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Rock Climbing in Khakis with Peter Toatley
136 Plays3 years ago
Today, we speak with Peter Toatley, @petertoatley, tattooer @donpietrotattoo, #SuburbanDad, Plaid Proponent, tweed enthusiast, Sopranos Super Fan, Zen Master, and much more.
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Transcript
Introducing 'Apocalypse Duds'
00:00:00
Speaker
Thanks for tuning in. I'm your host, Connor Fowler. And I'm Matt Smith. And you are now listening to Apocalypse Duds, a gorilla clothing show about how we counter and endure capitalism's grip in these turbulent times.
Meet Peter Totley, Tattoo Artist
00:00:14
Speaker
Today, we are joined by Peter Totley at Peter Totley. Tattooer at Don Pietro Tattoo. Hashtag suburban dad, plaid proponent, Tweed enthusiast, Sopranos superfan, Zen master.
00:00:29
Speaker
How are you doing today, Peter? Oh, cheers. I'm doing great. I'm doing great. How's the weather? We're happy to have you on the show. Yeah, man. Great to be here.
Living in Clark Peter's House from The Wire
00:00:39
Speaker
Stoked to be chatting with you and how... Baltimore, as Baltimore head, do you get the brash tweed and pertinent? The brash tweed and pertinent? Is that from The Wire? Yeah, yeah. That's when the guy tells...
00:00:59
Speaker
beady that they work playing clothes. And you can go for the stripe loyally affectations of Mr. Moreland or the brass tweeting pertinence. Nice. Lester Freeman. Nice. Here's an insane thing. Here's an insane thing. Listen, I lived in Clark Peter's house in Baltimore.
00:01:22
Speaker
Yeah, so it was crazy. My partner at the time was working for the Mark Steiner Show, which is a large public radio show here in Baltimore. And he knew Clark Peters very well. And Clark, for whatever reason, allowed us to live in this house. And that was the house that they all lived in. So I had Sonia Sohn's bed. She just had left it in the house.
Baltimore Culture and Personal Experience
00:01:48
Speaker
Yeah, so there was this artwork that they had done down there, you know, just like getting wasted and shooting a show and then like coming home and getting wasted some more and making artwork. So yeah, that's a weird Baltimore fact about myself. 3005 North Howard Street. Wow. Wow. I feel absolutely dunked on.
00:02:14
Speaker
no no i don't mean to dunk on you i don't mean to dunk i just mean to say here is this information yeah that's also a wire super fan that's like too much for me you know what's funny is watch it
00:02:32
Speaker
I've never seen it and I've never seen the Sopranos. So I'm the blasphemous one here.
TV Show Discussions: The Sopranos and Mad Men
00:02:37
Speaker
I know, I know. I'm jealous. I'm jealous of you. I just ended up watching the same six things over and over again because I'm a creature of habit and that, you know, the Sopranos are definitely, yeah. Like I've been told a thousand times, oh, you need to watch this show. And I'm like, yeah, I'll get to it.
00:03:01
Speaker
Eventually and that eventually is I'm gonna get him to resist I feel like you know somebody's like you have to watch this and then the natural thing is you're like I Mean, you know like it's kind of like when someone recommends a band and you're like, oh, yeah like yeah, they sound like so-and-so and you're like I'll just listen to so-and-so Yeah
00:03:28
Speaker
But yeah, both shows seem so up my alley too because I love that shit. But I've just never, never done it. I don't know. Connor's gonna kill me if I don't watch The Sopranos. I'm gonna get mad to watch The Sopranos. I'm gonna get mad to watch The Sopranos.
00:03:46
Speaker
institution man it's uh i mean uh i i love james gandolfini and other stuff and i know that like that's you know that's even that's like a wild thing to say like i don't know what's the love gandolfini and everything in the in the handful of things that i've seen him in but for whatever reason i don't know i just
00:04:09
Speaker
You know, I don't know. It's kind of like I was talking to some friends a couple of weeks ago and they were just watching Mad Men for the first time. And which like that's a show that I can watch basically any time, you know, like I can't get which is another another Matthew Wiener production. I can't like get past that scene. I'm like, this show is killing me.
00:04:33
Speaker
Yeah, I mean... It's a return to a bad time for like non-white people. Yeah, you know what it is? Is it what it is, maybe? I think so. Well, it's like, I'm pretty sure there's like, you can count the black characters on your paint. Yeah, right? You know what's crazy is I can watch stuff like that when there's no black people in it, but then
Critiquing Mad Men's Fashion Portrayal
00:04:54
Speaker
you put a black person in it and I'm like, this is not, I'm not watching it. You know, like I can watch Downton Ubi.
00:05:00
Speaker
And I'm like, this is crazy. There's not even black people on this planet, essentially until like the fourth season or something. I can watch that, but yeah, Mad Men, five minutes. I was like, I don't, this dynamic maybe, I don't know. And also I feel like that's a period of clothing I don't really connect to eat as much either. That kind of like fifties, sixties,
00:05:27
Speaker
You know, like a 60s style, I would be more, I'd be more like looking at like honor culture style as like something cool. Yeah. Versus. Yeah. Why not? Why not? Go on.
00:05:37
Speaker
Yeah, I'm not going to be like, oh, look at that, like, you know, quintessential like office man who's like, you know, abusing women and like mistreating the world. I'm not like I'm not like checking his style. Yeah. Well, and it's in in retrospect, like it's fucked up. That's when I came up. Yeah. In the like men's wear scene was Mad Men like that was the entire
00:06:06
Speaker
time in 2010, 2009, what have you. And like, it was a glorification of alcoholism in a bad way. Like, of course, the story of Don Draper is one of an alcoholic who has a sort of descent. But it's everyone as always, you know, took the wrong message from it. Yeah.
Interpreting The Sopranos
00:06:33
Speaker
And I just think that that's kind of the danger double with the Sopranos. Like, what parts are you enjoying this? Why are you enjoying this part? Right. They're not like idols. They are cautionary tale. Yeah. You know, it's interesting because I think that that is kind of
00:06:56
Speaker
Around when I kind of got into Maybe dressing more in that stuff in this style But I was I was who turned off by madmen that I kind of was never in I could never get into that So you guys started around you got sort of started around then too because this basically leads into the questioning here You know, it's hard to say I can say that I I
Fashion Influences from Family
00:07:24
Speaker
have kind of always been a person who was interested in outfits people wear, you know, for certain. In clothes that I wear, you know, definitely, it definitely took different shapes over the years, you know, depending on what, like, kind of youth counterculture you're into at that point. So, like, what were you wearing when you were growing up? What were you wearing? Uh, like, growing up, like, as a little kid, I, you know, I think when you look at pictures... Little to big.
00:07:52
Speaker
very very preppy you know because i think that was kind of like my dad style you know like there's pictures of me just like in a polo shirt and like literally like saddle shoes and like corduroy shorts nice nice it's a great outfit i would wear that i would wear that today and it fits with your new england up ranking so you know yeah you know
00:08:15
Speaker
Even though my dad was from Philadelphia, he was kind of like ran ahead of the times type guy. My dad went to, I forget what the art school is.
Artistic Influence of Peter's Father
00:08:30
Speaker
That's like maybe, I don't want to say the wrong one. He went to art school in Pennsylvania in the 60s. He got some kind of scholarship where he went overseas to Europe and traveled all around.
00:08:46
Speaker
That's a big deal in the 1960s. I guess it's a big deal anytime. Yeah, anytime in the 1960s. Yeah. I can remember my godfather, his best friend talking about how when he came back, he rode a Vespa around Philadelphia and he had a sweater that he got in Ireland that he would put on in the dead of winter and zip around.
00:09:08
Speaker
Philadelphia on
Appreciation for Quality Clothing
00:09:10
Speaker
this Vespa. And that was kind of like the image of my father, you know, my father passed away when I was really young. Oh, shit. And so stories of this, you know, he's kind of cool, cool exploits, you know, I think that is a big influence on my style in general, in him.
00:09:28
Speaker
dressing me when I was young, you know, he came from a family of like real like clothes horses. I can remember when we would go to Philadelphia, she would take us to, oh my God, a department store called Watermakers and like, you know, she buys like overcoats when we were like, sometimes it's gonna fit you for like six months, you know, but I can remember having like long wool overcoat and like,
00:09:54
Speaker
you know, navy blazer, grey trousers, you know. Again, stuff I own today. Right, right, yeah. It all comes back, I think. Like, you know. Yeah! So, I think that comes on both sides of
Longevity in Clothing and Furniture
00:10:10
Speaker
my family. Kind of cold horses, like my...
00:10:13
Speaker
I still have a pair of like wool pants that was like my grandfather's that my mom wore for like 20 years and then like gave to me. That's awesome. Yeah. So, you know, everybody on both sides of my family's kind of freaks like that about clothes. That's hella cool, man. It's a good way to be. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That was that was a great. Yeah, that's a great.
00:10:35
Speaker
bit of information really. Yeah, so I think that's really formative. It comes from my family really an interest in like clothes and like an interest in clothes made of good material and an interest of clothes that you're gonna buy and you're gonna have. It's always funny how that shows up later too.
00:10:55
Speaker
Yeah, they're both like that on both sides about everything. You know, like I have pieces of furniture in my house right now that were from my grandparents on both sides. You know, yeah, passed through the family. Oh, yeah. So that's.
Ethical Consumption and Secondhand Clothing
00:11:11
Speaker
And was there like a prioritization on production, too? What do you mean production? So like where something comes from? That comes from my mom. Oh, my God.
00:11:23
Speaker
You know, that's my mom's generation. My mom's like a real like super sixties artist hippie type person. Like I, I, like, I always, I always joke that I get like, uh, like anxiety from the smell of like, uh, of, uh, uh, health foods. Like wooden stuff. It makes me like, I gotta eat like a.
00:11:50
Speaker
So yeah, my mom is definitely on that ethical consumption side that's kind of I guess another even another aspect of the way I dress because I kind of tend to If I can get things secondhand, you know, I will buy new stuff and I do buy fucking Lux luxury goods here
00:12:13
Speaker
You know, it's all done. It is based on production, where it's made, how it's made. Yeah, how long it's going to last, really. Yeah, no, exactly. I mean, that's for me has been a like, there's this idea.
Capitalism and Clothing Affordability
00:12:32
Speaker
I can't remember who wrote the the tyranny of the boot. You familiar with this? It's like an early socialist text. I think that's what it's called.
00:12:42
Speaker
But the point being, poor people are forced to buy a shitty boot after year, after year, after year, after year, after year. And a wealthy person can buy a pair of boots that literally is going to last them for their entire life. And to boot, ha ha, they have more than one pair of shoes. So it really comes to
00:13:07
Speaker
it comes back to the old chestnut of capitalism. Yeah, it's expensive to be poor. Oh, yeah, definitely. And, you know, even even with like secondhand shopping now, too, in the modern time, like, you know, thrift stores are taxing like, you know, 30, 40 bucks on something.
00:13:29
Speaker
that yeah it's insane yeah like it's wild you know like i i sell vintage clothing as my business and you know sometimes it's like you you always hear the argument of like oh you're taking stuff out of poor people's you know mouths or whatever and it's like no like literally they can't afford to buy this shit because it's $40 and they could go to walmart to get it for 10 so
00:13:54
Speaker
You know?
Vintage Clothing as Luxury
00:13:55
Speaker
Yeah, exactly. Just kind of weird. Yeah, somehow in the last like five years, like, vintage and...
00:14:04
Speaker
Like thrift stores, it's like, not thrift store so much, I guess, but like vintage has become luxury. Right. Right. You know, it's like, Oh my God. Yeah. I mean, you know, there's, there's certain things that have always been expensive, but like, you know, it's like, Oh yeah. Like this, this thing that there were millions of made, like, you know, a t-shirt, for example, that I might sell for 20 bucks. It's like,
00:14:29
Speaker
some store in LA or New York is selling it for like 70 or 80. And it's like, yo, that's not like, that kind of defeats the point to me in a lot of ways. Like, you know, but then again, how we have it, uh, like this, Oh God, I'm going to sound so old. The generation of people who think that's fucking all right. They're just like, Oh yeah, fucking bench. But it's not even that old. You know, it's like from like the fucking nine and they're like,
00:14:57
Speaker
It's like $70. I'm like, I fucking might have that. Right. Dude, I mean, if I could go back in time and buy all the $5 clearance shit at Hot Topic and like Media Play and Sam Goody and shit when I was growing up, like I'd be a millionaire, you know, like, oh, cool, a bunch of heart shaped box nirvana t-shirts for
00:15:17
Speaker
I was trying to collect things. People at that time, when I was a teenager, it seemed like comic books and action figures you were going to... It was like Bitcoin back then. Yeah. I mean, I did sports cards, which are worth nothing. I'm going to show how fucking old I am, but there was the beginning of Mirage Studios, I think is what it was called.
00:15:41
Speaker
And it was like these superhero comics, and they were just selling, selling, selling. And it was like, oh, these are going to be worth something. These are going to be worth something. And all these action figures that went around, like the McFarlane stuff, like the Spawn and that kind of stuff. Yeah. It's going to be worth money. I knew guys that had boxes, cases of these action figures and shit, and I was like,
00:16:05
Speaker
Shit, you know, it's just like that cycle didn't fucking turn out to be like that I was wearing when I was watching when I was looking at that box of fucking clothes that I like used to like clean a car and like left in an apartment somewhere in Boston is like worth like $70 now yeah, yeah, I've got like a hundred thousand baseball cards in the closet of my parents house that I
00:16:29
Speaker
aren't worth the paper they're printed on at this point. Just like, okay, cool. So Peter, where, what part of Rhode Island did you grow up in?
Growing Up in Rural Rhode Island
00:16:46
Speaker
I grew up in Southern Rhode Island. So almost in Connecticut. I'm pulling up a map.
00:16:53
Speaker
kind of rural, really proper rural community. Gotcha. I grew up there. It's a little, little less, uh, backwater now, but I mean, I don't know. I think people still are proudly backwater down there. Right. Right. Yeah. I mean, I'm, I'm from the same kind of town, so I get it. Okay. Yeah. Keep it country. Yeah. And you just mentioned Boston. Did you live there for a while too?
00:17:18
Speaker
Yeah, I lived in Boston from when I was about 19 till I was maybe like 25 or 26. Okay, nice. What part of Boston?
Life in Boston and Alston
00:17:31
Speaker
I lived in Austin. Oh, hell yeah. Which is, yeah. Yeah, I've always enjoyed that. Yeah, as it's called. But yeah, kind of like on the Boston University, BC kind of campus kind of area. Nice. Did you eat a lot of spikes, hot dogs?
00:17:49
Speaker
Um, no, I spikes, you know, it's weird site as a road. Vegan hot dog place, Rhode Island thing. Oh yeah. It is a running thing too. I always forget about that. Yeah. I almost didn't even think of it as a Boston thing. Now we were eating a lot of, I don't know, Thai food at that time. I got you. Yeah.
00:18:10
Speaker
Yeah, the wrong with that. Every time I went to like when I was in bands and we played Boston, you know, stay in like Alston or like Jamaica Plain or something like spikes was always just one of those spots where we had to had the hint. Yeah, it's right. That's the neighborhood I grew up in right on that. Oh, hell yeah. Oh, uh, yeah.
00:18:30
Speaker
That's awesome. And you played in bands that toured through Boston, like what time? Like 2000, I was in a couple of bands that played up there, like 2006 to nine, somewhere in there. Yeah, we played Haber a lot too. And walking around the streets at that time. I would imagine if you, since you were in the hardcore, like we probably know some of the same people at some point, like, you know, you're from where? I'm from Atlanta.
Tour with The Beatings
00:19:01
Speaker
Okay, Atlanta. Yeah, Maya. Yes, I've been in it that far in hardcore myself. I tour managed an indie rock band and we toured the South that one time. What band was it? It was a band called The Beatings. And yeah, we played a show in Marietta. Oh, at Swayze's? Do you remember the video? Oh, God.
00:19:28
Speaker
the club. You know what I do remember from that though? That was like, that was really amazing. There was a fucking barbershop. I would been on tour like from like California through like Texas, Arizona, fucking all through the south. We're like coming up through Marietta, Georgia and my hair was just like out of control. And like next to there was a barbershop called Furious Styles. Oh yeah.
00:19:53
Speaker
other in Boys in the Hood, the Larry Fishburne character. I'm nearly positive. This motherfucker. That's awesome.
Humorous Tour Incident in Georgia
00:20:07
Speaker
So this band I was touring with, I'm the only black person in this van, right? Touring through the South. And the drummer from the band goes into this black barbershop with me and he sits down, he's going to get a haircut, but it's just taken forever. You know, we're like in there 30 minutes, we're in there 40 minutes, it's like an hour. He's like, I can't do it, I gotta go. But at one point they're like asking him about the band and they're like, what's it called? And he's like, the beatings. And like, you've never seen,
00:20:34
Speaker
A room full of like seven black men like recoil so hard all in unison. Oh my god. And he's like, well, it's more like the beatings of a heart, you know? At that point, there's no recovering from this shit. Years, man. Oh my god. I'll never forget that as long as it's on. That's a hell of a story. Oh, I bet, dude.
00:21:03
Speaker
Well, was the venue in like a little strip mall kind of thing? I think it was. Yeah, it was a venue called Swayze's. I don't know if it's still around, but like it was. Yeah, that was that was one of the like when the when the scene, quote unquote, was outside the, you know, outside the city and the suburbs. That was like one of the best venues that everybody played. Oh, wow. That's so funny. Yeah. Yeah. I saw a lot of venues on that tour.
00:21:33
Speaker
Amazing things. Oh, I bet on that tour story from that tour. All right The beatings are like play in this show, right? I feel like we were in like Kentucky or something But anywhere we're like playing this they're playing this show in like one person leaves like right out of the bar It's not like a super huge room. They're playing another song like five people leave ten people leave and
00:22:03
Speaker
like 30 people leave the bartender at one point. They're, they're playing on the stage. I'm sitting in the crowd with like two people. The bartender looks at them, folds up like the side of the bar, like he's going to run out and he's like, they're blowing up the bridge. And he runs out the fucking bar. The bar under the street in a fucking demolition happens. They blow up some bridge, like in the middle of downtown on like a, like a Saturday night.
00:22:32
Speaker
in the street there's this huge explosion kind of like calamity people screaming and stuff everybody comes back in the bar and they're like start again start again and they start the set and it was like the live show after yeah that's absolutely ridiculous you know they're fucking ready to party yeah
00:23:01
Speaker
All right, so back to clues in politics. Oh, dude, I mean, it's it's all interconnected, you know. Yeah, like, you know, in the hardcore scene kind of here in in Rhode Island was at the time in the what 1995 or something. Oh, shit. Real strong.
00:23:22
Speaker
Um, I can remember when I was in middle school, you know, there's kind of like an awkward transition to high school, like you're friends with certain people in middle school and you switched to high school and like suddenly you don't know anybody, but it's all the same people in your school. Right. And, uh, Tim, I can remember him literally coming up to me in the hall and like basically seizing me by the arm, like seeing my confusion out of this social dynamic change and being like, you're going to hang out with us. And I was like, what? And it was,
00:23:51
Speaker
hardcore kids. Oh, fuck yeah. And that was it. Like it was like that weekend. They took me to like my first show. It was this band Chokehold slash. Oh, fuck.
Introduction to the Hardcore Scene
00:24:04
Speaker
From like somewhere in Canada. Yeah. Chokehold is one of my favorite bands. So. Oh, that's the first show I ever went to, man. That was the first time I was ever at a hardcore show. We got this thing called the New Bedford Fest. Yeah. Ran the
00:24:19
Speaker
where they held that show. It was in a two-story gymnasium. So the show was on the basketball court. But there was people, as Chocol was playing, launching themselves from the fucking balcony above the basketball court.
00:24:39
Speaker
I've never seen anything fucking like this in my life. I was like, what the fuck is going on? I've never seen people like mosh. I can remember this guy running around with his hand on top of his head. He was kind of like a cross between a punk rocker with liberty spikes and a rooster. And just kind of like scanning.
00:24:59
Speaker
Around as like guys are like throwing fists, you know, like like it looks like they're trying to knock people It's like karate kicks in fucking I never seen anything like I was like, this is not yeah
00:25:12
Speaker
Yeah. And that was kind of it. Like straight edge, hardcore kid. I remember that day I bought a t-shirt that was like the big, giant, extra large white t-shirt. And on the front it said straight edge and I had a picture of like a hand and like the Vulcan, like a Vulcan like X on it on the back. And it said live like straight edge, live long and prosper. Nice.
00:25:37
Speaker
I've never seen a piece of clothing still so bad in my fucking life. That was the first hardcore teacher I ever bought. Oh, I bet. Are you still, are you still the edge also? Okay. Yeah. Yeah. I made it tough to work in the weed field. I mean, dude, I've known plenty of straight edge bartenders and otherwise, so you never know.
00:26:04
Speaker
You know, yeah, that's a good point. Yeah, I know a bunch of sober bartenders. Yeah, I made it like 10 years, like 15 to 25. Yeah.
00:26:16
Speaker
Yeah, I think it was, I mean, it was kind of a perfect thing. You look back, I'm like, who do I have lived through high school if I wasn't straight? Right. Yeah. Like I was against drugs and alcohol, but we were doing fucking crazier shit than fucking anyone. And our parents were like, because they knew we were not drinking and doing drugs, they were like, Oh, it must be. Yeah. Sounds about right.
00:26:40
Speaker
Yeah, we were like driving around like greater New England, you know, like to shows that like leaving at like one o'clock in the morning from some show, coming back going to high school the fucking next day. Oh, dude. Yeah, absolutely. Or like me and my friends were shooting fucking fireworks at each other and shit. And it's like, oh, cool. We're not drinking, but we might blow each other up. So it's not. Yeah. Yeah.
00:27:09
Speaker
So, yeah, I think, Peter, you're a little older than I am. I'm 38 and kind of like started going to shows, I don't know, a few years after like 95 or whatever, but how did the kind of like coming up in the scene and the whole straight edge like vibe, for lack of a better word, like how did that start to, or I guess a better way to put it, did you kind of feel like that was informing, you know, your opinion of like dressing and style or?
00:27:39
Speaker
I mean, is I still think I kind of had the same seeds of style through that period. Yeah. Because you can look and I'll have like, I'll be like in like, you know, like, because it was like, big jeans, and like running sneakers. And what kind of running sneakers belt belt kind of thing was like very important. And then like, you know,
00:28:03
Speaker
I have like some kind of hardcore t-shirt, but I was also, you know, have like a rugby shirt on still. Right. You know, crew neck sweater still. It's like there's always like a beam. Yeah. But yeah, it's interesting.
00:28:21
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. I think that you incorporate like Ivy style shit into a punk outfit. Like that is a punk action. Oh, yeah. I think so. It's kind of like more punk, right? Like that. Yeah, I would say so. I would agree entirely. Wearing a tie. Wearing a tie. Yeah, all that kind of stuff.
00:28:39
Speaker
Even the most punk guy is the guy who's in a polo shirt. Right. Look at the clash. Dudes like that or even the two-tone ska shit like Skinny Black Tie, Plaid Blazer and Chucks or whatever. It's like, oh yeah.
00:29:01
Speaker
I kind of tightened up a little more when I was living in Boston. I started DJing Soul in Reggae. Oh, hell yeah. I got into the dance hall for a few years. We were every weekend at some kind of heavy Jamaican dance hall show.
00:29:25
Speaker
uh like reggae show kind of thing and i was i would dj maybe like a skinhead night here and there and i would dj the soul night here and there i got really heavy into that style and that kind of that was where really my i got a little more like maturely
00:29:42
Speaker
tuned into like, like, okay, I'm not going to dress like a complete slob like all the fucking time. Right. But which interesting though is what's interesting. I started to kind of tighten it up then, but then I got into rock climbing.
00:29:58
Speaker
And we got really into like back country hiking and like rock climbing, like super hardcore.
Rock Climbing Lifestyle
00:30:06
Speaker
Like we were like very serious in the rock climbing. We were like, we got to the point where it was like, either we had to like quit our jobs and like get a van and like move to Yosemite or we kind of had to like move on.
00:30:21
Speaker
I was going to ask, what does that look like? What is being very serious about rock climbing look like? But I think that's a good answer. I was always in jeans, but I would almost always climb in a pair of khakis. Oh my God.
00:30:42
Speaker
With rock climbing it's kind of like it's very like preppy adjacent because people that have the time to do something as luxurious as rock climbing
00:30:53
Speaker
You know come from some some means right? Yeah, because yeah Is is you know, maybe bouldering you could just kind of like start the ration around anywhere you could find a rock but rock climbing is like gear intensive and like skill intensive you gotta spend some fucking time and when we would go rock climbing in and around boston with all these people from like mit and fucking
00:31:18
Speaker
that we've run into. We were like really outliers because we were just like two guys that like worked in Boston. Right. They were like, oh, MIT? We'd be like, nah.
00:31:28
Speaker
I work down the street. I mean, I feel like the khaki thing kind of plays into like the OG, you know, Patagonia, like 70s mountaineering kind of shit. Yeah. Well, that's the thing. It's like people is... Yeah. And it's interesting because, right, because those people who first rock climbed were just rock climbing in their clothes that they had. Yeah. There was nothing made for that.
00:31:54
Speaker
Yeah Okay, these khakis will kind are kind of old I'll wear that this sweater will keep me warm and you look back at old pictures of rock climbers And they look fucking oh, yeah, hell yeah, but it's just good They're just kind of piling on clues until they were like protected and warm enough or cool enough, right? It worked out but when I started uh
00:32:17
Speaker
my tattoo apprenticeship, I moved to... I was living in Boston at the time. I started getting tattooed a lot. A friend of mine tattooed, but he lived in Kansas City, Missouri, which I'd really never set foot in before. I went out there and got tattooed by him maybe once or twice and met the people at that shop. And I was just kind of mesmerized by tattooing at that point. I was like, holy fuck. I was like, these guys just fucking...
00:32:47
Speaker
to hang out and fucking draw and fucking, they're living, they're thriving. What the fuck is the secret here? And again, I was like, gay tattooed a lot. And like, I remember like calling my friend Andrew. I was like, talking to him about tattooing.
Becoming a Tattoo Artist in Kansas City
00:33:05
Speaker
And he was like, well, you're not going to learn to tattoo in Boston. And I was like, huh. I had like called him back like a couple of weeks later. I was like, I'm moving to Kansas City. And he was like, oh.
00:33:15
Speaker
I guess you're gonna learn to tattoo. And then I moved to Kansas City. I'm like, like, apprenticing at this tattoo shop. I mean, I think I lived there for like a year first where they were just like, to be a tattoo apprentice, you know, the owner of the shop was like, you have to work as a, have you ever worked as a server in a restaurant? And I was like, no.
00:33:41
Speaker
He's like to be a tattooer you have to work as a server in a restaurant for at least a year before I can even like consider Giving you this job. You got to learn how to work with people Work with people. You don't fucking aren't working that aren't working with you energetically You got to fucking learn how to serve people, you know, so I was working at restaurant for like a year and in that time I was still that was toward the end of when I was
00:34:11
Speaker
We didn't even hit the trim scene shit yet. So this is kind of toward the tail end of that. And I remember my friend Andrew saying offhand to somebody else, like, you know, Peter's cool. He kind of dresses like he's always about to go camping. Huh?
00:34:33
Speaker
And that was the fucking, that was like the moment, the like impetus to where I don't ever go into the tattoo shop basically without a shirt with buttons on. Like low level, maybe like a polo, like a tennis shirt. But like, yeah, I was kind of like, oh, I'm like a black dude. I'm starting to get a lot of fucking tattoos. I have dreadlocks, I smell like weedles.
00:35:03
Speaker
working for me here dress like super preppy like somebody's dad some New England dad and then I at least have some sort of plausible deniability
00:35:22
Speaker
That's and that's your that's your Instagram hashtag right suburban dad hashtags You know what now you literally are the suburban dad who was a suburban dad, you know And people used to make fun of me not make fun of me. I don't know not fully make fun of me But they'd be like, oh you dress like a dad you dress like you like dad I was like, yeah, that's the whole point right and now that I haven't I just like, you know, I'm just in my natural state It all came full circle in some weird way
00:35:52
Speaker
Right? Yeah. It all works. I mean, it's so funny to say. Oh, I was just going to say, it's really funny, like, you know, to think about what you just said about you always wearing like a button up shirt or like a collared shirt of some sort, because, you know, tattooing historically was like, you know, really gruff fucking, you know, meathead kind of looking people and you're like, OK, I'm going to take this and turn it on its head.
00:36:21
Speaker
Like I'm going to, you know, I want to look respectable and to like, you know, set myself apart a little bit, whether consciously or not. And it's like, Oh man, that's rad.
00:36:32
Speaker
Yeah, so it's like, if you look back, that's like tattooing, you know, from like 60s to the 90s, you know? But before that, it was just like, tattooers were just some guy, you know? And they just dressed like whatever, you know? Like a normal guy. So when you look at tattooers before like the 1960s, before like really like that kind of biker culture kind of element came in.
00:37:01
Speaker
They're just like a guy in like suspenders and like a shirt with buttons and rolled up. Well, that guy has that. Yeah, they just kind of look like they just, you know, came off a like a naval ship or something. Yeah, exactly. So it's like kind of I feel like that that kind of kind of like this is what a tattooer looks like kind of in general kind of thing is like kind of, you know, 60s. Right. Yeah. Yeah.
00:37:31
Speaker
I mean, not that it's not true, but yeah. Yeah,
Dressing Differently in Tattoo Industry
00:37:35
Speaker
I know. It's interesting, you know, and then style and tattooing is such a fucking bizarre thing too. You know, it's like, you got to wear like, it's just like basically just a legion of dudes in black t-shirts, you know? And yeah, that's also kind of why I dress the way I do. It's like, it's such a,
00:37:58
Speaker
I don't know, it's so homogenous tattooing in a way. You know, it's like an industry where it's like, there's more like women tattooing than like, you know, black dudes, you know? Right. Yeah, right. You know, I mean, so it's an interesting thing. And then it is so like, there's like one style, it's kind of like everybody's kind of dressed like a giant 12 year old, you know, on some level.
00:38:27
Speaker
Um, and so I couldn't really get with that either, you know, like that can't be like, you know, I'm not trying to, I don't know where shorts pass my knees to work. Right. Yeah. Um, I don't even wear shorts to work if I can avoid it. Um, but yeah, I don't know. That's a, that's just the inherent punk rock resistant fucking.
00:38:55
Speaker
I was going to ask about your tattooing style because we looked at the page before the interview and we were both extremely impressed. So I was wondering how you came to that. You said you were drawing as a young person.
Influences on Tattooing Style
00:39:24
Speaker
Yeah. Artist parents. Yeah. But I'm wondering how you kind of came into it yourself. Like I said, I was getting tattooed a lot. I used to work in film production in the Boston area. And I just was like, oh, in 15 years, am I going to want to wake up at 6 o'clock in the morning to be on set somewhere or work in this warehouse? And I was like, ugh, it can't be me. I don't know if I was right in retrospect.
00:39:53
Speaker
We all make those choices. Yeah, but that's how I got into tattooing. And as far as developing a style as a tattooer, from my perspective, I'm like, I don't think I do have a style. Jesus. I think it just comes from the people that I learned to tattoo from.
00:40:14
Speaker
There was a black guy, Scott, that I worked with that's just like kind of like the ultimate American traditionalist. Like, you know, he can kind of bake anything down to its like most basic needed form and just like make this beautiful tattoo out of it. The guy, Andrew, who got me into tattooing, he's kind of like toward that American traditional style, but with like a kind of wilder style and like a lot of like more detail to it.
00:40:42
Speaker
I worked for a guy in Providence for a long time, a really talented tattooer, Dennis, who just is like kind of a master of like line work, like super fine line work and just like black and green. This doesn't ever do a tattoo in color and it's mainly just a texture of lines. There's like shading a little bit and mostly black and huge influence on me. Mainly, and these are all people who just kind of like
00:41:12
Speaker
had like, not so much Scott, but just had like unreasonable demands of me in a good way. And so you just become like self-conscious and maybe that becomes like a style because you do the same thing over and over and it is okay looking and people like it and that kind of becomes a style. I don't know.
00:41:34
Speaker
Yeah, so yeah, no, that's a good that's a good answer. That's what well, anyway, yeah. Yeah, I think that's then dead is that I used to work for would say he would say if you make the same mistake over over again, it looks good. Then that's interesting. So just out of curiosity, Peter, how many shops have you worked for? Like, since you many
00:42:01
Speaker
I think for a tattooer, I worked at the Mercy Seat in Kansas City. I worked for a shop in Ukiah, California. And then I worked for Providence Tattoo in Providence, and now I work at Anchor Steam in Newport. So only four. Damn, that's awesome.
00:42:20
Speaker
exceptionally shortlist, I think, for a tattooer on it. Yeah, yeah. That was something that Connor and I had talked about is like, you know, I feel like most tattoo artists take a while to like, find their home. And it's like, oh, you know, they'll bounce around to a shop for a year or two and go to another one. But that's that's gnarly. You kind of found that so quick. Yeah, you know, the first shop I worked at was kind of like a real like, I mean, they brought me into it.
00:42:49
Speaker
That's like the family. Yeah, totally. Yeah. And then the first shop was just kind of like, what do you call that? Is that your journeyman phase? You know, your first job? Yeah, right. Yeah. And then Providence is really where I like kind of had to like, you know, get it together and become a real tattooer who wasn't going to work.
00:43:20
Speaker
Um, so I was going to shift to the next, uh, bit of this here. And I was going to ask you about Hunter Thompson, a mutual, uh, person that, that we share. So interested in pointed that out because I wouldn't even say that that was like a cell, uh, uh, influence. But when I look at it, I'm like,
00:43:59
Speaker
To our listeners Peter has posted this Thompson quote every New Year's Eve For some years running now. I'm gonna pull the quote just so that everyone can know we're talking about here. I
00:44:16
Speaker
Hunter Thompson, journalist. The police determine who whoops it up on New Year's Eve 99 and who doesn't. Law enforcement, wisdom anticipates chaos, curfews, and riots. Criminals will run amok. Misinformed SWAT teams will attack the guilty and innocent alike. Professional advice says stay home, lock doors, douse lights, don't answer the phone. Happy New Year. Right? Real poetry. Real poetry.
00:44:45
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely. Is 100 times it is totally a real solid influence. Because I think I saw two things when I went to this second college I went to I went to Montserrat College of Art at first.
00:45:00
Speaker
and I transferred to University of Connecticut and I did Professor Shane Teeter. God bless him. He's probably the reason for all my fucking problems. That's what he posited. That's the professor you could have. We had like four texts that we used in class I can remember. The Death of Superman comic book.
00:45:28
Speaker
oh no no wait the killing joke no no it was yeah the no no no wait what's the frank miller batman dark night dark night uh the frank yeah it's a dark night so we read that darkness on the edge of town the springsteen album solid
00:45:51
Speaker
uh and uh i guess i can only come up three black elk speaks was like the third one so i read black elk speaks and in that it's like the story of this like young native american kind of coming up during like sort of like uh maybe like uh i mean really in the heat of maybe like uh
00:46:13
Speaker
like Trail of Tears kind of period, just like poor organization of Native Americans. But it's also him coming up in like the spirituality. So it's a lot about like having visions and like sweat lodges and stuff and that kind of thing captured my mind, right? So I remembered I read Siddhartha and then I had to write a, I wrote a paper for that class about that. And I kind of got into like kind of Eastern spirituality, like real hard. That's when I got a little more into meditation stuff. I got into tiktok.
00:46:41
Speaker
And I really fucking, what do you say? Turned on, tuned in, and fucking dropped out. Oh, hell yeah.
00:46:50
Speaker
And I, at some point, saw Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and read Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. And I was like, what the fuck? And then I read a Fear and Loathing on the campaign trail. And I just got deep into Hunter Thompson. I was like, what? And then, again, I noticed he was this guy who was just doing the gnarliest shit. But he was dressed in the most innocuous way. He just looked like some blue blood from,
00:47:19
Speaker
Where at? Right. Well, he was a prep too. Yeah. Right. Like the short shorts, the minimal sneakers, the kind of preppy army man. He's going hunting. Maybe he's going fishing. He's going to the country club. Yeah. And like really about it, you know, really live in that life. But at the same time, really being like about some different policies. Oh, totally. Because you know, you know Newman Street, right? Newman Street Vintage?
00:47:49
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, yeah. He just got that Hunter coat, which is like something that I didn't, I mean, I knew that it existed. I didn't know like having seen it on him in pictures. I didn't know that it was a consumer good. Oh, I didn't know that. Yeah, it was made by Abercrombie and Bitch. He just got one. Oh, wow.
00:48:10
Speaker
Yeah, isn't that insane? I thought that thing was fucking custom. Yeah, me too. They were selling that shit in the 60s and early 70s when they were still a safari outfitter. It's kind of wild just to think about that, that that was a good that was sold on a mass scale.
00:48:32
Speaker
Right, yeah, yeah, amazing. You said they cost like four G's, Matt? Yeah, I would assume somewhere between three and four retail at this point.
00:48:42
Speaker
I mean, I'm sure it was like $25 or something back in the day. It was probably all made of scraps. It's also hilarious to me that Hunter S. Thompson is the poster child for that exact jacket when it's like, oh, he was just a dude that had his own thing and did whatever the fuck he wanted to do, like no real rhyme or reason. Yeah, yeah.
00:49:11
Speaker
but definitely, definitely like that idea of like looking super traditional and super. Oh, it's super cool. Yeah. I mean, you know, him hanging out with the healthy.
00:49:23
Speaker
Yeah, you know, exactly. It sort of allows you to get away with stuff. Totally. It does. Like credibility, you know, like I think of like the things I've like, the places I've been, man, in the situations I've been in. And I'm like, wow, I wonder if that would have like, popped off like that if I wasn't in that shirt. Right. Right. So you told us you traveled a good bit, right? Like,
Impact of International Travel
00:49:52
Speaker
kind of out of the country and how do you feel like, you know, your experiences, which like, I'd love to hear a few of the places and whatnot, but like how, you know, how did seeing other places and cultures and things kind of inform your, both your style and like your, you know, political attitude and just kind of personal journey?
00:50:17
Speaker
okay okay yeah that's interesting so i would say there's two like two trips that do both do one of those things maybe both of those things so when i was like uh like 20 i lived still in boston i lived at the zen temple and one of the other resident students at the zen temple was from india and i moved in and say like november in like december
00:50:45
Speaker
We were already like fast friends to Stupa. He's like still one of my closest friends like in the world. He lives in India now. But we had been friends for like maybe like a month and he was like, I'm going back to India in January. You should come. And I was like, what?
00:51:05
Speaker
That I go to India, but I was like I remember going home for Christmas and like being like to my parents I was like I met this dude from India and he's like you should come I'm going to like visit my family should come to India like lives at the Sun Temple I was like should I do it and my parents were like Yeah, I think you probably should like this is kind of like probably like a once-in-a-lifetime thing like you know somebody from India and
00:51:31
Speaker
Oh, yeah. You know, somebody from India might take a chance if you want to do it, like, well, like help you do it, like, do it, you know. And so, yeah, I like had to get like a visa. I remember it was like such short notice. I had to go to New York to the Indian Indian consulate to like get my visas in person and like come back to Boston. And yeah, I went to India for like a month when I was 20 and I had never been
00:52:01
Speaker
I'd been out of the country, I'd been to Canada, I'd been to like the West Indies, but not to like the fucking other side of the world, South Asia. Like I just got off the plane in fucking Delhi and it was like, okay. You have truly traveled to the other side of the world, but it was great. It was like one of the best trips, but it was like definitely informed my politics because
00:52:30
Speaker
It was like, you're like, okay, other people don't all live exactly like in like the suburbs in a fucking house with like a two car garage and like, you know, the streets ain't all paved. The infrastructure, like, you know, like in India, like at least back then it was like, you know, you'd walk past something and be like, that looks like it's like from 1945.
00:53:01
Speaker
Like a fan in the airport or like part of the airport or whatever and it was just like it was eye-opening, you know to say the least, you know My friend's dad was like worked for the government like but not like was like some pencil pusher like he I Couldn't even tell you to this day what he did, but we had like a driver. Oh, wow the entire
00:53:23
Speaker
India. When you like pictures of India, at least back then, there's these white cars called ambassadors that we were like kind of shoveled around in, in the city. When we would go like from city to city, it would be like a convoy of like Jeeps. And like the local dignitaries of that town would like come out with like a basket of sweets and like stuff for like his dad and like walk him around like the town and then like, have breakfast and then we would go do whatever we're gonna
00:53:54
Speaker
oh wow yeah that doesn't sound like the normal indian visit experience no was not the normal trip to india like when we would go to like temples it was like the like priest dudes would come out with like the local dignitaries and like take us like a special way through the temple i was like what is going on
00:54:14
Speaker
It was amazing. It was a beautiful trip. We would walk down the street in his hometown and somebody he moved from high school would be like, you got to come in. And that person's mom would fix us whatever kind of food she had to offer.
00:54:31
Speaker
in like we'd have to sit there and eat for like 20 minutes and they'd talk and we'd like walk 10 feet down the road and some other guy that knew him from elementary school would be like, you got to come in my mom and like she would like fix us a meal and we like eat. It was just like a 12 hour day. Oh, Jesus.
00:54:49
Speaker
for, you know, a month in India and it was, you know, formative. Because I came back to Boston and that was what Ralph Nader, the Duke, running for president. And that was the first time I voted. So maybe my years are off, but somewhere around there. And that was the beginning of me being like kind of a super leftist kind of
00:55:18
Speaker
type person. Yeah. Oh, yeah. So that puts you over the edge. Focus around that time. Do you guys know that book? It's like a Kurt Vonnegut book. But what is the book? Hocus Pocus. Yeah, I know it. But I have not read. Yeah, same. It begins with a Dean Debs quote.
00:55:36
Speaker
And I read that book and I had that Eugene Debs quote. What is it? If there's a lower class, I'm in it. If there's a criminal element, I'm of it. While there's a soul in prison, I am not free. And it just like blew me away. And I just got into like Debs and I got into like history of like workers in the country. And like, that was like a period in Boston where you could like literally walk down the street and like, like Howard Zinn or fucking Noam Chomsky would walk. Right. Yeah.
00:56:05
Speaker
at MIT, I saw Howard Zun speak. I think at MIT, I saw Cornel West speak in that period. Ralph Nieder, it was just that early Bush years. It was a weird mishmash. They were trying to find a unified voice on the left, and there were voices. And they kept getting shut down, which would
00:56:31
Speaker
The more things change, the more they stay. And they're so good at it. They're so fucking good at it. Yeah, it's wild. I wanted to ask about the weed trimming in California and specifically about what it was like to be a young person under the Bush regime.
Weed Trimming During Bush Administration
00:56:59
Speaker
because I was under the Bush regime too, but I was a kid, I was super conscious, but it didn't affect me, right? I wasn't an adult. Yeah, it's crazy because I'll tell you what's interesting about that. It's interesting to see where we need it and everything has come to me now. Because back then, again, it's something that's kind of like, maybe jokingly in the blood, my uncle,
00:57:28
Speaker
moved out to California. He was just talking to him the other day in 679, 78ish. And he had a friend up in Garberville that was like a real fucking OG. I mean, you're talking about growing in the 70s. Yeah, right. They're super illegal. But when it was just like a fucking real like wild, wild, wild fucking west, because when I moved out, there was like wild,
00:58:02
Speaker
It's still fucking wild as fuck out there. Don't get it fucking wrong. That Emerald Triangle is no joke. But yeah, so during the Bush years, it was crazy. I mean, it was just absolutely insane. It was like more gray market than it is now because there was allegedly medical growing. Right.
00:58:25
Speaker
There was allegedly regulations around said medical growing, but it was kind of different everywhere and kind of super gray. Like there was like already kind of that dispensary in San Francisco, but it was still getting rated all the time. That original one, I can't remember what it's called, like Harbor side, like the dude with like the, he always had like a pork pie hat on with like two long pigtails, kind of like Willie Nelson style, but he would have- Sounds about right.
00:58:55
Speaker
And they would just get busted all the time, but they were kind of like real activists about it. And so yeah, that was the time. It was like, people were growing crazy amounts of weed, but it was like, at the same time, you would get a phone call, you'd be like at somewhere, at a grow, and you'd get a phone call like, we just saw like seven black SUVs go up.
00:59:20
Speaker
such and such road and people from that neighborhood would have to fucking ditch in some fucking way or another. The first year went out there. I still swear to god I have like PTSD from it. I got like my friends were like oh this this guy he's like old hippies like real old school he's cool he like needs some people up in this town just a little bit away. I'm gonna admit all the
00:59:46
Speaker
pertinent information because I'm still weird. Of course. Yeah, no worries. We've been out to this land. There's probably four of us that are going to work. No, there was probably six of us then, four guys and two girls. We stopped at this one spot and they're like, okay, this is where the girls trim. I was like, okay, this is a little weird. All right.
01:00:08
Speaker
And then they drive us up like the side of a fucking mountain. It looks like you're suddenly like you went to fucking Bolivia or something. Where is fucking civilization? We're driving to the middle of fucking nowhere. And we finally get up this place and it's a little more turfed out. There's a cabin.
01:00:35
Speaker
big like a kind of like Quonset hut kind of building and then like kind of like a warehouse kind of tin kind of building there like we go in there and it's just like racked up with weed just jammed in fucking weed like there's like six dudes we're gonna trim for like
01:00:51
Speaker
the next two weeks or whatever. There's like one kid cooking for us. It's like these two kids from Chicago, these two dudes from England, like a dude from Israel. No, two dudes from Israel and me and this other American dude. Like some shit where one day we're trimming, right? And you just hear like the sound, right? And you're like, what is that? And then
01:01:18
Speaker
no question it's the sound of a helicopter and you're like huh and then the helicopter is getting closer and you're like that's closer than i've ever heard a helicopter in my fucking entire life like i've never and i've like been to air shows where there was a fucking helicopter
01:01:35
Speaker
helicopter is fucking on top of this fucking building at this point like you can see the like little building starting to like shake a little from the fucking helicopter and one of the dudes gets up and like cracks the door and looks and the helicopter is just hovering above the fucking building we're in that is rammed with probably 500 pounds of like marijuana in process Jesus
01:02:00
Speaker
And then we all just sit there and stare at each other and the helicopter gets quieter and quieter and quieter and just goes fucking away There was this kid there one of the kids from Chicago running the scene and he had a backpack on The fucking entire time. It's like a fucking 7 a.m. I see he's got a backpack on 9 at night. He's got a backpack on and
01:02:23
Speaker
Anytime he had a backpack on. And I'm like, why do you always wear that backpack? What's in it? He's like, I was at a scene like a month ago that got raided. And he's like, I was taking a shower and everything was cool. And he's like, and I came out of the shower and flip-flops in a towel and there was black SUVs everywhere and I started running. He's like, and I ran into the woods and I kept running. And there was a helicopter following me. Oh, shit.
01:02:53
Speaker
He would look up and there would be a helicopter and he'd run and run and run and he'd look up and the helicopter was still there. He got into a hollow tree and stood up in there in a towel. He had lost his flip flops at this point. He said it turned from day to night and the helicopter stopped searching.
01:03:10
Speaker
He hung out in the tree until morning came. He said he almost froze to death. He said he walked out until he found a fire road. And he's just in a towel, mind you. Barefoot, in a towel, has spent the night in overnight woods. And he said he walked and walked. And he said finally a pickup truck came along and he flagged it down and it was some logger who gave him a ride to town.
01:03:33
Speaker
And now he wears a backpack with everything he needs to like survive if you run. Holy shit, dude. He's got to go back. He's got to go back. That's one of the craziest fucking stories. That's insane. Yeah, so that was the early years of that. It was like fucking crazy. It was literally like
01:03:59
Speaker
You were like, it's cool. I'm like making $400 a day to trim this week. Right. But it could be wrong at any moment, you know, and it was like, and it was because it was the end of the Bush era during some of it. It was like they were hyper prosecuted. Right. Yeah. It was like some kind of urgency to it. You like the new.
01:04:22
Speaker
It wasn't going to be conservative. They knew a Democrat was going to be elected. Yeah. Yeah. And they were like, we got to fucking roast this shit and make a fucking example. And then, yeah, it was like it changed. And you couldn't even. Yeah, I mean, it's unbelievable to me now. Yeah, because I mean, if you think about it, that wasn't even that long ago.
01:04:44
Speaker
like, you know, 14, 15 years, or, you know, maybe a little bit more than that, but like, Jesus Christ. Like, just, I mean, Georgia is going to be the last state in the union to legalize probably.
01:04:58
Speaker
But, you know, like, just, uh, no, no, there's other states down there. I don't know, man. Tennessee has medical now. Like there's a few other, you know, a few other like super red, Kentucky and Mississippi.
01:05:14
Speaker
right but like Oklahoma yeah Oklahoma does too that's like unfathomable to me because when I went to Kansas City the first time my friends told me a story about them driving the fucking Oklahoma some fucking car full of perfectly good white boys and they were basically like if you can avoid it in your fucking life
01:05:36
Speaker
don't ever go to Oklahoma. It was not okay. I think that's good advice. When I saw that they had medical in Oklahoma, I was like, I must be misreading. This is fucking insane. It's like a mortal fear of the state of Oklahoma. It's one of the few states I haven't been to. I think it's only Oklahoma, South Dakota and North Dakota I haven't been to.
01:06:05
Speaker
You should probably avoid the Dakotas also I've never been but just you know Maybe like I don't know there might be a little bit a little bit of goodness One of the most informative experience it's like have you guys ever driven across country? Yeah, like it's so wild I think most realize a how much of the country is like completely fucking empty
01:06:33
Speaker
Like anybody who says anything about overpopulation in this country has never found their neighborhood. Cause that's a fucking insane fucking thought. Like this country is so fucking vast and 80% fucking empty. And then that like most people, I would say live in a fucking trailer park or like a double wide trailer on like a private piece of land. Once you get outside of any major suburban area
Observations on America's Emptiness
01:06:59
Speaker
on either that is
01:07:02
Speaker
basically on the East Coast or the West Coast. Because once you're in, I mean, fuck man, I can't even think of the places like Wyoming, when I drove across Arizona, like New Mexico, once you're not in a major area, it's just like sort of some sort of industrial processing plant, a series, a couple of houses, a store, a series of double watch.
01:07:29
Speaker
And then vast expanse of nothing. That's a large amount of the United States. How many states have more cows than people? There's a handful at least. And it's like, holy shit. I mean, that's the truly insane thing about the United States. It's kind of ruled by people who live, not many people who live in a giant empty area.
01:07:55
Speaker
You probably never left that giant empty area. Oh, dude. Yup. Oh, God. And they're mad at people who live in crampopulaces who've never been to this giant empty area. Right.
01:08:11
Speaker
God bless America. This has been a really funny conversation. So I was going to ask you one more. I don't know, hearing the stories and everything. I think we've talked about clothes. We've talked about clothes with everything, I think. Yeah, dude. But if you have more to say about clothes, then we are happy to hear it. Yeah. I mean, as far as this goes. Because the one that I was going to ask you,
01:08:42
Speaker
Oh, I was just gonna say like, you know, I feel like Connor and I both had the idea that this is about clothes, at least peripherally. But like, it's kind of like the accoutrement of the interview that there's clothing talk. Like it's it's about the person. It's the intersection of all of it. Oh, yeah, exactly. Exactly. Yeah. It's the intersection of all of it. And so like, I don't want to talk about Alan Fluster's address a man, you know, I want to talk about
01:09:12
Speaker
Right. How Peter likes to wear a button up shirt while he's tattooing. You know, like that's the kind of shit that I want to get into. Right. Right. Well, how Peter how Peter goes mountain climbing in cactus. Exactly. Exactly. That's the that's the info that we wanted. Yep. And so I'm going to ask you now, as a man with many plats, what is your favorite plats? I mean,
01:09:39
Speaker
I would be, what is it? Uh, Blackwatch. Mine too. Yeah. Good call, dude. That's like kind of like, that's like my, that's like, yeah, that's like a family inside joke in my family. Like we all wear that. So good. It has its own name. Yep. I mean, it's just Blackwatch in particular is such an easy thing to wear.
01:10:07
Speaker
like it goes with basically everything. It doesn't make you look like a fucking 70s game show host. It's just, you know, it's just solid, man. I think it's understated. It's understated. It's very strong. Yeah. Yeah. I think I would be in the black watch cam as my favorite also. No one can argue. No. Um,
01:10:33
Speaker
Well, we want to thank you a ton for being on the show. I don't want to take you away from your life. I think that this has been a very, very good interview. And I'm sure that you will see us around. I was going to give you a chance to pitch whatever you wanted, if you want. Well, shout out to your your tattoo Instagram at least. You can spend the most contest, you know, I think that's kind of
01:11:03
Speaker
That's kind of the thing that worries me in menswear these days. I feel like when I started in menswear, it was really oriented towards, it wasn't about, look at this rich guy's wardrobe. I sometimes feel like it is now. I started out with things like put this on and an affordable wardrobe and that kind of thing. It really was about street etiquette
01:11:29
Speaker
It was about thrifting, you know? And there was some transition point where it kind of just became like pictures of some rich industrialist wardrobe. And it's like, yeah, well, if you could spend $80,000 a year on clothing, you're going to look probably pretty fucking fantastic. I won't lie.
01:11:53
Speaker
But I don't think that's very fun, you know? Not at all. No. It's very like a democratic, you know, or very fair. And I think that that's like, that's like what I like to see in menswear is like people who are like, you know, they look sharp as fuck, but it's not just because they went and like, rammed up their credit card and are gonna have to sell it in six months because they fucking really couldn't afford it. Exactly.
01:12:22
Speaker
That's my final thought. Intuit. Intuit. Yeah. Long live. Well, Matt. Being an affordable wardrobe. Yes. Yeah. Which is a great blog, which is a great blog. A cute style. Oh, dude. Yeah. I haven't looked at that dude's stuff in forever, but he was always super chill and style for him. So.
01:12:47
Speaker
I need to revisit. And just a good idea. Here's an outfit for under a hundred bucks. Exactly. Exactly. Well, Peter, what's your tattoo? Well, it was excellent to hear from you, man. Yeah. Cheers anytime. Absolutely. Signing off.