A Very Special Episode: The Life and "Crimes" of P.D.Q. Bach

Anna and Krista have returned! After catching you up with all the lastest news and gossip, they reflect on the career of Peter Schiekele, the creator of P.D.Q. Bach and a great musician in his own right, who passed away on January 16. They also tell you what to expect in the next few weeks!

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Three. Hello everyone, we arenow recording. Yes, we are back
recording. Uh. By the way, Uh, my friend Mandy, she
told me the day that showed me. It was a couple of weeks ago.
She said, you guys, yourvoices are so soothing. It's like

(00:23):
a ms R two as mr Opera. Yes, so welcome to the So
welcome to the a ms R ofOpera, the Opera Trash Podcast. I
am Krista and I'm currently wheezing andalso Anna, my asthma has been kicking
up like a motherfucker. Ah fun. Oh yeah, we are. We

(00:48):
are in the midst of of awell, we're we're getting We're like in
the latter grips of a polar vortexthere in uh here in central Ohio and
uh and western Pa. Yeah yeah, hopefully hopefully, I know, like
at least I know in most ofthe country it has been like downright viciously

(01:15):
ball shrinking cold. Uh and wasit One of my coworkers said, uh
uh here in Texas, we're youknow, we're not accustomed to We're more
accustomed to using salt and ice ina margarita. I mean fair, yeah,
fair fucking play. Yeah, sowe know we've been gone for a

(01:40):
quite a long while. We doapologize for that. But life has gotten
but yeah, but we've had we'vehad other stuff in our lives going on.
Uh Anna has been taking care fromall, yes, and also having
a mental breakdown. Well yeah,that's that's yeah, that's that's good.
Is Mama Harriman is back home.She's actually in her room just chilling out

(02:04):
right now as we speak. Yep. And she's doing much much better.
She's she's getting better every day.I saw a video of her taking her
first steps with al her walker.Fuck yeah, go mama. Yep.
And on my end, I movedout of my sister's house. I'm in

(02:24):
my own apartment now, well nottechnically, yat, yeah we are.
We are yourself. I eat itmyself into a new apartment, which is
so cozy and so insulated that Istill to I'm almost three months into living

(02:46):
here, and I still don't knowwhen when trash day is. I don't
because because I don't hear the garbagetruck. I can't hear the garbage truck
like you would have to. It'slike, I am, what what four

(03:08):
and a half blocks away from downto from like the the firehouse, so
you would think you I'd be ableto hear the fire cider when it goes
off. Now I sat here andI'm like, wait, is that the
fire the fire sign? Do Ihear the fire? Maybe it's not.

(03:30):
I don't know. Yeah, II couldn't. I couldn't tell if I
was hearing the fire siren or ifit was just my imagination. This this
house is so insulat the windows areso insulated. I can't hear shiit.
Christmas Day. Christmas Day, myyounger sister dropped off a present. She
opened the the storm door, stuffedit in between my storm door and my

(03:55):
front door, and had to textme, go open your doors and get
your present because I didn't and Iwas sitting and I was sitting on the
couch. Honestly, I was sittingon the couch and didn't hear her open
the door. It's like, comeget your ship. Yeah, seriously,
I can't even hear something like whenthe like when Instacart comes, I can't

(04:19):
hear them on the porch. Thatis how quiet. That's how how quiet
and how insulated my apartment is,which is wonderful because I have an out,
you know, like the like atmy sister's house. In my in
in my room, the outdoor noisewas was was awful. I could hear

(04:42):
like every God blessed thing out inthe street. Seriously, God had nothing
to do with it, but likeit was. But this is so it's
nice and quiet. It's and thethe water boiler for the entire apartment building
is right under my apartment. Soit's warm, yeah it is. There's

(05:04):
warm. Now. It got reallyreally cold this past week, so I
did have to turn up the heata little bit. But with my electric
bill being like twenty hundred thirty dollarsa month, yealy it, it's not
gonna raise it up too much forthis one week. So I am.

(05:27):
I'm yeah, it's it's it's.I love it. Yeah, I do.
It's I have it, and Ihave you know, of course in
my bed I have to get Ihave to use the step stool to get
into bed because it's so high.It's but that's all right, that's all

(05:53):
right, and I have. Iam the I have made my entire family
jealous because I have not only abathtub with a shower build in, but
I have a walk in shower rightbeside it. M hm, I am
not joking. My family and myfriends are jealous of my bath room as

(06:16):
well. They fucking should be.Yeah, I'm and and and the walk
in shower has a little seat whereI can sit down. And yeah,
and then I got it. Andthen I got my own shower head that
instead of hooking in the the thefish, the handheld shower part hooks instead

(06:40):
of that, it has a magnaon the back. M I'm bougie.
I don't care you are. Ifreely admit that I am bougie. I
did that yesterday in training. II I'm finally in QA training. By
the way, I in one ofour training sessions yesterday we were talking like

(07:04):
my one coworker said she was thatshe is, She's I admit on bougie.
I said, oh, yeah,me too. I don't care who
knows I'm bougie. Who cares af I am? I have a shirt.
I have a shirt from Poor andthat's what shirt that I'm worrying right
now and it perfectly describes me.Parno Advisory explicit content. Ha. I

(07:30):
saw that. I'm like, thatis me. If everywhere there were a
shirt that said that that perfectly describedme. That is it and this show
by the h yeah. So ohand by the way, if I have
any du if we have any dudelisteners from UH from Q from Moheel's q

(07:50):
A department, welcome. I'm sorry, no, I told what like I
told them what we're like that wehave an explicit warning on our on the
show for a reason. They knowthey know. Uh. But yeah,

(08:16):
yeah, so we have got herethere. So a lot has been happening
lately. Uh. Let's so we'regonna before we get into what the main
part of our show is about today, we're going to catch up on some
news. First of all, Uh, Jonas was made a night of the
lead of the French lead in theFrench Legion of Honor the other day.

(08:41):
So he got, he got.He is a now a chevalier. I
know, yes, listeners, Ido have to do that every time.
Yeah, every time. Tell theit works and I did that too,

(09:03):
he he I taught a picture ofwhat with his with his medal on like,
well, I ruined it and I'mnot even sorry. So. Also

(09:28):
also Yonah starred in uh Otello atthe Ween and in UH and in Turn
dot at the Ween, which wasand I didn't get to watch it because
they were made. They were gettingthey're getting good about Gea blocking ship.
I'll tell you what they are.Uh. But uh, I watched it,

(09:52):
and I can tell I'll tell youwhat. I was pleasantly surprised because
I thought, oh God, itto Claus Goot uh uh production, it's
gonna be ship. No, itwas not. It was a stripped down
set. It was it focused morein the characters than it did on the

(10:16):
on the staging and the costumes andeverything. And it was the original Alfano
ending to turn dot which is whichis the which is not the ending that
everybody's used to hear it. That'sthe Alfano two ending. That's the one
that Altur Toscanini chopped up because hegetn't like the ending when it was when

(10:37):
Franco Alfano wrote it, he gotsnotty he he he and uh and no
not bridge las onna he and thoughhe and he and Puccini's pub publisher wanted
Franco Alfano to write the ending ofit because of course, as you know,

(11:01):
Puccini died toward the end of writingit turned up. Uh. He
noped the fuck out of that.He noped the fuck out. He left
notes on how to on what hewas thinking about, you know, in
terms of the ending. So FrancoAlfano went off of that and did this

(11:24):
beautiful, elaborate ending that that reallyfocused on like it ended at that.
It's it. I think it endedright before the kiss, right before Caliph
kisses uh turned up. And fromthere he focused a lot on it because

(11:45):
like what we're used to seeing islike they kiss and then she goes from
hating his guts to like, ohmy god, I'm in love now but
maybe and she goes from hating hisguts to baby daddy. Yeah. Well

(12:07):
in the in the the original oneending, it it's a slower build up
to baby daddy. It's it's it'sa slower build up to that. Like
she goes like there's the kiss,and she's like, oh my god,
i am I'm I'm ruined. I'myou know, like God help me,

(12:28):
like what what is? What is? What has happened to me? And
called a lady boner? Yeah,hey, hey, the way he kissed
her, the way Yodas kissed aspectGregorian, I would get a lady.
I would be like what has becomeof me? After that? Who why

(12:50):
are these guys showing up saying Ineed to go to someplace called horny Jail.
Yeah, wow, I was,but the uh, but it's just
it the the progression is like veryslow, and it's like it she comes

(13:11):
to this like she comes it slowlydawns on her that she's she's in love
with him. It is not likebeing bang boom. It's like a slow
progression of that. And it justit's a it. So I like the
Alfano and the Alfano ending a lotbetter than the Alfano two. The Altana

(13:33):
two is too quick. Also,I did see a version of Turned Off
with the Alfano two ending uh withuh yusef Izov and and Auntie Sandra Radvenofsky.
It was it was it was abig what the hell is this?
Okay? It involves like this carwreck and a uh like like every like

(14:01):
there there there honestly is a likea car that descends from the from the
top of the stage, a carthat descends like virtually down from the heavens.
It's like, I I don't know, and it was weird and I
just know it's just it's just abig no. And instead of like banging

(14:24):
the you know, like hitting agong when he calls up for turned Off,
Like it's like it's like you survives. Off was playing Kalath but he
but like he was also playing thecharacter that was in the before the before
the the actual opera started. They'replaying this video and it made it look

(14:48):
like, uh, turned Off's fatherhad died. They were at his funeral
and on the way home, theywere in the car she and Kliff from
the card or like we should breakup because you know, you know that
this relationships going nowhere, and theyget into a car ruck and Calif is

(15:11):
in the hospital. So like YusufCaliff character in the opera sees himself in
the opera in the operating room andship, I no, yeah, I
hated it. I hated it,hated it, hated it. Seriously.

(15:31):
It's it's yeah, it's it's likethis is it. It's it's borderline.
It's borderline. Tosca in Brussels,how off the wall it was? Okay,
I still can't I still I stillcan't forgive myself for watching Tosca from

(15:52):
Brussels because that was like, that'sthat's time for my life that will never
be replaced. It was hideous.But yeah it was borderline Tosca from Brussels,
but yeah, yeah that. Butthe turnout from the Wien was amazing.

(16:15):
Aspect Gregorian for being her first,her date, her role debut in
general, she was wonderful. Shewas in that, of course. I
mean you've seen the pictures. Ina. She looked like a Targarian. She
had a white wegon, she lookedlike she she looked like in Halfway in

(16:41):
Alice in Wonderland when she was playingthe White Queen. Oh yeah that too.
It was it was amazing. Ohan aspect Gregorian, by the way,
Uh is going to be touch usOn and Madonna Butterfly this spring at
the met Yay, Hey, she'swonderful. Right now it's opera mom,

(17:04):
Yes, it's opera mom, rightnow in your opera. So my large
adult opera son is grounded because he'splaying Pinkerton, Matthew Polandzani. It's funny
because it's grounded a he is uhand yodas. Actually it was funny.
They asked him in an interview ifthere are any roles that he would want

(17:27):
to play that he's thinking, youknow, are there any roles left that
you'd want to play one of themhe said was uh uh, Gustavo in
Molloa Mascara, he hasn't done that, which I'd like to see that,
and Palais and Melissan uh and alsohe but he said, they suggested,

(17:52):
oh, not Pinkerton. He's like, no, he is. I refuse
to play Pinkerton because he's such abecause he's such a he's such a terrible
character. Basically, yeah, basicallythat's what he's saying. I won't play.
Basically he said, I won't playPinkerton because he's a he's a bastard.
Yo. There, there's there's that. He sang, He sang it.

(18:17):
He sang the role for a recordingwith with invisible soprano. But uh,
but he yeah, he he willnot play it on stage. He
will not play Pickerton on stage becausePinkerton is a bag of dicks. He's

(18:38):
he's he is, And that's whyMatthew, Matthew, my large opera son
is crowded. Let's see what elsehas happened. Well, let's get into
some let's get into some news.By the way, uh stutch santo respawd

(18:59):
and I was only this before wegot up where he came on the Stuts
funny ass problem. The Stutzteyota vSpoten has announced the cancelation of a performance
on January thirteen, twenty twenty four. The company said the performance of Hotello
on January thirteenth at the Glosses Househas been canceled. Please contact the box

(19:19):
office for refunds or exchanges. Thisis the latest cancelation in the theater,
following the Crazy Living Room. That'sa I guess that's a play that they
were going on, and there isspeculation that the ring cycle rehearsals will likely
not be able to take places.According to Frankfurt or Rungschal, the reason

(19:40):
for the cancelations is the conflict betweenthe artistic director and the managing director that
has been going on for over ayear. The German press also reported that
there is a financial issue and theartistic director and managing director share responsibility for
finances, but the two men can'tmanage it. Stay Secretary for Culture isa

(20:00):
Asar representing the state and Vispond's headof Culture Hendrik schme Schmel are the r
of the opinion that the intended Laufenbergthat's the uh, that's the managing director
is refusing to stick to the budget. According to his statement, he insists
on artistic freedom and exceeds the budget. So it's not the artistic director that

(20:25):
wants to exceed the budget, it'sthe intended the managing director. M like
that is there? That is likethe scandal in Vispaden, funniest scandal ever.
I know. Let's see here,oh ha ha, the Teatra cologne

(20:52):
and I think I think that's inBuenos Aires, h E. On Wednesday,
January tenth, twenty twenty four,conductor Yan Latham Koenig was arrested in
London's Victoria station and has been chargedwith a child's sex offense. Oh God,
damn it not again. According toBBC News, the Met Police said
it followed an investigation by detectives inthe Forces Specialist Crime Command. The news

(21:17):
outlass also reported that that Lantham Kunikis alleged show arranged or facilitated a child
sex offense and sexual communication with achild. He is due to appear at
Westminster Madrid Strait's Court later on Januarytwelve, twenty twenty four. Haven't heard
anything yet about that. But thenthere was a follow up on this because

(21:38):
he was conductor at Tetric Colode inwhat is Iris. The Tatric Alone has
parted ways with its music director JanLatham Kunik after being arrested in the UK
for a child sex defense. Ina statement from the Buendos Cyrus Theater,
the company said, face with thenews of an extremely serious complaint against Yan
Lathulkonik in the United Kingdom, TheatricCologne has decided to separate him from all

(22:03):
current and future activities that he carriedout within the institution. He had just
joined them in twenty twenty two.Let's see yeah, it said, yep,
yeah, they they they gave himthe boot yeat they eatd him.

(22:23):
Yeah, let's see us see here. You know, I'm gonna go just
because i haven't looked at much newslately, I'm gonna go on a live
and say, it's really nice thatnone of these involved flamingdo but I'm probably
about to be proven wrong. Yeah, it's it's just yeah, wait,

(22:47):
he didn't actually do anything. Yeah, I mean, I was saying,
it's nice not to have some shitgoing on that that is probable Placido Domingo
was involved with. You watch,I'll be proven wrong and then you said,
and then it's like, wait aminute, did did did Flamingo genuinely

(23:08):
not do a bad thing for achange? Yeah, okay, here's this,
let's see del the Wien had tocancel their production of Uh. It's
it's a different version of madea Itwas a new production. The col Chevalier,

(23:29):
who sang the title role at thekomascha op to Berlin cannot fulfill your
contract for serious family reasons. Medeahas only been shown in three productions since
in its premiere at the vanishtatzper intwo that twenty ten. This is a
different production than this is not Ibelieve this is not Uh Karabini. You

(23:52):
know that we saw with that,we saw with Sondra, it says,
Medea has only been besides the ColdChevelle. There are only two singers in
the world who can master the demandingrole, and Saundra's one, Yeah,
Sodre's probably one, and both areunavailable for the scheduled performance stays, forcing
a change in the performance schedule andthe UH and they replaced it with Ariadne

(24:18):
of Naxos, the one Jonus wasin Uh. That It's that, It's
that Oh the sex coat this Yeah, the sex the sex panther. Yeah,
yeah, the little sex panther.Yeah. Meow. Let's see here,

(24:44):
because I know there's other stuff.Let's see. H's here. Yeah,
I mean there's been different, let'ssee. Oh. Equity UK launches

(25:11):
petition in support of English National OperaChorus. I believe they're going on strike.
Ah yeah. The Equity UK haslaunched a petition in support of English
National Operas Chorus members. The petitionis directed to Eino's Chairman CEO Jenny Mollica
and Chairman of the Board, doctorHarry Brunius, demanding fair wages on stage

(25:33):
for the chorus. It adds,we urge you to abandon your plans to
make your dramatic cuts to ENO courseand stage management contracts. Your proposal to
reduce CORNS contracts to cover just sixmonths the year would slash pay by forty
percent, making it near impossible tolive on Eino's salaries. We understand that

(25:56):
these cuts result from your plans toreduce the e Ando's opera season in London
and following a reduction in arts canceledEngland funding. This all SEMs back to
that bullshit. However, we believethese proposals are disproportionate, unsustainable for equity
members at n O, and showdisregard for your artistic workforce. Despite announcing
that e Ando will establish a newbase in Manchester, you have refused to

(26:19):
guarantee any involvement in Manchester for yourexisting permanent artistic workforce, as well as
refusing to confirm that there will beno compulsory redundancies. You are also seeking
detrimental changes to chorus contracts which wouldworsen their terms of employment at the same
time as they experience a catastrophic dropin their income. The petition, which

(26:42):
has already grant guarded sixteen hundred signatures, comes after the English National Opera Course
voted on taking industrial action following proposedsalary cuts to the ensemble. You know
what that means, strike strike,motherfuckers. This is the latest news out
of THEO. After announcing it wouldbe relocating to Manchester in November twenty twenty

(27:06):
two, the ACE offer the company. In November twenty twenty the ACE offered
the company seventeen million over three yearsto relocate. After the funding cut announcement,
THEO originally announced it would be movingby twenty twenty six. But moved
it to twenty twenty nine when fundingwas adjusted after people bitched and rightfully fucking

(27:29):
so, oh, by the way, I forgo the biggest thing I forgot.
Remember how we talked about a fewmonths ago, we talked about that
that radio station in North Carolina thatwas going to oh yeah, they were
they were going to Yeah, theywere not going to air some of the
radio show the radio versions of theoperas that were being offered this year by

(27:56):
the matt you know, like yeah, because of content. Yeah. Uh
well, uh they decided, theysaid, after you know, after you
know, feedback, we decided wewere going to play. We are going
to let those be aired. Well, well it's that, Okay, it's

(28:22):
that. And the met said whenyou signed, when you signed your contract
with us, it was it wasthat it stated that you would play,
you would show, you would letair all of the uh productions or none
of them. So yeah, soyou can't pick and choose. Basically,

(28:49):
they said, you either on yourcontract with us, or you stop airing
these you know, these operas alltogether. So so, you know,
because they didn't I'm sure they didn'twant people bitching about not being able to
listen to the met on the weekends. They decided to honor the contract.

(29:15):
It's not that hard, it's that'sit's like, yeah, like we said
before, they're they're they're very hypocritical, you know. And and the what
in their reason, Well, itwas the it was the director's freasoning.
Yeah, Debbie, Yeah, fuckingDebbie jesus. Oh and then our favorite

(29:44):
ass hat Valarry Gergiev. Oh,that dip ship. Guess where he's going
to conduct? I just parted,So I don't know if that means I
don't care not, but well,well he's gonna conduct it Iran. He's

(30:11):
going to conduct in Iran. Uh. The I love this. I love
how I describe it. The proPutin Russian conductor is set to conduct alongside
Ali Rabari. Uh. Meister GeVhas agreed to come to Iran and perform
along with me. This is theconductor, and we plan to organize a
concert with the Iranian Youth Symphony Orchestraat an appropriate time. This project has

(30:33):
been planned with Susan Takipur and wejust need to choose a suitable date for
it. In this concert, Iwill lead the first part of with the
Dotar, which is a flow folkloricplucked musical instrument with two strings, and
the symphony orchestra featuring the performance ofEiden Olanza and as in Rastagar in the

(30:56):
second part. Meister Gergiev will bethe conductor. Uh it's it's oh my
god, it's this. If ouryouths can receive this positive feedback, the
chances of inviting this orchestra to SaintPetersburg in Moscow, where Geregev is the
artistic director, will increase. Yeahhe said, yeah, he okay.
The conductor who was ousted from allof his Western jobs, recently conducted in

(31:22):
China and Kara in Istanbul and endorseda Vladimir for re election. Yeah he's
like child, this is not thetime for there might be giants. Yeah
no, no, absolutely not.Let's see here, because I did read
something about him before, but youknow you didn't care because dipshit. Yeah

(31:47):
I really didn't. Let's see here. Not a single fuck was given that
day, no or any day abouthim. Really. Yeah, it just
no, just no no fun.Yeah, let's see here. Oh yeah

(32:17):
there. Oh by the way,uh he he was our our favorite asshole
placebo. He began to do somethingthis time No, he was going to
perform in Romania. Oh too bad, I didn't get lost. Uh.

(32:37):
Oh, our our our opera,Dad? He did not get invited to
Dracula's Castle. No, damn ouropera Dad. Roberta Alanya recently, uh,
his name appeared in an open letteralongside fifty actors in support of Gerard

(32:59):
Depardieu. I don't know if you'veheard, but what I saw about this
and I was like, why areyou? I'm like, you seriously read
something without signing it? You dumbdumb. Yeah. The pann took to
social media and said, was Iset up? I was in New York
when I was contacted about a petitiondenouncing the media lynching of a man,

(33:22):
the censorship ship and total erasure ofan artist, his history and his work.
The request was urgent and the petitionhad to be published in a hurry
within hours. On the basis ofthis presentation alone, I agreed to supported
without having read the written version.O for Dad. Now, granted he

(33:45):
very well could be telling the truth. It's not hard to sign things without
reading them. Yeah. Yeah,So what happened was on December Figaro published
an open letter defending Depardieux following accusationsof sexual assault. The letter said,

(34:07):
Franz Ozim so much cinema and theatercannot do without his unique and extraordinary personality,
and nobody can erase this in theindelible imprint of his work on our
times. It added, we canno longer remain silent in the face of
the lynching he is facing, andadded that he is being attacked in defiance

(34:28):
of a presumption of innocence, fromwhich he would have benefited like everyone else
if he weren't the cinema giant heis. Alonia's name appeared alongside such celebrities
as Kiara Muti, Charlotte Rampling,Carlo Bruney, and Emmanuel Signer, among
others. De Pardieu was accused inApril twenty twenty three by thirteen women of

(34:50):
sexual assault and sexual harassment pertaining toincidents that occurred between two thousand and four
and twenty twenty twenty twenty two.I'm not entirely surprised that Carla Bruni signed
it, only because I know thatshe was that she was a singer,
I believe before she got married,So that doesn't exactly surprise me, because

(35:19):
it stands to reason that she takethe side of someone that she probably worked
with at one point. Yeah,that doesn't surprise me. Like for him,
say, I don't I didn't realizewhat I was signing. I mean,

(35:40):
if they caught him at a Imean, people have gotten dicked over
financially by signing things that they didn'tread. So, because it's something that's
so easy to do if you approachthe person when they're distracted. Yeah,
that's the only reason I'm willing togive her better a lot. You have

(36:00):
the benefit of the doubt because manypeople have been dicked over that exact way.
Yeah, So it's incredibly plausible,especially if they caught him like mid
rehearsal oh yeah, or something rightbefore or right before he was about to

(36:21):
go on oh yeah. It's justlike at the same time, it's like,
if you absolutely had to do itog right now, you should have
asked for a pause in what youwere doing. Yeah. Absolutely. Oh

(36:50):
It's but like I said, itis just so easy. That's like one
of the oldest cons in the book, to getting somebody to sign away ship
when they're not paying attention, yeah, and not reading what they like.
How many people have gotten locked intoshitty contracts because they didn't read what they
were signing. M h. Imean I talked. I mean I talked

(37:13):
to offices at work where they complainabout how long something takes or what they
actually have to do to get thecontracting process done and how long that takes.
And when we say this to thesomebody, it's in your contract,

(37:35):
you know what, the most commonresponse we get is I didn't read it
exactly. So it's one it itis plausible. I've had I've had that
happen in the student loans in thestudent loan field. That can happen if
you deal with a third party.Uh uh debt relief come one of those

(38:00):
shitty little scammy debt relief companies.Uh, Because I had I did deal
with a guy who uh had whocalled in and said, I have my
load is consolidated. I didn't authorizethis. They had the company had had

(38:21):
put the consolidation through without his knowledge. And yeah, also, you know,
the the way shit's presented to thesepeople is that you pay. If
you pay us this much now andthen you pay so much a month for
this many months, your entire debtwill be gone after that, which is

(38:45):
a lie. Yeah, you know, so it's not uncommon like it is,
I mean willing in fact to sayit's a fairly common occurrence. The
people sign things that they don't readfully. So a lot of people are
probably like, I don't believe that. I don't believe that he should have

(39:07):
he should have taken the time.I don't believe that he wouldn't take the
time to read it. Believe it, folks, Believe it, folks that
should happens far more than you wouldthink. Yeah, it is a it
is a real life thing that reallife happens, I mean, and in

(39:28):
our in our in our two industries, it does happen quite a bit.
So it's it happens a lot,and it's people that you otherwise would not
think, would not would not readsomething. Yeah, hey, I deal
with people. I was. I'vedealt with people who who who all they

(39:51):
heat they? They all they hearis public service loan forgiveness. They get
a blank application, they fill itout, and then they don't realize or
they don't read, or they don'tresearch beforehand before filling out that application and
sending it in. That you haveto send in the application every year,

(40:13):
or you have to provide all ofyour all of your qualifying employment history.
Yeah. They think that once youset it in once, it's good for
the rest. Yeah, that's it, and you don't have to do it
anymore. You have to update itevery year because we're not mind readers.
Okay, yeah, but yeah,it's yeah, that happens, so that

(40:39):
that's that's used. Your error ofcourse as well. But it's some error,
and it's easy to say in hindsight, yeah, that he should have
just stopped at It's easy for meto say, in hindsight, I think
he should have just stopped what hewas doing. Yeah, to read it.
But at the same time, inpractice, how many people can say

(41:00):
they actually would stop and take thetime, or like, can honestly say
that they would stop and take thetime. Yep, I mean that's it's
it's it's like I you know,if you know, I if I were

(41:24):
him, I would if they said, you know, if they called and
said, we're we need you tosign this. It's it's in defense of
this guy. We're gonna you know, it's gonna be published in a few
hours now, I'd be like,I mean, it's easy to say what
we to say, what we woulddo but at the same time, like

(41:46):
would we actually do it? Andthat's what it comes down to. We
can talk all we want about youknow, this is how it should have
been done. But who's to saythat, you know, caught in a
similar situation with the urgency, withthe way the urgency was presented? Mm
hmm yeah you you I can't honestlysay that you that you wouldn't do the

(42:16):
same a similar thing. Yeah.Yeah, Well, so we're gonna give
space Dad the benefit of the spaceapp already to give the space Dad is
Patrick Stewart, Yeah, space assPatrick Sewart. We already to give opera
Dad the benefit of the doubt here. So yeah, but moving on,

(42:36):
Okay, as in another in anotherepisode of fuck Around and find out my
favorite thing we've we've talked about ValeryGergeff that of course there's the there're other
asshole. I DROs a CoV right, uh, dick weed? What's he
gone and done? Now? IDROs CoV is out of the open house.

(43:00):
Zurich and Vina Statsaper the Bass wasoriginally announced to performing Zurich in a
revival of Lalitaga in Algieri starting Decemberthirty, first twenty twenty three, but
has been replaced by Pietro Spanoli.Meanwhile, according to Open News, the
Vina statsoper has announced that it hasmutually agreed with mister Abdrasikov that there will

(43:23):
be no performances by him until furthernotice. He was set to play and
perform in a revival of Nabuko inJune. This comes. This comes.
This news comes only days after thebase endorsed Vladimir Putin's re election campaign and
his Paris Opera performances were canceled.Fuck around and find he yep, and

(43:50):
it says. This is while theVina Schatzaper was adamant about not firing Russian
artists, Intendant bogged and Russich.Russich noticed that a state theaters are not
contracting artist noted that state theaters arenot contracting artists who are in favor of
the war. The Zurich Opera hasalso not hired pro putent artists, so

(44:12):
they didn't say Russian artists, theyjust said pro potent artists. Uh.
This past week Drazakov performed they werebenefestival and he still set to perform with
the Academia not sealing the sentage Chiliain the room. The rest of his
schedule is in Russia at the MarinskyTheater and other Russian concert halls. Let
him stay in Russia, fuck aroundand find out do do do do?

(44:38):
Oh? Yeah? This is yeah, seriously, this this is It's like,
wow, well, well, ifit's not the consequences of your own
damn actions, don't know. Let'ssee here, so go know we not
the consequences of my own actions?Again, Oh no, let's see here.

(45:01):
If there's anything else, I thinkthat's it. Yeah, he was
out of the Yeah, that's let'ssee. I think that's it. I
think that's all the scandal in thenews. We have. Yeah, English,

(45:21):
that's to opera course to vote onpossible strike. That was the industrial
action, and I believe wait aminute, I believe I saw that they
were the one. Let me seehere any update on the do they arrested
for saying Zuven Medal was dead?No? I don't see what happened with

(45:42):
that. I'd love to know.I would really love to know. Here
we go, English National Opera Choruswill strike. Let's see uh votes to
join orchestra and music staff in fullstrike. The chorus members at the English
National Opera have voted one hundred percentin favor of strike action in a ballot

(46:06):
conducted by its union Equity. Theballot opened on January fourth, closed on
the eighties. It closed on thesixteenth. The English National Opera Chorus members
turned out at ninety four point oneone percent. Thirty two out of thirty
four chorus members one hundred percent voteyes to full strike action and to take
action short of a strike. Thechorus joins the Musicians Union members that's the

(46:30):
orchestra, as A and as andas music and as music staff on February
first, for the first day offull strike action. This date coincides with
the opening date of the Handmade Stale, which will not go ahead if the
strike takes place. The strike isin response to the company's plans to reduce
its opera season and conduct and contractsin London Following a reduction in Arts Council

(46:54):
England's funding. English National Operas Managementannounced plans to fire the cores, orchestra
and music staff and re employ themfor six months of the year. Some
proposals included employees being offered at hawkfree works freelance work only, excuse you,

(47:15):
excuse your even teachers are paid.Even there are some teachers like in
the school districts that they only theydon't work during the summer, but they're
still paid during the summer. Youknow, it's it's like shit, Ronald
Nairn, n O Course member andEquity deputy said in a press offer.

(47:36):
As the workplace representative said in apress release, it gives me no pleasure
to vote for strike action. Ijoined the E and O Course to sing
and share opera with as many peopleas possible. Management proposals to fire and
rehire me and my colleagues with aforty percent salary cut and worsened working conditions
will make remaining in the course unsustainablefor many. I voted yes to taking

(47:59):
strike action to force our management toreconsider their plans and come up with a
different, more creative model that protectsthe workforce. The musicians. The Musicians'
Union members begin their strike on Januarythirtieth. They will be leafleting at the
dress rehearsal of The Handmaids Tale andask audience members to show solidarity with the

(48:21):
orchestra and music staff, some ofwhom could lose up to seventy percent of
their work. This would be thefirst time Musicians Union members have taken full
strike action since July nineteen eighty.Seriously, even exists? Then, seriously,
seriously, I was a wee thing. I was five years old back

(48:44):
then, My god, in fortyfour years, the first time in forty
four years that it has they havebeen on strike, and you fucking fuck
around here here's the death instance.Here's another episode of fucker right and find
out. Seriously, you fuck aroundwith these people's livelihoods and you're gonna find

(49:08):
out what they do? Mm hmm. Fuck. Well, that's all the
news except for one piece, whichis the the show piece of today.
Yes it is. It is withgreat story efforts, Yes it does.
It is with great sorrow that wehave to announce that Peter Shickley, if

(49:34):
you remember, we did a wecovered a an opera called The Abduction of
Figure Out written by p dq Back. Peter Shickley, who is the mastermind,
the creator of pdq back and allthose beautiful parodies. He passed away
at the age of eighty eight.Uh so, and he is the first

(49:57):
modern composer that you know that weare familiar with the hospital should I Actually
I was thinking about this last night. He is not the first contemporary composer
that passed away on our watch sincewe started this podcast. Remember, Carrie
Sarayo passed away. She's the onethat wrote Lamar de Lawa. She passed

(50:21):
away unexpectedly. I think it waseither last year or the year before.
And they're going to and then metsicgoal into posthumously stage of production of Innocence.
Yeah, this is the first ofone that's had that's been composing for
a while. Yeah. Yeah,because he's because he he introduced PDQ bock

(50:44):
in nineteen sixty five. My momwas like nine or ten. Yeah,
and he went through and he didit for fifty years. I think the
last time he did it was thelast time he performed was twenty fifteen.
Yeah, I think there was likea farewell. It was like a farewell,
like it was some sort of playon jacky and Hyde yep. And

(51:10):
so he'd been doing it for fiftyyears. So he but Peter Shickley,
they they were they've said that hehad like he's he's gotten a lot of
praise over the years. So letme pull up I pull up something.

(51:39):
Yeah, here we go. Yeah. He died on the sixteenth Rifled age
of eighty eight. Yeah Yeah.He was an American composer, music,
musical educator, and parodist, bestknown for comedy albums featuring his music,
which he presented as being composed bythe fictional PDQ Bock. He also hosted

(52:04):
a long running weekly program called ShickleyMix He from nineteen ninety to nineteen ninety
three. Here's the Best Part.Chickley's pdq Bock recordings earned him four consecutive
wins for the Grammy Award for BestComedy Album. Nice Yeah, Yep,

(52:34):
Let's See, And he went toLet's See, Let's See. He was
the first see in nineteen fifty.He graduated from Fargar Central High School in
North Dakota in nineteen fifty two.That attended Swarthburg College, graduating in nineteen

(52:55):
fifty seven with a degree in music. He was the first student at sworts
More to earn a music degree.He was a contemporary of Ted Nelson at
Swarthmore, and he scored Nelson's experimentalfilm The Epiphany of Slope Furlough. It
was his first film score. Hegraduated from the Juilliard School in nineteen sixty

(53:16):
with a master's degree in musical composition. He studied composition with Roy Harris and
Vincent Pischetti. Schickley wrote music fora number of folk musicians, most notably
Joan Biez, for whom he alsoorchestrated and arranged three albums during the mid
nineteen sixties, Noel, Joan andBaptism. He also composed the original score

(53:37):
for the nineteen seventy two science fictionfilm Silent Running. Yeah, yep,
that's where. That's the way therobots were Huey Dewey and Louie mm hm.
Which is in the is in theRobot Hall of Fame at the Carnegie
Science Center in Pittsburgh. Oh nice, I think it's I think it's Louis

(53:59):
is there. I'm not sure.I'd have to go back through my pictures
and look, because I've actually seenthe Robot Hall of Fame there, So
I just have to go and investin magate. Yes. Shickley, an
accomplished bassoonist, Yeah you deplayed thebazoon, was also a member of the
chamber rock trio of the Open Window, which wrote and performed music for the

(54:23):
nineteen sixty nine review O Calcutta andreleased three albums, Oh God, Damn,
Oh Colcutta is fucking hilarious. Itis surprised. I'm not surprised that
he was involved. Yeah. Thehumorous aspect of Chickley's music career came from

(54:45):
his early interest in the music ofSpike Jones, whose musical ensemble lampood popular
music in the nineteen forties and fifties. While at Juilliard, shicklea team to
conductor Jorge Mester to present a humorconcert, which became an annual event at
the college. In sixty five,Shickley moved the concept to the Town Hall

(55:06):
in New York City and invited thepublic to attend. Vanguard Records released an
album of that concert, and thecharacter of PDQ Boc was launched. By
nineteen seventy two, the concerts hadbecome so popular that they were moved to
Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center.So so here's here's a little overview of

(55:31):
PDQ. Back himself, Shitley developedan elaborate parody around his studies of PDQ
Bock, the fictional youngest and theoddest of the twenty odd children of Johann
Sebastian Bach. Among the fictional composersforgotten repertory are such farcical works as the
Abduction of Fire, Oh canan cantatavachet arf which is the which is,

(56:00):
which is? I can't remember whatthat means in German. Uh, it's
a dog thing. It has tobe do yeah good, King Kong looked
out, the trite quintet uh Alittle town of Hackensack, a little nightmare
music that cantata in Fiji Fiji,ifigena in Brooklyn, but the Concerto for

(56:23):
horned hard Art, and the dramaticOratorio Oedipus Texts featuring the Ok Corral by
Dom Kiss Yeah p d Q Backis obstensively a Baroque comptemposer, but Shickley
extended his repertoire to parody much moremodern works, such as Einstein on the

(56:47):
Fritz, a parody of his Juliardclassmate Philip Blast who wrote Einstein on the
Beach uh. His fictitious home establishedis the University of Southern North Dakota at
Hoopool, where he reports having tenureas a very full professor of music coology

(57:10):
and musical pathology. He also inventeda range of rather unusual instruments. The
most complicated of these is the herdArt, a tone generating device mounted on
the frame of an automat, acoin operated foods pitzer. This modified automat

(57:31):
is using the concerto for horn hardArt, a play on the name of
Horn and Hardart, who pioneered theAmerican use of the automat in their restaurants.
Shickley also invented the dill piccolo placefor playing sour notes, the left

(57:51):
handed sewer flute that just sounds likea euphemism for penis that does the trom
boone. I actually saw a pictureof the trombone when I was looking up,
when I was looking him up.Yeah, and it looks pretty cool.
Yeah. It a cross between atrombone and a pursuit, having all

(58:15):
the disadvantages of both. And thelasso de mare, the double sided the
double red slide music stand, thetuba mirrorm, the tube yeah, the
tuba mirror a flexible tube filled withwine, and the and the pastaphone,

(58:37):
an uncooked tube of pasta played asa horn. Oh my god, no
doubt a manicotti. Uh. Toa large degree, Shickley's music as PDQ
bop has overshadowed his work as aserious composer Shickley perform I wonder why,

(59:04):
Yeah, I wonder how that possiblycould have happened. Okay, there's a
picture on his Wikipedia page of himcirca nineteen eighties sitting barefoot atop of piano
with his feet with his bare feeton the keys. What in the Jerry
Lee Lewis fuck did he think hewas doing? I don't know, I

(59:31):
don't know, I don't know,but the world is a better place for
it. Shickley performed two concerts tocommemorate the fiftieth anniversary of his first concert
at the Town Hall in New Yorkon December twentieth and twenty ninth. Twenty
fifteen. He reduced his concert appearancesdue to health issues, but continued to

(59:53):
schedule live performance concert performances through twentyeighteen. Okay. His other musical courier
Chiclely, composed more than one hundredoriginal works for symphony orchestra, choral groups,
chamber ensemble, voice, television,and an animated adaptation of The Wild

(01:00:14):
Things Are, which he also narrated. He did Silent Running, he wrote,
He co wrote the original songs SilentRunning and Rejoiced in the Sun with
Diane Lampert. He also wrote schoolfor music, music for school bands as
well as for a number of musicals, including OA Calcutta, and organized numerous

(01:00:34):
concert performances. As both musical directorand performer, Shickley was active on the
international and North American concert circuit.Shickley's musical creations won him multiple awards.
His extensive body of work is markedas a distinctive style which integrates the European
classical tradition with an unmistakable American idiom. Shickley also created the Night and see

(01:00:59):
the not Quite PDQ bock albums suchas Hornsmoke, Sneaky Pete and the Wolf
and the Emperor's New Clothes, SneakyPete, The Wolf, Oh My God,
I'm Dead. I Am just officiallydeceased. As a musical director,

(01:01:21):
he also hosted the classical music educationalradio program SHICLEIMEX, which aired on many
public radio stations in the US andinternationally on Public Radio International. The program
began in nineteen ninety two. Lackof funding edit the production of new programs
by nineteen ninety nine, and rebroadcastsof existing programs finally ceased in July twenty

(01:01:45):
two, thousand and seven. Onlyone hundred and nineteen of the one hundred
and sixty nine programs were in therebroadcast rotation because earlier shows contained APR American
Public Radio Production IDs rather than one'screating Public Radio International crediting Public Radio International.
In March two thousand and six,some of the other lost episodes were

(01:02:05):
added back to the rotation, withone notable program remnant of the Periodic Table
of Musics listening to the names ofmusicians and composers as mythical element names in
a form reminiscent of the Periodic table. Wells this guy seriously, seriously he

(01:02:30):
won. Let's see he's won.He won Best Comedy Recording in nineteen ninety
nineteen niny one. He won forPdqbox seventeen twelve, Overture and other musical
assaults. He also and he alsowon for Oedipus Texts and other choral calamities.

(01:02:52):
He won Music for an Awful Lotof Winds and Percussion and uh oh
he won He won a He wona uh Grammy for Best Classical Crossover Album.
Okay and Oh he also won.He also won uh oh. He

(01:03:13):
also won a Grammy for Best ComedyAlbum uh W t W p Classical Talk
and the Talk Radio for another pd Q bock album. But he but
he won a He won that BestClassical Crossover Album for horn Smoke Piano Concerto
number two in F major ol abrass calendar, horn Smoke a Horse Opera.

(01:03:37):
He he won that for for likea straight not for comedy, but
a straight classical crossover album, whichis pretty cool. He was nominated for
Oakylcutta and uh, he clearly dippedover because he did not win. Yeah,

(01:03:59):
and he was it's too late todo an eye fight because I think
we're a little too late to doan I fight on that one. Yeah.
Yeah, but just no inspiritsr thatwe fight. Yeah. But yeah,
So got blessed Peter Shickley because Idon't think I've ever laughed so damn

(01:04:23):
hard watching the Abduction figure Out.Yeah, that's like that was I told
him that's the opera that we've laughedthe hardest at on purpose. M h
yeah, because that ship was meantto be funny. And and our friend

(01:04:45):
Niri, we'll give you a willgive you a preview of an upcoming episode.
Our friend Nyrie, if you remembershe was the one that we talked
about Cursed Operas with a couple ofyears ago. She is going to come
back and we are going to totalk about another a one act opera that
Peter Shickley wrote called Hansel and Greteland Ted Analice. Yeah. The funny

(01:05:12):
thing is I told my mom thetitle of that, and she got it
right away. She's like, Iknow what. That's sort of like I
do doom. Yeah. Yeah,if you're not familiar. If you're not
familiar with it, there is amovie called Bob and Carroll and Ted and
Alice about swingers, but the swingerscene, and that's what the that's what

(01:05:33):
the title is based on. MIt's got back when Elliot Gold was damn
Yeah, because yes, folks,he Ross's dad used to be a babe.
M hm yep. So so we'regoing to talk about that with ny

(01:06:00):
Red. She's gonna come on ina couple of weeks and watch that.
But uh yeah, god bless uhgod bless Peter Shickley. We yeah,
we can't say nothing about him.He is not only was he an amazing
composer, but for him to forhim to come up with this character that

(01:06:23):
is yeah, based on the factthat Bach had all these kids and they
had these Yeah, they had likethere was Christian Philip Emanuel, which is
cpe Bach, and you know there'syou know, uh js Bach and you
know all you know, they're knownby the box, are known by their

(01:06:45):
initials. So for him to comeup with that and to come up with
this whole backstory for him and thentoo and then to apply the Boro uh
uh music style and parody ship withit, that's just it it is and

(01:07:16):
it's it's it's just the result isnothing short of it is. It is
genius and it's damn hilarious. Ifyou have not heard any PDQ bock you
need it in your life, youdo. It's almost seriously, it's just,
oh my god, your life willbe better for it. Yeah,

(01:07:40):
absolutely, well, uh yeah,it's I love it. I love it.
I was listening to Hans and Greteland Ted and Alice last night.
There's a there's a concert that hedid in Houston and it's called it is
Peter shick in Houston. We havea problem. Yeah, so I'll have

(01:08:05):
to watch that. Uh but yeah, so yo, So Peter Shickley made
his memory for blessing. We knowit will be now. I feel now,
I feel bad that we never gotanything from his shop. I know

(01:08:26):
what if you'll keep that open,Oh, I don't know. Like that
would be awesome if you could stillbuy PDQ box shit. Oh yeah,
I'm sure. I'm sure they will. I'm sure they will. It would

(01:08:49):
be nice. Yes, I may. You know what I may because of
because of the fact that uh Bachhad so many children. He had he
was the twenty second they called hecalled Pdqbuck the twenty the twenty second of

(01:09:10):
box twenty one children long. Ilove that. I'm like, okay,
but I okay. So Anna andI have been watched wrestling quite a bit,

(01:09:36):
and if you're familiar with WWE,there is that faction called the Judgment
Day. If you're from the Trueour dreath is a goddamn national treasure.
He is to be protected at allcosts. He is if you have watched,
if you have watched the Shenanigans thathave gone on on Monday Night Raw

(01:09:59):
with the Judgment Day to our Truth. There they have in the they have
in the shop in w W shopa shirt. It originally it was it
was it was Damian and j Dand Finn and uh Rhea and dirty Dog
and then it's a bottle old mrkanFace Mysterio as I like to call him.

(01:10:21):
His beard looks like a fucking setof pubes. It does, it
does, Tom and Nick. That'swhat our truth I know. I He's
like, I saw that post theother night. I found Nick. Yeah,
where's Tom real? Mysterio must bedying from laughter while he's on recovery,

(01:10:46):
Like he comes home when Tom's like, Dad, stop it laughing at
me. At the bottom of thatshirt there is it's like day w W
who's actually put this out? Atthe bottom of the shirt, it has
like looks like tape and it saysan our truth yes, just like on
his shirt. And they actually cameup with another shirt it says Tom and

(01:11:14):
Nick Mysteria. I'm because the premistlast week, because the premise is his
best week was he was selling themokay, and he's like, you gotta
and Priest is like, you gotta, you gotta quit selling his shirt and

(01:11:34):
he hands them this wod cast.He goes, oh, okay, go
ahead and keep selling them. Mwas like how came into He's like,
y'all need to change the locks andhe left in Damon's like, he's actually
not wrong. We need to changethe locks. Yeah, the number of

(01:11:59):
times the Damut Bruce has been closeto breaking character because of our troop.
Oh, I know, like youcan see it in his eyes. I
love it. I love that they'vealso added him in the corner of the
judgment Dave cgi intro. It isthe live, laugh love banner. I'm

(01:12:35):
just honestly the most beautiful bit offuckery I have ever seen of it.
This is why I said our truthis a goddamn national treasure and should be
treated as such. He is alsoI watched Kevin Owens uh uh beat the

(01:12:57):
ship out of Logan Paul last night. Lolls. I mean, at the
same time, it's nice. Atthe same time, it's nice that Logan
Paul has found, you know,where he fits in, like something that
he's fitting that he fits in with, because you know, not everyone is
lucky enough to find that sort ofthing. Yeah, so, you know,

(01:13:25):
props to him for that. I'mstill gonna laugh when he gets his
ass b Oh. Yeah, that'sthat's just how it works. Yeah,
that's move. We'll have to watchthat next Saturday night. Yeah. I
heard from my friend Kat that it'spossible that seth Rawlins might give up his

(01:13:45):
title on Monday night when he opensRaw because he I guess fucked up his
may have fucked up his mc loh. Yeah, during the fight with
Ginger Mahala. Yeah. Oh that'sbad. That's not good. That's not

(01:14:09):
good. That's not good because youknow what that means for for daily and
priests. He won't be able torun out every week and try catching his
his money in the bank contract.I still say we need a weekly segment
with Sammy Zane just trying different waysto steal that ship. Oh my god.
That yeah, just for the absolutegoddamn hilarity of it all. Oh

(01:14:32):
my god, that that'd be.That'd be great. Oh but yep,
we yeah, we we have beenwatching. We've been watching wrestling. We

(01:14:55):
we saw the return of who wasWho was It? Uh? Oh see
I'm punk and Randy Orton and RandyOrton. I'd rather I'm I'm happy about
Randy Orton coming back and see himfunk. You know what he Punk actually
seems to be behaving himself. Werea change, so you know, and

(01:15:23):
I mean, also, what otherwrestler would we have a possibility to meet
that that would probably laugh at us, asking if he's ever flicked Chicago's bean?
That's true, have you ever reflectedthe bean? Like? Have you
ever reflected bean? By the way, folks, But but you know what

(01:15:45):
I want to ask. There aretwo other questions that are Chicago related that
one absolutely would have to ask him. Have you ever had my lord?
And have you ever been been verballyharassed at the Wiener Circle? Now by
plush, it would be have youhad a chocolate milkshake at the Wiener Circle?

(01:16:11):
I would just I'd ask him ifhe got harassed at the Winner Circle.
You have to figure that someone atthe Wiener Circle. He comes in
and says someone at the Winner circlesjust like fuck you man. And it's
not just for the for show purposes, Oh yeah, for work, because
they like genuinely hate him. Ohyeah. Now, cho if you're not

(01:16:34):
familiar, if you're not from Chicagoand you're not familiar with what a chocolate
milkshake, if you order a chocolatemilkshake at the Wiener Circle, what you're
gonna get is you're gonna get slashedby Pooky Oh god, pooci not Pooky
Poochie. You're given slashed by Poocie. Oh my god, aj Lee won't

(01:16:58):
let him. He's married to isn'the. Yes, he's still married to
a le Yes romance. But noaj Le won' would let him order a
chocolate pak shake at the Winder Circle. I bet you know, for good
fucking reason. Yeah, that'd beyeah it Oh it's it's my friend Frank,

(01:17:21):
who always says, yeah, ifsomebody says I've never been to the
Winder Circle there, like he alwayssays, go order a chocolate milkshake.
No bad, Frank, bad becauselike they because like during during the lockdown

(01:17:41):
during the pandemic, they were theywere offering curbside service and they said they
would still they even, you know, if you call ahead and order your
food, they'll give it to you. And they'll even give it to you
with the with a with their theusual insult insults. Okay. Uh.
And and he said and said chocolateshake is a chocolate milkshake is not available

(01:18:05):
for curbside pickup. And not asingle person in Chicago was that disappointed?
Yeah. Yeah. The reason wekeep mentioning in Chicago is Anna and I

(01:18:30):
are playing in to go to Chicagoin December. Uh, mainly to get
to go to the Christmas market inDaily Plaza, but we're also going to
flick as bean because Fuckporyeh. Bythe way, folks, you can only

(01:18:54):
listen to this podcast if you're ifyou signed something saying you are not an
Ish Kapoor or listening on beef.Yeah, this is a pro Stewart simple
podcast, yes, because we're heardfor all sorts of trolling, especially of
that level. But yeah, Idon't. Kat and I were talking about

(01:19:19):
going to conventions where wrestlers are andI'm like, I want to. She's
like, I want to meet cmpunkso I can. I forget what sort
of sign she said, but that'swhere I said, I want to ask
him if he's ever flicked the beanor if he's ever gotten her ass at
the Wiener Circle. And now I'mhoping that, you know, maybe you,

(01:19:41):
me and Kat can go to acoon that he's at and then a
j Lee is right next to himand you just with a dead straight face,
you ever get a chocolate milkshake atthe Wiener Circle, just to see
the possible look of confusion on ajLee's face if she doesn't know what that
means. But also there there's likemaybe like a fifty percent chance that when

(01:20:08):
he would well that if Pooky wasthere when he was a teenager, Yeah
he did, because I mean yougotta think for some for most Chicagoans of
a certain certain soils are probably thefirst titties they ever saw. Yeah.
Really seriously, He's like, wecan't go to play He's like, nobody

(01:20:31):
will buy his playboys. Nobody's thrownout playboys. Likely, Let's go to
the Wiener Circle. Yeah, seeif Pooky's on shift. God, I'm
gonna actually look up Wiener Circle onWikipedia and see if it has its own
Wikipedia page. Oh man, ohlove Winer Circle on Wikipedia and one,

(01:21:00):
two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, night,
tenth tenth result down is rod Blagojevitch. Now I have that song stuck
in my head, fucking Rod Blagoyevitchsong. Oh uh, the Wiener Circle

(01:21:32):
they do have a Wikipedia page,Yeah, they do. I love this.
It says the Wieners Circles all dogstand on Clark Street in the Lincoln
Park neighborhood of Chicago, Illinois,in the United States. It is over
It's Maxell Street, Polish chart dogs, hammers, cheese, fries, and
the merger, mutual verbal abuse betweenthe employees and the customers during the late

(01:21:54):
week and hours. You're only whenJack McBriar and Triumph the Insult Comic Dog
went there. Yeah, that wasjust yeah. It says the restaurant was
the setting of the sketch featuring JackMcBrier and Triumph the Insult Comic Dog in

(01:22:15):
the June fourteenth, twenty twelve episodeof the late night chalk show Conan,
which was which was the last ina weaker shows taped in Chicago. Oh
my God. In April twenty twenty, during the COVID nineteen pandemic, the
Waier Circle began producing a YouTube showcalled Wiener Circle TV. Oh my god,

(01:22:41):
this is one of problems flight logs. What if you scrolled down and
look at the pictures truck foot logs. I just saw that. I love

(01:23:02):
I mentioned Poochie. This is oneof the more famous employees. Is We're
burn Up? Poochie Jackson, whowas featured along with the restaurant in a
two thousand and seven episode of Showtime'sversion of the Chicago public radio station program
This American Life, as well asan episode episode of Extreme Fast Food on
the channel Travel channel. In Chicagotravel guides, the Winner's Circle is often

(01:23:25):
extolled as a source for authentic Chicagostyle hot dogs, and it's uniquely abrasive
customer relations. Why are you notsurprised the fucking gave a towel went there?
Oh my god. Yeah, Iam upset that poochie does not have

(01:23:54):
her own Wikipedia page. I mean, I know, I ow, I'm
like, I am, I'm veryuse. We have to go to the
Window Circle. We just have to. We have to, Like, I
don't care well that the the hotelthat I am that I am contemplating us

(01:24:20):
staying at is not is uh onClark Street. Well not Clark Street.
It's on Diversity, which is atthe corner of Clark Diversity and Clark University.
And uh, it's a bus.It's just a bus ride down Clark
Street. Nice yep, So we'llbe able to go and the and the

(01:24:45):
twenty two the Clark Street, theClark the twenty two Clark bus. I
think it runs late at night onthe weekend, so we can always get
back on the bus to go backgo back to the hotel after getting This
makes me wonder though it's during latenight weekend do they not abuse people during
late late at night turned the weekI don't know. Did they just say

(01:25:08):
that for the weekend? I don'tknow, Like we'll go to the Christmas
workord, go to the opera andgo visit and go visit Poucie. Yeah,

(01:25:30):
okay, So with all of that, now I need to see how
see him punk as because if shewas working, he's only nine years older
than me. He definitely has seenPouci's boobs. Oh he has, he
has, He's earned he like he'sordered a chocolate mouthshake at the waiter circle.

(01:25:56):
He is most definitely okay, here'sthe chocolate belkshake, here's the here's
the the here's the official. Idon't know if you could hear this.
In these uncertain times, we're alllonging for a sense of normalcy, yet
we don't know what the new normalwill look like. More than ever,

(01:26:21):
the distance between us has grown,and we're yearning for the contact we once
had. We just want someone totell us everything will be okay, and
to hear what the fuck you want? You sat around Richie Cuttingham, Big
City, Baby Dick Blowdy Strawberry,Big Cats. Why the Wieners circle is

(01:26:42):
here? Giving us the human interect. Let me let me get you that.
Let me get you the uh thelink for this I'll put I'll put
it in the I'll put it inour in the escape thing it. Oh
my god, this is just toofunny. I'm telling Kat that we're both

(01:27:16):
one hundred positive that at some pointin his life CM punk ordered a chocolate
Melkchick at the Wiener's Circle. Youknow, if I was still on the
app formerly known as Twitter, Iwould find CM Punk's account if he had

(01:27:38):
one, and be like, so, question uniquely question that only you who
are from Chicago can answer. Yeah, you're uniquely qualified for this question.

(01:27:59):
Have you now or have you now? Or will you be in the future
or chocolates Circle? Well, Idon't think in the future, because I
mean he's got a wife who coulddefinitely kick his ass. Yeah, make
no mistake, A j Lee canstill fuck someone. She will. She

(01:28:20):
will fuck him up and then skipaway happily. She'll fuck him up and
get Poochi to help. Yeah,she'd be like, you won't end Poochie
jumps the counter. Oh but likehalf the half of the week, of
the late night weekend stuff just ohyeah, you know what, I got

(01:28:42):
to see an actual brawl breakout atWiener Circle, because you have to think
if waffle house employees are badass inin fights there, I think, just
how infinitely more badass Wiener Circle,yeah, would be in a in a
fightsolutely Oh my god, oh mygod. Wait till you get to about

(01:29:08):
twenty three seconds and it's hilarious.Okay, and to hear read downloaded the
app and ask, yeah, really, I don't want to be a dick
though. Now, I mean it'sfunny, but you're seeing punk. Have

(01:29:35):
you ever ordered a child up sticktheir? We figured my friend and I
figure that because you're from Chicago,you are uniquely qualified to answer this particular
question. Yeah, how many ChicagoBlackhawks over the years have ordered taves Caine

(01:30:08):
The entire two thousand roster frolic hasordered a chocolate milkshake. Sir, Yeah,
he said that. He asked please. He said please, though,
yeah, beforehand, because he's he'sthe most beautiful. Yes, oh,

(01:30:33):
what makes me absolutely sick? Whatshould be the junior reporter is now old
enough to do that. It hasto be in his late teens now,
oh yeah, mhm, alright,that that has to be like some sort
of weird ass right of passage inChicago. Oh yeah, you just you

(01:30:57):
go to the Wiinner's circle. First, you go to the when youre circle
and get verbally abews. Then youcome back when you're old enough and order
a chocolate milkshake. Yeah. Oh, here, here's a fun fact.
My friend Julie has she has uhthree, she has four kids. She
has uh she has three boys anda girl. Her see her middle son,

(01:31:24):
Jason. The first time I sawhim, I said, I I,
I, honest to God, thoughtthat he looks like Jonathan Taves.
And to this day that is arunning joke between me and my friend Julie.
Mm hmmm, that he looks likeJonathan Daves, I said. I
said, I still want him toget a black haws uh jersey and with

(01:31:47):
with Tave's name on the back ofit and and go, you know,
and you know, dress up likeJonathan Taves for Halloween one year. Hm
hmmm. Because because I showed hera picture of him, I said,
I said, I swear up anddown, it looks like all the days
should have a picture john should havea picture of him. And she's like,

(01:32:08):
oh my god, he does,she said, my kid. My
son looks like she does watch hockey. Yeah yeah, herself looks like a
googey player. But I love this. I love this wider circle. We're
here for you. I'm gonna putthat on our on our Facebook page.

(01:32:30):
What the fuck you want you fitaround? Ritchie cutting hand, big titty
baby dick blowed in strawberry bitch notcoming, which is why the Wieners Circle
giving us the human interactions you needwith FaceTime ordering. And by the way,
your here's a cheese fries you shouldbe driving, yuppie bitch ass pussy.

(01:32:53):
Hey, thanks slutting my butthole.So FaceTime seven seven three bitches to
order your favorite dogs and fry eyeswith a side of abuse. We're ordered
through talk, grub Hub or ubereats or some cur just a regular delivery.
All sales support Chicago COVID nineteen chocolatemilkshakes not available curb side since that

(01:33:15):
would be in decent exposure. Yousound like the name of a sneaky ass
bitch. Fuck you, Corone,You sound like the name of the sneaky
ass bitch. I'm going to shareyou share something in tag Oh cat and
you in it? Oh my god, and my our friend Brittany from photo.

(01:33:40):
Oh yeah, because because it's ait's an archer thing. Oh my
god, that that is absolutely Ohyeah. Also, while we're in Chicago,
we have to visit Bridget. Wedo, Bridget and Maria and the
nephews, yes, the conten nephews. Yes, we're we can all go

(01:34:06):
to the Winner's circle together, wellexcept Bridget. Bridget Bridget probably wouldn't wont
go. Yeah, where you canget her up on a video call.
Yeah, yeah, we can gether on video call mm hmm. But

(01:34:31):
yeah, we've got to just theship that we just have to do.
We have we we you know,I mean we're Oh and by the way,
there's a place, there's a placejust down like like literally across the
street and walk a little ways fromthe from the hotel called the Exo Marshmallow

(01:34:55):
Cafe. Yo. Yeah, justJoe, Yeah, we have to go.
Uh yeah, we'll probably be doingthat either the first or second week
of December. But yeah, sothat's what we'll be doing in December hopefully.

(01:35:17):
Well well, I mean it nowis around the time when the opera
theaters stopped start releasing their twenty fourto five season, so we will find
out that and this isn't this isthis will be my cue to find out

(01:35:38):
what happens next year for the MunichOpera Festival, because I am planning on
going back to Munich for my fiftiethbirthday. Yay Birthmoss Yay birth miss.
And I found out one of myone of my trainers, my QA trainers,

(01:36:00):
birthdays the same day as mine.We're birthday twins, Birthmas twins.
Y yes, Kay and I areBirthmas twins. So uh I said,
well, you know, I said, you know, Kay and I are
not going to be on be beworking that day. And she goes,
she goes, you dang, wellno, I won't. No, they

(01:36:27):
I we have these trade we havethis treaty check in list every week and
uh I was I like the firstweek, I said, I hope to
be a fair and a firm,but fair QA overlord. The second one
was uh, I like the secondweek I commented, I like that we
are all strange and unusual here.And yesterday for my commat it was QA

(01:36:49):
because everything you do sucks until wesay otherwise. I want to be a
Q A Mohila Mohila's Mohila's uh Mohila'shottest club is quality assurance, where the

(01:37:11):
password is what the fuck are youdoing? This place has everything vital vital
information, not uh notation lacking vitalinformation uh detail. Providing to the borer
was lacking okay, and what's thatover there? And insta phil for not

(01:37:39):
verifying the callers information. Yeah,it's a it's an e n M for
it's an e n M for notauthenticating for for uh very for demographics not
it, Oh, Lottie, I'mdoing that for next week's training. Check

(01:38:11):
it. But Heelove's hottest club it'sassurance, where the password is, what
the hell are you doing? Okay, I'm not my My manager, Mikayla
said, I for one loved theylove my comment. I for one,

(01:38:31):
she says I, she's we alllove your comment like my the the No,
it's one of my supervisors. MICHAELA. Arthur is the manager and he
Arthur yesterday gave me but gave mea fucking heart attack. He messages me.
He says, so so Page tells. Page tells me you're ready to
go on your own. He says, I'll get you some assignments. I'm

(01:38:54):
like me, No, I said, I just I told her I wasn't
ready. He says, I'm justplaying with you. I'm like the immortal
words of Kevin Hart. No,she wasn't ready, I said. I
said, I said, give itover here, giving me a heart attack
on a Friday. How dare you? How dare? How dare? That's

(01:39:18):
what I said, how get overhere? Giving me a heart attack on
a Friday? How dare? HowIt's actually damn dare? And he goes,
sorry, can't help it. That'swhat QA is like. That's what
the people I work with are like, we're weird, just like this podcast.

(01:39:42):
Yeah, so that when I whenI when I got into QA,
I'm thinking, oh my god,we're all stuffy people. Oh no,
oh no, shit breaks down ina hurry, like we do all these
like we do what are called calibrationswhere we listen to a call. We
have a group, we listen toa call and we write down what we

(01:40:03):
you know, are deductions, andthen we get together and discuss what,
you know, what the deductions shouldbe on a call, and and we're
like, girl, I have this, this, this and this and do
you hear this? Ship? Yeah? Where o? God on? That

(01:40:24):
last week was like train wreck Central. This past week was like all the
train wrecks. Ever, oh noe, like you knew, Like there was
one call when you knew, youknew right off the bat it was gonna
be bad because I'm like because assoon as she opened her as soon as

(01:40:44):
the agent opened her mouth, whowas like nope, I hit pause.
I'm like, nop, she getsit for this, No, nah,
I had that. We that weekgraded what week, grade one call down
to like A thirty two. It'slike, oh yeah, we've never graded

(01:41:05):
anything at a one. There wasone yesterday that almost got in one hundred.
Had she had she uh uh authenticatedproperly, she would have gotten one
hundred. But she didn't. Ohno, yeah, but that's what q

(01:41:30):
q A q A listen for callcenter for call center work is is quite.
You know, you'll you'll you'll runinto you'll fight yourself repeating phrases like
what the fuck is this? Ohmy fucking god, uh baby, no,
what is you doing? Yeah?Whose mans is this? Uh?

(01:41:55):
Who the hell? What the hellare you doing? Why the fuck did
you say that? Bitch? Thatis not right? No? Or why
and stop for no one wondering whyI want to get into QA. I

(01:42:23):
say that when I'm back to worknow after being on LEAF for a while,
and when I have to clean uppreviously, when I've had to clean
up another REPS mess, I saythat that sort of thing like all the
damn time. So it's like Ithink I belong in QA. Oh yeah,

(01:42:44):
that should be my home. Yeah, seriously, that's what That's what
I said. Yeah. And ofcourse my coworker, who is also my
work bestie, Sam, she shetold our friend mate. She told Mandy.
She were all three of us metwhen we worked at Nelnet. She
told Bandy. She goes, Ohmy god, she goes. She goes,
I already know. This was aftermy first calibration. She calls Mandy

(01:43:09):
and she said, I know alreadyshe's going to be a hard ass on
people. Yeah, I am.I am too. And there are people
like because I because I've put downdeductions on things that everybody else is like,
oh I missed that. Oh mygod, good catch, Holy shit,

(01:43:31):
I forgot about that. Yeah,I'm a good Oh yeah. So
I it's like it's like, well, hell, this is my calling,
that the QA. After two yearsin call center work, I have finally
found my calling. It's just whichis quality assurance, which is where I

(01:43:56):
get to say, you fucked upthis badly. Oh no, we we're
gonna tell you why. But thisis but yeah, it's it's uh,
that's that's my life. That's that'swhat it's. And things are slow on

(01:44:23):
our end though, so you know, I don't have any fun and I
just came back, so I don'thave any fun stories yet yet. But
uh yeah, we're but right now, we're we're getting We're gonna get back
in the swing of things. Slowly, but surely. Yeah. You fuckers

(01:44:45):
aren't getting rid of us that easily. No no, no, no no
no. Next week we have carrycrackt in the Superduction of Carmen with h
Pyotr with Pyotr as Don Jose andI'll be broadcasting live from HORNI Brig.
Yeah. And uh and also Igo Asana who is who was Charlotte opposite

(01:45:09):
Yodas's Vertere in his Yeah, whenhe was in when he was farder at
Covent Garden last summer. Yeah,before he got sick and had to had
to cut out again. Ah,but yeah, that but she was Charlotte
and she was very good. Uhand uh so she's she's gotten very high

(01:45:33):
praise, and the MET is goingto have her and other productions in the
future. That's guaranteed. They're goingto do that. They're going to have
her other productions in the future.Uh and uh. Of course, as
I said, aspect Goriyan who wasturned dot uh last last month, is

(01:45:56):
going to be in as Churchissan inuh in Madama Butterfly later. But yeah,
and of course the ones that we'vemissed, which was the story of
Malcolm X and uh and uh.But if there you know, there are

(01:46:18):
other things that we've probably that weyou know, that we did not get
to see along the way that we'rein all Florencia and UH and all Amazonas.
We're gonna we're going to one daycome out on MET on demand.
Who watched those? But uh So, like I said, like Anna said,
you're not gonna get it rid ofus just yet because guess what,

(01:46:39):
guys, there's more bullshit that's gonnacome down the pike, you know it,
you know, news wise, Andof course, like I said,
it's almost time for the UH offerthe opera houses to release their UH schedules
for next season, so we'll seewhat everybody has in store, and of

(01:47:02):
course you know this is gonna bein Logic Conda. Uh. He's got
four concerts next month, uh topromote his album The Sound of Mute Movies.
He's uh or yeah, it's likeI like to call it the sound
of pandies dropping. Uh. Therehe's got Uh. He's got Logic Conda

(01:47:23):
at the end of March and beginningin through April. And that's in Salzburg
that he goes to Naples and doesLogic Conda. No, does he get
Yeah, he goes to say hegoes Naples and does that and then he
has at the in UH at theend of May, beginning of June.

(01:47:43):
He's got Andrea in London. Uh. So he's gonna be a busy bee
over the summer. And he's gotsome Puccini concerts later this year. On
top of the fact that he becomesthe uh the director starting this starting this

(01:48:05):
year, he becomes the director ofa music festival in Austria or mcgart.
He's gonna be a music He's gonnabe the musical, the the director of
a of a music festival in Austria. So uh, yeah, he's gonna

(01:48:27):
be he's gonna have a full plate. So I'm hoping that when they release
that, when uh, the BSOreleases their schedule, because they're going to
be releasing the schedule for the OperaFestival for twenty twenty five, I hope
he's going to be there. Iwill cry. If he's not gonna be
there, you fight, I fightbecause I'll be like I have waited.

(01:48:56):
I'll be at that point in time, I will have waited two years to
see him either either in concert,in a recital or in an opera,
and I better see it. Ibet see his ass there in Munich.
Look, there's a chance he will. You do realize the chance of him
taking his pants off during the operaor slim to none. I don't care.

(01:49:21):
I'll get this pants off one way. Or does dude, you have
to ask nicely with consent, ofcourse, Yeah, with consent of course,
of course. If I'm I gotI got back into crucheing. I

(01:49:45):
discovered the art of crocheting to makeit look like knitting. So I so
I bought my brain just my brainjust went does that mean? Does that
mean it's called Chris shitting? It'scalled chron Okay, so it's not crochitting
good because that's where my brain whatmy brain did. And well, now

(01:50:14):
I want to call it that.I'm not sorry now I want to call
it that. It's it's actually calledTunisian crochet. Oh but yeah, but
I want to call now I wantto call it or cro knitting, but
I want to call it crochetting.Now cronitting is actually probably the best one

(01:50:36):
way to do it, just theway to say it, because yeah,
cronitting, I don't want to callit. But but between you and me,
it's it's crocheitting. But anyway,I'm going to hell whatever. But

(01:50:59):
anyway, I have I have threeskeins of one hundred percent wool yarn and
his favorite color red, and I'mgoing to Tunisian crochet to make it look
like knitting. Uh, a scarffor him. I that's and if I
can't if if I if I makethe scarf and then he's not going to

(01:51:20):
be there next year, I will. I will fight. You fight,
I fight, m you fight.Oh yeah, but uh but but that
is our our podcast for today.Guys. Remember next week we have Carmen,

(01:51:44):
so we'll be we'll be talking aboutit's a it's a brand new production.
So we'll get to compare it toother productions we've seen. We'll get
to talking and I will be well, uh, we'll get a day pass
from Horny Jail. Yeah, willuh and and we'll have a well,
uh, well, I'll try tokeep her from having an orgasm on on

(01:52:09):
on the air. Uh. Look, I have some self restraint. She'll
get that outurge system while we're watchingit. He's going to be in a
uniform oops o her pants. He'slike like oops, Horny oops. The

(01:52:45):
Horny brig Brigades here. Yeah,hopefully we'll get to see uh, we'll
get to see uh another another roundof the uh the met opera, Tiny
tiny opera, tiny you inquire,Yeah, the Metal for Tiny Human Brigade.
I love the Metal for Tiny HumanBrigade. Yes, hope as we

(01:53:09):
call it. Love to call itthe first Met Tiny Human Brigade. Yes.
So we'll well, we'll get it, we'll review, we'll review that
production, and then of course thetwo weeks we'll talk to Nyrie about about
uh hunting Redel and ten Analys.So those that's your that's uh, that's

(01:53:35):
that's our uh, the next twoweeks with you guys. So Uh,
as always, we thank you.I get I get these speaker, I
get my uh speaker weekly updates.Uh. And I see in our our
listenership the downloads have not dropped off, They have not been down to zero.

(01:53:56):
People are still downloaded our episodes.UH. So thank you guys for
doing that. Thank you for stickingwith us, because you know we're not
leaving h and you know you couldand as you as we've told you before
you we were on all kinds ofplatforms. We're on Apple, We're on

(01:54:18):
Spotify, We're on we're on iHeart. I think I think Stitcher went away,
but by yeah, goodbye bye.But we're still on iHeart and Apple
and Spotify and all those other goodand Amazon Music. But and of course

(01:54:42):
you know we wouldn't be here withoutyou guys. Yeah, yeah, you
know, sticking with us. Andalso we are Yeah, I'm good.
And I was thinking of a newT shirt design, uh listing all of
uh of Johann Sebastian Box kids,including PDQ Box and PDQ on something that

(01:55:13):
looks like Scotch tape. Yes,oh yeah, oh yeah, we'll be
doing that and uh and so thanksto w W E and our truth for
doing that for giving us an idea. Props to the credit where credit is

(01:55:41):
due. Yeah, our tid ison social media. We could we could
be like dude, we had thisidea. Yeah, thank oh my gosh.
And and also we we're still we'restill on the lookout for the person

(01:56:03):
who bought our bitch Lasagna shirt.Yeah, who the fuck? We've never
found out who. We want toknow because we want to thank you.
Yes, the most obscure reference inthe entire in there, in our entire
podcastanis in our entire merchandise listing.And if you purchased the Bitch Lasagnia shirt,

(01:56:29):
please come forward. Yes, willeven will even send you something you
know from another item from tea public. Yeah, as thanks for buying it.
Well, we'll do that, Wewill do that. But just come

(01:56:50):
forward and you know, and andlet us know you know who you who
you are, and why you boughtit, and do you wear it in
public? You know, just justlet us know. And and of course
you know we're on Facebook. SoI'm gonna put the I'm gonna put our

(01:57:12):
I'm gonna put the links in.Yeah, I'm gonna put the link to
the Weader circle, our Wader circle, uh little ad up there uh on
there, and also maybe I'll putmaybe I'll put I'll put the link again
for the abduction of a ure Ouh on there as well, because god

(01:57:33):
damn it. That was great.But don't forget next week we have we
have Carmen at the met to review, so uh until next time. Until
then, uh stay trashy. Welove you. We'll talk to you next
week. Bye all. By