The Unmade Podcast - 88: Clearing the Decks

Episode Date: June 27, 2021

A birthday gift for Brady - then we clear the decks of Sofa Shop covers and spoon submissions. Support us on Patreon - it helps the show... plus pins, spoons and cards may be coming your way - https://www.patreon.com/unmadeFM Join the discussion of this episode on our subreddit - https://redd.it/o96sbq USEFUL LINKS Check out many of our Sofa Shop Covers here - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCRNeH_Kpl1ZgpeiNeJ-oiAQ Pictures from today's episode - https://www.unmade.fm/episode-88-pictures Pictures of Spoon of the Week - https://www.unmade.fm/spoon-of-the-week Send your own spoon by following these instructions - https://www.unmade.fm/send-us-a-spoon

スーパーショップ Tim, that Japanese cover of the sofa shop comes from Jacoby, who says, Aloha and konnichiwa, Tim and Brady. Here is a Japanese cover of the sofa shop Shop by my wife Mishi and I. We live in Hawaii where I am an elementary school teacher and she works at a health food store. She heard me humming it one day and after showing her numerous other covers, she wanted to create one together.

And Jacoby then actually went into quite a long explanation about some nuances of Japanese and syllables and all sorts of stuff But maybe that's a conversation for another day Yes But what a cute and lovely cover that was That's great It's almost as cute and lovely as the name Misha, is it? Or Mishi?

Mishi Mishi, that's awesome Lovely You can call me Mishi for the rest of the episode if you want Can I? Mishi Haim Yeah, that works. I must say it's nice and refreshing having a female voice singing for once.

We do get a lot of male renditions. So, refreshing to hear a female voice. Mix it up. Bring it on. Send them in. We're going to have a lot more SofaShop covers in this episode for reasons that will be explained later. lot more sofa shop covers in this episode for reasons that will be explained later but before we get to that Tim you have asked to have the floor for the opening segment today I believe oh I do yes no this is very exciting I look I have to say you had a birthday recently well

am I correct yes at the time of recording yes my birthday was a few days ago nice and so welcome to 50 I think that's a wonderful milestone for you to reach. We just don't talk numbers anymore. It all blurs. It all blurs. It doesn't matter. Yeah, it's still a good day. Now, listen, so I wanted to do something a little bit special for your birthday,

and I was thinking about it. Yeah, well, you have to wait till next year, man. You've missed it. I know. I missed it. I was enthusiastic, and I got onto this project. It wasn't quite done in time, but I think it's worth the wait, something a little bit special.

It's worth the late. It's worth the late. Yes. What comes to mind when I say the words, here's trouble? Oh, right. This is an adventurous weekend that you and I once had when we were young. And then for your birthday, I wrote like a little short story about it. I put it into novella form and gave it to you.

And I called it Here's Trouble because here's trouble is what your dad used to say when I walked in the door. That's right. You got it in one yes well the manuscript for here's trouble hey i think is one of the great um unpublished works right it's a bit like the just and i discovered it recently um when i was moving and i found and i was looking through it again and, um, I read it again. And I have to say, it's a bit like, you know, a few years ago, Harper Lee's, um, manuscript for, for Undiscovered for Ghosts Setter Watchman was found, you know, after she, um, published only one famous novel in her lifetime to kill a mockingbird. Anyway, I think here's trouble.

I just had a suspicion that perhaps it was also one of the great unpublished manuscripts. So I decided to turn into literary agent and shop it around. And look, I contacted quite a few publishing houses. And let me say, there was some interest. That might be overstating it a little bit. But I ended up not going with Penguin or any of the big players. I ended up finding a boutique publishing house down here in Adelaide, and they were interested in this manuscript. So I'm pleased to say that for your birthday,

the good news I have to share with you is that Here's Trouble has been published. Right. Now, I'm sending you a photo at the moment. This is a cover of the newly published Here's Trouble. All right. Has that come through? It has, yes.

It's like kind of a bound version with like a nice cover and kind of a gold sort of embossed-y type thing. Very nice. Very posh. I know you've always wanted to be an author and now you are. So here you go. That's lovely. Okay.

This is, I'm sending through a second page which features the dedication. The front cover says, Here's Trouble. It's by Brady Haran. Yeah. It's got some lovely embossed writing and so forth. Yes. Inside there's a dedication. Do you want to read the dedication

it says dedicated to tim hein you said it would make a good story but you couldn't be bothered writing it that's right yes that's right yes so which i always enjoyed the lovely thing of it's we've they've managed to go with uh one of those beautiful sort of bookmark ribbons. Yeah. Through the middle, which I think all classy books sort of have. That's pretty. And only the most prestigious, yeah, sort of publications, pretty top shelf sort of stuff that's been shared here.

Very, very impressive. It's a lovely memento of something I wrote a long time ago and I am embarrassed about and will never want anyone to see so thank you for doing that for me well you'll be glad to know there are two copies on the way to you yeah um and another thousand on the way to bookshops all over the country i'm going to assume you're joking there one of of the most endearing parts of the story was your illustrations, which we've managed to include inside the front and back cover. Oh, lovely.

Lovely. To Tim. Oh, it was Christmas present. Merry Christmas, 94. It was too. Yeah. Yeah. There we go.

Oh, look. Those drawings. My drawing skills have not improved. You'll be able to see this on the visual side. There's us in the car. There's Brady on the phone. Well, there's some other illustrations that would only make sense if you read the book, which I'm not sure you're ever going to have a chance to do.

Absolutely not. Absolutely not. There's some – I'm just sending through a video at the moment where you can – which, you know, has some action shots and so forth. This is one of the great short stories. I think it's – I mean tom hanks has shown himself to be something of a strong hand at short stories and he's gathered a few together but i think you've got you've got quite a beautiful uh knack for it as well look thank you team um

it's a very thoughtful present oh i I like this Oh, so it's small Because of the dimensions of it It looked like it might be quite big But it is small Like it is like novel book sized, is it? Like the dimensions of the book That's right, that's right Yep, yep, it's nice and small

Like any paperback you'd buy That sort of size Although this is hardback At least the initial print run is hardback Hang on, just to be clear How big is the print run? Oh, look, I've sent you two and I've kept one. Okay.

Sorry. Thank God. Let's just keep it that way, all right? It's very thoughtful. I will keep it forever and it will go on the shelf. But let's just keep the print run to three, please. We'll go on the shelf, but let's just keep the print run to three, please. I thought a fantastic episode could actually be the audio book reading of his travel.

Have you ever thought about turning? Would you be willing, should I say, to read an audio version? Or perhaps we could get Stephen Fry or someone to read it for you. When you look at something you wrote 26 years ago for your mate for Christmas, and it's been like beautifully bound into a book, it's a bit like having a framed photo of the time you crapped the bed. It's like a lovely presentation of something that you probably would rather forget about now. I don't know what the time has to do with it. Many great books were written 26 years ago. I don't think the time difference means anything.

Right. You're right. Do you think 26 years after The Brothers Karamazov, Dostoevsky goes, oh, don't show me a copy of that. They probably do. Piece of rubbish. I just gave that to my friend for Christmas. Goodness gracious. As much as I appreciate being compared with Dostoevsky, that is very nice.

And I love that the pictures are in that kind of, what are they called, the actual cut, those bits of paper at the cover? I don't even know. Like the inside. Oh, the guy at the publisher was telling me. I can't remember. Yeah. But I insisted that they go in. It was actually his idea and i thought

oh that's perfect i can't believe you didn't have one turned into like the the gold and have on the cover yeah yeah there was a bit of a limit to that sort of stuff but i sort of went for the old sort of the more more distinguished all right uh austere sort of you know grim brothers kind of fairy tale cover you know rather than going going all over the top. Okay. Yeah, yeah. Look, can I read just a couple of quotes? There's a couple of great lines in it that are really,

really quite beautiful. All right. You read them and we'll see if they make the edit. Thank God I edit the podcast. Well, it starts off quite exciting. It says, Tim swerved back into his original lane Just in time to avoid colliding with the BMW

That was pulling up alongside his white Renault 12 That's my call me Ishmael There's a lovely line later You get into a little bit of character analysis And get inside the characters That's what I really That's the Dostoevsky-esque aspect of it Where it says

Here we go Edit inserted here That's powerful Let's just sit with that for a second Let it sink in Yeah Here's trouble said Mr. Hine That's powerful. Let's just sit with that for a second. All right. Let it sink in. Yeah. Are we done?

Here's trouble, said Mr. Hine, as he always did when Brady and Tim walked in together. His rich Dutch accent almost hiding the fact that he was delighted to see the pair. That's sort of the core of the story. Oh, man, it goes on. I know it does. Can we stop now? this was a wonderful weekend it was a it was it was quite an adventure we should give some context to this because people wouldn't know they obviously are going to find getting their hands on a copy quite difficult um this was a weekend you and i

went camping and it kind of didn't go very well. And then we went off to a party and then we went back to the new camping site because we felt compelled to leave the other one for circumstances that we won't go into. Although the pictures give away some of those things. You probably should explain the gun. Let's not. Let's just leave it. Let's leave everything up to the imagination.

Well, it just says party man on a little, a little water. Oh dear. You're a published author. How do you feel? Not as good. It doesn't feel anywhere near as good as I thought it would. Well, they say that. I think Dostoevsky said the same thing.

Ah, you know, just move on to the next book. There we go. All right. Well, thank you for going to all that trouble. I can hear you're overwhelmed. Just take a moment, man. I can tell you're overwhelmed Just take a moment man I can tell you're overwhelmed That is one word for it

Yeah Alright I would have preferred vouchers A brash's voucher Just a book voucher For our birthday We both got books Let's be honest special books um and and and i think that's that we can just leave it at that thank you very much there's a birthday present

not to be forgotten no and not to be engaged with no never to be mentioned again. This is the text version of Tim's guitar solo. Brady was sitting on the couch between two couples that were clearly in... It's something you write when you're a kid. No, man, you were 18. You were 18. You were 18. You were an adult. Right. So I should have known better.

Bummer, Brady uttered dejectedly. Hang on. I remember it was right near my mum's house. What road was it? I think it started with a W. This is why I wish Tim didn't keep absolutely everything. All right. Let's move on, please.

Today's episode is not going to be a normal episode. It's already proven that. It's brought to you by Brady's new book, Here's Trouble, by Brady Aaron, available now. I'm the first person to ever be on a podcast talking down his book. Insisting that it not be read. Demanding it not be published. So, rather than a usual episode where we talk about podcast ideas,

today we're going to call this episode, well, I'm calling this episode, Clearing the Decks. Over many months now, you've been sending in sofa shop covers and spoons to us and they're building up faster than we can talk about them on the show so we thought we'd dedicate an episode today to sort of burning through some of the inventory that hasn't made it onto the show yet a bit like a clearance sale we're not going to we're not going to do all of them because that would be impossible but we're going to do do all of them because that would be impossible, but we're going to do a lot of them.

We're going to burn through. You know, it's like when they, you know, sell a whole bunch of fridges and everyone lines up outside the store and the shutters come up and everyone goes running in to get their cheap TVs and fridges. It's like going to be a podcast equivalent of that, except with content created by civilians. Have you ever noticed that doors shops try and create that frenzy? Like their ads are always doors, doors, doors, doors, doors, doors, plus. But I don't think people ever rush into door places to grab them with as much enthusiasm as they're trying to sell them.

I don't even know what you're talking about. What's a door shop? You know, a door, you buy a door from a door shop. I mean, I know you can buy doors, but I've never heard of really a door shop. And I've certainly never seen one advertised. Are there door shops that are advertising? The one that comes to mind is Doors Plus. And they're like, we've got fringe doors.

We've got security doors. Do got security doors doors door and it's just like calm down with the doors i've never okay yeah where do you think doors come from yeah i know i just thought when a mummy door and a daddy door really loved each other then they have a little doggy door yeah i've just never really thought of it as like a genre to be mocked like that has ads now now you say i do remember this doors plus but yeah what's the plus what do they have but what do they have in addition to doors what's the plus referring to oh probably must be the frame or is the frame part of the door doors plus handles maybe or it could be something uncompletely unrelated to doors like

apples like that shop like that shop down the road here that used to be called um it was peter van the bread and party man so it was sold party supplies and bread and it was just like how those two things are related the party man i don't remember him selling bread. And it was just like, how are those two things related? I remember Peter Van, the party man. I don't remember him selling bread. He was. He was Peter Van, the bread and party man. And then he dropped the bread, probably for health reasons,

like health and safety reasons. It's like you can't just be making your bread and chucking it on the counter next to the balloons and everything else. But initially he was the bread and party man. I like it when people combine random things in their store just because they happen to have come across a thousand of them in a warehouse somewhere or something. Choose your party, match your bread too. That's right. Yeah, yeah.

Have you ever lined up to buy something like when they release a new iphone or a cheap tv or bread like have you ever gotten into the hype of buying something so much you've lined up to get it first not including tickets for concerts and stuff that doesn't count like gig tickets well that was the only one i was going to mention yeah back in the old days we had to sit outside but i can't think of doing that for sales or anything like that no have you no i mean not including food like a hot dog or something i'm not i'm not i'm not a big believer in queuing people for the apple products and all that sort of i couldn't oh no and then you're yeah on the news how long you've been here more three days that's um a little obsessive i really want those doors i'm waiting for the doors to open so

i could buy another door it's doors all the way down do you think the shop doors plus bought its doors from doors plus like or do you think maybe it buys its doors from someone else Do you think maybe it buys its doors from someone else? I don't know. There must be a doors wholesaler. You can't. It's like turtles all the way down. Somewhere, somewhere along the line needs to be making these doors. They can't just be opening doors for other doors or supplying doors for more doors.

Right at the very beginning, there must be a shop with no doors. I don't know. I don't even know if this is making sense. Shall we start our clearance? Shall we start clearing the decks? Yes, we have quality. This is like an Apple release today, except we've got lots of different stuff. This is like Amazon Prime Day, but for sofa shop covers and spoons.

This is the day you want to fill your boots. Yes, yes. Shall we do spoons first or sofa shop covers? Sofa shop covers. The spoons come a bit later in the episode because they're a bit of a Yes, yes. Shall we do spoons first or sofa shop covers? Sofa shop covers. The spoons come a bit later in the episode because they're a bit of a climax, really. So, you know, we'll start off with a few sofas. Exactly. A lot of people turn off after the spoons.

Exactly. We'll keep, we're dangling the spoon like a carrot. But first you've got to sit through an inordinate number of sofa shop covers. All right. I would love souvenir spoon to actually take over from carrot as the metaphor for something you dangle in front of someone. A bit of stick and spoon to incentivise people. Yeah, that's right. Now, we don't always play the sofa shop original beforehand, but because we're going to play so many versions

maybe now we should just remind people what the original sofa shop sounds like for new listeners and people like that here it is sing along at home the sofa shop is your only stop for the sofa you need the sofa shop yeah come and drop in on halifax street we have a sofa designed for you It's like honey in the ears, isn't it? Honey in the ears. It is. People say that it's like having honey poured in your ears, but I don't think it would be nice having honey poured in your ears. It's nicer than having a pineapple stuffed in your ear. Yes.

Yes. True. I'd go the honey if those are the only two options. Words taken care of for today's episode. What food stuff would you most like have put in your ear? Just a piece of chicken so I can just sort of take it out and eat it. Save it for later. What's that in your ear, Tim?

I'd just like to sit a leg over my ear, you know, like you do with a pencil. A carpenter puts their pencil behind. I just carry pieces of chicken. Just a drumstick. It would have to be a drumstick. That would be the easiest one to put behind your ear. You could clip on a wing, like over your glasses. Oh, yeah, like those sort of phone headphone things people,

like businessmen sometimes have. That's horrible. A hook on them like those Bose headphones. A hook on a like those Bose headphones that come with you. A chicken wing. Nice. You could have one on each ear and it would just be like full headphones. Two chicken wings.

Go for a run with those on your ear. Or going on a long haul flight. Getting on the plane. Two KFC chicken wings. Strapped over your head. What are those, sir? Are they just my headphones? They're noise-cancelling chicken wings. No, no, no.

Oh, dear. You wouldn't want to go to sleep, though, with them still in there. You'd end up with a little honey in my ear. Oh, hang on a sec. No, that's oil if they how much extra would you be willing to pay to fly on an airline that had like a little kfc at the front that you could just go and order kfc from mid-flight it would be handy although oh look i'm gonna say something that's sort of sacrilegious at this point i'm not sure i'm up for kfc when i'm on a flight like that. No.

Like, what do you feel? On a plane, food is a bit different. You tend to want to be quite safe with your food, you know? Like, I just want a plain lasagna or something that's just comforting and simple. You don't consider KFC to be a safe food? Of course not. These episodes have come with health warnings since the very beginning. Yeah. Also, like, but I'm surprised KFC haven't done it because they've become so obsessed with all these marketing gimmicks, haven't they?

You know, they made a movie and a video game console and they're making all this weird stuff. I'm surprised KFC haven't got an airline going yet. If they bought their own airline, that'd be fascinating, wouldn't it? Fly KFC. I just think the Colonel would look great on a tail of a plane. You know, the Colonel logo. It's reassuring. It's a shame the Colonel didn't live long enough to have his own private jet with his face on the tail like that.

You know, like when rock bands go around the world and they get like Iron Maiden written down the side and on the back. Yeah. I can see the Colonel doing that. Oh, yeah. What would the plane be called? Like KFC-1? Or it'd have to have wings in the name, wouldn't it? That's true.

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, box of wings or- Chicken wings. Bucket of wings. Yeah. Just chicken wings. Just chicken wings. You got your wings yet?

Chicken wings cleared for landing. Here we go. We started the show with a Japanese sofa shop cover. How about a Polish one? Ooh. Let me read you this, Tim. It comes from, I think it's Olka or Olcha, but I'm going to go Olka. Olka, yep.

Dear Tim and Brady, I'm an unmade citizen from Poland. I thought I could add to the international library of sofa shop songs by providing a Polish version of it. Although my attribution has doubtful musical merit, I couldn't resist recording it. Thank you for making the podcast. You're doing an amazing job. I couldn't resist recording it. Thank you for making the podcast. You're doing an amazing job. I like to listen to it before sleep,

so I've been known to lay down in the dark with my eyes closed and suddenly bursting with laughter. Don't worry, I catch up with the episode later if I ever fall asleep. So here's a Polish version. So there you go. You got a woman singing already.

Yes, and in Polish. That's beautiful. I don't think I've ever heard Polish sung before. No? Oh, man, you need to get out more. Well, indeed. They play it over the PA system at Doors Plus. I was just thinking I felt like buying a door.

That was fantastic. That's nice. Nice work. Thank you, Olka. It is good that they've got both our ideas so that when you listen to what Olka was saying there, you can laugh through one of the ideas and then you can sleep like the other one and i won't make any comment about which one is which but i think it's wonderful that we have a

very balanced podcast one of us is providing the laughs the other one is sleep inducing thanks for explaining that that little gag there i appreciate you you delivered it you delivered it you basically delivered it in Polish, so I thought I should help out. But... So, here is another cover in another language. I'll let people listen to this one first before I read the message. See if you can pick it. This is really interesting. If I was to guess, hmm, my first instinct was Papua New Guinea.

Hmm. But then I started thinking, oh, it could be an African language. Hmm. What is it? What is it? Sounds fantastic. I like the boldness of doing it a cappella as well. Yeah.

Well, let me read you this then, Tim. This is from Chris from Pennsylvania, who says, Hi, Tim and Brady. After listening to the recent string of Sofa Shop covers in other languages, as well as the spoonerized version of the song, I had the idea to translate it into Tokipona or Tokipona. I'm not sure how to say it.

Tokipona. Tokipona is a constructed language that only has about 120 words, making complex ideas difficult to express without monstrously long sentences. So this is one of those, you know, made up artificial languages, like a kind of, I don't know, maybe a bit like an Esperanto. I'm not sure, but it's a made-up language. Oh. Yeah.

Wow. There you go. Pretty interesting. Some civilians might remember your idea to invent a language as a podcast idea. Indeed. This is going back quite a while. I'm impressed you remember it. You normally don't remember ideas from the show, so well done, Tim.

Well, there's two or three that I'm impressed you remember it. You normally don't remember ideas from the show, so well done, Tim. Well, there's two or three that I remember. Yeah. It was Tokipona was created by the Canadian linguist and translator Sonia Lang for the purpose of simplifying thoughts and communication. It was first published online in 2001 as a draft and later in complete form in the book Tokki pona the language of good in 2014 a small community of speakers developed in the early 2000s while activity mostly takes place online in chat rooms on social media and in other groups there were a few organized in-person

meetings during the 2000s and 2010s oh interesting there interesting. There you go. Toki Pona. People just creating languages. Let's go to a couple of covers in 8-bit. We have previously played some 8-bit covers, but we've received quite a few. So I thought let's burn through a couple more that are worth a listen. This first one comes from Matt who says, Hey guys, wish granted Brady. here is my 8-bit rendition of the sofa shop hope you like it i tried to keep it really really simple as is the nature of 8-bit music while keeping the sofa shop essentials the upbeat spirit the beautiful harmonies the rip and guitar riffs in between lines gosh what a masterpiece truly makes my day anytime i see a new episode of the unmade Podcast in my feed.

Keep up the good work, guys. Love from Portland, Oregon. Here is Matt's 8-bit version. This is nice. I like this. Yeah. Reminds me of the latest album by someone else who lives in Portland, which is a guy called Stephen Malcomus. He was the lead singer-songwriter for the band Pavement, who you may have heard of from the 90s. But he's done a bunch of solo work, which I really love.

And his latest one sounds very much like this. That's nice. It just reminded me of playing Mario Brothers. Yeah. Yeah. I do love it. What's that part called? Is it a lead fill?

You know, that little bit I always love, that little ding-a-ling-a-ling. I love how it's still got that even in 8-bit version. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. That seems to be more essential than the Halifax streetcar. Into the definitive version. And here's another 8-bit version from Zane. Hello, Brady and Tim.

I'm a student from the University of Georgia studying risk management. I was very pleased that the university got a shout-out on episode 16. I've been listening to the podcast since it started, and since then I've had numerous people ask me why I'm laughing so hard. I had a spare afternoon, so I decided to try my hand at making an 8-bit version of The Sofa Shop. I'm thrilled to be making my debut as a composer covering such an esteemed opus,

although I'm afraid a better coder than I will have worked on an arcade game to accompany it. Thanks for creating my favourite podcast, Zane. nice that's very bold actually i think like still, you know, tiny and meek, but it's sort of also bursting out like it's going to suddenly, you know. Yeah, sort of more disjointed in a funny kind of way, but still works. I also like that Zane has sown the seed of perhaps a sofa shop video game, like, for any coders out there. I mean, that's going to be a bit of work but

let me just say guaranteed colonel ship absolutely especially in the i'm looking for like atari 1980s kind of graphics oh yeah well you reckon along the lines of frogger or space invaders or something or pac-man what would be the lines of Frogger or Space Invaders or something, or Pac-Man? What would be the purpose of a sofa shop video game? Like, I don't know. Like, obviously it's going to involve the matching of sofas and curtains, like matching the fabric.

It could be. You could just be a shopper just going along like Pac-Man consuming sofas, like one after another. Yeah another yeah yeah of course yeah and there's like a bonus level where you get to go to doors plus i found the door i found the door to you and then and then you get to the end and you've got to fight the evil berkowitz which is like that's the boss at the end. The final challenge. To save Tom Hanks who's like bound and gagged, like, you know, on top of a building.

Love it. Oh, that is awesome. Oh, that's brilliant. Yeah, get on it, people. No, really, get on it, people. Get on it. No, seriously, I really want to play that now. We've done the hard work, you know. We've come up with the concept.

Now just throw the code together. That's the grunt work. That's right. We've done the high concept stuff. The blue sky. That's the hard, yeah. Now this next one I like. Hi, guys.

I love the podcast and never miss an episode however as a big fan of tommy ball i do particularly enjoy the updates you provide on the beautiful game the first tommy ball episode still makes me laugh out loud when i listen i've also been wanting to try my hand at a sofa shop cover and so i have attempted to combine the legendary tomm and Sofashop jingles to create something worthy of the Hall of Fame reject himself, Tim Hine. I hope you enjoy and thanks for the laughs. The Sofa Shop The Sofa Shop It's your only stop

For the sofa you need The Sofa Shop Yeah, come and drop in On Halifax Street We have a sofa designed for you Juicy fabric That you get it's too The sofa shop ain't gonna cost what you think it will

Don't you do a thing until you see the sofa shop Go see the sofa shop We love the sofa shop Go see the sofa shop We love the sofa shop This is quite well done. Nice to hear Alan's Tommyball anthem in there as well. Alan Stewart, who composed the Tommy Ball anthem for us. This must be an Australian.

Did you say that already? I actually don't know where Ben is from. I don't think Ben said. Do you know why I think it's an Australian? Why? Because of the way he pronounced curtains. Oh, right. Not curtains.

Match your curtains to. It's an Australian drawl, I reckon. Match your curtains too. It's an Australian drawl, I reckon. Well, let's find out. Let's find out. Or he's just like very, you know, got into character, so. Oh, perhaps so. Perhaps so. Yeah.

But I like that. I tell you what, the Tommy Ball level would be a bonus level in the SofaShop video game. That's for sure. Yeah, that would be. That would be ultimate. Yeah. You ready for another one yes this one this one is kind of a bit of wish fulfillment for tim this says hi brady and tim i'm a big fan of the show i've been enjoying the frequent uploads recently so thank you for all the

hard work in particular i've been enjoying the sofa shop musical arrangements that people have been sending in i'm a musician and composer living in Glasgow, Scotland. So I was very tempted to do one myself. In an attempt to find musical inspiration, I turned to one of the greatest musical icons of our time for guidance in undertaking such a monumental musical task. And that, of course, was Tim Hine playing the electric guitar. I took his Money for Nothing recording, chopped it up and rearranged it.

This is real life Tim playing the sofa shop theme. All the best, Fergus. And he sent two versions, but I'm going to send you the stadium version. So this is him. He's edited my playing into the sofa shop. That's what you're saying. Here it comes. This is you in a stadium. Thank you. Oh, well played.

That's great. I like that. That's good. Oh, dear. I love the roar of the crowd. Gets the juices flowing. Something being played so ordinary in front of a massive audience, you're just screaming with delight.

I could just see you at the end throwing out one of your signature plectrums. Yeah, yeah, yeah. People diving for it and it being like an unsafe almost right. Yes. Tim going, be safe, everyone, but secretly having a little twinkle in his eye at their passion. That's right. Oh, look at that youngster breaking his arm.

Doesn't he love it? They're pulling those 1980s sort of footage of people at Michael Jackson concert. You know, those pulling all the, you know, young girls out who were just sort of like fainting when he's so excited. Yeah. And they're just carrying them out. Yeah, that would be expected, anticipated. If someone faint when meeting you, would you consider that to be like it?

You'd made it? Like that's it? I'm peaked. Fainted because they met me. Oh, brilliant. Oh, dear. All right. Now, for those of you who don't like jazz,

now is the time to ride that skip button. I probably would, not being a jazz fan, but we've got two jazz versions to share. Tim, I know you like jazz, which is why I've included them. All right, nice. This first one says, made a jazz version of The Sofa Shop. It is a reharmonisation of the original where the chords are different

but the melody is the same. Adam from San Francisco. That's nice. That had me, you know, nodding my head. Yeah. Very nice. Very classy. Oh, yeah. No, that's good stuff. All right. Very nice. Okay. Well, see if, nodding my head. Yeah. Very nice. Very classy. Oh, yeah. No, that's good stuff.

All right. Very nice. Okay. Well, see if this one sounds any different. Hi, Brady and Tim. I'm Ollie from Surrey in England. Listening to the podcast has been a wonderful antidote to a very strange summer. Each episode, I especially look forward to hearing the wonderfully inventive covers of that iconic Sofa Shop jingle.

I've put together a jazzy version inspired by my time spent as the pianist for a big band all the best ollie yes I'm not just nodding at this one, I'm swaying. Oh, that's good. Nice, tight. Thumbs up from Tim? Big, two thumbs up. Two thumbs up. All right. Yep. Nice. Tight. Thumbs up from Tim? Big. Two thumbs up. Two thumbs up.

All right. Yep. There you go. It's not often I whip out the two thumbs. Yep. If you've been hitting the skip button, now's the point where you can stop. We've finished with the jazz section. And here we go. This is a message that came from Claire.

Howdy to all. A few months ago when the Sofa Shop covers started coming in, I went to my husband, Mark, to ask him to do a ragtime cover of the song. I think the exact way I described it was, hey, can you do a ragtime version of a 1980s Australian commercial jingle? He was very confused. But a few months later, he produced this wonderful cover. He does ragtime covers of video game songs mostly at his YouTube channel.

I really enjoy the show and often listen to it while driving the baby to daycare. So you've got a budding fan in my son. I also share the latest cover with my husband. And if nothing else, he's a fan of the sofa shop. Keep up the good work. Yours in fried chicken claire so he was claire's husband mark doing a ragtime cover of the sofa shop in case you haven't got the idea yet yeah

oh this is good. You can just tell, like, there's a fight about to break out in a bar in a Western movie with this playing in the background. People smashing chairs over people's heads and, you know, sliding a drink down the bar and falling over. Ah, that's great. Yeah, that's great. Yeah, that's good. I'm very curious as to what you'll think of this next one. The email's gone a bit high concept.

This comes from Stuart, and I'll just read the email as it came to me. In early spring 1983, a small New Zealand whaling vessel called the Billy O.T. sailed past Kangaroo Island and made its way slowly up the St. Vincent Gulf to Port Adelaide. The boat's crew were penniless, parched and weary after many hard fruitless months on the high seas. Almost delirious, they staggered off the deck and made their way onto dry land where they were met by a kindly stranger who offered them food and lodgings onto dry land where they were met by a kindly stranger who

offered them food and lodgings for several days while they recovered from their ordeal. The kindly stranger was the owner of a local furniture business and he sought no money for his hospitality but the men felt indebted and still wanted to help in some way. They decided to repay his kindness by producing a musical advertisement for his business. Sadly, many of their voices had not fared well after those many months at sea. The scene is set. Here we go. Wow.

That's the second best short story I've been exposed to tonight on this episode. The Sofa Shop is your only stop For the sofa you need for a place to drop The Sofa Shop, yeah, come and drop Down on Halifax Street That's right. We design a sofa for you Choose your fabric, match your curtains too The Sofa Shop ain't gonna cost

What you think it will Don't you do a thing Until you've seen the sofa shop Don't you do a thing Get down to Halifax Street That's right. That's right. I'm a bit partial to a sea shanty.

I like that. That's nice. They became a bit trendy for a couple shanty. I like that. That's nice. They became a bit trendy for a couple of months, a few months back. And I have to say, I wasn't on board with them. There was a film about it, wasn't there? Yeah, there was a film, but there was also some local artist in the UK who became a bit trendy for a week or two, and everyone got him to sing a sea shanty of something.

Like, all the TV networks got him to sing a sea shanty before a football match and stuff like that, and it just got a bit trendy for a week or two and everyone got him to sing a sea shanty of something like all the tv networks got him to sing a sea shanty before a football match and stuff like that and it just got a bit it got a bit out of hand i kind of feel like sea shanties is sort of song singing and writing for people who can't sing or write songs or who are stuck at sea for months at a time and need motivation to keep rolling up the rope. Anyway. They have a lovely communal, you know, kind of men in big thick jumpers and beards kind of vibe to them. You know what I mean? It's a great, lovely sense of them like that.

They're very communal. All right. Here's another one that's a bit more high concept or not high concept, just not my concept, but to each their own. Hello, Brady and Tim. My name is Matthias, and I come from Norway. I love listening to your podcast, and I've really enjoyed all the different covers of The Sofa Shop. I wanted to contribute, so I've remade the song in my favorite style of music, black metal.

I imagine the original creator never thought he'd hear the tune like this. I wanted to see if I could make it sound properly bone-chilling like Norwegian black metal is known for. Unfortunately, there is only so much you can do when you're singing about matching curtains. Cheers, Matthias. Ready for some black metal? Even before I hear this,

I'm going to bet that it's the only black metal song ever to mention curtains. For the soul's sake The soul's shop You come to me We have a thousand sides for you Choose your friend and take her still The soul's shop Ain't gonna cost what you think it will Don't you dare one thing or two You see the soul's shop I don't know why they didn't use that version on the radio. I think that's a wonderful one.

And for the sofa shop. Yeah. I can see that catching on. No, not at all. But look, it's creative. Look, I like some heavy metal. I was listening to Metallica on the way here, and I like some heavy metal, but that goes to another level again.

That sort of black. I mean, that's quite intense. Recently we discussed a Jid Jui Do cover, and you know what? We've got one. Oh, that's great. It says here, Dear Dr. Brady Haran, my name is Nick, and thank you and Professor Hine for having been constant companions over the last year

since I started listening. I'm a musician from the United States, and like many listeners, I felt the call to add to the sofa shop canon. I play piano, many string instruments, low brass, and like the good Colonel, Colonel Katrina, euphonium. It was actually my principal instrument at university.

I also love to listen, play and write in a number of different styles. With so many instruments and genres to choose from, I faced some choice paralysis until I heard some episodes back for one in particular I could cater to, the didgeridoo. I came to this podcast relatively recently and I'm still a few episodes behind being up to date. I was surprised not to hear a didgeridoo cover yet. So I thought it might be time for me to make a submission.

And Nick makes a few notes about the submission, which kind of explains why it sounds nothing like the sofa shop, at least to my ear. Didgeridoos are similar in playing to a keyless bugle, where different notes are produced only by changing lip tightness, which apparently is called embouchure. The length of the tubing gives the instrument a resonant frequency, and you can play all the other notes in the overtone series for that note. Taps for the bugle is a brilliant example. However, given the construction and low pitch of didgeridoos, only the fundamental tone resonates with much clarity. You can hit plenty of others and even some extra notes called half partials, but they're quite airy and non-sonorous. This is, this is, it continues. Hence, most traditional and contemporary uses of the instrument only use that one note.

To still play a melody, though, it only made sense to use multifonics, which is singing while playing. Multifonics are a very big part of the heritage of the instrument and its use by native Australians. I'm not particularly good, but hopefully I can add to the sofa shop well and spark interest in the rich culture of one of the oldest aerophones on earth so tim i bet you're excited right now to hear this yeah this is cool yeah i was after reading that see if you can pick it see if you've got i mean you've got a better ear than me Succes!......... ... ... ... ...

... ... ... ... ... ...... Can I say what I like most? I love that he included the Halifax line. That's great.

I can't tell if you're joking or not. I am joking. I thought, can Tim hear it all? What's going on? It's like those magic eye, like 3D space shuttles thing where you make your eyes go blurry and some people can make them work and other people, you know, just can't see it. I thought maybe you were hearing the whole song there. And I was like, well.

Towards the end, I could. I could really pick up the melody, you know, towards the end see it. I thought maybe you were hearing the whole song there. And I was like, well. Towards the end, I could. I could really pick up the melody, you know, towards the end when it sort of the sycophanic bit comes in quite strongly. The rest of it, I'm just sort of going along with and guessing. It's a lovely accompaniment. But, yeah. To me, that's one of the most beautiful sounds in the world. I mean, there's all the connection because it's so many thousands of years old and it's Australia and all the rest of it. because it's so many thousands of years old and it's Australia and all the rest of it.

But to hear something equally as significant as the sofa shop being played on the DJI 2 is a coming together of cultures that, oh, we can only celebrate in awe. It's a cultural fusion. Do you know what else is a cultural fusion? I've got an idea, Brady said, breaking the restful silence. else is a cultural fusion i've got an idea brady said breaking the restful silence this is a big clearing how about you give me a try at driving your car although brady had been on his probationary lovely all right thank you for that

um it's riveting it's riveting so stewart in penrith who's a regular contributor said i decided to try another take on the sofa shop theme by tinkering with the time signature the original is in four four time four beats in a bar like most rock music so i thought i'd see what happened if i put it to six eight using a fairground organ feel i find this a quite nice way to relax. Yeah, well, that's, I mean, you can't help but just feel relaxed and smile when you hear that, do you? I mean, it's just a lovely, lovely rendition. The context, it just takes you right there. Or your brain goes to another place and you imagine there's a clown hiding behind the merry-go-round that's going to stab you.

Why would you say that? I don't know. Just putting it out there. That's not helpful for our young listeners. Clowns do not do that. They have balloons. Sorry, there's a clown that's going to do a juggling routine. That's right.

And give you a free hot routine. That's right. And give you a free hot dog. Oh, now I want to listen to it again. All right. I think you're going to like this one. This comes from Theo. I sent you guys a studio version of Tim's rendition of Money for Nothing, and it was ecstatic when I heard it featured on the show. Later, when you guys talked about Knopfler doing his own take

of the legendary jingle, I got an idea to record it in the style of Sultans of Swing, another Dire Straits classic. I wish I could have done it sooner, but I've been bogged down with writing my thesis on the use of illustrations in history books. Fascinating, I know. Funny you should say that. We've just got a history book of our own out with some illustrations in it. Anyhow, here's my take on the song.

I'm no singer, but neither is Mark Knopfler. So, I guess my try will suffice. Here we go, Theo. See you. The Sofa Shop Yeah, come and drop in We got a sofa designed for you Choose your fabrics, match your curtains To The Sofa Shop Ain't gonna cost what you think it will Don't you do a thing until you've seen The Sofa Shop Well, I tell you, his Dire Straits cover is almost as accurate as mine.

I mean, that's really quite enjoyable. Maybe you and Theo could join forces and have a Dire Straits cover band. Maybe we could, yeah. Yeah? Yeah. Although we'd both be, you know, sort of fighting over who's Mark Knopfler. If you were in a cover band, like seriously in a cover band, what band would you want to be covering? Oh, that's a good question. I think cover bands are more fun when they're fun,

you know, music. I don't think you can take it too seriously. So, it wouldn't be a favourite artist. It would be someone, you know, like Bon Jovi or someone you can bounce around and, you know, have fun with. Dress up really crazy 80s and stuff. I think that would be great. Bon Jovi cover band would be fun. I can see you doing that. Okay.

All right. I did once do a – there is actually – I think I'm worried you're taking this seriously. Brady said I should quit my job and – Yeah. You're taking this seriously. Well, Brady said I should quit my job and no. Yeah. I did once do this with a bunch of guys. We recorded a version. It was all mimed, but it was a lot of fun. We dressed up and got on a big stage at one of the sort of larger mega churches

on their full stage with lights and everything. Yeah. And did a version of living on a prayer. That was a lot of fun. That was great. Have you still got that video? I do. Whatever you do, make sure I don't get my hands on it.

It's on YouTube, but it's named poorly. So it's hard to find. But it's been on YouTube for about 15 or 17 years. Oh, the challenge is thrown down. Get searching, people. We're not going to link to it. We're going to make you work for it. Yep, yep.

It's very hard to find, but- I give you five minutes. Five more minutes of anonymity. But do you know what my instinct is? My instinct is to go, hey, we should re-record that. I should do a better version. Yeah, you are the guy that instinct is to go hey we should re-record that i should do a better version like yeah okay you are the guy that you are the guy that was willing to go and record a bunch of dutch raps and then send them to me i guess you are shameless i i i had so much fun um being john bon jovi i have to say even though we're on a big stage and you and we were miming and all that but

firstly it's exhausting. Like it's just totally exhausting just to run around and try and sing at the same time. Like before the end of the first verse, you're sort of puffed out. But you get a bit of a rush from it too. I imagine Jon Poncho is in slightly better shape than you, man. That's true. He's twice my age, I'm sure.

But he's in a hell of a lot, hell of a better shape. But it's amazing how natural the moves are. Like, you just know what to do. Like, it's just all there. Like, I was born to do it. You've just got the hips, man. You've got the moves. Yeah, that'd be a lot of fun.

So someone like, what about you? Would you want to do, I know you love die straights. Would you want to do like a serious band like that? No, I wouldn't. I'd do. I think you and I should start a rock set cover band. anyway let's move on with that leaving that thought in your head let's move on to a few more we've got a few more here hi brady and tim love the show my first ever original recording is of course a sofa shop cover going for a 90s dance music vibe.

I lived in Adelaide for a couple of years for work and it remains one of my favourite places. So this is like my Ben Folds Adelaide. Cheers from Simon. Because Ben Folds has been in Adelaide for a while, didn't he? And he wrote a song about it. Yeah. So maybe this is him using a pseudonym. Maybe.

Maybe. He's called is him using a pseudonym. Maybe. Maybe. He's called this fat with a PH. It's going to cost what you think. សូវាប់ពីបានប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប� I'm dropping on Halifax Street. The thing I like about this is I can tell he's had a lot of fun making it. In fact, with a lot of these, you can tell people have taken great care. You know, it's like real joy. It's a lot of fun. You've taken some care.

I can just tell that people have really loved it. The song is strong enough for people to really get into it, and I think that's fantastic. This one comes from Derek. Dear Brady and Tim, I'm a Taiwanese-Australian from the city of Brady's favourite bridge. I actually used to do maintenance work on it. I'm a big fan of Unmade. Thank you for Unmaking, the most hilarious podcast.

It's kept me accompanied and entertained through many otherwise monotonous occasions while I commute, exercise and cook. I'm an amateur musician and here's my Piano Man cover of the Sofa Shop jingle. Unlike the original duet, this is a solo. That's right. Being a fellow addict and advocate for KFC, I've made the recording within 24 hours of ingesting at least 11 wicked wings and multiple skin crumbs to give it extra unmade spirit hope you like it derrick Thank you. Gosh, that's got to be hard to do.

Yeah. Playing two songs and switching between them. Yeah. Yeah. For our younger listeners, that's Piano Man by Billy Joel, which you should go and listen to. It's a great song. And for all listeners, that's The Sofa Shop by Quentin Ayres.

That's right. I just assume people know that. It's surely recognisable enough We've gotten to a point now where we don't have to explain the sofa shop But we have to tell people who Billy Joel is That's right Oh dear Oh nice work

Yeah well skilful work Derek Well done Here's the finale Yep Hi Brady and Tim. My name is Matt from Detroit, Michigan in the US. I hope I'm not too late to the party. I occasionally make orchestral and electronic music for things like YouTube videos or video games.

I've been catching up on the podcast, listening to everyone's submissions, and thought there was a lack of sofa shop style of film score, especially Hans Zimmer. Because I've been busy lately, I only had a day to make it, so my rendition might be a little rough around the edges. Hope you enjoy. Thanks for the amazing podcast. And here we have from Matt, Sofa-ception, he calls it. Based on Inception, of course.

Oh, okay. Thank you. Thank you. Oh, wow. That's crazy. Cinematic. That's incredible. I tell you what, Tim, when you go behind my back and sell the film rights to Here's Trouble, I want Matt to write the score. Absolutely.

Absolutely. I mean, yeah. Which scene in particular would you sort of came to mind as you were listening to that tune? I think as we're walking into the food court at Marrying Shopping Centre and we go to Oz Bites for food. Oh, yes. Hang on.

Let me find that bit. When they got to the food court, Brady reverted from their tradition of each getting a quarter pound of value meal combo from McDonald's and instead decided he would have a dinkum dog from Oz Bites. The dinkum dogs at Oz Bites were unbelievable. So good. Like a hot dog with cheese and bacon sprinkled over it.

Oh, God, I love those. The whole plot kind of turns on this moment, your decision to have something else to eat at the food court at Marion Shopping Centre Because our friend Linda was working behind the counter at Oz Bites And invited us to a party That's right That's right

It is Oh man On such things On such things That was the sliding doors moment of a hair's trouble Linda returned after about 10 minutes Looking flustered and very excited You can't blame her.

She's making hot dogs for a living. My friend, Linda blurted, pointing vaguely in the direction of which she had come, she thinks Tim is cute. Of course you read that line. Tim's a bit of a heartthrob at the food court at Marion Shopping Centre It is a bit racy at this point Sort of love interest, sort of tension going on there Yeah, well, it's working on numerous levels

All right, for those of you who feel they have some endurance, it's time for more clearing of the decks now with some spoons because it's time for... Oh, did you hear my doorbell just go, Tim? I'm going to go downstairs. This could be something amazing. Keep people entertained while I'm gone. Hang on.

All right. Well, there's only one way to keep people entertained, and that is to yet again open up my first edition version of Here's Trouble by Brady Haran. Tim's car, known affectionately as the Renault, pulled into the driveway of Tim's house and its doors swung open. The visual imagery is just amazing. Brady stepped out of the passenger side, laughing at a joke one of them had just made while Tim stayed in the car to lock the doors. They walked to the house and entered to the site

of Mr and Mrs Hine watching television. All right, I'm back. You better not have been reading Here's Trouble while I was gone. The delivery wasn't what I was hoping. It was just clothes for my wife, so it wasn't the special unmade podcast thing we discussed earlier. And now I'm puffed from running up the stairs. Spilled on the stairs.

Now, normally, as you know, Spoon of the Week is spoons from the Hein family collection. But we also sometimes talk about spoons that have been piling up on my desk from all around the world. And I'm going to start with two spoons that I'm adding to the collection that I purchased just yesterday, Tim. Whoa. Yesterday, I went to Scotland for a couple of days. I was in Edinburgh. Yes. So I thought, what an opportunity

to buy some spoons. I actually have another funny story from my trip though, from yesterday. When I went, I needed a pair of scissors because when I'm doing my number file videos, I need scissors to cut up all these pieces of brown paper I use. So, I put scissors in my luggage that goes under the plane and I take my camera bag on the plane. But when I was going back, I forgot to take the scissors out of my camera bag and put them in my... Oh. So, they were sitting in my bag, my camera bag that got scanned. And when my bag went through the scanner, obviously someone saw them

and it went off on that little side trip that bags go on when you've got to go and have a talk with security and they're going to search your bag. And as soon as it went off down that side conveyor belt, I was like, oh, I know what I've done. Oh, stupid. So, I went to the security guy and he got my bag and I'm like, oh, I'm sorry. I know what I've done. There's a pair of scissors in there.

And he opened the side panel where the scissors were. And in that side panel of my bag where the scissors were, there was also the novel I'm reading at the moment, which is a book all about a plane hijacking with a plane crash picture on the front of it. So the first thing this guy takes out of my bag is this book all about a plane hijacking. Oh, no. Oh, that's gold.

Oh, dear. Anyway, I don't really think he clocked it properly, and he took my scissors, and I got away with it. I got to fly home. Anyway. He wouldn't let you have them, though. You lost the scissors, did you? Yeah, I think he kind of wanted to give them back to me.

He was, like, feeling how sharp they were, and you could tell he was thinking, what do I do here? And I just said to the guy, look, don't worry about it. Take the scissors. I'm an idiot. And he was like, yeah, you're right. And he put them in the bin. They were really nice scissors, though. They were really posh ones my wife bought for me from a special stationery store. They were good scissors. They were my favourites. But they're gone now. Remember when we were young and your mum would have like the good scissors and then there were the other crappy scissors that you were allowed to use. Then there were the good scissors.

Yeah. The good sharp ones. You can't use them. Yeah. And I remember when I first encountered pinking shears, you know, those scissors that make that zigzag cut. I just thought, I thought that was the most amazing thing ever. I still think they're one of man's most magnificent inventions. I also was staggered by my mums, but I don't think I actually ever used them.

They just looked amazing and it's an amazing concept, but they were of no practical use. I don't think I ever used them even once. But still, I feel proud that we were a family that had them in the sewing box. Yeah. It's good to know they're there because they just seem so unique and special. So, anyway, while I was in Edinburgh, I decided I wanted to get a souvenir spoon for Spoon of the Week. And anyone who's been to Edinburgh would know it is like the ultimate city

for tourist tat and tourist shops selling your kilts and all sorts of Scottish stuff. And every, as such a tourist city, every second corner has got a tourist shop on it. And I thought finding a souvenir spoon, this is going to be easy. And you know what? The first three stores I went into, I couldn't find them. I couldn't find spoons. I was beginning to really worry. But eventually the last throw of the dice i went into a big store called great scott right and uh when it went inside and they uh and they were selling souvenir spoons and i knew what i wanted i knew what i wanted uh and they had it let me let me let me send you a picture you almost don't need to because a

scottish souvenir spoon you know it's going to, you know what it's going to look like. It's going to have a bit of tartan on it. It's going to have some sort of shield, picture of a castle. You know, that's going to be. I had something else in mind. I had something else specific in mind. Here's what, you're right about the tartan. It's got like a tartan backing on the box.

But here's the first spoon I bought. Oh, right. Okay. Yeah. Yeah, right. Okay. about the tartan it's got like a tartan backing on the box but here's the first spoon i bought all right okay yeah right okay so this is the loch ness monster nessy yes what i'd forgotten about nessy yes indeed so i've got a loch ness monster spoon it's a pretty normal spoon with the word scotland engraved into the bowl or the scoopy bit. And just like a Loch Ness monster on the top, a silver Loch Ness monster. But there was a second spoon next to it that I bought as well, just because, I don't know, I felt like I wanted to get it. It just looked so odd. It just looked different to a lot of other spoons we've had on Spoon of the Week.

Oh, that is different. Yeah. So what's that? All right. It's like, is that an emerald then? If it's an emerald, I've got a bargain of a spoon. What you're looking at is a sort of a represent. It's the same as the other spoon.

It's got Scotland engraved on the bowl. It looks exactly the same, same stem. But at the top this time, we have a colourful thistle, which is the flower of Scotland. And where the purpley flower normally is, they've embedded sort of a faux gem of some sort to take the place of the flower. So, it's sort of, yeah, like a purple ruby. Again, I'd be surprised if it's a ruby. I'm thinking it's probably more likely plastic of some description.

Ooh, plastic. Yes. Traditional plastic. Beautiful. You know, I've always found it funny that the thistle is like the flower of Scotland, because when I think of thistles, I think of like spikiness and hurting myself, like if I'm wearing shorts, walking through grass and stuff. But I just went on to Wikipedia and I was reading about legends around the Scottish thistle.

And the first thing you read on Wikipedia says, according to legend, an invading Norse army was attempting to sneak up at night upon the Scottish army's encampment. During this operation, one barefoot Norseman had the misfortune to step upon a thistle, causing him to cry out in pain, thus alerting Scots to the presence of the spiky not niceness of the thistle is a merit here in the story. They're genius, yes. I think that I like this one. I like that it's quite unique and different and it comes out towards you. It breaks the fourth wall, if you like. I like that. It does.

So many of them, even though it's a three-dimensional object, they're so often two-dimensional in their design. I like that this one comes out like that. Our Scottish listeners may also appreciate the extra layers of meaning of Tim's joke there, saying it broke the fourth wall, fourth bridge, and that being a famous thing in Scotland. Oh, right. Okay.

It broke the Hadrian's Wall. bridge and that being a famous thing in scotland oh right okay it broke the hadrian's wall uh anyway so oh i have so many spoons here i'm literally buried in spoons anyway enough of my spoons tim let's crack through some civilian spoons what have i got first just think about the traveling miles that what's sitting in front of you on your desk represents. From all over the world, these spoons have come, called towards you, their master. If only these spoons could talk. That's right. They would be amazing spoons.

That would be really amazing. Talking spoon. Wow. Here we go. Crystal has sent this spoon. Crystal says, so many questions about this spoon. First and foremost none of us know how it ended up in our house but also does that say 1988 what was so great about

thanksgiving in 1988 and why did they make the pilgrim look like a cryptid the only thing i really do know is i love the corn from crystal yeah so this spoon like has a sheath of corn as its stem and handle and down in the bowl area this pewter spoon has like a couple of pilgrims having a chat and then down the stem written vertically it says thanksgiving and probably it says 1988 it's a very kind of uh like homemade looking spoon this pewter one where it's a Thanksgiving, I'm so indoctrinated. The first thing I saw was Hanks. And I thought, oh, hello. T. Hanks.

Wow. Here we go. T. Hanks giving. T. Hanks. What's T. Hanks giving me this time? I've already got a signed book. That's right. That's awesome. that's great really very small this spoon very like very like rough very very not very finished which i really

like about it and the corn kind of bursts the sheath of corn kind of bursts out the top in a very three-dimensional way and it looks um yes looks slightly crooked and comes in on a slight angle like a, well, yes, like a stem of corn. Very nice. Very nice indeed. I like this a lot. It's such a foreign thing to us, Thanksgiving, isn't it? Like it's so part of American culture and therefore part of our culture through movies

and stuff. And yet it still seems weird. Yeah. Yeah. They seem to make such a big deal of it. Too close to Christmas. They need to push it out a bit. You know, two big events close together.

It's like practice Christmas. That's right. Here we have three spoons all in their boxes. Now, these three are very exciting, Tim, because they have come from someone you know very well and someone I know a little bit and even the listeners know, and that is Colonel Katrina, the unmade colonel, musician, and she's written quite the letter to come with it.

It stretches to three pages. Wow. But it is good, and she has lovely handwriting, as I would have expected. Yes. She says, I was delighted to have the opportunity to donate some souvenir spoons Yes. from where I grew up. I spent my childhood in Kadena, which is located two hours drive from Adelaide on the York Peninsula. Kadena is one of three towns which make up the Copper Triangle.

The area was settled originally by farmers, but became a bustling mining area when copper was discovered there in the 1800s. A lot of Cornish miners came out from the south of England to work the mines, and so the region has a very strong Cornish heritage. Now we've got three spoons here. She explains each one. The first spoon is appropriately copper coloured and says Copper Coast on the top. Above that rectangle sits a strange looking figure which is called a pisci. A pisci is a general name for a fairy race or tribe in Cornwall. The second spoon is silver with a round colour picture on top of the Moonta Mines Museum. The final spoon has a squarish picture of the Moonta Mines Sweet Shop. It remains to this day one of my favourite places to visit when I go home.

I decided to get these spoons because Moonta Mines landmarks tend to be more interesting than anything in Kadena or Wallaroo. Obviously, Kadena and Wallaroo and Moonta are the three points of the copper triangle. I did ask the treasurer about spoon sales. Katrina's really doing her research here. I'm reliably informed that there was a slump in spoon sales, but they have steadily been picking up. slump in spoon sales but they have steadily been picking up i'm not sure if a lot of unmade podcast fans are cornering the souvenir spoon market or auntie dawn is off on holiday perhaps you and tim could discuss enjoy from colonel katrina lead singer of two-piece feed and former may princess 2009 the may princess apparently they had they had this sort of Copper Coast festival up that way.

And obviously, in 2009, Katrina was named the May Princess. They have a May Queen and a May Princess. She was the May Princess. I don't know how I feel about Katrina, like, using these multiple titles. I wonder if you become an unmade colonel, whether you have to renounce, like, other titles. Well, they're superfluous. I mean, they should just fall away, really. She did put Colonel Katrina top, so at least.

Yes, that's true. So there you go, three spoons. And she sent away to the treasurer of the National Trust of Moonta to send the spoons to her. She's obviously got connections all across the Copper Triangle. That's right. She's pulled in a few contacts there and working the district. It'd be cool if people started going missing in the Copper Triangle, like the Bermuda Triangle. That'd be way more interesting. It's unlikely to be ships though, isn't it? It's more likely to be cars or planes.

One hell of a beautiful big church at Moonta, I have to say. The Moonta Uniting Church is like a massive, it's like a cathedral in the middle of, I don't want to say nowhere, in the middle of Moonta. But, yeah, disproportionately large for a small town. Has it got lots of copper in it? I don't know. I don't know.

Those are questions for Katrina. Again, she should be my co-host if she was here now if she was here now i'd know i'm assuming they have a lot of copper in there when i was driving along york peninsula with my english wife the sign point we didn't go to munter but the sign pointing to munter is one of the few places she asked to stop and take a picture because she thought munter was such a funny word. It is a fun word. You'd love it because it has moon in it.

So, you know, I've been to Moonta several times. I was in the Copper Triangle recently when I was last in Australia when I saw you. I went off with my dad to the Copper Triangle. Always bragging. Yes. No, like going to the Copper Triangle is like the holiday, you know, when all your friends are going on holidays to like Queensland and Sydney and your parents take you to the Copper Triangle two hours away.

It's like, oh, I've got to go and look at a boring museum full of mining tools. Like a holiday to the Copper Triangle is like the holiday you don't want. Sorry, Katrina. It's a COVID-19 holiday. That's what it is. Yeah, it's the holiday everyone's't want. Sorry, Katrina. It's a COVID-19 holiday. That's what it is. Yeah, it's the holiday everyone's doing now, yeah. But when I was growing up, it was like, oh, yeah, all right.

Copper Triangle. Boring country towns. Well, growing up, we had the equivalent around Victoria. Yeah, of course. Everyone's got it. Oh, isn't it fascinating had the equivalent around Victoria. Yeah, of course. Everyone's got it. Oh, isn't it fascinating, the Cornish history? All the Cornish people came here and became miners. Great.

I'd rather go to SeaWorld. Of course, now you're all grown up and you've actually moved not far from Cornwall. Like you've got that impression. It obviously made an impression on you. You were just trying to relive your munter visits from your childhood by moving to the UK, going to the source. Nice spoons, though. Two of the spoons look pretty, like, standard,

like I would expect in the Hein collection. But that one with the pisky on it, that's a bit of a curveball. What's that? It looks like a gargoyle. Yeah, she said it's like some fairy creature or something. Well, you're not listening to the letter. Yeah, yeah, but I was just saying, we have a couple of them hanging off the front of the church.

Let's have another one. Getting this one out of a plastic bag. Pictures will be in the show notes of all these spoons. If you're listening to the YouTube version, they'll be on the screen. Okay, this one, this is written really small, very tight handwriting because Marie chose a very small postcard but had a lot to say. Dear Tim and Brady, greetings from Memphis, Tennessee in the USA, home of the blues, Elvis and famous for being right on the Mississippi River.

On the river, you can ride on the famous and historic riverboats. I found this spoon that I thought was so cool with a riverboat handle. I knew I had to send it. Unfortunately, I've never ridden on one of the riverboats because in elementary school, we were supposed to take a field trip to the riverboats, but it got rained out the day of. There's a bit of baggage there, obviously. Perhaps I will vindicate my childhood desire one day. Anyway, I love the podcast. It is seriously my absolute favourite.

I even got featured on the Thousand Words episode, which was a highlight for me. Keep up the work. Thanks for making this show so much fun and interactive for the listeners. All the best, Marie. P.S. Tim, I often listen to your church's sermons online And love virtually visiting church in Australia

God always reveals something to me in the messages There you go Good on you, Marie Sorry about the website It's just being rebuilt at the moment The sermons aren't there to listen to But I'm really, really sorry about the website But in the meantime, you can go and watch Tim miming Bon Jovi if there's no sermons for you.

There are quite a few sermons on YouTube. But yes, there's that nugget hidden in there as well. This is impressive. It's interesting because it's a boat, but it's front on. That's a really strange way to draw it. The riverboat. When I first saw the spoon and before I'd read the postcard, I didn't actually recognise it, the riverboat. When I first saw the spoon and before I'd read the postcard, I didn't actually recognise it as a riverboat. I thought it was like,

I actually thought it was like a church or a building or something from front on. It's a nice spoon too, though, because I always think a spoon's sort of higher quality if it's got something engraved into it. And in the bowl of the spoon, it says Memphis Riverboats established 1955. And then along the stem, it got engraved, rolling on the river. I reckon it looks a little bit like Optimus Prime from the Transformers. It does a bit, actually. That's a good call. It's very Transformer-ish.

Because it's also got the red, blue and white sort of colouring. Autobots, roll out. Rolling on the river. That's the kind of classy spoon analysis you get here on the podcast. Okay, another spoon here, Tim. This one comes from Natasha. More women seem to send spoons than men, I'm noticing. Anyway, from Natasha.

Dear Tim and Brady, I'm a long-time fan of the podcast. Thanks for making it so fun. I'm a senior studying astrophysics and physics at Harvard, so here's a Harvard spoon. I research fun, dynamic ways of finding black holes. I'll be starting my PhD at the Spiritual Home of Numberphile in the Fall in astrophysics, UC Berkeley. If you have any astronomy, choral singing or nerdy questions,

let me know. Natasha. And this is just a really standard, very small dainty spoon, quite a lovely stem with a kind of crisscrossing pattern on it and then just the Harvard University logo at the top. Yes, quite understated. Classy. I'd say this is a classy spoon.

Classy, classy. The crimson, of course, Harvard's colour. Lovely. Yes, it's nice. Yes, very nice. And the nice thing is you can just see a little bit, and I was hoping for a bit more of this, actually, of the reflection in the scoopy bit of Natasha taking the photo

with her camera, with her phone. That's me taking the picture. Oh, okay. So she sent you the spoon and you've taken a photo. Oh, right. Yeah. I've got the spoon here. Were you about to say how beautiful you thought Natasha was?

I was about to say, isn't that the guy from Roxette? But it's... All right. Oh, dear. What have we got? Next, we have three spoons, another three spooner, and, yes, another woman who is Santa. Almost all women. I just think that shows that women are

more organized and like if it's anything that requires more effort than a snipey email or tweet then you know totally absolutely that's right all right again we've got a long letter so I'm not going to go into all the details here apologies in advance dear Brady and, Desi here from South Africa, longish time stakeholder, and I think I'm just about to be pin worthy. $50 lifetime giving gets you to a pin stakeholders, as you know. And I'm a much longer time listener. The Spoon of the Week segment particularly tickles me because I grew up in a household with a very proud souvenir spoon collection that was displayed above our telephone. Eventually, as my parents' decorating tastes went more scandy and less kitsch, the spoons were relegated to a shoebox.

When the call for spoons went out, I sent my mum a message asking if she felt like digging up the spoons for me and searching for something suitably South African to send you. Sadly, my favourite spoon, a phenomenal dangling arrangement from the Kruger National Park, did not survive the test of time, but she did unearth some other winners. And they're the three that have been sent in by Desi. And they're kind of, I won't go into all the detail, partly because I can't pronounce them, but they're just from different parts of South Africa. One seems to have like an ostrich or something on it. A really nice one has sort of a black eagle enamelled into the bowl. That's the most impressive. That's a beautiful spoon. And funnily enough, the third one also got damaged

in transit and the enamel fell off. So, I'm going to have to glue that back on. But the one there with the tree from Grunau Soir. It's got a very nice bowl, very ornate bowl as well. But I have to do some repair work on that one. Three South African spoons. You know what's strange is you can see the reflection of Natasha in this one as well. Yeah. That's weird.

Amazing. Natasha has been photographing all the spoons. Thank you. Thank you, Desi. And thank you for the... She did a really nice write-up on each spoon, but it's probably just a bit long to read them. But I did read it, Desi, and I really appreciated your letter.

Last but not least, Leo from France. At last, we have a male. One guy. Of all the civilians, one guy was organized enough to send some spoons that is that that is well done leo just a short just a short note here brady will probably enjoy these spoons from leo in france and this is this is actually a little box set. It comes in a little velvet box. And they are four matching spoons with very ornate shell clam style bowls. And they're all from the Kennedy Space Center. So they're all NASA-y.

And the enameled pictures at the top are a space shuttle, a NASA logo, an astronaut floating in space, and another kind of logo. Yeah, nice. A sort of spacey logo. A very famous picture of him doing a space and another kind of logo. Yeah, nice. Sort of a spacey logo. A very famous picture of him doing a spacewalk floating above the Earth. Is that before the moon landing or afterwards? Is that quite recent? It was after the moon landing, but not that recent. And an interesting piece of trivia, the astronaut in that, Bruce McCandless,

was one of the people who was talking to Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin during the moon landing. He was one of the guys you heard talking down in Houston. He was an astronaut as well, and later on he was in this famous picture. Keep the Apollo trivia coming, hey? What's an interesting job is graphic designer at NASA. They're forever coming up with new – every time they do something, they come up with a new logo for it, don't they?

Yeah, mission patches and things like that, yeah. Do you think you'd be good at that uh well well no but yours would be far more entertaining that's for sure like stick figures with the moon and yeah no i will include details in the show notes for people who want to send us spoons. The address for the postbox is changing slightly, so do keep an eye on that. My postbox place is moving a few doors down, so there's a new address. But before we finish, Tim, we have to give away an Unmade Podcast spoon to one of our stakeholders. If you're a Patreon supporter of the Unmade Podcast, you're eligible for all sorts of goodies.

If you're a Patreon supporter of the Unmade Podcast, you're eligible for all sorts of goodies. And one of them is an Unmade Podcast spoon. And you also are eligible for Unmade Podcast collector cards. So one person is going to get a spoon. Ten people are going to get collector cards algorithmically randomly from our list of supporters. Tim, how are we going to pick them this week? What random method should we use? You know what we should do? We should open a different door at Doors Plus.

Okay. We've got 11 doors and behind each door is the name of a Patreon supporter. Would you like to do the honours, Tim? How about I open the doors and you can read the name? You ready? Okay, here I'm opening the first door. This is for the spoon winner. Who have we got?

Jason from Washington, DC. Congratulations, Jason. door this is for the the spoon winner who've we got jason from washington dc congratulations jason all right and now 10 more doors i'll i'll go through them and tim you tell us the name behind each one yep have you opened the door i've opened the door okay did you not hear it i hope you've actually opened the door you're not just telling me you've opened the door. Like, there it is. Shari from Canada. Ralph B from Victoria in Australia. Hello, Ralph. Matthew A from London.

Pontus from Canada. Leonard from Switzerland. Tobias from Denmark. Sean W, also from Victoria in Australia. Two Victorians. Arjun from Chicago. Ehsan, I hope I'm pronouncing that correctly. E-H-S-A-N.

Ehsan from Montreal. Congratulations. And Michael B. from the Netherlands. Hey, that could be Michael Bolton. I wonder if he's touring the Netherlands at the moment. I think it could be. I mean, we don't know that it's not. Imagine the doors at Michael Bolton's house.

Yeah, he would have doors plus all that coin he's got from his music. Congratulations, Michael B. Nice one. Thank you. Thank you. If you'd like to become a Patreon supporter, go to patreon.com slash unmadefm. If you would not like to be a Patreon supporter, that's fine too.

You've listened to this episode for this long. You can do whatever you please. That's right. Would you like to see us out with a bit more Here's Trouble? Yes, I would. I've actually got it open in front of me. Yeah, I thought you might. Thought you might.

I'm on the last page. Last page. Don't spoil the ending. Well, no, I won't spoil. No one's going to read it, so I won't. This is sort of just the last reflective few lines. I mean, ending a book and beginning a book. Oh, no, don't read this bit.

I don't like this bit. Why not? Do a different bit. This is the last line. Maybe, Tim, Brady answered, reflecting on the day's events. Maybe. That's good. That's good. That is good.

Was I only 18 when I wrote that? Oh, man. You've got an old soul. There's no doubt about it, man. Oh. Yes. Sorry, I'm tearing up here. I'm tearing up a bit here.

I'd be embarrassed, too. Oh, no, you mean you mean you say there we go and i close the book pat it you know that lovely feeling when you close the back of the book and you pat it you just sit back and go ah that was satisfying and we should have we should have had a thing on the inside with a little photo of you inside the back cover that says, you know. Author picture. Yeah, Brady Haran, you know, is a podcaster and YouTuber. And then the line that says, this is his first book. Then it would have in brackets, no, really. Or obviously.

This is clearly first previously unpublished book. Yes. Okay. You should be very proud. You should be very proud. Not of this, of all the other things you've done in your life, but I'm sending this to you. Thank you for keeping me humble.