Sitdown With Trish The Dish of GenX Voice

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So, where do I start with this episode? After becoming fast friends with a fellow Podcaster named Trish the Dish from the GenX Voice, it wasn't tough to convince her to sit down with me for what I thought would be a good half hour to a 45-minute conversation about all things Gen X which turned into two, one and a half-hour episodes. So here's part one where we start with talking about the pandemic where we've lived, how these youngsters treat us like old people when we still feel like we're teenagers ourselves "Kinda" and how Trish found herself in Twitter jail, amongst other things. Please sit back, relax and enjoy this two-part series with Trish the dish and myself, Tony Randazzo, for what turns out to be a pretty epic ride; enjoy. 

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Episode Transcript

Unknown (00:14):
It's hard to speak your mind these days. voicing your
opinion is tough and a climatewhere you're either seen as an
ultra conservative or a bleedingheart liberal. But what about
our perspective? What about theGen X perspective? I I'm totally
a latchkey kid from the 80s and90s. Now I'm in my 40s wearing
cargo shorts, collecting StarWars figures and reminiscing

(00:35):
about the days before my firstcell phone. The jennex
perspective is for us caughtsomewhere in between boomers and
Millennials are we see things abit differently? I'm tired of
staying silent. It's time torant, discuss, unload and
debate. Join Tony and his guestsas they tackle the topics of Pop
Culture, Sports, religion, andyes, even politics. If life's a

(00:57):
Rubik's Cube, we've got theexperience to tackle it. Welcome
to the Gen X perspective withTony Randazzo.
Hey, how's everybody doing? So,we've been promising since we

(01:18):
started this podcast that Iwould be eventually sitting down
and doing interviews with folks.
In this week, we started with atwo part series. The first part
is about an hour and a half longand it's with Trish, the dish
from Gen X voice. And webasically cover the full Gambit.
In this particular episode, wetalk about the pandemic where

(01:40):
we've lived, Trish being inTwitter, jail, and everything in
between, and give you a kind ofa neat insight as to Gen Xers
running podcasts and kind of ourdiffering opinions and also how
much we actually have in commonbased on our experiences. And
all things in between. So sitback, relax, enjoy part one of a

(02:04):
two part series.
with myself, Tony Randazzo andTrish from the Gen X boys.
We jump right into it. Hold on,relax.
Enjoy.
Well, so the stream yard thingis pretty damn cool. So I'm

(02:26):
assuming that all my audio atthis point, since it's all going
through the road board isrecording there. So I hit the
record button. So that's kind offun and neat. And I guess I'll
figure out how that works inpost production when I want to
just the audio.

(02:47):
And I thought I'd tease you alittle bit like, look what I'm
wearing today. Oh, very nice.
Cool. That's awesome.
comment about whatever happenedup there in Seattle.
Music holy crap. Yeah, theyweren't personally a huge fan of
grunge. It hit right when I wasa senior in high school and,

(03:09):
man, it just totally connectedwith me. Yeah. Yeah, man, the
cheese bag.
I, I appreciated it just as muchas metal and everything else. I
mean, because that's the wholeconcept kind of behind our whole
world was there was so muchmusic, all of it. And, and
that's all we had, because wehad MTV. And that's all. I mean,

(03:31):
there was no other streaminganything. You had to go to the
damn record store and go buysomething and go listen to it.
And Tower Records. Yeah, goodstuff that doesn't much exist
anymore. SoWell, I mean, there's
independent record stores thatare still doing pretty good
indeed. Well, yeah. Especiallynow with kind of the resurgence
in vinyl. My wife's totallygetting into it now too. There's
a record player in the livingroom now.

(03:55):
Hey, have her have her go to myfriends record shop dumb rx.com.
Okay. Andin man, he's got he's got some
great stuff. And he he was aformer student of mine. He
you know, totally opened thisrecord store up on his own
accord and, and he was a gueston the show. Oh, yeah. That's

(04:20):
cool. Yeah, we'll definitelyhave to check that one out. And
we're going down to whereobviously the civilization is
now from the North Country. Sowe'll be in Florida and
hopefully be able to go checkout some down there. You know, a
little cool. Yeah.
Yeah, yeah. Which is awesome. Sowe'll see how that how many days
How many days left? We leaveuntil freedom. So exactly one
week. So this time next week, wewill be somewhere hopefully

(04:44):
south of Pennsylvania by now. Soit'll be Oh, wow. You guys are
gonna drive. Oh, hell yeah. Wetake the dog. We got the dog and
all our crap and then I gottatake all this stuff now. Oh,
yeah. Computer goes the boardgoes this dumb microphone.
It's all going so well. That'sso rad. I'm gonna have some fun
with that. I figured it's a goodtime to take three weeks and try

(05:07):
to set up a studio next to thepool. Oh, yeah, I mean, green
can do it in his van. Next year.
Right? Yeah. Yeah, that'stotally free and awesome. So so
we're not live streaming rightnow. I haven't hit the go live
button, because I don't knowexactly where it's gonna go. I
think it's gonna go to my Gen Xpage. It should. Yeah. And then

(05:29):
my question on that one. So onceit's live on the Gen X page, in
a couple weeks, when it's thereand up, then I share that live
stream over?
No, you'll do a new one. Oh,okay. Because the new one, how

(05:51):
it will work. Tony is you'llstraight you'll choose your page
to stream it. And then you'llshare it to pod v COMM The pod
big v comm page or Facebook? Andthen and yeah, and then they'll,
they'll share it on there. Soit's actually going to be both
on your page and their page.
Awesome. Okay, that's what Iwasn't sure about how it if it

(06:13):
shares everything through streamyard, or if it goes stream yard,
Facebook, and then Facebook toFacebook. So yep, yeah. And, and
you'll have a moderator that'll,that'll allow you to come in.
Okay. Always do 15 minutesbefore just to make sure you
have everything set up. Whichmay mean that I haven't figured
this out yet. This is going tobe my new thing is

(06:38):
I think I figured out the timerwhen I did my last excuse me
live stream with my friend lastweekend. You should be able to
set a timer for it to go live.
And thenyour moderator will have you
kind of in a waiting room andthen allow you to go live right
at your at your time. Which bythe way, I don't know if you
noticed, you're right after me.

(07:00):
Awesome. Back to Back exit.
Yeah, you had said that. And Idon't know where that I haven't
seen the schedule yet. I haven'tbeen paying close. I don't think
that we have I don't think we'vemade it go live yet. Because
we're still working on who'sgoing to be the moderators for
eachsort of duration because it's
it's two weekends. And in a fewof the moderators haven't signed

(07:22):
up yet for their time slots. Gotit. So so. So with doing okay,
so I'm doing my podcast live?
Well, video, I'm doing my videopodcast, and am I doing just my
normal podcast, my podcast? Am Idoing it just like I normally
would be doing sitting well hereor in Florida. And if I want to

(07:45):
bring in a guest that I'mtalking to, I can do that. Just
like you and I are doing itright now. And then it just, it
just gets pushed out toeverybody in the world. Yep. Or
find somebody to talk to,instead of
you know, I'm always I'm alwaysthere for you. If you want, I
have no problem doing mine andthen coming on to yours. But you

(08:08):
know, especially if it's, youknow, you don't really know what
you want to do. The other thingdoes is, you know, you can have
your wife if she feels soinclined,
you know, or whatever but offeroffers out there brother? Well,
I'll definitely I'll be youryour standing guests if you
want. I know that we can we cantalk for hours. So I don't think

(08:30):
it would be a big deal. No,yeah, we can figure out
something to talk about forsure. And also, just as a side
note, note, the what I did forwhen I did the live stream in
December for the holiday one, Iuploaded it into whatever quick

(08:51):
time because I was on a Mac atthe time I don't I'm not sure
what I'm gonna use on my PC. AndI was able to separate or maybe
it was in GarageBand I was ableto separate the audio from the
video. So I just uploaded theaudio for my podcast, right? So
I didn't even and I even I justput a little blurb in the
beginning was like, Hey, I'm noteven gonna edit this. This is

(09:11):
from the live this is 100% livenice. Have fun, you know what I
mean? So that takes a littlelittle pressure off of you if
you don't want to, you knowspend your whole time editing
and like doing stuff whileyou're in Florida. Yeah, so I'm
starting to I'm starting to likewith the road caster what I
found was, you don't unless youtotally screw something up. And

(09:35):
since I'm talking to myself,I didn't find that I was having
too many challenges that a wasjust cut it push it into
BuzzFeed and or buzzsprout andoff it would go and they would
do some final mixing to kind oflevel out any weird audio in it,
but it sounded great every timegoing through. It does sound
great. So hey, I really superstoked Oh my gosh.

(10:00):
Have you done anything with alot of audio editing? at all?
Oh, okay, so we'll see whathappens. But I have, you know, I
have the technologyis my dream. I had to buy a PC
first. Because my little mylittle MacBook was eight years
old and it wasn't gonna cut itmuch longer than 10 minutes to

(10:22):
render a track into an mp3.
You know, and I was just like,you know, got it and I spoiled
myself. It's a pretty sweetgamer. Good PC, you have to if
you're gonna do anything live,or you're gonna do any video
stuff, I mean, just you justyeah, this isn't going away. I'm
in it. I'm in it, Tony, I meetpeople like you. Like I'm having

(10:44):
so much fun. And you know, likeI said, I live alone. And I'm
taking the pandemic pretty thepandy pretty seriously, so I'm
not adventuring. I'm not doingI'm just drinking and
podcasting. Yeah. So today, areyou not drinking with me today?
I'm I've been Yeah, no, I'm not.
I was drinking earlier, and Ididn't carry anything.

(11:07):
Solo, Oh, my gosh, oh, yeah,you're gonna have to drink solo
for a few minutes. But So today,I gotta tell you this. So I, you
know, so I run this businesswhere we're dealing with humans,
right? I have to deal withpeople every day. So. So what we
started doing was, you know, Imy tasting room staff. And, and
my theory was okay, so this iswhat I'm going to do, because I

(11:30):
wasn't quite sure about thiswhole pandemic thing. And it
didn't hit us here, like it did.
New York City super early,right. It didn't hit us until
like, November,November, you guys were safe. We
were like one or two cases a dayuntil November,
what they call the NorthCountry. So it was like three

(11:50):
counties. So within the threecounties.
It was like a total cumulative.
I mean, literally north of NewYork City by an hour all the way
to the North Country. You weretalking less than 100 cases a
day.
reported. I mean, so that's notI mean, that's nothing. So we
knew it was coming. So Novemberhit. And then just in Jefferson

(12:12):
County alone, we started gettingit started kind of pumping up
there and it was getting100 150 200 cases a day
hospitalizations were going up.
So it was it was here at thatpoint. So that's November, but
all summer long, I was trying tofigure out what this thing was
all about and how I waspersonally feeling about it. And
I have a staff of 3040 peopleworking for me. And we're going

(12:33):
through all the motions with allthe we were doing everything
that you got to do to stay open.
But I was kind of freaked out.
So I was like, Alright, here'swhat I'm going to do. I got one
of my office staff that'sworking with me for a long time
I sent her home. So you'reworking from home, and I'm gonna
stay in the office, and I'm notgonna I'm not gonna interact
with anybody in case everybodygets sick, then I'll come in and

(12:53):
work in the tasting room. Well,nobody got sick. And I just kind
of spun out on it not spun outon it. But I was being overly
cautious based on our currentsituation at the time. So now
we're a year in year into it,basically. And I hadn't up until

(13:15):
like a month ago, two monthsago, I hadn't left like 10 miles
from where we live and where thebusinesses like I just my circle
got super small. I went to work,I interacted and did what I had
to do there but we were beingreally good about it. Everybody
was going home and and todaywe're getting ready to go out of
town and looking for thisgoddamn thing I gotta buy that I

(13:37):
want to have in the truck whenwe're going down south and I
can't order it online. I can'tfind it anywhere online to get
it here before we leave nextweek. So I'm like alright, I'll
run to Watertown. So it's a 20minute drive. I've been there
half a dozen times doctor'sappointments there whatever but
I haven't Walmart absolutely notany of the big stores no way
just haven't done it and today Iwent into a sporting goods store

(14:00):
and walked around and holy crapthere were so many people in
that store. Just everybody'swearing a mask which is totally
fine but the anxiety that I hadand then for fun I went into
Walmart so I got to the Walmartparking lot and I parked all the
way in the back because there'ssnow on the ground anyway and
people Park like lunatics whenit's snowing anyway but yeah,

(14:21):
right so I'm way out in theparking lot and I walk in and
it's Walmart so you know youkind of get the Walmart person
mentality hat on and likeAlright, let's see what this
actually looks like. So I'vebeen watching it in the news for
a year right Walmart and howpeople are all crazy and
whatever. So I go into Walmartand there's the place is packed.
And packed like like end of theworld packed for no good reason.

(14:45):
And then with all these productshortages, because like Long
Beach Harbor,the the dock there has something
like they said like 100,000shipping containers stuck.
But they haven't been able toopen yet and ship out. So like
now we're dealing with supplychain shortages, everything from

(15:06):
screwdrivers to fuckingValentine's Day stuff that never
got out of these containers.
Because LA and you know,Southern California has such a
bad COVID crisis, they can'tunload the containers. And they
have like, I don't know, theydon't remember what they were
saying my wife was telling meabout it on the news, they were
talking about all thesecontainer ships sitting in the
harbor, right off the coast thatcan't even come in and unload on

(15:30):
top of it. So the everybody's,they got all these containers
jammed up. And then they gotthese boats jammed up and all
this crap from China or whereverit's all coming from. It's all
sitting on these boats. So and Inoticed it today in the stores,
it was empty shelves everywhere.
And it was I went into ahardware store.

(15:52):
And they were out of a lot ofstuff, which I just thought was
weird. It was a passing kind ofthought. And then when I went
into Walmart, I rememberedeverything my wife was telling
me about the story. And oh mygod, it was true. And then all
these kind of things startedclicking like I had talked to
the the local store down thestreet where I know the owner.
And she's like, yeah, we haven'tbeen able to get things in even
like we were, it's worse nowthan it was a year ago after

(16:15):
COVID hit and like you couldn'tget anything they're seeing now
again, nationally, it's andthey're not talking about it in
the news. But it's happening.
Texas, Texas doesn't have anyelectricity. They have this
crisis. Oregon's going through acrisis with electricity around
Portland like, yeah, andnobody's in there in the time to
talk about anything else. Theycan't get stuff. So

(16:41):
So yeah, I had all this anxiety.
And I went into the store today.
And I'm like, Well, I guess Igotta get used to. I'm driving
to Florida, so I got to get kindof you stay around people again.
And it really it was fascinatingbecause I've that new anxiety
that never has existed ever inmy entire life. I've never had
that kind of anxiety about beingaround anybody necessarily. But

(17:04):
this invisible thing calledCOVID that now is in the
forefront of our thoughts allthe time believing it or not
depending on what kind of crazyyou are. Is there.
It's totally there and it waslike, wow, okay, so the sounds I
feel a little little knot in thethroat like little keep my hands

(17:24):
in my pockets. And where's myhand? Yeah, sir. When I get in
the truck. Well, I'm crazy. ButI haven't had the privilege to
be in much of a bubble. Outsideof I mean, my personal life. My
personal life. I stopped. Istopped backpacking and can
kayaking in end of June. Wow. Iwas like we're at 96% capacity

(17:47):
with our hospitals here inArizona. I mean, we were we were
in the news. We were so bad,right?
But and I was able to work fromhome, which was pretty great.
Right? But then the school yearstarted. Yeah, and and so I
maintained a bubble that with myfriend who's like my brother
that I've known since I was 12.
And, and his wife or sorry,fiance. Um, you know, and she's

(18:10):
a nurse and broke up with theguy was dating because he was
like, just still backpacking andgalavanting around and I was
like, You don't get it, dude.
Like, we can't be in the backcountry right now. Like if
something happens. We're notgetting fixed. We're not getting
saved. Oh, no. I mean, like, I Ihave the dream of dying in the

(18:32):
wilderness. Just like any otheryou know, crispy granola. No,
but not right now. You know whatI mean? Yeah, we can't come get
you right now. Sorry. Yeah,yeah, that's not Oh, so I go to
campus and it's like, I have toI'm in charge of this
scholarship service hourscompletion thing. Okay. Sure.
And, and part of that was we hadthese tables set up all around

(18:56):
campus, and the scholarshiprecipients would serve their
hours sitting at these tablestelling people where to go and
stuff Right, right. And so I'mchecking in hundreds of
students. Oh, wow. Every day forfive days straight. And you

(19:17):
know, the first day I you know,obviously had my mask on I mean,
because that's just I've beenwearing that since it came out
and you know, April was when Istarted really being maski Yeah,
but Tony the amount of like thespace you have to go into in
your brain is not unlike fuckI've got a I've got a hike that

(19:41):
mountain right there that peakWow. And you know, the first few
you know you're going you'rehaving a good time until you
realize that you have days ofthis Wow. And right and and and
like this is fucking hard. Yeah.
And you know, but you have toyou somehow you find it in you
You to just sort of like, dig inand go, I'm, I'm not going to

(20:05):
worry about anything except forI sat at a circular table and I
told the students, you know,like, Hey, I'm old, you know, I
get to show off my grades andplay that card. You know, proud
of that proud of that. Becausethey will go Oh, I'm so sorry.
Like, yeah, she's great. Shemust be fucking old. Right?
Like, no wonder she's afraid ofCOVID. Right. And, and I gotta

(20:26):
tell you, like it and I've hadto work on campus a few times
since that.
And and it's been it's beenremarkable. None of my student
workers have gotten it. Andright now on campus in the fall,
it was a little shady. It was itwas like they were clearing out
dorms. Sure. Yeah. They were allover the country. Yeah, it was

(20:47):
crazy. Right. And but butbelieve it or not, like we've
got only about 20 cases oncampus. And that includes
students and staff. Wow. Whichis incredible, because we have a
campus of about 20,000. Humans,right? Well, in the whole
conversation about its low riskin school, they're not talking
about college. They're talkingabout Elementary School. You're

(21:08):
talking k?
like eight not even high school?
That's right. Yeah. Cuz HighSchool is more Well, in the, the
rates, at least in New Yorkstate have been historically low
across, you know, elementaryschool, high school hasn't been
an issue. And in here, all theteachers went back. So there's,
it's either mostly hybrid, orfull time, all the elementary is

(21:32):
all full time now in person. Andit seems to be working, they
seem to have it figured out. Sowhatever it's working, that's
great. So my nieces and nephewsare all back in school. My
sister in law, when I killeverybody ask you a question.
Let me ask you jennex question,Tony, how do you think we would
have done in a pandemic goingvirtual as a kid versus how do
you think that would haveworked? Yeah, it

(21:56):
sounds like you had the same.
Oh, the technology wasobviously, yeah, but but it was,
but it was us as kids doing itnow. Now going in front of a
computer screen for eight hoursa day? How do you think we would
have handled that?
That's a hard one. Because if Igo back to if the computer
technology was what it was, butthere was internet, let's say,

(22:17):
so our apple, two C's and thebig giant
computer screens that look liketelevisions and everything
that's low rez, and everything,everything is just green,
green, green, and black or greenand white screen, it wouldn't
have worked. I thought, well, Ithink maybe it might have
actually worked better, becausewe would have been so fascinated

(22:39):
by the whole idea behind it. Idon't think we would have had a
problem going online, I reallydon't. Yeah, I think we would
have been totally nerded out byit and into it, at least
initially, just like any kid,and then once you get used to
whatever, then you're going tostop doing that. But I think we
wouldn't have had a problem withit. I think if the pandemic hit

(22:59):
back then in the technologywasn't there. If we go back to
where we were, when we werekids, they would have just sent
us home and you would have gotpackets, maybe in the mail, you
know, she got the packets thatyou would have got when you had
like when you had mono or whenyou were sick at home with
chickenpox, and they sent apacket the ones that we packets

(23:19):
on work.
I remember though, and we would,and that's how we would be
accountable, which probablywould have worked probably right
now would have worked betterthan computers. I think,
personally for the younger kids.
Like it would have beensomething like tangible that
they'd have to sit down at akitchen table and do instead of
just screwing around on theirChromebooks and doing whatever.
I wonder, I wonder if you'reright, that's interesting. I

(23:42):
hadn't thought about maybe memuch. So much. So you know, I
spent about nine years in theclassroom, right? And so much of
what I was doing was, you know,the call pair share, right? So
so you would, you would youwould teach about three minutes
at a time. And then you wouldhave them turn to their partner
and do whatever exercise tosolidify that. We didn't do any

(24:06):
of that shit when we were kids.
Right? We just sat there. And wewere like, I don't remember
asking a lot of questions. Imean, I never watch. I remember
really big classes. Like, Idon't think classes were smaller
than 2530 kids. I mean, theclasses were huge. I mean, we
were just we were packed inthere is what I ran California,

(24:29):
but the elementary school theycouldn't build schools fast
enough because that whole areawas growing. We had portables
Yeah, the portables. That'sright. Yeah. The portable
buildings outside that lined upall the way around behind the
schools. And, and then for me,that didn't, I didn't make it
past sixth grade. Fifth grade iswhen I ended up in private
school.

(24:50):
In the private school I went towas initially for kids with
learning disabilities, becausethey figured out I had dyslexia
and right right, and so I hadWent to the school that started
out as a school for kids withlearning disabilities. And it
turned into a school of freakindelinquents. This by the time I
graduated high school there, wewere just a raving group of

(25:10):
delinquents that just didn'tfit. So it was the nerds. The
you know, the jocks was total,it was a live High School of
Breakfast Club kids, I graduatedin a class of 12. So it was a
small school. But we were just amix of just nobody that could
function in regular high schoolat that point. So it was this

(25:33):
really cool experiment. And theschool stayed open for years and
years and years, and it nevergot any bigger. And they always
struggled along, from what Iunderstand after I left. And but
it was an amazing, odd, weirdexperiment that I was a part of,
and it got me through highschool. God bless them. I
graduated I got my I got my mydiploma. But it was this really

(25:55):
weird thing that I'm happy thatI did it and made it through
because I don't think I wouldlast through high school at all.
There's no way What do youthink? What do you think the
biggest difference between thatkind of school and like maybe a
school like I went to like apublic high school? Well, I and
I still had friends. I mean, youknow, all my elementary school

(26:16):
friends all went to high school,they all were still my friends,
we still lived in the sameneighborhoods, and I was still
friends with them. And ofcourse, you know, things always
change when you're not in frontof your friends every day, as we
know, it shifts a little bit.
And you know, I made new friendsand things kind of changed. But
their experiences for the mostpart were like mine, because the

(26:37):
kids I was hanging out with,they were just that much better
than I was. And that's why theydidn't end up in elementary
school or end up in privateschool. My camera was now um, I
had it all centered. Perfect.
I'm a little anal when it comesto like what the viewer sees.
But no one has no idea what Iwas going through that to say we
go first. Yeah, live streamthing. And I'm like, okay, where

(26:59):
do I need to sit? What are theylooking at behind me trying to
do such a great job? I loveattention to that. Oh my gosh,
yeah, I was kind oflooking at the couch and like,
Look, there's something out ofplace over there. That just
looks weird, you know? And it'slike, what are they seeing in my
world that I want them or don'tlike I have I have fresh
flowers. I don't know if you sawthat. Like, anyway, anyway, so

(27:21):
yeah, yeah, no, I messedeverything up. I have no idea
what I'm doing now. Now. Now.
I'm like, I'm too ADHD to likebe able to do leave it alone
this and talk to you andwhat's going on? You got the pop
of color on the wall. And youknow, you got the door handle.
It's a nice door handle. That'svery nice door handle. like

(27:46):
yeah, I mean, youwalk in right here, so little
geeky nerdy. Wow. I have afriend who does. I don't know if
you've ever heard of it. And Ihighly recommend it during the
conference. Check him out. It'sfrom podcast vodcast he's got a
great Castle grayskull in thebackground. Nice cuz cuz my

(28:08):
friend my other friend and Ithat does pod jerky that you
should also check out it's gonnabe a fun weekend. I I really
recommend just watchingeverything. Yeah.
Yeah, I've listened to the good.
Don't eat great. Yes. Yeah.
Yeah. A lot of fun to listen toa lot of fun. Yeah, yeah. Did

(28:29):
you listen to the New Yorkversus America episode that we
did? No, I have not listened toit yet. No. America versus
Canada. So I was on representingArizona. And then Sarah from
Blackbird advocacy, which isalso another good point. I'm
just showing doing all the shoutouts right now. Right there all
the people that are running podpecan, right, you know, um, and

(28:50):
so so we did this, like, youknow, these misconceptions row
and it was fantastic, becauseshe's from Long Island, and
she's like, everyone thinksyou're from the city. Right.
And we talked about that. Wetalked about that. When you were
on my podcast. Yeah. Oh, yeah.
New York doesn't exist outsideof Manhattan. No. What are you
talking about? Yeah, mountains,skyscrapers.

(29:13):
This island thing called NewYork. And that's all there is.
Period. That's it? Yeah. Yeah.
The rest of y'all suck. And noneof the people that work there
that you see on TV, none of themfreakin live there because you
can't afford to live inManhattan anyway, they all live
out of the city. Yeah, that wasthat was a tough time living
there. I lived in Chinatown. AndI lived I lived while I lived. I
lived off of how Stan I don'tknow how familiar you are with

(29:35):
the actual city. But when Ilived there it was I I moved
around a lot in the 10 months Iwas there. And then I also lived
in Harlem, or at least one blocksouth of Harlem. And, and it was
each place was different becausethe first place was like across
Alphabet City. So it was reallybustling and really great. And
this is like you know 2001 andthen I moved to Chinatown, where

(29:58):
my Windows face the Twin Towers.
Wow. And that was a whole that'sa whole other podcast. Yeah,
totally. Yeah. And then and thenmoving up near Harlem man that
was the best like it was oneblock away from the most
northern part of Central Park. Ilived above a these and these
are all walkups right? Thesebuildings had elevators and

(30:20):
there I was always on the fifthfloor or some shit. And I lived
above this amazing little punkrock bar called the ding dong
lounge shout out to them ifthey're still open and and ran a
coffeehouse and. And it was justthat was a really good couple
months, which in New York timefelt like 20 years to be really
honest. I never got to go to theCatskills and never got to go to

(30:43):
the Adirondacks. No, I lovedyour episode, by the way, on
your camping stuff. And Holyshit, no pun intended. Wow.
Yeah, talk about some terriblefucking experiences.
Yeah, right. So I thought I wasthinking about it. And I was

(31:07):
talking to my dad aboutsomething. And that dumb canoe
that I talked about when I was akid, it's hanging, hanging in
our shop is like 20 feet in theair. And so cool, my dad wants
to refinish it. So this thing isstill around and and right now
we're there's another boatunderneath it on the ground that
we're working on and restoringbefore spring hits. And I was

(31:28):
just, I was looking up at it acouple days before I did that
episode and started laughing andjust remember being a little kid
shitting my pants in that canoeand how miserable that camping
trip was and realizing howtraumatizing
You know, it must maybe I don'tremember it as traumatizing
necessarily. Long term. It wasreally this crazy. And I was

(31:53):
trying to you know, I justthere's just visions that I
couldn't quite get out when Iwas talking about with sitting
in the front of the tent withthe green tent zipped open and
kind of an A frame tent back inthe 70s. You know, yeah, I know
exactly what you're talkingabout told to sit there and not
move because my mother wasprobably really pissed about
having to clean me up. You know,I just it's so young that it's

(32:13):
not, you know, it's it's not alinear kind of memory. It's a
really abstract body spottything going on. But yeah, that
was the first like, outdoorexperience that I remember. And
then yeah, just just add thecraziness on and it was okay at
that point. But yeah, gettinglost in a campground and they
thought Itotally, I was like, I was

(32:37):
trying to figure out because Ithink I told you on that episode
that we did together online thatyou know, I was made on a camp
rafting trip, right. And, and Iwas trying to figure out what my
earliest memory of camping was.
And I can't I can't it's justit. It just always was kind of

(33:00):
thing. Yeah, some time. That'sright. the only the only camping
trip that really sticks out is Icut my foot on a Pepsi can once
my mom was really big into like,you know, hanging out and this
was in Illinois. And you know,maybe people are familiar with
Carlisle lake in sort ofKnott Central but kind of in

(33:22):
between Springfield and Chicago.
There's like this, this reallybig lake. And we found some kind
of little spot and and I steppedon a Pepsi can because you know,
it was the 80s of course, peopleare just thrown around
everywhere. Yeah. And and and itwas those old school cans. Do
you remember? The old aluminumcans? They were like they were

(33:45):
thicker? Yeah. thicker anddeadly. Like I just stepped on
it. Like I don't rememberstepping hard. I was a baby kid.
Right. And it's sliced and theblood that poured into the like
the River Park or the lake orwhatever I was. Yeah. And I
remember my mom doing it waslike Preston raise Preston
raise. That was like her bigthing. It's like you always do

(34:06):
this, you know, you're bleedingto death. That's right. Fuck
hospitals. No, you can't affordthat. We don't have time for any
of that. That hospital stuff.
That's right. And we're in thewilderness. So that's really
funny. Yeah, we um, we actuallyalmost moved Sage walk the
program that I worked at for thelongest that we almost moved
that program to SouthernIllinois. Because I know
Southern Illinois, that wholetip the whole second shot. Oh,

(34:28):
Tony. We were Yeah, we neverended up going. My I'm the
original owner of the programwas from that area. And.
And he was like, you know, therewas something going on in Oregon
at the time and he was allpissed. He's like, we're gonna
move the program. I'm like,Alright, whatever. Where are we
going? And this is where I meanhe had it all figured out. He

(34:50):
had been contacting people downthere and then then Brett camp
happened and he sold it and thenwhatever everything changed, but
right yeah, we ended almostended.
up in Southern Illinois, itwould have been so so Shawnee
Yeah, that's that's like theonly place that you can rock
climb in Illinois. Like you canactually rock climb Tony it's
it's beautiful if you ever get achance, and Carbondale which is

(35:14):
the University City down therelike the it's a college town.
Yeah. For SEIU. Oh, man. It'ssuch a great little tiny little
old school Midwestern. Buthippie. No, it's cool. It's a
great. I spent a lot of timethere. West is the only I've

(35:35):
ever spent. Yeah, I was alwaysreally east, west, east, west,
north or south and neverCentral. Wow. Yeah. So yeah, as
far north as well, upstate NewYork, but on the West Coast was
Montana. And then NorthCarolina, was south. New York
was east and then all over theWest. But yeah, nothing. That

(35:56):
Southern.
Yeah, no. And then but yeah, youknow, then I was, you know, more
visited the Midwest is a weirdMidwest. It's a weird place.
Tony, I it's funny. I livedthere for seven years.
Right after I lived in New York,and 911 happened, and I was
doing the Harlem thing. And itjust, it just got to be I had to

(36:18):
get the fuck out of there. Therewere just too many humans, you
know. And so I landed in thistown of like, 150,000. Wow, and
stayed there for seven years.
And it was hard. Like it wasvery
traditional, patriarchal kindof, you know, everyone had a mom
and dad and that was fuckingweird for me, because everyone I

(36:41):
ever knew growing up wasdivorced. You know? That's
right. Yeah, it was a whole Itwas like the 80s never happened,
Tony, it was like, no, it's the1980s just continued on. That's
right. And and, and I show upwith short black hair and
fishnets and chucks and shortshirts, and you know, fucking
band shirts. And people arelike, You're the man. I'm like,

(37:02):
you were the devil. Where Wherehave you guys been? The internet
has been happening, guys, youknow? Oh, yeah. No, it was
weird. And it's still there. Somuch of our country is still
like that. And yeah, you knowwhat, Tony, it was so cheap and
easy. And I got to be in a punkband. And there was this little

(37:24):
pocket of young people who werelike, we fucking hate this,
which is why dumb records issuch a great company to support
because they're a beacon of thislittle punk rock scene that we
all were a part of back then.
That he was like that saved mylife. Because I couldn't do
Springfield if it wasn't forthat, like that scene. Yeah,
that's, uh, I mean, I alwaysdabbled in the punk rock music

(37:47):
and scene was always aconnoisseur. But my, um, there's
a linear line between metal.
But my, um, my dad's. So talkabout growing up and becoming an
adult as my, I'll share thestory about the sky. It's his
first name's Michael. And heused to work for my dad. And he

(38:10):
was hisCFO, Chief Financial Officer. So
you know, big time numbers nerd,California. He lives in Boston.
Now. He's done some work for usfor coyote moon. So we're still
friends with him all these yearslater, and he was
in the he's so he's about. Let'ssee. So I'm 47. He's in his mid

(38:34):
50s. He's a little older than Iam. And he was right in the
middle of the punk scene in LAwhen it exploded. And he was in
a bunch of punk bands and new,you know, I mean, Joe Strummer.
He ki named us like all thesepeople that he knew he was just
number guy this total nerd.
Total nerd totalif you ever listened to this

(38:54):
episode, but he was he is thatguy like I mean smarter than
smart, like almost so smart thathe can't get the words out. But
put them in an Excel spreadsheetand tell him to do crazy number
crunching 100 times deep andwhatever he can make anything
happen with an Excel spreadsheetwas early, early punk. Scene LA.
With all those people played ina punk band. Had you played the

(39:21):
car?
Oh, yeah, he's got two daughtersthat drive him crazy now that
are teenagers in college now andand he was an absolute wild
child. We've become friends. Imean, I was when I first met
him. I was in high school. I wasa kid and he worked for my dad
you know, suit and tie and yadayada yada and, and then we

(39:44):
became a mansion. And yeah, hetells these crazy stories about
being in a punk band like he'llpick up one of my dad's acoustic
guitars and do things with it.
My dad just kind of looks at itlike what the hell just
happened. I meanit's funny because you know
Think about growing up. Yeah.
And and being our age, right mid40s

(40:06):
and older is, is that you areyou we don't look or act or have
the demeanor of, of like ourpast life. Yeah. And and like I
owner, it's almost kind of funnow to look at people and think
about how they were so long. ButBut do you ever get this sort of

(40:27):
like you? You did this? Oh yeah.
Yeah.
But I mean, does that botheryou? Or does it make you kind of
snicker becauseI always thought it was a
compliment when I was doing thatto older people that I would
look so straight laced. Andthey're like, yeah, I went to
Woodstock. And I'd be like,yeah, yeah, totally. Like, now
I, it's while it's getting backat us, because I did the same

(40:51):
thing to people. That seems soold when I was a kid, right?
It's our age. And they and theykind of look at you with that
kind of glimmer in their eye.
Like a they want to slap theshit out of you just like I do
when somebody treats me like,I'm 1000 years old. But at the
same time, we know that they'regonna be right where we're at,
and it's gonna be a blink of aneye. It's there. They're they're

(41:12):
gonna have this moment andremember being a jackass
youngster. Yeah. And they'regoing to be old, and somebody is
going to be doing it to thembefore they know it. And that's
what happens. And I I work withsomeone who actually really
hates older people. And she'slike, anyone. She's like,
Trisha, okay, and I'm like,okay, you're gonna be this old

(41:34):
soon. Yeah. And it's not likeyou said, Tony, it's gonna
happen like that. So fucking,you better get over it real
fast. It's already happening toher that people are like, we
don't listen to that musicanymore. And she's like, Oh,
you know, she's like, 35 I thinkso she's right at that. She's
not you know, she's still prettyyoung. But I'm a little out of

(41:56):
touch. Yeah, I'm starting to bea little out of touch. Right.
She's pretending now. Yeah.
Welcome to the club.
Yeah, well, you know, and theydon't realize, you know, yeah,
you just don't get it till youare there. You don't get it to
when you go to stand up andthings hurt and weird things
happen to us that just suck nomatter what you do. And then

(42:19):
they laugh and they wonder whyyou go to yoga or do whatever
you do to try to keep thisbroken body that we have used
for so many years together. AndI don't get it little bastards
while they're out, partying allnight and going to work the next
day. I can't do that anymore.
Think about how people 20 yearsolder than us are thinking about
this conversation. My fatherreminds me every day. Yeah, my

(42:40):
dad reminds me Just wait tillyou're my age. I'm like, shit.
If it gets any worse, this isgonna die.
And I always tell people like,yo, if you're complaining about
shit now, just remember, we mayhave another 2540 totally in
these bodies. So yeah, and hereminds me of that all the time.

(43:05):
I start to give him a hard timeabout something and he's like,
Oh, you just wait Mike. Yeah,cut that out hair growing out of
your ears. Will you please yourdate and women again? You're
single dude.
We had to teach my father how tobe single again. And you know
and he's seven bless his heart.
That's got to be hard. How ishe?

(43:25):
So he's 70 Oh, Lord and andwhich is young now? Yes.
We were kids. He doesn't actlike a crotchety old man. Like a
typicalI want to give it up to boomers
because they haveaging Yeah, right. Like, don't
you feel like we're gonna befucking cool as shit because
boomers are so fucking cool at70 like, especially there's no

(43:48):
no we have we have 70 year oldslike fucking riding their bikes
and mountains. Oh, yeah. Yeah,we have lots of made a lot of my
friends actually live therebecause of the weather and
they're all right. And they comeup here for the summer whatever.
There's we got snow.
snowbirds and and I'm considereda Snowbird because I go to

(44:10):
Florida in the winter for longYeah, you are. You don't live
there the whole six months havenot yet.
Cuz the weather up here sucks asyour videos I love and I show
them to my you know, my brotherand his and his girlfriend, my
brother. And we just you know, Ishowed you the pictures of me by

(44:33):
the pool. And we're just like,keeping it real for us. We're
like, Oh, yeah, like snow bloweraction. Yeah, that's Yeah,
that's crazy. That's, that's ahard life, man. It's um, yeah, I
never thought I'd be if that'sthe one thing I didn't think I
would ever be was a farmer. AndI still don't call myself that
because that is kind of what youdo. I mean, we have over 20

(44:56):
acres of grapes on our farm.
And it's a 400 acre farm so it'slegit farming and I don't know
if you saw my message to you.
I'm I'm down for some your time,dude, I have you ever sorry not
to take us I have ADHD and I'm alittle tipsy. But have you ever
been to the your pods that arejust outside of Zion National

(45:21):
Park in Utah? I have not beenthere. But I know what they are.
Dude. It's a thing. It's athing. Like if you built a like
a, like, I think there's about25 years there. They're 350 to
800 a night.
And they're, and they have likethis little like lodge that you

(45:43):
can get like tea and stuff. LikeI ended up sleeping on. I camped
on a dirt road instead of theyour place.
I was like, it was cheaper. Andalso it just I just wanted to do
it was to kind of for me, butbut it was just the space I was
in. Dude, I was so do that onyour vineyard. Yeah. We are such

(46:05):
a great idea teepees yurts it'sgonna happen over the next
couple years. And it's, um,pretty crazy, that I'd go
swimming in that river afterthat tour. I didn't in Quebec
City like I'm home. It's totallydiverse. It's beautiful. The
water you think they've trudgedout all the dead bodies from
that war?
Well, that French Canadian war.
Yeah, but that's over on theCanadian side that doesn't come

(46:28):
over to the American side.
Water under water wall there.
So. So what I will tell you whathappened to Lake Ontario and the
St. Lawrence River over theyears is the infestation of
they're kind of like crawfish,but they're not. And they've

(46:49):
basically eaten all of you. Youcan see 3040 feet down now. The
St. Lawrence River looks likeyou're in the Caribbean,
especially earlier in thespring. When there's no when you
Yeah, when you have no trafficfrom the big. The big freighters
and the big the big ships goingup and down the river when the
rivers come in the spring.
Especially the water is not it'snot a crystal blue but it's like

(47:12):
a crystal green. And you can see2030 feet deep now the water is
clean clean has been cleaned byan invasive species they came in
now they're trying to get theget it out because it's too
clean. Because the other fisharen't eating the algae because
there's not enough so you'relosing some of them maybe
they're dealing with this wholecraziness, but the water is

(47:34):
super, super clean now. And it'sbeen because I remember being a
kid coming up here in the 80sand it always the St. Lawrence
River always seemed brown to mealthough it was still a very
clean waterway in the grandscheme of things hooked to you
know, the Great Lakes butit was grosser than I guess you
know, just like anywhere I meanif you think back to Yeah, I

(47:55):
mean even New York Harbor hasgotten a hell of a lot better
than it used to be back 2034 inthe smog and all that jazz so
much yeah. Yeah people love it.
I mean, talk about swimming andwaterskiing and fishing
destinations now and the riveris is beautiful the water is
really good let's talk aboutwhen you go to Florida I want to

(48:17):
I want to live vicariouslythrough you like what what do
you what do you what are yourlike main objectives when you
get to Florida Are you likealright let's we're reading jet
ski so nor is it like cabanatime like what does it look
like? I wanna I want to like Iwant to know all about this. So
this will be ourthird trip. Third extended trip
down there. We went one year wetook a year or two years we

(48:41):
didn't go back and we reallyliked it. Then we went last year
was last year a second timethere. I don't remember now. But
this will be our longest day 21days. This is what's called
aging ladies and gentlemen.
Remember, so 21 we're going inand normally because so the

(49:05):
pandemics got me kind of screwedup so I don't know what we're
gonna do. Because I don't know Iknow for Florida's opened up but
I don't know what opened upexactly means in the scheme of
that. I know they still weren'tasked to places by the seat of
their pants. Yeah, buteverything is everything. Yeah,
everything is open. But youstill have to wear a mask. I

(49:25):
don't know what I'll figure itout when I get there I guess but
and see what your safety zoneand what my net is and where we
are because we're not like downin Miami. We're in really more
of a rural. I say rural townwe're in Cape Coral Fort Myers
which are big for what they arebut it's not you know, it's like
two and a half hours south ofTampa. So if Tampa and Miami are

(49:48):
the big cities, these are thesmaller communities along the
ocean. Not quite the keys. Not aword like an hour north of the
keys 45 minutes north of the topof the key
So, I had a boyfriend that livedin the keys. So he was really
big into showing me the map ofthat. And like, this is like
these are these like littlespaces that you can go on the

(50:09):
weekday, and no one's there. Andit's like, amazing. So normally
what we do is, we found ourfavorite dog beach, because we
take the dog with us. So we liketo go to the dog beach, so he
can run until he can't moveanymore. And we do that. And
that's one of our highlights.
And there was, you know, threeor four restaurants that we like
to hit that were local close tous. Um, you know, Uber isn't, is
normally been an amazing thing,because you don't have to worry

(50:33):
about driving so you can go anddrink and have a good time, just
the two of us. But I have thatstuff. I just don't know if
we're going to do this time.
What I do know for sure we'regonna do is the house we stay
at, has got a pool.
So sitting by the pool, hangingout enjoying 80 degree weather.
I you know, it's screens. Andthat's all you do. That's all I

(50:56):
really have planned it. Ifthat's all you do is living
What? And ladies and gentlemen,if you have not seen what it
looks like in the upper mostpart of New York State these
past few weeks, I don't knowwhere you've been wicked, but it
looks, it looks tough. Becauseyou know, I'm in Phoenix, and

(51:17):
it's like, we're gonna hit 80degrees next week. But we've had
bright blue skies for like,Well, you know, I've
I've been very mindful not tosend a lot.
It was sunny today. Today was aSunday and it's been and it's
been overcast for like a week.
And then we'll get one Sundayand then it'll be overcast for a
week again.

(51:39):
And that and that is the hardestpart about being up here. The
snow isn't it is what it is. Thecold is what it is. But the
vitamin D, the lack of vitamin Dis the reason we lived in Oregon
though. No, I was on the eastside of the Cascades. We were in
the high desert. Oh.
We're basically in the desert.
Yeah. So it's just sunshineevery day year round. You know,

(52:03):
let me whatever 327 days a yearthey have their whatever it is.
Yeah, yeah, I got that's how itis here. I you know, I tried
leaving. I love the I love thedesert. I loved Arizona either.
I don't know if I've told youthis, but I've lived here three
times. I'm not even from here.

(52:23):
It's just that it keeps fuckingpulling me. So I went to NYU in
Flagstaff for undergrad. Andthen I left to go seek my
fortune in the world. And then Iwent to Tucson, which is in the
southern part of the state.
And then I left to go toPortland. And then I came back
and now I'm in Phoenix. And it'sjust like the state will not let

(52:44):
me go and I love it. It's justso wrong with vitamin D is not
overrated. I mean, I look great.
So I'm sure people are like thischick does ever go outside. But
it's a pandemic. And so I havechosen to really, I don't go
adventuring. So the onlysunlight I get is when I walk my
dog but right, you know, butyeah, that's what's the pandemic

(53:06):
so far. I'm gonna go out atWell, I got my first vaccination
shot. So I'm hoping Oh, yeah,well, yeah, you're in education,
right?
Yeah. And I volunteered my time.
And so my university set it upso that we're a shot spot. Yeah.
And so I volunteered for a fewhours and got jabbed and my

(53:29):
second job is March 4. Andfamily and La are getting their
jobs because they're both youknow, 65 My dad has soccer
today, actually. Oh, yeah. Oh,check on it. check on him. What
do you know if it's Madonna orPfizer?
I don't know my wife knowsbecause she set it up. I want to

(53:52):
check because I heard that thesecond shot is really bad.
My nurse friend right that Ikeep talking about Tina. She She
said it was a pretty rough 48hours at least in the first 24
Yeah, it is. Your body really ison hyperdrive for
super, super suiting up, I guessto fight the virus. So you might

(54:15):
want to check on him and just belike, Hey, bro. Well, I Hey,
Dad. Not bro. How you doing?
Yeah. Yeah. Wow, I didn't thinkabout that. I'm here. Yeah,
something about that. Actually,last week, we were talking about
it. That um, that some of theolder people that are above 65
it's not as bad for the secondshot as it is for the younger
people that are getting thesecond shot. I remember

(54:41):
getting mine on a Thursday andI'm hoping it doesn't really hit
until like a Saturday.
Yeah, so interesting. Sooriginally before when they
first all the shots came out andthey were you know, they were
doing the schedule. CDCguidelines and the New York
schedule of course is differentthan the CDC guidelines because
New York is New York. And yougot Cuomo and we got Cuomo and

(55:04):
the governor.
So email after email throughkind of the winery Association
in New York was coming outsaying, Hey, we're having active
discussions, because New York issuch a farming state. You know,
it's not just in New York City,there's so many.
Rural, there's so much percapita, there's more farming

(55:25):
land and farmers and there arepeople in New York City, really.
And so they were talking aboutfarming farmers, and wineries is
such a huge portion, which isall public facing people that
they were, you know, we weregoing to be, we were already
considered essential because westayed open through everything.

(55:46):
And they were going to say, Yep,you guys are going to be when
one B comes out, you know, youguys are going to be right there
along with, you know, grocerystores and the elderly and, you
know, your co workers and we'relike, Okay, cool. I didn't think
much about it. You know, it'slike, again, we didn't get it
super bad up here.

(56:07):
Right, you know, pretty healthyanyway, but yeah, good. Okay,
cuz I have some staff thatreally want to, you know, that
they're ready to do that. And,you know, letting people do you
can do it or not do it. It'syour personal choice. And then
you're not gonna be like thatone restaurant that fired that
chicken year city that refused.
What the fuck is that shit?
That's so I mean, you know, thatis, that's that that's that

(56:29):
business owners desire to belike, we're gonna fucking open
and we're gonna be safe. Andwe're gonna we're gonna brag
that everyone's got theirvaccination shot. And all this
chick wanted to do, although Ifeel like she was a little lazy,
because it's been, you know,like, Yeah, I know. She wants a
kid. So she wants to make surethere's no side effects of that.
There's not a single fuckingvaccination on the planet that's

(56:51):
ever had a side effect with withfetuses or pregnancies. So yeah,
women are amazing. Theykeep it all safe. Yeah. Crazy. I
don't understand. I mean, thinkabout all the vaccination shots
we got as kids in the 70sallowed to go to school. You
couldn't do anything withoutthat shot. This whole this whole
like, I don't trust vaccinationsthing. I don't understand. Yeah,

(57:13):
you don't get it now.
To deal with shots. Sorry. We'reboth all like excited.
And who knows what they gave uswhen we were kids, right? I
mean, come on. Seriously. Comeon. Tony. I have a weld. This is
very intimate. I'm about to getreal, you know, real intimate

(57:35):
guys. But I haven't I have ahuge welt on my right butt
cheek. That I have never knownwhat it was until my most recent
doctor. She goes, Oh, you werevaccinated in the 70s. And I was
like, yeah, just that's whatthat is. It's just they botched
your vaccination. So I've beenwalking around with this thing

(57:57):
that I thought was a cancerousweld on my app, which is some
vaccines.
But thereisn't that weird? That is pretty
funny. Do you remember yourvaccine? Do you have memories of
your vaccination? Because I doremember having my legs pinned
and just being on my stomach? Iswear to God, I might have been

(58:18):
three or four. But I fuckingremember that. Remember? It was
dark, dark shit. I mean, Iremember the 100 needles in your
arm little circle thing thateverybody had that we like they
were tattoos. Iforgot about that. I don't have
I don't have one any more. Butyeah, I can. You can see those

(58:39):
17 folks, they'll pull up theirarm their sleeve. And you. You
got one of those two didn'tYeah, I don't remember what it
was. But my ass. I must havebeen. I must have been like 79
so they were like, let's justruin her ass Jake. So I could
never compete in a fitnesschallenge. or post nude for
Playboy. I mean, my whole lifehas been ruined. Tony because of

(59:02):
welt on my butt cheek. Because,you know, that's what I wanted
to do with my life. Right?
Yeah, and I'm sorry, I'm sorry,Brenda. So I hope that's okay,
that I talked about my cheek.
It's just this is a very genexthing to talk about. Yeah.
vaccinations, fucking getvaccinated folks, when
they're not fucking trying tokill you. If the if the

(59:24):
President of the United Statesand the VP are getting
vaccinated. You can you can betyour bottom dollar that you're
okay, you're gonna be okay.
They're not gonna walk aroundwith this too. Yeah. So getting
back to that whole thing. So oneB, right. That's we're supposed
to be one B, everybody's kind ofyou know, I've talked to all my
staff. The wineries have talkedamongst each other. You know,
maybe we'll do a vaccinationsite for although, you know,

(59:46):
there's 10 wineries in our area,maybe we'll do some stuff. We
were gonna we were, we're notnow because one B comes out, and
I'm going down the list of allthe people so you got, you know,
a trend.
It workers and we're going rightdown the list go right down and
get to the end of the list.
Like, what happened to farmworkers. We're not in there at
all. It's that we were taken outat the last minute because of

(01:00:08):
the shortage for vaccines. Thegovernor said, Nope, pull them.
I don't know how many othergroups got pulled that were
considered essential workers.
But originally, even grocerystore workers were yanked out
and school teachers were not inthere at all. When he first came
out in New York State, it wasliterally 65 and older, and then
it was, you know, police andmedical and other people that

(01:00:32):
should be vaccinated. So for me,it was like, Okay, well, it
makes sense. But why the helldid they even say anything? And
oh, and now they've said, Sothen, about three weeks to three
weeks later, grocery storeworkers pop up on the list,
finally, as they should havebeen, and then the school

(01:00:52):
teachers in New York Statepopped up on the list as they
should have been, which theyweren't originally. And then I
get another letter email throughthrough our association that
said, Look, if you go to a statemanaged vaccination vaccination
site, they considered wineryemployees, either vineyard or

(01:01:15):
winery employees, they consideryou
grocery store workers essentialand they'll do them but only at
the state sites. So if it's a ifit's a, you can't be a site, we
can't be a site and any of thelocal sites because the closest
state site is like tonight,well, Syracuse, so it's an hour

(01:01:36):
and a half, two hours away,South, or you
could be an hour and a halfaway, and you sit in the line
for five hours, and then you getto drive an hour and a half
back. Yeah. And, and they'renot, they're super not clear
about it. So we have thispaperwork that says, you know,
based on what we've been toldfrom the governor's office, you
can do it, you can only go to astate site, but you go to the

(01:01:58):
state site, and you go read allthe literature, and there's
nothing mentioning it. So thelast thing I want my staff to do
is go drive down there, get anappointment, go dive down there,
and then be denied because youget some worker that doesn't
know so none of nobody's goneyet. And we're all kind of still
waiting for something definitiveto come out of the governor's
office. I was hopeful to timemyself and get like my first

(01:02:21):
shot then go to Florida forthree weeks and then come back
and get the second shot was kindof my thought that that would be
good, but that's not gonna doit. Did you hear about kind of
the drama that's going on withCuomo right now though? Oh, God,
like he's scandal of the nursinghome.
I'm not gonna lie. I was lookingat him as like this beacon of

(01:02:41):
No, I don't, I don't really putmany people on a pedestal. But I
really appreciated how he wasspeaking out against Trump.
Sorry, to get a little politicalperspective. So my political
perspective here from agentleman's point of view, and
and I was thinking like, okay, Idon't know much about this guy.
Cuz, you know, I lived in NewYork City when Julia, you know,

(01:03:02):
Judy, sorry, Rudy Giuliani knowhow to get this, ladies and
gentlemen, is the reason why Icannot say Rudy Giuliani, right.
It's the first time anyway, soso. So I was thinking like,
here's this sort of like punkrock governor, who is like,

(01:03:22):
pissed off that this Presidentisn't taking this stuff serious.
And he's, you know, he's doinggood by his people. He's really
you know, let's MIT let's maskmandate. Let's Let's like, tell
the people the truth. And forthis to come out. Yeah. So like,
Oh, yeah, he's still apolitician. He's still fucking

(01:03:44):
piece of shit. Yeah.
So I have to be slightly carefulbecause he does control my
liquor license. And he's beenreally nasty to
New York businesses that saynasty things about him that if
liquor licenses end up gettingharassed, oh, but, but what?

(01:04:06):
What I read all well, and I'veheard this from people all over
the country. They're like, uomoOh, my God.
He lovedTV. Every day. He was on every
day. And then he went to threedays a week, which is what he's
currently doing now. A littlemore now because he's got a
little hot water. But so what hedid really well that nobody else
was doing was he was he wastalking every day and about all

(01:04:30):
the stuff he was doing becauseNew York was early on hit wicked
hard and crazy and they wereflying by the seat of their job.
He did that.
Yeah, he did it really well.
about community he communicatedreally well to everybody. I in
virtually in the world of video.

(01:04:51):
He got the word out whathe did, what kind of the
perspective of business ownersand people within the state
It was really challenging andreally hard because it was
literally just New York City. Imean, and then there's the rest
of the state that had lowinfection rates up until

(01:05:11):
November, October. And there wassome hot spot. I mean, the rest
of the state didn't get affecteduntil six months, seven months
in. And, and he, in the level ofdecimation of businesses, and
this has happened all over thecountry. But it happened here
too, because he was so strongarmed, that it was the same

(01:05:31):
everywhere for him in hisperspective, which I think
logically made a lot of sense,right, like so. So I'm doing the
same thing in New York Citywhere there's, you know, 1000
people a day dying. I'm doingthe same thing in York City as I
am in Clayton, New York, becauseI don't want people from New
York City to go drive and livein Clayton, New York, I want it
the same everywhere. And thenall the states around us kind of

(01:05:52):
do the same thing so that nobodycould travel because, as you
know, New York City, you know,you're you got New Jersey, and
you're hopping all the time ifyou want. So I get it. I get the
logic behind everything that hedid. And it makes sense in from
an outsider's perspective,looking at what he did, and how
well, he communicated.

(01:06:13):
He did a good job. Right?
They've politicize this wholething with the nursing home so
bad that you don't know what tobelieve anymore. So I think they
made some really, yeah, theymade some really stupid mistakes
early on in the pandemic, butthey made a lot of stupid
mistakes. It's not that he madea mistake, and that people died
by sending he sent COVIDpositive nursing home people

(01:06:36):
back to the nursing home.
For whatever reason, at thetime, I don't remember what they
were doing. But what what's gothim in hot water is the cover
up. So instead of saying earlyon, yeah, well, maybe that
wasn't the best thing that wecan do. He
supposedly covered it up anddidn't give the right numbers

(01:06:58):
out and didn't do everythingthat he's in trouble for now.
And now he's in a bunch of hotwater for covering up what
happened when he probablyhe probably could have just
apologized at the beginning ofthe whole thing and said, Yeah,
let's look at this, folks. Andmaybe, you know, maybe we did
screw this up. And I owe anapology to some people. You
know, nobody's gonna say thatbecause you end up sued, so I
get it. I've been in politics, Iunderstand that you don't ever.

(01:07:21):
But yeah, it sucked. He all thegood that he did, in the way
that he did it. He was a greatmodel for the country. And I
think people were looking intoCuomo instead of Trump because
Trump was being so fucking crazyin his
press conferences, that hispress conferences sucked. So bad
on all levels, that promos werehow they probably should have

(01:07:44):
been. And if anybody other thanTrump was in office, they would
have been more like promos andnobody would have been paying
attention. The Cuomoadministration came out and
said, they said, Listen, if wedon't know the answer, we're
going to tell you we don't knowthe answer. And that's right.
And, and it's like, I just can'thelp but think like, obviously,
okay, I'm a little cheesy. Ithink everything happens for a

(01:08:07):
reason. I think that, you know,you can't have X without y, and
you know, Z and de la, like, allthe things have to line up to be
in the sort of place that weare, but I can't help but think
if Trump wasn't an office, if wehad a true politician,
what would it be like? Right?
Because being that Trump wasn'ta politician and was a

(01:08:30):
businessman, and a shadybusinessman at that.
His gut reaction was downplay,don't stress out the employees,
because he looked at all of uswas just employees. It was very,
it was it was very much amonarch is the closest we will
we'll probably ever see inAmerica as a monarch. Right?

(01:08:52):
Because Yeah, I was apolitician. Right. Yeah, he was
running it like a business,right or wrong. So the parts
that, you know, that thrivedbecause he ran it like a
business. That's great. But theother parts suffered horribly,
which was dangerous anddangerous, how you interacted
with other humans and otherstuff. And that was there. I
think it'll be very interesting,because I don't know if you

(01:09:14):
heard this. But you know, Bidendiscovered that that that Trump
really kind of slacked ongetting enough enough doses for
everyone. Right? Yeah. That hedidn't know enough initially.
Get a dose. Right. And the wholereason why you were cut out

(01:09:35):
because Trump, the Trumpadministration didn't purchase
it up. Yeah, and I think they'dprobably politicize that on some
level because they knew how manypeople are in the country and
why didn't they order enoughright off the bat? Were they not
allowed to and know what they'renot saying is why they didn't.
They just are saying that theydidn't and now we've ordered and
I mean, you know what, Tony, I'mso glad you said that because

(01:09:57):
that is something that is sohigh.
In today's political climate isto take a step back, right? And
instead of be like, of course,he didn't order enough. He's a
fucking asshole and being like,Oh, yeah, there may be other
spirit saying that.
I have a tendency to get alittle, little, little Bobcat

(01:10:19):
cat. Yeah. Well, you know what?
That's okay. Well, that'sbecause you have to have an
opinion. I mean, that'simportant. But yeah. And he was
hoping to win logic. He washoping to kind of win the
election so he could staypresident. And he couldn't be
not given vaccines to people andhaving a bunch of people die. I
mean, he'd never get electedagain. So if you think of it
that way, because of course, hewas the kind of guy that would

(01:10:40):
think he'd get elected for athird term, because he was kind
of nuts like that. But yeah.
Just you know, just that, justso that you can spend the rest
of it working on Yeah, and youcan spend the rest of the day
thinking about the idea thathe's probably gonna run again,
because he's a narcissist, like,Oh, he's 100%. And he's gonna

(01:11:01):
probably win. That's the crazypart is that
the media, the media will givehim all the attention in the
world because they're losing allcrazy right now. Because the new
administration is boring,because their regular politics
are working, because they'reworking, or they're just boring,
because they're, you know,they're not tweeting every day

(01:11:22):
and doing the Trump things, Iguess.
Tony, I don't like to thinkabout what's happening. I don't
want to think about it. I thinkthat it was, like living in my
bubble been like, thegovernment, people in government
stuff. And let me move on withmy life. And I don't want to
talk about it. It's a dangerousthing to say, I love living in

(01:11:42):
my bubble as a white person. Iwant to throw that out there.
Because there's certain thingsthat I think have come to light
with the Trump administration.
Like I said, I think everythinghappens for a reason. And I
think lm movement, which startedduring the Obama administration,
let's not forget that. Right.
But But really,you know, the fact that Obama at

(01:12:03):
least would come out duringTrayvon Martin and be like that,
you know, his shooting? I don'tknow if you remember that.
Right, that was a national thingwe all paid attention to. When
BLM started, and and, you know,he had the the sort of
compassion and wherewithal to belike, yeah, guys, my heart goes
out to that family. And Iacknowledge that this was a

(01:12:25):
really painful thing. And Trumpjust didn't do stuff, like
bleaching your arms or whateverthe fuck do you know what I
mean? And yeah, yeah, he didn't.
He did not do the the little bitof politicking that if he would.
And this is I mean, it's kind ofa scary. Oh, yeah. If you would
have done it, just a little bitof that. Even if it was scripted

(01:12:46):
a little bit, he probably wouldhave run the election again. I
because people would have justtolerated him because he was
doing a good thing or doing goodfor the economy or whatever, you
know, but she was compassionate.
Heshowed compassion. He couldn't
even fake it. He couldn't evenwait a little bit. You know,
everyone said, Tony, no, I onlyfor Trump, because I don't want

(01:13:10):
a politician in office anymore.
Right? And that's what happenswhen you don't have a politician
in office anymore, is you havethese people who they don't they
don't feel inclined to becompassionate to you. And and I
know French, so I looked up theFrench prime prime minister's

(01:13:31):
sort of chat about when COVIDfirst hit. And I gotta tell you,
Tony, like he he was socompassionate. And he was so
rallying like, we are in thistogether. This is the whole
French thing is like brotherhoodand legality like, or sorry,
equality. I put a littlefranglais in there.

(01:13:56):
But like, I thought, Well, yeah,that's kind of what you need to
run a country. I don't have anyproblem having a politician run
this country. Because I likehaving that front of like, guys.
Yeah, it's gonna be okay. Evenif shits burning in the back
would like I don't, I want totell you deal with it. So I can

(01:14:16):
live my life. And, and that'show it's always been, you know,
politicians. No one's callingTrump. No, and not at all. I
mean,Obama was elected, I was like,
whatever. Yeah, never eventhought about it. I mean, you
get the anxiety right around theelection, but then it goes away.
You don't think about it forfour years. You don't watch 10

(01:14:38):
minutes of news as an adult everuntil now, and we seem to be
watching it.
Now, I'm so scared about what'sgoing on. I'm like, What the
fuck are they doing now? Yeah,so I watch. It's funny. So I
watch fox news in the morning.
And then I'll watch nationalnews at night.

(01:15:00):
You know, ABC or NBC, whateverit is when it comes on at seven
o'clock or six o'clock at night?
I'll watch them. Friends. I do.
Yeah, I watch them.
Yeah, yeah, I do watch them. Idon't watch Tucker. I'm not I'm,
he's, yeah, no. I mean, I watchfox and friends in the morning.
balance it out. Yeah, I watch.
You know, I like the five atnight too. But I'm usually not

(01:15:21):
home to watch them on Fox. Butyou know, those are more like,
that's more likepolitical entertaining, it's
more entertainment than it isnews. So I'll watch the fox news
in the morning and get therekind of, you know, right wing
slant on everything. And thenI'll watch the same basically
newscast at the end of the dayon ABC or NBC and get kind of

(01:15:42):
their slant. And then I feellike I got something kind of
balanced. Lee is different. Itis. To me it is I mean, they'll,
you know, like Fox 10 concernyou? Yes, an NPR ad? That's
right. So Exactly. So I ended uplanding. I landed somewhere
between K and PBS. Right. So Ilistened to my news. That's all

(01:16:06):
listen to like news hour, the 15minute clips on PBS when I'm
driving.
PBS news. Yeah, I'll do that.
That is very cerebral. Andbecause you got to get the
balance, you got to figure outwhat's actually. So if I figure
if I listened to the middle ofthe road, what you hope is the
middle of the road. And then youlisten to the two extremes,

(01:16:27):
you're gonna be able to figureout most of it. And some of
figuring out stuff is not. Idon't want to figure it out
anymore. I just want to go back.
Yeah, lying and doing stuff andbutton grumpy.
Where NPR is, is NPS are the beall end all. Yeah. Well,

(01:16:48):
we grew up with PBS Ryan, like,wasn't that such a huge part of
your childhood was? Yes. Well,and then that was that law that
changed in the 70s about thenews. So the fair and balanced I
don't remember what the law was,they brought it back.
I think, a fair amount untilwhatever it was mid to late 70s.

(01:17:08):
Legally, if you were a newsoutlet, on the airwaves,
national airwaves, when therewere national airways before
there was internet, you had tobe fair and balanced. You had to
always tell both sides of thestory. If you were a news
agency, period, it was law andlaw of the land, you had to be
neutral and right. And theysomehow and change that law and
now we get what we have which sosome people know.

(01:17:32):
Better, but it's really just ano better. No, no, it's not
better because No, we don't. Wedon't know what to believe. How
many times that I haveconfidently because I consider
myself a very intelligent andand and well researched human
Yeah, that I've repostedsomething. And and it's like,

(01:17:55):
Facebook comes up and says hey,this isn't true. And I've been
like, Are you fucking kiddingme? I really thought I did my
homework. I really enjoy. Tony.
I hate to do this, but we'vebeen talking for an hour and 15
minutes. I'm gonna take a smallpause. Because I I'm a smoker
and I just need to. I'll smokeoff camera. it'll it'll look

(01:18:20):
more like this. Yeah, see, mywife doesn't let me smoke in the
house.
You're a smoker too. Should wejust take five and have a smoke
break? Sure. We can do that.
Yeah.
We know it's bad. My wife justquit. Like, I don't know, a
month ago. But um, what's herheart? Yeah. And I've quit and

(01:18:42):
I've quit a bunch of times. Wedon't ever smell I quit. I quit
more times than Michael Jacksonhas had number one hits. Yeah,
soto be honest, she lets me smoke
in the back corner of the housewith the window open this time
of year because it's so fuckingbrutally cold outside. She
tolerates it in the winter. Buteven as smokers we've never
actively smoked in our houseslike this is really the first

(01:19:05):
time that we've ever smokedindoors even a little bit. And
it's because of the weather. Butyeah, we smoke well and the only
reason that I've been activelysmoking inside is because some
jackal who's older than me.
smokes and his apartmentdownstairs. I was one of the
tenants who said I don't knowNope, we should ban smoking in

(01:19:27):
our apartment complex because Ialso do yoga and meditation so
anyone that's that's listened tothose Yeah, no, that's okay. I
know that I'm I'm a walkingcontradiction. I am too
spiritual. Yeah, a couple weeksnow I'm back into doing yoga
again. So I walk to yoga whenI'm when I'm, sometimes I go to

(01:19:49):
work first. But if I'm leavingfrom the apartment, and I always
think about it when I'm smokinga cigarette, or I'm walking to
fucking yoga classes. How stupidis this right now but I remind
myselfWhen I'm in there dying, I, I
have to say this and, and maybethis is a terrible thing to say
because we're probably the lastgeneration of cigarette smokers,
right?

(01:20:11):
But I have a justification. AndI've always said this so so
anyone anyone that's ever knownme has known me to say this
because I've been a meditatorand and for 20, over 25 years,
and I've been doing yoga forover 20 years. And and what I
have to say is this is thatcigarette smoking is the the
only time in society where onecan take pause and and do

(01:20:35):
breathing exercises. And no onenotices, no one has a fucking
clue. That's what you're doing.
To me. I know, I know, it soundslike a, like a cheap way out to
justify smoking. But it is it isthis ability to take this sort
of pause without going intolotus position.

(01:20:58):
Or dancer pose. And, and, and,and having this sort of timeout.
Now granted, I've put a milliontimes because there are times
when I do yoga and meditationwhere I can feel like, oh, like,
I gotta put a handle on mysmoking. I can't smoke a pack a
day. I can only be five a day.
Do you know what I mean? Like, Iknow, I know.

(01:21:19):
Yeah, I know a lot of I knowmore than one chopper instructor
that smoke cigars and smokestill, I mean, you know, it's a
Native American people that Iknow smoke.
Yeah, whatever it is. There's,there's there's many ceremonial
and probably I should, it's it'svery unethical of me to speak of

(01:21:42):
Native American culture as awhite person in today's world.
ButI'm just gonna say just remember
when they used to call it Indianstyle, just saying, our
generation.
That's all we heard inelementary school. And, and and,
and we thought it was cool. Andit wasn't like appropriation or

(01:22:03):
you're never It was. It was justthe thing. You did this. When
you cross your legs in style,call them Indians.
Fucking Gen X man. We're thelast of the politically
incorrect generation. Becausepolitically correct came about
when we were about to lateteens, early 20s. Where we had
to start going, Oh, fuck, Ican't say the things that have

(01:22:27):
been a runny, quirky, whatever.
Like we can't say oh, that'sretarded. That's gay. Yeah.
These are things that we can'tsay it. You can edit all this
out. Sonia zombies. Oh, oh mygosh. You can't say no, there's
canceled culture. And you and Icould be canceled. Oh, yeah.
This conversation right now.

(01:22:48):
Yeah. Did you? Did you end up inFacebook Jail by posting that
stuff? Did they? Did they putyour account on?
jail if you are only in jail?
Yeah. Because and you know, ifyou can figure this out, Tony, I
will. I will send you something.
I don't know what I'll send you.

(01:23:08):
Perhaps this piece of paperright here. This is a nice piece
of paper that I use this today.
I posted. So I usually go as youas you know, because you've been
the the the guest of honor thisweek on an exploit.
I post on all my socials aboutmy guest. Right. And so I had a

(01:23:31):
guest who talked with me abouther heroin addiction. Yes. Shout
out. Shout out to the HaitianAmerican podcast. You're
wonderful women. And Jennifer isthe one who came on after sister
came on. Yeah, that one? Yeah.
Oh, it's so good. Right? Oh,yes. Great. I was so honored
that she shared her story. So Iposted on Twitter the week that

(01:23:55):
she was the sort of you know,guest of the week. And Twitter
gave me a message back that saidwe do not allow you're in
violation of Twitter guidelines,because you're promoting sexual
violence and I was like it's aheroin addiction. And it's a
woman that has battled and andwon this addiction. Seven years

(01:24:18):
clean I might add Wow. Whenyou're looking putting me in
Twitter jail, so I have emailedthem. I have tried to fight
this. And it's going on sevenYeah, that I Twitter jail. So
that's why you're not. So theystill they didn't just do it for

(01:24:39):
24 hours or a week they justindefinitely they booted yes
Twitterbecause apparently, heroin and
conquering heroin equates sexualviolence. On that note, I'll be
right back.
Thanks for listening.

(01:25:00):
To the Gen X perspective withTony Randazzo, where we see
things a bit differently. Let'sget social. Find us on Facebook
by searching Gen X perspective,Twitter at Gen X underscore
podcast and on Instagram at GenX perspective, you can also find
us online at Gen Xperspective.com. And reach out
to Tony directly at Tony at GenX perspective.com. to maybe you

(01:25:24):
can talk strategy on how to beatSuper Mario Brothers three.
Don't forget to subscribe to theGen X perspective wherever you
get your podcast. Thanks forlistening