Ep. 14 - George Guerrero: Our Music Tells Our Story - A Life in Six Songs

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
You always got to find like when you think about
it now Poor.
Liza.
What did she do?
Who are we going to?

Speaker 3 (00:04):
play when we lose Liza.
Who thought of this idea?

Speaker 1 (00:07):
Right.
So, like you know, the last outin the ninth inning, bottom of
the ninth, and they lose Lizathe speaker.
So sad.

Speaker 2 (00:18):
But if it's a win, it's.

Speaker 1 (00:19):
Frank, that didn't last very long.
I don't know exactly, yeah, butsome people.

Speaker 3 (00:25):
some people contacted some other people and we're
like got back to Liza.
Yeah, what the hell are you?

Speaker 2 (01:18):
doing here.

Speaker 3 (01:19):
Thank you.
I'm a For those of you new tothe podcast, on each episode we
embark on an epic adventure withour guests to find the songs
that are stuck to us likeaudible tattoos, that tell the
story of who we are and wherewe've been, to help us figure
out where we're going.
It's a life story told throughsix songs.

(01:40):
We come to these conversationswith love, kindness and
curiosity to counter theprevalence of hate, anger and
judgment we see in the world.
Our guiding view, with a nod toTed Lasso, is be curious, not
judgmental.
Our goal is that by listeningto these stories, you can bring

(02:00):
more love, kindness andcuriosity into your own life.
With that, let's go have alisten together.
Our guest today is JorgeGuerrero.
Jorge is a first-generationAmerican middle child between
two sisters, born and raised inNew York but now living on the
left coast in San Francisco withhis wife, janine, and two dogs,

(02:21):
duncan and Donut.
During the day, he leads agroup of dedicated individuals
looking to foment change bycrafting a financial system that
creates value for people,communities and planet, not just
a privileged few.
Jorge describes himself as apoet who loves math and someone
who views his glass as almostalways half full.

(02:43):
Jorge, welcome to A Life in SixSongs.

Speaker 1 (02:47):
Thank you so much for having me.

Speaker 3 (02:49):
Oh, we're glad you're here.
Thanks for taking the time.
We're excited to get into yoursix songs and six stories Before
we do that, just to kind of getus warmed up, get us going.
You know what is it about musicand the role it plays in your
life that made you want to sayyes, to be a guest on this show.

(03:11):
You know how do you view musicfunctioning in your life?

Speaker 1 (03:16):
So you know, music is a voice for the soul.
All throughout life you engagewith music in different ways and
I promised probably for thepodcast.
It marks moments in your life.

(03:38):
I've even separate.
Before I heard about yourpodcast, I had this concept that
started with my sistersoundtrack of your life right
Along, this idea that allthroughout your life different
songs, different memoriesrelated to music.

(03:59):
You know, mark the moment itcame up in a conversation um, my
father loved to play piano, butthere's one song he would play
over and over and over again,which was, uh, pure lease.
Um, which moment of trivia wasactually should be named uh,
pure turris?

(04:19):
We won't get into it, butgoogle it, you'll find out.
Pure Turise we won't get intoit, but Google it, you'll find
out that it's as a result thatBeethoven had really crappy
handwriting and it was misreadas Pure Elise, when in truth it
was meant to be dedicated to awoman whose name was Therese.

Speaker 3 (04:40):
Oh my goodness.
So, Therese is walking aroundgoing.
Hey, who's?

Speaker 4 (04:43):
this Elise person.

Speaker 1 (04:46):
Pausing all kinds of drama.
Isn't that wild, I mean.
So it's just like in my mind,it's like the most known piano
melody Everybody in the momentknows it.
But in truth it's supposed tobe pure Therese.

Speaker 2 (05:02):
It's hilarious fear to reason so music here's.

Speaker 1 (05:05):
I mean, there's an example, right, you know,
beethoven dedicated a song to awoman he had a crush on.
Apparently, therese was justlike lost.
I don't really want to haveanything to do with you and, um,
you know, after he passed away,someone came across.
The music written in scribblewas actually fear therese.
And whoever did?
The transcription was like okay, yeah, pure release, and that's

(05:28):
was recorded in history, um,but yeah, throughout history,
right, music has an indeliblemark on um, people's lives, and
this podcast is an example ofthat oh, that's great.

Speaker 3 (05:44):
yeah, thank you for sharing it.
Thank you for the trivia.
We definitely love learningmusic trivia, especially going
back in history like that.
That's awesome.
So well, yeah, well, let's getinto your story and your six.
So we're going to kick it overto Carolina, who's going to kick
us off with our first questionand song.

Speaker 4 (06:04):
Yeah, we'll start at the very beginning.
Jorge, what is your earliestmusic memory?

Speaker 1 (06:10):
The song that immediately came to mind and I
almost like I can't say thetitle of the song without, like,
intonating it the way that, inthe silky voice that he has, lou
Rawls, you'll never find.
You'll never find another lovelike mine.

Speaker 2 (06:44):
Awesome.

Speaker 3 (06:44):
Let's take a listen.
Oh, good stuff.

Speaker 4 (06:48):
It is.
His voice is like super silky.

Speaker 2 (06:52):
Right.

Speaker 4 (06:53):
Totally.
Where does this take you back?
What's the memory attached tothe song?

Speaker 1 (06:58):
My parents had an eight track tape player, one in
the car and one in the livingroom.
And you know, you're a kid,you're growing up, you have no
idea what, what this is, but youhave this like cartridge and,
um, you know, you put thecartridge into the thing and and
it starts playing music andyou're like, wow, this is really
neat.
You have a record player too,which is obviously, you know,

(07:20):
different mechanism.
But to have this cartridge, youstick it in you, you press the
button and music comes out.
It was like magic, and this wasone of two cartridges that
immediately come to memory thatI have.
The other one was the Captainand Tennille, but this is one

(07:41):
that I would actually stick inthere and play.
And I just have this and I, I, II Googled it after I, you know,
after I you know, answered thequestion just because I
remembered, like I remember likea really nice suit and like Lou
Rawls is looking like he's likeso smooth and as soon as I saw

(08:02):
the picture, I'm like that's it.
That's what I remember.
So my, my mom, she, she was anurse, she, at the Columbia
Presbyterian hospital, which isin the Northern part of
Manhattan, which is where weoriginally settled in when the
when they immigrated inWashington Heights, and she

(08:22):
worked a night shift, and so wewould go pick her up, like
around midnight, like me and myolder sister, um, pile into the
station wagon and you know, wewould drive down to pick her up
and my dad would always play LouRawls.

(08:44):
The whole 8-track would justcycle over.
This is the song that brings meback to those moments.
This song Wise Barbecue PotatoChips which we would get at the
golf station.
We would eat the snacks in theback of the station wagon in our

(09:05):
pajamas, um, you know, eachnight, uh, you know, driving up,
driving to pick up my mom fromwork, um, but, like again, it's
just like that silky soundyou'll never find it's, it's,
it's, uh, it's that firstsoundtrack of my life.

Speaker 2 (09:26):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (09:27):
And I think the song also has like it's not just his
voice, but it's got this like Idon't know, like evening jazz
club piano to it, you know, andso like I'm envisioning like you
driving in the middle of thenight through like parts of
Manhattan with the lights andthis piano and this voice, but
you're like tiny, in the back ofthe station wagon in your
potato chips, and so it's just areally sweet story.

Speaker 1 (09:49):
Yeah, yeah, no, it's memories, it's indelible.
And you know, I can just I canpicture it you know giggling in
the back middle of the night,all to the tunes of lou ross
nice, did you?

Speaker 3 (10:09):
I mean you, you sort of answered, I think, with what
you were just saying, gigglingin the back and things.
It sounded.
Sounds like even at the time,in the moment you were enjoying
the moment, like it's notsomething.
In the moment you're like, oh,why do we have to go get mom and
I'm tired, or whatever.
Like in the moment you were,you were jazzed about it, did it
feel a little bit like that.
Did it feel like, because youwere out late at night, did it

(10:30):
feel a little bit almost likewe're getting to stay up late,
or something like that?

Speaker 1 (10:34):
Yeah, I mean it's just part of the routine.
But later in life you reflectand you recognize like okay, so
that's really tough, like my dadworked during the day and my
mom worked at night, right tojust have coverage, and that's
what's happening, right, likethat's real life.

(10:55):
But to me and my sister, likewe don't, we didn't really sort
of see that right, you sort ofsee, see, you just kind of grow
up.
This is part of the rhythm oflife.
You're not understanding thatsacrifice that's going on like
that was a couple of them whospend as much time with each
other having non-overlappingthings and so like she would get

(11:17):
home, be really tired, sleepthrough.
You know this is like midnight,so my dad's going to get up
early to go to work, so he's notsleeping all that much before
he has to leave for work thenext day.
And it's like these little smallthings that you realize later
on in life, the littlesacrifices that your parents
make, the little adjustmentsthat, um, that you do as parents

(11:42):
to try to make life for yourkids as sort of seamless as
possible.
And you know, I tell you know,now that I'm reflecting on I
don't know if necessarily all ofthat was conscious on the part
of my dad, but try to make it assort of stress-free for us as
possible.

(12:03):
But like we would go in the back, there would be pillows, we'd
have our teddy bears and youknow we'd just be like, just go
to sleep and, um, more oftenthan not we fall asleep back
there and we get carried back tobed and we wake up in our bed.
We have no idea what the hellhappened.
Um, and, and that's just therhythm of of childhood.

(12:23):
You know, up until you know.
Eventually, my mom stoppedworking nights, but, but again,
like you don't, you don'trealize that it was just because
we were small and somebodyneeded to be home during.
You know different parts of theday.
That's why it was done.

Speaker 5 (12:40):
And the fact that you guys didn't recognize that as
kids, you know it was just apart of your life.
At that point it sounds likethe parents did a pretty good
job, right.

Speaker 1 (12:52):
Mom if you're listening you did a fantastic
job.
No, no, I'm kidding, but like,yeah, it's, you know.
And the other thing is likeit's different now the way
people you know maybe it's morecommon now to two income
households and how kids grow updifferently.
My, my wife, um, she wasfortunate enough, her, her mom

(13:15):
was home for much of theirchildhood and, um, you know, she
distinctly can talk, speak towhen her mom, you know, went
back to work and how differentit was.
And I think I don't know thisfor the stats bear itself out I

(13:35):
imagine it does that you knowtwo incomes are necessary in
these United States of Americato make ends meet of America to
make ends meet, and thepressures that are involved
there are probably even more sothan they might have been back
in the 70s and 80s when I wasgrowing up, but certainly as an

(13:56):
immigrant family, the strugglewas real and they came to the US
really for this reason right,for the opportunities that were
presented and the chance thatfor their kids really to have a
different life.

Speaker 3 (14:17):
And where did they come from?
The Philippines, I love youknow, on the show we've had a
number of people talking aboutsongs that they were listening
to or came across, or the storyis based around playing it in
the car Right and it seems like,you know, I mean it's even like

(14:41):
almost a cliche right, like I'mgoing to go, I need to clear my
head or I'm feeling sad.
I'm gonna go drive and put onsome music, right, it's kind of
this.
There seems to be somethingvery connected about music and
the car right and being in there, and I remember in high school
like I had the stereo and thesubwoofer box and that you know,

(15:04):
like you just want to feel themusic and like drive in the car
and do it, and people talkedabout, you know, driving with
their parents and their dadwould play this song, exactly
like you're saying.
It seems like a very commontheme that that's there.
Think about of that, that thatpower of the time, of kind of
what we play in the car.
Going back to the thing ofparents and what parents do and

(15:27):
how, like it's not aboutcreating a perfect childhood,
it's about just having thosemoments right and those those
moments you have driving yourkids around in the car.
As a parent, that gets tough.
Right, you're driving kidsaround a lot, but it's kind of
this great opportunity for thismoment of connection.
And it's so cool how youdescribed it of your dad.

(15:48):
It wasn't even just likeaccidental that this was
happening.
It was intentional on his part,like all right, you know we got
to wake the kids up to do this,to pick up mom, but we're going
to create the kind of bestenvironment we can and it worked
, like Raza said.
You said, you know, hey, goodjob, like because it worked,
because here we are down theroad and you're, you're telling
the story.
So, um, just really cool thatthat connection of music and and

(16:12):
cars and driving yeah, I meanit's like a private sound stage
in that way totally yeah,whatever you want to play, you
you can even sing along, right?

Speaker 1 (16:26):
How many people have, uh, got caught um belting out
their favorite tune?
Look over to the left and oops,there you go, yeah.

Speaker 3 (16:34):
Everyone always talked.
This phrase is always like oh,sing it in the shower, and I
feel like that it really issinging in the car.
That's where I think.
If anyone's going to sing andthey're not going to sing
anywhere else the car isprobably the first place for
that reason, yeah.

Speaker 5 (16:49):
For those of us who are from the sort of immigrant
background, you know we alwaysassociated America with cars and
the American love of loveaffair with cars.
That's a thing, that that'stotally a thing.
And you know, from the 40s, 50s, 60s, all those iconic vehicles
like the Chevys, the Cadillacs,and then when they installed,
you know, like the eight trackplayer in the car, I mean that's

(17:10):
a, that's a part of our sort ofupbringing and family life,
especially in the seventies andeighties.
So yeah, that's yeah.
As far as connectivity andbeing connected and connected by
a music into a vehicle, thatthat's definitely a thing?

Speaker 1 (17:24):
Yeah, I didn't even I didn't even think of that.
Right, like you had the AMradio first.
I don't know when, exactly when, when FM, you know, came online
but like a track was the firstRight Like play an album in the
car.
It was an eight track, yeah.

Speaker 4 (17:41):
And they weren't afterwards Right.
They weren't afterwards right,but they weren't like small
right they were.
I've actually haven't seen anytrack like tapes were the thing
now when I was like they werekind of chunky right yeah, a
little bit, a little bit smallerthan like a vhs, but the same
thickness kind of.
That's not like, that's not likesmall, you know think about
like how quickly we then got tolike cds, where you would have
like a whole booklet of liketons of cds.

(18:02):
If you had a ton of eighttracks it would like pick up
like a considerable amount ofspace in the car.

Speaker 2 (18:08):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1 (18:09):
Well, I mean it evolved to those carousels,
right?
Then you would put like allyour music in the car.
Yes, yeah.

Speaker 3 (18:16):
The, the, the 12 discs or six disc CD changer in
the trunk.

Speaker 1 (18:21):
Exactly exactly which ones am I going to put in there
, right?

Speaker 3 (18:25):
and, and that that's the perfect example of how much
music and cars are are tiedtogether.
Like, just think of, like allwe just said, all of the
technology around music playing.
Um, that was specificallyfocused around cars, right, and
and being able to play the musicin your car.
Um, I know we had um before.

(18:47):
Kind of CD players were reallypopular, for in dash we had the
thing where you had like thedisc man that had the cassette
that you'd put in the cassetteplayer and you would play the CD
from there.
And then you know it had alittle Mount that was like had
little Springs on it so itwouldn't skip, and like had
little springs on it so itwouldn't skip.
And you know, as you weredriving and things like that,
right, all of this technologybound just around playing, you

(19:08):
know, music in in your car yeah,with commute times and whatnot.

Speaker 1 (19:13):
Right like, what percent of your life is in your
car on your private soundstage.
Right now, you have every songin you can imagine history at
your fingertips.
What are you going to listen to?
You have to listen to the samestuff right, right, that's true,

(19:33):
super sure or or.

Speaker 3 (19:35):
There's also that thing I think of.
You know the problem of toomuch choice, right there's oh
yeah, the paradox of choice.
Right, we think we want some,but too much choice can be bad,
right?
So when you only can carry, youknow, a couple, eight tracks
with you, you're like, hey, it'sLou Rawls, that's what we're
playing, because that's allthere is right, and so yeah, you
don't have to think about it.
You're like, what should welisten to otherwise?

(19:56):
The other funny thing about thecar too, like we're saying, of,
like with Raza, what youbrought up and Jorge, what you
were saying like in one sense,the car is that private place
where you can blast it as loudas you want and you don't have
to worry about your sister orwhatever in the next room or
your parents getting upset.
You're kind of, you know,private in there.
But it also like going back towhat Rod said about kind of car

(20:17):
culture and things.
Right, like we drive our cars inways, a lot of ways, to be seen
right, it's kind of we pick thecar, we pick the color, even if
you're not a car person.
Right, you choose what kind ofcolor feels like you.
And that's also true of music,right, because sometimes, yeah,
you crank it up and you have thewindows closed because you want
to private, but then sometimesyou roll those windows down and
crank it up to let everybodyknow this is my jam, this is who

(20:40):
I am and things.
So it's interesting how it'slike both, right, the privacy of
it, but also like the show ofit.
Right, here's who I, here's whoI am.

Speaker 1 (20:50):
It's an announcement of a definition of who you're,
what you're feeling like and inthat moment, who you are, as a
person, maybe a little bit of acontrast here.
East Coast, west Coast.
I won't do that thing, but likethere's there's a car culture
here on the West Coast.
Sure Very definitive one, andplaying music really loud with

(21:16):
your windows down is a big partof that.
Um, all the time in sanfrancisco, um what you have
playing, no matter what time ofday.
Yeah, it's a message of who Iam, what I stand for yeah um my
background, how I might befeeling.

(21:37):
You know all the things um it's, uh, it's youth culture.
It transcendsends ages, even Iwould say.

Speaker 3 (21:45):
Yeah yeah.

Speaker 4 (21:46):
I kind of love that that's still around.
I hope that doesn't go away,you know anytime soon.

Speaker 1 (21:53):
You can't imagine it right Like it's again music is
eternal.

Speaker 4 (22:00):
I will move us on to our next question.
Again, we're talking about carsand music for a whole two hours.
So this was a good memory foryou, like a good time when you
were little, that first earliestmemory of listening to Lou
Rawls in the car, despite yourfamily kind of juggling

(22:21):
difficulties of a dual income,double parent working household.
So you grow up a little bit andand life isn't always like easy
and fun and carefree in theback of the station wagon.
So when you hit a difficulttime, right what's a song that
helped you through a difficulttime or situation?

Speaker 1 (22:42):
So the song that came to mind for this one was easy.
It's.
It's part of a playlist that'scalled the melancholic bottom,
which is a lot.
You know a lot of thecollection is love songs and
such, but in this case itcarries a little extra meaning.

(23:04):
It's I'm Kissing you by Desiree, the instrumental.
It's a song on the soundtrackof Romeo and Juliet.
The instrumental of this istitled Kissing you, so they got
rid of the I'm and so when Itell the story, it'll, it'll, uh

(23:27):
, become apparent all right,let's take a listen so beautiful

(23:56):
it is.
it is, but when you listen tothe words, that's beautiful.
I've listened to this thousandsof times and so I know.
When it's not the version thatI'm used to, which is actually
from the movie, this is the onethat is on her album and it's
the one that's on all thestreaming.
It's the one that's most easilyavailable, For whatever reason.

(24:16):
The version that's in the songand even when you go to the
streaming services they don'thave it on there.
It'll just be kind of blankedout.
You can't play it.
I don't know why music rightsare voodoo for all, for all the
reasons, but the one that, um,I've always listened to is from
the CD.
Um, that is the original fromthe movie.

(24:39):
It's, it's very subtlydifferent.
And, uh, it's, it's very subtlydifferent.
And, uh, I don't even know ifyou, uh, if uh anybody who this
isn't a favorite song, uh, wouldrecognize right right you hear
it immediately.
Yeah, wow, interesting so thebackground of the story.
So I I've always loved themovie um and you know this is

(25:03):
the the love theme from it, andif you're familiar with the
movie, there's like thisaquarium scene where Romeo and
Juliet are like looking at eachother through the aquarium and
that's when the song is playing.
The background of the storyactually why I chose this in a
difficult time was 9-11.

(25:23):
Born and raised in New York on9-11, living in New York working
, and we've all heard thestories of the day from those
who were there, who lived there,and everything rings true.
The sky was blue, the air wascrisp, and for me the memory of

(25:44):
the day starts with work.
It was a board meeting and Iworked at Midtown, so just to
kind of set the geography hereand I was going to be presenting
at the board meeting.
So I showed up at work a lotearlier than I normally would,

(26:08):
so it was like some point before8 o'clock because I needed to
prep.
I wanted to just be ready andget all my thoughts together.
So my focus was on that.
And I get a phone call and it'smy younger sister and she says

(26:29):
there's a hole in the WorldTrade Center.
And I'm like, what are youtalking about?
There's a hole in the WorldTrade Center.
I'm looking at the news rightnow and I'm like what do you
mean?
There's a hole.
It's like a plane just wentinto the World Trade Center.
I'm like what?
Like, why would you do that?
Like that has to be on purpose.

(26:50):
And it's like is it a big plane?
A small plane?
And it's like you know, I don'tknow, I can't tell.
And I'm like that's just,there's no way.
And so I hung up the phone.
No, no, went hung up the phone,no, no.
Went online CNNcom and there'sa picture there.

(27:10):
I'm like holy shit.
And went to the conference room,turned on the TV watching the
news coverage and by thenhelicopters were hovering around
.
We're all distracted.
Meanwhile, our bosses are justlike board meeting Focus.

(27:35):
I'm just like hello, we'rewatching.
While we're watching, weactually saw live the second
plane hit and I distinctlyremember what happened, because
the angle that it came from itwas from ABC, channel 7, came

(27:56):
around the back and in thatinstant, where you saw another
plane, I'm like it doesn'tregister.
What am I looking at?
Is that a helicopter?
Like there were otherhelicopters.
I'm like that's not ahelicopter.
And then boom, and then theplane and my my colleague was
with me immediately screamed andran out of the office and, like

(28:21):
you know, I was just kind offrozen.
Holy crap, like what'shappening.
And then everything from thatpoint on, honestly is a bit
fuzzy right, like the boardmeeting was still going to go on
and, uh, we still had to focusreally, and yeah, so this is the

(28:46):
other part, to get ready togive the presentation you only
had to present and do thismeeting still have to present.
And so so, like, what are wedoing?
And like, well, let's just stayfocused.
You know, the board meeting,george, get ready to present.
I'm like shit.
But like hi, like what are wedoing?

(29:06):
Like this is crazy, yeah.
So I tried to lose myself intowork, but you can't.
You're worried, like where aremy, my friends?
Okay, what's going on?
And so you know, you keepkeeping track, keep it stayed on
.
And meanwhile you're wondering,like should we get the hell out
of here?
This isn't a good place.

(29:27):
We're right by RockefellerCenter, which who knows what's
going on?
Obviously, this is somethingthat is terrorist related.
The security for the company,for the building, was like, stay
in place, the safest thing todo, which actually made sense.
And so, you know, we kind ofbided our time by working slash,

(29:53):
trying to, you know, keep trackof what's going on.
Um, you know, like, can theyget out of there?
Like they must be evacuatingtime, time kind of ticks on.
You know, eventually thedecision was made let's let
people go like go home, figurestuff out, minimal board meeting

(30:16):
to continue to present.
And so, fortunately, eventuallyit was just like all right,
george, why don't you just gohome?
You know we'll skip your part,but like it's.
It's.
One of the strange memories forme is is that like how life went
on, how capitalism did not stopin the face of 9-11, which we

(30:41):
could probably talk about for along time.
But, you know, ultimately, forthe broader people at work,
figure out how you're going toget home, right?
Obviously, this is not a day tostay at work the whole day.
The determination, eventually,was to just go home, right, and

(31:03):
so so, and we weren't going touse the elevator, so we walked
down the stairs, so that wasjust a precaution to take, made
it down to the ground and sowhere we were Rockefeller Center
if you're not familiar with,just understand, between 6th

(31:23):
Avenue and 5th Avenue, on 51stStreet, and as a New Yorker you
know, if you walk to 5th Avenueand look down, you'll see the
Trade Center Straight up Rightdown 5th.
And for a moment I thought gohave a look, just for a moment.

(31:46):
And I said no, you don't wantto see that.
And so I turned and went uptown, towards where I lived on the
airport, and I walked home witha colleague who also lived on
the airport.
We walked home together, wentto the park and, walking down

(32:06):
72nd street, uh, there was abank, chase bank, on the corner
of uh columbus and 72nd.
And in my mind, like and wetalked about, should we get
money?
Like, like, maybe we should getmoney, let's get cash.

Speaker 4 (32:25):
You never know what's going to happen.

Speaker 1 (32:26):
So like these like sort of strange thoughts like go
to your mind, like how, how dowe do this?
Like what should we be doing?
Like should we be scared?
I'm scared, like maybe weshould get cash, let's get cash.
And um, uh, you know, continuedto walk home and again another
distinct memory was a manicureplace right before Broadway.

(32:53):
So in the middle People gettingtheir nails done.
Yeah, getting their nails doneMiddle of 9-11.

Speaker 2 (33:01):
I love New York.
All the seats were taken.
It never stops Gettingmanicures.
I love New York All the seatswere taken.

Speaker 1 (33:04):
It never stops Getting manicured.
I'm just like, okay, maybethat's the way you deal with it.

Speaker 3 (33:10):
Yeah, those appointments are hard to get.
You can't skip it.

Speaker 1 (33:13):
But yeah, no, I mean no judgment, it's like it was
just a really odd time.
You know people, just sort of amillion out.
Nobody knew what to do, no oneknew where to go.
Um, you know, there were, youknow, jersey, westchester,
rockland, refugees just likewalking around because, like you
couldn't get out of the city.

(33:33):
Um, just kind of know, likebuses weren't running, trains
weren't running, and so peoplejust kind of like were walking
around and and so there was,there was a bit of that.
Cell phones weren't workingRight, so you tried to, like I
was trying to call my dad, likewhere are you, are you?
Okay?
He worked down by Union Square,which is 14th Street, and you

(33:56):
kept trying.
I'm just like I'm just gonna gohome and I didn't watch TV.
I didn't want to watch it, so Ididn't watch.
TV I didn't want to watch it, soI didn't see any of the.
I didn't see that the towers godown, didn't watch any of that
found out later on, after thefact, when eventually let's see

(34:22):
what's going on.
Most of my time was spenttrying to get a hold of my dad,
which I eventually did, and toldhim to, just you know, come up
to our club.
So anyway, there are so manyaspects of the day that I could
go into, but how it relates tothe song is this so on the

(34:43):
Saturday after that Tuesday,there was a sort of makeshift
memorial that was stood up inUnion Square in New York.
So by that point, 14th Streetwas established as sort of the
line where how far you can godown.

(35:05):
Prior to that, you were able togo down a little bit further.
14th Street was the stoppingpoint and so a makeshift
memorial was stood up allthroughout Union Square and so I
went down there and I recentlybought a video camera and I kind

(35:30):
of wanted to record the momentand anything I captured.
I mean, like I can't evendescribe what I saw right.
Obviously there was the flyersof the missing all along there,
everywhere, and that was allthroughout New York, but in
particular because that becamethe de facto place where, as far
as people could go, there was apreponderance of it.

(35:54):
Everywhere there werecandlelight vigils, there's
people standing around singingthe national anthem, some
artists created all sorts ofdifferent expressions of grief
and placed them throughout thepark, and I spent some time

(36:18):
shooting the different scenes,just looking to capture it, and
at the time I had never editedthe different scenes, just
looking to capture it, and atthe time I had never edited
anything before.
And this is again 2001.
My movie was sort of the firstconsumer video editing program

(36:49):
if you're giggling me, rememberit and this was a new version
had just been released thatallowed you to edit with a
different soundtrack.

Speaker 4 (36:56):
Right, so you could right, not just like the stock
songs that came on the softwarelike you could add music
yourself yeah, yeah, or just noteven like the sound that's of
the video.

Speaker 1 (37:07):
You can actually take a separate soundtrack.

Speaker 3 (37:09):
Put something else on top.

Speaker 1 (37:10):
Yeah yeah.
It's kind of sort of the youknow modern linear editing now
and I just felt like it was sonatural for me to try to do
something here and capture thatevening what I saw, and it was

(37:33):
immediate.
The song I should I wanted touse, which was the instrumental
version of I'm kissing you,which is labeled Kissing you on
the soundtrack, and the way Idid it was.
I started first with the music,and the music told me what I

(37:57):
needed to put on, what videomade sense to put it on there,
and I just and again.
This is like me learning how touse iMovie for the first time,
figuring out cuts, and how thehell do you do that?
Um, what's a fade like, whatdoes that mean?
and um, but you listen to themusic, you're looking at all the

(38:22):
footage and it just came outand it absolutely was a process
of catharsis for me, the emotionof the week culminating here
with footage captured of thememorial and yeah, I just like.

(38:44):
My mind right now is just allof the flyers are missing and
it's tough, you know, it's toughremembering that A girl from
high school lost her boyfriendfrom high school lost her
boyfriend and that night, of meand another friend from high

(39:09):
school spent time going aroundthe different hospitals trying
to find him.
So he was one of the missingright and so, yeah, it's just
like all of this emotion thatyou carried, all of the getting
in touch with friends, like youknow, this is before, like you
know, that you had to likeactually call and be like, hey,

(39:29):
are you, are you okay?
You know all of those things.
And putting together the videofor me was a way for me to um,
get all of that out right, toprocess everything that happened
and you know the instrumentalis actually pretty long, it's

(39:50):
like five minutes, somethinglike that but it was so easy to
put it together, to weave all ofthe imagery, the video, the
different pieces, and to set itto music was just a very

(40:14):
powerful release for me.

Speaker 3 (40:18):
Yeah, can we take a little watch of it?
I have it queued up if you'reokay with us watching.

Speaker 1 (40:22):
Sure.

Speaker 3 (40:23):
Maybe not the whole five minutes, but we'll watch a
little bit of it.

Speaker 4 (40:27):
Of his video.

Speaker 3 (40:28):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (40:29):
I was going to ask do you have the video?

Speaker 3 (40:31):
I do, I do here we go .

Speaker 2 (40:38):
So that was the shortened version.
Yeah, yeah, so you tell thestory behind that.

Speaker 3 (41:10):
So that was the shortened version yeah, yeah so
you tell the story behind that,because I don't even know the
story between the longer one andthen the shortened one.

Speaker 1 (41:21):
Okay, yeah, so the longer one, which is the full.
I think it's 5 minutes 41seconds of the full instrumental
song.
At some point I think this waslike middle of September, I
think middle of September itwouldn't be that it would be
towards the end of SeptemberApple, again in their promoting

(41:45):
of iMovie, was asking hey, sendin things you've edited with
iMovie with a new version.
And so I uploaded it and sentit in because I was really proud
of it.
It was a weight of a moat, butjust to share something I
created.
A few days later I get an emailfrom Apple, enza Sebastiani,

(42:14):
who worked at Apple, and said Isaw your submission hard out to
New York, really loved it.
Would you be interested insharing that?
We'd ask you to edit a shorterversion and we'll post it on the

(42:36):
site.
And she gave me instructions onwhat to do.
We had to burn it to a CD andsend it out like the full
version.
But also created a 32nd version,which is the one that you just
played, and I'm like, of course,of course, I'm going to do that

(42:59):
.
It's amazing.
So I edited the version we justsaw, sent it in and we
exchanged a few emails afterthat, signed a release and it
was posted and yeah, I meanremember this is 2001, so
there's four YouTube and weexchanged emails after that,
signed a release and it wasposted.

Speaker 4 (43:17):
And yeah, I mean remember, this is you know 2001.

Speaker 1 (43:19):
So it's for YouTube, for any kind of video service,
and so this was really the onlymeans that I remember outside of
what was that other?
There was like one videoservice, so I'm blanking on it
now.
It's long gone, but you know,this was posted on apple's
website and it was just almostjust like oh my god, I can't
believe you, that's my videoright and uh, you know the, the

(43:41):
video, as you might have seen onthe, what we just looked at
just now, that the resolution is.
You know you can only edit tolike.
Uh, post this to 320 by 240.
So the version that I have nowis that I found the original
version and it was nice to seeit for the first time in a long

(44:01):
time and just reflecting on thatexcitement to have that posted,
but as well, a dedication to mycity, my country and the
difficulty that we all kind ofwent through in really kind of

(44:22):
processing the events of thatday and the preceding days after
, New York was forever different.
The rhythm of the city wasdifferent.
You get used to well, you gotused to four weeks.
You know army dudes in fullfatigues with machine guns in
the subway.
Yeah, I mean, all of thosethings are part of maybe the

(44:47):
uniqueness for us in New Yorkwho were there, which is
different than how everyone elseexperienced it.
You know other parts of thecountry.

Speaker 4 (44:56):
Thank you so much for sharing that and sharing the
video with us and really, really, really special.

Speaker 1 (45:03):
Thank you.
Thank you for giving me anopportunity to reflect on that.
You know, for a lot of reasonsit's, it's, uh, it's challenging
as the years have gone by it'sit's been, um you know,
different and easier, but, umyou know, in in different
moments you'll, I'm brought backthere and it's tough.

Speaker 3 (45:24):
Yeah, yeah, absolutely yeah, I'm sure it's.
It's something you don't just,you know, kind of move on from,
like you said.
You kind of continue on, butthat's yeah, your life is
forever marked by thatAbsolutely.
I really appreciate the way youtalked about it too and said
how, like, you knew the song andmusic you were going to use and

(45:48):
how the music guided you to, to, to making the, the sort of
edits of the video part, likewhat clips and what shots to put
, put where, um, uh, and it kindof hits that point of like how,
how I think for some of us, we,we think through music in that
way, and that's kind of a greatexample of that.

(46:10):
Like, like the music guides.
The music is helping you, noteven helping you, the music is
making the decisions, in a sense, right for you, and I know I've
had that experience in not inthat exact way, obviously, but
in other ways like the music iswhat guides me in a decision for
myself or whatever it might be.

Speaker 1 (46:29):
And so thank you for sharing that part of it too, of
that, the way the music guidedyou yeah, I mean video editing
is, um, maybe in part from thatexperience, has become a hobby
of mine, um, and more often thannot, when I enjoy it most is
when I'm editing to music, and Idon't know how real editors do

(46:52):
things right, but but, like, forme, it's the music tells me,
the music informs me right onthat.
And, like, my favorite thingsthat I've done is um editing
footage from wedding right forfriends, um to do the sort of
the quick clip of uh, of their,of their, of their editing and
and um, they always love what Iput together and I I think it's

(47:16):
really a function of because Iknow them right, so I know what
to capture.
I know what is special to them.
Um and uh, you know, it's justagain, it's like an expression
for me to to them through thelanguage of music.
Um, and it's uh, you know,something I've carried forward

(47:38):
in a different way and I've been, I've enjoyed it, I'm, I'm, I'm
a little fart now so I don'thave like our friends aren't
getting married anymore and soI've kind of missed that
opportunity to to do that sortof thing and and we're getting
closer to all right, kids are.
You know, our friends arehaving kids who are getting
married.

(47:59):
I'll be back in business again,thank you.

Speaker 4 (48:03):
That would be.
I love the story.
I love you know how it, justlike something that was was
really tragic, ended up opening,you know, a new world for you
in terms of editing, repurposinga song that was meaningful to
you to tell a story.
And so that leads us into ournext song, which is about new

(48:23):
perspectives.
What's a song that opened youto an entirely new perspective,
and how to do it?

Speaker 1 (48:30):
Okay, so this one's more, maybe more, not
specifically the song, butsymbolic of something.
Ain't that a Kick in the Headby, you know, Paul Crocetti,
also known as Dean Martin.

Speaker 3 (48:46):

Speaker 5 (48:56):
How lucky can one guy be?
I kissed her and she kissed me,like the fella once said Ain't
that a kick?

Speaker 2 (49:04):
in the head.
The room was completely black.

Speaker 5 (49:11):
I hugged her and she hugged back, like the sailor
said.
Quote ain't that a hole in?

Speaker 3 (49:18):
a boat Great song.

Speaker 1 (49:21):
Isn't it, it is, it is.

Speaker 3 (49:24):
And so what's the connection, what's the new
perspective?

Speaker 1 (49:28):
So most of my life I've been more of an eat to live
than a live to eat person.
So like, all right, let's get abagel, let me eat, let me just
shove something in my mouth tobe done with it and move on.

Speaker 3 (49:42):
Fuel Food is fuel.

Speaker 1 (49:44):
Right, Exactly, Exactly.
But that all changed when I metmy girlfriend, my wife, in 2004
.
Food for her has always been anexpression of so many things
Family love, how you care forsomeone, and it's something that

(50:06):
she just loves doing.

Speaker 2 (50:10):
She jokes a lot that I wish I had something that I
loved as much as you love sportsand I'm just like hello, food
cooking, that's your thing, um?

Speaker 1 (50:20):
and I think it doesn't.
It doesn't occur to her tothink of it this way because
it's just like part of her right.
It's not a hobby, it's not like, it's just something that is
like breathing.
And so you know, she tells thestory of our early dating period

(50:40):
.
She remembers, like lookinginside my fridge for the first
time and there would be a halfbottle of Prego and like ground
beef and like ketchup prego, andlike ground beef and like
ketchup and that's it.
You know, sort of the the, youknow typical bachelor dude.
What, what do you have in there?
Just like sustenance kind ofthing, and like right, right too
, like tv on the floor.

(51:02):
One folding chair that's it, youknow, I'm proud to say I did a
little bit more than that.
But as as far as therefrigerator goes, yeah, I
pretty much fit that mold.
Over the course of ourrelationship that transformed
because, again, food was justsuch a big part of it.
Her family gathering she's anItalian-American filled with

(51:29):
food, all sorts of food, morefood.
If you go to a G and Freddyfamily event, there's going to
be five times the amount of foodthat is necessary to feed
whoever's there.
You can have all sorts ofdifferent kinds.
Not that food wasn't a part ofmy familial experience as well,

(51:50):
but it's a whole other level, uh, in my wife's family.
So cooking when we eventually,you know, moved in together and
then obviously getting married,like cooking was part of our
relationship because she's a farbetter cook than me.
She would do most of thecooking.
I'd be more than I would evencall myself a sous chef like

(52:11):
it's like, don don't cut yourfinger off, maybe get the hell
out of here, let me just do it.
But over the course of time,over the years, I became more
able, dabbled my own cookingthings that I knew I liked from
my childhood, learned it from myparents, started making that

(52:31):
for her, experimenting.
She would then allow me to help, and, and, and and do different
things.
Maybe a side story is that allall through that time and this
goes back to my video editingthing let's make a video like a
like a cooking show video.
That would be really cool.

Speaker 2 (52:53):
Oh, no, no, no.

Speaker 1 (52:53):
She's a perfectionist and it just wasn't anything
that she ever found interestingto do.
And so there was a point whereshe was traveling for work and
I'm just like screw it, you knowwhat, I'm going to make a
cooking show video, which islike ridiculous, because all our

(53:13):
friends know I can't cook tosave my life.
Why are you the one making acooking video?
And but I did, because you knowit's like videos, video editing
, and I made it.
I did it in Instagram and itwas like a series of you know
stories and it was like a seriesof stories and all our friends
loved it.
And so my cooking show was bornand that started to make in a

(53:45):
different way, like okay, I'mnot really cooking, I'm just
sort of like following a recipe,but to put my cooking show out.
It became sort of likefollowing a recipe but to put my
cooking show out.
It became sort of an interest.
I cook different dishes, I lookup recipes and sort of try to
become more able.

(54:05):
Now, meanwhile, of course, lifeis going on and you know she's
doing most of the cooking, andthis is where Dean Martin comes
in.
When she cooks, she's alwaysplaying music and there are
certain things that she'll play.
I mean she'll not necessarilypattern.
Anybody who knows my wifeJanine will tell you that she is

(54:29):
all of different things all thetime.
There's not too many repeats inher world.
But because it's familial.
I think this is one area wherethere was a focus and it's
probably.
You know, if we had to name it,it's because of her dad and his
love for music and Dean Martinwas one of his favorite artists

(54:57):
music and dean martin was one ofhis favorite favorite artists,
and so dean martin was or is andstill is an artist that she's
just a playlist and hey, siriplay me.
Oh, I shouldn't say that,because then siri's gonna do
something, franco Turn it on, so, but this is a song that you
know I've heard countless timesin the background, you know,

(55:20):
while, while she's, you knowwhile she's cooking, so anyway.
So back to my fake cooking showon on Instagram.
Through that process I actuallybecame even more than a little
dangerous in the kitchen, andsince then I progressed to doing

(55:43):
a little more challengingrecipes.
My cooking show took on, youknow, not just like hot dog,
fried rice, which is honestlysomething I made on the fake
cooking show, nice To eatbourguignon.

Speaker 2 (56:01):
Yay.

Speaker 1 (56:02):
Fresh pasta.
It's a rolling the dough.

Speaker 2 (56:05):
Right.

Speaker 1 (56:06):
And making my own pasta, stuffed pasta, and every
Thanksgiving, the turkey is inmy hands and I will here to
declare that if you are notspatchcocking your turkey,
you're doing it wrong.
Um, spatchcocking a turkey isthe way to cook a bird and I

(56:40):
will forever be spatchcocking inlate November Because that's
just my way of cooking.
It's always delicious, it's notdry and it's because.
Are you familiar withspatchcocking?
Have you ever had a spatchcock?

Speaker 3 (56:48):
I was just going to say to me it sounds graphic.
So you can give me the fivesecond version of what that
means, so the images in my headcan get out.

Speaker 1 (57:00):
Completely safer word .
You take, you know poultryshears and you basically cut out
the backbone, turn it over andyou press down on it.
Oh, okay.

Speaker 2 (57:14):
You kind of like?

Speaker 1 (57:15):
butterfly it.
Yeah Well, yeah, in a way.
And so now the bird iscompletely flat, right, if you
can imagine it.
You flail the legs to the side,which is a different like other
people have a different view ofwhat that looks like.
Like other people have adifferent view of what that
looks like.
But like, because it's flat, itcooks so much more evenly.

(57:38):
And so you don't have to do thistrick of like turn the turkey
upside down all that stuff andit cooks at dramatically less
amount of time.
Yeah, that's what I was aboutto say.
I'm sure it's faster.
So like an hour under an hour,depending on how many pounds it
is.
Like normally it's in there forlike three hours.

Speaker 3 (57:55):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (57:55):
Boom, it's juicy, it's perfect.
So Google it.
Everybody watching herematchcock turkey.
Because come November I promiseyou you'll try it and you'll be
like I'll never do somethingdifferent again.

Speaker 3 (58:09):
Wow, Come for the music.
Stay for the cooking tips.
Can?

Speaker 4 (58:12):
we just talk about different perspectives.
In this amount of time, youwent from prego sauce half-open
in the fridge to a cooking show.
And what is it?
Spatchcocking, a turkeySpatchcocking a turkey.

Speaker 1 (58:27):
How far you've come Chicken too.

Speaker 2 (58:29):
That's impressive.

Speaker 1 (58:31):
Now too, yeah, that's impressive.

Speaker 3 (58:35):
Now the question I have is has the music playing
that your wife does when she'scooking?
Has that carried over to you?
Yes, and are you doing the sameplaylist?
So is it Dean Martin andsimilar, or is it you've got
your own cooking playlist going?

Speaker 1 (58:51):
I've got my own cooking playlist going on.
To truth be told, you know,covid kind of killed off the
cooking show Also.
You know, I think like peoplewere like cooking.

Speaker 3 (59:05):
There's so much competition, all of a sudden.

Speaker 1 (59:07):
I don't know what it was, it's just like it kind of
fell.
But if you go, if you go to myInstagram net media, you'll
you'll see it in the stories,the different versions, and
you'll you can hear in thebackground there's music playing
always.

Speaker 2 (59:23):
I love that.

Speaker 4 (59:26):
I'm so impressed with how that story took fold from
like you had like nothing andlike weren't even allowed in the
kitchen, basically to like thissort of like gourmet experience
now right.

Speaker 3 (59:36):
The song has such double meaning now because man
ain't that a kick in the headlike wow totally totally.

Speaker 4 (59:44):
Oh, my goodness, um, so we'll.
We'll keep chugging forward interms of like, growth and
perspectives and we'll move onto weighty transitions, because
our lives take big turnssometimes.
For your next song, what's asong that you associate with a
weighty transition in your life?

Speaker 1 (01:00:03):
This is an allusion to.
You don't even realize this inthinking through the songs that
we ended up with, but there's avideo editing element in so many
of them, um, so so this was a,a song I used, uh, as a result
of a weighty transition.

(01:00:23):
Um, these boots are made forwalking by nancy sinatra.
By Nancy Sinatra, you've been amessin'.

Speaker 2 (01:00:30):
Well, you shouldn't have been a messin', and now
someone else is gettin' all yourbest.
These boots are made forwalkin', and that's just what
they'll do One of these days,these boots are gonna walk all
over you.

Speaker 1 (01:01:00):
Yeah, maybe one of the more memorable bass lines,
right, yeah yeah, yeah, yeah,yeah, yeah, totally.
I think a lot of people in thisage not when the music was, not
when the song came outassociated with the Full Metal
Jagged the movie, but the bootin this song is related to a

(01:01:26):
boot that I had to wear as aresult of breaking my ankle.
Um, I had to wear as a result ofbreaking my ankle, so so 10
years ago, in a really sillything accident, I completely
obliterated my left ankle.
It's so that the technical termis a trimallular break.

(01:01:47):
Uh, so trivia that's likesounds valuable this's part of
an ankle and apparently I brokeall three parts of uh of the
ankle go big or go home exactlyand dislocated, and so my, my,
my foot was like pointed to likealmost like nine o'clock after

(01:02:07):
it all said and done and I didit.
Roz is about to pass out.
I did a skimboarding.

Speaker 5 (01:02:16):
Just listening to the description I'm like ow, for
real.

Speaker 1 (01:02:20):
It was a definite ow and I did a skimboarding, which
is that thing you do on thebeach, where you run and you
drop a board and then you jumpon top of it, and so what ended
up happening for me is there wasa, I guess, a soft spot in the
sand.
So when I pushed off the jump,my foot stuck in the sand and
broke, and I knew you heard it,all, all the things, and so I'll

(01:02:53):
try to get past the lessinteresting part.
But you know it was so yourfoot's broken.

Speaker 3 (01:03:00):
My foot is broken.
It's catastrophic and superpainful.

Speaker 1 (01:03:04):
They reduced it and I had to have surgery as a result
Two plates, nine screws andnon-weight bearing for several
weeks.
And this particular injury wasa bit more challenging.
Fortunately it wasn't as muchligament damage, which happens a

(01:03:26):
lot in ankle breaks, so it'sreally just bones, but you have
metal in it and screws.
It doesn't feel all that goodand not walking for that number
of weeks.
Everything just goes to wasteyour muscle, your tone, it's a
complete atrophy and you havethis giant boot designed for

(01:03:51):
protection but eventually forwalking.
And so the process that you gothrough when you break your foot
or your ankle there's a partialweight-bearing stage and a full
weight-bearing stage.

(01:04:11):
There's a partialweight-bearing stage and a full
weight-bearing stage, and whenyou're finally allowed to
transition to that, yourorthopedic surgeon says okay,
based on the scans, it's safefor you to try Right.

Speaker 3 (01:04:27):
Medically, you're allowed to do this.
Mentally, you're not there,though.

Speaker 1 (01:04:44):
Absolutely, and so, like my surgeon, dr Chow, if you
ever break your ankle, drLoretta Chow, chief of
orthopedic surgery at Stanford,she's the one to go to.
But you know her bedside mannermaybe not so much Right.

Speaker 4 (01:04:53):
So she was just like OK, you, okay, you can walk and
I'm like what do you mean?

Speaker 1 (01:04:55):
I can walk, like you can walk, you're you're, you're
good.
How do I do that?
And she's just kind of lookingat me like you put one foot in
front of the other, just walk,you'll be fine.
And I'm like, uh, and at thetime I was part of this facebook
group for people who broketheir ankle and I'm just like
what do I?

Speaker 2 (01:05:08):
do?
How do I do this?
And you?

Speaker 1 (01:05:08):
know, trying to explain, and at the time I was
part of this Facebook group forpeople who broke their ankle and
I'm just like, what do I do?

Speaker 4 (01:05:13):
How do I do?

Speaker 1 (01:05:14):
this and, you know, trying to explain that,
different techniques.
You know, we're all just tryingto figure it out.
Like, like, how do you do this?
You're not given a whole lot ofguidance, right, orthopedists?
They know how to put you backtogether and make sure that your
bones are aligned.
But this next step is reallyfor the physical therapists of

(01:05:37):
the world to help piece thattogether.
And so shout out to Golden GatePhysical Therapy for that
aspect of it.
But, like, getting to that pointeven before physical therapy,
like, was you just try and dothe best you can, piecing it
together from the internet?
And there wasn't really at thetime, there wasn't really this

(01:05:59):
2014,.
There wasn't a lot of videosout there that um explained the
concept of of how, what you cando, how do you do it?
Once I was, uh, okay, and Ilearned how to walk.
Again.
Again, shout out golden gatephysical therapy.
Um, this is like months later.
I'm like you know what?
I'm gonna make some videos.

(01:06:19):
I'm gonna make some videos tofill in the space that I, you
know, I didn't have or couldn'tfind available to break down how
you go from non weight bearingto partial weight bearing to
full weight bearing, all whileyou know a big, you know five

(01:06:39):
pound a piece of plastic on your, on your on your.
Yeah, you know, five pound apiece of plastic on your, on
your, on your, yeah, yeah and um.
I made the the partial weightbearing video and then the full
weight bearing video, and theseboots are made for walking,
because that's what that fullweight bearing uh is is all
about made a whole lot of senseto me to use the music again to

(01:07:04):
find the edits, defining theedit, and it just speaks for um,
the moment, um, for this isreally true.
The emotion, um, you knowanybody who might be watching
this, listening this and brokeany part of their leg like it's

(01:07:26):
emotional.
You see the world in a reallydifferent way when your mobility
is challenged.
And this was another aspect ofthe break that is really salient
for me.
You know, people who arehandicapped and have to think
about the world in a differentway.

(01:07:46):
Like for months, I was alwaysmindful of where's the bathroom
how am I going to?
Get there?
How long will it take me to getthere?
um and even at the point where,after I I didn't have crutches,
you're still thinking about itand you're still it's on your
mind and you're just takingmeasurements of all these things

(01:08:06):
and people who you know.
I'm obviously fortunate that Iwas able to heal and be mobile
again, but for many peoplethat's not possible and this is
the lens through which they seethe everyday world that we
traverse, through which they seethe everyday world that we

(01:08:27):
traverse.
And you know, I think for mostpeople, forced empathy, at least
for this thing, is you don'treally get it until you're
actually there.
You can have a degree ofsympathy or try to have a
perspective, adopt thatperspective, but until you're
actually there and you're, doingit when you live it and feel it

(01:08:48):
exactly

Speaker 3 (01:08:49):
it's, it's so it's so funny, this weird synergy.
I broke my ankle and tibiaalmost that exact same time as
you.
It was like 2014, 20.
No, carolina, am I right inthat math?
It was right when we were inoregon before we moved.

Speaker 4 (01:09:05):
It was like 2014 late , 2014 maybe early 2015,
something like that.

Speaker 3 (01:09:10):
So, yeah, I'm right there with you.
Um, I broke it playing hockeyand exactly what you're
describing.
I was on before.
I was weight bearing.
I had the little cart, you knowwhere, you push your leg up and
you wheel around the scooter.

Speaker 1 (01:09:21):
Scooter, that's it.

Speaker 3 (01:09:22):
I was like cart, that's not right scooter and I
was, you know where you put yourleg up and you wheel around the
scooter.
Scooter, that's it.
I was like cart, that's notright Scooter.
And I was, you know, doing mymaster's at the university of
Oregon and on campus.
And yeah, I remember I had toget to a classroom that was on a
second floor of an olderbuilding and there was no
elevator and I remember justbeing like and basically I had
to find some other people thatwere around and they're like,
can you help me carry me up thesteps and stuff.
And so your point about how youknow, once you like experience

(01:09:47):
it, you just see the world in adifferent, different way and and
, like you said that, thatstruggle of how to navigate and
and what you have to do.
So, yeah, so true, so true Ialso things you take for granted
.
Yeah, I also have yourinstructional video pulled up on
YouTube.
I'm going to try and share thescreen here so we can take a

(01:10:08):
quick watch and see this.

Speaker 4 (01:10:11):
I'm glad you have it, because I was going to look it
up.
I was going to be like I got tosee this.

Speaker 1 (01:10:15):
I found loosening my grip on the handles to be
effective.
But use whatever technique iscomfortable for you.

Speaker 2 (01:10:28):
You can even try extending the crutch in front of
you, using it more like a cane.

Speaker 1 (01:10:32):
Proper single crutch form means using one on the
opposite side of your affectedleg.
A lot of people get this wrong,so it's worth repeating.
The crutch goes on the oppositeside.

Speaker 4 (01:10:43):
Hold on.

Speaker 1 (01:10:43):
Hold on.

Speaker 4 (01:10:44):
It's the above head camera angle.

Speaker 3 (01:10:48):
It's the voiceover, the graphics the music in the
background.

Speaker 4 (01:10:53):
My goodness.

Speaker 3 (01:10:56):
Yeah, I think you know.
Yeah, Definitely a undercurrenthere of video editing and
things coming through withouteven necessarily trying to and
with a little humor in the songchoice.

Speaker 5 (01:11:10):
Yeah, that almost looked like a TikTok video
actually.

Speaker 3 (01:11:15):
So a little bit ahead of your time.
Yeah, First one with the iMoviestuff doing that.
And yeah, that's cool and and Ican say too, as someone who,
like I said, was in the exactsame position, you were, um, I,
I, you know this, this, thisnotion of you know of, of

(01:11:36):
telling stories, right, I meanit's, it's an idea of what's.
The idea behind this podcast isbeing able to tell stories and
seeing the ways you've hadexperiences in your life where
you said there's a story I wantto tell here and just did it,
whether it was a story of 9-11memorials that were popping up
and the stories there.
Or you know, hey, we're cookingfood and like let's share this.

(01:11:58):
Or hey, I broke my leg andother people might not do this,
let me share this story.
Or hey, I broke my leg andother people might not do this,
let me share this story.
I think it's a real cool thingto see coming out in these
stories you're sharing of howyou tell stories and like this
one in particular, like that'sincredibly helpful and it'd be
really easy to say I don't needto make a video for this, what
do I know?
But you're just like I couldn'tfind it and so, hey, here it is

(01:12:20):
, and you know it's also veryisolating.
Like you said, when you have aninjury like this, you just feel
so like helpless and you'recause.
You know it's new, so you'refiguring out how to do it and,
um, to tell this story and, likeyou said, with humor and like
music behind it, right, and youknow, bringing it back to the
you know the the theme of of ourshow here.

(01:12:42):
There's music throughout all ofthis that helps you get through
.
So, like, hey, this sucks andI've got to learn to walk again,
but let's have some fun with it.
And hey, these boots are madefor walking.

Speaker 1 (01:12:55):
Yeah, I mean, you know exactly what I'm talking
about, david.
Having gone through it, thephysical difficulty is half of
it.
Yeah, might actually be more ofit.
It was.
It was so challenging eventoday, um so recently actually,

(01:13:16):
I had the hardware taken outbecause it was giving me
problems and um surgery and someexperiencing a very light
version of the aftermath of theoriginal surgery, but it
obviously takes me back.
I see the incisions, my foot isstill numb because the nerves

(01:13:38):
are still like what the hellhappened and it, you, it.
It takes me back to to thattime.
But the mental aspect is, youknow, was was heavy, but being
in that facebook group amongstpeople who were going through
the same thing, such a support.
Everyone talks about socialmedia and it's garbage and we

(01:13:59):
can have a whole long podcastabout about that, but that's
like one shining bright spot.
Right Community that's created.
That doesn't always get talkedabout and it was such a support
and it was a way for me to giveback right.
To the community and leavethose videos to be used by those

(01:14:19):
who came after me, those videosto be used by those who came
after me.
And it's great because everynow and then you get a comment
on YouTube or in Facebook andlike, oh, it helped me so much
and thank you for making this.
It's so nice to see, becauseyou've been there and you know
what they're going through.

Speaker 4 (01:14:41):
That's good stuff.
We'll pivot a little bit hereand we'll take a trip, if you
will, with music.
Next, for your next song.
What's a song that when youhear it, you're just instantly
transported to a specific timeor place?

Speaker 1 (01:15:01):
So for this one I, to nancy's father, frank um new
york.
I love how you say it, likeit's like yeah, one of the
family you know like so we heardfrom nancy, and now now we hear
from pops um, at least in mymind, it's the most iconic song.

(01:15:24):
Yeah, new York, new York.

Speaker 2 (01:15:27):
Start spreading the news.
I'm leaving today.
I want to be part of it.
New York, New.

Speaker 4 (01:15:43):
York, new York.

Speaker 3 (01:15:45):
These vagabond shoes are longing to stray.

Speaker 1 (01:15:52):
So I live in San Francisco now, but New York will
always be home city of my birth, where I grew up, and so it.
The city is so nice they nameit twice, song right, that sort
of thing.
But also as a lifelong Yankeesfan, this song is symbolic of my

(01:16:19):
love for that team and my lovefor Yankee Stadium, my love for
that team and my love for YankeeStadium.
And so ever, since 1980, at theend of a game at Yankee Stadium
, as soon as the last out isrecorded Frank.

(01:16:47):
And this will go on.
While baseball is a thing, thiswill always be a thing at
Yankee Stadium.
It is how you finish a gamethere, and so you hear it
instantly brought.
And so you hear it instantlybrought, you bring.
I'm brought back to my timesthat you know watching the

(01:17:08):
Yankees.
You know at the stadium,obviously it's better if you win
and you hear Frank.
So this is a bit of trivia thatpeople will only know if they
date back this far.
There was a short period oftime where, after a Yankee loss,
they wouldn't play FrankSinatra's version, they would

(01:17:32):
play Liza Minnelli, which I'mlike you always got to find like
when you think about it now.

Speaker 2 (01:17:38):
Poor Liza what did she do?

Speaker 3 (01:17:40):
Who are we going to play when we lose?
Who thought of this?

Speaker 1 (01:17:42):
idea.
So, like you know, the last outin the ninth inning, bottom of
the ninth, and they lose.
Liza the speaker.

Speaker 2 (01:17:54):
But if it's a win, it's.

Speaker 1 (01:17:55):
Frank, that didn't last very long.
I don't know exactly.

Speaker 3 (01:18:00):
Some people contacted some other people.

Speaker 4 (01:18:03):
And we're like what the hell are you doing here?

Speaker 1 (01:18:05):
Yeah, but some people some people contacted some
other people, right, and we'relike back to Liza yeah, what the
hell are you doing here?
But, yeah, so you know now.
Now it's like no matter whathappens at the end of the game
it's it's Frank Sinatra, butthis is.
The stadium also has a uniquesignificance for me because of
my great uncle, uncle Louie.

(01:18:25):
He lived on Jerome Avenue,which is like right, right,
really literally next to thestadium, and so whenever we
would go to a Yankee game, itwas combined with a visit to our
Uncle Louie.

(01:18:46):
Uncle Louie was my grandfather'sbrother and he moved to the US
early in his life 1930s and hewas a veteran, so he fought in
the war.
And so another, he would tellus stories, he'd show us his uh,
his um, his dog tag and all ofall of the things, and so, like

(01:19:11):
he, he was uh, releasing on theus right sort of the patriarch
for our uh, my side of thefamily, and so we would go visit
uncle louis, uh, in hisapartment on jerome avenue next
to the stadium and and spendtime there and he um what he did

(01:19:31):
for a living when he was a cookuh, he was a cook at the essex
house, which is a okay, yeah, soyou're familiar Some of the
famous hotel in New York City onCentral Park South and it's
known for the iconic sign EssexHouse.

Speaker 4 (01:19:52):
It's got a big sign out front yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:19:54):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, and I just realized the whole
cooking thing.

Speaker 3 (01:20:00):
I was about to say it .
Yeah, I was letting you finishyour story, but I was like oh
cooking, coming back in there wego, these threads are just
there.

Speaker 1 (01:20:08):
Yeah, right, right there, there really is uh you
just gotta pull on themcontinuity to a lot of things in
my life.
Um, but he would always have my,my favorite filipino dish, um
adobo.
He would make it for our, ourvisit, and um, he'd have, uh, uh

(01:20:28):
, uh can of seven up.
I I've I've since quit sodabecause it's awful for you, but
um, uh, you know that that kindof lemon lime soda was my thing
because of my uncle.
That kind of lemon-lime sodawas my thing because of my Uncle
, louis.
So again, resonant memories ofthe visits there.

(01:20:51):
It's so funny You're broughtback there, so I'm thinking
about it now and I can rememberthe button to get to his
apartment.
It was one of those elevatorsthat you had to pull open the
door.
Oh, uh-huh Just open the door soyou had to make sure it's
closed before you do anythingand you ride on up and the smell

(01:21:15):
of his apartment is there aswell, and he lived with his
partner, my aunt Gladys, and sovisiting them again was part of

(01:21:44):
New York, visiting YankeeStadium and maybe a bit of an
aside story to visiting UncleLouie.
Aunt Gladys was white.
They never married and again.
So when you're a kid you don'tprocess any of it, you don't
know, and like I didn't know orhave in the mind that they
weren't married, I just thoughtthey were no-transcript.

(01:22:23):
So my own marriage severaldecades ago was illegal right,
and so you, you process thislater on and you think about it,
how things have changed um overthe course of time, um, it's
our experiment.
Democracy I mean democracy has,you know, experienced some

(01:22:43):
bumps of late, and how recent,how recent it is.

Speaker 3 (01:22:49):
That's the thing that people a lot of times don't
think about, even if they werelike, were somehow aware, like,
oh, interracial marriage wasn't,wasn't allowed and it was
illegal.
It's like, yeah, but that waslike a long time ago and it's
like no no, you know so many ofthese things, right, yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:23:06):
Yeah that's exactly right.
And so we're visiting UncleLouie in the late 70s, early 80s
, and it's just a handful ofyears when that was legalized
and I, like you, reflect onthese things now.
It was a funny thing I do atthis point is say, okay, it's

(01:23:26):
2024, the year 2000, right, 24years ago.
Take 24 years from 2000.
Right now we're back in the 70s, like it's like a bright right.
And so you, you and you relateit by music, and so I distinctly
remember in the late 70s, 80s,beatles, elvis, and thinking

(01:23:51):
like, oh the oldies, even atthat point when I was young.
But that was only a decade or soprevious and you think now of
songs that were 20 years andit's like like, oh, it's fresh
in my head right and that's,that's the true perspective
anyway.
So, again, like it's.
It's like it's.

(01:24:11):
It's interesting how maybe thisis the thematic again, right,
you can mark different times inhistory according to the, the
music of the of the day, and howquickly it, it uh, warps itself
the older that you get, and um,the length of time between

(01:24:34):
different musical eras is is islonger than you think and, in
certain cases, shorter than you,shorter than you realized,
right yeah, yeah, both um.

Speaker 5 (01:24:46):
So yeah, it's uh we started this discussion with um,
where I think the second songuh was was your life story, but
it was connected to 9-11 and um.
I think for a lot of usmillennials, 9-11 was
significant for many reasons,but I think, um, for a lot of us
, time sort of stopped like that.

(01:25:06):
That's one of those reallysignificant uh moments in
history that affects so manypeople so many different ways.
There's a clear before andafter.
Yeah, exactly, I think,particularly for our generation
and I'm talking about sort ofmillennials you know people that
are now in their I guess youknow forties not to age
ourselves.

Speaker 4 (01:25:26):
Raza, just as a pause , you're Gen X buddy, not
millennial.

Speaker 5 (01:25:32):
Technically, technically, a zennial yes, yes,
you're right, 77 to 82.

Speaker 4 (01:25:40):
In the room.

Speaker 3 (01:25:42):
Your younger sister is a millennial.
Yeah, Not to age you even more.

Speaker 2 (01:25:54):
We're all old.

Speaker 4 (01:25:57):
As Gen Xers.

Speaker 5 (01:26:01):
But yeah.
So if 9-11 is the sort ofmarker, and that was just over
20, 21, 22 years ago, now, right, 23 years ago, since we're
counting every single Fuckingyear.

Speaker 2 (01:26:16):
I'm sorry.

Speaker 4 (01:26:19):
I'm never going to lose doubt.

Speaker 5 (01:26:22):
But yeah, I think you guys are absolutely right,
though it's from a musicalperspective, there's like music
that was pre 9-11, which seemslike a lifetime ago now, like

(01:26:46):
the the last 23, some odd yearsof music.
We know whether it's the shiftfrom cds to, uh, to, you know,
streaming and itunes.
All this stuff has happened, um.
But at the same time it's it'sfor people in our you know,
decade plus minus, um, from ourgeneration.
It's like as if no time haspassed.
But then you look back and gomy gosh, it's 23 years.

Speaker 1 (01:27:06):
So Raz you bring up an interesting point that I
wonder about.
I'd be curious for yourperspective.
For us Gen Xers, we consumemusic by albums and an album was
almost like an arc arc, a storyarc for the artist to express

(01:27:28):
their, their artistry, theirmusic.
And you curate a collection ofsongs is as part of your album.
And then you sell your album,you release it, sure, write
singles on the radio, blah blah,but like the album was, this is
what you get.
Obviously that's changed nowwith streaming.

(01:27:49):
Um, they, artists, stillrelease albums, but I, you, you
see signs of that changing andhow it people.
Uh, experience for the firsttime is is different.
It happens a lot in TikTok orthrough social media, not on the
radio or KC's Top 40.

(01:28:09):
You get it in individual bites,or at least that's my
perception of how music issurfaced today.

Speaker 5 (01:28:21):
I'd love to comment on that.
Go for it.

Speaker 1 (01:28:24):
I wonder, is I wanted ?
Yeah, so so is it.
Is it going to change how weexperience that stamp of of
music of an artist?
Because, like for me, I thinkof it in terms of the album, and
this song was part of thisalbum and it came out in, you
know, this kind of time perioduh, I don't I don't have that

(01:28:48):
same thing.

Speaker 5 (01:28:49):
So, and I hate to like jump in here, but this is-
I've really thought about thisstuff and uh yeah, yeah, I got
my post-it notes and everything.
Um, I think, from a historicalperspective, if you go back and
look at the original artists,original musical artists, your

(01:29:10):
Johnny Cash's and Elvis, andthat generation, that era of
music when they startedmonetizing music, when some
record the earliest form of arecord exec monetizing music,
when some, you know, record theearliest form of a record exec,
when they were, the way in whichthey wanted to make money off

(01:29:33):
of artists was to releasesingles.
So it started off as singles andthen fast forward, I think a
couple of decades later, theidea of a collection, which we
now call an album, that came upand then that was huge and you
know, then, then, then, you know, selling records became a thing
, right, and then with the wholelike Napster thing and
streaming for the for the last,I wouldn't say 15, 20 years, you

(01:29:53):
know it's all streaming andexactly like you were saying,
it's all about singles and likethe one one hit and then that
kind of that's it.
Those of us who were, who wereum, who appreciated the
collection aspect, and certainlyI think artists appreciate that
a lot more, especially us inthe sort of rock and metal, you

(01:30:13):
know, sort of um in the rock andmetal genre.
I know that and there's, that'sthe stuff that I follow.
Certainly those artists reallyreally miss the era of the
albums and they still continueto put out albums.
But anyway, you guys have allseen vinyl is making a comeback

(01:30:33):
and it's starting to sell moreand more and more.
So now we've gone from singlesto albums, to individual singles
again, to now back toappreciation of the album, like
the album way of doing things.
So I think that right at thismoment is when this is starting

(01:30:56):
to come back, appreciating thecollection aspect of it, and
it's, I think, re-empoweringartists, especially like the old
school, you know, like the LedZeppelins and Metallicas, and
you know that generation ofartists who have always wanted
to put out albums because that'swhat works for them.
They want that artisticexpression to be in the
collection, right, and I thinknow we just have options.

(01:31:19):
We have the ability to streamif we want to, but at the same
time we also have the ability tohave that hard copy, um, at our
, at our, you know, at our atour disposal as well.
But it's a really, reallyinteresting time I think this is
the first time that's everhappened where you're seeing
literally like a full circle ofstarting somewhere and then
going back and but having accessto everything that came before

(01:31:41):
also it's.

Speaker 4 (01:31:43):
It's funny you say that because then I I just
realized, um, I went to go seeone of my favorite artists
recently, uh, death cab forcutie, and I didn't realize it
when I bought the tickets.
But the tour was acommemoration of the 20-year
anniversary of an album, of acouple albums, um, and so the
whole concert was just thatalbum and it was yeah yeah, I

(01:32:06):
think, because it's like tellingof a story, right, yeah, so
it's the commemoration of, ofthis story that that this artist
created which is pretty cooland that appreciation for the
album.

Speaker 5 (01:32:17):
I think we only now is the time when we can do that
right.
Um, um and you're, and you'relooking at album commemorations.
I mean they have to be at least10, 15, 20, you know, 25 years
old in order to do that.
Right Um no one wants tocommemorate a single that came
out, you know, a year ago.

Speaker 3 (01:32:36):
The one year anniversary.

Speaker 5 (01:32:37):
Yeah, that's funny.

Speaker 3 (01:32:40):
But yeah, I also think, Raza, in your point too,
about I'm wearing my Rush shirttoday, and so prog rock and
things are groups thatdefinitely think in the term of
albums.
Right, Because it's this wholeconcept album.
Right, it's a whole storythrough all these different
songs, Much more like going backto Beethoven or something like
that, like an opera would beright, you tell the story

(01:33:02):
through all of these differentmovements, right?
You can't, you don't just havea single, right, it's the story
through, through it all.
And so I'm curious about howthe sort of push for just not
even just a hit single, right,Cause that's always been there,
Rush struggled with that of like, when you get we need a hit
single, and it's like that's nothow we think we think about
albums and concepts and whatnot.
But how artists are writingmusic today, right, or is?

(01:33:24):
Is the?
Is the writing of music justthought of as individual bits
and not so much of like, likeyou said here's.
Here's songs that are part ofthis album, even if it's not a
whole concept album, but how dothey fit together?
So I'd be curious to know kindof about that of artists, of how
, how it could be affecting thembut then going back to what,
we're sorry, oh, go ahead.

Speaker 4 (01:33:45):
No, I was just gonna say well, you see, like today,
probably the biggest artist onthe planet, taylor swift, um,
her fans are always waiting forlike, is that a clue to the next
album, not the next single?
Yeah yeah, they're waiting fora full album from her and it's
got a full story behind it.
What is the inspiration for theentire album?

(01:34:06):
So I think, yeah, I thinkyounger generations are getting
back on board with thestorytelling of full albums yeah
, and it goes back to hori'soriginal point about that of
like.

Speaker 3 (01:34:16):
It seems like there still is something to that,
because, yeah, you could talkabout 70s and 80s prog rock or
metal or whatever, and it's like, yeah, they write albums, but
we're talking about the biggestpop artist right now, taylor
swift.
Not only is she doing it, buther fans are thinking in that
way right because it has a story.
Not just the album has a story,but there's a story to the

(01:34:36):
release, right, and there's allthe easter eggs that come out
and it's part of it.
So yeah, that gives kind of youknow, I guess hope for the
future of what raza you'resaying of, like maybe they're
that's still hanging on andstill still there.
I also think it's about the,the point of what we were
talking about before, of goingall the way back to the eight
track and how you know you seeit, with ebooks in this full

(01:34:57):
circle, holy cow but no, justthe, the.
You know we talked a lot abouttechnology throughout this right
Of iMovie coming out and andand all these things and sort of
how.
It's like great to have likeall the music in existence in my
pocket, but that's almost toomuch, right.
And so I was going to say, yousee it a little.

(01:35:18):
You saw, with eBooks, right,when e-readers came out and
everything and everyone was likethis is great, I can carry
10,000 books and it's like yeah.
But you see a lot of peoplelike true readers going back to
like no, there's something aboutholding a paper book in your
hand and the smell of it and allthat.
And I think that's kind of whatwe're talking about here with
music and stuff.
There's an experience to it,right.
I know, for me, going back towhat we said, when, you know,

(01:35:40):
you had the cd case or whateverin the car or whatever, it was
like you had to make a consciousdecision of what to put on and
you were sort of committed tothat.
I know now, when I just listento streaming, it's sort of like,
because I can click around andclick to anything, I'm not as
like engaged.
I have to, I have to like yeah,I have to like make sure to
make myself get engaged to it,because it's just too like, well

(01:36:02):
, I I could click it off and I'mlike, do I want to listen to
this or do it, whereas you know,going back with LPs or eight
tracks or whatever, you've gotto like what one are we putting
on?
And like to then change it.
You got to take it off, andthings like that.

Speaker 4 (01:36:14):
And I think there's something to that that's not
just generational in the senseof like oh, we want it because
that's how we grew up, butsomething about like humans
interacting with somethingtangible and when it gets too
intangible, we, we losesomething yeah, folks bringing
us home with our last song ofthe interview and I don't know

(01:36:34):
how we get to a more perfectmoment than like yankee stadium
and visits to your uncle louishouse and like the chicken aloe,
but we're gonna go there um forlack Cause that felt pretty
perfect, but for your last song.
What's a song that was part ofjust a perfect moment in your
life, when everything felt right.

Speaker 1 (01:36:52):
So I I'm sure if each of us reflected to try to
answer this one in a moment, youcould think of so many
different answers, right,Different moments that were
meaningful.
This one has a little bit ofrecency bias for me.
Full disclosure.
But, it's still a specialmoment and symbolic of that, the

(01:37:26):
song is September by Earth.

Speaker 4 (01:37:30):
Wind Fire.
It's wind and fire.
I'm laughing because you gotRosita Bob his head to something
which makes it a pretty damngood song.

Speaker 3 (01:37:44):
Yeah, it's such a classic and like so interesting
about this song.
Um, you know, that key partthat we know so well is the
first verse right, and sonormally you know the chorus of
a song and if I played thechorus you would, you would,
everyone would know it too.
But it's sort of like, and Istruggled with this one when I
was pulling out clips.
Normally I do this myself tokeep kind of Roz and Carolina as

(01:38:06):
much in the dark to heareverything fresh as far as the
podcast goes.
But I went to Carolina when Iwas getting the song ready.
I'm like, hey, I'm strugglingwith this one.
Should I play this clip orshould I play the chorus?
And Carolina was like, no, no,it's that Cause of these cool
songs where it's like the verseright that you know 21st
september, like that, thaticonic thing is, is, is the most

(01:38:27):
popular thing, which is, whichis normally it's the hook right,
the chorus, that that gets youso anyway.
So what is the uh, perfectmoment with this song?

Speaker 1 (01:38:36):
so.
So last year my mother turned80 and you know milestone
birthday and so we're like, so,um, you know, she lives in
florida now, uh, full time.
And we're like, mom, what do youwant to do for your birthday?
Like you know, do you want usto do?

(01:38:57):
You want to come fly back tonew york?
Do you want to go to disneyworld?
And we're like what it's like?
Like, yeah, I want to go todisney world.
I'm like ma, are you sure, likeyou know, it'll be hot, like
it's summer, that her birthday'sin july and, um, you know,
we're all gonna broil.
No, I want to go to disneyworld.

(01:39:19):
And so, like, there's a pointwhere, like, someone is saying
they want to go to dis World,and so, like, there's a point
where, like, someone is sayingthey want to go to Disney World.
As much as you kind of think toyourself, maybe we can trick
her into not wanting to go toDisney World Because you said
enough times like, okay, we'regoing to go to Disney World,
right, right.
But, truth be told, all of usme and my sisters were related
families.
Okay, I mean, I don't know, isthis a great idea?

(01:39:44):
The crowds, the heat, okay,this is what she wants to do.
We're going to do it.
And so have either of you, orall of you, gone to Disney World
.

Speaker 4 (01:39:58):
Yes, three of us grew up in Florida, so a lot yeah.
More times than we can countall you have to say, is Disney
World in July, and we get it,you get it and, as well,
planning the thing and all thelogistics that go into it,
especially now like there's thegenie thing houses, yeah my

(01:40:23):
friend, we have a joke, you need.

Speaker 1 (01:40:23):
yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, my, my, my
friend, we have a joke like youneed a pH Disney to understand
all of the combinations ofthings that you have to do to
organize, especially when it's agroup, all the different things
.

Speaker 3 (01:40:35):
And those people are out there talking about
Instagram influencers, oldpeople that like have all the
hacks and how to do it, and sohere here I was watching all
like here's all the things.
So it was like it was makeself-help videos for stuff.

Speaker 1 (01:40:48):
There's gotta be people out there that are doing
it for this Because I, you know,it's my mom's birthday, so I
wanted to make sure that, like,everything went ideal and so
that everybody would have a goodtime.
So that's a middle child, right, that's my trauma.

(01:41:17):
Everybody's got to be happy andso, you know, I did all the
research, did all the things totry to make this a special time
for everybody.
How hard can it be?
It's like the happiest place onearth, right?
That's the tagline.
Well, no, I mean yeah thereactually isn't a a bud.
It it all went, so it all wentso well.
It was a really wonderful time.
Um, it was hot, that's fine, Imean like, but we were it's not
like we weren't prepared.
We had the gadgets with themisting and you know all the,

(01:41:40):
all the things.
We all became ready and we justhad a wonderful, wonderful time
.
My niece, nephews, my sister,my younger sister and her
partner, my older sister and herhusband and just had the best,
best time Far and away exceededall of our cynical thoughts

(01:42:06):
about what Disney will look likein the depths of summer.
It culminated with a birthdaydinner at one of the Disney
restaurants.
We got a private room, did allthe things, and she was just so
happy, this picture that thatalways treasure.
We got her like a tiara thatsaid happy birthday and so she

(01:42:29):
wore it during dinner and shewas just all, and this is
exactly why she did it right.
It all made sense, right andand so, like, we made fun of her
.
Um, you know for for choosingthis space, but for each of us,
we came away from the trip.
So we still talk about it now,like, let's go back to disney.
It was so memorable, it was sobeautiful, it was so wonderful.

(01:42:52):
We shared the photos.
We did the uh, what is thatthing called disney photo pass
or whatever that thing is like,where they take pictures and
they aggregate it so they havepictures of ourselves on the
rides?
And oh, the different things.
Maybe, quick aside one of theevents we actually didn't go in
July.
We ended up going in August.
We had no concept for this thespooky Halloween, mickey's

(01:43:20):
spooky Halloween.
What they do is they close theMagic Kingdom at, I think, like
4 o'clock, something like that,and you have to get a separate
ticket to go to Mickey's spookyHalloween thing.
And so me and my wife went, mythe uh, my sibling, the rest of

(01:43:41):
the family didn't know.
It's like, okay, we'll juststay at the resort.
And we're like, okay, we didn't, we couldn't, we just wanted to
.
You know, let's just dosomething different.
It's there and separately, wehad the best time.
So it's the only time that youare allowed to enter a Disney
park in costume and, inparticular, sensitivity to

(01:44:04):
Disney characters.
And so I dressed up as Aladdin,my wife dressed up as Jasmine,
and I can't tell you how, howspecial it feels to walk through
the park in costume and see thekids see you and be so excited
to see you and think that you'rea character, I mean like it's.

(01:44:28):
It sounds kind of silly, butyeah no, I mean it describes
like how happy that made meright to see some kids.

Speaker 3 (01:44:35):
The celebrity of all celebrities Over there signing
autographs.

Speaker 1 (01:44:43):
Aladdin, that's right .
I forget what the name of themovie Aladdin Ride is.
There, the magic carpet.
We also went to Cinderella'sCastle for dinner.
This is maybe a pro tip Notthat I saw it, it was just a

(01:45:06):
fluke but apparently, and maybeby now, people have figured it
out.
On these Mickey Halloweennights people get confused about
reservations.
So they make a reservation andthen they discover like oh wait,
I have to have a special ticket.
Oh it's not that a ticket to goto the park.

Speaker 3 (01:45:26):
Right, right.

Speaker 1 (01:45:27):
So they end up with a lot of cancellations.
So we were able to just likeget it on random.
It's like, how is thereCinderella dinner tickets?
Like this is a really hardthing that people have to
reserve yeah, way like monthsand months in advance, and so
we're just kind of lucky, andthat's the reason why is because
, um, it was mickey's uh, spookyhalloween and that was so it

(01:45:50):
was really so.
It was so fun to be incinderella castle, have dinner
and the princesses were there,and so jasmine real jasmine was
there, and so I could be withher and my wife, so I had two
jasmines.
It was just.

Speaker 3 (01:46:05):
It was so funny um so all of this is part of this
memory birthday in july, trip inaugust, but we listened to a
song about september.
So what's the connection ofthis song and the trip?

Speaker 1 (01:46:16):
okay, so the best ride in the universe is
guardians of the galaxy.
So so like uh, I didn't, wedidn't know this at the time,
but like people in the uhmonorail was saying, like have
you gone to have you have to goto guardians of the galaxy,
we're like okay, um, and so,guardians of the Galaxy.
We're like okay, and soGuardians of the Galaxy.

(01:46:38):
If you're not familiar with themovie, right so it's associated
with music from the 70s.
It's kind of part of the.

Speaker 4 (01:46:47):
It's a great soundtrack.

Speaker 1 (01:46:50):
It absolutely does, and so no surprise, the Ride has
a soundtrack which is filledwith 70 songs.
I don't know exactly how manysongs there are, but for us it
was September, and so the way,the Ride.
I won't give spoilers to theRide, but you go through the

(01:47:10):
Ride and there's a point in thebeginning where it's really
quiet and it's silent.
There's dialogue from thecharacters and then the Ride
starts's like dialogue from thecharacter, and then the ride
starts and then you hear themusic, and so Right.

Speaker 2 (01:47:26):
So the horn sounds.

Speaker 1 (01:47:27):
It's so perfect and I can't imagine like the other
songs must be such adisappointment, because it's
just so perfect.
It's so perfect, yeah, yeah,the mood of the song, the
trumpets and the lyrics, and yougo through it and it's a.

Speaker 3 (01:47:49):
Do you know for a fact that it's different songs?
Yes, for different people.
Oh, okay.

Speaker 4 (01:47:54):
Now I see people walk it up and being like what's the
song?
Because, it's not September.
What song did you get?
I'm going to come back.

Speaker 1 (01:48:01):
I bet you that people get to the line and like what's
the next song, and they maylike skip or want to skip to the
song.

Speaker 3 (01:48:08):
I can totally know you go Instead of waiting for,
like front or back of thecoaster or whatever it's like.

Speaker 1 (01:48:13):
no, I want to wait for that song and totally that's
hilarious like I you know,someday I'll go back and I'm I
don't want to experience it in adifferent song I, I want, I
want september, because it'slike um for us, who wrote it all
at the same time, and like sowe were, we did it as a family

(01:48:33):
and loaded up as a family, andso we, we all, remember the same
moment to this song and all ourride pictures.
we're all like ah.
And so you see it and you knowthat moment and you recognize it
and it's touched by the songs.
I won't ever hear this songanymore and not think of that

(01:48:58):
riding the ride and just thehappiest place on earth
experience that it gave me.

Speaker 4 (01:49:04):
That's awesome.
Fyi, there is a list online ofthe songs.

Speaker 1 (01:49:09):
There are six songs on rotation September.

Speaker 5 (01:49:12):
September.

Speaker 4 (01:49:14):
I do think is the best one.

Speaker 5 (01:49:16):
You know, when David walks up to that ride, the
special one they have for him isYYZ, that's right, I'm going to
bring headphones and I'm like Igot my own playlist.

Speaker 3 (01:49:31):
Siegel's got nothing on this, it's so funny that you
said that, Raza, because I wasabout to say the same thing for
you and be like, oh, you'regoing to go and have Anjustice
for All and Metallica orsomething playing on yours.

Speaker 5 (01:49:43):
It is the happiest place on Earth.

Speaker 1 (01:49:45):
That's right.

Speaker 4 (01:49:46):
But, maybe not with the wrong song.
So, like you lucked out thatyou got the song that you got,
because it's created this likeamazing life memory for you.

Speaker 3 (01:49:55):
Oh, I just have an image of them testing the ride
and having all of staff ridewith all different songs to find
, Because they had more than sixright.
They had a huge playlist,probably, and they're like okay,
we got to narrow it down,people voting and stuff.
I want that job.

Speaker 4 (01:50:13):
Yes, look for it.

Speaker 1 (01:50:16):
All right, ride tester at Disney.

Speaker 4 (01:50:19):
Yeah, I thought you were probably not a bad game.
Jorge, thank you so much forsharing just a wonderful journey
of technology and music andlife story with us.
How does it feel to hear yourlife reflected in these six
songs?

Speaker 1 (01:50:40):
Oh, it was so much fun, thank you, thank you so
much for having me, and I mean,like, genuinely the threads that
we picked up on, like it didn'toccur to me until saying it all
and sharing it all, like, waita minute.
There are some definitivethemes here that resonate and I
suppose that's not a surprise,right?

(01:51:01):
And an example of how westarted the show, talking about
how, within the soundtrack ofyour life, right, it shouldn't
be surprising that there arethemes, recurring elements that
repeat itself, because, you know, as a human right, it's what

(01:51:24):
makes us ourselves.

Speaker 4 (01:51:26):
Absolutely All right.
Raz is going to.
We're not quite done, yet we'renot quite done.
We're almost done.
Raz is going to guide usthrough our lightning round.

Speaker 5 (01:51:36):
All right.
So, yeah, we call this ourlightning round, and we would
love to know what your first,last and best or favorite
concert experience was.

Speaker 1 (01:51:49):
So, like my first, this is not really a concert,
but like it's the first memory Ihave that sticks in my mind
Eddie Murphy, raw, oh wow.
It was just like a comedyconcert but like and I and I and
there was music.
Well, he walks out to music.

Speaker 5 (01:52:10):
You know the red jacket yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:52:14):
The red the red jacket and I I can't.
So it's been a long, it's beena long time.
Yeah, the red jacket, and Ican't, we'll allow it.
It's been a long time, but likethe song that sticks out in my
mind, I'm pretty sure this istrue.
He came out to this song You'rea fake, and I think that's the

(01:52:35):
song that he came out to.
I want to check now to see ifthat's even possible.
Was it released before theconcert?
But I have this memory of him,that song you're a fake baby.
And then he came out and thelights come on.

Speaker 3 (01:52:53):
I can see it, I can't hear it, so I can't tell, but
yeah, a little bit of homeworkfor everybody.

Speaker 4 (01:53:00):
Yeah, yeah, and our listeners.
So that was your first concert,last and best.

Speaker 1 (01:53:07):
My last concert was Christmas with Harry Connick Jr
Nice.
He had a Christmas album.
He came to San Francisco and itwas on Christmas Eve and he's
so great, he's so natural in hismusic.

Speaker 5 (01:53:27):
His voice is awesome.
Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
And then favorite or best.

Speaker 1 (01:53:34):
Andrea Pacelli.
He it was.
It was special because it waskind of more intimate.
He plays the Pact Arenas.
This was in Lincoln Center withthe New York Philharmonic and
so you know, just being in thatsmall you know cultured stage,

(01:53:57):
small, you know cultured stage,but you know his whole vibe is
so beautiful.
I mean he could be like singingthe phone book and you're still
, this is the greatest thing Iever heard.

Speaker 5 (01:54:10):
No that's awesome.
Thank you, that was a good list.

Speaker 4 (01:54:15):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:54:16):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:54:17):
Good stuff.
We can't thank you enough againfor just vulnerably sharing
your life and your stories andyour music with us.
We're honored and we appreciateit.
As we wrap up in these last fewminutes, we'd love to let you
tell our audience what you'vegot going on that people might

(01:54:37):
be interested in, how they cancontact you if your story
resonated with them and they'dlike to reach out.

Speaker 1 (01:54:43):
Yeah, so I mentioned my fake, my fake cooking show.
You can look me up on socialmedia and Instagram netmedia
N-U-T-T-M-E-D-I-i-a.
My youtube channel is alsothere, so there's some videos
that are, uh, on there.
Um that you can edit stuff thatyou can.

(01:55:05):
You can look at um, but yeah,no, you know what's, what's the
thing that uh influencers or oruh so you like, and hit the
button, follow button, whateveryou know.
Feel free to do that.
We'll link all that stuff inthe show notes too.

Speaker 3 (01:55:17):
Yeah, or like and hit the button follow button
whatever, the hell, you know,feel free to do that, and we'll
link all that stuff in the shownotes too, smash the.

Speaker 2 (01:55:22):
button.

Speaker 3 (01:55:22):
Smash the follow button.

Speaker 5 (01:55:27):
Do it here and here and there.

Speaker 1 (01:55:29):
That's right, all that good stuff, all the
pointing and you know, in my biowe talk about the team that I
work with and how we're tryingto change our financial system
Justfuturescom, go it.
We're a merry band of peoplewho are trying to create a

(01:55:50):
transition to a different way ofdoing a just transition to a
different way of a financialsystem.
Um, values aligned, investing.
So you can see us there andit'll work.

Speaker 3 (01:56:03):
Awesome.
Thank you so much for that.
Um yeah, jorge, thank you forbeing on.
Thank you for sharing yourstory with us, taking us down
strolls of memory lane in waysand cars and on roller coasters
and at baseball games.
It was wonderful, so thank youvery much.
Um everybody out there, like wewere just saying with the

(01:56:26):
influencers, you all know whatto do uh like subscribe, follow
whatever platform you're you'rewatching and listening this, uh
listening to this show on, dowhatever it is, so you get the
updates and you can hear morestories told through six songs.
And so we will see you nexttime.

(01:56:46):
Thanks for watching andlistening.

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Ep. 14 - George Guerrero: Our Music Tells Our Story

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Ep. 14 - George Guerrero: Our Music Tells Our Story