Latest / Troubled Men Podcast / TMP314 JASON AFFOLDER GETS FIRED UP

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TMP314 JASON AFFOLDER GETS FIRED UP · Troubled Men Podcast

• 0:00
  Speaker A: Foreign listeners, welcome back to the Troubled Men podcast. I am Renee Coleman, sitting once again in Snake and Jake's Christmas Club lounge in the heart of the Clempire with my co host, the original troubled man for troubled times and future mayor of New Orleans, Mr. Manny Chevrolet. Welcome Manny.
• 0:33
  Speaker B: Hey man. That's right. You know, I am the future. I am the future. Qualifying is in less than a few weeks.
• 0:41
  Speaker A: Okay. You've made a decision.
• 0:43
  Speaker B: I thinking about it. I got. There's a three day window in the second week of July that I have to do it, but I won't. I can't do it alone. I need people's help.
• 0:53
  Speaker A: Sure, sure.
• 0:54
  Speaker B: You know, just like I need help just in general. Just in general I need help. In fact, I remember this is how bad it got for me or it has been for me is like the first time I went to a psychiatrist, he said, where you been? What took you? You know, so that's the kind of help I need. But I think we're going to go for it. But I need people's help and we'll see what, what happens.
• 1:20
  Speaker C: I still like the idea you said you might run for mayor. Yeah, but no, I'm for sheriff though.
• 1:25
  Speaker B: Oh yeah, I said that. I was thinking about it when that whole was going down with the tin.
• 1:30
  Speaker C: Star on your shirt.
• 1:32
  Speaker B: Yeah, that would have been cool. It would have been new sheriff slogan. Would have been. What was that slogan I came up with? Vote Manny Chevrolet for sheriff. Oh, God. I'll think of it. There's something about a man who shouldn't have a gun.
• 1:47
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 1:48
  Speaker C: Can you run for both?
• 1:49
  Speaker B: I don't know. That's a good question. Maybe you could. I don't see why not. You know, I. I don't see why you can't run for poe.
• 1:57
  Speaker A: Have to make sure you go over that the, the federal election regulations with a fine tooth comb. You don't want to get sideways with those again.
• 2:05
  Speaker B: Yeah, I don't want to get sideways.
• 2:06
  Speaker C: Well, there's the old joke like he couldn't run for dog catcher. Do they have a. Could you run for.
• 2:10
  Speaker B: Yeah, do they have a duck? Maybe I should just say, you know, right in, right when I become mayor, we're going to have a dog catcher.
• 2:19
  Speaker A: Okay. That's going to be part of your platform.
• 2:22
  Speaker B: Part of the platform. Be good at a dog catcher. Yeah. So it's going to be exciting. And you know, I. Yesterday marked the day that Latoya, our fearless leader here, has 200 more days in office. That's it. 200 more days. And I guarantee you you're not going to hear from her.
• 2:42
  Speaker A: Yeah, she'll be globetrotting on our dimes.
• 2:46
  Speaker C: On a taxpayer dime.
• 2:47
  Speaker B: Exactly. All our dimes and stuff like that. And like that. Those, those 50 cent pieces we got last week too. She's probably got those too. Anyway, what else is going on?
• 2:57
  Speaker A: Oh, it's just, you know, settling down. I was saying last week how, you know, you could really feel the, the summer coming down upon us now. I played a gig at the Kingpin from five to seven this past Saturday. It was so hot, by the time I was done, my clothes were soaked all the way through. I had another job later on. I had to go home, take all my clothes off, dry off, and put new underwear on, new socks, everything.
• 3:26
  Speaker B: That's right. The King. You put it right in front of the bar, right? That's where you guys play?
• 3:29
  Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 3:30
  Speaker B: On the outside.
• 3:30
  Speaker A: On the outside, yeah.
• 3:31
  Speaker B: Oh, God, that must have been miserable.
• 3:33
  Speaker A: It was hot. I mean, you know, we had a nice little turnout, but it was. We were all wilting out there, man. And then, then I was driving to my, my second gig at Chicki Wawa later. I'm driving, coming down the, the Broad street overpass and you can't even see a car. It's so empty. There's. I mean, you could have shot a cannon down, down Broad street and not hit anybody. So, so yes, we're, we're into the.
• 3:59
  Speaker B: It's hot, man.
• 4:00
  Speaker C: The official doldrums. Misery.
• 4:03
  Speaker A: Yes.
• 4:03
  Speaker B: That line. I feel summer creeping in and I'm tired of this town again Right. That's Tom Petty.
• 4:08
  Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 4:10
  Speaker B: That's the way I feel every summer down here. But you know, speaking of sweating and all that, you missed it. Over the weekend they had the sunburn competition over in the Lakeview.
• 4:21
  Speaker A: Really?
• 4:21
  Speaker B: It's for whites only.
• 4:22
  Speaker A: Haven't heard of that.
• 4:24
  Speaker B: Yeah, the sunburn competition, sponsored by Coppertone. And some of the winners, man, they look like, you know, Robert Redford, you know, in, in every picture you've seen of him since the 90s.
• 4:36
  Speaker A: So really, people are out there trying to get a bad sunburn.
• 4:39
  Speaker C: O, gee whiz, Giant, if you're flaking, is that like a next level?
• 4:44
  Speaker B: I don't know. But, you know, whoever had the most burn, you know, I got guess one, it was a whites only thing because they're the only ones who really burn.
• 4:52
  Speaker A: Oh, everybody burns just doesn't. It doesn't. You can't see it, but.
• 4:56
  Speaker C: Less melanin.
• 4:57
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 4:57
  Speaker B: The winner Looked like a California raisin.
• 5:00
  Speaker A: Oh, geez.
• 5:01
  Speaker B: You know, but it was sponsored by. I don't know what the prize was, though. I really don't know what the price. Yeah, I don't know, but they had like volleyball competitions and stuff like that.
• 5:13
  Speaker A: I totally missed out on that.
• 5:14
  Speaker B: Yeah, well, I just saw pictures.
• 5:16
  Speaker A: Okay.
• 5:17
  Speaker B: And they weren't too pretty.
• 5:18
  Speaker A: Yeah, no, I bet they weren't.
• 5:19
  Speaker B: It's like those old women, you know, who. Who still want to go braless and stuff. Shriveled up boobs and stuff like that. And just kind of.
• 5:28
  Speaker A: It's like, oh, maybe some. Go ahead.
• 5:30
  Speaker B: Yeah, well, that's the old joke. You know, you rarely see any skinny people at nudist camps, you know?
• 5:36
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 5:37
  Speaker C: Yeah. Same with the orgies. It's always the people you don't want to see naked.
• 5:40
  Speaker B: Right, Exactly. Bike race they have down here.
• 5:43
  Speaker C: Right.
• 5:43
  Speaker A: I was thinking maybe people got a little jump on the. The sunburn competition during the naked bike ride.
• 5:50
  Speaker B: I don't know. But they're good people.
• 5:52
  Speaker A: Sure.
• 5:53
  Speaker C: Yeah. Yeah.
• 5:53
  Speaker A: Well, they're turning out to, you know, to support something. Do something. Yeah. A little fellowship there.
• 5:58
  Speaker B: Do anything in this town.
• 6:00
  Speaker A: Right.
• 6:00
  Speaker B: You know, but go ahead.
• 6:02
  Speaker A: Well, we talked a lot about the. The Diddy trial before, when. The lead up to it, and then once they started having testimony, I noticed that we never mentioned it again. And I was thinking, why was that? I think because the. The whole. All the testimony, everything was so sorted. It just like we didn't even want to bring it up. And.
• 6:23
  Speaker B: Well, you know, I told you I had to testify. They did me on the. Via the zoom testified and, you know, I. I had to say some things that weren't pretty.
• 6:32
  Speaker C: Yeah.
• 6:32
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 6:33
  Speaker C: But it's the truth. The truth isn't pretty.
• 6:35
  Speaker B: I mentioned the sunburn festival at the same time.
• 6:37
  Speaker A: Okay.
• 6:38
  Speaker B: But, yeah, it was the truth. And we'll see. His defense didn't call any witnesses.
• 6:44
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 6:44
  Speaker C: Yeah. At all. That's.
• 6:45
  Speaker B: That's kind of. I don't know. Maybe they're just like it. You can rot in here, buddy.
• 6:49
  Speaker A: Well. Well, I mean, he obviously didn't want to expose himself. He. He didn't want to testify.
• 6:56
  Speaker B: Yeah, he did it many, many times anymore.
• 6:58
  Speaker C: Yeah.
• 6:59
  Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 7:00
  Speaker A: To a cross examination.
• 7:02
  Speaker B: Yeah. No, he. But anything. Everything's going crazy. You know, our fearless leader is. He's going nuts. You know, he's just weird, this guy, and he's. He's. I didn't realize that all these new appointees he has, you know, like, you know, we're having this war, now he's bombed, what is it, the Middle east somewhere like Iran. Yeah, Iran and Persia, you know. Now people are scared that Iran's going to start, you know, waging a war in our own, you know, they're going to put out their little spies. They have here.
• 7:33
  Speaker C: Sean Hannity says there's assassination squads all just waiting for the.
• 7:37
  Speaker B: But then I've realized that Trump's appointee to his war on terror committee is this like 22 year old kid named Thomas Fugatti who was just an intern for him. Yeah, the last, you know, he's played.
• 7:49
  Speaker C: A lot of risk though.
• 7:50
  Speaker B: Yeah, he's played a lot of risk and Clue and you know, but apparently he just came out today and he said that his first act as, you know, as a head of terror defense is, is to start, start attacking terror is to start with our haunted houses here. Okay, he's gonna do that. Our haunted houses is the first.
• 8:12
  Speaker C: Watch out. This October.
• 8:13
  Speaker B: Yeah, you know, exactly. Are terrifying sometimes. Those, they can be, man. I don't know. And then he, he's got a new guy he appointed to fema, you know, because now we're in hurricanes.
• 8:24
  Speaker C: I thought he eliminated fema.
• 8:26
  Speaker B: Well, he did, but then he brought it back because he doesn't know what the hell he's doing, you know.
• 8:29
  Speaker C: Wait, undo that?
• 8:31
  Speaker B: Yeah. And this new chief was confused. He said he was confused by the wind because he couldn't see it.
• 8:40
  Speaker C: Yeah.
• 8:40
  Speaker B: So I can't see it.
• 8:42
  Speaker C: Is it real?
• 8:43
  Speaker B: Yeah, it's not real if I can't see it, basically. You know, so we've got great leaders out there, man. I'm telling you, you know, they're, they're, they're all right.
• 8:52
  Speaker A: I don't know. Keep your fingers crossed. People, you know, can't wait till it's 200 days to the end of that administration that will. Now, there's been some other news. The something close to home for you, Manny. Your, your beloved Lakers were sold.
• 9:09
  Speaker B: Oh, yeah.
• 9:10
  Speaker A: Now how do you have any thoughts about that?
• 9:13
  Speaker B: Oh, you know, it happens. People sell teams, sell properties and they got. It's the most ever, something like 10 billion.
• 9:20
  Speaker A: Right.
• 9:21
  Speaker B: For a sports franchise. And they're worth it. You know, they're worth it. But I mean, Jerry Buss took over a franchise back in 79, I think when he bought it from Jack Kent Cook. And Jack Kent Cook didn't want to pay the high prices that he saw coming in the future.
• 9:39
  Speaker A: But Jerry wasn't for talent.
• 9:41
  Speaker B: Yeah, for talent. And he had won his championship and he Also was a Redskins, Washington Redskins owner, football team. And he. He stayed with them until he sold them after a Super bowl win. But, you know, going back to my Hollywood days, you know, Jerry Buss, man, that guy was a player, baby.
• 10:00
  Speaker A: Yeah, that's what I hear.
• 10:01
  Speaker B: I was. In fact, you know, we've spoken about my band, the Two Free Stooges and stuff over the years. And we used to have our background dancers dressed as nurses. And there was a couple of them. I'm not going to give their names or, you know, but, you know, we used to have different ones, you know, pretty much like every other show, whatever. We have some different nurses. And we had these two nurses who were hired monthly by Jerry Buss to go over to his house and just dance naked in front of him. He just liked watching them dance naked, you know, so, you know, that guy got around. I remember seeing Jerry Buss at a Laker game with Sammy Davis Jr.
• 10:41
  Speaker A: Okay, there's.
• 10:43
  Speaker B: But he had a candy man. And I mean that man. But they were great and Jerry was a good guy. He brought Showtime to the Lakers, not only on the court, but, you know, behind the scenes and stuff like that. So, yeah, it happens. But I think Ginny Buss, who is still going to have some kind of control, apparently.
• 11:03
  Speaker A: Oh, okay.
• 11:04
  Speaker B: The Dodgers owner bought the majority percentage of the team, but the Buss family still has some kind of insight to it or kind of say, I guess get a vote.
• 11:15
  Speaker A: So. So there's no danger of the team moving?
• 11:18
  Speaker B: Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.
• 11:20
  Speaker A: That's not gonna happen. Well, that's what I'm saying. I didn't know who. I didn't know. Dodgers guy.
• 11:26
  Speaker B: Maybe they'll move into a better arena, but. Yeah, leaving L. A. No, no, no, no, that's not gonna happen. You would, you'd see, you thought the Rodney King, right?
• 11:35
  Speaker C: Yeah, way most beware.
• 11:37
  Speaker B: Exactly. No, no, no, that would be that. But anyway, yeah, so that's something that happened. And man, $10 billion. I can't even imagine that, man. You know, but apparently when you buy a franchise, you're like, you buy the team, you buy the contracts, you buy all the equipment is now yours. You own it. From the towels to the sneak, you know, you own everything. So I guess 10 billion adds up, you know.
• 12:07
  Speaker A: Yeah, I think it's probably most of that. 10 billion is just in the salaries. Yeah, yeah. The ability to. To merchandise and, and, and. And all that stuff, you know, ability to, to get television contracts and, you know, the earning potential.
• 12:23
  Speaker B: Well, the NBA, though. Does have problems. They're, they're still second to the NFL, but their, their TV contract is souring, I think they don't get. Because their season's too long. Just like baseball. Season's too fucking long.
• 12:39
  Speaker A: You lose interest, play too many games.
• 12:41
  Speaker B: Oh, yeah. Because they have to. Because of the salaries.
• 12:44
  Speaker A: Right, right.
• 12:44
  Speaker B: You know, guys making 80 billion a year or. 80 million, sure.
• 12:48
  Speaker C: What their money's worth.
• 12:49
  Speaker B: Yeah, exactly. You know, so anyway, it's all good. You know, we'll see if they can. LeBron, though, is not, I don't think, I think LeBron's going to retire.
• 12:56
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 12:57
  Speaker B: I think he's going to say, this is it. I've had it. I'm done. I'm going into the movie business.
• 13:02
  Speaker A: You think they'll keep his son on the team for Shaq?
• 13:04
  Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, that. I don't know. I mean, they might keep him on, but the problem is he's not very good.
• 13:12
  Speaker A: Right.
• 13:13
  Speaker B: That's right. He's all right, you know, he's tall.
• 13:17
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 13:17
  Speaker B: You know, but he's just not, he's not NBA material like his dad, you know, Anyway, but, so we'll see what happens with that. I'm interested now in the WNBA because they're in full swing. I just love watching those women run up and down the court, and they're, they're very, they get very chippy, these women.
• 13:36
  Speaker A: Yeah, I've seen some, some gouging each other's eyes, grabbing hair, slamming people to.
• 13:41
  Speaker B: The ground, like cat fight.
• 13:43
  Speaker A: Yeah, yeah.
• 13:45
  Speaker C: Not quite hockey level, but it's.
• 13:47
  Speaker B: No, no. Well, not yet.
• 13:48
  Speaker C: Yeah.
• 13:50
  Speaker B: You know, but we'll see. I, I, the only problem is they don't have a very good TV contract, so it's hard to watch their games.
• 13:56
  Speaker A: Right.
• 13:56
  Speaker B: But it's getting better.
• 13:57
  Speaker C: Yeah. Yeah.
• 13:58
  Speaker A: You know, so that's Caitlin Clark is playing, then you have a chance of catching it on television.
• 14:03
  Speaker B: Yeah, that's, that's, that, that's true. Yes. But anything else going on with you?
• 14:09
  Speaker A: Well, the only other thing I have is, you know, just, just keeping up, keeping tabs on, you know, a story that we had weeks and weeks ago now, maybe six weeks. The, the two Orleans Parish jail escapees who are still on the loose.
• 14:24
  Speaker C: I didn't realize there were still two out there.
• 14:26
  Speaker A: Still out there. Yeah, still out there on the streets.
• 14:29
  Speaker B: The ringleader. The ringleader. The, the guy who mastermind the whole thing, he's still out there and he's got tats on his face. So I don't know how they can't Notice that makeup?
• 14:40
  Speaker C: He just put covers.
• 14:41
  Speaker A: No, I don't think so. And then. Then he keeps showing up on social media. He's on YouTube, making videos, saying like, come on.
• 14:48
  Speaker B: Come on, get me. You find me.
• 14:50
  Speaker A: He's taunting them.
• 14:51
  Speaker B: Yeah, he's taunting them.
• 14:52
  Speaker C: Why not?
• 14:52
  Speaker B: You know, that and the other guy, I don't know. I don't see anything.
• 14:56
  Speaker A: Gone to ground.
• 14:57
  Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, he's underground somewhere, but might.
• 15:00
  Speaker C: Be in the French Riviera.
• 15:01
  Speaker A: Could be anywhere at this point, man. Those. But either one of those guys could be.
• 15:05
  Speaker B: They, you know, doubt it very much.
• 15:07
  Speaker A: But they could be. I think they're probably over in the St. Bernard area.
• 15:11
  Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, it could be, you know, in this lot across the way.
• 15:15
  Speaker C: Yeah, sure.
• 15:16
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 15:16
  Speaker C: That house is abandoned, I think.
• 15:18
  Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, it is. That one there wasn't. What's his name staying there for a while?
• 15:22
  Speaker A: Jimmy Chubbuck. Yeah.
• 15:23
  Speaker B: Whatever happened to that guy?
• 15:24
  Speaker A: You know, he just. Speaking of going to ground, I haven't heard hide nor hair.
• 15:30
  Speaker B: Because we were trying to get him on the show, right?
• 15:32
  Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, yeah, we were. And then. And then, you know, he started getting a little. A little uppity about it, you know, like. Well, I want to. I don't want to come off like I'm. I'm so down and out. I was like. But you are.
• 15:44
  Speaker B: You're the real troubled man.
• 15:46
  Speaker A: What do you mean?
• 15:47
  Speaker B: You're the troubless of all of us.
• 15:49
  Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. So I don't know. It's shout out to Jimmy Chubbuck if he's still out there. We'll have to ask Dave if he comes around. If he's hurt. Dave's up on. Still up on the roof.
• 15:59
  Speaker B: He's on that house over there.
• 16:00
  Speaker A: Okay.
• 16:01
  Speaker C: You've got so many properties. Got so much stuff to do.
• 16:03
  Speaker B: Yeah, yeah.
• 16:04
  Speaker A: He's hammering away at the Clamp.
• 16:06
  Speaker B: Sell them out. Sell them all before you get too old. That's what I told him, but he doesn't listen to me. Anyway, let's introduce our guest because he's already talking and he won't shut up.
• 16:14
  Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 16:15
  Speaker B: You know, and got a lot of questions for him.
• 16:18
  Speaker A: Okay, very good. All right, well, it's a. A guest. We've. We've seen him around town for a long time. Just. We're hanging out at the bar here just a couple of nights ago. And look at that. The quick turnaround. We have you on the show so quickly. He's a terrific filmmaker. Director. Screenwriter. Also a firefighter. Interesting combo. Also a former public high school teacher. His Latest film, the Great Davini stars Snake and Jake's own mastermind and czar of the Clempire, Dave Clements. Yeah, he's made all kind of films, videos, shorts. Is a world traveler going to get into all that? But without further ado, the great Mr. Jason Al. Folder.
• 17:00
  Speaker C: Yeah, Jason Folder.
• 17:02
  Speaker A: Folder.
• 17:02
  Speaker C: You added an L. I know. It's not like high school or it'd be like ass Holder.
• 17:06
  Speaker A: Well, I was wondering about that.
• 17:08
  Speaker C: Yeah, it was fun.
• 17:09
  Speaker A: Welcome, Jason.
• 17:09
  Speaker C: Thank you for having me.
• 17:10
  Speaker A: Yeah. You know, I've never seen that. That name before.
• 17:13
  Speaker C: It's German, as far as I know.
• 17:15
  Speaker A: Okay.
• 17:15
  Speaker C: I've never delved into it, but I'm from Indiana and there's. There's folders all around Indiana.
• 17:19
  Speaker A: Really?
• 17:20
  Speaker C: Yeah, there's like, interesting. Pretty big, like, tractor supply company. That's f. Older industries or something.
• 17:25
  Speaker A: Anyway, probably not a lot of Boudreaux or. No, yeah, yeah, up there. So, yeah, it depends on where you are. You know, you get these.
• 17:32
  Speaker B: What part of Indiana.
• 17:33
  Speaker C: I'm from Vincennes in southern Indiana, which is like a really old city that's like, kind of insignificant, but it's known because it was. Let me see if I can figure this and do this right. It's the site of a major Revolutionary War battle in which George Rogers Clark and his ragtag band of militiamen defeated the British at Fort Sackville with the help of a fat Sardinian fur trader named Francis Vigo.
• 17:53
  Speaker A: Wow.
• 17:53
  Speaker C: And there's a gigantic national monument on the river there. It's the biggest monument outside of Washington.
• 17:58
  Speaker B: Which Trump's gonna remove.
• 17:59
  Speaker C: I don't know, or put his name on it. It's like, you know, it's this now the Trump Memorial in Vincent, Indiana. But yeah, for some reason like it. I hear that the war might have actually already been won when he won his battle.
• 18:12
  Speaker B: Right.
• 18:12
  Speaker C: They just hadn't gotten word yet.
• 18:13
  Speaker A: Sure, sure.
• 18:14
  Speaker C: But anyway, because of that incident, there's this massive memorial there in a town that's otherwise totally inside significant, so. Yeah.
• 18:21
  Speaker A: Okay.
• 18:21
  Speaker B: But you're from there, so it is significant.
• 18:23
  Speaker C: Yeah. I mean, it's a good place to be from because there's nothing to do. Going up builds character, but I wouldn't recommend people go there.
• 18:29
  Speaker A: Yeah, nothing to see there except for the monument.
• 18:31
  Speaker C: There's a great pizzeria that I, you know, it's like, been around since 1955.
• 18:35
  Speaker B: Where is that? Like, with, like, Indianapolis.
• 18:39
  Speaker C: It's southwest. It's right on the Illinois state line. And there's actually two time zones. So if the bars close at 2am in Vincent. You can drive five minutes across the river and they're open for another hour because you're in a different time zone.
• 18:50
  Speaker A: Is it New York? Gary?
• 18:51
  Speaker C: No, it's south. Gary's basically Chicago. This is way down by Kentucky.
• 18:55
  Speaker A: Okay, gotcha.
• 18:56
  Speaker C: Like an hour, hour and a half.
• 18:57
  Speaker B: And where is South Bend?
• 18:58
  Speaker C: That's. It's all north you're talking.
• 19:00
  Speaker B: Okay.
• 19:00
  Speaker C: It's all in southern Indiana. I mean Bloomington is south of indie. That's where I use that. And then Vincennes, Evansville, Terre. Where ISU is at. But yeah.
• 19:10
  Speaker B: Now why were your parents there?
• 19:12
  Speaker C: They just grew up there. I mean they're our ancestors.
• 19:14
  Speaker A: Parents went there, didn't leave.
• 19:17
  Speaker C: Yeah. I mean because, you know, all these app holders came from Germany or wherever and settled, you know, in Indiana.
• 19:23
  Speaker B: Is it farming or is it.
• 19:24
  Speaker C: There's a lot of. Really. This is a final Jeopardy question. There's a lot of soybean fields there. You know, corn fields because, oh, there's more than corn in Indiana, but. And there are corn fields, but there's a lot of soybeans and hog farms and tornadoes. A lot of tornadoes. Like every town around Vincennes has been destroyed by a tornado in my lifetime. But Vincennes has always like dodged the.
• 19:44
  Speaker B: Bullet because of the outfolders.
• 19:46
  Speaker C: It's just in like a little bit of a.
• 19:48
  Speaker B: Give it a tornado.
• 19:49
  Speaker C: Yeah. But we do have this many a times as a child the civil defense sirens would go off and you'd have to go like hide in your tub because a tornado was coming but it never quite reached.
• 19:58
  Speaker A: So you guys didn't have like a tornado seller or something?
• 20:00
  Speaker C: We didn't. Some people do. We did not. We just went to the basement.
• 20:03
  Speaker B: You never got a day off of school because.
• 20:06
  Speaker C: Well, we did have to hide in the stairwells at one point. One night I was in the roller. When they still had roller rinks. I was like in an all night skate at the roller dome. Like we all had to hide because a tornado was coming and it's like, is it going to destroy the roller dome with all these children? We're like in the middle of the limbo, you know, on states competition and it's like get to the, get to the inside structure. So anyway, so that's Indiana for you. Small Vincent's.
• 20:30
  Speaker A: Okay. So growing up there you always looked forward to leaving?
• 20:35
  Speaker C: Well, yeah, once I, I knew I wasn't going to college anywhere in Indiana. So you know, I.
• 20:40
  Speaker B: Because you didn't play basketball.
• 20:41
  Speaker C: Yeah, my mom like she finally gave up saying, like, I just wish you'd play basketball. Which, because I'm a nerd, I want to play Dungeons and Dragons, read Stephen King novels.
• 20:50
  Speaker B: Oh, I got you.
• 20:51
  Speaker A: So that's what you were doing. Yeah, I was in high school, so.
• 20:54
  Speaker C: And then I got a little edgier in high school. I started making bombs and stuff. Like, we'd make like black powder bombs and like get into chemistry.
• 21:01
  Speaker A: French Coat mafia kind of deal.
• 21:03
  Speaker C: No, this is before the whole thing is like, back then you could do that, it was just kind of like fun. Now you'd be labeled like a domestic terrorist. But it was all a good fun for us.
• 21:11
  Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. Because boys like fire, we like burning.
• 21:15
  Speaker B: Yeah.
• 21:15
  Speaker A: You know?
• 21:16
  Speaker C: Yeah, exactly.
• 21:17
  Speaker A: Natural. It doesn't. It. It doesn't have to be antisocial. We just like.
• 21:19
  Speaker C: No, yeah.
• 21:20
  Speaker A: Like the low, the way it looks.
• 21:21
  Speaker C: Again, nothing else to do. So it's like there was no Internet. So you just like, let's go burn something or blow something up.
• 21:28
  Speaker B: And the girls weren't around for you either.
• 21:30
  Speaker C: Yeah, like, there was never that like manic pixie girl that was like into Dungeons and Dragons like you see in movies where, like the one cute girl wants to hang out with the nerds. It was just a bunch of nerds.
• 21:40
  Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, that's. That's how it always is in real life. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 21:44
  Speaker C: So.
• 21:45
  Speaker B: So you didn't go to many dances?
• 21:47
  Speaker C: No, I actually didn't go to my high school prom because my best friends were from another school and they weren't allowed to go. So I'm like, we'll just, we'll just go be punks and do bad stuff.
• 21:57
  Speaker B: Go to the roller rink.
• 21:58
  Speaker C: I don't want to incriminate myself too much. I just post roller rink. But there was like this weird arcade that we go to called Free Play where like all the games were obviously free once you paid five bucks to get in. But there was like this little theater off to the side where they show like old Popeye and like Betty Boop cartoons and that's where the kids went to make out. So you'd like go in and like see all these like to 18 year olds, like making out in the dark while like Popeye is playing Popeyes.
• 22:19
  Speaker B: Trying to make olive oil.
• 22:21
  Speaker C: Yeah. So yeah, that's olive oil. Yeah.
• 22:23
  Speaker B: She was attractive.
• 22:24
  Speaker C: She had a whole, the whole family's castor oil. All her siblings had the same name anyway, so, yeah, Vincennes.
• 22:32
  Speaker A: Well, so are you. During that time, are you with, with all these, you know, trying to entertain yourself. Are you starting to do any film work? You have a Super 8 camera or something?
• 22:42
  Speaker C: I was more of the VHS kid.
• 22:43
  Speaker A: Sure, sure, sure.
• 22:44
  Speaker C: But yeah, a couple projects in high school we to do like a video and that's really kind of where I got to actually in German class we made this like epic one hour film about. There's this story about this guy that chugged a giant stein of beer in Germany to like save the town. And so in German class we like basically like made this detective story about the stein's been stolen. It's this relic. And like these two like, you know, kind of scummy detectives played by teenagers obviously, like go on the hunt and. Yeah, it's called Shrek and Grimmal in the Case of the Stolenstein. I think I have it somewhere. It's not totally lost on video, but it's pretty entertaining to rewatch for me. I think anybody else.
• 23:20
  Speaker B: Would you get graded on it?
• 23:21
  Speaker C: Yeah, we got an eight for that one. It was because everybody else had like a five minute video and we launched this like mini epic, you know. And it was, it was completely inappropriate. Like there was foul language and like blood and gore and you know, excellent. But you know, we just. It was such an ambitious project. They kind of couldn't ignore it.
• 23:39
  Speaker B: Well, I remember my high school class, we were. We told our teacher for our final, we wanted to show this film. And he said, okay, fine, you can show this film. And we shot it on Super 8. And we had, it was. We had three screens though. We had the film and the middle screen and the screen to the left and to the right we had slides. And basically what we did was we filmed all the hip people in school, all the in kids. Because I went to West LA High School, Beverly Hills kids, Bel Air, you know, Pacific Palisades kids go there. So you had all these beautiful people. And what we did was we just. In the middle screen on the Super 8, we just shot all the beautiful people on campus or outside campus, you know, we shot them and we had one of the guys who we did the film with, his friend Danny Zimmerman, his dad was a plastic surgeon. So on each, on the right and left screen, we had slides showing deformities.
• 24:38
  Speaker C: Oh, deformed people. This sounds like a pretty awesome experimental film for.
• 24:44
  Speaker B: And then the music was, you are so beautiful to me, can't you see? And it was so funny because some of the girls in the class were in the film and they're so ditzy and super good. Oh, look, there's Nancy. Yeah, there's me.
• 25:02
  Speaker C: While there's, like, realizing you're being.
• 25:04
  Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. There's a guy, a girl with a deformity. You know. No, you know, no lips or whatever. That kind of stuff. And the teacher was like, well, what's. What are you trying to say here? And we're like, well, it's pretty obvious what we're trying to say here. So we got like a B. Oh, man, That's Hollywood. That raised my grade up from a D minus or something. So anyway, yeah, films are always fun.
• 25:28
  Speaker C: You don't have that copy of that, though?
• 25:31
  Speaker B: No, I think Danny Ziman. I still have that copy. I have no idea. I don't know. But somebody has it.
• 25:38
  Speaker A: So you make this epic, but you think, oh, this is something I could do. Is that give you the idea that you would want to pursue this seriously?
• 25:48
  Speaker C: I was kind of into video games as well, and a lot of the video games in that era were narrative. So I don't know, just like. And I really started to get into film.
• 25:57
  Speaker B: So. How old are you?
• 25:57
  Speaker C: I'm 47.
• 25:58
  Speaker B: Okay, so you're a lot younger than us. So when.
• 26:02
  Speaker C: This is like late mid to late 90s.
• 26:04
  Speaker B: Oh, okay. All right. Okay. So.
• 26:06
  Speaker C: And that's like when the kind of indie film explosion happened with movies like Clerks and Reservoir Dogs.
• 26:12
  Speaker A: Right.
• 26:12
  Speaker C: Stuff like that. So, you know, they. Even though. With indie films they would play, we'd still have to drive an hour to go see them, but you could actually see, like, these indie films. And it was like, oh, you can just make a movie. So.
• 26:22
  Speaker B: Well, that's it. When video came out, it was like, anyone could be a filmmaker.
• 26:26
  Speaker C: Yeah. But especially in that era, that's when, like. Because the 80s still were, like, mostly big Hollywood movies, but then in the 90s, that's when Miramax and even this is the thing, you know, Harvey Weinstein's a scumbag, but you can't really boycott all his work. You would have to eliminate most of the catalog of, like, you know, important independent films in the 90s.
• 26:42
  Speaker A: Right.
• 26:43
  Speaker C: You know, because, you know, Kevin Smith and Tarantino didn't do anything bad, but they were financed by the scumbag.
• 26:49
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 26:49
  Speaker C: You know, so anyway. But yeah, so that was just kind of inspirational, seeing all those kind of films come out of nowhere and then. Yeah, just anybody.
• 26:57
  Speaker A: Any directors in particular that you really, you know, wanted to emulate or.
• 27:02
  Speaker C: I really like Scorsese 770 Scorsese movies like Taxi Driver and. And at the time, I love Blade. I mean, I still love Blade. Runner. But yeah, it was more like. And I loved Western Sam Peckinpah. Like, really a lot of, like late 60s, 70s American cinema was really.
• 27:18
  Speaker B: Are you seeing that growing up at.
• 27:20
  Speaker C: Home on tv, that's all vhs.
• 27:22
  Speaker B: Yeah, you just go and look, searching.
• 27:24
  Speaker C: There were a couple great VHS video stor that. Like, again, they'd been open since the invention of vhs, so they had. And it's not like now, you know, obviously, you can watch anything you want anytime.
• 27:33
  Speaker B: But, like, did you work at Blockbuster?
• 27:35
  Speaker C: No, no, no. I worked at the movie theater in town, but not the video store.
• 27:38
  Speaker B: Okay.
• 27:39
  Speaker C: Yeah, so. But yeah, just seeing all those movies was really inspirational. And then, you know, at the time, like, USC and NYU were the best film schools, so I just applied to them and I got a USC first, so I just like, withdrew my application at the other end. And, you know, I wanted to go somewhere big, too. I wanted to be away from tiny Vincennes and, like, that's as far west.
• 27:59
  Speaker B: I was on the waiting list for UCLA Film School.
• 28:01
  Speaker C: Okay. Yeah, yeah.
• 28:02
  Speaker B: You know, but I never got.
• 28:03
  Speaker C: I mean, I don't remember why I didn't apply there. I think it was just. It's a good film school, too. Oh, yeah. Of course. They're rivals, but. Yeah.
• 28:10
  Speaker B: Yeah.
• 28:10
  Speaker C: But yeah, USC took me and I was like.
• 28:13
  Speaker B: So were you living on campus?
• 28:14
  Speaker C: Yeah, the first two years I lived on campus and then I moved to Los Feliz.
• 28:18
  Speaker B: Los Feliz.
• 28:19
  Speaker C: Los Feliz. Sorry, I've been in the south so long, I mispronounce everything.
• 28:23
  Speaker B: USC kind of freaky because it's like this very rich private school and it's in the shittiest.
• 28:28
  Speaker C: They call it the University of South Central because it is.
• 28:30
  Speaker A: Right.
• 28:31
  Speaker B: It's in the shittiest neighborhood.
• 28:32
  Speaker C: Like, it's like. It's basically. It's a perimeter wall and if you go outside of that, like, they go to the post office. You have to go through, like, the war zone.
• 28:39
  Speaker B: Yeah, exactly. It's just like, so freaky.
• 28:41
  Speaker C: Yeah. And again, it's really wealthy, you know, student body and. But they're planted in kind of a bad spot.
• 28:48
  Speaker B: Oh, yeah.
• 28:49
  Speaker C: But again, I. You know, that. I don't know how much it's changed. I. Even when I go back to la, I don't go there very often. Oh, it's still expensive, you know, but I meant, like, if the neighborhoods gentrified around it or if it's still kind.
• 28:59
  Speaker B: Of sketchy, maybe got a little bit. No, I mean, it's maybe a little bit.
• 29:03
  Speaker C: Yeah. Yeah.
• 29:04
  Speaker B: You Know, since the riots maybe, you know, but not much.
• 29:08
  Speaker A: Well, so how was your experience there at usc?
• 29:10
  Speaker C: USC taught me a lot about what I didn't want to do because, you know. Oh yeah, a lot of people go through there and make, you know, end up making big Hollywood movies and stuff. And I just like, I actually like got kind of disillusioned at that kind of attitude. They were promoting and I got into a lot of like still photography classes. But at a certain point when you're doing like, you know, independent study, photography can be film. So I was making experimental films for like photography classes that I found a lot more, you know, interesting than like kind of narrative stuff that they were like, because. And also as an undergrad there, I don't know if the program's different, but you make like, you make five Super 8 films for one class in one semester, that's like super creative. Like every two weeks you have to make a movie, but then after that you make one 16 millimeter film with a partner. And then after that, if you're not lucky to get picked one of your scripts or as a director, you might never make like a really solid like 10 or 15 minute movie that's your own. Like most film programs, you have a thesis at the end of the four year program. USC didn't do that. I was luckily involved in one of them. I wrote it, I didn't direct it, but like, I was just kind of like, you know, there's only four of these projects each semester and there's like dozens of students. So like it was just sort of like even film schools, like, you know, Uno, like everybody that goes there makes a thesis film before they get their degree.
• 30:24
  Speaker B: Right.
• 30:25
  Speaker C: So I just found, you know, I learned a lot, but I also thought for the. What it would cost most people because I had a scholarship. That's the other thing. Like everything was covered. That was incredible.
• 30:35
  Speaker B: So you went to the full four years?
• 30:37
  Speaker C: Yeah, and the only reason I did that is because I was lucky because a lot of my friends dropped out because of the sheer cost of tuition. But I was like, this is a free ride. I'm gonna get this piece of paper. It's gonna. And well, it did give me a 5% raise with the city of New Orleans because anybody with a four year degree got a 5% raise.
• 30:52
  Speaker A: Finally paid off.
• 30:53
  Speaker C: Yeah, yeah. And I was able to do other stuff like when I taught and stuff. You needed like a basic four year degree, right? But yeah, I mean the whole thing is like la. It just wasn't my Favorite place. I loved everything around it. I love sunrises in the Mojave Desert and like getting stuck in a blizzard in the Sequoia forest and riding horses on the beaches of Baja California. But just like the moving traffic, you know, parking lot of traffic in LA and just, you know, it just wasn't. If Vincent's was too small, then LA was too big, you know, so.
• 31:20
  Speaker B: I see.
• 31:21
  Speaker A: Well, did you wind up doing like working in the film business out there? TV business?
• 31:25
  Speaker C: A little bit. Like, you know, I did a lot of set construction and did some PA work and stuff. But then once I graduated, I was just like, I gotta get out of here, really. And luckily a couple of my other friends were all graduating at the same time. So we were like talking about going to Chicago or New Orleans and I basically just watched down by Law, the Jim Jarmusch movie too many times and it's like, let's go to New Orleans, you know, this is gonna be great. Even though like the last semester I was in USC for New Year's, I was here for. We came to New Orleans for New Year's and I got arrested on New Year's Eve because right before midnight this guy was getting his ass kicked by the cops on Bourbon Street. And I was filming it with a subaray camera and the cop knocked his own hat off, he was being so violent. So I picked up his hat to film his badge number and that's right when his backup showed up. And so they got me for theft and possession of stolen property. Public intoxic threw me in the clink. So I spent 1999 to 2000's New Year's Eve, the turn of the millennium in Opp in Central Lock up.
• 32:17
  Speaker B: Do you still have the film?
• 32:18
  Speaker A: Holy cow.
• 32:19
  Speaker C: I got the film back and made my last semester at uc. I included it as part of this experimental film about the life of my alter ego. That's how he dies. Is being beaten to death by the cops nice?
• 32:29
  Speaker B: Excellent, Excellent.
• 32:30
  Speaker C: Yeah, but that was a great New Year's Day. They wheeled a little TV into the cell block and put the Jerk with Steve Martin on served as black eyed peas and collard greens.
• 32:39
  Speaker A: Oh, really? Anyway, just for luck and money.
• 32:41
  Speaker C: Yeah, yeah, yeah, but anyway. But I still came to New Orleans even after that experience.
• 32:46
  Speaker A: Okay, so.
• 32:47
  Speaker C: And I've never gotten arrested again, so.
• 32:49
  Speaker A: All right, so you learned your got.
• 32:50
  Speaker C: It out of my system.
• 32:51
  Speaker A: Good.
• 32:51
  Speaker B: Jim Jarmusch, great filmmaker.
• 32:53
  Speaker C: Yeah, well, 50. 50. I like half his films, but John.
• 32:56
  Speaker B: By Law, well, I've only seen half his Films. Yeah, because a lot of films. That's a Jarmus film. I didn't know that. You know.
• 33:02
  Speaker C: Yeah, down by Law is.
• 33:03
  Speaker B: Yeah, down by Law. Definitely.
• 33:04
  Speaker A: Definitely Stranger Than Paradise.
• 33:07
  Speaker C: Yeah, that's what he did. Before that, I really like Only Lovers Left Alive.
• 33:11
  Speaker B: I like the one coffee and cigarettes a little bit. That's.
• 33:14
  Speaker C: Yeah, that's kind of improv. It's kind of like what you guys do. Just kind of like off the cuff, improvisational conversation.
• 33:19
  Speaker B: But I met him in New York in the 80s. And this is a few years after down by Law, I think, or maybe a few years before, I'm not sure. But guy has. His apartment was like empty.
• 33:36
  Speaker C: Weird.
• 33:37
  Speaker B: Like two chairs, a table, and then he had a bed that was. You couldn't see the bed because he had this like, curtain around the bed. And. And it was the weirdest studio apartment I've ever seen. It was crazy. But he. He's part of this group called the. The Sons of Lee Marvin. Do you know?
• 33:54
  Speaker C: Yeah, I've heard about this, but elaborate.
• 33:56
  Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, he's this. Groove him and. And some other celebrities and just some other people you don't know are not never heard of. But they all like, have hair or they sound like Lee Marvin.
• 34:08
  Speaker C: Yeah, I can see that.
• 34:09
  Speaker B: So they started this, like, group called the Suns. And he gave me his card. This is my card, Manny. The Sons of Lee Marvin.
• 34:17
  Speaker C: Nice.
• 34:18
  Speaker B: And the other thing was, you know, back then, I don't know how he dresses now, but back then he always just like, wore black. Black jeans, black shirt. He had this.
• 34:25
  Speaker C: And he has always had that shock of white hair too.
• 34:27
  Speaker B: Right.
• 34:27
  Speaker C: It's like Steve Martin, like his hair.
• 34:29
  Speaker B: Right?
• 34:29
  Speaker C: White.
• 34:29
  Speaker B: Yeah, it's always been white.
• 34:30
  Speaker C: Yeah.
• 34:31
  Speaker B: Steve Martin's always been 78 years old for like, you know, but he had this clothes rack with just like all these black shirts and black pants. Yeah, it's like, well, that's easy.
• 34:41
  Speaker C: Yeah, I mean, you know, it's always, always fashionable.
• 34:44
  Speaker B: All matching Sons of Lee Marvin. Check it out.
• 34:46
  Speaker C: Nice.
• 34:47
  Speaker B: Gotta look it up.
• 34:48
  Speaker A: So. So you get to New Orleans. What you. Were you planning on making films here?
• 34:55
  Speaker C: Oh, yeah, definitely. Because, like, the last thing I did at USC was steal the 16 millimeter camera from their, like, warehous. So I'm like, we're going to New Orleans to start making movies. Didn't quite happen as quickly as that because first we had to find jobs.
• 35:07
  Speaker A: So how do you land? What do you start doing when you get here?
• 35:10
  Speaker C: Basically, we just started like looking around and a friend of mine, Jake Springfield, who'd lived here longer. He's in a band. He was in a band then called High Alai that if we get around a mermaid lounge. That was a regular band, that mermaid lounge. He had been teaching in JP as a substitute teacher. So he's like, you can just walk in and do this job. So yeah, I applied at the JP school board or whatever and got a job as a teacher's aide. So I started assist a substitute teacher and like within a week, one of the students aggravated the teacher I was assisting so much, he threw a garbage can at him and got fired. And like the principal's like, don't you.
• 35:40
  Speaker B: Have a four year degree?
• 35:41
  Speaker C: I'm like, yeah, it's like you're a teacher now because the first year you can teach without any certification.
• 35:45
  Speaker A: Right, right, right. Like probationary.
• 35:47
  Speaker C: Yeah, it was like September, October of 2000 and they threw me in this classroom and it was like the John Martin on Shrewsbury, which is like the bad kids school for jp. So it's like an average New Orleans school. But like a guy had no idea what I was doing. So we were thrown into that. And it was kind of fun at first. You know, I was teaching math initially and then the principal was pretty lenient. She just like let us create our own class called Visual Arts where we like use film and photography to kind of teach something. Because these are bad. Just getting them to sit down and pay attention was a great accomplishment.
• 36:15
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 36:16
  Speaker C: So like we talk about math when we were talking about F stops on a camera and how you have to take the fractions and change them to get the exposure right. We talk about chemistry and how like you develop photography. We'd have them write stories. What if you wanted to write a screenplay who's like a character in your life you'd want to write about? Just kind of like watch movies and talk about stories and like talk about the technique of filmmaking and use that to kind of like just get them engaged enough to like get something into their heads. Well, they were anywhere because, you know, a lot of them had held back. So it was anywhere from like 8th to 12.
• 36:44
  Speaker B: Okay.
• 36:45
  Speaker C: Some of them were as young as showing them like some stuff you is like obvious like do the right thing, but then also like the Shining. There were no rules. So like I showed them Blade Runner. They didn't like that one. It was too, too slow. But yeah, just, you know, we, you know, and we'd show them some of the student films we had done. It's like, look, you can do this.
• 37:03
  Speaker B: Stuff, you know, so we can all be storytellers. That's what the video camera brought.
• 37:08
  Speaker C: Exactly.
• 37:08
  Speaker B: Can all be storytellers.
• 37:10
  Speaker C: So I, and actually I shot a lot of interviews with them just because some, a lot of them couldn't. They weren't illiterate, but they couldn't write very well. But they were great storytellers. So I would just have them like tell me about the meanest person you. You've ever met. It's like, oh, I know this. And they would tell stories.
• 37:23
  Speaker B: Say the moment.
• 37:24
  Speaker C: Yes. But I actually made like a. I made that footage into like a 20 minute documentary. Cause it was just so engaging. Like when it was all over, it's like people aren't gonna believe some of this stuff. Some of the crazy stuff these kids would say and do. But you know, just try. Like again, it was just really frustrating. Cause you'd have one of these kids and kind of get through to them and then their parents would beat them up or they'd commit a crime and be back in juvenile detention, you know. So it was just like. You never felt like you were really accomplishing much, unfortunately.
• 37:50
  Speaker A: Yeah, you had a lot of students were involved in the, the, the, the criminal justice system already.
• 37:55
  Speaker C: They. Yeah, most of them on the way into or out of juvie. Like one of them again in the documentary, he talks about how like he just shot this guy and he hid all the money that he stole from the guy. And he's like still in like juvenile detention, just on short release to go to school at this place. He's like, I know where that money's at and when I get out, I'm going to get it. Like, didn't follow up on that one. I don't know if he ever got out or got the money, but it's hidden somewhere.
• 38:18
  Speaker B: Jimmy Conway from Good Fellas, he still has that money hidden somewhere. His daughter knows where it is. Dead now his daughter knows where it is. So what did they think of the Shining?
• 38:29
  Speaker C: They liked it somewhat. I mean, a lot of them would fall asleep. But you know, some of them actually seen it. Like a couple of them, you know, because it's a pretty venerable picture. So some of them had seen that one. I'm trying to think back. We watch Goodfellows. They love that one. Of course, you know, because who doesn't? The life. Yeah, but it's like Crime don't does pay. It's like, I don't know in the end. Did you watch the ending? But yeah, it was, it was fun. But like again, it was just so it was frustrating and it really was stressful towards the end of the school year because they all got metal detected every day going in. Like, one of them threw a gun over the fence and went through the metal detectors and went to retrieve the gun. And luckily the campus cop got wind of it and intervened. But I was like, I don't know about this.
• 39:10
  Speaker B: Right.
• 39:11
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 39:11
  Speaker B: So how long do you teach for?
• 39:13
  Speaker C: One full school year. Because after that I would have had to start getting qualifications. So between just like the frustrations of it and the idea, it's like, I don't, I just got out of school, I don't want to go back to school.
• 39:21
  Speaker A: Right, right.
• 39:23
  Speaker C: I basically went to city hall and they were hiring for garbage men and firefighters. So I'm like, oh, gee, I don't know. Like, oh. So I applied to the fire department. It takes it. At that time, it took almost a year to go through all the tests, like the physical agility test, the background check, personality test. So in the meantime, I got on with the New Orleans Public Library and basically like, dealt with the adult versions, the kids I had previously taught. Because people would come in, like, completely no knowledge of computers. It's like, I need to apply for a job at Harrah's, but I don't know how to use a computer, you know, so, yeah, so, yeah, I did that for a year and while.
• 39:58
  Speaker A: Is that the main library?
• 39:59
  Speaker C: Yeah, I was at the main library.
• 40:00
  Speaker A: That really attracts an interesting crowd over there.
• 40:03
  Speaker C: One of my jobs is to sweep the book stacks to try to stop the bums from urinating on the books.
• 40:09
  Speaker B: That's the one down on Loyola, right?
• 40:10
  Speaker C: Yeah, yeah, yeah. There'd be latchkey kids that would come in there and like, you got like 12 year old kids get. There were no firewalls then, so they'd be looking up porn in like the public computer room. Like, you can't do this kid, you know, so there was a lot, there was a lot of referee work and then.
• 40:25
  Speaker B: So what attracted you to fire though?
• 40:28
  Speaker C: Again? Like, I was just kind of like, let me just do as many jobs. I've been a teacher, I've been a librarian. Let me try fire department. I wasn't initially going to like stick around because I was like, I'll do that for a couple years and then become a park ranger. But, you know, I, I, the films were always there. Oh yeah. Because in the meantime I've been making, you know, I'm not talking about that part of it. Yeah, we were making films again, like Jake, the guy that I mentioned from Mermaid Lounge, like, we made a music video for his band. That was one of my first projects here. So doing all that stuff by night while during the day, you know, doing simple service kind of works. Yeah. And also, again, if all you do is, like, work with film people and watch movies, you are what you eat. So you want, want, like, you know, cross pollination. It's cool. Like, I've learned a lot more on the fire department about really, like, running a set than I probably did at usc. It's like a fire ground. It's the same thing. Like, you got to learn how to, you know, delegate responsibility and, and keep the ship, you know, upright and stuff like that. So, you know, these all can inform, you know, your style. And also just story wise, like, if you're working with, like, crazy kids and like, other people that have unique interests, because half the firemen I work with are crab fishermen or this or that. So it just gives you a lot more, like, interesting characters and perspectives to bring to it than if you're just like, you know, I work in film, I hang out with film people, blah, blah, blah. It's like Cormac McCarthy, like, he's like, I don't want. He's the guy that wrote, like, Blood Meridian and the Road. Pulitzer Prize winner. Yeah. Like he said, I don't want to hang out with other writers. I want to hang out with doctors and physicists and, like, really. And that's. That's one of the reasons I love New Orleans. Like, you can be hanging out with, you know, musicians and lawyers and everything else at a place like Snake and Jake's, you know, and, like, hear all their stories. But, yeah, getting back to, like, like, the fire department.
• 42:04
  Speaker A: Oh, sorry, let me stop you right there, cuz. Looking at the. The drinks and the, the clock. It's that time.
• 42:10
  Speaker C: All right.
• 42:11
  Speaker B: Halfway. Yeah. It's a break Time we take a break the nation knows what to do and we'll be right back. Cool.
• 42:17
  Speaker D: There will be no more sorrow.
• 42:23
  Speaker C: God.
• 42:23
  Speaker D: Will be one of us.
• 42:28
  Speaker B: Here you.
• 42:28
  Speaker D: Can see into the future.
• 42:33
  Speaker C: The world.
• 42:33
  Speaker D: Will be full of trust Common sense Won't be outlawed Troubles won't chase us.
• 42:46
  Speaker C: Down.
• 42:49
  Speaker D: No one will be none the wiser Troubles won't chase us, Us down this is about this?
• 43:04
  Speaker B: Yeah.
• 43:05
  Speaker D: This is about this. This ain't about what you think it's about. No, this is about this.
• 43:19
  Speaker C: About this.
• 43:25
  Speaker A: And we're back.
• 43:26
  Speaker B: Yes.
• 43:27
  Speaker A: Back with Mr. Manny Chevrolet.
• 43:28
  Speaker B: Yes. And we're better.
• 43:29
  Speaker A: I am Renee Coleman.
• 43:31
  Speaker B: We're better than Ezra.
• 43:32
  Speaker A: Back with our guest, Mr. Jason Afolder.
• 43:35
  Speaker C: I got it this time. Nailed it, Nailed it.
• 43:38
  Speaker A: And Jason, I know you're, you've, you've heard some of the, the shows and so you're kind of familiar with the fact that we're a listener supported operation here.
• 43:48
  Speaker B: We have four listeners.
• 43:49
  Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And they take turns supporting us. And last week we had Eddie V. Sent us in the, the, the bag of Kennedy half dollars. I showed a lot of flair, a lot of class there.
• 44:03
  Speaker C: Uncirculated.
• 44:04
  Speaker A: Well, they were circular. But still, but still, you know, we like that.
• 44:08
  Speaker B: We're. Yeah.
• 44:09
  Speaker A: Of the people.
• 44:09
  Speaker B: And I gave them, I, you remember how we split them up? I gave them to our bartender that night.
• 44:14
  Speaker A: Oh, wow.
• 44:15
  Speaker B: I just sit here because she was pouring and pouring.
• 44:17
  Speaker A: She was pouring. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We'd already paid her, but.
• 44:20
  Speaker C: All right.
• 44:20
  Speaker A: That was a nice tip. That was a nice tip.
• 44:23
  Speaker B: Well, they were so heavy.
• 44:24
  Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. I didn't want the coinage. Yeah. You forget how, how, how cumbersome those coins are.
• 44:29
  Speaker C: People used to carry gold around.
• 44:31
  Speaker B: Right, right.
• 44:31
  Speaker A: I know. Well, you know, so now we, while we do appreciate the, the solid coins. Half dollars.
• 44:37
  Speaker B: Oh yeah.
• 44:38
  Speaker A: Silver dollars.
• 44:39
  Speaker B: Yeah.
• 44:41
  Speaker A: We do have a Venmo and PayPal link that makes it easy. It's, it's all electronic. You hardly even know you're, you're supporting the show. But, but we know it and want to give a shout out to Michael Donahue up there in Memphis who reached out through the Venmo link and he's, he's buying our cocktails tonight. So thank you very much, Michael. And so, yeah, so you can. Those, those links are in the show notes of every show and the Facebook pages that we have promoting the show. And also in, in those post the, the show notes is the Patreon link. You can become one of our beloved patrons. Also we have the Troubleman podcast T shirt link and what's. What else. Follow us on Instagram and Facebook and rate review and subscribe to the podcast wherever.
• 45:30
  Speaker B: We don't mind your loose jam change.
• 45:32
  Speaker A: No, we don't mind loose change. You can look up, look up Snake and Jake's Christmas Club Lounge in New Orleans, Louisiana, 70118. And it's right there on Oak Street. It's easy to find the address just, you know, so we love getting mail at the bar. The Iguanas continue our, our residency at the Carousel Lounge. That'll be going through September. So if you're coming through town, check that out every Sunday 7 to 10. It's a real Spot scene over there. All right, well, enough of that. Back to our guest, Jason Folder.
• 46:03
  Speaker C: Yep, got it again.
• 46:04
  Speaker A: Got it again.
• 46:06
  Speaker B: Two out of three.
• 46:07
  Speaker A: Two out of three. So you were talking about how you're, you're getting to New Orleans. You're. You're applying to the, to the, the fire department. But also you, you had mentioned the Mermaid Lounge. This is right when the Mermaid Lounge is still, still going.
• 46:22
  Speaker C: It was the last couple years, but yeah, that was the, that was the Mecca. That was the cool spot. It's over there in CBD now. It's the Rusty Nail, I think.
• 46:29
  Speaker A: Right, right.
• 46:29
  Speaker C: But.
• 46:30
  Speaker A: But at the time it was, there was no, no development around there. All those, those warehouses were, were empty. Yeah, it was, it was hard to.
• 46:39
  Speaker C: Find too because it's all these one way street.
• 46:40
  Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. It was our little clubhouse over there and they had a whole collection of musicians, artists. You and I were talking about before the, before we started how bands, you couldn't believe some of the stature of some of the bands that would play there, like more avant garde or alt rock bands because New Orleans is not really a rock town so much, you know, so if you're coming through, you might play Houston and sell out a club there or play Atlanta and sell out a club there. And you can't even get booked in New Orleans. So people would play at the Mermaid, even though it was smaller venue but, but it was very funky and groovy.
• 47:18
  Speaker C: Very intimate, intense and awesome show.
• 47:20
  Speaker A: Had a clientele that would come out and see all these different kind of things. And so you were involved with that, huh?
• 47:27
  Speaker C: A little bit, yeah. Because again, my main contact here, Jake Springfield, was in a band highlight that played there regularly. So, you know, we'd hang out there, I'd take photos for their promotional stuff and ended up doing a music video for them. And yeah, and then Jake at the time was transitioning. I mean, not transitioning, he was changing careers, but because now he's like a full time cinematographer. So the time he's doing music and because I was doing film stuff, some of the first films I was making before I had my own editing system, he was my editor and helped out with a lot of those.
• 47:56
  Speaker A: Okay.
• 47:56
  Speaker C: So it's like you scratch my back, I scratch yours. I'll make a music video for you or shoot your album cover and you help me edit, you know, some films.
• 48:02
  Speaker A: Right.
• 48:02
  Speaker C: And so, yeah, and so I worked with him for a long time until he got too successful and now he doesn't have time for me. He's awesome. But right on. But anyway, so yeah, that was kind of the first formative years when I was getting on the fire department.
• 48:15
  Speaker A: Okay. Now, did you meet guys like, like Henry Griffin?
• 48:19
  Speaker C: I didn't really know. I got involved in Timecode nola, which is. Henry works with my producer Aaron Rushin at Uno. And Randy Perez and Aaron Rushin created this show called Timecode Noel that was like on Cox once a month.
• 48:31
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 48:31
  Speaker C: And that was like the main outlet for local, you know, independent film. So I gave them everything I was working on and they put it on monthly and do interview with the filmmakers and yeah, they did a lot of cool stuff and it still somewhat has a presence. It's not a monthly show anymore. But yeah, they were kind of like my gateway into like the NOLA film community, those two guys, didn't they back.
• 48:50
  Speaker B: Then in the early 2000s, wasn't there that. I don't know who was doing it. Maybe it was through Noka or something like that, but it was like this thing. It was like speed films or something. Like you. You'd write a script on a Friday.
• 49:02
  Speaker C: Well, they still do 48 hour films.
• 49:04
  Speaker B: Yeah.
• 49:04
  Speaker A: Oh yeah.
• 49:05
  Speaker C: I could go into my. I think it's kind of a scam, personally, but I'm not going to badmouth them too much because you have to pay them and then you make a movie and they make a profit off it. And there's all these stipulations. It's like, why don't you just make your own movie? You know, like, I understand the lure of being in a contest, but you've got to like use some silly prop and have some random line of dialog. So it's kind of obvious A lot of times when you. Because I've been like reviewing films for a couple of film festivals, it's like, this is a 48 hour movie. I can tell.
• 49:30
  Speaker B: Right.
• 49:30
  Speaker C: Because again, you don't have the time to finesse it. And there's also like a lot of stuff shoehorned in. But yeah, that the 48 hour film is still a thing.
• 49:38
  Speaker B: Is it still a thing really?
• 49:39
  Speaker C: And then also like Zeitgeist was still on Aretha Castle Haley back then and they would do monthly open screenings where people would show their works in progress or whatever and get feedback. So there was a. There was still a lot of stuff going on that I was, I was like, oh, there is like an underground film scene.
• 49:53
  Speaker B: Well, the film we did about my first run for mayor.
• 49:57
  Speaker A: Giving it to the people.
• 49:58
  Speaker B: Giving it to the people. People. Many Chevrolet's Run for mayor.
• 50:01
  Speaker C: Cool.
• 50:01
  Speaker B: We had a three day. Three days at. @ Zeitgeist.
• 50:05
  Speaker C: Oh, cool.
• 50:05
  Speaker B: Cool.
• 50:06
  Speaker C: Yeah.
• 50:06
  Speaker B: And who was that guy who ran that?
• 50:08
  Speaker C: Renee.
• 50:09
  Speaker B: Renee.
• 50:09
  Speaker C: That's awesome. He's now he's in Araby, but it's.
• 50:12
  Speaker B: Right, they moved it. Yeah, they moved it out to Araby. Yeah, he. He had said at that time it was probably one of the best three day runs they ever had for a local film.
• 50:23
  Speaker C: People love you, Manny.
• 50:24
  Speaker B: Yeah, I guess.
• 50:25
  Speaker C: Just not enough. Enough.
• 50:26
  Speaker B: Yeah. Well, they love me, then they get to know me.
• 50:29
  Speaker C: Yeah, it's like they love you. They just don't want to put the city in your hands, apparently. Yeah. So I was just kind of like getting into the film scene, doing like some 16 millimeter films and then doing fire department stuff. And then Katrina kind of like wrecked all of that.
• 50:44
  Speaker A: How so?
• 50:45
  Speaker C: Well, just because, you know, for years afterwards, a lot of my friends were displaced. Like, I stayed. I was there the whole time. Time.
• 50:51
  Speaker A: Okay.
• 50:52
  Speaker C: Actually, I just got a big guess.
• 50:54
  Speaker A: That was a big speed bump and everything. I mean, kind of lost track, actually.
• 50:59
  Speaker B: Were you a fireman during Katrina?
• 51:00
  Speaker C: Oh, yeah.
• 51:01
  Speaker B: Okay. And I feel you had to stay.
• 51:03
  Speaker C: Yeah, but I feel a little guilty, but like, it was the best thing that had happened in my life at that point because I got out of a bad relationship. I earned like $20,000 in hazard pay. We were like fighting crazy fires and just like, it was just bizarre. It was like the Wild West.
• 51:15
  Speaker A: Must have been insane being here and, and doing EMS stuff and running around.
• 51:20
  Speaker C: Yeah. Just the fires were enormous. Like whole city blocks burning.
• 51:23
  Speaker B: Right.
• 51:23
  Speaker C: I actually gave all my footage. National geographics doing a 20th anniversary doc that comes out next month. I gave them the eight hours of tapes that I recorded. They used a minute and a half of the footage. Only a minute and a half, but they paid me $50 a second.
• 51:36
  Speaker B: Oh, that's how you told me this?
• 51:38
  Speaker C: Yeah. So like. Yeah, I've yet to see it. I have no idea what they. Because there's all kinds of crazy firemen drinking in bars, like heavily armed and like, you know, but they're probably going to use the Chinook helicopters dropping water on blazing buildings and stuff.
• 51:50
  Speaker B: And when can we see this?
• 51:51
  Speaker C: It's on Disney plus. I don't know. I think it's just called Katrina and it's on Disney National. I don't know. It's. They said. I got to email the producer because they said it was going to come out in June or July, but I looked the other day and I hadn't seen Anything yet? Okay, but it's finished. I got the check. It's. It's real.
• 52:04
  Speaker A: Oh, nice.
• 52:04
  Speaker C: So it's. But it's a pretty comprehensive retrospective documentary.
• 52:07
  Speaker B: Disney better cash it fast, baby.
• 52:09
  Speaker C: It's already. It's already spent because I said to buy a car yesterday, but. Yeah, but Katrina was like, very eye opening because I was still relatively a rookie firefighter. I only had like two years on and yeah, it was wild. And just now, who was the.
• 52:22
  Speaker B: The boss of the fire department? What is there a commissioner?
• 52:26
  Speaker C: The superintendent.
• 52:27
  Speaker B: Yeah. Who is that today?
• 52:29
  Speaker C: Now it's Roman Nelson.
• 52:31
  Speaker B: Who was it back then?
• 52:32
  Speaker A: McCrossen. Is that the guy?
• 52:34
  Speaker C: Well, McCrossen was. The guy was there forever. He was already gone when I got.
• 52:36
  Speaker A: Okay.
• 52:37
  Speaker C: And then there were a couple temporary ones, and then there's a guy that. Whose name I will not mention because he's very hated. But yeah, there was a guy that kind of transitioned during Katrina. But like, they, you know, they were kind of aloof in their own world. Like, literally, like we were all staged on the west bank in this old folks home. And when a fire would break, I'd be like, anyone, Anyone want to fight a fire? And like, like there was no rhyme or reason. Like, the same guys like me, the ball busters, the guys that wanted to do it, would all fight every fire. And the guys just wanted to hide out and not deal with it. There was no. No. You know, it was like the core group of like 30 to 50 guys out of the hundreds that would like, do all the work.
• 53:09
  Speaker A: It's funny how life is like that, though. I mean, don't you find that they always say the thing about, if you want something done, give it to a. Ask a busy person. Yeah, it's like the people who have. Have a motor, you know.
• 53:22
  Speaker C: Right.
• 53:22
  Speaker A: We'll say, yeah, I'll do that.
• 53:24
  Speaker B: No, it wasn't like after Katrina. I remember it was a big issue for a long time. The. The owed overtime pay to firefighters.
• 53:33
  Speaker C: Well, yeah, that's. That's kind of. Well, there's a whole.
• 53:36
  Speaker B: Still going.
• 53:36
  Speaker C: There was an old lawsuit that I wasn't really involved in. Like, it's. It's pretty boring. Like, it was kind of settled, but it didn't really have much effect on me.
• 53:44
  Speaker B: Okay.
• 53:45
  Speaker A: Kind of pension.
• 53:46
  Speaker C: Yeah, yeah, yeah. I was on the. I think I had like a 50 check out of it, but there were guys that were like tens of thousands of dollars. Yeah, it was like this onloading litigation.
• 53:54
  Speaker B: So it's already. It's done.
• 53:55
  Speaker C: Yeah, they took a. They Made it.
• 53:56
  Speaker B: The wife and I were talking about it earlier today.
• 53:59
  Speaker C: Yeah, it was, it was a, A very contentious, long, drawn out process. And then the union made a deal that was kind of a sweetheart deal for the city that pissed off a lot of people. But hey, you got something you want to. Cuz these guys were dying. Like, guys were so old, they were dying before they got their checks.
• 54:13
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 54:13
  Speaker C: You know, so it's like, if we don't settle this, it could go on another decade or two. Right. So they were like, this is. That was the best way to get out of it. So.
• 54:19
  Speaker B: Right on. So he started making more than minimum wage, basically.
• 54:22
  Speaker C: Well, that's a whole different thing they gave us. Now we kind of have competitive pay. Like, I'm doing okay. But the new rookies, it's. Life sucks for them, you know, and they've got to work a 40 year, 40 years for a pension. Like, I'm still on a 30 year.
• 54:33
  Speaker A: Really?
• 54:33
  Speaker C: So even if you start when you're.
• 54:35
  Speaker A: 40 years fighting fires.
• 54:36
  Speaker C: Yeah, exactly. Well, if you want the full pension.
• 54:40
  Speaker A: Well, like if you.
• 54:40
  Speaker C: 100. Because I can get 100 when I'm, you know, 30 years on. But these new guys.
• 54:45
  Speaker B: But firefighters love to cook. Because I see you guys at the market every week.
• 54:49
  Speaker C: Yeah, there's some great cooks. Incredible. Like, you know, I always thought my grandma was a good cook, and then I met a bunch of firemen. Because you got nothing to do all day if there's not an emergency. I mean, we're ready to go. But like, you know, you can go to the store and get everything and like spend all afternoon cooking it. And yeah, some incredible chefs and some terrible ones.
• 55:05
  Speaker B: But yeah, now everyone takes turns cooking.
• 55:09
  Speaker C: Like my captain, Roxanne, she's an excellent cook. She cooks probably 75% of the time. Time I do some like, exotic dishes like curry or chicken adobo or stuff you've learned in your travels or been inspired by. Yeah, yeah. So, you know, but I'm, I'm probably like a once a month kind of cook.
• 55:26
  Speaker B: Okay.
• 55:26
  Speaker A: But, you know, now, man, you mentioned your travels. Now. Now I, I read something in your bio that, that were you in fact born on a freight train now my.
• 55:36
  Speaker C: Dad'S a freight train engineer.
• 55:37
  Speaker A: Oh, okay.
• 55:38
  Speaker C: So I grew up around trains.
• 55:40
  Speaker A: Brother Dave, there's the star.
• 55:42
  Speaker C: Slight exaggeration.
• 55:43
  Speaker A: Walking in. Okay, but you have traveled extensively around the world now.
• 55:48
  Speaker B: Now you've documented it all.
• 55:50
  Speaker C: Yeah, I've got. That's the two things. Like, you know, I'm a, I'm a filmmaker. But, like, I also love photography, especially when I'm traveling. Like, because, you know, if you're traveling, you might not have a cohesive idea for, like, a film or documentary when you're. But a single image can be so indelible. So I actually prefer to shoot still photography when I'm traveling because you can't have, you know, if you've got a script, you know, you can make a film out of it. But, like, you, like, I've traveled some, to some countries and it became a documentary, the video footage I shot. But sometimes you don't quite get a cohesive product out of that. Whereas, like, if you're shooting stills, you can have some incredible singular moments that still like, tell a story in those four in that frame.
• 56:26
  Speaker B: Right, right.
• 56:27
  Speaker C: So. So when I travel, I'm more in kind of still photography mode.
• 56:30
  Speaker B: So when did these travels start? Because I saw your. You sent me some of your information and. Yeah, briefly looked at it.
• 56:37
  Speaker C: I basically went to Cuba. Like, it was. You weren't supposed to go to Cuba in, like, 2001. You're still not supposed to. But me and my brother, we're going to Cuba. So we went to Cuba, and that was awesome. And I kind of caught the bug. And so like, every year since then, you know, and then was that. That was 2001.
• 56:52
  Speaker B: Okay.
• 56:53
  Speaker C: So it's been like 24 years.
• 56:54
  Speaker B: You've just been traveling.
• 56:56
  Speaker A: So you go somewhere exotic every. Every year.
• 56:58
  Speaker C: Try to. Yeah. I mean, you know, obviously things were like, monkey wrench got thrown into it with the pandemic. Right, right. I did a lot of US Road trips during that period, but that actually sent me spiraling into a lot more like, extreme places. Like, I went to Yemen and Afghanistan and Syria and all these places, because when you got a civil war or like some sort of chaos, like a virus, doesn't really matter. So you couldn't go to England without, like, having to, like, you know, be locked up in a hotel. But you could go to Afghanistan, and.
• 57:26
  Speaker A: You went to Afghanistan, really?
• 57:28
  Speaker C: It's like the year after the Taliban took back over.
• 57:31
  Speaker A: What was that like?
• 57:33
  Speaker C: Honestly, like, because they're posh tune, like culture. Like, it's basically like if your enemy admits defeat, like, you hold no grudge. So because the US Pulled out and the Taliban took over again, they were just like, we don't hold. You know, there's no bad blood. No, it was a hell of a lot safer when there was an ongoing war. I mean, mean, because there's no. There was no open conflict anymore. And even like, guide there, he's like, you know, is this. This is a bad piece? Because the Taliban are back in charge, and they're not very nice to a lot of people, but it's not. It's better than a. A good war where people were dying, like, in mass, you know, US Soldiers being bombed and, like, civilians getting killed in firefights and stuff. So, you know, it's not the ideal situation, especially if you're a liberal or an upwardly mobile woman, but people are, you know, it's not the same kind of open violence for you? Oh, no, no. We had. Yeah, they. Because, again, they want to be a respected government that's taken seriously, so they're not going to let you know. Some tourists kill that.
• 58:26
  Speaker A: Yeah, good luck with that.
• 58:27
  Speaker C: Well, that's still there.
• 58:29
  Speaker B: Did you score some good heroin, though?
• 58:31
  Speaker C: No, no, I wasn't on the market for that. But it's out there. The OPM fields are in operation.
• 58:36
  Speaker A: Yeah, because that's like, you'd hate to wind up in an Afghani presence.
• 58:40
  Speaker C: Yeah, no, I did go to a Cuban jail for a night, but that was like. Anyway, really? We were staying on the third story of this building, and there were two buildings next to it. There were, like, steps, you know, going up. So I'm, like, coming home drunk. This is in Santiago de Cuba. And I'm like, I'm gonna climb up to our apartment on the top floor. So I just, like, climb up.
• 58:57
  Speaker B: Firefighter.
• 58:58
  Speaker C: Yeah, I was just like, I'm just gonna do it. And then, like, somebody saw me through a window, thought I was a prowler, and started screaming. So, like, guys come out and grab me, and the cops show up, and, like, they. I didn't speak any Spanish then, so they took me to, like, first, like, my arm got injured, so they took me to a hospital, and the doctor there spoke English, and I explained what happened then. They were going to take me to jail, and we were like. My friend was leaving the next day, we were supposed to leave. So he's like, I don't know what to do. Like, Jason's in a Cuban jail, and I have to fly back to the U.S. but luckily, the guy we were staying with, who's a dentist, he went and talked to them and bribed him, like, 50 bucks and got me out of it, explaining that I was just a drunk asshole to his dumb ass.
• 59:31
  Speaker B: Yeah, dumbass American.
• 59:33
  Speaker C: But, yeah, Cuban jail. I'm like, this is how it's gonna end, huh?
• 59:36
  Speaker A: Oh, God.
• 59:38
  Speaker C: And I've mostly learned after that incident, Castro's brother is.
• 59:42
  Speaker B: Was still. Was running.
• 59:43
  Speaker C: Castro was still alive then.
• 59:44
  Speaker B: Castro.
• 59:44
  Speaker C: Castro was still alive in 2001. Yeah. So, yeah.
• 59:48
  Speaker B: Oh, well.
• 59:49
  Speaker C: But yeah, I don't know. The travels just. I'm just trying to see everything I can before it gets blown up, you know. Where have you gone recently in the last year? I've been to Syria, Libya, Norway. Really?
• 1:00:00
  Speaker A: What's going on in Libya, man?
• 1:00:02
  Speaker C: Libya is kind of reunited because, you know, there's a civil war and, like, because I went to, like, Benghazi.
• 1:00:06
  Speaker A: Failed state, you know?
• 1:00:08
  Speaker C: No, you say that, but the central government, like, in Tripoli is functional and like, they're. It's not completely fixed.
• 1:00:16
  Speaker A: It's better than New Orleans, though, right?
• 1:00:18
  Speaker C: Well, the infrastructure is definitely better. Even Benghazi, where, like, the buildings are, like, all in rubble. Like, the streets are still.
• 1:00:23
  Speaker A: The streets are better than New Orleans.
• 1:00:25
  Speaker C: Yeah, exactly.
• 1:00:26
  Speaker A: I knew they would be.
• 1:00:27
  Speaker C: A lot of like, I went to Haiti and like, it was like five years after the earthquake that leveled that country. And the roads are better in Haiti, you know.
• 1:00:33
  Speaker A: Well, you know, I've said this before in the podcast, you know, there's this bumper sticker that. That people have in New Orleans says, like, Third World and proud of it. And I always say third World is aspirational for New Orleans. This is failed state level.
• 1:00:46
  Speaker C: And it's. It's even gotten worse.
• 1:00:48
  Speaker B: Third World. The kids know how to read and write.
• 1:00:51
  Speaker C: Well, that is the thing. You go to places like Cuban, it's like. Yeah, yeah, it's not. It's not working completely functionally, but the education level is definitely superior.
• 1:00:59
  Speaker B: Like now in Cuba, though, they still have all those great American cars.
• 1:01:04
  Speaker C: Y. And it's cr. But it's crazy when you open the. When you pull the hood up, it's like some Russian engine, though. Like, it's all been. They're just like facades on the outside. But. Yeah.
• 1:01:14
  Speaker B: That'S cool.
• 1:01:14
  Speaker C: That's one of the incredible attractions. It's awesome.
• 1:01:16
  Speaker B: And the cigars.
• 1:01:18
  Speaker C: Yeah, good cigars. Good rum.
• 1:01:20
  Speaker B: When you got arrested, what are we drinking? Cuban rum. What were you drinking?
• 1:01:23
  Speaker C: I don't. Yeah, it was like, a lot of rum because we met these local guys that took us to, like, an underground hip hop show. And, like, it was just. It was a wild night. It was like our last night before we, like, had to go back to Havana and fly out. So, like, I just overdid it and acted stupid.
• 1:01:37
  Speaker B: But good times.
• 1:01:38
  Speaker C: But good stories. If you survive, it's a good story. It's worth the pain.
• 1:01:41
  Speaker B: Now, what about any and all these travels because, I mean, you've been a lot of places. What, any romances? What are the best romances you ever had? Not really because don't say Thailand or Costa Rica.
• 1:01:52
  Speaker C: No, no, no, no, no.
• 1:01:53
  Speaker B: All right.
• 1:01:54
  Speaker C: Now like usually when I've traveled, I'm either with a woman or like have a woman waiting for me back home like Penelope waited for Odysseus. So yeah, I haven't really like, I haven't really chased a lot of women when I travel.
• 1:02:08
  Speaker A: Probably better. Probably you're better.
• 1:02:09
  Speaker C: Yeah. Plus, yeah, you never know what you're walking into.
• 1:02:12
  Speaker A: Yes, but some kind of ruse.
• 1:02:15
  Speaker B: Yeah, but it'd be nice to have a place, let's say if you have to leave the country, you know, like.
• 1:02:19
  Speaker C: A woman in every port.
• 1:02:20
  Speaker B: Yeah, yeah.
• 1:02:21
  Speaker C: You had never thought about that. But I don't know, I guess that.
• 1:02:24
  Speaker B: Should be my next Jason.
• 1:02:26
  Speaker C: Getting kind of old though, you know, so.
• 1:02:28
  Speaker B: But we're getting kind of old. You still got a lot of time.
• 1:02:31
  Speaker A: Some.
• 1:02:31
  Speaker C: Still.
• 1:02:31
  Speaker A: Some tread on the tire.
• 1:02:33
  Speaker C: Yeah. Yeah.
• 1:02:34
  Speaker A: Well, we just had our, our czar of the clempire, Dave Clemens walk in. Now your most recent project involves Dave Clements, huh?
• 1:02:45
  Speaker C: A couple of them actually do because we did like a 30th anniversary snake and Jake's ad that's kind of a spoof on law firm ads, like if you're hilarious.
• 1:02:52
  Speaker A: Oh yeah, I saw that today.
• 1:02:53
  Speaker C: If you or anybody you know has contracted a flesh eating bacteria from sitting on the filthy furniture, call us and we'll get you what you deserve. So we did that kind of on a whim and Dave was in that. And then this other one, the Great Divini, he plays the grandfather character because basically I wanted like a Harry Potter, Dean Stanton kind of guy, but Harry Dean Stanton's dead and then.
• 1:03:09
  Speaker A: But Dave Clements, he's still alive. Exactly.
• 1:03:11
  Speaker C: He is like Harry Dean Stanton heir apparent. Like I'm telling you, if there's filmmakers out there you could get. He's like. Well, he's more like Matthew McConaughey crossed with, you know, Terry Dean Stanton.
• 1:03:21
  Speaker A: Sure.
• 1:03:22
  Speaker C: Almost as handsome, but a little crusty, you know, in a good way. So yeah. But yeah, great. Devini is inspired by me wanting to be a magician when I was a kid. You know, this like young boy who, you know, wants to be like, you know, a card play, you know, card trick magician finds a real spell book that's his grandfather's who was a real musician and that these spells actually work. So it changes his life in both dark and light ways.
• 1:03:43
  Speaker A: Interesting. So did you actually want to be a tabletop magician?
• 1:03:48
  Speaker C: Yeah, I mean, like, in middle school, like, I've got, like. I still do some awesome card tricks.
• 1:03:52
  Speaker A: Oh, yeah.
• 1:03:52
  Speaker C: And stuff like that. But it's just kind of inspired by that because my grandfather was very influential in my life, and I lost him and, like, had this, like, idea of, like, you know, if I could just, like, find him again, you know, or, like, say, you know, have one last conversation with him. So that kind of inspired that film. And it's a short because I've done. I've done a couple of features, but lately I just have been doing shorts because I love. I mean, I love to do features, but they're really expensive. And, like, the idea is, like, you spend two years making a feature and somebody watches it. It's like, oh, I really love that. Or, like, it was okay. Or you could spend nine months making a short and people will watch and say, I love that. Or it's okay. So, like, there's just so much invested in making a feature now. There is definitely a lot more potential to make money off of a feature. Because the one feature I've got in distro, it's, like, on Amazon and Tubi and stuff, it's called. They changed. It Was a Quiet Storm. They changed it to 9th war justice to make it sound more salacious. I get a little bit of money from that.
• 1:04:41
  Speaker A: Okay.
• 1:04:42
  Speaker C: And I'm very proud of that film. But, like, since that one, I've been doing a lot of shorts because I can just change genres and stuff. And you're not investing, like, everything into, like, one project could make or break you.
• 1:04:53
  Speaker B: Well, I was. I was at Carrollton Station a few weeks ago. Watched.
• 1:04:56
  Speaker C: Yeah, we showed, like, an hour cycle.
• 1:04:58
  Speaker B: Yeah.
• 1:04:58
  Speaker C: Yeah.
• 1:04:58
  Speaker B: Now I forget the name of the one about the one. The. The guy who's just walking around, he's drifting and.
• 1:05:04
  Speaker C: Yeah, it's called Crepitus. It's. That's, like the surreal Swamp Nightmare.
• 1:05:08
  Speaker B: It seemed like the theme to your shorts. And. And those longer ones like that one, there's something. You're into the horror in many ways.
• 1:05:20
  Speaker C: I've gotten. I got on a horror kick. Like, those definitely fall more into horror, but, like, again, the two features that I'm. Sun Dogs is sort of like a slice of life in New Orleans. Like this, like, down on his luck teacher who's, like, donating plasma and is kind of mentoring this latchkey kid who desperately needs a father figure. Falls for, like, a, you know, a bartender artist or she's A Like a server artist.
• 1:05:42
  Speaker B: Right.
• 1:05:42
  Speaker C: So like, you know, that's very realistic and kind of like that post. Post Katrina onway malaise that everybody was in that kind of captures that. And then Ninth Ward justice is like a gritty kind of like in. In the style of the Wire, kind of like, you know, gritty crime drama focused on this family. So I kind of go through phases. Yeah, yeah. Crepitus is definitely more like horror nightmare.
• 1:06:02
  Speaker B: Yeah. Because I. My wife and I were saying there's a theme here all night. Even. Even the Dave Clemens commercial was terrifying. I love the scene where. Where it's like if you get a guy who talks to you too much, it's just Dave talking, talking, and these girls are sitting there going.
• 1:06:20
  Speaker C: It's like if you or anyone, you know, has been subjected to a conversation lasting more than four hours with Dave Clements, you may be entitled compensation.
• 1:06:27
  Speaker A: Hey, buddy.
• 1:06:29
  Speaker B: Exactly. Hey, buddy.
• 1:06:31
  Speaker C: So, yeah, I go through phases. So I did like, I kind of got on a gritty track. I did a couple, like, kind of of Crime New Orleans, like. And then lately I've been doing more.
• 1:06:40
  Speaker B: Like that one I thought was really well done. I enjoyed it a lot.
• 1:06:43
  Speaker C: Which one?
• 1:06:44
  Speaker B: The crep.
• 1:06:45
  Speaker C: Oh, crepitus. Yeah, yeah. That's one of the ones I shot with the stolen camera from usc.
• 1:06:48
  Speaker B: Yeah, well, yeah, yeah, you were saying that. Yeah, yeah, that's.
• 1:06:51
  Speaker C: That's actually the 20th anniversary this year, that one. That's why I showed it, because it's.
• 1:06:54
  Speaker B: Like, we made it this far here. Yeah.
• 1:06:56
  Speaker C: Oh, yeah. The swamps all around. Like, we shot all over the place. Like any place I could find, like an abandoned warehouse or this or that.
• 1:07:02
  Speaker B: That's what it comes down to. Like. Like guerrilla filmmaking is the way it's done.
• 1:07:06
  Speaker C: Use what you can find and what you can utilize.
• 1:07:08
  Speaker B: If someone says you can have this space for five hours and take it.
• 1:07:12
  Speaker C: Or you just shoot when they're not paying attention.
• 1:07:14
  Speaker B: Right, right, right.
• 1:07:16
  Speaker C: But. And yeah, lately I've been doing like the last couple of films are ostensibly kids movies like Great Devini and the Crape Creep. But there's like, you know, there's a deeper meaning to them, at least for me, you know, so, you know, I just go through phases. And lately I've just kind of like. Like, again, the apex of sort of like the New Orleans crime thing was this quiet storm 9th ward justice film. And I'm like, I don't want to make another movie like that, you know, So I just shifted gears. I did one that was like one act play about A rock band that's on their best tour ever, but they're, like, falling apart at the seams and, like, everything goes to shit in the green room after their best show of the tour, you know.
• 1:07:48
  Speaker B: Sounds like my band.
• 1:07:50
  Speaker C: Yeah. I did one set here at Snake, and Jake's called Old Crows. About, like, a crusty Vietnam vet who's like, drinking his life away and meets this young writer and kind of she gives him a new lease on life, you know, just kind of inspiring him to like, why don't you use the time you got left instead of just. So. Yeah, they're all. They're all kind of different. And again, the horror track that I was on, there's one that's based on. You see the ghost bikes all over New Orleans. Because I've responded to a lot of that stuff. You know, fire department, we see the worst of the worst. So there was, like, an incident that happened. I wasn't first up on that one, but I heard the story, and that inspired this, like, horror movie movie. It's a ghost story set around a ghost bike. Like, this girl is kind of haunted by this guy who died in an incident like that and kind of, like, compelled to like, finish his, like, life's work.
• 1:08:30
  Speaker A: Well, you know, you can't ride a bicycle in New Orleans. That's just what it comes down to. That's.
• 1:08:35
  Speaker C: They've got bike lanes, but not everybody.
• 1:08:37
  Speaker A: Recognizes it's not safe. I mean, you can. You can barely drive in a car. I mean.
• 1:08:41
  Speaker C: I mean, I responded to the Endymion Massacre, you know, like, with. He. He injured at least six people and killed. Killed three, I think. And we were the first ones on scene. Yeah, he just drove through the bike lane drunk after Endemian and just, like, wiped people out.
• 1:08:55
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 1:08:55
  Speaker B: And he is. Dad was a big shot for the nopd.
• 1:08:59
  Speaker C: Yeah. I think he's still. He's in the clink, though. He didn't get out of it, I don't think, but.
• 1:09:02
  Speaker B: Oh, no, no, no, no, no. He's still in jail.
• 1:09:04
  Speaker C: Yeah. Yeah.
• 1:09:05
  Speaker B: Well, you know, the wife and I were walking back from the.
• 1:09:08
  Speaker A: Yeah, you were right there we were.
• 1:09:09
  Speaker B: We saw. The cops had him, the guy.
• 1:09:12
  Speaker C: Yeah. Because he finally wrecked near broadcast. Because that's the only thing that stopped him is he finally wrecked. He was, like, plowing through everybody.
• 1:09:18
  Speaker B: They had him handcuffed and sitting on a curb. And we walking home, and we just saw this guy, like, scream.
• 1:09:27
  Speaker C: Yeah, he's obviously out of it.
• 1:09:29
  Speaker B: Yeah. And got home and turned on the tv, and we're Seeing this story go on. And fortunately, a friend of ours who lives in the neighborhood, her partner is a nurse. They were at Cafe de Gas.
• 1:09:44
  Speaker C: Yeah, that's right. Where the worst of it happened. Yeah. Like, one girl, like, was on the sidewalk outside of Terra Nova's partner ran.
• 1:09:50
  Speaker B: Out and started trying to, you know, restless, you know, get people, you know, what they call CPR and all that kind of stuff.
• 1:09:56
  Speaker C: Yeah.
• 1:09:56
  Speaker B: And she lost a few people, but, you know, she's in that business.
• 1:10:00
  Speaker C: Yeah, I mean, well, that's what we do.
• 1:10:02
  Speaker A: Yeah. You must see that all the time, huh? I mean.
• 1:10:05
  Speaker C: Oh, yeah, like, fire department. We see. We. I see dead people.
• 1:10:08
  Speaker A: Right.
• 1:10:08
  Speaker C: Yeah. I mean, seriously, it's like.
• 1:10:10
  Speaker A: Now, is that.
• 1:10:10
  Speaker B: Does that.
• 1:10:10
  Speaker A: Does that have a deleterious effect on you?
• 1:10:14
  Speaker C: It's actually made me more. Because I used to love, like, gory horror movies and I'm a lot more sensitive to it now having seen the real thing. Like, usually people get like, you know, desensitized. But, like, honestly, when I watch, like, really, like, you know, gore porn movies, like, it's like, oh, like, it affects me more because I've seen the real results.
• 1:10:31
  Speaker A: Right.
• 1:10:32
  Speaker C: And that's actually one. One of the scripts I'm trying to get made. It's a feature. It's like basically a ghost story. This rookie firefighter almost dies at one of his first fires and all kinds of horrible things start happening to people around him. Because again, like, a lot of these incidents in that script are like. It's like a horror movie sometimes. And you see, you know, people trapped or like burned up bodies. And like, there's all kinds of stuff like that, that definitely. I've got them all written down. If I ever want to, like, put together a memoir one day just for my own sake, to keep the facts straight.
• 1:10:56
  Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 1:10:56
  Speaker C: But, yeah, there's a lot. There's a lot of goofy things too, but, like, you know, and you must.
• 1:11:00
  Speaker A: Also see a lot of really heroic man. Like, you know, like, obviously once in a while. Really, it's.
• 1:11:06
  Speaker C: Yeah, yeah. No, but work a day again. It's. It's the thing. Like, they're the. They're the firemen I know are going to, like, do the right thing and do the great job. Like, people I know in the west bank, it's like, what. Where do you live? All right, this day, this day and this day, you've got good fire protection this day. I don't know about that crew, but, like, here, uptown, like here around Snake and Jake's, all the crews at the Firehouses around here are solid.
• 1:11:27
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 1:11:28
  Speaker C: But I could tell some people, it's like if you live in that neighborhood on certain days, try to put the fire at yourself, cuz that's good.
• 1:11:33
  Speaker A: I live six blocks from here.
• 1:11:34
  Speaker C: Yeah, you're good. You're totally good.
• 1:11:35
  Speaker B: There's the firehouse around here.
• 1:11:37
  Speaker C: Carrollton and Clayborne. I was there for 15 years.
• 1:11:40
  Speaker A: Oh, really?
• 1:11:40
  Speaker C: I was there for a long time. And then the one on Carrollton by the Walgreens. Yeah, yeah, right where the streetcar ends. It's called Carrollton Station. You know, Engine 25. That's a great firehouse. And I worked at the one in Mid City. Looks like a Swiss Chalet. Engine 35. It's one of the oldest. Yeah, the.
• 1:11:56
  Speaker A: The. The Tudor.
• 1:11:57
  Speaker C: Yeah.
• 1:11:58
  Speaker A: Firehouse.
• 1:11:58
  Speaker C: It looks like it's 110 years old. Yeah, it's amazing. It's got an old pole and like a shed in the back where they keep the horses in the hay, like when they pull the steel pump with rock. That one's awesome. Now I'm on Magazine street, like right in the heart. Like, you know, by Rendezvous Tavern. And that's. That's another what? Rendezvous Tavern.
• 1:12:15
  Speaker A: I don't know where the this.
• 1:12:18
  Speaker B: Or.
• 1:12:19
  Speaker C: I just always relate where it's the closest bar, but, you know, it's like. But it's my. Joey K's. You know the restaurant Joey K's?
• 1:12:26
  Speaker A: Yes, I do.
• 1:12:27
  Speaker C: Yes. Caddy corner from Joey K. All right, cool. So, yeah, and again, good crews, great crew that I work with, so I don't know, I'm sticking with it. It's. It's. The fire torrents are good to me. I've been able to make all these movies and travel and just. And again, at the end of the day, I'm not just some artsy fartsy asshole. Like, sometimes I actually get to help people. So it kind of balances me out doing God's work.
• 1:12:48
  Speaker A: No, I got to say, I've been robbed by the police, but I've never been robbed by a fireman.
• 1:12:52
  Speaker C: Oh, there's. Those things happen. Like, we had a fire at the. In the Holly Grove at a meat market, and when we got back, like, the guy I was working with, like, pulled all these frozen steaks out of his pocket. It's like, what? Everything was going to defrost.
• 1:13:05
  Speaker A: I don't know if. If you ever heard any old timers tell this story, and we're kind of on the downslope of the podcast, but. But when I was a kid, there was this horrible plane crash. Out in Kenner, you know, out of Moisand, you know, out of, you know, Louis Armstrong, as it's called now. And they were going to Las Vegas and it was a storm and they had a, you know, wind shear and the plane was pushed down and the whole thing blew apart. Everybody died, but everybody was carrying cash.
• 1:13:39
  Speaker C: Oh, I didn't hear about Vegas. Wow.
• 1:13:41
  Speaker A: And apparently the story is the firemen. I mean, you know, they're trying to help people.
• 1:13:45
  Speaker C: That's Kenner. I mean, what do you expect?
• 1:13:47
  Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. Just like there was cash everywhere. Yeah.
• 1:13:52
  Speaker C: My friend claims he had. He. He was at a fire, like had a fire at his house. And he claims the fireman stole a bunch of cash. I. I don't know. I've never stolen anything. Actually, one time we had a fire and it was like really grueling and hot and I opened the fridge and there were like a bunch of cold blue moons. And I'm like, I need a beer. I drank one of their beers just.
• 1:14:11
  Speaker B: Because it was like, now do you know any firemen? Because you see this in like movies. There's always like movies about firefighters and stuff. And it's always this one character who smokes like constantly.
• 1:14:23
  Speaker C: My first captain, Chuck Brockmire was that dude. He would go in without a mask on, but he'd just have a cigarette, like a filter. Died of mesothelioma. So I mean, you know, but. But he was that guy. He. He just like, we're going in, kid. It's like you don't put your mask on. It's like, I don't need a mask. That kind of. Again, even his name, Chuck Brockm.
• 1:14:43
  Speaker A: Like you. You saw the Towering Inferno, right?
• 1:14:45
  Speaker C: Yeah, years ago. But I've seen it.
• 1:14:48
  Speaker A: He has that charact that the fireman is kind of that guy.
• 1:14:50
  Speaker C: There's still a few of those guys that. The fireman's firemen, but they, they're fewer and farther between, you know.
• 1:14:55
  Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. Cuz there was that. That movie Backdraft, Remember that?
• 1:15:01
  Speaker C: Which backdraft and ladder 49 are sort of the touchstone.
• 1:15:03
  Speaker B: Yeah. There's always that one character, I think Scott Glenn in Backdraft.
• 1:15:07
  Speaker C: Yeah, yeah.
• 1:15:07
  Speaker B: You know, they're cleaning up a fire and he's just sitting there dragging on cigarettes and stuff and he ends up being the.
• 1:15:14
  Speaker C: Hey, don't spoil it. No. For the, like two people that have never seen that movie.
• 1:15:19
  Speaker B: Yeah, yeah.
• 1:15:20
  Speaker A: I don't think I've seen it.
• 1:15:21
  Speaker C: Yeah. I mean, it's flamboyant, but. But it's. You Know it's watchable. You know, Kurt Russell's Kurt Russell.
• 1:15:27
  Speaker A: It's awesome.
• 1:15:27
  Speaker B: Yeah, Kurt Russell's. Kurt Russell's. De Niro is very good with Southern. That scene with Southern.
• 1:15:32
  Speaker C: Oh, yeah. It's sort of like the Hannibal Lecter, like, Jody Foster parallel.
• 1:15:36
  Speaker B: Good scene. But you know the scene where Billy Baldwin's doing it on top of the fire truck?
• 1:15:42
  Speaker C: Well, that actually happened.
• 1:15:42
  Speaker B: Well, that's happened before.
• 1:15:44
  Speaker C: Oh, There's a firehouse. Engine 9 on S1 8 Avenue. Like, all kinds of things have happened there. They black again. This is before my time.
• 1:15:50
  Speaker B: Okay.
• 1:15:51
  Speaker C: So it's a secondhand story, but they blacked out the windows and formed some lesbian sex scene on the back of the fire truck. So that stuff happens.
• 1:15:56
  Speaker A: Okay.
• 1:15:57
  Speaker C: Now they got cameras everywhere, so it's much less likely short, but. So anyways, I see a short.
• 1:16:04
  Speaker A: Well, I think we're kind of wrapping it up.
• 1:16:08
  Speaker B: Are we done?
• 1:16:08
  Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 1:16:09
  Speaker B: Listen, Jason, always a pleasure to see.
• 1:16:12
  Speaker C: Yeah, man, thanks for having me on.
• 1:16:13
  Speaker B: Yeah.
• 1:16:14
  Speaker A: I wish you just had something. Something to talk about, man.
• 1:16:16
  Speaker C: Yeah, I'm glad it's over because I've just, like.
• 1:16:21
  Speaker B: Real quickly, before we end this, how many countries have you been to?
• 1:16:24
  Speaker C: How. Depending how you count, around 80. You count Wales and Scotland and England as separate countries versus the UK Is Vatican City a country? Because it.
• 1:16:33
  Speaker A: The Pope thinks it's considered.
• 1:16:34
  Speaker C: So. Yeah. So around 80.
• 1:16:36
  Speaker B: Okay.
• 1:16:36
  Speaker C: Yeah.
• 1:16:37
  Speaker B: Where do you want to go back to?
• 1:16:40
  Speaker C: I really love Ethiopia. I loved Argentina. I just got back from Taiwan, and that was amazing. Yeah, just the food and just, like, it's so easy to get around. I mean, there's a ton of places I love. I mean, even, like, more traditional places like Scotland and Ireland. I'd go back a million times.
• 1:16:55
  Speaker B: Would you want to be buried in one of those countries or you want to stay here in the US I.
• 1:16:59
  Speaker C: Would like to emigrate, possibly. I got friends in Ecuador and Mexico that are living up, living life, you know, really well. So, I don't know. We'll see, you know, we'll see what the world is like. Every day it's different. We'll see if some of these places exist. Exist?
• 1:17:12
  Speaker A: Yeah. You get to retire in 30 years.
• 1:17:13
  Speaker B: So it's.
• 1:17:15
  Speaker C: Hey, I'm 47. I can retire in, like, three to eight years, depending on how. Like, much I want to try to, like, get out of the system, but. Yeah, but these are serious questions because, like, I. I like. I like New Orleans, but I just want to come here in March and October. I don't want to be here in July.
• 1:17:29
  Speaker B: If I have an emergency and need to call with 91 1, should I ask for you?
• 1:17:34
  Speaker C: No, no, because I might not be there. Okay.
• 1:17:36
  Speaker B: You'll be in Taiwan or, you know.
• 1:17:39
  Speaker C: I'm going to Moldova in August. I'm going to Transnistria, the breakaway state that's like 1980s. It's frozen in time. It's like 1980 Soviet Union era. They have like a big, like, national parade with tanks and men in big hats.
• 1:17:51
  Speaker B: First one to say, it's been nice knowing you. You got dental charts again?
• 1:17:55
  Speaker C: I'm telling you, I've felt more endangered in New Orleans than I have in any of the places I've ever been.
• 1:17:59
  Speaker A: Clearly.
• 1:17:59
  Speaker C: Like on a bad night when you got three guys walking and you feel like you're being triangulated and it's like, holy, they're facing me.
• 1:18:06
  Speaker A: My. My children have gone overseas. All these places that people go, aren't you scared for them going there? I'm like, we live in New Orleans.
• 1:18:13
  Speaker C: No, if you can make it in New Orleans and you have the wherewithal and situational awareness of New Orleans, you can get by. Anyway.
• 1:18:18
  Speaker B: Well, you made it at USC for four years, so, yeah.
• 1:18:21
  Speaker C: I mean, nothing bad happened there. So there you go.
• 1:18:25
  Speaker B: All right.
• 1:18:25
  Speaker C: So.
• 1:18:26
  Speaker A: Well, Jason, thank you so much. It's been such a pleasure, man. And. And as always on the troubled men podcast, we like to say trouble never ends.
• 1:18:34
  Speaker B: But, Jason, the struggle continues.
• 1:18:36
  Speaker C: Good night. Always. Thank you.
• 1:18:37
  Speaker A: Good night.
• 1:18:38
  Speaker D: Baby's on fire better throw her in.
• 1:18:43
  Speaker C: The water.
• 1:18:46
  Speaker D: Look at her laughing.
• 1:18:50
  Speaker A: Like.
• 1:18:50
  Speaker D: A heifer to the slaughter.
• 1:18:54
  Speaker A: Babies are.
• 1:18:55
  Speaker D: On fire and all the laughing boys are binging Waiting for photos oh, the plot is so bewitching Rescuers, row, row do your best to change the subject Blow the wind louder. Assistance to the object photographer. Snip, snap, take your time she's only.
• 1:19:31
  Speaker A: Burning.
• 1:19:34
  Speaker D: This kind of experience is necessary for her learning. If you be my flotsam I could be half the man than I used to. They said you were hot st and that's what baby's been reduced to. Ram Sam, very clever with my RA Making their fortune selling second hand to.
• 1:23:11
  Speaker C: Back.
• 1:23:13
  Speaker D: One dancers at Chico. And when the clients are evicted.
• 1:23:21
  Speaker C: He.
• 1:23:22
  Speaker D: Empty and prays and pockets all that he's collected. But babies are high and all the instruments agree that you have taken.