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Transcript
Hbo max has changed its name to max. Your move, peacock.
Hello, and welcome to episode 196 of the Erasable Podcast. Tonight we're featuring our Tools of the Trade for the entire episode. I'm Johnny, and I'm here with two guys who are definitely not tools and whom I would never, ever trade away for even the rarest of limited editions, even Blackwing two 11s. Andy and Tim. Hey, guys.
Hello. I was wondering what you're going to say about Tools and reference us, but
I wanted to work in the band, but it's kind of dark for this time of year.
Nice. Yeah. It's good to talk to you guys.
Yeah.
Yeah. So we've been cutting out Tools of the Trade a lot lately because some. Sometimes our episodes get a little long. So tonight we thought we would just do Tools.
Tim's always like, Here are the 12 albums I've listened to lately that I have to tell you all about. Yeah.
Yep, yep, yep, yep, yep, yep, yep.
That's how it goes. Yeah. Tonight we're going to talk about stuff we've been listening to, stuff we've been watching, reading, and of course, stuff we've been using. So you want to start us off, Mr. Andy, with what you've been listening to?
Yeah, I think the latest thing I've been listening to is the record, which is the new and first studio album by Boy Genius, which is Julian Baker, Phoebe Bridgers and Lucy Dawkis. And I think I had seen an SNL episode with Phoebe Bridgers and mentioned how great she was. And then, Tim, you were just like, oh, you have to listen to all of this other stuff, like the. Whatever social club now. What is it called? Her.
Well, because actually the Boy Genius stuff has been like a blank, like, whatever you call it, a blind spot for me. Yeah, like her. Her. Her solo album that had just come out around then is probably what I talked about.
Yeah, yeah, that was really good. And then she. I think she and Julian Baker did one too that was called, like, something Community center or. I can't.
Well, that's. That's the one she did with the guy from Bright Eyes, right?
Yeah, that's right. That's right. That's right.
Yeah.
What's his name?
Yeah, but yeah, there's just like a. Just a rotating group of, like, Better Oblivion Community Center.
Connor Oberst. Is that. Yeah, yeah. Connor Oberst.
Yeah, yeah. Anyhow, she is Phoebe Bridges kind of just has, like. Just a still random kind of, like, collection. Sometimes she tours with Taylor Swift and sometimes she's doing, like, the super kind of like indie sounding thing, but it's just. Yeah, that's really nice. It's very mellow and you know, very kind of like quiet email. So big, big fan of that.
I'm also.
So one of the things I did, I guess when I talk about what I'm listening to is I've been trying to just like save a little money from all of the. Just various subscription services I had. So I canceled Spotify and I've just been using Apple Music and it's going okay.
Did you have both before?
I had both before and I was paying, I was paying for the, for Apple Music through like that Apple one subscription where you just have like TV and music and news and all that stuff. So I was also paying for Spotify and I was just like, why am I doing both? So canceled. Canceled that A little bit harder for me to navigate around Apple Music because it's been so long since I've used it. I think I played with it when it came out and. But I've been using Spotify just pretty consistently for a long time. So trying to get used to that still, but it's going pretty well.
Have you tried any of those websites that'll like transfer your playlists?
Oh no.
Oh that's.
Yeah. Where like you can put in like your Spotify and your Apple Music and it'll like automatically create the playlists for you in whatever service you're switching to. I've not tried one yet, but I've been curious when I switched. There's one called From Spotify to Amazon.
There's one called tunemymusic. Com. There's one called Soundies. S O U N D I I Z okay, I'll try this.
Mm.
That's like I did. I didn't even think that that could be something that existed.
Yeah, you have to pay if it's going to be like a certain amount of music. Yeah, there's like a small amount you can do for free here. Yeah, it's worth checking out.
What's weird is my Apple Music still has like all of the playlist folders from when it was itunes and none of that. I don't, I don't know where any of that downloaded music is. Like if I. That still exists. So all those folders are empty. But I have things on there that I created like like literally 20 years ago. So it's been a while. Just like CD rips. I would get a CD from the library and like rip it into my itunes.
Oh, what?
Oh yeah, I did that. All the time. That was like. That was the core of my library of jazz that I got when I was in high school was like, that was the only kind of music I could get from the library. I get, like dozens of them every week.
I had a. One of the first cd, like, external USB CD burners. I worked at Best Buy when I was in high school and I had a CD burner. So I would like music from the library and like, con, like, put it on my computer and convert it, then burn it onto a CD and like, keep it, read it for myself or give it to friends or whatever. And it would take forever because, like, I couldn't burn that at like, any more than like 2x speed and ripping. It was nuts. Not more than that. So it just took. And then also, like, if somebody was like, stomping by and shaking the floor, like, often the CD would fail.
Those are the days.
Have I told. Have I told the story on here about, like, getting in trouble in middle school for burning CDs? No, I feel like I have. Have I not told this story?
You were just a music copying kingpin?
No, the opposite. I was. I was. No, I. I tell this story sometimes with friends because I'm like, this is what saved my musical taste. Because I was in middle school. I was like, in sixth, seventh grade, probably seventh grade. And it was like, right when, like, CD burners were, like, getting to be a little more. Yeah, you know, of a regular. And I had this buddy, Dimitri, and I was like. And he's burning CDs, and he's like, I'll burn you some CDs. It's like, okay, I'll give you five bucks for five CDs. And he was like, okay. And so he burns me five CDs, I give him five bucks. I take them home. They are some real doozies. Like, like, like Ja Rule. And there's a DMX album. There was Korn. It was like, all stuff that, like, people would not expect based on what I listen to now. And, you know, I put some stuff on there. Like, you know, I like, I think it was a green day, like American Idiot or something, like one of those albums or something. But it was these five CDs. And then all of a sudden, I got called into the principal's office for the only time in my entire life. And the principal, who was clearly just had no idea what it meant to burn CDs, he was like, what do you know about copyright infringement?
And I was like, download a car.
And I, like, went home and my dad had, like, called the police and was like, what are the punishments for copyright infringement? I was like, dad, I just bought these off of a friend, you know? But it was. I was like my brother and I had to, like, play the CDs so you could hear, like, what I had gotten pirated copies of.
It's nice. Your principal was in the pockets of, like, big music.
Yeah, yeah. Sony was paying him under the table. He looked like Andre the Giant. He was gigantic. He's just like this.
Oh, that is a scary principle to have.
Yeah, yeah.
Did he make himself the posters that say obey.
He should have principal.
So and so has a poster. I mean, would. Would Shepard Fairy come after you for copyright infringement?
Eventually, yeah. Wow.
So, yeah, anyhow. Yeah, that's a good. I will try converting Spotify to. I don't think that's a great idea. I'm also trying to listen to podcasts again. Like, it's embarrassingly so. Like, during the pandemic, I really didn't listen to many podcasts because most of the time I would listen, it was during my commute to and from work. And I been picking up a little bit, but I haven't listened to many, many podcasts recently. And now on Tuesdays and Thursdays, I'm going. I'm commuting into an office. So I've been. Been listening to podcasts a little bit more. So still listening to all my various Merlin man shows like Roderick on the Line and Irreconcilable Differences and stuff like that. But there's a few more. There's one that a couple people do called. I think that toffer recommended this to me, but it's called. Oh, shoot. What is it called? Consumed. It's basically just about, like. Like, it started off just about, like, consumables, and here's the different. Different kinds of, like, vegan meats. And here's. Hold on. What is it called? All consuming. Sorry, that's what it's called. It's Noah Kalina, who's a photographer, and Adam Lissagore, who runs Sandwich Video. And did you look nice today? So that's really good. And yeah, just a few other ones just around there. So trying to. Trying to pick that stuff back up. That is about it for what I'm listening to. But how about you, Tim? What's. What's your. What's your weekly 16 albums that you're listening to every day?
Oh, gosh. Yeah. No, it's. It's an addiction, that's for sure. But my. My first One which is just in anticipation of not, like, recording an episode next week. But I've talked at length about my love for Jason Isbell. Yeah. My favorite songwriter on the planet. And he has a new album coming out next week called Weather Veins, and he has three singles out now. There's one called Death Wish, which there's a. If you can. If you can. It's not that hard.
If you can.
If you go on Instagram and find Jack White from the White Stripes, he recorded, like, a pretty incredible cover, like, solo cover of the song, the new song Death Wish by Jason Isbel. Because. And then it's like one of those things where when you hear it and you listen to it, you're like, oh, yeah, this is totally a Jack Whites, Jack White song. The way he sings. So, yeah, it's like Death Wish. There's one called Cast Iron Skillet. The opening lines are, don't wash your cast iron skillet. Don't drink and drive. You'll spill it. Which is pretty great line. And. Yeah. And then don't play with guns, you'll kill it. Yeah. Is that one of the lines?
No, that's. I just made that one.
Oh, gosh. Yeah, that's pretty good. That's pretty good.
Look at me. I can write songs.
So, anyways, that's coming out next week, so I'm super pumped because that documentary which I talked about recently, running with your eyes closed on HBO Max is so good.
I'm sorry, HBO Max? You just mean Max.
Oh, I'm sorry. God forgive me, Max.
I saw on HBO Executive is real mad right now.
Yeah, yeah. Oh, wait, wait, don't tell me. This week they were like. Yeah, that's right. HBO Max has changed its name to Max. Your move, peacock. Like, excellent, excellent. Yeah. So I've also been listening to a podcast that I discovered called Wong Notes, which is done through the network of Premier Guitar, which. Corey Wong is this guitar player who hosts it, and he has this, like, famous YouTube channel. I guess I didn't know this, but he's. He plays this, like, sort of funk jazz guitar, but he just has guitarists on all. All the time to talk about their gear and, like, their, like, how they think about playing. It's a really good podcast. He's really charismatic. But one of his. He's in a band called. He's in several projects, but one of them is called Wolfpeck. You ever heard of Wolfpeck? They headline festivals and stuff. Like, they're pretty big, but there's like this sort of super funk big Band that plays and. But he interviewed his guitarist, Theo Katzman, and I was like, gosh, this is a really good interview. And then I went to one of my favorite songwriting podcasts, was called Soda Jerker on songwriting. And they interviewed him as well about songwriting. I was like, gosh, who is this guy? He's a good guitar player and he can write songs. This is amazing. But he has a new album out that's called Be the Wheel. Yeah, Theo Katzman. It is fantastic. I've been listening to it all week. It's. It's a really good album. Be the Wheel is this, you know, song about. It's like the, the lyrics, like, to paraphrase the lyrics is something like, don't try to be the car. Don't try to be the. The horse and buggy. Like, you just need to be the wheel. Like kind of this idea of like just the wheel's the thing that changed it all. So, like, think simply. Like, think simply and just like, I don't know. So it's like, it sounds cheesy when you say it loud, but, like, the song is so good and it's such a. Album's a lot of fun. So check it out. And then another podcast that I finally got back into listening to, and I have like a huge disclaimer on this one. The content is awesome, but it's one of those podcasts from, like, you don't have to use your newscaster voice when you read. They're just going like this that you wrote. They're like. And then Ernest Tubb did. It's like, welcome to the Erasable podcast. But it's. It's called Cocaine and Rhinestones. And it is a sort of like deep dive history of country and Americana music podcast that's done by the son of David Allen Coe.
Oh, wow.
His name's Tyler Mahan company The content again is like, really good. But at least like this first season that I'm listening to right now, and the episodes are long. Like, he'll be like, he. He goes all in. He'll do like a three hour episode. It's almost like the. What's that History podcast? Hardcore history. It's like the. It's like country music's hardcore history or something. But he definitely has like the Midwestern newscaster voice sometimes. Yeah. Here at the beginning. But yeah, I'll stop myself there. There's a lot of new music coming. There's. There's a lot of new music coming out. I'm super excited. So, like, keep an eye out for that new Jason Isbill album. And then Bob Dylan has an album coming out on Friday.
Oh, wow.
Which just a little.
Little new artist.
Well, you probably never heard of sort of new album, but it's called Shadow Kingdom and it's basically like a live album where he is playing the, like, 2020. It was recorded last year. It's like the 2022 versions of some of your favorite songs. Because that's like, he's infamous for, like, never Stopping, revising songs and, like, changing lyrics and changing arrangements and all this stuff. So it's like the newest versions of it, and I'm super excited.
I would love to hear an updated version of, like, the Times they are Changing.
Oh, yeah, it's.
It's.
I think it's.
Although I think that's classic, I think it's still relevant to today.
Oh, yeah, it will be in 3400.
Yeah.
YouTube did that in March. They put out a big album, like, reimagining some. A lot of their songs, but they're all slower.
They're all what?
Like.
Did you say slower?
Yeah. A lot of them sound like if they were how old they are now when they wrote.
Well, I thought you said.
I thought you said slur. Like, they're all slurs.
Yeah, they're getting really old.
You know, that's the. The Dead and company. Like, I think they're great, but, like, their shows have just been like. They play everything, like, at half speed. I'm just like, come on, guys.
See that? You know, the last time I saw you two, like, they put on a show, like, how do you do this different, like, at any age, let alone, no offense, your age. I'm not that old.
I know. If you're listening to this, please don't take offense.
Tim said it.
Yeah. Bono, I love you.
Very, very friendly man.
Yeah. Thank you for doing so many good things for the world. That's all I've got. So, Johnny, you want to keep rolling?
Sure. So I'm kind of hard pressed to say what I've been listening to lately because. So I started making this playlist for my mailing list, like, five or six weeks ago that was supposed to be, like, I don't know, more upbeat stuff because the last one I put out was called Melancholy March, and it was pretty, pretty downbeat. But I've gotten, like, obsessed putting stuff on and taking stuff off. It's eating up all my music listening time. But last week, for some reason, I started listening to Bush for, like, an hour. And if you're not my age, Bush was one of those late grunge bands that was like, in retrospect, almost a parody of grunge. Like, they had a song called Everything Zen. Like, could you reference Nirvana more? They were just kind of.
I've heard of Bush, but I don't think I've ever listened to Bush.
They like, they. They had a thing where they. I don't know, they were dumbing themselves down to try to play grunge and it didn't work. But my brother was really, really into them.
What's their, like, most popular song?
I don't know. Either Everything Zen or Glycerine. How old you are? They did a couple more albums that were. Yeah, very good. Yeah, it was. It's a neat throwback. Look back and be like, why did I like kind of like this? I. I never owned. Back in the days when you had to own them album, but.
Or you could just, you know, pirate it from. From your friends.
This was before CD burners, tape recorders.
Yeah.
When I was in middle school, none of us had CDs yet. Their own cassettes. But, yeah, it's. It's the flip side of, like, if you check out something like me puppets, you're like, why didn't I like this more? This is so cool. But, yeah, and I've been listening to a lot of George Michael for the last, like, two or three months because it's so damn good. And I think I'm old enough that I can just be like, yeah, I like George Michael.
Yeah, Tool and George Michael. That's what. That's what Johnny's into.
But they did. They did an unplugged show that was like, just ridiculous. So good. The version of Father Figure is like the best unplugged version of anything, except with the one of Freedom. He was really good. But, yeah, I. I've sort of been playing music again with a couple of my friends. I'm like, like cover Father Figure. If I, like, play the keyboard part, little bass, that's a rap hole. So. Yeah. So how about we jump onto stuff we're watching. You want to go first again, Andy?
Sure. Have either of you ever seen Steven Universe?
I feel like my kids have had it.
Yeah.
I feel like I've never even heard of it.
So it's kind of like. It's kind of like Adventure Time. In fact, I think Rebecca Sugar, who was a writer on Adventure Time and left to go do Steven Universe, it has a lot in common. It's kind of like a. They do like 11 minute episodes and it's kind of like marketed as a kids show which, which like kids would like it, but it also has like a lot of very like deep like backstory and lore and they just reveal a little bit more about the sort of like the larger kind of arc kind of like periodically throughout just much like a measured time. And it has a lot of just more adult themes. So it's basically about this kid named Steven. His last name is Universe. His father, like they live in this like kind of like little beachside town somewhere. And his father is just like this kind of bum who lives in his van and runs a car wash. And his mother is a like a alien crystalline entity, like an alien made out of crystals that like saves the universe and was exiled from her home planet trying to rescue her. And so, but, but her mother is like dead and her mother's sort of like friends or sisters or compatriots are kind of raising Steven. And it's, it's, it's really good. Kind of digs into stuff like about gender and sexuality and inclusion and belonging and lots of just like really good themes. So there's, there's 155 episodes and each episode is 10 minutes. So you can just really speed through them. It's really good. I'm really enjoying it. Kind of scratches that same itch that Adventure Time did. And I've been meaning to watch it for years now and kind of never got around to it. So it's, it's, it's really good like that. It's definitely, yeah. Show you can, you can definitely watch with your kids. But also like just as an adult, you know, just As a say 40 year old man, you can watch it. Really get a lot out of it. So I've also just been watching a lot of YouTube lately. Like I think I've been looking for kind of more shorter form things. So been watching some fun like travel and food shows that are on YouTube. There's a channel called how to Drink which is this guy who lives New York, New Jersey somewhere around there and he just makes cocktails and he has good commentary and invents his own cocktails and will like deconstruct things. One of the things that he does that I really love is he goes to like Applebee's or Chili's and he pours the cocktails they have into like big yeti bottles and then takes em home and then tries them and tries, tries to like deconstruct them and make like a better version of them, which is pretty fun. He does a Lot of. Just kind of interesting. He made a. He made an Agnestura bitters ice cream the other day that was really interesting. Yeah. So I've been watching that. There's a couple other ones. Yeah. That are just. Just really good. So been trying to just watch more YouTube lately. Not trying to, but. But just watching more YouTube lately. I don't know if anybody ever is just like, well, I'm gonna. I'm gonna watch more YouTube lately.
I should probably watch more YouTube.
Yeah.
They just do.
So that's kind of been where I've been at with tv. Tim, how about you? Oh, I need to watch this first thing you're going to talk about.
Yeah. Ted Lasso is the first thing on the list here.
Yeah.
Which partially is because I've had a mustache for the last month. Oh, still. Yeah. So I've opted for the. So I got the mustache and, like, the five o' clock shadow look. I'm calling it the, like, Russian soldier or something. Like a. But, man, I shaved that. Be like, I shaved the beard part off, and I swear it came back grayer than it was. Like, when I shaved it off. I mean, I was that long. But I know I'm like, working in reverse for most people. It's like my head was. Has been, like, white for.
Yeah.
10 years, and now my beard's catching up, and I'm like, oh, man. But hold on to some. But anyways. But Ted Lasso, the last season, which I'd heard some kind of, like, whining
about from people, but, like, winner's gonna whine.
But, like, my. My feeling was just, like, you're just whining because you're whining. Like, this is. Like, this is where things were heading inevitably. And these are still amazing. And this show, like, the premise. This is a. The perfect example of, like, a premise of a show. It's not gonna last nine seasons. Yeah. Like, no way. Like, so they've gotta, like, button some stuff up. And it almost is, like, more realistic because it's like, you get to a point where Ted Lasso's character is just like, I can't. Why am I doing this? Why am I still doing this?
I watched the first episode of this last season, and I love sort of, like, the sort of descent into evil that Nate is going through. Like, that whatever his name is on the show, Giles, the owner of the rival football club, just, like, his office is just, like, an evil layer. Rupert.
That's it.
Which is funny because that's also his name on Buffy.
Rupert Giles.
But yeah, he's just like, oh, well, so freaking evil.
Buckle up. Because Nate's character is like a really, like, fun, like, it's just like a really, like, fascinating part of the whole, the whole season. But, yeah, no, it's great. That show is just wonderful. It makes my heart happy and makes me laugh a lot. So at first, at first I thought
I was like, oh, it's about soccer. I don't really care about soccer. And then it's like, it's not. I mean, soccer's in there, but yeah, yeah, fantastic show.
And I finally, I, I think I had watched, like three episodes when it first came out, and I'm finally going back and watching Barry. Have either of you watched Barry with.
I have not. I, I, I'm familiar with it, but I haven't watched it, dude.
Oh, man, it's so good. I mean, it's like. Yeah. I mean, the premise is he's a hit. Like, Bill Hader's character is a hitman, and then he, like, has to go, like, kill somebody in Los Angeles, and the person is going to a acting class and he gets, like, sucked in and, like, wants to be an actor, but, like, he's still got this other side of his life where he's like a for hire hitman. It is. It's so good and it's so funny.
It's.
It's like one of. I. It's one of the best shows. I've watched, like, eight episodes in the last few days, and it's just one of the best shows on tv, so I would definitely. And so the, the reason actually that I got back into it is that the other day, one of my buddies was like, hey, I've got this gift card to. I was like, fandango or something. He's like, my family's out of out of town this week. Like, do you want to go see a movie? Like, should we go see a movie? And I was like, yeah, let's do it. I haven't been to a movie in a while. And we were trying to figure out what to see. And the only thing, the only option that we had was John Wick 4. Have you guys seen any of the John Wick movies?
I have not.
I had neither, but.
But you.
I watched the first three in, like, 36 hours. Like, I just, like, blew through these, you know, these movies, which was like, a super intense experience. Yeah, so it was like ultimate hitman
story, you know, like seeing, like, headshots everywhere.
I think I saw, like, I think I googled it and it was like. I think over the course of those four movies, I saw, like, 430 people die or something like that.
How many of them died by pencil?
Wait, no. 3.
Oh, what's this?
No, that's the story they always tell about him. Is he killed. He killed, like, five people with a pencil. But it only happens once in the show. And I swear. I swear, if you zoom in, it's an Amazon Basics pencil, which I was
like, it's good for writing.
The only thing it's good for.
It's good for editing. It's good for writing underwater. It's good for assassinations. It's.
That's. Those hard lead grades are for.
Yeah, but, man, those. Those movies are so freaking ridiculous. Like, I'm so ridiculous. I'm. It's like everybody in the movie is an assassin. I'm like, was there, like, a community college major in this world where you can, like, go for assassin, where they're like, yeah, you should probably go into, like, be, like, an X ray technician or maybe, like, how. How fast can you load a pistol? You know, Like.
Yeah, because there's.
There's so many people that just seem to know what's going on. They're so ridiculous.
Vocational school.
Exactly.
I was like, man, the community college is like, hey, we're recruiting for the assassin school. So that was what led me back to Barry, and Barry is so, so, so very good. And the last thing is that Jane and I went to a movie this weekend. We got. We went to Asheville, North Carolina, just the two of us, for a couple nights, and we saw Guardians of the Galaxy 3. Have either of you seen that?
Yep. I haven't seen any of it.
I've heard. I've heard that there's just a bunch of, like, kind of motifs of, like, animal cruelty, and I'm not sure if I want to see that.
What do you think? Well, I mean, the whole. Yeah. Sort of the sub. The subplot for it is about Rocket. Like, where Rocket came from.
Yeah.
This guy's, like, experimenting on. On animals and, you know, has a redemptive end, but. But it's pretty disturbing. Like, I mean, I don't even know how much I want to go into it. It's like it was one of those movies that was, like. It was a entertaining movie.
Yeah.
But at the end of it, you kind of have to shake it off.
Like, you're like, oh, yeah.
Like, he's just like, some. Even the scenes that are funny, you're like, in the moment, you're like, yeah, I guess that's funny. And then afterwards you're like, that wasn't.
That was screwed up.
That was. Yeah, but glad I saw it. But it has a different. It has a different tone than the first two. The first two are kind of goofy and funny. And this. These. The third one has the feel of like, the goofiness and the jokes, but it's just heavier.
But, yeah, nice. That's me.
How about you, Johnny? I'm. I'm excited to hear about this first one you got because I've been wanting to watch it. I haven't started yet, but.
Yeah, so I started binge watch the Diplomat because I like Rufus Sewell a lot. And Carrie Russell. Yeah. I kind of hate her in this show because, like, it's like, oh, look, I'm so busy.
You can't hate Felicity.
Well, and whenever she cusses, which is a lot, it's like forced. It sounds really unnatural. Like she doesn't actually. Like her character doesn't cuss, but for some reason she's deciding right now to cuss a lot. Like, what's her Star wars name?
Fennec Shand or something like that. Or what's it. What, she's in Star Wars?
Fennec Shand is.
She's pretty old.
That's Ming Na.
Yeah. No. Okay, I'll look. Yeah, she's in Star Wars. She has a helmet. Yeah. Anyways, I'll figure it out because I remember when I heard her voice, I was like, I know that voice.
I gotta look this up later.
Oh, Zori Bliss. Zori Bliss. She was in Episode nine, Rise of Skywalker. She had the red helmet.
Okay.
And the Y Wing.
Yeah. I mean, unrelated. I don't know if you guys saw the latest Mandalorian season.
Yeah.
Which I guess I should have put on there. But, like, everybody who's like, insanely famous will do like, the smallest part on any of these shows.
Like Lizo and Great. Jack Black.
Jack Black was awesome. Yeah.
Oh, my God, I died when he came on. And Christopher Lloyd had a little tiny part.
That's right. Yeah.
He was. Hell, sometimes I'm like, that can't really be like that person. Jack Black wouldn't come on here for five minutes. Minutes. It's Star Wars. You want to be on here for five minutes?
It's like. Yeah, so it's like, I'll be on there for five seconds.
Yeah. Like, I'll pay you.
So is the Diplomat like. Like West Wing, but like, like diplomacy or is it.
I've never seen the West Wing. Okay, but it's. Everybody talks really fast. What?
Yeah, but talk to Johnny. You have to go watch the West Wing right now.
Yeah, medication.
We'll wait.
Yeah, pop a couple extra pills.
Stay up. I don't need that.
Keri Russell was in Cocaine Bear too, by the way.
He was?
Yeah. Cocaine Bear.
I did not watch Cocaine Bear.
I didn't watch it either, but it. There it is. IMDb well, amazing.
Yeah. I mean, Rufus Sewell is like, amazing. Because he's amazing.
Does he play a Nazi in this?
No, but he does a. He's just such a very good American accent.
Really?
That, like, if you didn't know he was British, you totally would never get it.
That's true. He was. He had American accent. And the man in the High Castle and was pretty good.
Yeah.
This one's even better because he's. He's not dressed like a Nazi.
Yeah.
So it's more believable. Yeah. And related to Nazis. Recently finished Transatlantic, which is also on Netflix, which is about the American Rescue Committee, what it's called. But before things really, really amp up In World War II, they are tasked with getting 200 people on a list out of Europe. Mostly like writers, artists and academics. But just a miniseries. It like, the two leads were really, really bad, but the show was very. And it had Corey Stahl. I appreciate Corey Stahl.
Jillian Jacobs is in it from Community.
The lady who did the lead reminds me of our friend Corinne. Pin shows Mary Jane Gold. Yeah.
Yeah.
But, yeah, it didn't have a corny ending, which is good because then that would be really unbelievable. And also World War II. We recently started watching a Small Light, which is on Hulu and Disney plus because they're like, really proud of the show. It's about the couple who hid Anne Frank's family and a lot of other people. Nazis. So we're like halfway in and Frankie doesn't want to watch it. It's sad. Like World War II.
A lot of.
A lot of Nazi content happening here.
Yeah. She watches Nazi documentaries literally every night. Like, if you were like a middle aged white man, I'd be really, really freaked out about this.
Or she gonna go see Sisu. Have you seen the trailer for that?
Sisu?
Oh, yeah.
Yeah. Speaking of John Wick, I think it's like Nazi killer version of John Wick. It's like.
It's like Nazi treasure and stuff, right?
Yeah, but he's like a. He's from Denmark or something, but he's this like, guy and he just like. It's basically just Like a big long movie of him just killing Nazis.
Like watch that. Yeah, yeah.
The trailer is like a lot. So just in case you watch it, just you see some stuff.
Content warning, of course. This Christopher Nolan's movie comes out I guess this summer. Oh yeah. With us. Cillian or Killian Murphy as Reimer. That's an intense spot on casting.
It's a bunch of people just like looking real nervous and kind of yelling at each other.
He apparently wrote the movie like in. He was the person that he wanted to give the role to. Like from when he was like from when he conceived the movie. He was just like, this is the guy.
Yeah, he's him in a lot of stuff, but not so much in the big roles, so to speak. I mean he was super good in Peaky Blinder. Yeah. My mother in law thinks that that's what Henry looked would look like when he grows up. My Henry has brown eyes. Foot the eyelashes. They both have like 4 inch long eyelashes.
I always thought he looked like that guy who played. Oh, what's his name? He's real weird. Marty McFly's father and back to the Future Frank.
Oh, I can't remember why.
Oh, shoot.
Crispin Glover.
Oh, he's so creepy and also so funny.
Yeah.
Which there was one of the late night shows that he got banned from because he went on there with some like shtick and stuck. I think it was Letterman. I don't remember the story. It was really interesting and kind of sort of like what that happened. Yeah, I remember him as being golem. Weird. Cgi, Beowulf.
The one with Angelina Jolie.
Yeah, interesting. And yeah, that was creepy, the whole thing. Where'd Ray Winstone go? He was so awesome in so many things in early aughts he's had great voice. So yeah, we can, we can talk about stuff that I stream when I should be reading books on, but let's talk about reading books. You want to switch it up and go first, Tim? You guys want to fight it out?
You got Tim, that's fine.
How do we fight? We're online. I don't know what to do.
Use your words.
Strongly worded tweet.
All right, so I have been reading and this goes back to our last episode, but I picked up a copy of Jane Kenyon's new and Selected Poems. It's called Otherwise and have really been enjoying that. And I got the other two, which has been kind of a theme for me recently, but have been music books and one of them I've been meaning to read like, since high school, which is this Wheel's on Fire by Levon Helm, who's the drummer for the band. And I've been just been like. I don't know why. I can't believe I haven't read it, considering how many other, you know, ridiculous rock and roll books I've read over the years. But it is his, you know, ghost written or co written memoir or whatever, where you can tell. It's like, so true to his tone and the way that he talks in interviews that you can tell. It was just like this ghostwriter was like, this is going to be the easiest frigging job I've ever had in my life. Just turn on the recorder, just tell him to talk and just. And then just transcribe, you know, because he's such a good storyteller. But this is the book that's like. He famously shit talks. Robbie Robertson in the Band, who is, you know, Martin Scorsese's BFF and does all of his soundtracks and stuff. But have you guys seen the Last Waltz?
Yeah.
Oh, my God.
But Seth Rogen.
No.
Oh, I say that movie was really.
I just. I'm not laughing because you don't know. It's just. I'm laughing because that's like, so far from what it actually is, I think. A Seth Rogen movie. No, it's a Martin Scorsese documentary about the last concert by the band. It's like 1975.
Yeah, I think. You know, 1975. That's more like Jonah Hill rather than.
Yeah.
Oh, take this waltz. I'm sorry?
Take this waltz. Oh, yeah, no, don't watch it.
It's really terrible.
Don't watch it. Yeah, okay. But yeah, it's, you know, maybe one of the greatest concert films ever made. I've watched it dozens of times. And this is famously where, you know, they bring in all these guests. They have like Neil Young and Van Morrison and Joni Mitchell and Eric Clapton and Muddy Waters. It's like everyone comes to sit in with them, but the whole film just like, centers on Robbie Robertson's face. And this is the book where Von Helm finally, like, let it out, where he's like, his mic wasn't even on. Like, they just wanted him on camera, but, like, he can't sing, so. But they just kept.
So this, this is interesting. I live three blocks away from the concert venue that it took place.
Oh, was it Winterland? Or where was it?
Winterland Ballroom, which no longer exists. But, yeah, like, I. I live super close to there.
That's cool. Yeah, they. They serve. It was on Thanksgiving Day and they served a full Thanksgiving meal to everyone who came to the concert. But anyways, so reading his memoir, this Wheel's on Fire, which is very entertaining. And also Lucinda Williams just came out with a memoir called Don't Tell Anyone the Secrets I Told you'd. So, yeah, just another good songwriter book, where I came from, how I came up with these song ideas. And, you know, Lucinda Williams is pretty incredible. She's amazing. Amazing woman. Car Wheels on a Gravel Road is one of the best albums ever made. But, yeah, those are the. Yeah, that's what I've been. What I've been reading lately.
Nice.
Yeah.
Johnny, do you want to do it?
I have not been reading enough lately. And most of the way through the overstory, which, if you read the Underworld by Rob McFarlane, Amazon was constantly throwing in your face.
Do you have a set of field notes based on this?
Yeah, this is. So it's a novel and the whole first part of it is a collection of stories that are complete, not connected to one another, aside from all of them having something to do with trees. So, I mean, I really enjoyed them, but I was like, what the hell? How's this a novel? And then in the second part, it picks up from the last story in the first part, and everything starts coming together and you realize, oh, it is a novel. But it's so good. It's all about, like, trees and our relationship to trees. I don't want to spoil it, but one thing they talk about, which is which, aside from the title, the connection to Robert McFarlane is underground fungal networks where trees communicate to one another and even, like, send each other nutrients through fungi underground. And they give the fungi nutrients as sort of like a tree.
That's.
I mean, that's the float line. It's so cool. And one of the characters in the book posited that and then had her career ruined because she was a woman and said something so outlandish, even though she could prove it. And. Yeah, that's part of one of the storylines. But, yeah, I'm still not finished. I've been reading it for, like, I'm not spending enough time reading. I've also been reading Keith Smith's books. If you do any book binding, then you've seen, like, long stitch. And a lot of these books, bindings that don't require you to make a traditional text block and glue it, he calls non adhesive bindings. So he has, oh, five volumes of them that are enormous and full of intricate drawings. They're really, really good reading if you want to dive super deep. What is about just making books that don't have a signal? They're just single sheets that you make into a book, but not using like binder rings or glue. So super interesting. But they're. They're heavy, so they always arise from Amazon kind of beat up, so don't get them. And finally, I've been reading Beach Badge, which is a zine from Eight Stone Press Local Scenes, and it's about the Jersey Shore. So our friend Ed Kemp is in at least one. I can't remember if he's in both of the first two. And apparently number three is out, which I haven't read yet. But it's like everything a zine should be. It's so good and it's very well laid out, but it doesn't look like a magazine. It still looks like a zine, which I appreciate, but the link will be in the show notes. It's like lots and lots of stories of the Jersey Shore. Some of them are very funny and some of them are like, whoa.
They reference. In the. The cool. The cool shit section of the website. They talk about Atomic books.
Yeah, the. The author and his wife are like zine superstars. And Evita had a book out. But yeah, that's all I've been reading. Although I should be reading more. How about you, Andy?
I've been. I've been reading. I've been kind of skipping around a little bit. Like I really need to just kind of like finish one thing. But I just picked up the other day a the newest book by David Dave Eggers. It's called the Eyes and the Impossible. Like E Y, E S and the Impossible. And it is. It takes place. It's told through the. The eyes of a stray dog who lives in a park that is not entirely unlike Golden Gate park, although it kind of remains nameless. And this dog is the eyes of the park. Like, he sees everything he runs and sees, you know, when they're building new trails or when there's like a concert happening or they're making new buildings. And he reports back to the bison who live in the park. There's like an enclosure with bison in it which is kind of the giveaway that it's basically Golden Gate park and it's basically just this whole really rich kind of like world, fantasy world that are told through the eyes of these animals. And the reason I picked it up is because it is completely gorgeous. I'll have a link in the show notes to the Amazon link. And it's the. I picked up the Woodbound edition and the COVID has this like. It's not quite as thin as like shelter wood or cherry wood from Field Notes, but it's like a thin, thin layer of wood that's been laser cut with a really beautiful kind of a tree pattern.
And.
And the, the title that says the eyes and the eyes and the impossible just looks really lovely. It's only like. Even though it's just like so ornate, it's only 25 bucks. So on Amazon and I in. In person, I bought it at Folio Books in San Francisco. Really cool. Been enjoying that so far. I also picked up a comic book in the East Bay at.
Was it in Berkeley?
It was in Oakland, I think. And it's called Hidden Systems by Dan Nott. N O T T. And it's a comic book about infrastructure. So it talks about like electricity lines and water lines and the Internet and basically just kind of explains the just enormity of the feats like that it takes to get running water and the Internet and things to your house. It's pretty, it's pretty good so far. It's a, like a graphic novel about it. And then I'm still reading Promises Stronger Than Darkness, which is a YA kind of space opera that's the third in a trilogy I've talked a little bit about on the show before by Charlie Jane Anders, who is a really great sci fi author and a local. So been reading that one. I spent some time just kind of wandering around yesterday on Memorial Day and stopped and had a couple beers and read. Read some more of that. So that's a good. That's a good book. That is. Those are the three things I kind of been reading concurrently.
Awesome.
You want to keep going?
Sure.
So I can jump into what you're using. I want to hear about this first one.
Yeah. So like I mentioned before, I started a new job and one of the sort of like little pieces of tech that or like swag that they gave me was a. Something called a tech kit by a company called Bellroy, which makes like bags and then organizers and stuff.
Yeah, they field notes cover.
Oh right. That's right. That's right. Yeah. And this is. I put a link to the Amazon page. It's basically this but with the, the logo of the company on the front of it. And it is. It's very nice. It can hold like a mouse and some cables and, and like a MacBook charger and headphones. Currently I have my little Bluetooth mouse in There I have my, my Blackwing one, one stage sharpener in there and a bunch of cables and I have been using actually today my erasable Baron Fig Squire and I. There's a little pen loop for that. So I have that in there too well as my Apple pencil. So it's really nice. It's, it's very good quality. If you want one that doesn't have like a. I mean first of all, if you don't work somewhere where they give you a corporate logo verb, you can get them on online for like 60 bucks. They're really nice. I've never really had a thing quite like this before. I've had like a little pocket cable organizer that you put in your bag but nothing quite like this.
They have some cool looking bags.
Yeah.
That are not stupid expensive.
Yeah. I like their sling bag a lot. I also picked or a, a bag I got recently that I've been using that I'll talk about here is by Tom Bin which is a Seattle based bag maker which is, has some acclaim among like bag people. My friend Michael got me this really nice like that's called the Medium Cafe bag. It's just a nice little shoulder bag and lately they started making a crossbody bag called the Side Hustle and it is really great. They so far have had sort of like two drops and they've sold out like within minutes. And it, it's basically the size and the width of it is just about big enough to fit like an 11, an 11 inch iPad and there's all sorts of internal organization for pens and pouches and various things. So just got that yesterday and I've been walking around with it and it's very comfortable. It's really nice.
They have a really nice 90s palette.
Yeah. Oh yeah, it's very 90s. Yeah. They have a lot of like those kind of like graph kind of graph fabric things. I got the, the gray, it's called nebulous gray ballistic nylon with wasabi halcyon which is the sort of like the internal fabric. It's like a really nice like, like bright green inside. So big fan of that. If you, if you want to sign up to be notified of when the next drop is and on the website and when you get the email like put something on your calendar because last time it sold out in minutes. So that kind of what I had to do which is ridiculous.
But whatever.
That could be fun. Yeah.
Yeah.
And otherwise I am using my Leuchtturm orange notebook with my Baron Fig X erasable Squire.
Yeah.
But But I also put an easy flow ballpoint refill in it because it's nicer to carry around. I don't have to worry about it leaking very, very much.
Those are so good.
Yeah, I have a. I have a nice blue one in it. Tim, how about you?
I was. I mentioned I was in Asheville this past weekend, and we went to the pen shop, like, the stationery store that I have told you guys about over the year called Origami Inc. In Asheville. And I'm really. I was. First of all, I was just, like, happy to see that it was still, like, going strong. And they even have, like, more than they usually do. I sent you a picture of a ridiculously big Lamy pen.
What's funny is that the storefront doesn't look like a storefront. And at first I thought that was your house, and then you just bought a giant lami and just put it outside of the front door of your house.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. I stole it. It's out front now, so that's why. But yeah, yeah, yeah. So it was. It was really cool to be there. And I initially went because I had recently bought a platinum preppy for the first time in a long time. And man does that. I mean, it's, like, sort of stupid. It's like, with the. The Pilot Metropolitan or whatever. Like, that pen's so smooth. It's so great. It's like six bucks. Like, it's, like, insane, right? Maybe more than the Metropolitan. It's almost like a pilot Varsity or whatever. It's like it's just made by a company that can make them really precisely. So they're super smooth. But I. I converted to eyedropper and filled it with the diamond Gibson. What is it called? Cherry Sunburst ink. And just holds a crapload of ink. And it's been great. But when I went to this place in Asheville, I wanted to get another ink, and I just like diamond inks. And I was wanting to get a gray ink, and so I was down to. They. They let me try out a ton of them, and I was down to diamine gray or diamine silver fox. I ended up getting diamine gray and loading up a. On the same subject as the preppy, the platinum. Is it placer or place?
Here,
now you pronounce it P L, A, I, S, I, R. It's kind of a step up from the preppy preppy. It's not worth it. You should just get a preppy, by the way, if you're in the market. But it's the same. It's the exact same pen. It's just, like, nicer. And you can't make an eyedropper because it has metal in the. In the casing. But. Yeah, but I'm loving this gray. It's just dark enough to be legible. Really liking it. I've also been really enjoying the Blackwing Arrows 2022 pencil. Yeah, that came out last year.
The one with the arrow stamped in the fairgrounds, Right?
Yeah. I mean, I've just been using that every day for a while, and those eras pens are really awesome. One thing I'm not using is the ridiculous Blackwing golf pencil, which I know we're not doing a freshpoints episode, so we'll probably talk about this another time, but that is the stupidest crap I've ever seen. I was just so mad. I thought I was, like. Like Bart Simpson running across the room to punch a wall. Like, that is so stupid. Like, that is such a dumb idea. I'm sorry.
I mean, what's nice is you can. You know, you can just take a regular pencil, and you can get both a golf pencil and a, like, bullet pencil. Nubbin.
It's like when they came out with their, like, little black wing slates that had, like, a half of a black wing, and we're like, okay. You know, and now it's, like, a whole dozen, and it's.
And they even. They even made a short box for it, too.
This makes me so mad. It's like, gosh, because most people don't even use pencils that small. So I'm like, what? So this we'll talk about audience. Like, so your audience is people rich enough to play golf in 2023 with,
I guess, with black wing pencils instead
of with black people. You know, they give you free ones there that you forget about in the golf cart, and then the person throws them in the trash. So it's like, just save your leftover. My gosh, that's so stupid. I don't want to talk about anymore. Makes me so mad because we've been, like, praising. They did so many cool things in a row. And then this one came out. I was just like, oh, I love the labs. We should just make it shorter. And then, you know, and then I. Of course, my. My, like, conspiracy theory brain starts running with it. I'm like, oh, they're gonna start shaving inches off these pencils, aren't they? Like, we're gonna end up paying $38 a dozen, and they're gonna be 8cm shorter.
I love how polarizing it's been in the group because some people are just like, have a visceral reaction. And some people are like, these are great.
That's so stupid. That's so dumb. I think it's so dumb and I always will. It's like with labs, it's like you should be trying to do something interesting with it, like. Or a different shape. It's like you're just cutting them in half and not charging 50%. Like, then it's dumb. So anyways, so not using those. Last thing I was gonna mention was the Musgrave pencil knot notebook, which I've really been loving. We haven't talked about it for several episodes, but I have been using it as my desk notebook at work. So I use it kind of sideways, like, landscape style. And pretty much all of my work notes for weeks have just gone into that. And it behaves really well with everything I write on it. And I just really love that. So the big. I have the big black one and it's just awesome. I love it.
Yeah, that's me.
Join.
So mine's boring. I've been using this, like, vintage pencils and a cup on my desk constantly. But I keep reaching for this 19. I think it's an 80s Dixon Ticonderoga, because the yellow they used back then was. It wasn't gold. It was still yellow, but it sort of had like a little flavor of those old Faber Castell American pencils. So it was like a toned down yellow. They're very pretty. But yeah, I. They're a little harder, so they work out for what I've been doing. And I put this on here to brag it. Tim. I've been using my Levenger True Rider in Kyoto a lot because it has a bold nib, but it's not super wet. Bold nib. That makes sense.
What color is Kyoto?
It's not cool.
So ebay seller is usually listed as tortoiseshell, but it's not tortoiseshell. It has.
It's way better.
It's got blue in it too. So picture, like, I don't know, like, what you think is tortoiseshell, except that there are these big blobs of this, like, really pretty dark blue in it.
Oh, I see it. Yeah, that's attractive.
That's so pretty.
It's one of my favorite.
And Donnie sent me a link to one like, what was that? Two weeks ago, three weeks ago? And I was like. And I set multiple alarms on my phone and something happened. Missed it the thing ended up selling for like 26 bucks or something, like super cheap. I was so mad.
Did they not say which one it was?
I don't think so, man.
I think they made. They kept this one around for a little while, so there are a lot of them floating around. It's just. It's so pretty. So I've been using bonds for a degree in it, which is. It's not green, it's not gray, it's almost blue. So if you play Minecraft, it, you know, it's the color of oxidized copper, which is apparently what they were going for. But it's so pretty. But I don't know what to put in it next because it's one of those pens where I like it. So I tend to use it two or three times before I put it back away with my other 50 true writers, if it suddenly goes missing from
the collection, maybe you won't notice and we'll know what happened to it. Next time Tim's in Baltimore, he's like, hey, can I come over?
I just found one that might happen. I just found the Java. Remember when that one came out? But they've got a couple coffee themed ones. And this one is just so damn pretty. I can't wait till it gets here. I also got a stupid price on it, which is even better. But. But yeah. And I. So I wake up in the morning and, you know, check out my bullet journal because my brain needs that. And I picked up one of those pens. I think we talked about this briefly last time I was in Boston, they called the dry griffle or something. But yeah, it's like a really nice gel pen that's smooth and not gushy. So my. My. My bullet journal is like big fat fountain pen writing, little scratches of pencil. And then that is like very neat, thick black letters. It's the only thing that's kind of legible. But yeah, I think I want to get another one because they make a pencil too, which is awesome. This one's called the number one, but they abbreviate it nr, period. So the pencil one is of course, two. I don't know how many colors that comes in. This one comes in a million colors, but I just have a plaque. So finally, if you follow field notes, they put a thing was this like two weeks ago. I think it's called the Father's day permits. So it's this like weird jumble of stuff in the gift bag that I think would appeal to dad. So it's got like father child Communication forms that are sort of like a funny little ad libs thing.
You have to have official forms in order to like communicate with your child.
They. My kids have official forms that communicate with me.
They're full of expletives. Yeah.
And it came with, it came with a pack of notebooks, a pin that says the Department of Child Life, Dad's government issue parental permit, play catch and release, which is kind of cute. And eraser and this leather pouch. And I know I don't use leather. Like it's really cool. But the whole reason I wanted it is because it comes with a round natural wood pencil that says number 001 from the desk of dad. So I don't know if I'll ever actually sharpen it, but it actually, I, I don't think I read the description very well. It all fits together. So like when it came, I'm like, where's all the stuff? Oh, it's in the case that's. But it was ordered with my account, my field notes account. So when it came, it was addressed to me and I. Even though I knew what it was. So Father's Day came two weeks early or three weeks early. And they, it sort of hinted that at 115 and only a thousand of them they would sell out really quickly. But I don't think they sold out yet because I. They're like, at this price, it's going to sell out right away at that price. What the hell? What the hell is it cost that much money for? But yeah, I'm looking right now as of Monday night or Tuesday night is still there for 115 bucks. But yeah, that's my colorful and not colorful selection. So do you want to button this episode up?
Yeah.
Thanks everybody for listening to.
Yeah, we actually.
The stuff that we've been putting on
for a while, yeah, we record it in Episode when we were supposed to.
We did it.
But yeah, so we have a Patreon, of course. And if you are a supporter at the Nubbin stage, then you get a producer credit, which I would find cool if I were not like, I guess so if you're a producer, we read your names at the end of Episode. Episode. So thank you to all of our listeners and Patreon folks, but especially to our Patreon producers. Liz Rotundo, Melissa Miller, Angie Aaron Bollinger, Andrew Austin, Elvind Hjertes. Sorry, it's a new patron.
Yeah.
Tara Whittle, Ida Umphurs, David Johnson, Phil Munson, Donnie Pierce, Bill Black, Tom Keakley, Andre Torres, Paul Moorhead, John Cappellouti, Stephen Francali, Aaron Willard, Millie Blackwell, Michael Diallosa, Tana Feliz, Ann Site, Joe Crace, Michael Hagan, Bill Clow, Mary Collis, Kathleen Rogers, Kelton Wiens, Hans Noodleman and John Wood. And you can. Yeah, I forgot to do that. Where to find us stuff. You can do that. Is it me a pain in the ass to edit it in?
No, not at all.
Okay. Okay. Take two. We are the Erasable podcast. Find us at Erasable Us. This is episode 196 which is at erasable US 196. You can find us on social media, raceablepodcast and on Facebook. You can check out our Facebook group, which is weird bastion of kindness on the interwebs. And folks, do you want to tell everybody where they can find you online?
Yeah. I am Andy. WTF is my website and on Twitter and various things is at awelflake. Awesome.
How are you?
My name is Tim Wassem and I am on.
How do you spell that?
Twitter? Wassem. W A S E M. I did discover that growing up, people would hear me spell my last name and they would always say, oh, okay. And it ends in an N. I was like, no, ends in an M. I think it's because of. Because I mumble. So moving to the South, I learned that if I just pronounce it with a Southern accent, they never get it wrong. So I always say W a S E AM and they never get it wrong.
Tim Wasem,
W.A. s E a.m. yes, I'm on Twitter at Timwasum and with a name and I'm on Instagram @timothywassum and I'm trying.
If you could find me at I. Social media is at Pensolution and at pencilrevolution. Com. Thanks for listening. See you soon.
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