WEBVTT

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Hello, Yes, are we out
here? We're here, all right?

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You send me stopped. I thought
for a minute, Oh my god,

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James's at a stroke. No,
ask not what your country can do for

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you, Ask what you can do
for your country. Mister Garbitschow, tear

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down this wall. It's the Rigorshe
Podcast and they're back. Rob Long and

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Peter Robinson are back with this.
I'm James Lolex. Today we talked to

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Director Wood still one of the thirtieth
anniversary of Barcelona. So let's resels a

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podcast that was really terrible. You're
blowing it way out of proportion. Don't

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take it as seriously as rady Aans
were bad news. They weren't any good

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for anybody. Now. I was
trying to convince them to look at Americans

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in a new way, and then, in one stupid move, you confirm

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their worst assumptions. I did not
confirm their worst assumption. I am their

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worst assumption. Here we are once
again welcome to the Academy awars Urus,

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as it's known at my house.
Passover and the oscar goes to welcome everybody.

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This is the Rigashe Pod. Gas
number six hundred and eighty three.

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You can join us at ricochet dot
com any day you like, and if

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you want to, you know,
puny up a couple of shekels. You

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can take part in the most stimulating
conversations and community in the web. You

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know, some of them will give
you a free little hit and then later

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come along and say you want to
give us some money. We're up front

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about it. Oh you can read
the front page for free, but all

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the fun stuff commenting to get skin
in the game is rob Long always loves

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to say, yeah, membership and
it's a good thing. It'll pay you

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every single day you're on the internet. Hail Hail, the Gang's all here.

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Peter Robinson is back from his annual
exploration of the American soul, and

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rob is back from Africa. I've
been sitting at the same table for those

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the last two three weeks or so. I got nothing to add to this

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world travelers. What lessons have you
for us now that you have returned?

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Well, where's Peter? I don't
know where Peter was. I was skiing

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ski I was, or rather the
tee Tons. I was in the te

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tons and you were skiing. Well, you know, I'm just like I'm

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trying to cap your visual pace.
You were your children with you, A

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couple of my yes, and my
nurse and my aid and child be built

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for me. Yeah. No,
my oldest daughter got engaged on the slopes.

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Congratulations, congratulations, and moreover to
a man of whom my wife and

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I thoroughly approve. He's a Canadian
and he can ski. He can really

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ski, which was one reason that
so I didn't quite know what was going

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on, except that this brief family
trip to the Teetans got arranged and I

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was told to attend, and then
and then news got broken. So it

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was a lovely event, and I
did ski. I went cross country skiing

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three whole days, and I went
downhill skiing. Cheap bastard that I am.

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I paid the exorbitant one day pass
price and went downhill skiing for a

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day. So there, I'm still
recovering. I grant it. But yes,

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I have a couple of questions.
All right, did your wife know,

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of course that this is going to
happen? Yes, and so uh

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so the Canadian, this Canadian fellow, he didn't ask the bride's father.

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He did, actually he did,
but the bride's father is as usual,

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was as usual, So distracted.
He did something very sweet and very old

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fashioned, and he called me the
week before and presented a kind of business

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case. God bless him, that
I met your daughter and then this happened

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and we met you and so on, and the next slide, yes,

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exactly, no, no, it
was I could It was all deck.

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It was all verbal, but he
was kind of working his way through a

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deck, God bless him, and
so and then he actually uttered the very

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sweet, very old fashioned words,
so do I have your permission? And

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of course I granted it. But
I didn't know quite when it was going

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to happen. I the point,
so I knew, I mean, yes,

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yes, I knew a happy event
was about to take place. I

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didn't know quite when. What kind
of a Canadian is he? Because I've

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met several kinds. Really, he's
the kind of Canadian knows how to handle

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Peter. That's that's fine. Well, here's what you need to know.

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And I told my daughter it's all
I need to know. She was describing

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him to me for the first time
before I'd met him, and I said,

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let me see if I've got this
right. He's a dartmouth man,

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he's a former professional athlete. We
played hockey for a couple of years professionally

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and important to us, although I
know that Rob has his doubts about all

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this. And James was raised in
what we call a different tradition but important

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to our family. And he's a
Catholic. I said to my daughter,

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I don't even need to meet him, just this is this one is fine,

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this one is fine there and he's
currently in prison for not stop.

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I didn't write Rob Africa Africa.
Where were you in Africa? Well,

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Africa, you know that's so huge, it sounds really j exotic. I

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was in Morocco, which is,
of course is technically Africa, but uh

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and the Moroccans will always say there
Africa, but it's a very different kind

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of effort from the other Africa.
Lip is what you're you say? You

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say Africa. People think you're you're
doing a you know, a Hammon when

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we askue Safari in the middle of
it, exactly exactly. In Morocco,

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I was traveling with a group of
people. We have a very thoughtful,

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generous and interesting friend who wants to, you know, go on tracks,

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and so we went on a track. It was quite quite fun and quite

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interesting. I mean, I love
Morocco. I've been there a couple of

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times. This is sort of the
more the most purposeful trip I've taken to

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Morocco in a way. Uh,
it's a really interesting country, and I

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was there. I stayed next a
couple of days, and I was there,

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was in Tangier on Tuesday and for
the first day of Ramadan for Moroccans,

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everyone else, all the rest of
Muslim world, I think, began

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ramaed on the day before. Moroccans
start the day later. And no Moroccan

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that I spoke to could give me
a plausible or consistent reason why that is.

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So I just suspect that they're just
a little bit more groovy and they're

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like, well, let's not rush
this thing. But I did love I

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had never I've ever been to a
Muslim country during Ramadan, and I loved

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it because they take it very seriously. It's a cultural thing. They're not

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they're not devout or Orthodox or anyway
fundamental fundamentalist Muslims. The King of Morocco,

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Muhammed the sixth, is also the
head of the church there, so

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he's like, you know it.
King King Charles was, Yeah. King

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Charles was the King of England.
The head of State and the head of

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the government and the Prime Minister and
also the archbishoper category and what is that

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I think that is done in Morocco. She's always been a very kind of

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very cosmopolitan place. It's kept any
Friday preaching in the mosques from getting weird

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because she's the boss. So you
can't be in the mosque on Friday,

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some crazy one night a mom preaching
jihad, not that I think the Moroccan

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carecharacter would actually accept that anyway.
So the great thing is that they take

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robin up very seriously. It's like
a serious lent. But everyone has given

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up the same stuff for lent,
which is different because lent here lent Christian

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lent. We all give up whatever
we want to give up. So if

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I see you walking down the street
eating, you know, M and ms,

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I don't know that you've for you're
breaking your lent found but you know,

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I don't know what you gave up
or what you took right, raman

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On, everybody does the same thing. So it's a lot of like the

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first day, at the end of
the second, last afternoon prayer. Raminon

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officially the fast officially, and so
they fast know if you're really devout no

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water either, and you could see
you could tell and tangier or people walking

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around before that the fast officially ended, they were just a little cranky.

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They're just a little bit like you
could this is just some more there's a

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I mean, I didn't even realize
that to them. Why is everybody so

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you know, pissed off at each
other? And that was why so fasctity.

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I loved it. I love Morocco. Is a great country, great

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city, some great, really fascinating
place is I recommend everyone go. I

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was in Jerusalem once during Ramadan and
at sunset, at the moment when the

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Arabs were permitted town, when the
Muslims were permitted to eat again, they

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fired a rocket. It's like a
firework that went over the city and you

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can get scattered applies from the streets. Was there anything like that a kind

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of communalize. Well, there's the
called prayer, which is usually that's what

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they do. So there's the cauled
prayer, the first one, and then

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and then there's a special soup they
aliaits. It's really kind of lovely.

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I mean, it has all sorts
of associations for us. I think they're

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negative, and you know, legitimately
so in many ways. But it's kind

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of a lovely thing for everybody in
the country to be doing this and then

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have this kind of kind of philosophical
idea that it gives me a chance to

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think. It clears my mind.
I get to focus on what I really

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want, and the families get together
and then there's feasting, of course,

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So it's kind of a lovely,
lovely thing to watch. I would be

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disappointed if within five minutes of getting
off the plane I was not met by

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a small spinley sweating man with a
white fez who offers to sell me a

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special ariquity. I don't know,
it's some some rare antiquity, and then

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took me to the back roads and
the back streets where Sydney Green Streets sat

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under a slowly moving fan, you
know, fanning himself, mister Lix,

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mister Lynx, this way, mister
Lylyx. Yeah, I know, you

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mustn't protect me, come here.
I would be. That would be because

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that's all my conception of Morocco and
Tangiers and these exotic other places is.

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But to hear that it's Cosmopolitay and
modern is wonderful. It does sound like

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you had a grand time. Yeah, there's cool people. It's a cool

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Tangier is a very as a fantastically
interesting city, just one of the most

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interesting cities in the world. How
big is it? Uh, it's it's

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uh, it's twice as big as
it used to be. Because there's the

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there's always the French. They took
over, created a separate city next to

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the old city, so a medina
in Arabic just being city. So you

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like New York Media New York Medina, Paris Media Rome, but the French

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will always build a nouvelle ville right
next to it. And so so depending

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on where you live, is depending
on what kind of where you live in

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the neuville Ville or the Medina.
But not that's not that big. It's

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not a hill, it's not that
big standard of living, streets filled with

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cars. You feel you're in a
third world country. You're not in a

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third way. It's it's not a
poor country. It's it's actually it's in

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many ways it's the it's a fantastic
example of a country that works. Because

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the king is an insane and if
you look at Mohammed the sixth you were

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actually all of the kings. Basically
they've been sort of thoughtful. It spent

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a lot of time in Paris,
you know, downside of the upside of

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being king of Morocco, which you
get to beautiful hotel Particulier in the seventh

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you get to stay in. But
he's done a lot of investing and has

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created a lot of businesses. He's
trying to turn Tangier and the Atlantic coast

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and then the Mediterranean coast on the
other side into you know, resorts and

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pleasure spots for bored rich people,
which is, you know, a kind

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of a smart idea, not unlike
Donald Trump and mar A Lago uh arger

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scale, Yes, right, but
I mean they they like him. They

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really do like you. And if
you look at the would be unlike Donald

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Trump, it would be. But
if you also look at you know who

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his contemporaries, not him, are
what have been Most of them are dead,

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some of them were murdered by their
furious citizens. There's not a chance

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for that. He's he's an enlightened
figure. As they say, Well,

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if I wasn't how long the last
but if I was doing a book report

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on Morocco. Of course, remember
from grade school you have to ask.

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And the main exports are what are
what what do they make? Aside frogri

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culture, mostly it's agriculture, figs, right, uh, citrus, oranges,

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agriculture, I mean, and then
there's there's agricultural products, so there's

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a lot of potassium and there's some
minerals, but mostly it's I mean,

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they if you're if you're in the
continent of Europe and you are between you

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know, September and May, and
you eat an orange or a lemon,

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or a grapefruit or a fig or
a date, that's where it comes from.

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Or olives, olive oil, olives
that they have every meal, but

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they're all oil is a very good
so they do they do all that stuff.

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And they also they pioneered this thing
that's very much from the Arab culture

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and I've eat it all across that
that part of the world, and it

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is nugad. They all have a
terrible stay, incredible sweet tooth. But

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they make this nugat and I know
it sounds so boring, but like if

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you ever went through in Jerusalem,
they're the nugot sellars and candy sellers and

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Jerusalem all sorts of and around the
Middleast it's delicious, and I'm completely,

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completely defenseless against it. One of
my great experiences was sitting in Nazareth outside

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in a in a guesthouse run by
French nuns, drinking their wine and smoking

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a cigar and eating nugat. And
I'm telling you it was great. But

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the best nuggat sellers, Yeah,
people accuse you of being somewhat sypoetic.

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And meanwhile the nuns are puttering around
in the background, saying in French under

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their breath to each other. But
this man, he is not sick,

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he is not poor. How do
we get the rid of him? How

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do we get it of him?
Along? He's drinking the worst We'll give

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you the worst wine he likes.
That's so the nugat sellers you were about

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to send some the nuggat sellers of
parades sounds it sounds like a Michelle lagronsong

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from nineteen sixty The best nugat seller
in I think I've ever had, I've

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ever eaten, and I Thank you
is in Tangier and the guy's been selling

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nugat or somewhere's dad in a tiny
little booth, from a tiny little booth

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in a little street in Tangier and
the Medina, and I went to call

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the Petite Soco the little market.
He's been selling it since nineteen fifty four,

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and it is insanely delicious, and
I was I was embarrassed to ask

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for a kilo because I said a
kilo. How much is a kilo?

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And he looked at me like,
ye kilo, good lord, what's your

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problem? So I only bought half
a kilo, and I ate a quarter

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of a kilo walking around, and
then I ate a quart of akilo on

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a plane home. What you do, man, here's what you do.

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You buy that kilo and then you
take it and you cut it, ste

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cut it with some three musketeers.
Okay, you've got the good nougad,

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but then you step on it with
some crappy three musketeers stuff. Listen,

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folks, you probably learn more history
wise about the Morocco than you've known here

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00:14:26.679 --> 00:14:28.639
in a long time. Right,
all of a sudden, the country has

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opened up to you in the imagination, and you want to go, what

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if there was a place here in
the United States that performed a similar function

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00:14:35.799 --> 00:14:39.639
on the youth of America. What
if there was a college that opened up

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00:14:39.679 --> 00:14:43.519
their brains to all of us new
vistas and filled them with the excitement to

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learn. That place would teach you
economy, that place would teach you the

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00:14:48.480 --> 00:14:50.799
great works of literature, the meaning
of the US Constitution. Did you study

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00:14:50.840 --> 00:14:54.399
those things in school? There is
a fighting chance that you did not,

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00:14:54.759 --> 00:14:56.840
or you know, even if you
did, maybe it's time for a refresher

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00:14:58.000 --> 00:15:01.879
well. Time and technology changed a
lot of things, but they have not

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00:15:01.039 --> 00:15:07.279
changed basic fundamental truths about the world
and our place in it. That is

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00:15:07.320 --> 00:15:11.519
why we hear at Ricochet are so
excited that Hillsdale College is offering more than

225
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forty forty free free online courses in
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can learn about the works of C. S. Lewis, the stories in

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the Book of Genesis, the meaning
of the US Constitution, the rise and

228
00:15:24.039 --> 00:15:26.559
fall of the Roman Republic, IDEs
March here Today by the Way stamp stand,

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or the history of the ancient Christian
Church. With Hillsdale College's online courses

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all available for free. That's right
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Civil War, and how it has
been undermined for more than a century by

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progressivism and liberalism. The course is
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and wherever for that matter, in
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because our country needs more Americans who
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freedom of the American people against the
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easy to get started. That's Hillsdale
dot edu slash ricochet to register Hillsdale dot

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edu slash ricochet. And we thank
Hillsdale for sponsoring this the Ricochet Podcast.

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00:16:33.960 --> 00:16:37.039
We're going to get to our guest
in a second, but before we do,

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I want to ask Peter and Rob. Now that you're back in your

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political chairs, perhaps you've seen the
CNN map that says, if the election

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were held today, Donald Trump has
sufficient electoral votes to beat Joe Biden.

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Do you believe it? Or do
you think that CNN is trying to anger

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up the blood of its readers so
they're watchers, so they'll get more ratings.

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I know, the idea of CNN
and the rest of them trying to

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puff up Trump in order to get
ratings is ridiculous to be on the pail.

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But let's just say possible. I
believe it. I mean, it's

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going to be close, right,
I mean, I think it's fair to

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say, right, I believe it. Donald Trump has led in national polls

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for a couple of months now,
with I think only one or two exceptions.

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We now have to say that if
you take the last quarter, the

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polls in which Biden is ahead are
the outliers. Now. Of course,

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the media argued for the long time
that as the poles began to come in

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showing Trump ahead, that those were
just outliers. That's that's flipped. The

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poll after poll after poll shows him
especially ahead, not just barely ahead,

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but especially ahead in what we all
know are going to be the swing or

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the combat states of Michigan and Pennsylvania
and Georgia and Arizona, some of them

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include Nevada. He seems to be
up in the mid to high single digits

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in some polls in those states.
So what is there to say that there

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are two things going on that the
country, just the middle of the country,

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as very distinct from whatever is left
of the legacy media just will not

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buy. They will not have crammed
down their throats the idea that Joe Biden

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is a healthy, well, quick
thinking forty year old, which is the

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way they're attempting to portray him.
They are simply say, no, excuse

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me, I believe the evidence of
my eyes. Stop lying to me.

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One and then two these cases,
of all the various cases against Trump,

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even Andy McCarthy, who detests Trump
as much as as Rob does, I

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think, if I'm allowed to put
it that way, Andy McCarthy, who

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is still a very careful, well
trained fierce in his day former prosecutor,

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says that even in the mar A
Lago case, the Document's case, which

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is the one case against Trump where
they seem to have got him as a

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legal matter, they seem to have
got him. The way Jack Smith,

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the prosecutor, is attempting to rush
to trial just violates all the norms of

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due process and prosecutorial simple dignity.
So that's the other thing that the country

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just says, I'm not buying it. Don't do this, don't I'm not

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even sure it's of course, there's
still a MAGA pro Trump, but that

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doesn't explain his majority in the polls. I don't think that the MAGA is

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more than thirty five or forty percent
of the country as far as I can

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tell, at best at best.
So there's some independence in there who are

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just saying, look, I don't
like this guy, but I'm with him.

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If you're going to try to corrupt
the American judicial system to stop him,

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I'll say, hell no. As
far as I can tell, it's

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about those two policy, it's no. But this is not a horseman Donald

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Trump's character. I think that's the
way it feels to me. But I'm

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sitting here in California, where you
know, it's not the rest of the

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country. Let's put it that way. I guess I generally I see your

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point. I think I think it's
worse for Biden actually, because I think

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it isn't about his age or his
infirmity. I think that's just a placeholder

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for people he hasn't done anything,
and what he's done they don't like.

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They don't like the fact that he
hasn't done anything on the border, they

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don't like the fact that he hasn't
done anything about an inflation. But if

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he was a president in full career, in full faculty right now, he

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would still be struggling because the people
perceive, whether you know, they think

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they're wrong, but I mean,
the people perceive that the country's going in

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the wrong direction, and the general
reason for that they're assigning to his age.

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But I think there's he's got prior
problems that just seem baffling to me.

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Means a politician who's been essentially successful
for so long in getting elected in

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return, is that he just completely
misunderstands the American mood. If he was

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vigorous and vital and out there handing
whip inflation now buttons to everybody, it

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still wouldn't work. You're absolutely right, Road, and those of us who

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remember the whip inflation now buttons,
remember the whole malaise that beset America and

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how we climbed up out of it. And now, when read con the

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eighties as being this absolutely wonderful,
magical Unified Time, which it wasn't.

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It wasn't, but it was fascinating
and we have one of its greatest chroniclers

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with us. Now what Stillman filmmaker, written, directed, and produced Metropolitan,

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The Last Days of Disco, Damsels
in Distress, Love and Friendship,

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and Barcelona, which was released thirty
years ago, and it gives us an

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excuse of peg here. It tells
the story of two American cousins living abroad

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as they grappled with their anti Americanism, with career distresses, faith, romatic

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disappointments, and all those things that
plagued us as young people in the last

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decade of the Cold Wars. It's
called mister Stillman, thank you for joining

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us today. The most important question
I have about Barcelona right now, Frank,

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having just been there, Barcelona or
Bartholona. I can't get a definitive

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answer, even from people who live
in Bara Bartholona. Well, the South

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American and Catalan version would be Barcelona, and the Castilian would be Barcelona.

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Yeah, I swear I was going
to come down to night fights and punt

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over the pronunciation. So the sophisticated
viewers of nineteen and ninety four let's say

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that they might have been. How
do you think in nineteen ninety four when

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you put that movie, what was
the anticipating reaction that you got exactly?

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And you presume that people were going
to look at it through and did critics

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see in it what you had intended
them to see? The critical reaction was

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really interesting in the sense that we
got beat up early by the sort of

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fashioning monthly magazines, and then when
it got to the daily press, it

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was fantastic result. And that was
true both here and you know, their

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English language countries like the UK.
What was going this is Peter Robinson,

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thank you for joining us. What
was going on there? I would have

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guessed that it would have been just
the reverse that the New York Posts.

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They would have said, this is
a fancy pants movie, too much dialogue,

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and the magazine press, the style
press would have gloried in it.

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No, not at all, not
at all. The New York Post is

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best review is Michael Medved, and
it was a oh well, all right,

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all right, Michael Medved knowses MO, but all the h we're really

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lucky. One critic sort of wanting
to take away I guess the glory of

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the good reviews said that it was
an accident that a lot of the important

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critics were sort of on semi vacation
at the Seattle Film Festival where the film

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premiered, uh in the United States, and they're very relaxed and in a

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good mood. So they all loved
it because the conditions were so great in

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Seattle. But I'm not sure if
that's it. Hey, it's Rob Long.

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Thank you for joining us. So
okay, two things. One,

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Barcelona is thirty years old, so
my god, you're old. Holy moly,

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I just forgot it. Just never
occurred to me. The second thing

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is you started your burst on the
scene this fantastic movie called Metropolitan. And

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all these are by the way,
if you haven't seen them, if you're

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00:24:36.720 --> 00:24:38.160
listening, you haven't seen these.
These are all available to stream and they're

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00:24:38.200 --> 00:24:47.039
fantastic. They're just funny and thoughtful
and singular. Really and last Ay's of

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00:24:47.039 --> 00:24:53.160
Disco of course, wonderful movie.
Barcelona. Now you're a giant success.

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You know you like your your love
and friendship Ansel just big hits? Are

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00:25:03.319 --> 00:25:08.039
you make movies differently now that you're
you know, one of the one of

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the official greats. It certainly doesn't
feel that way, and I think you're

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00:25:12.400 --> 00:25:15.039
being much too nice, and uh
oh, I'm sorry about that. I

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00:25:15.079 --> 00:25:18.559
apologize Rob is angling for a job
with I don't know. I've been angling

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00:25:18.559 --> 00:25:22.200
with a job with Wit for about
twenty years. So, yes, we

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00:25:22.400 --> 00:25:29.400
wanted to work together, but it
never happens. So it's very hard to

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make movies, and I think,
actually everyone says the problem is money,

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00:25:34.079 --> 00:25:40.640
but I think it's actually lack of
commercial standards. So all our films essentially

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have been profitable, but sort of
people don't care because a lot of people,

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I think, just get paid in
advance before the movie happens. The

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00:25:48.720 --> 00:25:52.920
green light unlocks their fees, and
so there are a lot of non economic

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00:25:53.160 --> 00:25:57.039
projects, and particularly the awards season
kind of projects. So I feel sort

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00:25:57.039 --> 00:26:00.680
of frustrated that we make profitable films
to get pretty good reviews and it's still

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00:26:00.759 --> 00:26:07.759
very hard to make them. Can
we just talk at general? I saw

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00:26:07.880 --> 00:26:15.039
tweet you tweeted I guess a few
maybe a week ago you talked about the

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00:26:15.119 --> 00:26:18.960
visual fallacy. Yes, which is
something that I think you and I agree

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00:26:19.480 --> 00:26:26.799
on one wholeheartedly. Your movies are
dialogue heavy. People sit and they talk

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00:26:26.799 --> 00:26:30.279
and they say interesting things and funny
things, and they have they hold forth,

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they have thoughts and perspectives. I
love that, I love the writing.

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00:26:37.279 --> 00:26:44.200
I love hearing the dialogue. But
if your movies were sixty pages long

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and only ten pages of dialogue,
no one would no one in show business

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00:26:49.279 --> 00:26:55.200
would complain because people think of it
as not as a visual medium. But

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00:26:55.240 --> 00:27:00.920
you consider that a fallacy, Yes, I mean I think that filmsols and

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00:27:00.000 --> 00:27:04.000
film theory has been dangerous. That
films were sort of better before their theories,

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00:27:04.000 --> 00:27:08.319
when people were just doing it.
So in the early thirties and the

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00:27:08.359 --> 00:27:15.559
later thirties, there was great cinema
and they were basing it on great other

379
00:27:15.640 --> 00:27:21.519
works from other fields. So there
would be a Booth Tarkington story and that

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00:27:21.720 --> 00:27:27.559
become a Booth Tarkington play and then
become a Booth Tarkington movie in different forms.

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00:27:27.599 --> 00:27:33.119
We made three times, and all
of them pretty good. And the

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00:27:33.039 --> 00:27:41.680
level of sort of information and narrative
in seventy minute early thirties films just dwarfs

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00:27:41.000 --> 00:27:45.799
the amount of story in current films
that they're saying stupid about trying to tell

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00:27:45.839 --> 00:27:49.880
every story just usually. And also
there are so many things that have happened

385
00:27:49.880 --> 00:27:53.599
in the business that just dumb it
down. So agents find it easier just

386
00:27:53.640 --> 00:28:00.640
to negotiate a single card credit.
So you have these invariable openings of movies

387
00:28:00.039 --> 00:28:04.240
of a car going through the countryside
with just one boring single card credit after

388
00:28:04.240 --> 00:28:07.480
another. And people got so sick
of that. They now do something worse,

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00:28:07.519 --> 00:28:11.519
which is end of movie credits.
And in the old days they would

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00:28:11.599 --> 00:28:15.559
just have like three cards of everyone's
names on it, and then they'd also

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00:28:15.599 --> 00:28:18.960
put up sort of little vignettes of
the actors who are going to start in

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00:28:18.960 --> 00:28:22.359
the film with their character names,
this really cool sort of way of introducing

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things. And so I think there
have been a lot of bad habits that

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have come in. And I can
understand why Hitchcock wanted to sort of defend

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his cinema and talk about his storytelling
visually and all that. And it's true

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00:28:33.400 --> 00:28:37.079
with Hitchcock, but it's not true
with anyone. It's like, if you

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00:28:37.160 --> 00:28:42.359
have a photo or a film of
sort of an attractive person, well dressed,

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00:28:44.240 --> 00:28:45.559
you don't know who they are until
they open their mouth. It's not

399
00:28:45.599 --> 00:28:51.240
only what they say, but it's
their voice, the quality their voice,

400
00:28:51.279 --> 00:28:53.839
their accent, all that. I
mean, you really get into people's souls

401
00:28:55.759 --> 00:28:59.160
by what they say. I not
even knowing that you were going to be

402
00:28:59.279 --> 00:29:03.720
joining us. A couple of weeks
ago, I watched Metropolitan just because it's

403
00:29:03.759 --> 00:29:07.000
such a wonderful movie. My wife
was out of town, I had something

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00:29:07.119 --> 00:29:11.880
that was my house for the evening, and I just watched it for the

405
00:29:12.079 --> 00:29:17.880
sheer pleasure of watching it. And
I have to say, this is the

406
00:29:17.960 --> 00:29:22.319
question. It sort of plunged me
into lost worlds. I was a kid

407
00:29:23.240 --> 00:29:29.440
nineteen ninety I think was the year
of Metropolitan, which isn't that long ago.

408
00:29:30.119 --> 00:29:32.880
All three of us aren't that old, and we can remember. I

409
00:29:32.920 --> 00:29:37.000
mean, it's not like nineteen twenty. And yet I was very struck that

410
00:29:37.119 --> 00:29:44.160
New York is gone that kind of
crowd, the prep school crowd, where

411
00:29:44.160 --> 00:29:52.519
they were all Anglo, they were
all heterosexual, all unself consciously who they

412
00:29:52.559 --> 00:29:57.839
were. It appreciated wit. I
mean, it's in the story that the

413
00:29:59.000 --> 00:30:03.640
couple of witty careors get sort of
points with others, all right, and

414
00:30:03.680 --> 00:30:10.480
that is just gone now point one
point two, this movie telling movie storytelling

415
00:30:10.599 --> 00:30:14.559
question. I thought to myself as
I watched that, that there's a direct

416
00:30:14.599 --> 00:30:21.400
line that goes all the way back
to what Irene done and carry Grant and

417
00:30:21.440 --> 00:30:26.160
in literature, I mean it goes
in a certain sense, the the the

418
00:30:26.160 --> 00:30:30.640
the sort of feel of Metropolitan.
You can feel the same sort of interest

419
00:30:30.680 --> 00:30:38.680
in storytelling and dialogue in Scott Fitzgerald. So where has that if if we

420
00:30:38.799 --> 00:30:45.359
all feel that dialogue still matters,
that intelligence and wit are still part of

421
00:30:45.440 --> 00:30:52.200
storytelling, if that's permanent, where
has it gone? Has it left Hollywood?

422
00:30:52.240 --> 00:30:56.160
Is it? Is it re emerging
somewhere on the on television or on

423
00:30:56.279 --> 00:31:00.200
the web. Where has it gone? Gosh, that's such a tough question

424
00:31:00.720 --> 00:31:07.680
about the world portrayed in Metropolitan.
I don't think it existed much then.

425
00:31:07.799 --> 00:31:11.880
I mean, it's this world.
It's a turney world, and I think

426
00:31:11.960 --> 00:31:17.880
it has sort of this half life
that keeps going down but still exists.

427
00:31:17.920 --> 00:31:22.480
So it's still there. In a
similar way, the film that came out

428
00:31:22.640 --> 00:31:27.559
in nineteen ninety was sort of shot
in eighty eight, and it reflects a

429
00:31:27.640 --> 00:31:33.519
world sort of of late sixties,
sort of straddling Woodstock before and after,

430
00:31:33.359 --> 00:31:41.039
and it's sort of the half life
of coming from sort of the nineteen fourteen

431
00:31:41.519 --> 00:31:47.720
f Scott Fitzgerald's debutante year, and
it's still there, and there are these

432
00:31:47.759 --> 00:31:52.599
still these kids around, but it
is sort of dwindles, and I like

433
00:31:52.680 --> 00:32:00.720
sort of catching it like butterflies and
preserving them in the film. And I

434
00:32:00.799 --> 00:32:05.880
have to correct him again because unfortunately
the films aren't streaming except for Metropolitan,

435
00:32:06.359 --> 00:32:10.559
which is on Max and Criterion Channel, and Love and Friendship which is on

436
00:32:10.599 --> 00:32:15.279
Amazon Prime, and it's very hard
to sort of get the films out of

437
00:32:15.319 --> 00:32:19.359
this sort of rental download model and
get them streaming. We really had a

438
00:32:19.400 --> 00:32:25.359
wonderful moment when Sony Classics put Damsels
in Distress on Hulu just as Barbie was

439
00:32:25.400 --> 00:32:30.720
coming out, so it's sort of
a Cretico star film, and that was

440
00:32:30.720 --> 00:32:36.759
a good moment because Damsels in Distress
got to reconsider. But I don't know,

441
00:32:36.880 --> 00:32:40.359
I mean, I hope the film
the the the world gets back into

442
00:32:42.119 --> 00:32:46.839
you know, real narrative and stories
where people can talk. And inspiration for

443
00:32:46.920 --> 00:32:52.640
Damsels was sort of the world of
mumblecore, which is the very low budget

444
00:32:52.640 --> 00:32:59.319
films were being made early in the
century by Greta Gerwigan and Andrew Bujowski and

445
00:32:59.400 --> 00:33:05.279
the Duplas Brothers, whole group of
people, and they really do make these

446
00:33:05.839 --> 00:33:13.279
interesting talkie films. I recommend Andrew
Buchowski support the girls and his computer chests.

447
00:33:13.599 --> 00:33:15.519
They're sort of below the radar.
They're not getting awards, they're not

448
00:33:15.519 --> 00:33:21.480
getting award campaigns, but they're there. They exist. James Lolace here in

449
00:33:21.480 --> 00:33:23.359
Minneapolis. You were talking before with
the rob about the movies in the thirties

450
00:33:23.359 --> 00:33:25.559
and how they would be short.
There'd be an hour and a half if

451
00:33:25.599 --> 00:33:30.079
that, and there'd be a tremendous
amount of information and dialogue and the rest

452
00:33:30.119 --> 00:33:32.079
of it. The story was crisp. It moved even the B movies.

453
00:33:32.160 --> 00:33:36.039
I watch a lot of B movies. I watch a lot of programmers,

454
00:33:36.440 --> 00:33:42.160
and you're right, even they're not
visually spectacular. But even that said,

455
00:33:42.359 --> 00:33:45.200
sometimes you will see them slip in
a great shot. If William Castle is

456
00:33:45.240 --> 00:33:50.119
directing and he's young and hungry,
you will find interesting little bits of visual

457
00:33:50.240 --> 00:33:55.039
language there. And I think,
why can't we bring back theaters by making

458
00:33:55.079 --> 00:34:00.920
a lot more hour and fifteen minute
tight little movie like this, because it

459
00:34:01.000 --> 00:34:05.880
seems now that everything moved to streaming
where it has to be eight hours,

460
00:34:05.960 --> 00:34:07.679
it has to be a ten hour
show. Yes, I saw the other

461
00:34:07.719 --> 00:34:14.679
day that there was a there's a
new Oh I can't remember is it Marlow

462
00:34:14.760 --> 00:34:17.960
or Sam Spade? And Sam Spade
who shows up as a detective in France,

463
00:34:19.000 --> 00:34:21.280
and I thought, great, I'd
love to see an hour and a

464
00:34:21.320 --> 00:34:27.199
half Sam Spade or Marlow movie.
But it's Liam Neeson and it's seven hours,

465
00:34:27.679 --> 00:34:34.760
and I just perhaps don't need seven
eight hours of anything, and every

466
00:34:34.800 --> 00:34:37.960
scene feels like seven hours, and
that I agree. I feel felt exactly

467
00:34:38.000 --> 00:34:40.559
the impulse you felt, James,
and started to watch it and it was

468
00:34:40.760 --> 00:34:46.000
just too slow. I would clarify
saying about the visual side of it,

469
00:34:46.039 --> 00:34:50.519
because I think it was a surprising
as you see films from ninety thirty three,

470
00:34:50.599 --> 00:34:53.880
thirty four, and they sort of
have every good technique people have.

471
00:34:53.960 --> 00:34:59.039
I mean, I think some look
aptly sensational and they're very tightly edited and

472
00:35:00.199 --> 00:35:05.039
brilliant. So I do think there's
some great stuff issually also in those films,

473
00:35:05.079 --> 00:35:07.960
and a lot of care, a
lot of good production design. I

474
00:35:08.039 --> 00:35:14.960
think one of the problems with television
is that it's so long you're going to

475
00:35:15.280 --> 00:35:20.440
be shooting so much becomes very expensive, and the result is it's very co

476
00:35:20.440 --> 00:35:24.159
corporate world. It's very hard to
get sort of strange projects off the ground.

477
00:35:24.199 --> 00:35:30.039
Because it's just such an investment.
And in the film world, no

478
00:35:30.079 --> 00:35:35.960
matter how sort of commercially minded it
is, there are sort of film buffs

479
00:35:36.000 --> 00:35:38.000
who want to sort of take a
chance on something that's film buffy, and

480
00:35:38.039 --> 00:35:40.800
there's much less of that in television, I find. But maybe I'm wrong,

481
00:35:40.880 --> 00:35:45.400
Robert no Better. It's just it's
very cumbersome to fine out something that's

482
00:35:45.400 --> 00:35:50.679
going to be ten hours ten hours
long. I think also, I'm just

483
00:35:50.719 --> 00:35:52.840
to get back to the physical part
of it. One of the things I'm

484
00:35:52.880 --> 00:35:58.119
struck we talked about a dialogue.
One of the things I'm struck with Stillman

485
00:35:58.239 --> 00:36:06.559
movie is that your actors are acting
on screen together, that they are you

486
00:36:06.559 --> 00:36:10.760
know, you have these fantastic duos
pairs. I'm thinking about Taylor Nichols and

487
00:36:10.880 --> 00:36:17.440
Chris Eigeman and Barcelona, these wonderful
shots of two people together, interacting,

488
00:36:17.559 --> 00:36:23.039
being together on screen in the frame, and I think that's that's it feels

489
00:36:23.079 --> 00:36:30.079
incredibly fresh, right because everything now
is and it's just a single close up,

490
00:36:30.199 --> 00:36:32.400
single close up, single close up. But that is one of the

491
00:36:32.719 --> 00:36:37.519
ways that the pace I think in
those old movies and I think in your

492
00:36:37.559 --> 00:36:43.960
movies works because you're watching something happen
between the characters that you've created, which

493
00:36:44.719 --> 00:36:49.199
sometimes I'm watching a movie and contemporary
movie and it's as if everybody kind of

494
00:36:49.239 --> 00:36:53.079
showed up on different days and they
stitched it together. And I just don't

495
00:36:53.079 --> 00:36:59.079
think you feel connected to even if
it's exciting to a bunch of stitch together

496
00:36:59.119 --> 00:37:01.400
close ups. I mean, is
that a choice you make? Is that

497
00:37:01.440 --> 00:37:06.079
a choice that you've made because you
because the artistic aesthetically is a choice or

498
00:37:06.239 --> 00:37:08.599
artistically it is a choice, creatively
a choice or sometimes people would say in

499
00:37:08.639 --> 00:37:12.719
the thirties and forties, like we
don't have the money to do that many

500
00:37:12.760 --> 00:37:15.239
setups. We got to the actors
have to come prepared, they have to

501
00:37:15.280 --> 00:37:19.440
know their lines and they have to
act within the frame. Or am I

502
00:37:19.639 --> 00:37:22.440
oversimplifying, which you have accused me
of in the past. Well, I

503
00:37:22.440 --> 00:37:27.880
think a lot of things are defined
by the way the industry is financed.

504
00:37:28.440 --> 00:37:32.000
So in film, a lot of
films are financed by casting a big star

505
00:37:32.159 --> 00:37:36.960
or stars, and so it has
to be about the star or stars.

506
00:37:37.519 --> 00:37:40.199
And if that's not the case,
if it's into indie cinema with less money,

507
00:37:42.320 --> 00:37:44.679
you can have an ensemble. It
can be about a whole group of

508
00:37:44.679 --> 00:37:50.000
people, no one being the big
star really, and that can work.

509
00:37:50.039 --> 00:37:52.880
So you have a lot more freedom
in a lot of ways. If it's

510
00:37:52.960 --> 00:38:00.280
not a heavily capitalized project. There
are just so many sort of bad habits

511
00:38:00.280 --> 00:38:05.639
people who have gotten into that are
served tires. And like half the films

512
00:38:05.679 --> 00:38:09.599
seem to start with an alarm clock
going off and someone having breakfast, and

513
00:38:09.639 --> 00:38:13.719
the other half is a car going
somewhere, as they do the single car

514
00:38:13.800 --> 00:38:16.119
credits, and so it's good to
sort of think of films that can start

515
00:38:16.119 --> 00:38:20.159
different ways. In the old days, they used to do sometimes these sort

516
00:38:20.159 --> 00:38:25.400
of montages sort of quickly telling the
sort of historical context with all kinds of

517
00:38:25.920 --> 00:38:30.840
interesting films, very tight montages,
and that was great too. There were

518
00:38:30.840 --> 00:38:35.360
two films from this early thirties group
where it starts with what it seems like,

519
00:38:35.800 --> 00:38:38.320
it's a beautiful wedding. It's absolutly
a gorgeous wedding with beautiful outfits,

520
00:38:38.719 --> 00:38:45.039
and then the camera pulls back and
it's actually the showroom of an oat coutur

521
00:38:45.199 --> 00:38:52.199
fashion house and they're showing various rich
people the wedding dresses they could buy and

522
00:38:52.239 --> 00:38:57.079
all that and a lot of these
films are available on YouTube, like Double

523
00:38:57.119 --> 00:39:04.880
Harness is a film. This is
I think William Powell, and it's not

524
00:39:05.000 --> 00:39:10.320
the sort of formula where it's the
outsider character who is the hero and the

525
00:39:10.480 --> 00:39:15.440
sort of established rich playboy is the
bad guy. It sort of shows this

526
00:39:15.639 --> 00:39:20.480
woman sort of entrapping him and she's
sort of in this morally ambiguous, ambivalent

527
00:39:21.960 --> 00:39:25.159
situation. And it's great to see
something that's non formula, that has sort

528
00:39:25.159 --> 00:39:29.920
of moral ambiguity, where you sort
of identifying with this character and they've done

529
00:39:29.960 --> 00:39:31.920
something bad, they've come of something
wrong, and how's that going to come

530
00:39:31.920 --> 00:39:37.000
out? We love our anti heroes. I love that you mentioned thirty four

531
00:39:37.039 --> 00:39:39.480
and you're right. By nineteen thirty
four or so, the visual language of

532
00:39:39.519 --> 00:39:43.360
film was in place. The films
looked spectacular, but prior to that they

533
00:39:43.360 --> 00:39:46.559
were still working around sound and there
was a lot more stag in this It

534
00:39:46.599 --> 00:39:51.320
was static. It was like the
microphones were nailed down everybody. Everybody had

535
00:39:51.320 --> 00:39:53.719
their shoes nailed to the floor so
they didn't move. But prior to that,

536
00:39:53.800 --> 00:39:59.079
in the most sophisticated portion of the
silent era, they had developed a

537
00:39:59.159 --> 00:40:05.679
visual language was absolutely fascinating and sophisticated
and spectacular and it's marvelous. I thought

538
00:40:05.679 --> 00:40:08.079
of that because you mentioned William Powell
and he plays I think it was the

539
00:40:08.400 --> 00:40:13.199
I saw him in a movie recently
where he plays a Russian aristocrat or something

540
00:40:13.280 --> 00:40:15.880
that is coming back, and nobody
cared whether or not he was Russian.

541
00:40:15.920 --> 00:40:20.440
Really nobody heard what he was saying. He just had a presence and the

542
00:40:20.480 --> 00:40:25.480
whole film had this spectacular, epic
quality to it. But you couldn't get

543
00:40:25.679 --> 00:40:31.440
anyone under thirty to watch it today
because it's silent and black and white.

544
00:40:32.519 --> 00:40:39.320
Are these people completely and permanently turned
off to an entire this grand, vast

545
00:40:39.480 --> 00:40:44.440
treasure of American art? Or is
there some way do you think that we

546
00:40:44.480 --> 00:40:45.760
can get them to pay attention to
it and say, look at this,

547
00:40:45.880 --> 00:40:50.199
look at this, it's really important. Now. I'm hopeful that there's sort

548
00:40:50.199 --> 00:40:57.000
of a cult's mentality that people develop
an interest in earlier centemon I think some

549
00:40:57.079 --> 00:41:01.599
young people do, and I think
with their collection with their channel helped a

550
00:41:01.599 --> 00:41:06.800
lot. It was. It was
great when they were combined with TCM and

551
00:41:06.840 --> 00:41:10.039
Warner Brothers for something called Film Struck. That was really ideal. Unfortunately fell

552
00:41:10.079 --> 00:41:15.119
apart. I remember that experience of
going with a group of people, including

553
00:41:15.159 --> 00:41:21.039
including young people, and it was
Lubitch's Lady Windermere's fan and I thought,

554
00:41:21.039 --> 00:41:23.360
oh my gosh, I didn't know
aning about Lubitch Lady Winders fans, Oscar

555
00:41:23.400 --> 00:41:29.079
wild Play. And then we get
in and it's it's a silent movie.

556
00:41:29.199 --> 00:41:31.159
And I sort of thought, well, will the kids, you know,

557
00:41:31.239 --> 00:41:34.760
stay for this? And we all
stayed for it, and it was fantastic,

558
00:41:35.000 --> 00:41:38.599
And you know, there were a
lot of words in those movies are

559
00:41:38.719 --> 00:41:43.119
really good cards. You had great
people and need to lose and other people

560
00:41:43.480 --> 00:41:47.079
writing really punchy, interesting cards.
And you had always music. You had

561
00:41:47.159 --> 00:41:51.519
music along. So it wasn't silent
cinema exactly. It wasn't wordless cinema.

562
00:41:51.920 --> 00:41:57.960
And yeah, I think there's a
chance. I think if a talented sort

563
00:41:57.960 --> 00:42:00.440
of repertory cinema owner wants remote that
kind of thing, I think you can

564
00:42:00.480 --> 00:42:05.360
find an audience. Hey wait,
I know you get a run. I

565
00:42:05.440 --> 00:42:09.320
just one of my favorite movies.
I mean that that is not a whistiema

566
00:42:09.400 --> 00:42:14.480
movie is The Women, and it
was I think as you as you have

567
00:42:14.559 --> 00:42:17.079
described it, because it made its
way from a giant stage play onto the

568
00:42:17.639 --> 00:42:22.800
giant movie Hit And there's a moment
in the Women when the older woman who's

569
00:42:22.800 --> 00:42:25.719
a widow is talking to her your
two daughter who is a you know,

570
00:42:27.039 --> 00:42:31.000
is going through a divorce since she's
miserable, and the older widow is trying

571
00:42:31.000 --> 00:42:34.719
to get moms trying to console her
and says, look, it's kind of

572
00:42:34.760 --> 00:42:38.320
great. I mean, you have
the you have, you have the kind

573
00:42:38.320 --> 00:42:42.480
of the bed yourself. I get
in bed and I can just stretch out

574
00:42:42.519 --> 00:42:45.400
like a swastika. Oh and it's
a you know, nineteen thirty six movie,

575
00:42:45.519 --> 00:42:50.840
right, it kind of just whoa, But it's still it's like a

576
00:42:50.960 --> 00:42:54.880
nineteen forty movie. I think it's
it. Maybe I think I give it.

577
00:42:55.480 --> 00:43:01.119
I feel like it's yeah, before
before swastikas were bad. But do

578
00:43:01.159 --> 00:43:06.480
you ever find yourself writing something,
or writing about people and or characters or

579
00:43:06.519 --> 00:43:10.039
a world and think, oh,
I got it, I got it.

580
00:43:10.719 --> 00:43:15.360
Trim this sale for twenty twenty four. I don't want to be you know,

581
00:43:15.480 --> 00:43:22.559
carried through the streets and you know, canceled in an abrupt way.

582
00:43:22.599 --> 00:43:27.360
I mean, does any of that
effect your creative output or you just kind

583
00:43:27.360 --> 00:43:32.599
of there's a joke. There is
a joke in Metropolitan that I since come

584
00:43:32.679 --> 00:43:39.800
to regret. It's someone talking about
all the shootings, and you know,

585
00:43:39.840 --> 00:43:46.000
as a progressive Spanish girl is criticizing
America for all the shootings, and then

586
00:43:46.039 --> 00:43:50.880
the naval officer character played by Chris
Aegumann says, Oh, no shootings,

587
00:43:50.920 --> 00:43:54.480
that's just because we're better shots.
And I really regret that joke now because

588
00:43:54.480 --> 00:44:00.119
there have been too many shootings,
too much good shooting of the wrong con

589
00:44:00.199 --> 00:44:05.480
So yeah, I sort of regret
that A lot of stuff that I sort

590
00:44:05.480 --> 00:44:12.159
of worried about got cut before we
shot. And so I mean, I

591
00:44:12.159 --> 00:44:16.039
think if you sort of are acting
sort of fairly incorrectly in a sort of

592
00:44:16.119 --> 00:44:22.280
gentlemanly way with your material, you're
probably not going to get in trouble over

593
00:44:22.360 --> 00:44:24.679
time. You know, you don't
have bad stereotypes of people, you don't

594
00:44:24.880 --> 00:44:30.519
besmerge people in ugly ways, and
it can be okay, But I regret

595
00:44:30.559 --> 00:44:32.400
that joke, which I have to
say though, just for our listeners,

596
00:44:32.400 --> 00:44:37.440
if you haven't seen Barcelona, go
see it because it has one of the

597
00:44:37.480 --> 00:44:45.760
great most robust and hilarious arguments for
American military hegemony. I think I'm just

598
00:44:45.960 --> 00:44:51.679
using them. I've ever seen you
use their word. That's their word,

599
00:44:52.239 --> 00:44:57.440
their word, all right, you
know whatever. Defensive alliance, defensive alliance.

600
00:44:57.480 --> 00:45:05.559
Exactly when Chris Eigenman and I'm with
a trail of ants, it explains,

601
00:45:06.039 --> 00:45:12.000
Yeah, explains the contra. Yeah, just explains how the world should

602
00:45:12.039 --> 00:45:14.599
work. And I won't give it
away. It's a wonderful moment. And

603
00:45:14.840 --> 00:45:16.400
it's one of those things that you
I saw the movie in the theater,

604
00:45:16.480 --> 00:45:22.280
of course, and people just instinctively
laughed at it and kind of and clapped.

605
00:45:22.360 --> 00:45:25.239
And now I was in the middle
of I think Santa Monica, where

606
00:45:25.239 --> 00:45:30.400
I guarantee you seventy percent of the
people in that theater probably philosophically, it

607
00:45:30.440 --> 00:45:34.039
politically disagreed with that point. But
that scene was so great and his performance

608
00:45:34.079 --> 00:45:36.519
was so terrific in the dialogue of
the movie is so wonderful that you just

609
00:45:36.679 --> 00:45:38.440
you found yourself carried away and thought, hey, wait, wait a minute.

610
00:45:38.719 --> 00:45:42.199
You got And if you have Amazon, folks, you can go.

611
00:45:42.280 --> 00:45:45.000
You can rent it for three ninety
nine and find the rest of the works

612
00:45:45.000 --> 00:45:47.320
one of the various platforms, and
they're worth it. And what's stillman,

613
00:45:47.480 --> 00:45:52.400
We thank you for coming today,
and we hope if there's a justice in

614
00:45:52.440 --> 00:45:54.800
the world that a couple of years
from now, Al Pacina will stumble out

615
00:45:54.800 --> 00:45:58.199
of bed and go to the podium
and open up an envelope and just simply

616
00:45:58.239 --> 00:46:04.320
say your name exactly. That's very
much, thanks wit, thank you to

617
00:46:04.400 --> 00:46:10.239
take care. Yes, the Metropolitan
Damsels Barcelona, Uh, you know feature

618
00:46:10.400 --> 00:46:17.199
people in social situations enjoying themselves having
a tipple. And they're young folks,

619
00:46:17.199 --> 00:46:20.920
so you can get away with it. But you know, the bones creek

620
00:46:20.960 --> 00:46:24.400
in the back ache after a night
with drinks, maybe it don't bounce back

621
00:46:24.440 --> 00:46:28.159
as soon as you used to the
next day. So I gotta make a

622
00:46:28.239 --> 00:46:31.639
choice. You can either have a
great night or a great night day one

623
00:46:31.679 --> 00:46:36.280
or the other. No, no, that was the choice until we found

624
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625
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626
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Here's that works. When you drink, alcohol gets converted into a toxic byproduct

627
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in the gut. It's this byproduct, not not you know, dehydration,

628
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629
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this by product down. It's designed
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630
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631
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637
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off. And we thank zbiotics for
responsoring this the Ricochet podcast. Well,

643
00:47:52.239 --> 00:47:54.719
now that Rob's back, we can
answer a question that was actually bouncing around

644
00:47:54.760 --> 00:48:00.440
the memor feed the other day.
Meetups. Where's the meetups paid? I

645
00:48:00.559 --> 00:48:04.119
need to be with my people.
Yeah, so that's that's your thing,

646
00:48:04.159 --> 00:48:06.880
Rob, to tell people where to
go. Well, that's always your thing

647
00:48:06.880 --> 00:48:09.400
to tell people. Well, there's
a I'll just start from the from from

648
00:48:09.480 --> 00:48:15.360
the distant the near future to the
more media future near future. There's a

649
00:48:15.599 --> 00:48:22.679
Natural Review Cruise in June, and
Ricusion members traditionally have gone on there and

650
00:48:22.719 --> 00:48:24.639
have you know, done have meetups
on the National Review Cruise. So I

651
00:48:24.639 --> 00:48:30.039
would recommend that there will be one
in Saint Louis, where I'm told in

652
00:48:30.079 --> 00:48:32.519
October, which I think is the
first time we've had one in Sant Louis.

653
00:48:32.519 --> 00:48:37.360
I don't think we've gone right.
That seems like new territory for US.

654
00:48:37.599 --> 00:48:40.519
Uh. And then coming up soon
on April eighth, Uh, there

655
00:48:40.599 --> 00:48:47.599
is a Dallas meetup hosted by Omega
Paladin and they're going to catch the total

656
00:48:49.079 --> 00:48:52.239
eclipse of the sun, which I
think is fast, incredibly fantastic. Uh.

657
00:48:52.599 --> 00:48:55.440
And it is in Dallas on April
eighth. What's when the And I

658
00:48:55.440 --> 00:48:59.920
think there'll be some stuff before it
and after it too, and I want

659
00:48:59.920 --> 00:49:01.400
to hundred pers. I recommend that
if there's anyway where I can get there,

660
00:49:01.440 --> 00:49:07.320
I will do it. But uh, it's great. I mean that

661
00:49:07.320 --> 00:49:12.840
that to me is I can't imagine
seeing an eclipse with with with the better

662
00:49:12.840 --> 00:49:15.559
group of people. And remember,
folks, if you want to really get

663
00:49:15.559 --> 00:49:19.679
the best impression of the eclipse,
stare directly at it while it happens.

664
00:49:20.559 --> 00:49:22.960
Otherwise, how could you possibly see
it? And you'll have a memory that

665
00:49:23.079 --> 00:49:25.760
You'll have a memory that lasts year
the rest of your life. It's almost

666
00:49:27.199 --> 00:49:32.559
everywhere you look there it is.
Yes, I had to say, you

667
00:49:32.599 --> 00:49:36.920
know, it's how do you resist
that? I mean, it is a

668
00:49:36.920 --> 00:49:39.119
thing happening, and you're supposed to
look at it some other way. It's

669
00:49:39.159 --> 00:49:42.519
like, don't look right at the
moment, least to go look at a

670
00:49:42.639 --> 00:49:44.559
you know, on the other side
of it. Like I don't know.

671
00:49:44.599 --> 00:49:46.400
I totally understand people who think,
wait a minute, I could just take

672
00:49:46.440 --> 00:49:50.559
a quick peek, right, you
get a smoked glass, you've smoked glass,

673
00:49:50.559 --> 00:49:54.280
pinhole camera, something like the par
this is this is I heard a

674
00:49:54.280 --> 00:49:59.719
physicist give a little talk on this
solar eclipse and it turns out and he

675
00:49:59.719 --> 00:50:02.719
said, this is really important.
You will really damage your eyes, and

676
00:50:02.760 --> 00:50:08.840
the damage happens fast. But go
to Amazon. You can buy these NASA

677
00:50:08.880 --> 00:50:15.280
approved cardboard glasses. You get five
of them for ten bucks or something like

678
00:50:15.320 --> 00:50:17.519
that. So I have a son
who lives in Austin, where the solar

679
00:50:17.559 --> 00:50:21.960
eclipse will also be available. So
needless to say, I instantly sent him

680
00:50:22.119 --> 00:50:25.199
a couple of bundles of these glasses. It's cheap, it's easy. And

681
00:50:25.239 --> 00:50:29.559
the man who told you to look
at the sun was Lilacs Kama James,

682
00:50:29.800 --> 00:50:32.360
not Robinson Kamma. Peter just remained, I was kidding. I was kidding

683
00:50:32.360 --> 00:50:35.840
about that. Of course, don't
look at the son. Instead, h

684
00:50:36.440 --> 00:50:39.920
Bonnie Tyler song to yourself and enjoy
it through the usual socially approved and technologically

685
00:50:40.000 --> 00:50:44.199
saved means. Before we go speaking
of technology, and we got a few

686
00:50:44.199 --> 00:50:46.280
minutes here before rob has to peel
and Peter has to saunter and I have

687
00:50:46.360 --> 00:50:50.559
to go down to the gym.
My pain killers are kicking in, so

688
00:50:50.599 --> 00:50:54.400
now I can go down and make
things worse. It's like I have to

689
00:50:54.760 --> 00:51:00.599
I draped the pain under this call
this blanket of anesthesia anesthesiology, and then

690
00:51:00.639 --> 00:51:04.679
go and make it worse. TikTok. Where do you guys stand on this?

691
00:51:04.880 --> 00:51:07.639
And of course this is all dependent
on how much money you have taken

692
00:51:07.760 --> 00:51:13.880
from there, you know, from
by DNZ executives. So go I will

693
00:51:13.880 --> 00:51:20.400
start by saying, because I don't
know here, my instinct is that I

694
00:51:20.400 --> 00:51:23.559
think it's silly to ban it.
I don't think it needs to be banned.

695
00:51:23.599 --> 00:51:27.639
It's not a ban, it's an
investiture, a divestiture. I don't

696
00:51:27.639 --> 00:51:30.519
think it really is what people say
it is. That's my instinct. On

697
00:51:30.559 --> 00:51:36.480
the other hand, the politician I
think who is still in office who I

698
00:51:36.480 --> 00:51:40.400
admire the most is Mike Gallagher,
who in the perfect world would be President

699
00:51:40.519 --> 00:51:45.199
United States tomorrow, or at least
President United States on January twenty whatever,

700
00:51:45.360 --> 00:51:50.840
twenty twenty five. Agree, and
I hope will someday be President United States.

701
00:51:50.880 --> 00:51:55.000
And this is one of those cases
where my instinct is now I'm thinking,

702
00:51:55.039 --> 00:52:00.840
there is a person in government who
I respect, who has a composing

703
00:52:00.960 --> 00:52:07.760
view, and that is very meaningful
to me that he disagrees with me to

704
00:52:07.800 --> 00:52:10.079
the extent that I'm thinking to myself
that maybe I'm dumb and he's I know

705
00:52:10.119 --> 00:52:13.239
that I'm dumb and he's smart,
but maybe he's right and I'm wrong.

706
00:52:14.320 --> 00:52:19.199
The courtesy you've never extended to me
once in the last thirty years. Yeah,

707
00:52:19.239 --> 00:52:23.960
well, go ahead, go ahead
of a high bar. So I

708
00:52:24.000 --> 00:52:28.639
also I'm trying to tease out my
reasons. One of the things I like

709
00:52:28.760 --> 00:52:32.760
about banning it or whatever, divesting
it is I am loving the response by

710
00:52:32.760 --> 00:52:36.639
the Chinese, which essentially say,
how can you do this? What about

711
00:52:36.639 --> 00:52:40.199
free speech? How can you ban
a social network that we have banned ourselves?

712
00:52:40.280 --> 00:52:46.519
How can you I mean to the
Chinese sea farm propaganda in almost everything,

713
00:52:47.719 --> 00:52:52.320
and so yeah, idea that someone
is calling them on it and playing

714
00:52:52.320 --> 00:52:57.280
their game by their rules, it's
maybe it's too delicious to ignore. I

715
00:52:57.280 --> 00:53:00.679
don't know. Yeah, so I
agree, Mike Gallagher gets my attention.

716
00:53:00.880 --> 00:53:07.719
Here's what's going on. The company
that now owns TikTok reports in one mysterious

717
00:53:07.719 --> 00:53:12.480
way or another because China is not
it. China is obscure, but we

718
00:53:12.559 --> 00:53:16.039
know that it reports to the government, and that the government is run by

719
00:53:16.039 --> 00:53:23.000
the Chinese Communist Party. One hundred
and seventy million Americans use TikTok, including

720
00:53:23.159 --> 00:53:27.239
let's be honest, all three of
us glance at it from time to time.

721
00:53:27.679 --> 00:53:29.639
Of course, in my case,
is just to see what the kids

722
00:53:29.639 --> 00:53:34.559
are up to. But still and
it provides them an opportunity. We don't

723
00:53:34.599 --> 00:53:37.440
even have to prove that they're doing
it, although we can assume that they

724
00:53:37.480 --> 00:53:44.800
are, provides them an opportunity to
acquire messes of information about viewing habits and

725
00:53:44.840 --> 00:53:50.960
demography and so forth, about the
American public going straight to the Chinese Communist

726
00:53:51.039 --> 00:53:57.800
Party that has to stop details to
follow. That's my view, and I

727
00:53:57.800 --> 00:54:01.440
agree that's why divest youre not banning
is a good idea. The thing of

728
00:54:01.480 --> 00:54:05.360
it is when you say one hundred
and seventy million, and some of us

729
00:54:05.440 --> 00:54:07.360
look at it, look at it. I look at tiktoks sometimes when they

730
00:54:07.400 --> 00:54:09.679
show up in social media. I
don't look at the app. I don't

731
00:54:09.679 --> 00:54:13.840
have the app. The app has
never been installed on my phone. My

732
00:54:13.920 --> 00:54:16.000
daughter had it installed once in the
very beginning, and you know, we

733
00:54:16.480 --> 00:54:22.599
drove to another state through it out
the window, shot it up with you

734
00:54:22.639 --> 00:54:27.079
know, good f my Velocity munitions
and got a new one because I don't

735
00:54:27.079 --> 00:54:30.119
trust any of it. The thing
is, if you were the United States

736
00:54:30.199 --> 00:54:32.360
government and you had an adversarial power, and you had one hundred and fifty

737
00:54:32.400 --> 00:54:36.960
million of their children who were glued
to this thing, would you not use

738
00:54:37.000 --> 00:54:40.880
it to amplify whatever message you want
or to encourage whatever social disorder that you

739
00:54:40.920 --> 00:54:45.199
wished. How would you not want
to use a tool like that. I

740
00:54:45.199 --> 00:54:49.559
think we were talking with Charlie about
this last week, is that, you

741
00:54:49.599 --> 00:54:52.519
know, given the ability of these
things to map out where you are,

742
00:54:53.079 --> 00:54:55.559
you don't need to have a mole
in the government that tells you what the

743
00:54:55.559 --> 00:54:58.960
interior of the White House looks like. You just need a couple of stupid

744
00:54:59.000 --> 00:55:01.920
interns walking around with this thing,
you know, in the pocket with notifications

745
00:55:02.119 --> 00:55:06.960
and location services on, and you
got the joint mapped out. So yeah,

746
00:55:07.159 --> 00:55:09.920
divest and let somebody buy it here, and then, you know,

747
00:55:09.920 --> 00:55:13.280
it'd be great if they could get
under the hood and take a look at

748
00:55:13.280 --> 00:55:16.559
exactly what it promotes and how it
promotes and if somehow and I know this

749
00:55:16.679 --> 00:55:22.800
sounds like orwellian top down mind control, civilian manipulation, but gosh, if

750
00:55:22.840 --> 00:55:28.719
you could take a platform like this
and somehow emphasize positivity in the culture,

751
00:55:28.880 --> 00:55:31.840
in humanity, in our future and
the rest of it, that'd be great.

752
00:55:32.719 --> 00:55:37.079
That'd be really great, because while
there's a place for everybody sitting in

753
00:55:37.119 --> 00:55:38.760
the front seat of their car and
complaining and being very unhappy, and there's

754
00:55:38.800 --> 00:55:42.159
a place for all the fights and
the fights and the world Star and the

755
00:55:42.199 --> 00:55:45.000
rest of it. There has to
be a larger place in the state on

756
00:55:45.079 --> 00:55:47.719
the stage for things that actually uplift. And I know it makes me sound

757
00:55:47.719 --> 00:55:51.840
like an old grampa shaking his fist
at the cloud, but there we are.

758
00:55:51.960 --> 00:55:53.519
We are not at the top of
the hour robist appeal. Peter has

759
00:55:53.559 --> 00:55:58.519
to Saundra, I have to go
down and exhibit more pain, guys,

760
00:55:58.519 --> 00:56:00.599
anything else before we leave. James, I want you to know I'm willing

761
00:56:00.639 --> 00:56:06.760
to invest ten bucks right now in
your effort to buy TikTok. If we

762
00:56:06.760 --> 00:56:09.480
can move it to the Midwest.
I couldn't agree more. It could change

763
00:56:09.480 --> 00:56:14.400
everything in this country. All you
need is another one hundred and fifty billion

764
00:56:14.440 --> 00:56:16.599
and you're good to go. If
anybody wants to contribute, the first thing

765
00:56:16.599 --> 00:56:20.000
I want you to do is just
buy a lot of people's subscriptions on a

766
00:56:20.079 --> 00:56:23.559
Ricochet because of the more of the
Eric And we'll see Ricochet four point zero

767
00:56:23.639 --> 00:56:29.199
right now, five point zero en
route route. But the columns are the

768
00:56:30.079 --> 00:56:32.960
comments is where we'll be discussing these
matters and others. As always at Ricochet.

769
00:56:34.360 --> 00:56:37.480
Gentlemen, it's been fun. Welcome
back and we'll see you next week.

770
00:56:37.960 --> 00:56:45.639
Next week, Fellas Ricochet join the
Conversation.