The Ben and Emil Show - MBS 10: Narrowly Escaping the LA Fires

Episode Date: January 28, 2025

A bit of a somber episode this month, as Phil describes in detail just how close he came to losing everything in the Eaton fire. This week's bonus is us getting a little crazy. Sign up at: https://www.benandemilshow.com This episode was edited by Chris Dalo / https://vimeo.com/chrisdalo Follow us on instagram. @ bencahn and @ emilderosa and @ philorphilip Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What is Tabata? It's showing the remote. Dude, okay, everyone's making fun of me, but this thing comes. No one can figure out. This thing comes. This thing comes. It's got a loss.

No one can figure it out. It took us forever. I mean, how would- Okay, it says Tabada on this remote. Tabata, Emam, just in a big circle. Wait, okay. This is nuts.

But everyone's like, how does Emil not know what Tabata is? Never heard this in my life. Tabata is like a high, like a hit workout almost. That's what there's, yeah. Yeah. And you build a pond

And e-mom stands for every minute on the minute. So, like, every minute it does. But we just say we're here. This is a workout clock. We're here today. We're here at Tobata. Meatball. Meatball.

Meatball. Meatball. Guys, welcome back to Meatball special. This one's, uh... Freewheeling? Well, we got to talk to Phil about what he's been going through. Yeah, you guys need to... Did you guys talk about me on an episode?

Because I was getting an influx of hot young twinks following me. We got to... We talk about you every episode. I don't know. Did we? We might have tagged you and something. Maybe. It was probably alive the week of the fires.

I don't know if you threw to me or something. Or put my ad up or something, but there was a bunch of... We definitely talked about how Phil was going through it and we... But you got a lot of followers from that, I guess. Things are looking up, you guys. You guys, sure. Wait, did you also... He's been displaced, but he's got new followers.

The Phil's furniture thing, the last time you were on, did you make a joke about it burning down? I couldn't remember. It wasn't a joke. Antifa burned down my... But, and also the insurance, the insurance person was really good friends with my wife, but then I killed him and the dog.

Oh, right. So I would love to have that insurance guy helping me and my wife. in the current situation, but it's kind of strange. And I was looking through it, I was like, should I rework this? But I was like, no, Phil, you're a victim. Milk it as much as you can.

So the last time we saw you was the holiday episode. Last time we saw each other in person? No, but the last time you were here. Did I see you since I came back? Yeah, we all were hanging out. Oh, at the bar. Oh, we hung out at the bar. Yeah.

We played tennis? New Year's tennis, right? We did, we did. not enough though no it was really quick and then and then LA lit on fire this is this has been so crazy well we were saying I mean it's I've seen structures burned down and everything the weirdest thing was I was saying I've never seen one where I'd like had spent so much time before seeing your house and all this stuff happening and I was that's what we were talking about in the live I was saying for a brief period when we were homeless between studio stuff we're recording there you've probably been there more than anybody else has

yeah and then just and then just hanging out sorry go ahead and then just hanging out right yeah and now you're now you're displaced I'm displaced it's beyond well I guess I'll just lay out what happened I'm the beginning Tuesday night

January 7 January 6 so we're celebrating with all the boys all that sort of stuff so I was pretty bent up that day and I had a friend's dinner that I really didn't want to go to and so about 6 p.m., I'm driving from Altadena to K-Town. So curious who this was.

Rich? Oh, okay. He's just ready to lay it out of L.M. He knew because it was so windy. So the night before, and, you know, it's an old house and, like, the, just everything was, like, fucking nuts in it. Shit was falling down everywhere. I barely slept that night.

So I was really tired. So 6 p.m. comes around. I'm driving there. and no joke I see a big cell phone tower get hit by lightning I'm like that's fucking weird I've never seen that before my life

fucking lightning I've never seen lightning in LA that's insane it was insane trees are in the road and stuff I'm like why am I in danger myself to get to this fucking dinner this was on that Tuesday Tuesday night yeah

Jim if if there's any way to pull up that clip of Ben talking I'd love to show Phil of him telling me call me a foreigner and if we can find that but sorry, go ahead. It'll make sense when we show it too. So I'm driving to this dinner in K-Town

and, you know, it takes 40 minutes to get there. 6.30 happens and I'm on my phone or someone texts me and they're like, yo, a fire starting in Altadena. I'm like, holy shit. And then I'm waiting at the restaurant. All my friends are 30 minutes late and so I'm texting them.

It takes me 40 minutes to get there. You can't text me 20 minutes beforehand that you're going to be, we're actually meeting at 730. So much pissed at everybody. And I'm outside of Dan Sung Sa and I'm on... Dancing Saa? Dan Sung Saa.

It's Korean. It's a Korean place. It's great. They just started a place called Dancing Sa. Dancing Sao. This is, so we were recording on Tuesday. Oh, God.

And this is a little funny thing because I was worried about it. It was just the show. This is earlier in the day? This is earlier in the show. It was already bad on Tuesday. I was like, should we even be recording? Like, everything's fucking flying around. You're nervous about losing power.

This is a little clip. Oh, God. if this may be the last you see of us because the we are you're such a you're such an outsider you're such a foreigner no it's nothing the worst case scenario is well I shouldn't talk I'm sorry I shouldn't say that you are at severely more risk of fire oh yeah there's already one close to my house right now yeah okay so they cut the power to my house a little bit they did yeah well God got I really boy I really hope they don't you know who's gonna feel bad if I die in a fire Ben not going to die in a I already did this already came out on Thursday just get a garden hose and spray the roof I'm already dead

true but I was wrong you were incredibly wrong so you're at the at Dung-Hung-Su dancing saw and I talked

so right beforehand I talked to Wydenfeld and I was on the phone with him and I was like we'll do we'll watch a movie tomorrow at your house we always do that and we were just talking

about the wind and shit and how crazy it is. He had lost power and him, his family were at the movies and so I'm at Dancing Stop and we're just checking Twitter and it's getting crazier and crazier

You probably didn't even have watch duty at this point. No, no one knew about watch duty. And shit was just popping off and then it became very clear I got to evacuate my fucking house as soon as possible. So I didn't even see my friends

Wow, you were in fucking Korea Town Had to jet back Had to jet back. So I call I'm calling Nick Because my friend lives right under These mountains and It's very very scary area

Right near all that sort of shit I was calling him I was like you gotta get the fuck out of there He's like I'm already out of there So that scared me because it's like He's already leaving I would start driving back And like dude

what is that the 1 34 or whatever I'm like I crest around a corner and I'm like seeing a fire right there and then I crest around the corner again and I'm seeing another fire right there and I'm cresting around the corner again I'm seeing another fire right there

and I'm like dude fuck I can't do we can't go up there so I flip the whip around and we go to my wife's mom's house who's real gotcha everybody so I go down to Palos Faire Days

and then I'm just like all right and it was a weird night obviously nobody fucking knew what was going on but the whole time I kept saying to people

like where I live in Alta Dina like I'm not I'm in a neighborhood you guys know it it's like there's there's Alta Dina Drive

and then like 10 or so streets then the mountains then even below that is two or three streets than my house. So I kept saying to people, if it gets to my house, that means the whole place is gone. Right. And so it was like this astronomical thing like, I'm going to be okay. Wednesday happens and turns out the whole place was going to. I have a call. Well, I had a call that day too. So I'm like on this work call, women's furniture. You didn't even have your computer. I had nothing. I had the outfit I was wearing. And your phone. And my phone. Yeah. So I was on this

call and I'm just like saying the same shit like yeah I think it's okay and then I posted like does anyone know because a friend of mine Nick was the first one at like I texted you pretty soon after like my friend just wrote me my house is gone and like that's another house that I went to and all this shit all this time and Sarah's opening a new location right by where that was so we're watching and going just like yeah trying to get information from anyone I know I posted Does anyone know if How can I fucking tell

If my house is alive Or not alive And basically my friend Russ Who's kind of like I don't know He's like an adventure guy That has like a sick van A jeep with like all this stuff

He sounds like a pedophile But he has got like an adventure van And he's like oh he's kind of doing shit He's kind of a badass dude I guess is what I'm getting at He's like dude, I'll go. And it's like, don't go. I texted a meal that day, too. I was like, I kind of want to go. And he's like,

Emil texts me very funnily. Famously, you don't run into burning buildings. And I'm like, for sure, for sure. I'll stay put. And then, so I'm just like, chilling out. I was like, let's, I'll go get something to eat. And I'm like in this fucking mall in Palace Verdeys. And Russ facetimes me. And he's like, okay, dude, there is no houses on your block anymore. and your back shed is currently, there's like a big ADU in the back of my house, like a two-bedroom house, basically.

That's uninhabitable. That's uninhabitable. And a shed behind it that has, wow, I can't believe I'm going to break this on air, but has my Halloween decorations and also my puppets. Plunkie. Planky is, plonky. Plonkey.

What about Little Phil? Little Phil's okay. Oh. Little Phil's in the main house. Come on. Yeah. But yeah, Plonkey, as big meatball heads will know. Yeah.

O.G. Meatball heads. One of our closest friends. Love it and hated. A lot of people who are immediately like, like, I do not like that. Don't do that. And I bet if you're a plonky, fair, fair. Now that I think about it.

If you're a plonky hater, I bet you feel pretty bad right now. You probably, you probably feel like Ben, doesn't you? Because he burned. He burned. Plonkey burned. To death. There's nothing. There's nothing left to Plonkey.

Yeah. there's fucking nothing back there um that was currently on fire and so my friend's like dude i don't know what's going to happen in your house what do you need out of it the back door it's a really old it's a hundred year old house this is a hundred year old neighborhood it's a historical neighborhood the back door has like these windows in it that makes it a screen door more or less those blew open so my house is like everything's here but it's like got a coat of dust on it so it's like this going back is like a it's like a weird but dust is an understatement it's oh my god yeah soot and chemical toxic got absolute asbestos and lead truly like really scary shit

plastic and the nastiest shit yeah yeah thick stuff too he's there wait so russ asks you if you need anything if i what can i get out of your house what do you do what do you tell him you need laptops right exactly it's like what do you need and i basically it's like what do you need and i basically basically was like, here's my passport, here's my social security card, here's my laptop. I got a bunch of go money in case shit really hits a time. Yeah. Wow. How much are we talking? We're talking a good amount. Thousands? We're talking a good mouth. We're talking a good amount. Wow. I never thought about having go money. Well, I've been mostly a bad guy my whole life. And so now I'm a victim good guy. Right. And so, you know, wow. I usually only keep like

a hundred bucks. I don't have any cash. Something to think about. Yeah. Think about your Go Bunny. My Go Bunny? Yeah, Go Bunny. The rest of a piece of Bunny Museum, too, of Altadena. I know.

Terrible. Well, so I, did you guys ever watch Slow Horses on Apple TV? We'll get to Slow Horses. Let me finish my story. Well, they have their little go bags, like the CIA agents, if things go wrong. And part of it is like a bunch of money. A bunch of money in different currencies and stuff. That feels very cool.

Now I want a big stash of money just in case I'm going to go. Well, now that we're off. What if you have no money? There's this, I saw this book in printed math. matter once that was how to disappear completely. I feel like I talked about this, but it's a, it's a guide of how to fully disappear, which I thought. Oh, that's fun. It was cool to read of like, here's what you do. Here's where you go. Here's how you, you know, handle yourself. Anyway, Russ is at the house. He's like, all your shit's about to get burned down. I don't know

what to do. He grabbed some of my shit. He got the cash. He got the cash. That would suck if that burned. That would really suck that burned. Good thing you don't keep that in the ADU. I truly. So he's there. And then my friend Brian goes to the house as well. He's another like adventure dude has a big van. They're ready for shit.

Meanwhile, the pickup truck. Stop saying vans. The neighborhood is still smoldering. The neighborhood is absolutely smoldering. My. Oh, everything's on fire. Is on fire.

And so the videos are insane. We should maybe put. We could probably edit one in or something. Yeah, yeah. I'll send you a bunch of shit after this to just pop up. Brian and. Russ are back there moving shit away from this ADU because it's an ADU, then it's a really old tree, then it's my deck, then it's my house. So the tree is above the ADU right

there. Also, all it takes is one little ember from the ADU. You know what's fucking crazy too? I don't understand how it. One of the big things is people's gutters because it's filled with all that shit. So that's just like a tinder box. You got your gutters cleaned? I had gutters put in three days before the fire. Isn't that fucking weird? We just got our gutters clean thing. You got to clean your gutters out, dude. So they're there, and basically

they like contain it. They're like, showed me really crazy footage that I don't think they want to share, but like he's in it, like pushing the walls inward, so it falls in on itself. And it's like a back flame and like Russ is rendering away from his flame. It's fucking, the house next to them is still on fire.

so they're in the mix they have masks on and everything they had masks Russ maybe had a mask on Jesus Christ but I mean they're like with these firemen and the firemen are like just kind of chilling it sounded like really crazy and it's Russ is there and like he's looking outside and there's big black vans pulling up and Gavin Newsom is outside of the house and he says what I'm so sorry and he wait and it's Gavin Newsom and fucking Anderson Cooper what on the street and and this isn't yeah so shit is just like slowly popping off um and basically like you know it become mariposa was on the news in jersey my mom's like what's the name of your street

i'm like mariposa and she's like jesus christ it's like that's the street and so they get out of their rust stays like basically all night he's like hanging out just to keep an eye on things and everything the next day i go to the house uh with them and this is still crazy time yeah even the next day is it was like wires are in the street and like dramatic sip um it looks like a bomb was dropped on off it's crazy it driving into it was one of the worst things i've ever seen and craziest things I've ever seen and awful things I've ever seen. And it's like old women in their like, uh, day dresses. Just like zombies walking around rubble that used to be their house looking for shit. It was like, Jesus. Really, really horrible. Uh, and it's just driving up my

fucking street and I always said like if I'm never if I ever if I stay in Los Angeles I'm never going to leave Altadina I love this little town it's gone it is wholly gone like it's really bizarre so I have a little fire watch map of or one of the maps is like red red red red red red of the houses that are no longer there and then it's like 20 red and then my house and then another three or four houses which I I attribute to Russ and Brian containing that thing.

I think they really slowed it down and saved not only my house, but a bunch of other houses. Across the street for me is nothing. No houses. Can you check Twitter real quick? I'm gonna, I want to... I'm just kidding. Saracen, this is...

This is Al-Sidina. Yes, dude. So this is Sarah's new location. See, like this... Folks, I wish you could see what we're looking at. We can put it up. up there. That's what I mean about if it hits my house, it's all

gone. Yeah. I mean, you're probably like right in there. Yeah, I'm because that's Lincoln. Yeah, I'm down over here. How many homes are estimated to have been destroyed? 5,000, 6,000? Something. And it's all

single unit families. It's all families that I've been there forever. You know, going into my house and seeing like just like my bag of M&M's out and it's covered the M&M's covered in soot and stuff and like

I can't explain it but like the entire you guys we did stuff there it's so weird it's so weird the energy of it and the heart of it it was so cold in there too the pictures you sent of the inside just like the dining room table that's where we would literally do the shows when we would

come over. Right. And that's where you, that was the first Ben and Emile paypigs table too. Yeah. Yeah. It's a coffee table was mine. Then it was yours. It was mine. Yeah. Just all these weird little things. The picture out of the, from the, from the kitchen sink out. Yeah. And it's all gone. Right. There was a house there. Yeah. And then there's no house there. There's no house there. Like you see the sky into the distance. Did you like my joke? The answer gone, but it, but it what cost? At what cost? Oh,

because you had ants. I used to have ants too, you guys. The ants in LA, I don't know how to

explain it to people not from here. It gets hot in the summer and I guess they're all looking for water or something but they just

fucking swarm houses. That's the same thing with rats. They come down from the park. Weird. I didn't get rats, but I always get...

During the summer, man, they're out. God damn. Yeah, and it's like every single person I know

in Altadena lost their house. Every single per... It's fucking bizarre. And it was also becoming a big... You know, we were chattering about maybe moving there at some point because so many friends had moved there. It's such a nice little place.

And we know so many people who lost their houses and there's so many... I think I told... I think I said it on the live but the most tragic one was Sarah found out her one friend's house burned down because she's weeks away from giving birth. Oh, God.

There were supposed to be a baby shower, and she found out it burned down because the person organizing it texted and said, just so, you know, we're not doing the baby shower this weekend because their house burned down. And it's just like, wow, that's a dark. Holy shit.

Same with Samir from Cullen and Samir. Their house burned down, and they're like two weeks away from giving birth. Oh, yeah, it seemed to, you know, a lot of young families there. And then a lot of old families that have been there. I don't know if you guys said this, but Altadino is one of the only areas in the L.A. region that didn't do redlining in the 40s and 50s. So it's got like this longstanding. It was the first like African American

suburb where they could buy houses and live there. So it was this totally mixed community. And you would go to Rancho bar up there that's not there anymore. And you would just see all sorts of people hanging out. It felt like this weird little Colorado town instead of like a Los Angeles suburb. Yeah, it's crazy. After I went there, I went to Brian and Mary's house and this old man knocked on the door and he was talking to Mary and he was like, I'm sorry yesterday. I backed into your car. I want to exchange information. My house just burned down and all through the Dina. And we were like, God damn, dude. And then he was like, I know I also lost an apartment building so I lost seven units and we're like

so he's like a landlord and he's like he's worried about his units like you know there's things inside of those units that are called families and like he's referring to them as units and so we were pretty much like Mary was like oh yeah give me your information dude like give me your shit so that was kind of but like dude so like I'm trying to wrap my head around like what's next for Alta Dina, what can be next. Because it's say my, those two blocks, we're talking 50 individual homes maybe, 45 of them are no longer there. Like, who can you keep that?

Like the amount of money these people are going to have to spend, whether or not they have insurance, I just think a lot of people are going to sell and it's going to be a lot, supposedly some sort of new ordinance went into where they can build a lot of like multi-unit and shit so it's going to be I think just a lot of investors moving in and all that sort of shit I'm very curious I mean I have no idea what

the timeline on a cleanup of that scale the soil is poison so it's not even like structures it's like you you more or less have to regenerate I wouldn't feel comfortable yeah just being there for a long time

what are you going to do with all your stuff is it just a a loss, a total loss? You're going to try to recover and clean? I am... You got some of it out, no? I got like a vacation,

a long vacation's worth of stuff out. So I got like clothes. Not all of them, though? Not all of them, no. And then I got... I got the sick-ass denim shirt, that's for sure. That's for sure. I appreciate it.

Rhythm. Dude, they really sleeper. I know. And good pricing. Yeah, we like that. Rhythm, what's up? I'm a victim. I don't know, dude. I'm hopefully getting insurance, figuring all that out,

going to like the fucking FEMA. Because it's all so, it's like, it's very easy to read these into infographics and they're like, demand your landlord gives you money. And I'm like, okay, well. And then your landlord's like, no. Yeah. And then you go, for sure, good to know.

Counterpoint. no exactly so it's like just the it's been a two weeks or 10 days or whatever the date is of that shit but you broke your lease broke my lease um yeah everybody i rents big who which is insane that you even like have to go through it's like the place is unlivable and you have to go through a process of like i'm breaking this i'm going to break the lease thankfully she's been very cool as now tbd we'll see I'm sure it's everything's gonna be okay dude it's like

it's all the unquantifiable shit too of like I have like expensive paintings in there too like is that am I gonna have to get that shit cleaned I'm just very wary about chemicals a lot of cool art yeah a lot of cool books it's I know

guitar had a very beautiful well lived in well curated home thank you Ben yeah you got good taste even even the old Echo Park Plus was always like you did good here It looks good here. It looks nice. I remember my ex-wife moved out and you were like,

ooh, this is a sad guy's place. And then maybe like a two weeks went by and you came back and were like, it's not so sad. Yeah, it was good. I need some inspo because I still am in a sad guy place. Yeah. My place is ridiculous. I still have been here since July, folks.

I just don't even see it anymore. I'm just like, yeah, this is my place? We see it. Every time I come over, I'm like, is he okay? I'm fine. I don't care. No breakup. No major fire. No catastrophe. Just like, it's sad. Yeah. No, I'm figuring it out. I came up here. There's a bunch of shredded paper. That's the saddest. Unframed photo frames of just like potential and just like it's never going to get filled in. The studio. The studio is intact. We're doing our best. We're doing our best. It looks good.

Camera forward looks good. Guys behind the camera. I know. It's really funny. Well, I've talked to people who are, like, other podcast people, and they're like, oh, God, like, your studio looks sick. We do it in this, like, place we rent, blah, blah. I'm like, dude, if you saw it off camera, you'd be like, this place sucks. Well, excuse you, this is great. This is how a setup looks. This is a studio, baby. It's a pro set up.

If you're at home, it's really cool. Yeah, we're a professional news gathering service. I'm looking at a dirty toilet. My toilet is clean. Just so you know, guys. I clean it. You know I clean my shit. You know I keep it clean.

I didn't flush the other day because I forgot. Or I didn't, it didn't go down or something. Yeah, I'm looking at a turd in the bowl right now. There was a little turd. That's TMI. I'm sorry. Phil, I got to say, I commend you for having your, for your attitude and your, uh, your spirits because if it were me dealing with this shit, I'd be, I'd be a fucking, when I had a bedbug scare. Yeah.

Once. I was like, oh, I got to like, just, oh, I got to put all my shit in a bag and then do this and blah, blah, I can't. And that was just like my clothes and what little stuff I had. I just moved to New York. If it was my entire apartment dealing with all this toxic suit and stuff. It was a house. He lives a house. Sure, he rents, but he lives in a house.

I'd be inconsolable. It's, you know, Maslow's hierarchy of needs. The bottom thing is like a home. And to have that taken away. sucks but I have good support system I got places to crash I'm luckily the house is standing so I have stuff even though most of my stuff is in this weird nexus I have tons of people that are in way worse situations like it was it's a horrific situation what happened up there I'm just thinking about like the people that passed I heard stories even on the radio

that's like the worst things I've ever heard of like waiting to get picked up and like yeah people saw hell people actually saw hell and it happened so fast and it's the footage is that's my fucking McDonald's that like I don't know if you saw that

that's where you put down the three double cheeseburgers famous although the one with the palm trees just fully yeah yeah that's and that's like this that's that's that's that's that on Lincoln spent that sent everything crazy

that's on um yeah Lincoln right on the corner of Lincoln uh so it's just like it's really like you mourn your house but also like the fact that a community is gone the fact that this really

cool place that like we all ended up loving and it was this fun like I don't know energy of just like you move I moved there and there's like there's a grateful dead pizza shop and you're like what that sounds whack as fuck and you go there

and it's actually cool as fuck and the guy is nice as fuck and then he's your friend and then you're kind of friends with everybody there it was really special it was a really special place and I hope it comes back who knows side pie I think I think side pie burned down sadly but hopefully they'll come back

hopefully a lot of places come back it was definitely a beloved a sense of community in LA is really hard to come by yeah and Altadina was becoming a very fun little you know you know I'm so bummed you guys went and I wasn't able to go it was on Mariposa

I didn't go Sarah had gone and I know Adam went but I didn't go It's the new place from the all time people They opened a place in Autadena Oh like high end It looked fucking good Yeah so it's just like

There's a lot of people out there That are dealing You know talking to my friend that's got kids he's like crashing in San Diego and having a drive up and down and and now like the Zillow fight of trying to find a place to put him and his two kids is like crazy every place has like 20 applications to it and all that sort of stuff to rent um yeah so it's just all very it's a very nuts oh time um but i was i was seeing a friend of the show penelope um was yes she's been

really showing up. Dude, she was posting that... Shouts to fashion brand company. Yeah. One of the sickest out there. It just passed a billboarder theirs. It's always so funny. Yeah. And it's just like... I like when people do advertising purposely wrong and bad... Like,

your billboard where it's just like... Oh, yeah. God, I forgot about that. And it was like, fashion brand and they like barely fit the thing. I was just like, it's perfect. You guys are great. But she she was posting about how the FEMA thing isn't working Airbnb is like impossible to connect to

a lot of the things that companies are saying like oh you can do this and this just not even worry of course it's going to be like we're going to do a fucking Instagram ad and like tell everyone like we're showing up for our community all of them dude like let me tell a lot of these like lawyers like pro bono people it's like they didn't answer or you're kind of

signing up to join this lawsuit that's about to happen. So it is like it's not. Against two, Edison? Yeah. Yeah, because they didn't shut down that power. Yeah. So, and already I'm getting sponsored ads like, well, I didn't con us and shut it down.

Like, join this civil lawsuit. I'm like, dude, like, I just need help figuring out how to do all this stuff. If I, I'm thankful that I'm a nimble dude. It's just me and my bitch wife and like my books. and shit like that

and like you know all these other people that have like I think about my friends that have families that lost like all of their photos and like yeah my friend just posted

that he lost all his hard drives of like the future version of that of like there's Bitcoin on him too there's probably Bitcoin on it and like photos of his digital ephemera that we

we lose in these things well I've got all mine backed up I've got so many redundancy backed up on Google Drive. What's your redundancy situation? Redundancies in the British term of being fired, because I got a couple of those. Cease firing Gaza?

I wish my job would cease firing me. That's pretty good. Thank you. Yeah. No, it works good. Works good. Works okay. Everyone's been good.

Netflix has been very cool. My agents and stuff. I've been very helpful and stuff. Yeah, it's just like, it's really, you know, one of those things where you stop and you go, like, I'm having a weird one and it's like life. I'm having a weird life. Yeah. Just every five years or so, everything likes to get real strange for old Philly Boy. But what are you going to do?

Now I live in a sad apartment with my guitarist of my band. In Palis Verdes? Hell no. Oh, who was in Pee? My wife. mom my wife's mom I was staying with my wife's mom you know mothers-in-law

for those of you don't know look it up on a map is her place in danger of falling into the ocean like some of them are you know it's crazy I was walking around the neighborhood and I see some houses that are like folded in

and I'm like is this are we okay here LA is going on uninhabitable it's like absolutely between the ants we're just waiting we're all just waiting for yeah they're

We're all just waiting for an earthquake to come. That's on my vehicle card. The whole fucking city sets on fire every year. Sometimes it rains so much that the entire city cannot handle it and everything fucking shut it down. It's just, yeah. That's what we're hoping for, right? Is the rain to kind of wash out all the toxic shit into the ocean for the fish to deal with? Let them deal with it.

Your problem now. Good luck, fuckers. I guess. It looks like there's some rain in the forecast this weekend. But yeah, then you'll talk to people who are like, no, it's actually bad because it washes all the shit down. That's what I have trouble with, with the air quality. Are these just malcontents like COVID people who are still just, don't get me wrong.

I understand COVID is still a problem. But for the rest of functioning society, it's not. Let's be real here. Are they, I wonder if they are those type of people. I mean, I'm one of them. No, I wear a mask when I go outside too. Oh, so what are you talking about? I can't tell if it's hysterics or if it's.

Well, the problem is we have no guidance. So there's no way to know. So at this point, I'm just like, I might as well be careful because no one's telling me. I'll tell you, every time I go up there with a mask, I fucking wore goggles last time. Yeah. My eyes hurt. My throat hurts. I get a headache.

Sarah was at the restaurant yesterday and she said she was wearing a mask, but she was like my eyes hurt and like, dude. Yeah. It's like for real fucked up. And then there's the people like also a friend of the show, Cole Hirsch, his place is just outside. It's just a few streets south and west of Mariposa. His place is totally fine. Yeah. Untouched.

But inside there's like a little bit of shit. Yeah. And he's like, I don't know. You don't want to live. Yeah, so he's not living in there. Good. He moved into an Airbnb, but he's in that weird. There's all sorts of second and third order.

Right. There's like your house burned down. Your house didn't burn down. Right. Or your house is just like nearby. Yeah. And it's just. It's honestly, like.

It's very bizarre, too, driving up there, even on Lincoln, kind of even near the new shop, you'll see two houses, okay, one house completely gone. Two houses, okay, one house completely gone. So it is like this random spattering, and then you get into the mix, and it's like everything's gone. But, yeah, you know, the sparks and shit. So it is, like, wide. It's like, sure, it's concentrated up there, but even up Lincoln over there, there's, like, some houses that are down. and then... Jesus. Yeah, it's just a fucking...

But you know what, man? Also seeing like all this... The L.A. community of it all, you know. It's like... I've been here like 11 years. Like, okay, when am I going to leave? I want to get out of here. This is not my home.

I'm here for work. But it has been very nice seeing everybody. Yeah, people just want to help and donation centers are full. And, you know, I don't... been dropping some meals off that Sarah's restaurant was donating and you go and you know you get to the fire station they just have they're like yeah yeah which is great I mean they're going to go through it it's but and and even you know we brought it to some volunteer centers and

stuff and yeah they're just uh everyone is and like everyone's mostly people I know do me a favorite pick your bell button mostly people i know uh have have gotten their go fund mes and all that sort of stuff like fully filled out which is a reprieve for now um you know and also yeah but also like the fema shit i was in this fema thing and they were like if you have a go fund me don't make sure you let us know or else it could be like a fucking misdemeanor if you get FEMA money Of course you're going to fucking come after the people that lost their shit and not these goddamn other pieces of shit. I'm just glad nobody's done a cheesy hashtag for all this, like L.A. Strong.

True. I mean, I'm ready to be stronger than the storm, so that would make me feel right at home. Those kinds of things just always make me just like, come on, man. You're reducing it to this thing that's just a, you've condensed it into a dumb little L.A. Strong. Like, shut up. I'd love to have a big fat governor and talk about how we're stronger than, in the storm. It feels so good thing. I say that

I say that anytime someone brings up New Jersey. Jersey Strong. What was that Sandy? Hurricane Sandy. Yeah. Sandy. Yeah. Famous Bruce Springsteen song too. It's just one of those weird ones. Okay, I got a weird one. Remember the Broja? You want to tell

the audience about the Broja? Oh, in Echo Park? Yeah. That was yeah, that was great. So during COVID, I was obviously going crazy because I couldn't work. I couldn't properly work out. I'd set up. up a weird gym. I was like, remember the bucket of bricks? Bricks. So this guy was through prison workouts. I mean, truly, I got so jacked though. I mean, just, he was nuts. And I set up a, I set up a hangboard and was just doing like fingertip pullups, all kinds of pushups.

Oh, what, your place in Eagle Rock? Truly, um, curling fucking buckets of bricks. Just psycho mode. Like, uh, but Phil, he looked American history act. He looked more like, well, Without some of the tattoos. Well, you have one of the tattoos. Just one. Yeah. But then Phil had in his garage a actual setup, a rack and a squad rack bench. Bench.

And weights and stuff. And he would let me come over. I remember my costumes? Yeah. But it was in his garage, which he could lock me in if I wasn't careful. If he caught me like in the middle of a set and the garage door went down, I'd be kind of locked in. And so it became this cat and mouse game. where I'd be trying to work out,

but Phil would be trying to lock me in his garage. And then eventually I started wearing costumes. This was when I had the wigs before my wigs burned down in my shed, too. I would come down and I would sweep and I would pretend to be a neighbor. And I'm like, how are you? I'd hit the button. I can maybe find the videos. Yeah, that'd be great.

He'd pretend like he doesn't speak English. I think he'd let me work out there one time. Yes, I believe so. Yeah. There was also a council that had to. Right, because you would curse And sometimes you would make noise And there was a little

The brojo seems chill But there was a lot of rules Yeah And he kept breaking the rules Anyway, I've been working out Of my friend's warehouse The past 10 days Just like for an office to sit at

And I was like, dude I gave my friend the brojo Let me see if I can get it For the gym And then my friend's like Oh actually The Brojo didn't make it.

Is that Katie? This is the brojo. This is Katie gave it to her other friend. Dude. What the fuck? So it's like, let me see. It's like everything.

It's so, everything I'm reaching, it's like, oh, yo, let's get those gym things. And people are like, nah,

the gym, your gym equipment actually burned down too. That's like not even in my house. Oh, that thing you used to do bits on. That's like a funny memory in your head. It's done.

It's burned to the ground. Wow. That's, that's tragic. I didn't know about the brojo. Hey, do me a favorite check. Check your messages real.

Hey, this is Disney Studios crew HR, so pretty important. Whoa, really? Info and resources you need. Damn, that's pretty nice. Everybody's looking out. Everyone's been so nice to me. Wait until Disney Studios HR gets a load of Meatball special. Maybe we should break that now that I think about it.

Nah, we've been nice to this episode. But yeah, you know, it's just like a crazy fucking miscloth of stuff. And it's like, you can't, I can't even. The first week was like, I would turn on KPCC and it's just fire news and I'm thinking about the fire and I'm thinking about my house and how do I take these pictures and I'm thinking about going to FEMA and I'm dealing with the insurance people and stuff. So it's all encompassing and you kind of can't really. You had renter's insurance?

Yeah. Good. And I hate not working and not writing and not being creative and you're just like kind of in this weird nexus of like I can't fucking do anything. But it's okay everybody. It also happened at such a funny time because it was, when did it's January 7th, I guess? So it's a week into the new year. And it's so funny.

Right. So I haven't been working for like two or three weeks or everyone's been shut down more or less. But plus it's like, it's this fresh start. It's, I think it was New Year's Day. Me and Sarah went for this walk and we were talking about like the things we're going to do this year. And we were joking about how, you know, we were gone so much last year. And we were like, you know, we'd really like to be. We're just talking about all the things we want to do this year.

We want to be more social. We want to. It's a problem. you know we want to be more social tabata we want to we want to read and write tabata and all these things and it was immediately like we all went for that bar hang which was so nice and we were like exactly we got to do this shit we got to see people and then it all just kind of went away uh it like it sucked up all of our brain energy so like getting any of these projects done just felt like I can't think about that right now no one everyone was either like

placed or doesn't feel comfortable going outside. So, you know, being more social, it's just like, okay, not a possibility. Absolutely not. And it's just such a, you're like, okay, I had all these the energy, right. The energy is not good. The energy is insane. And it is very, you know, you kind of do these. It's like before COVID, we were like, we were going to have the best summer of all time. But then you piece together the things. And it is like that small thing of that bar hang. We went to this bar that we all used to go to and get really drunk at and be like there's too many fucking babies here and like

look at all these couples and then we all went there and there's like our friend has a baby and like we all have dogs and stuff and so we kind of became that people and I was like that really touched me I thought it was very beautiful I was so nice. This is such a nice new kickoff of things and yeah like

even that previous week I walked around Altadino with my bitch wife and I was just looking I was looking around. I was like, I went to the library for the first time. And I was like in this mid-century library that's so beautiful and cool. And it's just like a one week later, it's all gone. It's absolutely one of the strangest things I've ever experienced. Yeah, for just like a full wipeout. And I just feel so fucking bad for everybody. So give to everybody that needs help.

there's still people out there that are just absolutely fucked by this thing I mean it's just going to be hard on the city like LA just is a fucking tough place in general I feel like we've

everyone who came out of COVID small businesses whatever exactly right the film industry in general was like okay two strikes back to back well that's what I was going to say

two fucking strikes if you actually just let me do it I was going to get you all that but they came out of COVID and we're like okay we fucking survived that and then it's like getting hit with strikes and the strikes the strikes it's not just like okay the the film industry people are not making money right now the whole city kind of feels it and I didn't really understand it until like seeing it through Sarah's eyes and stuff where you know because I would go to restaurants and I'd go huh weird like you used to be able to get uh you used to never be

able to get a reservation or whatever. And then I would go with Sarah and I'd be like, I, you know, it's so weird. I feel like I'm going to all these nice restaurants and it's so easy to get in. She was like, yeah, no one's spending any money. Right. The strikes really fucked people throughout the city. And then, you know, so it's that. You get through COVID.

You get through the strike. You get through the other strike. And it's like, all right, we're going to fucking bounce back. And then the entire fucking city lights on fire. And if you didn't lose your business, you're like, well, no one's fucking spending money right now. everyone trying to figure out what the hell's going on or they don't feel comfortable leaving their house they just want to stay at home with air purifiers which i get but you're just like who who i mean how can i dude like by day two i was like i feel tapped on uh go fund me as i was like

i can't i can't hit all these go this is so much money and it is confusing you know what i mean because there's like so many links and so many different things and you don't know which ones that are the proper ones and all that sort of shit. But it's just, yeah, I don't know. I'm just worried about the city in general. It's always... The earthquake's going to happen, too. I hope not.

I hope we get at least... I hope it doesn't, but it will. I think this year we will get hit with a pretty big earthquake. Why? Ben just doesn't want to be wrong again. No, it's not that. I'm glad to be wrong many times over, but I just have a weird feeling. I just have a funny feeling.

Well, that'll be good up. Well, I mean, I'm just like also, I mean, I don't think I could handle that personally. Yeah. And then just the mess of like so soon after the fucking online discourse about how we mismanage our earthquake preparedness. And if we had a Republican mayor and governor, they would have somehow done it better. They have been retrofitting buildings nonstop. Sure. It's just great.

That won't be the reality. I'm just talking about, like, hearing that again and then hearing Trump talk about how, like, you know, we deserve it because we're gay or whatever, and, like, they're gay, they deserve it. They didn't sweep it up, and they're gay. They'd like, they'd like to sweep.

I don't know why they didn't sweet. I can't. Yeah. I mean, I will say, I think that despite an earthquake, I think the damage and... Also, the fact that we literally just built a fucking studio like yeah this place will be fine this is a newer build in its earthquake okay this place is earthquake fine it's earthquake fine great i'm not worried about it yeah it's just uh

oh god i got a pee so bad that's it's just scary all the stuff with like you know our lives and and and livelihoods are here and it's just a fucking scary that's why you should always keep your gas tank full this is and a bunch of go money keep your gas tank at least halfway full i try to do that even though i i preach it and i'm not always doing it but yeah you should always have your gas tank full because you never know when you gotta fuck off to mama's house you're gonna have to tell me um how much go money i should get off air because i'm curious also like also if things really go down and like your money's gonna be useless yeah i know true i've got money and it's like i've got bullets i've got bullets

what if i trade some of the money for the gun please i've got paper money i keep forgetting to get a gun why what do you mean for exactly what you just described so that I could defend myself None of us are going to be I'm not going to shoot anybody I'm just going to have it to feel safe Fire off a couple rounds into the air You better you better not

You better get away Stay away I actually As someone who's been vying for Ben's position On the show I think you should get it gone dude Wait what does that help How does that help you if I get a good You're going to kill yourself obviously

You're going to blow your fucking head off. You're going to smoke some weed that's way stronger than you think. You're going to go into a deep psychosis. I just hope you don't hurt anybody else is what I hope. I could never leave Doug alone. No, I'll take your dog. I'll fucking fix up this sad guy house. My life will be sick.

You need to fix the house before you tell yourself. They can't walk in here and go, gee, we know why. We know why this is. Open and shut case. I'm going to do it, I promise. open the door and shut it my god that's sad i did just sell my scooter in fact the guy's probably no way yeah i sold it he um every the vibe is changing the vibe is changing that works he's gonna come by tomorrow the vibe is changing i put in a new battery for him he's a very sweet he's a very sweet

little man that's cute yeah my thing is i'm just trying to i am trying to get some kind of the some of the some of the social spark back we're going we've got a little boys dinner tomorrow night which She's going to be very sweet. That's actually going to be really nice. That's going to be really nice. I can't. I don't. This guy outside of the studio has been organizing some stuff.

This guy, Caden, who I met at my friend Cal's House, and he lives on Maripose and Cal's House burned down, but both of our houses are there. So it's like, everything's burned down. I was talking to him, and then I was telling him about my situation and, like, all these volunteers, like, look at me. And, like, stop doing what they were doing. They were, like, looking at me to, like, listen to my story about it.

And I was like, I can't handle. I don't want to be seen. I don't want to be, like, observed in this situation. It's all very weird. Survivor's guilt, maybe. Oh, yeah. Just general anxiety over the situation. Yeah, I don't know.

We have a potential hang Saturday that I'm not going to. Why? I don't want to. I don't really feel up for it. I don't think I'll be there. you know I just don't think I like four for dudes great I love it very comfortable space yeah familiar with people like download again um yeah I'm just like kind of easing oh dude the amount of if you go to an actual hang with a bunch of people the amount of times you're going to have to

have the conversation of like now's it going right right that was I need six months to go by That was, I was telling Sarah, I was like, because we were going crazy, dude, we were just like, it was nice for a little bit. We were just sitting at home, running the air purifiers, watching the Australian Open, but getting a little stir crazy. And I was like, maybe we should go to a restaurant. We'll just fucking, like, mask up. And then we'll eat at the restaurant. And she obviously, like, knows everybody. So there's like no restaurant we can.

And she was like, I don't want to like, I don't want to have to do the conversation with other restaurant owners of like, and how, you know. how's it going? Go down a little bit. Yeah, we could go somewhere else. It's just like, but we just wanted to like go fucking eight minutes away and pop into a restaurant and feel like everything was normal. But you have to like do the conversation of like, yeah, I know, it's a lot. You know, we're all just a lot.

Yeah, man, it's like, and it's all it's going to be. It's all you can. And it's no shame on anybody for talking about. Obviously, we all want to talk about it and share our experiences. but it's like I'm going to recuse myself at any opportunity I can. I don't really want to deal with it. I'm the victim now.

Let me hear you say, way-oh. I'm the victim now. Let me hear you say, where-oh. My whole life I've been a bad guy, but now it's my turn for you to cry. I want to feel good. I want to feel bad. Give me your money and make me glad.

I'm the victim now. Let me hear you say, Wee-oh. I'm a cis-swip-mail. I'm having a good time. My whole life they've been. saying you're a bad bad guy but guess what now I'm the victim man

you don't want to cry for me and I'll show you how I'm the victim now let me say way oh way oh I think that's a good place to end it That was really fucking cool Well guys

That just came out of nowhere Yeah I know Well I felt You know You are you're straddling The victim now energy like a little rocket chip You're gonna ride that

Oh I'm riding it out Maybe we'll make this the bonus and then we'll talk about some different stuff in the bonus that we're about to record. You like doing that. Yeah. Sometimes we switch it up. I don't know. I don't know. Depending on.

I like this one. We'll talk about severance. We got a lot to say. We're going to talk about, uh, did you see Paul Schrader's quote about AI? Yeah. No. We'll talk about that as well. It's pretty wild.

Well, I also want to talk about the brutalist. I don't know what happened with that. Uh, I haven't seen it. You like this one better than the bonus? I don't. No, I have no idea yet. You didn't like this? I don't know.

I know that's it we haven't even recorded the other one it often happens after we record the other one and he goes this one was more fun let's do that we haven't happened now I've done it like twice we haven't even done the other one he's like he's like let's let's let's be on the paywall he's like you know Phil was kind of going on and I think

I think this will be a good informative first person POV for people who don't live in Los Angeles yeah maybe maybe we should it shouldn't be behind a pay wall that's there you go okay that's my there you have had it spread love and all that sort of stuff.

Also, we're going to hide the beautiful Off the Dome song he just did. True. That, I mean, the people need to see that. They do. And it's not, guys, this isn't from a place of flippancy about the situation.

There's a horrible thing that happened. We're doing all we can to survive it. And, you know, sometimes you just got to bust out a little boom, bum, bum. Let me hear you. Way, who. Wow, it was pretty good. All right, abandonamilshow.com.