Wonderful! - Wonderful! 260: Cut the Baloney Sandwich

Episode Date: January 18, 2023

Griffin's favorite multi-genre fusion artist! Rachel's favorite souvenir-flinging machine!Music: “Money Won’t Pay” by bo en and Augustus – https://open.spotify.com/album/7n6zRzTrGPIHt0kRvmWoyaRAICES: https://www.raicestexas.org/ MaxFunDrive ends on March 29, 2024! Support our show now by becoming a member at maximumfun.org/join.

Hi, this is Rachel McElroy. Hello, this is Griffin McElroy. And this is wonderful. This is a show where we talk about things that are good. Things that we like. Yes. Things that we like. Yes. Things that we're into. Let's cut the BS.

What if this episode from once we cut the BS and the bologna and we gave it to you straight? Well, that is what BS stands for, right? Bologna. Sandwich. Sandwich. BS stands for bologna sandwich, of course. That's what I learned at church from Pastor Cal. Pastor Cal from Married at first sight uh he was my pastor growing up he just taught me a lot of uh really important life

lessons can i say something that i i i follow him on instagram that's exceptional news and just the other day his most recent post was was, a lot of people ask, am I really a pastor? And then he had a clip on his Instagram of him giving a sermon. I bet he's great at that. But I still didn't really believe it. Oh, okay, interesting. I was like, he probably just put this together. I have to imagine he is a better pastor than he is matchmaker,

because sort of statistically speaking him and dr pepper and whatever third expert they rotate in and out on that program statistically pretty bad pretty bad actually i think he used to be a pastor okay i don't doubt that he didn't like used to you know well you never get out of the game tread Tread the boards. Tread the boards. I don't think he's tap dancing up there. I mean, in a way. We're narrow casting pretty hard right now. I will just say that once you achieve the level of fame that he has, I imagine that you retire your robes, you know? Yeah, you are sort of defrocked by fame.

Anyway. Anyway. Anyway. Do you have any small wonders to talk about today on the program, please, for me? I'm going to say daytime television watching and not specifically daytime programming, but finding a break in your day to watch a television show that you don't get a chance to watch at night. I like that. We have limited access to our television, as we've talked about before, and so I had not watched any of White Lotus. And I just finished the first episode, the second season specifically.

I just finished the first episode today at a little 9.30 a.m. watch. That's a good time to watch a prestige drama, from what I understand. I've never seen White Lotus. I assume it's a prestige drama. I could be wrong. I feel like the biggest appeal with that show is that they are in an exotic resort location, and everybody is on vacation, and you get to watch it and feel like you are, too. That's fun. Yeah. I like like that that's my small wonder uh i'm going to say um game sun quick was really good this year a lot of good runs a lot of good speed runs you've heard me talk about

that so much on this show uh neon white was a game i got really into last year which was all about basically speed running as fast as you can and And they made a meal out of that one. That was fun. Every time I have like a little dinner break or something where I'm not watching our children with you, I sneak away in the other room to eat a sandwich, a big sandwich from Jetty's or whatever, watch a little bit of a speed run,

six minutes at a time. And that is the way to do it. I go first this week. Yes. I'm bringing a music thing, a musical artist who I've only recently discovered. And so I don't, his career is gigantic and I do not lack, I do not possess most of the vernacular sort of required. So I'm going to be like a child stumbling in the desert. But I'm very excited about this artist

whose name is Jun Fukumachi. He is a Japanese jazz fusion composer, mostly active in the 70s and 80s. And I got served up a track by Jun Fukumachi in my Spotify weekly recommendations, which I've been slipping on, haven't tuned into for a while. And so when I got back on board, it came in strong with this dude and his music that I have become pretty much all in on at this point in my life. I'm glad that you said that it was from the 70s and 80s because I listened to it and I was like, what a retro vibe this has. It is a retro vibe because it is from that time. He is a synth pioneer, which like, you know, I'm a sucker for like the Mort Garson type. He was born in 1946, started studying music, basically immediately went to college for

music and dropped out and then just started shredding on a shoulder-mounted Yamaha synth keyboard. And the rest was history. He composed 48 albums in total, two of which were released post-mortem. He died in 2010. And it's sort of in the same way that like Mort Garson got really into synths and then realized like, hey, I can use these to make a lot of different sounds. And so the type of music that I can create with this is limited only by my imagination. That is very much sort of June Fukumachi's vibe as well. And so the type of music that he created really runs the gamut. created really runs the gamut um in the 70s it was a lot of sort of uh jazz fusion funk inspired stuff in 1977 he gained sort of some early notoriety after he released an album with toshiba

which was an all synth cover album of sergeant pepper's lonely hearts club band which i didn't know was a thing you could just do. It was just like, hey, everybody, do you like the Beatles? Well, you might like them like this. He did a lot, a lot, a lot of ambient sort of synth stuff, a lot of sort of background music, a lot of soundtrack work, the biggest of which was for a super long running Japanese anime series called Space Battleship Yamato. He released a whole album of Space Battleship Yamato music in 1983. That same year, he released an album inspired by a manga series called Queen Emeraldus. The title of that album was Queen Emeraldus Synthesizer Fantasy, which slaps really hard, both the album and title for it. One ambient album of his that I really want to focus on is called Nicole.

Jun Fukumachi sort of achieved cult status in America when he composed a soundtrack for a fashion show from a fashion designer named Mitsuhiro Matsuda, who had a fashion line called Nicole, which was very, very powerful in and of itself. In 1982, there was a Nicole fashion show in New York City that was attended by Andy Warhol and Candice Bergen and other equally famous famos who were just reportedly just entranced by this this this transportative music that they were hearing uh and requested the music for more of their shows and so his music sort of spread throughout the the new york fashion scene culminating in a full album of music inspired by nicole that he released in 1986 called Nicole 86 spring and summer

collection, which is just this super chill atmospheric synth fantasy. I'll play a little bit of the opening track off that collection called morning glow, which is just sort of piano and synth vibes that you can really just bliss out to, or sit in like a, I don't know,

a 1980s dentist's office waiting room to. So that's like one big bucket of his work he made all of this very just sort of uh dreamlike synth ambient music but then also in the 70s before he kind of got into that his earlier stuff was all funky as hell jazz fusion music a lot of which was inspired by he came to New York and started to work with a lot of New York-based session musicians whose names I did not write down for some reason, but he did a lot of work with all these big-name jazz session musicians and started to write a lot of music that sounded like a lot of New York American jazz music that was coming out in the 70s and 80s.

One of the album of his that was sort of the biggest release during this period was called On the Move. And I'm just going to play a little bit of the title track, the opening track of On the Move, which I sent to you earlier today. It was what you, I assume, listened to. it's so funky yeah it's so funky. Yeah. It's so funky. And pretty much every song on the album has this vibe that is really impossible to describe unless I think you're much, much smarter about this type of music than I am. Where just like every 16 measures, it just becomes a new song. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Which is like a different sort of time signature sometimes and a different instrumentation. But all of it is so fun and interesting to listen to. I felt like when I was listening to it, I felt like this would be a great opening song for a television show or a movie. Yeah. Because it really like, I don't know, it takes you to a very specific place, you know?

It takes you on a journey. Yeah. The dude wrote basically 50 albums. I am very enthusiastic about his music, but I feel really ill-equipped to give any kind of like biography or summary of his work because it really was – it was enormous. This man's creative output was gigantic. But I find it really interesting that he was able to gain cult status in the fashion world with this one type of music and then gain status in the like jazz fusion funk world uh with this type of music and then in the soundtrack world with this type of music uh all the while like composing on this sort of burgeoning new way of making electronic music that i find very exciting uh but what's most exciting is like I, as a new listener of June Fukumachi's music, can just go on YouTube and type this dude's name in and listen to different kinds of music for literally hours. Every day, basically, since I've discovered him, I've just typed in his name on YouTube and just started listening.

And I have not gone wrong yet because I'm just really, really, really into all of the different vibes that he was able to capture throughout his career. I just, from a, like, pioneer of a new type of music standpoint, I find him very exciting. But also from just a, how is one person capable of writing all of these different kinds of music and being so fucking good at it? I am always going to be very, on board with that yeah uh june fukimachi go listen to literally anything i would recommend starting with on the move there's a live album that he did which i think is called june fukimachi and the new york all stars uh that has

some uh live tracks off uh on the move on it too uh just join join me on this odyssey through this dude's enormous body of work. And before that happens, though, I would like to steal you away. Parenting. It's hard, but don't worry. You're not alone. Belly up to the low bar with one bad mother and let us remind you that fine is good enough. They want to climb on different things. And how am I supposed to keep them both from dying? There is a right way to do this.

And if I can figure out that right way, I'm going to be a good parent. So that is not a thing. So join us each week and let us tell you'm going to be a good parent. So that is not a thing. So join us each week and let us tell you that you are doing a good job. You can listen to One Bad Mother on Maximum Fun or wherever you get your podcasts. This week on Bullseye, Tom Hanks, as you've never heard him before. Mad! You moron! Thank you for the use of the turn signal. Way to use your blinker, idiot!

That's Bullseye from MaximumFun.org and NPR. Are you ready? I am. My topic is so fun. Oh, boy. I'm excited to talk about this with you. More fun than MC Scat Cat? You know, I don't know.

I don't know. They're in such different categories. But maybe a similar level of energy. Okay. Because what I'm talking about this week is the t-shirt canon oh my god yeah babe you done done hey babe you done done it again we we were watching a hockey game last week and they were kind of the the camera was was panned out and it seemed like everybody was turned staring at the camera. Staring at us, which was scary. I thought they were looking at us.

To watch a sporting event and to have everybody in the audience, instead of turn towards the actual event, turn towards you, the viewer. Yeah. And I was like, what is happening? And then I realized somebody was chucking t-shirts out. I don't believe using a cannon. No. I don't think you're allowed.

I don't think it's legal to use a caliber garment rifle at point blank range like that. Yeah. No. But it did make me think. I wonder what the story is with the t-shirt cannon. I have to know the story. It obviously seems exclusive to sporting events. I have to know this story. of a Friday Night Lights episode that was taking place at like the UT football stadium and they did throw t-shirts at me and I know because I got hit by one

in the head. But it was not a t-shirt cannon, thankfully. Kyle Chandler threw it. No, that's not true. He threw it. Oh my God, if only that were true.

God, I would let Kyle Chandler throw anything in my head. Then if I ever met him, that would be my like, that would be my in. But no, it wasn't Kyle Chandler. It was Jesse Plemons. God, that would be my like, that would be my in. But no, it wasn't Kyle Chandler. It was Jesse Plemons. That would be good too.

That would be good. I would let most cast members from Friday Night Stoic thing in my head. But yeah, that's the closest I've ever come to a t-shirt. That was the other thing that I started thinking about was when there is a t-shirt cannon at a sporting event I always think about those people who just like unselfconsciously will just wave their arms and jump up and down and shout for this t-shirt right I am far too introverted and like too cool for school to like make a big production out of wanting a t-shirt well I've always theorized that it is a combination of, I would like free merch and also someone has a cannon pointed at me.

So I am of course going to sort of throw my, I am going to put myself in a very sort of like, I don't know, I'll make myself big to scare the cannon wielder. For me, it's always the people that are like, hey, I would like a t-shirt. Who wouldn't like a t-shirt? Well, for me, it's, I just like,

I'm too meek to be like to put my wants out there that's why you know that's why we are a good couple you would i'm excellent expressing my needs in public yeah okay so anyway the t-shirt canon the uh i found a new york times article from 2013 uh with somebody who claims to be the inventor of the T-shirt cannon. Okay. Now, the T-shirt cannon uses existing technology. So, you know, like a potato gun, for example, similar in model. It's just compressed air, right?

Exactly. Yeah. Exactly, yeah. But the original T-shirt cannon, Tim Dirk, who was the coyote mascot for the San Antonio Spurs in the 1990s, created one that weighed 90 pounds. Holy shit. He said, quote, it was like carrying a TV set on your back. The gun was probably at least four feet long. It used a cast iron pipe.

What? Yes. So this was a cannon in the traditional sense yes this was a vulcan this was a flack anti-personnel t-shirt cannon yeah so he dressed up as rambo cool which well was the spurs coyote name I don't know if this is still true. I would have no way of knowing. So he dressed up as a coyote and got it out into the stands. The whole focus prior had been slingshots. Do you remember this as a thing? Slingshots? Yeah.

No. It was like a big two-person slingshot situation where you would fire shirts out. It sounds fun. I remember goinghot situation where you would fire it sounds fun i remember going to games where this would happen and i think it still does on in some places where instead of a gun you have like a big slingshot i was born onto the battlefield after the invention of the of the cannon i suppose um the slingshot had limited range um and they really wanted to and accuracy it's hard to aim a slingshot especially when they wanted to reach like the cheap seats you know let's let's get let's get the people up at the top you know you never get anything really blast them uh so so he

says uh dirk uh says that him and the phoenixilla were two of the pioneers. The Phoenix Gorilla? I guess also a mascot for, I'm assuming, basketball, I guess. I'm not familiar with the sport. I'm also not very familiar with basketball, but I don't think there's an NBA team called the Phoenix Gorillas. That'd be cool, though. Well, but the mascot doesn't always have to match. I guess the Sun the phoenix sun does that sound that sounds right okay i don't know here's the

thing like gorilla it's not like it's the philadelphia gritties like the mascot doesn't have to match the name of the team uh okay so uh in the 1990s this this guy, Tim Dirk, he decides like he's going to go into business with this t-shirt cannon. Sure. This is going to be his thing. And so he created an advertisement dressed in his coyote costume pretending to solder the gun in a machine shop himself. Cool. But he did outsource. He did not build the machine himself. That's probably for the best. He didn't know how to do that. That seems like dangerous. But he did outsource. He did not build the machine himself.

That's probably for the best. He didn't know how to do that. That seems like dangerous. But yeah, it was. It was a CO2 canister and he wore it backpack style. Cool. But I mean, it was enormous,

as I mentioned. It was a very heavy thing, the 90 pounds with the cast iron pipe. Nowadays, it's, you know mostly pvc based i would yeah it's only it's only a few pounds but he kind of he kind of got it started and everybody everybody took suit he uh in 1996 uh brought it out and everybody was like i've got to have one of those can you imagine being in the crowd the first time a coyote walked out wearing a a backpack mounted i imagine he had to be like these are t-shirts guys it's okay these

are t-shirts going to be t-shirt they had they he was probably in cahoots with the announcer who was probably like okay folks listen what is about to happen is going to seem quite scary and upsetting at first blush. This giant wolf man is going to aim a large caliber weapon at you. Do not fear. Everybody, they're T-shirts. It's okay.

They are T-shirts. How fast are they gonna come out? We don't know. Because this is new. It's new. It might be fast. He is. Don't be afraid, but be sort of aware of your surroundings.

Be alert, but not afraid. Maybe a little afraid. He did test it prior to the game. He went to Coors Field, which is the baseball stadium, and stood at home plate and fired it out into the stands. Okay. Just to see, like, okay, is this going to work? And it did. it at home plate and fired it out into the stands okay see like okay is this gonna work and and it did uh and then yeah a bunch of other people followed uh ken solomon uh also known as the

rocky mountain lion uh was cheering at the denver nuggets game and immediately had a friend build him one cool um and it took off then the nba the mlb the nfl nhl everybody's got t-shirt cannons now sure uh and they typically weigh like two pounds yeah now technology has advanced significantly can i buy a t-shirt cannon online do you think how fucking fun would that be at the next live show because you're just like i i you probably can't i'm wondering like it seems like you should have to get a license i know that's what i'm concerned about like you guys would really have to test it yeah i'm not i'm this is a bad idea and i won't do it because it's i don't want to be held liable for you know there have been injuries associated with it well mod flanders sort of thing

got very deeply injured i would say to death i found them very comical to read about but i imagine i shouldn't probably not comical to the person who got blasted i should not share that information no but i would encourage you if you are interested in t-shirt cannon related injuries to look into it sure if you're a monster i guess. The other thing I wanted to mention, in 2012, the Philadelphia 76ers created their own cannon, which was a 600-pound weapon that could fire 100 shirts every 60 seconds. That's too much. Why would you need that? much why would you need that and then the milwaukee bucks shortly after introduced a triple barrel gun that could propel vests and jackets okay uh also fired out of a t-shirt cannon uh include things like hot dogs and popcorn i love that people have gotten experimental

with this to be sure you can buy a t-shirt cannon on amazon for 800 i will also say in 2019 a woman was arrested after being caught trying to deliver contraband including cell phones chargers earbuds and drugs by shooting it over the fence of a correction center in oklahoma with a t-shirt awesome that's cool so so everybody apparently has had your idea before of like i could just buy a t-shirt cannon myself not everybody has had the idea to use it yeah for illicit materials looks like a lot of people are building their own t-shirt cannons out there yeah eight hundred dollars seems like a lot of money to spend on a t-shirt cannon yeah i mean that's the thing like if you know somebody who has made or fired a potato gun like that i imagine it is similar and and as i understand it potato guns are not too difficult to make no so you know how about it i guess is what i'm saying yeah i think this is

i think this is one of those topics that in practice is not good but in terms of like achievements of the human spirit yeah yeah it's great that we figured this out that we that that us infinite monkeys typed on infinite typewriters for long enough that one of us invented the t-shirt canon is good to me yeah no i mean i i would like to think that the origins really are wholesome and that mascots really were like i really want to get more t-shirts out to the people that deserve them further away i don't imagine that was actually how this came about but i am happy that it exists yeah and it's one of those things that I wish I could time travel back to like hunter gatherer, early civilization.

And when people are like, you know, realizing that clothes are kind of on the, on the, the, that old hierarchy of needs and being like, yeah, but what if I could shoot them at you?

Yeah, man. Talk about, talk about fashion shows. How would that, that would change everything, right? Would change. Models come down the runway and they're just like, you like this dress? You like this spring look? Man, talk about fashion shows. That would change everything, right? That would change everything.

Models come down the runway and they're just like, you like this dress? You like this spring look? Ba-ba-ba-ba. Yeah, t-shirt, Kaylin. That's my wonderful thing. Thank you, baby. That was a good one. Thank you to Bowen and Augustus for the use of our theme song, Money Won't Pay.

You can find a link to that in the episode description. And thank you to Maximum Fun for having us on the network. Go to MaximumFun.org. Check out all the great shows that they have there. You're going to love the way you look. I guarantee it. Oh, I released a bunch of music from Ethersea. It's on my bandcamp.

Just search. I believe there's a Bitly link for it, and you can find that, I'm sure, at Macroy.family. But it's like 30 songs, and it's a bunch of music, and I'm really proud of it. And all album sales from Adventure Zone in the month of January is going to be donated to Earthjustice, which is a really great nonprofit.

We got a bunch of other merch also at McElroymerch.com. There's some Flamebrite dice inspired by Taz Amnesty. There's a bunch of great stuff on there. So go check that out. And I think that's it. We'll be back next week to talk about more Jazz Fusion and shirt weapons. That's a guarantee. That's a guarantee.

You heard it here first. The only thing I want to talk about now is jazz fusion and shirt weapons so just keep it locked Hey! Working on it! Money won't pay! Working on it! Money won't pay! Working on it! Money won't pay! Working on it! Money won't pay!

MaximumFun.org Comedy and culture. Artist owned. Audience supported.