Relatively Unknown
Each week Brett will learn about the lives of fuck ups, entertainers, cashiers, religious scholars, friends, and family alike with a set of questions to spark a good conversation that helps you get through another week of the strife. Enjoy a trip into the unknown.
Relatively Unknown
Navigating Change and the Social Media Dilemma with Alex Kellar
In this return to podcasting, my guest Alex Kellar and I discuss the cycles of life, friendship, and being half-sober. We also interrogate the GoFundMe Industrial Complex, discuss the intertwining of wrestling and music, and reflect on societal values surrounding free speech.
Tune in to hear us talk about
• navigating personal growth
• exploration of the GoFundMe system and its implications
• the importance of community and friendships
• music as a form of identity
• free speech and social responsibility
• how Brett feels about a return to podcasting
• scams to save you money
If you want to chime in on the conversation
Hey, hey, welcome to the Relatively Unknown podcast. My name is Brett. You may know me, you may not I bet you do but I'm back. I had to come back. The pods was calling me.
Speaker 1:I really miss it a lot, and my first guest is Alex Keller, and the reason I chose him is because the last time I did this podcast we'll call that volume one we recorded an episode and I was like I can't pay the bills and I'm about to be kicked out. So I have to do a real job now and that's what I've been up to. But I still got to got gotta gotta have a show. Gotta gotta talk to the people. I enjoy it so much. Thanks to the Minion Death Cult podcast. They helped me quite a bit. Alexander and Ani invited me on to do a show with them and that really meant a lot, and you know I've always loved those guys and they've always accepted me for my weirdness and insane behavior. So shout out to them, give them a listen, as always, and thank you to everybody that reached out as well. I mean the people that said they were happy to hear from me. I mean those things mean a lot. It does cheer me up and I just had to get back in the saddle, and so here I am.
Speaker 1:I'll be doing an intro, I think, before the interview here, instead of trying to do it all at once, um, doing a solo thing. I have to be a lot tighter, and I will be, but I'm working on it and I got some ideas. But, um, hang on and it'll get bigger and better and, uh, you know, still continue to spread the mess and uh, you know, I'm just being in a in a great position, uh, recently, and I want to talk to the people too. So, on my list of things is a call in at some point. Um, I gotta talk to the people. I've made all the mistakes in the world so you can talk to me and I can show you exactly where you're going to fuck up. Um, and I'll be having guests each week. A lot of friends. Um, I'll try to get as many famous and cool and, uh, you know Blue Sky as Relatively Unknown. I also have B-R-E-T-T-P-A-I-N Brett Payne on Blue Sky. But I think I'm going to try to make it easier and just go to straight Relatively Unknown Instagram and Twitch. I'm Relatively Unknown Co.
Speaker 1:This interview was actually live streamed. I've got a pretty good setup and I'm getting pretty comfortable with the system, so I went ahead and threw it up on Twitch. So if you're a streamer person and you want to come and chat and join in on the show, that's completely welcome. Completely welcome. You know, uh, we want more people involved. Uh, to get this community, um, as big as we can. Uh, to push back against all the bigots and fascists and bullshit and, uh, you know, help, uh, help to foster more community and more, um protests for Gaza and for, you know, women's rights and for transgender rights.
Speaker 1:So I appreciate all y'all that are here listening to this very first one. Even if this is years in the future and you're going back to number one, it'll always mean a lot to me and, without any further ado, here is the interview with Alex Keller. Oh wait, I forgot to say hold on. So me and Alex have known each other for a really long time now. I mean, it's been like seven years or more and we went to WrestleMania, did a show with him when he was out of control a maniac, but actually I was too I was pretty fucking wild, I was candy flipping or whatever. Um, and then, uh, you know him being in cleveland, um, you know he comes through pretty regularly, so he's a. He's a great friend and he's been through a lot and he has had his ups and downs but it's a really fun and raw conversation. I think you'll enjoy.
Speaker 2:Worldwide. Hey, what's up, man, happy to have you here. Yeah, great to be back for the first time again.
Speaker 1:Yes, we get to do it one more time. This is the director's cut. This is the better version. Thank you for being here. I appreciate it. Um, as always. Uh, I know you got a lot on your mind all the time, uh, and I recently I saw you were also in the top 10 of people on gofundme yeah, for some fucking reason, that's quite the accolade.
Speaker 2:No, actually it's horrifying when you consider it, because it's just me throwing like 10 bucks or like I don't know. I just go to like when in doubt. I, like you know, payday comes and there's this thing, gaza funds dot com, which just aggregates a bunch of like GoFundMe is, like you know, from, like you know, coming out of Gaza um, basically like boosts, ones that like, maybe, like are like don't have as many donations so that, like you know, it's not like some social media game where everyone's just in the replies of everyone's shit on, like twitter, blue sky, which is a sad fucking thing and sucks because it's like not only are you in a genocide but you also have to have like some fucking like second language, like social media aptitude to, like you know, survive. So, I don't know, I'll just throw $10 here, $10 there, whatever the hell. So, like we're talking like maybe I don't know, fucking like $500 a year and that's the top 10 percentile. Fuck that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's that's surprising to hear. I I yeah, that's surprising to hear I. Also hate the system because it is whoever can get the most clout. Whoever has a cute story or is charismatic enough gets the health care.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I call it the GoFundMe industrial complex. It's churning.
Speaker 1:I mean, it's an everyday thing too. I also have the inclination of just feel like I just got paid a lot. Here's ten dollars to a Venmo or something you know, or whatever, wherever it ends up. But I'm proud to have you on because of that. So congratulations on those accolades.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'll just pat myself on the back there. Thank you.
Speaker 1:So what have you been up?
Speaker 2:to recently. Um, let me see here, uh, it's just work gym, um, I got a band going, core tar, um, having a lot of fun with that, singing with them played the other night. Uh, fucking, I had bored to life for years there, podcast cleveland, pod, core worldwide. But uh, we uh kind of like uh shut it down officially in december, but really in november. Um, I don't know. I mean, yeah, you know as well as anyone and shit over twice as much as me, like you know. I mean we had that thing going for like four or five years and uh, yeah, like I don't know, scheduling's a nightmare and, like you know, fucking just I don't know, shit happens. And then you know, fucking one thing doesn't work with the other one, and but we're good now, but we're just not trying to create a podcast once a week, every week now yeah, I totally understand that.
Speaker 1:Um, yeah, that's the thing about life is, uh, what always gets me, every time this happens to me, is that it's chapters, it's chapters, uh they're, they close too, they come to an end and you're on to a new chapter and you don't get to pick, um, what's going on?
Speaker 2:so I mean.
Speaker 2:The weird thing with the chapters, though, is like I feel like I mean, I don't know, I said this once and someone's like well, that's just life, but it always just seemed like singular to me in my head and maybe just saying it out loud, but, like I don't know, like I feel like I go through like these, like sort of like four to five year, like you know, cycles like I don't know.
Speaker 2:Like, for you know, for fucking years and years, it was just kind of partying and listening to music, fucking teenage and into young adulthood, and then, in my early 20s, I was trying to play music, trying to play music, and then, early 20s, I was already into punk since high school, and then I got into hardcore, and then it was like all right, let's play in hardcore bands, play hardcore bands, da-da-da-da-da, and I gave that a bunch of myself, and then, like wrestling fandom, and then, wanting to be a wrestler fell back into me and, like you know, then that was like sort of like blended in with the music, until it was like more just the wrestling featuring the music, and then, like I don't know, yeah, like I mean shit, it was like four or five years being being a pro wrestler, um and uh then, yeah, like I mean, even before the pandemic happened, it was like sort of slowing down for me or it was about to heat back up, but like in a different way, I had a very funny fucking list of like goals for 2020 that I remember posting in like late 2019 and it was like, oh yeah, I get down to like, you know, because I was like getting up to like 250, 260 and I was like I get down to like a manageable 240, you know if I can be a better partner to weird body, you know like be more stable presence at aiw?
Speaker 2:um, do less than half as much cocaine in 2020 as I did in 2019, which, uh, you know, hey, I fucking did I think I, I only did like, maybe like a gram and a half, three grams in 2020, uh versus uh, much more than that in 2019.
Speaker 1:Yeah, any improvement is better. Yeah, harm reduction here.
Speaker 2:Yeah, another one was have a completely sober threesome. Didn't get that one going, but you know one day that's elusive for most of us. I mean back to the cocaine. It'll give you the confidence to, you know, and pizzazz to like maybe get a threesome going, but then the cocaine is not going to the confidence to, uh, you know, and like pizzazz to like maybe get a threesome going, but then the cocaine is not going to allow your dick to have the threesome going yeah, it doesn't.
Speaker 1:Yeah, the bottle of whiskey doesn't help either.
Speaker 2:Uh, yeah none of that leads to a good time.
Speaker 1:You're absolutely right. That's.
Speaker 2:That is some real wisdom but yeah, like, but it all like sort of like blends into the other, where, like I mean, wrestling is like in the very much in the back brain of my head, but it's still like there are aspects that are like just within me, but like as far as like what you're like fucking pushing towards, and now it's all circled back around to I don't know, I'm having a lot of fun with like being in a band again. So you know, yeah, it's cycles, but like it's like I don't know, it's like a circle of a cycle.
Speaker 1:Yeah, well, so what I've been doing for the past two years now, I wanted to do a podcast. I did chill out. I was not that crazy bonkers as the last episode I did. I was not that for even a few weeks, longer than that. I was pretty much sobered up and was back to normal, normal shit by then. Um, but like still, um, you know, just had to have a lot of money all of a sudden, like had to not, you know, not be able to just charm my way on the internet into it, and so I kind of just shut everything down. I was just like you know, I'm done with this shit, never again Burn it, all type thing.
Speaker 1:But I started working at this place that I'm not going to name because I still work there and you know there's a lot of freaks and weirdos and geeks in this industry and, uh, a lot of them, you know, do other things. Uh, and this lady in a band. She was like do you play music or something? I was like no, people think that I was a podcaster. And she's like oh, blah, blah, what happened? I tell her a little bit and she's like you'll do it again. And I'm like you know what? That's right, she's. She was like I was in a band that took over my whole life for 14 years and it just came to a crashing end. You know, this lady's in her, this lady was in her fifties, you know. So she, so she's, she's already lived it.
Speaker 1:Um, and still the I still, you know, at my big age of 40 years old, um, still think that, um, you know, I Still think that I know better than life is going to kick you in the ass sometimes without what you say, but like the substances, that helps a lot getting rid of that. I stopped drinking a lot. I only drank a few times last year. I'm not a teetotaler and I just don't. You know, I fucking hate the world so much that I don't care about being sober for it. Like, I don't think if people, if it's like a a more the ride is better, that they respect it more or whatever. Like everything is backwards and sucks. Um, and you know, but I'm not, I, I don't like I didn't like being, you know, but I'm not, I don't like I didn't like being, you know, drunk all the time and I tried being drunk all the time for like 15 fucking years, and so then there it has. It's really good times and you know, there is living.
Speaker 1:Now even there's the problem of like, well, you know the people at work, like now I meet people that know that I'm, that I used to be awesome, like I'll meet somebody that's like, oh yeah, like I can invest in in uh, I got, I got um, uh, introduced to um some in-laws and immediately they're like okay, oh, you want to drink like 20 beers. I brought like a case of beer, we can drink this. I've got drugs in the like they were just ready to go and I'm just like no, I'm not drinking this year, I'm just taking it easy, you know. And they're just like so perplexed, like damn, and it and it. It does reinforce.
Speaker 1:For me it's like if I you know I am a little bit more quiet than I used to be Um, but if I drank four beers uh, I'd be telling some stories and rolling around on the floor. You know uh performing uh, so it has its uses. But it was really important for me to break it all the way. And getting through the holidays, getting through birthdays, all the reasons that you can tell yourself to drink, getting through all of that shit, uh helped me immensely and now it's um, it's a. It's a very rare occasion, uh, that I'm getting fucking drunk I mean I'm assuming you're still on the uh weeds yeah of course.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, I mean, my issue is, yeah, I haven't. Uh, I think it'll be like february 21st or 23rd somewhere in there. I'll be like three years off the sauce and, um, I like you, like, I'll like go to events and shit, and like my thing is like I mean I'm definitely, yeah, obviously not like the fucking bloviating, bellicose motherfucker that I used to be so much on. You know the sauce Fucking, but you know, and like I like just. But also something I noticed is like going out to bars and shit is the punishers still exist and they'll still find you and but the weird thing is, like I can find, like they still punish you and but now, like I have control of myself, where, instead of you know, either blowing up on them or letting them ruin my light night to the point that, like I then like turn that on somebody else, I'm just like all right, let's just get the fuck away from this person. Like it's just, I like the control of not having the booze yeah, you're right.
Speaker 1:What do you? What's the punisher? What do you mean?
Speaker 2:uh, oh, like a punisher, like uh, I think it's like a pittsburgh punk term, but like just, basically like someone that like just is punishing to deal with, that like just, but of course zeroes in on you to like just talk your fucking ear off and like you know, oh hey, what's up?
Speaker 1:man Like you know, dude, I I wrecked one of those guys. Uh, we went to a rave.
Speaker 1:I was fucked up, I was candy flipping and it's like six in the morning, uh, me and my girlfriend are hanging out with this other older lady, you know, having a really fun, cool conversation, and this guy comes up and he's just like dancing in my face and he's like, yeah, I don't have a job. I'm like, okay, good for you. He's like my dad gives me all my money. Like he just basically spilled the beans about how he's like his entire life is paid for by his rich dad that doesn't give a fuck about what he does and he just travels to him and, um, and I was just like I can't believe you would tell a stranger that without being embarrassed or disgusted with yourself, and he and I, and then I punished him with, uh, just telling him like he was horrible, um, and, and you know it was harsh, it was a little harsh.
Speaker 1:Also, the same thing happened the last day I stopped drinking was at the Indy 500. I got so blitzed on those fucking the juice force, the voodoo ranger, those things are like pure alcoholic rage. Those things are like pure alcoholic rage. Uh, but this like 19 year old kid came over to come get weed from us and was talking about how he smokes the loudest weed and he's always got weed and everything about it and I was just like then why don't you have weed? Why are you here asking us for it? If you're this tough, you ain't shit like I smoke, I have it on me. You know, like that's the end of the story. I don't have to tell people, uh, and you know it was mean, he was a stupid kid. I could have just laughed it off and let him go. Um, yeah, I mean, but I mean that venom. You're right, that venom is like that.
Speaker 2:I have no other option besides the venom if I'm drinking I mean, I remember one time I think I like, uh, sent a gift in to like the old show and you guys were doing a stream or whatever, opening gifts and shit. And in my note, one of the things I said it was like Brett, I love your late night fucking, just drunk bitter rants on Twitter. And yeah, I mean, I still have those Like you know, fucking, like you know where, like just late at night or even during the day, like oh, yep, yep, I'm just gonna fucking let a bunch of darkness out. But like now I'm like aware of it and instead of like waking up at five in the morning, like hung over, like oh fuck, what the fuck did, I say god, let me delete that. I'm like all right 20 minutes later, yeah, if someone saw that, that's fine, but yeah, I'm just gonna delete that yeah, I do a lot of tweeting delete still yeah but like, yeah, like, but you're just like a lot more like in control.
Speaker 1:Fucking is the nice thing yeah, yeah, yeah and also yeah. I mean, you know, in the grand scheme of things, not many people see it, but there are the few that it's just like embarrassing as fuck to you know. Be like, oh, I saw what you tweeted and deleted. I know what you really think. Yeah, yeah, yeah, so. So I've been in a job for the last two years Crazy, having fucking coworkers again, totally forgot about that. Having to live alongside also the dysfunctional last family aspect of it, um, when it's not a corporate thing, um, but I've just like I I am.
Speaker 1:It has renewed my, it has renewed my um fight for justice, I would say I, maybe I had a little too easy just getting paid to podcast, because now I'm like holy shit, how do you have enough money to have fucking groceries and gas, uh, and it's gotten so bad. Um, I, I just I don't know why everybody hasn't revolted yet. This is the same reason I started. Podcasting in the first place is like gang, we gotta all get together, it's gotta be everybody. We gotta say no to this. Get together, it's got to be everybody. We got to say no to this. It's, it's beyond, um, out of control it's a wild.
Speaker 2:I mean, I've been navigating it. Uh, I will say this uh, let's just say there's a german grocery, uh chain yeah yeah, uh, ollie's, we'll call them uh o Ollie's is better than Aldi, because you get named, branded Ollie but, yeah, well.
Speaker 2:AL, fucking, you know, whatever the fuck. You know, star I, if you live in, like you know, near a bougie place because like, obviously in like some harder neighborhoods they don't have as many fucking self checkouts. But, brother, let me tell you something, the one next to me they went from having like five you know cashier checkout lanes with like one self checkout to having two fucking cashier lanes which like bookend a whole bank of self checkouts and their self checkout Cause, like you go to like Lucky's market or some shit like that Fucking, if you set a bag down in the bagging area, it'll tell you to pick that shit up because, like you know, oh, you've put something unauthorized in the bagging area that you haven't paid for it. Da, da, da da. Let's just say that that, uh, german, uh, shopping, german, uh, shopping chain, they do not have that. So, uh, you know, let's just say you have yourself a nice little grocery bag, you put a notebook in the bottom of that and then you put a bunch of junk mail in the bottom of that and, uh, you know, you just walk on in and uh, maybe the giant bag of chicken breasts and you know, the fucking iced coffee and the frozen fruit that just, oh shit, it's underneath all my mail. And uh, then you know, you just throw a bunch of yogurt and fucking cheap shit on top and uh, bing bang, boom, you're fucking out of there. So you know, I always get like the buy one, get two deal there, so that's been helping tremendously.
Speaker 2:Um, and then on the gas front, just uh, go to a place that has a gas card and uh, what I like to do is, uh, you know, there's the get-go, uh, which, uh, you know the giant eagle fucking gas station deal and they've like built like a sheets into it and uh, really, it's a, it's a volume for value economy.
Speaker 2:Now, because, uh, basically what you got to do is, uh, you know, I'll fucking order a sandwich from, like you know, the fucking made to order screen and uh, then, in the process of uh waiting for that sandwich, and then I'll go buy the sandwich and, you know, pay for the cigarettes and while I'm waiting for that, you know you get yourself a nice full ass, like you know, 64 ounce iced coffee, um, and then you know, maybe some stuff falls into your pockets and then you know they got their ready made to order food. Uh, fucking, and maybe that just happens into your bag and you throw $5 to the uh fucking people making your sandwich and say, hey, thanks a lot, have a nice day and uh and then you got all that points towards your gas.
Speaker 2:Then you got all that points towards your gas. Bang bang boom.
Speaker 1:But you know that's yeah. Basically, I don't know how anyone's surviving without like just fucking stealing all the goddamn time. Yeah, you know, actually, sheets has on their app. They have a Sheets to go where you can scan stuff in the store. I go through and I scan stuff very openly, scan shit and I grab it and I walk out and I don't hit the purchase screen because there's no system in place to check whether or not you hit the purchase screen and you know if someone comes rushing out I'll just say oh, you know, internet hiccup, I pressed check out.
Speaker 1:I thought it checked out like the it's enough plausible deniability and they're stupid enough oh yeah, and I'm like I'll take advantage of it that every time now my local sheets that I go to, no, but I'm still driving around the country all the time for other reasons and there's a lot of sheets on the way.
Speaker 2:Yeah Well, yeah, that's the thing you got to, like watch shit and where you eat and all that stuff. But oh my God, wait, there's another fucking solid scam that I've been on lately.
Speaker 1:Aldi, though their self-checkout is horrible Like it is. I hate it Really. I tried it one time. I had so much stuff and I could not balance everything. There was no fucking room and it took forever. Like I just remember the good old days when those fucking people in their chairs just right into the cart I don't know, it took so much longer. I do the curbside pickup now and you can even use food stamps with that.
Speaker 2:That's what's up.
Speaker 1:Well, I mean.
Speaker 2:Joe Biden Shouts out. Joe Biden, I got kicked off of food stamps like two years ago.
Speaker 1:Oh no.
Speaker 2:And then also got kicked off Medicaid last year. So you know, fucking thanks a lot, trump Fucking blows. Yeah, that one was funny because the Medicaid, because I'd gotten like a second job, because I like work at like a head shop, you know fucking like on paper like 20, 20, 20, like 26 hours a week and you know 14 an hour which is underneath, like you know the 1616 a month that you can make as a single person without kids and like be on medicaid yeah, yeah, yeah and uh, fucking.
Speaker 2:But then I got like a second job, like delivering bread for some like fucking frou-frou, like bakery or whatever, which was basically like an extra, like maybe two hundred dollars a week, okay, and uh, fucking, like you know, or like 150, 200 a week, plus a bunch of free bread which I don't know what they were putting in their shit, but like they were using some sort of gluten that just like it could just be a slice of bread, and it was like straight the fuck through me. So you know, good riddance of that shit. But yeah, like. So then when I was like doing my annual, like you know, just check in for my fucking Medicaid, I put both like incomes down and I thought that it was like twenty four thousand dollars a year or something like you know. So I'm like, all right, I'm cool, thousand dollars a year or something like you know. So I'm like all right, I'm cool.
Speaker 2:But then no, I got the thing. They're like, oh yeah, you're fucking over, so we're kicking off medicaid, you can appeal this. So I appealed it because, like, I didn't have, like it's not like I quit the job after I found out they kicked me off. I had already quit that job. And the story I told them was I thought I was going to get more hours at the other job but then it didn't happen. But in reality my cat died and I was like kind of in grief and then the owner was sort of cunty to me and then, like you know, I was just like well, deliver your own shit, man.
Speaker 1:Fucking bye, fucking uh love to pull that move dude. I mean, my thing is, I always like to say you can only kill yourself once, but you can quit a shitload of jobs so you know, yeah, um, you know that I still have some of that uh in my system where it's just like, if it goes sideways today, I'm just saying fucking peace. You know, like if I get fucking yelled at, I'm saying peace like and I don't mind either.
Speaker 1:Like I, I don't enjoy it. I'm not into the shock value of it. But yeah, there's been plenty of places where I've just said, all right, this is the last time you're going to see me. Then and just walk out while their mouths are dropped and I'm like, yeah, I'm a ghost now.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean my favorite one. Yeah, when I was delivering beer a few years ago I think it was like 2021, into 2022. Yeah, I like delivering for like six city or whatever. I was actually coming down to columbus a few times a week fucking delivering shit, which uh hurt because I had to fucking deliver to shit ass fucking town hall in columbus.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but um, oh god he, yeah, the fucking owner went to fucking jail yeah, he's like up for like rape charges and shit and like fucking. I just like yell at anyone that's on that patio whenever I drive by in cleveland. Fucking yeah, fuck that but yeah, it was trash before then and much trasher now. But uh, but yeah, like that job, like I ended up, I actually pulled a terry funk quitting that one, because you ever hear the story of how terry funk uh quit the wwf in 84 no all right.
Speaker 2:Well, you know, he, like you know fucking like, folded up his territory because you know he saw the writing on the wall that, like you know, vince was the one and da la la and like they were losing money on it. Anyway, like so many wrestling promoters back in the day in the territory, days were very much like ranchers, where it's like, well, this is the family business, it doesn't make any money, but this is the family business, uh, fucking or maybe it does.
Speaker 2:There's some money being made, so we're just gonna stick to it yeah, but uh, yeah, like the fucking hearts, jesus christ, but um, but yeah, they, um, but either way, he fucking was on the road and then all of a sudden, yeah, with the WWF, he was on the road like 200, fucking, 250, 300 days and you know, fucking, he had already been through one divorce with his wife and, like you know, his wife was like not feeling it and he was feeling a rundown. So instead of talking to anybody, he has left a note in the locker room one day that just said my horse is sick, I think it's dying, I'll see you all later. And uh, so to the point that, like, when he came back in like 98 with like mcfoley and everything vince, was like how's your horse? But uh, yeah, fucking, I, uh, yeah.
Speaker 2:Like I came in one day to this beer delivery job and, like you know, I'm, I'm going and I'm fucking putting shit on the truck and then the fucking pallet jack for the goddamn fucking kegs, just the battery died or something, and I was already pissed off about a bunch of other things and then I was going through a million other fucking things, coming out of the pandemic, going from just getting paid to be home and just exist to me stupidly being like, well, yeah, it's never going to end Fucking, the pandemic's never going to end and this money's never going to end. So, yeah, I'm fine, and then adjusting. I was definitely feral coming back into the workplace but yeah, basically some shit went wrong and I felt wronged and also I was just crazy. So I just took a fucking Sharpie and a piece of cardboard and some duct tape and I, like put the cardboard up on the fucking pallet jack and just wrote my horse is sick, I think it's dying, see you all later. And, uh, fucking, just strolled hell, yeah, that's great yeah, that was a fun one.
Speaker 1:Yeah, they, I mean God, do people really take you for granted? You know, and that's I mean, I actually appreciate, I actually like what I'm doing now, but I still deal with other like business owner type people that you can tell, consider you know the employees of any other place to be their employees as well.
Speaker 1:You know, yeah, which is quite shocking. You know the employees of any other place to be their employees as well. You know yeah, um, which is quite shocking. Um, plus, in the auction industry you're dealing with a lot of like death and divorce and like the. You know all that shit, and it's usually a pretty someone's like having to sell stuff because you know somebody's sick or because they're going to hospice or some shit like that. So it's fucking, it's bonkers industry. But I really do enjoy working with older people.
Speaker 1:The amount of perspective I get, like I really need it in my life, like having a 60-year-old artist lady laughing at me like she's got 20 years on me and probably had two or three life lifetimes in there. You know, uh, it's really nice. I enjoy it. Um also, thank god, the people I work the most closest with um are like free palestine people, like it's hell yeah, as soon as it bubbled up, I was just like this is going to be unavoidable at work.
Speaker 1:Um, if it might get me fired, I don't know. I I mean I could yell. I can't control myself. I can't control the yelling if I like, if I'm really pissed, if they are, you know, if they're really pissing me off. But yeah, no, no issues with that. I would say, I mean, you know, in regards to the whole thing, I actually had a younger person in their early 20s that was like, oh my gosh, this is awful, what are we going to do? It feels so hopeless and I said I'll tell you what. Like you couldn't show any support for Palestine before that date.
Speaker 1:And it's become way more acceptable and way more out there, and people know that it's a position that a lot of people, a lot of people have. It's not going away, you know, and yeah, it's.
Speaker 2:I mean I saw some chart that said that. Like I mean it was like late last year. It was like a chart that said that like fucking people that, like you know, support Hamas in the United States and it was like something like 10 or 15 percent, and I was like show me the chart from like fucking, like two years ago right you know fucking and what that said, and uh, you know it's just uh.
Speaker 2:I mean, I don't know what it all comes down to or means, but uh, fucking, yeah, israel's done themselves. No, and I wish them all the very worst, absolutely.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean I came about that from a coworker that was from Jordan, so I learned about it in the early 2000s just from working with people and there was no movement on that. I mean there was definitely radical. I learned about radical bookstores and communist meetups and dsa's and all that shit, but, um, you know even that, uh, nowhere near what's I mean, dude, today you want to talk early 2000s.
Speaker 2:I remember having like a fucking screaming fight with, like my friend brandon. Like you know, he was dropping me off in his like fucking sable after we were out for a night, like in high school. And I'll just talk about my friend brandon real quick. I don't know if he's still a friend, but whatever, he recently changed his name to like something more nordic, like his last name, and I'm like I'm dead naming you bitch. You're brandon paul. Fuck you like, because also I'm pretty sure he's closet homo, whatever. But uh, if I get he, I'm serious. One time my mom like pulled up with a guy from like uh fucking college that she was with and, like you know, my friend brandon, we were all getting into his car and she's like, oh, it's cool, your friends have a gay friend and like she's like who's? He's like that guy, she's like brandon, and we're like and like we all laughed about it forever because we just are eternally.
Speaker 2:He became a fireman too, like he's just doing everything possible to just be the manliest man and we're like no dude, we know, but um, yeah no, like fucking somehow, like Israel, palestine came up and like I wasn't, like you know, doing any great reading, like basically I'd like heard a story on NPR or something like in high school and like I just basically like had like the whole thing ran down for me and I was like well, yeah, fuck Israel, that sounds like fucking Palestine's fucking in the right, fucking two wrongs. Don't make a right, eat shit. Fucking.
Speaker 2:Blah, blah, blah yeah fucking and in like 2001 or two, piper and Brandon was like you know, it's for like Judeo-Christian tradition and I'm like what the fuck does that mean? You are not religious. Like right, just idiotic shit, but yeah so I, that's.
Speaker 1:That's also troubling too. Um, with the whole, uh, manosphere and the alt-right stuff is uh the weird, like you know, conservatism just coming out of nowhere, like you know, for young men, especially the way that's showing up. I uh, yeah, it's like what the fuck do you mean like that? You? You are like the, the.
Speaker 2:You're not the head of any fucking household, you're a fucking bum dude, you know, like yeah like talking about the fatherland and shit, like I curse, like I'm like half german and I curse my half german genetics, because right now I have like just this gut and like general body shape that just longs to be in a speedo on the beaches of Greece and like I'm like this is the German in me.
Speaker 1:I hate that Fuck that, yeah, you're, you're calling to you. Yeah, you know I was going to say, yeah, let's get into just the topic of the day, for this week at least, which is the bigbershop pages, and got a makeover. He is now. He is now respecting the right of I don't know what bigotry they're respecting the right to, to, to deem another person, free speech man so crazy that they're not worth any humanity. Um, it's a, it's, it's so, it's really it's that, and I know this comes up a lot, but um, uh, you know the paradox of tolerance thing.
Speaker 1:Uh, yeah where it is like we need to. We definitely need to confront any of these bullshit ideas of other people being less than less than things that go against, you know, medical science, things that go against biology and all of that stuff. We need to come out and take those down. But we can't protect somebody's right to to just uh harass people and and call them slurs. We can't protect somebody's right to to just uh harass people and and call them slurs and uh say that that's, that's just their opinion of somebody you know who's transgender or black or whatever it may be. Um, like, people need to stand up and and say this is not okay, like I.
Speaker 1:I fell into that trap when I was a fucking teenager. Like, oh well, if they're, if there's a nazi and everybody agrees with the nazis, then I guess they can be the elite. You know, it's like it's a free economy, it's everybody's competing for ideas, ideas, and it's like, no the good, we know most of the stuff to do, we most. We know most of the stuff to do. Profit won't, profit motives won't, let us do it. But but acceptance of people, acknowledging folks besides Christian, white people of the community notes aspect. Um is just it. Just it makes the echo chamber, I think, a lot stronger for those people now that, um, they can put their own community notes underneath with their own fake sciences from bible colleges or whatever the fuck it is, you know yeah, I mean the fucking, because the community notes were actually maybe an improvement for a while there, because, like you would just, I mean you'd even see elon getting like roasted by the community notes and shit like that honestly, I agree, I liked them too.
Speaker 1:I do like them in a lot of cases.
Speaker 2:It's nice to just have something directly underneath that says this is wrong, you know yeah, but like yeah, obviously now they're like tinkering with that so that you know there is no fucking objective reality to anything whatsoever like yeah, I mean for them also.
Speaker 1:It's like the conundrum of it all is, you know, they think that we're intolerant that we, we don't respect their, their I don't know their right to be christians. We don't expect respect their rights to not acknowledge someone's gender identity. You know, like that's, we're intolerant of that because they want to fucking yell at the denny's hostess, you know, for being androgynous or something or cause they're bothered that. Uh, you know, someone at the gas station is a guy in a beard, has a fucking dress on. You know, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:It's just so. Much could be solved by just not giving a shit, Like you know yeah.
Speaker 1:so much could be solved by just not giving a shit like you know yeah and and not worrying it like are you allowed to be, are you allowed to be a straight white christian male? Good, you're fine, then you're good, you're golden, I mean shit.
Speaker 2:There's like been a whole fucking, like you know, I mean, I've been seeing rumblings of it, like you know fucking people trying to like I feel like there was a whole like sort of like vibe on like the left where it's like, yeah, the whole fucking atheism thing went a little crazy. You know, whatever, if you're christian, you're not an asshole fine. If you're muslim, you're not an asshole fine. You know this. If you're whatever religion, you're not an asshole.
Speaker 1:I really can't give a fuck, like you know, fucking, and but that cannot be granted the other fucking way around, like you know, it's like I don't know, it's fucking stupid yeah, um, I mean just the danger of and not even having like a liberal party that will will say that some of this shit isic, fucking Republicans that are don't think that the Democrats are.
Speaker 1:They're doing the same shit as them. Like it just all flips inside itself and what we say about them, they say about us and the ball is moving a little bit on. Like education of you know, hatred of capitalism is an all-time high, um, you know, but we are, we really got to rev the engine on, um, you know, stopping this fucking free speech and freedom crusade because it it fucking ruins everything you know free. Like we don't have freedom. We don't have freedom, we don't have freedom to leave our fucking neighborhood block if we don't make enough money to get out of it. Like there's no freedom to education, there's no freedom, there's no access to any of that shit that's guaranteed. Like it's all based upon where you're born or where your dad does for money and if not, you get the crummiest shit and that's how it is.
Speaker 2:I had an argument like a while back. I mean, mind you, I was like on one, like just like in a bad place mentally, but then, like fucking, I have like this one like gen x, like punk friend that like he's like really into like ufos and like you know fucking crazy conspiracy theories and shit. He might be becoming a legit flat earther. That like alarms me a little bit, but you know, I don't know, he uh fucking, but he's a pretty good egg. But he sent me something where it was like about free speech and like, but it was specifically, like you know, like some pretty shitty guy like you know getting his like speech, like you know, wildly impinged upon and I just fucking blew up on him.
Speaker 2:I'm like, dude, I can't give a fuck about free speech, because free speech in service of what, like you know, fucking are, what are we allowed to actually talk about? Like you know fucking. Oh, we have freedom of speech, cool. What about freedom of fucking action? Like you know fucking. So it's like, yeah, if we're all allowed to yap our gums about every last fucking thing and we're but we're not allowed to do anything about it, who gives a fuck about free speech? If anything, get rid of the fucking free speech and then drive that shit underground and then fucking. You know from there.
Speaker 1:Fucking people make moves, but yeah, fuck free speech yeah, I mean free speech works for kkk and hate groups. They are. There's plenty of those to go to. There's plenty of white nationalists fucking websites and forums and places to form all your allegiances. Try to do anything remotely for the benefit of the working class. Start talking about class, anything you know. Join an environmentalist group and you'll get fucking infiltrated. You're not allowed to sit around and read fucking Karl Marx in America because a fucking Fed will be there.
Speaker 2:Well, I mean, the Fs will be in the KKK and, like you know, the Nazis too, but uh, you know they're just more back in the cut on that and just waiting for someone to, like you know, fucking, finally be like, let's do a bomb, yeah, and then half the time they stop the bomb yeah, they're probably just getting a drink for free at the end of the night. Um yeah, um well, you know that you're like I have so much less reading to do in the kkk.
Speaker 1:This is great yeah, we know the fucking anarchist, god damn it. Yeah, it's always a group, it's always a meetup. Yeah, there's always a breakout.
Speaker 2:I'd rather just just be hateful, you know um, yeah, hang out the fucking vfw with the boys you know um, all right, well, I don't know how much sense I made there.
Speaker 1:Uh, I've it's bugged me, but uh, we'll return to it. Um, but for now, to to round out the end of the show, um, we're going to get you with some questions here. I've got a list of there's 23 on here right now. Get ahold of me If you have an idea for one. I'll make sure you get your credit on here. We're going to roll a 23 sided dice and you came up with a four. Oh, this is a good one. What is a favorite? What is a favorite weird moment from history, something that sticks out in your mind? You know that.
Speaker 2:Of note that favorite weird moment of history.
Speaker 1:I just read the Wikipedia for Roland the Farter, who was paid to fart on command and given a given a like castle in the countryside and just had to come out once a year to do a fart on command and fucking lived an extravagant lifestyle, Favorite weird moment in history.
Speaker 2:I'm just going throughout.
Speaker 1:I damn I'm drawing a blank, but I I will say, uh, fucking, it doesn't have to be weird, let's just say say, let's go. Favorite moment of history um, I don't know.
Speaker 2:I remember hearing a story about uh stalin like basically doing like a bank heist where he ended up just throwing grenades at a horse and uh, that just seems like some guy rich t shit like I want to see.
Speaker 1:Yes that sounds like that sounds like you made that up in like a uh, like a tree house like we'll go out there we'll throw the m80s at the horse. That's gonna cause a ruckus yeah, fucking, but just everyone.
Speaker 2:Just horse flesh and like you know hell all over the place and people just running away with bags of like you know fucking money with like whatever the ruble sign is or whatever the fuck fucking on it. Damn that, just yeah. With like you know whatever little hat fucking. I'm sure there was a hat involved, but yeah, I don't know. That's the one that's like fucking breaking out of my brain right now. Hopefully something else will come back to me.
Speaker 1:But for now that's like fucking breaking out of my brain right now. Hopefully something else will come back to me, but for now that's mine. I love it. Just that works for me.
Speaker 2:All right, let's give it a roll number two, uh, what's the worst job you've ever had? Oh, um, I mean basically anything in a kitchen ever like I. I am not a kitchen-tempered person. I worked at a bar that had a 10-cent wing night and you would believe that, yeah, there were a shitload of people there and I hate. I'm just, yeah, I don't have the brain for a kitchen. So sometimes there would be like green-as-fuck chicken wings that I was just like throwing into the fryer. I was like I hope you die. I seriously legitimately hope you fucking die. And no one died because you know you don't want to be more tougher back then that gut biomes yeah, that's true that we had more raw milk.
Speaker 1:Uh, back in the day no, that's the kitchen is horrible. I'm with you. Um, certainly would do it if I had to. Um, it can be quite lucrative, but there is such a cap on it where it's like you're always um gonna be struggling, like I just feel like you're always gonna be living paycheck to paycheck.
Speaker 2:It's hard to get out of that and even, and if you do end up, and then also, you like the fucking like class and race dynamics of the kitchen or whatever, or just the race dynamics of the kitchen, because like, yeah, I worked at one place that like you like the fucking like class and race dynamics of the kitchen or whatever, or just the race dynamics of the kitchen, because like, yeah.
Speaker 2:I worked at one place that like fucking like the daytime staff was like mostly black and the nighttime staff was fucking white. Everyone was sexist as shit. But you know the night staff was just saying the worst shit ever about the day staff and like I was stuck in the night staff, just like I've worked during the day shift. Everyone fucking does the same amount of work they're supposed to do. I don't know what the fuck. You're just mad that you're. You can't be out drinking right now. Like what the fuck? Like Nasty shit like and it just brings out the fucking like the cool.
Speaker 2:Like that bread delivery job I delivered to one place and like I got a vibe for like different kitchens at different places place and like I got a vibe for like different kitchens at different places and this is gonna sound a little unwoke, but women in the kitchen, fucking you know there was one place I delivered to this coffee shop. They had like all women in the kitchen always the best vibe in the world. Like you know they were all like you know, just like, hey, how's it going? Like you know it fucking looked clean, like fucking like no one seemed miserable.
Speaker 2:I'm sure there was all sorts of weird psychic like you know, fucking terror being like you know, enacted in every fucking direction, sure, but it just did not seem like the fucking hell pit of like so many fucking kitchens I've been to and it's its own sapphic tragedy.
Speaker 1:I'm sure in some way, but outwardly at least, when you know we had, I had, I said at work, I said that nobody is allowed to, no guys at work are allowed to say an item is missing until they ask a woman to look for it. Because we had so many fucking times I worked in the office with the ladies and they would come up and be like I can't find this.
Speaker 1:And then you would get up and you would go and fucking look and it was right where it was supposed to be and it's just like man. You know what it's? It's sexist as hell, but it's so fucking true. God, I mean dudes, you gotta open your fucking eyes, and I'm so. I'm guilty of it too.
Speaker 2:I am not, I am not transcended this myself, I mean well, also, like it's like a fucking, like you know, not a biological but a hormonal thing, because, like you know, I'll, like you know, see, like you know, like trans men talking about, like, yeah, I used to cry all the time and now I'm on t and, like you know, I can just sort of like brood instead of fucking weeping about it and it's awesome. And, like, like you know, fucking vice versa, like you know. So, yeah, like in in that, like fucking, like yeah, like it's more like a now versus where, like you know, sort of a thing, yeah.
Speaker 1:Um, oh uh, a, one C, three a, one B. Two in the chat says as a woman in a warehouse, they've personally put away everything you're looking for. Well, there it is. Folks, now we know it's a conspiracy. Thank you for your service. Yeah, that's why guys can't find it. Let's see here what's next. Number one this is a low number. I said 23-sided dog. Did I do a 23? Oh, Hold on a second. I've been rolling dice incorrectly. I have to work on this.
Speaker 2:I need to get real Well in the meantime, shouts out to organism yeah, it is endless nightmares.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, kitchen for me.
Speaker 2:Yeah, they said the nightmares of restaurant jobs, the stink Like smelling like fucking onions Having your skin, whatever that grease is, yeah, that like in like a diner ass kitchen, like fucking, like that you just does not come off your clothes, or in a fucking pizza kitchen. Pizza kitchen is maybe one of the better kitchens, Cause like it makes it's, you're only making one thing and, like you know, it's just sort of like more like assembling Legos than like making food. Like you know, fucking you're just like. This goes on top of this goes on top of this into the oven.
Speaker 2:Blah, maybe you fucking face the fucking garlic shit. But yeah, fucking man like, yeah, just kitchen, ass, kitchens. Get the fuck out of my face having shoes that can't come inside you know, yeah, um, okay.
Speaker 1:Next question is number uh, number 10, which is oh uh, society collapses, um, somehow rebuilds. What would be your collapse career, like, what would you do after a breakdown of everything?
Speaker 2:well, I'm gonna make myself a nice little placard that says I'm, I'm heading to the tobacco fields, please don't kill me, um. And then yeah I'm. I'm just walking to, like Virginia or North Carolina or whatever, wherever the fuck they're making the tobacco, and I'm just putting my head down, bowing and saying, please let me work the fields or guard the fucking border or whatever the hell. I need these ciggies and yeah.
Speaker 1:So this is yeah. A lot of people want to take on a new empire. They think they're going to get their own fiefdom.
Speaker 2:You're just saying, as long as I got smokes and you know two meals a day, probably aren't going to do three meals a day, probably two meals a day on that yeah, um, but uh will help call your hunger yeah, I can, you know, I can quit all sorts of shit, but uh, you know, or maybe I don't know, I could fucking like go to the fucking vape, fucking mines or whatever the fuck but it's not the same laboratories yeah yeah, the vape labs um is.
Speaker 1:That's gonna be a lot of annoying characters there too just cauldrons of vape juice, clouds just billowing out yeah, different colors to be mixed and swirled together. Okay, next question is number 16, which is ooh, if you could force one album onto everybody's phone, like you two did in 2014, what album would you choose?
Speaker 2:uh, I would go with the 1986 project echo soundtrack. Oh really, yeah, fucking this thing. I mean, you've seen project echo, right?
Speaker 2:I don't think I have, oh my god bro, I think it's on youtube oh, I recognize this, but I know I haven't seen it yeah, well, it's like a classic of like fucking just back when, like blockbuster or hollywood or wherever, only had like two rows of anime tapes exactly so you just like rent the same fucking tape over and over like every couple of weeks and I was like just getting into anime and shit.
Speaker 2:And they had the same project, echo, where, like you know, it's like a red-headed school girl and then she's gotten annoyed, and that's echo. And then there's bico, who's like fucking this rich bitch, like it was like gray hair, that's like a super scientist. And then siko, who's just an ultra annoying, like you know, fucking blonde, just jabberbox, and uh, the thing is I was like early on in like anime fandom where, like I was just like oh, this is a serious thing, but then like I realized like it took like deck like a decade to be like no, this is basically like the naked gun of like anime where like it's like, oh, super strong, magical school girl.
Speaker 2:And then also we have this fake Captain Harlock, who's actually a woman, he's an alcoholic, and then, like some fists of the North Star, like you know, ass big chick named Mari and, but, most importantly, the soundtrack was produced by this dude, richie Zito, just in a garage in LA on all the cocaine.
Speaker 1:And like the American release, or no, just for the japanese release.
Speaker 2:Okay, for some reason they just were like, yeah, fuck it, let's get like. You know some fucking. So it's like just this amazing, like just sort of like synthy pop new wavy soundtrack which is like girl vocals and uh, yeah, the uh outstanding bops would be uh, dance away. Follow your dream. I have a dream to cover.
Speaker 2:Follow your dream in like a youth crew hardcore style one time okay because it's just the most posi shit ever, where it's like there's a vision in your heart. Only you can achieve. You can find the highest mountain if you only believe you know, fucking type shit love it. Yeah, I would put that on everyone's fucking phone in a heartbeat sure love it.
Speaker 1:Um, yeah, I uh. I've been watching lots of show, uh, 70s era, um godzillas, uh, and common writers, and the thing that will never compete these newer shows is the music. Like when they get into just fucking like a 70s funk fusion, like for like a chase, you know that's like common writers chasing a guy down and it just does the fucking slap bass and all that shit. It's, it's so fucking good. And the 80s ones too. Um, even better, because then they start getting into like the fucking electric guitar, like you know, just screeching guitars and shit. Um, yeah, I love it it's great.
Speaker 2:I uh actually I'm like djing tomorrow at this pizza shop for like a fundraiser for like this fest that's happening in february shouts out rust belt ripper fest Fest, and I think it's like the second or third track, like I programmed a whole mix and the second or third track, because I'm just going celebrity style, I've already prepared my mix and I'm just going to stand there with headphones and pretend that I'm doing something.
Speaker 1:Smart, smart.
Speaker 2:You know fucking. But yeah, I have from the original Mobile Suit Gundam soundtrack, Gallant Char, which is just the funkiest, coolest shit in the world. Like in the original Gundam, like whenever some shit's going down, all of a sudden you get boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom and it's like yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, love it, love it, love it, love it. Yeah, nothing beats it. Let's see here. Uh, how many is that?
Speaker 2:four so far oh, let's see, here we one more.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we had yeah looks like uh, number three, uh, which is oh, what is your dream car?
Speaker 2:Ooh, dream car. I'd love to have a 98 Dodge Grand Caravan again. Wow, you know, fucking, no seats in the back. Just, you know, fucking, tape deck with an adapter.
Speaker 1:Uh-huh.
Speaker 2:What are you carrying in the back? I don't know. Maybe people, maybe musical equipment, maybe furniture, maybe nothing at all Fucking just yeah. I don't know. Maybe people, maybe, uh, musical equipment, maybe furniture, maybe nothing at all. Uh, fucking just, uh. Yeah, I don't know. That was, uh, probably like my favorite vehicle I've ever had. Um other dream vehicles 89, uh, camaro. Uh, because my one friend shouts out, my dude mike. In high school he had like just this piece of shit, 89, camaro. That was like sort of like, uh, fucking like teal blue with like some like fucking, like he had just gotten it used or whatever and like it had like we'd like roast it but we loved it at the same time and we'd just be riding around like, fucking, like just doing stupid burnouts and throwing eggs at people and fucking.
Speaker 1:You know there's all sorts of horrible teenage bullshit just blasting like deicide and like trance yeah, um, I mean we had the same growing same uh childhood I had an 86 camaro oh, hell yeah that was sad.
Speaker 1:It was red but it sat outside, so the whole like uh, hood and top and trunk was bleached out from the sun, completely bleached out from the sun, um, and it was. It sucked. It was a v6 but it was rear-wheel drive so you could still fucking burn out anywhere everywhere we went um throwing eggs at people and also probably probably some horrible pop punk or something, probably like real big fish, not dsa yeah, fuck it.
Speaker 2:Uh, oh yeah. And then third car would be the uh dodge rampage oh yeah, those are fucking sweet yeah, which, uh, you know, also would be good for maybe my travels down to, uh, fucking virginia and the apocalypse. You know, you could like make it into a technical, like add some sort of machine gun to the back, for it's like shitty little truck bed.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I love that idea. I think you got a plan Ready to go, ready to serve.
Speaker 2:In the tobacco armies.
Speaker 1:The Rampage is For people who don't know. It's like an El Camino, but it's a Dodge, and it's boxier. Yeah, I love it. I wish I could put it up on the screen. I'll figure out how to do that eventually, but look up the Dodge Rampage. Good choice. Well, that's the five questions for the day. I appreciate you stopping by and agreeing to do this with me.
Speaker 2:It's great to be back for the first time.
Speaker 1:Yes, absolutely, I don't know. I just am ready to get back on the horse feeling good about it, and we'll return next week with a guest that I still don't know who it's going to be, but you'll be surprised by it. Um and uh, is there any place that people can go, alex, for your stuff, for your band?
Speaker 2:uh, yeah, let me uh just run down the plugs. Uh, twitter, I'm on private, so not too much happening there. At the tower skin instagram. I have that deleted off my phone for the month, just along with the twitter, just for sanity and just chilling and trying to read a book, um so, but that's tower skin worldwide. Blue sky, old blues guy. Uh, also tower skin worldwide. A lot more active there lately because I have the other two deleted off my phone. But then, cortar, that's C-O-R-T-A-R. Members of Integrity. Aaron Melnick from Integrity the guitar player yeah, he plays drums as a drummer.
Speaker 2:He's a hell of a guitar player, but we have a lot of's a hell of a guitar player, but, uh, we have a lot of fun. Um, he also wrote a book, uh, fucking called uh, bringing out the darkness. I think it's like a sci-fi novel. It's pretty sick cool, uh. But yeah, you can find us on instagram. Right now I got music videos tossed together with some shit. It's C-O-R-T-A-R-C-O-R-E-H-A-R-D, so CoreTard CoreHard on Instagram and I don't know. Hopefully we're going to try to get a little record put out. Maybe put some Aaron's clout to use. I haven't had anything on wax since like 2009, so that would be tight as hell, yeah that sounds dope.
Speaker 1:Uh, how do you feel about, I mean I? How do you feel about twitter? Can you just not leave it? I, I'm I. I initially was like fuck this, I'm gonna quit. You know, when he you know, he just handed it over to the bigots and assholes and started doing the doge thing. I was just like I got to quit. But, um, I can't avoid it. You know, I think, the way to do it, I'm posting on blue sky. I'm not posting on Twitter, but I am still gazing at Twitter.
Speaker 2:I mean you need Twitter, like just cause probably you have some friends that aren't on blue sky that you want to DM with. So I'd say like really, the methodology Right now for Twitter is just Fucking lock your account and talk to your homies and uh, fucking. But like, yeah, like, try to get blue sky off the ground. We need to get a blue sky version Of fucking Instagram at this point, because Instagram is like fucking, yeah, obviously About to become hell on earth, like you know fucking. But it uh, I don't know. I have like some friends that like swear up and down, that like elon's gonna I mean, elon's definitely gonna fuck the dog sooner or later, and like either I don't know the saudis are calling a debt kashogi style or, like you know, a plane crash, or, you know, fucking also, you could just be too fucking high on ketamine and kill himself because, like the wrong pepe said, like the mean thing to him, yeah, who the fuck knows? You know.
Speaker 1:But he's due for a big loss yeah.
Speaker 2:So either way, like some people are like, twitter is not going to be this forever, something's going to change. So I'd say, yeah, just go private and fucking talk to your homies and you know, quote, tweet dumb stuff, and you know, just because. Also, yeah, like it's no fucking point just yelling at people. I mean it is a pisser though, like between twitter and instagram, especially, yeah, getting back into like band shit. Now instagram is so much more of a thing than it was than like fucking like six years ago.
Speaker 2:Yeah, um uh for music, like in promoting music and shit, it's nuts.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean it's. It's actually done pretty well for you know the Ohio hardcore account. Uh, there's one for Columbus that does a good job of uh getting bills out there, like, uh, it makes it easier to know what's going on. Uh, I do appreciate that. And you get to hear a lot more music. I would say I've definitely, because of instagram, I've listened to more bands that have you know, under you know, 10 000 streams, you know or under you know, 50 000 streams.
Speaker 1:There's a um, there's playlists that go around too. That um, I've enjoyed. So, yeah, I mean I don't like, I'm not gonna be like, I'm not gonna say like there's a purity to being on any fucking social media. You know like, oh, if you're on twitter, you're supporting a bad guy. Personally, I feel like it is like helping out, but then I get people sending me screenshots of twitter. I get people sending me shit that happened on twitter three days later and I'm just like this is why I don't leave, like this is. This is the reason, because it's the shit is happening there well, that's a wild thing.
Speaker 2:Like all that shit happened on like new year's day, new year's eve, like with like the fucking you know those like fucking maniac attacks or whatever. I didn't find out about them until like the second on blue sky, right like the news just does not move, I mean the timeline starting to move more because, like it used to be like blue sky, you'd like open it up and check your timeline and then you'd open it up like three hours later and it was the same fucking timeline right now, like you know, it's like maybe you gotta wait like 20 minutes and you might get like a couple of new posts which maybe that's healthier, who knows yeah, I mean for me, I've enjoyed it, um, uh, it's, you know, way less engagement than what I normally got.
Speaker 1:I don't have as many followers I'm brett pain, b-r-e-t-t-p-a-i-n on there, um, but I have gotten back to being able to talk to people without somebody get coming in and like I oh well, that's changing.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's true but so far there's like people coming on blue sky. Where I'm like, was your social media experience just facebook before this? Why like fucking people being like? Why are you faving your post, my post? I don't even fucking follow you like and I'm like. I'm like grandpa, what the fuck.
Speaker 1:They're getting gang stalked on Blue Sky now it's fucking weird.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, I have one more thing to plug. I am about to have another podcast Fucking coming out. I'm probably going to start editing the first one After this. It's going to be called 95 to Life we are all sentenced to 95 to Life when for a long time I've had the thesis statement called 95 to Life. We are all sentenced to 95 to Life.
Speaker 2:Where for a long time I've had the thesis statement that 1995 is the greatest year ever in American cinema. That's American in parentheses. So I'm basically going to, episode by episode, movie by movie, get into the filmography of 1995. And yeah, our first episode begins with Street Fighter. By movie. Get into the filmography of 1995. And yeah, our first episode begins with Street Fighter the movie, which some eagle-eared listeners might be like. Well, wait a minute, that came out in December of 1994. Well, let me tell you something. The cinematic year of 1995 began in December of 1994 with Street Fighter the movie, and then it ended in. The cinematic year of 1995 began in December of 1994 with street fighter the movie, and then it ended in January of 1996 with biodome, and in between all that we got gold, wow. So I'm still figuring it out, but yeah, I don't know what else is a middle-aged guy supposed to do other than fucking start a movie podcast. I guess we got nothing else to do.
Speaker 1:Yeah, nostalgia is big these days. I've uh, I've been doing more to uh. I've been doing more to uh just enjoy childish shit.
Speaker 2:I think I had a problem with it where before it was like I gotta be, I gotta, you know, I gotta um be responsible with my money it's like no, yeah, I don't I need to make myself happy dude, I have a problem with fucking aliexpress and I'm trying to get in on that Brother let me tell you something If you want anime figures, you can get shit cheap as hell. I have so many one piece figures that are like fucking like 30 centimeters for like fucking like 12 bucks, like you know. Yeah, wait, like you know good, like four or five weeks for them to come, but you know they get there.
Speaker 1:No, I'm with you. Um, I actually uh, in my relatively unknown store on like ebay and mercari, I have a bunch of like anime figures and stuff. Um, the only reason I have them is because I can't believe they're charging 180 for action figures these days. Um, but for my personal stuff, the, I get the bondulu off of aliexpress, I get the common writer, that's 897, you know, and, and, like you said, 12 inches tall, do you?
Speaker 2:ever get? Do they ever like flip you around where all of a sudden they're trying to charge you argentinian money for some reason? No, I get thai money.
Speaker 1:There's a lot of th fans of Kamen Rider, so I always end up on some sort of Thai version of Amazon and AliExpress both.
Speaker 2:And you got to get on it now, before these tariffs hit. So you know yeah.
Speaker 1:I mean, yeah, I definitely my goals are for more sustainable and reusable and all that stuff. There's just no way around it that sometimes you need some cheap plastic bullshit and, um, the amazon prices are so stupid, considering you also have to pay 15. You have to pay 15 a month to pay three times the amount of us for a spatula that you would from aliexpress dude, fucking depop is becoming bullshit these days.
Speaker 2:Fucking like I went and there was like some three dollar shirt and I was like, oh cool, three dollar shirt after shipping and everything probably be like an eight dollar shirt, you know like. But now, with like fees, there's all these extra fucking fees they've added where all of a sudden it's like a three dollar shirt costs you like fucking fifteen dollars and I'm like I'm not paying fifteen dollars for a three dollar shirt yeah, they, um, they, because they use their own shipping and, uh, I think I believe depop my opinion is skimming off the top, because the prices they charge are way higher than what I would pay.
Speaker 1:If I personally printed out a label, I would pay eight or nine bucks, going through like pirate ship. Yeah, and they're charging $12 for items that are like a pound or less, or maybe even two pounds or less, and doesn't add up for anything Nothing. Gold stays gold, I guess it's true. It's true. Ebay is adding buyer's premium now too, which is pretty common in the auction industry. I don't know, I know it's contested, but I do think it's nice to have the buyers to take on some of the, you know, the, I don't know what's not risk, but, like you know, to pay for the customer service to be able to get returns all of that shit.
Speaker 1:Like you need to chip in 4%. You know to like on this fucking deal. I'm selling you, I'm selling you this thing that you're not going to get anywhere else. I dug this up out of nowhere, you know. I know people think reselling scummy or whatever.
Speaker 2:But yeah, you make 20 to 30 dollars if you're lucky on an item like yeah, I mean, well, that's all well and good if it's going to the seller and not just to fucking ebay yeah, that's true.
Speaker 1:I mean, yeah, they've been rinsing for a very long time and it just always goes up there.
Speaker 2:They're just the only game in town for, like, as far as most collectible markets are concerned, Like I went to like pay like part of my fucking electric bill the other day and all of a sudden there was this new thing where it's like there's either going to be a 50 cent or two or $2 and 75 cent fee to, like you know, pay this through your fucking bank account. And I'm like this has not existed for five years, like I'm like I want to know that like some employee is getting paid for this, not just some fucking CEO Like you know, show me like, like a sponsored, like fucking child in Africa.
Speaker 2:I want to see the employee that is getting this fucking 50 cents. God damn it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, yeah, show me where it goes. Well, I appreciate it. Thanks for being here. We will see all y'all next week. Once again, thank you for listening to the Relatively Unknown Podcast. Find me on Blue Sky, brett Payne, b-r-e-t-t-p-a-i-n. Find me on Instagram at Relatively Unknown CEO Company and, I think, on Facebook too. I'm going to post on Facebook. I don't know, I feel like you've got to push back against the hell a little bit. So peace, see you.
