Latest / The Bluegrass Blues Podcast / The Bluegrass Blues Podcast: Episode 4

Transcript

The Bluegrass Blues Podcast: Episode 4 · The Bluegrass Blues Podcast

0:00
This is the Bluegrass Blues Podcast. I'm Jesse.
0:03
And I'm Amy. So Amy, what are we going to talk
0:13
about this week? Well, we've been traveling a
0:16
lot, Jesse, which we love to do. So we'll talk
0:18
a little bit about what it's like to travel from
0:21
Kentucky to other places, particularly Louisville.
0:24
And we're going to talk a bit about the arts.
0:27
So where did you travel to? So I just spent about
0:32
10 days in Wrightsville Beach, North Carolina,
0:35
near Wilmington. And I got there in a very crazy
0:40
fashion. I would not recommend this to any of
0:43
the listeners. I had a credit on Spirit Airlines
0:47
because I inadvertently booked a trip for my
0:51
daughter that I immediately needed to cancel
0:54
and of course couldn't get my money back. So
0:55
I had a credit for a year. So I used my credit,
0:59
but of course, Spirit doesn't fly to Wilmington,
1:03
North Carolina, which was my destination. The
1:06
closest place was Myrtle Beach. So I had to fly
1:10
from Louisville to Orlando, and I had about a
1:15
six -hour layover that was changed after I'd
1:19
booked my reservation. The layover became longer.
1:23
And then I had to fly to Myrtle Beach. And because
1:26
now I was getting to Myrtle Beach so late, I
1:29
rented a car and I actually booked a motel room
1:33
in North Myrtle Beach and then drove to Wilmington,
1:38
North Carolina the next day where my friend picked
1:40
me up at the airport and then drove me to Wrightsville
1:44
Beach. And then I did it. all in reverse. Again,
1:48
not a great thing to do. Yeah, I had the credit,
1:52
but with the additional, oh, and Spirit, frankly,
1:55
I'm not a fan. Spirit is not fun. Yeah, I know.
1:59
Oh, my God. I mean, they nickel and dime you
2:03
for everything. If you forgot or didn't realize
2:08
you had to book, you know, check your luggage
2:11
and you find that out at the gate, it's $100.
2:15
Whereas if you do it online in advance, it's
2:17
$75. It's $100 for one bag? $100 for one bag.
2:23
Okay, because I flew through American... this
2:26
time, and I had to check a bag, and it was $35.
2:31
$100 on Spirit. But on the first bag, it cost
2:34
nothing. What was the airfare? Well, I had a
2:37
credit, right? So $100, so I spent $175 for my
2:43
one bag, both ways, and then I rented a car,
2:47
which was about $100. each way for two hours
2:51
to get to Wilmington North Carolina from Myrtle
2:54
Beach and then I also booked a motel so obviously
2:57
really stupid travel situation for someone who
3:01
travels a lot and is usually really savvy so
3:05
if you had driven would it have been faster driving
3:09
would have been it's about 11 hours drive okay
3:12
yeah but I probably would have broken that up
3:15
into two days and taking two days instead of
3:18
the whole day traveling to the coast of North
3:21
Carolina. Oh, and also, you get on the plane,
3:25
and I'd never flown Spirit before, and the beverage
3:29
card is coming down, but they pass you unless
3:33
you have alerted the flight attendants that you
3:37
want a beverage, and it's $5 for a Coke. Yep.
3:42
yeah yeah so and then it goes up from there for
3:45
snacks and you know if you want a glass of wine
3:48
yeah when i used to travel between here and san
3:51
francisco i was taking breeze and breeze always
3:54
charged for um any extras like uh soda or whatever
4:00
unless you went in as like the business class
4:04
and but that's like a hundreds of dollars more
4:07
so For hundreds of dollars more, you can get
4:10
a free drink. Yeah, like $400 more, I think.
4:13
Right, yeah. So it's not worth it. Yeah. What
4:17
about you? I think you had a much better experience
4:19
traveling. Well, not really, because the beginning
4:22
of my travel, I was supposed to leave on, I think
4:25
it was a Wednesday night, on American Airlines.
4:28
But the problem with flying through American,
4:33
and I think through a lot of airlines these days,
4:35
is that the later you go in the day, the more
4:38
likely it is that they're going to cancel your
4:41
flight because everything gets backed up and
4:43
there was bad weather that day that I was flying.
4:46
So I was going to leave Wednesday night. Wednesday
4:50
afternoon, I get this message, this text message
4:53
saying, your flight's been canceled. So I think,
4:57
okay, this is going to suck. And they said they're
5:00
going to reschedule me. So I knew that. I'd better
5:05
do it myself very quickly because they're going
5:07
to do something that I know I wouldn't have liked.
5:09
So I immediately got onto the American site.
5:13
I booked the first thing in the morning. It was
5:16
like a 6 a .m. flight, which means I had to get
5:18
up at 4 to get to the airport. And I like being
5:23
at the airport like a couple of hours before
5:24
the flight just to be there and not have to worry
5:28
about anything. I booked this 6 a .m. flight.
5:31
It's a direct flight to D .C., which is fine.
5:35
And while I was booking the flight, Americans
5:40
sent me a message saying they rebooked the flight,
5:42
but they were going to have me go through Charlotte
5:44
and then go to D .C. So I knew, OK, I want a
5:49
direct flight. I don't want to have to layover.
5:51
So I just did the direct flight and I canceled
5:54
their booking. So the next morning I go to D
5:57
.C. Other than that, there are really no problems
6:03
with traveling. I get into D .C. There's this
6:09
difference between how you get around in Louisville
6:13
and how you get around in the real world. I shouldn't
6:18
say that, but anyway. Public transportation?
6:21
Yeah, transportation is just... so much better
6:24
everywhere else I've been or every other big
6:27
city I've been in. For example, I go from, I
6:32
have to have a car to get from here to the airport.
6:34
I can take the bus and I've taken the bus in
6:37
Louisville to get to the airport, but the bus
6:40
to the airport is like one every hour. And that's,
6:43
that's just ridiculous. But so my wife drove
6:48
me to the airport this time. And I get into D
6:53
.C. and I just walk to the subway and it takes
6:57
me a half hour to get to my place in D .C. So
7:01
that's pretty normal. And technically, I could
7:06
ride a bicycle from my place in D .C. to the
7:09
airport, just as I could ride a bicycle from
7:12
here to Standford Field or Muhammad Ali Airport,
7:15
as they now call it. but the difference there
7:18
is that you can park your bicycle at the dc airport
7:22
there is no bicycle parking at louisville airport
7:25
so you have to take a car and when i got to the
7:29
airport uh the last trip i came from san francisco
7:33
to louisville uh it was during a holiday and
7:38
the cars that were waiting to get to pick people
7:42
up like extended way way beyond and My wife was
7:47
going to pick me up from there, but I called
7:49
her and said, don't come get me because I'm going
7:52
to take the bus. It's right here. And by the
7:54
time you get here and wait through all these
7:56
lines, I would have been home for an hour. So
8:00
we did that. But anyway, so I get to D .C. I
8:05
take public transport. I like to walk in D .C.
8:09
There's plenty to see along the way. and I met
8:14
up with some friends there, a former co -worker.
8:17
We went to one of Ed Lee's restaurants in D .C.,
8:21
and if you don't know who knows who Ed Lee is, but
8:25
he's probably the most famous chef in Louisville.
8:29
He owns 610 Magnolia, and he owns a bunch of
8:32
other restaurants in town. He's been on these
8:35
reality television shows, the cooking shows on
8:38
the Food Network. He's got a great foundation,
8:43
too. Yeah, he's sort of almost like a Jose Andres.
8:47
Does a lot of stuff, especially during the pandemic.
8:50
He was doing things to help restaurant workers
8:53
get through the lack of business that they were
8:58
facing. So we go to Ed Lee's Restaurant in Washington.
9:03
They're redoing the menu, but it's a nice space.
9:05
It's near the... Portrait Gallery, which is,
9:09
I think, the best museum in the country and probably
9:12
one of my favorite museums in the world. And
9:15
after lunch, my friend and I went to the Portrait
9:20
Gallery and just, you know, it's a lot of stuff
9:25
to look at. Oh, and I should refer back to the
9:29
Louisville Connection here. The Brilliant Exiles
9:33
exhibit at the Speed Museum is sponsored by the
9:37
Smithsonian, and they are selling the materials
9:40
that they sell here, like in the gift shop. They're
9:43
also selling them in the gift shop in Washington,
9:45
D .C. So, yeah, I think you went to see that.
9:49
I did. I loved it. Yeah, it was great. And it's
9:53
the kind of things you can expect from the Portrait
9:56
Gallery. They're always doing something really...
9:59
fascinating in terms of American history and
10:02
thematic things involving American history. So
10:06
that was my D .C. trip. And free. Smithsonian's
10:12
free. Yeah, the Smithsonian is free. Well, there's
10:16
one that's, there are museums in D .C. that aren't
10:19
free, but. Like the Newseum. No, the Newseum
10:22
doesn't exist anymore. Oh, wow. That closed.
10:25
It, I don't, it just didn't. gather that much
10:28
interest. But that's been closed for, I think
10:32
it's now Johns Hopkins campus or Johns Hopkins
10:36
building. But the other museums in DC are free
10:41
and you can spend a lot of time in them just
10:45
going place to place, spending nothing at all.
10:51
And if you don't want to go to the museums, you
10:53
can go to the monuments because you've got All
10:56
the famous D .C. monuments. You need tickets
11:00
for things like the Air and Space Museum because that's
11:04
very popular. But there's also another airspace
11:08
museum in D .C. that people don't know about.
11:10
It's about two hours, maybe an hour and a half
11:13
north of downtown near Dulles Airport. It's also
11:19
the Smithsonian Museum, also free, just a bigger
11:22
Air/Space museum. There are other things to do
11:27
in in DC. So, you know, I just spend my time
11:31
walking around the city and I enjoy walking so
11:36
that was worth doing And then I went to New York
11:40
Because my my son and his family were visiting
11:46
New York his wife Had a conference to go to for
11:50
accounting so it was a chance for the family
11:55
to meet the rest of my family. My family's in
12:00
New York, and it's the first time they've seen
12:02
my grandchildren. So there's like a five -year
12:06
-old grandson and a 20 -month -old grandson.
12:10
So we get to introduce everybody to the family,
12:13
and it was a good trip. It was lots of interesting
12:16
things to do, lots of interesting places to see.
12:20
And New York is... We talk about transportation.
12:25
New York is probably the best transportation
12:27
city in the country because I was in New Jersey.
12:32
We rented a car, and we never had to use the
12:36
car in the days I was there. We would just get
12:40
on, for one, we were in Jersey City, so you have
12:44
light rail, and that gets you to the subway system,
12:49
like the PATH train, which is a subway. Or once
12:53
you get from the PATH train, you go to New York
12:56
and you get the subway system. And there are
13:00
buses everywhere. So, you know, there's so much
13:05
more of an ability to get around the city, at
13:11
any part of the city, at any time you want to,
13:13
when you compare it to here, where the buses
13:18
might run, the buses don't run, who knows. You
13:21
know, I keep thinking that there should be light
13:25
rail here. It seems like the obvious places would
13:29
be along Broadway and up and down Fourth Street
13:33
from downtown to Churchill Downs, which, you
13:38
know, it's a simple thing to do, but it costs
13:41
a lot of money. People here don't like to deal
13:45
with anything other than driving cars. Even the
13:49
bike lanes in New York and Washington are better
13:52
than the bike lanes here. I'm rambling here,
13:57
but I was walking from my place in Old Louisville
14:02
to Indiana. Sometimes I just walk to Indiana
14:05
for the hell of it. And I noticed that if you
14:09
go over the 2nd Street Bridge, there's a bike
14:11
lane, but it's on the street. You know, who's
14:16
going to ride a bike over that bridge with all
14:18
the cars coming? And the cars will run you off.
14:22
They just do that. There's so many accidents
14:25
there. So it's not worth doing. The Big Four
14:28
bridge is far better. The Big Four, well, that
14:31
has no cars. Right. Which makes it infinitely
14:35
better. But for just someone walking, it's a
14:39
farther walk for me to get to the Big Four than
14:41
it is to get to Second Street Bridge. But just
14:44
the thought that they actually put that image
14:48
of the bicyclist in the lane on that bridge is
14:52
ridiculous. And they do that all over these cities.
14:55
If you go to New York or you go to D .C., they
14:57
design it really nicely because you have the
15:00
sidewalk, then you have a bike lane, then you
15:02
have where the cars park, and then you have the
15:05
main road. So the bikers are always safe, you
15:10
know, other than... like people walking in the
15:14
bike lane, which people tend to do in New York
15:16
and D .C. But it's a lot safer than Louisville,
15:20
where they just paint a bicyclist in the middle
15:23
of the street. It doesn't matter where. There's
15:26
no separation between cars and bicyclists. And
15:30
people here... they will run a bicyclist off
15:34
the street. It's just very dangerous. That is
15:36
true. And having traveled a lot in Europe, as
15:39
both of us have, I mean, bicyclists are everywhere,
15:43
not just in Amsterdam, but in so many wonderful
15:46
European cities and villages. And it's really
15:49
built for bicyclists. Yeah, I used to bicycle
15:53
to work from when I lived in Brussels. That would
15:56
be like a three-, four -mile bike ride every
15:59
day. And that was... But the city was designed
16:04
with bicyclists in mind. And that's not a priority
16:07
here. And they pretend it's a priority here because
16:10
they'll put up a sign, a traffic sign saying,
16:14
share the lane with bicyclists. It's like, come
16:16
on, give me a break. People aren't going to do
16:18
that unless you make it difficult for the drivers
16:21
to run a bicyclist over. And they make it easy
16:26
for drivers to run over bicyclists here. That's
16:29
true. And I forgot to say, when I was going on
16:32
my haphazard trip using Spirit Airlines to Wrightsville
16:37
Beach eventually, I did have to, like, stress
16:40
out about, and it wasn't so stressful, but I
16:43
had to get a lift. And, you know, we live in
16:45
a neighborhood very close to the airport. It
16:47
should be so easy to get to the airport. When
16:49
I lived in Atlanta, I took MARTA, you know, of
16:51
course, New York City. or dc there are so many
16:54
places that have buses and trains that go right
16:58
to the airport and they should um and they also
17:01
have the buses and trains or that are scheduled
17:03
you know like the shuttle buses they you can
17:06
you can be assured that in in new york for example
17:10
you'll be able to get a bus to newark airport
17:13
probably every 20 minutes it's just like clockwork
17:16
which is when i refer back to the um One hour
17:21
you have to wait for a bus in Louisville. That
17:23
makes no sense. Well, and I also, Bourbon and
17:28
Beyond is a really fun music festival here. Lots
17:32
of great bands. And again, I live fairly close
17:35
to the venue. And I looked up the TARC, the Transit
17:39
Authority of River City bus. And I'm telling
17:42
you, it was late, if it showed up at all, to
17:45
take me from a very short distance from Old Louisville
17:48
to Bourbon and beyond. That is outrageous. And
17:52
I know that the festival makes money on the parking,
17:56
and it's at the fairgrounds. It's this sprawling
18:00
parking lot. It's just so unnecessary. There
18:03
should be bike paths to and from these festivals,
18:07
and there should be buses. One of the other things
18:12
I notice about Louisville, if I'm comparing it
18:15
to other cities, which is not a fair comparison,
18:18
but we have an overwhelming number of parking
18:21
lots in downtown, and that space could be better
18:24
used for buildings and housing, or even event
18:32
spaces. Like where I live in Washington, they...
18:37
decided and actually the places i've lived or
18:40
formerly lived in these other cities they've
18:43
decided to actually expand what the functions
18:47
are for people like things to make people come
18:50
to that area so when i moved to dc originally
18:54
there was uh there's the wharf uh i'm like walking
18:58
distance to maybe a block and a half from the
19:02
uh the river uh and Before, when I moved there
19:08
about 10 years ago, 10 to 11 years ago, there
19:13
was nothing but a fish market at the end of the
19:16
wharf. It was like a lot of boats because people
19:19
had, what do they call those, harbor? Docks.
19:23
Yeah, the docks. Yeah, there were these houseboats
19:28
there. And that was it until you got to the fish
19:31
market. Now they've completely redone the waterfront.
19:35
So there are multiple venues for music. Like
19:40
I was walking along and I see that Patti Smith
19:42
is going to be there in December. I saw Bob Dylan
19:45
there a few years ago. And there are restaurants,
19:52
all kinds of restaurants. Like Gordon Ramsay
19:56
has a restaurant there. place of bars that you
20:03
can go to uh and it's they developed that and
20:08
now that's like the place where people go because
20:10
they used to go to Georgetown they've also developed
20:13
the areas around the Navy Yard which is uh to
20:18
the west of me near the baseball stadium
20:21
they built a new soccer stadium all this construction
20:24
has gone on in D.C. In New York I used to live
20:28
in Staten Island, and we did a trip to Staten
20:31
Island. You've been to my house in Staten Island.
20:33
Yes, I was actually the best person of your wedding
20:36
in your house. Yeah, so my son did not realize
20:40
that we got married. He thought we had gotten
20:45
married in New Jersey, at our house in New Jersey,
20:47
but we got married in Staten Island. So I took
20:50
my son and his family to see the house in Staten
20:54
Island. That's changed amazingly because it's
20:59
also a waterfront situation. The ferry terminal
21:04
just used to be the ferry terminal and that was
21:06
it. Now they put a mall there, like shops, restaurants,
21:11
spas, things like that. Next door to it is a
21:15
baseball stadium for a minor league baseball
21:18
team, the Staten Island Yankees. And next door
21:21
to that, they've built... a train station for
21:26
a subway system that goes into Staten Island.
21:29
So another advantage of, you know, having a waterfront
21:34
situation, taking advantage of the waterfront
21:38
and using it to get people more involved in the
21:43
city. Whereas we have a waterfront and they built
21:48
a highway over it. Well, and I will say, as someone
21:52
who grew up here, there were all these scrap
21:55
yards along the river when I was a kid. And it
21:58
was kind of embarrassing to drive into Louisville,
22:01
actually, from, you know, over the bridge from
22:04
Indiana. It just was so ugly and so junky. And
22:09
I will say that the waterfront park system that
22:12
has been created, and there's a new park that
22:14
is... been created in the west further west now
22:18
which is lovely so there is green space but there
22:22
there was a campaign called 8664 to basically
22:27
get rid of i -64 there on the waterfront of course
22:30
that highway was built when highways were built
22:33
along the river right i mean that was what was
22:36
done on the west side highway the east river
22:38
has a highway so it's not that unusual but again
22:42
If you had priorities, of course, we built those
22:46
really expensive bridges not that long ago. The
22:50
East End Bridge and New Bridge going downtown
22:55
into Indiana. But this is a car -centric city.
22:59
Let's just face it. Of course, there's no clean
23:02
air testing anymore at the DMV. So a lot of cars,
23:08
Ohio River Valley, the air isn't so great. They
23:11
don't test for cars emissions anymore? No, never.
23:13
I didn't know that. Dan Seim, who some of us
23:16
call Dan Slime, he got away. He was a state senator,
23:21
and he decided that it was an infringement on
23:23
our civil liberties to have to go and get our
23:25
vehicle emissions tested. It's all gone. So he's
23:29
against breathing. yeah I guess I guess so I
23:33
guess it's a nonpartisan issue huh we all Just
23:37
can't breathe. Yeah, and asthma rates, as we
23:40
know, are really high here. We've got rubber
23:43
town. Anyway, I digress. Let's go back to fun
23:45
stuff like travel and arts. I'll stick with your
23:49
digression on the emissions. But in New York,
23:52
they've created this new thing called the, it's
23:56
like you pay extra to drive in the city. I forget
24:02
what it's called. When I was in New York this
24:07
weekend, I noticed in downtown Manhattan there
24:12
were tons of cars, and I thought, okay, I think
24:15
it's like a congestion fee. I realize that the
24:18
city is going to make a lot of money from that,
24:20
but again, there is no reason for people to drive
24:24
into the city because you have an elaborate subway
24:27
system, an elaborate bus system. bicycles like
24:31
the city bikes uh we don't even have a good bike
24:36
system here i i i tried to take advantage of
24:39
it was called Lou Velo at one time and i got
24:44
the card and the thing was that you couldn't
24:49
go to one of the bike stands here and just get
24:52
a bike with your credit card you had to have
24:54
the specific Lou Velo card that you had to get
24:57
mailed to you and I couldn't see how anyone could
25:03
use the bike system here because they didn't
25:05
make it easy to use. Whereas in New York and
25:08
in D .C., you take your credit card, stick it
25:11
in, and you get a bike. You can ride it for as
25:15
long as you want, as long as you like to change
25:18
it every half hour. If you don't change it every
25:21
half hour, the fees add up. But if you change
25:24
the bike every half hour... it doesn't cost any
25:27
more. And the thing too is that there are so
25:31
many bike stands throughout these cities that
25:33
it's easy to switch out bikes when you're done
25:36
with it for the time period. Miriam and I were
25:38
recently in New Zealand and Australia and We
25:43
were really impressed with the state that the
25:47
scooters and bikes were in. And all of them came
25:51
with a matching helmet. So they had all these
25:53
colorful bikes and helmets. And I was like, yeah,
25:56
they care about your head, right? It's dangerous
26:01
to bike and scooter without helmets. And the
26:04
other thing I wanted to say about scooters was,
26:06
you know, in old Louisville, which is, you know,
26:09
it's a lovely neighborhood, but I have seen broken
26:13
scooters like in my front yard. I don't really
26:16
even have a front yard, but just on the sidewalk
26:19
in front of me or in the alley behind me. busted
26:22
scooters scooters you know just left where they're
26:26
not supposed to be left and i don't know there
26:29
there's it's just different well there's also
26:32
i think um just the individual hostility to these
26:35
bikes and scooters because i've seen people like
26:39
intentionally smash a scooter just for the hell
26:43
of it and it's usually some kid who I think that
26:47
thinks he's doing something like clever, but
26:50
it's just, they don't take this alternate means
26:56
of transportation seriously. And it's actually
26:59
healthier for you than driving a car and just
27:04
having to be dealing with emissions. One of the
27:08
things I noticed about this city in particular
27:10
is that it's like, Whenever you see a car that
27:14
has like this roaring engine, you know, like
27:17
they're trying to be fast and furious. It's also
27:20
some always some teenage kid driving these loud
27:24
cars. And I just think, what's the matter with
27:27
you? Doesn't this bother you? Why don't you get
27:29
a muffler or something? And that there's like
27:33
no enforcement of noise restrictions or anything
27:37
in this city. And again. go to washington go
27:41
to new york they'll get you for it but they're
27:45
already they are already noisy cities so it's
27:48
uh the decibel level is kind of high anyway right
27:51
and uh let's talk about museums and so i when
27:57
i was at wrightsville beach in north carolina
28:00
there was this lovely botanical garden called
28:02
Airly Gardens and i am a member of Bernheim and
28:06
do a lot of I'm a volunteer naturalist there.
28:10
Just love Bernheim. So when you're a Bernheim
28:14
member, you have reciprocity to Arboretum all
28:18
over the country. Maybe even the world. I don't
28:21
know. So I went to this place called Airlie Gardens,
28:25
and I took my friend who was hosting me there,
28:28
and we got in for free. There was a 400 -year
28:32
-old live oak with Spanish moss on it. It was
28:35
just tremendous, so beautiful. That's my favorite
28:38
tree, by the way. But we spent nothing. And so,
28:42
you know, the arts are so critical for so many
28:45
reasons. But sometimes you think maybe the membership
28:49
is too high. But like the Speed Museum, the art
28:51
museum also has reciprocity all over the country
28:54
with museums. You've done this various times.
28:57
Yeah, I have a Speed Museum membership and I've
29:00
used it to go to the Fine Arts Museum in Denver.
29:04
I've used it in San Francisco. There's the Disney
29:07
Family Art Museum. Museum, which is a really
29:10
nice museum that's not affiliated with Disney
29:14
World, but it's like Disney Family has all of...
29:17
Walt's original drawings and things like that.
29:21
I've also gotten into a comic book museum in
29:24
San Francisco. I've used it in Chicago. I have
29:30
a family membership to the Speed Museum, so you
29:33
can also use the Speed Pass for other museums
29:37
in the city. It just seems like, oh, I also have
29:42
a zoo membership with the Louisville Zoo. And
29:46
I've used that to get a discount to go to the
29:49
Cincinnati Zoo. And, you know, it's the thing,
29:54
too, is that if you have a family, just figure
29:59
out the cost of what it would take for you to
30:01
take your kids to something, some museum or something.
30:07
The amount of money you spend in that one trip,
30:10
if you add a couple more dollars, you can get
30:13
a membership. And that membership will give you
30:16
the access to all these other museums and events
30:20
around the world, really, and definitely throughout
30:25
the United States. So, you know, if you can't,
30:28
well, we were talking about free museums in Washington,
30:32
but there are free museums. If you spend money
30:36
to go to one museum and just get the membership,
30:39
then you can go to other free museums. When we
30:46
were doing our museum trip this time, we went
30:49
to the Liberty Science Center in New Jersey next
30:53
to the Statue of Liberty. That has a reciprocity
30:57
agreement with the Children's Museum here. Also,
31:02
we went to the Manhattan... Children's Museum
31:06
of Manhattan that has other agreements with other
31:09
museums so there are plenty of things to do if
31:13
you're if you're a traveler and if you have family
31:16
check out these just these these accesses that
31:20
points that you have that you can take advantage
31:23
of because there are a lot of expenses you can
31:27
cut just by being a member of museums locally
31:29
right By the way, during our podcast, you may
31:34
or may not hear planes every few minutes. And
31:37
a fun fact is that Louisville's Muhammad Ali
31:41
International Airport is the fifth in the world
31:45
and third in North America for cargo operations
31:48
because of the UPS world. word world port so
31:52
i just wanted to tell you we we listen to these
31:55
UPS planes all day and all night here right especially
31:59
during the holidays uh around Christmas uh they
32:03
just never end and i i was in um Phoenix a few
32:09
months ago and i was at dinner with a relative
32:12
who invited a friend And the friend was a pilot
32:17
for UPS. And so I kept telling him, hey, you
32:21
know, you fly over my house every day that you
32:25
were there. He wouldn't know where we were, but
32:28
we're right under the path. We are right on it.
32:32
If you're living where I live, there are nothing
32:37
but planes going on and on. And I'm sure that
32:39
that may be a reason people don't live in old
32:41
Louisville, because they don't want to deal with
32:44
the... the air traffic um but you know there
32:47
are things in Old Louisville that are better
32:50
or more worth doing than being out in the suburbs
32:53
speaking of that we have um the largest intact
32:57
neighborhood of victorian homes and victorian
33:01
stained glass in the country in old louisville
33:04
so and then there are all these walking tours
33:07
lots of tours into old louisville it's it's really
33:10
a beautiful neighborhood great art fair that
33:14
Of course, you live right on where this amazing
33:17
art show is. Right. The art show takes place
33:20
in October, the first weekend of October. And
33:25
it's artists from all over the country come in
33:28
and they take up just blocks of old Louisville.
33:34
It's just completely cut off from Central Park
33:37
all the way to Hill Street, which is... uh maybe
33:41
two full city blocks and then you go four blocks
33:45
in the other direction so you've got this uh
33:48
eight block square or or even bigger uh with
33:53
nothing but events uh and art and um again good
33:57
art it's really really well judged uh art show
34:03
and again it's this issue with how do you get
34:07
here because the transportation isn't that great.
34:11
If you live here, you have to move your car out
34:14
of the area because the Art Show takes up everything.
34:19
getting here there should be like some kind of
34:22
shuttle service right and they don't do that
34:24
either i remember my mother was sick in the in
34:27
the hospital and i didn't live in this neighborhood
34:30
back then but i i remember parking you know several
34:33
several blocks away and i found this piece of
34:36
art that would actually look really good in her
34:39
hospital room and it was super heavy this is
34:42
another great amy story of you know doing something
34:45
that maybe Most people wouldn't do. But I had
34:48
blocks and blocks and blocks to walk this very
34:51
heavy sculptural art back to my car and then
34:57
to take it to the hospital. But yeah, a shuttle
34:59
would be great. Just something to make it more
35:03
convenient for people. It would be profitable.
35:06
They did run a shuttle for the Kentucky Derby.
35:09
I remember seeing that. And it would go from
35:12
downtown. to Churchill Downs but um the thing
35:18
about being in Louisville though is i i do walk
35:21
a lot here and i this morning i did a a six mile
35:25
walk in about two hours two and a half i saw
35:28
that you stopped at nord's bakery and got gorgeous
35:31
donuts yeah and but the thing is that in this
35:36
in the in the walk i took this morning i would
35:41
compare that to being in New York. And the number
35:45
of people I saw on my walk for that amount of
35:49
hours, for six miles, they would not have filled
35:52
a subway car in New York when I was there. Because
35:56
no one's out on the street here in the daytime,
36:01
except for the people at Nords, because there
36:03
was a line formed there. But elsewhere, there's
36:07
just nothing. I walked down by the football stadium,
36:10
the college football stadium. Nothing there.
36:15
I walked through the campus, college campus.
36:19
Very few people are there. I went by the museum
36:22
we have here, the Speed Museum. Again, there
36:25
was nothing going on there. And have you noticed
36:29
that they've redone the landscaping? Yeah, they're
36:33
putting in a big sculpture garden. Yeah. Yeah,
36:36
it's a big deal. They were out of power, though.
36:39
I went there. It was the last day for an exhibit
36:42
a couple weeks ago, and the power was out that
36:45
day. And they had a very chagrined person having
36:50
to greet all of us that were coming to the Speed
36:52
Museum to see the exhibit. The whole museum was
36:55
closed that day. Oh, wow. Yeah. Was that part
36:58
of the weather problems we were having? I don't
37:02
know that it was weather -related. Yeah. Okay.
37:06
Anyhow, it's a great museum, though. Yeah. Yeah,
37:08
it is. Join often. The cinema's awesome. Right.
37:13
Oh, they're supposed to do a Josephine Baker
37:15
thing there this week, or was it last week? Oh,
37:18
I don't know. It was a free presentation of,
37:22
I think it was called Madame Zuzu, which was
37:25
Josephine Baker's nickname in France when she
37:28
was dancing there in the 20s and 30s. Well, the
37:35
premise or the advertisement they made was that
37:39
Josephine Baker had gone from the U .S. to Paris
37:42
because she wasn't appreciated in America. And
37:48
more racist as well. Yeah, a black woman who's
37:52
trying to be an entertainer in the United States.
37:54
No response. She goes to Paris and she's like
37:57
the darling of French culture. So anyway, they
38:02
were supposed to do a movie. I think it's her
38:05
only movie, and it's in French. So, subtitles.
38:10
Well, the other thing here is people don't like
38:12
reading subtitles. I love foreign films. And
38:17
I'd prefer to read the subtitles rather than
38:19
having it dubbed in English. Oh, yeah. I can't
38:21
stand that. That's really annoying because the
38:24
mouth doesn't move the right way. Hey, I want
38:27
to put a plug in. I got on the TV news, Wave
38:31
TV 3. Shout out to Dawn Gee. I just wrote to
38:36
her and mentioned that we were doing this concert
38:39
called A Stop on the Underground Railroad, Voces
38:41
Novae, and she sent it to her news director, and
38:46
they came out to a rehearsal, and I got interviewed.
38:50
And those concerts are coming up next weekend,
38:52
May 31st and June 1st at Second Baptist Church.
38:56
And you can still, the tickets are selling really
38:59
rapidly, but you can still get those tickets
39:02
at Voces Nove's website, V -O -C -E -S -N -O
39:06
-V -A -E, Louisville. So come on out. That's
39:10
going to be, it's African American Spirituals.
39:13
And it's just going to be glorious. And we're
39:17
really highlighting our place on the Underground
39:21
Railroad. And the church was a stop on the Underground
39:25
Railroad. So a very historic place. And lifting
39:28
up these songs during a dark time in this country
39:32
where all, you know, things that refer to enslavement,
39:38
oppression. you know, of people of color, indigenous
39:42
peoples, women, et cetera, is all being eradicated.
39:45
Even, I just read that, you know, even Trump's,
39:48
the transcripts of his speeches and all kinds
39:51
of stuff, they're not even keeping record of,
39:54
like, at all. What do you mean? Like, they're
39:57
supposed to be archived. Everything that he,
39:59
you know, all of his speeches, and they're not
40:01
being archived. But his speeches are insane.
40:05
Well, they are insane. That's probably why they're
40:07
not. I remember looking at something, and I think
40:13
we put this on the website, our website, but
40:16
there was an announcement made in observation
40:20
of some holiday, I think it was, where he was,
40:22
oh, it was for the Kentucky Derby. He did an
40:26
announcement for the Kentucky Derby. It was like,
40:28
you know, this very well -written, eloquent presentation
40:33
of the Kentucky Derby and all it stood for. And
40:38
I read it, and I thought, Donald Trump didn't
40:41
say this. No way. Was that before or after he
40:44
became Pope? That was after he became Pope. Oh,
40:49
okay. But it was Derby Week, and they put out
40:53
this nice announcement, and you could tell he
40:56
didn't. have anything to do with it because one
40:59
it was well written it was well written there
41:02
were no words in capital letters he didn't in
41:05
sentences with four exclamation points and um
41:10
it was actually cogent i mean it made sense like
41:13
there was no talk about um you know sharks or
41:17
batteries or Hannibal Lecter so it's maybe there's
41:22
something to be said for him not having his words
41:25
documented because Historians will look at his
41:28
speeches hundreds of years from now and say,
41:30
what the hell is this? What's he talking about?
41:34
But I digress. But, you know, it comes down to
41:39
also just we've been talking about the arts and
41:43
the assault on the arts that's being done by
41:45
this administration. I worry when I go to Washington
41:51
that at some point they're going to figure out,
41:53
why don't we charge admission to all these museums?
41:56
Because all these, as they would say, freeloaders
42:00
are coming in and taking advantage of all this
42:03
stuff we have. Why not privatize it? Completely
42:06
privatize everything. Well, that's what they're
42:09
trying to do with everything. But it's going
42:12
into the museums and there's... Just the thought
42:17
that they want to take this all away from us.
42:20
It's a national service. It's what our tax dollars
42:25
are going for, but... I guess they would rather
42:28
have the tax dollars going to billionaires. Well,
42:30
I just read in this big, beautiful bill, which
42:34
is anything but, you know, that low -income and
42:38
middle -class people will be spending more every
42:41
year. And then if you are a billionaire, essentially,
42:44
you get a savings of like $370 ,000 a year. Yeah.
42:49
And it's totally absurd that... We spoke about
42:54
this a couple of weeks ago, how back in the,
42:56
I think it was the Eisenhower administration,
42:59
the top earners in the country were paying like
43:02
a 90 % tax rate, income tax rate. Now it's about,
43:06
I don't think it's more than 35%. It's a number
43:12
that doesn't compare with what it was before.
43:18
The fact that they aren't paying taxes on their
43:20
wealth anyway because it's all about income,
43:22
and if you have stock options, you're not paying
43:25
taxes on that. Or a company, and you just work
43:27
it through the company. Yeah, so there's just
43:31
this abuse of the financial system that's being
43:34
done by a president who is only appealing to
43:40
the very wealthy in the country, and a system
43:44
that's sort of geared toward... um wealth expansion
43:49
and wealth gathering at the expense of everyone
43:53
else's health and and safety yeah well in terms
43:58
of just good good deeds um support the arts support
44:03
your local artists oh yeah i wanted to say something
44:06
about the local artists too my niece is a fashion
44:09
designer and she has a studio in Jersey City
44:15
New Jersey which I went to see and it there were
44:21
a lot of things to see in this studio space she
44:27
was working in because she is her studio is next
44:32
to the studio of the woman who painted the Michelle
44:35
Obama portrait that famous portrait that went
44:38
around and was at the Speed Museum right um she
44:41
also uh is in a building where they have all
44:44
these Warhol uh uh screen prints um uh just like
44:50
down the hall from her and um there's this also
44:55
uh there's a famous model named Peggy Moffitt
44:58
in the 60s and 70s and uh for people my age and
45:03
i'm very old um he just turned 70. yeah yeah
45:06
i just turned 70. Well, I remember this image
45:10
of this woman in a topless bathing suit. Her
45:14
arms are covering the important bits. But that
45:19
was Peggy Moffitt. And they're selling her outfits
45:22
or her whole wardrobe, just auctioning it off.
45:26
But my niece got to look through this because
45:29
she also does costuming for movies. And it's
45:34
like there's just this wealth of things that
45:37
could have been used. And she was going to tell
45:41
the other customer she works with about this
45:44
auction taking place in Jersey City. But it was
45:49
like looking at this wardrobe, it was like looking
45:51
at the mods from London, that era of psychedelic.
45:59
activity and uh just uh mini skirts and multi
46:04
-colored uh outfits and kind of yeah Twiggy. Austin
46:09
Powers if you remember that movie it's that that
46:12
look so that was another thing we got to see
46:16
while in uh in uh new jersey in the new york
46:20
new jersey area and we got to meet um an actor
46:24
Jonathan Majors who was uh in the Loki series
46:29
as Kang the Conqueror and he was also in the
46:32
one the latest Rocky movie that it was Creed
46:37
3 I think he was an actor in that and he is also
46:42
on this television series I think it's called
46:46
Lovecraft Country it's like a horror series sort
46:49
of like American Horror Story but he's in that
46:52
too and my niece knows him, like through his
46:57
wife is Megan Good, another actress. And just
47:02
this reconnection with family, I didn't know
47:05
that the family was involved in all these things.
47:07
It's really kind of impressive. My other niece
47:11
was nominated for an Emmy. She didn't win it,
47:14
but she was nominated for an Emmy doing the Serena
47:20
Williams. docu -series on ESPN. So I got to hang
47:27
out with that member of the family too. That's
47:30
very cool. And it's just, you know, that's what
47:34
I miss about being in New York. There are all
47:36
these things that I didn't realize was happening
47:39
that are like immediately connected to me. And
47:43
I have to go back there every now and then just
47:45
to say, oh, the family's doing pretty well there.
47:49
Well, and Jesse, you know, They're black people
47:52
in New York City doing amazing things. There
47:57
wouldn't be nearly the opportunity for them here
48:00
in Kentucky. But there's not the opportunity
48:03
for many people here in Kentucky either. For
48:07
all the criticism people have of the big cities
48:12
of New York and Washington, and they even criticize
48:16
Louisville. There is something to be said for
48:20
the different political atmospheres you have
48:22
in these places. Like New York is liberal. I
48:26
was walking through the city and there was a
48:29
demonstration near Central Park on the East Side.
48:34
A couple of hundred people were like chanting
48:38
and having a demonstration. And I looked over
48:42
and New Yorkers just treated like, oh, okay,
48:45
it's another demonstration. What's the big whoop?
48:49
The cops weren't going nuts and macing people
48:53
like they do here. If you look at the Courier
48:56
-Journal today, they're giving a story on the
48:59
fifth anniversary of Breonna Taylor. Her murder.
49:04
Yes, her murder by Louisville police. And just
49:08
going back into the political arena here, Trump
49:13
has just... taken the investigation off the local
49:17
police altogether. It's just giving them carte
49:23
blanche to do whatever they want. So you look
49:26
at the demonstrations in New York, it's demonstrations
49:30
of people of color, there's a lot of noise, it's
49:33
a huge city. It doesn't bother anybody. You do
49:37
a demonstration in downtown Louisville, the police
49:40
go nuts. They start pepper spraying everybody.
49:44
They were confused, or they did attack journalists
49:50
here. David McAtee was killed as part of this.
49:55
Yeah, and it's just this difference in the police
50:02
state mentality here. than in other cities, in
50:06
cities like New York or Washington, which are
50:09
always being criticized by the current administration.
50:15
I don't know why they're criticizing them because
50:18
people are able to express their voices without
50:22
being persecuted by police officers. Well, and
50:26
it's interesting, you know, based on where you're
50:28
born has a lot to do with your lifespan, right?
50:32
So if you're born in a neighborhood in the West
50:35
End, your lifespan is probably about seven years
50:40
shorter than your lifespan if you're born in
50:42
the East End of Louisville. But if you're born
50:45
in a red state versus a blue state, there's also
50:48
a disparity. It's about four years shorter lifespan.
50:52
Right. because the red states didn't go in for
50:56
Obamacare, which was the Affordable Care Act.
51:01
Kentucky did, though. Kentucky did because it
51:03
had a Democratic governor. Right. If it had a
51:06
Republican governor, it would not have that,
51:08
and people would be dying, or people are dying,
51:12
and people are going to be dying with the results
51:15
of this current administration's bill that's
51:19
going to take away Medicaid, which... mostly
51:23
affects children uh and people who are uh it's
51:27
SNAP programs you know they they're for starvation
51:30
of children they're for the death of children
51:33
but they claim to be uh pro -life yeah that's
51:36
you know that's just just absurd and while we're
51:40
on museums i have to criticize one of the Kentucky
51:43
museums here that's the ark The Noah's Ark. And
51:47
I read in the Courier Journal, what, last week
51:50
or the week before, where police were being trained
51:53
at the Ark. The police dogs were being trained
51:57
at the Ark, because dogs are always praying,
51:59
I guess. But the fact that we as taxpayers are
52:05
paying for this evangelization of the police
52:09
force by, well, right -wing Christians. uh who
52:14
really don't believe in Christ but you know it's
52:17
this this absurd use of money and they they see
52:23
nothing wrong with doing that but but i i sure
52:27
hope there's no like reciprocal thing you can
52:29
do with the ark museum because i wouldn't want
52:31
to do it right yeah it's crazy well i think maybe
52:37
we should And soon. Yeah, I guess we should.
52:41
I can't think of anything else, but we are going
52:45
to do this again in a couple of weeks. I'm sure
52:49
that if anyone has any comments or anything involving
52:53
travel, let us know, but be ready for the art
52:57
show. That's the next big event here. We've already
53:00
been through the Derby. Well, we've got some
53:04
music festivals, Bourbon and Beyond. Oh, right.
53:07
I'm going to Abbey Road on the River this weekend.
53:10
That's this weekend? It's this weekend. I can
53:12
get you a free ticket if you want to go. I would
53:15
like to go. We do Beatles songs, right? They
53:18
do. Okay, that's something I didn't know. But
53:22
today's Sunday. It's Sunday and Monday. It's
53:25
this weekend. Oh, that's right. It's Memorial
53:27
Day. It's Memorial Day. I forgot there is a holiday.
53:31
There's flags all over here. I know, but I thought
53:34
someone just decided to be patriotic this weekend.
53:38
Anyway, so that's it for us. Take care, everyone.
53:42
Take care. Bye. Our closing music is by John
53:47
Chamberlain.