Speaker 1: Hey everyone, it's Jonah. So this month we're revisiting some
Speaker 1: of our favorite episodes and letting you hear some bonus
Speaker 1: footage from How Did We Get Weird? And today we
Speaker 1: are very happy to bring you an episode we did
Speaker 1: a while back with Michelle's on Or from Japanese Breakfast. Vanessa,
Speaker 1: you remember this one?
Speaker 2: Yes, I absolutely love this episode. It's one of my favorites.
Speaker 2: We talk about VHS tapes, but we also really get
Speaker 2: into music class I maybe burn one of our music
Speaker 2: teachers from growing up, and we talk about a bunch
Speaker 2: of really a bunch of really fun stuff. She was
Speaker 2: absolutely fantastic, and I know we're both really big fans
Speaker 2: of hers too, And I think people will really enjoy
Speaker 2: this episode even if you've already heard it, and also
Speaker 2: be sure to subscribe to the podcast so that when
Speaker 2: we release bonus stuff like this, you always get it.
Speaker 2: And we hope that you'll absolutely enjoy this very truly much.
Speaker 3: Hi. I'm Vanessa Veyor and this is my brother Jonah.
Speaker 1: We're two siblings who love to talk about our childhood
Speaker 1: in nostalgia and how shaped us into the people we
Speaker 1: are today.
Speaker 2: Who are pretty young at heart and in age. If
Speaker 2: I do say so myself.
Speaker 1: Welcome to how did We get Weird?
Speaker 2: So, Jonah, I was thinking, in honor of our guest today,
Speaker 2: being the musical guest for the finale of the most
Speaker 2: recent season of SNL, we could talk about this thing
Speaker 2: that used to happen when I was at SNL, which is, well,
Speaker 2: let me back up, because this is a nostalgic podcast
Speaker 2: and this story is based in nostalgia. When we were
Speaker 2: growing up, everybody used to call me Jonah's little sister.
Speaker 3: Do you remember that.
Speaker 1: I don't remember that, because, like, I don't think I
Speaker 1: heard that reference as much. Probably right, because I guess
Speaker 1: it was reference towards me.
Speaker 2: It would be like your sister, yeah, and it would
Speaker 2: be like when I was like walking in the hallway
Speaker 2: at school or something, people would be like, that's Jonah's
Speaker 2: little sister.
Speaker 3: That's how all your friends talk.
Speaker 2: And I always thought it was cool though, because I
Speaker 2: was like, yeah, whatever, it's whatever.
Speaker 3: And then once I got on SNL.
Speaker 2: When you would come visit, people would be like, that's
Speaker 2: Vanessa's brother. However, here's where the twist comes in, because
Speaker 2: you were such a cool music guy. Whenever the bands
Speaker 2: would come, they would usually know you, or they would
Speaker 2: often know you, and they'd be like, that's Jonah's little
Speaker 2: sister again, And I loved that I was back to
Speaker 2: being Jonah's little sister when I was at SNL.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that was nice for you. I mean I felt
Speaker 1: like I had no real STATUSSNL unless you were actually
Speaker 1: physically with me. Like I remember, if we wanted to
Speaker 1: see the band or something, I'd walk on. If I
Speaker 1: wasn't with you, they'd be like, you know, And if
Speaker 1: I was with you, I was like, Okay, I can
Speaker 1: kind of like have free reign a little more.
Speaker 3: Well, you didn't have status with the security people.
Speaker 1: The security was not impressed with like my status in
Speaker 1: high school or.
Speaker 2: Something, right, But the bands oftentimes would be like, yeah,
Speaker 2: we were at Pitchfork together.
Speaker 3: Remember this is you guys. That was an awesome set.
Speaker 1: That's like probably a verbatim conversation I had with Yeah,
Speaker 1: I felt like it was actually my lot more like
Speaker 1: the cruise and like the text and stuff where people
Speaker 1: generally I knew some of the bands, right, but a
Speaker 1: lot of people that work in the touring industry. But yeah,
Speaker 1: that's a crazy full circle moment, how Vanessa, Yeah, Okay, well,
Speaker 1: speaking of today, our guest played the SNL F Now
Speaker 1: this season. She's a singer, musician, director, and author, best
Speaker 1: known as a vocalist and songwriter of Japanese Breakfast. She
Speaker 1: leased her book Crying in h Mart in twenty twenty one,
Speaker 1: which is a New York Times bestseller. Let's please welcome
Speaker 1: Michelle sonor Hey Michelle, Hi, how's it going good?
Speaker 3: Thanks for being here. Did you enjoy that story?
Speaker 4: I did enjoy that story as an only child, It's
Speaker 4: like the world of siblings is so sweet and fascinating
Speaker 4: to me, and it brought me back to my very
Speaker 4: lovely experience at SNL And how fun of a time.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm so glad you had a good time.
Speaker 2: I went back once after I was on the show,
Speaker 2: and I did something on Weekend Update, and I got
Speaker 2: to be in one of the not like the dressing
Speaker 2: room you get to be in is I feel like
Speaker 2: so cool? But I was in one of the other
Speaker 2: dressing rooms in the front. I'm sure you got this too.
Speaker 2: They bring in this like plate that has like all
Speaker 2: these cheeses and nuts on it.
Speaker 3: Did you get that?
Speaker 4: I can't recall. Yes, we probably did. We probably did.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you were maybe less focused on it than I was,
Speaker 3: but like.
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, I was like not eating during this time,
Speaker 4: not because of like wanting to lose weight or anything,
Speaker 4: but like I was so nervous that something was going
Speaker 4: to upset my stomach and then I was going to
Speaker 4: have I was going to have anxiety. I was just
Speaker 4: so nervous. Like the entire week, I was like not
Speaker 4: eating much because I was so worried that something was
Speaker 4: going to upset my stomach and I would have a
Speaker 4: stomach ache. I was like the strange intensen like fear
Speaker 4: and anxieties. I was like not eating anything.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, I did the opposite. I got there.
Speaker 3: I was like, oh my god, I got.
Speaker 4: I got a load up on this cheese.
Speaker 2: As much as like you know, SNL is a great experience,
Speaker 2: Like the free food, especially when you're in the cast,
Speaker 2: is not there's not a lot of it. There's free
Speaker 2: food on like the read through day on Wednesday when
Speaker 2: you read through all the sketches and then.
Speaker 3: That's basically it.
Speaker 2: And so it was so fun to like be in
Speaker 2: my dressing room then bring in like I had like
Speaker 2: this thing. It's like cheese, and it's like the same
Speaker 2: cheese plate that's like when you walk by Seth Meyers show,
Speaker 2: it's like outside the I don't know, it's a great
Speaker 2: cheese plate.
Speaker 4: That's a specific NBC.
Speaker 2: It's like a specific NBC cheese plate, and it's just
Speaker 2: for listeners. Like it's huge. It's like not like it's
Speaker 2: like a few pieces of cheese. It's like I think
Speaker 2: it is supposed to be big enough for like your
Speaker 2: entire band or something, or like the people in your entrage.
Speaker 2: But it was basically like I was just like they're like, okay,
Speaker 2: I got this, And then people would like come into
Speaker 2: my dressing room and again, just to clarify this was
Speaker 2: like I was doing like a guest thing on SNL
Speaker 2: a year after I like left the show, and.
Speaker 3: People were coming in and in my mind, I think
Speaker 3: they were coming in to.
Speaker 2: Talk to me, But part of me was like do
Speaker 2: they just want cheese?
Speaker 1: Like people you haven't seen in a year?
Speaker 2: You think, yeah, like people being like, oh my god,
Speaker 2: welcome back Vanessa, Like you know, can do you mind
Speaker 2: if I have like a piece of this?
Speaker 3: Is this cool? If I just have a piece of
Speaker 3: this cheese.
Speaker 4: And you're like they're using me for my Yeah?
Speaker 2: And I was like, yeah, good to see too, But
Speaker 2: I wonder if it would be so good if I
Speaker 2: didn't have this old cheese. Also, I think that's like
Speaker 2: me being so protective since I was like little, like
Speaker 2: I'm a person who like doesn't love to share food.
Speaker 4: Is that something to do with siblings, like especially being
Speaker 4: a younger sister. Maybe wow, older brother's taking your cheese?
Speaker 2: You would think so, except Jonah was always like a
Speaker 2: very light eater. Like Jonah sort of was different than
Speaker 2: everyone else in our family in the sense that like
Speaker 2: he would just like be like I'm done and we'd
Speaker 2: be like what and never was like really that into desserts.
Speaker 2: I'd be like what are we having for dessert? And
Speaker 2: jonahould be like can I be excused? And it was
Speaker 2: like Jonah, U get real. Yeah, I forgot about having
Speaker 2: to ask to be excused. That was the thing for sure.
Speaker 2: At the dinner table. Yeah, you can just get up
Speaker 2: and go Michelle, did.
Speaker 3: You have dinner?
Speaker 2: Like did you have like a dinner with your parents?
Speaker 2: Like yeah, yeah? And did you have to ask to
Speaker 2: be excused?
Speaker 4: Yeah? I probably. I also like my duty was to
Speaker 4: like clean the table like that was my main chorea
Speaker 4: in indexing the glass.
Speaker 3: Oh nice.
Speaker 4: So I remember one time I went to my college
Speaker 4: roommate's house for Thanksgiving, and he's also an only child
Speaker 4: with like older parents, and like when his dad was
Speaker 4: done with Thanksgiving dinner, he's left the dad the dad,
Speaker 4: and then later like my friend just left and I
Speaker 4: was just like, what is going on. It's like Thanksgiving dinner,
Speaker 4: there's left to go watch TV. And then I like
Speaker 4: helped his mom like clean up the entire things. Wow,
Speaker 4: that's so it was shocking to me. It was it
Speaker 4: was Yeah, it was unreal, but yeah, that's how they
Speaker 4: do it in their family. It was really wild.
Speaker 3: It's so crazy.
Speaker 4: They just like didn't say any he was done, and
Speaker 4: then he didn't bring his plate to the same grain
Speaker 4: and he just left it there and like went to
Speaker 4: watch TV.
Speaker 2: Do you think if you were one of his like
Speaker 2: guy friends, that they would have expected you to go
Speaker 2: watch TV?
Speaker 4: Yeah, well I think that. I don't think that they
Speaker 4: expected me personally to like clean, but I wasn't gonna
Speaker 4: like not leave his mom to just Yeah. I think
Speaker 4: they were just like mom. I think first of all,
Speaker 4: they're like I don't know if they like always did
Speaker 4: a Thanksgiving dinner so maybe they're like a family that
Speaker 4: ate out a lot or something. But yeah, I had to,
Speaker 4: you know. And it was funny because when he I'm
Speaker 4: afraid he's gonna listen to this. But when he came
Speaker 4: to my parents' house, my parents were shocked that he
Speaker 4: didn't bring his plate to the same and so it
Speaker 4: was very much like, oh, that's how you were raised.
Speaker 3: Right totally.
Speaker 1: I also think as someone who is a teenage boy,
Speaker 1: you have such a lack of awareness sometimes about like
Speaker 1: how other people are, how the work.
Speaker 4: I mean, it's shocking to me that you even have
Speaker 4: that awareness. Now, yeah, I'm already like, oh wow, that's amazing.
Speaker 4: I saw like some video of like dad's being asked
Speaker 4: questions about their kids on the street and like they're like,
Speaker 4: what's her elementary school? And like the dad didn't like
Speaker 4: our expectations were men or like so love when it
Speaker 4: comes to that kind of thing. One of them was like, oh,
Speaker 4: is your kid allergic to anything? And the dad was like, oh,
Speaker 4: I think some kind of barry right, and the kid
Speaker 4: is like, no, I'm allergic to penics.
Speaker 3: That's really funny.
Speaker 2: Well, at least we were raised with having to be
Speaker 2: excused once in a while, we would get allowances, like
Speaker 2: do you remember this, Jonah. We would get allowances once
Speaker 2: in a while, and part of our allowance was like
Speaker 2: we had to do chores, but then we like sort
Speaker 2: of didn't really do the chores, and then our parents
Speaker 2: sort of never gave us the allowance. It was sort
Speaker 2: of like something that would happen for like a week
Speaker 2: or two.
Speaker 1: I remember spending most of my allowance on cause tapes
Speaker 1: and which I guess are kind of like cool again, right, Michelle,
Speaker 1: Is that that's like a thing now? Huh? Have you
Speaker 1: gotten into that or no?
Speaker 4: I was really into it when in like two thousand
Speaker 4: and eleven, Ish.
Speaker 2: Okay, I would say, so cassette tapes are already not
Speaker 2: cool again.
Speaker 4: I kind of feel like they are not cool.
Speaker 1: Again now CDs are actually seem like they're getting cool again.
Speaker 4: Maybe maye, I think the vinyl is king still.
Speaker 1: Yeah, final I was cool for sure, But I.
Speaker 4: Think that cassettes like had a real comeback in twenty
Speaker 4: eleven because I remember it's just so much cheaper to
Speaker 4: make when you're in a band, and I was really
Speaker 4: into like selling them as merch And I also had
Speaker 4: a car that had a cassette player, and so I
Speaker 4: like kind of enjoyed owning cassettes. I remember I had
Speaker 4: a Twin Peaks soundtrack cassette and I just would drive
Speaker 4: around in like my like Honda Odyssey, like feeling like
Speaker 4: Dale Cooper later Agentop. Yeah, like sneaking about to like
Speaker 4: the Twin Peaks soundtrack. And I think I made like
Speaker 4: some like mixtapes for people around that time. But yeah,
Speaker 4: I feel like might be out again.
Speaker 1: That might be out again, Yeah.
Speaker 4: Because they had them at Urban for a while, and
Speaker 4: that's like when you know something is.
Speaker 3: Like right right right totally.
Speaker 4: And maybe soon to be over.
Speaker 2: Yeah right, they're catching stuff just in time, and it's
Speaker 2: almost yeah.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: It's a bummer because I think in my kitchen now
Speaker 2: I have this was yours, Jonah. I have for some
Speaker 2: reason a cassette from the movie Cocktail starring Tom Cruise.
Speaker 1: It was my first cassette.
Speaker 3: WHOA, I think I have it.
Speaker 1: You have that? Really?
Speaker 3: I think it's here.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, nineteen eighty eight and it had don't Want
Speaker 1: to Be Happy Bobby McFerrin, Pocamo Beach Boys. I mean
Speaker 1: it had some serious.
Speaker 3: We've maybe talked about this on here before I've.
Speaker 1: Talked about it probably a lot. It was very influential
Speaker 1: on me.
Speaker 2: What I'm about to say, which is that you did
Speaker 2: a you did a report and you played Cocomo in
Speaker 2: the background.
Speaker 3: Do you remember this?
Speaker 1: No, But I mean it's like my favorite song, So
Speaker 1: it sounds like something.
Speaker 2: You did a report because I remember it was like
Speaker 2: something where because we were in the same school at
Speaker 2: the time, I think it was like we must have
Speaker 2: been in like Prady, I guess, and I was in
Speaker 2: fifth grade and you were in seventh grader.
Speaker 3: I don't know.
Speaker 1: Anyways, it was definitely not seventh grade. It was not
Speaker 1: seventh I feel like I was listening to like Rancid
Speaker 1: and stuff, probably not doing like a Beach Boys single.
Speaker 2: Well, whatever it was, I remember you switched whatever song
Speaker 2: you were like gonna give a report. Jonah was like
Speaker 2: a real ham as you can imagine, Michelle, and you
Speaker 2: were going to give a report and like play a
Speaker 2: song in the background, and you decided to play Go Comeo,
Speaker 2: Like don't remember.
Speaker 3: What they'll like.
Speaker 1: The context was, yeah, who knows.
Speaker 3: But I remember you practice it.
Speaker 1: Gotcha, I remember, And I don't know Michelle, if you
Speaker 1: ever did. We had like a music class and we
Speaker 1: could vote on a song each week that we could
Speaker 1: play for the class. And these kids voted for one
Speaker 1: by U two that was like a really big song
Speaker 1: at the time.
Speaker 4: Yeah. Yeah, it's funny to think of like kids being
Speaker 4: into you too, you know.
Speaker 1: It is really funny, like dad.
Speaker 4: Band, like like a group of young children being like
Speaker 4: we want one.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And I brought in Metallica's one because I was like,
Speaker 1: this is one. Also, we should play this nine minute
Speaker 1: long Metallica song and JNA cool move that mister Foley was.
Speaker 1: They weren't having it. They were like, no, you know,
Speaker 1: can I.
Speaker 2: Just say, mister Foley kind of like this is no
Speaker 2: offense in case he for some reason listens to this.
Speaker 2: But you didn't have a great sense of humor. I
Speaker 2: think we can agree on that. Because like my class
Speaker 2: was really bad, Like I was in a really bad
Speaker 2: sixth grade class with him or something, and we did
Speaker 2: the same thing where we could like vote for songs.
Speaker 2: Everyone was kind of misbehaved, but like everyone was pretty funny,
Speaker 2: Like I was very well behaved, but like DeMarcus Dus
Speaker 2: was in our class, and he was like pretty poorly behaved,
Speaker 2: but he was genuinely funny, like mister Foley could have
Speaker 2: been like okay, Marcus, like and I understand he had
Speaker 2: a really hard job, like taking care of all these
Speaker 2: asshole kids, but like he like had no sense of
Speaker 2: humor about it ever, And we had mister Foley, Like
Speaker 2: sorry Michelle to talk so much about mister Foley, but
Speaker 2: like I feel like we had him forever, like he
Speaker 2: was all through Brady, But was he also in pepper Pike.
Speaker 2: I don't know, But anyways, Brady was our middle school,
Speaker 2: pepper Pike was our elementary school.
Speaker 4: That sounds like a type of like cracker.
Speaker 1: It really does sound like a cracker.
Speaker 2: I guess what I want to say, and I won't
Speaker 2: go on for too long since nobody except for like
Speaker 2: five people listening to this podcast will know who mister
Speaker 2: Folly is. I just want to say, like I would
Speaker 2: have appreciated a little more of a sense of humor
Speaker 2: from him, understanding that his job was difficult, and I
Speaker 2: give him that fair enough. And it was cool that
Speaker 2: he let us bring in songs that were popular.
Speaker 1: That was cool. Not cool he wouldn't let's play Metallica.
Speaker 3: And not cool that he wouldn't give us a laugh
Speaker 3: once in a while.
Speaker 1: Michelle, I mean being a professional musician. Did you have
Speaker 1: like music classes as like in school? Were you into
Speaker 1: that or not as much? Were you in band or
Speaker 1: any of that kind of stuff.
Speaker 4: Or I wish I was like such a My schedule
Speaker 4: was always like occupied, you know, I was like in
Speaker 4: a program like I don't remember having any electives beyond
Speaker 4: school newspaper, which is what I was into oka to do.
Speaker 4: I took like piano classes like after school, but and
Speaker 4: guitar classes after high school. But I never got to
Speaker 4: do like band or symphony or orchestra. Rather, I would
Speaker 4: have really loved to have done it. But I will
Speaker 4: say that the song Kokomo was very triggering for me
Speaker 4: because when I was three years old, I drowned in
Speaker 4: a hot time in Aruba, and the only time I
Speaker 4: ever heard like Aruba to make like was in that song,
Speaker 4: and so I like, yeah, I always just like associate
Speaker 4: it with like my death place.
Speaker 3: Oh my gosh, yeah, oh my god. Do you remember it.
Speaker 4: I don't really remember it. I don't know if I've
Speaker 4: just like imagined it after the fact, But yeah, we
Speaker 4: were on vacation in Aruba, and I have this memory
Speaker 4: of being pushed into a hot ta by like children,
Speaker 4: and I don't know if that happened or not, but
Speaker 4: my water wings were deflated and I had stuffed my
Speaker 4: mouth full of fig Newtons and my mom was putting
Speaker 4: sunscreen on my dad's back. So they like looked away
Speaker 4: or something, and then they turned around. I was a
Speaker 4: very very small child and someone had picked me up
Speaker 4: out of the hot tub and asked, is this anyone's dull?
Speaker 4: My parents just started like screaming, and luckily there was
Speaker 4: like a nurse on vacation that gave me CPR, but
Speaker 4: my heart stopped beating for like forty five seconds. I
Speaker 4: was like technical wow dead at that age. But yeah,
Speaker 4: my mom was really smart about it. I didn't have
Speaker 4: any like complications. I think I went to the hospital
Speaker 4: for just like a day and they were like, take
Speaker 4: her to the water so she like doesn't develop like
Speaker 4: a oh that's so coolah. Yeah. So I remember going
Speaker 4: like into the water like right afterwards, and my mom
Speaker 4: putting me in like a bunch of swimming classes for
Speaker 4: a really long time after that. But it's funny because
Speaker 4: every time I hear the song Kokemo, I just think
Speaker 4: of that man.
Speaker 1: Sorry, Yeah, I had to bring that up like twelve times.
Speaker 4: It's not no, it's not actually triggering for me, and
Speaker 4: it's a you know, I just remember hearing that song
Speaker 4: when I was younger and always like thinking of that time.
Speaker 4: I definitely have no like traumatic memory of that.
Speaker 1: That's really good, that's really good. What were your guitar
Speaker 1: lessons like? Like, because my guitar lessons were me basically
Speaker 1: just bringing songs I liked off the radio and trying
Speaker 1: to make teacher transcribed them. Were you actually learning theory
Speaker 1: and stuff or what You're more that style?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 4: I wish, you know, I think that. Like now as
Speaker 4: an adult, I'm like so into that, But at that age,
Speaker 4: I was just like, teach me this iron and Wines.
Speaker 4: I like loved him, and he was kind of like
Speaker 4: this Christian guy, Like he was like a cool Christian,
Speaker 4: you know. And I took lessons at the lesson factory
Speaker 4: which was next to the Guitar Center, and it was
Speaker 4: very very corporate and they had like all these guitar
Speaker 4: teachers in like little cells basically cubicles basically. But I
Speaker 4: loved him. I thought he was so cool, and I
Speaker 4: think that he really liked me, and I think that
Speaker 4: the songs that I asked to learn were like songs
Speaker 4: that he would listen to, and so yeah, I enjoyed that.
Speaker 4: But you know, even from an early age, I just
Speaker 4: I wanted to write songs. I wasn't a very serious player.
Speaker 4: I just like wanted the tools to write songs.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah, the Lesson factor is incredible name for like a corporations,
Speaker 1: so funny.
Speaker 3: Mid school.
Speaker 2: I also want to ask really quickly about your time
Speaker 2: at the school newspaper, like, yeah, the only school newspaper
Speaker 2: I know of was like the one that Brandon ran
Speaker 2: on nine or two and oh, because we didn't have
Speaker 2: a school newspaper till like college. Oh really, we didn't
Speaker 2: have one at our high school. Were you always trying
Speaker 2: to get like the sooop?
Speaker 4: I also was like a real Ham like middle school,
Speaker 4: and I s well, I was I'm still a Ham,
Speaker 4: always been a him. And I you know, like I
Speaker 4: really wanted editor and I was editor in chief of
Speaker 4: the middle school paper and I was features.
Speaker 3: Oh we had a middle school paper.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I had a middle school paper, the I think
Speaker 4: it was we were called the Rough Writers and yeah,
Speaker 4: and I was an editor in chief with another girl
Speaker 4: and she was very like serious news beat, and I
Speaker 4: was like goofy features. My favorite thing to do was
Speaker 4: the backpage, and I got really into writing quizzes. I
Speaker 4: was like really into like writing like personality, like cosmotype
Speaker 4: like personality quizzes for the backfait. That was like my thing.
Speaker 4: And so that was like what I was into in
Speaker 4: high school and middle school. I think, you know, I
Speaker 4: always wanted to be a writer, and I thought for
Speaker 4: the longest time that the most like practical path to
Speaker 4: pursue writing was through journalism. And even then I sort
Speaker 4: of begun to like butt heads with like my teacher
Speaker 4: because there were all these sort of like rules of
Speaker 4: journalism and like you know, the deadlines, and you know,
Speaker 4: I just I hated authority like from a very young age,
Speaker 4: and I just wanted to write what I wanted to write.
Speaker 4: And it's funny because you were talking about mister Foley.
Speaker 4: My journalism teacher now has like quite some like a
Speaker 4: group of kids like from South I went to South
Speaker 4: Eugene High School. A lot of them know who I
Speaker 4: am because it's such a small town, and you know,
Speaker 4: they think it's like cool that I went there and
Speaker 4: they knew that I was one of her students and
Speaker 4: you know, had asked her about me. I like went
Speaker 4: through like a mental breakdown and like my senior year,
Speaker 4: and she like was very I don't really remember her
Speaker 4: being particularly hard on me, but I do think that,
Speaker 4: you know, we sort of butted heads because she you
Speaker 4: know expected a certain you know, quality that I wasn't
Speaker 4: able to deliver to this school paper. And she wrote
Speaker 4: me like a Facebook message a few years ago, like apologize, Wow,
Speaker 4: yeah for like being like I just don't think I
Speaker 4: like maybe got like your sense of humor or like
Speaker 4: your creativity. I didn't like I should have been more
Speaker 4: open to like your voice or like whatever. And I
Speaker 4: think she like had some regrets, which is funny because
Speaker 4: she wouldn't be like the first teacher I would look
Speaker 4: back on and I didn't harbor any like real resentment
Speaker 4: towards her or feel that way. But I think she
Speaker 4: like felt some guilt that maybe she didn't like let
Speaker 4: my creativity flourish more and she was like strict with me.
Speaker 4: But I didn't really feel that that way about her,
Speaker 4: but I thought it was really sweet to like get
Speaker 4: that message.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, that's so nice. That's so nice.
Speaker 4: So I wonder maybe mister Foley, like if he heard this,
Speaker 4: he would be like, I should have had more of
Speaker 4: a sense of humor.
Speaker 1: I wonder if he'll write message and be like Joan,
Speaker 1: I'm sorry we should have let you play one by Metallica.
Speaker 4: Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah yeah. But I mean I get
Speaker 4: it because like I've been in that situation before, like
Speaker 4: where you just like are trying to do your best
Speaker 4: and like take your job seriously and like you're nervous.
Speaker 4: Maybe like I've been in situations where I've done things
Speaker 4: and I've been nervous and I've like kind of lacked
Speaker 4: a sense of humor that like I should have had
Speaker 4: and look back on certain moments where I'm like, oh,
Speaker 4: I messed that up, but it was because I wanted
Speaker 4: to do such a good job weirdly.
Speaker 3: Yeah, totally totally.
Speaker 2: And also I think like for our teachers, like well currently,
Speaker 2: like to me, nothing is scarier than like teenagers, but
Speaker 2: like I'm sure middle school kids too are like oh yeah,
Speaker 2: just terrifying and having to be their teacher. And truly
Speaker 2: my class was we were such assholes.
Speaker 4: But yeah, I mean, to be a teacher in this
Speaker 4: time it sounds horrifying. I mean to just like be
Speaker 4: like sort of like not even out of touch, but
Speaker 4: like just like a generation or like three generations apart
Speaker 4: from like such a sharp like forgiving generation. Yeah, where
Speaker 4: you're just like completely terrifying. I mean, I just it's
Speaker 4: mostly like for good, I think, but I mean to
Speaker 4: put together a curriculum and then also have to deal
Speaker 4: with like the sort of bureaucracy of like what the
Speaker 4: high school wants your syllabis to be, and then all
Speaker 4: of these like teenagers being like this is like racist, sexist,
Speaker 4: ablest and then having to like navigate those two polls
Speaker 4: must just be so exhausting.
Speaker 3: Yeah, totally.
Speaker 2: You know another reason why our teachers might want to
Speaker 2: kind of apologize to us and have sense of humor.
Speaker 2: We're actually in retrospect, pretty easy, Okay, go ahead. So
Speaker 2: I think you've made this point. I think towards mister
Speaker 2: by the way, no real issue with him, just would
Speaker 2: have loved the sense of humor.
Speaker 3: Go ahead, Jonah.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I was just gonna say, we're gonna take a
Speaker 1: quick break and we'll be back with Michelle's Donner, and
Speaker 1: we're back.
Speaker 4: Really shitting on teachers.
Speaker 2: Fuck teachers, the teachers that work so hard, to educate us.
Speaker 1: So we asked Michelle for a topic, as we usually do,
Speaker 1: and Michelle has a really great topic today. It's VHS
Speaker 1: tapes we watched and rewatched growing up. Michelle, what tapes
Speaker 1: were you really really into when you were a kid.
Speaker 4: I was so into cassettes in general. I think my
Speaker 4: favorite cassettes were definitely my Sailor Moon VHS tapes. I
Speaker 4: don't know, I feel like I had so many like
Speaker 4: Julia Roberts films on VHS, Like I know, I had
Speaker 4: like Nodding Hill.
Speaker 3: I think I had what is Another My best Friend's Wedding?
Speaker 4: Yeah, but I love that film. I love anything Julias
Speaker 4: in pretty much. I could probably like recite every line
Speaker 4: of dialogue from when Harry met Sally. Yeah. Various, oh,
Speaker 4: like like any like Studio, Ghibli VHS tape, lots of Disney,
Speaker 4: lots of Pixar, those types of tape.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 4: I also remember, I said, do you guys remember those
Speaker 4: like rewinders?
Speaker 1: Yeah, like they had cars or like different Yeah.
Speaker 4: Yeah, you had like a separate plastic like rewinder where
Speaker 4: you would like, once you were done with a tape,
Speaker 4: you would like put it in to the rewinder and
Speaker 4: it would rewind faster than it would on the TV,
Speaker 4: and you could like watch another movie while you rewinded
Speaker 4: it back or whatever.
Speaker 1: Yeah, or you would get fined by like the rental
Speaker 1: place if you didn't rewind your tape. Oh, you just
Speaker 1: seem like such a stam. Right, it's such.
Speaker 2: A scam, I guess because it did take a long
Speaker 2: time to rewind it.
Speaker 4: I wonder if they had like five of those kinds
Speaker 4: of things, you know.
Speaker 1: I bet they did. They write those off in that,
Speaker 1: but it's also just like.
Speaker 4: Just rent it to someone so they have to rewind it,
Speaker 4: like make the next person rewind it.
Speaker 1: How long do you think it takes to rewind like
Speaker 1: a two.
Speaker 4: Hour movie in no machine or in the TV, just.
Speaker 1: In the TV so you don't have the machine.
Speaker 4: Five minutes Yeah, like the longest five minutes of your life.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I guess it took a long time, but it
Speaker 2: still does feel like it was crazy. It was like, yeah,
Speaker 2: not returning like a rental car with that gas or something.
Speaker 2: They'd be like if you didn't rewind it.
Speaker 4: Well, do you think the fee was?
Speaker 1: I know, I don't know what the fee was. That's
Speaker 1: a really good question.
Speaker 2: And you would pay for the movie up front, So
Speaker 2: I guess you'd get charged like.
Speaker 1: They'd probably just tack it on like a late fee. Yeah,
Speaker 1: like a Ladyeah.
Speaker 2: Look, our producer Olivia is saying that rewind fees were
Speaker 2: a dollar to two dollars and replacement fees lost VHS
Speaker 2: would be sixty dollars to eighty dollars.
Speaker 1: That's insane.
Speaker 2: Wait, what like at Blockbuster?
Speaker 1: I remember being at the movie store and it would
Speaker 1: say like the price of like one hundred dollars on
Speaker 1: the thing.
Speaker 4: Oh wow, Blockbuster?
Speaker 3: Come on, wow, that is such a scamp.
Speaker 1: Come on. Yeah, hard to feel sympathy for Blockbuster. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so you live in New York, now, is that?
Speaker 4: Yeah?
Speaker 1: Speaking with her Mattel, have you been to Kats's Deli? Yeah,
Speaker 1: yeah you have, And did you think about that movie
Speaker 1: when you were there?
Speaker 4: Of course? Yeah. I've only been there one time, okay,
Speaker 4: and I had like a sandwich that was like almost
Speaker 4: a foot tall. But I haven't I haven't been back there.
Speaker 4: It's kind of funny because like, I dated someone who
Speaker 4: was from Staten Island and his knowledge of New York
Speaker 4: was very impressive to me. But now it's really not
Speaker 4: know it was basically like I was such a hay
Speaker 4: seed from Oregon. He actually even used to call me
Speaker 4: hay seed, and I was just so impressed that he
Speaker 4: could take the subpoy. And now that I lived in
Speaker 4: New York, it's like really not a big deal. But
Speaker 4: I remember like we went to Kats's Daily and too
Speaker 4: like Max Brenner and maybe oh wow with cool knowledge,
Speaker 4: and like we also went to like the Strand, and
Speaker 4: I was like, wow, he really he's a real New
Speaker 4: York guy. And now I realized those things like are
Speaker 4: not like.
Speaker 1: The most touristy places you can go crazy. That was
Speaker 1: really fun.
Speaker 2: Going back to VHS tapes, we were talking about what
Speaker 2: we watched a lot. We watched a lot of like
Speaker 2: Chris Farley movies and stuff, and we kind of had
Speaker 2: them memorized. And the other thing that was kind of
Speaker 2: cool about Tommy Boy, which was probably our favorite, was
Speaker 2: it took place.
Speaker 3: In Kuyahaga County, right Jonah, which.
Speaker 1: Is where we're from there we grew up, Yeah.
Speaker 3: Which I wonder if they actually filmed it there.
Speaker 1: I don't know. Yeah, we would watch those movies just
Speaker 1: because we didn't have that many movies, and there was like, yeah,
Speaker 1: like four channels on TV, so I felt like we'd
Speaker 1: watch these movies over and over. Was that your experience.
Speaker 4: Too, Yeah, I definitely, yeah. I feel like I have
Speaker 4: like a pretty hepty VHS collection. My main memory is like,
Speaker 4: I have my best friend who's still very much a
Speaker 4: best friend of mine, Corey Potts, and the two of
Speaker 4: us would watch, yeah, like the same VHS tapes over
Speaker 4: over and over again. And it was funny because like
Speaker 4: she had certain VHS tapes that I would like very
Speaker 4: much associate with her home that she knew very well.
Speaker 4: And there were certain VHS as tapes that we would
Speaker 4: always watch that were really associated with my home now
Speaker 4: and then was like another really big.
Speaker 1: Oh that was a huge I don't remember that one.
Speaker 4: For the girls, I feel like, yeah.
Speaker 1: Oh, Vanessa, what we said.
Speaker 2: I was saying when I was in camp, if we
Speaker 2: like made our beds the bed like they would inspect
Speaker 2: our camps, if we won like some kind of award,
Speaker 2: we would watch now and then.
Speaker 4: Oh really wait weird.
Speaker 2: It was always they would bring this little TV into
Speaker 2: our cabin we could watch it, or we could watch
Speaker 2: it in this lodge. I think we've maybe talked about
Speaker 2: this before, but we were never like can we watch
Speaker 2: something else? It was always like now and then like
Speaker 2: year after year, Yeah, week after week it would be
Speaker 2: like you guys, get to watch now and then and
Speaker 2: we were like, okay, we'll watch it again.
Speaker 4: I love that movie.
Speaker 1: What is it about?
Speaker 4: It's like the stand By Me for girls. Yeah, but
Speaker 4: it's like set in the what fifties.
Speaker 2: Or Yeah, it's like it shows them when they're kids,
Speaker 2: but then the adult versions of them are Rio Wilson, Rosi, o'
Speaker 2: donald Rosi, o'donald, Debbie Moore, Debbie Moore and is it
Speaker 2: Melanie Griffith plays like, yeah, she's like a celebrity now,
Speaker 2: Like she rolls up like in like a limo. Okay,
Speaker 2: and she's like a celebrity now. And it shows them
Speaker 2: like as kids having fun and then like as adults
Speaker 2: and the kids stuff.
Speaker 4: There's like a match cut where she is going on
Speaker 4: the swing as an adult and she swings back and
Speaker 4: she's a child. Yeah, it's like the teenage version.
Speaker 2: And yeah it's sort of scary, like they try to
Speaker 2: make it like a little bit scary when their kids,
Speaker 2: like they're trying to like solve it.
Speaker 3: Are they like trying to solve a mystery or something.
Speaker 4: Either it's very much homage to by Me, where they're
Speaker 4: like in Dan by Me they're trying to find this
Speaker 4: dead body and now and then they're trying to like
Speaker 4: solve some kind of mystery about the murder of like
Speaker 4: two people in their town like years ago.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's nice because it never gets that serious, like
Speaker 2: you get scared for a second and then you're like,
Speaker 2: like they keep it pretty tame in a way that
Speaker 2: I appreciated as a kid because I didn't like scary stuff.
Speaker 4: I am that. I think my mention of just like
Speaker 4: very high and so I like cannot handle any anything horror.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Same, I was like, this is about as scary as
Speaker 3: all this very low.
Speaker 4: Now and then is like not a movie that anyone
Speaker 4: thinks scared. That's like saying like the Big Slide at
Speaker 4: like a fair is like scary, like a.
Speaker 2: Scary say, it's like the scary amount of like the
Speaker 2: scary factor of Home Alone, where like you're kind of
Speaker 2: scared of that one guy that he's scared of and
Speaker 2: then you realize he's nice and you're like, oh, I
Speaker 2: was like a little scared, but not that much.
Speaker 1: Your thresholds has been Scared I think is at Yeah. Yeah,
Speaker 1: we had like Diehard, a lot of these like nineties
Speaker 1: action movies. I was very into. Did either you get
Speaker 1: into that? Well you were kind of had to watch prior.
Speaker 4: Oh yes, My favorite VHS tape of all time was
Speaker 4: The Fifth Element, which was like the greatest. I mean,
Speaker 4: that's probably still my favorite movie of all time, and that,
Speaker 4: like you know, Willis Is because of that movie is
Speaker 4: like my favorite.
Speaker 3: Acturable and it's Mila jo is it?
Speaker 4: Yeah, Who's incredible? Yeah?
Speaker 2: Were you guys ever into her music? I remember really
Speaker 2: loving her music.
Speaker 4: What I didn't even know.
Speaker 2: She had this song called The Gentleman Who Fell. You
Speaker 2: should look it up. It was such a good song,
Speaker 2: and I remember my best friend Gwen and I were
Speaker 2: really into it.
Speaker 3: Her music career sort of didn't take off, but she
Speaker 3: was really good.
Speaker 4: It didn't I can see that. I mean, she seems
Speaker 4: so I watched this video of her like talking about
Speaker 4: her experience on that show, and she seems like someone
Speaker 4: who would be a musician. I feel like, is it
Speaker 4: kind of like a Kylie Minogue vibe or like a
Speaker 4: like a trip hoppy vibe? Is what I would it?
Speaker 2: Almost sounds like torri Amos a little bit. Oh okay,
Speaker 2: like not really, but like a little bit.
Speaker 1: Did she play guitar in Days and Confused? Wasn't she
Speaker 1: in that? And there was like a scene where they're
Speaker 1: playing guitar.
Speaker 2: She was you're right, you're right. Yes, she was probably
Speaker 2: trying to be like guys, I also do this. We
Speaker 2: watched dayson Confused on VHS so much.
Speaker 1: Yeah, we watched that one a lot.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 2: And the other thing that we watched all the time
Speaker 2: that's similar is Empire Records.
Speaker 4: Oh, I love that movie.
Speaker 3: Was really into that.
Speaker 1: Great Guar cameo in that movie.
Speaker 3: Great Guar cameo.
Speaker 4: Great Gar.
Speaker 3: I didn't know that Guar was real.
Speaker 2: And then I think, Jonah, you told me, like I
Speaker 2: thought they were created for the movie.
Speaker 1: Yeah, no, I think they're still they're still playing.
Speaker 3: They're still playing in big costumes.
Speaker 1: Any other movies that kind of stand out to you
Speaker 1: from that era that you were super into.
Speaker 4: I guess like the only I remember the local video
Speaker 4: store was called Flicks and Picks, and you would take
Speaker 4: like these little paper tags that were on hooks and
Speaker 4: that you would bring them to the counter and they
Speaker 4: would give you the VHS there, and when I was younger,
Speaker 4: like in elementary school, I remember I would get the
Speaker 4: Studio Gipli movie Totoro over and over again and to
Speaker 4: the point where my Mom's like, we should just find
Speaker 4: this movie. But yeah, I think that that's like my
Speaker 4: comfort movie. I feel like I am eight years old
Speaker 4: when I watched that movie again and again.
Speaker 2: Ours was called Flicks too, our local Oh really, it
Speaker 2: was just called flicks. No, it's called star Flick, Starflix,
Speaker 2: star Flix. And I remember I rented the Best of
Speaker 2: the State, you know, this State, like the MTV comedy
Speaker 2: group The State.
Speaker 3: I don't know if you ever watched that.
Speaker 2: It's like Michael Showalter and Michael in Black and David
Speaker 2: Wayne and stuff. They were in this show called The
Speaker 2: State and they did sketches and they had like a
Speaker 2: best of VHS tape called Skits and Stickers that had
Speaker 2: their best like comedy sketches.
Speaker 3: And I rented it so much.
Speaker 2: That they sort of let me have it basically is there,
Speaker 2: and then our mom got to buy the case for
Speaker 2: it for five dollars. They were like, yeah, you can
Speaker 2: just have the case, and so it was like so
Speaker 2: now and I still have it again. In my kitchen
Speaker 2: with my cocktail because I have like the VHS tape
Speaker 2: from Starflicks of Skits and Stickers, because they basically were
Speaker 2: kind of like, like you keep renting it, like just
Speaker 2: take Like they I think they were kind.
Speaker 1: Of like already you might as well just take it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I had rented it so many times that they
Speaker 2: were just like you might as well. So anyways, I
Speaker 2: still have it. It probably says Starflicks on it.
Speaker 4: It seems like you guys had like such an early
Speaker 4: education in like comedy sketches, like it makes sense that
Speaker 4: you would wind up in that field.
Speaker 3: Well, thank you.
Speaker 4: I feel like I never where did you guys grow up?
Speaker 3: In Ohio?
Speaker 5: In like suburbs of Cleveland, Hi, suburbs that sound like crackers,
Speaker 5: like in Moreland Hills is actually the town we grew up,
Speaker 5: and it was near Chagrin Falls and Pepper Powers.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I guess I never really watched like a lot
Speaker 4: of I don't know if it's like because there's like
Speaker 4: a maybe almost a generation between us, but yeah, that
Speaker 4: was like not something I remember. Like SNL was like
Speaker 4: not a big thing where I grew up. I feel
Speaker 4: like as much as it is like on the East Coast.
Speaker 4: I feel like, yeah, and comedy sketches was not something
Speaker 4: I really like grew up watching.
Speaker 1: That era was so different because I feel like all
Speaker 1: these SNL people like Chris Farley and Adam Sandler and
Speaker 1: stuff were in these like huge blockbuster movies, and I
Speaker 1: don't know if that was as much of a thing
Speaker 1: kind of late.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I did own Big Dad. I did enjoy Big Daddy.
Speaker 4: That's what it's called. Right. That's sounds so weird saying
Speaker 4: saying multiple it's called. But yeah, like horrifying if that's
Speaker 4: not what it was called.
Speaker 2: Remember, I do think there were movies like that coming
Speaker 2: out late, Like those were consistent I think through the nineties.
Speaker 3: But yeah, just maybe it was.
Speaker 2: Yeah, we were very into that stuff, but I don't think,
Speaker 2: you know, it wasn't everywhere. It was like we were
Speaker 2: just we watched that stuff all the time.
Speaker 4: I guess were your parents into it?
Speaker 2: Our parents were pretty into Chris Farley. They were pretty
Speaker 2: into Tommy Boy and Black Sheep and stuff. Right, we
Speaker 2: went as a family to the theater to see Beverly
Speaker 2: Hills Ninja.
Speaker 3: I remember that.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, I.
Speaker 4: Can't imagine watching something like.
Speaker 1: That with my Yeah, I feel like it was Also
Speaker 1: this was like pre internet, so I just thought there's
Speaker 1: like less options of like stuff like media. Like I
Speaker 1: felt like just kind of it was like one of
Speaker 1: like the popular things. It was you just kind of
Speaker 1: watched everything kind of that was popular because you didn't
Speaker 1: have a lot of choices, right, right, right.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's true. But I think we were really into it,
Speaker 2: you know, Jonah, Yeah.
Speaker 1: I'm not discounting it. I'm just I'm just putting in
Speaker 1: like a kind of a cultural context. But yeah, I
Speaker 1: think you're right. I think you're right.
Speaker 2: But also the other thing is we thought that we
Speaker 2: saw this photo of you with your Sailor Moon BHS tape.
Speaker 4: That's like my Rosebud moment, you know, like like I
Speaker 4: saw I found that photo and I was just like,
Speaker 4: nothing will ever give me that amount of joy. You know,
Speaker 4: I could have won a Grammy last year and you
Speaker 4: would not see me look like that. Yeah.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: We were also talking about when you're a kid somehow,
Speaker 2: And I don't know, maybe this is just has to
Speaker 2: do with like because there's more stuff out. It's just
Speaker 2: like we would watch the same stuff, Like I'm sure
Speaker 2: you watch that Sailor Moon BHS tape, like just it
Speaker 2: never gets like you just are like I gotta just
Speaker 2: keep watching this, like you just could rewatch stuff, you know.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean I i'd also like don't like collect
Speaker 4: things the way that I that it was like so
Speaker 4: important to like collect at that age, and yeah, I
Speaker 4: just wanted to own everything. It was also like that
Speaker 4: I don't know why I was like so into the series,
Speaker 4: but I like first saw like a Sailor Moon episode
Speaker 4: I think when I was in Korea, and I was
Speaker 4: like just so I don't know why, it was just
Speaker 4: like obsessed with it. And it was like that kind
Speaker 4: of stuff was sort of like hard to find in
Speaker 4: the US because it was like a Japanese import and
Speaker 4: then they sort of like started playing on Cartoon Network
Speaker 4: and then we would get some like English like Sailor
Speaker 4: Moon VHS types, and so like getting those was like
Speaker 4: such an exciting that was like all on it in
Speaker 4: my life was like anything that had Sailor Moon on it.
Speaker 4: It could be like a sticker or like a keychain
Speaker 4: or a CD, and like you know, to get a
Speaker 4: VHS was like so I was so happy because it
Speaker 4: was like rare, like it was kind of hard to
Speaker 4: find like this thing that I was interested in, Yeah,
Speaker 4: because you have no control over it. Now, if you
Speaker 4: want to watch that kind of thing, you can just
Speaker 4: like search for it and find it. But I remember
Speaker 4: like all of my aunts in Korea were like looking
Speaker 4: high and low for anything with like a Sailor Moon
Speaker 4: character on it, because like it was no longer popular there,
Speaker 4: so it was like kind of hard to find, and
Speaker 4: like you couldn't just like buy something on Amazon. You
Speaker 4: would just have you would have to literally like scour stores.
Speaker 4: I had like family members like looking for that kind
Speaker 4: of thing to like bring wow, bring back for me.
Speaker 4: And I was just like so obsessed with it for
Speaker 4: probably like four years or something, and then you just
Speaker 4: are over it, you know.
Speaker 3: So yeah, totally totally.
Speaker 1: We're gonna take one more break and we'll be back
Speaker 1: the brand new segment with Michelle's Honor, and we're back.
Speaker 1: So we have a brand new segment today that we're
Speaker 1: going to try out. I'm going to try to think
Speaker 1: of a way to introduce this in a way that's
Speaker 1: not totally confusing. It's called legit moan or unnecessary grown.
Speaker 4: Legit Moan, unnecessary grow.
Speaker 1: This segment was inspired by now defunct column in our
Speaker 1: local paper growing up, the Cleveland Plain Dealer called Monday Moaning. Yes,
Speaker 1: this was an actual column. I found archive versions of
Speaker 1: it online. They ended it about ten years ago. We
Speaker 1: used to read this column on Mondays, where it was
Speaker 1: basically readers writing with these really petty complaints, and it
Speaker 1: would print them every Monday in the paper. This is
Speaker 1: like the Cleveland Plant. This is like our like big paper.
Speaker 1: We used to find them funny as kids and read
Speaker 1: them Today is way funnier. So we're going to fix
Speaker 1: three that we found from the archives. Wow, and then
Speaker 1: we'll decide if they're a legit moan or unnecessary grown.
Speaker 4: Oh okay, I love Yeah, it's great.
Speaker 1: So it's called Monday Moaning. Then we're gonna have Vanessa.
Speaker 1: Do you want to go first? You want me to
Speaker 1: go first? Yeah?
Speaker 2: And I just want to say, just for anyone listening,
Speaker 2: these are actual things that were printed in the Monday
Speaker 2: Moaning section of the Cleveland Plane Dealer circa ten years
Speaker 2: ago before it was canceled because it was such a bummer. Okay,
Speaker 2: I'll read the first time.
Speaker 1: Michelle. You can use your newspaper editor instincts with this.
Speaker 4: Yes, absolutely, this is something that I probably would have
Speaker 4: loved to print on my back page of the Roosevelt
Speaker 4: rough Riders.
Speaker 2: Yeah, okay, great, Okay, here's the first one. If your
Speaker 2: kids are getting the school bus which stops at the
Speaker 2: end of your driveway to pick them up, they should
Speaker 2: be there waiting to get the bus, not standing in
Speaker 2: the doorway, not waiting in your van. They should be
Speaker 2: ready and prepared to get on the bus when it arrives.
Speaker 2: If they aren't, the bus should leave. Just sign me,
Speaker 2: and this is someone from Olmsted Falls.
Speaker 4: This is pre yelp.
Speaker 1: Yes, this is pre yelp.
Speaker 4: Yes, yeah, this is probably yeah what people spend their
Speaker 4: time doing instead of yelping.
Speaker 2: And Jonah, will you just clarify Crankshaft was a cartoon.
Speaker 1: Crankshaft was a cartoon about like a cranky school bus driver.
Speaker 4: Oh so it is a bus driver or are they
Speaker 4: a parent or are they a bus.
Speaker 2: Well they said, just sign me Crankshoft. I think they're
Speaker 2: being kind of self aware and being like, I know,
Speaker 2: I'm being like a cranky bus driver, but this is
Speaker 2: what I think.
Speaker 4: We think that they are the bus driver.
Speaker 3: No, we think that they're just being kind of facetious.
Speaker 1: I don't know. I think they could be the bus
Speaker 1: driver or another.
Speaker 4: Parent observing their child on the curb, or like another
Speaker 4: you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: Like, Yeah, it's really confusing what their role is in
Speaker 1: this situation, Like are they just a neighbor? Are they impatient?
Speaker 1: Like why are they so concerned about this?
Speaker 2: That makes all the difference to me, because if they're
Speaker 2: just like a person who's like just someone who lives
Speaker 2: on the street and just watches these kids like be
Speaker 2: late for the bus, it's like.
Speaker 1: If you get stuck behind a bus and you're driving.
Speaker 4: That's true, that's true. Okay, that makes sense. I think
Speaker 4: it must either be like in my mind, I was like, oh,
Speaker 4: it's a parent who sends their kid to the curb
Speaker 4: and are watching other kids not be prepared and make
Speaker 4: their kid late. Or it's someone that is stuck in
Speaker 4: a car behind the bus that's waiting for the kid
Speaker 4: with the little stop sign out, or it's the actual
Speaker 4: bus driver.
Speaker 1: I bet it's the person in traffic who can't pass
Speaker 1: the bus and then these kids aren't ready and he's like, Okay,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna write this letter on Monday, Like I'm gonna
Speaker 1: like I'm gonna voice this out into.
Speaker 4: This would I would agree with that. I bet it's
Speaker 4: that purse.
Speaker 2: I will say, like, you know, Jonah and I used
Speaker 2: to always be running for the bus like like never,
Speaker 2: we're like we're very rarely like waiting at the curb
Speaker 2: on time. I would say, like, I feel for the
Speaker 2: kids who it's like hard to get to school on time.
Speaker 2: If this person had clarified and said like this gets
Speaker 2: in the way of my drive in the morning and stuff,
Speaker 2: I have a little more compassion for them. They've written
Speaker 2: this in sich a way that they just seem like
Speaker 2: they're like a nosy neighbor who's just like looking for
Speaker 2: something to complain about. So I I would call this
Speaker 2: an unnecessary grown Well.
Speaker 4: The first thing that I think of is like, you know,
Speaker 4: I mean, doesn't it get quite cold in Ohio? Yes,
Speaker 4: I would feel for the kids that you know, are
Speaker 4: waiting at the curb for a bus driver that's probably
Speaker 4: having other kids that are running late and behind and
Speaker 4: never exactly on time, you know, waiting in the in
Speaker 4: the cold, which is you know, a health hazard. So
Speaker 4: I am team unnecessary grown.
Speaker 1: Falls.
Speaker 3: Sorry, Olmstead Falls. Jonna, do you want to read the name.
Speaker 1: Sorry, crank shaft number two is this one's from Lakewood, Ohio,
Speaker 1: where I lived for a little while. Are we ever
Speaker 1: going to have quote unquote singers that were taught to
Speaker 1: sing so you could understand every word?
Speaker 4: Oh, this person's dead.
Speaker 1: To me, it's frustrating to hear nothing but sound and
Speaker 1: very little melody. Thank God for Lawrence Welk Saturday night
Speaker 1: program good music and every word can be heard. Oh God,
Speaker 1: have any of this new generation who all sound alike
Speaker 1: ever listened to Frank Sinatra Odor Stay to hear what
Speaker 1: a difference understandable words make?
Speaker 4: Oh gosh, big time unnecessary groans. As someone who like
Speaker 4: definitely no one has any idea what I'm singing about,
Speaker 4: I have to say, that's like such an unnecessary grown.
Speaker 4: It's like something that my parents would always say when
Speaker 4: I like would play them, something I spent months and
Speaker 4: months working on so I could never understand what you're saying.
Speaker 1: Shut up? Yeah, I mean my question is how old
Speaker 1: do you think the person is? Because this comes like
Speaker 1: ten Years's not like this Colm was like this letter
Speaker 1: could have been print like fifty years.
Speaker 2: Ago, right right, right right. It wasn't like the heyday
Speaker 2: of Lawrence Wealth that this was. This is probably from
Speaker 2: like ten years ago, maybe twelve years ago.
Speaker 1: So I think this person was probably quite old.
Speaker 2: Quite old, Yeah yeah, yes, but also odd of the
Speaker 2: plain dealer to be like, I mean, you know, obviously
Speaker 2: this column no longer exists for a reason. But I
Speaker 2: wonder how they chose their I mean, this leads to
Speaker 2: a bigger question. But it's like that they printed this,
Speaker 2: it's sort of well, they printed a lot of really
Speaker 2: bizarre stuff. I mean, I guess what's interesting to me
Speaker 2: about it. This person's criteria for music is number one.
Speaker 2: Can I understand all the ones?
Speaker 1: Yes, like melody and songwriting and all that other stuff
Speaker 1: like that's like the number one thing for them. That's
Speaker 1: all weird.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's a really good point.
Speaker 4: I feel like that's such an older person saying to
Speaker 4: like complain.
Speaker 2: About also something that you know, talking to music like
Speaker 2: that's this person is obviously not like really, I don't
Speaker 2: mean to judge.
Speaker 4: The references aren't very obscure.
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, yeah, this is not going to be a
Speaker 1: big like scream of fan I imagine.
Speaker 3: It just feels like, again, I don't want to judge
Speaker 3: this person.
Speaker 4: Although that's the nature of this game, though, that's the nature.
Speaker 3: You're right, You're right, You're right.
Speaker 1: This is pretty much the most anonymous thing that it
Speaker 1: can be. This is a random letter from someone ten
Speaker 1: years ago.
Speaker 3: That's true.
Speaker 2: If they were really into music, I don't think that
Speaker 2: they would be like I gotta eat know what all
Speaker 2: the lyrics are like that feels like they're not really.
Speaker 1: But even like Bob Dylan or something, especially hate Bob Dylan, right,
Speaker 1: like can you imagine like, oh yeah, I can't hear
Speaker 1: the words.
Speaker 4: But I also feel like there are just some people
Speaker 4: that like they only like things that have been established
Speaker 4: just good, like objectively good, you know, which is like
Speaker 4: my enemy. You know. Yeah, as a contemporary like singer
Speaker 4: that like is weird, you know, that's like not Adele
Speaker 4: that is like my you know. I mean I think
Speaker 4: that that was especially like when I went on SNL,
Speaker 4: it was like, Okay, it's going to be a lot
Speaker 4: of people like that listening to us play with that
Speaker 4: kind of commentary, and like what was like most scary
Speaker 4: about playing SNL was like, oh, like fifty percent of
Speaker 4: people at least are going to fucking hate us because
Speaker 4: they're going to say things like, you know, I can't
Speaker 4: understands the words.
Speaker 1: This doesn't sound at all like Frank Sinatra, I don't
Speaker 1: get it, or Lawrence.
Speaker 4: Wall What does she sound like Beyonce?
Speaker 1: You know that's interesting. So so Michelle, you're going to give.
Speaker 4: This unnecessary grown big time for me?
Speaker 1: Okay? Same here, Vanessa, what about you? Same? What is
Speaker 1: the necessary legit moan?
Speaker 4: Legit moan?
Speaker 1: Okay, because the columns called Monday moaning, I think those
Speaker 1: are going to be pretty rare.
Speaker 3: I think those are going to be rare moan.
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, well let's see, Yeah, let's see.
Speaker 1: Let's maybe maybe this will be ven I said, you
Speaker 1: want to read our last one?
Speaker 3: Okay? Sure?
Speaker 2: To the reader who complained about Steelers items being sold
Speaker 2: at Giant Eagle. Giant Eagles like this big grocery store.
Speaker 2: Chaining to the reader who complained about Steelers items being
Speaker 2: sold at Giant Eagle and who would not shop there again,
Speaker 2: Obviously there must be a demand for Steelers items. If
Speaker 2: you were looking for Brown's items, you should have checked
Speaker 2: the clearance aisle. That's where you'll find them this time
Speaker 2: of year. So, just to clarify, Steelers are the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Speaker 1: Pittsburgh Steelers a football team, and.
Speaker 3: Then Cleveland Brown's is the Cleveland team.
Speaker 1: And so this is in response, I guess to another
Speaker 1: column where someone was complaining about Giant Eagles selling Steeler
Speaker 1: stuff because that's the Browns rival. They, I guess didn't
Speaker 1: think that should be sold in Cleveland.
Speaker 2: Yeah, just to clarify, they're saying, by the way, this
Speaker 2: was signed Twinsburg. This is someone from Twinsburg, Ohio. They're saying,
Speaker 2: there must be a demand for Steelers items. If you
Speaker 2: were looking for Brown's items, you should have checked the
Speaker 2: clearance out. I don't know if that was a sassy sassy.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's a dig at the Browns, who historically been
Speaker 1: a pretty bad team.
Speaker 2: This is someone who probably, yeah, is not a real
Speaker 2: loyal Cleveland Browns fan and is not bothered by the
Speaker 2: fact that they're selling a Pittsburgh team's, you know.
Speaker 4: Merch from Pittsburgh.
Speaker 2: Yeah, maybe they're from Pittsburgh at an Ohio grocery store.
Speaker 4: You know. Look, Vanessa doesn't like this one.
Speaker 2: This is a moan on top of a moan like
Speaker 2: this is someone who's responding to another Monday moaning with
Speaker 2: their own Monday moaning and I don't mind that.
Speaker 3: I think that's kind of vie.
Speaker 4: I do it legit. I think it's a legit mom.
Speaker 2: I think it might be a legit moan because the
Speaker 2: person must have written in and been like, giin Eagle,
Speaker 2: you're selling Steeler stuff. I'll never go back there, and
Speaker 2: gihin Eagle is probably like, you know, good ridden.
Speaker 3: Yeah, So this, I would say, is a legit moment.
Speaker 2: I liked that this person thought I'm gonna ras this
Speaker 2: other moner a little bit because you know, grow up basically.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, Michelle, what are your thoughts?
Speaker 4: I identify moan on top of the moon. Yeah, Like
Speaker 4: I think that that's something that I could see myself doing. Yeah,
Speaker 4: I think I get more upset at people complaining about
Speaker 4: something than having any of my own, like general complaints.
Speaker 4: Maybe right, I don't know. I identify with moaning on top
Speaker 4: of moaning. Uh, so I it's a legit moan for me.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think it's legit. Also, I think, you know,
Speaker 1: Giant Eagle is a store. You know, they can sell
Speaker 1: things by this team. I mean there's probably Steelers fans.
Speaker 1: Pittsburgh is not that far from Cleveland, so I mean geographically,
Speaker 1: I think it makes sense. And yeah, I don't think
Speaker 1: this person is gonna stop going to like their local
Speaker 1: grocery store because of that. Like they're not going to
Speaker 1: drive a nextra twenty minutes, yeah, to get their pizza,
Speaker 1: rols or whatever. There's no way.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's sports, not like politics.
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, yeah, the stakes are not that high. So
Speaker 1: I'm going to say I think we're in agreement. Maybe,
Speaker 1: like the initial one we're not reading is maybe an
Speaker 1: unnecessary groan, but this one is a legit moan on
Speaker 1: top of that.
Speaker 2: In fact, I'd like to go one step farther and
Speaker 2: say that when we were kids, when we were reading these,
Speaker 2: I wish we had thought to write moans about people's moments.
Speaker 2: I wish we had thought to write in and specifically
Speaker 2: target specific people's stupid complaints and written.
Speaker 4: Are you would be writing in as the kids late
Speaker 4: for the book? Yeah, exactly, crank shaft listen.
Speaker 1: Yeah it's cold, yeah yeah, so the person who wrote this,
Speaker 1: you know it's ten degrees out, it's seven am. Yeah,
Speaker 1: Like I don't want to stand outside the end of
Speaker 1: my long driveway for you.
Speaker 2: Don't understand the pressures on kids these days, we have
Speaker 2: like a lot to deal with and like sorry that
Speaker 2: we're not there right on time, waiting in the cold,
Speaker 2: you know, so that you can maybe have more fun,
Speaker 2: you know, tell us who you are, what's your role
Speaker 2: in this?
Speaker 4: And I would write to the second guy about why
Speaker 4: I don't enunciate my lyrics?
Speaker 1: Yeah, oh man, is it too late? I guess it's
Speaker 1: probably too.
Speaker 2: What's the generation above boomers? That's what this person is.
Speaker 3: I think the greatest, the greatest generation.
Speaker 1: This person might be the generation before. I don't know
Speaker 1: this person.
Speaker 3: I think what's the generation before the greatest generation?
Speaker 4: The best?
Speaker 3: Oh my gosh, Oh the silent generation? Is that real?
Speaker 4: That sucks? Why is that because of their movies?
Speaker 2: Oh?
Speaker 3: Maybe that's why.
Speaker 2: Oh, children are meant to be seen and not heard,
Speaker 2: no joke. Okay, they grew up as a silent generation
Speaker 2: because they grew up.
Speaker 4: They are the children that were told to be seen
Speaker 4: and not heard. Yeah did that work.
Speaker 2: For apparently not, because one of them grew up and
Speaker 2: wrote this dumb Monday movie thing about wanting.
Speaker 3: To hear lyrics. I guess maybe that has something to
Speaker 3: do with them having to be so quiet when they were.
Speaker 2: Okay, it's come really full circle now Michelle, we had
Speaker 2: a lot of fun with you today.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Where can people find you and your songs? Everything?
Speaker 4: Google Japanese Breakfast. My website is called Japanese Breakfast dot
Speaker 4: rocks and it has all of our upcoming tour dates
Speaker 4: and information about the band and probably my book on
Speaker 4: there as well. Find me on the internet.
Speaker 3: Great, great, Well, we had so much fun with you.
Speaker 2: Thanks to everyone for listening, and if you enjoyed this,
Speaker 2: please subscribe to the podcast and keep an eye out
Speaker 2: for next week's episode of How Did We Get Weird?
Speaker 3: We'll discuss more stories from our.
Speaker 2: Childhood and cultural touchstones like VHS tapes and stuff like that.
Speaker 3: So Michelle, thanks again.
Speaker 4: Yeah, thanks so much, thank you, thank you so much.
Speaker 4: We don't a