Latest / The Bluegrass Blues Podcast / The Bluegrass Blues Podcast: Episode 11

Transcript

The Bluegrass Blues Podcast: Episode 11 · The Bluegrass Blues Podcast

0:00
This is the bluegrass blues podcast. I'm Jesse
0:03
and I'm Amy Well, this is our 11th episode and
0:17
Strangely enough we're doing this on September
0:19
11th which is a date that no one's going to forget
0:24
if you were alive when it happened, but there
0:27
are lots of things we can talk about there because
0:30
September 11th sort of became a transition for
0:34
America, not only in terms of the idea of security,
0:40
but also the paranoia against different countries
0:44
and different people. And the other weird thing
0:47
is this is our 11th episode, but I thought we'd
0:51
just talk a few minutes about where we were on
0:54
that day and what our experiences were. Do you
0:58
remember where you were? I do. So I had worked
1:02
on Wall Street. And my last day of Wall Street
1:06
was on the first bombing in 1993. That was my
1:10
very last day. We were walking to the World Trade
1:13
Center for a celebration or going by a goodbye
1:18
party. And that was my last day in New York City.
1:21
And then... I had had my first child, and I'm
1:25
holding her. She's an infant. She was born in
1:28
November of 2020. And my husband calls me and
1:32
says, Amy, turn on the TV. And then I walked
1:36
in complete disbelief from my living room in
1:40
Louisville, Kentucky, with my infant daughter
1:42
in my lap. Well, I was also in New York when
1:46
the first bombing happened because I worked across
1:49
the street from the World Trade Center. I was
1:51
at the Wall Street Journal and working in the
1:54
World Financial Center. And it was on a Friday.
1:58
I remember that. And the thing I remember most
2:01
of all was when the explosion went off, our windows
2:04
shook in our building. And we thought it was
2:08
like a transformer had blown up because there
2:09
were a lot of transformers blowing up in New
2:11
York at the time. But we realized what was happening
2:16
because the news stations immediately started
2:20
broadcasting. And one of the things I remember
2:24
about that day was leaving the office at the
2:26
end of the day. And I'd never seen so many police
2:30
cars, fire engines, FBI, every security thing
2:36
you can think of was there on that day. So when
2:40
September 11th, 2001 rolled around, I was not
2:46
yet in the office. I usually went in the office
2:48
earlier in the day. and I was just late getting
2:52
there and we turn on the TV and we see the plane
2:56
going into the building. And I immediately know,
2:59
well, we're not going to work there because I
3:01
remember what happened the first time. But I
3:05
was, well, again, I was with the Wall Street
3:07
Journal. We were right across the street from
3:10
the trade center. And when the building collapsed,
3:13
it also wrecked our building. So. we had to move
3:17
down to central New Jersey. And that was the
3:21
last day I worked in New York. Well, on September
3:26
10th, that was the last day. Because on September
3:29
11th, we were down in New Jersey. And we worked
3:33
there permanently. I remember the day really
3:37
vividly. And the other thing was that there were
3:40
two books written about the events of September
3:43
11th. And I'm quoted in both the books. One of
3:46
them is called September 12th American Comeback
3:49
Story by Dean Rotbart. And the other one was
3:52
called Running Toward Danger. And that was by
3:55
the museum. And it was just working with people
4:02
who saw the horrors of that day. That really,
4:07
they just are. They were devastated by what was
4:11
happening, but we all got together. Everyone
4:14
knew where to go because we had this emergency
4:17
facility in central New Jersey. So we put together
4:22
the paper, even though our building had blown
4:25
up. And the result of that was that we eventually
4:29
won the Pulitzer Prize for spot news for that
4:31
day. But the thing about September 11th, too,
4:35
is that it really was To me, it was the beginning
4:38
of the erosion of rights in the United States,
4:42
because soon after that, people were willing
4:45
to let the government just take over everything.
4:49
The idea of the surveillance state really took
4:52
off after that. So laws were passed where people
4:58
had fewer rights. And the thing was that people
5:01
gave them up willingly. sort of living through
5:06
that setback. One of the things I also remember
5:12
about September 11th was that there was this
5:15
real estate developer in New York named Donald
5:18
Trump. And he said two things that were really
5:23
egregious. The first was that after the World
5:26
Trade Center went down, he hinted that he then
5:30
had the tallest building in New York. Which isn't
5:33
true. Well, no, because the Empire State Building
5:35
was still there. The Chrysler Building was still
5:37
there. But that's just par for the courts. That's
5:42
what he does. And the second thing he said was
5:44
that he was watching TV, and he saw people of
5:50
Arab descent in Queens cheering on the collapse
5:54
of the building, which was a total flat -out
5:57
lie. I was watching TV the same day, and when
6:01
they showed people who were cheering, those images
6:04
came from the Middle East. They weren't in New
6:07
York. But Donald Trump used this typical, his
6:12
racism and his xenophobia, and he used it to
6:17
his advantage because he then created, as we
6:19
see now, this atmosphere of just fear of immigrants.
6:27
saying that they're not worthy of being in the
6:30
country. Well, be very, very afraid of any person
6:34
of color. You're suspect if you have any tone
6:37
of color. Which he said this week when he was
6:40
talking about black people being genetically...
6:44
more violent than whites. It's that kind of stuff.
6:48
So we're dealing with something that happened,
6:52
you know, that September 11th was, it's amazing.
6:55
It's more than 20 years ago. It's 24 years ago.
6:59
And we're still in the, this is really our...
7:06
shift toward the surveillance state and this
7:09
idea of sending troops into American cities to
7:15
stop crime, allegedly, when the crime isn't really
7:20
happening in those cities. It's just this Fox
7:22
News created myth of danger that has permeated
7:27
the country with the advent of Donald Trump as
7:30
president. Now, I also was thinking about the
7:33
parallels of people thinking that, oh, this couldn't
7:36
happen here. And it did. Major terroristic event.
7:40
And now, you know, we see the rise of fascism
7:42
in our own country. Oh, this can't happen here.
7:46
Yes, you can, and it is, and it has been for
7:50
the last 24 years. You know, when George Bush
7:53
was president, that's when we invaded Iraq, supposedly
7:58
to eradicate weapons of mass destruction, which
8:02
were found not to have existed, right? Right.
8:06
But those foreigners, they'd be terrorists. Yeah,
8:09
they're still trying to say that the weapons
8:10
of mass destruction were moved into Syria. And
8:14
that's one of the lies that they're trying to
8:18
spread today. But there were no weapons of mass
8:22
destruction. There was no reason for going into
8:25
Iraq and what turned out to be, other than Dick
8:30
Cheney getting more oil. Revenue and getting
8:33
more of his people rich and George Bush Halliburton
8:38
Halliburton was the company and you know, George
8:41
Bush Well, he made it through two terms and the
8:46
only reason well He made it through two terms
8:49
and by the end of his second term the country
8:51
was in economic collapse so You know, that's
8:55
when Barack Obama became president and that's
8:59
when the racism really came out in this country
9:02
because you had Donald Trump again, fomenting
9:05
this idea that... He's not even a US citizen.
9:09
Right. He's from Kenya. And he was a Muslim.
9:14
And he went through all the Barack Hussein. Right.
9:17
Which he still does. Which he still does. It's
9:19
like he goes through his racist greatest hits.
9:23
And that's what his campaign was. It's like he
9:26
goes around the country, just reels off this
9:33
drivel. And it's like the. fans are there. It's
9:38
like going for MAGA. It's like going to a concert
9:41
and listening for your favorite tune. You know,
9:45
it's, okay, we're going to talk about immigrants.
9:48
We're going to talk about people eating cats
9:51
and dogs. And we're going to talk about people
9:54
coming up from Mexico in pickup trucks to, you
9:59
know, take over Texas. Just... ridiculous things
10:03
like that. And political violence has really
10:05
been on the upswing. That's right. And we've
10:07
had this week the political violence that occurred
10:10
this week with the death of Charlie Kirk. You
10:13
know, he was MAGA. He was the young MAGA, the
10:18
new age MAGA. But everything he was talking about
10:24
was, you know, it was just ultra right. crypto
10:30
-fascist statements. Second Amendment? Well,
10:33
yeah, I mean, Charlie Kirk said, let me find
10:39
it here, he said that, this is a quote, I think
10:43
it's worth it, I think it's worth to have the
10:45
cost of, or unfortunately, some gun deaths every
10:49
single year so that we can have the Second Amendment
10:51
to protect our other God -given rights. So he's
10:55
saying, okay, it's okay to kill people. in these
11:00
like school shootings or political violence because
11:04
we get to keep the Second Amendment. He's not
11:08
saying that anymore, but because he is a victim
11:11
of what he called for. But, you know, the result
11:15
now is that we have allegedly a national day
11:20
of mourning. The flags are at half staff. If
11:24
you look at the messages that come from Kentucky
11:28
politicians, every one of them is about... Thoughts
11:33
and prayers? Thoughts and prayers. And that's
11:36
the answer for everything. The same day he got
11:40
shot, which was yesterday or yesterday, I'm losing
11:43
track of days now. It's this week. But the same
11:48
day he got shot, there was a school shooting
11:51
in Denver. I don't hear the thoughts and prayers
11:55
for that. But thoughts and prayers are kind of
11:58
irrelevant now because people are dying. The
12:03
gun violence is just out of control. The United
12:07
States is one of the most dangerous places to
12:10
go to in the world in terms of gun violence.
12:14
If you look at all the, what people consider
12:17
the major developed countries, The United States
12:20
has the worst incidence of gun deaths because
12:22
we have more guns than anyone else in the world.
12:26
And I also noticed that, you know, Melissa Hortman,
12:30
who is the Minnesota House speaker, who she and
12:33
her husband were killed from a politically motivated
12:36
assassination attempt not too long ago. And just,
12:41
again, thoughts and prayers, but not nearly the
12:44
mention. of her and her husband because they're
12:48
Democrats, right? Right. Well, one of the things
12:52
that shocked me was I was talking to my brother
12:54
today and he said he was watching a Yankee game
12:56
and the New York Yankees had a moment of silence
12:59
from Charlie Kirk. I don't... I don't get that
13:04
at all. We have children being gunned down every
13:07
day. We have black people, brown people, all
13:10
kinds of people being gunned down every day.
13:12
But it's this white supremacist. And believe
13:16
me, I do not condone violence. I do not condone
13:20
political violence. I wish we didn't have all
13:22
these guns in this country. But there is a real
13:26
disparity on how it's received by media. and
13:29
how it's talked about by legislators and people
13:33
in power. Right. And just going back to Charlie
13:37
Kirk, the idea that it's okay for people to die
13:39
as long as we can keep our guns. Those people.
13:43
I think what he meant to say is it's okay for
13:46
those people to die. And if you look at what
13:48
the new move by the right is, they're trying
13:50
to blame gun violence on people who are transitioning.
13:56
Oh, yeah. No trans people should have guns. Right.
14:01
I hate to say this, but this reminds me of the
14:04
last time. Well, one of the first times that
14:08
I saw conservatives call for gun legislation
14:14
or gun restrictions was back probably in the
14:17
60s and late 60s, early 70s in California when
14:21
Ronald Reagan was governor of California. And
14:24
he pushed through various gun legislations, not
14:29
because they cared about people getting shot.
14:32
It was because the Black Panthers had guns. And
14:35
they were carrying these automatic weapons or
14:39
rifles or shotguns that people are now walking
14:43
along the streets with. But it was Black people
14:46
with guns. And that's when the NRA decided, oh,
14:49
we have to have some limits. On gun on gun use
14:53
so and we had mentioned that I had bought you
14:56
that whole start for your water bottle And you
14:59
would not walk with it because it looked like
15:01
you were carrying a gun Yeah, and I don't want
15:03
to be confused with someone carrying a gun, especially
15:06
in a place where Police tend to shoot before
15:10
asking questions, right? So, you know, it's this
15:14
this fear of guns. Yes, I see the reason why
15:20
people want to have them, but there is a sort
15:23
of a, there has to be some limit on it. If you
15:28
have like, well, gun collectors can have as many
15:32
guns as they want, but if you're going to high
15:37
school and you want your dad to buy you automatic
15:40
weapons, which is, which has happened in certain
15:44
cases, where they go and shoot up schools and
15:48
all we can offer is thoughts and prayers. Right.
15:51
You know, that's just I think, you know, the
15:54
bottom line is 9 11 gave the right this opening
16:00
to make people very, very afraid of those that
16:06
do not look like you. Right. Yeah. And it's it's
16:10
going today where We have no idea who shot Charlie
16:15
Kirk right now. I know the right has been trying
16:17
to say that it was a trans person, but we don't
16:21
know. And it also shows the incompetence of our
16:27
current criminal justice system, especially in
16:30
the FBI, because when the shooting happened,
16:35
the FBI director, Kash Patel, came out and said,
16:38
oh, we have the suspect and we're... The FBI
16:41
has done a great job. Well, completely wrong.
16:44
They didn't have anybody. They had no idea where
16:46
the guy is. They just released images of their
16:51
main suspect. But there has, as far as I know,
16:54
right now on September 11th to 11 p .m. Eastern
16:59
Time, no one's been arrested. So. Well, anyway,
17:05
there is this fetish with guns. And we see it
17:08
not only in our coverage, we also see it in our
17:13
politicians. And in the most bizarre ways. Right,
17:18
yeah. I was just thinking, we were discussing
17:21
this earlier. Thomas Massey's family's Christmas
17:26
card. They all have automatic. Right, weapons
17:30
in their hands. Just ready to go. Merry Christmas.
17:32
Merry Christmas. White people with big smiles
17:34
carrying automatic weapons. Merry Christmas.
17:37
Yeah, we're protecting, well, I guess they're
17:40
going to shoot Santa Claus when he comes down
17:42
the chimney because he's in a red suit. Yeah.
17:44
That's communism. All right, we're criticizing
17:50
Massey now. You have to give him some credit
17:53
because right now he seems to be one of the few
17:57
politicians in the country who are actually extremely
18:01
vocal against Donald Trump. And going on about,
18:06
you know, talking about the Epstein files and
18:09
all of the... Well, give Massey credit. He stood
18:13
up for the victims of Epstein. And he's calling
18:18
for young women who were raped and trafficked.
18:22
I think we shouldn't say young women because
18:25
they were girls. They were girls. You're right.
18:28
Girls. One of these things that happened when
18:31
I was an editor was that there were always references
18:36
to the molestation of underage women, and it's
18:41
like... Girls. No, let's say girls. These are
18:44
like preteens or teenagers. Thank you. These
18:51
are girls. These are not young women. Yes, to
18:56
me, a young woman is someone in her mid -20s.
18:58
Yeah, but to me, anyone under 18 or under 20,
19:04
which Donald Trump said, what Donald Trump said
19:06
he would like, Well, he would do bad things to
19:11
them if they were 13. And that was on a Howard
19:15
Stern broadcast. At least Massey is going after
19:21
the people who are doing this. And there's this
19:25
really strange. situation where it's not only
19:29
Thomas Massey, it's Rand Paul, who's, you know,
19:33
that's two Kentucky legislators, and Morgan McGarvey,
19:38
our legislator here in Louisville, has also gone
19:41
into these attacks on, not attacks, but these
19:49
efforts to get the Epstein files released. Massey
19:54
is pushing legislation, Magari is pushing legislation,
19:58
Rand Paul is lining up with the let's release
20:01
the Epstein files information. But I don't know
20:07
what's going to happen with that. Yeah. Well,
20:11
and this disloyalty, we've been seeing again
20:17
how Trump is going out against anyone who isn't
20:21
loyal to him, and we've seen this now with the
20:24
Federal Reserve Bank, which really must... retain
20:28
its independence, but there was a really good
20:31
article in the Kentucky Lantern published September
20:35
5th by Ken Miller. And he really, he says, average
20:39
Kentuckians will suffer if Trump weaponizes the
20:42
economy. And I think most Kentuckians don't understand
20:47
how the Federal Reserve impacts their lives.
20:51
But first of all, Lisa Cook, the woman that Trump
20:55
wants to have fired, she happens to be the first
20:58
black woman to serve in one of the most powerful
21:01
economic institutions in the world. So let that
21:05
sink in, right? We're talking about violence
21:07
against girls, crimes against girls, and women.
21:13
Anyway, you all know what I'm talking about.
21:17
Essentially, what Kentuckyans really need to
21:20
understand is that their well -being has a lot
21:26
to do with the way that the Federal Reserve works.
21:32
you know, the cost of your loans for farmers
21:35
to get new equipment, your rising grocery prices,
21:40
you know, small business loans, your mortgages,
21:46
all of this has to do with how our central...
21:49
bank works. Your credit card statements, you
21:52
know, the fees they charge on credit cards, those
21:56
are using sort of the Fed rate on what the base
22:00
is for that percentage. Right. And it's so it's
22:03
not an abstract battle in Washington. It directly
22:06
affects Kentuckians. Right. And so we really
22:09
want to lift that up, that all Kentuckians should
22:12
be working to protect the independence of the
22:14
Federal Reserve Bank so that you have your economic
22:17
freedom. Right. I don't think the media does
22:22
a good job at all with tying this to regular
22:26
people. No one seems to understand what's going
22:29
on with that. And the idea that Trump is going
22:31
after Jerome Powell, who he appointed, that's
22:36
the other thing. Trump is always saying that,
22:38
oh, what idiot appointed these guys? And it's
22:41
like you look back at history and it's like,
22:43
oh, Donald Trump appointed him. or when something
22:46
happens that he blames Biden for, it began with
22:51
the Trump administration. So there is this sort
22:56
of rabid bunch of loyalty. It's like you have
23:00
to go to the... emperor and declare your allegiance
23:06
to his forces, which is what the tech guys did
23:10
last week, that dinner at the White House where
23:16
every tech billionaire just sat around and, you
23:21
know, praised him. Like, just horrible. It was
23:27
horrible. It's this idea that... They are so
23:31
desperate to keep their fortunes that they are
23:33
going to just screw over everyone else and the
23:36
thing you have to remember about Billionaires
23:39
is they they don't care and it's never enough.
23:43
That's the other thing about billionaires when
23:44
what was it? It was Zuckerberg Mark Zuckerberg
23:48
with Facebook slash Metta He gave this figure
23:54
saying that the tech industry was going to donate
23:58
$600 billion to improving whatever America. And
24:03
then on this hot mic moment, he said Trump, well,
24:07
I didn't know what number you really wanted me
24:09
to say here. So I just threw this one out. So
24:12
they're making up numbers just to appease this.
24:17
Ten pod dictator well and going back to this
24:20
culture of fear I really you know a lot of us
24:22
are really wondering where the Democratic Party
24:25
is there is so much opportunity to be telling
24:29
people the truth and to be tying this into why
24:33
it's terrible for them and we're not doing it
24:36
and I talked to Someone who runs a communications
24:40
PR firm for Democratic causes And he basically
24:44
just said, well, a lot of these people are dumb
24:47
and afraid. Now, I don't know that the legislators
24:50
are any dumber than Republican legislators. When
24:53
you say dumb, you're referring to the legislators,
24:56
not to the populace. No, the party. The party.
24:59
Like, they're dumb and they're afraid. Well,
25:02
that's inexcusable. Dumb is totally inexcusable,
25:05
but we see that all over the country with our
25:08
politicians now. But afraid, this is part of
25:12
this since 9 -11. This has been what's happening.
25:16
Be very, very afraid. And now Republicans and
25:20
Democrats alike are not speaking. up about these
25:26
things, because they're afraid. Yeah. This is
25:29
the time for Democrats to not be afraid. This
25:31
is the time for them to stand up and just say,
25:34
this is wrong. We're not going to take it. But
25:39
instead, you know, where are the Democratic leaders
25:43
these days? I hear nothing from Chuck Schumer.
25:46
I hear nothing from Hakeem Jefferies. Morgan
25:50
McGarvey, again, the only Democrats I hear from
25:53
are Bernie Sanders, who's not really a Democrat,
25:56
he's a Democratic Socialist, and Alexandria Ocasio
26:00
-Cortez, who's essentially a Democrat, but along
26:04
the lines of Bernie Sanders, and Jasmine Crockett
26:07
in Texas. These are people who are calling out
26:11
the lies and calling out the hypocrisy, but the
26:15
rest of the party, they're... There's this idea,
26:20
I believe, that they think that people are going
26:23
to be so pissed off by the next election that
26:25
they don't have to do the work to get them to,
26:29
you know, vote against, to, well, in this case,
26:33
vote for their interest instead of voting against
26:36
their interest as they have in past elections.
26:38
But we're not seeing the Democrats take advantage
26:43
of this. You know, honestly, when Republicans
26:46
were out of power, They were hammering Democrats
26:51
every second, blaming Democrats for every bit
26:54
of evil in the world. And the Democrats have
26:58
been just, oh, OK, please don't hurt us. They're
27:02
curled up in a ball. And you see this with all
27:05
the judges that Mitch and his team prevented
27:09
the Obama administration getting in. And now
27:11
we see all that's happening in the Supreme Court,
27:14
the partisan nature of the court. But, you know,
27:17
this fear is real. I mean, Charlie Kirk was just
27:21
murdered. You know, politicians are being murdered.
27:25
So, you know, where, you know, it's bad. Yeah.
27:30
Where are we going to get, where is the leadership?
27:32
And that's, that's a question worth asking. Where
27:35
is the Democratic party in Kentucky? You know,
27:39
we, everyone talks about like the looking at
27:42
Democrats on a national scale, but Just let's
27:46
look at the state level. Who runs the party?
27:50
Why are they not doing anything? Right. You know,
27:54
when Charlie Kirk was murdered, I saw the articles
27:57
about what politicians on both sides of the aisle
28:00
in Kentucky said. Everybody sent thoughts and
28:03
prayers to Charlie Kirk's family. Every single
28:06
person, Democrat and Republican. Right. And thoughts
28:09
and prayers are sort of like, you know, the...
28:12
We're not going to do anything. Right. That's
28:14
exactly what that means. Well, you're talking
28:17
about thoughts and prayers, but what action are
28:20
you going to take to stop this violence? And
28:23
the answer is, well, for Republicans, it's like,
28:26
well, give us more guns. For Democrats, it's
28:29
like, I don't know what it is. I can assure you
28:32
after this murder, this assassination of Charlie
28:36
Kirk, that way more white people are going to
28:38
go out and get... Firearms right and there were
28:42
there as I said, they're targeting now the trans
28:46
community for this Just out of nowhere. It's
28:50
like you they have to find a victim or they have
28:53
to find a scapegoat victim is the wrong word
28:56
because the person who shot is the victim but
28:59
the scapegoat for I we're going to focus our
29:03
efforts on whatever disadvantage group we can
29:06
and with gun violence or with the mass shootings
29:11
in schools, you would think that there's this
29:15
old Chris Rock routine where he was talking about
29:18
gun violence in the schools and he says, I don't
29:20
know, you have to do something about white teenage
29:22
boys. But it's something that keeps, it's something
29:27
that, it's like rinse and repeat. Whenever it
29:30
happens. you can you know exactly what everyone's
29:33
going to say you know exactly what the news is
29:39
going to report and then you know that nothing's
29:42
going to happen until the next shooting and the
29:45
fact is most of these mass shootings are perpetrated
29:48
by white males yeah but now they're trying to
29:52
again trying to focus it on the trans community
29:55
by Republicans saying that there should be laws
29:59
to ban trans people from having guns when that's
30:04
not who's doing the shooting. Let's transition
30:09
to something very positive, shall we? Okay, is
30:13
there anything positive? Bernheim, you just went
30:17
to Bernheim, and I think you should tell everybody
30:19
it was your grandson's birthday. Yeah, my grandson
30:21
turned two, so we took a trip to Bernheim Forest.
30:24
Is that a state forest? No, it's a private nonprofit.
30:29
It's kind of like the state arboretum, but not
30:32
officially. Well, anyway, we went to Bernheim,
30:34
and they have all these huge giant sculptures,
30:39
and it's... They're giants. Yeah, they're giants,
30:42
and it's very child -friendly. And, you know,
30:47
we just walked there for a few hours. We had
30:50
a little birthday party for the two -year -old.
30:53
And we, you know, it was a way to get out and
30:58
take a look at nature and just enjoy the environment.
31:03
And for a two -year -old, I'm sure he's never
31:06
going to remember this and he gets older, but
31:08
his brother is five and he had a good time. He
31:11
got to see the giants. We took family photos.
31:15
And it was just a good family gathering. All
31:18
the grandparents were there. Friends were there.
31:23
We did have a good time, lots of walking involved.
31:26
But it was nice to get out into the country,
31:30
enjoy the environment. And it's great that Bernheim
31:35
is trying to preserve this part of Kentucky,
31:38
where you're not going to be building up new
31:43
Amazon warehouses. Because when you drive out
31:47
there, You see that various companies are building
31:51
these huge warehouses along the way and taking
31:54
up a lot of land. So it was a good time. And
31:59
there's more coming. They're having some kind
32:02
of bug fest. Yeah, bug fest is September 20th.
32:04
I'll be out there with Kevin Wiener, who is all
32:08
bugs go to Kevin. He has a really strong social
32:12
media following. He's amazing. definitely bring
32:16
your kids out to Bug Fest. There's gonna be a
32:18
bug parade where the kids are all in costumes.
32:21
We'll have bug treasure hunts. It is a blast.
32:24
It's one of my very favorite things that happens.
32:28
And I think it's something like 11 to three on
32:31
the 20th. I also wanna correct something that
32:35
I said last time about the tube. venomous snakes
32:39
being in Kentucky, there are two venomous snakes
32:42
at Bernheim, which is where I volunteer, but
32:45
there are four venomous snakes in Kentucky. And
32:49
by the way, just leave them alone. They have
32:52
very beneficial uses and they're not aggressive,
32:55
but the four Kentucky venomous snakes are the
32:58
timber rattlesnake, the pig meat rattlesnake,
33:03
the copperhead, and the water moccasin. Which
33:07
are the two in Bernheim? The two in Bernheim
33:10
are the timber rattlesnake and the copperhead.
33:13
And I also wanted, Jesse was talking about poisonous,
33:17
and I was talking about venomous, and I just
33:19
want people to know that the difference is that
33:22
venomous, which are these snakes, they actively
33:25
inject. toxins through bites. So again, they're
33:30
really not interested in us. You have to be bitten.
33:34
Poisonous animals contain toxins that harm if
33:37
they're ingested or if it's absorbed through
33:40
skin. So I just wanted to tell you the difference
33:44
between poisonous and venomous and that there
33:46
are four venomous snakes. in the state so that
33:50
we tell you all the right stuff here? Well, we,
33:53
as you know, we bought land next to Bernheim.
33:55
It was 10 acres. And we went out there a couple
33:59
of weeks ago. And so there was a tarp on the
34:04
property. We picked up the tarp and three copperheads
34:08
were there. So. I'm a city person and, you know,
34:14
snakes are not my thing. So the people who are
34:19
relatives who live out there took care of those
34:21
three snakes at that time. And then the next
34:24
day they went back to the property and they found
34:27
11 more of them. So I know that the snakes are
34:31
out there and I'm not going near them, so. But
34:35
don't be afraid of them. So this is something
34:37
we're going to work on, Jesse, about. Yeah. Well,
34:39
I was told that If you see a rattlesnake, just
34:43
leave it alone because it's not going to go after
34:45
you. The only time a rattlesnake will go for
34:48
you is when you go toward it or when you are
34:51
aggressive toward it. However, copperheads, they
34:55
will chase you. And so if you see a copperhead...
34:58
It's unlikely. It's unlikely. But they're the
35:01
more aggressive of the two. Possibly. Leave them
35:03
alone. But if they're under your doorstep, and
35:06
Jesse's moving out to the country, he's got to
35:09
feel safe. So whatevas. Other fun things, Bourbon
35:14
and Beyond is this weekend. It starts today.
35:17
It's got a fabulous lineup. I will say I'm dismayed
35:21
at how expensive the tickets were. Like one day
35:24
became like $215 for the day. Really? It's a
35:29
four day festival. So you can spend a lot of
35:33
money to go to this festival, which is really
35:35
sad. And it didn't used to be this way and I'm
35:38
really showing you my age. But anyway, good stuff
35:41
at Bourbon and Beyond. It's right by the fairgrounds.
35:44
I know people are going and are going to have
35:46
a blast. And I just wanted to mention that next
35:50
Wednesday is the last Waterfront Wednesday that
35:53
WFPK sponsors and it's down by the Big Four Bridge.
35:58
Joy Olatokun is the headliner. If you don't know
36:02
her, you need to. She is an awesome singer -songwriter.
36:07
Actually, she's out of Texas, but I think she
36:09
might be living in Nashville now. Anyway, she's
36:12
awesome. You don't want to miss her. And that
36:14
starts at 6 PM on the 17th. So there are fun
36:18
things to do and take care of ourselves and do
36:22
our yoga and meditation and build community while...
36:26
our empire crumbles. Getting back to the idea
36:31
of a four -day music festival. When we lived
36:36
in Europe, we would do these music festivals
36:39
in Werchter in Belgium. It was just four days
36:45
of music and I went with my son one year. to
36:49
all four days. And one of the things I remember
36:52
was, it was the day that Metallica was performing.
36:56
They were the last act of the last day. And as
37:01
I'm walking around with my son, I see this guy
37:04
in a T -shirt, a Metallica T -shirt, and it says
37:07
something like, never too old to rock. And he
37:11
was with his kids, and I looked at my son and
37:13
said, if you ever see me in a T -shirt like that,
37:17
just put me out of my misery. because it's just,
37:21
I felt my age at the time, but it was really
37:25
just these huge festivals are great because you
37:28
get to see all these artists that you would,
37:32
again, the amount that's... Ringo Starr's coming,
37:38
by the way. What's Ringo Starr? Ringo Starr.
37:40
Oh, Ringo. Ringo? Come on. Well, I'm looking
37:44
at the... The lineup is really unbelievable.
37:46
And it's like Foreigner is going to be there
37:48
for old people. Jack Benatar. The Goo Goo Dolls.
37:54
Fish and Jack White. Cage the Elephant, Alabama
37:58
Shakes, Lumineers. The Pixies. Sturgill Simpson,
38:03
Noah Khan. I mean, really, they've got top talent
38:07
here. Yeah, this is a big deal. The price is
38:13
really up. That's the unfortunate thing. These
38:19
festivals used to cost a lot less. Going to Churchill
38:23
Downs used to cost a lot less for Derby. Now
38:26
those tickets are out of range. This is beginning
38:30
to get out of range. And it makes you wonder,
38:34
are people aware that this is not a state of
38:37
rich people? Kentucky is not doing well, just
38:43
in terms of people's financial situations. There
38:49
are things that... Well, you know, there are
38:53
things that you can do here, like the World Fest.
38:57
Yeah, World Fest was awesome. World Fest was
38:59
free. 150 ,000 people estimated to go, celebrating
39:03
our diversity, celebrating our immigrant communities.
39:06
And that was last week. It was awesome. And,
39:09
you know, they had four stages. No, I'm sorry,
39:12
three stages of music. There was one stage that
39:16
was doing jazz. There was another stage I was
39:20
walking around and there was like this children's
39:22
puppet show on stage with little kids in the
39:26
front just dancing while the people were singing.
39:29
There were Latinx, there were dance troupes of
39:33
young people. They were so great. It was so fun.
39:37
The day I went, there were belly dancers. There
39:40
was this really good Doors cover band. They were
39:45
just doing the hits of the Doors and they were
39:47
just really well done. The food's really good
39:50
too. The merchandise was very reasonably priced.
39:57
A lot of us got like... Gifts for people for
40:00
the rest of the year at World Fest. Well, yeah,
40:03
so there's a lot going on and Let's not forget
40:06
that in what three weeks. We're going to have
40:09
the art show the St. James art show That's hundreds
40:15
of thousands of people as well First weekend
40:18
in October. Right. And there is affordable art.
40:23
If you're looking for affordable art, it's going
40:25
to be there. The artists are coming from all
40:28
over the country. There are regulars. I know
40:32
a couple or some people who come from Michigan
40:35
every day. We've had people come in from Florida
40:39
and California. And it's just... And it's free,
40:45
like you can walk around for free, like World
40:48
Fest. Yeah, so, you know, these festivals like
40:52
Bourbon and Beyond are great if you have money
40:55
to go. But if you're looking for something to
40:57
do, and you don't have money, do the art shows
41:01
and do the World Fest. Last year was the Paw
41:03
Paw Festival. Last week was the Paw Paw Festival
41:06
at the Louisville Nature Center. And they celebrated
41:10
everything Paw Paw. And it was free, and there
41:12
were kids. And yeah, so look for the free stuff.
41:15
We've got a lot of that around here, around the
41:17
state, too. Yeah. Well, it's good to know that
41:24
there are things to do that are affordable because
41:27
we also just need some relief from the news.
41:33
We need to not be consistently bombarded with
41:36
the idea that everything is bad, nothing's getting
41:39
better. But do educate yourselves. And we've
41:44
talked about the five calls app. Do what you
41:46
can. Be in community. Don't isolate. Reach out.
41:50
And there is something for all of us to do. Thanks
41:56
for joining us for our 11th on 9 -11. I'm going
42:00
to end with something really fun. Speaking of
42:04
11 there is a funny funny ass video of two Scottish
42:09
guys in an elevator You can google you can put
42:12
it search it on YouTube search 11 elevator Scotland
42:18
Believe me. It's a short video of these two guys
42:21
trying to get a voice activated elevator to take
42:25
them to the 11th floor and the woman has like
42:29
an American voice and she keeps asking them please
42:32
you know give me your floor destination blah
42:34
blah blah and they're they ended up they end
42:36
up like just fighting with this voice activated
42:38
elevator and then well I won't give you the punchline
42:41
at the end but it's really fun so Elevator 11,
42:46
Scotland. You got to Google it. Okay, I will
42:48
do that right after we're finished with this
42:50
podcast. So, we will be back in two weeks. We'll
42:55
be back right before the art show, so we will
42:58
remind you, Buddy, to take care of yourself.
43:00
Bye. Our closing music is by John Chamberlain.
43:14
I'm out.