Heavyweight - Check In: Do You Like Music?

Episode Date: December 3, 2020

Jonathan, Stevie, and Kalila are back, to talk about Thanksgiving and music. Music and mix by Bobby Lord. Additional music by Sean, Ryan, Kevin, and Brian Jacobi. Find our playlist, "Goldstein's Party Faves to Get the Party Going," here Find Madeline Forman's music here Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hello? Stevie? Hey. Hang on a second, let me get Kaylee. Hello? Talila. Hey. Hey.

Hello. Happy Thanksgiving, everyone. How was Thanksgiving? Well, as you guys know, I was planning to take a long trip home. You were going to go see your mom in Chicago and your dad in Iowa. Yes, I was going to go for like a long stretch over the holidays. On the train. On the train, yeah.

In a sleeper car. In a sleeper car, yes. Which you've never done. Which I've never done. And my boyfriend was going to come with me and meet my family. I've never done. And my boyfriend was going to come with me and meet my family. And I ended up canceling it last minute because of, you know, COVID. You ever heard of it? But I think then I realized how much the past couple of months I had been holding on to like, oh, well, in November, I'm going to travel and that'll be like something different. And then as soon as I was faced with

the prospect of just staying in my apartment and continuing to do the same stuff, I got very depressed. When's the last time you saw your mom? It was now over a year ago. This is also the first Thanksgiving of my entire life that I've not been with my mom. So I was feeling sad about that. There's this crab dip that I make every year for Thanksgiving that I used to make with my grandma when I was a kid. And then when my grandma died,

it was just like the thing that I would make and bring to Thanksgiving. It's not Thanksgiving without crab dip. So my mom suggested we each make the crab dip separately and then we could get on a Zoom and eat it together. I have my crab dip. Do you care if I start crying? No. I just haven't seen you in so long and it's just really good to see you. I know. You look good, honey. Thanks. And my mom also mailed me some of the stuff for the crab dip to make sure that I had all the ingredients I needed, which was very nice. And we ate our crab dip at the same time.

All right, I'm ready. Okay, wait till we get my chip. Okay, dip away. All right, I'm dipped. Me too. Here we go. Happy Thanksgiving. Happy Thanksgiving. Said like what we were thankful for, which is something we try to do every year. Okay. You want to go first? Yeah. I'm thankful for you. I'm thankful for you. Yeah.

Just made me feel connected in a time that was feeling kind of isolated. So I'm grateful for that. Stevie, how was your Thanksgiving? So Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. All you have to do is like eat and be pleasant. Like what could be better? But this year I did not go home. And a number of my friends here in Brooklyn also weren't going home. And so I was like, well, why don't I host Thanksgiving this year?

And probably because it's been so long since I've been able to cook for people, which is something that I love to do. I was like so excited and had like everything ready and staged so it'd be done exactly when everyone showed up. And I was like, like, I felt like a puppy waiting for like its owners to come home from vacation. Like I was just like waiting by the bell. Hello. I was like, you're here. yeah come on up like I was like so over eager about it happy thanksgiving happy thanksgiving we did it outside on my roof oh nice it was a nice day here. It was such a nice day. It was so warm.

We were like really lucky with the weather. I made a ton of food. I pretended I was like cooking for like 12 people. Wow. I don't know. Like there was so much planning that went into doing that responsibly. It's like we all got tested and we're quarantining. that went into doing that responsibly.

It's like we all got tested and we're quarantining. And like, it was like group email after group email after group email talking about like your negative test and like when you got it and how you're not going to see people. And it was like a lot of work, honestly, to make everybody feel comfortable. But I don't know. I was just really grateful that everybody was willing

to sort of like make it happen. It felt even more special this year i guess okay well i have this pie it's apple and onion and gruyere but also we have snacks that we don't want to fill up we don't have to eat it yeah i don't want to fill up but i do think we should eat that. All right. What about you, Jonathan? How was your Thanksgiving? It was fun. I mean, it was just me and Emily and Augie. Yeah, Augie was

really excited about all the different foods. He was very curious about what stuffing was. He had never had stuffing. That was a lively conversation. And what is stuffing? Stuff, well, yeah, it's stuff that you stuff inside the turkey. No, you don't really do that anymore. That's, you're out of fashion. What do you mean, you don't stuff a turkey anymore? It's just sort of like robbing the turkey of its dignity. So you think that the turkey, killing the turkey, that doesn't rob it of its dignity?

Probably. But setting that aside, you feel at least like, well, you know, he gave somebody a good meal and we can respect him for that. I asked Augie what he was grateful for. He's going to be four in a couple of days. So half of the things that he says is really kind of sweet and profound and the other half is just complete nonsense. How do you mean? Like he was saying, like we asked him what he was grateful for, and he was like, mama and papa and my family.

But then in the same breath as he's doing this list, he's like, Kidding kangaroo. What's that? There's a series of books called Sweet Pickles, where there's like all these different characters, like Worried Walrus and Fix-It Camel. Kidding Kangaroos, this irredeemable jerk, all he does is mean pranks on people. And I try to explain to Augie about how like the lesson to learn here is that like if you do something mean and then say it's a joke, it doesn't make it funny. But he thinks

Kidding Kangaroo is great. Right. And we spent some of the night trying to get him to look inside his heart. No, you cannot. This is for real, Og. Yes. You have to be serious in your heart. You have to close your eyes and think about what you're really thankful for.

I'm grateful for everything and our whole family and Kidding Kangaroo and everything. I like Kidding Kangaroo and everything. Why Kidding Kangaroo? It's funny. I love Kidding Kangaroo. You know what I'm giving thanks for?

What? And always, not just Thanksgiving Day, but every day. Us. Well, no. To our sponsors. And to you guys, but every day. Us. Well, no. To our sponsors. And to you guys, sure, yes. But fundamentally, it's the sponsors,

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exclusively on FanDuel Casino, where winning is undefeated. 19 plus and physically located in Ontario gambling problem call 1-866-531-2600 or visit connectsontario.ca please play responsibly I wanted to talk about music sure let's have a conversation about music. Okay. Do you like music? Yeah, I do. Controversial. Stevie, do you like music? I mean, I guess. I don't actually have very strong feelings about music.

Seems like we have ourselves a real point-counterpoint situation here. This conversation about music reminds me of a conversation about music that I just was having just the other day with my friend Gregor. You like music? I like music. I like the way you ease your interview subject into the interview

with softball questions to begin with. I actually, I've been giving a lot of thought to music lately because music was this really important thing in my life, and it still is, but I think isn't as much in my kids' lives as my own. After school, there would be these rumbles between sort of two teams of boys fighting each other about the Stones versus the Who, and you just get in there and beat the hell out of each other. And again, like nowadays it seems as though young people can like a vast array of things. Whereas before, like we wasted so much time pulling our hair out over, you know, the Beatles or the Rolling Stones. That's obviously why our generation is bald and younger people have much more hair.

They really do. Yeah. My kids are into like EDM and not even passionate about it. They're just, I'm like, oh, what are you listening to? And he's like, oh, just EDM. Not even like a song or a name or an artist. It's just that's what they're listening to. I don't know, but there's a... Was that the sound of you breathing?

The sound of you breathing air through your nose? That was, yeah. Oh, my God. That was upsetting. Sounded like a tea kettle boiling. He got me all off track. The point is, even to my own ears, it sounds all tinny and funny when I'm like, there used to be a man named Eric Clapton, and he used to play cover songs, and people called him a god. And they're like, oh, cool.

People used to write graffiti, I remember, on the school wall that said, Eric Clapton is god. Right. Like, people risked their lives to actually spray paint that. They'd go on top of the roof of the gym and hang down and write it several stories off the ground. Yeah, it was everywhere. And people would scratch it into notebooks and it was a whole tribal identification with Eric Clapton. But in my band,

this is the point I'm trying to make to you. We played the song Cocaine. Wait, hang on a second. What about this band? The band, yeah. You had a band? Yeah. This is the first I'm hearing of this.

I was in a band for about 15 years. What was the name of the band? It had different names over the years, but... What were some of the names? I can't even remember these names. I know you can't. The first name of the band, which is probably the most embarrassing name,

was Shadowfax, named after the horse in Lord of the Rings. Shadowfax? Mm-hmm. So Lord of the Rings. Shadowfax? So it's like, do you guys do songs in Elvish? Yes, we did songs in Elvish. It's been nice chatting with you. It's been really interesting. I'm not sure that it gets us anywhere, but I always enjoy

our talks. Who is this character? This is everyone I have ever talked to. Yeah, I can't say that we're going to consider you for this, but I enjoyed our talk. Really interesting. It's always interesting talking to Gregor. No, but I mean, but seriously though, does that seem true that your generation,

that you guys don't feel as defined by your choices in music? Like you can like all the music. I think when we were younger, though, I remember, like, Backstreet Boys versus NSYNC being a big thing. And which were you guys? I said I was a Backstreet Boys, but then, like, a couple years out, I was like,

why did I think that? Because NSYNC's music is way better. Kaylee, I'm the same way. Really? Yes, I think that I had a vague awareness that, like, maybe it was, like, cooler to say you like the Backstreet Boys, but I couldn't even name a Backstreet Boys song. And NSYNC is what I listen to.

Yeah. During quarantine, I've been spending a lot more time listening to music with Augie. What kind of stuff are you guys listening to? Just a lot of music that I liked when I was a kid. I played him The Clash's Should I Stay or Should I Go for the first time a little while ago. And after every song, I was asked, well, what do you think? And like after he was just silent and I was like Augie like what would you think and he's just like

looking off into the distance and then he says I think he should stay and I was like oh yeah and he's like yeah like he was like it's it's easy it's easier I think he was just imagining how hard it is for him to go anywhere especially And I was like, oh, yeah? And he's like, yeah. He was like, it's easy. It's easier. I think he was just imagining how hard it is for him to go anywhere, especially now in the winter in Minnesota, to put on a snowsuit and his boots. To him, it was just like a referendum on whether you should go outside in the cold or stay inside and eat snacks. And he was like, yeah, no, I think you should stay.

When I was a little kid like younger than Augie like really like an infant my dad used to whenever I was crying he would play can't touch this then I would stop crying wow yeah he would like pick me up and dance around and oh yeah that's really that's very sweet did you guys have the experience of making mix tapes oh i only ever made mix cds i used to make uh mix tapes um like but recording off the radio yeah so i would have to hold the tape recorder mic up to the speaker of a radio. So you would hear my father yelling in the background. I made a mix.

I used to just make a lot of mixes in high school in general. And I remember I had this amazing idea where I was like, it would be so cool to make a mix where the first letter of each song spells, like, will you go to prom with me? And you could give it to someone to ask them to prom. So I made it, like, years before even my prom would have happened, and then, like, I didn't ask anyone to prom, and I never used it for anything.

Do you remember what the songs were that you used for the letters? Honestly, I probably have it on my old computer. I can look. You got to, like, find an occasion to go to a prom to use that. I think any occasion in which I now go to a prom would be creepy. Grounds for legal action? Yeah. Oh, yeah.

So I have Under the Bridge by the Red Hot Chili Peppers. If you guys know that song. by the Red Hot Chili Peppers. If you guys know that song. Gold Lion, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, if you guys remember that song. Piazza New York Catcher is the P in prom. Piazza New York Catcher Are you straight or are you gay? is the P in prom. I want you to want me.

Cheap trick. That's the I in with. What's the M? The M in prom is Marching Bands of Manhattan by Death Cab for Cutie. The M in prom is Marching Bands of Manhattan by Death Cab for Cutie. Can you sing it? Mm-mm.

I can't. All right. Stevie, can you? No, I don't actually know that song. Which, like, this is actually an experience I have often. I never know the songs that people are talking about, like, even growing up. Mm-hmm. never know the songs that people are talking about, like even growing up. I have this like very distinct memory of being in my friend's house and they put on that Maroon 5 song, This Love. Do you remember that song? Yeah. And like they all knew all the words and they were

like, you know, singing along to it. And I had never heard it before. And I had like no idea what was going on. And I felt like shame about it. And I went home and like, listen to that song on repeat because I was like, it felt really important that I learn it. Yeah. Hey, you mind if I switch gears here for a moment? Sure. Do you guys ever, I'm just wondering if this is something that other people do, but do you ever think about what songs

you would like to be played at your funeral? It's a very self-indulgent feeling. It's just when I'm in a very self-indulgent kind of mood, which is often. I'm thinking that would be a good song, really make everyone cry and think about me. Yeah, I don't know if I have a... Do you have a go-to

answer? Yeah, what's your go-to funeral song? I actually have like a little bit of a playlist in my head. So I think like, do you know that song, that Groucho Marx song, Hello, I Must Be Going? No, shockingly. Hello, I must be going. I'm here to say I cannot stay. I cannot stay. And I think like that would be kind of sweet.

Yeah, that would be sweet. Yeah. Jonathan, if I may be so bold as to produce your funeral. Please, God willing. What if at the end of the whole thing, you know, they were like, well, we just want to thank everybody for coming and whatever. And then you could have Son in in an empty room come in and really punch.

It should be like literally the person gives the eulogy and right as they finish speaking it's like ba-dum-bum. Exactly. I'm glad the idea of my funeral is so amusing to you both. What would be the most disrespectful? Like let's say you're planning the funeral for someone you hated. What would be the most disrespectful? Like, let's say you were

planning the funeral for someone you hated. I think the most disrespectful would be like that song that used to play on the Six Flags commercials. With that dancing ball guy? Do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do. Uh, yeah, yeah.

What about the worst song to be playing at your failed engagement? Like you propose, but the person says no. And then all of a sudden the mariachi band shows up and strikes up that song that you paid them money to play. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. In that case, I feel like it would just be like a good classic, like she loves you or something. Like she loves you, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, but she's walking away. And you can't get the mariachi band to stop playing it.

They're just following you, chase after her, and they follow you. they're just following you chase after and they follow you how about I got a feeling that tonight's gonna be a good night that would be like really good peace what about the worst song to walk down the aisle to? Like, instead of Here Comes the Bride, you want to do something a little less typical. I feel like, again, that Six Flags song would be pretty bad. Oh my God, that horn.

And you act like you're honking a horn while you walked down the aisle. FanDuel Casino's exclusive live dealer studio has your chance at the number one feeling, winning, which beats even the 27th best feeling, saying I do. Who wants this last parachute? I do. Enjoy the number one feeling, winning, in an exciting live dealer studio, exclusively on FanDuel Casino, where winning is undefeated.

19 plus and physically located in Ontario. Gambling problem? Call 1-866-531-2600 or visit connectsontario.ca. Please play responsibly. Hey, you know, were you guys enjoying all of this music that I was spinning for you guys as we were talking? Yeah, I felt like I was at the club.

Yeah. You know, if people out there enjoyed those songs and want to relive the memories, they could go to the Spotify playlist that we created. That's right. Yeah, we'll put a link in the show description. It's called Goldstein's Way Cool Playlist. I've seen it called that.

It's called Goldstein's Far Out Hits. No, it's not. It's called Goldstein's Party Faves. That is what it's called. To Get the Party Going. Mm-hmm. It's called Goldstein's Party Faves

to Get the Party Going. Yeah. You know, speaking of music, I spoke to a man named Glenn. His mom, Madeline, is 94 years old, and a couple of months ago, she was moving from the house that she lived in for many years into a smaller apartment.

And during the move, she came across this box full of 78s, this long-forgotten box of these records of her singing when she was just 20 years old. Yeah, this is back in 1946. And Glenn was telling me that when his mom was young, she loved to sing. But since her family was so poor, she had to give up the prospect of having a singing career in order to support her family. They were really, really poor. My grandparents were Russian immigrants. My grandfather couldn't read or write. He sold bananas on a push cart.

That was what he did. Things were tough. A birthday gift sometimes was like a piece of fruit. A birthday gift sometimes was like a piece of fruit. I mean, that's how bad things were. And my grandmother was raising five kids. My mother, she loved to sing and that was wonderful, but there was a certain reality to life. When you took these records out and you played them for the first time, even that might have been a trick, right? To find a record player and one that played at the 78 speed.

That's exactly correct. We finally found somebody who had a record player that could play 78s. And when I heard him, oh my goodness, it was wonderful. My mother said she estimates that the last time she had listened to the discs were maybe 60, 65 years ago. Just absolutely incredible to hear her sing at the age of 20. In listening to the songs for the first time, was it tinged with a little bit of sadness for you to just hear? Oh, yeah. It was because I knew how much she always loved to sing.

It was because I knew how much she always loved to sing, and I know that if things were different, then maybe she could have pursued a career. And it just gave me insight into a whole different aspect of her life that she had kind of tucked away, you know. And I just want my mother to have a little happiness. In fact, let me, she's in the other room. Let me go get her and so she can say hello to you. Hello, Madeline. I can't hear you. I think you're a little far away. Hi, Jonathan. Hi. Oh, there you are.

Hello. Good, good. Hello. How are you? I'm good. I'm good. I was just talking with Glenn a little bit about the discovery of the 78s. How do you like that? Yes, yes. I just love to sing, and I didn't know anything other than that I wanted to sing. What did it feel like for you to have to give that up? Well, I sort of expected not to get too much of anything. You know, times were not too good,

so I sort of developed maybe a wall in front of me that don't be disappointed. I knew it couldn't be. I was hoping it would be. And I just took it as it came along. Over the years, I mean, were there times when you'd see other singers getting famous, where it made you kind of think about yourself a little bit? I would say to myself, I'm as good as them.

And when you listen to yourself, do you feel a connection to that person that you used to be, or does it feel like just a whole other person? Well, I can almost think back to those days and feel when I'm singing a song or a phrase, I just remember doing it. Wow. It's amazing.

Yes, yes, yes. After all those years, it's a good feeling. I just sit back there and just listen. I relax on the chair, on the couch, and I hear something different every time I hear it. A different note, how I sang the note. And I smile a lot. Yeah, yeah.

Yes, yes. Is there something about listening to these records that feels like a time machine? You're right. You're right. Absolutely. A good time machine. Oh, you mean?

That brings you back good things. Good things. It brings you good thoughts, good ideas, good everything. It brings you back the good memories. That's right. That's right. The other ones we threw away many years ago, you see, the bad ones. We're just looking for the good. You have to think that way. Yes, yes. I don't know if you're comfortable doing this, but is there any way that you would be able to favor us with a few lines? You want me to sing them to you now? I mean, if you had it in you, I don't want to put you on the spot.

No, no, no. Tear a star from out the sky and the sky feels blue. Tear a petal from the rose and the rose weeps too. Take your heart away from me. I almost forgot the words. It's a long time ago. Forgive me. There's a star from out the sky And the sky feels blue.

There are petals from a rose, and a rose weeps too. Take your heart away from mine And mine will surely break My life is yours to take So please keep the sparks away Now would you take the wings from birds So that they can fly Would you take the ocean's roar And leave just a sigh Unless your heart won't let you do

This is what I beg of you Don't take your love from me Now would you take the wings from birds So that they can fly Would you take the ocean's roar And leave just a sigh Oh, that your heart won't let you do This is what I beg of you Don't take your love from me

from me Don't take your love from me You can listen to all of Madeline's music at madelineforman.com and it should be up on Spotify pretty soon as well. We'll put a link in the show notes to that and to our playlist. And we'll be back next week with a new check-in with best-selling novelist Curtis Sittenfeld. with best-selling novelist Curtis Sidenfeld. Do you like music?

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Old team's party phase to get the party going. Old team's party phase to get the party going. I spoke to a man named Shadowfax, a little less typical. I spoke to a man named Eric Clapton. Good one, Eric. Here comes Good one Eric Here comes the bride

Here comes the bride Here comes the bride It sounds all tinny and funny Old team's party fades To get the party going Old team's party fades To get the party going Sounded like a tea kettle boiling