So... Alright - End of the Year Cleanout

Episode Date: December 31, 2024

Geoff cleans out his notes and inbox to get ready for 2025. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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"'you asked about the most sampled musician of all time. "'I wanted to point you in the direction of a sample "'known as the Amen Break, which is a drum break "'from the song Amen, Brother, by the Winston's. "'If you've ever listened to old school hip hop "'or drum and bass music, "'you have definitely heard this sample. "'It is often considered as the most widely used sample in music the drummer for the Winston's was Gregory Coleman

Which would make him one of the most sampled musicians ever? Although he and the band never got any royalties for the sample ain't that some shit interesting. Thank you, Brian Now that's a fucking awesome nugget of information and that sates My curiosity very well. I really do appreciate that. Where was another one that I saw that was really interesting? I also got an email from Sam who pointed me towards the Winstons and Amen Brother as well.

And also added that in terms of the most sampled non-musicians, it might be the Wilhelm Scream. Although if you're looking specifically at non-musicians sampled in music that's a different question. Yeah. And then he says I'd be loathe to think it was something like a producer shouting their studio name at the top of their songs like DJ Khaled or something to that effect. Sam I think you might be right on that front and that's a that's a bit of a shame. I still think Vincent Price has to be up there from his work in Michael, from Michael Jackson, all the way down to to bands like Witchfinder General.

He he's run the gamut, probably not even close to the Wilhelm scream, which also is probably sampled in a lot of music, to be honest with you. I I would be surprised if it wasn't. Now, this one has nothing to do with sampled music or air pressure, but it's from Mike and he says, I'm a bit too young to have seen Twin Peaks when it was originally airing since the series is a year older than I am. But the revival reboot sequel that came out in 2017 caught my attention. You talking about it on the various podcasts and how much you love

the tie in movie and David Lynch got me even more interested in checking it out. So I'd love to know where you think I should start. Well, Mike, I guess canonically Fire Walk with me would be the place to start, but I would not start my Twin Peaks run there. I would start. I would go in order of release, right? So I would watch the first season, well the pilot and then the first season, and then you're gonna be blown away. You're gonna be fucking blown, it's gonna be a bit of a roller coaster, right?

You're gonna be amazed at the first two episodes of Twin Peaks. You're gonna hit this like steady crescendo where they build and build and build and build and then the end of the season is gonna fucking, it's awesome, right? Hits hard. Season two, you gotta jump right into,

first two episodes are gonna be pretty good. Then season two takes you on a meandering journey all over the place that is sometimes really hard to sit through. I skip a lot of it on rewatches now, although I haven't rewatched it in many, many years at this point. But the last rewatch I did, I skipped most of the James on the motorcycle stuff,

can't handle that. Nadine is great comedic relief, but eventually I just kind of had my fill of it. And then you kind of dip back in at the end of the season where they wrapped the series up to kind of get, I mean, you got gotta watch the whole thing. I just want you to be aware going into it, Mike, that there are some low points in season two.

Season one is awesome, start to finish. Season two has some high highs and some pretty low lows. Then when you finish that, immediately watch, because all of this is gonna be fresh in your head, right? All of these connections and these possibilities and you trying to figure out the white lodge and the black lodge and Mike and the one-armed man and the arm and all of this stuff and Laura Palmer

and Ronette Pulaski and who the murderer is and then how the murderer was the murderer and Bob and you're just gonna be, you're smelling motor oil and burnt rubber and all of this is gonna to be jumbling around your head and you're going to be trying to make sense of it. And David Lynch gave us a gift in Fire Walk with me. And I say it was a gift because for the true David Lynch and Twin Peaks fan, that film, I think, is damn near perfect

because it answers some really interesting and important pieces of the puzzle in fascinating ways. I think it's very, very satisfying in those ways. It creates more questions that blow me away, that really make your mind wander. It's got crazy awesome new characters introduced. David Bowie is in it, Chris Isaacs is awesome, Kiefer Sutherland's character is so much fun. And then at some point you get to Dale Cooper

and then you just like, your fucking heart swells up and it's just, and then it's also you get the full answer to who killed Laura Palmer. I mean, you know the answer by the end of the series, right? But in Fire Walk with me, you get the context and kind of the night laid out in front of you. And it is heartbreaking. It is, I cry every time I see it.

It makes me feel terrible. I feel so sad. And it's a really, for someone who really loved the series like I did, it's a really, it's kind of an emotional rollercoaster, that movie. That being said, and this is why I say it's a gift to us, that movie is completely and totally inaccessible

to a general film audience. If I didn't know anything about Twin Peaks and I sat down and I watched that movie, I would be very unhappy. I would be very confused and frustrated. And if I was even a casual, like, oh, I remember who killed Laura Palmer, right? Yeah, I watched some of season one

and I got an episode of season two. I'll watch this movie and have it all make sense to me then. I think it'd be pretty hard to do as well. I think it was, it really was Mr. Lynch's attempt at kind of putting a bow on that series while also tickling our mind with possibilities. And then he walked away from it for a very, very, very long time.

Enter the new Twin Peaks. I'll be honest, I started watching that in the middle of a separation and a divorce. So I didn't get through it completely. I was enjoying it. I thought it was, I was intrigued and I was curious. I'll say that. I think I made it about seven episodes

in to the first part of it. I need to go back and finish it and I haven't done it for any other reason than I just haven't done it, you know, life goes on. And it makes me feel like kind of a shitty David Lynch fan. But something that's that important to you, you really wanna sit down and just kind of like devote your brain and your idle brain to,

because it's gonna raise so many questions and it's gonna be, I'm gonna have so much shit bouncing around in my head and I'm gonna be dealing with like 18 episodes of Dougie or whatever. It's, I just, I need to set some time in my life aside to really dive in. But what I saw when it was airing, I really think I liked, I wasn't 100% sold on it, but I also hear that it is incredibly satisfying

and that it gets better and better and better and continues to ramp up and that it's fucking phenomenal. And so I'll tell you what, Mike, I promise you this, I'm gonna sit down at some point in the next year and I'm gonna finish, I'm going to sit down at some point in the next year and I'm going to finish. I'm going to start the new series over again and go all the way through both halves of it and finish it. And then I'm going to come back and I'm going to talk about it on So All Right.

And I'll give my impressions. And I this is good. I've given myself some homework, something to do in 2025. Maybe this will be like a can this count as a New Year's resolution to watch the new Twin Peaks series? Well, newer Twin Peaks series. That's it. I think that's what it's going to be.

That's my so all right. Yeah, my so all right. New Year's resolution. OK. But yeah, I would watch it in that order. Mike, season one, season two, Firework with me, new series. I had one other email in here. So, oh, yeah, here we go, here we go, here we go. This is a good one.

This is a good one. And this is from Cody, who's a fucking legend for sending this to me. As a fan of hot dogs, I'm sure you would love to know about the legendary hot dog, Santa. He got up to giving three thousand hot dogs a year to hungry children on Christmas Day and was beloved by the community. Unfortunately, it didn't have a happy ending, but I know I'm gonna start having a hot dog or two every year in his honor.

Here is his story. Hot Dog Santa brings Christmas cheer to children. Born in, I'm not gonna read the whole story, but Axel Bjorklund immigrated to America in 1889 and then was a really good dude who eventually got nicknamed the hot dog Santa by newspapers nationwide and as far away as Sweden. His annual Christmas day hot dog giveaway moved to New Year's Day, but it was an event that children anticipated all year.

His generosity, as his generosity expanded, so did his health challenges. He was plagued with rheumatism, which led to frequent hospitalization. His finances struggled too, and he could no longer pay his rent. Not wanting to end the hot dog giveaway, he appealed to the public to help him continue the tradition. In December 1928, just before the annual hot dog giveaway, Axel's landlady kicked him out because he hadn't paid rent. Salvation Army stepped in to help, but he was broke. For the next two years, he skipped between poor houses.

Oh man, and a home for the aged. He had temporary lodging from generous benefactors, but despite his circumstances, he still participated in his final hot dog giveaway in 1929. But on November 10th, 1930, before he could do it again, he passed away at a Massachusetts hospital. Wow, I wonder how many hot dogs he gave away in his life.

Hot dog Santa Claus, a tip of the hat to you, sir. I also have an additional 1,000 emails about air pumps, which I have, I'm gonna read every goddamn one of them, I promise you that. You guys went to the trouble to send it to me, I'm gonna read it. I don't know how many of them will make guys went to the trouble to send it to me. I'm gonna read it. I don't know how many of them will make it onto the podcast though.

I could go on with mail for a little bit, but I do want to get to the nagging or the hanging Chad questions I had left over at the end of the year. For instance, we always talk about early radio, early TV. I did a whole thing about VCRs where I looked up what was the first commercially available VCR, but what was the first commercially available TV?

I had, oh, here we go. I have an answer, thank you very much. The Baird Televisor sold in 1930 to 1933 in the UK is considered the first mass produced televisionced television selling about a thousand units Carl Ferdinand Braun was the first to conceive the use of the CRT as a display device in 1897 The Braun tube became the foundation of 20th century TV. Well, I don't know that I needed all that Braun tube bullshit But looks like they were about 400 bucks. The cheapest model with a 12 inch screen. This would have been in, I don't know, right in the middle of the 30s, maybe

was about four hundred and forty five dollars or the equivalent of nine thousand six hundred and thirty two dollars in twenty twenty three. So about fuck. You can buy TV for you can buy TV for fucking 50 bucks, probably if you get a 19 inch, but you can get like a 72 inch TV at Costco for like $600. That's crazy. All right.

Well, what was the first commercially available radio? See, I didn't think this would be a whole episode. I wasn't interested enough for it to be a whole episode, but I do have a lingering interest in finding out the first commercially available radio was KDKA in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, which broadcasts the results of the 1920 presidential election on November 2nd, 1920. That's not what I wanted to know.

I wanted to know, Radio for sale. There we go. First commercial radio for sale. 1920, the Joseph Horne Department Store in Pittsburgh advertises ready-made radio receivers that can pick up a local broadcast station. Commercial radio is just weeks away. The first car radio was introduced in 1922, but it was so large that it took up too much space in the car. The first commercial car radio was introduced in 1922, but it was so large that it took up too much space in the car. The first commercial car radio that could easily be installed in most cars went for sale in 1930.

The first radios were sold to the public in the early 1920s after being introduced during World War I. The Westinghouse Company was the first to be licensed by the government to produce and sell radios. Okay. So in 19 in the early 1920s, they started to distribute news and entertainment nationally. And then in 1923, 1% of US households owned at least one radio receiver, while a majority did by 1931 and 75% did by 1937.

So the adoption rate went from 1% in 1923 to 75% in 1937, that is 14 years. I feel like that took a while to catch on. Although, I don't know, I guess at 1920 there were people still trying to put electricity in some houses, so I guess at 1920 there were people still trying to put electricity in some houses. So I guess it would make sense. Although surely by 1920 did most houses have electricity? When did most houses start to have electricity? 1960, thanks in part to FDR's Rural Electrification Act of 1936, by 1945, 85% of American homes

were powered by electricity, virtually all homes having electricity by 1960. Holy shit. Wasn't until 1960 that is so much later in the game than I thought it was. Wow. When did the first house get electricity? The first house to receive electricity was JP Morgan's New York resident wired by Thomas Edison's company, obviously in 1882.

However, the project was plagued by mechanical issues and was replaced by the end of the year. All right, here's a little bit of timeline. So 1878, Edison installs the first private electrical system in his home. 1882, parts, oh, also London installs the world's first electric streetlights, that's important. 1882, parts of Manhattan begin using electric lights

in commercial and public settings. By 1907, only 8% of homes in the US have electricity. 1912, the NELA, National Electric Light Association, publishes a book that describes appliances for the home. By 1925, half of US households report using electricity, and by 1965, grounded wires are introduced, making homes even safer. So, took about 14 years to get a 75% adoption rate

on homes that had electricity. Obviously, a 0% adoption rate for homes that had electricity. Obviously a 0% adoption rate for homes that didn't. But it took homes. Oh gosh. I mean, electricity was pretty wacky in 1878. But I would say like by 1907, 8% of homes had electricity, right? So it took us a good 60 years to put electricity

into all of our houses. I wonder are airports always under construction. What other nagging little questions do I have? Oh yeah, what word appears in the most languages? So apparently mama or mother, some variation of mother is present in almost all languages probably because ma is the first sound a child is able to make.

And they tend to have the closest bond, immediate bond with their mother at that age. So it stands for reason. But coffee, this is interesting, coffee, there are at least 20 languages that have some variation of the word coffee. From Africa, Albania, Azerbaijan, China, Croatia, America, Bulgaria, et cetera, et cetera, the list goes on.

Also sugar seems to be a pretty popular one. From English as sugar, Spanish as azucar, French as suker, German as zucar, Arabic, Spanish azucar, French is suker, German is suker, Arabic is al suker, Swedish is suker, Dutch is suker, etc. etc. etc. That just keeps on going on forever and ever. So sugar and coffee, basically anything that goes in a coffee. I wonder if they have I wonder if the word heavy cream appears in a million different languages. Oh, I guess no as well. Most languages have some form of inward no.

Like, you know, we have no in English and in Germany they have nine. Next question. This is gonna be a biggest, longest, but I'll just do it here. What, I don't know the answer to this. What animal takes the biggest shits? Whale poo might just be the most fascinating animal scat there is.

OK, bowel movements from blue whales have a volume of approximately 200 liters or 50 gallons. Holy shit. In comparison, an elephant has a bowel movement of 20 liters or just five gallons. So a blue whale is shitting at a rate 10 times larger than an elephant. A blue whale is probably shitting an elephant a day.

How many times a day does a blue whale shit? Oh, that's nice. Whales can poop almost anywhere in the ocean, but they often choose to relieve themselves near the surface. Appreciate it. It doesn't say, and it seems like they make about yeah whales Maybe shit like once a day from what I can tell

Okay Minka whales around Svalbard excrete 600 tons of poop each day And it's all by the surface I take it really oh man What a nightmare that would be one other what I'm gonna do and then we're gonna call it a year I guess Unless I got my math wrong and there's one more episode If you get these two things are not related in any way whatsoever But I realize now that it really seems like it because if you're an animal and you have to wipe

What would you use you'd use a leaf. My question was, what is the world's largest leaf, which I came up with before the world's biggest shit, I think. The world's largest leaf is Raffia regalis, a palm tree native to Angola, Congo, Gabon, Cameroon, and Nigeria. The leaves of this palm can grow.

Oh! Congo, Gabon, Cameroon, and arranged on either side of the leaf central stem. Mm-hmm. Well, an Amazonian bamboo palm has leaf blades that can grow 65 feet long with petioles measuring 13 feet. Giant taro that can grow six feet long and supported by thick stalks that are six feet long. Huh. Wow, it's it's uh, it's definitely then the Raffia regalis. long and supported by thick stocks that are six feet long. Huh? Wow. It's it's it's definitely then the Raffia regalis.

82 feet long. That's. That's like maybe a whale could get away with maybe. Two leaps and they'd be good. Interesting. Well, I guess that'll just about do it on 2024, huh? Will it, maybe? Is this even the right episode? How should we end the year in music? I feel a little pressure on this pic.

Okay, song of the episode, I'm gonna pick probably my favorite song in 2024. I think it's a really brilliant and beautiful probably my favorite song in 2024. I think it's a really brilliant and beautiful and also really sad song. And it's dealing with some pretty heavy themes. It is called 27 Club by Tara Wack. It is in some ways about suicide. So be forewarned, but it is a really fucking beautiful song.

So hopefully you check it out and like it, and I will see you right here next year. All right. La la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la This is the end of the show. La la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la Mwah!