[00:16] Meg: Welcome to Desperately Seeking the 80s. I am Meg, and this is Guy filling in for Jessica as part of our subbing in series. Welcome.

[00:27] Guy: Hi. How are you?

[00:28] Meg: I am very well. I'm very, very grateful that you are here. Most of you will know that we first met Guy Richard Smit when we posted a photo of you. I don't even know if you remember this. We posted a photo of you when you were 16 years old in your band, when you were playing at CBGB Sundays. And you saw it and you reached out and you said, that's me. What?

[00:55] Guy: Is that how.

[00:57] Meg: That's how it worked? That's what happened. And I was like, what? What do you mean that's you? That's crazy.

[01:04] Guy: Oh, man. Yeah.

[01:05] Meg: And then we ended up interviewing you for field trip number seven, which was super fun. The rest is history. I can link to that. If people haven't heard that. That was, like, two years ago that we did.

[01:17] Guy: That was it. We did it in the holiday cocktail lounge.

[01:20] Meg: Yes, we did. And it was around Halloween time because I was in cost.

[01:24] Guy: You were dressed up as a purple lady?

[01:26] Meg: Yes, I was a character from Adventure Time. And I was on my way to a Halloween party, and I was in full costume, and we sat there in cocktail. In the holiday cocktail lounge. Ah, East Village.

[01:38] Guy: Yes.

[01:38] Meg: Very accepting.

[01:39] Guy: Yes.

[01:40] Meg: But just so you guys know, Guy is a singer and a songwriter and a painter and a performance artist. And is this accurate to say a political cartoonist?

[01:52] Guy: I guess that's the stuff that's taking off. I'm a. Yeah. A gag cartoonist for the New Yorker, and I've been doing those. Been learning to do those. Those have been my fascination now.

[02:05] Meg: What did you just call it? A gag cartoon. Gag cartoonist.

[02:09] Guy: That's the sort of single panel cartoon. Gag cartoon. You know, the idea of, like, everything happening in one little spot.

[02:16] Guy: Okay.

[02:17] Guy: One, One. One image, one caption.

[02:19] Meg: Now, of course, I follow you, and so I see all of your cartoons as you release them on Instagram, and it's like, the highlight of my day. Do you do it, like, every day?

[02:29] Guy: Practically every day.

[02:30] Meg: That's it.

[02:30] Guy: Every day? Yeah. Yeah.

[02:31] Meg: All right, well, we'll definitely be linking to that, too.

[02:33] Guy: Discipline.

[02:34] Meg: Like, do you make one every single day?

[02:36] Guy: I'll do, like, I did three today.

[02:38] Meg: Whoa.

[02:39] Guy: Yeah.

[02:39] Meg: Including the captions.

[02:41] Guy: No, no, the captions. I don't know where the captions are. The captions did not appear. They haven't crystallized. They didn't. I don't know what the hell the captions are yet.

[02:51] Meg: So you come up with the image first.

[02:53] Guy: I'll have little scenarios in my head, and I'll think to myself, okay, you know, it'd be interesting. What did I do today? I did a bunch of people in front of a crazy performance piece.

[03:03] Meg: Okay.

[03:04] Guy: And actually, I have a caption for that, and it is. Well, I can't. I can't share it. But. But that one I did figure out the caption for. But then there's another. Like, some people on a stage, and they're having kind of one of those, like, pretentious art conversations. And I don't know what they're going to say, but it'll come at some point. And then there's someone looking at. They were all art ones today.

[03:24] Meg: Very exciting. Cool. Well, let's get started. I'm excited to hear what you have to say about my story today because the timing is kind of crazy. So. Yeah, let's do it. So, Guy, you grew up in New York City.

[03:48] Guy: I did.

[03:49] Meg: In the 80s, I did. You're a New York kid.

[03:51] Guy: Yes.

[03:52] Meg: Did you listen to the radio?

[03:54] Guy: Yes.

[03:55] Meg: In the mornings when you were getting ready for school. Okay, what do you remember the station?

[03:59] Guy: It was W. Lir. And then it turned into wdre.

[04:02] Meg: Okay, so you were a cool kid. So you listened to wd.

[04:05] Guy: But there was wplg. Wplj. That was the rock one.

[04:09] Meg: Exactly.

[04:10] Guy: And there was a country one, briefly.

[04:12] Meg: I also remembered wcbs. It was like the oldies station that always depressed me because it was too old.

[04:21] Guy: It was too old.

[04:22] Meg: It's like, from the 60s and 70s, or not even 70s. It was like the 50s and 60s. A lot of doo wop, huh?

[04:29] Guy: You could sense that some of the people in the outer boroughs really enjoyed it.

[04:33] Meg: Yeah.

[04:33] Guy: But it was not for me.

[04:34] Meg: No, it was like the Boomer station, for sure. And wplj. My memory is that that was like, you know, cool kids listen to that, but really cool kids listen to lir. Yeah, that was like Depeche Mode and, you know, totally bringing all the stuff over the pond to us.

[04:58] Guy: Yeah, exactly. And they would constantly advertise for Honda of Mineola.

[05:03] Meg: I love that you just mentioned the commercials. Yeah. Because I'm. Okay, I'm gonna now embarrass myself. When I was probably in middle school, before I was in high school, I would listen to talk radio.

[05:19] Guy: Really?

[05:19] Meg: I listened to am and my. I know it's a little bit embarrassing. And look, I am. I'm making that public announcement right now, turning red right in front of you. I listened. And the reason why I listened to talk Radio was. Because I think my radio only went to am. I think I had a crappy radio.

[05:38] Guy: Oh, right.

[05:39] Meg: And most of the talk radio was on am. And I. Yeah, I listened to Imus in the Morning.

[05:46] Guy: Oh, that was a thing. Wasn't he wpl? Wasn't he plj?

[05:53] Meg: He was wnbc. And it was. And he started on am. He moved around. It was a journey.

[06:02] Guy: Right.

[06:03] Meg: But in the early 80s, he was on Amazon Radio.

[06:08] Guy: What a weird phenomenon.

[06:10] Meg: Yeah. And that's what we're going to talk about today.

[06:12] Guy: Okay.

[06:13] Meg: A little bit of Imus in the Morning.

[06:15] Guy: All right.

[06:16] Meg: All right. My sources are New York Magazine, Vanity Fair, New York Times, and BFF of the podcast. Tom wrote in a while ago asking if we would cover shock jocks. And at some point, we did talk about Howard Stern a little bit, but we really didn't dive in properly. And so instead of doing that, I decided to do sort of the precursor to Howard Stern. Who is Imus. Imus in the Morning.

[06:49] Guy: And I feel like maybe I'm wrong, but was Howard Stern on with Imus?

[06:54] Meg: Yes, he was. Yes, he was Indeed.

[06:57] Guy: Okay.

[06:58] Meg: On April 1981, WNBC AM took another chance on Don Imus renewing his contract for five years at $500,000 a year, plus bonuses if his ratings topped the projections. The notorious shot jock had been fired not for his offensive language or for insulting his boss on the air or even for being an incorrigible alcoholic whose work ethic was erratic at best, but simply because the station changed format when they changed back and wanted their crass ratings getter. Don promised to behave and returned from his very brief stint in Cleveland, where he'd been able to get a job for a couple of years. Imus promised to behave within reason because his antics are why he was so very popular. I Miss in the Morning featured skits with characters like Billy Sol Hargis, an evangelical preacher and owner of Holy Land Amusement Park, Blessings and Moby Worm. Do you remember that? This I did remember. Moby Worm would eat a different high school every morning, so kids would call in and say, hey, would you have Moby Worm eat my high school?

[08:22] Guy: Oh, that's brilliant.

[08:23] Meg: It kind of is. There'd be a breaking news update, and he'd play the Jaws theme, and then Moby Worm would eat a random high school. He also joked around with regular guests like his brother. Imus asked him, his brother, why, since he hated his ex wife, did he name his beloved dog and donkey after her? His brother responded, well, one's a bitch and the other's an ass. So that kind of humor.

[08:52] Guy: Yeah. Very sophisticated, Cosmopolitan.

[08:56] Meg: Very much so. Life magazine called him the most outrageous disc jockey anywhere. He insulted his bosses and made fun of sponsors. Irish airlines pulled their ads after Imus said protestants have to ride coach. He insulted so many groups of people based on race, gender, religion, sexual orientation that it became very much a part of his brand. New York magazine said listening to Imus was, quote, like being stuck in a classroom with a bunch of prepubescent boys while the teacher is out of the room. Imus lets the educated male who grew up in the 60s and was taught not to judge women simply by the size of their breasts be, for one glorious moment of his day, an unreconstructed chauvinist pig. It gives him the chance once more to be a little boy and to laugh at jokes about boners. And every normal man would like just once in his life to call his boss Pizza Face, as Imus calls his station manager. So who was this audience? Imus in the Morning, which ran from 5:30am to 10am when people were on their way to work, was the most popular show for men 25 to 54, making over $100,000, the demographic that advertisers were most interested in attracting. But his humor wasn't just sophomoric. He also threw in some hot political takes, along with parodies of parodies of misogynists, racists, homophobes, inarticulate baseball players, and totying politicians. Okay, so when I was preparing for this, you can go on YouTube and listen to one of the episodes. And I was like, why didn't I remember him being so offensive? It just kind of washed over me. I didn't really catch it. I was listening. He was a disc jockey, so I was just listening for, like, the. Whatever, the top 40 music that he was playing. But every once in a while, if you're really listening closely, you hear him sort of refer to somebody who I didn't even know he would call her a gorilla. But, like, that went over my head at the time, but I think it didn't go over the head of some people who were that demographic. Yeah, like grown men.

[11:25] Guy: Yeah.

[11:26] Meg: So just sort of interesting. Some of his attitudes surprised his agro fan base. He supported abortion rights and was against naming rape victims. Imus was not the first shock jock in the 50s and 60s. Joe Pine. Ever heard of him?

[11:43] Guy: No.

[11:44] Meg: Me neither. Insulted callers with lines like go gargle with razor blades and if your brains were dynamite, you Couldn't blow your nose.

[11:58] Guy: You can't write that. That just. That just comes from somewhere.

[12:03] Meg: But the 80s were really the golden age of the genre, thanks to Don Imus and Howard Stern, who joined WNBC in 1982.

[12:13] Guy: Okay.

[12:14] Meg: These two guys did not get along and regularly insulted each other on their shows while the station tried to capitalize on their feud. Imus wasn't a heavy drinker in his youth, but he started drinking on the job and it took. He considered himself shy and needed a little help to get through lunches with clients. When he got rehired by wnbc, he started doing cocaine as well.

[12:40] Guy: You know, the two of those things together are like magic.

[12:44] Meg: Oh, it was. His cocaine habit only lasted a couple of years. This is what he said about cocaine. Cocaine was fun for the first couple lines. Then you run out. You never plan ahead. You always run out. But cocaine dealers are the second most irresponsible people on the planet. Really. You can't get a hold of them. The guy says he'll be here with the coke in an hour and it's three hours. Oh, fuck it. Too big a hassle. He may have quit cocaine in 1983, but he kept up with the vodka. He was a mess on and off the air. Friends had to go over and clean up his apartment. Periodically, he would show up at work without his shoes on. He would pass out in his office when he was supposed to be on air. He would strip down to his underwear screaming and yelling. He pissed in a phone booth. He slept on a park bench with thousands of dollars stuffed in his pocket. Once he was in Nashville and wanted to go to New Orleans, and instead of getting a cab to the airport, he bought a Cadillac to drive there and abandoned it at the drop off when he visited his friend Kinky Friedman in Texas. This is a quote from Kinky. He went swimming. His face looked like a death mask floating on the water. He really looked over. I thought, this is the end. But Imus went to rehab just in time to save his life. And after a nine day vodka binge, he checked into Hazelden and it worked. But his sobriety didn't soften his blows. And in fact, I would argue that he became more irascible after, like in sort of the later 80s. He was also known for his philanthropy. In the 90s, Imus and his new wife. It's spelled Deirdre, but I think it's pronounced Deidra. Anyway, they were very involved in children's cancer charities and raised millions for veterans of the war in Iraq. And he was very well respected by regular guests. Tim Russert, Andrea Mitchell, Tom Bruckell, Cokie Roberts. He was like the Oprah of political radio. If you wanted to sell your historical memoir, you needed to get on his show. And for the most part, people overlooked his incendiary and deeply offensive language. But it started to pile up. Do you know some of the awful things that he did?

[15:07] Guy: Well, I remember, like much later in his career where it's when he made fun of the women's basketball players and stuff. Yes. What years were those?

[15:18] Meg: That's coming up.

[15:19] Guy: That's like the 2000s, right?

[15:21] Meg: Exactly. So that's what I mean. I think it actually started to pile up.

[15:25] Guy: But I remember, you know, you'd see he was also sort of on television for some reason. I just remember always thinking, like, what is this guy still? How does this guy still work?

[15:35] Meg: Right? Because his heyday was definitely the 80s for some reason. I mean, people didn't really cancel people then.

[15:44] Guy: No.

[15:45] Meg: Okay, now, remember Howard Stern in 1984 on air, he called Howard Stern, quote, a Jew bastard who should be castrated, put in an oven. He referred to black sports columnist Bill Rhoden as a New York Times quota hire. Many reported his frequent use of the N word. He frequently referred to Arabs as ragheads. He called Robin Quivers, Howard Stern's sidekick, a spearchucker on air and regularly used derogatory language to describe women and homosexuals. I mean, that was just like on the regular. The final straw came in 2007, and this is what you were just referring to when he called the Rutgers University women's basketball team nappy headed hoes. After that, Imus finally was canceled his show. He died in December 2019 of lung disease. Back in 1991, he told New York magazine, I have the luxury of being able to say anything I want. Who else does? Tom Brokaw? Someone who works for the Times? Come on, Paul Newman and I could be down at this spic and span market and I can promise you people would come and talk to me quicker. Now, the reason I thought, wow, the timing of this story is telling is because Jimmy Kimmel was canceled for nothing close to that.

[17:32] Guy: Nothing, nothing. He was not canceled for anything but making fun of Trump.

[17:37] Guy: Right.

[17:38] Meg: And also, you know, considering what you do for a living, I mean, scary times, right?

[17:45] Guy: Yeah, at the same. Yes, absolutely terrifying times. I have a good deal of hope, but days like today are definitely testing them.

[17:59] Meg: It's interesting having grown up during a period of time. I mean, you know, the Howard Stern stuff, the don Imus stuff. We would hear it, and people would be upset about it, and maybe they'd get fined here and there or whatever. And it's appalling. And nobody wants to hear those awful things or. I don't know. I don't. Clearly, there is a demographic that does, like young men and vulgarity. I mean, I. I don't.

[18:27] Guy: You know, there's a. Apparently a demographic that is stuck in their car. And this is something that I never understood because, you know, you and I grew up in the city. We were never in cars. We were on the subway, maybe with a Walkman walk radio thing. I remember friends listening to in school talking about some ridiculous thing that Howard Stern. Howard Stern was saying, and he was always very good at, like, playing both sides a little bit. But apparently there's a demographic of. Of people sitting in their car that just want to. For. First of all, they're sitting in their car for hours. Hour and a half, two hours, commuting. Yeah. And so they think they have, like, they're. They're getting off on this monologue because there's nobody else there. They don't have to be ashamed of what they're listening to.

[19:15] Meg: So they can indulge.

[19:16] Guy: They can indulge, and then they have to get out of the car. And, you know, in those days, they were coming to New York City, most likely, and they have to deal with real people, and that's not fun.

[19:28] Meg: And they have to behave.

[19:29] Guy: Yeah.

[19:30] Meg: Because you can't actually say and do that kind of stuff in front of an actual. But you can laugh to yourself when you're in your car and feel, I don't know, maybe superior to some of the people that are being made fun of.

[19:44] Guy: Yeah. I don't know. I wonder if it's, like, almost a Capri. You know, I often wonder, like, how much Mad magazine has to answer for. Because the idea of that kind of snark and just where, like, when you see. With this killer where they're. You don't even know what they believe because it's just so many layers of irony and cynicism. And I. You know, I'm not attacking Matt. I love Mad magazine. It changed my life. But, you know, there's certain things that. That we grew up with that were sort of like babies of things that could turn into horrible things if not properly used. You know, even the. The kind of anarchic world of punk rock had these weird seeds in them of. Of things that could get really negative really quickly.

[20:35] Meg: It's so interesting that you Bring up Mad magazine. My brother and I were obsessed with Mad magazine. Obsessed. And I'm sure a lot of that humor went over my head, too. But I see what you're saying. It's like, if that kind of humor is a seed and somehow it gets, like, magnified or blown up or pushed into a really ugly place. Yeah, it's not too far. And then what do you do then? I mean, Don Imus, by the way, never claimed to be playing a character. He never apologized for anything that he said, and people were always trying to get him to apologize. And he's like, what? I think that I'm gonna say it. Aren't I allowed to say what I think?

[21:17] Guy: Yeah.

[21:18] Meg: Andrew dies. Clay would. Oh, no. I'm playing a character. Howard Stern has said on occasion that. No, that's not me. That's just a character that I'm playing. What do you think about that?

[21:30] Guy: I mean, there's a certain amount of character playing in everything that one does. Don Imams has just never been interesting to me as a human being. So it's like, I remember the whole Howard Stern phenomenon that happened in the late 80s and then early 90s, and there was a movie about Private Parts. Private Parts, which I never saw. But, you know, there was something. He was very open about where this came from and where he grew up. And it was. But Don Imus, I just. I mean, I guess I just. He just always seemed really like Boomer to me.

[22:01] Meg: So I was listening to, you know, this segment on YouTube of Don Imus in the Morning in 1981, and kind of the coolest thing. I mean, first of all, it brought back so many sense memories. Just the tenor of his voice, you know, I mean, that's just like. It was just in the background. I wasn't even listening to what he was saying. And it was about the traffic. I mean, what do I care about traffic, right? And it was the weather. Yeah. I lived two blocks from school. Not going to affect me anyway. But there's something about just the tone of his voice that I guess became so, like, kind of, like, familiar and comforting. And then all the commercials. There may be five to eight commercials over and over again. So, yeah, that. Just sort of familiarity. But it really made me think, like, how much was I hearing that I didn't realize I was hearing if he was saying that kind of stuff. And it was like, going over my head.

[23:04] Guy: Well, I mean, we grew up in a time. I remember having truly tasteless jokes.

[23:08] Meg: Yeah.

[23:09] Guy: There was already an MAD magazine, certainly, and, like, Kentucky Fried Movie, which was sort of. And like snl, where they were talking about Ray. And so there was certainly National Lampoon, even though it had lost its real force by the time we were reading it. But I think there was a lot of that, kind of like that room for saying and thinking and joking about things that were really dangerous or really hard to process. And living as we do in a city of so many different kinds of people with different traditions and different ways of going about the day. It was. It's kind of wonderful to allow for that space so that everyone can have this kind of ridiculous laugh. I'm sure a lot of that humor. And also, when you're a kid, that's the jokes that kids tell at school.

[24:07] Meg: It's sparkly.

[24:08] Guy: Yeah. There's no reason that it would have struck you as particularly thought provoking or anything, because it was just like, that's just life.

[24:17] Meg: Yeah. But it is. It felt harmless.

[24:21] Guy: Right.

[24:22] Meg: And nowadays it does not feel harmless. It feels very impactful and it feels very damaging.

[24:31] Guy: Yes.

[24:32] Meg: I won't get into the details of it, but this weekend I was. I traveled and I was amongst a bunch of people who I. They're strangers mostly, and somebody started telling truly tasteless jokes, and I was like, well, I'm not gonna stop them. It's none of my business. And somebody else came up to me later and she was like, oh, I saw your eyes sort of widen a little bit. You know, I kind of want to apologize for him and blah, blah, blah. I was like, no, no, no, no. Like, I'm fine. Don't worry about me. But, like, wow, that's not something that I want to hear. I'm in their home, so I'm not going to stop them from doing it.

[25:20] Guy: But, I mean, I think it often has to do with, like, the. The intent, and often you have to suss out the intent.

[25:26] Meg: But he even said that. He said that he was like, if anybody takes offense at this, I don't mean it to be that way. I'm like, right, okay.

[25:36] Guy: Yeah, you better know. I don't know. I mean, I feel that that kind of humor is really important for surviving, especially in a world. But considering what's going on right now, it's also. It's terrifying. And I had that with my kids, and I feel really bad the first time Trump was elected, and I was really, like, super watching it, because I have two sons and I didn't want them to be jerks and I didn't want them to think this, what was happening was okay. You know, and they've, they've grown up to be fantastic kids. But you wonder like. But the thing is, we were allowed that space to do that. And it doesn't, it didn't make me crazy. It didn't make me an asshole.

[26:21] Meg: Yes.

[26:22] Guy: So I think that that's, you know, there are. Human humor provides these basic human needs that are no. In my thoughts are no different than sex or eating or sleep. You need to be able to have play in your brain and think about things in ways that are playful and humorous. And if you're dealing with sophisticated humor where it forces your brain to grow, perhaps the way a novel would, but considering what's happening, and I mean, we grew up in this very safe time, even though New York itself wasn't physically safe. But when you think of like the world order and how in the 90s we thought politics were boring.

[27:07] Meg: It's true, it's true.

[27:10] Guy: We got bored by politics.

[27:12] Meg: I know, like, everybody knows who's gonna win. Why are we even talking about it?

[27:15] Guy: Oh my God. Did he sleep with a woman?

[27:18] Meg: Like, whatever.

[27:20] Guy: Yeah.

[27:20] Meg: And it is interesting because I don't think what Jimmy Kimmel said was at all offensive in any way, shape or form. So if I'm gonna be, if I want him to be able to say that, I kind of gotta be able to stomach all kinds of other stuff that might. I don't know, maybe I don't like it, but too bad for me.

[27:44] Guy: Yeah, absolutely. And I remember reading this thing that Nick Cave said that, you know, he has a lot of trouble. He wrote these sort of murder ballads a lot in the late 80s and he now looks at them and he's really uncomfortable with a lot of them. And he finds himself like watching things on television. I, I have this myself. Well, and I'll be like semi offended or just like a little bit like. And this is like, how did that get on television? Then I realized, like, let's, you know, get over it. It's right. People have been writing songs about murder. And I remember him saying that it was like specifically women that loved his murder ballads.

[28:29] Meg: Gosh, now I want to listen to a Nick Cave murder ballad.

[28:32] Guy: Oh, they're, they're amazing. But it's mostly a man killing a woman.

[28:36] Meg: Uh huh.

[28:36] Guy: Well, it happens, it happens, but. And it's probably similar to the mostly female audience for True Crime.

[28:45] Meg: Interesting.

[28:45] Guy: Yeah. We need to have safe ways to experience life or experience what life could possibly offer, provided you never go to that second location.

[28:59] Meg: Right.

[29:00] Guy: Don't go to the second location. No matter what they tell you.

[29:03] Meg: Yeah.

[29:03] Guy: Never go to the second.

[29:04] Meg: Oh, my God, that's so true. And maybe if we're using that analogy, the second location is some of the stuff that Don Imus was actually saying. I mean, I'm sorry. What he said about the Rutgers women. That's the second location. That is appalling.

[29:20] Guy: Yeah. And that was what the.

[29:22] Meg: And not funny. That's not humor.

[29:23] Guy: It was not funny. And was also punching down. And that was the. The, like, it was punching at kids who were working their asses off.

[29:32] Meg: Seriously.

[29:33] Guy: And who had nothing. You know, were just trying to graduate college. And he's like this guy in it. So that was. That was where he screwed up. You can do anything you want about celebrities or blah, blah, blah, but, like, some kids playing their asses off.

[29:47] Meg: Well, thank you for. On this crazy day, most of the people I ran into today were like, what's happening? Very unmoored by this. I've never even seen Jimmy Kimmel, to be honest.

[30:01] Guy: Oh, really?

[30:01] Meg: No, I don't. He's just not my fang. But this. Yeah, this is unsettled. And we're back.

[30:21] Guy: Good to be back. So I wanted to talk about, you know, growing up in the 80s as a cultural kid, and there are a couple of things that were really iconographic for me or just really, really important. New York at the time was a place where a lot of music was happening. Bands. Hundreds and hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of bands. But when you think about it, like, all these kids were growing up in apartment buildings. Very rarely did they have a basement. And there was really only one place where if you were a kid in a band and you didn't have much money, you could go and rehearse. And that was a place called Giant Studios. And Giant Studios was founded in. It was in. In 1979 on 38th street, the West side. It was in. In the. Like. I remember across the street, there were furriers. And it was at that whole. Furrier's Row.

[31:22] Meg: Seriously, it's so crazy.

[31:23] Guy: Yeah.

[31:24] Meg: Like, Furrier's Row is right next to a dress form row. There's, like, a row where it's just. Every single storefront is dress forms.

[31:35] Guy: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And the furries were all, like. Their big thing was, like, cold storage. They'd offer cold storage. But I. I'm sure that that was already a thing of the past. I mean, everyone's mom had one.

[31:48] Meg: My mom had to put her furs in cold storage.

[31:51] Guy: I don't think my mom ever did, but But I guess I remember that, like.

[31:55] Meg: Yeah, that's. That's what you were supposed to do. I think she had two.

[31:59] Guy: But I remember it was. It was also 38th street was an area that had been. Weirdly, that area had been French, like early days. A French neighborhood. And so there were a number of Catholic churches there that advertised as being in the French style. And then because it was the 80s, it was also crack central.

[32:22] Meg: Oh.

[32:23] Guy: So any case, Giant Sus, it was on a. On an upper floor. And it was a floor of studios that you could get for. I believe there were studios you could get for $10 an hour. And I say this because I seem to remember with four of us, we'd go there, each one of us would have $5 and we could rehearse for two hours that way.

[32:44] Meg: That's wild.

[32:45] Guy: Which is about all a 14 year old can, really.

[32:47] Meg: I mean, honestly, $10 is not cheap then. I mean, it's cheap. I mean, it could have been so much worse. It could have been $50 an hour. But I mean, I'm just thinking about me walking around with cash in my pocket. Like, $10 isn't nothing.

[33:03] Guy: No, no.

[33:05] Meg: How big were the room?

[33:07] Guy: Not much bigger than this room.

[33:08] Meg: Okay.

[33:09] Guy: And they were so crapped out. The drums sounded like crap. The. I remember the. The cymbals were always split, like cracked. The mics smelled terrible. I mean, just awful.

[33:24] Meg: Did you bring your own.

[33:26] Guy: You had to bring your own instruments.

[33:27] Meg: Instruments. But they had speakers and they had speakers.

[33:30] Guy: They would have like a couple guitar amps, a bass amp, and. And some form of pa. You'd have to kind of figure it out for yourself.

[33:40] Meg: Do you remember how you even found out about it?

[33:42] Guy: That's a really good question. I don't. I have. Maybe someone in the band knew about it, but you'd go there and it was all high school bands. So maybe it was someone from high school that. That told us. And it wasn't just high school bands. I mean, I actually saw a list of the bands that rehearsed there and it was. It was like every New York band from the period mostly like all the ska scene and the hardcore scene. The owner was initially a jazz player. So he, he. It started off as a jazz place where people would go rehearse jazz. And it made you feel so serious because the place I think they actually. If I remember correctly, and if there's a listener who remembers, tell me if this is true. There. There was a Coke machine that had been outfitted entirely with Bud. So it was like it was like, you know, so you put in a dollar or whatever and you get a cold bud. Gosh, I'm not sure. I don't think I'm making that up then.

[34:43] Meg: Was it soundproofed? Could you hear the other.

[34:45] Guy: Yeah. So they had the most basic soundproofing. There was like egg cartons. And the doors would have real like canvas, like almost pillows on the doors. And I don't remember how many studios the first iteration had on 38th Street. Maybe eight. And I remember the first time, probably the first time I was there was me and it was a band called Addictive Manifesto. And it was me, Tom Bojour, Gary Wirtz, Tom Bojur, who went on to found Revolver magazine, and Sean Goen. We were just doing Sex Pistols covers and we might have even. I think we even had the Sex Pistols music book. Like some. Cause there was a place you could buy every. Every kind of music book. And I remember getting into the elevator and this band called the Crucifix got on with us. And they were full on, just like super crusty punk. And I remember them looking at us with such disdain and suddenly being embarrassed of this little book.

[35:53] Meg: Oh, no, I can imagine, like, oops.

[35:58] Guy: Because we were just, you know, like getting and having to wait this whole elevator ride while these guys, who's so much cooler than us, judged us, these little 14 year olds. And I think. I think Tom boucher was actually 13 at the time. Then in 1986, they found a spot that was an old sparkle factory.

[36:19] Meg: Like sparklers?

[36:21] Guy: No, they made.

[36:21] Meg: Oh like glitter.

[36:22] Guy: Glitter. Thank you. Glitter. And there they had apparently like 28 Studios. I think they maxed out at like 28 Studios. And they would have parties. And I remember, and I still have. Someone recently sent me a picture of a birthday party that I performed at there. Because they had a whole kind of little venue. Again, super cheap. You could always get a room because they just had so many rooms that you could. You could be like, oh my God, I wonder if there's like maybe we could rehearse later today and you could get a room there. At my house, like I would play my guitar and you know, the amp was like at 2 and you just had to kind of like pretend and to really have that thing. And it was. There was also a good amount of discipline because you only had two hours. So I imagine if you're in the suburbs and you're in someone's basement, you could just screw around for five hours, eight hours, whatever, and not really get around, but you had to really like,

[37:15] Meg: okay, we're going to work on songs, time management. Yeah, no, that's a really good point.

[37:19] Guy: So they were in at. At 14th street until 1992.

[37:24] Meg: 14th. Are you still on the west side?

[37:26] Guy: We're on the west side.

[37:27] Meg: Okay.

[37:27] Guy: The building is still there. It's a school building now. So they're from 86 to 92. And then they moved up to 28th Street. I never went there because at that point I was rosing it. Slightly better studios I still like to this day. It's one of the. My favorite in my mind, a phenomenon. And you constantly meet people who spent a good chunk of their childhood there.

[37:51] Meg: I can imagine, too. Okay. You started this by saying there's so many people making so much music. So many different bands in the city at that time making different kinds of music, too. I mean, there was all kinds of, like, different genres popping up. And if you're in your own, let's say in the suburbs, if you're in your own little silo, in your own little garage or your own little basement somewhere, there's not cross pollination. But if you are hanging out at, like, a nexus of all this sort

[38:19] Guy: of creative energy, rhythms, you're hearing, like, all this stuff happening, I mean, that can. This is the great thing that New York offers.

[38:26] Meg: Yeah, exactly. I mean, that just has to be, like, it. I love that as an example of, you know, a thing that feels like a restriction that we don't have space, that we don't have time, that we don't have, you know, that we have to come up with $10 per hour. Like, all that kind of stuff actually is the thing that ends up being the thing that helps it grow.

[38:49] Guy: Right, right, right, right, right, right. So as I was saying, like, it took five. Like, if there's four of us, five bucks each. So. Five bucks each, even a kid in high school can do. And then you're also not arguing with your parents. And that's, again, the great thing that New York offers kids is that suddenly they're free and they're independent and they're doing this thing. And you're suddenly also. I mean, not just being introduced to different musics, but, like different, you know, people in their 20s, people in their 30s, old jazz dudes, like, well, Crucifix.

[39:20] Meg: Yeah, crucifix. I mean, in that little elevator ride, you are influenced by them in some way, Right?

[39:28] Guy: Battalion of Saints was there one time when we were there, Nausea Regan Youth, who I really worshiped. I remember the Swamp Goblins being There.

[39:37] Meg: I love these names so much.

[39:38] Guy: Yeah. Kraut, who are from Astoria, if I remember correctly. And they were scary and good. Yeah. And you'd get to see them kind of coming in and out and having their little conversations and stuff.

[39:50] Meg: I bet you can also hear them, too, a bit. Right?

[39:53] Guy: And also when you hear other bands, like, Starting, Stopping, Starting, Stopping, Starting, Stopping, and you're like, oh, everyone sounds like crap.

[40:00] Meg: Yeah.

[40:01] Guy: You know, and that's such an empowering thing to hear. Like everything sounds like crap at some point. You know, maybe we sound like crap, but maybe eventually we won't because, you know, the CRO mags are in the other room sounding like crap. We. I saw them live, you know, last week and totally.

[40:20] Meg: No, you're right. That is such an important lesson that you don't even think about being exposed to people when they're in kind of the early stages. Yeah. You just see it when it's polished. Such an important lesson.

[40:31] Guy: So, anyway. Yeah, so that's a really important thing. And then on the other end, a really important cultural moment for me as a kid, and I think for most New York kids who are interested in art. But it was also just because it was magical. And that is when the Temple of Dendoor was installed at the Met, which they had managed to get because they were the only museum that said, we're going to make a wing for this that people can see all the time.

[40:58] Meg: So that big window. Yes, so that the windows are part of it.

[41:03] Guy: So part of how they got.

[41:04] Meg: That's so interesting. So that just makes it all the more public.

[41:09] Guy: Exactly.

[41:10] Meg: And it looks out over the Egyptian playground.

[41:12] Guy: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And at night, it was. You know, it just. It glowed at you. And this was a couple of years after the Tutankhamun exhibit, which was such

[41:24] Meg: a huge thing in New York. Oh, my God, it was hot lines.

[41:28] Guy: I never got there because the lines were so long. And my grandmother was like, nope.

[41:33] Meg: Yeah, no, it was not an easy ticket to grab.

[41:36] Guy: No. But, yeah. So there was, to me, the magic of that wing just being bright at night, coming in a cab. A number of my friends lived on the east side. I'm an Upper west side kid, Morningside Heights. But the magic of seeing that, taking the 86th street bus, and you'd go by it, and then you'd meet your friends, and we'd, like, walk up and down 86th street, as the people did, because we didn't know what else to do.

[41:59] Meg: I mean, in case people don't know to cross Central Park There are a few ways to cross Central park, and One is on 86th Street. And if you grow up, like, on the Upper west side or the Upper east side, you are going back and forth along that transverse, like.

[42:14] Guy: Yeah.

[42:15] Meg: I don't even know. Like, regular.

[42:17] Guy: Some regular.

[42:18] Meg: Yeah, yeah. Like, at least a number of times a week.

[42:21] Guy: The M86.

[42:22] Meg: Yes. And to have that just, like. I mean, that's what we grew up passing, like, regularly is the Temple of Dendura. I mean, yeah. Crazy.

[42:31] Guy: And I took my first date there. The daughter of some Iranian general. I think Yassine was her name. And she was late for Dead Men don't wear plaid.

[42:42] Guy: Ooh.

[42:43] Guy: I had worked out this whole date.

[42:46] Meg: That's Steve Martin, right?

[42:47] Guy: Steve Martin, yes. Yeah. I was wearing my best Beatles shirt.

[42:52] Meg: You have to describe it for us, please.

[42:53] Guy: Oh, well, it's embarrassing because I think someone who got it for my birthday, it was. It was the. It was Mount Rushmore, but it was the Beatles, Okay. The Beatles faces John, Paul, George and Ringo. And on the back, it had my name guy in sparkle letters. Reflective letters.

[43:16] Meg: Fascinating.

[43:16] Guy: It was very. Don't know where they got it, but there was a place on the Upper west side that I was just talking to someone about the other day.

[43:24] Meg: Was it by the Natural History Museum?

[43:26] Guy: Not far from the Natural History Museum.

[43:27] Meg: Okay, I think I know what you're talking.

[43:28] Guy: Star magic.

[43:29] Meg: Yes, yes, yes. Oh, my God, I just had a flavor.

[43:33] Guy: Well, then there was also mythology, which was right by the Natural History Museum.

[43:37] Meg: I think I'm thinking of Star Magic. And are you saying you could, like, order your name on star?

[43:41] Guy: I don't know. It was a birthday present. I don't know how they did it. That's what they did, But I think it was.

[43:45] Meg: They asked Star magic to do. There was also a star Magic, I think, on 8th street and Broadway down, I believe there. Yes, I'm right about that.

[43:57] Guy: Yes.

[43:58] Meg: Yeah. Right next to the place where you from.

[44:00] Guy: As her haircut.

[44:01] Meg: Yes. Right around the corner from Azur. Where the. Right next to the. Where do you park cars? Parking garage.

[44:07] Guy: Right.

[44:07] Meg: Good Lord.

[44:08] Guy: But so anyway, she showed up late, which ruined the first part of the movie.

[44:13] Meg: She showed up late to the movie?

[44:15] Guy: To the movie.

[44:16] Meg: Wait, were you waiting outside for her?

[44:18] Guy: No, I gave them the ticket because Steve Martin movie I was not gonna miss.

[44:23] Meg: So who did you get? Your parents or her parents or. Who did. Oh, the people.

[44:28] Guy: Yeah, I gave the tickets. I was like, this is for a girl named scene, because I'm going in because I gotta see this is hilarious. See, it's Steve Martin choice. So, yeah. Choices you make. I'm sure she was like, oh, okay. But at the same time, I was

[44:46] Meg: like, she was late.

[44:47] Guy: Play me like that.

[44:48] Meg: No. What are you supposed to do?

[44:50] Guy: And then this is how we. I knew we'd never be together. Was that I took her to the Temple of Denver. And because I also, you know, being a New York kid, you know that you can get in to the met with 5 sens.

[45:02] Meg: This is true. It's whatever you want to give.

[45:05] Guy: Whatever you want to give. And is there any better place to be ever? At all? No. So to bring a girl there on

[45:12] Meg: a date, that is incredibly classy.

[45:15] Guy: That is classy. And she did not get it. She did not appreciate the power

[45:26] Guy: of

[45:26] Guy: the Temple of Dendor, that it grew a millennia it had traveled to visit us and to give us its splendor. And she didn't get it.

[45:39] Meg: You were underappreciated.

[45:40] Guy: I was underappreciated.

[45:41] Meg: You gave your gifts to. Yeah.

[45:44] Guy: So I remember we had a little bit of an awkward goodbye

[45:49] Meg: where she's like, you didn't wait for me to show up and then you took me to.

[45:55] Guy: And you're talking. Bunch of rocks. Some rocks. She's very pretty.

[46:00] Meg: I am sure.

[46:01] Guy: For a 13 year old.

[46:07] Meg: My first date was a movie to Victor Victoria.

[46:11] Guy: Oh, that's. See, that's a good one. See, that's like. I would have been like, that's a classy date.

[46:18] Meg: Yeah.

[46:19] Guy: And also, it's also like, whoa, what the fuck's happening?

[46:23] Meg: We didn't understand what the hell is happening. To be honest.

[46:26] Guy: Anything. Anything could happen.

[46:28] Meg: And it was at. Oh, my God, my brain. It wasn't the Paris theater, but it was the other. It was another one of those theaters right around that neighborhood. That's like the coolest frigging theater.

[46:40] Guy: Not the New Yorker.

[46:41] Meg: Not the New Yorker. Ziegfeld.

[46:44] Guy: Ziegfeld is possible. Yeah.

[46:46] Meg: Which is huge. Yeah.

[46:47] Guy: Oh, yeah, yeah.

[46:47] Meg: It was a Ziegfeld. That was it.

[46:49] Guy: That's where I saw Gandhi.

[46:51] Meg: That's an awesome place to see Gandhi.

[46:53] Guy: Yeah.

[46:54] Meg: That's a very long movie.

[46:55] Guy: My grandmother once took me when she found out they weren't going to show movies there anymore. She took me to see the Promise at Radio City Music Hall. So I've actually seen a film at Radio City. It was a terrible movie.

[47:11] Meg: I don't think I even know the Promise.

[47:13] Guy: It's not memorable at all.

[47:16] Meg: What's the genre?

[47:18] Guy: Romance. A girl. A girl and a boy get together. They're gonna get married, but the parents don't approve of the girl. Then they have a horrible car crash and her face is destroyed. And they say, listen, we will fix your face, but you have to promise to never approach our son again. You have to stay out of his life.

[47:38] Meg: Oh, my God.

[47:39] Guy: Which seems over dramatic and a little cruel.

[47:45] Meg: Yeah, yeah. Does she get her face fixed?

[47:47] Guy: She gets her face fixed. And she's, of course, very pretty because I think in the movie, they. At the beginning of the movie, they give her big teeth.

[47:55] Meg: Like, we're really. We're gonna go back to like. You're gonna be even better than you started.

[47:59] Guy: Yeah, no, that's the idea. You know, she's like, they love each other, but really, can you love a girl with big teeth? I mean, honestly, every time she smiles, you make her. You want it. You, like, you don't want to say anything funny because she'll laugh and then it's disgusting. Repulsive.

[48:16] Meg: I had horrible buck teeth for most. I didn't get braces until, like, way late in the game. It was awful. And I was an ardent thumb sucker. Oh, really?

[48:25] Guy: Yeah. So they were like. Oh, they were poking no outward.

[48:29] Meg: Oh, Huge buck teeth. Huge gap. It was rough. Thank God for braces. Thank God.

[48:36] Guy: Well, thank God they fixed her face because in this movie. Because then they hid something under a rock at the beginning of the movie. This is when she's got the buck teeth and he looks at her hideous visage and says, I love you. And they made a promise. They would, I don't know, maybe meet there again or whatever. And so then at the end of the movie, this actually quite pretty woman, who's not disgusting, shows up at the rock and he's like, what?

[49:09] Guy: Huh?

[49:10] Guy: And she's like, it's me.

[49:12] Meg: So they get together and they get together again.

[49:14] Guy: It's beautiful.

[49:15] Meg: And the parents are. Who cares?

[49:17] Guy: The important thing is that I saw it at Radio City.

[49:19] Meg: Okay, I hear that.

[49:23] Guy: And I remember the beginning of the movie. The trailer was for Gentle Ben.

[49:29] Meg: Gentle Ben.

[49:30] Guy: It was like a. There was a whole kind of mountain man. Remember? There was a whole series of movies about mountain men. And there was a mountain man named Gentle Ben.

[49:38] Meg: Is it like Grizzly Adams adjacent?

[49:40] Guy: It was something like that.

[49:41] Meg: Okay. I loved. Loved Grizzly Adams.

[49:44] Guy: In fact, maybe it was Grizzly Adams and maybe Gentle Ben was his friend, the bear. Was it a girlfriend?

[49:51] Meg: Yeah. No, his best friend was a bear.

[49:54] Guy: Okay. So I think Gentle Ben was his best friend.

[49:57] Meg: Oh, okay. And they made a movie.

[50:00] Guy: They made a movie. Oh, yeah. And I was like. I remember during the. During this other movie going, I wish I had watched. Watch that movie. Not this weird Promise movie. But this was good because my grandmother would tend to take me to. She took me to Blue Lagoon.

[50:18] Meg: Wow. With your grandmother?

[50:20] Guy: Yeah. Yeah.

[50:20] Meg: Awkward, I bet.

[50:22] Guy: Yeah.

[50:22] Meg: And then also awkward for her, too. I'm feeling worse for her than for you, to be honest.

[50:28] Guy: I'll tell you what she told me. She said, I don't know what you're so freaked out about. It's just the human body.

[50:33] Meg: Oh, what'd you call your grandmother?

[50:36] Guy: Golly.

[50:37] Meg: Golly. That's very sad and insightful and important. Yeah.

[50:41] Guy: And she had been a topless dancer, so.

[50:45] Meg: Wow.

[50:45] Guy: Yeah.

[50:46] Meg: Yeah. So, all right. Brooke Shields did not shock her.

[50:50] Guy: And also, it's all, like. It's all in your imagination. There's nothing in that movie. Oh.

[50:55] Meg: You don't actually see.

[50:56] Guy: You don't see any.

[50:57] Meg: Her hair, I think, is covering.

[50:58] Guy: Yes. The whole time. Yeah.

[51:00] Meg: I remember when she got her period in.

[51:02] Guy: Yes. In the water.

[51:03] Meg: In the water. Which. Not really how that works.

[51:05] Guy: Yeah. Apparently that doesn't happen.

[51:07] Meg: I know. So that confused me for quite a while because I was expecting that to happen at any moment in my life. And that's not how that happened.

[51:16] Guy: Not how that happens. No. And then she took me to see Invasion of the Body Snatchers.

[51:21] Meg: Ooh. Wow.

[51:23] Guy: Where at the end of the movie, that woman's wandering on naked again. There was a lot of nudity in the 70s, and she would take me to everything that.

[51:30] Meg: That is true. The seventies. They didn't mind all of that so much in the 80s. I think we got a little bit more like. I mean, unless it was boobs.

[51:39] Guy: Yeah, it was a lot of boobs.

[51:40] Meg: Lots of boobs. Big boobs.

[51:44] Guy: Yes.

[51:44] Meg: I'm just thinking of, like, porkies and stuff like that.

[51:47] Guy: Porkies. And I actually didn't remember the boob section in Trading Places. There's a big. A boob party. Essentially, he. When he makes his first amount of money, and then he's in a. He's at a party that's a. Essentially a boob party.

[52:00] Meg: Okay. You know how we've been doing these watch parties on the podcast? I just did a watch party of When Harry Met Sally with Cynthia Weiner and Jessica.

[52:10] Guy: I saw it for the first time in my life.

[52:12] Meg: When Harry Met Sally.

[52:14] Guy: It's quite a good movie.

[52:15] Meg: It is. I mean, the writing is really good. I mean, we had a lot to say about it last week, and Jessica and I did a watch Party of the pilot episode of Moonlighting, which was.

[52:26] Guy: Oh, I remember this.

[52:27] Meg: Fascinating. And I've been thinking about Trading Places. It's really. It's a crazy movie.

[52:33] Guy: It's a crazy movie. It's a Chicago movie.

[52:36] Meg: It's not so New York. Okay. Is that why it's crazy? Is it Chicago's fault? Because what I remember is just like, all this, like, stuff is just like, oh, my God, that's not loud. What am I watching? Maybe he's going back to our conversation about humor. Just like, this kind of humor that's so outrageous.

[52:58] Guy: Yeah.

[52:59] Meg: Is that okay? Are you allowed to do that?

[53:02] Guy: I think so. I think there's still a lot of outrageous humor. It's just very, really important how you couch it, you know, and what the context is or how you.

[53:14] Meg: And that movie is about class difference. And so it might actually hold up in a way that it could never be made now.

[53:23] Guy: Eddie Murphy is so charismatic and so. So carries that movie.

[53:28] Meg: Oh, yeah. I. I didn't know spoilers. But, like, the two old guys, like, and how that works out transpires still the.

[53:38] Guy: One of the great scenes when. When. When Dan Aykroyd's, like, down and out, and he's got the salmon. Santa Claus, and then it ra. And again he gets kicked off the bus, and he's, like, eating the salmon through his beard, and then it starts to rain. Fantastic. Very funny stuff. And, you know, the magic part of the Temple of Dendor, and when you take that bus and there was that endless walk on 86th street, but then there was that wonderful period of time. And I don't know if it was a spontaneous thing, if it was a thing that happened for generations before us, and if it continues to happen, but we would sort of go to the steps of the Met, just kids would just all meet at the steps.

[54:24] Meg: Do you think that that is because it's the easiest place to describe, and it's so big and, you know, we didn't have cell phones or anything. We weren't leaving messages. We couldn't check our, you know, answering machines. So it was just like, meet at the steps. Meet at the steps.

[54:41] Guy: On the west side, there was the monument, which was in Riverside park, essentially, also on 86th Street. And. And then on the east side, there was the. The. The steps. And the great thing about the steps also is that you could sit down.

[54:54] Meg: Yeah.

[54:54] Guy: And it was easy to see. It was vast. And everyone knew.

[54:59] Meg: And it was a massive hangout. Like, you would see people who were also meeting other people there Exactly. Yeah.

[55:06] Guy: And you could. Yeah, you could make out there. You could go into the park and make out. Some people did that. Very bad ends.

[55:13] Meg: When Jo and I first got to New York, and I don't think you can do this anymore. I think they blocked it. But there was a place where you could sort of go behind the columns and like make out, like up at the top of the steps there's like a little area. A nook. Yeah, a nook that's a little more private.

[55:32] Guy: Uh huh.

[55:32] Meg: You know.

[55:33] Guy: Oh, yeah.

[55:34] Meg: And we did that when we were in our 20s. We did in our 20s. I was like. I wanted to take him to the steps.

[55:42] Guy: So magical.

[55:43] Meg: I wanted to show him about, like, what it was like to grow up. We always met at the steps and then we like made out behind the column. I don't think you can do that anymore for some reason. I checked it out the other day and I was like, they caught on to us.

[55:56] Guy: Which I still never understood why there were two empty places for large sculptures.

[56:02] Meg: Those used to be empty.

[56:03] Guy: Yeah. And now they have things in.

[56:06] Meg: Yes.

[56:06] Guy: Also, I've never quite understood why they have huge blocks of sandstone on top of the columns. There's just these. It looks as though they haven't finished building it. And I don't know if that's like meant to look that way or a new thing or, you know, or. Or they're still planning on doing something.

[56:26] Meg: Still planning on like building the Met.

[56:31] Guy: Yeah.

[56:32] Meg: We gotta get around to that event. So what do you think our wrap up is for our two sections? Don Imus, Art in New York. Artistic expression.

[56:57] Guy: You know, I think it's definitely things that are in the past in the sense that we were so limited. You kind of had to listen to Imus. If you wanted to be in a band, you had to go to a giant. There weren't choices involved.

[57:13] Meg: You had to meet on the steps.

[57:15] Guy: You had to meet on the steps and that.

[57:18] Meg: Those limitations. Yeah, I'm not gonna like, qualify it one way or another. I mean, in your story, it actually ends up being for the good in the I'm in the morning situation. Like, I think, you know, the benefit was like hearing the awesome commercials for. What's the whale? The Whale. Fudgy the Whale.

[57:39] Guy: Fudgy the Whale. Thank you.

[57:44] Meg: Can you do your imitation? Guy did an imitation of Fudgy the Whale when we were off. Mike.

[57:50] Guy: Of course.

[57:52] Guy: For this holiday, before birthdays or any fun time, the memorial, order the ice cream, you get Fudge. Fudgy the Whale. Thank you. The important thing is that you always say thank you at the end of every ad.

[58:17] Guy: Hey everyone, it's Jessica from desperately seeking the 80s. So I just wanted to say hello and I'm back and very excited to have new episodes coming up for all of of you guys. Meg and I have a really, really fun watch party coming up for Halloween with a spooky, scary, and of course weird movie that we're going to cover for you. And I also wanted to give a big thank you to everyone who has filled in during my absence. So thank you and looking forward to being back out there with you all.

[58:56] Guy: It.