Episode Transcript
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0:01
Hey, dead and gone fans, Jake Brennan here to
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tell you about the new season of my
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other show, Disgraceland, where we are now telling
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insane stories not just about musicians, but also
0:09
about artists, authors, actors, athletes, and our Icons
0:12
series. These are icons who possess dangerously
0:14
compelling rock and roll hearts. I'm talking
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about Andy Warhol, Anthony Bourdain,
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Kobe Bryant, Hunter S. Thompson. Okay,
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we get the rock and roll
0:23
side covered as well. Van Halen,
0:25
Chris Cornell. You can check
0:27
out episodes on all these icons and more
0:29
by searching up Disgraceland wherever you get
0:31
your podcasts and giving us a follow. Until
0:33
then, here's a clip from our recent episode
0:35
on the late, great Anthony Bourdain. Check it
0:38
out. Let me know what you think. Rock-a-rolla.
0:42
The heart of Manhattan beats from the
0:44
working class. Bus
0:47
drivers and busboys, working stiffs
0:49
and waitresses, bartenders pouring
0:51
punch-out cold ones to stiff up
0:53
her lips, taxi drivers
0:55
and doorman with more information than you
0:57
need, daily rag
1:00
scribes and night watchmen, cops,
1:02
construction workers, dealers too.
1:06
And if you're not careful, you'll get caught up
1:08
in the grind and miss the beauty of the
1:10
sweat and the hustle. Lose
1:13
it all to the bustling sound of the lonesome
1:15
streets. Wake up in a midtown
1:17
high rise with a mortgage and a wife and a
1:19
kid in a separate apartment. But
1:21
if you keep your ears open, each
1:23
night you'll hear the sound of the mission
1:26
bell, that universal sign
1:28
that it's time to blow off steam,
1:31
quitting time. But
1:33
when you're too tired to think and too wired
1:35
to go home, this is the
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time when you're reminded of your station in life,
1:40
reminded of where you're supposed to be, bellied
1:43
up to the bar with the rest of your kind, cursing
1:46
your bosses' greed and your customers'
1:48
stupidity, and acting your coworkers
1:50
on a job well done. Barely
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ready for a four-hour crash, an inevitable
1:55
hangover, an unspoken gratitude for the fact
1:57
that you get to get up too
1:59
early. too sore and too smart
2:01
to know any better so that you
2:03
my friend can go back to work
2:05
and do it all over again. To
2:11
an outsider, the kitchen during the night
2:13
we rush looked and sounded like chaos,
2:16
but you've got it all under control.
2:18
Sure, the slips of firing in will be
2:20
Rapido's in your and the floor staff looks
2:22
haggard and scared and the dishwasher has gone
2:24
on one of his mid-shift sabbaticals in the
2:26
back alley and the sous chef manages quitter.
2:29
He may just be in the can with
2:31
explosive diarrhea and no one will acknowledge that
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the phone has been ringing unanswered for what
2:35
you swear to God has been all frigging
2:37
night long and the owner just decided that
2:39
right fucking now of all times is the
2:41
time to pop in to bust your balls
2:43
in front of his investors. Yes, that all
2:45
may be happening at the moment and it
2:47
might spell chaos for the uninitiated civilian looking
2:49
in on your kitchen, but you're no civilian.
2:51
You're a professional chef or at least a
2:54
very capable cook. And this is your kitchen.
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Even if you don't own a piece, even
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if you're fighting a daily heroin jones, even
3:00
if you're a functioning alcoholic, even if you
3:02
haven't seen your new wife in the daylight
3:04
in six weeks and even if you can't
3:06
speak Spanish shit, that's all that most of
3:08
your employees speak. Even if your fish guy
3:10
went on the lamb and your meat
3:12
guy is returning your calls, none of
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this matters because you thrive in this
3:17
chaos. In fact, this
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isn't chaos at all. This
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to you, for some unexplained
3:23
reason, makes sense. It's
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organized. At least to you it
3:27
is. You know your way
3:30
around these challenges. You and you
3:32
alone know how to solve these problems. But
3:35
these are the only problems you know how to solve.
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Kitchen problems. Outside
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the kitchen. That's
3:42
chaos. You haven't paid
3:44
your rent on time. Well, ever.
3:46
You're perpetually three months behind and dodging
3:48
your landlord. The creditors are after you
3:51
in the tax man looms. You
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haven't been to a doctor for a preemptive checkup
3:55
for what seems to be your entire adult life
3:57
and your barreling toward middle age with a needle.
4:00
hanging out of your room during a time
4:02
in history when intravenous drug use can spell
4:04
instant death. It's July and
4:06
your Christmas tree is still standing in the
4:08
corner of your apartment, better than Vince Durali
4:11
and twice as pathetic as Charlie Brown. You
4:14
and your wife, Nancy, are too ashamed to even bring
4:16
it down to the corner for the trash man to
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pick up for fear of what your neighbors might think.
4:21
You have next to no social life.
4:23
You subsist on deli sandwiches and Simpson's
4:25
rewinds. Because you live it
4:27
is barely any life at all. But
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work is where you thrive. And
4:32
after work is when you come alive.
4:39
The sun ruled. The
4:41
sun came. On the beach
4:43
crashed out, tanning away the heroin collar,
4:45
asleep in the sand in the late morning hours.
4:49
Before that, it was the train out to Rockaway,
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nodding out having finished the last of your work,
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freaking out the civilians on their early morning
4:57
rush hour commute. Club 57,
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the mud club, CBGB, wherever
5:01
junky guitar players reigned supreme
5:03
on stage, you were there.
5:06
Pass the line of pedestrians to the sympathetic
5:08
doorman who can bribe the steak sandwiches
5:11
from your kitchen. The
5:13
kitchen you'd closed hours ago. You
5:15
hit the bar after closing with a couple employees. Someone
5:18
thought 96 tears by question mark in the mysterious
5:20
was a good idea. And they
5:22
were right. It blasted from the jukebox. A
5:25
fat line of coke was laid out
5:27
on said bar along the length of
5:29
the entire bar. The adult
5:31
portion of the evening was now in
5:33
full effect, commenced by you mounting the
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bar getting down on all fours and
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hoovering as much of that long line of
5:39
blow as your aching heart would allow. You
5:42
needed to bump something to come back from
5:44
the weakness brought on by the illicit rendezvous
5:46
in the dry goods area with the cute
5:49
waitress. Hey, it happened. So what? You
5:51
don't know how it gets started. You just did it. Sort of
5:53
like this night. It just got started. Sort
5:55
of like all the nights. You scammed. You
6:00
ran hard and hard and fast away
6:02
from yourself until finally you add it
6:04
up right back where you started. In
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the kitchen. Unless
6:12
of course it was a day off.
6:15
Then you can run away. he couldn't hide
6:17
from you. sell for from what you become.
6:20
A jinx. When
6:22
it was nowhere left to go the
6:24
no more drugs listed do know, sister,
6:27
pick up You find yourself we seared.
6:29
He would inevitably end up alone. Not
6:31
even you junkie wife could help. She
6:33
was nodding off on her own trip.
6:37
The So was just you. Just
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you in the deep dark,
6:41
Dirty. mere. Alone.
6:44
At rock bottom.
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