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From Castles to Psychedelics · Brainwaves

0:08
Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to another episode of Two Shot
0:10
Tuesday. It's Barry Nixon with the one
0:13
and only, Jason Riley with you for another week.
0:15
And Jay, we have some exciting things to talk about.
0:18
We're going to primarily focus on a staple around here, which
0:22
is ripped from the headlines, Yes.
0:25
But before we do that about a welcome to you.
0:28
Thanks for being here. And thank you for.
0:30
Taking the time. Thanks for having me each and
0:32
every week. Yeah, we've got a format on the
0:34
show and there is something I want to hear from you after we
0:36
do our first shot and I think it'd be a lovely update for our
0:41
wonderful listeners and viewers. In the meantime, to kick us off,
0:44
I can tell you that I have got some Bushmills black Bush from
0:49
the old LCBO as a as an alt to my to the Black Barrel.
0:53
How about yourself? I'm sticking with the black
0:55
barrel. I still have some and I'm
0:57
savoring every sip. All right, first one's for you,
1:00
Jay and you. Cheers.
1:01
Cheers. A real shiver.
1:07
Oh my, it was a bit of a north wind that just blew right
1:11
through me all. Right.
1:12
Mine's pretty smooth, but a little bite, but not so bad.
1:15
Before we leap into any RIP from the headlines, you had the
1:18
opportunity not too long ago to visit an historic location here
1:23
in the city of Toronto. And I would really appreciate
1:27
and I know our, our, our listeners and viewers, I've been
1:29
there. Would love to hear your
1:32
escapades to a place we like to call Casa Loma.
1:37
The first thing I learned is not called Castle Loma.
1:40
Or Castle Oma. Sounds like Grandma's castle.
1:43
Castle Oma. Yeah.
1:44
So those are some things right off the hop that I learned.
1:47
OK. Did you think it was Castle?
1:49
At first, and then I did a thing called read and realize that
1:54
it's missing a few letters to be a castle.
1:57
However, that doesn't take away from the grandeur of Casa Loma.
2:00
It's pretty spectacular and one thing I didn't realize when we
2:03
got there was some of the X-Men films were shot there.
2:06
Yes, the first one I believe. And parts of days of Future
2:10
Past. Really.
2:11
Yeah, That I didn't know. Or, or was it Apocalypse?
2:14
It was another one. It wasn't just the first one,
2:15
like the interior of, you know, Xavier's School for the Gifted.
2:19
A lot of those interior shots were from the castle.
2:21
Interested. Casa.
2:22
Casa. Casa.
2:25
There was also apparently a scene from Cocktail with Tom
2:28
Cruise shot at Casa Loma, which I had no idea.
2:32
Yeah, there were posters down in the basement that tell told you
2:35
what movies were shot there. Yeah, that what the superhero
2:38
one, the saves the world. Yes, Scott was in it.
2:43
Yes, Scott Pilgrim saves the world.
2:44
That was that was shot there too.
2:46
There was some seeds. Yeah, it was.
2:47
Yeah, interesting. It was a bunch.
2:50
What did you think about Casa Loma?
2:52
I liked it. We went with my nephews.
2:55
Yeah, I just had to say this off the hop.
2:57
Yeah, I did enjoy it. OK, but I will have to.
2:59
I do have to say this just for anyone considering a visit.
3:02
It's $50 just to go for an adult and it's 30 bucks for a kid
3:07
under 13, which I mean, I think they need to calm down a little
3:11
bit. Like this was just a regular
3:13
Saturday. There was no jousting
3:14
tournament. There was nothing over and above
3:17
just the Casa. So I thought it's a little steep
3:20
for what it is. Like we wandered around for a
3:22
little while, but I don't know, 50 bucks to get you lawns at RBC
3:26
Amphitheater for a band you might want to see.
3:28
So when you put it into the that type of context with Linda and I
3:31
were both like, I'm glad we went, but at the same time it
3:34
just seemed a little steep for what it was.
3:35
Yeah, I will say they have a, an some experiences through the
3:39
year like because we were just down the street from it and they
3:42
have like outdoor haunted lands for Halloween and they have a
3:47
Christmas lights thing for like 100 plus dollars to walk through
3:51
the grounds in the cold. And I'm like we've never put
3:53
we've walked away from it when walked up.
3:55
Like how much? No, thank you.
3:57
That's a bit too much for some lights and some scares for the
4:00
kids. You know, I pay if you love it,
4:02
great. And we also went in and we paid
4:04
the $50.00 to go in. What struck you?
4:07
As. Yeah, What struck you though,
4:09
once you were in and and you know buyer's remorse had melted
4:12
away because you were you were taken in by the scape of it it.
4:15
Went away immediately. I'm just yeah, yeah, yeah.
4:17
Saying that off the hob just for anyone considering a visit.
4:20
What did you really like about it?
4:21
What stood out? Let's see, probably the turrets.
4:24
You were right about that. Did you do the recommended?
4:27
We went to both. As you know, the second turret
4:29
was closed for some unknown reason.
4:33
Yeah. Yeah, we, well, there was no one
4:35
there to ask. It was, it was pretty much, you
4:38
know, just follow the signs. It wasn't very well attended the
4:41
day we went because it was kind of drizzly and rainy.
4:43
But that's actually fine. We were actually, you know, we
4:46
didn't find ourselves rubbing up against people.
4:48
You know, you had room to kind of move around.
4:50
But the turrets were fun. And my nephews loved that part.
4:53
What they didn't like, and I was kind of surprised by this
4:55
because they have young legs. They were complaining about the
4:58
number of stairs. I'm like, you're 10, you're 10
5:01
years old. He's talking about complaining
5:03
about stairs anyway, so we kind of laughed about that, but I
5:06
remembered I was like, you're 10 years old, you should be happy
5:09
to see stairs. You should be excited to see
5:11
stairs. Yeah, of course.
5:13
Excited and did you notice what I mentioned that when you go up
5:17
there it's kind of shoulders tight when you're going up those
5:19
those stairs there's not a lot of room for you know you can't
5:22
pass anybody it's very very. Tight quarter circular.
5:25
Twisted around the staircase, Yeah.
5:27
Yeah, yeah, you're absolutely right.
5:28
I had to turn sideways a couple times, you know, almost got
5:31
stuck. You got to be sure footed coming
5:33
down too, especially at our age because it's a steep down and
5:36
you got a you don't want to miss a step because you go.
5:39
There's no margin for error, Jay, at all.
5:41
So yeah, we were on the way down.
5:43
We were stuck behind a family that was very slow moving.
5:47
And it was fair because you know, when they had like a baby
5:50
strapped to the father or the man and this other little kid
5:54
behind, he was complaining that Oliver, my oldest nephew, was
5:57
too close to him. I'm like, we're on a very tight
6:00
staircase when he's talking about too close.
6:02
So he was just going down to his normal pace anyway.
6:05
I just know I it was noteworthy. Was there anything to get in A
6:07
twist over? But it was something to note.
6:10
OK, You know how I like to do that.
6:12
Yeah, yeah. No fisticuffs came of it.
6:14
No, no, it was just some people or whatever.
6:17
But yeah, that stood out. Also, like, what else?
6:20
We weren't able to access any of the outdoor areas.
6:23
It was all fenced off. Yeah.
6:25
Like I know that there's gardens and such, but we weren't able to
6:28
access that. That's too bad.
6:30
Well, that's too bad. For 50 bucks you think you'd
6:32
have the run of the place. You'd think.
6:33
You'd think you'd be able to jump into one of the beds and,
6:35
you know, just have some fun, but no, couldn't do that.
6:38
I will say some of the bathroom fixtures were kind of
6:41
interesting. Did you notice that there was
6:43
one like old school? Well everything in there is old
6:46
school but like this stand up shower that looked like a cage
6:50
inside of a shower that you stood under and it was like a
6:53
very early rain style shower. Did you notice that you go in
6:58
there? We went in, looked at all the
6:59
rooms, but I don't remember that one.
7:01
But yeah, that's cool. It was clear like you though.
7:04
In a bird cage, every time you're in a bird.
7:06
Cage. Yeah.
7:07
It was before they figured out they can put the pipes behind
7:09
the tile. This was like, right, Yeah, you
7:12
were going into the cage, but there was still tiling all
7:14
around you. But I thought that was kind of
7:17
neat. I guess at the time it was like
7:18
state-of-the-art because it was like a little poster from
7:20
whatever consumers distributing wherever they bought it saying
7:23
that, you know, this is how you work it.
7:25
And there was like, so many knobs and dials and like, isn't
7:27
it just hot and cold? Like I don't know what some of
7:30
these knobs and dials were supposed to do because to me it
7:33
looked like. It's just a simple.
7:35
Plug and play, Yeah, I don't think so.
7:36
Maybe, maybe you had some pulsing, pulsing coming from the
7:40
top. I don't know.
7:41
But that stood out in my mind. That was kind.
7:43
Of can I tell you at the mini mansion, we always look to sort
7:46
of emulate little parts of mansion experience and try to
7:49
scale it way down to mini mansion size.
7:51
So in our basement that I told you we're doing, we're actually
7:53
gonna have some pipes in front of the there won't be a tiled
7:56
wall, and we're gonna have exposed copper pipes.
7:58
For the shower, have a cage. No cage.
8:01
We don't have a cage. Maybe we'll put one in now that
8:03
you've mentioned that, but no cage.
8:04
But you'll see that exposed copper.
8:06
So that's a bit of that experience, that classic coming
8:09
to life in our soon to be done basement.
8:12
Yeah, which is what I wanted to ask you about when we're let me
8:15
move on to the next segment. Definitely want to get an update
8:17
on that. Last thing I want to talk about,
8:19
I want to ask you what's in the basement?
8:21
Is it the gift shop or is it the like dining?
8:25
It's like a little pub also down there too, or a cafeteria.
8:28
Yeah, which you advised to avoid and we did.
8:32
We just took a we suck our nose. And I will say the gift shop is
8:36
also where you check your coat. So anyone again thinking of
8:40
planning a visit, It's not the most, it's not instinctual that
8:44
one would go to a gift shop and then turn over their jacket, but
8:47
this is how it is there so. That's how they did it in those
8:49
days. I guess.
8:51
He always you go to a party, you always leave your jacket in the
8:54
gift. Shop the gift shop.
8:55
Yeah, which was fine. It was no big deal, but it was
8:57
just something again to note. And then at the end of the
9:00
hallway where the restaurant is that you said to avoid, that's
9:03
where the pool used to be, remember?
9:05
Did you go into that room? There was like a theater room.
9:07
Now it's been converted, but it used to be a pool.
9:09
And I thought we didn't. This is kind of like dark and
9:11
dank. Like.
9:12
No wonder they got rid of the pool eventually.
9:14
Like the idea of having a pool in the basement and had a kind
9:17
of in a like a thick odor as well in that room and in that
9:21
particular section. I was like, so we didn't stick.
9:24
Around long not a great place for food that's either we.
9:26
Did wrap up for food. We did go for food, but we went
9:30
to Taste of China on Spadina and I can't say enough good things
9:33
about that place. Affiliate.
9:35
Task Casa Loma. Yeah, you know, it's completely
9:37
experience with taste of China. Yeah, and it's very, very
9:41
authentic. And a good friend of mine once
9:43
told me years ago, and it always stayed with me.
9:45
When the Chinese food chefs are off shift, this is where they
9:49
come to eat. And I never forgot it.
9:51
And he's 100% true. We were the only Caucasians in
9:54
there. It was middle of a day packed,
9:56
and it was just as authentic as you can get.
9:58
And my family had hot and sour soup for the first time and both
10:01
my nephews ate everything that was presented.
10:04
They didn't turn their nose up at anything, even soft shell
10:06
crab, so I would have big time points for them.
10:09
Nice. Terrific, That's great.
10:10
Well, I'm glad you had a good experience and you got it as
10:13
much as you could. The one thing I will mention to
10:15
complete the Castle Loma experience for you, and I may
10:17
have mentioned this to you, but the man who built it, he built
10:20
that for his wife who I think had passed away, but he built it
10:24
for like during the making of it and then he went broke during
10:28
the during the making of it. He end up living in an apartment
10:31
just down close by us in an old apartment building down here, so
10:35
he had to watch his castle be finished when he had lost all of
10:40
his money. Is that something that's too bad
10:42
In the shadow He lived in the shadow of his own Casa, Of his
10:45
own Casa. Damn, that's how it goes
10:47
sometimes. We got a format on the show.
10:49
Why don't we do shot #2 we can talk about some RIP from the
10:52
headlines. I'll I'll touch on my basement
10:53
Renault just so that for completes because you did ask.
10:56
So I did ask. Those pictures are looking real
10:59
good. It's looking like homes on homes
11:01
over there for those who know who know what that show is.
11:04
Nice reference. All right, Jay shot #2 same as
11:06
as the first, some black barrel. And what about you, my friend?
11:09
I got same as the first with the black Bush.
11:12
OK cheers. Thank you.
11:17
Tough one. Tough for you tonight.
11:18
Both were tough. Yeah, I'm noticing a bit.
11:20
You're a bit more subdued tonight, which is OK.
11:23
It's all right. I hear you.
11:24
I hear you. Let me give you a real quick
11:26
update on the basement Renault and then we're going to do this
11:29
is. Going to get.
11:30
Wired up, ripped from the headlines.
11:31
OK, here we go. It has been, you know, five
11:34
years we've been in the house. We haven't really touched the
11:35
basement. It was.
11:36
Like a 19 five years. Yeah, moved in 2021.
11:40
It's been a night. April 1st, 2021.
11:42
So over just over 5 years. So we finally got to the
11:45
basement. We had to do a lot of work
11:46
ripping things out, doing all electrical, all the unfun stuff.
11:50
But executive producer Aldo Roma has a vision of some exposed
11:53
brick, some polished concrete floor carpet down there.
11:58
Yeah, for the floor, this is going to be a space that's not a
12:00
flex space, but a space that we can use for multiple things.
12:04
So we can do some working out down there.
12:05
We can relax down there. So it's we've got pot lights in.
12:09
We're using the space. It's a low ceiling.
12:11
I can stand up in it, but I can't do much more than stand up
12:13
in it. So we're limited in what we can
12:16
do. But we are going to have some
12:18
storage down there and soon this basement will be usable.
12:22
I used to use it to do some working out with boxes as you
12:25
saw you were down there a few times.
12:26
You stacked all around me, if you can remember.
12:28
So that will all be taken care of whenever a place for storage
12:31
and have a place for the workout equipment and a place to relax,
12:34
wall mounted TV, potentially some surround sound.
12:37
So we're going to we're going to see what we can do down there to
12:39
help create a nice secondary cozy experience down there.
12:43
That's all that we're How are you with guest quarters?
12:47
Will there be a place to have an overnight guest if they're in
12:50
the? Basement, who knows?
12:51
I don't know if people want to stay in the basement, but I
12:53
don't know if it's going to be that.
12:56
Yeah. Yeah, I guess, but I don't know
12:58
if it'll be that cozy. Is that where you want to be
13:00
Instead of being in your home 20 minutes away you would rather?
13:03
I'm not saying for me, because you have, you have a big.
13:05
Family. Everyone is scattered to the
13:07
four winds. If they come by, they might have
13:09
a place to stay. Sure.
13:11
Yeah, that's true. You know what?
13:12
We can certainly accommodate people.
13:14
My brother will be here in a few hours and he'll be staying
13:17
upstairs, not in the. Basement, right.
13:18
Okay. Last question, did you pitch
13:20
Aldo on the tartan rug for the basement?
13:23
I did not. Even mention it.
13:25
No, it's been chosen already so I don't want to introduce any
13:27
complications. Maybe, maybe your next basement
13:29
you'll you'll you'll. Perhaps consider it.
13:32
Thank you for your suggestion to turn it into.
13:34
A public I'll be sure to mention it too when I see him.
13:37
Right before we go, we're going to do a RIP from the headlines.
13:39
Barry, you've worked on it to send it to me.
13:41
I'm going to open them up. I'm going to go scroll right
13:44
through them. There we.
13:45
Go. And I see a picture of one that
13:48
you're going to like, yeah, I got to do this one because it's
13:50
for you, and I'm sure you know exactly which one's going to be.
13:52
I think I. Do magic mushrooms could help
13:55
people quit smoking? Right Big news.
13:58
Talk to me about this. You don't have to go beyond the
14:00
headlines. You know all you need to know
14:02
about the What are what are magic mushrooms called?
14:04
What's the fungi? Psilocybin experience.
14:08
Yeah, the magic of psilocybin. It is truly wondrous what this
14:12
little thing can do. And now there's been some
14:14
linkage to quitting smoking. Now, I, I've quit smoking
14:17
cigarettes many, many years ago, but I've heard that this
14:22
potentially could be helpful for people getting through.
14:26
I don't know. I think it's a little bit of
14:27
brain rewiring. It's a little bit of, I did go a
14:31
little bit beyond the headline on this one.
14:33
I had to. Don't care for that.
14:35
Yeah, just. Can I guess then maybe Sure.
14:38
You get so stoned you can't hold your cigarette and you keep
14:40
dropping it. So eventually you drop it.
14:42
You get frustrated. You just say I'm not even going
14:44
to say I'm. Done again.
14:45
You think that's it? Say this is for the this is
14:47
crazy. This is what a crazy person
14:48
would do. I'm not doing it.
14:50
Yes. Yeah, it could be that or it
14:52
also could just be you get to a place where you start to put in
14:56
perspective what is important in life and perhaps.
14:59
Psilocybin is not. The most, yeah, psilocybin does
15:02
do that for you, okay? It can help to keep you
15:05
centered. You know what I mean?
15:08
That's been, I mean, you have had it.
15:10
I have had it. I don't know what.
15:11
Yeah, I think your experience was a little bit different when
15:14
we did it all those years ago. Yeah, I didn't love it.
15:17
And you guided. You were the.
15:18
You were the great I. Was the shame.
15:20
Guide. Yeah, yeah.
15:21
So. Yeah, it wasn't, wasn't for me.
15:23
But so you're telling me you felt centered on the experience?
15:27
I did and it also like I've always, I since I've been in my
15:30
older years, yes, not when I was, you know, at 20 something
15:34
doing it. The the, you know, it's just
15:36
recreation. It's just pure fun.
15:38
But now it's a little bit different.
15:39
You you could become, you can become a little more
15:42
introspective. You can also become a little
15:43
more empathetic and have more empathy for just the world in
15:46
general and for people situations.
15:48
So yeah, it's well, I think it's a good thing.
15:51
There's another, there's another mushroom.
15:55
This is kind of adjacent to what we were just talking about, but
15:57
there's a there's a drug called ibogaine that apparently has
16:01
rewiring properties. It's the same kind of thing.
16:03
It's like a psychedelic drug, but it is in no way enjoyable.
16:06
It is in no way recreational. Apparently it's a hellish like
16:11
8:00-ish hours of you just kind of reliving traumas in your own
16:16
life. But then when you come out of
16:17
it, there have been like, you know, soldiers who come back
16:20
from war, they find that they are able to get through PTSD
16:23
that they suffered by having this experience.
16:26
Also, people have reported quitting drinking, stopping
16:29
smoking, stopping being addicted to, you know, opioids.
16:32
So I don't know, it's kind of cool.
16:35
But this is like, you know, now finally coming to the forefront.
16:38
People are, you know, experimenting and thinking about
16:42
natural remedies that have been here for thousands of years.
16:45
OK but so you're saying they by reliving traumatic experiences
16:50
that makes them want to give up other things that are bad for
16:52
them? And also just get past some of
16:54
that trauma release and. Get some past trauma.
16:56
It's there. So you're just, it's like you're
16:58
you're binging on your trauma. And so, yeah, it doesn't sound
17:02
so much, no, it doesn't, but that it gets it out of your
17:05
system, that sounds foolish to me.
17:07
Gets it out of your system. That's a good way of thinking of
17:09
it. Yeah.
17:10
That's interesting. Yeah.
17:11
Apparently soldiers have benefited from using it and
17:13
there are some states in the US where it's now being used as a
17:17
like a treatment for very serious PTSD.
17:20
And again, this is not anything recreational.
17:23
It's the the last thing in the world anyone would do because
17:25
they want to have fun with it. It's that's not what it's
17:28
designed for. Full prescription gets is it?
17:31
It's from Mother Nature, you. Know, but I mean can you be you
17:34
be prescribed this one or is this 1 you could buy off the
17:36
shelf if you wanted to? I think it's very illegal still,
17:39
except in certain states where they're willing to, you know,
17:42
administer it for supervised medical.
17:45
Yeah, supervised, got it, Administration.
17:47
But I don't know. It's, it's pretty exciting.
17:50
I think the next 5:00-ish years, you're going to see a lot of
17:53
headway made with psychedelics just across the board as being
17:56
something that's beneficial for humans.
17:58
It's not just something to abuse or to go crazy on, but it can
18:02
have some actual benefits, so. Well, I'm gonna hold you to
18:05
that. In five years, we're gonna have
18:07
you back on the show with a follow up to the segment for
18:09
Psychedelic Corner and that will be great.
18:12
In the meantime, Barry, other things that you can do to get
18:15
past any kind of trauma or PTSD in your life is you could listen
18:18
to the entire Two Shot Tuesday back catalog.
18:20
We're coming up on just about 300 episodes.
18:23
It is the best way. It is not hellish, it is
18:26
fantastic. And we got new things planned
18:28
for episode 300 for sure, so that's coming up.
18:31
But we got plenty of episodes between now and then as well.
18:33
We'll be recording that one sometime in the summer, coming
18:36
up on July. So very quick preview, if I may,
18:38
just before you sign this off check, we will be doing a film
18:42
review this month. It'll be The Mandalorian and
18:45
Grogu with our movie guys. So stay with us during the month
18:48
of May. We're going to be touching on
18:50
that. Excellent.
18:51
All right, to our listeners and viewers, have a wonderful week.
18:54
Check back in on us next week. We really appreciate you
18:56
spending time with us. Barry, you have a great week.
18:58
I always enjoy spending time with you and I'll see you next.
19:01
Week. All right, Jay.
19:05
Thank you for listening to Two Shot Tuesday.
19:07
The show was produced by Barry and I and edited by me.
19:10
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Podcasts, please take a second to do so now.
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It helps us grow and it helps new audiences to find the show.
19:17
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19:20
and on Twitter at Two Shot Tuesday Podcast.
19:23
Stop by, give us a follow, leave us a comment and share your
19:26
favorite episodes if you have a question you'd like featured on
19:29
the show. You can send.
19:29
Us A. Text at 647486. 4848.
19:33
Thanks for listening. We'll see you next week.