Ray’s Dossier

[Music] Sweet, okay. I'm gonna do a proper intro. Last week I kind of effed up the intro. It was weird and very shaky and kind of scared. And just like not the elk of someone who's been podcasting for five years. So yeah, and now, and if you're listening right now and you're hearing, there's a voice to my left here in the studio. We have the one and only Ray, the framer here in the studio today. Thanks for coming on, Ray. This is incredible. This is a huge get for us. It was a long time in the making. And I think you pitched it originally. I did. You just kind of threw it out. You're like, hey, if you're going to chat. Because we dragged you into the podcast world by using your actual government name and your place of work currently. And pretty much like where exactly we pretty much docks you in Pazcon. We got to be flattering. It was endearing. It was a docks of endearing. I never thought I'd be the kind of guy to get docks for anything, but yeah. I'm excited you're here. This is so great. I'm excited to be here. When I just want to get something else off my chest really quick. I hit a bird with my face today. Yeah, I was time. Yeah. Okay. So I'm a little rattled. That's why you caught me coming out. It was a pin. But you caught me coming out of a bird. Yeah. And I just like the timer. Where were you? I was on a city bike. Okay. So I've been biking. Yeah. I saw it moving pretty quick. And I had had the thought. These pigeons really like. Ballsy. They really hang around to the last minute to decide like what they're going to do. And it's not like deer in the headlights. I think it's kind of like hit me. I dare you. Yeah. Yeah. You know, they're kind of cocky. And I intentionally avoid them because I just like. But then I've learned to trust these birds. That maybe these birds are just like by the laws of nature. It's impossible to hit a pigeon. You know what I think that is though? Because pigeons were originally brought over here by like the English gentry as doves. As like pigeons is doves. Don't call me on that, but yes. They were brought over here by the English gentry and is like a luxury pet like a peacock or something. And then pigeons just multiply like really fast. And after the moneyed few stops just having pigeons. They got everywhere. They were like, well, fuck these things like we don't want them anymore. So that's why there's so many pigeons in New York. I didn't know that there's obviously one last bird now because I hit my face. You know what? I couldn't turn around. I'm really flying on this bike. I just hit the wing hit my face. It wasn't like a full bodied like full frontal smack. Yeah. No, it was. It was a full wing though. Yeah. It wrapped my face. Yeah. Had a smell. I don't I can feel it on my face right now. Yeah. It's only the people out there in the podcast either could get a whiff. I went in and did a dude wipe on my like forehead and eyes. Yeah. Yeah. I'm going now. I'm worried. I don't even know if dude wipes are like anti. They have to be antiseptic. I think so. Yeah. They're for your butt, but who knows what dudes are doing. Man, we're going to know sorts of germs. Are you getting into germs a lot, right? Probably. I'll be honest. Yeah. Yeah. I don't get. I brought it up on and this when I start talking about germs, like I need to like kind of get back on track here. I can talk about germs for an hour. I don't really get. No, I'm not scared of germs. I like. Oh, I love you. I'm not like I'm not like RFK junior, but like germs are like where are they? You know, like they're so small in their life everywhere. And I think of them as like little green got like fun little guys. Like the gang green gang from gang green gang from Powerpuff girls. Yeah. It's got a good reference. Yeah. Yeah, I just like don't I don't I don't. Germs aren't in the world that I like that I like the fact that there's germs like on my legs right now. Just germs everywhere. Give me break. Yeah. I'll cut you some slack. Okay. Sorry. We already started talking about germs in like 10 minutes and it's all good. So when when I came in and you pitched on the podcast, you said that you had a lot of stories. You said you had a lot of stories. You're a story guy. I'm a story guy. I was I was taken by that. Do you I don't have it. I don't have a cue for you. Like a good transition to get to. Okay. I'm not in the transition guy. I'll tell you how I started framing and then we'll lead up to me starting at my current place. Yes. Do you know that someone dressed up as you for Halloween? Yes, because that call came into the shop and told me. That's what I'm talking about. Yeah, I told her where his name and where he works. Did you wear the wig and she's like no, just the name tag and I was like the wig would have been kind of sick. But alas, your audience isn't known what I look like until now. It's weird because I was in Boston when when the young woman dressed up as you. Yeah, sex shout out Boston, dude. Shout out Boston. Go crazy. But I'll tell you how we got to my current place of business. Yeah. I started framing in high school as like just the job to do after school. I got the job on Craigslist, Craigslist, shout out. Great place to get a job, especially a weird job. And I did it. It was this place called "Frame It Yourself" in Fair Haven, New Jersey. And the two people who run it are just like super wonderful. Took a chance on like a scrappy young high schooler with like no framing experience whatsoever. Maths also like my worst subject. And I was really afraid they were going to make me do this. Is there a lot of math and framing? There's like a some, yeah, but I'm good at that type of math. Four by five. Sure, exactly. Four by six. We could do this all day. But yeah, so I got that job. It was great. I left, went to college, did a bunch of stuff in college. It was like, I want to move to New York. I want to be in the music industry. That's what like my. You look like you would. Yeah. Oh, because you kind of look like Billy Allen. It's just brother. That's what everyone said. Yeah. It would be a good fit. You could slip right in there. Yeah. I wish I hope one day he gets a you look like a Ray Young. I think that'd be sick. So he would know how it feels. And it'd be a compliment. Because it's always a compliment when people say that to me. Well done. But I wanted to work in music so bad. I moved to the city. I had this internship working for this manager for like two weeks. I was like, yes, I got this. This is it. I hustled. I worked at some venues in Brooklyn, like really scrappy DIY venues, which was awesome. Like Transpico's in market hotel. And got this job and I was like, let's fucking go. Like I did it. And then COVID happened two weeks later. And I was like, I didn't do it. That's it. I failed. I'll never work in the music industry ever again. And I moved back in with my parents who have relocated to Buffalo. And I'm up there. And I'm like, you know, it's fucking. I'm just going to move back. So I move back in. And I'm like, I just need a job. And it's always like the banana stand in a rested development. Yeah. There's always money in a frame shop. So I can always get a job at a frame shop once you have that skill. And I start working at this frame shop up on 72nd frames for you. And it was a great like cool upper west side little store. I have to say that there's always money in the frame shop. Getting some frame to show expensive. Yes, it is. And I think that that's neat. Like I think if you're on the upper west side. Yeah, those people are getting things framed constantly because they have a billion dollars. They were probably the most hesitant about prices. What upper west, yeah. Are people just throwing money away on framing things? Because I like I'm saving up to get like I have this this print. And then I'm like, I will get you framed. I'm putting dollars aside to get this thing framed. Exactly. It's like not a it's not a willy nilly thing. You don't get things framed willy nilly. You earn a frame. You really do. And you work for a frame. You don't always kind of break my heart when like a dad and their kid would come in with like a poster from natural history museum. And look at which one I get this framed and I'd be like, it's going to be three hundred dollars. And they'd be like, are you fucking kidding me? And I'm like, even on the cheapest option, you guys can be like three hundred bucks. And they would walk out really dissatisfied. And it's like, just pin that shit to the wall, bro. And then like not everything needs a frame, especially for a child. Sorry kids. But you should be just pin and stuff to the wall, tape, whatever, like if you're under 18, you don't need any frames. You don't need any frames. They have frames and marshals and TGM actually. But not custom. Yeah. Nice. You're fine. You've framed a couple things for me that I adore. Well, I hope that they're still around. We all my steps in storage right now. Well, let me all finish. Oh, yeah. Get into the current spot. I'm a big like. No, that's the whole point. You pause for a second. I'm jumping right in. Yeah. That's the whole point. So I met this dude at a conference. His name was Nick Gordon and he was an A&R for this company, Symphonic Distribution. And I just like presented myself to him much in the same way that I presented myself to you. And I was like, you know, like I want to talk. And he was like, all right, let's talk. We talked over Zoom. You're always doing that. I am always doing that. And we had a great conversation. And at the end of the call, he was like, yeah, man, just keep on plugging away in the whole music industry thing. And I'm like, dog, I want to work for you. Like I want to work for you. And he was like, all right, let me see what I can do. And like a couple months later, I had an internship at the distribution company. And I worked my way up. Went more. part-time, went full-time, stop-framing, did music for like six years, right? So I was an arts and phonic distribution and then I got my dream job, which was working on Julian Casablanca's management team at Colt Records. That's the strokes. That's the strokes. The goat. And it was just like fucking awesome, like it was sick. Yeah. It was really cool. And then I had to stop doing that because that and the other job I had, the A&R job, it was just like too much, like I was like, I was not well up here, you know. So I stopped doing that a couple of months later, the economy takes a tank, right? Yeah. Everyone in music got laid off. I mean, I'm sure you know people in music, but everyone got laid off. And I was one of those people and I'm like, shit, okay, I got a nice severance check. I need to introduce you to my buddy Scooter. Scooter Braun? Yeah. That's your buddy? You would look, oh my god. I'm not a Scooter, but that had been crazy. But yeah, so I had to move back to Buffalo because I ran out of money. And I'm sitting on my ass and I'm like, I need a job, god damn it. And I was on an appointment and I was like, I was going to do like artist partnerships, like brand partnerships. I was like making decks and pitching them out to companies being like, if you want to connect to cool musicians, like let me know, because I have all the connections, you know. I actually got meetings with like big brands and it was really cool and we're like, I thought the meetings went really well, until one by one, they just kind of fell off and fell off. And then I ran out of unemployment and I was like, let me move back to New York. I'm just going to move back to New York because I'd rather be broke and have no money coming in in New York City than I would send my parents couch in Buffalo, right? I got back to New York. I'm essentially homeless. I'm not going to lie. I'm sleeping on my couch. I'm sleeping on like the floor in my brother's kitchen, like, I'm doing that right now. How is it? I would love to like not be on a couch. Yeah. You get to a point where it's like-- Yeah. And the like not having any alone time ever really takes a toll because I'm a big jelly like I love hanging out. Yeah. But after like none for weeks on end is like, that's, that sucks. It's also weird to just like, I have, I've claimed a corner of my friends living room and it's just like, I'm sorry that you can't go into that corner. Are you just like, where in places? What's your deal? Yeah. And then the next place I've had, there's just no apartments available right now. Yeah. This happens to me every year. Mm-hmm. That I move. Mm-hmm. And so it's, I move in in two weeks. Okay. The summer's a bad time to move. Oh, it's really bad. Yeah. Yeah. It's a bad time to move. It's a bad time to be asleep on someone's couch. It's a bad time to be at the mercy of someone else's preferences over their AC. Dude. Because I'm with a, I'm with a, I'm with a, I'm with a turn it off when you leave person right now, which is like, I want to remind people that the way AC works is that like when you turn it off and then it has to pump itself back down. Yeah. It's actually not good for the AC. It's bad for your bill. Like it's worse. You just leave it on a constant temperature. Yeah. And so every time I'm, I get back or whatever, then the AC's at like 73 and you know, I'm just like, I'm sweating right now. Yeah. So it's not great. But all as well, I'm taking these vitamins right now that are making me just like. What vitamins? NADH plus, I don't know, and I cannot be bothered by anything. It's crazy. Yeah. I'm having horrible nightmares, but otherwise really great. Oh yeah. No. The nightmares are so bad that I'm scared to go to sleep. It's like Freddy Groover vibes. That's kind of sick. Sometimes I think nightmares are cool because it's like, sometimes you see something so horrifying in your own head. You're like, wow, I couldn't believe that I could conceive of that. I dreams make me so mad when I have a scary dream about like, I had a dream that usher was trying to like, like, trying to kill my family. That's sick. No, but it's like, I could, you can, that is the one time you can just create like, inception vibes. Like, I could flip the city of Paris over and like, yeah, I'm, but they're never like that. No, I'm trying to get out of like a river and it's so slippery. I keep falling and there's a snake behind like, what am I doing? What am I doing? What do we do in the house? Yeah. I want to have an all hands with like my brain. So I can't just this? I feel like, what, get it to get like, why have you had a lucid dream? I have. How'd it go? What did the inside of your subconsciousness look like? I feel like you know, I feel like you, you, you have an answer for this. So my, mine was, I was, it was like in high school or something and I had like read something about. Mm-hmm. And how cool is it that I'm saying I read something about it and I truly earn it. And it's, I mean, I read something because now if I read something, it means I just watch a TikTok. But I know I read something about it and I was like, I'm obsessed with this. I want to do this. And I was like, looking at pictures of like my friends and stuff and trying to get them into my dream. And it worked a couple times. Yeah. But I think that's just thinking about something. Well, my thing was, because I had done some reading about it too, actual reading, um, and I, no, I was care to water bottle with me in high school and in the dream I was like, where's the water bottle? And that was the trick. I was like, oh, it's not here. And you can't see your own reflection in dreams either and I remember being like, there's a mirror and my perception of myself like wasn't right and I was like, okay, I'm definitely dreaming. Did you do shrooms? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Sometimes like not a lot, but. Okay. Smoke if you got them. Smoke. You smoke the shrooms? No, I mean, that's just an expression. Oh. Yeah. Have you ever seen Spaceballs? Eight years ago. You know they're doing a second one? I know. I love Mel Brooks. It's Mel Brooks. Oh. He's one of my favorite directors. That's like one of my- He did Passion of the Christ, right? That's Mel Gibson. Oh. He's a Depacolipto too. You ever seen that one? Depacolipto? No. Oh, dude, it's sick. I don't watch things that are upsetting. I don't watch- It's really upsetting. I wouldn't watch something called Depacolipto. It's so sick. That wouldn't cross my death. I always like to watch that one. I have like a really bad fever. You know? Depacolips now. Depacolipto. Two best fever dream movies because I'm like, if I'm going to feel like shit, I'm going to feel like shit. I want to be panicking too. I just want to exist in like a weird like meditative like sickness state and just sink into it and like really like get into it, you know? Like you're like a masochist. A little bit. Yeah. Yeah. Um, no. I- I can't watch anything that makes me think at all. Hmm. I'm not a- I don't like thinking. Um. Not even- Not even the Lego. Like, I'm so close to being someone that watches Bravo. So stuff on Bravo. Oh really? No dig on people that watch Bravo. Yeah. Yeah. I'm like- That's like real housewives. I'm like almost there. I'm almost there to start watching a real housewives situation. Yeah. I remember seeing, um, love Island. And I'm not like the type of guy who usually watches that, but one of my ex-girlfriends and she showed me love Island. It was actually pretty nice because they don't really fight. They just kind of like- They- There's drama but it's not like aggressive. It's not like Jersey Shore. They don't fight. You need to watch the UK one. They fight. There was- I liked the not fighting. Yeah. Yeah. I like the fighting. You like the fighting? Yeah. And I like the- Whoa. Who's the massacres now, Connor? I like when they're fighting. I make you feel better about my life. That stresses me out. You see I'd rather have like a fictional depiction of something horrific rather than like real anger and violence. Like that actually upsets me more, I would say. Have you gotten in a fight? A fist fight? Oh god. I've gotten in a very long time. Lessons like elementary school. Did you use to fight? Not really. I just like Taekwondo. Would you fight? If I had to. Okay. I guess. Yeah. People don't really pick fights with me. I'm kind of a big guy. You're tall. How tall are you? Six foot three. That's nice. Yeah. Doesn't hurt. That would be nice. But I'll- So anyway. Yeah. I'm homeless. All right. Sorry. I told you I'd separate it. It's all good. I'm homeless. It's like 98 degrees in New York in July of last year. So I'd only go out after like 4pm to apply for jobs. And like, I hate to prove the boomers right. Because it liked my skin crawl a little bit. But I was like for real passing out like printed resumes and shit. And I walked by the frame store I work at. And I walk in. And I see my girl Juliet. And I'm just like. Shout out to Juliet. She's the best. And I'm just like. Can I? Are you guys hiring? And she's like, yeah, actually, we are. And then like, light bulbs went off, handed in the resume. I have an abundance of experience. And I got the job. So she really saved my ass with that one. Thinking about my resume makes me want to shoot myself. Really? But you have like a career and entertainment though, no? Yeah. It's okay. It's- That's what you make up of the resume. It's good work history. Thinking about opening. Because I made it on Photoshop. And it's- It's a Photoshop and not word. I thought it was better than everybody. Really? Yeah. Kind of a little key. No. This thing, like if I- If I were to touch it now, like everything would move. Yes. And shift. One of them. Yeah. And I- And thinking about having to dig my resume back up on my laptop and adjust it. I don't know what I would do if I had to go apply to things now. Because I- It's like- We've been talking about- Well, moving sucks. Looking for a job. While you're- Even worse. That's like- Those two things go hand in hand to me. Like- Did your- Did your parents have any- And put on like- They're like- You're at home and- You need to be back in the city. Like applying to jobs or anything? No, my parents are like insanely cool. Like, I recorded a whole album in like one week. And my- Because my dad's a musician too. And my parents are literally just like- We get your stressed out. We get things suck right now in the job market. Like- We want you to find something good, you know? Um- And they're really supportive of like most of the insane things that I've done with my life. So- Thankfully. And uh- I just kind of came to a head where I was like- Look, I don't want to get a job in Buffalo. I'll figure it out in New York. And they were like- We got you. So don't worry about it. Yep. Rather be homeless in New York than alive in Buffalo. buffalo. Maybe that's not true, but I'm going to, I'm going to, I'm going to a great city. What are you going there for? First shows in the fall, I think. Okay. My uncle has the best restaurant in Buffalo. Really? I'll plug you up. What? It's called Roost. What is it? It's my uncle's restaurant. It's like gastro gourmet. I don't know what those words are. It's like they, they change a menu every two weeks. It's always a different kind of cuisine from around the world. And it's just insane. Like it's so fucking good. Wow. Okay. Yes. I will plug you up. I'll check it out. Yes. That's exciting. You know what I was going to say earlier when you said that you can get on Cragsus and find very weird jobs. Yeah. Yeah. When I was moving to LA from Austin, originally. Yeah. Shout out Texas. Shout out Texas. Shout out Texas. When I was moving there originally, I had just blown through my severance from my first job. Yeah. Yeah. And it was interesting to see, because at first you get that severance check and you're like, I'm the richest man that's ever walked the earth. Yeah. Yeah. And nothing matter. Then you start like standing money on shit. I'm going to get the first round. I'll get this round. I'm going to get the fog raw. I'm not going to get broke. She's I'm going to eat out every day. No, no, no, no. Towards the end of that amazing summer where all of my friends were like grad school or something. So like everybody was kind of unemployed. Yeah. I finally was like, Oh, I need to get a job. I got this job. And they were like, you have to start. Here was it. 20. 20. Okay. This is during the pandemic right in just before. Okay. That was my thing to move in here right before. So I moved. I moved it. When I moved to LA, I like couldn't. I was broke and I couldn't get into an apartment. Like you couldn't find one to move into. I found one, but the least didn't serve her again for like a month. And my job was like, you have to start and do weeks or you can't have the job. Would you work a bird, a scooter company? Oh, okay. And so I was, I thought you worked for a talent agency for some reason, but no, misunderstanding. You just have that vibe. You have like an agent vibe. Oh, that's not a compliment. I think it's cool. Just kidding. I don't know of any agents, but I think it's like as once he's bagged to the next. Yeah. I think that's cool. So I, so I'm trying to find an apartment. Yeah. And I get on Craigslist. Yeah. I need you to run for like two and a half weeks. And I found a place I was really cheap. Yeah. How much was it? It was like $300 for the whole time that I needed. Fuck. And then I started reading the fine print. It was like an older gentleman who wanted someone to clean his house. Like while they live there, like you live in cleaner. I used to be a janitor. So well, I was just kind of thinking that it's a, even like a live in, I'm like, what are you doing to the house that makes it that dirty and you live by yourself? And yeah. Then I was like, he's probably going to have sex, try to have sex with me. So I dipped on that. I'm like, okay. I just bought that. That's really good. But if you try, I didn't do it. Oh, okay. Oh, I see. I see. I see. I didn't do it. Yeah. Which like I should, I should be very clear because like I am someone that would be like, it's, you're saving, I'm saving money. Yeah. Like it's not a money. And like, and I really wanted to like flag it and be like, if you are thinking about doing this, reach out to me and we can figure out a solution. Yeah. Together. Yeah. So I move into this, this woman's apartment for two weeks. Yeah. And pretty quickly I realize that she is. Yeah. She, like, maybe it was like a homeless nudity, but she was an older woman. Yeah. Naked the whole time. All time. Couldn't, she didn't eat meat or anything. So I couldn't have any meat in the house. Yeah. That's more of a red flag to me than the nudity. The nudity was a little bit, but like, don't create my style. I need to meet sometimes. The one thing about her is she would like hang her underwear everywhere. Like, yeah, for it to dry. And I was like, why is all your underwear so wet? Um, what? No dryer. I don't remember ever doing laundry there, but I guess I must have. But her underwear was everywhere. Like I couldn't like face time. Someone without them being like, oh, like, the bats are a pattern. Like, no, the woman that lives in this apartment is just naked. I don't think she'd ever put this on her own. I was very depressed. Looking back, I like want to grab my younger self and be like, good job for powering through. I don't know how you did it. Thinking about me in that situation now. Oh, it makes me want to vomit. But I think, though, that sometimes like, I know we live in a world where pretty much every, a lot of people want everything to be easy and like entertaining all the time. But I do think those kinds of experiences were like your force to deal with something that like objectively sucks. Yeah. Like makes you a better person. It's like character building. It brings you closer to what I think is like the source. You started asking the big questions. Like, what the fuck am I doing here? Why do I even want to be in LA? Why are the panties all around my head? Like, is this worth it? But I really want to do it. And like, it did kind of bring you to where you are now, which is sick. So it totally was. You know what I mean? Yeah. Yeah. I actually got you beat, though, on the sketchy living situation. Do you? So right now, I live in a storage unit in Brooklyn, New York. And that, well, it starts to originate. It's a shipping container. Okay. I was going to say like, it's a shipping container. I don't know if you want to say that on, because I think that's really cool. Yeah. Okay. It's a shipping container in a venue in Brooklyn. Okay. And it's a music venue and there's like music happening there all the time. And it was my band's old rehearsal spot. And at some point, I was like, fellas, I can't afford an apartment. I'm kicking y'all out and I'm moving in. Yeah. And I'm not the first person to do this. Like, this place has kind of a history of, you know, vagrants like myself doing similar things. But you're very clean vagrant. Yeah. My suits like pressed up against like thumbtack to the wall right now. Like, you should get framed. Yo. Okay. So I always wanted to frame a pair of pants like a full up pair of jeans, but I never had the money to do it. It's expensive. It'd be super expensive. I mean, you know, she had a boxing is no joke. She had a boxing is no joke. I always want to do a promotional stunt where I like a performance art piece where they framed me. And we mounted me to the wall. And I stood in there like endurance tests all day. And I was just in there and you could come and like, I'd be expected cool. You know, and at the end of the day, I would just smash through the glass and walk out and then be like, some good press, I think, for whatever shop wanted to do that. I I that's this came up because let's say me fly to it, too, that, um, and that was the whole. I did you wait. How did you did you get wind that we talked about you on the podcast? Okay. Yes. So I was on my way to work. And I got a text from my boss, all caps. Ray. And I'm like, fuck, I'm getting fired. I don't know what I did. I'm getting fucking fired. Moving back to fucking Buffalo. Like, what did I do wrong? And then I just got a clip of that one Instagram story. And I was like, oh, it's that guy sick. And I didn't know who you were. Yeah. And after you came in for the first time, my two coworkers were like, do you know how that was? And I was like, no, like that's kind of what? And I was like, do you look at that guy to me? And they were familiar with your work. What was the clip? It was just framed by Ray, framed by Ray. Yeah. Oh, yeah. We have it. Yeah, we have it. We have it somewhere. Um, um, and then I started getting texts because I was not familiar with the podcast. And I started getting texts from people I don't get texts from, like some people I get texts from, like some of my coworkers. And then like, I'm called my friend Davis, um, down in Texas. And his little sister, Alexi, is like, put me on the phone with Ray. And she's like, Ray, you're on a gunner and broke make a podcast. And I'm like, you listen to that. She's like, I'm the biggest fan. And I'm like, all right, cool. And she's like, if you go on it, you have to shout me out. So shout out, Lexi Diaz. Shout out Lexi Diaz. Oh, it's so fun. My girl done a test. Oh, wait. But it was, it was flattering here. We have the, we have the clip. I want to listen to it. Yeah, you had the bucket hat on. You're all fitted up. Are you familiar with Frambridge? No, but I'm getting the sense that it's like a Framing store. I just wish you were around to hear just how much Connor was speaking about Frambridge. Is this a new place for you, Connor? They frame anything. You can take anything in there. You get a frame. It's like, yeah. And like, I'm talking to this guy, Ray. Right from Frambridge. Yeah. And it's kind of like, frame this. He's like, okay. And that was really, that was really the extent of our conversation. I was like, nice dude. I don't mean, I think you were framing the bag of your toe. It's from the, yeah, the stand-up tour. Yeah, yeah. I did all three of the three legs of the tour. You haven't hang it up in your apartment right now. Well, I don't have an apartment right now. I'm in it. I'm also, yeah, living out of a storage unit. It was fun. You should, we should put bunks in my spot. Yeah, it'll be super cheap, bunk bed, empty storage unit in the venue. We'd fucking tear it up in there. I forget what I, I didn't have anywhere I was going with that. Well, we were talking about the first time we met and, uh, and you coming into the store and all that stuff. And then there was all this excitement around that and like my, in my world. So thank you for that, Connor. Thanks for having me. Oh, anytime. It's really great. I know we were talking about Frambridge. I was kind of in like a Frambridge honeymoon. Yeah, you were. It was so sweet. Yeah, it was awesome. I like wouldn't wait to, I was like going and picking up random stuff on the street to be like, I'm going to take this and get this frame. That's how everyone says, like come in. They're just like, I didn't know you can get this frame. It's like, baby girl, you can frame anything you want. You really can't up to a certain size because they had it 40 by 60. They did, they did trim. They did trim some shit up. Yeah. But, yeah, then, uh, I didn't see you for a while. And I was bummed because I was like, Yo, I got to, I cost this man. I got to cost this man who shot me out, right? And you came in and you were like, I thought I scared you off. And I was like, nah bro, I've been waiting to see you. I just didn't get on schedule until you popped it. And then I was like, Yo, you shot me on your progress. And I'm like, I really do. I don't want to be that guy, like begging for some shit, but I do have some stories. - Yeah, what are these stories that you? - I have a couple. - Yeah. - I've been writing my brain. - Hit me with one. - One of my favorites is my first frame shop, the one in Fairhaven, I met a murderer. My boss's boy came in one day, just like kind of chilled with us all day. And it was this friend from, I think high school. We just kicked it, got like sick taste in music, told me he was into back, and like velvet revolver, and I was like, "Hey, yeah, I love back, you know, "I love that revolver." And then even when he just laughed and, you know, whatever, he goes to grad school. And then I come into work one day, and my boss James was just like, "Yo, like, remember that guy who came in to help us out? "He just kind of hang out with us." And I was like, "Yeah." And he's like, "Yeah, he's going to prison for life." And I was like, "Why is he going to prison for life?" And it's like, "Because he murdered his roommate." 'Cause he had a psychotic breakdown at school. And he thought that there was the secret societies on, in his peripheral, one good, one evil. And they were coming together, and they were telling him, he thought there was like secret messages from his two roommates that saying like, "Hey, we're part of the good guys. "We need you to kill the other one." What we leave the house. And as soon as you do this, it's gonna be all good. We're gonna get you out of here. Like this good axis of good is going to save you. - Could you imagine being like the people that he's projecting these messages? - Yeah, yeah, yeah. - I never fucking called him to kill the guy. - Yeah. - And then he did. - Loki can't imagine that sort of thing. - How old was he? - I was a young buck back then, but probably like, as old as I am now, which is 29. So, which is weird to think about. He was in grad school, I mean, he was not that old. And probably actually now, he's probably in his thirties. 'Cause my boss was like, in his thirties, he had a kid and another kid on the way. So, then we say, like mid thirties. So yeah, met a murderer, one of my other favorite ones is this dude comes into the frame shop in the upper west and we're talking like bullshit-ing. And I'm like, I played a band and he's like, "Oh, yeah, so do I." And I'm like, "Yeah, whatever old man." And he's like, "Are you on Spotify?" And I'm like, "Yeah, I'm on Spotify." And he's like, "I have my bands on Spotify and I have millions of monthly listeners on Spotify." And I'm like, "I'm gonna put you in a home, bro." Okay, like you don't, you probably are lost. You don't know what's good with the Spotify numbers. I'll type it in and it's King Harvest. Do you know this band? - Sounds so familiar. - It's like a one hit wonder from the '70s. They have a song "Dancing in the Moonlight." He was in the Beach Boys, the dude. "Dancing in the Moonlight." Yeah, everyone covers. He wrote that song. - Is that their song? - Yeah. And a lot of people covered it. - King Harvest. - But yeah, he came in and was like, "But I'll check out your band too." And I'm like, "I have 90 monthly listeners and you just mauged the shit out of me, bro." - They had one hit. Yours is coming. - Yeah, probably not, but it's okay. And then I walk in the back. My boss, his name's Joshi. I'm just like, "Joshi, you know this band, King Harvest. They have a song "Dancing in the Moonlight." And she's wilder than me. She's under like late '60s. She's like, "Uh, yeah, right. Everyone knows King Harvest "Dancing in the Moonlight." And I'm like, "Well, I'll go fuck myself then." - I know the song, but bang her. - No. No, I wouldn't eyeball that dude. - The Beach Boys, I feel like everybody was in the Beach Boys. I didn't know that they had a rotating cast of people. It's not like the Beatles or it's four dudes. It's like. - But it really was, if I forget this name, I'm gonna lose all these credibility on here. It's like Brian Wilson. - Brian Wilson, thank you. It was, I think Brian Johnson, but I've just listened to Brian Johnson and I'm asking her on the way over here. Brian Wilson. - Brian. - Brian Wilson is the Beach Boys. And there's Mike Love, who's like the axis of evil Beach Boy. People don't fuck with Mike Love. I don't know why, but everyone loves Brian Wilson. Brian Wilson's cool. - Were you saying that you were listening to that guy that's doing the face injections on the way here? - Oh no, but he does have the same name. - Brian Johnson. - It's Brian, well Brian Johnson's time massacre, but it's like kind of spelled the same way. - What's John's time massacre? - Oh, it's like the psychotic band from California. - Oh, sick. - I needed to get myself in the zone, you know. - Yeah, totally. - So I needed to put on some Brian Johnson's time massacre on the way over here. - A little loose in the name. - I called my grandma. - How's she? - She's good. - Yeah, how was she? - 79. - She's young. - Yeah. - She had kids really young. - Sick. - What's she doing, where's she at, Austin? - No, she's in Idaho, but she-- - I don't sick. - It was fine. This is not early, but remember, like over some break, recently, we're talking her and I was like, why is one of my aunts, middle name, whatever and she's like, I was 16. - Wait, what is it? - I don't even remember which-- - There is middle name. - Which, and, but it was, it's like a weird middle name and it's a random, you know. - Yeah. - It's like Ashley or something. Why did you choose Ashley? She was like, I was 16, I don't know. - Huh, yeah. - Is she always from Idaho? - She is always from Idaho. - Damn, that's sick. What part? - So typical of her to be from Idaho. Sun Valley. - Oh, okay. That's what they do to the potatoes, right? - I think the whole state. - Yeah, but they have like Sun Valley, Idaho potatoes. That's like a brand, I believe. I could be wrong. - You could be right. - True, you ever go out there? - Yeah. - I love it out there. - Yeah, I know it's amazing. - Fucking beautiful. - Yeah. - I passed through, what's that lake, the big one? - Cortalane. - Cortalane. - Yeah. Cortalane's second, kind of eerie. I was driving up in those hills one night when I was like 18 and I was looking for a place to camp and my, I mean, my buddy just got a bad vibe 'cause you can pull over there and you can camp like the state law says, you can just camp on the side of the road. - Yeah. - I'm on home and you're like, yeah, let's just do it. And I'm like, dude, like, low key kind of feels like deliverance out here. Like we're getting higher and higher up into the hills and we just drove to Spokane that night. - Yeah, it is, I'm gonna get this so wrong. I'm gonna butcher this, but it's in this suicide belt. - Oh, really? - Yeah, and it's in-- - The white supremacy belt. - Yeah. - Yeah. - Which is like a crazy venn diagram. - Yeah. - You know? - Well, one might lead to the other. - Yeah, I'm sure some way. Like, I'm not gonna, I'm not gonna, like, be able to make that leap myself. You're on the Broken Ponta Micapodcast, featuring Ray today. - Start of the podcast. - The Murder Mystery Podcast. - Well, they, I don't like Murder Mystery. - It is, why? - I wanna think that I'm better than Murder Mystery Low Key. I'm on my phone, 7.35 AM watching a Snapchat tile news story of like the murder who killed his roommates because his roommate sold him to. I mean, that's my first thing I consume in the morning. Before I have water, I watch, two murder documentaries, you know, in my bed. - You know what I'm really into right now? Is the videos the people selling the food out of their trunks? Have you ever seen this now? - Yeah, the buckets of, like-- - They're eating the pineapple in the Kool-Aid. - Yeah. - That's really sick. I think it's cool. - This shit gay. - I think bands should do that. I think a band is a promotional thing should go down and eat the pineapple slice out of the Kool-Aid bucket and eat the waffles with the cereal on it and the tockies coated chicken drumsticks. - Well, this stuff goes viral all the time. It is, we live in like such a weird place where like people running for Congress are like, I need to go do the press junket where I like run into someone at, you know, on the street. And they ask me like, the guy that does the name these five songs. - Yeah. - But like, that's what picks up. It's so crazy. And like, we're now in like, we're in a place where like if you release a memoir about like your, a troubled childhood actor with tons of trauma, then you have to go on like a sidewalk dating show to like promote your book about your-- - Do you ever have people in a political power trying to get on the show? - Yeah. - Really? Do you say yes? - No. - Yeah. - I can't, I don't know a specific example, but we definitely have in bands from yeah, in politics. - Yeah, yeah, yeah. - You're right though. I mean, it is what gets the most visibility. You know, I'm like, Zora on like that whole thing. - Yeah. - It kind of was that simple it away. It was like, oh, the guy who's crazy good at social media and like clip farming is gonna win. It's like, he also has awesome politics, but yeah. - That's how you, I just missed my mouth. That's how you reach people. - That was me? - Yeah, it's like, it's fun. Also, if I start talking to you, I'm like, if I asked like a politician and my go to question for people is when's the last time you were on a ladder? 'Cause even though I'm asking you a question about a ladder, it's the most grounding question and there's always a story. - Because ladders level the playing field. - They do. - If you're on a ladder, you're putting in work. There's a story there. You know, it's manual or you're climbing. You're not on a ladder for Willie Nilly. When's the last time you were on a ladder? - At work. - Yeah. - I was putting some big ass boxes up on this thing and I'm like, I should just do this. Like, I'm like the one with the most height. So, did we get up on that ladder? And it was fucking pain in the ass, but I got on that ladder. What about you? - I got up on a ladder over the summer in my lab. Well, no, I felt, I had-- - Oh? - Well, my apartment was, I was locked out and I had to climb the scaffolding outside my apartment. And I jumped up to get on the ladder. You know, like, you jump from the scaffolding and then someone hooked and dropped down and I like hit my face on the ladder. - Really? You're always getting hit in the face with that. - I know. - Yeah. - I think this old thing-- - She get insurance. - I have insurance. - Really? - Yeah. - That's sick. - I know. - I need-- - You trying to get a class action lawsuit going after this? - I just like, it's, everything's my fault every time. So, like, when-- - It could be my fault for the right price. - Well, like-- - There's a swing set across the street, I think. - Yeah, like when I, I got hit by a car one time. - Really? - Yeah. - How's that? - It was what? - How was that? - It was, it was interesting 'cause I get hit by-- - You run a bike. - I was on a motor, I was on a bird. It's good here. - Oh, sick. - I get hit, I wanna like, I wanna overlay my picture of my bruise on this. if you were watching, you can see it. But I got, I'm going down this hill and it was when they switched the brakes and it's like a dumb break now instead of like a bike break. - What's it you in? - Awesome. - Okay. - I'm going down the hill, I finally find the brake and it was too late and I get hit by this car. And I was in the air for so long that I was like, I'm like horizontal and I was like, am I still in the air? - That's sick. - This is crazy and then I hit the ground. And yeah, I went up two waist sizes. I went from a 30 to a 32. - 'Cause of bruises? - Because I guess I was hemorrhaging, low-key. - Yeah, me when I hemorrhage. - Me when I hemorrhage. - Yeah, it was crazy. And then when I was interviewing at Bird, I think I did like six interviews. - Oh wait, was this before you got the job at Bird? - Yeah, I didn't get it. - And then I'm being like, yeah, and I got hit by a car. - Yeah, yeah, yeah. - And I'm here and they're like, they were like not finding it funny the first time and then so I was like, I'll deliver it differently the second time, working on standup and my job interview. I delivered it differently and second time, and then my third time, I did it and they were like, you need to stop telling people. - Why? - 'Cause it's a really sort of subject over there. Like half of the company is, is, - Come on man. - Litigation, it's all, it's government and lawyers. - Yeah. - 'Cause so many people are getting hit by carers and getting hurt. - What hurt if you had a job? - It would hurt less if you had a job. - Well, I didn't have insurance during that. So I just like let it play out. Yeah, my leg, like, my giant leg. And me, like I'm limping around. I couldn't barely answer one. - Yeah, my giant leg and me. - Yeah. - And I'm dragging it behind me the whole way. - Mm-hmm. - But it, yeah, worked out. - That's sick. I, one time. - As soon as I got health insurance, by the way, I haven't gotten injured once. - Yeah, that sounds good. - It's just so annoying. - Yeah, it's like when you don't have an umbrella, you get caught in the rain with the thing. - Or when you do have an umbrella, it's hot and you're holding an umbrella. - Well, then it turns into a parasol, protected from the sun, like Princess Peach. - Oh, I gotta get, I'm trying to get tan. - Yeah, that's true. Look at me, man, I mean, I'm like gollum. - You're going. - Yeah, I belong in a cave. I saved a guy's life in front of a grocery store at one time when I was applying for a job. And I was just walking in. I was like 17, and I was like, I need a fucking job, man. And dudes in front of me, in front of the red box machine, so it's foaming at the mouth. And I'm just like, he's like, (barking) And I'm like, Mr. are you okay? And then he face plants in front of me and blood everywhere. And I'm just like, oh my God. And I roll him over and he's just blood and pus coming out of every orifice of his face. And I'm like, Jesus fucking Christ. And I support him because I know when someone's having a stroke, you have to get them like, opposite of choke on their vomit or anything. - Oh, I would not have gone to stroke. I would have thought like, I don't know. Getting them up good and to her is what I thought. And I'm like, some were calling ambulance. And everyone looks around the parking lot and they're like, looking at me, not doing shit. And then I yell out and I'm like, fine. Oh, call a fucking ambulance. And then I call the ambulance, ran in my car, grabbed a spare blanket and my trunk, came back over, put it on him, also something you do when someone has a stroke 'cause they get like really cold. I think like the shock to some of the blood temperature. And I just kind of chilled out until the cops came and they took him away. And then I walked in and applied for a job and didn't get it. - That was homicide. - But you got the job a bird. - Yeah, I did. - So everything was, all the wrongs were righted. - Yeah, and they get fired after like six or seven weeks. - Really? 'Cause of COVID? - Yeah. - Yeah. - Okay. - I got let go over a Zoom and it was funny 'cause it was like our head of marketing put us all into, like a-- - Was it multi-fire? - It was 500, yeah, people. And it was crazy because like, I get this meeting invite and I'm on with my, my boss's boss. I'm on a phone call. We're like catching up. - Yeah. - And I'm walking around. And I didn't ever get the remote work. Like I, when I was in an office, like it was pre-everybody works from out. So it was like very much in the office. So I thought it was like so cool that I was like taking a call and I'm like not even in the office. - Yeah. - And I'm like, I gotta jump. I gotta go into this other meeting. And she goes, what meeting could you be in that I'm not in? And I was like, oh, I don't know. Send you an invite. - Probably a really important one. - Yeah. - And I sent her the invite and then I hop on, and I have it recorded me getting, like go. - I do record it just for legal reasons, just in case. - Well, I got a feeling in my stomach that this was gonna be like a nefarious phone call because you can always tell when you're about to get fired. - Well, it was a pre-recorded message and it goes, hello, it was like the Hunger Games. - Yeah. - Hello. - And I could see every like 400 people on this call and I was like, this is, you know, maybe it's like a COVID update. Hello. We've decided to inform you that you have been selected to no longer work here. - Wow. - It was like that- - It was truly online. - I'm filming and it's funny. I think it was like a Friday morning and my friends all, were still like not in the office that I was living with during COVID. And they were having a champagne and mimosas. 'Cause they weren't in the office. So they were Friday and they weren't in the office and I was like, sorry, you guys, some of us have to work. - Yeah. - And I go downstairs, I get fired and I turn it right around. I go, so they're gonna give me the bottle. - Yeah, dude, oh my God. - They laid me off and then if anyone takes anything away right now, it's that if you have a work laptop, do not do personal stuff on it. Because when I've gotten let go. - Yeah. - It just wiped the computer and it's like, I had my lease on there, I had my, like a bunch of like things I'd been working on, like a Photoshop type situation, Photoshop white. - Resume. - Resume is gone, and they wiped it. And then it was funny because I was like an hour, saying an hour away from my apartment in LA. I bailed on my lease, which I've still-- - I got bad out. - Well, I didn't have an income. I think it was just like a-- - Yeah. - What was a handshake deal with naked lady? - That was a two-week situation. - Okay, this is with friends. - Yeah. - Okay. - Closed. - Yeah. - Good, excellent. - Except one of them. He was kind of always in his underwear. - Good shape. - Good enough. - Yeah. - But yeah, I had to get out of that lease and then they were like, they had given me a scooter and they were like, you need to return that. I'm like, I'm not-- - I was just burping my ass over to the office. - You can come get it. - Yeah. - It's like 400 pounds. I'm not gonna-- - That's pretty body. - And they go, you can keep it. - Nice. - I don't want a bird scooter, would you? - Is that what? - I gave it to my aunt, and who lived down there. - Yeah, I also made the workload top mistake 'cause I was doing everything off a Chromebook. And then my company was like, do you want a Mac? And I was like, sure, that's not in school. My only question was, can I use GarageBand on this thing? And they were like, yeah, we don't care. And I had a lot of music made on that. And I thought they were just gonna let me keep it. And the last they did not, I had to do a little haggling, still lost everything I made on that laptop. But I had another one after that. So I had enough good stuff. It's not be mad about it. It's okay. - I can't relate, I lost everything. - Really? - What would you get back if you could? - I don't remember what I used to do. Like I don't remember what I used to do. - What were you photoshopping? - I don't know. I had no idea what I was doing, but I had a lot of files. But I wanted to do it. - Yeah, of course. Yeah, it's like files. - It's sick to have files. - Yeah. - I know. - Like a dossier, you know what that is? - No. - It's like a collection of files, and it sounds like really menacing. If you're gonna fuck with someone, just text them, like, yo, I'm about to release the dossier. That's like bad news. - Oh, I'm gonna start using dossier. - Yeah, yeah, yeah, dossier. It's like Epstein files. - Raise dossier. Oh yeah, totally like Epstein files. - You know I got a dossier going from here. - That's what that's the title, raise dossier. - Raise dossier, babe. - No, yeah, I like, it's weird thinking about, there was one time at work. I shared my screen. I've, this is the first and last time I've ever shared my screen. - Yeah, never shared. - I was only in a professional setting, truly like in an office before I started doing this for such a short time, like a lot of the things that I was doing in the office for like my first time, I was presenting at a meeting. I go to share my screen, I shared a window and the window I shared was 17 LinkedIn tabs applying to other jobs. - That's wonderful. - And I started to close out and they kept pot, like the other one would pop up and I was like, and I didn't know how to un-sare. I was like, for my job at other companies, like competitor companies. I was like, I just hated the job so much. - Damn. - Yeah, I made the mistake one day of, I made a lot of mistakes, but I-- - Such as life. - Yeah, no, I just like, one day I was like, I'm not like doing anything at this job. - Yeah. - Low key, I-- - Let's see, open 17 LinkedIn tabs. - So bored. - Hucking go. - And my boss was so cool that she was like, if you're done with your work, you can go home and I was like, I'm so broke and they have free food there. So I was like, I'm just staying here to eat my three meals. - Exactly. I'm gonna go to a supply closet, hang out for a couple hours, come back at dinner time, get the rest of the food, then go home on my bird's scooter. - I looked like, you know when you get those ads on TikTok and it's like, hey, fatty. The court was all as high and I'm like, I know. Like I looked like the before, 'cause I was eating 20 peanut M&Ms, which were really like, showing up in my face. - There's a top two M&Ms right there. - The peanut M&Ms? - Yeah, top two pretzel and peanut. - I'm not seeing you or hearing you with the pretzel, but I sand with you. - Let's go get some of it for this. - Yeah, I-- - It's gonna be here like a shit load of pretzel M&Ms. - With the pretzel M&Ms, I think that's-- - I'd be effort with them, I'd be effort with them, heavy. - There's like a lid for every bot. - Yeah, is that what they say? Is that like, wait, what the fuck does that mean? Lid for every bot. - It's like when, when the crazy couple that like, or like there's a girl that I went to college with, that's just like-- - Insane. - Truly, truly so unique. - Yeah. - That I was like-- - Like a good wire or like a, not a good wire. - Just very unique. She's, I would call her a friend. - Mm-hmm. - Okay. - And I just think she's just, And then she gets engaged to like, you know, there's like good looking dude and yeah, and I'm like, there's a lid for every pot like she was meant to Find this person and I they must be a match or she has a gun so Maybe he has a gun too. Yeah, they're a match. Yeah, it's great. You think it's hard to date in New York. No Why is that there's so many people? Yeah, I think there's like 13 women for every one man. Really? Yeah Which is crazy, but I kind of feel like you can go on a lot of dates, but the cruel fact of life is there's probably only like there's like many fish in the sea There's many lids many pots. There's probably only like five lids that are really gonna rock and any given moment Like here and there. Yeah, like not it's not my priority right now. Yeah, yeah Priorities moving out of the yeah, I was gonna say I didn't want to say like I didn't want to go there But like we were like should we go back to mine and what have you done that? Absolutely, that's so funny. I would be like oh my god, Ray is just gonna murder me tonight. Yeah, it's a little like lovely bones pilled Yeah, but glad you this yeah, yeah, you're glad that you know that yeah, but I don't know I guess there is a lead for every pot because sometimes it's just like there's a really lovely woman who's like cool with that Yeah, and she's like I feel safe even though this is like kind of fucking weird Um and It's sick and you have a great time. I'm sure it's very cool like it's it's like that that I thought the winter there It was nuts. That is great. Well, I just I think that there there is a young woman out there that's like That is so perfect for her story that she's creating. Yeah, I'm seeing this girl that's like Parents work in private equity, but like she's different, you know, even though she's yeah, she's spending the summers in Europe Exactly, she's spending the evenings and rays. Well sometimes when you're talking to someone everything's going really well And you tell them like yes, I'm kind of in like living in a Shipping container right now. They're always like so when do you plan on getting out of that? And I'm like pitch like yesterday. Yeah, come on, you know I've just something changes fundamentally in my life. I'm getting the fuck out of there. Yeah, it's gonna be awesome when I do All right, that's I mean, I would say a little different, but like I like I just need to I need to get into my own home I was in hotels for a little bit. Do you like hotels? I love hotels in New York, though. Oh really? They're a billion dollars And also all of them they're like I have all I have ain't as my big suitcase is all my clothes That's it. That's why everyone like I'm starting to get comments from people online that are like, didn't you wear that shirt yesterday? Yeah, and tomorrow. Yeah, and last week, I only have three shirts gonna ring that shit out after this episode I only have three shirts outside and people are starting to notice my three shirt. Yeah The rumors about me having three shirt, mm-hmm. I know that's cool, though, because you're like a cartoon character in that way Yeah, like it's your job to be a personality restart my dumb life every day and it's the exact same thing. Bart Simpson has more than one shirt He might have like 11 of the same which is what you should probably do Yeah, I did actually I went and got it another shirt today. So I have four shirts. Would you get good? No, well, I mean, yeah It's just a shirt. Yeah, a little t-shirt from Abercrombie and Fitch. Oh, yeah, they're kind of coming back right? They're her awesome They just opened a new store on Broadway. Oh, yeah, it's huge. There's those old catalogs from like the early 2000s. Yeah, Ranchie They're very horny. Yeah, very horny. The thing came out. Yeah, the documentary came out and it was like what documentary about them about Abercrombie and Fitch and the way that they would cast everybody It was just like that's insane. The dude was horny like the dude was so yeah so sexually charged that it was like Mm-hmm, like It is crazy. She had a fucking vibe to say that it was weird Having coming of age and like I'm being marketed sex for like I know and you're probably like 12 years old my ripped jeans It's like and that gust from the mall comes hits you after like the anti-ans and you're just like oh Yeah, what is this feeling and it's like it's Abercrombie and Fitch. I'm I'm oversharing a little bit here But like I do relate like the smell of that current like yeah when I smell that I'm like It reminds me of like Being a boy being a boy, but like in a bad way like all of the being all this scary the scary things that happened to a young man like very like It reminds me of like it reminds me of like Learning things. I know exactly. Yeah, I know exactly what you mean and it's also kind of exciting It's really exciting, but it freaks me out. I smell it now because it's like yeah Like I was I was talking to someone in the day, especially with smell Because smell is like the most powerful like memory sent recognition thing Um, and we're talking about aesthetics and we're talking about you ever listen to or like not listen to like look into like the wiki Esthetics where it's a global coffee house. You ever hear about this? Yeah, yeah, it's like art's a noble cafe back in the day. Yeah, yeah The girl put your records on is playing They have the Beatles one and Bob Marley gold for sale and it smells like you're in the womb You are comforted. Yeah, you know, you know what that doesn't exist anymore because everyone drinks ice coffee The smell of hot coffee is different than the smell of ice coffee and it's not the same And so I think that level of comfort you don't sit in an oversized plush chair when you're drinking ice coffee or a matcha You're drinking and like you're sitting in like a prison stool, okay? I want the friends couch. I want a mug that I can barely hold that's burning the shit out of my fingertips And I want Koran Bailey Ray bumping out of the speaker and I want to be just like Out of the coffee cup like I'm home at the global coffee house aesthetic really aligned. I do know what you mean. Yeah, I have not you just woke up something inside me right? Yeah, we're like I was Sitting on a on a prison so yeah, and I'm like all of the all of the furniture now is just like I like Ikea whatever Because they want you to get out. They do want you to get it. Oh my god. Whatever happened to lounging around putting your records on dude for real that song so fucking good. That is really good She was just she just went and I don't know what current Bailey Ray is up to but she I just saw a TikTok of her Was he she at the school? She's at the school. Yeah, she's like crying. Yeah, I just think in the song it was so sweet And I was like there was something about that kind of music too like that Nora Jones um even like that early maroon five like cold play Yellow and feeling kind of sad and sick like all that is music I think for adults and I like that. It's like you listen to this you go to the coffee shop You probably work at apple and it's 2004 and everything's fucking awesome, you know like no recession Like optimism like the tech will save us all You're just having the best time drinking your big ass cup of coffee, you know and It's you you go to that coffee shop and later you go home to like your loving partner and you probably make dinner together Once again to core and Bailey Ray's girl put your records on and you're having like a bottle of wine And you're a fucking adult and I feel like music doesn't cater to that specific type of person anymore And that makes me sad. I don't know. I say it man. Yeah, I say it. I'll say it right here. I want adult music Adult music, and it reminds me of my parents. What are they listen to Nora? Well, they was no I remember we had this like big Massive like machine mm-hmm in our in our entertainment console, which is like so sick Yeah, and they're at the bottom. Yeah, it was old CDs. Mm-hmm, but they're we had like a six disc Yeah, you'd press like seven. Yeah, and then it'd play like track one from yeah or six But you'd play whatever track from disc six and I remember because it was like It was like Santana and Nora Jones. Yeah, and it was like that vibe and I remember my mom would like put it on every night And it was like the vibe of like living Growing up in your parents. I'm in like 8 p.m. Happened so like there's music playing in your like eating dinner and epic vibe. You have homework. I know I think about going to grad school sometimes, but I really like have a fear of homework There was one night I bomb so bad at a comedy show that I Walked out. I my set was supposed to be 12 minutes. I did six minutes. I called it. Yeah, the last thing I said was like Does anyone have a gun? Can you toss it up here for me like did that was like just like cherry on top of me here And I walked out and I just got straight in my car. I didn't even say buy it anyone and When was this a couple years like three years ago? Okay, and I just looked up grad school and I just in general like I was just like I need to be in grad school. I need to be learning. I need a dance cap in grad school right now and I got like To the application and I think I did one page of the application. They're like you can't even be on the The application like you're not allowed so imagine bombing a set and then grad school in general Yeah, you can't do you can't do this either god damn. Yeah go go ahead and try to find your resume So you made on Photoshop that you don't have anymore. What would you go to grad school for if you could anything? Spelling It's a good one Apology is that it yeah, I probably I probably go for like for history or like creative writing history like history That's what I'm gonna do yeah Sick vibe. Where are we right now Yeah Oh right right now. Okay cool. That's oh, that's what I thought okay cool. We can do What we should wrap up something really fun Do you have like a gnarly story that you wanted to share before we Dip this by the way, mm-hmm Please take it from me in my shaky hand like do not it's a lot. I'm about to shit my pants. I'm shaking and I'm sweating so much No, it's opposite. I - I am sh-in shambles, this makes me shudder. - Yeah. - And I regret it. And I'm gonna just look at how many milligrams of caffeine I had on an empty stomach. A lot of potassium. - That's good, probably want to shit. - Yeah, um, it's gonna not tell me how many, which is probably smart. - Mm-hmm. - Okay. Awesome. - Yeah, I'm tossing it over to you. So we'll wrap on our-- - I'll do like lightning round two, last sickest frame of stories. I don't talk about my favorite people that came in. - Yeah, yeah, dude. - So on the upper west, you know who hair Belifonte is? Thank you. - I don't, I'm lost. - Fuck. I know somebody, I tell this to so many people. He's the king of Calypso. You ever seen Beetlejuice jump in line to see where they're fucking dancing around? That's a hair Belifonte song. Banana boat, Angelina. ♪ Oh, manza, jamada, jamada ♪ - I don't know, I can't confirm or deny that. - Okay. - But here Belifonte has the king of Calypso. - Okay, nice. - Just music icon. Both of his ex-wives used to come to the frame shop and get stuff framed, both named Julie. So Julie won comes down and she's older shit. Older shit has like two helpers with her. She's like, she's getting into her years, right? And we help her out and it's all good. She can barely see. And she took a liking to me because I'm like, you know, a spray young buck. - Sure. - Yeah. And we help her and it's all good. And then Julie too comes in. - Oh, not Julie too. - I think they both kept the last name Belifonte. - Yeah, I would. - They're competing for the title of Harry's ex-wife. And so I asked Julie too. I'm like, "Yo, are you Julie's daughter?" Like, "Are you Julie?" 'Cause the other Julie Belifonte comes in. She goes, "No, I'm Harry's third ex-wife. I'm the one he died on." And I'm like, "Oh." - Congrats. - Congrats. And she was considerably younger than Julie won. So Harry was singing some dick for real. And I just really liked that. It really got me into Harry Belifonte after that. So civil rights icon, like, amazing dancer. - I like that they kept the name because I'm doing this thing right now. My buddy Tyler, his last name's Swift. - Yeah. - So I sometimes we'll, Kai and I will use his rezi-mamp under his name and we'll put it down under Tyler Swift. We get, okay, they just don't see it. - No, it just says Tyler Swift. And it's like so close that I, and that's his legit name in it. Like, things for people and they're like, this is so close to Taylor that we get the reservation every single time. - Damn, that's sick. Shout out to dyslexia. - I know. - Right? - Yeah. - Just misreading that little bit. - I'm getting it, by the way. Like, I'm-- - Yeah, you got the plug. - Things have happened recently where I'm like, I saw a license plate the other day. It was like, e7, 4, L, A. And I was like, Alex Earl, I thought-- (laughing) - You saw what you wanted to see. - Yeah. - That's pretty sick. - Yeah. - The other thing, the coolest thing I frame, 'cause I get that question a lot, it was a gun. A gun, it was a Luger pistol once again on 72nd. Walked in with a wrapped up in a pillowcase. So can you frame this? And thank God it was the end of the day, 'cause I locked that door and I said, hell yeah, we can. - Oh. - And we framed the shit out of that gun. - What, why the pillow, why the pillowcase? - So no one saw it. It was like in her purse, and then she took it out of her purse. - Ooh. - And she had the gun. - She, her. - She was like a vixen, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. - She just killed Belafonte. - With her love, perhaps. - No, I think it was her grandfather's. It was like some like CIA type dude. He was up in the Balkans, like getting all sorts of shit. And this was his like gun that he took on all the missions. And she was getting it framed. And she was like, I'm gonna put this on my mantle, and I'm like, you're the coolest lady I've ever been. - That is cool. - That's fucking dope. - Yeah, and to have a mantle, that's awesome. - Who can afford that? - There's like different things that people say where it's like, we're not gonna see eye to eye. Like, in unit laundry, to me for a long time was like, if you have that, like, I just really like, can't even have a conversation with you as peers. Because when you have in unit laundry, washer dryer, it's like, your life genuinely is different than people that have to like, go out to do their laundry. - Yeah, I, my hot take, though, one of my many hot takes, I actually don't mind doing laundry with the laundromat, 'cause I always play extreme sports on the TV. When you go in, it's like, it's like leveling experience. Like, we're all just showing up. You always see like the hottest girl you've ever seen in your entire life doing laundry and you're like, amazing. - I would love to hang out at the laundromat, but I don't wanna do, I can't do, I, - You're busy. - Just thinking about going and batting that into the day is just, it's overwhelmed. - I always like it as like an afterwork activity. Like, mine's really close to my place, so I'll go over, do the laundry, go get a bite to eat, sometimes go get a beer. - Do you leave while your laundry's in the thing? - Oh yeah. - Do people not steal? - No, I don't think it's steal. - You're laundry? - No, they want my socks and underwear. - If it's nice. - I think it gets a job done. - Okay. - I've always time it though, so I get back and it's like, it's finishing up. - Yeah. - Okay. - And then you read your book, watch some extreme sports. I'm not just like striking up a conversation, start talking to some people, you know? And it's like, that was actually kind of nice. - It does sound nice. - It's like a third space, everyone's like, we don't have any third spaces anymore. It's like, go to the laundromat. - Maybe I will. - You should. - I'm going home. - Let's go together. - Home. - Let's hang out. We'll post up with the laundromat. - That's a perfect way to wrap. - Yeah, yeah, yeah. - Right, thank you so much for coming on. - Thank you, my friends. - Save me this week. - Thank you for having me. - So much. - And we'll do it again when Brooks back. - And I will say, I am a framer, and I'm quite a good framer, but I'm a lot of other things, and I will use this opportunity to say, if anyone out there in the podcasting either is interested in many of the many projects I'm involved with, whether that be writing, advertising, creative writing, music, please, please, please, get in touch. - Yeah, and do you want to plug your band too? We'll get-- - Sure. - A monthly follow or listen to it. - Yeah, I'll plug the down and outs. I'll plug same vein, mono-bock, fly catcher, the Madeline's, these are all my friends bands. Oslo, Astoria, couch prints. Oh God. - You got all that? - It'll be mad at me if I don't include their band. There's definitely one more morning silk. My good friend Frank's just released this project. It's really good. - Shut up Frank. - Yeah, shut up Frank. But that's all I got to plug. I think you'll try on me. - Thanks for coming on. - Thank you. - Sorry. - That's what I'm saying. - All right, thank you guys for listening. - Thank you for listening. - And this is our last, this is our last solo episode and then we'll have, we have Brooke back next week. She will be wrapping up her amazing tour and we are proud of her and we love her. - Shut up, Brooke. - Yeah, you'll meet her. - Sick, let's do it again. - All right, thank you guys. - Bye-bye. - See you in the bonus. (audience cheering)