Latest / Heavyweight / 2025 Update: Gregor

Transcript

2025 Update: Gregor · Heavyweight

0:15
Speaker 1: Pushkin Johnny to what do I owe the pleasure? So
0:28
Speaker 1: you know why I'm phoning you.
0:31
Speaker 2: I really don't.
0:32
Speaker 1: Well, I was intending.
0:34
Speaker 3: To re release the Gregor episode for which it is
0:38
Speaker 3: named for you, Okay, so that a new generation of
0:41
Speaker 3: heavyweight listeners can enjoy it.
0:44
Speaker 2: Oh, okay, when.
0:45
Speaker 1: Was the last time you listened to the episode?
0:51
Speaker 4: I mean, to be completely honest with you, and why
0:53
Speaker 4: should I be anything other than completely honest at all times?
0:56
Speaker 4: And forth right? Yeah, almost disturbingly vulnerably frank with you. Yeah,
1:01
Speaker 4: I've never actually listened to the episode.
1:04
Speaker 1: I can't believe that.
1:06
Speaker 2: I really don't want to break last streek.
1:08
Speaker 1: Of never listening to anything I make.
1:10
Speaker 2: But I'm told those good I mean, a lot of
1:11
Speaker 2: people paid me, a lot of compliments, people I'd meet
1:13
Speaker 2: in the supermarket.
1:14
Speaker 3: So so what I was thinking might be sort of
1:18
Speaker 3: a nice thing for us to do is maybe listen
1:20
Speaker 3: to it together. I guess for you for the first time.
1:24
Speaker 2: I'm willing to do this. But are you telling me
1:26
Speaker 2: that your concept for your brand new Alexander Pushkin hit show. Yeah,
1:33
Speaker 2: it's going to be a podcast of me listening to
1:35
Speaker 2: a previous podcast. I mean, I don't mean to like
1:39
Speaker 2: ridicule you on your own hit show. But no, of
1:41
Speaker 2: course not, are you out of your mind? We're going
1:44
Speaker 2: to listen to a podcast. Who wants to listen to
1:46
Speaker 2: a podcast, let alone listen to me listen to a podcast?
1:49
Speaker 3: Well no, I mean we're not going to say okay,
1:51
Speaker 3: all right, well with that. With that, I guess I'll
1:55
Speaker 3: speak to you on the other side. Okay, all right,
1:58
Speaker 3: I'll talk to you at the end. Oh but before
2:00
Speaker 3: we get to this encore presentation, a word from our
2:04
Speaker 3: sponsors bad time.
2:15
Speaker 2: I was just just stepping out.
2:16
Speaker 3: I was just you enjoy music, right, Yeah, this week's
2:21
Speaker 3: show kind of deals with music, and it got me thinking.
2:24
Speaker 1: I have a confession to make.
2:26
Speaker 3: You know how sometimes like you have dinner parties and
2:28
Speaker 3: they're great. I wanted to say, sometimes how you sometimes
2:32
Speaker 3: play music? Yeah, sometimes I'm a little hesitant to come
2:36
Speaker 3: over for dinner.
2:38
Speaker 2: You're always hesitant to come over for dinner. Well, it's
2:40
Speaker 2: not including Mary clods forty fifth birthday.
2:43
Speaker 5: Do you remember that?
2:43
Speaker 6: I do you know that Bumballeo song?
2:45
Speaker 4: I can't find my Gypsy King CD because.
2:47
Speaker 1: Your husband hit it.
2:49
Speaker 5: It's killing me.
2:50
Speaker 1: Killing everybody.
2:51
Speaker 3: The reason Sometimes I have some difficulty with my digestion
2:55
Speaker 3: these dinner parties. Is it's the Bumballeo song, It's the
2:58
Speaker 3: Gypsy Kings. Oh this is great. You know what bumbalao?
3:01
Speaker 3: Bumbalaya translates as.
3:03
Speaker 1: What wobble wobble?
3:05
Speaker 7: All right, we'll speak to.
3:06
Speaker 3: You one thing before we go. Okay, I'm going to
3:08
Speaker 3: say bum and then you say bumbalaya.
3:11
Speaker 2: I do it, and then I'm.
3:23
Speaker 1: From Gimblet Media.
3:24
Speaker 3: I'm Jonathan Goldstein and this is Heavyweight Today's episode, Gregor.
3:40
Speaker 2: This guy's gonna ram you from behind because you're going
3:42
Speaker 2: eleven miles left, although you usually don't do it from
3:45
Speaker 2: the right line. But okay, let's not get kill. Do
3:48
Speaker 2: you have a driver's license?
3:52
Speaker 3: This is Gregor and Me on our way to lunch,
3:54
Speaker 3: and what you're hearing is typical when I'm driving. Gregor
3:58
Speaker 3: comments on my speed. When I eat, he comments on
4:01
Speaker 3: my table manners, and when I eat yogurt, he comments
4:05
Speaker 3: on the way I lick the inside lid, calling it
4:07
Speaker 3: both letchrous and unmanly. Some might say that Gregor is
4:11
Speaker 3: overly critical, possibly even prickly, but I would not. I
4:16
Speaker 3: love Gregor for many reasons. His loyalty, his generosity, his
4:20
Speaker 3: being the kind of person will pick you up at
4:22
Speaker 3: the airport at.
4:23
Speaker 1: Four in the morning without even complaining.
4:25
Speaker 3: But it's perhaps his courage to say the things that
4:28
Speaker 3: were all not exactly thinking, but maybe thinking about thinking,
4:32
Speaker 3: that is most thrilling. And so when he showed up
4:38
Speaker 3: at my office mocking himself instead of me and speaking
4:42
Speaker 3: in biblical parables, I was concerned.
4:45
Speaker 2: Was it the Pharaoh and the Joseph story who said
4:47
Speaker 2: the seven lean years and seven fat years?
4:49
Speaker 7: Yeah?
4:49
Speaker 2: I had this insight today that the fat years are
4:51
Speaker 2: about to end.
4:53
Speaker 1: Would these have been the fat years?
4:54
Speaker 2: That's what I realized Literally this morning. I woke up
4:57
Speaker 2: and I was like, wait, those were the fat years?
4:59
Speaker 2: You know, in every conceivable way, financially, stability, prestige, all
5:05
Speaker 2: the job stuff, and like creative accomplishment stuff. I just
5:07
Speaker 2: feel like it's like going up and spoking. I'm watching
5:10
Speaker 2: it go up and smoke.
5:12
Speaker 3: Gregor is forty eight years old and by profession he
5:15
Speaker 3: makes marketing videos for a cleaning product usually found in
5:19
Speaker 3: the bathroom. I can't tell you the name of this
5:21
Speaker 3: product for fear Gregor will lose his job. In other words,
5:25
Speaker 3: he's not the Filmo tour he dreamt of being back
5:28
Speaker 3: in his college days, underlining back issues of Kye to Cinema.
5:33
Speaker 3: On top of that, he says that over the past
5:35
Speaker 3: few years he's seen his career slowly sucked downward, not
5:39
Speaker 3: unlike Oh, I don't know, the spiraling waters of a
5:43
Speaker 3: sink unclogged by a chemical drain opener designed to flush
5:46
Speaker 3: pipes and attack clogs at their worst.
5:49
Speaker 2: What's that children's game where everyone goes around the chairs
5:52
Speaker 2: musical chairs, chairs, and everyone sits down and you're like, oh,
5:57
Speaker 2: that friend of mine became a CEO. These four friends
6:00
Speaker 2: are like EVP, SVP senior whatever at their things. That
6:05
Speaker 2: friend of mine wound up sitting in the president of
6:07
Speaker 2: Estonia's chair, and then you're like the music stops and
6:10
Speaker 2: you're left standing.
6:13
Speaker 3: I've heard him reel off this list before, and Gregor
6:16
Speaker 3: fully admits it. The success of anyone he knows, no
6:19
Speaker 3: matter how thin, his connection to them, feels like a
6:21
Speaker 3: reflection of his own shortcomings, including the ascension of his
6:25
Speaker 3: elementary school's librarian son, who is now the president of Estonia.
6:31
Speaker 2: The point of the story is, where's my presidency of
6:34
Speaker 2: my Estonia? My circumstances I was. I was like, oh
6:37
Speaker 2: things will you know, about to break through, about to change,
6:40
Speaker 2: And now like you could say, well, this is just
6:44
Speaker 2: to setback, it's you know whatever. Soon your ship's going
6:47
Speaker 2: to come in. But it's just not you know. I mean,
6:51
Speaker 2: that's just the simple truth, the uncomfortable truth.
6:55
Speaker 3: Of all Gregor's stories about the success of his acquaintances
6:57
Speaker 3: and friends, there's one story that he returns to most,
7:01
Speaker 3: and not only is it the greatest success story of
7:03
Speaker 3: them all, it's the one that touched his life the
7:05
Speaker 3: most intimately. The story all begins about twenty years yars
7:09
Speaker 3: ago in Manhattan, when Gregor was living in a small
7:12
Speaker 3: apartment in Chinatown with his older brother Dimitri. One night,
7:16
Speaker 3: they had a friend of theirs over for dinner, a
7:18
Speaker 3: techno musician friend.
7:20
Speaker 2: He was really poor at the time. He was living
7:22
Speaker 2: in like I think in like a basement in a
7:25
Speaker 2: warehouse or something for forty dollars a month. He was
7:29
Speaker 2: an articulate, smart guy, still an articular smart guy, but
7:32
Speaker 2: he's sort of an unlikely rock star in that his
7:33
Speaker 2: hair had mostly fallen out even when we were still
7:35
Speaker 2: in our twenties. But I watched his ascent. He played
7:38
Speaker 2: the bigger and bigger crowds during this techno kind of stuff,
7:41
Speaker 2: and then eventually he got a record contract, and I
7:47
Speaker 2: at the time got hold of a very obscure set
7:49
Speaker 2: of CDs which were field hollers Oooh.
7:54
Speaker 3: Trouble, So I.
7:56
Speaker 2: Thought it was really interesting stuff. I loaned him this
7:58
Speaker 2: box set of.
7:58
Speaker 7: CDs Ooh Lone Trouble.
8:02
Speaker 2: So he then sampled it very heavily Trouble God and
8:09
Speaker 2: created a record which got him very rich and very famous.
8:14
Speaker 3: This guy you're speaking of, This guy's Moby, Moby, bald headed, bespectacled,
8:29
Speaker 3: castle dwelling, multi million records selling Moby. But back then
8:41
Speaker 3: he was just Gregor's pal who spent weekends at Gregor's
8:44
Speaker 3: family's place and attended family birthday parties too. In bars
8:49
Speaker 3: and during long car rides, Gregor and Moby had long,
8:52
Speaker 3: earnest conversations about God and the things they believed. They
8:55
Speaker 3: were living their twenties together, and those CDs Gregor lent Moby.
9:00
Speaker 3: The box set Sounds of the South was recorded by
9:03
Speaker 3: the ethno musicologist Alan Lomax. Beginning in the nineteen thirties.
9:08
Speaker 3: Lomax and his fam John made thousands of field recordings,
9:11
Speaker 3: mostly in the American South. These recordings are among the
9:15
Speaker 3: most important in American music, preserving dozens of African American
9:19
Speaker 3: songs from the early years of the twentieth century. Wait Sometime, Better,
9:26
Speaker 3: Nola Sometimes. Another hit on Moby's album is called Honey.
9:31
Speaker 3: It makes use of the song sometimes sung by Bessie
9:34
Speaker 3: Smith Jones. Jones was taught these songs by her grandfather,
9:38
Speaker 3: a former slave born in Africa. This is Moby's version,
9:44
Speaker 3: So everybody feeling like I've here elected to play for you,
9:51
Speaker 3: the live version of the song with all of its
9:53
Speaker 3: foot stomping and audience cheering. It's how I imagine Gregor
9:57
Speaker 3: hears it echoing in his head during those sleepless nights
10:00
Speaker 3: when his Kishkas are slowly being corroded by battery acid.
10:05
Speaker 2: Sometime when I discovered this, but I was like an evangelist.
10:11
Speaker 2: I was like, this is amazing. You got to check
10:12
Speaker 2: this out. He was over the house and I was like,
10:13
Speaker 2: you got to take this home. This amazing stuff. This
10:15
Speaker 2: is the best CD I've heard. I don't know how
10:17
Speaker 2: long I've been listening to a NonStop rotation. I love
10:19
Speaker 2: the CD. So it wasn't just laying in a pile,
10:22
Speaker 2: and he happened to put it in his bag and
10:23
Speaker 2: walk out the door. I said, I sold him on it.
10:26
Speaker 3: And Moby makes use of several Lomax recordings on his
10:37
Speaker 3: album Play, which went multi platinum. Play eventually became one
10:42
Speaker 3: of the most commercially licensed albums ever recorded. At the time,
10:46
Speaker 3: the songs were used to promote everything from luxury cars
10:49
Speaker 3: to credit cards. And before Play, according to Rolling Stone magazine,
10:54
Speaker 3: Moby was quote bumbling around New York as it has
10:57
Speaker 3: been and then was there an intermediary step before that,
11:01
Speaker 3: and then hearing it on the CD where he said, hey,
11:03
Speaker 3: by the way, thanks.
11:04
Speaker 2: No, I said, this is amazing thing. Next thing I
11:08
Speaker 2: heard it's on the radio and I said, hey, can
11:10
Speaker 2: I get that box setback? And then years of not
11:12
Speaker 2: being friends.
11:14
Speaker 3: And according to Gregor, that was all he wanted to
11:17
Speaker 3: get his CDs back. He was looking for neither riches
11:20
Speaker 3: nor credit, just the CDs, which he claims were only alone.
11:25
Speaker 3: And so this is how it went. He began leaving
11:28
Speaker 3: Moby voice messages by Gregor's count, about a dozen that
11:32
Speaker 3: all went unanswered. Then, in a final act of desperation,
11:36
Speaker 3: Gregor penned a song called Moby give Me Back My CDs,
11:40
Speaker 3: which he sang into Moby's Answering Machine with accompanying karaoke
11:44
Speaker 3: music to the tune of Brian Adams Heaven. After much cajoling,
11:50
Speaker 3: Gregor dug up his lyrics, which I will now perform
11:53
Speaker 3: for you.
11:56
Speaker 1: Moby give Me Back my CDs.
11:59
Speaker 3: The Recordings from the Field, the Alan Lomax box set CDs.
12:05
Speaker 3: I think there were seven.
12:09
Speaker 1: Those discs are all.
12:11
Speaker 3: That I need, the ones I gave you from my house.
12:16
Speaker 3: I think you'll be sure to see there were seven.
12:22
Speaker 3: And that message, Gregor says, was met with over a
12:25
Speaker 3: decade of silence. Did he ever explain, like, did he
12:29
Speaker 3: just ever come out and tell you, honestly what became
12:32
Speaker 3: of those CDs? No?
12:34
Speaker 2: I think he was busy, like playing, like, you know,
12:37
Speaker 2: a concert to ninety thousand people in Rykovic and drinking
12:40
Speaker 2: champagne out of a prostitute shoe. Couldn't be bothered. Obviously,
12:45
Speaker 2: I put an exaggerated value on the CDs. I'm sure
12:48
Speaker 2: he could have sampled anything, and he had a plenty
12:50
Speaker 2: big career before that and after that. I mean, I'm
12:53
Speaker 2: not insane, but it was more that displaced feeling of
12:58
Speaker 2: like I had this thing go off and bloom without me.
13:02
Speaker 2: I'll tell you an interesting detail on that. Yeah, whenever
13:05
Speaker 2: MOBI music comes on, I can't listen to it.
13:08
Speaker 1: But do you think if you get it back you
13:09
Speaker 1: won't feel that way.
13:10
Speaker 2: I feel like I could work it through like therapy,
13:11
Speaker 2: where I could then listen to the music again. You know,
13:14
Speaker 2: there's a sense of what about my you.
13:16
Speaker 1: Know, where's my gold album?
13:19
Speaker 7: Yeah.
13:24
Speaker 3: Gregor has theories about why nothing ever happened for him,
13:27
Speaker 3: and they revolve around an aspect of his personality, an
13:30
Speaker 3: aspect he refers to as a lack of affability.
13:35
Speaker 2: Like a lot of times I'll say something completely earnestly
13:38
Speaker 2: mm hmm, like past the water, and they're like, are
13:43
Speaker 2: you being sarcastic? Like that happened to me all the time.
13:46
Speaker 3: How could you ask for the water sarcastically?
13:48
Speaker 2: I come across as being sarcastic when I'm not.
13:52
Speaker 3: So it's almost like a handicap of it's a huge handicap.
13:55
Speaker 2: I think it's fundamentally, as I understand my own life,
13:59
Speaker 2: that is my cross to bear, that's what's wrecked my life.
14:01
Speaker 1: Well, I think you would even like you told me that.
14:04
Speaker 3: Story about where you were in the conference room at work.
14:09
Speaker 3: They're like complimenting you on your new glasses or something
14:12
Speaker 3: and saying, hey, what does your wife think of those glasses?
14:14
Speaker 3: And you were like, how the fuck do I know?
14:16
Speaker 3: I whyn't you ask my wife to find out?
14:18
Speaker 2: Do you remember?
14:19
Speaker 4: Yeah?
14:19
Speaker 2: I don't remember. I mean so they said, like, what
14:23
Speaker 2: is your wife think of that? I was like, how
14:24
Speaker 2: do I know? Ask my wife?
14:32
Speaker 3: Recently, Gregor and Moby have found themselves back in touch,
14:36
Speaker 3: though in the most tangential impersonal way possible through group
14:40
Speaker 3: emails and texts.
14:42
Speaker 1: Gregor's older brother.
14:43
Speaker 3: Dimitri, remained friends with Moby over the years, and Dmitri
14:47
Speaker 3: recently had a baby, so he loops in Moby, Gregor,
14:50
Speaker 3: and one other old friend on updates. This has evolved
14:53
Speaker 3: into a small group of friends exchanging witticisms and fun
14:57
Speaker 3: facts like did you know that the fatty flesh around
15:00
Speaker 3: the elbow is called a wenus? So while the new
15:04
Speaker 3: group email friendship isn't the same as the old close one,
15:07
Speaker 3: it's still an open door. And so I couldn't help
15:10
Speaker 3: asking the question, now that that door has swung open again,
15:15
Speaker 3: do you see this as an opportunity to ask for
15:17
Speaker 3: those CDs once again.
15:19
Speaker 2: I was thinking about it, were you, just because it's
15:21
Speaker 2: kind of a little symbolic of what I don't even
15:24
Speaker 2: have a CD player anymore, right, But I was just thinking,
15:27
Speaker 2: for talismonic purposes, it would be interesting to have them back.
15:31
Speaker 1: Say more about that.
15:32
Speaker 2: I think that it might soothe me.
15:34
Speaker 1: Do you really think it would.
15:36
Speaker 2: I'll actually give you the clarity which just came to me. Now, okay,
15:40
Speaker 2: it's not instead of the money and the fame and
15:41
Speaker 2: all that stuff, what it is is tangible evidence. Understand
15:49
Speaker 2: you did this, you exist, you did it, you pulled
15:50
Speaker 2: it off.
15:51
Speaker 3: You want to be able to say, see these CDs
15:54
Speaker 3: on the shelf.
15:55
Speaker 2: That's the ones that I gave to mommy, Because for me,
15:58
Speaker 2: this would just be a version of proof.
16:06
Speaker 3: Wanting the CDs you lent someone decades ago and expecting
16:09
Speaker 3: them back is of course insanity, but insanity's repeated often enough,
16:15
Speaker 3: especially between friends, can begin to feel pacifying, lulling, even.
16:21
Speaker 1: Excuse me, in a way, you just want your due.
16:25
Speaker 3: Yeah, Do you think you can articulate that in a
16:29
Speaker 3: way that would make it understandable to him?
16:32
Speaker 2: Do you think I'm pretty confident I can't, because he's
16:35
Speaker 2: still pretty sensitive.
16:36
Speaker 3: Okay, pretty sensitive, pretty sensitive. Like the time Moby seemed
16:41
Speaker 3: to bristle when Gregor emailed him about something totally innocuous,
16:45
Speaker 3: a condolence for the death of Moby's friend David Bowie.
16:50
Speaker 2: You know, I said some witty thing about David Bowie dying,
16:53
Speaker 2: he wrote, like texted back, like the picture of him
16:55
Speaker 2: and David Bowie in the cover of entertainment.
16:57
Speaker 1: Let's back up for a moment.
16:58
Speaker 3: What was the witty thing you said about David Bowie's death?
17:01
Speaker 2: You know, like good night, funny man.
17:04
Speaker 1: What does that even mean?
17:06
Speaker 2: That's usually what I say when people die.
17:14
Speaker 3: If this is a sampling of the hot takes Gregor
17:16
Speaker 3: has in store, I fear that this newly opened door
17:19
Speaker 3: between Moby and Gregor might not remain open forever. I
17:23
Speaker 3: also knew that if he has any hope of ever
17:25
Speaker 3: getting back those CDs, he'll need a middleman or interlocutor
17:30
Speaker 3: or interlocutor. So, perhaps, against my better judgment, I allow
17:35
Speaker 3: myself to be swept up by the moment. I just
17:38
Speaker 3: don't know if this is going to lead to anything
17:40
Speaker 3: but heartbreak. But why don't we go after the CDs
17:44
Speaker 3: all right? And with that ringing call to arms, my
17:48
Speaker 3: path was set and the mission begun. Say I'm Moby, Like,
17:55
Speaker 3: how would you ask, Hey, Moby.
17:58
Speaker 2: Can I have back those CDs? I've never understood any
18:01
Speaker 2: approach other than a direct approach, So that's what I
18:03
Speaker 2: would do.
18:04
Speaker 3: After the break the Hollywood Hills, a surprise encounter with
18:08
Speaker 3: Rue Paul and maybe Moby. Maybe the airline tickets were purchased,
18:25
Speaker 3: the hotel was booked, but a couple days before we
18:28
Speaker 3: were set to leave for La, I got nervous. If
18:33
Speaker 3: Gregor already was in a bad place, could my meddling
18:36
Speaker 3: possibly make things worse?
18:38
Speaker 6: Hello, hey Annika?
18:40
Speaker 8: Yeah, Jonathan.
18:41
Speaker 3: I decided to reach out to the person who knows
18:43
Speaker 3: Gregor best, his.
18:46
Speaker 1: Wife, Annika.
18:48
Speaker 3: So do you know about this this little project that
18:51
Speaker 3: your husband and I are undertaking.
18:54
Speaker 8: So I think that the is a strategy to like
18:58
Speaker 8: ambush Moby and try and get him to give back
19:01
Speaker 8: the CDs that he lent Gregor thirty years ago or
19:04
Speaker 8: however long it was ago. Is that true?
19:08
Speaker 3: You make it sound like such a classy operation. Yeah,
19:12
Speaker 3: has Gregor brought this issue up to you before this
19:15
Speaker 3: whole Alan Lomack CD issue.
19:19
Speaker 8: So I met him on November eleventh, two thousand. Yeah,
19:25
Speaker 8: and it came up pretty early in our relationship, so.
19:31
Speaker 3: He yeah, like first date conversation, it was.
19:35
Speaker 8: Definitely early on. It's very hard for him to let
19:38
Speaker 8: stuff go. And like even like early on in our relationship,
19:42
Speaker 8: we went to Spain together and we bought a bottle
19:47
Speaker 8: of olive oil in some town or something and we
19:51
Speaker 8: left it by accident in the rental car and it
19:53
Speaker 8: still bothers him.
19:56
Speaker 3: Do you know, I think I actually know that olive
19:58
Speaker 3: oil story.
19:59
Speaker 8: Oh yeah, Yeah. There is something that is in his
20:05
Speaker 8: character that is very much like the Larry David character,
20:08
Speaker 8: where it's like, you know, like obsessing about a very
20:12
Speaker 8: small point. But you know, he's a very he's like
20:15
Speaker 8: a very sensitive person, so it's just part of who
20:19
Speaker 8: he is and part of his wonderful package.
20:24
Speaker 3: Does this undertaking have your blessing or do you think
20:28
Speaker 3: it's foolhardy?
20:29
Speaker 8: I don't. Sometimes I worry about Gregor's feelings because he
20:33
Speaker 8: is very hurt, very easily, and I don't know if
20:37
Speaker 8: Moby is really that sensitive to his feelings.
20:50
Speaker 3: I Gregor flew in from San Francisco. And I was
20:54
Speaker 3: there to greet him at the Bob Hope International Airport
20:57
Speaker 3: in Burbank.
20:58
Speaker 2: So this is the dream factory I've heard about it.
21:00
Speaker 6: It's beautiful here.
21:01
Speaker 3: Even the underground parking lots smell like sentent lotion. We
21:06
Speaker 3: have four hours before our appointment with Moby. We set
21:09
Speaker 3: off in our economy sized carrio or similar to experience
21:13
Speaker 3: everything LA has to offer.
21:15
Speaker 9: Are you excited?
21:18
Speaker 3: Yeah, you don't sound excited.
21:22
Speaker 2: No, I'm full of anxiety. And let me tell you,
21:24
Speaker 2: I feel an increasing sense of dread about the futility
21:29
Speaker 2: of this undertaking.
21:30
Speaker 6: You can get those CDs back, my friend.
21:32
Speaker 2: Okay, whatever you say in a.
21:34
Speaker 9: Plastic bag, which he'll supply.
21:38
Speaker 10: You're gonna negotiate this look manage at which time of
21:41
Speaker 10: my client's choosing the one plastic bag recycled acceptable, plus
21:47
Speaker 10: one coupon good for any flavor from basket in Robin's
21:50
Speaker 10: ice cream or any substant that too.
21:57
Speaker 3: With just three hours and fifty nine minutes to go,
22:00
Speaker 3: things were off to a rollicking start.
22:03
Speaker 9: It's like not moving.
22:04
Speaker 2: There's always traffic in Los Angeles.
22:06
Speaker 9: Look at the traffic.
22:07
Speaker 6: Are we gonna make it for movies?
22:08
Speaker 2: Yeah, we're gonna be stuck in horrible traffic.
22:11
Speaker 6: We have until two, No, we have until one.
22:14
Speaker 2: Oh, really, we'll never make it.
22:19
Speaker 9: Oh look there's the big Hollywood sign. Wow, what a sight.
22:23
Speaker 9: Huh used to say hollywood.
22:25
Speaker 2: Land Actually before that it was called hollywood Landville.
22:29
Speaker 9: Is that true?
22:35
Speaker 2: Do you want Mexican food? Do you ever eat Mexican food?
22:37
Speaker 1: I love Mexican food.
22:38
Speaker 2: And to make you turn yeah, go go go? This
22:40
Speaker 2: is like a four lane uie, it's six? Really, go
22:43
Speaker 2: go go go. Yes. When you knew to someone before
22:48
Speaker 2: they were famous and you treat them like someone who's
22:52
Speaker 2: not famous, sometimes they don't like that. Sometimes they're used
22:56
Speaker 2: to the difference and the rock star treatment from everyone.
22:58
Speaker 6: Can you try to treat them with a little more difference.
23:02
Speaker 2: That's what I'm gonna try to. But the mask always slips.
23:06
Speaker 3: In so far as me coming here with you, how
23:08
Speaker 3: do you feel about me as an interlocutor?
23:13
Speaker 2: I'm actually full of dread mostly because of that.
23:15
Speaker 7: But what is that supposed to me?
23:17
Speaker 2: Because I recognize that I need an interlocut I did
23:19
Speaker 2: say that, and I do believe it. I think that
23:21
Speaker 2: you're going to be allows the interlocutor.
23:22
Speaker 6: What do you think I'm gonna embarrass you in front
23:24
Speaker 6: of your yes famous friends.
23:26
Speaker 2: Yes, yes, that's what you're afraid of.
23:28
Speaker 3: Yes, No, But seriously you think I'm gonna blow this.
23:35
Speaker 2: I just feel like you don't get the vibe of
23:36
Speaker 2: what it's like when you're in like a guy's house
23:39
Speaker 2: and you're gonna be like, say, nice toilets, what are
23:41
Speaker 2: these made of? Porcelain? Ay, I'm gonna be like Johnny please,
23:46
Speaker 2: and you'll be like, no, I don't know what they're
23:48
Speaker 2: made up.
23:49
Speaker 5: This is to me the final irony of this whole
23:51
Speaker 5: thing that you're concerned that I'm gonna embarrass you.
23:54
Speaker 2: I don't want you to trip me up in my game,
23:56
Speaker 2: my stride, my cadence.
23:57
Speaker 6: And what is it gonna be a part of your game?
23:59
Speaker 2: Here to try and relax and be myself, but I'm
24:01
Speaker 2: gonna be made self conscious when you're.
24:03
Speaker 1: Like, do you validate talking here?
24:05
Speaker 2: And I just need you to validate.
24:10
Speaker 9: God, this is so pretty? What a pretty place to live?
24:14
Speaker 2: Hey, well you're selling off CDs, you can live in
24:15
Speaker 2: a place like this.
24:17
Speaker 3: Worried about our being tardy, I decided to run down
24:19
Speaker 3: the clock doing laps around Moby's very pretty block.
24:24
Speaker 2: Little tiny houses.
24:25
Speaker 9: They keep going straight. This is really pretty nice view
24:28
Speaker 9: of the mountains.
24:29
Speaker 2: This is his house right here where all right here?
24:33
Speaker 2: I want to drive by it, this.
24:34
Speaker 9: House right there at the corner.
24:35
Speaker 3: We were passing the gates of his home over and
24:38
Speaker 3: over when a half hour before our appointed meeting.
24:42
Speaker 2: That's movie right there, is it? Yeah?
24:44
Speaker 3: Oh Jesus, Moby emerges through the gates to get his newspaper.
24:48
Speaker 3: Excited about seeing an honest to goodness famous person. I
24:51
Speaker 3: instinctively slowed to a crawl and pulled over beside him.
24:55
Speaker 2: Go say hi, no, no, come on, let him go
24:58
Speaker 2: to keep going.
24:59
Speaker 9: He just turned around.
25:00
Speaker 2: He didn't see.
25:01
Speaker 9: Yes, he did.
25:01
Speaker 5: He turned around and we made eye contact, and like,
25:04
Speaker 5: I slid right up to him, and he turned around
25:07
Speaker 5: and he seemed scared.
25:08
Speaker 2: That's exactly what I'm talking.
25:09
Speaker 6: What did I do?
25:10
Speaker 2: You're creepy, instance.
25:13
Speaker 7: Creepy.
25:13
Speaker 2: They don't slide up to people when they're going to
25:14
Speaker 2: get their pretty That's true.
25:15
Speaker 9: I really I really did slide up to him.
25:17
Speaker 2: Yah, you did, like a creep. You're gonna go another
25:21
Speaker 2: pass through when he comes up for his milk.
25:28
Speaker 3: We walk off our nerves in a nearby park where
25:31
Speaker 3: Gregor dispenses life wisdom to a passing toddler.
25:35
Speaker 2: Enjoy it, kid, best, It's going to be for the
25:37
Speaker 2: rest of your life.
25:40
Speaker 9: Who says things like that to a Child's happy?
25:42
Speaker 2: In love? His shirt said love. He's holding a little.
25:44
Speaker 3: Girls outside Moby's door. We do some last minute strategizing.
25:51
Speaker 2: Am I supposed to be the good cop or the
25:52
Speaker 2: bad cop? I can't remember?
25:54
Speaker 6: Well, I guess you were supposed to be the bad cop. No,
25:56
Speaker 6: I'm the bad cop. You're the good cop.
25:57
Speaker 2: I'll usually play the bad cop.
25:58
Speaker 6: So fine, you're the bad cop.
25:59
Speaker 2: It's twelve to fifty seven. It's not really one yet.
26:02
Speaker 6: Hall Wait, oh, hello, Hi, I'm.
26:05
Speaker 2: Sorry, we're early. It's twelve fifty seven. It's three minutes
26:08
Speaker 2: too early.
26:09
Speaker 3: Moby's personal assistant, a terrifyingly fit woman in jeans and
26:13
Speaker 3: T shirt, leads us towards Moby's home. By rockstar standards,
26:17
Speaker 3: it's pretty modest.
26:20
Speaker 2: Hello, Hello, Hi, Sharman Moe and far too long? Should
26:24
Speaker 2: I take shoes off?
26:24
Speaker 6: Hi?
26:25
Speaker 9: I am Jonathan.
26:25
Speaker 3: Were led into a sunken foyer where a couple of
26:28
Speaker 3: assistants are gathering equipment and making themselves scarce. Standing at
26:32
Speaker 3: the top of the stairs, looking not unlike a bald
26:34
Speaker 3: headed gray hoodie Norma Desmond is Moby Gregor and he
26:39
Speaker 3: do not hug or even shake hands. They don't even wave.
26:43
Speaker 2: It's been far too long, my friend where he's staying, and.
26:48
Speaker 1: Gregor drops his bag and has a looxie.
26:50
Speaker 2: Beautiful location, your beautiful assistant.
26:53
Speaker 3: Everything he's even brought along a thoughtful gift, something to
26:58
Speaker 3: cater to Moby's strict veganism and clean, healthy lifestyle. Fancy
27:02
Speaker 3: all natural lemonades.
27:04
Speaker 2: Something disgusting with turmeric, whoa, something awful with probioticene peppers,
27:10
Speaker 2: something horrifying with lemons.
27:13
Speaker 3: To our parched dismay. Moby takes the beverages and places
27:17
Speaker 3: them in the fridge. Gregor and I are never to
27:20
Speaker 3: see those beverages again. As we settle in and I
27:24
Speaker 3: set up our recording gear, Gregor notices a pile of
27:27
Speaker 3: video equipment.
27:29
Speaker 2: Why do you have two C three hundred here?
27:31
Speaker 3: Remember that slippery mask? Gregor mentioned the one hiding is
27:34
Speaker 3: rough edges. Ten seconds in and it was already a slippin' Why.
27:39
Speaker 2: Am I not involved that produce films all the time.
27:41
Speaker 3: I can help you to which Moby rather than saying
27:44
Speaker 3: he's worked with David Lynch and David Lea Chappelle and
27:46
Speaker 3: probably all set on that front, instead says, I mean
27:50
Speaker 3: you live in San Francisco.
27:51
Speaker 2: Yeah, but I'm here all the time, not literally in
27:53
Speaker 2: your living room, in your kitchen, though I could be
27:56
Speaker 2: more Often.
27:57
Speaker 3: Gregor can't help treating Moby like a nephew making his
28:00
Speaker 3: first student film. That is, Gregor's treating Moby the way
28:04
Speaker 3: he treats me. And this, of course is concerning.
28:07
Speaker 2: First of all, even get that far, how could you?
28:14
Speaker 3: At this point, Moby has mostly no idea why we're here.
28:18
Speaker 3: I made an appointment with his assistant, but it was
28:20
Speaker 3: left vague. So Moby takes the direct approach.
28:24
Speaker 11: So what are you guys doing?
28:27
Speaker 2: Well, this is an excellent question. Well, let's begin at
28:29
Speaker 2: the beginning, around the time contemporaneous with your recent autobiography,
28:34
Speaker 2: the mid nineties two thousands, and.
28:37
Speaker 3: Like, after all of his braggadoccio about how he was
28:40
Speaker 3: going to walk in there and demand the CDs back,
28:43
Speaker 3: Gregor's nervous, being uncharacteristically mealy mouthed, unable to explain the
28:47
Speaker 3: basics of our mission.
28:49
Speaker 2: And so this conversation became down this kind of alleyway
28:51
Speaker 2: of that facet of like, I was kind of like,
28:55
Speaker 2: what is me?
28:57
Speaker 3: Moby had limited time, so at the risk of embarrassing
29:00
Speaker 3: Gregor in front of his famous friend, I decided to
29:02
Speaker 3: step in and explain. So, can I tell my story
29:06
Speaker 3: of you coming to last time I saw Gregor?
29:09
Speaker 9: He came to visit me at work.
29:10
Speaker 3: And you were kind of in this mood where you
29:14
Speaker 3: were feeling like maybe those things that you were hopeful
29:18
Speaker 3: about achieving were not going to be happening. And I
29:22
Speaker 3: think you were in well Gregor looks on skeptically. I
29:25
Speaker 3: try to explain to Moby Gregor's midlife malaise how everyone
29:29
Speaker 3: was passing him by. Can you relate to the feeling
29:33
Speaker 3: of like, have you ever, at different points in your
29:35
Speaker 3: life felt like like surpassed by your friends or you
29:39
Speaker 3: know what I mean?
29:40
Speaker 7: Oh?
29:40
Speaker 11: Yeah, Like there's always going to be someone doing so
29:46
Speaker 11: much better than you that if you spend the time
29:48
Speaker 11: to look at it, you're going to feel bad about yourself.
29:51
Speaker 11: Like my nemesis, well, according to him for a while,
29:53
Speaker 11: was eminem. So if he was my nemesis, I was
29:56
Speaker 11: just being beaten publicly and badly because he was always
30:00
Speaker 11: more successful, always selling more records, always more popular, always cooler,
30:06
Speaker 11: And so depends on who I was comparing myself too.
30:10
Speaker 11: Over time, like other people start selling more records, getting
30:12
Speaker 11: better reviews, you start selling fewer tickets. And then as
30:17
Speaker 11: the two thousands progressed, my career waned and other people's escalated,
30:25
Speaker 11: you know, like I would go to visit my record
30:26
Speaker 11: company and they'd have my picture behind the receptionist desk,
30:30
Speaker 11: and then one day I show up and it's Jack
30:32
Speaker 11: White's picture behind the reception system, Like wha what?
30:36
Speaker 2: Yeah? I mean, I think the only way to hear that,
30:38
Speaker 2: honestly is in the split screen between totally head nodding
30:43
Speaker 2: one hundred percent agree and totally like easy for you
30:46
Speaker 2: to say, because you're looking down from the mountain, looking up,
30:49
Speaker 2: You're like, fucking knock that guy off the mountain because
30:52
Speaker 2: all I need is mind billion dollars down I looked.
30:54
Speaker 11: But really, the kick in the teeth of fame is
30:56
Speaker 11: that if you don't have it, you beat yourself up
30:59
Speaker 11: that you don't have it, and if you do have it,
31:01
Speaker 11: you're miserable and you kill yourself. Literally, the most depressed
31:05
Speaker 11: I've ever been in my entire life was the height
31:09
Speaker 11: of my professional success. And I remember this one moment
31:12
Speaker 11: so clearly. I was at an MTV Awards in Barcelona,
31:17
Speaker 11: and there's this hotel called the Arts Hotel in Barcelona,
31:20
Speaker 11: and it's so beautiful and at the tippity top of
31:23
Speaker 11: the hotel they have four three bedroom apartments and I
31:27
Speaker 11: was in one. P Diddy was in one, John bon
31:30
Speaker 11: Jovi was in one, and Madonna was in one. And
31:33
Speaker 11: so you'd take like one elevator to get to a
31:35
Speaker 11: certain floor, then another elevator to another floor, and then
31:38
Speaker 11: a security guard would wave you through up to.
31:40
Speaker 1: Our hallowed floor.
31:42
Speaker 11: And the first night I was there, I invited some
31:45
Speaker 11: people over to like look at the view and drink,
31:47
Speaker 11: and I kept drinking by myself, and I got more
31:49
Speaker 11: and more despondent, and I literally, at the end of
31:52
Speaker 11: the evening, before going to bed, was walking around this beautiful,
31:56
Speaker 11: insane apartment crying, thinking about how I could get out
32:00
Speaker 11: the window to kill myself. And the next day I
32:06
Speaker 11: won an MTV award. So it's like, professionally, things couldn't
32:09
Speaker 11: have been better, you know. The day before I'd played
32:12
Speaker 11: a huge concert, selling lots of records. The day after
32:14
Speaker 11: won an award, played more huge concerts, and I've never
32:17
Speaker 11: been more despondent.
32:20
Speaker 2: I appreciate your making up that story just to make
32:22
Speaker 2: me feel good.
32:22
Speaker 11: It's completely true, because I remember walking around this hotel
32:26
Speaker 11: and these walls of glass only had these little bitty
32:29
Speaker 11: like foldy open windows at the bottom, and I was
32:31
Speaker 11: looking at that and I was like, Fuck, if that
32:33
Speaker 11: window opened more, I would just jump out and die
32:35
Speaker 11: because I'm done. You think when you get to where
32:39
Speaker 11: you want to go, finally you'll be happy, but then
32:42
Speaker 11: you get to where you want to go and you're
32:44
Speaker 11: just as miserable as you were. In fact, you're even
32:47
Speaker 11: even more miserable because you no longer have anything to
32:50
Speaker 11: aspire to, and you feel this hopelessness because everything like
32:56
Speaker 11: what's left to aspire towards.
32:59
Speaker 3: It feels like Moby's trying to explain something to Gregor.
33:02
Speaker 3: Moby grew up poor with a single mother and lived
33:05
Speaker 3: on food stamps.
33:06
Speaker 1: When Moby was.
33:07
Speaker 3: A kid, his dad died in a car crash, and
33:10
Speaker 3: a few years ago his mom passed away from lung cancer.
33:13
Speaker 3: He has no siblings, so essentially he's alone.
33:17
Speaker 11: I look at Gregor and I think of like, I
33:19
Speaker 11: know his family very well, and from my perspective, like,
33:23
Speaker 11: first all, he has a like I don't. Really I
33:25
Speaker 11: have some aunts and uncles and cousins.
33:27
Speaker 1: You have some other.
33:27
Speaker 2: Siblings, I'm sure.
33:31
Speaker 11: And and to me that still makes me feel like, oh,
33:37
Speaker 11: he's figured out things that I don't understand.
33:46
Speaker 2: Of course I'm very successful. That I have a beautiful
33:48
Speaker 2: child and blah blah blah, two of them. Actually I
33:51
Speaker 2: won't say which one. I have two children. One is
33:53
Speaker 2: beautiful anyway, you know, the like a man's wealth is
33:58
Speaker 2: measured in family, you know, And but it's not you.
34:02
Speaker 6: You turn every time these things come up.
34:04
Speaker 1: You always make them into light.
34:06
Speaker 2: Well, that's what I'm saying is something you hear at
34:07
Speaker 2: the in the South Park, right. But what I'm saying
34:11
Speaker 2: is that that era when like it still seemed like
34:14
Speaker 2: life had potential to go a bunch of different ways.
34:16
Speaker 2: Now it seemed less. So it's not even squandered potential.
34:19
Speaker 2: It's just like you could have been somebody becomes like
34:22
Speaker 2: you didn't.
34:24
Speaker 11: Every year you lose a little bit of potential, you know,
34:28
Speaker 11: Like at this point, like I'm fifty and I'm like, oh,
34:33
Speaker 11: most of my life. I thought at some point I
34:35
Speaker 11: could be a father. I'm like, well probably not, and
34:46
Speaker 11: I have one issue.
34:47
Speaker 1: Yeah I really have to peek go ahead.
34:53
Speaker 3: Well, movie was conveniently indisposed. I took the opportunity to
34:57
Speaker 3: reiterate our mission getting back the CDs as much.
35:01
Speaker 1: As it behoosy, like, just try to keep it tout the.
35:04
Speaker 2: CDs, all right, I don't think we only have about
35:07
Speaker 2: ten minutes search.
35:08
Speaker 1: That's what I want to get to it.
35:09
Speaker 2: Do you want me to wrestle onto the ground and no,
35:12
Speaker 2: you have something, particularly money you want to say.
35:14
Speaker 3: Moby emerges from the bathroom, cutting our conversation short, and
35:18
Speaker 3: Gregor steps up to the plate and begins in the middle.
35:23
Speaker 2: Yeah, I still listen to Sounds of the South on YouTube.
35:26
Speaker 2: They have the full set. And as far as that
35:30
Speaker 2: actual des set, did you hang on to that or
35:34
Speaker 2: that is the CD the box, that's the actual stuff.
35:38
Speaker 11: Yeah, they're somewhere. Most of it's in storage and Queens
35:44
Speaker 11: so like this medium sized storage locker and it's just
35:48
Speaker 11: like packed to the rafters with stuff.
35:53
Speaker 3: Finally, it's my moment to be the interlocutor. I think
35:58
Speaker 3: Gregor sort of wanted those CDs back if only to
36:03
Speaker 3: put them on a mantle, to feel like I was
36:05
Speaker 3: a part of something, like I mattered, I existed.
36:09
Speaker 2: And I view this more like I handed you the
36:11
Speaker 2: pen and then you wrote, you know, the great book
36:13
Speaker 2: with it. It's not that I had some role in.
36:15
Speaker 3: But like the guy who introduced Andy Warhol to the
36:17
Speaker 3: can of Campbell's soup or what I mean.
36:20
Speaker 2: This is not like a legal deposition where it's like
36:21
Speaker 2: who said it? I mean it was fucking twenty five
36:23
Speaker 2: years ago.
36:24
Speaker 1: As Gregor and I parry.
36:25
Speaker 3: It's almost like we forget that Moby's even there when
36:28
Speaker 3: suddenly he pipes up one thing.
36:30
Speaker 11: Just to be super clear from the album play, two
36:34
Speaker 11: of the most remarkably iconic songs on the record would
36:38
Speaker 11: never have been written or existed had I not been
36:40
Speaker 11: given those CDs. Like I didn't know who Alan Lomax was,
36:44
Speaker 11: and I that the box set called Sounds of the South,
36:49
Speaker 11: I didn't know it existed, and I certainly like it
36:52
Speaker 11: was an expensive box set. And there's no way I
36:54
Speaker 11: was going to walk into Tower Records and spend sixty
36:57
Speaker 11: five dollars or however much it was going to be
37:01
Speaker 11: on a box set. I knew nothing about from an
37:03
Speaker 11: archivist I'd never heard of, so like, those are one
37:06
Speaker 11: hundred percent the result of me being given those.
37:10
Speaker 3: Wait, so we're saying you're not. Gregor's not getting the
37:12
Speaker 3: CDs back.
37:15
Speaker 11: Okay, here's the story. Friend of mine, her mother died
37:22
Speaker 11: in a very very sad, tragic way, and she came
37:26
Speaker 11: to me and she started crying, and she said that
37:29
Speaker 11: at the funeral they played the song Natural Blues and
37:32
Speaker 11: everyone in the church was crying and it was one
37:35
Speaker 11: of the most powerful emotional moments of her life that
37:38
Speaker 11: wouldn't have ever existed if you hadn't given me those CDs.
37:41
Speaker 11: So to me, that's more priceless and precious than any
37:45
Speaker 11: sort of like objective, quantifiable metric.
37:52
Speaker 1: How does that make you feel?
37:54
Speaker 2: I mean it makes me feel like thinking about, you know,
38:01
Speaker 2: getting a pair of bolt cutters and breaking into a
38:03
Speaker 2: steady storage in Queens is not what I'm going to do.
38:07
Speaker 2: That was my plan.
38:10
Speaker 3: And so Gregor doesn't get what he came for. But
38:13
Speaker 3: maybe not getting everything you want in the grander scheme
38:16
Speaker 3: isn't so bad.
38:26
Speaker 11: One practical issue. So I have two podcast interviews to
38:34
Speaker 11: do today. You guys are the first and a second
38:37
Speaker 11: you're in good company. It's with Rue Paul nice crazy.
38:41
Speaker 11: I mean, if you wanted to, we could always drive there,
38:45
Speaker 11: Like if you guys want to get in the car
38:46
Speaker 11: with me. My girlfriend is coming here. She's gonna go
38:49
Speaker 11: with me because she's an obsessive Rue Paul fan.
38:51
Speaker 3: Oh wow, Moby, his girlfriend, Gregor and I pile into
38:56
Speaker 3: Moby's Prias seen from the outside, Gregor seems happy to
39:00
Speaker 3: be a part of Moby's life again. He's even feeling
39:03
Speaker 3: comfortable enough to favor us with his famous John Travolta
39:06
Speaker 3: imitation I.
39:07
Speaker 2: Could drink pee go, I could drink tea John Travolta.
39:12
Speaker 2: When she says, he says, watch your cough with me.
39:14
Speaker 2: Sometimes she's like, in Manhattan, we don't drink coffee, we
39:17
Speaker 2: drink tea. And he's like, so what, I could drink tea.
39:21
Speaker 3: And then, for whatever reason, Moby takes over my role
39:25
Speaker 3: of interlocutor and begins explaining Gregor's style to his girlfriend.
39:29
Speaker 2: And Gregor is funny and.
39:33
Speaker 11: At times like would maybe be here. It comes honest
39:40
Speaker 11: in a way that people might be take offence to
39:44
Speaker 11: or at Or.
39:45
Speaker 3: As Moby's learning firsthand interlocketing for Gregor isn't so easy.
39:58
Speaker 11: Hi, I'm here for RuPaul's podcast.
40:02
Speaker 3: At the hotel, we're shown into a conference room where
40:04
Speaker 3: we're greeted by Rupe Paul and his co host Michelle.
40:11
Speaker 3: As I trail behind Moby for the first time in
40:13
Speaker 3: my life, I feel a part of a bona fide
40:15
Speaker 3: Hollywood entourage.
40:17
Speaker 11: So we've been doing an interesting podcast because Gregor and
40:20
Speaker 11: I've known each other for twenty seven years at all Yeah.
40:25
Speaker 3: We watch as RuPaul interviews Moby, and when Moby says
40:28
Speaker 3: interesting things like my mom was born in San Diego.
40:32
Speaker 2: Was born in San Diego.
40:35
Speaker 3: RuPaul responds with engaged interest, and when Moby off handedly
40:39
Speaker 3: mentions a song, RuPaul and Michelle sing it, and as
40:45
Speaker 3: they do, I find myself thinking only one thing, now,
40:49
Speaker 3: this is how you run a podcast. Right. When Moby
40:57
Speaker 3: and Gregor say their goodbyes, Moby tells him that he'll
41:00
Speaker 3: be coming to San Francisco soon and he'll be sure
41:02
Speaker 3: to give Gregor a call, and Gregor says he'd like that.
41:06
Speaker 3: But before parting, Gregor can't help giving it just one
41:09
Speaker 3: last nudge.
41:10
Speaker 2: I have one more question for you. Can you just
41:12
Speaker 2: tell me the name of the storage facility where the
41:14
Speaker 2: CD is. No, it's for a friend. They need to
41:16
Speaker 2: store something in Queens. No, there was one place. I'm
41:19
Speaker 2: just saying, Hey, it's the same place.
41:23
Speaker 3: Gregor's comfortable enough to joke around about something that had
41:26
Speaker 3: once plagued him, and Moby's comfortable enough to uncomfortably laugh
41:30
Speaker 3: along with him. All around it feels pretty nice.
41:46
Speaker 6: So how did you feel about how that went?
41:48
Speaker 2: I think it was cathartic.
41:49
Speaker 3: No, really, seriously, With some time to kill before a flight,
41:54
Speaker 3: Gregor and I decide to hike up to the observatory.
41:57
Speaker 3: Do you feel like he screwed you out of your CDs?
41:59
Speaker 9: Yet?
41:59
Speaker 7: Again?
42:00
Speaker 2: The honest truth is, he did give me a good
42:03
Speaker 2: long song, a dance about how we all learned a lesson.
42:05
Speaker 2: I didn't get the thing that I set out to get,
42:07
Speaker 2: But in seriousness, I honestly feel, in a funny sort
42:10
Speaker 2: of way, I got what I came for.
42:13
Speaker 6: Which was what you didn't get your CDs.
42:18
Speaker 2: You see, you're a petty person. What you just saw
42:21
Speaker 2: and apparently were deaf you couldn't hear, was a reconciliation
42:26
Speaker 2: with two guys after twenty five years of slight estrangement.
42:29
Speaker 6: So you guys did get to be friends.
42:31
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think we just buried the hatchets. This CD thing, Yeah,
42:34
Speaker 2: that is a symbol. I mean, who cares about the CD?
42:36
Speaker 6: But you one who cared about the CD.
42:39
Speaker 2: Look, it's hard to come together and just hug it out.
42:43
Speaker 2: What you just witnessed was a version of hugging it out,
42:46
Speaker 2: two men having a good cry. That's about the closest
42:50
Speaker 2: that I come.
42:53
Speaker 6: Well, then, I think that was great. I think this
42:55
Speaker 6: was a success.
42:56
Speaker 2: I agree.
42:59
Speaker 6: Still would have been nice to get your CDs.
43:00
Speaker 2: Back, of course. I don't know if the rental car
43:07
Speaker 2: you got there at any player, but it doesn't. It
43:10
Speaker 2: would have been no better ending to this day than
43:12
Speaker 2: to drive out of the parking lot cranking that CD.
43:15
Speaker 3: Yeah, but the cars don't have nobody has CD players anymore.
43:18
Speaker 2: And let me tell you something. If some of the
43:20
Speaker 2: Mobi's song comes on the radio right now, I'd let
43:23
Speaker 2: it play. I'd even sing along.
43:25
Speaker 6: I'm going to find it out my phone and play it.
43:27
Speaker 2: That's okay, you sure?
43:29
Speaker 6: Because I actually downloaded.
43:31
Speaker 9: It as best for.
43:37
Speaker 3: Three days later, and much to his surprise, Gregor received
43:40
Speaker 3: an email from Mobi. This might sound odd, the email read,
43:44
Speaker 3: but I realized I never said a true, heartfelt thank
43:47
Speaker 3: you for giving me those CDs, So, in all sincerity,
43:51
Speaker 3: thank you. I'm sorry it's taken so long to say
43:54
Speaker 3: thank you. Gregor said he was happier that the thank
43:57
Speaker 3: you came three days later. This way, he knew it
44:00
Speaker 3: wasn't just out of politeness, that it must have been
44:03
Speaker 3: quote boring a hole through his head for days after
44:07
Speaker 3: receiving Mobis thank you, greg immediately wrote back thank you
44:10
Speaker 3: of his own, in the form of a joke, which,
44:14
Speaker 3: if you didn't know Gregor, could also be taken as
44:16
Speaker 3: an insult. But Moby did know Gregor, and so for Gregor,
44:20
Speaker 3: it was back to being a normal friendship now that
44:56
Speaker 3: the furnitures returned to its goodwill home, now that the.
45:05
Speaker 9: Last month's rent is scheming.
45:09
Speaker 1: The damage did not take this moment to this.
45:15
Speaker 6: If we messed him, and we too.
45:20
Speaker 7: Felt around from five to.
45:25
Speaker 2: Things.
45:29
Speaker 1: Well, so what'd you think?
45:33
Speaker 2: The one one guy was really good? The funny guy,
45:36
Speaker 2: he was great.
45:37
Speaker 1: So let me ask you.
45:39
Speaker 3: After the episode aired all those years ago, people have
45:44
Speaker 3: continued to wonder, did Moby ever eventually, you know, go
45:49
Speaker 3: to the storage unit and dig out your old CDs?
45:52
Speaker 4: Whatever, number of years passed. Five years later, Moby text me, oh, like,
45:57
Speaker 4: I was emptying out a storage container in Queens and
46:02
Speaker 4: I found the box set.
46:04
Speaker 3: So he so he he found he found the CDs,
46:08
Speaker 3: so I said, So.
46:10
Speaker 4: I said, let's meet at the Griffith Observatory and you
46:13
Speaker 4: can have me them. He lives right near that, so
46:15
Speaker 4: he said, great, no problem. I'm like, you know whatever,
46:18
Speaker 4: ten o'clock on Tuesday, Great, no problem. The morning of
46:21
Speaker 4: I'm like, okay, so like, I'm just coming into the
46:23
Speaker 4: park now, just I'll be up there. No response, and
46:26
Speaker 4: then I'm like, okay, I'm here and no response, and
46:29
Speaker 4: he doesn't, you know, he doesn't show you're up there,
46:32
Speaker 4: doesn't answer anything. And I said something like, you know,
46:35
Speaker 4: if a teaser, I can just go by your house.
46:37
Speaker 4: I mean, I know you're right here. I can just
46:38
Speaker 4: walk over to it. And no response.
46:41
Speaker 2: And then I think whatever the exact math was, but
46:45
Speaker 2: maybe the next day he was like, oh, like, so
46:48
Speaker 2: I was like preparing for an interview, preparing for a precedent.
46:52
Speaker 4: I didn't need to see him. He could have left
46:54
Speaker 4: it an envelope in the front porch or like give
46:56
Speaker 4: it to his assistant or whatever.
46:57
Speaker 2: It was. You know, in so far as this whole
47:00
Speaker 2: experience was slightly not very out of slightly, it was
47:04
Speaker 2: mostly symbolic. I felt like he was not ready to
47:08
Speaker 2: do that symbolic act.
47:10
Speaker 1: He's never given you the CDs back.
47:12
Speaker 8: So.
47:14
Speaker 4: There was not is not a resolution to that particular drama.
47:18
Speaker 3: My goodness, until you never said, hey, why don't you
47:22
Speaker 3: disdrop those CDs in the mail for me?
47:24
Speaker 2: No, because I feel like too vastly oversimplify. I won
47:31
Speaker 2: this story. I have a great life and a great
47:34
Speaker 2: you know, family and all these things that are really
47:37
Speaker 2: what mattered to me. So whatever it was, I was
47:40
Speaker 2: seeing a hat and I came to realize it.
47:43
Speaker 1: That was exactly what Moby was trying to tell you
47:45
Speaker 1: in the episode.
47:47
Speaker 4: I think sometimes you're not ready to hear things. You
47:50
Speaker 4: can't force the flower to open.
47:52
Speaker 3: So maybe it's really maybe you owe Moby something. Maybe
47:55
Speaker 3: you have you ever told him that you know you?
47:58
Speaker 3: Did you ever thank him for what he shared with you?
48:00
Speaker 3: And no, do you do you want to do that?
48:06
Speaker 3: I mean, should we call him right now.
48:09
Speaker 2: And hear the wheels turning in your greasy.
48:11
Speaker 3: Little So you feel like at this point, you know
48:17
Speaker 3: what Moby for whatever reason isn't able to give you
48:22
Speaker 3: back those CDs, so let them have them.
48:24
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think it's all let go, let go of everything.
48:28
Speaker 2: And I'll tell you one other thing.
48:30
Speaker 4: Yeah, there's a radio station in Portland that for some
48:33
Speaker 4: reason is streaming on the radio here and they play
48:38
Speaker 4: a fair bit of Moby and they've played some the
48:40
Speaker 4: other day and I listened to it. I didn't turn
48:42
Speaker 4: it off, which I probably might have at a certain point.
48:45
Speaker 1: You can listen to mobi music now.
48:47
Speaker 2: I listened to the song and I was like, pretty
48:50
Speaker 2: good song.
48:53
Speaker 1: And that was it.
48:54
Speaker 2: I mean I had some critical thoughts.
48:58
Speaker 3: Of course, he did. Gregor, thank you all right, I'll
49:01
Speaker 3: talk to you later, talk to you later.
49:03
Speaker 7: Bye bye.
49:16
Speaker 3: Special thanks to everyone who helped put together our original
49:19
Speaker 3: Gregor episode way back when.
49:21
Speaker 1: We'll be back next week.
49:23
Speaker 3: With another Encore presentation, another heavyweight Biju, as well as
49:28
Speaker 3: another update from one of our favorite guests, so stay tuned.