for two reasons.

Speaker: One, I'm trying to keep the projects more simple to have a larger audience. And two, I don't really want to make anything that complicated. I don't want to. I don't want to make a hard project and my aesthetic goes towards simplicity, but I'll often say to people who are just getting into woodworking that a decent design often comes down to an eighth or a quarter of an inch.

Speaker: And, you know, if you're, if you're not really that comfortable or not that aware of woodworking yet, that's why I offer these plants. And there's a lot of people who do offer plans for,

Speaker: on the internet, but a lot of it is sort of like shop furniture kind of stuff. Miter saw station. Yeah. Miter saw station, ah Adirondack chair. Sorry, Rob.

Speaker: um But that is a beautiful Adirondack. But you what I mean? Just like they're not really pieces of furniture. It's no Paul Jackman Adirondack chair. That's right. Fucking jerk off. Oh, no.

Speaker: We just crossed the line. We're not getting invited to that party. Actually, i have nothing against him. it's It's somebody else I got a bone to pick with. Well, the funny thing is I used to do some work with Arbitech, and i like I like their stuff, but I ah used a saber tooth.

Speaker: grinding wheel to do some power carving, man, I like that because it's you can control it. Oh, yeah. Where the Arbor Tech. Looks like a like a weapon. It's a little scary. It's a little scary because like it can run on you.

Speaker: Yeah. Right? Because it can really take out a big bite of material and then want to run run at you. Where with the saber tooth, it's just like like a big rasp.

Speaker: And it's sharp as can be. yeah And i just I just did a little dishing out of a piece that I made. And it made short work of it. And the nice thing is it doesn't take off too much at one time. So you don't end up with like a big belly. yeah And then you can switch over to like 60-grit sanding pad or 80-grit. And you know you're always in control.

Speaker: I did that whole drippy cherry countertop with saber tooth burrs, a lot of it in like a ah right angle die grinder. Nice. I was putting the burrs in there. or And I used some um like carbide burrs that you would use in a die grinder also.

Speaker: Those left like a really clean. So I would get in with the saber tooth disc and do the bulk of it and then put in one of those carbide burrs. And then it was like, you know, you're getting like shavings.

Speaker: how did it hold up How did it hold its edge? Did it stay sharp? Oh, yeah. i didn't have anything. Nothing got dull on me. Oh, nice. Yeah. So I was using, Keith lent me all the Sabertooth stuff and ah and grinders, everything, a Fordham.

Speaker: I used the Fordham a little bit, but I found that the pneumatic die grinder worked really well. Oh, so you plugged it into your air truck. Okay. think There's something about that sound, too. it's just like a lot of fun.

Speaker: wait Yeah, I agree with that. but What's Keith up to now? I mean, he was always doing something different. He's moving upstate. <unk> He sold his house. I think he's going to buy a motorcycle.

Speaker: Yeah. i Maybe I shouldn't have said that. His wife is listening. I don't know if he's allowed to. I think he used to have a bike. Yeah. Yeah. I think he might still. or yeah Maybe he sold a Honda. Okay. Right? Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker: We were telling him yesterday, he's got his GTI, which has a motor issue, and he's got his truck. ah that it's like a Chevy 2500 that's got like issues with everything else. We said, take the LS1, put it in the GTI.

Speaker: So maybe that'll be his new project. Is the truck the thing with the lift gate? Yeah. Wow. That's a big, heavy truck. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, so he's moving up like out sort of maker camp region, 23 acres, I think.

Speaker: Wow. Yeah. I'm a little jealous because, I mean, that just sounds really nice. really like Like, I can't move because I've got my kids here. Yeah. um But if I didn't have kids here, would totally go somewhere. What, do you know the name of the town?

Speaker: No. But he's close to maker camp. Yeah, I think it's pretty close. You went to the milk run, right? Yeah. I think it's like right around the block from the milk run. Oh, it's in that direct area. Yeah, yeah.

Speaker: I think he said it's like like ah a couple of miles from Jimmy's graveyard house or something. Oh, Yeah. Yeah. So cal nice area, a lot of space, 23 acres. yeah The house is nice too. Keith always, you know, he always referred to his house in Jackson as the the Blackthorn compound, but now he's really got the Blackthorn compound.

Speaker: Knowing Keith, he'd probably put up a big fence with barbed wire, but maybe some guard towers. And his wife's okay moving up there. Yeah, I guess so. Yeah, I would love to be up in the country.

Speaker: it you know I have mixed feelings about it. It's like culturally, I'm not sure i could fit in. And also, i have to admit that I'm really ah um you know a product of the city that I grew up and always lived in because I like conveniences for stuff. Sure, i agree with that. And I can be a little you know snooty about the quality of products I want, you know like groceries and

Speaker: Things like that. do you go to the beach? No. Because we're close to the beach. Yeah. It's amazing how, like, when we first moved here, because I used i used to think of down the shore, yeah like the whole, like, ah Point Pleasant Bayhead area or Seaside Heights area.

Speaker: When we first moved here and we didn't have kids yet, we would still go down to Bayhead, Point Pleasant, And then eventually I realized like like the beach is right here. Yeah. My wife goes often.

Speaker: That's nice. Even just to Port Monmouth, you know. Port Monmouth is great. So my kids are beach kids from living around here. Like all three of them and even my – well, all four of them, I should say. my I don't count my daughter in sometimes. That's not nice.

Speaker: Well, she's eight years younger than the youngest boy, so it's a little different. And the other thing too is I didn't worry about my three boys going to the beach. My daughter and her friends and their tiny little bikinis. I'm like, holy cow. It's so funny. Dad, can you come pick me and my friends up?

Speaker: I go there in my truck and like six girls in bikinis come off the beach and throw all this crap in the back of my truck and then get into the thing. and like, this is insane. But it's better. That's better than them all getting into one of their girlfriend's cars once they get their license. That's going to freak me out because...

Speaker: they are They are just like – can you imagine driving around with with six 16-year-old girls? yeah and they always have the music going. oh god It's insane.

Speaker: Oh, yeah. sounds sorry Sounds a little torturous. It is torturous. I just sort of put the blinders on, and I'm just kind of like, okay. you know It's like, holy cow.

Speaker: ah Yeah, i don't I made it to the beach like twice this past summer. I was like, going to go to the beach this the summer. you know, things always come up. It rains or, you know, if you don't get going at the right time, and you might as well just not go.

Speaker: That's the thing. Like if we don't if we don't head to the beach on the weekend before 9 o'clock, really before 830, no way. You're not going to be able to park in Seabright. You're not going to want to go to Sandy Hook.

Speaker: Yeah, you're lucky if Sandy Hook isn't closed by that point. Yeah, Sandy Hook probably closed. So I can ride my bike to the beach, but my wife can't ride because I ride through the woods to get there. And the roads from my house ah to go to the beach, there's a few sketchy roads.

Speaker: So there's a chance maybe I'll get another electric bike that my wife can fit on, and then I would put the bikes in the truck, drive them to Atlantic Highlands, park there, and then you could take the bike path.

Speaker: And then you're only going through Highlands, which is a nice ride. It's not too too busy. That's a nice little stretch, too. That is nice. It's got those like wooden... They replaced them with concrete because the wooden ones got taken out from Hurricane Sandy. I used to love riding all that wooden stuff.

Speaker: There's something about... Those are like three-inch thick. Yeah. Almost like railroad ties. Yeah, almost like railroad ties. They're all built bolted down into the into the framing. Yeah, that was cool. That was a cool little stretch.

Speaker: you So you still have those little bridges, but now they're made of concrete. ah But it's not bad. Yeah. That area is always kind of wet. Yeah. Because all the water is running down the... There's a spring back there, too. Yeah.

Speaker: We just did that ride. My son Michael and I ah did a ride last week, and we came home along the water. but so Is that the Sandy Hook Bay or the Raritan Bay? What do you call that? That's... I guess it's the Raritan Bay. Yeah. Okay.

Speaker: We live in a really nice area. Oh, yeah. i I say I'd love to move out into the country. um But at the same time, it's a pretty nice area. It's ah it's a nice mix here. you know Yeah. Like to get out away from people, it doesn't take that long. Like you said, you go out to Colts Neck or something like that. You know you can get out into the – and we have a ton of nice parks.

Speaker: Yeah. We really do. the parks are The park system is amazing over there. Middletown, I mean, has i don't know how many parks. I think 70. Wow. Yeah, because I was just reading something like in the Middletown. Middletown Minutes. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker: Because theyre the mayor always talking about all this green preservation because, you know, there's the uproar over all the buildings. So he's always going to counter it. The building seems out of control. It is out of control.

Speaker: Because you have all these all these buildings now, and the roads are just getting more more. There's no infrastructure to support it. And the schools. Yeah. It's like all these new people going to the schools. Like, I don't know how.

Speaker: Like, you saw everything going up on Route 35. Yeah. and And you know what's crazy? Yeah. those Those, is it Toll Brother ah the end of Kings Highway? Yep. Those things are like $800,000 for a small townhouse without a lot of amenity. Without nothing.

Speaker: Yeah. I mean, I just can't. $800,000. And then you're not even talking about the HOA fees. No, no. It's, um you know, because they're all people coming from New York where they're selling their house for a million and a half. True. Yeah.

Speaker: That they bought for 40. Yep. yeah and They just cleared all those trees by you. I wonder what they're going to Across the highway. Yeah. By the commuter lot. Yeah. and don't know what's going on there. Well, you know, they made that the the pizza banks now like that. Veterans auto repair. Yeah, it's open now. Yeah. um i I was hoping that they would spruce it up like a little bit. know. Like it's just the grass. It's still like they could do like gravel. Pave the the front of it And the Rite Aid is still a open. You know, what's going to go there? i wonder what's going to go there.

Speaker: I don't know. What was it? Spirit of Halloween tried to go in, which is just a temporary thing anyway, but yeah it was wasn't zoned for something like that. I can't stand those places. yeah Spirit of Halloween, those things just get me depressed. It's so funny.

Speaker: Olivia and I walked into a ah Michaels or something. No, it might have been, I don't know, one of these arts and crafts places. Joanne Fabrics or something. Something like that. And it was um was maybe like...

Speaker: August or October. And there was a Santa Claus up. oh hobby lobby It was Hobby Lobby. was It was Hobby Lobby. And I just sort of turned away. And my what my daughter goes, what's wrong?

Speaker: I said, I just had this immediate wave of depression. And she just laughs at that because she knows I just can't stand that stuff. Yeah. Yeah. Like Lowe's and Home Depot are big on like the preseason. Pushing the holidays, pushing time too fast. And that's the other thing, not to be a Scrooge, but i the I like being around people, but I just hate all the pomp and circumstance that the holidays bring. It's just like,

Speaker: Yeah. I want to hang out with you and and have a drink or whatever, but I don't want to buy gifts and I don't want any gifts. That's for damn sure. So, you know, and the holidays lose their allure when it gets stretched from Halloween yeah until the end of December. It's crazy.

Speaker: Well, I'm sure, I'm sure Easter stuff has got to be out in these stores. yeah. It's been in the supermarkets for at least two weeks. Yeah. That's rough. Yeah. Yeah. Um, but,

Speaker: Getting back to this being a nice area, you know, like the wife and I, we talk about like, where are we going to go? Like, you know, she's retired. I'm retirement age. Now, see, my wife said, see, I would go.

Speaker: i have land up in Randolph, Vermont. I would go to Randolph. Now, some people say, oh, Randolph, that's not the prettiest town in... Vermont. I don't agree with that. It's a real town.

Speaker: You have like a little stretch. You have a hardware store. You have a lumber yard. You have a supermarket. You have a sense of community. What's the weather like? It's cold. It's Vermont. See, that's the thing. You know, what about North Carolina?

Speaker: Yeah, it's too many people from up here down there. And then the people who are like originally from down there, I'm afraid that culturally I don't fit in. Like,

Speaker: what about What about going all the way, and going to Florida? o Yeah, Florida is another one. See, that's the thing. Going south, I i run into cultural issues. And I don't really want to move to someplace that's super hot and humid. I understand that. That's a tough to make.

Speaker: Going north, I'm not sure um you know, i mean, I consider it because it's, you know i can get the quality of life I want more easily up north. You just have to deal with shorter summers and longer winters.

Speaker: What would you do for a hobby? What do you enjoy to do? i you know, recently my hobby has been recording music on the computer and I've really gotten into that um as, you know, technology advances.

Speaker: So like I'm able to write the music and for any instrument and have the computer play it. Wow. So let's say I want to write ah a horn part and for a trumpet.

Speaker: I just write the music. So you're writing the length of the note, the note itself, the attack on the note. So everything, all the little nuances that a player would you know put into it, and then the computer plays it.

Speaker: And the more you know about the instruments, the more you know that you know, the human element is that every note's not the same, you know, even though it's, if you're playing a C and you play another c they're going to sound a little bit different because you're not going to have the same breath. You're not going to have all the same attack on it.

Speaker: So as I've, uh, you know, learn more about it. Now I can create this whole ensemble that really sounds human. And, um,

Speaker: So you can do that anywhere. Yeah. Yeah. So I've gotten into that. um And it's interesting. It's keeping me occupied. And I i read a lot now that I i didn't have time for.

Speaker: um so really, you can stay where you are. i can. It's just...

Speaker: The quality of life in Middletown for me has decreased. Well, so I'm going to interrupt and say my issue with where we live is community. There's not real There isn't one. So I look at this this town of Randolph and I watch the bicycle clubs and I watch this club and and I'm envious.

Speaker: Right, yeah. Because it's financial separation. because it's not about it's not a financial separation It's just people with interest interests. Around here, it's like the golf club, the beach club.

Speaker: this It's like shit that I don't care about. But like if I could be part of the mountain biking club where a lot of the time you spend is trail maintenance, who I would love that.

Speaker: i mean, get out get out and just cut trees and maintain a trail for – four or five hours and have a beer with the people that you're doing it. That's what I want to do.

Speaker: When I lived in California, i was part of the Sierra club. And that's one of the things we used to do. See around here. It's like, it's more like the ladies that lunch clubs. yeah And I'm not into start your own club.

Speaker: They're the guys that lunch. And it's not the mountain biking club. Well, they, they do have, so I, I shouldn't, I'm not bad mouthing it. So I have, i have friends who are mountain bikers. Like I know all the guys at the Highlander bicycle shop.

Speaker: But the only place to ride is the one area that we ride. And that's really maintained by the park system. yeah So if you get out, and and that's a relative, like I can cover every one of those trails in about an hour.

Speaker: If you get into, you know, upstate New York, Vermont, you're talking really going major distances. yeah And you're always going to have tree falls that always need to be cleaned up.

Speaker: And that's what I like to do. get out. do some hard physical work with some but some like-minded people, and then sit back and have a beer and ride those trails.

Speaker: And, you know, I could play golf, but I don't want to play golf at like a country club. Up in Vermont, they have these little golf courses that only cost maybe 16 bucks for nine holes.

Speaker: Right. It's not cost prohibitive. It's not cost prohibitive and it's not the club crowd. um Yeah, there is a a bit of classism. in our area. I believe there really is.

Speaker: um And I think that there is a certain amount of um antagonism or something, almost prejudice from the top down towards the service industries yeah and and the people who are, you know, working them.

Speaker: I was saying that Jeff, I don't know if it was on the podcast or I think we were talking with Rob DeMarco. My grandfather worked for Pan Am, and this is going back 60 years whatever it was. I think my grandfather died in the 90s.

Speaker: Anyway, he worked for Pan Am, so a regular job. He was a purchaser. He had a house in Rutherford, not a big house, but he had a house in Rutherford, and he had a little shore house. How can you do that today?

Speaker: Oh, you can. So he's a regular. um My point is he's a regular person, and he had the time use them, and his wife didn't work. Now everybody works.

Speaker: I lived through that. I mean, I had an apartment and worked at 7-Eleven. You're right. I was an independent. Bought a new car. Your first car was a new Yeah, my first car was a new Datsun pickup truck.

Speaker: Paid my own insurance. I mean, I was totally independent. It's amazing. Working for $2.65 hour. okay So if you're in your 20s, you don't have that opportunity. if you're I mean, you don't it's gone.

Speaker: It's gone. The people in my age bracket and a little bit older robbed that from the youth of this country. Yeah, the people at the top of all these companies used to make, say, four or five times more than the people at the bottom, and now they make 200 times more, 1,000 times more.

Speaker: Now, is that because of NAFTA? uh i'm sure that's that's definitely part of it because a lot of these uh mid-level jobs were shipped off elsewhere like skilled manufacturing jobs um but it's also just absolute greed yeah it's greedflation i mean it's a new word yeah well that's the downfall of the world i believe i mean it's a constant push for resources ignoring the people who live in these areas you know like

Speaker: It's happening. Every country that is not a dominant country is basically getting pilfered by United States or China.

Speaker: They're just getting the resources. I mean, ah the only reason why, let's not get into this. I think I know you're going. Yeah. It's modern day colonialism, you know? yeah It really is. Well, you know,

Speaker: there's We don't have to fly your flag. You don't have to fly our flag here, but we're going to take it forever. We're going to take it. There's a book I read years ago called Leopold's Ghost. And it was basically as the as the motor vehicle was invented, ah Leopold went into the Congo And basically it was all about rubber.

Speaker: It was all just getting all the the rubber and what they did to the indigenous people to get this. It's just unconscionable, like just not. They probably made them good Christians.

Speaker: that Right. There you go. No, they like if you didn't, the way you would, the way you would harvest rubber is you would cut the tree, the sap would bleed out and then you would take the sap and rub and put the sap on your body.

Speaker: And so you would just be in this tree, putting sap on your body all day long. And then as you put it on, it's kind of like, in my mind, it's sort of analogous to rubber cement glue. As it dries, you can then peel it off like that, meaning it wouldn't have the toxic smell. would be more like a sap.

Speaker: And so you would pull this sap off, and then you would hand it to whoever the foreman of the job was back then. And then if you didn't create enough, you p could potentially get killed or have your hand cut off.

Speaker: You know Like there was all kinds of crazy shit. I mean, it's still going on now. So what's going on right now with the cobalt mines, it's crazy. Just chocolate. And, you know, if you really look into it, it's like child labor, slave labor, um where like they'll take, you know chocolate, vanilla, some of these things that come from that part of the world, they'll take,

Speaker: control the company will take control of the indigenous people's plants and destroy them. So the only place you can do get it is, you know, through the company.

Speaker: and it And the indigenous people don't, they can no longer live the way they used to live because the land is no longer the same. Yes. Or it's been compromised and yeah reulture you know re um recultivated.

Speaker: So you look at it and you can be like, There is no hope. I almost feel hopeless. Humanity is pretty cruel. Yeah, it really is. It really is. That's that's one of my struggles right now is to not be so affected.

Speaker: Like i have to limit my intake of information um because it it so affects me. And you can't do anything about it no matter what. Right.

Speaker: And that's, you know, sort of what they tell me is like, you know, you have to focus on things that you can control. um and But I also feel obligated to be aware of what's happening because so you know silence is part of the problem.

Speaker: So you need to be able to speak you know with some you know educated voice and authoritative voice ah to if somebody...

Speaker: you know, says something to you that you can say, no, this is actually, yeah this is actually it here. And you know, the the most messed up thing about it is there is more than enough to go around for everybody.

Speaker: Yes. But it's just concentrated in the hands of such a few number of people who then exploit everybody but beneath. um And it really doesn't have, you know, it doesn't have to be that way. It doesn't have to be that way. And in the end, it doesn't really matter.

Speaker: So I don't know. Yeah. So, But you can you can get hopeless about things and be like, have what does any of it mean? You know what I mean? um But that's why you kind of have to focus on what what makes you happy.

Speaker: Yeah, it's it's a difficult task. Like the where I go, you know, ah every week. It's now something that is a a widespread problem for everybody that I come in contact with because it's pervasive. And you know if you're fragile in any way, it just makes it worse.

Speaker: And on the flip side, some people have become too hardened where, you know, it's just like you put up this hard shell and and you lose all empathy and pity and all these things that are good human traits. You can't swing too far in either direction. you've got to ride that line between understanding what's happening to people, but also not, you know, it's like, it's crazy. You're a hundred percent right. You know, you can't,

Speaker: You can't block it out and become immune to it, you know, because that's a danger too. Yeah. ah Boy, we took him but but a sober time there, didn't we? See, it shows you how pervasive these things are.

Speaker: Well, we live in really crazy times. I think, you know, who knows when the best time to be alive is. ah But I do think the period between like 19...

Speaker: 70 and 1990 seemed pretty nice. Yeah. I think my youth era, you know, I was born 62. Growing up in the seventy s was a pretty, you know, if i look back, yeah you know, you had the freedoms. had total freedom, no excessive worries, plenty of opportunity.

Speaker: You know, the idea was if you graduated high school, you went to college or you got a job and you essentially, That was time to move out of the house. sure There was nobody that was 18 and lived at home.

Speaker: but Now you can't do it. Now you have to have three roommates. yeah um like my My two younger sons are just banking money. they're just like yeah you know They're just stuffing money away so they can eventually hopefully buy something or buy something together or rent something.

Speaker: ah Jack lives with two roommates. Yeah. But yeah, it's very, very difficult for young people. I feel terrible for the young generation. This new Sackman building on car, $3,000 a month.

Speaker: Holy shit. Two bedrooms, I think. $3,000 a month. In Keensburg. Yeah. You know, granted, it's a new building. It's probably, i mean, it didn't look like luxury, but it looked decent.

Speaker: How do you afford that? You can't. no That's almost twice my mortgage. I mean, we got real lucky. we have a good mortgage rate. We had a good time. I mean, we we paid $1,650 was what we paid for our last house, two-bedroom house.

Speaker: And this is a two-bedroom apartment, $3,000. Wow. Yeah, i don't know I don't know how this ship can be righted. You know what I mean i just just sort of You just sort of hold on and and help.

Speaker: you know like it It really is about family in my situation. it's like, okay, let's just... ah keep everybody, you know, let's get, let's support these, my my kids as much as I can.

Speaker: yes you know And helping, you know, just being, a ah you know, at least a positive influence in everybody that you come across live. You know, that's the whole thing. Like a smile is huge. A smile is an amazing thing. Like when someone smiles at you and you, if you, if you learn the power of a smile, I had to go to the DMV.

Speaker: And just, it's a rough place. And I saw this woman who was like shouting out the numbers and she shouted my number and I gave her a big smile. She just lit up like, you know, and she's like, Oh, right over here. You know, ah before that, she's just walking around with a scowl, you know, it's 1402.

Speaker: And so, i don't know. I heard, um ah heard on some interview ah recently about a smile and I sort of put that in the back of my mind said, okay, You don't stingy with your smiles. They're free.

Speaker: Yeah. And like, you know, we match other people's energy. So like if you are coming across as negative, they're going to come back to you as negative. Yeah. yeah I'll tell you what I i adopted.

Speaker: I do it every time when I get gas, because here in New Jersey, we're not allowed to pump. There's always a gas. I give the guy $2. Wow. $2 is nothing, right? $2 is not even a cup of I would have never thought to do that. And you try it. Wait you see the reaction.

Speaker: It's like, because it's not the $2. No, it's a gesture. It's the thought. Right. It's like, oh, man, I'm not just some invisible guy here putting the gas in your car. Try it. Wow.

Speaker: Try it. I usually just roll the window down and say, fill it regular. No, I'm kidding. I don't say that I always say, you know, hello, how you doing? Right. But the $2. Try giving them $2. You know, that's like $2 well spent.

Speaker: yeah Yeah. Definitely. So I keep always ones in my glove box. All right. So when I go, and like it's really bad weather out there and I have the available cash, I'll give them $5, you know, every once in a while. Yeah.

Speaker: So should you do that? When he gives you your card back? No, at the very end when he brings me the receipt. So you always ask for a receipt. Yeah, always for a receipt. And so he's going to walk away because nobody tips. yeah And I go, here you go. I like, oh, man, thank you.

Speaker: Holy cow. That's a good one. Yeah. had to get some cash. So it like probably lifts this guy up who's got this drudgery job for an at least an hour or something. And who knows? I mean, two bucks might make a real difference to somebody. Exactly. it's like It might be a cup of coffee, like if he's at the quick check or something like that.

Speaker: yeah and That's a good one just helps him feel... Not invisible. That's not a lot of money either. I mean, I probably fill my tank up once every two or three weeks. Right. so you'll You'll lose that much money in your cell phone.

Speaker: Oh, yeah. You can find that much change and go to the bank and get $2, $1 bills. Everybody should do it. Yeah. That's a good idea. I like that one. When your wife was here, it two days ago? We were talking. i was talking about like Donna, you know, how she's so nice. And like, so ah we went to, did I tell you the mirrors like sloughed off of the wall? yeah so ah because we so That's a nightmare phone call. They were sitting on that baseboard. I get, we pulled it off to put the frames and they ended up sloughing down the wall. so So we had to go and remove the things and blah, blah, blah.

Speaker: It was, ah you know, it was a day. But um she had said before we went up, she was like, you think you could cut me like some temporary countertops? Cause I never ended up getting stoned and blah, blah, blah.

Speaker: I said, yeah, don't worry about it. So I ended up making her oak tops, finishing them. You know, I'm like, I'm not going bring just like trash. And she was so appreciative. And it's like, you know, that, what did it take me? It was an hour out of my time that i didn't get paid for.

Speaker: Big deal. You know, I made this lady's day. It was, you know, and now she's got these nice tops on her thing. Like, A lot of people won't do nice things like that for people. and like, you know, it makes makes you feel good. Exactly. Well, the funny thing is you have to pay the bill. So you need money. But in the end, it's when somebody really appreciates the work that you did.

Speaker: That's what you remember. That's what you're looking for. Yeah. Because I've delivered very expensive pieces to people and you get the check, but they barely acknowledge the work that you did. And you just sort of like, and then you'll, and then some people You know, they may even write you an email. yeah I really appreciate the extra work.

Speaker: And that makes all the difference in the world. So like whenever I have anybody do any kind of work for me who does a good job, because sometimes they don't, and then I just end fixing what they did. yeah I'm always ah appreciative because that really makes the difference.

Speaker: And that is part of the human connection, really. Yeah, like the guy brings the water to the house, those bottles. We always leave $5. with the but um even If we're not home, we tape it to the empties.

Speaker: The post woman, we always give her something. i do the garbage thing. my My post person is always a different person. Yeah. Here it's been a different person a lot. like we always So I had somebody and then she disappeared and then somebody else would and then it got weird. So this year I didn't get the post person.

Speaker: My mailman sucks, so he's not getting anything. Yeah, we have a really nice mail lady. You know, when you have that relationship, then you know, and you would feel really guilty if you didn't do anything. But my garbage man actually put a like stuck an envelope to the top. And these are the guys who don't get out of it. Your G-man. Something like that. I think we got that envelope too. We probably the same guy. Yeah, so I gave him, I think, 20 bucks or something that. no, I saw that as an insult. Yeah. Because he, mean, when we stopped the truck and got out and put that on the thing, he doesn't have to get out to pick up the trash. My feeling, though, is sometimes I fill that candy.

Speaker: I'll use that can like it's a dumpster. I'll like put stuff in the driveway with the idea that I'm just going to cut it down with a circular saw. So Monday it goes out where I can barely pick that thing up or yeah barely roll it.

Speaker: And then then Thursday it's filled again. you know I'm treating it. But the arm on the truck picks it up. I know, but I'm just sort of like, eh. When we had two guys on the truck, I knew the guys. I'd run out there early in the morning when they came at like 5.30 to give them envelopes.

Speaker: Sure. yeah And you have to go early because that's when it is. Yeah. Yeah. Come running out you know in my bare feet. um Those are great days. Again, this is something that is automated.

Speaker: So that's what I noticed when I went to the DMV. I was like, holy cow. And it turned out I couldn't get what I was after anyway. I was trying to get a real idea. You know, it's funny you say that. I just got my paperwork together. I think you have to schedule. like I did. i guess i made an appointment.

Speaker: What I had was on my bank statements said Jonathan and my, my, uh, utility bill said John. Yeah. The names have to match. They turned it down and i was like, okay. I make that mistake a lot where I fill stuff out as Jeff.

Speaker: Yeah. And then. So I, I went there for two things. I had to renew my license. So I was able to get that done at least, but I was not able to get the real, I was trying to do both at the same time. Yeah.

Speaker: So I got the license renewed. So that's why I did have a little interaction with a woman who finally did call my name. But the idea, though, now is I do have to go. I have to make another appointment.

Speaker: I know. It's just sort of like the DMV. It's like the dystopian future. We just got another comment, and it's actually from Walter. ah I always enjoyed listening to Rob's life stories. I also really enjoyed the general format and hearing about the trials and tribulations of shop ownership and pulling off high-end custom work.

Speaker: Green Street Joinery and the American Craftsman podcast has been a very positive effect on my person and professional life. I will always look up to you guys when it comes to craftsmanship and small business. Cheers and be well.

Speaker: Thanks, Walter. he's You did a good job, John. He's a good young man. yeah Very impressed with him. All three of the, and my daughter too, she's doing great. All three of the boys are, they're good men. Yeah. So I'm really proud of That's a job in and of itself. And you, and I benefit indirectly from you being a good parent because he's a, he's a, you know, an addition to society and and a community that I live in.

Speaker: Oh, thank you. Yeah. i'm very proud of the boys. They're, they're good kids. They're good kids. And I, you I'm calling them kids, but they're men. Yeah. Yeah. It's crazy that men. They are men. They're big.

Speaker: Walter, especially. Walter, because now he's lifting weights. Holy cow, he is solid. And Michael is solid, too, but Walter is just a little bit bigger. The muscles you get when you're young, they're not the like when you're old. No.

Speaker: I have to work out so hard, and I just maintain. and i Well, I shouldn't say I work out. I do 20 minutes a day. ah But like if I was doing 20 minutes a day and 20 years old, I'd be like, oh, yeah. Well, you got plenty of 20 minutes to spare when you're in your 20s.

Speaker: We used to go, I mean, in high school, in the wintertime when it wasn't football season, we go and work out for two, three hours. like That's insane. I mean, that's just. You know, yeah there's a lot of socializing going on, too, but.

Speaker: um Yeah, I mean, I couldn't spare three hours now. i mean, think of it. Yeah. Now I'm doing like, see, ah so I'm doing my my planner.

Speaker: I've gotten heavily into Japanese stationary rub. This dude goes down so many rabbis. I know, I know. We just did like a 15 or 20 minute long video on pencils. hey like Oh man, I love that. So I have everything color coded, but I have like, you know i got stretch back. That's the first thing.

Speaker: And then three by 10 plank, three by 10 pushups. I'm just doing like little, because if I do 30 pushups, it's better than doing no pushups. And I 100% agree. You just got to write it down and just do it.

Speaker: I 100% agree. So my thing is 10 to 20 minutes every day. So today I didn't do anything because this I got here a little bit on the early side. um But usually 10 minutes, 20 minutes, bench press, whatever, flies, or stretching stretching and push-ups.

Speaker: And that just keeps me mobile. I took the biggest wipeout on my bike the other day. Holy cow, it's with my two sons. And I, um, so I crashed when I hit a, I call it a pedal strike.

Speaker: So your pedal hits a root or a rock. yeah So with, with a pedal assist mountain bike, you can get a little, um, greedy with the, cause you want to pedal through things. Cause that's keeping your momentum up.

Speaker: So there's areas where I should have the pedals flat, yeah but I don't want to do that downstroke. This thing put me off, off the trail, over the handlebars, landed like head and hands first.

Speaker: Broke my um shifter, but my ah my brake lever. Yeah, yeah. Had to ride home without a back brake. Anyway, you know, just knock on wood. I rolled out of it, kind of, you know, moved my arms, my my fingers and everything. And i was like, holy cow, I'm good.

Speaker: And i I attribute that to like just stretching and doing pushups on a regular basis. You just got to stick with it. Yeah. First thing I do now, and you know, it's not like I've been doing this for a long time, but I'm trying to you know, get it burned into my routine. But, you know, like, so in the morning I wake up, I pour my coffee and usually I would just like sit down on the couch.

Speaker: Now I put my coffee down and, and stretch my back. And it's amazing how bad it hurts to stretch my back ah right there. But then, you know, as I, and then I'll sit down and I'll, you know, I, yeah either looking at emails or reading the news or whatever.

Speaker: But then I'll continue to stretch throughout the morning. And it's like that first little bit of stretching hurts so bad. like It's stretching so much. And then I just get progressively looser and looser as the morning goes on. And by the time I get here, I'm all loosened up.

Speaker: I need to stretch more. Yeah, I think everybody does, especially at your age. When I try that like and just lay flat on my back. It hurts. Yeah, like you could feel like everything. is Yeah, like I can't sit on the floor and like, and ah like ah I don't know what you call it, like where you arch your back, where your chest is out and your ass is back, you know, where you get like, like i I'm slumped over. I can't physically like pull myself into that position sitting on the floor because I'm so tight.

Speaker: yeah I can't get over how how sort of vulnerable you are first thing in the morning because you're tight. So we lost power for maybe three days, a couple of weeks ago.

Speaker: And when we lose power, I'll give it a day or not. I'll give it like but if we lost power at like nine o'clock at night, I'm not going to start the generator up until the following day because then I'm just going to be turning it off.

Speaker: So the next day power didn't come back on. And so now I got to get the generator out of the garage. The garage is a two car wooden garage door. heavy So you have to, yeah, you have to lift it up, but you have to sort of unlock, you have to unhitch it from the thing.

Speaker: And so I went to press it up, but it reattached as it got like two, I got it up like two inches and then it dead it out. for and And this is at like six zero in the morning. Like I'm kind of like, like a collarba that must just like shatter it took, I had to like stop and kind of think about it I literally was thinking like, I'm to to come up with some kind of Jack mechanism as I get older to figure out how to open this door.

Speaker: But luckily I got the thing open. And then the, then the pull start on the, um, The generator, that's a whole other physical. I mean, I can't get over how difficult it is to pull start anything.

Speaker: Like trying to pull start my four-wheeler, after like six pulls, I'm like, holy cow. I'm like hurting now. The worst is when you pull it and it doesn't like really grab. Oh, yeah. You just like blow your shoulder out.

Speaker: Or it pulls back. Yeah. You know, it kind of does a recoil on you. So I think i think if we're if we stay in this house, you know, for any length, time going into the future, I'll get a um some kind of an electric start generator. My brother's got a Yamaha that he's got on a remote for camping. Oh, wow. And I was like, holy, not only does it supply a lot of power, it's so quiet.

Speaker: Wow. My generator is loud. I'm surprised they don't have ones that have like an ignition like a car, you know, where you just turn it. Yeah. Yeah. um I guess it would need a starter and a solenoid. he has that. No, he has both.

Speaker: He's, he's, you can press a button or you can do a remote start, but I know it has a remote start because when we would go camping, you know, he's got a big camper. It wasn't like in a tent or something. Uh, you know, one of these campers on wheels, uh, he'd be like, oh let me start the generator so we can. Not a pop-up camper like Deadwood.

Speaker: Yeah. Yeah. No, it was, um, it was like a nice thing, like a Winnebago or something like that. It was a real like a RV kind of. Yeah. This was an ah RV and it, so, on the back of the RV was this blue Yamaha generator.

Speaker: Oh yeah. Yeah. I've seen people driving around. I didn't know Yamaha made generators. They make nice, nice four cylinder motors. Oh yeah. That's like, you know, I mean, you get into like some more high end ones, but like Yamaha outboards, like that's the one you want to. That's what, that's what, uh, Jack bought for his, his, uh, thing.

Speaker: I think any of these Japanese, like Kawasaki, i have a Kawasaki four wheeler. can barely do anything to that. I mean, the battery's dead now, so I have to pull started. But that thing just goes, you know.

Speaker: Yeah, Honda, Toyota, cars. i mean, they'll just run. Toyota's having some issues with motors and stuff right now, but they'll just run forever. Well, we have the the Honda Civic and the Honda Pilot that Walter and Michael use, and we've had them forever.

Speaker: You know, we own those cars. We've owned them forever, and they just go. We get the oil changed, whatever. um Where – i not I wouldn't buy an American car. I'm not trying to knock it, but I just would not buy I wouldn't buy a Ford pickup truck.

Speaker: I'd lease one, but I wouldn't buy one. Yeah. I'm not too keen on buying anything. um I like to lease. Just give it back. Are you looking at another Volkswagen? I was looking at it because you know like i think that that small SUV thing because the truck's too expensive.

Speaker: It's not a Touareg, right? or is No. that Yeah. Tiguan. Tiguan. Yeah. But I was looking online and i it's like the interior looks so cheap. Like I have a driver on this nice car.

Speaker: That's a nice car when you're driving around now. It's nice. That's like my truck, you know, going from the Bighorn Ram to the Tacoma. It's like, right. did the They haven't changed the interior since 2001. So, you know, it's like,

Speaker: I mean, i I'm like you. I don't go anywhere. I don't drive anything. So it's like it is a pretty much of a big waste. You know, it's like, come off it. You know, I don't need this nice vehicle.

Speaker: ah Well, so we only have one car. My wife and I, we share my pickup truck. Okay. Well, we have the two other cars, but um we figured, you know, I work from home. My wife works from home.

Speaker: ah What do we need to have two cars for? It's just, I don't know. Just don't need it. It's worked out pretty well for us. Like my mother-in-law doesn't drive barely at all. She works from home and ah they live across the street. So like Allie's been, she got her sling off a couple of weeks ago. So she's been driving her mom's car.

Speaker: Yeah. Yeah. Well, see, that's a nice thing too, that, that Allie's mom lives across the street because you always have that support system. Oh yeah. That's the way it used to be for everybody. When you have kids, it's like, you know, it's just so nice to have somebody that you can trust to,

Speaker: To watch the kids in a pinch or whatever it is. Yeah, like Saturday, he went over, had a sleepover, you know. So we got a night, we got to watch a movie, hang out. What'd you watch?

Speaker: We watched The Gorge on, it's on Apple TV. Okay. That is with, um did you watch The Queen's Gambit? Oh, I like that. That was good. Did you see that? That's the chess thing? Yeah. No, I haven't seen that yet. Oh, you should watch that. That's good.

Speaker: So it was her. And then the guy is from, i want to say he's from ah like maybe a superhero movie. I forget his name. I'll look it up real quick. It was, ah so like the concept, I'll i'll read you the synopsis.

Speaker: What's this dude's name? there it is ah Miles Teller. He's from Whiplash. Oh, he's the kid from Whiplash, which I haven't seen. Oh, he was the drummer. Yeah. Top Gun, War Dogs, Divergent, The Gorge.

Speaker: So here's the synopsis. Whiplash was great. Yeah, I want to watch it because, you know, I like music. So um The Gorge is a 2025 American science fiction romantic film directed by Scott Derrickson written by Zach Dean. It stars Mike Teller, Anya,

Speaker: Okay. but ah Portrays two elite snipers who are ordered to guard, guard a deep gorge without knowing what lies inside. So this guy starts out, he's like, you know, obviously like a sort of washed up military, not washed up, but he's like a military guy living sort of in the middle of nowhere.

Speaker: It's a, it's a classic trope. but Then somebody comes and they're like, we got on a mission for you kind of thing. Yeah. And they take him to this misty gorge and there's like a tower on one side and a tower on the other side. And he's in the one and they're like, you're not supposed to talk to the person on the other side.

Speaker: I won't give away too much, but. Good show. you So a great concept, but it sort of fell flat. That's, that's the most disappointing movie to me or story where it's like,

Speaker: They got it and then they don't execute. Yeah. Like, you know, the thing, obviously there's something in this porch and they turned out to like, not be that cool. It was like, ah, man. I, I've gotten to this point where I'll watch a movie. Like I, my wife and I will watch movies or shows like every weekend. That's what we do. We'll watch something on Friday or Saturday night.

Speaker: I probably can't tell you like what I saw last week. I can tell you what I saw last night, but I can't get over that. Like I can't remember. What the hell I watched last week.

Speaker: Last night we watched a movie called um From the Vine. ah Sounds familiar. Yeah, this guy's living in Toronto. and I forget the name of the actor, but you will know him.

Speaker: Anyway, he moves back to Italy. There it is. It was a fun, feel-good movie. He's from The Sopranos. yeah Oh, Joe Palantonio. I like him. He's good. Pantoliano.

Speaker: switch a couple of those consonants around yeah that was kind of a fun feel-good movie i would recommend recommend that uh with a good story you know returning to his childhood home in italy an executive works with a few locals to try reinvigorate an old vineyard to produce wine you know movie i saw recently that i really enjoyed it was called le chef and it was kind of comedic and ah food oriented of course and it stars um the French guy, I think his name is Jean Reno. Okay. Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker: Um, it's let's see. Yeah. There he is on the left and it's a, it's a cute little story and set up and it's, it's well done. you know what you watched it on? What service?

Speaker: Uh, No. Okay. Amazon maybe? It's on Tubi. It's on Amazon Prime. Okay. The Chef? Le Chef. Le Chef. Or Comme un Chef. is I guess maybe that's the French.

Speaker: Is it dubbed? I can't. You can't remember if it's dubbed? I can't remember. I think it was. Daniel Cohen. That sounds familiar. The director of Molecular Gastronomy.

Speaker: Yeah, it was dubbed, yeah. My wife told me about The Gorge like maybe a week prior. She's like, oh, she's like we should watch this movie, The Gorge. And she told me about it. I was like excited. i was like, oh, that sounds pretty good. like Two snipers, this mysterious gorge. I'm like, that sounds cool. And then we watched it, and I was like, oh man.

Speaker: but so And it's like two hours long. Oh, my gosh. So you knew what was happening like in the first 15 minutes. and Then you're just watching it. Yeah. It's, you know, like you guys probably aren't going to watch it. So, ter you know. It's going to ruin it for everybody out there.

Speaker: Yeah. Go ahead. Spoiler alert. Yeah. So it's, you know, it's this good looking chick on the one side. So it's like the east and the west. So she's like some like Slavic woman. And he's an American dude.

Speaker: They're both good looking. Yeah. It's an American film. Everybody's gorgeous. Yeah. ah They have like this gratuitous shower scene of him. He's all ripped, you know, half naked.

Speaker: um And, you know, he he realized it's it's this woman and they're like start like holding up signs to each other. And like, you know, they have to use binoculars to see each other. It's like a quarter mile or something. And then like.

Speaker: Then they're just like standing there and they're holding up a sign. They're like laughing. It's like, you can't read that. You know, it's like these obvious plot, you know, uh, holes. She's a good actress though. I, I liked her in, um, Queen's Gambit, but I think she was also in the menu.

Speaker: I didn't see that. I heard that's good though. Now I know what it's about. That you should see yeah that you'll really enjoy that movie. That was good. That, the, that movie stands out as one that I've seen and that I totally would recommend.

Speaker: That is like a dark comedy, right? There's like a, yeah, it's definitely dark, but it's, I think Ralph Fiennes is in it. um That's a good movie. Definitely recommend that one. Yeah. I don't like, ah we talked about this before anything predictable. Like I want it to be, otherwise I'll just watch random crap, you know?

Speaker: Yeah. Well, my sort of telltale of the show is good. i don't touch my phone. The minute I start like saying, oh I wonder if I have any comments on this. Oh, what's going on there. Then I know that the movie's just, but I think I'm going to enjoy that show because I love, i love, uh, movies that take you on a location. That's why I like this one from the vine.

Speaker: who And, uh, like, I think we talked about it like doc Martin. Yeah. Yeah. I liked that because you are sort of traveling. Cornish coast. Yeah. It's just pretty to be somewhere. um But yeah, like a Marvel movie, I just could care about that.

Speaker: Yeah, I mean, they're just, it's like a ah recipe where they change two ingredients, you know? It's like, I've eaten this before, and I'm good. Yeah. And it's so, it's so um I don't know, I can't come up with a word for it, but it's it's almost offensive.

Speaker: that you're supposed to like this. Yeah. like We watched ah Pacific Rim, the second one. don't know if guys have seen those. i so I heard of the first one. I didn't even know there was a second one. kaiju. Godzilla is like a kaiju. It's like these monsters that come out of the ocean.

Speaker: So these things are like attacking the earth and they make these big robots to fight them where people are inside, like driving a robot kind of thing. And they turn into like these superheroes where there's different robots with different abilities and bla blah, blah, blah.

Speaker: So that the first one is basically that they saved the world by like nuking the crack in the ocean that they're coming out of. And then, so then the sequel, there's like peace for all this time. And then,

Speaker: um they're but they continue training because they're you know they don't know if these kaiju are going to come back and anyway i won't i won't get any deeper into what happens but um it was just you know it's just crap well the funny thing is but there's so much competition for eyeballs yeah you think like holy cow man i can't imagine the money that was spent on the production of some of these shows like Like you'll, you'll watch a show that's a period piece from like the sixties and you'd look at all the cars and it's just a total crap show. And you're like, man, the money and the time and the energy.

Speaker: And then that makes me feel really good about you and I, you and I just shooting a video for it. Yeah. we're like In 90 minutes. Yeah. Like 90 minutes, you know, we shoot it here. I, uh, edit it, upload it and it gets a lot of eyeballs. You're like, wow.

Speaker: Yeah, I mean, some of these movies and TV shows, $100 million. I know. Didn't the like the Lord of the Rings? was like a billion dollars by the time they were done making the movies. Wow.

Speaker: We put on The Hobbit, not the original Hobbit, which my wife didn't even know existed. The animated one? Yeah, because that's what I grew up watching. Yeah, same. Before any the Lord of the Rings movies. Like Worship Oh, jeez. I don't know what that is. With the Rabbits. With the Rabbits.

Speaker: another pretty cool animated that's more r age yeah that actually sounds familiar but uh we put that on and hunter he could care less yeah that's so funny i've i've tried to tell my kids like oh this is a good movie then it just they just don't hold up sometimes yeah you know what old movie i rewatch oh yeah i've seen this um death trap yeah That's a good one Michael Caine and Christopher Reeve okay That was a double feature with ah What was it? um

Speaker: I forget But it was like a double feature in the theaters Wow I like Michael Caine It's got a lot of twists And and it's pretty entertaining the the Kind of a fun thing to do is listening to Oh no no no I'm not i'm thinking of um something else listening to a, an actor, like an older actor or either one of their, um, autobiographies or on a podcast.

Speaker: And when they talk about their work, then go and rewatching. So I, I was listening to the, the, um, Steve Martin book recently. So now I'm like, I would like to see some of his movies again. the jar Yeah. The jerk, but just understanding some of the backstory. So he was saying that, um,

Speaker: not Rob Reiner, but what what's Rob Reiner's father's name? Carl. Carl Reiner. He was just talking about how Carl Reiner kept such a fun set, just like the whole time on the set.

Speaker: Everybody enjoyed it. There was a lot of back and forth because he was going from being standup and he he got to that point of being a standup comedian where it just became very lonely, especially as he got more and more famous because you don't, you didn't,

Speaker: you weren't traveling with other people and you were filling stadiums and then you couldn't really, you couldn't really ah talk with people. So then working in like an else and an ensemble, like a movie, just to like have lunch with people, compare ideas, writing.

Speaker: don't know. its It was, it was sort of analogous to some, you know, some anybody who works for themselves and then sometimes goes out and works with people. Yeah, I mean, I like anything where I can get like ah inside like music. Like that's why I like all those Rick Beato videos. It's like when you get to hear the context behind this piece of art that was created, even with artwork, like when we've talked about like, you know, different paintings and stuff.

Speaker: having that insight makes it so much more significant and you get a little bit of understanding. And, um, like, that's why I got so into Steely Dan is I first, I bought a set of speakers where I was buying speakers and they were like this album Asia by Steely Dan. And I knew who Steely Dan was, you know, Deacon blues on the radio growing up.

Speaker: And, uh, they were like, yeah, people use this album to test, you know, if speakers are any good. And i was like, Hmm. like What's this all about? And then I started listening to them and then I started watching some stuff about them and, and learning about all the, it you know, that it was these two guys and all these session players and stuff. And it's like, I appreciate it so much more knowing all that versus never having listened to them and hearing them on the radio, you know?

Speaker: Yeah, no, it's like, it's like a walk in the woods. If you can identify the trees by the bark or the leaves, you're going to probably enjoy it a little bit more. Yeah. And, and that's goes with everything movie. So,

Speaker: It's almost like right now I'm listening to an interview with Bill Murray and he was talking about artist and yeah he's he's um he's talking about Hunter S. Thompson and I guess he played him in a movie called Fear and Loathing, was it? No, that was Johnny Depp. It was Where the Buffalo Room. where the buffalo And so I haven't seen that movie. Now I'm like, okay, now want to go back.

Speaker: I was probably stoned out of my mind. So now I want to go back and watch it. Appropriately. The funny thing is, like my wife is like totally not into any kind of, like mar like even though marijuana is legal now and all that stuff.

Speaker: But we were talking. She's from Vermont. Come on. Yeah, I know. But she's like, forget it. um we were talking about the um there's a video where they matched up um dark side of the dark side of the moon with ah sort survive yeah yeah and i think man i could take a vacation and get stoned and watch that but i'm like um i'll never hear the end of so i'm like i'm just not gonna do it but it's it's so funny the idea like back then you know Yeah. Where the Buffalo Rome isn't, it didn't hit quite as hard as fear and loathing. wonder though, if you'll like it now or after listening to the interview. Yeah.

Speaker: You know, that's the whole thing you're getting like, okay. So what was happening is Hunter S. Thompson was staying in Bill Murray's guest house. And after shooting all day, he'd come home and hang out with Hunter S. Thompson and they drink until the sun started to come up. shivis And he would take a NyQuil and a,

Speaker: shot of a scotch and go to bed. And like 90 minutes later, teamsters would be at the door dragging a bill Murray off to go to work. So just to, to understand a little bit of the history and the backstories, it just goes back to like anything, whether you're looking at a painting, listening to a piece of music, the more you know about it. And that's why it's good to keep an open mind and be like, okay, I'm going to,

Speaker: and And that's a big problem. I think that's the big problem today. Everybody's opinions. People are too quick to share their opinions and their political opinions because I don't care. have definitely different opinions than other people.

Speaker: Who cares? Keep it to yourself. You know what i mean? Yeah. It's one thing when you're in a you know, if the three of us started, we could have a civil conversation and have a disagreement. Everybody has an opinion. But on social media, it's just your soapbox and you're screaming out yeah and someone can only scream back at you. That's the only other option. And so when I see the, when I see people, like I'm not going to start unfollowing anybody who's political because I find it kind of just takes me, I'm not there.

Speaker: I'm not watching you for your political ideology. yeah I'm there to see what you made ah or something like that. And so, um and I feel like it's an insult. Like somebody says something, i was like, wait, is that directed at me?

Speaker: You know, because you're directing at somebody. So I just find that whole thing. um So actually I'm on a total ban of news. I'm just, I don't watch any news.

Speaker: I'm trying to watch a lot more art videos, a lot more, um making videos, outdoor videos. And that that's the whole thing. like with That's why I'm listening to books.

Speaker: The only reason why I'm listening to this podcast ah now is because it's Bill Murray. And Bill Murray doesn't really get into politics. Does he talk about making Groundhog Day?

Speaker: i don't know. i'm only It's a Joe Rogan podcast. And it's only... I'm only like 30 minutes into it, but I haven't watched. I love that movie. groundhog day oh yeah Groundhog Day is a great movie. Yeah.

Speaker: It's yeah. I mean, Caddyshack. They're all good movies. I mean, it's become I mean, Groundhog Day didn't have the meaning until that movie, you know, where, you know, it's like you're just living the same day over and over again. I mean, that's like a real pop culture term now. Yeah.

Speaker: It's a good movie. He's good in it. Yeah. I like him in... What's the one where he's like the kind of like the grouchy neighbor and he takes care of the kid next door from the single mom? that was he was good in that, too. I enjoyed that movie.

Speaker: um Was it St. Vincent? Was that the name of it? I don't know. um I don't remember that one. I remember What About Bob. That's a good movie. I'm trying to remember what the thing was at the end, but there's like a little thing at the end You know, as far as like the story goes, that I think St. Vincent, 2014.

Speaker: It was pretty poignant. Okay. Oh, this is, ah what's her name? Megan McCarthy. From... Oh, Melissa McCarthy. Melissa McCarthy. Yeah.

Speaker: Bill Murray. Oh, Naomi Watts. have didn't recognize her from that.

Speaker: Hey, no.

Speaker: I like I just watched something with Naomi Watts. I can't remember what it was. Yeah, I got to find something this weekend to watch. I've been trying to, if not every Saturday, try and watch something with the wife, you know? Yeah. We were in a pretty good habit of it until the holidays, and it just got like, it's too much going on. At our house, it's like, oh, man, thank God the holidays are over. Oh, yeah.

Speaker: it's just too much going on. You know? Yeah. Yeah. I'm just recovering from all the eating. Oh yeah. Yeah. The wife said you're looking trim. Yeah. Well compared to yeah how I look before, you know, we, uh, a video that we put out a couple of weeks ago where we went to Monty's.

Speaker: I watch it, you know, usually I'm, I got my apron on and i'm behind the thing. i yeah I watch it. I'm like, Holy shit. I'm like, I'm fucking fat right now. Um, the holidays just wreak havoc. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker: The temptation is too much. Yeah, it's... I don't really have much willpower when it comes to that kind of stuff. Yeah. um I suppose most people don't, you know. Your wife was telling me about nick's ah Nick struggling with his weight. God. Yeah, you wait till you see him. He looks like a little pot-bellied pig. But he's obsessed.

Speaker: She said you have to open the croissants in the basement. Yeah, yeah. So, like, it's like i can... but he barely like make a little sound and I can hear him jump out of the bed.

Speaker: i was telling her, this guy is the same way. you know I could like cut an onion and she could she can't even eat it She can smell when I pierce the skin and i hear jump from the bed to yeah and run down the stairs. Yeah.

Speaker: The other night after work. So Andrea, she goes upstairs And I want to have some cheese and crackers. Sit on the couch and have like this cheese and crackers. He loves cheese.

Speaker: So I take it out of the Ziploc bag. I'm super quiet. I tiptoe into the TV. Turn on the TV. I sit down. um It's like five seconds a piece. I hear rule because he's 85 pounds. Yeah.

Speaker: And then he just stays sits there front me drooling. Oh, yeah. It's like, oh, yeah, yeah can you go yeah. And he won't go away. You know, I'll push him away and he'll just sit back a little further. He's a pit bull, right? Yeah, yeah.

Speaker: When I cook, it's like I got the little dog and the big dog on either side. it's I can't enjoy myself. And they follow you around. So if I go from the island to the stove to the fridge, you know, I'm tripping over them. Yeah.

Speaker: Yeah, so sometimes I'll just put it all away. you know It's like, go away, go upstairs, and then I'll try and like sneak out my food again. What's his name? Nick. Nick. That's a great name for a dog. i like I like dogs with like human names, yeah like Nick or Chuck or something like that.

Speaker: Rufus is our one. Rufus and Kaya. Wow. Yeah. I don't know where. I'm not sure where we got those names. But yeah, I eat string cheese at night, you know and they each get one string off of each.

Speaker: if I eat three, they're just getting three strings. Yeah. I can watch dog videos. like I get caught scrolling and I can get a dog video, especially those those videos where the ah the owner is saying, okay, who did this? And then the dog just sits there looking really guilty or pointing to the other dog.

Speaker: like They are so funny. Yeah, i'll I'll watch that like on Reddit or something like that. I like those videos kind of more uplifting. They make you smile.

Speaker: Definitely. Yeah, I get my feet is a lot of a lot of like dachshunds. so You know, you click on something one time. You got to be careful because you click on the wrong. You have to retrain the algorithm.

Speaker: I'm getting now like all these things. It's like a woman will be like, you know, sitting there and then she'll like point behind her and there's a mirror and then she'll like move her phone. And then it's just like a naked ass and, you know, or more than that. Yeah.

Speaker: Now, how do you get there? No, I'm kidding. Well, that's the the thing. Like they know who you are, you know, like, and so like I purposely will try to just ignore any of that because sometimes I'll give my phone to my wife because she wants, she does, she's not on Instagram. yeah So I'm like, well, you can search Jack here.

Speaker: So she'll type in like whatever. So jacking off. Why is that? Yeah. but see Like if she wants to see like a Jack story or Walter story or whatever. um, so,

Speaker: I'm always trying to watch like comedy or like those dog things, but they know I'm man. Memes about how much you love your wife. if they They know that I'm a man. So they'll put like this athletic ass on the screen. Yeah. And I'm like, I am not going to click on that yeah because then you know. But they know if, even if you're just looking at the preview, I saw this morning, I've seen it before. It's an SNL skit.

Speaker: I saw the clip this morning. It's funny that this came up and it's like three couples are at dinner and the one woman goes, I got a funny game. Let's look at each other's Instagram explore page.

Speaker: And the men are like, no, no one guy like throws his in like the soup. She's like, oh, mine's all dogs. Oh, mine's all cupcakes.

Speaker: They're like, oh, what is it going to be like a bunch of, ah you know, hot women or something? And they're like, no, no. I mean, it there was a day like a couple weeks ago where my Instagram was just like people dying.

Speaker: It was like, just like ah all these like insane. I can't handle those. Like I, I can't, I always click off before. So like you see somebody on a skateboard, I just click it. Cause I'm like, that guy's going to break his elbow or like somebody walking under a crane and like a big thing falls on them or like a somebody cutting a tree and the fricking tree. Oh my, they're terrible.

Speaker: And you can look at this and you can be like, this is going to be a disaster. But do you ever catch yourself like going to do something and then you say to yourself, this is definitely sketchy. i'm not going do this. Not anymore.

Speaker: I used to all the time, but now I'm like totally of avoiding any kind of dangerous situation. Yeah, yeah. like and Like you were saying about lifting things. so It's like I'm totally cured myself of these rash acts What do they got yet at work? Is it, are they like, you can only lift.

Speaker: I'm sure they have like a. No, I pretty much whatever I want. But like, um like the milk comes in like a, you know, it's a milk crate filled with.

Speaker: Is it four gallons? Six. Okay. So that's gotta be 60 pounds. Yeah. So I deal with that all day. So everything weighs about that much. So, um.

Speaker: And i have the little step tracker. I walk about four miles and I probably handle around a thousand pieces ah day. So there's a good amount of physical activity. And,

Speaker: and So the other morning, I'm sitting at the computer. The wife says, why don't you get up and you know like move around a little bit? you know You're at the computer. Isn't it funny, though? like You know what I do, right? You have any clue what my day is like. My wife, the other morning, got to get in the basement and start cleaning and clear out the gym. We should start working out together.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: what where do they get these ideas like hey when are we gonna work out together yeah you wake up at six seven o'clock i'm up at four four yeah like and thank you very much i have been working out

Speaker: i still get up early oh my god yeah get up early is great you get up earlier than i do that's for sure but i uh I like to get it. The world's a different place in the morning. I need that time because I need to have it where my wife's asleep yeah and the house is quiet. Yeah.

Speaker: And I just have my own headspace. Like sometimes at night, if I'm in like a really uncomfortable place internally, like she'll go to bed, I'll sleep on the couch because I need that physical so separation to just...

Speaker: Decompress. Yeah, because it's it's it can be a lot. yeah you know You know that, Jeff. yeah Allie's been having trouble sleeping because of her shoulder. So like more and more, she's like awake in the morning. and it's it's Yeah, it's disruptive. And it's nothing personal. No, it's not at all. Not at all. love my wife. I hate you know i just need that time. yeah That's my time. Everybody does, though, because I get up earlier than anybody in the house.

Speaker: And on the weekends, like Michael will probably the next one up. And I know not to, like, ask him a question or say anything to him because he just wants to look out the window yeah and have his coffee. yeah You know, sometimes I will be like, oh, don't do this, or I'll say something to him.

Speaker: And I can tell he just doesn't want to hear a word. And then I have to remember, I've already been up for an hour. I've already sort of yeah kind of acclimated, you know, so now I just try – Give them space.

Speaker: Yeah, that's like ah the other morning my wife got up and I'm in the kitchen doing, you know i have a routine. I do the same thing. Yes. And I don't want to be, i don't want anybody else in my thing. And she's like, ah who was it that actor that just died?

Speaker: Gene Hackman? She's like, Gene Hackman died. And it was like a like ah bolt of electricity went through my body. I can't believe that 100%.

Speaker: I'm like, you just interrupted what I'm doing for it. could care less if Gene Hackman died. And I understand that. i understand that it's hard to perceive how somebody else, you know, how going affect somebody else. But she stays up late. I wouldn't wake up and go interrupt her yeah right personal time at night. wouldn't wake her up and say, hey, just so you know, Gene Hacken died. Yeah.

Speaker: Oh, my God. That's like, you know, she hit a deer coming back from soccer. And her soccer games are late. She woke me up at like 11 o'clock. I hit a deer. nothing's Nothing happened to the truck. But I'm like, then why the hell did wake me up?

Speaker: Tell me tomorrow.

Speaker: Hey, nothing happened. I just wanted to let you know. Yeah. You know what's hysterical is that when Jeff and I were working together every day, so there's like at least 30 years of age gap.

Speaker: The stories are shockingly identical. It's like they don't change. Yeah. They don't change. Yeah. My wife and your wife are cut from the same cloth. That's for sure.

Speaker: It's so funny. um and i'm sure people listening out there identifying i think everybody has the same you know you has the same relationship kind of issues with anybody they married to because people are different you know like you you're just different you do things differently and then you're forced to live together and make it work and um I'll go one step even further.

Speaker: When I was a catering chef in San Francisco, so we're spending all these little town ah downtime hours all lumped together in these little rooms sometimes. So you're sharing all kinds of personal things about your life with these people that you work with.

Speaker: And you become very, very close. So ah most of the wait staff were gay, whether they were men or women. And we would be talking about our relationships.

Speaker: And it still didn't make any difference. thats Whoever the other person was, man, woman, whoever you're paired with, ah you're experiencing the same exact things.

Speaker: I heard the biggest divorce statistic is gay women. Really? Yeah. I think I heard something like that. I think, you know, the relationships that last the longest are people who are who are not alike. Yes. You know? Yeah.

Speaker: I agree to some extent, but there's something about...

Speaker: I don't know about the whole opposites attract thing because like there's something about doing things a certain way and not having to explain why that's the right way to do it. Yeah. Yeah. I think it's, you know, people opposites who are able to compromise, you know, like my wife and I bicker like crazy about totally insignificant things.

Speaker: um But like, you so leilani and i were talking so her boyfriend is like my wife and she's like me where we're like you know everything has ah a way and a reason and i've thought of the reason and i've over analyzed it a million times so it's like whereas like my wife is like she doesn't think of things like that you know like the toilet paper could go over the top where it could go on the bottom and she might do it different every time yeah to me that's insanity like that's that's pure insanity Um, but like, I can never be married to someone like me.

Speaker: We'd probably other. Yes, exactly. Um, and you know, I, I bring things out in her and she brings things out in me that wouldn't otherwise, you know, I'm not spontaneous. I wouldn't do any, I would stay at home all the time if it wasn't for her.

Speaker: And you know, she might lack a little structure if it wasn't for me. ah I'm like you in that regard where we bicker over things that aren't important, but we align on the, on the major things that keep people together. It turns out to be probably most couples that stay together. Right.

Speaker: But these, you know, the Facebook couple who are, they're like, Oh, I love my, you know, thats we saw the, we saw the most heartbreaking thing. My daughter was watching something called eight passengers.

Speaker: And apparently this is, um, some, really popular YouTube influencer. um So a man and a woman and six kids, and they've created a documentary about it because in 2023,

Speaker: and twenty three the The youngest boy escaped from the home. the The husband got kicked out of the house. Oh, I watched the whole thing about this. It wasn't wasn't this documentary, but it's like, I told you I watched those like police interrogation things. Yeah. Yeah. That kid like showed up at the neighbor's house. This heartbreaking. All of a sudden. They had him like tied It's a ring bell.

Speaker: This little kid. The parents had a tie? No, no, no. It was the mom and some other lady. The mom ended up getting like a life coach. The life coach was insane. And they' were mormon they're Mormons. Yeah. The life coach forced the older kids and the husband out of the house saying that they were.

Speaker: And then the two then the two older kids got sent off to friend's house. And then she moved from her place, wherever they lived, out to this place in the desert. yeah Like a nice home.

Speaker: And they took the two youngest kids and they just abused these kids trying to get the devil out of the kids. And they made, it was like, they made YouTube content with the kids. So it's like a kid's YouTube channel. So the YouTube channel was like, they were making big money, but they were totally exploiting the children.

Speaker: And then I guess that the, uh, the two younger children, And the life coach and the mom lived in this place in the desert. Was this Utah? Something like that. Yeah, was Utah, exactly.

Speaker: And um all of a sudden, I guess the kid gets out of there and he goes to like a neighbor's house, like two doors down, and he hits the ring bell. And then he starts to walk away. He looks emaciated. yeah And then the the guy behind the door says, can I help you?

Speaker: And the kid's like, ah well, just with two things, maybe – if you could give me a ride to the police station and maybe a drink of water. Well, just one thing. If you could give me a ride to the police station.

Speaker: And the guy was immediately heartbroken. He had like, you know, marks where he was like duck, his legs were like duct taped together. Yeah. Terrible, terrible. like I don't know what got us onto this one. People are crazy. Yeah.

Speaker: Terrible. I forget. But yeah, I watched, there's a couple different channels I watch about these. know. You said something about like the perfect Facebook couple. Oh, yeah. Yeah. yeah So this was like a YouTube fan.

Speaker: Those are all sick. All those people. Like, I think that. Like, did your daughter watch Ryan's World? I don't know. It was like a kid who did like toy reviews and stuff. And then the parents became a huge part of it. And then the mom had twins and now the twins are, you know, which it was like, you know, you wonder if it was like, let's do IVF and see if we can get two, two babies at the same time. Cause that's double the money.

Speaker: That's insane. I mean, people, are well, that I do think that YouTube can make people absolutely nuts because they're just trying to get views. They're trying to do the next popular thing.

Speaker: And I mean, I've always looked like, I think, I think maybe my kids have been on in my videos four or five times over all the years, you know, like doing something with Walter or I think I did something with Olivia I made Olivia witch's broom or whatever once, but I was always like, well, for one thing, she's a girl. So i was always like, i didn't want to put her in front of the audience.

Speaker: And the boys, they have their own life. They don't want to, the only time they'd be in a video if I needed to help lifting something. And then I think I did a few things with Walter stuff like that. Now it's like an aspiration is to be a YouTuber. Yeah. Like that's a career move. Yeah. Like, so we went in kindergarten, they do like the graduation into first grade kind of thing.

Speaker: So was at the school and all the kids stand up and say what they want to be. And it was like, I couldn't tell you what percentage 15 to 25% of the kids said a YouTuber. Wow.

Speaker: They don't know what it's like. Check it out. We're living the dream. You know,

Speaker: you know It made me remember, your story made me remember back in my 20s in New York, it was a big, huge news thing. I still remember the woman's name, Hedda Nussbaum. Yes, I know that.

Speaker: Chained her kid to the radiator. It was like one of these things that you know had gone on for years. Oh, they were horrible people. And the husband was in on it. Yeah, it's like...

Speaker: People have always been animals. Yeah. It's like, yeah. Some people are just born monsters, you know? That's hard to, but like, i feel for that little, I mean, the daughter too. sticks in your mind. feel for that little kid because he's just like a 10 year old kid with like little spindly legs.

Speaker: And I think like, holy shit. And the I don't know if you they showed it in that, but like they had the body cam for when they found the little girl. Yes. And she's in the closet. To shave their head. And she wouldn't come out. Like, so the cop sits down. they They got her something to eat. And it took her like an hour to get the courage to, you know, because she didn't trust anybody. No. To get the courage to leave.

Speaker: What was great was when the cops went to the door. the woman The one woman was there and she's like, what do you want? You know, and she's like, we're the cops are just like, we're coming in. And, you know, and she's like, well, I'm going to call my lawyer. And she goes, they're like, call your lawyer. were basically going to break that door down because they had they didn't need a.

Speaker: They didn't need a search warrant because they had probable cause. So they would have just bashed that door down. And they had like a safe room in the house. There a bunch them. Yeah, yeah. Holy shit, that house was nice.

Speaker: Yeah, yeah. Like, you know, you walk through this big grand door and you're in this like desert courtyard. And she's like, I have Airbnb guests in of They're like, don't fucking care. Yeah, crazy.

Speaker: So they had like ah like a room that was like insulated and stuff? They were like the- Like the door was like a safe door with like that big wheel. you Oh, you're shitting me. Yeah. Yeah. And they would like tie the kid up. And then what they would do is that all of his little sores, they would put like a- Alcohol or something. A hot sauce honey blend or some shit. Like, cause they had all this gauze, but just like so sadistic, so freaking bizarre.

Speaker: And they had all the proof that it was like not even a it was a open and shut case because- She wrote down in her journal everything that she was going to do to her children every day to get the devil out of them.

Speaker: This is, I mean. it's freaking insane. And the dad, I saw, like they thought him thought was a wimp. He had no idea what. He like, well, you know, i I agreed to leave the family a year ago. And, know, there's this weird religious Mormon.

Speaker: you i don't i feel i don't have anything i against Mormon specifically. My feeling is that guy is total wimp. He's still saying that he loves his wife. It's like at some point you take over and you say, you know what? You've lost your mind. No, your wife is a piece of shit.

Speaker: Yeah. Call the police. Yeah. How does he not intervene? And even after he's left the house, at least notifying. Well, he was saying that he was like, I haven't talked to my kids in three months or something. Apparently he wasn't allowed. Can you believe the shit that we're talking about right now? Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker: We probably should see if we got any. Go down a bad rabbit hole. Yeah. I mean, that's why I don't watch the news either. Never watch the news except for maybe the weather. Yeah. The weather's good one.

Speaker: you know, I'll check Reddit a little bit. Like if I press all, you know, it'll kind of give me some headlines about like what's going on in the world and things like that. I don't read. I don't.

Speaker: ever follow up like into the article and I certainly limit the amount of time I spent like I put my phone away most of the day that's smart um when I come home I put it on the charger I don't get it like I don't pick it up and look at it and like um like being like when I went away They take all that stuff away from you.

Speaker: So it conditions you, you know, at first you're going through like withdrawals and it conditions you to not need it anymore. We took my phone from my daughter for almost a month and um she it changed her. She has it back, but it's more limited.

Speaker: And ah the phones are the worst things. yeah I mean, you need them. And especially in our business, I need to yeah like feed the beast and all that stuff. but um But I don't spend – I try not to spend too much, and I don't – that's the big thing, is focusing on the arts, getting away from the news, and um and just trying to figure out what – kind of what makes you happy because the news is always going to bring me down.

Speaker: Yeah, there's there's hardly ever good news. No. They they really just dole it out in tidbits. the whole i The whole focus of the news is to get you aggravated so you engage.

Speaker: You know what I mean? Yeah. And so I found that, like, now I'd really love to go into the city and go to museums more. And it'd be fun to do that and focus on the arts a little bit and bring that back into the show and build stuff. and We always talked about like trying to organize something to like go to MoMA.

Speaker: Like, you know, if we organize like a bunch of people and take a trip to MoMA, I'd love to go. Yeah. Let's do that. Yeah. That was one of the most awesome side things to being a catering chef in San Francisco.

Speaker: was we held these events every week. Palace of Fine Arts, MoMA, Japanese Gardens. Like I was in all of these like, you know,

Speaker: What would you call it? Highly cultural. Yeah. And the Exploratorium, which is like the Liberty Science. And so, you know, once the event was set up, I was could just walk around in these places. Did you ever go to the Noguchi Museum?

Speaker: I don't know. Is that in Golden Gate Punk? In the Japanese? No, i thought you're on the we I thought you were on the East Coast. ah Oh, no, no. I'm in San Francisco. Okay, yeah. Yeah. So when I heard MoMA, it made me think of you. Yeah, because the SF MoMA. Yeah.

Speaker: Yeah, like we, I mean, that might be cool to do, like through the channel and everything, like Falling Water, the Nakashima. You know I'd love to go there. yeah um I mean, there's a lot of cool places.

Speaker: You have Craftsman Farms. i don't know if it's back open up Parsippany. Yeah. Yeah. I need to do those things because they really do. it kind of enlighten you. They bring you out of your own head space and you're like okay, there's, this is really good. Yeah. a Nice little trip out there. Cause it's a long drive. Yeah.

Speaker: What falling water. Yeah. I think that's almost like do like almost a two day trip. Or is it Jim Thorpe? I don't know. definitely six hours. I think it's because you have to take some little roads too. It was closed for a while. Yeah.

Speaker: um I think they were obviously doing doors and out repairs. lot repairs going on there. Not the best built house. Right. lot of his stuff was more idea than, you know, the technology wasn't up to his ideas for execution.

Speaker: Like Frank Lloyd Wright. Yeah. Yeah. Well, what do you say, gentlemen? I know it's a hard to end. the yeah Check and see if I didn't have any more. Wow, it's 12.15. Comments.

Speaker: Yeah, I can't believe the show's over. Yeah. It was a long run. Could you know bring it back for a special episode. For sure. I like that. Even like do it live, or you know, do it live on the YouTube.

Speaker: Yeah. I'd like that. That could be part of like the membership thing, you know, do like a, like a, I mean, that's what a live really is. Just a live podcast basically. So that'd be cool. And then, uh, we tried it for a while, like, you know, a live podcast where you're taking questions and stuff from the people that are watching, you know, that's cool. It sparks conversation and,

Speaker: I don't know my dyslexia could handle that. You have to have to read the comments and answer them at the same time. Holy the cow. Well, yeah, we'd have, we could have it up there you know, whatever. Get a, get a little, i actually have that webcam. i't know where the hell it is, but.

Speaker: ah Yeah, man, I guess I want to thank everybody for listening over the years. been you know The podcast has been a lot of fun. and we never really we didn't really explain why it's ending. It's just, ah you know, I think ah the show sort of has plateaued.

Speaker: And it's definitely a significant time investment. and um I think it's hard to shoot a video... and then shoot a podcast. yeah And i think the video kind of comes, that's going to be a revenue generating thing. Yeah, that's the biggest thing. It's like the podcast ends up costing us money um as much as it's an enjoyable experience.

Speaker: It just, you know, sometimes you have to look at the economic effect of something and we could spend that time much more effectively somewhere else. So, mean, hopefully. think it's run its course for the most part. Yeah.

Speaker: Oh yeah, man, it was a lot of fun. Yeah, I mean, we could probably talk for hours just reminiscing about the podcast. For sure. All the guests over the years. We've forgotten more than we would remember. yes.

Speaker: um Yeah, so many funny moments and just everybody messaging you, oh, man, when you said this and being like, I forgot even said that. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I mean, it was certainly, it really lifted my spirits coming here today and seeing you guys. Great seeing you. And laughing and stuff like that, which you don't really get to do, what not get to do, but it doesn't always occur in your daily life that you get that kind of feeling of happiness.

Speaker: For sure. Yeah. That's been a great part about doing the podcast for the four years. You know, it's like, it's a lot of fun. Like aside from, yeah you know, the, you know, if it, if it was at zero consequence, I would do it forever. Yeah. Cause it is, it's like so much fun just sitting down and like, I like, you know, I like the bullshit. Yeah. It's like hanging out. Yeah. We are just hanging out.

Speaker: Yeah. So it's been, been a ton of fun. Yeah. Cause people always say, so what do you talk about? go, well, whatever we, we just start talking. Yeah. Your wife wants to listen to this with you. ah Yeah. that's what she said when I left. She was, what are going to about? I don't know.

Speaker: Better to have no plans. Yeah. We've never been at a loss for words. That's that's for sure. And all this time. Yeah. It always feels like you're cutting the episode short. Yeah. um So yeah.

Speaker: Thanks everybody. Appreciate it. Yeah. Take care. We'll see you. We'll see you down the road. Yeah. Tune into today's craftsman. I think we'll have to do a revisit every couple of months.

Speaker: Yeah. Something like that. Just a little, just to get together. Yeah. Hang out and talk. But, but the daily or the weekly thing. Yeah. You know, it'll be more fun that way too. It'll be like a special presentation like on TV.

Speaker: Yeah. Yeah. Like you wait for those 1960s Christmas cartoons to come out. Breaking news. Well, thanks everybody. Talk to you soon.

Speaker: Yeah. See you.

Speaker: If you enjoyed this episode, please tell a friend or share it on social media. You can leave a review of this podcast on Spotify or Apple Podcasts. And don't forget, today's Craftsman YouTube channel has an upload every Saturday morning at 8.30 a.m. Eastern. We'll see you next week.

Speaker: Bye.