LLCC Episode -1- Whiskey Wisdom, Martial Arts Tales, and the Art of Savoring Life

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Suck it.
Ha ha.
Man-conquering technology, it'sa beautiful thing.

Speaker 2 (00:12):
Jess said stop that right now.
I said no, it's nice that abest friend wants to include me
in activities, unlike otherso-called best friends.

Speaker 1 (00:22):
Get it on recording so that Jess listens, is it?
Jess is already messaging you.

Speaker 2 (00:28):
Yeah, she said stop that right now.
I said no, it's nice that abest friend wants to include me
in activities, unlike anotherso-called best friend.
It's a true story, very true,like when was the last time she
ever invited us to do anything?

Speaker 1 (00:43):
I don't know, I got to create when was the last time
she ever invited us to doanything?
I don't know.
I got to create like concertsand shit for her to come to and
then she doesn't even show upshe doesn't even show up for
that.

Speaker 2 (00:50):
Yeah, something about a sick kid.
Yeah, yeah, right, right,likely excuse.
Don't she have a husband whocan help with that?

Speaker 1 (01:01):
Man, kids complicate things, true, so much.

Speaker 2 (01:08):
I mean, but I've never seen her come visit
outside of the events you put on.

Speaker 1 (01:13):
Oh no.

Speaker 2 (01:14):
It's like she doesn't actually want to come see me
for anything.

Speaker 1 (01:17):
It's like she doesn't even want to be part of
someone's life.
Isn't this technically?

Speaker 3 (01:20):
an event he's putting on and she's still not here.

Speaker 2 (01:23):
Another event that.

Speaker 1 (01:24):
Travis is is doing, but she's not here, for I guess
technically she wasn't invitedto this one, but that's just
because it's it's best friendsonly best friends only which is
ironic because we weren'tallowed to become friends when
we first started talking aboutdoing shows and stuff at year,
because you were her friend andthen that slowly not really

(01:48):
slowly almost automaticallybecame.
We became best friends andshe's kind of like you know she
doesn't even seem to be arunning thing in your life.
Yeah, I was going to say he wastelling me about how you guys
became friends by like similarcircumstances yeah, our friend,
mutual friend, alex, would notlet us be in a room together.

Speaker 2 (02:11):
Oh, that's good.
He's like no, you guys can'thang out, absolutely not.
And then eventually we hung out, away from everybody.
We were like what do we do?

Speaker 3 (02:23):
We were riding motorcycles, we would go hunt
down tenderloins so that wecould tell him about where we'd
found the best tenderloin, andwe never took him.

Speaker 1 (02:33):
I'm starting to see a pattern here with Caleb.
It's like I'm going to stealyour best friend and we're going
to go do amazing things andthere's nothing you can do about
it.

Speaker 2 (02:42):
And even then on motorcycle rides you're riding
so you don't get a ton of timeto like sit and chit chat.
But then when we started doingthis we came to realize that
like we really just enjoyhanging out, we may talk, we may
not talk, we may just playstupid videos, but stare off
into the best part of the weekis saturday mornings there you

(03:02):
go.

Speaker 1 (03:03):
I was invited to this .
I call it League ofExtraordinary Gentlemen
breakfast.
I went and had my breakfastwith the old boys of the second
of the 123rd over at the olddairy, and then popped over to
have a cigar and a little bit.
What is this that you give meto sip upon?

Speaker 3 (03:20):
So this is Writer's Tears, writer's Tears In a
skillin' ice wine cask finishedIrish whiskey.

Speaker 1 (03:28):
Okay, I would ask what that all entails, but you
explained it earlier.

Speaker 3 (03:33):
So In a skillin' ice wine is ice wine from Canada and
they import the cask afterthey're done aging the wine in
it over to ireland and then whenthey get done aging the irish
whiskey, they finish it byputting it in the in the skillen
ice wine casks and the whiskeymarries together with the

(03:57):
residual ice wine that's left inthe wood and creates a more
sweeter finish and a lot ofpeople describe a lot of stone
fruits in it.
Sure, I just love the way itmakes it so much more, almost
like a cordial.
It's sweet.
Yeah, I think it has a verydelicate flavor.
Most Irish whiskey does.

Speaker 1 (04:18):
Right, I think it makes it even more so, and
that's honestly my taste ofchoices the Irish whiskeys.
I'm no stranger to that, but Itend to be cheap, so it's
usually a Jameson or a Proper 12or a.
Oh oh, he says.

Speaker 3 (04:40):
I hesitate to speak ill of Proper 12 because I don't
want to find out.
If maybe I can make somebodyangry enough, I could get in a
fight, but I'm not.
I wouldn't be quick to buy one.

Speaker 1 (04:50):
Well, we are down here with a certified ninja,
I've been told.

Speaker 3 (04:53):
Well, no, I'm just making a joke about the fact
that Proper 12 was who.

Speaker 2 (04:56):
Conor McGregor's Whiskey.
I'm not kidding.

Speaker 3 (04:58):
Yeah.
I'm not.
Have you seen the new Roadhousemovie?

Speaker 1 (05:05):
For those who don't know, of course I'm Travis.
I'm here with Caleb Gearan.
We've been running shows overat the Ritz here in Macomb since
November and I'm here withLucas Young and you say you do
dispatching for the local Buscompany Bus company.
That's awesome.

Speaker 3 (05:23):
For the city bus.

Speaker 1 (05:24):
What we lovingly refer to as the drunk bus.
You know, there's songs onYouTube Lean with it, ride with
it riding on that drunk bus.

Speaker 3 (05:33):
I drove the drunk bus back before the university's
attendance had come down, whenit was still, quite frankly,
almost a rolling house party,and it was an experience.

Speaker 1 (05:46):
I just remember holding on for dear life as I'm
riding back to someone'sapartment, you know.

Speaker 2 (05:54):
Oh God, what's happening?

Speaker 3 (05:56):
And the funny thing is, I think everybody would
probably recall their drunk busexperience as holding on for
dear life.
But in reality, if you everrode it sober, it was probably
more like the slowest ride homeyou ever got absolutely it was.

Speaker 1 (06:12):
It's at 100 percent was um chemically induced.

Speaker 3 (06:16):
Yeah, well that's that's the thing when you drive
that bus, especially when it'sfull, at the end of the night,
when you're headed home, youknow as a professional you have
to be very mindful of the factthat you are driving 40
inebriated people.
So you do drive slower and youare more cautious and you take
your turns a little wider.
And so if you rode the bussober you'd almost be like what

(06:39):
is going on.

Speaker 1 (06:41):
Driving Miss Daisy to an extent, but you know halfway
inebriated.

Speaker 3 (06:45):
You probably feel like you're on the rocket on the
way home.

Speaker 1 (06:50):
Caleb, you went to a tournament not too long ago,
didn't you?
Yeah, what tournament was that?

Speaker 2 (06:56):
I don't remember which tournament it was.

Speaker 1 (06:57):
What style of?

Speaker 2 (06:58):
fighting Karate.
It was a point match, karatetournament.
I hadn't competed in sevenyears.
I just decided to go have somefun and things went pretty solid
.
I won my first match, lost mysecond to a kid who's really
good.
We tied but he had thetiebreaker For not competing in
seven years.

(07:18):
I was not disappointed with myperformance.

Speaker 1 (07:23):
What all arts do you study as far as martial?

Speaker 2 (07:26):
arts.
I've got a third-degree blackbelt in Shotokan karate, a
third-degree black belt inYamanaka Kojute Jujitsu, which
is Japanese Jujitsu.
Our group was asked to carry onthe name because that was one
of the first styles of Jujitsuto come across to america from

(07:46):
japan.
So we were asked to kind of bethe group that kept it because
typically you think of brazilwhen you think of jiu-jitsu.
Yep and I'd done that also, and, uh, a lot of grappling stuff
for that, which I love.

Speaker 3 (08:00):
That's my favorite part, and the japanese focus is
more on, like the throws you'resaying your favorite part of the
martial arts is wrestling onthe ground with another man.
Yeah, you got a problem with it.
I'm not going to get into that.

Speaker 2 (08:12):
He's jealous.
That's what it is.
He's jealous, Probably.
And then I do have a secondaryblack belt in Taiho Jitsu, which
is a form of policeself-defense.
And I have some other ranks andother styles, but I never
actually trained in them.
Like the higher ups in thosestyles are like we're giving you

(08:35):
this because of how good youare in the other stuff.

Speaker 1 (08:39):
Gotcha, it's like an honorary degree yeah it really
is.
I'm like I don't.

Speaker 2 (08:42):
I'm like okay, but the only the, the two things I
really do is karate and jujitsu.
So gotcha.

Speaker 1 (08:52):
So what?
What led you to buy in?

Speaker 2 (08:55):
buy in the bar then uh, I worked at the ritz when I
was in college okay um and Icould see where your skill set
would have been very valuable inthat atmosphere that's exactly
why I worked there, um, andended up doing just about every
job there I cooked, I waitedtables, I bartended, I barbacked

(09:17):
, I would manage some nights andI'd bounce, and I was head
bouncer for a long time, um, andit was my favorite job I ever
had.
It was just the group I workedwith was so much fun.
I went and worked at bars inArizona.
There was a lot of good timesthere.
Then it was a cop and I don'tthink I chose a good department

(09:40):
for my mindset where I was at.
I think I would have gone to adifferent department.

Speaker 1 (09:45):
That's interesting.
You say that because we don'thave to get into it too far but
it's interesting that you saythat it's like having a certain
mentality is better fordifferent departments.
Like I don't think that peopletalk about that enough when it
comes to law enforcement.

Speaker 2 (10:02):
Yeah, our department was.
We wrote full reports onwritten warnings and verbal
warnings, which no departmentdoes.
That and I got called in theoffice seven times one day
because I mistyped the word theon a written warning, and at
that point I was very eventfuldepartment so I was like, okay,

(10:25):
I think I need to find my wayout of here and I think if I
would have gone to anotherdepartment I probably would have
enjoyed the job more and stayed.
But the owner of the Ritz atthe time was selling and he and
I had worked for him, so I wentthrough the process to buy that,
and that was 13 years agogotcha, you got plenty of time.

Speaker 1 (10:45):
I have some things to introduce you to.
You are a cigar whiskey freaklike I've never I I mean I I
have in certain homes.
But as soon as caleb walked mein here he's just like behold, I
was like here, go it's myfavorite room.

Speaker 3 (11:04):
I have been very fortunate in that I have made
friends with some differentmanagers and owners of different
stores and have a good buddythat works in the industry, and
I've been able to procure someof the more harder-to-find

(11:26):
bottles, especially in our area,sure.
But I'm also very fortunate inthat for the vast majority of my
collection I've always had aside hustle that has been very
financially fruitful for me tomake enough money that I can
afford this hobby without rightcutting into my regular weekly

(11:49):
income regular income.

Speaker 1 (11:50):
Sure, that's what reffing ball games is for me.
You know that's yes I.
I hand over a few of thosechecks to help with the bills
from time to time.
But, like my, reffing money ismy, golfing money, it's my going
to to shows money.

Speaker 3 (12:04):
When you get into like whiskey a lot of the
whiskey YouTubers that's one ofthe first warnings.
Whenever they do a video aboutlike bottles to collect, when
you're first beginning or how toget started into this
collection, they always givethis warning Stay within your
budget.
So my approach that was tocompletely delete my budget from
the situation.

(12:25):
Yeah, by using only my hobbyside, hustle money.

Speaker 1 (12:30):
That way it's never cutting into the bill paying
money and that says that sayssomething for about any hobby,
though, too like a lot of peoplewhen they say how do?

Speaker 3 (12:39):
I get started into this.
I'm like well, the first thingyou need to do is get yourself a
side hustle.

Speaker 1 (12:42):
Yeah, because this stuff gets expensive yeah, and
my buddy that I shoot archerywith has told me he goes, set
aside just a little bit, just alittle bit.
He's like you'll be surprisedhow it racks up, but you know
once, once, once you really getinto.
My thing was always archeryover the years, yeah, and then
the better that you get intothat, the more money you dump

(13:03):
into it.
It.

Speaker 3 (13:03):
If you don't have a side hustle, then it's I mean,
just like archery, there's atime to buy and a time not to
buy.
You know, I purposely hunt outthe best deal on a lot of the
bottles.

Speaker 1 (13:13):
Like the.

Speaker 3 (13:14):
Writer's Tears that we're enjoying right now.
It was almost a $100 bottle,sure, but I caught it when it
was on a clearance down to, Ithink, 76.
And then my work had given me agift certificate to the store.
It was actually one of thosearea chamber of commerce gift
certificates.
Okay, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Most any store in town and Ithink that took another 20 or 30

(13:38):
bucks off of it.
I enjoy the hobby of whiskeybecause to me, I enjoy this more
for the ability to share thisexperience with other people.
The most expensive bottles Ihave in this room have been
opened.
I actually have very few thatI'm bunkering, like a lot of
guys.

(13:58):
A lot of guys will go out andthey'll buy 3 or 4 bottles when
they get a good deal on it andthey'll stack them away and they
don't intend on opening them.
I've had liquor store managerscall me up and say, hey, I got
this one bottle.
And I'll show up and to make itclear to them that I'm not
going to secondary this, I'm notgoing to sell this out and make

(14:19):
a profit, I'm not going tobunker this down, I'll say, hey,
man, you want to get a coupleglasses and try this that's all
right here in front of you.
Yeah, because for me this is aselection, not a collection I
got you, yeah, absolutely mybuddy in, uh, in indiana.

Speaker 1 (14:33):
He's been on a few podcasts.
Eric, eric jansen we call himthe inbred lovingly.
He.
He is a nut for cigars andwhiskey as well.
I'm not gonna say to the levelyou are, but, uh, if he ever
came over here, he, you guys,could talk for hours and hours
and hours on.
You know he does all the toursthrough kentucky and tennessee

(14:54):
and the tastings and he's theone that took me to that fifth
third.
So I was telling you aboutoutside of indianapolis, which
is an amazing place.
I was sitting there last winter.
Um, we just got done shooting aday of archery.
So we just got done shooting,sitting there drinking an
old-fashioned, enjoying a cigar.
They've got final four on tv.

(15:15):
There's a guy in the cornerplaying a guitar.
Everybody's just smoking acigar and and relaxing.
So I thought that was prettysweet.
Sounds like it'd be a good time.
It sounds like something that'dbe a good time.

Speaker 3 (15:31):
It sounds like something that'd be nice to have
around here, but you know,somebody would throw a fit about
it.
Well, I think the problem withour area is that it's been so
long without a good cigar clubor without a real
gentleman-friendly bar that hasa really nice extensive whiskey
collection.

Speaker 1 (15:51):
So many of the people who are into this have started
their own collection found theirown buddies, and I think that
COVID had a lot to do with thattoo.

Speaker 3 (16:01):
We learned how to be so I don't know if a cigar club
would would prosper, survivehere.
Yeah, yeah, I think about itI've thought many times about
how to start my own.

Speaker 2 (16:11):
With illinois rules and regulations and the city's
rules, it's just really hard tomake a sustainable well yeah I
mean my buddy took me up to.

Speaker 1 (16:21):
uh, they have a lot of shows at the skylark and uh,
in the Quad Cities it's more orless an old church that they
refurbished into like a.
They do weddings in there, lotsof concerts, blah, blah, blah.
And Farley has had what theycall the Quad City Cannabis Club
in there and they get togetherabout once a month.
They bring in board games.

(16:42):
Not a single drop of alcohol isallowed in there, right, but
it's.
It's a thing for people to goin there and enjoy cannabis
together and have conversations,and there's a there's a local
guy that's wants to get acannabis lounge going.

Speaker 2 (16:58):
It wouldn't be any alcohol, that part, you know
right.
But he wants to get a cannabislounge going and it's just
trying to figure out how to doit legally the ins and outs of
it.

Speaker 3 (17:09):
I couldn't imagine I I, jason figured it out up there
somehow, but uh I I wouldn'twant to think about a lot more
welcoming of that they are andthey, you know they lean several
different directions up there.

Speaker 1 (17:24):
So it's no secret that.
Uh, you know that they, theyjust advertise it's like hey,
quad city cannabis club meetingthird saturday of the of the
month or something you know, andhe leaves it up to them.
He goes hey, this is great.
You know how often you guyswant to do this, and there's
some people would be like let'sdo this every week and some
folks are like every other month, month you know something.

(17:46):
So yeah, it is a neat concept.
So how Caleb and I hit it offwas they showed me the upstairs
for throwing shows and I waslike I can't believe I've never
been up here before, I nevereven knew this was here, and I
still hear the horror storiesfrom decades ago of the floor

(18:07):
looking like a a tidal wave yeah, but you got that all cleaned
up and then after that we'resetting up a show and you start
showing me these fat electricianvideos oh yeah, like this is
the coolest thing I've ever seen.

Speaker 2 (18:21):
It's never a war cry, the first time nope, uh what
steel?

Speaker 1 (18:26):
what is the acronym for steel?

Speaker 2 (18:27):
uh, strategically transfer transfer equipment to
alternate locations it's justgreat stuff.

Speaker 1 (18:34):
It's history.

Speaker 3 (18:36):
That's the cool part in his, in his um I really think
that that guy could make anamazing history teacher because
the way he presents the stuffand I'm sure that on his end
he's putting a vast amount ofeffort into the research Because
other people have fact-checkedhim.

Speaker 1 (18:53):
And they're like yeah , no, that holds up, that's
pretty solid.

Speaker 2 (18:55):
Did you watch this?
Week's no which one, is it 77thArmy?
Oh shit.

Speaker 1 (19:00):
Which is the?

Speaker 2 (19:02):
old bastards, but it wasn't.
Have you seen Hacksaw Ridge,the movie?
Yes, that's 77th Army.
Okay, they were also referredto as 77th Marine because they
got attached to the Marines inthe Pacific Theater and the
Marine General was so amazed bythem he called them the 77th
Marines.
Nice.

(19:22):
So they had like a 22 to 1 killto death ratio against the
Japanese.

Speaker 3 (19:31):
When the Japanese finally surrendered, they said
we'll surrender to any otherunit except for these guys.
Because they had such a legacyof not taking prisoners and they
were afraid they would just bekilled by surrendering.
So they had to get a bunch ofthe younger guys in the unit to
strip their patches from theirshoulders so that the Japanese

(19:51):
wouldn't realize that they werepart of the 77th.
Oh wow.

Speaker 1 (19:55):
And they had to go forward and act like they were
from a different unit, just toget these guys to give up.
But it's more than just.
A lot of it is military stuff,but it's more than that.
In a sense he even goes intothe evolution of the US postal
jeep.
Yep and I thought that that wascool as hell, or the cheese
stash in Missouri.
Yes.

Speaker 3 (20:13):
Breadgate, or the chicken law that prevents you
from being able to buy animported SUV.

Speaker 2 (20:20):
I really liked Breadgate, because I don't like
certain politicians, or icecream in America.

Speaker 1 (20:33):
What are we going to do with all this?

Speaker 2 (20:34):
milk.
That's what led to the DairyFarmers Institute, which the Got
Milk campaign, and the billionsof dollars, the billions of
pounds of cheese.

Speaker 1 (20:43):
We had Seeing Mark McGuire with a milk mustache
yeah, it is, and his history isjust spot on.
I really like watching that.

Speaker 3 (20:54):
I love how many of his own little colloquialisms
he's developed, like in the 77thID.
When he's talking about this isthe equivalent of dad getting
woke up from his nap, and beinglike alright.
I'm just going to dad dick thehell out of this situation and
everybody's going to find outnow.
Because you know, there's abunch of older guys in the

(21:14):
infantry and they were just likewe're not here to mess around,
we're going to get the job doneand go home.

Speaker 2 (21:19):
I really want to take like a Sunday and contact that
guy and set up like a.
Take my dad to meet him, Causemy dad loves all his videos.

Speaker 1 (21:26):
It'd be fun to do like a do a thing upstairs at
the Ritz where, like, we just doa podcast and then open up a
panel for people to askquestions.

Speaker 2 (21:34):
Oh, that'd be fun.

Speaker 1 (21:35):
Yeah, yeah, do something like that.
You know what we could do.

Speaker 3 (21:39):
Load up in the excursion and just smoke cigars
and roll the excursion can fit awhole panel of people.

Speaker 1 (21:48):
Yeah, that'd be a job for the Zoom.
Just set it down and start mybuddies that do Working Class
Bowhunter when they decidethey're going to podcast in the
truck, they got headset mics.
They just throw them on andstart rolling.
They'll be on their way to atrade show and all their stupid
conversations along the way theyrecord there you go.

Speaker 3 (22:05):
I could be up for that, that could be kind of cool
, that'd be a blast.
Stopping every now and then foreverybody running to use the
restroom and get another cup ofcoffee.

Speaker 1 (22:12):
Yeah, and just because we can, it'd be Caleb
and I watching these FatElectrician videos and then my
sister sitting there going.
You know he's my friend right?
You're not allowed to befriends.

Speaker 2 (22:26):
You can't talk to him .
We love you Jess.

Speaker 1 (22:28):
And then she'd look at Steve and she goes he's my
friend, you know that right.
He goes.
I don't think he is anymore.
Love you, jess, anyway she'sbeen a huge help for the shows.
Yeah she's awesome.
She couldn't make the last onejust because of, uh, sick kid,
but uh that after that last showseth and his girlfriend had to

(22:50):
leave, just couldn't make it,and we, we hauled out all the
bands and then it was just carlyand I tearing down the rest I
was like what's going?
on.
So we're upstairs like justtrying to think about the show
what happened, what went right,what went wrong, what we can do
to make it better.
You know situational AAR afteraction review, if you will.

Speaker 2 (23:13):
Oh yeah.

Speaker 1 (23:14):
And so we came up with some ideas for the next one
.
Came downstairs and you werestill there.
I don't go anywhere, but Ithink the shows have gone over.
Well, I'm excited to do anotherone.
I just I'm moving towards itslowly because of the summertime
and there's so much going on,yep a lot going on.

(23:35):
It's not like we've had a wholelot of the college crowd, so
it's yeah, it's still worked out, I think.

Speaker 2 (23:42):
I think you'd probably pull about the same
crowd as you did.

Speaker 1 (23:44):
Yeah, We'll have to see.
I keep getting asked when's thenext one?
I was like, well, when we canafford it.
Because the sponsors have donegreat.

Speaker 2 (23:58):
I'm really impressed with how well you put everything
together and get all thesponsors together and the bands
and coordinate everything.
People want something differenttogether and all the get all
the sponsors together and thebands and coordinate everything.

Speaker 1 (24:05):
Well, people, people want something different.

Speaker 2 (24:07):
Yep, they might not show up, but they want the
option.

Speaker 1 (24:11):
They want the option to you know, yeah, if you had a
dollar for it for every timesomeone said they're going to be
there and they didn't show up,you'd have a lot of dollars a
lot of dollars it's just part ofit and you know it running
events, running events out ofthere and how it is.
But even you've probably seen itdriving around campus and stuff
just how inclusive things havegotten over the last several

(24:34):
years.
I mean people still go out tothe bars but I don't think it's
near as it's not near what itused to be.

Speaker 3 (24:42):
Our party bar culture in this town has definitely
come down dramatically fromwhere we once were.
I mean, you know pretty much wegot two bars that I think are
open kind of sporadically, andthen there's the Ritz, right you
know, and there's the Ritz,there's the ritz, and I remember

(25:10):
when I went here as anundergrad there was heck.
There had been seven or eightbars where by nine o'clock at
night.

Speaker 1 (25:12):
It was one in, one out.
Well, you could also walk upand down adam street without the
fear of something happening toyou yeah, which lately has been,
and now there's not even houseson adam street no, they've done
a lot to get away from that.
But there is adam street tattoo.
Just just did a podcast withhim not too long ago while he
was carving into my flesh.
Jess is just like.
I was actually really impressedby that.

(25:34):
She goes that was one of thehardest tat that my sister's
covered in tattoos.
She's like that's one of thehardest ones I ever got, was on
the forearm and you did apodcast through it.

Speaker 2 (25:42):
I I was like well, I don't feel most of my tattoos
when I get them.
There have been a few that Idid, but when I got my big one
on my ribs I didn't feel it.
My little one on my ribs waswhen I was younger and still
felt most of the pain you becomedull to this moment, I really

(26:02):
didn't feel anything on this arm, except for one spot.
That shouldn't have hurt, andit was right here.

Speaker 1 (26:09):
Where you're burning yourself with your cigar I don't
even feel Right here.

Speaker 2 (26:14):
that spot was the only spot on my arm that hurt
the whole time.

Speaker 1 (26:18):
Right there where the dark is on the wrist.

Speaker 3 (26:21):
Yeah, you're getting really close to some like bones
and joints and tendons and stuff.

Speaker 1 (26:24):
There it got to a point Sorry.

Speaker 2 (26:26):
My elbow and the other side didn't feel a bit.

Speaker 1 (26:30):
That's where everybody said it would always
hurt when he shaded in rightthere on the wrist.
I mean you could feel it, butmy hand started to do you know
take my strong hand typeTwitching.
Started doing some fun stuff,and so johnny finally so that he
wouldn't interrupt the podcastfinally, with his other hand,
grabbed it, pulled it down andthen just went on doing his

(26:51):
thing.
But johnny's also known as oneof the tattoo guys in the area
that's very good at beinglight-handed and not hurting you
too bad so he's absolutelyamazing.

Speaker 3 (27:02):
He's a good artist, so I got a tattoo.
I have a matching tattoo withJohn.

Speaker 1 (27:09):
Years ago I found out I had a heart condition.
And I lost a bunch of weight.

Speaker 3 (27:13):
And in the process of it, I started riding a bicycle
and John said we got to dosomething.
We got to do something withthis.
I'm like well, what do you wantto do?
And he's like listen, I'm atattoo artist.
I can't have matching tattooswith people.
This isn't something you do asa tattoo artist, he's like, but

(27:35):
I have an idea for a tattoo andI want to get a matching tattoo
with you.
And I was like all right, well,what are you talking?
Many cyclists get a tattoo of?
Uh, it looks like a sprocket,like a greasy sprocket on the
inside your leg.
Okay, your leg touches upagainst the drive side of the
crank and we'll get an imprintfrom the.
The oil that was, you know,left residual on the, on the

(27:56):
teeth of the gear, gotcha, andso that's what I have.
That's right here.
Um, johnny has one in the sameplace, oh, cool um, I'll have to
ask him to be like he did mineyou ever have that cheek tattoos
with another dude.
Yeah, there you go he did mineand then one of his co-workers
did his, but when I came in tosit down for this, so he has
this template out.

(28:16):
He's like I had to make yourtemplate a lot larger, because
I'm a much larger person thanjohnny and he's like but I got
this, I got this idea, I want totry this.
And I was like, yeah, what'sthat?
And he breaks out this tattooneedle and he's like this is the
whitest tattoo needle I've everseen.
He's like and I think I couldprobably do your tattoo like
super fast if you're down for it.
And I was like I don't reallycare how long it takes, but I

(28:38):
mean it's cool that you got this.
So and and it was done, it waswas like what happened?

Speaker 1 (28:45):
Well, these painless tattoos have become a thing now
too.
I mean, I get it, but it's kindof weird.
It's kind of like a rite ofpassage.

Speaker 2 (28:54):
Part of the enjoyment of a tattoo is the pain.

Speaker 3 (28:58):
Right, I was raised by a sailor.
My dad was a career Navyaircraft.

Speaker 1 (29:04):
Well, that explains the cigars and whiskey sort of
uh whiskey more than the cigar Igot a cigar smoker.

Speaker 3 (29:11):
But uh, I told my dad one time one of the one of the
girls that I've worked with, uh,up in michigan at a camp.
She had this theory when youwant to get a tattoo, you decide
what you want and then you waitthree years, right, three years
later, if you still want it, ifyou get that tattoo, you won't
regret it.
And I tell my dad that andimmediately before I could even
finish the sentence he was likethat's bullshit.
A tattoo is something you'resupposed to get like on a

(29:34):
weekend, on a stupid idea whenyou're half-hammered and you're
supposed to regret it.
It's a rite of passage.
It is one of those things whereyou get it when you're young
and you're like, yeah, I don'tknow if I'll ever do that again.
For a lot of people, obviously,it becomes almost a lifestyle.
They're going to do it againand again, and again.

Speaker 1 (29:51):
Right, they become addicting.
I really think.

Speaker 3 (29:56):
If you're trying to take the pain out of the
experience.
I mean, the original tattooswere done with bamboo needles,
in the South Pacific, you know,and it took like four days and
you, you couldn't be drugged,you couldn't, you had to stay
conscious and it was a rite ofpassage, sure to remove the pain
from it, I sort of think islike well it's like everything
nowadays.
Yeah, we're trying to makecheating instant gratification,

(30:21):
without the instantgratification without the pain
involved.
The first tattoo I ever got.
I got a tattoo blue.
I was dating a girl who wasfriends with the owner of Tattoo
Blue and I'd just come backfrom working on a Native
American reservation in SouthDakota and one of the last
provable male descendants ofCrazy Horse, a man named Dewey

(30:43):
Bad Warrior, told me that myspiritual guide was a bear and
immediately I started laughingbecause most of my life people
compared me to a bear.
I snore, I'm loud, I'm big, Iforage for food, I'm grumpy.
When I woke up like you.

Speaker 1 (30:56):
You named like zero positive qualities of a bear, I
think, because I'm noble.
No, no, no, I have a wonderfulfur coat.

Speaker 2 (31:04):
He's not the good kind of bear.

Speaker 1 (31:07):
We're talking Yoki, we're not talking Blue.
When I come back from the res.

Speaker 3 (31:13):
I'm talking to Scott I think that's his name, the
owner of Tattoo Blue, and I'mtelling him I want to get this
tattoo of a bear paw as big asmy hand.
And he's like just line work.
And I was like, just line work.
And I was like, well,eventually I want to get filled
in, but just line work to beginwith.
He's like I'll make you a deal.
I got an artist that hasn't doneanybody yet.
If you let him tattoo you andyou be his first, I'll only

(31:33):
charge you for the cost of thematerials.
So I got a tattoo the size ofmy hand for like 20 bucks Nice,
right.
But when I go in to get thistattoo done, liz the girl I'm
dating at the time she comeswith me and there's this
football player from Western,this big black guy, and he's
getting this huge black puma onhis back Nice.
And this guy had been sittingthere for like six hours and I

(31:56):
was like that is an insaneamount of time.
And the dude's like turns to meand just says, oh, bro, he's
just doing the left paw.
Yeah, like it was all down hisback, all the way to his belt
line of this gigantic puma onhis back, and six hours was just
the left paw on his leftshoulder my first tattoo

(32:19):
experience.

Speaker 1 (32:20):
I don't think I've ever told on podcast.
I might have but I was atEureka College and my buddy who
was in the same fraternity he'scovered in tattoos, you know,
from his fingers all the way upto his neck on both sides I
started thinking I'd kind oflike to get that done.
That work looks pretty good.

(32:40):
He tells me where it is.
It was what's the sketchy oneand what's the sketchy one in um
peoria the street is that adamstreet probably impossible.

Speaker 3 (32:53):
It's one of the downtown streets, adam,
washington, I don't knowjefferson yeah, that's yeah,
it's a rough part of peoria okayyeah, I'm talking down on the
south side, yeah.

Speaker 1 (33:03):
Yeah.
So I walk into this sketchplace and I was like, okay, well
, this is what we'll do.
It was terribly done, but Itold him what I wanted and he
did it.

Speaker 3 (33:15):
See, that's part of that rite of passage.

Speaker 1 (33:17):
You go to some shady place in a bad part of town and
that's where the good artist is.
Yeah, Johnny has covered it upsince.

Speaker 2 (33:28):
Was that the deer one ?
No, that's the.

Speaker 1 (33:31):
Skull with the flag, so wait a minute.

Speaker 3 (33:34):
You went to Eureka.

Speaker 1 (33:37):
What fraternity were you in Teak?

Speaker 3 (33:41):
Zeta, theta 966.

Speaker 1 (33:43):
Yeah, i-1054.
Yeah so zeta theta 966, yeah,uh, I 1054, yeah, no.
So I go into this sketchy asstattoo shop and there's this
language.

Speaker 3 (33:54):
Are they speaking to each other?

Speaker 1 (33:56):
there.
Well, it's two pretty roughwhite dudes and they're
tattooing.
And the other dude that's inthere, uh, had like a bottle of
hennessy and it's in one handand he's getting the other
forearm done and he's got, youknow, dreads and gold teeth and
the whole works.
And we're all just sittingthere and getting work done and

(34:16):
they get him done.
He takes a big old swig ofhennessy and I go so what'd you
get there, dude?
And he Shows it to me and it'sthis face of a lady and then a
dollar bill on the other sideand it says M-O-B.
I was like what's that mean,dude?
He goes money over bitches.
I was like you do you bro?

(34:40):
I'll never forget that as longas I live.

Speaker 3 (34:43):
So one of the guys that I used to know, he had on
his chest the name of a womanand then a line through it and
it ran down his arm and everytime he got a new woman and his
wife he scratched it off.
Yeah, and it just A linethrough it and I'm like you
realize you're basicallyadvertising that this is a
short-lived situation.

Speaker 2 (35:07):
It's not my fault.

Speaker 1 (35:09):
I put her name there.
That means it was forever right.

Speaker 3 (35:13):
But just a line through each name.
And then it's like by the timeI met this guy there was like 26
names coming down his arm.
I'm like come on, man.

Speaker 1 (35:20):
It's kind of like moms with the pictures on their
back windows.
Mom dad, kid, kid, kid, dog,dog windows, mom dad kid, kid,
kid, dog, dog Dad gets scrapedoff.
Or you get the one with thefamily running with a T-Rex that
says I don't give a shit aboutyour stick family.

Speaker 2 (35:39):
I think I got about as much of my scar left as you
do at this point.
Yeah, I spoke like a chimney.

Speaker 1 (35:53):
Oh man.

Speaker 2 (35:54):
But you don't drink at all?
Nope, not my thing.
I don't do anything that altersmy mental state.
I've been prescribed differentpain meds over the years for
injuries and I don't even liketaking those, even when I'm in

(36:16):
pain, because it I like to be.
I like to make sound decisionsfrom a sound state of mind all
the time.
Right, uh, I want to be fullyin control of myself all the
time.
I don't like the feeling of notbeing mentally on top of my
game like all the time gotcha.

Speaker 1 (36:25):
Um, that sounds stressful to me.
Yeah, that's what I'm sayingwhen he says that only that's
exactly why I drink that'sexactly why I'm trying to get
away from this real I have had,I need a mental break.

Speaker 2 (36:37):
I have my entire life had exceptionally uh kind of
bad luck.
Bad things happen to me and ifI was not clear-headed I
wouldn't be here.
I got you.
I've been.
I got attacked at Aurelio's oneday by some guy I'd never met.
I've been.

(36:58):
You name it.
It's happened to me.
So I just kind of always amprepared for something bad to
happen.

Speaker 1 (37:03):
Not that I want anybody to get hurt, but if
someone in this town is going toget jumped, I kind of half hope
it's going to be you, justbecause I want to see what
happens.

Speaker 2 (37:19):
I went there with my buddy Willow and we were eating
pizza and I didn't have mycontacts in or anything.
I will fight you blind.
This was like a month and ahalf before.

Speaker 1 (37:28):
I went in with a walking cane and beat the shit
out of somebody.

Speaker 3 (37:33):
I think there was a television show about this one.

Speaker 2 (37:35):
This was like a month and a half before I left for
Worlds for Jiu Jitsu the firsttime.
So I am on peak training form.
I am in great shape, I'm readyto go.
Willow's like Caleb, do youknow that guy over there?
I look over and there's a guyfour tables away standing up.
He's got his little girl withhim.

(37:56):
I look over and I'm like Idon't know.
He's like dude, he's staring atyou.
I'm like, well, I don't have mycontacts and I can't really see
his face.
Whatever, we sit there for acouple minutes and willow's like
dude.
No, he's still staring at youand I'm like I'm gonna bathrooms
behind him.
I'll go to the bathroom.
I'll see if I know the guy whenI get close.
So I walk up.

(38:17):
I get up and I walk past thisguy and I'm looking at him and I
don't know him and he's.

Speaker 1 (38:21):
I can tell he's staring at me now like he just
got his third day chip fromanger management or some shit.

Speaker 2 (38:29):
I'm getting close and he's staring at me.
I'm like what's up, man?
He's like what's up, not much.
I go in the bathroom, I getthis vibe like this guy's going
to follow me into the bathroom.
So I'm a foot inside the doorgetting ready to fucking level
the next person that comesthrough the door and I wait in

(38:53):
there for a couple minutes andhe doesn't follow me.
I'm like okay, just beingparanoid.
I come out of the bathroom andhe's staring at me.
I'm like what's up, what's up,okay.
So I go sit down.
It was like dude, that guyalmost followed you into the
bathroom.
I'm like I thought he was.
So we're sitting there and I'mwatching this guy now and he
takes something out of hispocket.
I'm like what, the what is thisguy doing?
And it's a sock.

(39:14):
Like why does he have a sock?
And he takes the glass salt andpepper shaker off the table,
puts them in this sock and wrapsit around his hand Like it's a
jailhouse club.
Yeah, so Willow starts to standup.
Like I stand up, and Willowstay out of my way, like you're

(39:35):
just going to get in my way, letme handle it.
So I about two tables betweenus and I sit there and stare at
this guy for a minute and he'ssitting there swinging this club
in his hand and he eventuallywanders off and I'm kind of
pissed off and the waitress whowas a friend of mine comes.
I'm like, hey, do you know whothat guy was over there?
She's like no, like you juststole your salt and pepper

(39:57):
shaker off the table.
Do you want them back?
She's like yeah, I'm like allright, call the cops.
Wait right here I walk cops,wait right here I.
I walk out into the park and assoon as I cross that street,
this guy comes running throughthe park at me.
He's got his freaking daughterand as he's approaching, I'm
just having this flash in myhead of oh, the sherlock holmes

(40:19):
compression to ribs throat punch.
I had trained this one techniquefor knife and club defense
called the makakomi, and I'mseeing this guy run at me.
I'm like I'm going to do this.
It's go time.
It's basically like a sacrificehip throw.
I am going like I'm like I'mgoing to kill this guy if he

(40:39):
does this.
And as he's running him up, I'mlike if you do this, I'm going
to kill you.
And he stopped and he stoodthere for a second like dude,
why'd you take the salt andpepper shaker?
What's the problem?
He's like I took him to hit youwith him, like why, I don't
even know you?
And then the manager walked upand I was like, hey, give him
the salt and pepper shaker.
So give him the salt and peppershaker.

(41:00):
Cops roll up, they end uparresting the guy guy.
And to this day, no idea why I?
I was told that he and his wifewere having problems, but he was
gonna beat the shit out ofsomebody that day.
He picked the wrong dude likeI'm like talk about the worst

(41:22):
lottery choice you've made likeI.
I was the best I had ever beenin that time frame and this guy
was gonna try to do somethingyou gotta get be half worried.

Speaker 1 (41:33):
You're getting ready for like a big, like national
tournament and this guy is likegetting ready to come over and
possibly injure you before thathappens to be honest, I
shouldn't have gone outside, butI was just so hot about.
Right, Just trying to get awayfrom the situation.
I'm like why?

Speaker 2 (41:50):
is this guy trying to be in a?
What is going?
I was mad.
I shouldn't have made thedecision to go outside.
We should have just called thecops.

Speaker 1 (41:57):
Well, I'm sure Aurelios really appreciates you,
not Patrick?
Swayze and somebody through oneof their tables.

Speaker 2 (42:04):
But I just the responsible thing to do would
have been to call the cops andlet, but I was just like no, I'm
going to go have a talk withthis guy, see what's going on,
and it all went bad.

Speaker 1 (42:13):
What's crazy is he's there with his daughter, yeah,
and he's obviously got his sockin waiting.

Speaker 3 (42:20):
Who walks around with a sock in their pocket, someone
who's getting ready to beatsomebody with a salt and pepper
shaker?

Speaker 2 (42:26):
We had a guy come into our bar one time and Alex
was working and this guy has apocket knife and a garrote, a
piano wire with wooden handleswhy?
And Alex was talking to him andthe guy ended up saying he's

(42:46):
like, yeah, my ex-girlfriend'son a date next door with a guy.
That's why I brought this stuff.
So alex immediately took theknife and the groat, which I
still own to this day.
It's in my house.
I'm very happy about that itemand like kicked this guy out,
called the cops on him.

Speaker 1 (43:03):
Alex handled everything right, but there's
some people that make notice how, in both situations, you have
more than the ability to hurtand to possibly maim or take
care of the situation physically, and you avoided it both times.

Speaker 2 (43:22):
Uh, I fight when it's necessary, not because I don't
start fights.
If I can avoid a fight, Ialways will.
If I'm all compete intournaments because that's a
controlled safe.

Speaker 1 (43:37):
It doesn't matter how good you are, you're showcasing
skills, you're not trying toactually kill each other.

Speaker 2 (43:42):
I feel good about my skill set.
I feel like I can handle 99.9%of the situation to the rise.
But no matter how good you are,something can always go wrong
and bad things can happen.

Speaker 1 (43:52):
You can't out-punch a bullet.
There's always the X factor myfather.

Speaker 3 (43:56):
When I was a kid, my dad was a pretty tough guy.
He was in the Navy.
He was no stranger to a fistfight.
But he always told us as kidsno matter how badass you think
you are, there's always going tobe somebody out there more
badass than you and he's notgoing to tell you how badass he
is, he's going to show you.
We were teenagers me and abunch of my buddies.
We were all pretty big boys andwe were coming back from a

(44:17):
junkyard and had stopped offalong the way at what was
basically a bar.
We were shooting pool andhanging out with each other
drinking Cokes and you couldhear the rumble of Harley
Davidson's pull-up.
This is the land of the greatyellow god, right outside of
Peoria and it was a bunch of catworkers on a poker run and
before long you hear the rumbleof another set of Harleys.
And these were a bunch ofKomatsu workers and they were

(44:38):
not friendly with each other andit took very little time before
they were in a big shit-kickingcontest in this bar.
Me and my buddies were allteenagers.
We were like 16, 17 years old.
So we were doing what good 16,17-year-old chubby kids would do
and just hit in the corners andbeside us there was one other
person in this bar, mexicanfella maybe 5'8", probably

(45:00):
nowhere more than about 160, 180pounds, but wiry and looked
like he'd worked his whole lifehard.
Flannel shirt, blue jeans and aball cap drinking a Budweiser.
And he just minded his ownbusiness drinking his beer while
these guys were kicking thecrap out of each other.

Speaker 1 (45:15):
It's like that part in the Quiet man where they're
all beating the shit out of eachother and the old boy's just in
the corner smoking his pipe thewhole time, but then one of
them dudes go to punch anotherdude and pulled back and elbowed
that Mexican.

Speaker 3 (45:25):
So he went face down into his Budweiser and he set
the Budweiser down on the bar,turned around and punched out
the first dude.
He saw Drew back and punchedout the next dude and as soon as
the second dude went to thefloor it was like all them dudes
were gone.
They picked up their buddiesand they split and it was just
instant silence and the Mexicanturns around, slides his ass

(45:47):
back up on the bar stool and thebartender slides him a fresh
Budweiser.

Speaker 4 (45:51):
And I was like that is the craziest damn thing I
think I'm ever going to see inmy life.

Speaker 2 (45:55):
And it doesn't even have to be somebody that's more
badass than you.
You can just get unlucky, and Igo into every situation,
assuming the person is moreskilled than me Chuck Norris.
I assume they're better than mein every situation.
I don't take chances.
I don't take people for granted, because when you take people

(46:15):
for granted you increase thatchance that you get unlucky and
something bad happens.
But I know full well I could bea thousand times more skilled
than somebody and something gowrong and I could still get
permanently injured.
I could lose.
Something bad can happen and Idon't want to.

Speaker 3 (46:31):
I use my mind first, talk my way out as best I can
right, but it's like the meme wewere talking about earlier
violence is not necessarily thefirst option but if fighting is
what you choose.
You better fight like you'rethe third monkey on the ramp to
know his art and brother, it'sstarting to rain it's starting
to rain.

Speaker 2 (46:48):
My buddy got me a book by Varg Freeborns, the
author, and the book's calledViolence of Mind and this guy
lived a rough life and heteaches a lot of self-defense
stuff.
But one of his things is yeah,you can stand up for yourself

(47:09):
and you can yell at somebody andput them in the place or make a
stand, but just know that ifyou're going to start a
confrontation with somebody, youknow how far you're going to
take it.
Yeah, you don't know how farthey're going to take it that's
fair and that could be the onedeciding factor the door you
open might be that murderer youdon't know, and if you're
willing to get in a fistfightover it, over it, but they're

(47:29):
willing to slit your throat overit.

Speaker 1 (47:31):
You lose, and how many times has it been like
somebody at a bar there's aconfrontation, someone just okay
, we're talking about the, uh,talking about the premise of of
con air here but, somebody getsit.
It happened in bushnell severalyears back.

Speaker 2 (47:50):
You know just uh, regular barf right guy hits the
ground a little too hard withhis head and it happened in uh
the quad cities, I think a fewyears ago, between uh, an 18
year old, the 17 year old andthe.
The one who did the hittingdidn't want to hit the other one
.
That was like no man, I screwedup, I owe you, punch me, I

(48:13):
deserve it, there will be square.

Speaker 1 (48:15):
Punched him, knocked him out his head, hit the ground
he died, and so even if youwere fighting for the right
reasons, like sometimes canhappen.
Bad things can happen beforeknow it.
You're wearing an orangejumpsuit and you're in a C-130
flying above.

Speaker 2 (48:30):
Above Vegas.

Speaker 3 (48:31):
Above Vegas Separate circumstances.

Speaker 2 (48:36):
Anybody who thinks that?

Speaker 1 (48:37):
Why couldn't you just put the bunny back?

Speaker 2 (48:38):
Physical violence isn't potentially lethal.
Has no idea how skilled peoplereally are or how bad things
could go.

Speaker 1 (48:45):
Several years back, I was in my early 20s and that's
back when my uncle was in theelectric electrical union in the
quad cities and we were goingto go out for a few beers and on
the way out he goes.
Hey, just so.
You know, us browns have atendency to talk a little bit
when we've had a few to drink.
Might, might not do thattonight.
I said, oh okay, no big deal.

(49:06):
I don't usually get in fights.
He goes.
I just know how we can be andI'm letting you know that
militant camp trains up here.
And so when you think that thatlittle skinny 150 pound dude,
you know running his mouth,isn't going to whoop your ass,
there's a pretty good chancethat he can, because, uh,
jujitsu I've heard lovinglyreferred to as folding laundry

(49:29):
with humans still in it peoplestill in it.
Yep and uh.
I kind of like my shirts foldedwithout my corpse inside.
I was in the academy.

Speaker 2 (49:37):
One of the guys there with me was one of the coaches
for the military academy oh niceand we would go work out a
little bit after hours and workout and that guy freaking
ragdolled me 99% of the time.
Not the guys, the like it is, Ihave a lot better.
I was still getting better thenand honestly that time I spit

(50:00):
with him opened my eyes andhelped me learn so much.
But like he was I mean he was alot bigger than me, but man he
was, they were he would.
We were doing like kickingdrills and I was using tie pads
and after like three kicks myforearms were so swollen because
he would hit so hard.

Speaker 1 (50:16):
I was like, damn well , I didn't know, like, just how
involved into the martial artsworld you were, because you
don't talk about it much, and Ikind of refer that to when I go
to a leg or a VFW.
The guys that are usuallytalking and puffing their chest
are the ones that you don'tnormally got to worry about.
But, maybe that little Mexicanduring a biker fight is just

(50:40):
there.
He's seen some shit.
He don't want to be in anythingand then all of a sudden he has
to be and then he clears thebar room.
Those are the guys I worryabout, the guys that don't talk
about it.

Speaker 2 (50:51):
I don't want people to know what they're getting
into.
I want them to underestimate me.

Speaker 1 (50:55):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (50:58):
Well, the joke is, when you see a group of really
large gentlemen walking around,it's the little dude in the
group that you have to watch outfor, because big guys seldomly
ever end up in a fight situation.
Because most people aren't likeI'm going to pick the biggest
guy in the room and go try tofight him If I grab that dude, a
big dude.

Speaker 1 (51:16):
if he gets you to the ground, it's over.

Speaker 3 (51:18):
But it's the little dude amongst those big guys
who's usually the one who's likehad to basically prove himself,
usually the guy who's moreprepared to prove himself.

Speaker 2 (51:29):
Luckily prove himself .
Usually the guy is moreprepared to prove himself.
Luckily.
I'm kind of like a big guy in alittle man's body, and the
irony is that Caleb, amongst allof our mutual friends, is
probably the smallest person.

Speaker 3 (51:36):
I hang out with Me and two of our buddies pulled
the 727 at a Ronald McDonaldHouse fundraiser.
We waited a tractor event, thethree of us together at over
1200 pounds.
So when I say me and Caleb gotbig buddies, I mean like the
world's strongest professionalpower lifter.

Speaker 2 (51:52):
Yeah, he benches over 1,000 pounds.
Yeah, who's this?
Bart Z, bart Z, look him up onYouTube.

Speaker 3 (51:57):
We're talking like a guy that when he's underneath
the bar, the bar looks like it'sbending around him out because
there's that much weight on itand there's dudes that look like
they could bench press Macktrucks on each side of him as
safeties to help if anythingwere to go wrong, because he's
lifting that much weight.

Speaker 2 (52:13):
He's one of three people to bench over a thousand
pounds in competition.

Speaker 3 (52:17):
This guy used to race people with a harness on,
hooked to a fire truck, uphillyeah.
No, thank you and so I'mtelling you, when you see us
hanging out together, none of usare looking for a fight I've
never.
I've never found a fight.
I'm not, I'm the big, loud,jovial guy.
The worst thing that's everhappened is somebody's been like
hey, you, you're too loud andI'm like I'm gonna buy you a

(52:39):
drink and how, everything's coolI don't have a sock in my
pocket.
I'm not anybody's salt andpepper shakers.
I'm looking to avoid a fight atall, let's avoid.

Speaker 1 (52:49):
Let's avoid mexican restaurants where they put the
salsa containers and shit out onthe table because that's gonna
be a dangerous sock.
Right there was.
I mean, was it an ankle sock?
Was a tube sock?

Speaker 2 (52:59):
it was one of those nice, decently sized just like a
regular crew sock.

Speaker 3 (53:03):
Yeah, all right, friend you uh, you've had your
in a skill and wine finish andyou said that you're not really
into scotch because it's too dry.

Speaker 1 (53:11):
Oh, what scotch are we pulling out?
For oh we're going to try somescotch.
You are, yes, oh, I am, you'renot.

Speaker 3 (53:17):
I'm going to ask you a few questions to help kind of
dial in what I think might be ascotch you'd enjoy.
So do you like smoked barbecue?
Absolutely.
You like smoky foods then.

Speaker 1 (53:27):
I'm not communist, so we'll say yes, goddamn right,
we don't boil our meat in theland of red, white and blue.

Speaker 3 (53:33):
Damn it.
When I went to Russia forWorlds.

Speaker 2 (53:35):
the food was horrible .
It was literally like boiledfish cutlets boiled meat cutlets
Horrible.

Speaker 1 (53:43):
Get your communism sucks shirt, yet I need to Sorry
.

Speaker 3 (53:47):
There's a small island off the coast of Scotland
and it's where all the smokyscotches come from.
This is I-S-L-A-Y Islay, islayScotches, okay Okay, and I'm a
personal fan of Ardbeg, allright.
Okay, ardbeg does not respectyour safe word, all right, this

(54:10):
is a very smoky scotch.
Alright.
So we're going to try.
I'm going to pour myself aglass.
And I'm going to let you smellit and we're going to see what
you think you're up for.
Which one do you want?
Why don't you find me?
Either the Corey Vrecken I knewit was going to be the Corey
Vrecken or Heavy Vapors.

Speaker 1 (54:32):
Love me a nice sip of whiskey with a cigar.
You had a really good cigartopic a little bit ago because I
, kind of shamefully, came downhere and said my favorite cigar
is an acid that you can getabout anywhere Well in any most
cigar shops.
Just because I, like, came downhere and said my favorite cigar
is an acid that you can get,you know about anywhere well in
any most cigar shops, justbecause I like the flavor of

(54:52):
them and stuff.
And I I was like, yeah, I liketo smoke my acids around my
cigar snob friends who tell menot to smoke the infused ones.

Speaker 3 (55:00):
But you were talking about how acid cigars really had
a role to play in the cigarmarket yeah, there was a a point
when cigars were basically in ahuge slump, sales-wise Sure,
when people our age werebasically just reaching the
point where we could buy a cigarand not get yelled at by our
parents.

Speaker 2 (55:17):
What was the other one you wanted to be able to
look for?
Um, it's heavy vapors, weebeasties.

Speaker 3 (55:23):
It'll be in a box as well, just like that box.
It's right at the tip of mytongue, oogadel.

Speaker 1 (55:31):
It's going to be that one or that one.

Speaker 3 (55:32):
Oogadel, get the Oogadel, oogadel.

Speaker 2 (55:34):
Oogadel, the two at the back of the tin hard bags I
have to pull out.

Speaker 3 (55:39):
I'm sorry they're not more.
It might be.

Speaker 1 (55:42):
Why do you have?

Speaker 2 (55:44):
so much whiskey and scotch Luke Jeez, because life
is short, you want the Oogdell?
Oh, is that what I have?
Yeah, I got the Oogdell.

Speaker 3 (55:55):
This is the cord record, anyways, cigars.
So, um, jonathan Drew is quiteoften tributed with saving the
cigar industry because hisinfusions, like the Acid Line,
introduced a lot of the peopleof our generation to a cigar

(56:15):
that they could enjoy, thatwasn't just deep leather and
earth and tannins and all thethings that most cigar smokers
would enjoy, make your mouthtaste like a dirty sock.
Yeah yeah, but they had theseinfusions that were herbs and I
don't know what goes into anacid I don't think anybody does
but it makes it more aromatic.
It makes it more almost likefloral smelling right and I

(56:38):
think that made it moreapproachable.
For a lot of people, and so alot of people from our
generation, their first cigarwas an acid, and what a lot of
people don't realize, though, isthat right now, some of the
most premium cigars in themarket that aren't infused are
also made by jonathan drewgotcha.
You know, I mean you talk aboutuh, league of bravado and some
of these other companies.
They're making gorgeous cigars.

(56:59):
They're they're wonderfulhigh-end cigars.
Some of the most unobtainableones are coming out of Drew
Estate.
Hmm.

Speaker 1 (57:09):
Yeah, I thought that was interesting when you brought
that up earlier.
All right, so my history ofcigars is watching Grandpa Chew
on a wood tip Swisher Sweet mostof my childhood, until he had a
heart attack and then they toldhim he couldn't anymore.
All right, so smell this.

Speaker 3 (57:25):
This is not as smoky as some art bags, but definitely
way smokier than probably mostof the stuff you've ever come up
against before.

Speaker 1 (57:35):
That's smoky.

Speaker 3 (57:36):
Yeah.
So what do we think?
Do we like smoky or no?
Yeah, I like smoky, you likesmoky?
Alright, so try some Ooga DoughNow.
I would encourage you, though,to try a very small pour,
because we're going to dial inwhat kind of scotch you like,
and if you go for a nip of thisand you're like, nope, you're
not going to offend me, becausea lot of people describe this as

(57:57):
a tire fire in a bottle ormermaid's bath water.
What happens if you burn ahospital down?
Because a lot of people say itsmells like Band-Aids and iodine
.

Speaker 2 (58:08):
But Scotch always tastes like andesol.

Speaker 3 (58:11):
And that's very common.
That's very common for a lot ofpeople to say that.
So you just kind of you reallyhave to sit with it and you
really have to process it.
But I think for most peopleyou'll know in the first small
pour is that where you are rightnow in your journey and you
might not be, but it doesn'tmean you won't be at some point.

Speaker 2 (58:31):
If you're taking like going for smoky scotch, I
figure you would have gone forLagavulin, or Well, but the
thing is that I don't know asmuch about.

Speaker 1 (58:38):
It's a very interesting aftertaste.

Speaker 3 (58:40):
Ardbeg has a lot more of a sherry influence than a
lot of the.

Speaker 1 (58:45):
Okay, yeah, you can definitely tell the sherry.

Speaker 3 (58:46):
Yeah, a lot more of a sherry influence than a lot of
the Lagavulin's and LaFroix's.
Lagavulin and LaFroix is likeyou want the scotch to make your
cigar seem like it's not smoky.
This is smoky, but it also hasa very sweet, deep, sherry-cast
influence on it.
Gotcha, and that's why I wouldsay this is a good one to start
out with, an Isla for somebodywho's trying to determine

(59:08):
whether or not, especially likeyourself who said most scotches
to me seem kind of dry Right,the more sherry influence you
get in it, the less dry it'sgoing to be, the more it's going
to have those like raisins andplums and deep sweetie fruit
kind of flavor.

Speaker 2 (59:24):
I love listening to people describe different
alcohols, because I don't drink,so I don't.
When I do drink something withalcohol, all I taste is the
alcohol.
But listening to what peopledescribe it and then being able
to take that to work and makesales based off kind of like

(59:45):
being downwind of that reallyhot group of girls you know
you're not gonna have a chance.
Strange place there.
I mean you might not have achance, but I'm not chuck norris
, so so what do we think you?

Speaker 3 (01:00:00):
you like the smokiness I.

Speaker 1 (01:00:02):
I do like the smoky.
It's still got that scotchykind of aftertaste to it.

Speaker 2 (01:00:06):
That's a little weird Ambasol.
It tastes like Ambasol to me.
Have you ever had Ambasol?

Speaker 1 (01:00:13):
I don't think so, so it's this medicine.
Okay hit pause.
What was that freaking shot youmade me take?
Malort.
That was the worst thing I'veever had in my life.

Speaker 3 (01:00:27):
That's the whole point of the whiskey bar up in
princeton that has a uh chili,uh cook-off competition and you
can be a judge.
All you have to do is fill outthe form to be a judge and do a
shot of more to prove you'rereally into it yeah, not worth
it exactly, and that's the thing.
Like you have to have somestone.

Speaker 1 (01:00:44):
Well, knowing Caleb, he makes it sound like it's a
rite of passage.
Everybody should have to do itonce.

Speaker 3 (01:00:51):
Kind of like getting a tattoo without you know.

Speaker 1 (01:00:56):
So I'm like all right , lay one on me, are you sure?
And then the other guy that wasthere, he was telling me you
know what it tastes like.
I said, no, there, he wastelling me you know what it
tastes like.
I said, no, he goes, put ahandful of asian beetles in your
mouth, chew it, swish it aroundand then, like, take a shot of
vodka.

Speaker 3 (01:01:12):
That's what it tastes like, and he wasn't wrong.
What the hell are you doing?
Putting asian beetles in yourmouth to know what that tastes
like?

Speaker 1 (01:01:18):
no, but you know how they smell sometimes things get
crazy sometimes you just gottathem who's?

Speaker 2 (01:01:26):
boss, oh, you're going to crawl on my windows,
Fuck you.

Speaker 3 (01:01:31):
I was in a real bad car accident when I was 25.
Okay, and spent a very longfall sitting on my parents'
front porch.
This is right after I got intocigar smoking.
Okay, and so every day I wouldgo sit out there and I would
have I'd bring out this isprobably going to sound kind of
sissy-like, but I'd sit outthere with a pot of tea, hot tea
, different kinds of tea anddrink tea and smoke a cigar and

(01:01:54):
relax.
Couldn't really move muchbecause I basically broke my hip
.

Speaker 2 (01:01:59):
And them damn little beetles were everywhere, so I'd
take a puff of my cigar and Iremember riding one summer when
the beetles were really bad andit felt like I was getting hit
in the face by needles whenthose things would hit me.
It was bad.

Speaker 1 (01:02:16):
Well, I haven't had a motorcycle since Japanese
beetles became a thing.

Speaker 2 (01:02:20):
Well, I also love that guy that doesn't wear a
helmet when I don't have to.

Speaker 3 (01:02:24):
When you go out on 1500 by Spring Lake, there's
that big-ass dip.
Yep, okay, so I was riding back.
This is back when I got in allthat cycling with Johnny Olsen
and everything.
I'm riding back from my firstmajor big ride 50 miles in one
day.
I am chafed, I am wore out, Iam sunburnt, I had my ass kicked

(01:02:45):
and I zip down that hill and asI get to the bottom, before I
could even realize what my eyeswere processing, there was a
cloud of Junebugs.
Nice, and I ride through thiscloud of Junebugs before I can
even think to close my mouth.
Now I have Junebugs in my mouth,I have dune bugs all over my
shirt, I have dune bugs in myhair and I'm attempting to like,
because when you ride,especially through a dip, you go

(01:03:08):
at it with everything.
You have to get as much speedas you can, because then inertia
will carry you up the firstthird of the hill and then you
throw every gear you have at ituntil you can tractor your way
up to the top up the hill,trying to knock all these damn
things off my shirt and spitthem out of my mouth, clear them
out of my hair and then I'mwalking the bike up the rest of
the hill and in a situationwhere you're at the tail end of

(01:03:29):
a 50 mile ride, like seven,eight miles from being home, and
you're just absolutely wore out.
I got to the top of the hilland there's a part of me that
was like do I sit here and cryfor a little while, like that
was so it sounds like aninteraction from, slimer
Interaction from.
Slimer Ghostbusters.

Speaker 1 (01:03:44):
It's terrible.
What'd?

Speaker 3 (01:03:46):
you do, ray, the first major long-distance
motorcycle trip I'd taken.
I had a full-face helmet on andI was riding up to Chicago.
And I was up around thePrinceton area somewhere.
I had it in one of the littletowns and I smacked a bug.
I don't know what the hell itwas, but I was easily doing
about 65 miles an hour when Ihit this bug.

(01:04:08):
The whole damn bug just blew upacross my shield.
I've had that.
Green slime and shit everywhere.
I've had that.

Speaker 1 (01:04:15):
It's miserable.

Speaker 2 (01:04:16):
I saw my way out of heading up to Chicago and I
wasn't very far out of town.
I was like, just get likebefore you get to where you have
to slow down for good hope, andI saw this bird fly across the
road.
It took a shit and I literallysee it you try to turn your head

(01:04:38):
like and it like it, likecurved in the air mother
nature's just like hey, rememberthat thing you did a while back
.

Speaker 3 (01:04:50):
We're always joking about how they're looking for
our car to shit on them, but inreality I bet you they're
looking for motorcycles Dead.

Speaker 2 (01:04:56):
Hit on my glasses Like how.

Speaker 1 (01:05:02):
What's that Robot chicken where the two birds are
sitting in the trees?
Like I gotta go, papa he goes.
Okay, we gotta think about it.
Where are we gonna go?
He goes over there.
He's like on some old ladyfeeding squirrels.
Nope, not there, son.
Well, how about over there?
And then, lastly, he looks overat this boy Wearing a snorkel
in the pool.

(01:05:22):
There, papa he goes.

Speaker 3 (01:05:24):
Now you're learning oh, that's awful, all right, so
have you finished your art bedfinished?
No, no, come on, man, youdidn't even have that much oh,
gracious realize I'm likerunning a three to one.
Count on you right now.
I and I'm good with that I gotall these extra bottles.
That's what she said.
You're a seasoned veteran.

Speaker 1 (01:05:44):
That's what she said All right, you know my wife.
The only thing she says is yeahmiddle finger.

Speaker 2 (01:05:52):
Remember to return the favor when she gets home.
Tell her hi from me.

Speaker 3 (01:05:56):
So I got three scotches for you to try.
Oh God, that was Isla.
Okay, and now we're going to goto Speyside, and a lot of
people, when they think Speyside, they think Glenfiddich or
Glenlivet.

Speaker 1 (01:06:09):
Okay, yeah, those are probably one of the more
notable scotches Say that again.
Just the brand.

Speaker 3 (01:06:16):
Yeah, those are the brands, okay, and Glenfiddich
and Glenlivet are the Glens.
Most of the Glens are from Isla.
Sorry, not Isla Space Eye.
Space Eye has very similarflavor profiles to Isla, with
the exception of the smokiness.
Okay, because you're literallyby the ocean.
So they get a lot of the seasalt, briny, iodine-like flavor

(01:06:38):
to them, but they are veryheavily sherry-influenced as
well, gotcha.
They are very heavily sherryinfluenced as well, gotcha.
One of my favorite space sidescotches, however, in my opinion
has little to no of the iodinesalty brininess in it and and
that's going to be abelour, allright, a-b-e-r-l-o-u-r yep,
you're back.

(01:06:58):
You're back on the clock hereyep, and we're looking for the
abelour 12th.
If you start him on anythingelse, he's going to be unhappy
with us.
So not that one, not that one.

Speaker 1 (01:07:07):
Not that one.

Speaker 3 (01:07:08):
he says that's the Abelard Abunar, which in Gaelic
means the original.

Speaker 2 (01:07:12):
Let's start sorting these hundred bottles.

Speaker 3 (01:07:14):
In 1978, they're doing plant renovations and they
find a bottle hidden like atime capsule on a wall.

Speaker 1 (01:07:20):
Nice.

Speaker 3 (01:07:25):
And the workers begin drinking it and the master
distiller catches them andseizes the bottle away and
reverse engineers the late 1800srecipe of Avalor into what is
now the Avalor Avanon, releasedevery four years in a different
batch.
It is cask strength and it isone of the most voluptuous,
heavy, strong-flavored whiskeysI own.

(01:07:48):
You said the 12?

Speaker 1 (01:07:50):
12.

Speaker 3 (01:07:51):
12.
Got it.
It is not something you'regoing to want to start out on 12
.

Speaker 1 (01:07:55):
I'm going to pet a dolphin.

Speaker 3 (01:07:57):
Avanar, I would liken to Stagg.

Speaker 1 (01:08:00):
Okay, have you ever had Stagg yeah?

Speaker 3 (01:08:02):
So Stagg has that, that deep cherry kind of flavor.

Speaker 1 (01:08:05):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:08:06):
You get a lot of that same flavor from the Avanare,
but to me it's almost got like awaxy cherry chapstick, sort of
like flavor mouth cleanness toit.
It's hard to explain, but it'svery high in alcohol content and
once again it'll rip your ballsoff.

Speaker 1 (01:08:24):
It's not something you want to chill with that
scotch doesn't know.
His wife already did I go butthe 12th had to get his punch in
there the 12 is just always inmy opinion, this is one of the
classic examples of a goodgentleman's scotch.

Speaker 2 (01:08:43):
Good gentleman's scotch, so not made for people
like us Well.

Speaker 3 (01:08:51):
I resemble that remark.

Speaker 1 (01:08:59):
Got any big events coming up for the Ritz Caleb?

Speaker 2 (01:09:03):
We have another music trivia night coming up the 27th
.

Speaker 1 (01:09:07):
Another fundraiser We'll be doing a music trivia in
Bushnell that night.

Speaker 2 (01:09:10):
Oh, are you.
That's unfortunate.

Speaker 1 (01:09:13):
The Firemen's.
They're having Decade ofDecadence.
That night, the really goodhair band.

Speaker 2 (01:09:21):
We were supposed to do it sooner, but scheduling
conflict, so that might be morethan I need.

Speaker 1 (01:09:29):
Yeah, I was actually watching you pour that and I
thought man, maybe he reallyisn't trying to drive home.

Speaker 3 (01:09:34):
No, I'll be good Many of my friends that have drank
with me before like to makejokes, and I'm not trying to
sound like I'm some sort ofsuper badass drinker, but I'm a
very large guy.

Speaker 1 (01:09:46):
Well, you're a seasoned professional.
I'm just seasoned.

Speaker 2 (01:09:51):
He's a professional and he's large.

Speaker 3 (01:09:54):
It's one of those things where I have to warn a
lot of people Don't try to drinklike I'm drinking.

Speaker 1 (01:10:00):
That is very good.
You like that.
That is very good.
I would definitely buy a bottleof that someday, and that's not
terribly expensive.

Speaker 3 (01:10:08):
You're probably looking at between $40 to $60.

Speaker 1 (01:10:11):
That's not terrible.
I mean, you're already spendingalmost $30 on a bottle of
Jameson.

Speaker 3 (01:10:15):
Yeah, right Now here's the.
Thing.
As a Jameson drinker, I havesomething for you to experience
that I think you'll really enjoy.
Okay, and it's a scotch, allright.
Okay, and that is the Aberfeldy.
Well, we'll wait on that for awhile the main distillery used
in the Dewar's line Okay.
It is basically the base ofmost Dewars.

(01:10:37):
Okay, it is a Highland scotch,now Highland.
Less sherry influence, if anyat all.
None in the Aberfeldy, to myunderstanding, and you're going
to get a lot more of the maltysweetness.
That's that flavor profile thatyou experience when you have
Irish whiskeys.

Speaker 1 (01:10:54):
I got you.

Speaker 3 (01:10:55):
Okay, so small pour Try it, but then after that I do
have, if you're up for it, onemore whiskey.
Okay, we'll see.

Speaker 1 (01:11:04):
If you want more than that, I do have, if you're up
for it.

Speaker 3 (01:11:05):
One more whiskey.
Okay, we'll see If you wantmore than that.

Speaker 1 (01:11:07):
I have a lot more than that.

Speaker 3 (01:11:08):
I have one more whiskey you've got to try.

Speaker 1 (01:11:11):
You've got to protect the innocent.

Speaker 3 (01:11:15):
But we're going to come back to America for that
last one, america.
A little rebel yell.
No, no have you ever had anAmbarana finish?
No, all right.
So Ambarana is a wood from, Ibelieve, brazil, but it's South
America.
Okay, all right, and this isgoing to blow your mind.
Okay, so there's nothing extraadded to this whiskey.
It is literally just finishedin an Ambarana cask.

(01:11:40):
This is the Starlight Huber,the brown label you see up there
, third one over, and it istheir cigar blend.

Speaker 1 (01:11:47):
I like how you've got like a handful of bottles that
are, you know, in that $100ballpark.
I mean you've got a handful,like you said, that you've got
stored away that are a littlemore expensive than that.
But you're not out just tryingto find the most expensive,
You're trying to find variety.

Speaker 3 (01:12:03):
Oh, I'm going to tell you right now one of my most
favorite scotches.
Have you ever heard of FamousGrouse?

Speaker 1 (01:12:12):
Yes, Actually I have.

Speaker 3 (01:12:13):
It's one of the most bar-sold scotches in Scotland.
It's just blended scotch.
It's nothing fancy but it'sjust a fair representation of
blended scotch.
But they make one called NakedMalt.
Heavy, heavy sherry influence,very heavy sherry influence.
Gotcha, I love it.

(01:12:33):
$20 to $30 a bottle it's cheap,wow, yeah.
And the thing is honestly, Iwould compare it to the I'd say
it's basically like the littlebrother to the Dalmore Cigar
Malt, which is $175 to $200 abottle.
Jeez, yeah, you get verysimilar flavor profiles and I've
heard that the Naked Malt is ablend of malts.

(01:12:54):
There's no grain whiskey goinginto that, just malt whiskey,
you understand the difference.

Speaker 1 (01:12:57):
Yeah, yeah, yeah yeah .

Speaker 3 (01:12:58):
So Naked Malt's amazing.

Speaker 1 (01:13:05):
Well, we went, went.
When Carly and I honeymooned,we actually went on a wine trail
.
I know that's a whole differentball game oh no, I like wine too
but you go and you have alittle taste of everything and
decide you know what your palatelikes, what it doesn't.
With me wine, you have enoughof it.
Then you get a belly ache.
That's just kind of how it isfor me.
And then once we went to acouple places that had um port

(01:13:30):
wines, the, the brandy infusedthat's where I started to really
really enjoy wines.
Was the.
My favorite is still out ofalto vineyards in southern
illinois.
It's called the guido.
Okay, it is so good.

Speaker 3 (01:13:44):
Well, if you like, uh , fortified wines, that's your,
your brandies, and, uh, yoursherries and your ports.
Right, you know, these arebasically the, the liquor of
choice of the founding fathers.
Yes, um, I have a selection ofsome of those.
Yeah, um, but, that, honestly,should probably be a whole
different.

Speaker 1 (01:14:03):
That's a whole different day.
It's a whole different morning.

Speaker 3 (01:14:07):
But I'll tell you when you go to a wine tasting,
do they teach you?

Speaker 1 (01:14:13):
how to trill.
Some places do, some placesdon't.
Some places teach it well, someplaces don't.

Speaker 3 (01:14:18):
But you do know how.

Speaker 1 (01:14:20):
You do know how to trill the wine.
How would you describe trillingthe wine so?

Speaker 3 (01:14:26):
I'm just going to go through the whole process.
It's not just trilling to me,so you start out.
You see assholes swirling theglass.

Speaker 1 (01:14:33):
Right checking for the legs.
I don't care about the legs.

Speaker 3 (01:14:36):
But if you swirl it, you're opening it up, you're
oxidizing the wine, you'refreeing up some of those free
alcohols that are on your nose.
And you're getting the aromasout of it.
And now you stick your nose downin the glass and you take a
deep snort and really bring itback into your olfactory and
then go back to swirling andthat sort of primes that
olfactory and gets it ready forwhat's about to happen.
Then you take your sip and youswirl it all around the inside

(01:14:59):
of your mouth like a mouthwashthat coats everything, because
you have four some, some argue,five different flavors.
Well, you have 64 distinctdifferent smells, and that's
where trilling comes in, gotcha.
Now, after you swirl that allaround your mouth, you drop your
tongue down in your mouth andmake a pool of wine in the
bottom of your mouth, purse yourlips open and breathe in slowly

(01:15:20):
and evenly over that pool ofwine and all of the vapors roll
up the back of your palate intoyour olfactory.
You can usually tell if you'vegot it right, if you've never
done it before, becauseimmediately you're going to get
this obnoxious tickling effecton the back of your nose and
almost want to sneeze and thensit on it, shut your eyes, don't
talk, chill for a moment andallow your brain.

Speaker 1 (01:15:42):
It's just a process To process Gotcha.

Speaker 3 (01:15:44):
And it's almost like you smell.
You know what petrichor is?
No, you do, but you don't.
Petrichor is that smell of dirtin the air after a rainstorm.
Oh, gotcha, gotcha.
And that's one of the firstthings I noticed.
The first time I evereffectively drilled a wine, it
was petrichor, the smell of thedirt in the air after a
rainstorm, and it's almost likeyou can smell.

(01:16:06):
And I know this sounds funny,but to me I felt like I could
almost smell the sunshine in thepetrichor after a rainstorm on
this particular wine that I wastrilling.
And that's what turned me on towine Gotcha.
And I mean, like Bourbon, realTalk is one of my favorite
YouTube channels, okay, andRandy, the guy who runs it, he

(01:16:26):
was into wine first and he talksabout how, basically, the wine
led to the whiskey, because youknow, wine has so many intricate
flavonoids, compounds, flavors,smells, but whiskey's that.
But like the ACDC rock and rollversion of it, like louder

(01:16:46):
turned up, almost to the pointthat you have to sit with a
really good whiskey if a littlepour isn't enough.
You know if you take one ofthese glasses, these Glencairns,
and you turn it sideways.
If it doesn't spill out, that'sthe appropriate pour.
Ah gotcha, if you take aballoon snifter, like you see

(01:17:08):
people drinking cognac out of,or brandies, it's the same thing
.
When you turn the glass 90degrees sideways, it should
almost spill out and that's theappropriate size pour.
And then when you sit here andyou swirl it and you smell it
and you left nostril it, rightnostril it open your mouth.
If you don't open your mouth,it has the same effect as

(01:17:28):
rolling down the the frontwindows in a car when you're
driving in the wind and you hearthat, yeah, and then you open
the back windows and it goesaway.

Speaker 1 (01:17:35):
Your mouth is the back windows.
I could say that, like in ahalf-assed way, I kind of
experience the same thing,because one of my favorite
things to do is if I just got afew bucks but I'm feeling a port
wine, and I just go into aHy-Vee or a liquor store and the
bottle just says port and it's$13 there's nothing wrong with
that, but my favorite thing todo is just sit there with like a
box of Andy's mints and drinkthat to each their own just like

(01:18:01):
a good York mint or something,and then drink some port wine.
It's amazing.

Speaker 3 (01:18:05):
So the wine cellar here in town, right, the guy who
originally opened it up, dave.
I used to walk past that everyday on my way back from grad
school and I would stop in thereand have a drink.
He was the first guy that everintroduced me to port, and when
he poured me my first port ever,it was a tawny port, okay, yeah
.
And he sets it down in front ofme and he hands me one of those

(01:18:26):
little dove chocolates Yep.
And he said I want you to tryit With a dark chocolate, yeah.
And then I want you to eat thechocolate slowly, let it melt,
really enjoy it and then try theport Yep, and the way that it
it's like it catalyzes somethingin your palate so that you can
notice things you couldn'tnotice before.

(01:18:47):
Right, it really changes theenjoyment.
So I don't know what mince didfor you, but I can see why that
might be your thing.

Speaker 1 (01:18:52):
Well, I like mince to begin with.
But have you ever had creamsherry, yes, okay.
Have you ever had harvey'sbristol cream?
I probably haven't.
I don't normally go into thestore looking for a bottle of
sherry, I guess if you like poorright I'm amazed you're not
more into sherry.
I probably would be if Iexperienced it more, but I just
haven't maybe before you leave.

Speaker 3 (01:19:13):
We need to get out, oh man, maybe before, okay.
So I'm telling you, like, asfar as I'm concerned, there's
sherry right cream, sherry andthen there's harvey's bristle
cream.
Okay, like I'm not trying tomake a Harvey's Bristol cream
commercial, but you can't findit in this town.
I had a friend of mine thathappens to have access to the
ability to get his hands onlarger orders of liquor.

(01:19:37):
Get me a case of it.
That's how much I like it.
I still have probably a half adozen or more bottles of
Harvey's Bristol cream laid backbecause I can't find it in town
anymore.
Right, my dad was a big fan ofcream sherry and I mean I'll
drink it in a snifter.
I'll drink it on the rocks.
Yeah, A cream sherry on therocks with a slice of orange.

Speaker 1 (01:20:01):
Yes, now you're venturing into the old-fashioned
world where I okay, I'm gonnatell you really love a good
old-fashioned if you like, anold-fashioned you gotta try a
smoked old-fashioned yep, haveyou ever had?

Speaker 3 (01:20:14):
one.
Yep, now we might have to callthe.
Call the old lady up and see ifshe'll make an old-fashioned.
My wife makes an amazingold-fashioned.
We get candied orange slicesfrom trader joe's okay, so it's
like the whole slice of orangethat has been so heavily
saturated in.
My wife makes an amazingold-fashioned.
We get candied orange slicesfrom Trader Joe's Okay, so it's
like the whole slice of orangethat has been so heavily
saturated in sugar that you caneat it like a piece of candy.
Rind it off Nice yeah.
And then we get the cocktailcherries from Walmart they're

(01:20:39):
the nicest cherries that I'vefound that straddle the line
between the real high-end.
What are they?
The Lux, the line between thereal high-end.
What are they?
The Lux, or whatever.

Speaker 1 (01:20:48):
The real fancy ones.
The real fancy ones that arelike $25 a bottle.

Speaker 3 (01:20:53):
I ain't got the kind of budget for that all the time,
but I'm not trying to buy thecherries that are meant to go on
your ice cream sundae eitherfor my cocktails.
So the cocktail cherries fromWalmart have to me the nicest
blend between being a little bitnicer than the sundae cherries
but not quite spending $25 abottle.
A couple of those cherries andone of those orange wheels.

(01:21:13):
And you take the glass and Igot a piece of oak from the
Amish sawmill and we burn thatwith a torch until it starts to
ignite and then set the glassdown on top of the burn spot and
let it fill full of smoke andthen you pour your old-fashioned
into that?

Speaker 1 (01:21:31):
yeah, you, I've seen.
Uh, the what's the big glassthat they set over the?
Top of it with the burning woodyeah yeah, I I've only had that
a couple of times, but itdefinitely pops the smoky flavor
well, I'm telling you, man,right now, I wish andy was here.

Speaker 3 (01:21:47):
Shout out to dr mixology um, have you been to
one of andy's events?
I have not, oh my god we'retrying to make some amazing
stuff yeah like this guy is likegoing through the the annals of
of cocktail history, lookingfor weird ass stuff you or I
would never consider and thenfinding the materials to make it
at home.

Speaker 2 (01:22:07):
Thomas Jefferson's milk punch yeah, for real.

Speaker 3 (01:22:10):
Just weird stuff you would never think of.
And when he's done youunderstand why this was part of
the history of cocktail making.
You're like holy cow.
That is so amazing.

Speaker 1 (01:22:24):
And he makes a smoked cherry old-fashioned that
sounds amazing yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:22:27):
I'm telling you man.
I wish he was here.
He will be eventually.

Speaker 1 (01:22:33):
You should be here.
Another, you're talking aboutthe sugar on the wedge on one of
Neil Armstrong and I's podcasts, which he chickened out to no
big deal.
He's actually on the pitch forthe Wiu soccer game today, so
very nice so shout out to him.
But we were talking about thekalishnikov shot that we used to

(01:22:54):
do when we were overseas.
It was literally just vodka, uh, a lime wedge and like really
thick granulated, uh, brown yeah, and they would dump a little
bit of the vodka on there.
They'd set it on fire so itdidn't caramelize.
Yeah.
You'd blow it out, take theshot, shove the lime in your
mouth.
It was actually really good.

Speaker 3 (01:23:15):
No, it actually sounds like it would be.
I mean, I really do believethat it would be because alcohol
, that's.
The neatest thing about alcoholis that alcohol strips out
flavonoids and things that yourtongue can't detect without
alcohol being there, that's fairand so those essential oils
from that line and some of thecomplex flavors of that

(01:23:36):
caramelized sugar yeah well,yeah, I bet that would be pretty
darn good now I understand whythat periodic table's in the bar
one of my favorite ways I don'tdrink vodka anymore regularly.
No one of my favorite ways.
I don't drink vodka anymoreregularly no one of my favorite
ways of drinking vodka was tobuy like the nicest vodka I
could afford.
And I'm not talking like juiceor something, yeah put in a

(01:23:56):
cocktail shaker with just thegreen of the lime, one inch by
about three to four inches, okay, so a big ribbon of it, put it
in the cocktail shaker and youlet it sit with the vodka for
just maybe a minute or two orthree, shake it vigorously and
strain it out into a chilledmartini glass Nice.
And what you end up withbecause it gets that vodka so

(01:24:18):
cold you can't really evennotice the alcohol is.
It tastes almost like a verysubtle lime water and the next
thing you know you're shit-facedand you're waking up in Iowa
having to look for mail tofigure out where the hell you
ended up so.
Tuesday, tuesday, yeah, tuesday.

Speaker 1 (01:24:34):
That sounds like a Bacardi 151 type of night.
I almost watched one of ourfraternity brothers burn down
our house doing that one night,because when you blow that out
you've got to do to do it likeeye level, otherwise you blow
down on it.
It goes all over the beer punktable and you set it on fire.

Speaker 3 (01:24:51):
Not that I've don't have a video of that somewhere I
don't think I can remember eversetting alcohol on fire.

Speaker 1 (01:24:57):
I'm glad I never tried no, I don't think he was
trying too hard either.
It was just trying to blow outthe flame off the top of the
shot, and the shot wenteverywhere.
Anyways, now this has been fun.
We'll be doing this.
We'll have to just make this aseries of sorts on the Macomb
League of ExtraordinaryGentlemen.

Speaker 2 (01:25:17):
Legendary Luke Cigar Club Luke Cigar.
Club.
Legendary.

Speaker 1 (01:25:21):
Luke Cigar Club Legendary Luke Cigar Club.
Hold on.
Hold on Cigar Club LegendaryLuke Cigar Club Legendary Luke.

Speaker 3 (01:25:25):
Cigar Club.
Oh, he's got the mug andeverything.
For Christmas, I got everybodya mug printed up Caleb would
come up with the idea of callingit Legendary Luke Cigar Club.
So here you've got to see this.
So I started out by explainingwhat I look like to an AI engine
, and then I explained what mywife looked like to an AI engine
and then I'd done something forAndy's Dr Mixology thing, so I
added a cartoon image of him.

(01:25:46):
But then it come time to getCaleb right, and at this point
I'd been explaining shit to anAI engine for so long that I was
frustrated as all hell.
So I just say to the AI engineJason Statham, younger, with
tattoos smoking his cigar andboom, I got Caleb.

Speaker 1 (01:26:04):
That's fair.
You're going to have to send methat.
That's definitely going to bethe podcast art well, I got it
in digital format.
I'll send it to you well,thanks, guys, for this
experience.

Speaker 2 (01:26:15):
We'll be doing it again, I'm sure yeah, anytime,
like honestly, I was kind oflike worried about how the vibe
would, but it was just like anormal Saturday.
We would just have aconversation and that's what
people have never done podcastsbefore.

Speaker 1 (01:26:29):
I've done a handful of people that have never been
on podcasts and they're allnervous and jittery, like I
don't know what I'm going to do.
I don't know what I'm going tosay.
It's like dude, we literallyhave a conversation and I turn
on the microphone.

Speaker 2 (01:26:41):
This is every Saturday.

Speaker 3 (01:26:43):
This is kind of how it's come about.
I told these guys a while backI think this would make an
awesome podcast ourconversations because they're
about stuff that I think mostmen can identify with, but not
over the top.

Speaker 1 (01:26:58):
It's just neat, it's interesting Well and we've
talked about community withinthe conversation.
We've talked about ethicstrying not to beat the shit out
of somebody when they deserve it, knowing that you full well
could kill somebody.
History with our differentbrands of alcoholic drink and

(01:27:20):
cigar consumption and how fastCaleb can smoke a cigar.

Speaker 2 (01:27:27):
Which you noticed how fast that went down.
And we talked about how somepeople aren't very good best
friends to us because they don'tshow up.

Speaker 3 (01:27:34):
Yeah, you know.
I'd like to point out that youand I smoked a cigar that was
probably 48 ring gauge and maybeabout 7 inches long.

Speaker 1 (01:27:43):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:27:43):
Caleb smoked a 10 by 66 to the nub I've got a picture
you or I could it'll go up uh,a regular size churchill cigar
like that's kind of ridiculous.
He's the reason why I boughtthis filtration, the only thing
we have to fear is fear itself.

Speaker 1 (01:28:03):
I can't think of a better way to end it.
So yeah, we'll be doing thisagain.
Check out the luke's legendarycigar episodes.
We'll just make this number oneand that'll be kind of like the
timber fest chronicles.
We'll just have a luke'slegendary cigar uh chronicle I

(01:28:24):
like it Excellent.
All right, Thanks guys,Appreciate it Thanks buddy.

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