TMVR-Time Capsule-06-The Nineties

In this bonus casual laissez-faire episode, Al & Ryan reminisce about how the 90s shaped us to who we are, collecting obsolete media. and making mixtapes.

Episode Transcript

(00:03):
M VR time Camp. I hada few experiences in high school where an
older like several grades like higher,you know, like kind of like had
some interest in you. I didn't. I had no idea what to do.
Man. It was just so it'salmost kind of like, you know
what, it's kind of strange.I almost felt like it was a turn

(00:25):
off for me really because I thoughtwhy why, Like I don't know what
it is, but I was thinkingwhy, Like I guess, and you
know, it might sound a littleconceited or a little bit forward here,
but I always felt like it wasmore fun to like go try to make
the girl like you than a girlalready likes you, and just being straightforward

(00:46):
about that. Yeah, if agirl kind of like you was kind of
like, you know, it waskind of why is it like that?
Why as a maybe as a man, as a man, as a guy,
you know, pulled up to sassperand you always want to hunt?
Is it? Maybe? Yeah?I for me, I appreciate it when
when the game is already laid outin front of me, and I will
appreciate it. And I will apologizeright now because it sounds this all sounds

(01:08):
stupid, But you know, asagain as a inexperienced teenager, right,
very young, no experience, youknow, coming from a good home,
good family, and then you you, I don't know if you feel the
same, but you know, ifa girl like she's kind of a weird
thing, it is, it is. But now is it like that for
you? Well, it's a littleharder since I'm not as social as well,

(01:30):
I should say in more recent times. In the more recent time,
yeah, yeah, to me,it's like, I don't know, like
I mean, I'm gonna start andconceited here too. It's like like I
guess like every girl that I metat club always wanted to be with me.
That's that's like. And how doesthat make you feel? I I
mean, I just you know,like I just try to be kind.
Really, I don't, you know, because especially most of the times that

(01:53):
I'm when those were happening, I'mI'm committed or Marie committing a relationship.
So I don't flirk back. Idon't you know, I don't cheat on
what were my significant other is.I just can't you know, like I
cut different. I guess, wellit look interestingly, it really does date
back to like the experiences you hadisn't you know, like the rape story
that you just told. Yeah,right, where You're just I can be

(02:15):
very oblivious to That's the thing.I'm very I can get very I'm surprised
actually because I usually like to saythat you're not thinking in that direction.
I was thinking, Oh cool,I'm having a good time. Yeah,
you know, I'm pretty self aware, you know, Like, but at
the same time, it's like there'stimes where I just I just don't I
just don't think about it. Yeahyou know, yeah, but yeah,
but like in high school, youknow, like if a girl wanted to

(02:37):
talk to you and it's kind ofawkward and weird, I'm like, you
were you were super popular. I'msure you knew that, right, Yeah,
you know a lot of girls wantingthe piece of you. Come on,
man, I see you know youare right now. That's how I'm
feeling. You know how I feltback then too. Number one, that's
not true. Number two, that'snot true. But number three, I
love, I love. I thinkit took a long time for for like

(03:00):
I'm especially especially for me, likethe blossoming of feeling comfortable just talking to
people in general and not just girls. You know, at that time,
but just talking to people and like, you know, like because I've always
wanted to establish just kind of likelet's have a like real talk for a
conversation. Yeah. I enjoy thatmore than anything else. Absolutely. I

(03:21):
mean that's that leads to something elsecool. But man, that's kind of
how I got conditioned to to youknow, like not just like make out
and scam and with with girls.I didn't hunt it in a scam or
even make that move. It's it'sit's different. I think it's a more
of a how you're a raised kindof thing because we, you know,
we were raised somewhat similar. Wecame from huge families, Catholic families even
and I don't know if I mean, I don't exactly know like how your

(03:44):
dynamic. And we have a lotof sisters. Yeah, so you know,
like we kind of just kind ofsaw that as a treating women.
Yeah, in in in a wayof like you know, like we're also
the youngest youngest exactly. Yeah,so we we definitely shared that similarity and
and it it you can again whenwhen we try to relate make connections with

(04:06):
people, at least especially especially duringlike high school and those those formative years
it's different, you know, likeI didn't really I didn't have the you
know, I didn't have the theI wasn't able to close anything. You
know. It was more of Ijust like I just enjoyed, right,
you're living there because yeah, Imean, if you overthought it back then,

(04:27):
like you'll never get anything nothing,you know, you never get to
enjoy it. Right. But thething is so like if you went back
in time then, I like,let's say your body just you quantum leap
back to yourself again and you're youknow what you know now, what would
you do? I wouldn't do anythingthere anything, nothing drastically different. I
mean probably by stock Snapple the numberthe number three drink brand at the time,

(04:51):
right drinks. But nothing socially orlike, uh, you know,
just kind of like dealing with peoplenow, I think of an important part
of growing up is is how likelearning how to relate to others, specifically
strangers or people you have just met, because I think it goes along.
It takes a long way, youknow, Like I mean, there's no

(05:12):
other way you have to be socialin life, you know, present time
and back then wherever wherever you are, your your job, right it's there's
always that aspect that you because nowthese times we're living in where every everything
is kind of digital and everything's righton screens, and it's so easy to
be somebody else because you have thisprofile of being whoever you are, whoever

(05:34):
you purport to be. Then youknow, if you never really had that
background, then it's hard to live. I think it's yeah, yeah,
you know what I'm saying. It'snot genuine. It's like it's fake.
Yeah, you're you're you're like,you know, in your own personal Truman
show. Yeah, you know,like even though no one's watching, but
you feel like you're in a Trumanshow all the time. So you have

(05:55):
to be this kind of person.And I brought this up in the previous
episode other you know a podcast,We don't we've on like the imaginary audience,
Like you always feel like people areyou're there's an audience around you,
so you're always kind of acting performingfor everybody. And it's yeah, that's
a scary thing, you know,because you never really make created that foundations
as as being able to relate topeople in a real you know, honest

(06:16):
sense, you know, real senseway. But you know, what are
you gonna do is is a liveand learn, but it's I'm scared for
the young people out. I'm veryscared. Well some are, you know,
some are adjusting better than others.But I think there's gonna be a
whole Yeah there, there's there's acannon warms, the cannon worms already out,
and we don't know what's what's goingto happen, especially when these people,

(06:36):
these kids are now in power,you know, they become bodies of
government making the decisions for populations exactly. And we're only afforded this conversation because
we were of age, like Isaid, yeah, earlier, we're we've
seen the you know what I alwayssay, this was like Virgina x Man.
True, but not only now.We we were on the pre and

(06:59):
then the during and then the postinternet age where it's like we saw that
we participated in all that and againyeah, back to the pre internet.
Al Man, he was always atech dude ever since I've met him.
And the first time that we weretalking about web TV, web TV classic,
like the day I bought web TV, It's like that's I think I

(07:20):
bought the same day the Nintendo sixtyfour launch. I bought my web TV.
It was a ninety ninety ninety eightand the only reason you bought it
because we couldn't. You were youhad at destop that you couldn't get the
internet. Yeah, it was itwas just no. Well, the thing
was it was the comp Usa andit was it wasn't my computer. It

(07:41):
was my brother, my brother inlaw's computer at the where at the apartment
I was living on because I waslooking with them and my and my sister,
and yeah there was a Yeah,he had a he had a comp
Usa. I forgot what the actualcompact It was a compact compact computer that
we probably got a bought a compUsa and not getting the internet, probably
because I don't know, maybe themodem was just too slow or what it

(08:03):
was, or the just can't payfor the internet. But the thing with
web tv is that you can buythe internet through there. You get a
you pay for one year one hundredsomething dollars. I think I forgot what
the star was, but for theentire year one hundred and something dollars,
and you buy the web TV conconsole and is like the size of a
cable box. Magnavox. Yeah,it was a Magnavox it was. There

(08:26):
was a Magnavox and a Sony.It was too right, So yeah,
I got the Sony one because Sonyone came with the keyboard. The keyboard
so you can type in, youknow, and then I think there's a
remote that comes with it too,so you can navigate the screen like a
TV remote. Thing. That's youknow, all Sony made. And yeah,
that's how I first got the Internet. But it was so thrilling.
Yeah, you know, you itwas slow, but you know, immediately

(08:50):
looking up like you know, acult, supernatural kind of stuff. Things
were interested in bands, bands,and it's not like you can play videos.
It was just pictures. Yeah,adding just gifts, gifts pictures that
that's kind of like or a lotof text. Yeah, I could.
Actually you can actually get in chatrooms. You can get in chat rooms
web TV, little chat rooms.They had a little ecosystem going on.
You know, if considering ninety sevenninety you know, that's what twenty five

(09:13):
years ago, that's way that wasadvanced. I was like, you know,
like you had act. It wasexciting right like you came home.
Remember I remember you telling me,man, I get home, and I'm
so excited when I see a redlight because you know, you got what
you got, You got an email. Oh man, I was with the
days, yeah, because I wouldgive you know, back then, when
I was, when I'm a littlemore refined as a social person, I

(09:35):
would give up my web TV emailaddress to any any potential you know,
girls who might be interested. Right, and you sounded cool? Oh yeah,
I just just hit me up onso and so at web tv,
dot net or something that's dot neetor dot com, dot com, slash
lycos geo sites, something something wayback machine, way back machine. But

(09:58):
yeah, yeah, the web TVit was cool basically like but the thing
is it still could not a matchagainst a real computer. No, of
course not, you can't. Butbut the leaning back on your couch or
bed with your little keyboard and you'retyping in things you're looking at that that's
that's memorable. You know, youjust can't do that kind of stuff.
So yeah, that was the youknow, that was my pre internet brain
slowly dissolving, that's right, becauseof that web TV. I was mother

(10:24):
board and his brains. Oh yeah, I was becoming a freaking Johnny demonic.
And then right and Sandance right forgotby that movie Johnny. But now
again the nineties. Man, whenI was living the nineties out, I
hated it. I don't know whyyou didn't like the nineties. I just
felt I was. I dug it, man. I kept I kept as

(10:46):
many memorability as I can. Ikept movie stubs and movies. I watched
shit like that. You know.That's why I found that business card of
yours. That's right. I hada Bank of America business card with the
old logo that all tweeted. Isent, Oh, you mean I exed
in that, that's right. Butyou know, again, living the nineties,
it was hard high school years.And but the thing it was too

(11:09):
like you you were you were tryingto make a living. You're trying to
be That's what it too. Thatwas that was I mean, that's hard.
I was going to college college andback then, you know, like
yeah, like I didn't. Iwas still unemployed for most of the nineties
and the first definitely the first halfof nights. But I was going to
school. And that's justified for myfamily to still live under the roof because
I'm still trying to better myself.Of course, you know, and back

(11:30):
then, like I don't know howyour situation was. But like did they
like, oh, you know,like you're out of here? You know,
not really. But the thing is, I think because of the things
you had to do to enable youto do what you wanted to do,
right, you gotta Yeah, itwas got to have hustles. Yeah,
you really have to hustle, andyou have you're also trying to prove yourself.
You know, we're becoming adults,right and and luckily for us,

(11:54):
just because we're adults, were notimmediately all right, you gotta get out
of here, you gotta move out. You know, we still had we
wanted but then we wanted to dothat. I want to do that.
We wanted to do that again.That's we felt like, you know,
we're living the American dream sort ofwhere it's like, you know, you
go to school, you know,you go to a good job and you
know. But the thing was,uh, like towards the end of the

(12:15):
nineties, when we were able tokind of like do things like move out
and you know, do our ownpersonal things, it's it kind of lost
its luster. But looking back,I realized now, I'm like, man,
I really should have appreciated that timemore because that's that really, you
know, really forge who we arenow, Like that's sitting in front of
me and right here. You know, it's like that's because okay, we

(12:37):
grew up as kids in the eighties, but nineties is really when you're having
those experiences. That's that's socially andlike financially and and like you know,
job careers, school, everything,our intellect exactly shaping all that. Yeah,
and and that was that wasn't Imean in the nineties too, you
know, like we never got reallyinto politics, but you know, apparently

(12:58):
everyone what he hated Clinton, Yeah, but I didn't really. Yeah,
you know that was nice. Iwish I could live in a world where
I don't really have to worry aboutpolitics like affecting us like our daily are
you know, now we're adults.I think that's just how it is as
an adult, Like as an adulttrying to make your trying to live your
life until you die, politics willalways affect it somehow. And and you

(13:20):
know, all this conversation we're havingis it's really just about people who are
listening that are are of our age. It's very similarly to us. And
then it's or people that maybe areyou younger or maybe older. But the
point is that, you know,we would get to these like little milestones
in life and you really have tothink back and kind of just just reflect
on flame from it's fine man,and it's it's swear, you know,

(13:43):
like I'm I'm hooked on like watchingall shows from the nineties. Commercials from
the nineties. Yeah, huge,huge, huge YouTube following for those kinds
of things, exactly as from theeighties. It's just like all of a
sudden, you know, like that, yes, exactly, you know.
Currently I'm I'm I told you guysthis before, but I'm I've been buying

(14:05):
up a lot of like VHS tapes, but not just like your your run
of the mill movie vhs that cameout, but I'm talking about home videos.
Occasionally I will find people's home videosand so you should be like a
voyeuristic experience for you very much so. And to think about why do people
get rid of them? I thinkone they thought, well, you know

(14:26):
the format, right, it's probablydigitize it, hopefully, yes, hopefully.
It's cumbersome. You gotta get aplayer, you gotta get the thing.
It's it's bulky, you know,you gotta So I thought, well,
I guess what I'm cashing in,you know, So I buy them
occasionally and in recent times I've I'vefound retirement parties, I found wedding rehearsals,

(14:46):
and then the actual wedding. Ifound graduation of like you know,
like eighth grade graduation, and thenthe ensuing party act. Dude, these
are people's lives, man. Theykind of in a sense kind of just
threw away you the memories. Right. It's kind of weird, right,
it's yeah, yeah, but it'sso fun watching them. It's so I

(15:07):
mean, I'm sure your families havemade home videos too, like have like
events, right, yes, butwe have no But what were they now?
Nobody hasn't nobody has it, Nope, exactly. I mean, do
you have the VHS tapes of thosetimes that the shaky handicamps and then hey,
what do you think of the thingssay so and so? Yeah,
yeah, things like that. Youknow, there's there's yeah, strip maybe
like family parties. There's like ayou know, there's one it's like my

(15:28):
dad's birthday, you know, likeI was hanging out with a girl.
I liked see that one, LikeI don't know what happened to that video,
but they exist, right, peopleget rid of them, and occasionally
you will find them and it's likewow, capturing, you know, like
yeah, just that, that's thatlittle speck in time. It's slice of
life. Man. I've always lovedthat kind of stuff. I'm saying,
man, But yeah, yeah,I think you know, people just either

(15:52):
it's too traumatic for them, andlet's say the person you know, whoever
the Trasian is devoted to the passand just like I don't want to see
it anymore. You know, there'sa lot of people who feel like that
about those things. You know,but it's kind of doesn't make any sense
because if you look at if yougrabbed everybody's phone, there's like eight thousand
pictures videos all these people they'll neverwatch. They'll never watch, so I'll

(16:14):
never look at they'll never do anythingwith it, and it'll just be in
the ether yea and the cloud bycloud. Yeah, but things like app
Apple take they still have eye cloud, but they got they took, they
got rid of photos streams, streamsare going, Yeah, I don't know
why they got rid of it.But and it's like we do so much.
We have so much access to likekeeping all this, you know,

(16:36):
pieces of information. We don't doanything with it, you know, I
mean we do at least of course, a lot of people do. A
lot of people do. But likeI said, you probably have thousands in
your phone, right and then ohyeah, well I don't have them on
my Phonecus, yeah, I'll blow'llblow up because I'll max it out.
But yeah, like I do backup my phone. I have basically like
most of well there's you know,Luckily, when during the great hard drive

(16:59):
crash of twenty twenty three, Iwas I was still able to save my
backups from you know, my phoneas far as like pictures I've taken in
videos I've taken, So that's fine. But yeah, yeah, the thing
is, bottom line is there's excessfootage out there that's just out in the
wild. And Ryan here is nowa cultivator harvesting. I enjoy them a
curator. It's one of a client. I mean true. You know,

(17:23):
like there's this guy that I followon YouTube. He played he basically like
necessarily review since he's a genius atmaking synth patches. And I admired this
guy so much. And what hedoes is he he would you know,
let's say a new synth drops likethe hydro sin so to speak, right,
and he would make patches out ofit, and then he would basically

(17:48):
advertise his patches you know too,so you can download it, you know,
like the link would be on hison his info and then but he's
playing it, but he's overdubbing hishands playing the instrument over like these eighties
footages, almost random shit could beaparts from a bad movie, a bad
commercial, you know, like ahome video. You'd probably find things like

(18:08):
that. His name is Jexus bythe way, you know, to everyone's
everyone's curious. But yeah, that'shis specialty. He would like he's done
basically every major synth in the marketwith you know, with those kinds of
footage. I mean he would play, he would have funky names for each
patch, and then he would hewould demo it, you know for yeah,
but visuals, I mean, thevisuals don't match well the music sometimes

(18:33):
you would, you know, butthat's just like but I think that's my
accent more than on purpose. Butbut yeah, it's crazy when you watch
his videos. He's fun though.Yeah, I'm sure he's having a blast,
but yeah that that yeah, justlike things like that. When I
think of like throwaway footage and justlike people don't think about it. It's
just like, you know, there'sthis guy who also cultivates it and somehow
transforms it to an art. Yes, and that was that was my original

(18:56):
intent really was trying to capture theseand maybe putting some music to it,
you know, because I think what'swhat's most fascinating is that that it's it's
real, that it really happened,It wasn't stage. There was a purpose
to it. And then if youcan repurpose it with your own kind of
like you know, spend whatever,you add music, where you include into

(19:18):
you know, like a little maybea short movie whatever whatever it is,
it's like he does right, Yeah, then you then the memory lives on
man. Yeah, you know whatI mean. It's like it's all good,
like good vibes. You're just kindof throwing it out there and it
keeps them back. That's boomerang.It keeps you going, keeps you conspired,
you know. So yeah, nowyou got this trove of footages,
you know you're gonna I love collectingthe man, and then you know,
I want to do like a littlea little movie, like a home movie

(19:41):
festival where we just watch randoms.Don't get me wrong. Does does your
family appreciate it? Though? Yesthey do, they actually into it,
Yes, I watch them. Wellcool. Okay, so first of all,
the key is okay, a lotof them are born, don't get
me wrong. Obviously their home videos, right, But it's not about that.
It's about, you know, likethe capturing of a certain moment.
You think the story is more aboutthe person behind the camera. A lot

(20:03):
of it is. There really is. I have one that's from nineteen eighty
three. Who people are are.It's it's a Thanksgiving dinner and the It's
funny because the people he's shooting familymembers, they're not as interesting nor interested
in what's happening. But him promptingthem makes it all the better because he's
he's you hear him get frustrated.He you hear him trying to like urge

(20:27):
them, get them going on somesort of a topic in a conversation.
But sometimes they don't bite, youknow, so he has to kind of
like uh huh, yeah exactly.It's not like capturing the freedman's or anything
like I'm probably gonna finding that's thegoal. That's the that's the that's the
jackpot actually right, and you canyou can make then you're gonna start a
documentary about this footage. Say,Okay, you watch a lot of true

(20:49):
crime, right, and a lotof the true crime, don't they always
they're always like that's the thing,like if I'm gonna get killed, I
shouldn't shoot. That's like automatic thatI'm gonna get killed. And then I'm
not the one who lights up aroom. I don't. I certainly don't
want that treatment. But vhs huhyeah, I know you got into DVDs.
It's like hardcore, right you collectedthem? Yeah? Still, yeah,

(21:12):
I stopped, you know, basically, like what's the blur ray thing?
Like that's it? No more.I haven't bought a single four K
video, But I guess feel likethe VHS has has a certain feeling to
it. Yeah, it's still Idon't know. I mean, it didn't
last that long, right, whateighties two would last a long time through?
Yeah, it's still bled through theearly two thousand. Yeah, I
mean, you're right, that's true. But as far as like a thirty

(21:34):
year dominance basically because as soon asthe DVDs, people were kind of like
they kind of shown all the DA. They became like ninety nine cents you
can just buy them, you know, the rack. But yeah, there's
something about VHS, the quality,you know, the tracking, tracking of
course blurriness. I saw a videolike someone filmed of how a VHS works,

(21:56):
so basically, you know, aVHS player without the top on it,
so you see how a tape wouldget spread out and distributed within a
VHS player. So you see themechanics of it. But that was really
interesting. Yeah, it kind oftook it for granted because it takes a
tape all the way over, itspreads it out. I'm like, whoa,

(22:17):
which is similar to not not assimilar, but you know, like
like tapes. Yeah, you knowagain you have a certain quality in the
sound of it, the feel oftapes. But I'm really looking for is
voice tapes. Man, I can'tfind any voice tape. Remember we talked
about voice tapes before, which isyou know, people who can't afford to
call somebody oh or abroad. Uhhuh. Instead you create a voice tape.

(22:41):
Yes, you know how you doing. We're just here doing this and
right. Yeah, so that wassuch a big thing. Yeah, we
did too. You know, peoplewho went abroad to like earn some earn
a living and send money back.You can't call it so expensive, right,
yeah, for countries, so insteadyou send these I couldn't even find
that. I mean, it's possible. It's probably over written already with like
lousy you know, demo tapes andthere four track recordings from Porter Studios.

(23:03):
Do you still have tapes that yourecord off the radio, not off the
radio. I just made mix tapesfrom our records, but not not nothing
off nothing off the radio. Igot basically you know, the old Mary
children Sins recording. Still I stillhave that because I had quite a few
of the just recording radio music,you know, And I kind of like
listening back onto those two because Iwish I had them. Yeah, because

(23:25):
you heard a little cut off onyou know, like how radio sounded back
exactly, Yes, and it's it'snot really that different because I said that
different. But don't you feel likewhen you're listening to in your car the
tinniness it's too much from I can'tlisten to radio in the car because the
weak things are mixed now it's it'stoo much. It's so high pitched it
gets in my crime and I can'ttake it. You don't think it's it's
you're hearing. It's also changed.Well, it's the quality of the speakers

(23:48):
and cars. You got like eightspeakers, and I don't know how it's
mixed tweeters, but it's also myears. Yeah, but it does not
sound the same as when you wouldjust record off for a stereo or absolutely
not dubbing. It was all analogs. It was all analog. That's the
thing. There's this layer of ofI don't know, like blurry film,
so to speak, on an audioin my lare on tape. I wanted

(24:11):
to bring this up to it's withmixtapes. Now you still make mixtapes I
see anymore? Really, I meanpeople do Spotify playlist, which I didn't
even Spotify account. I don't understandit. Man, I can imagine kids
today I made your YouTube playlist.You do, but you know because you
don't really bust. But dude,I love of making mixtapes for friends,
for girls, for just for us, for ourselves to take them, you

(24:34):
know, to take to school.It was such a cool thing. Yeah.
I love cultivating that shit, man, Like even the most random ship.
Oh you got like three minutes lefton exactly. You gotta put in
m own side, right. Ibrought that up and up. It's just
how are you doing? I'm growingup now. I'm four foot to recognize.

(24:56):
By the way, in the latethousands out we had a Christmas party
or one of our old house houseswhere we you know, we all lived
together, one of our uh whatdo you call that, like a kind
of like a collective sort of youknow, but we had it. We
threw a Christmas party and one ofthe theme was, rather than doing a

(25:17):
Secret Santa, it was a secretsantape, but with a mixtape. So
you would pick the name and youwould have to give them a mix tape.
That's awesome. It was fun.Yeah, it was cool. And
then and then the culmination, ofcourse, is everybody coming down and you
would give the tape and then youknow, but the the the criteria was
they had to be a mixtape.They had to actually be a tape,
you know. So we it wasfun and people got you know, came

(25:41):
down and drank and partied and thenlistened to their tapes. And if you
wanted to play it for everybody likewhat you got, you got to do
that too. So that's cool.That's cool, But like, how long
would these mixtapes be like thirty misup to you? You know, like
if you if if you were lookingenough to get to ninety t DKs.
You know, baby, almost ofthose tapes back then, where will you
buy like a six bias back forgetabout it? I bias. Oh,

(26:03):
he's low bias, no bias,have a Len bias all right? He
died. Len Bias was a coach'scass. Lenn Wilkins never Lenn Bias was
the second round draft pick of theCeltics back in nineteen eighty six. Who
the day, the day, theday he got drafted. He had a
hard tack he had he partied withso much cocaine. Yeah, and then

(26:27):
he died, like he never gotto play for the Celtics. But anyway,
he had low bias. Oh man, there's so many thrift stores these
days. Man, these tapes,I mean, I think you know,
like if you can find blank ones, hoard them because there's gonna be a
there's gonna be a demand for that. And what you probably didn't he never

(26:48):
knew was all the different cases camein because we're the designs on because we
have the traditional one then there's onesthat kind of class class one to get
slid in and with lenticulars on themto attract the how cutting edge it is
exactly. Yeah, people were tryingto like, you know, like innovate,
you know, yeah, but man, I forgot about the class thing.

(27:08):
It's like like, oh action,exactly. It's one of those I
forgot about this man mixtapes. RememberPaul's mixtape called Great Songs We Love.
The title of it was just calledthis Great Songs. Yeah, it's just
called it great songs. They werea great times. Yeah, they were
great songs. They were eighties music, but nice. He called this mixtape
great Songs. I love it.Paul, what do you have? Why

(27:30):
do you name this great Songs?Because they're a great songs? Great not
good songs, A great time,they're great. You know. My first
girlfriend now freshman year in high school, the she for Valentine's her gift.
Her gift was a mixtape, andher her mixtape was primarily all oldies music.

(27:55):
I'm your Puppet. Yeah, alot of a lot of good classic
you know, always in forever right, yeah, slow dance, slow dance
songs and uh, you know Itold you this before I am so bumming
out that I threw that away.You guys, I got older. You
move around. How many times you'vemoved? Yeah, you just forget those
and it's those tape I don't havea tape player anymore. You get rid
of it. And you know,as an old man, I'm like,

(28:18):
she had all this stuff. Butshe you know, she curated songs that
she loved that she probably grew upwith, her parents, probably instilled in
her as she grew up, right, and you know, like it's one
of those things that it's filtered throughyou. So yeah, of course it's
special, you know, of course, and not only that she gave it
to you on a special occasion.You know. Man, that relationship lasted
exactly what twenty nine days? Thirtyone days? Man, that's crazy.

(28:41):
But the thing is like it feltlike that was the entire world was my
world, you know, for inthose those early parts of the relationship,
Like you can't see life without them, you know, but things like so
much life after that much you couldn't. But but you can't fathom it because
we were we were young, smallminded man, and small minded you know
she was she actually she was veryexperienced, like she would she had boyfriends

(29:06):
already, you know, And andI was like, I said, you
know, I previously said I'm anerd. I'm barely getting into the whole
talking to the opposite sex, youknow. But she gave me that,
and she she felt that I wastoo. I wasn't like aggressive. I
think it would be the term,you know. Well, I'm sure her
boyfriends were, you know, I'msure this probably was a carryover kind of

(29:29):
filing. She expected that because that'swhat happened to her. Yeah, And
I don't blame her. That's herexperiences, right, what are you gonna
do? And we just didn't lockand key match unfortunately, where it was
like I was a little bit tooslow or I was a little bit too
behind in the in the progression,and she was a little bit more ahead,
and we couldn't meet in between,you know. But it was fun.
But what does she want you todo? Though, like like fucking

(29:51):
like work, you know, andwe're already and like provider to give her
a house is to stay in andwhat the hell I think? Because you
know, we kind of not thinkabout this so much because as a guy,
we were always seeing the guys alwaysthey that's all testoster and now.
But guess what, these girls arealso very interested in the physical side of
relationship. They want to be theywant to be like noticed, They want

(30:12):
to be kind of like, youknow, like physically like the affectations of
kind of just you know, Butis that what she wanted, like like
affections for me, like holding handsor slapping her ass and like that much.
I think I think just you know, going through the motions of of
of a teen, you know,where it's like, you know, there's
a lot of kissing and a lotof that kind of stuff or a lot

(30:36):
of PDAs. I think that wasone of the things because high school,
man, I can only speak withthe high school times of the nineties for
me. You know, people werewild, man, people were doing their
thing and in front of everybody,right, I mean, unfortunately it's an
all boys school. Well you kindof you didn't know, maybe you know
the after school once the sister schoolgirlfriends come in, you know, you

(30:59):
getting story, you get you getthat. That's where you see the thing.
I'm like, oh, okay,that's how it works exactly. Yeah.
Well I'm waiting for the bus,you know. But you know,
one thing I always realized that there'sa lot of love. I always love
all the letters are I love you. I love you like no man's like
that same like you know, likeI'll cut this part out, but like
the same night when I was,you know, I find your business cards

(31:21):
like love letters. Man, yougot it. You went down the rabbit
hole. It went a little rabbitholder because they're all kept in the same
spot. That's why, you know, like my basically my nineties, my
nineties little album or whatever. Solike oh okay, fine, like all
love all love letters, like youknow, like I'm my undying devotion to
you. I love you more thanI love myself. And then after like
seeing the whole how the relationship turnedout, it's like that's a fucking life,

(31:45):
you know, but all of asudden, you're Lord Byron. Yeah
there's so much right, Yeah,a lot of you know, it's like
it felt, it felt. Itsounds great to you to be told that,
to be written that. But howabout like like I didn't really mean
it, but I did it againgoing through the motions of I thought,
that's what you would say to people, you know, to women, to

(32:07):
your partners or whatever, you know, because like you I went up into
my attic at home and I pouredthrough my my belongings and guess what I
came across old love letters. I'mtalking like mid nineties five six. I'm
like, well, this is crazy, and it's like I didn't want to

(32:28):
throw them away. I kind offelt bad throwing them. I still,
I mean, you know, you'llknow when you can. And it's funny
because my partner made a few jabsat me. I didn't show it.
Some letters, were you embarrassed?I was not embarrassed, but I think
she was a little bit miffed,which is understandable. But at the same
time, I thought, well,you know, it's not like there's any

(32:51):
meaning to it anymore. It's partof my life, right, And again
it's it's very It's akin to melooking at old VHS tapes or old tay
that's all it is, yea memories. Yeah, that was my life.
I don't bother anybody who had thoseexperiences because that's that's who they are.
That's who they are, and that'swhat that's why you're here now basically,
right. But man, everything wasabout love and how much love was happening,

(33:15):
how much love was going on where'sthat now? Gave it all to
you. Man, very next dayhe's been drying, dude. I mean
you know that's it's young love man. You know, like you say these
things like oh, I can't seemyself without you, or oh I don't

(33:36):
know there's no nothing exists, youknow besides that, right, Yeah,
until you realize like, oh,you know, and just you get enough
heartbreak that you just just numb tothose feelings anymore, and you just you
know, you become more cynical.Really, do you feel like you really
meant it? Though I felt likeit. Yeah, okay, yeah,
you know, you're right, Ifelt like it. But I mean,

(33:58):
you know, there's always the temptationtoo, because you know, there's always
you know, like a potential ofsomeone hotter or better, richer or whatever,
and rich if he's hotter and Richard'sover No, I mean, I
wasn't that shallow. I'd like tothink I'm not that shallow, but I
just never got the opportunity. Butanyway, yeah, just you know,
but back then I didn't have thatforesight of or you know, just like

(34:20):
I was just living in the now. It wasn't you know, like maybe
someone hotter will come along getting outof this shy that's an awful way of
always work. Of course, absolutely, you know sometimes I mean it can
get you into trouble too, youknow, like if you see red flags
that are just like oh, youknow, like this is not good.
Yeah, you should walk out ofthat. And I'd like to think that

(34:43):
there's a lot of carry over fromthat part of my life to current relationship,
you know, like just because Ithink a lot of it has to
do with like, back then,you didn't really refuse to understand and settle
with what was happening, because no, no, we're supposed to be together.
You know that you have is thatthat in the back of your head?
But now it's like, you know, all that patience that you should

(35:05):
have, you should be really allowingto happen because it's hard right as you
get older and there's so many otherthings at stake all around you, and
it's like like it's easy to likebe upset and blow up because you know,
because then we have the luxury ofbeing an old person and saying,
well, at this point it shouldbe like this, but it's not like
this. You still have to havethe you know what I mean, the

(35:28):
understanding and the patience and all thatstuff. It's it's hard, right,
It's just nothing you can really do. It's just it's all about perspective and
if, if, if you don'thave a clear one, you're in big
trouble. You know. So Iknow what you mean. But the nineties
that defined I think a lot ofwho we are, and I still pined
for it now as it should,as it should. I mean, if

(35:49):
you're just drone down the night,is not doing anything, and then we
would just be like husks, rightright, right, probably be like out
of shape and you know, notas creative, probably collecting unemployment. Who
knows the lead time caps