3 friends discussing the important topics in our tiny little lives this week
I I do declare that I will begin this recording as soon as my mother returns from the wall.
Laz:That was a great Futurama character. You guys the country chicken?
Emilio:Mhmm. Oh, yes. The the
Laz:country chicken lawyer who talked like
Emilio:that. I'm
Christian:just a
Emilio:now I may just be a backwoods country chicken lawyer, but
Christian:just a second. Yeah. Well Badger. What's the name what's the name of our episode? I mean, the show.
Christian:What's the name of this show?
Emilio:Country Chicken Lawyer.
Christian:Oh. Country Chicken. Would you like to introduce this, show, Lazar
Emilio:Emilio? Take it, Laz. Alright.
Laz:Do the voice. Alright. You rocking live with the country chicken lawyers. Wait. That was the voice.
Laz:Right?
Emilio:Yep. Nailed it. Okay. Good.
Laz:Now I may just be a simple country chicken lawyer. No. I wasn't it either.
Christian:No. That's actually really good.
Emilio:Starting strong
Christian:at least.
Laz:There's a finger licking good or something like that.
Christian:And so on. Whatever you fool
Laz:somebody is that way.
Emilio:You have to say, like, lawyer y things.
Laz:Yeah. Yeah. I, you know, and I motion that my client be, set innocent for insanity for hiring me as a lawyer. Some phrase like that. I can't remember exactly.
Emilio:Yeah. I mean, shit, y'all. I don't know. Hope, shit. That that character is that character based on the, opponent lawyer for My Cousin Vinny?
Emilio:I think it
Laz:is. Well, I think that character is based on, like, some other mythological southern lawyer from from many other yeah. Awesome archetype.
Christian:It's a trope. Yeah. Yeah.
Laz:A very funny trope.
Christian:It's a great trope.
Emilio:It's a southern
Laz:elf trope.
Emilio:It's kinda Keanu Reeves in, in Devil's Advocate.
Christian:Oh my god.
Laz:Oh, I
Christian:don't remember that. Up on doing a southern accent at some point in that movie. Like, maybe the first, like, 5 minutes, and then from there on out, nope. Kinda like his, English accent in, Dracula.
Emilio:Yep. Yep. Yeah. That was pretty
Christian:bad. Yeah. I mean, such a great movie, though, but as was devil's advocate. 2 really great movies that he was in. Yeah.
Christian:But he
Laz:With terrible accents.
Christian:Yeah. I mean, you know, he
Laz:was he was Partial accents?
Christian:Yeah. But it's it's not that. It's just like, you know, he wasn't great in Bram Stoker's Dracula. He was, you know, it was it was fine that it was him and the devil's advocate. It had no bearing whatsoever on the film because Al Pacino was the main event.
Emilio:Oh, and how and and how so? I mean
Christian:No. I mean, man, so good in that.
Emilio:That was his his overacting achievement of the of all time.
Christian:Just the best, like, the most Al Pacino that you could possibly do.
Emilio:Just, Yeah. Fill up your cup with Al.
Christian:What do they call it in Rick and Morty? Like, Rick prime? He's like, that was Al Pacino prime.
Al Pacino:Al Pacino. It's me, Oscar winner. That was me.
Laz:Playing. You
Al Pacino:listen to me, Keanu.
Christian:Oh, well, then sort of lost a little bit there.
Al Pacino:Shut up, Christian.
Christian:You had it. You had it, and then I don't know. You're you suddenly became, like, generic high school principal.
Al Pacino:You kids sit down.
Christian:I know that you, Emilio I mean, Al Pacino, Yes. Had had a an a a little fun game for us for this week's episode.
Al Pacino:I had completely forgotten.
Emilio:I had it because I was
Laz:excited about it. I also forgot, but there's still time.
Christian:Bad at this.
Laz:My god.
Emilio:Did we did we talk last week?
Christian:Was that you? That's you guys. That's you guys.
Laz:We wiped our own memories of it completely after listening to you recording it.
Christian:It's just like Yes.
Laz:Okay. We're we're gonna look at a map Yep. Of the different places. Yes. Because I don't like, I don't know your specific address either for either of you guys.
Emilio:Can I send you I can't
Laz:look exactly at the address?
Emilio:Well, can I send you a a map without sharing it, or can you bleep out my address or something?
Christian:No. I mean, we like,
Laz:Yeah. Sure. Sure. Down
Christian:close to the address, or we're just doing the city? I mean, San Diego is big. That's the only thing that
Laz:we need.
Emilio:I just put in the chat. I'll put it in our
Christian:Okay.
Emilio:In our group.
Christian:I'll put I'll put mine in our chat too.
Laz:Yeah. And if you put in my town, you're good.
Christian:Yeah. That's all. That's as close as me to get. I mean, I kinda feel that same way with with Missoula, but, you know, whatever. Alright.
Emilio:Alright. Yeah. This is alright. I've got I've got Christian's up here.
Christian:Okay. We've got Emilio's up, and we're just going with your town there, Lazarino.
Laz:Yeah. And really, like, the the surrounding 10 towns is probably good.
Christian:Okay. Great. Alright.
Emilio:What is the population of your town, Laz?
Laz:I actually looked it up recently. It's around 6,200.
Emilio:Wow. That's Oh.
Christian:That is
Emilio:a town. And I because
Laz:the reason I was looking it up is because there is a I went to my, my daughter is in band. She's in the advanced band for 4th grade, and we went to the the band night, which is what they do is they do, the the 2 schools that are part of the district. So our school and then the neighborhood neighboring town school, and then they do the elementary, the middle school, and the high school all have their band nights on the same night. So they can, like, see where you came from and see where you're going. Like, they want the kids to, like, be part of it.
Laz:So there was 200 kids all in, like, doing their different band shows there.
Emilio:Oh my god.
Laz:So it was it was a pretty big event. And the you know, our, daughter's elementary school went up and it was like, you know, 10 kids and it was awesome, sounded cool, very fun. And then the neighboring town went up and they had like 40 kids. So it's the same thing elementary school and it was like they filled this like literally filled every seat on the stage and it was like a big band like they had all these different things and I was like well, wait a minute. So I looked up the population of the 2 towns.
Laz:I was like, these towns are right next to each other. They're the same town. They're like, you know, like, it's like Ash Ashburnham, Westminster, Ash West. Like, they're, like, sister towns, and their population was, like, 8,000 and ours was 6,200. But, like, somehow between those two towns, one of them has, like it's, like, banned city or something.
Emilio:So I don't know.
Laz:It was it was funny.
Emilio:Or there's just a lot of boning going on. They got a lot of babies over there.
Laz:Yeah. Maybe it's maybe it's a lot of children over there. Maybe the extra 2,000 people in there are all children.
Christian:2,000 children. Be that the median age of your town is way higher than their median age.
Laz:Yeah. That's possible.
Christian:But I I don't I
Laz:don't know how to look that up.
Christian:What's more what's more important to me is I would like to know what is your town's thing. If that other town's thing is band stuff, I mean, what do you guys represent for?
Laz:You know, that's I I don't know. And the other reason I was looking up the thing is because we got a message that the Ashburnham softball team for, you know, for their age group doesn't have enough kids. And so they're they're requesting that our Ashburnham kids join one of the 3 Westminster Clubs.
Emilio:Like 3? Because they
Laz:have 3 softball teams. More people. In that age group, they have 3 softball teams, and and we have not been able to muster a single team for this year. So I I don't know. I'm like, wait a minute.
Laz:What is going on here? So very confusing.
Christian:You know what I wanna know about what's going on, Laz? I wanna know about yakisawa sushi and grill. Tell me
Emilio:I wanna know about yakisawa.
Emilio:Tell me tell me what
Christian:what horrors are made at yaki yakisawa.
Laz:Alright. Yakisawa, this is right in the center of town. Right? Mhmm. The the one you're talking about?
Laz:Yeah.
Emilio:Oh, don't
Christian:act like you don't know.
Laz:Don't act like you don't know or Yagavala. What are
Emilio:you talking about?
Laz:Honestly, they're different.
Emilio:Talking about your town.
Laz:There's another one nearby that has a similar name. So I just wanna make it's in Gardner.
Christian:You wanna make sure
Laz:it's something that you can actually read
Christian:off the screen to
Emilio:you? Yeah.
Laz:Yeah. Yakisawa has an interesting it's like why would this it's first of all, it's extremely good sushi. Extremely good. And why would they have extremely good sushi in the middle of this town in the middle of nowhere? Yeah.
Laz:And the answer is if you keep looking at that map, you will see a school, Cushing Academy.
Emilio:Yep. Yep.
Laz:Which it's possible that you may have heard of this. We actually know some people who've gone to Cushing Academy.
Christian:Mhmm. We do.
Laz:Very wealthy private school. And so they had this sushi thing, that's their hangout. That's their, like, sushi place. That's the only reason this place is there, and it's so good. And it makes no sense that it's right in the middle of, you know, Ashburn.
Laz:Oh, man. But it's very good.
Christian:Good for that is very fortunate for this. Yes. Yeah. Of the town of Ashburnham.
Laz:Yeah. Yep. So there it is, Yokosuka.
Emilio:Is Cushing Academy are the students there cool? Are they jerks?
Laz:We have no idea. We have basically no interaction with them in any way.
Emilio:When you see them at yakuza, do they, like, demand Well, actually yeah. Well, the other thing about yakuza was
Christian:getting into waiters?
Laz:No. They used to be, I mean, we do see them, like, we do see, like, you know, groups of, like, teenagers presumably from Cushing Academy walking around, and they all seem very very friendly, very nice. But they no longer have seating at yakasawa ever since COVID. So it's takeout only, which kinda ruined it for us because we used to love going in there and and doing sitting down.
Christian:Sushi is not good.
Laz:Yeah. No. It's, I mean, it's just not the same. You know, you get the whole thing is, like, the presentation, the environment. So we we actually don't really go there as much anymore, which kinda sucks, but it's it it was a really good it was, like, one of our favorite spots before.
Christian:Oh, interesting.
Emilio:Oh, man. I really want sushi to help. Maybe I could convince Gladys to to Gladys, don't make that food you're making.
Laz:Make sushi instead. Yes.
Christian:Let's talk about Cushing Academy, though. So we know 2 people who've gone there.
Emilio:Who are these people?
Christian:I don't know these people. And Kaylee. Yeah. You don't know them, actually. They're they're they're later Boston years people.
Christian:Rice Kris Academy, we know.
Laz:Oh, cool.
Christian:Yeah. Yep.
Emilio:What do they do for though? Just a private school or they have a special thing?
Laz:It's like an international private school. So like I don't know what exact I'm not sure that it's really known for anything. They actually have a very good sports program. I do know that because I one of the parents of of one of our kids' friends is is one of their coaches, and they have, like, a very well respected sports program. But, yeah, it's like an international private school, and they're, like, people send their their kids to Cushing Academy from all over the world.
Christian:And Wow.
Laz:I I don't actually really know. Yeah.
Emilio:I don't
Laz:I don't really know what the pros and cons of it are, that kind of stuff, but it's it's like a It's like a somewhat controversial in the city in the town of Ashburnham Ashburnham. Because they're somehow because they're educational, they pay some sort of different tax rate on stuff, you know. So, like, I think I think I think there's just a general, like, level of, like, mistrust
Emilio:of, like,
Laz:these people are rich. We should be getting more money from them. I think it's kind of the, like, general general town sentiment sometimes. It's maybe my impression. Impression.
Laz:So So I don't know.
Emilio:I'm I'm looking at a picture. So I clicked on Cushing Academy. I'm looking at pictures. There's a picture of the soccer team. This is not what I expected at all.
Emilio:This is the most, like, diverse looking there's, like, one white dude on this soccer team. Is this because they're all, like, international? No.
Laz:It's it's very international. So that's the sushi thing. The sushi, like, there's, like yeah. It's a lot of Asian
Emilio:A lot of Asian. Yeah.
Christian:Yeah. Well
Emilio:yes. Now. I can Okay.
Christian:Good. Sorry. I got I got lost. I was hearing you guys talking, though, but there was an issue with my setup. Sorry about that.
Emilio:No. This is fascinating. I I I always sort of associate private schools with, like, rich white people. And, yeah, this is interesting. I mean, of course
Christian:met we met royalty as a result of, one of our friends having gone there.
Emilio:Tell more about that.
Christian:So let me, figure out here. Okay. That would be oh, what's the princess's name?
Laz:Princess Iman of Jordan.
Emilio:Although there's
Christian:there's 2 Right.
Laz:There's 2 princess Imans of Jordan, so it's a little confusing. Because if you look them up, it's the older sister who is the one who shows up. But there's another princess Eman of Jordan who is was, you know
Christian:Well, I think they're cousin is the thing.
Laz:Oh, cousins. Okay. Not sisters.
Christian:Yeah. So, like, the princess who we met is the daughter of the older brother who was somehow not made king. And so her uncle was the one who was made king. And so something like that. Yeah.
Christian:Anyway, she was nice.
Laz:Yeah. She was super cool. She came over at Tula where we lived in Summerville, and we made some pizzas and stuff, hung out.
Christian:That's strange.
Emilio:The current the
Christian:current king of Bhutan went there. They all went to school together.
Emilio:Jesus.
Christian:Yeah. And he's like a dream boat. He's like the hottie king.
Laz:The king of Bhutan.
Christian:He is. Are you guys looking him up?
Emilio:I sure am.
Laz:Oh, man. I mean, yes.
Christian:This is a great Beautiful.
Emilio:He's got
Emilio:a great name.
Christian:He's beautiful. Wife's a babe.
Emilio:Kidding me? It.
Emilio:Yeah. I would I
Laz:would not make a guess at how to Not my type of pronounce that name.
Emilio:I see what you're saying.
Emilio:Your type?
Emilio:No. But I see what you're saying.
Christian:He's so
Emilio:pretty. I like him more. He's everyone's type. Yeah.
Emilio:Yeah. No one's talking. Yeah.
Christian:It's great.
Laz:Okay. Alright. So so let I'm gonna ask now about San Diego.
Emilio:Alright. Hit me. But there's
Laz:so many things in San Diego, Lily.
Emilio:None of them are interesting, to be fair. Like, I hope you found something good because.
Laz:Yeah. Now, see I'm having second thoughts about, with the thing I was looking at. Do you know about the
Emilio:O'Reilly's Auto Parts or
Laz:Well, I'm looking at like a pretty big map of San Diego, I think, so I don't really know where to go here, but let's just go with, this land formation area looks cool. Mission Bay, Mission Beach.
Emilio:Okay. Let me, yeah. That's actually that is a kind of fun area. It's, I mean, it's it's a bay, and it's I guess it's kind of what you would expect. It's like, you know, they've got some boating and fishing and a lot of paddle boarding and people grilling, and there's an
Laz:amusement It's like a it's like a big park?
Emilio:Yeah. A big park. There's an amusement park it at Mission Beach. There's an escape room place there that I'd like that we've been to a couple times.
Christian:You've done you you do escape rooms more than you've you've done it several times?
Emilio:I've done 5 escape rooms now.
Christian:Really?
Emilio:And I'm 5 of 5, motherfuckers.
Christian:Woah. What what, difficulty level? All the difficulty levels. I'm really 5.
Emilio:I'm good at escape rooms.
Laz:I feel like I'm terrible at escape rooms.
Christian:What difficult what difficulty level was that?
Emilio:All all difficulties? They are they rated by difficulty level? I haven't noticed that. I mean, they're they're the the ones I've seen are, like, 6, 7, 8, or 9. Is that the scale that you're used to seeing?
Christian:Oh, no. I don't know. Usually, like, if you go in an escape room, you can ask for the easy, medium, or difficult level for the don't they is that, like, standard thing?
Emilio:No. Not from what I've seen. The ones I've seen are usually, like, at a on a on a scale of 1 to 10, and I've only I I I don't ever choose by difficulty, though. I choose by, like, is this available because I'm coming right now.
Christian:Oh, okay.
Emilio:Got it. Which which room?
Laz:I wanna escape something real fast.
Emilio:Yeah. Which room can you put me in?
Christian:I need a fix. I need a fix. If you have a fix, I'll take whichever whichever whichever whichever whatsoever difficulty. The
Emilio:several of the ones that a couple of the ones I've done have been more on the easier, like, I would say 5 or 6, I think, because we I've done them with my son and, like, other friends' kids. I did in Cambridge. So Cambridge has a great right in Central Square, a great spot, that has maybe 4 or 5. It's actually you guys remember, Lads, you you certainly remember the Dunkin' Donuts in Central Square?
Laz:Oh, yeah. And maybe you wanna talk
Emilio:tell some stories about that place one day.
Emilio:Oh, yeah. Right.
Christian:So Oh my god.
Emilio:Underneath where that that Dunkin' Donuts is gone now.
Laz:No. It's not.
Christian:It is. What?
Emilio:I know. It was an institution. Right?
Laz:It was there the last time I went there, so I'm surprised. But yeah.
Emilio:Yeah. It's gone. It's like a the liquor store is there, and then there's, like, a I wanna say, like, a vape shop or something maybe.
Christian:Oh, dear.
Emilio:But, but underneath that, it so there's a a a small, like, entryway that leads to where my mom's old, old work used to be actually, and there it goes it goes like it has multiple levels and there's a basement level. In that basement are like 4 or 5 awesome escape rooms. And I did 1 I've done 2 there now. 1 of them Are you
Laz:sure these are escape rooms?
Christian:What a great question.
Emilio:I mean, that you know, there's a basement. They lock you in a room. You gotta find your way out. I you have to escape.
Christian:Yeah. There's a guy there's
Emilio:a guy with a mask on a video screen that, like Yeah. A puppet face.
Christian:He offers you a
Emilio:saw, and you have to, you know, decide if you're gonna cut your leg off.
Christian:And it turns out Carrie Els or whatever that guy's name is. Carrie Els. The greatest Robin Hood ever.
Emilio:So so that one has a one room that's very challenging, that is based on you being trapped in a, former Nazi U Boat. Oh. And the Nazis have have abandoned the U Boat, and you're in part of, like, I don't know, the British intelligence or something. You're trying to come and find out where the Nazis went and also find their gold.
Christian:The gold
Emilio:is is hidden somewhere inside of the submarine. And,
Al Pacino:oh, man. It was fun.
Emilio:That was a great one because it was really it was it was super interactive. Like, you had to actually, like, find all these clues and then use a periscope and attach all these connections to, like, hook up all these wires. And at one point, you have to dive to a certain depth. And when you do that, the the submarine starts to, like, break apart, and the the room actually shakes and, like, part of the wall moves towards you. Woah.
Emilio:It was amazing. My goodness. Yeah. It was really cool.
Christian:Jeez. These some of the basement
Emilio:below where the Dunkin' Donuts
Laz:the Dunkin' Donuts, etcetera.
Emilio:Like, what?
Emilio:This story is so fantastic as I say it.
Christian:Oh my goodness.
Emilio:So, anyway, that's San Diego Bay for you.
Christian:Alright. I wanna know in your honest opinion and why, which is the better Thai restaurant? Sala Thai or Lamoon Thai?
Emilio:I don't know if I've ever been to either of those. Salah. I think I've been to Salah.
Laz:San Diego is so big.
Christian:They are so close to where you live. They're just both of them are just
Laz:at the street.
Emilio:Oh, yes.
Christian:Sala I
Laz:can't believe it, Emilio.
Emilio:Sala is garbage.
Christian:Rolando Village. You know Rolando Village.
Emilio:Rolando Village. Sola Thai sucks.
Christian:Oh, okay.
Emilio:I've been there. It's it's a it's one that caters to the college kids, and it's just not exciting, not interesting. I shouldn't, they're now we'll never get sponsored by Salat High.
Christian:I hear them walking out. I hear them literally walking
Emilio:out the door. The sound of Salatai's taking their pots of you and leaving.
Laz:Slam. You got
Emilio:a creaky door. You got a creaky door. You really should use me.
Christian:You have you 40 on it. What was the other one? La Moon Thai eatery.
Emilio:I have, I don't know this one. I have oh, this is also but so all of these
Christian:are Less than a mile from you.
Laz:All of
Emilio:these are in the college area. The college area restaurants just generally suck.
Christian:Interesting.
Emilio:They don't try very hard. So the Thai the place that we go to is Tamarind Thai Oh. Which is, I think, maybe a tiny bit farther away. You'll see it to the to the east of us.
Christian:Okay.
Emilio:Tambour Thai is pretty good.
Christian:K. Why?
Emilio:They're just generally solid. The I I don't order a ton of stuff usually, but, like, the is great. The skewers are great, and they tend to not be, like, super busy, and full of annoying kids. One interesting story about Tamarind was during the during COVID, you'll remember there were, Black Lives Matter protests.
Christian:Mhmm.
Emilio:And at one point, there was some kind of action that happened in our neighborhood, and I don't I don't know exactly how it was connected to BLM or if it was just people getting upset and, like, so they they they basically a group of protesters, like, smashed up the Vons supermarket. Vons is like a big supermarket chain out here.
Christian:Oh, boy.
Emilio:And so, you know, we were like, good. Fuck Vons. Like, you know, corporations suck. Right? But they also smashed the windows of Tamarind Thai.
Christian:Oh, no.
Emilio:Was like, what the hell, you guys? This is like a small local restaurant. Like, they don't deserve this at all, but I think it was just that that that rage, that mob mentality. People were just out and angry and, like, breaking shit. And
Christian:so yeah,
Emilio:it sucked. But, they've they've bounced back. They're doing fine, I think. We, we made our point to kinda support them during during the pandemic.
Christian:Aw, that's nice.
Emilio:Let's look at should we look at Missoula?
Christian:Let's look at Missoula, Montana.
Laz:I'm looking at Missoula right now, and I I have a spot as a possibility. But, first, I just wanna say, there is a very interesting thing going on on the map on Missoula where everything is east to west, north to south, And then they carved out, like, a little like a square of all diagonals. So everything it looks like Yes. Like, it looks like cross hatch. Like, you're drawing a picture.
Laz:They, like, cross hatch it in a different direction. It's so strange. I don't think I've ever seen this on a map before.
Christian:Oh my god. It's so stupid. And there's a and there's a story about it.
Laz:It looks like a story. It looks like something
Christian:happened there. There's definitely a story, so I can tell that story if you'd like to hear it. But, it's so stupid.
Laz:Okay. Wait. So along with that story, what is why would there be a thing called Zoo Town Surfers? That business. What is that business?
Laz:What is Zoo Town Surfers, and why is it next to that place? Yes. That's my question.
Christian:Well, let me let me tell you. The city of Missoula has
Laz:a no surfing annual
Christian:competition that is a river surfing competition.
Emilio:Woah.
Christian:And the way that this is achieved is through a little thing we call Brennan's wave. Brennan's wave is a concrete sort of structure under the water in the middle of the river that's like in the on the river at the point in the middle of downtown and you can walk down to it and in a wetsuit with your surfboard you can just go out there and like you jump in and you swim your way up to the wave and then you can just surf it staying essentially in the same place for basically as long as you want.
Laz:Wow.
Christian:And so their zoo town being a nickname from Missoula, there is a surfing I am not gonna say culture because it's not that. But there is a surfing presence that is unexpected but also like reasonably well regarded. And, welcome to Missoula, Montana, baby.
Emilio:Sioux town. Man, I
Laz:kind of
Christian:love that nickname. Mhmm. I'll tell you about those streets, though.
Emilio:Yeah. We got to hear over this because it does look absolutely ridiculous.
Christian:Yeah. It's so stupid. So those streets are known as the slant streets or short the slants.
Emilio:Oh dear.
Christian:And yeah, I know it sounds racist. Right? But it's just like they are literally slanted streets. There's just
Emilio:there's nothing to be done about it.
Christian:They've always been called the slants. There's just it's just it. So there were 2 lawyers in Missoula, Montana, in the late 1800. And, they had competing visions for how the city should be laid out. 1 of them wanted cardinal directions and the other wanted the streets oriented to the river.
Christian:And so the river isn't straight through the city of Nula. It kind of moves around. Yeah. And so the slant streets were are therefore slanted because they are oriented to the river. And what happened was they were had this competing sort of idea and so they instead of work together they just did 2 separate projects simultaneously on how they wanted the city to be laid out and that's they were for some reason allowed to do that, and it was never changed.
Emilio:That's funny.
Christian:So that's why
Emilio:So great.
Christian:Yep. So It's really it's really awesome. What are do the people who live
Emilio:in the slant streets feel any sort of, like, pride or ownership over that? Or, like Yeah.
Laz:Is it, like, a wealthy area? Or is it, like like, is it what Oh oh,
Christian:we don't we don't allow them out.
Laz:No. I see those streets. The it's also sort of like gates on the edges.
Christian:They're they're barriers, right, actually. And the little water thing that's like a moat. Yeah that's their only source of drinking water. Yeah. No.
Christian:We, actually, it's really annoying because if you're trying to get through town, you're going and you need to go through the slant streets, you're going to get lost because it's just like you completely lose orientation to what
Emilio:way you're going. And and, like, you so
Christian:basically, you just sort of avoid them,
Emilio:if you're
Christian:going somewhere because they are that much of an inconvenience. It's you get into the slants you're like where oh god where am I right now?
Laz:Yeah. You're like, because mentally, everything else is just okay. You go down this road, you go straight for 6 miles, and then you're like it's just going a straight line. And then all of a sudden it's like, okay. You just could turn diagonally and nobody knows where you are after that.
Christian:Yeah. It's real it's really a bother.
Emilio:I mean, it does it does sort of feel like every part of Boston, but that's a different story.
Christian:Well, you know, the thing about Boston is at least you expect it to be a disaster.
Laz:Yeah. Well, you never get used to to planning anything north, south, east, west.
Christian:No. Right. Right. It's all by landmark.
Laz:That's the Right.
Emilio:Where where the Dunkin' Donuts used to be, turn left.
Emilio:Exactly. Yeah.
Christian:And so yeah. So, like, this, you you don't expect it. And so when you find yourself in it, you're just sort of like, what? What? What?
Laz:Where Where's the sun right now?
Emilio:Yes. Exactly.
Christian:That how I'm gonna have to navigate through this maze.
Emilio:This is an it it is a nicely sort of organized town. What what year was Missoula built?
Christian:So it's one of these, you know, late 19th century situations. The University of Montana was, I think, which is in Missoula, was, I think, founded in 18/86. And, honestly, the state of Montana itself is younger. I think it's it's found in 18/96. So let's see.
Christian:Anyway, I I could find this information, but it's 1881, actually, for, University of Montana.
Laz:So, Emilio, I I see that San Diego opted for orienting towards the water.
Emilio:I I couldn't tell you, but
Laz:I'm I'm just looking at the map just I'm curious, like Sure. Right right up against the water on the bay and all the, you know, the area, like, that route 5 that goes right down Yep. It's all oriented right at the same slant as the water. You know, it's it's not like a, you know, 9 degree pitch or something like that.
Emilio:Yes. You're right.
Laz:Line up with the water.
Emilio:It's also it's called the the 5, Laz.
Christian:The 5.
Laz:Okay. Yeah. Yeah.
Emilio:Oh. I thought
Laz:it was I 5.
Emilio:Right? No. Everything is the the blank. Okay. It
Laz:was the we we have the same 5 in in Washington where I go, and it's always I 5.
Christian:Yeah. That's that's the 5. And, yeah, I mean,
Laz:I think California 5.
Emilio:Yeah. The Californians. Just take just take the 10 into the 94 and get out of here.
Emilio:Oh god. No. We've
Christian:done it. There's no way to talk about California without talking about the roads.
Emilio:Yeah. It's true. It happens it happens all the time here. So, yeah, I'm looking at this too. I mean, you know, it's a it's a I hadn't really ever thought about that, but, yeah, you're absolutely right.
Emilio:It's all oriented towards the water and and and sort of towards the freeway, which I guess I get I mean, I get that neighborhood in particular is, like, a beach neighborhood. So, like, Mission Beach, Pacific Beach. So I'm I'm wondering if it's because they started developing along the water and then built the rest of the area from there. I don't know. I I don't really know the history of those areas very well.
Emilio:Also, that's pretty far from where I am. So if you, if you from Mission Beach, if you follow the 8 to the east
Laz:Yep. Yep. On the 8. And then Glenview, Lakeview, El Cajon.
Emilio:Yeah. It's a little too far. So back off from El Cajon, you see La Mesa?
Laz:La Mesa. Yep.
Emilio:Yeah. So we're right on the border of San Diego and La Mesa. La Mesa is the next town over. I can walk there.
Laz:Oh, I see. I see. Right next to the Taco Bell.
Emilio:And then yes. Which shouldn't be it should be illegal to have Taco Bells in San Diego where there are so many amazing taco shops.
Laz:Yeah.
Emilio:But yeah. So my neighborhood, Rolando Village, which you might see just south of the 8, is just a mess of of curvy weird streets.
Laz:Oh, yeah.
Emilio:And it's I think it's because, what's that, Chris? Yeah. Well, I yeah. I think, you're you're you just got really quiet. So our area is very hilly, and there's all these, like, small canyons and things.
Emilio:So I'm wondering if that's a big part of why this neighborhood is like that. A lot of San Diego is like that. There's the neighborhoods are organized around the canyons, and so there'll be some main roads, and then everything else just kinda loops and curls in weird ways because they have to deal with, like, you know, these big hills and things. And if you wanna know about my neighborhood, historically, it was originally created as a whites only village in, like, 19 forties or fifties or something. Oh.
Emilio:Yeah. Just the worst. And now it's a it's an awesome place full of, like, lots of, like, multicultural families.
Laz:Perfect.
Emilio:We got rid of
Laz:all those racists. Yeah.
Christian:We did it. Yeah. Beat it. And
Emilio:and based on the timing, I think that, actually, the reason that well, maybe not the reason, but, like, the the the progression of the neighborhood or whatever is that, right now, right, all those old white families that originally moved in here in, like, the forties fifties are now old, and they're all they've all sold their houses, and so who's around to buy the houses? Well, it's all of us young brown people, who this is because this is one of the well, it used to be one of the few, like, affordable neighborhoods in San Diego. Now it's not anymore. Now we're all rich because, like, all the houses are worth so much, but,
Laz:all the housing has doubled in price.
Emilio:Yeah. It's amazing how it's changed. But yeah. So so Rolando is it's, it's it's gone through a lot of changes, and it's great, and we love it. We just recently got the our elementary school is named for Henry Clay, who was Woah.
Christian:You just got really loud all of a sudden.
Emilio:I got really loud. Did I touch something?
Christian:Yeah. Woah. I'm hearing you now. Fine.
Laz:Okay.
Christian:Wow. That was really weird. Okay. Alright. Here we go.
Emilio:Our our elementary school was named for this guy, Henry Clay, who was this, like, racist congressman, I want to say.
Laz:Just
Emilio:a real Cool. Real piece of crap. And our neighbors, 2 houses down, whose 2 daughters are in the school, started a campaign to change the name of the school, and they succeed. I think I might have told you about this, Christian, at some point.
Christian:I think yeah. That sounds familiar.
Emilio:But, yeah, they, they did it. They they got the school, but they they we went to all these rallies and, like, you know, had these shirts and, like, they we I didn't go to this, but they had a group that spoke to the city council and to the school board, and they got them to change the name. And now they're in the process of figuring out what the new name
Christian:Name it after
Laz:Is it still play in the meantime? It
Emilio:is. Yeah.
Laz:Yeah. Okay. Yep. Yep.
Christian:Yeah. Although I don't Oh, that's too bad.
Emilio:I don't call it that.
Christian:What do you call it?
Emilio:That school up there.
Christian:Next to the Taco Bell.
Laz:Next to the
Christian:Of which there are dozens in the city of San Diego. I have a question for you about your beautiful beautiful hometown. How many times have you been and what was your favorite part of, How many times have you been to the San Diego Police Museum? And, what would you like to tell us? What was your favorite thing that you learned at the San Diego Police Museum, Emilio?
Emilio:Wouldn't it wouldn't it have been great if I had actually been to the San Diego Police Museum and could answer this question?
Laz:All kinds of cool facts.
Emilio:There's just no way. I was betting, and
Christian:I was 100% certain that you had never been there.
Emilio:Man, I wish I had been there because I I would've been well, let me tell you, Christian.
Christian:Do you know that it exists?
Emilio:No. I've never heard of that. Where is that?
Christian:Yes. It's I don't know. And it's in it's your city, Bob.
Laz:Let's see. Police museum.
Christian:Just it's like there's like you can look at the really, really horrible tight little cell they have there. Oh, wow. There are all these old guns and uniforms and, like
Emilio:It's right up the street. I know where that is. I that's, like, really cool.
Christian:Awful. I mean, it seems like it's it seems like it's bad. Like, it seems like it's a bad place. It looks Why are they
Emilio:It looks like you're
Christian:the same person. I'm sure there's a horribly racist
Laz:past Escape room.
Christian:In San Diego Place. There must be.
Laz:Yeah. The original escape room.
Emilio:It looks just like an escape
Christian:room. Exactly.
Emilio:Wow. Yeah. I I've actually I have seen this. I've driven by this place a few times.
Christian:And did you wonder, like, what is this and why?
Emilio:I I spit out my window every time. Good. No. Good. There is, like, there is definitely, like, a love of law enforcement and military kinda culture here in San Diego, that I
Christian:do Isn't there, like, the it's I know military presence is big there, but it, like, sort of generalizes to the police as well.
Emilio:I think it it for certain people, yes.
Christian:Okay.
Emilio:Yeah. It's it it kinda bleeds over. It's that same I mean, so San Diego historically is pretty sort of right wing conservative. Mhmm. And until recently, those people loved the cops.
Emilio:Now, you know, that that that mood has shifted. But, but, yeah, that was I think there's definitely a a group. I mean, although there's also, like, a big sort of, you know, very anti police. I mean, there's a ton of immigrants here, especially, like, Mexican immigrants and Mhmm. Or Central American immigrants.
Emilio:And so there's a big, like, anti police and anti ice and all that kinda, faction as well. But I'm gonna have to go check this place out.
Christian:Interesting mix.
Emilio:See if I can escape the cell that they have here.
Laz:Nice.
Christian:Look
Emilio:at this. They have fucking people in a cell. They they're proudly displaying that they have these people locked up in this tiny, horrible room.
Christian:They also have, past, police uniforms on, like, store type, mannequin. Mhmm. And so there are a couple, like, female mannequins that look very sort of, like, vampish
Emilio:or something.
Emilio:It's, obviously, really weird.
Emilio:Yes. Yeah.
Emilio:It's it's yeah. You're seeing it? Yes. It's a weird look. It's
Laz:a weird look.
Emilio:They put mustaches on some of these guys too. That's great.
Laz:God. Size. Classic. It
Christian:looks so perfect.
Emilio:Amazing. I'm gonna get I'm gonna get in trouble if anybody ever hears this.
Christian:I've got I've I've got my question about aspirin ham.
Laz:Okay. I'm ready.
Christian:K. Alright. Please tell me that you have been to the Frederick historic piano collection.
Emilio:Yes. This is what I wanted to do.
Laz:Okay. First of all, yes. But not many not many times. Yes. We have been there.
Christian:Okay. Okay. And it
Laz:it is a kind of amazing thing that it's just this older couple, and they have been, like, keeping this museum of incredible pianos. Some of them from, like, the 1700. It's one of the, like, why most widely respected piano museums, like, at least in the state. Wow. At least in the whole, like, New England.
Laz:And they have these, like, they restore pianos and their whole thing, which is super cool, is that they're not just, like, pieces to come and look at like a museum. You go to the museum and you get to play the pianos.
Christian:No way. Oh my goodness.
Laz:And so so they've restored them and they tune them and they even, like, there's a church nearby. We went to a piano concert, last year and they brought in, like, some, you know, I don't know anything about the piano world, but 2 very, like, famous classical pianists. And they brought in one of their pianos from the museum and had, like, shipped it. It's only up the road, but still, like, shipping these pianos is like an ordeal even with a regular pianos. So they shipped it to this church, and then they had a concert, with these, like, famous pianists.
Laz:And one of them was blind, and they they flew them in, you know, to do this thing. It was super cool.
Emilio:Oh, no way. Oh
Laz:my goodness. This is so cool. It's it's another kind of one of these little things where it's just like, how is this just right here, like, right down the street? And it's in a pretty unassuming building. Like, you're like, oh, what is this place?
Christian:Can see that.
Emilio:It's a great building.
Laz:It's like a beautiful building right now.
Christian:It's cool looking.
Laz:Yeah. Like, it it's right next to city hall, actually.
Christian:1500. Oh, uh-huh.
Laz:Uh-huh. So we see it down there. That's near the library. So we're down there, you know, every now and then. But we we've really only been in there maybe once or twice because they they have weird hours and, like, you can do a tour if you schedule it first and, like, you have to, like, call them and set up a time and stuff.
Laz:And Right. So we haven't really done that, but, yeah, it's just kinda like a crazy thing that this, you know, this, like, couple has has somehow managed to do this, like, have this incredible museum just, like, as a hobby almost, it seems like.
Christian:I love this so much.
Christian:This is amazing.
Laz:Yeah.
Christian:I'm so glad that you were able to speak to it because while, you know, the funny on the police museum that, you know, we knew where that was going. I was earnestly earnestly interested in this museum and so I feel so satisfied.
Emilio:Yeah. Me too. And and it's yeah. And what a contrast also between, like, the the police museum and the piano museum.
Emilio:I know, right?
Christian:Those those Ivory Tower East Coasters, Their piano museums. We celebrate what separates us from the filth.
Laz:Pianos.
Emilio:Yeah. Right.
Christian:Oh, wait.
Laz:Are we talking pianos here? We talking Yeah.
Emilio:Yeah. Yeah. Sorry. Yeah. Right.
Christian:This is
Emilio:so this is so cool. It's so cool that they they use them. That that to me
Laz:is Yeah. No. That's a whole another, Like, so there's so many people who would not let, like, air touch them in the right way. Like, it's like you gotta keep the humidity perfect and you can't let, like, humans breathe near them and, like, I just this this couple is super cool. I've read a few things about them and I've never, you know, I don't, like, know them or anything like that, but I just think that, like, their mission was just, like, we want people to hear what these pianos sounded like, and they're, you know, from the 1700.
Laz:They're they're these are piano, like, they sound different, You know, they were made differently and all this kind of stuff. Yeah. So they just let people come in and play them. It's it's awesome.
Christian:Can you have you been able to tell the difference between, like, what a piano from the 1700 and piano from, you know, last No.
Laz:No. We we haven't done one of the official tours where they, like,
Christian:let us
Laz:do it. Yeah.
Christian:We've heard it.
Laz:No. Yeah. But but, I mean, they just they did bring in one of their pianos to that show and, you know, it sounded awesome. Although the church had kind of funny acoustics, like churches are not they're kind of they're good sometimes, but it's a little bit echoey sometimes, I think. Mhmm.
Laz:So I I was I I'm I would guess it wasn't like an acoustic kind of show. You know, it was just kind of a cool thing that they would play in the church, but I don't think the sound was was particularly, like, perfect for pianos.
Emilio:The picture of the building that's on Google Maps, that has, like, just a little bit of snow around the edges and, like, if you can tell it's winter, right, the trees have no leaves. It's giving me so much, like, New England nostalgia right now.
Christian:Oh, man. It's so real.
Emilio:Like, I I can I can feel that air in my lungs right now? Like, I know exactly how that feels walking around.
Christian:When you go when you go back to New England after not being there for a while, you're just like, oh, man. It's so pleasant here. God. Like
Emilio:It really is different.
Christian:Just so pleasant.
Emilio:Yeah. It's something Funny. Something different about it. Yeah.
Christian:I feel like it for me, I always have this feeling of, like, you know, the northeast has been, like, tamed, basically, like, in a lot of ways. Like, people have been there for so long. Like, large amounts of people have been there for so long doing sort of, like, making towns and cutting trees and then trees grow back and whatever. Like, that everything is just so it's just it just seems so much easier for humans to live there in some ways. I don't know.
Laz:Everything's very settled in. Like, yes. There's, like, a certain groove to everything.
Emilio:Mhmm.
Christian:Mhmm. Like, these towns, like, your town, you know, it's been there for, like, how how long has that town been there?
Laz:Yeah. I mean, I don't really know but probably, you know, 1700s at least or something.
Emilio:I'll tell you right now.
Christian:Like yeah. I I wanna know. And it's like it's probably been approximately the size it is the whole time.
Laz:Yeah. Actually, I will say there's according to the town history, it was at one point bigger than it is now. Oh, really? Yeah. It's it's gone through it's it went, like, I I don't know if that was maybe the forties or fifties or something, but there's, like, pictures of it.
Laz:It was, like, starting to build up industry, like, because it had just I don't know. There was a lot of stuff around. And so a lot of that has moved out. And so it and then trees have grown back over a lot of the places where they used to have, like, other things. Oh,
Christian:that's So
Laz:it's it's gone through some different phases. Mhmm.
Emilio:So it says here on the town history that it was, built up in, like, 17 thirties and then officially
Christian:Wow.
Emilio:Made a town in, like, the 17 6 oh, yeah. 17/65 officially incorporated.
Laz:K. And then no coincidence, shortly after, the United States started. Yes. Uh-huh. Uh-huh.
Laz:What are you,
Christian:what are you insinuating there, love?
Laz:I mean, I don't wanna give us credit for everything.
Emilio:But Yeah.
Christian:Ashburnham who saved the union.
Laz:I actually do think John Adams. We I think there's a house here that was it was John Adams' house. I think that may be true, but I'm That's the state of the art weekend
Christian:one time.
Laz:Yeah. Checked
Emilio:out some pianos, had some
Christian:sushi. Yes. Exactly.
Laz:He lived the exact same life that we live now in Ashburnham. Just everything was pretty much the same.
Emilio:This this is interesting, though. So it it says that after the war of 16 90 where Massachusetts assembled troops to attack Quebec, The surviving soldiers asked the court for payment of their services, but they didn't the colony had no money, and their pleas went unanswered for 40 years. And then in 17 thirties, they finally found a way to secure the northern border from the attack and founded the town, which makes me wonder where the border was, because you guys aren't that close to Canada.
Christian:Well, wasn't, like, Vermont part of Canada at one point?
Emilio:I guess the border must have been far much farther south. Yeah.
Emilio:What? I I wanna say
Christian:I mean, I know that there are a lot of, like or there have historically been French speaking Vermonters. Like, that's why the capital is like mon like a French
Laz:Ah, Montpellier. Word.
Christian:Right? Isn't that Okay.
Laz:Let me I just I just saw a random fact about Ashburnham. To bring it back to Cambridge, that thing I was saying, the John Adams house, I remember it it was called the Cambridge house for some reason, and I just looked it up, and it is actually owned by the town of Cambridge by Cambridge. It was What? What? Is owned by the town of Cambridge given in 17/34 as compensation, for work done with something with the Charles River, building the Charles River.
Laz:It became known as the Cambridge Bridge Farm, and John Adams did live there.
Christian:That's awesome.
Laz:Anyway That
Christian:is so weird.
Laz:So this Adams family of early settlers in West Cambridge, and, yeah.
Emilio:Okay. That was
Christian:so hilarious. You know, they were settling the frontiers. Yeah. All the way north.
Laz:All the way west. Amsterdam. Does the country go farther than this? We may never know. Man may never know.
Emilio:Yes. Well, I'm my my town was built in the 19 fifties for white people only.
Christian:Oh, boom. Oh, my history
Emilio:my history sucks.
Christian:Yeah. History is sad. It reminds us it reminds us of sad things. That's illegal in some states. You know?
Emilio:Yeah. Sad things?
Christian:What's that?
Emilio:Remind being reminded of sad things is illegal.
Christian:Yes. Exactly. Yeah. If you're if you're a white person.
Emilio:Yeah. Right. Oh, man. Oh, man. That's It's great.
Emilio:Should we go back to Missoula for a moment?
Christian:Yeah. What's up? What do you wanna know about this town?
Emilio:Let's see. I I was curious about Rockin' Rudy's because I see 2 Rockin' Rudy's in the slanted streets. I guess you don't go there, though, because you don't go to those neighborhoods.
Christian:No. No. No. No. I can tell you about Rockin' Rudy's.
Laz:Rockin' Rudy's.
Christian:So you guys rockin' Rudy's is Newberry Comics.
Emilio:Oh, like just with a different front?
Christian:Yeah the I mean they don't sell comic books but it's a it's the it's all the other things at least that historically Newbury Comics was which was So
Emilio:it has
Laz:giant posters
Christian:Yep.
Laz:In like a flappy thing you can flip your
Christian:feet through the posters. Definitely. Yep. Thanks. It's got, tons of records.
Christian:That's it's it's it's it's ostensibly a record shop. But, yeah. But you can, like, get candy and stuff and like there's some board games and puzzles and then there's like a back area with like local makers but like the vibe is Newberry Comics when we were younger. I think you Newberry Comics now is relatively it's, like, sanitary. It's, like, sanitized when you go in.
Christian:It's like
Emilio:Does it still exist?
Christian:This isn't fun. It it does. Yeah. But it just doesn't have the character that it used to. And so this is, like, how Newbury Comics used to be.
Emilio:That's pretty cool.
Christian:It was one of the first places I found my way to in this town because I was just sort of like, what is this? And, like I was able to get cool local t shirts which I bought for a few people at the time. And like one of my favorites is they'll just be like a picture of a goat and it will just say mon fucking Tana. And like, that's the t shirt. And there are several mon fucking Tana Tana, like, images, like, some just random shit from around there and it just says maw so you know it's great.
Laz:Nice.
Emilio:Yeah. That's pretty cool.
Christian:Rock and rolly.
Emilio:I'm looking at pictures of Newbury Comics now locations, and it just looks like a shop at a mall. It's so sad. Has no character at all. Yeah. Completely right.
Christian:Isn't that crazy? I mean, you guys, I'm not crazy, right? It used to be this weird. Yeah. They'd have, you know, random shit hanging from the ceiling.
Christian:Like,
Emilio:yeah, they had all kinds of weird art, like musicians that would have like their stuff in there that you wouldn't find in other places. Okay. Christian, so this is a bit of a tangent, but Yeah.
Laz:So Okay.
Emilio:Alright. So I often talk about how you introduced me to the world of comic books and comic book shops in, like, 6th grade or maybe 7th
Christian:grade. Picnic.
Emilio:I was gonna say, do you remember some of the shops that we went to?
Christian:Yeah. Well, we definitely went to Million Year Picnics,
Emilio:so that
Christian:was a comic book shop. I'm assuming we must have also taken a look at New England Comics.
Laz:Mhmm. Mhmm. The games people play.
Christian:Well but the games people play isn't really a comic shop.
Laz:Oh okay that was more like just But
Christian:then Newbury Comics would be the other ones. Those would be the 3 comic shops that were within walking distance of each other from, like
Emilio:From high school? Oh, no. High school. Yeah.
Christian:In Harvard Square. But yeah.
Emilio:Wait. So I'm I'm actually forgetting which one was New England Comics and which one was Millionaire Picnic.
Christian:Okay.
Laz:New Year Picnic was downstairs.
Emilio:In the basement Right. Or sort of in the lower level.
Christian:Yep. Exactly. Where it still is today, by the way, which is
Laz:That was the best one. That's, like, that's the best comics. That was pure comics.
Christian:And then New England Comics is the one that is, closer to the Kennedy School. It's next to that Indian restaurant that is, like, just across the bridge. It's where the falafel palace used to be. There's still a falafel place there I think. It's, do you know where I'm talking about?
Christian:Oh, right next to Charlie's.
Emilio:Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But, like, oh, yes. Yes.
Emilio:Yes.
Christian:Right around the corner from Charlie's.
Emilio:Yes.
Christian:Yeah. Right around the corner from Charlie's.
Emilio:That's so there
Christian:that New England Comics.
Emilio:That's gotta be gone.
Christian:It might be, but it might not be. I don't quite recall. Oh, totally. New
Emilio:that place was great too.
Christian:Still there. Yeah. It was great. Yeah. Those 2 were, like, legit comic shops and for some reason, they, like, were able to be, like, literally within a 100 yards of each other and still,
Laz:like In the in the comic district.
Emilio:Right. Exactly. Yeah. And and by
Christian:the way, New England Comics, which you guys may or may not recall, is the comics creator of the tick.
Emilio:Oh really? Yeah. No. I did not know that.
Christian:So The Tick was created by New England Comics as a publishing label.
Emilio:Oh, no shit.
Christian:And then it got, like, picked up, basically.
Emilio:I'm looking at some stuff about that. That's amazing.
Christian:Tell me, am I Jesus. I hope I'm not wrong about that. That it may be a fact check.
Emilio:Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Let's see.
Christian:Yeah. No. No. It definitely is. Yep.
Christian:It that's what it is.
Emilio:So I'm I'm also remembering that this place is is definitely gone now, but if you so you start at New England Comics, you you go past Charlie's, you take that right up the that that street that the House of Blues is on. Right? And then you're walking sort of towards the what's the name of the pizza place that has the Sicilian pizza?
Christian:I don't know.
Emilio:Okay. There was a comic book shop on the second floor of this sort of, like, little it was like, I don't know, like, a mini mall or something.
Christian:Oh, god. You mean, like, where where there's an Indian restaurant now?
Emilio:Yes. There's an Indian restaurant.
Christian:Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. There was something in there, wasn't there?
Laz:Is this the garage you're talking about?
Christian:No. Not the garage.
Emilio:It was,
Christian:It's it's on the opposite side of the street from the garage and, like, right next to the little park that's there.
Emilio:Yes. Yes. Okay.
Laz:If if you
Emilio:were looking out the window of the shop, you would be looking into that.
Christian:It's right above Charlie Charlie's, basically.
Emilio:Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I remember there was a shop a comic shop there for a little while. For some reason
Christian:something. God.
Emilio:For some reason, the name Good Good the Elephant is in my head.
Christian:But I have no idea.
Emilio:That could be something completely different.
Christian:No idea. That is hilarious.
Emilio:But, yeah, there was a shop there, and I remember that shop specifically because they had a section that had, adult comics that I wasn't allowed to go into.
Christian:Oh, well, so did Million Year Picnic as well.
Emilio:Oh, yeah. Is that right? I remember being very intimidated in Million Year Picnic. I I used to go to New England Comics because I felt like it was more approachable. Like, I could, like you know, I felt like the people at Million Your Picnic knew comics so well that they could tell.
Emilio:They could just smell that I didn't know my shit. And I would like, I just I didn't feel comfortable in there.
Christian:Yeah. They were rude. It was,
Laz:right. More specifically, they were super
Christian:rude. That's how
Laz:I knew they knew their stuff.
Christian:Right. It was only sort of, like, you know, if you eventually like, you could you could work on them, you know, for a while, and then they might actually, like, be nice to you. But it took a while. I I had to grow. I had to develop that relationship
Laz:over time. So so so pointless. Why would anybody run their business like that?
Christian:I mean, it's like I feel like, can I I wanna see the new x men? They're like, get
Laz:the fuck out of here. Like, okay. Sorry.
Christian:It's basically like they, you know, were probably so sick of seeing kids come through there. And I don't like it.
Laz:As an adult stealing things. I I mean, I guess the stealing things is no good. But, like, as an adult Yeah. Now, like, you know, basically trying to, like, run a business. Like, I don't know.
Laz:I, like, I would just imagine that as a business owner, like, you would want to have kids interested in comics in your shop. And there's all these, like there's this whole, like I mean, it's like a it is a trope at this point, like, comic book guy or whatever, like, rude comic book people who make you feel bad and make you not wanna buy anything and make you not wanna go there. But they're like but it's like, is that I don't know. I I guess I don't understand, like, just the logistics of that. Like, you drive away, like, your customers or maybe you make your other customers more loyal or something.
Laz:I don't
Christian:know. I mean, I'm just gonna I'm just gonna say it, Blas. You don't get it, buddy.
Emilio:Fuck. You you I've sold out. You're lame, buddy. Why won't
Laz:anyone say the business dynamics? The business.
Emilio:I'm sorry to tell you. If you know, if if you just know, you know.
Christian:That's it.
Laz:Let me put it this way. I was never accepted by them. Never.
Christian:You've never picked up a comic book since.
Emilio:Can I
Laz:see the new x men? Don't leave.
Christian:Yeah. Get out of here, you pimple faced dweeb.
Christian:I'll show them someday. I'll mention them on a podcast, and it won't be favorable.
Christian:Oh, dear. Anyway, so, that's great. Rocking Rudy's. Rocking Rudy's. There we go.
Emilio:Are they snobby in there? Are they are they are they They're
Laz:snobby or they're?
Christian:No. They're they're super chill.
Laz:Probably why they're doing great.
Emilio:I mean, it's like,
Christian:it smells like nongchampa in there. It's like lovely.
Emilio:Well, I see they have 2 locations. Do you go to record heaven or regular rockin' Rudy's?
Christian:So they're right next to each other though, right? Oh no no of the record, yeah, no the and that that record is it haven or heaven?
Emilio:The map says heaven. The card says it moves.
Christian:Okay The nice. It it's, yeah. It's like that's not that doesn't have the same rock and Rudy's vibe. It's, like just purely you walk in and it's just rows upon rows of records.
Emilio:Oh, okay.
Christian:And so it's like very like it's like the legit record store that we have.
Laz:Nice.
Emilio:Smart smart of the Mile High Missoula dispensary to set up so close to the record shop.
Christian:You will note if you, follow the main roads in town that just about every 2 maybe blocks, you will find a cannabis dispensary. It's like it's crazy. Apparently, in the county, I was just reading this. There are, like, 70 dispensaries in Missoula County.
Emilio:Wow.
Christian:It's like they're like that's like one for every 1,000 people in the city.
Laz:Not just it has like their own dispensary.
Emilio:It's crazy. It's like it's I mean, I
Christian:don't think there's any other business that is that common here. No. Maybe grocery no. I don't know if grocery stores are that no. They're definitely not.
Laz:Do Do you guys have, like, an equivalent to Dunkin' Donuts? Just, like,
Christian:ubiquitous, local? No. We don't. We we have a number of really fucking awesome independent coffee shops.
Laz:That's the best.
Christian:Oh, man. And, like, like, more than we deserve. We have, god. We have this when we go anyway, there's this one here that has, like, the best chai. Like oh, it's so good.
Christian:And then there's another one that has, like, really, like, just solid, like, breakfast y type foods, but still, like, not ordering a whole meal type thing, and really good drinks as well. And then the other one is a giant study hall that, is just like a big old dingy place, and they're just rows upon rows of college students there. And it's just woody and it's great. There It sounds awesome. We have just a bunch of them.
Christian:Yeah. We're we're very fortunate as far as, like, cafes and baked goods for a city our size.
Laz:Yeah. That is definitely one thing we are missing.
Emilio:Yeah. Yeah. How far do you have to go to get a good a good chai out there, Elias?
Christian:Oh, man.
Laz:Chai, I have no idea. But, like, a decent coffee, there's a Adizia Cafe, which is in Gardner, which is 20 minutes drive. So
Christian:Oh, man.
Laz:20 that I mean, 20 minutes is nothing, though. That's, like, that's, like, also the closest to get to anywhere. Like, 15 minutes is the is, like, the closest kind of that's where, like, the school is and that's where, like, the grocery store. But, yeah, 20 minutes to the cafe is, like, pretty standard. And then we just discovered a new one, which is nice, in Fitchburg, which is about 24 minutes away.
Laz:So Man. But, yeah, it's slim pickings for that kind of stuff. And definitely nothing you can walk. There's no walking in involved in any of this situation. Yeah.
Laz:Yeah. Driving.
Emilio:Well, that's that's the same in San Diego.
Laz:Yeah. It was some buzz.
Emilio:I know. It's so lame.
Christian:My mom just moved to, Topsfield as, you know, Les, because you popped over to there. And Yeah. You know, just everything is far away, like
Laz:Yeah.
Christian:There is a downtown which is cute and has a couple places but, like, you want something you are driving, like, 15, 20 minutes.
Laz:Yeah. No. It's a different it's a whole different it's a different vibe, but, you know, I've been here for 8 years now or something like that. So Wow. I'm getting a little better at it at least.
Laz:Like, you know, like, what I I don't think I like, you know, I walk more now, but I have to, like I just, like, intentionally walk, which I never used to do. I used to walk to go places. Do. Now I walk for the purpose of walking, and I, like, listen to something or, like which is not it's not as good, but it it's better than not doing that. So it's, like, it's an improvement.
Emilio:Yeah. That's that's totally the same for me. I have I I if I go for a walk, it's because I I I need to go for a walk. It's not to get anywhere or accomplish anything.
Laz:Yeah. No. It's I that's a, like, a mental switch for me because I was very used to walking in a very utilitarian way. Mhmm. Like, okay.
Laz:I'm gonna walk to the grocery store. I'll walk or like, even if I had to go somewhere, like, maybe I'll opt to walk today instead of taking the train. But, yeah, it's like now it's like, okay. I'll just walk for the sake of walking. Yeah.
Laz:And that's actually it's a good thing to do. Like so it's not to say I
Christian:love it's better walking. Yeah. I used to do that when I was a young man.
Laz:Well, how how close to does your stuff like, do you do you actually walk to most places or do you drive a lot?
Christian:So, no. When it's when it's nice out, we're we're walking. So there's, like, our main grocery store, which is the the fancy grocery store in town, it's it's literally, let's see. We're on eighth Street, and so it's 5 blocks north of us. And so that's like a lovely walk.
Christian:And then, sometimes we'll walk over to our coffee shop, which is maybe a mile away, but so you just have a nice long pleasant walk over to it.
Laz:Yeah. It's nice. A lot
Christian:of streets with trees and whatnot and, you know, it's it's pretty nice. But, yeah, I it's so much harder to walk places when you have a small child.
Laz:Mhmm. Yeah. That's true.
Emilio:I don't know if you that'll that's temporary.
Christian:Yeah. And we we even I mean, we'll just break out stroller and walk around with her.
Emilio:It's, it's actually it's it's just as hard to walk places when you have an 11 year old because they just don't wanna do stuff. And you're, like, let's go walk to the thing, and they're, like,
Laz:oh. Yeah. I I think that's one of the things that kills me about it because I I I tell you do take a lot of walks now. Like, I almost I would say every day. Not quite every day, but almost every day, take a walk.
Laz:And, like, for a long time, I was like, hey. Does anybody wanna go on a walk with me? Like and it's like, Like and it's like because there's no purpose, because there's no, like, utility to it. Like, if if I say, like, you know, we do have a place that we can walk to, which is like this little plot of land. It's like 15 minute walk away.
Laz:Like, sometimes I'll be like, hey, you wanna like walk to the land and check something like thing out and like that's maybe, but there has to be some like draw or the kid. I don't know. It's like, they're just not into the idea of walking for the sake of walking. So it's, like, unless I kinda, like, dress it up fancy as, like, doing something else, Like, yeah, it's not as, it's not much of a draw.
Emilio:My my mom, the kind of thing she would do is, with, like, just she'd make up some kind of game or scavenger hunt or something. Right? And it she'd always have something like this on her sleeve, you
Laz:know. Good.
Christian:Wow. That's amazing.
Emilio:So we're gonna go count how many birds
Christian:we see today. She does this
Emilio:she does this every time she visits us now with my son. She she's like, we're gonna count the dogs, and my son's like, cool. Let's do it. I'll go for a walk with grandma. Like, I'm like, what the hell?
Laz:Oh my god. It's such a small, smart thing to do. It's so easy.
Christian:What a brilliant woman.
Emilio:But, I I feel like
Laz:they would catch on after a little while. Right? Yeah. You gotta still fun even if they don't. Yeah.
Laz:You get it's, like, gonna find something interesting. Right? Yeah. Yeah. I mean, that's that makes sense.
Christian:Put some work into it.
Emilio:Yes. That's that is her that is that is the definition of my mom.
Laz:I like that. Yeah. I like that, though. I feel like I could adapt that lesson to something around here. And that's kinda what I do, I guess, with the land.
Laz:Like, when I'm like, oh, let's, like, you know, find something cool on the land or something.
Emilio:Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. One cool thing that I found
Christian:oh, go
Emilio:ahead, Christian.
Christian:Well, I was just gonna say when I first moved to Missoula, I just walked everywhere. I was like, okay. I'm just going to, like, walk for I'm just gonna choose a direction and walk and see what's over there. Like, I did that for a few weeks, and it was a really, like, lovely way to, like, get to know a place that I just didn't know anything about at all. It was really cool.
Emilio:You know what my version of that was when I moved to San Diego? I
Christian:What's that?
Emilio:I became a Lyft driver. And
Christian:Oh, that's right. You know?
Laz:Because you
Emilio:can't learn this town by walking. You have to drive around. So I just drove everywhere.
Christian:So right.
Emilio:Yeah. It
Laz:was awesome. It was, like, doing double duty with, like, learning and making some money.
Emilio:Getting a little well, not not really not really getting too much money, but I I did get to meet meet people a lot. I I it really like, and this is actually one of the things I thought about talking about today, but, it really played to my sort of extroverted side.
Laz:Yeah.
Emilio:And I I really enjoyed that, and now I have become much less extroverted since COVID, I would say. So I don't know if I would enjoy it as much as I did back then. But
Christian:I mean You don't talk to nobody, no how.
Laz:I
Emilio:mean, leave me alone. I'm I'm old, and I wanna stay inside.
Emilio:That's right.
Emilio:Yeah. Don't make me go for
Christian:it. Your kitchen. Why would you wanna leave that?
Emilio:Yeah. Exactly. It's the best place. My house is so so comfortable and made for me and my family now. It's just, like, it is hard to hard to leave.
Laz:You, like, literally made parts of it. Right? Yeah. Yeah. To your liking with, like, woodworking.
Emilio:Like, the whole, I
Laz:mean shapes your
Christian:whole kitchen, move the beds bedrooms around or whatever things or sizes.
Emilio:We, I think I've told you this, Christian, but, my wife and I sleep in separate rooms, and
Christian:Mhmm.
Emilio:Each of our rooms is our room. And so I have, you know, I'm in I'm in my room right now with my office and my bed and all my stuff, and I love it. It's great. That's just like my space. We found that this works really well
Christian:for us. Just like posters of, like, women from the nineties,
Laz:on
Emilio:the wall. With cars. Yeah.
Christian:Jessica Biel.
Emilio:Yeah. Jessica Biel.
Christian:Jessica Alba.
Laz:You have, like, a you have, like, a, one of those mattresses just thrown on the floor in the corner.
Christian:This is
Laz:my bed. My bed. You've got a GameCube with up on some cinder blocks. Like, love this place.
Emilio:It's the best. It's the best place in the world.
Christian:You get an arrangement of, like, buckets that you use for, like, drum practice.
Emilio:And also as a toilet.
Christian:Oh, dear. Yes. Wow. That's great. That's pretty special.
Christian:Yeah. Christian actually So Yeah. Go ahead.
Laz:I was gonna say, when you're walking around Missoula, like, when you first went there, that's something I just I identify with that fully. Like, I think that's I was, like, I visited Nashville, and I was just there for, like, a week, but that was, like, my I did the exact same thing. I would you know, I wasn't staying there or anything, but, like, I just feel like choosing a direction and walking when you're in a new place. Mhmm. In a place where it's possible to do that, you know.
Laz:It's like not a not a lot of not all places make that work, but, yeah, it's, like, such a good way to just, like, you know, get a little bit lost and walk around and see what you end up finding.
Christian:Yeah. Well, and also, like, Nashville is a really good place for that if you're, like, near the downtown area where it's just, like, place after place after place after place. Like, it's crazy. Like, how many businesses there are there and how many, like, music cafes and bars there are and Yeah.
Laz:It was like cool things everywhere you go. It's like It
Christian:is really cool. It's it's I gotta say it is really cool.
Laz:Oh, yeah.
Christian:Like right next to also like a giant like line dancing like play. Like, talking like multi levels and just like line dancing.
Laz:Yeah. I did not see any of that but there was so much music stuff. I I was on music row, so it was, like, you know Oh, man. Every single possible label and label names. I was just like this can't be real, like, every how it looks it looks like normal houses, like any suburban neighborhood you'd like walk through, but everyone has a really fancy, like, you know, Nashville music.
Laz:I I don't know. That's always, like, really sort of hip seeming mute like, they're all records, not like record stores, but, they're all, like, production areas.
Christian:So cool. There's just
Laz:hundreds of them. It's yeah. It's really really strange.
Christian:Really wild. That place truly is like a musical city. It's just not music that I like, but it's cool that it's there.
Laz:Yeah. And actually I and I there's a lot of, like, there's a lot of folk music there too. Like, it wasn't all country. So, like It's true. And there was live music in, like, all the cafes and bars and stuff, and it was very folksy.
Laz:And I I was I was enjoying that part of it.
Emilio:Ugh. Live music everywhere is so awesome. I I love places like that. It's just so much more live. I was in, I was in Galway, Ireland, and, like, you just walk down sort of the main street on a Tuesday, and every fucking bar has a band playing, and it's, like, there's no one even watching.
Emilio:There's, like, 4 people in each of these places, but, like, it's everyone just out to, like, have fun and play music, and it's great.
Laz:Yeah. Yeah. There's, like, a certain element of, like, playing the music. Like, I think maybe in asheville there's a little bit of almost, like, getting your reps in, like Yeah. They're like, everybody's training to play bigger and bigger, so that, like, people are like so, like, they don't mind playing, like, yeah, in front of nobody or, like, it's like I'm I'm paying my dues right now.
Laz:I'm out, like, you know, hitting the cafes and doing the bars at night, and I'm just playing the music and getting better and better and better. And it's, like, it was it is cool. It's a cool, like, mentality or something.
Emilio:Yeah. It's like yeah. It's just it's a great, yeah, great experience too if you're just wandering around and you're just hearing good music everywhere. Even if it's not your your type of music, it's just like it's actually being played. It's not just like something blasting over a stereo.
Laz:Yeah. I mean, that was
Christian:one of the great things about Cambridge Boston area was that, like, there are several areas that have these pockets of just, like, small music venues, and you could go there. And there's usually there's something playing most nights, basically. That was that was great. There's good music scene here in Missoula, but, you know, it's nothing nothing like that area or where like, where you guys are describing.
Emilio:Have you guys ever been to in Boston, is this it? I think this is the name of it. Wally's Wally's Cafe and Jazz Club? Yes.
Laz:I have been there once. I was actually brought there by your friend, Christian. Oh. And musician, extraordinaire. Gosh.
Laz:Why am I blanking on his name right now?
Christian:Oh, you're thinking about Andrew?
Laz:Andrew. Yes.
Christian:Oh. Yeah. My my former roommate, Andrew.
Laz:Former roommate. And he was like so I like you know, I heard him play guitar a few times and I was just like, holy moly. Like Yeah. You had him like
Christian:teach you some guitar stuff, didn't you?
Laz:He was super generous with his time and effort, and he I did, like, lessons with him. And Yeah. Like and he just showed he taught me music theory in a way that, like, I mean, he's just he's a smart guy and, like, he explained it and, you know, it was just like it totally changed, like, my sort of perception of of just I you know, I was like noodling around, but I just had no concept of, like, the bigger picture of, like, chord progressions and theory and all these kind of different and, like, specific, like, okay. Here's how, like, you do, like, the minor 7th chord for any chord. Like, you just, like, do this and this, and it was, like, oh Mhmm.
Laz:Cool. This is crazy. But he was,
Emilio:like, he
Laz:was, like he took me on, like, a field trip as part of our learning, and it was to Wally's. And he was like, we're gonna go to Wally's, and we're gonna Oh my god. So we me and him went there
Emilio:and hung out.
Christian:Asked about this place. Holy shit.
Emilio:I know.
Laz:And it's this tiny little like, it's the smallest little place. So I guess it's like Yeah. I would not, I mean, I wouldn't have even, like, even going in there, I wouldn't have known what it was. But he said this is, like, probably the best jazz club in Boston. Yeah.
Laz:And he's like, you're gonna get the best performers here, and it's gonna be incredible. And and it was, you know, it was amazing. I mean, I really am not a big fan of jazz. So it kinda like, you know, for people who are super into music theory, jazz is, like, the perfect vehicle for their music theory.
Christian:Mhmm. Mhmm.
Laz:But when I hear it, I just, like, you know, I I just don't get the same thing from it. So
Emilio:Yeah. It's a I I was taken there by someone, like, by, I guess, my my brother who knew about it from a friend. And, yeah, it was just like, what? This I'd never knew this place existed. I I was only I went only went there once ever as well.
Emilio:But I guess it's it's very close to Berkeley, Christian, so you could imagine a lot of Oh,
Christian:that makes sense.
Emilio:Berkeley kids.
Emilio:Yeah. Which
Christian:is also really close to the, Boston Conservatory.
Emilio:Yes. Yes. Right. Yeah.
Christian:Yeah. And then also the New England Conservatory is over there too. Right? Like, aren't they isn't that something like that?
Emilio:Yeah. Yeah. I don't know.
Christian:I wanna say there are, like, 3 music schools in that little area.
Emilio:Right there. That that would could be for sure. Yeah. Yeah. Very cool spot.
Emilio:I'd, and I, yeah, I wouldn't have ever found it if someone did take me there.
Christian:That is wild, man. So you guys you've, you've both been there and it was really cool. And you really wish that somebody had taken you there.
Laz:Well, now that I know about it, I mean, I would bring any of my good friends there. In fact, I would say I probably brought all of my good friends there. And that's what you do once you find out about it. Once you
Emilio:find out about Wally.
Laz:The cycle continues. I mean, I just I've gone through my list. That's it. Everybody's
Emilio:gone. That's good.
Christian:Oh, boy. Well, I wasn't sure that we were gonna do this the whole episode, but I'm, really enjoying it. I think no one else could possibly enjoy this,
Emilio:but I am really enjoying it.
Laz:Maptalk. Maptalk. Maptalk. This has been Maptalk with the country chicken lawyer.
Emilio:That's right.
Christian:That's right. That was our episode name of our show. That was the show's name.
Emilio:It's it's it's it's interesting to me how I I know you wanna wrap up. Just one last thought is it's interesting to me how we Well,
Laz:no.
Christian:I was wondering if we're gonna do San Diego again or whatever, but Oh, no. No. No. No.
Emilio:Let's wrap up. Let's
Christian:Yeah. Oh,
Emilio:oh, okay. Alright. I think, my I was just yeah. Cindy was not that
Christian:it's really not that interesting.
Emilio:What's interesting to me is how how often we came back to places in Boston and Cambridge while talking about other
Emilio:ones. Yeah.
Laz:That's like our our shared, central Yeah. Like, you know, starting point for for comparison.
Emilio:Yeah.
Laz:For these other places. Well, I
Christian:think there's some nice nostalgia and, like, having people who we can talk about our homes with. Like
Laz:Mhmm.
Christian:Because I mean, you know, maybe a little less so for you, Laz, because you got there sort of in middle school. But, I mean, even still, you know, it's where you had No.
Laz:I very much a lot of your formative years.
Christian:Where I yeah.
Laz:I mean, really.
Christian:It's like no.
Laz:It wasn't even middle school. I mean, it was, yeah, 5th grade. So, yeah, it was
Christian:Yeah.
Laz:You know? But, yeah, I mean, I I I feel like that was where I kinda grew up for sure.
Christian:Yeah. I mean okay. So then you get it. It's just like, you know, just like no. We don't there's there's our small group of people who grew up in this place at the same time, and that that's it.
Laz:And who walked everywhere.
Emilio:Right. Mhmm.
Laz:Yeah. Until you could get a bicycle.
Christian:Yep. Cool.
Emilio:Well, thanks for tuning in to, map talk with country chicken lawyer.
Christian:Yeah. And and and tooth man and tooth man and the sneeze.
Laz:That's me. I got allergies.
Emilio:Country lawyer. I guess that's me. Tooth man and the sneeze. I said I said I guess that
Christian:I do declare that I am he the.
Laz:Finally figured it out.
Christian:Oh, good. Alright. Well, I know. Is that it?
Emilio:Yeah. Yeah.
Christian:That's great. That's some fun.
Emilio:Bye. Bye.