It's Tim Bird the Birdman ever.
That's how he talked. He
actually talked like if you
were like running into him in
the elevator or something
No, he said hi. I'm Adam Curry.
No, of course I'm Tim Bird the
Birdman.
Well, yes, if you introduced
him to someone he would say hi,
I'm Tim Bird the Birdman.
He would actually do that. What
a puss. Anyway, we're recording
now. Yeah, that was a little
bit of sort of like
Ad hoc impromptu behind the
scenes banter. Behind the
scenes, behind the scenes, we
're going to see Loumster.
What it's like to be and Chris
is in the background ordering
up our dinner. Is that loud
enough now? Is that a good
volume?
Yeah, you'll be able to make it
out. So this is what a podcast
is like. Basically what you do
is you plop down a bunch of,
now Chris is going out of the
room. He heard me say that, I
guess. And he's probably
feeling a little self-conscious
,
but he was actually helping me
demo an important concept,
which is that a podcast is real
life.
And if you listen to my art
podcast today where I talked
about God and art and all these
heavy concepts,
you realize that, well,
whatever. This is just one
person's idea about how this
stuff works. But I didn't write
a script,
and I didn't ask anybody else
for their opinion, and I didn't
bring a friend in to play a
role or whatever.
It wasn't a skit, right? So
anyway, so you want to pick it
up from there?
Okay, so we're sitting here,
well, we're having a, actually
we were geeking out a bit. Well
, yeah, the internet,
the internet kind of crapped
out, and then I ran over to my
machine because Chris is going
to get dinner.
I ran over to my machine
because my machine is routing
internet through the Wi-Fi to
Dave's machine.
You mean like internet, don't
you?
Yeah, I'm going to crank it up.
Yeah, that's much better. And
so whenever I go to my computer
to, well, basically I'm
checking audio.weblogs.com a
lot.
If you ever ask Dave, how do
you do this, Adam? Because I'm
always on audio.weblogs.com.
How do you do this, Adam?
Yeah, we always want to know
how do you listen to all this
stuff?
How do you listen to all this
stuff?
Well, Dave, I'm glad you asked.
I go to audio.weblogs.com and
that's where I'm constantly
checking stuff out.
Excellent.
So I went there, in fact, it
may not well have changed
actually.
I went to audio.weblogs.com and
number three on the last 100
podcasts I saw, Yeast Radio.
So I said with excitement, "
Whoa, there's a new Yeast Radio
!"
And what was cool about it is
that we're kind of like waiting
for people to show up here.
We really have anything to do.
I was thinking about putting
the TV on and I said, "Out loud
, this is better than CNN."
I don't know exactly what I
meant.
Because it was exciting.
It was exciting.
It was exciting that there will
be a new Madge Weinstein.
So now may be a good time to
say that the first time I heard
Madge Weinstein as an excerpt
on the Daily Source Code,
it was a visual image of a
short, stocky, transsexual guy
with like a beard.
It was a very vivid image and
it was kind of like a little on
the shocking side,
maybe even a little gross but
funny as hell.
Just totally hilarious.
And almost everything that I've
heard from Madge Weinstein has
been that way.
Except, so today I thought Mad
ge was a real person.
The first glimpse of the
possibility that Madge is not a
real person came in a comment
thread on your site earlier
today,
where somebody said that Madge
is Richard Bluestine.
And so I went looking on Google
to see what I could find out
about Richard Bluestine.
And not a whole lot and it wasn
't clear to me.
In fact, it didn't seem very
likely to me that Madge was
Richard Bluestine.
So anyway, that's a little bit
of background.
So you queued it up, or no, I
queued it up.
I downloaded the MP3 and the
speakers.
Because the speakers were on my
machine.
And the beginning of it was
hilarious.
I mean, in stitches, she says
at one point, "Well, we shouldn
't spoil it."
No, but almost--
There was one line that is just
really--
Yeah, yeah, we don't spoil it.
But the minute you heard this,
you knew it was not real.
I knew that immediately. Did
you catch that?
Yeah, and sometimes other
people have done this.
Like Dawn and Drew have a
character that shows up from
time to time.
The Professor.
The Professor is really funny.
And I always wondered who was
the Professor.
Yeah, yeah, I know him. Yeah.
Who is the Professor?
He's their friend.
He's going to hate me. I forgot
his name.
Well, maybe--
He's the guy with the blown out
earlobes.
I don't know who he is. He's
funny.
He's a great guy.
And I play along and I called
up Dawn and Drew and left them
a voicemail and said,
"I haven't actually asked a
question for the Professor, but
he's funny."
I play along with it because
whatever.
But it's borderline podcast
material to do that.
It's kind of like you're
getting--it's like a comedy
review or something like that,
or stage production or fiction.
But that's what MAG was doing
today.
It was scripted, okay?
You said it was clearly script
ed.
I agreed with you after you
said that.
And it left us both with the
feeling like we needed to clear
the air on this a little bit.
That MAG isn't what we thought
she was, right?
Well, so he--well, okay, I'll
give you my feel.
So the minute I heard this, I'm
like, "Oh my God, this is
scripted,"
which gave me a whole bunch of
clues.
And the first thing that went
through my mind is,
"Well, how much is scripted?"
And I clearly wasn't really
talking to MAG Weinstein,
ready, balding, 50-year-old,
transsexual or transgender
Jewish guy,
being with a beard.
To make matters even worse, now
we've seen a picture or
something.
We actually have a picture.
He's not in the 50s.
No, he's not.
He's got it.
And so it's an act.
Something like this happened to
me when I was a kid.
I had a pen pal who lived in
Scotland.
And, you know, after a while,
it kind of got old, right?
But I kept doing it, you know?
And I got a letter from the pen
pal, and this was the last
letter.
And it said, "Sometimes my
mother writes these letters for
me."
Oh, God.
Yeah.
And of course, it was the
mother writing that.
Oh, God!
I'm a witty guy.
So, you know, that took...
I mean, obviously, I'm not
going to continue that.
I mean, I was...
Not directly with that person.
Right.
And that's kind of how this
feels, is that we thought, you
know,
because really, there is a
place for a 50-year-old transse
xual
to tell us what they think of
the world.
And I don't want the feeling
that this is being something...
that this is a script written
by a comedian who would like to
just
want to entertain us.
This is kind of like what came
up in the American Splendor.
You were saying about how...
What was that guy's name?
Toby Radle.
Right.
And how they made him sound...
This was so interesting.
They made him sound like this
...
He talked so deliberately.
I mean, the original Nude.
I love what Castle Bear Nude is
.
Right.
So, he was actually on a
podcast, right?
Right, right, right.
And then the next day, there
was a comment in your thing
about the one
where you talked about it in
our Consprenos, and he said,
"This is so amazing," because
that guy's actually in...
I'm on a podcast, so I listened
to it.
But he couldn't figure out
which one he was.
He sounded like...
Whoever he was sounded like a
perfectly normal person.
So, what did they do?
How did they get him to sound
that way?
They made him sound that way.
Yeah, but that...
It's...
Okay, here's my problem.
I don't...
Okay, there's one thing to know
that...
And of course, the suspicion
was always there.
There's one thing to know that
Madge Weinstein isn't the
picture that I paint
in my mind of who Madge Wein
stein is.
It's another thing.
Whatever your fucking name is,
however you want to talk,
and I don't have a problem with
someone putting on a different
voice or whatever.
You may want to be anonymous to
your environment.
It doesn't matter.
But what I heard Madge Wein
stein saying about politics and
about life and art,
I love that.
And whoever is behind that is
my Madge Weinstein.
Assuming it's real.
Assuming that isn't like a
Republican...
I don't think that was scripted
.
I think that stuff...
It can't be scripted.
That came from the heart.
If it didn't, then...
Well, we need to hear from
whoever it is that Madge Wein
stein is, you know,
as to whether or not...
How we should interpret that
other stuff.
And I'm willing to give her
another chance.
I'm willing to try losing again
.
But first, I got to know...
I got to start seeing something
like...
I want to hear an honest...
You know, I want to hear some
honesty.
Direct statement of how we are
intended to interpret this
podcast.
And then I'm going to make my
decision as to whether or not
this is something
I want to continue to
participate in.
You mean podcasting altogether?
No!
No.
I'm not talking about podcast
ing.
No!
I didn't know.
It's so funny because these
issues, very issues, are going
to be discussed at a conference
of Harvard on January 21st.
And I'm preparing for this.
I'm writing about it on the
scripting news right now.
It's like, okay, how do you
establish credibility as a blog
ger?
Okay.
And, you know, it's like, there
are some basics.
You need to tell me who you are
and what...
Tell me the facts about
yourself that are relevant to
what you write about.
Okay?
Okay.
And so that way, I can get a
chance to, you know...
The idea is this is supposed to
smoke out your conflicts of
interest.
And you're not supposed to,
like, work too hard to figure
out which things are relevant.
Just tell me who you are.
And I'm going to talk about
ways over time to do more of
that so that people who become
regular readers of your site
get a better and better idea of
how they're meant to interpret,
how they should interpret what
you've written.
The other thing is never
deliberately, never knowingly
say something that isn't true.
Well, Matt wrote both of those
rules today.
You know, the things about her
therapist and, you know, this
pretends that this was somehow
some real therapy session.
Yeah, both.
Of course, we knew that it wasn
't so that there wasn't a whole
lot of damage, right?
But certainly, I need now to
know which parts of what she's
doing are real, right?
Yeah, because it's the ranting
and raiding about the problems
in America, which I think
is from the real nudge.
It has value if it's real.
Yeah.
Let's put it that way.
Yeah.
And I don't mind the voice and
the persona.
That doesn't bother me.
I like the voice.
Yeah.
And I like the language and I
love all that.
I want to go back to the
fantasy.
I want my image to, I want my
suspension of disbelief.
I don't like where I was taken
tonight.
And so I analyzed this and the
way I see this is that there's
this actor or performance
artist.
His name is Richard Bluesting.
Was that it?
Bluesting, yeah.
He's been doing probably stuff
like the podcast today and not
being very successful with it,
or not mainstream, or not
explosively, hasn't really
tapped into a vein.
He's like the Lucidius Bitties,
I think.
He's an act.
The Lucidius Bitties, though,
we never had any doubt.
They don't walk down the street
singing other songs.
You know, right?
I do.
But you know what I'm saying?
There's no doubt we know that
somebody who is, besides those
songs are not podcasts.
Let me continue on my thought.
So all of a sudden, and I don't
know if this is what Richard Bl
uesting or Madge Weinstein
whoever has been doing, but
when I heard the first Madge
Weinstein yeast radio, it was
not this.
It was something else.
It was fresh.
It sounded to me like someone
who was generally concerned,
and the whole package really
appealed to me.
And this is what it felt like
to me.
It felt to me like, okay, I'm a
hit now, because yeah, Madge
Weinstein was a hit in my book.
Like, boom, rocket.
You know, I love this.
This is fucking great.
We're talking about it.
They mentioned her on the Gil
more Gang.
On the Gilmore Gang.
I mean, you've made it, man.
If you're mentioned on the Gil
more Gang, you're fucking in.
What else is there?
The merchandise and rides, baby
.
Sure.
You can get on the tonight show
.
That's like, you know, the Gil
more Gangs.
You know, total request live is
next, honey.
But here's the...
So it felt to me like, all
right, now I've done all this,
and now I'm going to go back
and use this newfound celebrity
to do my art, which...
Or to boost my career or
whatever.
Or to boost my career or
whatever.
Yeah, you get this thing going
and I've been trying to get
started.
Which is just not going to work
, because it wasn't that funny.
It wasn't funny at all.
No.
The first few lines were funny.
So I tell you, that probably
wasn't scripted.
It was hilarious.
The beginning probably wasn't
scripted.
Yeah.
No.
It's probably Adlin.
No.
I don't...
Who cares?
The fact is that we were
laughing.
Yeah, right.
The old match, before we knew
that we were about to be taken
to a dishonest place.
Yeah.
And now if I listen to it again
, I would be laughing at it
after I know how the story ends
.
How this particular story ends.
So this would be really
interesting.
It would be for Madge to do
what we're doing right now.
Because like Adam, I asked Adam
, "Okay, now what do you want to
do?"
I mean, you have really talked
a lot about...
Talked about Madge, you've
talked to other folks.
And so, you know, and then Adam
said, "Yeah, I got a problem."
And then he waited a pause a
second and said, "Now what do
you want to do?"
And, "Yeah, I have the same
thing."
Because, you know, I've talked
about this character and I've
wrote in the show notes for
trade secrets,
last trade secrets, you know,
it's a Madge, Madge, Madge, Mad
ge world.
I mean, I love getting swept up
in a cultural sort of
interesting...
You know, I'm willing to help
somebody become a star if I can
, you know, to the extent that I
can do that as long.
But I'm not willing to do it if
I don't know what it is that I
'm helping.
If it's just helping somebody
become a guest on...
On The Tonight Show.
Or Saturday Night Live or
whatever.
You know, at that point I just
start going, "Yeah, that's not
really what I'm doing."
So here's the real violation.
I thought I was actually
talking to the real person on
the telephone.
No kidding, right?
And you were... they were
talking to you and you were a
real person, right?
I wasn't being mean.
You were who you were.
You were like sort of, you know
, you were all giggly and
everything, but that was how
you felt at that time.
Yeah, right.
Well, I was also stoned.
It was, you know...
Of course.
Yeah, I'm honest.
I was hammered.
I thought I got to hammer up
for the Madge.
All right.
Bo-Goo.
Have we...
Bo-Goo.
Maybe you should explain to the
folks at home what that means.
Well, is there anything else we
need to talk about?
Maybe we can like...
Just make this short.
Make it short.
Short.
So I don't want to discourage
anything or anyone, but that
just totally did not fucking
work for me.
Okay.
And it blew... it blew... it t
ainted for me.
Hey, wait a minute.
Let's just leave it there.
The balls in your court, Madge.
Yeah.
We'd love to hear from you.
We'd love to be outrageous.
We'd love you to talk more
politics.
Yeah.
And the East is great, but fuck
this shit about your fake
pseudo-therapist because we don
't believe that for a second.
That wasn't your therapist.
Right.
So fuck you.
Just like leave it there.
Okay.
Yeah.
Okay.
Okay, everybody.
Just to make it to you because
we're partners in this day.
Yeah.
Fuck you, Madge.
Okay.
Yeah, we've set our peace.
Okay, there you go.
See you later.