Latest / Your Dark Companion Podcast / Rush Postponed, Neil Peart's Ghost & Stars Cap Crunch | Expo | Ep 238

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Rush Postponed, Neil Peart's Ghost & Stars Cap Crunch | Expo | Ep 238 · Your Dark Companion Podcast

• Nobody would have thought that I would be the one. Ryder, sports talk. Baseball. Baseball. Baseball. Baseball. Baseball. With a big mic. Oh, okay. Alright. Yeah. Okay. Now I get it. We've had a lightning strike, boys. What happened over there, Grego? We had a little lightning strike right outside the window. Alright. Alright. Here's a tip for all these Americano league teams. Don't what? You said tip. Yeah. Tip. Okay. With a p. I would Keep jamming. The ticket the ticket colon. Nothing but a big Gen X jerk off set. Is this a cool night or what? I know somebody would hear that and go, bullshit. I'm back, bitches. Oh, really? We're starting already? That can't be right. It can't be time yet. What time is it? It's five. Son of a I really wasn't ready for this to start yet. What are we gonna do about it? Well, I don't know. I'm kind of in a state of depression today. Not feeling at my best because something didn't happen that I really, really wanted to happen. And I really wanted to happen for you. And I'm kinda bummed by it. But rest easy. It probably will happen still soon. We think. Yeah. We think. I mean, let's face it. In these times, who can really be sure of anything? Yeah. Yeah. Alright. So this is the July 1 today. Wednesday, July 1. And this is your dark companion. This is number which? 23238. Number 238. It pains me to say that. Why? That's good. We're still doing the show. We've doing this this long. I'm glad. I don't have much time left. I can't be doing stuff too long. Yeah. Expo did remind you that you're approaching seventy six. Yes. You're gonna get your kicks at seventy six. And it's how far away? That's sixty six. It's like six weeks. Yeah. Six weeks away. I mean, this is one July. Yeah. Yeah. It's about right. Forty seven days. Mhmm. Look at that. He's got it all right in his head. That's why he's That's not difficult math. Former intern. Boy, you're amazing. Alright. He is Expo. For those who don't know who he is He's my leader. He should be he should be everybody's leader because he, like, or unlike any of the rest of us, is really pretty totally squared away. We are not. We're idiots. He is focused. He is directed. He is organized. He is exponential. He is all of those things that we should all strive to be, but I can't strive to be that because I know I'll I'll never make it. I just won't, but it comes easy and it comes naturally to him. Are you doing alright these days? Yeah. I'm doing good. I can't complain too much. Alright. Now there is a particular reason why we wanted him on today, And we were going to discuss something that happened last night, which he and I both were at, say, for one minor detail. And this place that we were at last night and that thing that was supposed to happen to bring us there did not happen. We're speaking of the postponed Rush concert in crazy Fort Worth last night, which I don't know if how aware of this the rest of you are, but about what time? 04:30 or so? Like, fifteen. Mhmm. Alright. About 05:15 in the afternoon, word started coming down that the show was off because Geddy Lee could not sing. He had laryngitis. And bronchitis. And bronchitis. That's not a good combination. That's a lot it He had laryngitis, bronchitis, could not sing. So rather than get up there and give it a go, they decided we'll just put it off and it's coming up again in a couple of nights, I think. 07:11. Yeah. So a week from Saturday for that show. Yeah. And then the show that's supposed to be tomorrow, which was really supposed to be last Wednesday, is going to be the following Monday, two nights later. So are they going to spend all this time here in our Fairburg? Or are they going I doubt it. My bet is last night was supposed to be the fourth of four shows. And the next scheduled show was not until the July 16 in Chicago. So my bet is they were planning to head home today. Yeah. And now, instead of going to Chicago, they're gonna have to come back here first and we get I guess they get their break a little early and have to go back to work a little early. You think they left all their gear in a portable storage closet in Benbrook somewhere? Or at least where where they park it? Probably loaded it all back into the trucks and parked the truck somewhere, I would guess. Alright. Now I must issue a positioning statement on Rush because probably some of you may be considering the idea of me at a Rush concert and thinking this does not square up. And I know that. It does not square up. But it should. That's the thing. Well, maybe so. But for a long time, and you will you know this better than just about anybody, You and Bill Porter, who plays guitar at Petty Theft, who I've known for some twenty years, and who I was going to attend said Rush concert with last night. You would know better than anybody that for the longest time, I considered Rush music for teenage mental patients. You had them slotted. I had them slotted. I dismissed them. I did not take them seriously. I didn't like them, and that was it. And I and I looked at those who did. I looked down upon them with great disdain. Well, in the interim, something happened. I don't know how. I don't know why. I don't know when. Maybe it's just being an old guy. This is what old guys do. But something caused me to reconsider Rush, to warm up to it, listen to it with, through a a different lens, if you will, and really take a look and see what it's about. Now all this time, I'm playing in a band with the aforementioned Bill Porter, who is a rush nut. He plays guitar in a rush cover band. Right? Well, he did it one time. I don't know I don't know if they're Well, he at least did it one time Yeah. And is capable of doing that. Yes. Yes. He More than capable. On guitar, he can play virtually any song in the Rush catalog. And he I I can tell you, he would like nothing better than to put together a Rush cover band, but he he's tried to do it from time to time, and it just for whatever reason well, I think I know the reason, but it just really didn't take. And the reason is because Geddy Lee is so singular that you just can't find somebody who can sing it. I mean, that animal does not freely walk this planet that we know of. And I'm sure there are some guys out there who can probably just nail it. But around here, they that is a They're not in the same demographic that Bill Porter is in either. No. No. That that that's a it's a very, very difficult musical find, and there are a lot of really, really tough musical finds out there. That's one of the very toughest. But, yes, that did not, quell his love for Rush at all. Like I say, the guy can pick up a guitar and you just throw out a Rush song and he can play it. He can everything that Alex Weisen is doing, he can do. And for years and years and years, whenever Rush would come around, he would all but beg me to go with him. And because I was a stubborn jackass and because this yeah. Is just It was. I'm not now. He's evolved. But because this was just the way I rolled back in, I was just so dug in that it was almost a matter of principle for me to tell him, no. I don't wanna go to that. And so for that reason, I never did. But, over time, I started looking at Rush through a different lens, and I told him probably, I don't know, a couple years or so ago that if Rush ever tours again and they ever come around here, I wanna go. And he looked at me like, yeah. Sure you do. And I said, no. No. No. I wanna go. If you're going, I wanna go. And sure enough, couple years down the road, here we are. Amazingly. And Like, nobody thought that I never thought this was gonna happen. What? That I would be wanting to go? No. That they were going to be back on Yeah. The Yeah. I mean, that that's amazing enough in and of itself. How old are they now? Seventies. Yeah. Well, Geddy and Alex are in their seventies. Hanukkah just turned, I think, 43. Yeah. And Geddy and Alex are about 72. Yeah. Now see, that's another thing. One of if I if I were going to see Rush, one of the things I would most want to see was their fabulous drummer, Neil Peart, who any drummer can tell you is just outrageously outrageously creative, outrageously musical, outrageously great, and fit what they were doing. It it really was a matter of him fitting. It's almost like he was there were three coconspirators. Three equal, I guess, somewhat equal coconspirators, and he was one of them. He was not just the drummer in the band. He was a drummer in Rush. You know? And when you're the drummer in Rush, you're not just a drummer. Andy was the lyricist. Yeah. Andy was the lyricist too. So there was that. That probably was one of the big things that started to attract me. But I would hear their songs on the radio and everything, and I found myself listening closer and more most of the time going, you know, that's that's really not bad. That's really kinda cool. So I thought on Rush a little bit. And by the time this rolled around, I'm was and am all ready to go. Now do I regret not seeing them with Neil Peart? Yes. I do. As you should. Yeah. Especially as a drummer. Yeah. As a one time drummer. Not a very good one. Nothing like him. But still, I appreciate those who ply the craft in the way that he did and I really regret not seeing him. However, I've I've cheated a little bit here because normally when I go to a concert, I don't wanna see a set list. I don't want to go on YouTube and find video of what they did in Cleveland last night or whatever. I want to go unvarnished with an open mind and a willing heart ready to to just soak it all in, you know, as a as as much of a first timer as I can possibly be. Right. However, I did come across something of one of their shows and I had I couldn't help myself. I the idea of a girl replacing the great Neil Peart in Rush is, I must admit, on the Farfetch side. And I had to check it out and see if she could possibly pull it off. Well, I did. And from all I can tell, yes, she can. I'm curious what you see, what clips you've seen. I'd have to go back and look, but it was a song I can't remember what song it was, but it was one that I know. It was one that I have some idea of what the drum should be doing, and she was getting it done. Yeah. There's no two ways about it. I know the big one seems to be Tom Sawyer. Like, I've seen a bunch of people posting her performing that and Yep. Making a note of how much they're air drumming to it and every single fill, how closely she got it. And, obviously everything I've heard from her seems like she's nailing it. She's she's been awesome. It was really cool and I this I believe has ended up happening every night, but I was there opening night in LA, about a month ago. And specifically in Tom Sawyer, was the last song of the main set that night. Famously, there's those four drum fills after the guitar solo. And as those were completed, there was a noticeable rise in the cheer of the crowd as like an acknowledgement of that happening. And then in the encore, there was another drum break in the song and she absolutely slayed that one too. Mean, she but she was good all night. Well, the crowd, I would think, and you tell me if I'm wrong about this, but the rush crowd is not going to be terribly forgiving. No. If it was bad, there would been a been a would have been a problem. There would have been a probably a major uproar about it that all of us would have heard something about already. Right? Yeah. For sure. I was not concerned about her. I don't think they would have done it if they didn't think she could do it. She's been better than I and to even better than I anticipated her being. My big concern was always going to be Getty's voice, which brings us to another thing. That if I have a concern going into this thing, that is going to be it. And the reason for that, and I think I've come on here before in previous weeks talking about this. Getty's how old now? 72, I think. Yeah. Well, the fact of the matter is that you go see these guys that are in that demographic, and you find that they can't do what they once did. Now I experienced that with Todd Rundgren just a few weeks ago. Oh, yeah? Yeah. Todd Rundgren's voice has always been a just a magical magical instrument. It's one of the most musical singing voices I've ever heard because he could take it anywhere. He could take it way up high into this fabulous falsetto that he had. He could go way down low. He never sang sharp. He never sang flat. He was always right on pitch. Anything he tried to do with his voice, he could do. And for the most part, that was true at the show that I saw at the Greatness Of The Majestic Theater a couple weeks ago. But there were a couple times when he tried to get up there the way he used to, and it just did not happen. And that's that's difficult to watch. Well, in the three shows I've seen, Getty's voice has seemed really good. It's not nineteen eighties but it's better than 2015. I was gonna say that's something I was reading too is that, you know, he was sounding not he was sounding as good as he did twenty years ago. And ten years ago, he was sounding kind of rough. Yeah. So he's he's done some exercises. He's done some exercises. He's had a coach. I think ten years off from doing it helps. They have long since probably since the February, maybe even the late nineties, taken to not play back to back nights. Specifically so that he can have his voice can have a day off. Yeah. Which is why the four shows here were over a week. You know, Wednesday, Friday, supposed to be Wednesday, Friday, Sunday, Tuesday. I suspected that. But it's been that way for a long time. I like I remember, they used to be playing virtually every night, a few off nights for travel distances or whatever. And then it was like, okay, two on one off, one on one off, two on one off, one on one, and then it's there's a night off every show. In the r forty tour in 2015, there were some night there were some places where there were two nights off. And I think that was all, you know, to help his voice. Yeah. And I'm sure that's like they they were going to play 10 shows was the plan. The four in LA, two in Mexico City, and four in Fort Worth. And then they were going to have sixteen days off. Yeah. They've also been doing that for a while too, right? Yeah. They'll The legs will be shorter. Right. And then they get a couple weeks off. But I'm not mad that there's a little gap. I get to spread them out a little bit for me. Maybe save my ears a little. They were ringing after the second show in three nights. Yeah. Are they loud? A little bit. Yeah. Yeah. I've heard louder but they're pretty loud and there and it seems even louder than I think it really is because the walk in music is not loud. Oh. I can't remember it from LA but I definitely noticed it Friday and Sunday in Fort Worth that I can almost not hear I can sort of hear Jethro Toll or whatever is playing in the moment, but I can it was not like it was blasting you. Do you sit on the floor? I sat, I mean, I sit in the best seats I can get in a given night. So Friday night, I actually sat in the front row of the upper deck, which is really cool, actually. And then I was in the back of the floor on Sunday and I was supposed to be sort of mid floor for the other two. Yeah. And then I've got a show in San Antonio in September that I splurged and I'm gonna be on the front row. Nice. On the front row, On the front Wow. Look at that. Must Front row be expo. I had to tell somebody who I was. Oh. Oh. Pulled that game. Boy, just a joke. Do you know who I am? Just a joke. What a player. I know. What I had do was tell Ticketmaster how much money I had. Well, same thing. Yeah. That's leverage, man. That is leverage. Yeah. Well And it's been a I mean, the shows have been great. The shows I've been to have been great. I have to say. And I guess they've done for they've done eight. I've seen three of them. Am I going to know most of the stuff that they do? I would expect deep into to the go a little deep. It was nice to so they played four different shows in LA. The second show had was basically 50 different than the first. Then the third show was sort of a mix with a couple of songs they hadn't played yet, and the fourth show was again about a bunch of a mix with three more songs they hadn't played yet. I hope that they play the third and fourth shows when they come back because they played the first two shows when they were here this past Friday and Sunday. But I would expect you would know most of it. I don't know that you would necessarily know all of it but Yeah. Well You know And it's look, save for I mean, it's there's a twenty five minute intermission in it but it's three hours. Yeah. Like I wouldn't say the downbeat seven forty five because there's like a video that they play at the beginning. So the downbeat's probably 07:50 or so. And you're not walking out of there until 10:50. So Okay. That's salty. That is salty. Especially for a bunch of old guys. Yeah. Know, it's like it's like they serve as their own opening act. Right. They come out, they play for an hour, little over an hour, take twenty five minute break, and they come back and they play for another hour and a half or so. Yeah. Because they stopped doing openers a while ago, right? Yeah. They started this an evening with Ah. Is what they called it back then. Yeah. And the last tour before Neil's tragedies in 1996. That was the tour. I don't remember when the but his wife and daughter or daughter and wife passed away like within nine months of each other. Really? Yeah. I didn't know that. Yeah. Daughter was in a single car accident going back to college and then the wife had cancer. Wow. Brutal. Or as he put it in one of the books, what the doctors call cancer what we call the broken heart. Yeah. Wow, that's tough. Yeah. And so he was gone for like five years, went on a 60,000 mile motorcycle excursion and managed to find his way back. Do you think that on that 60,000 mile motorcycle excursion, anybody recognized him? Not many, especially because as he put it in the book, he wrote a book about it. Oh, he did? Yeah. He had a big dumb beard. Book is called Ghost Rider. Travels on the Healing Road. So he just changed his identity with his big dumb beard. I mean, I guess. Got on his motorcycle and took off. Yeah. Rode basically east I'm sorry, west across Canada up to Alaska, then down the West Coast and all the way into Central America. Wow. Man, that's that's nervy. Yeah. I wish I had that kind of nerve. And didn't basically alone. Like he ultimately he ended up traveling between tour stops on a motorcycle but he did it with a partner. Yeah. Because you know, I guess responsibilities. And if his bike conked out, give me that. We'll send somebody for you. Could work if he can get it. Did he document this in any way? Which the The motorcycle excursion. The one, the 60,000 mile one, yeah. That's in the book. And then he wrote another book about one of the tours, basically all the motorcycle stops he made on on whichever tour it was that he did. What's that one called? Roadshow, maybe? Somewhere Yes. Buried in a box in my house, I've got these books. Roadshow Landscape with Drums. Yeah. There you go. Wow. Man, I gotta get into this. Yeah. They're they're he's very detailed when he writes. So He's a hell of a writer. They're dense reads but they're pretty good. Yeah. Well, I'm at a point right now where I'm pretty much between books. Well, you got those two and Highly recommend. He's written he's written four or five. Good Lord. Wrote one about a bicycle trip he took through West Africa. And I can't remember what the other one was about now. It's been a long time. What happened to him? How'd he die? Did cancer get him? Cancer. Brain cancer. Oh, man. That's awful. The only good news is it was after he had sort of decided he was going to retire. He had a young daughter, you know, he remarried, met somebody and remarried. They had a child who's probably still a teenager. And so he hung it up in 2015 to spend more time with the family and got the cancer in I think 2017 and died at the beginning of 2020. He just missed COVID. So when he hung it up in thousand in 2015, where did that leave the other two? I mean, did they do anything after that? Alex did little projects. He had some health issues, he has said, that made him not really keen to tour much anymore either. And Getty wrote that base book, and then he wrote his autobiography. Which is great. Yeah. My F'n Yeah. Yeah. There's a couple tough chapters near the beginning about his parents surviving the holocaust. But other than that What's the title of that? My F'n Life. Okay. It's a great title. That's a good book too. Alright. So you've given me a lot of excellent rush material. Yeah. A lot of reading material. For yeah, I'm seeing Neil Peart has three books that have far at this front, Far and Away, Far and Near, Far and Wide. Then looks like The Masked Rider, Roadshow, Ghost Rider, Traveling Music, and Silver Surfers which Is about cars. Sports cars. Yeah. He had a collection of of sports cars. The Masked Rider, I think, is the one about the bike tour through West Africa. Yes. Well, do we have any other, rush data to get into here that you're looking to get? Other than I'm really looking forward to you seeing the shows. Mhmm. And at this point now, like, you're probably okay to try and see some more of the little snippets from that are up on YouTube and there are plenty. I don't want to though. You want a package? That's that's fine. Yeah. That's fine. I'm a big believer in that. Packaging and what what else else did we say went along with that? Oh, what the hell? I don't know. Someone said All World's is amazing. All the World's Stage is a live a live album. Yeah. They said the documentary. Oh, yes. Made From Light of Stage? No, that's a different documentary. Oh, good Lord. They've I didn't So have multiple somebody made a documentary about them, sort of their history from the beginning through basically moving pictures Okay. Which was their really big album in the early eighties. The other one she's talking about, basically they documented the final 2015 tour. And it's sort of as they go show to show. Alright. Alright. This is the great Kevin Fox. Kevin. Also known him as Expo. Expo. And he is with us today here on Your Dark Companion. We'll have more with him in just a short snort here. And if you don't mind, I would like to spoutly segue to something else that I know you're that you're way into and know a lot about. What's that? That would be Dallas Stars hockey. Oh. Oh, boy. Yes. Are you fully prepped on that? Sure. That was about as wobbly legged as I've ever heard him be. Yeah. That's usually not expo. I mean, I don't necessarily especially on a day you know, today is is free agent day. So I may not be fully on the loop about anything that may be breaking at the moment, but Okay. Well I have enough information to have my opinions. Okay. Well, we'll speak just, you know, conceptually here, but if need be. Sure. But first, do we have a spot here that we must do? Oh, okay. Yes. Let me talk to you all who are walking around in this world and you're hurting all the time. And you don't know why, you don't know what's going on, you just know that you hurt and you wish you didn't. And if you can't just wish it away, you wish there was something you could do to make it go away. And maybe you're leery about trusting the Cairo. I know some people are. Well, there is another thing here, and that is CBD. Have you tried CBD yet? You've heard me talk to you for a long time now about the CBD house of healing and how at the CBD house of healing, they're not some head shop. Don't go in there and buy roach clips or anything like that. You go in there for CBD, and they approach it from a very medicinal standpoint at the CBD House of Healing. Their owner is a registered nurse and she's not messing around with this. If you go in there hurting and talk to her, she will have something for you and that something will make it feel better. How do I know this? Here's how I know this because I'm one of these guys myself and I've been using this. This is the full spectrum salve stick that I got at the CBD House of Healing. I rub it on where it hurts and it doesn't make it go away, but it makes it feel a heck of a lot better. If you're roaming around this world in pain, you'll probably gladly settle for that if you can't make it go away altogether. The CBD House of Healing is located at Plano Road and Northwest Highway. They're in they're in the Northeast quadrant of that burgeoning intersection. Look. There's no reason to do this. They've got stuff that can help you. They will help you. So go in there and check it out for yourself. Let them know that you heard about it from us here on YDC and start your healing at the CBD House of Healing. We alright? Damn right we are. Okay. A little swig of tea here and we'll be off. Yeah. Get your head right. Where's the tea blinker? Alright. So the Dallas Hockey Stars. Yes. Where were you let's just take a look at last season k. And how it ended. Were you surprised that it ended the way it did for them? A little. Not necessarily surprised that they lost, but sort of surprised in the manner in which it happened. You know, the inability to score five on five was not something I saw coming. The inability to stop that one extra puck was not necessarily I saw coming. But, you know, that was a good team they were playing. Yeah. It was a good team they were playing. I don't mean to take anything away from them, but I went through that whole season thinking that we were looking at a legitimate Stanley Cup contender in the Dallas Hockey Stars. But then about two or three weeks before the season ended, the whole balloon just seemed to run out of air. Despite the fact that they won their last five games going into the playoffs. Yeah. But but health was a big issue. Yeah. Health was a big issue. They were hurt, but it just seemed like like the season had gone on for so long and they'd put so much into it that they just ran out of shit, man. Yeah. They just didn't have any more to give. And it's a cumulative effect too. Right? I mean, playing three rounds deep in the playoffs three years in a row. Yeah. It is. It is. So your summers are shorter, and now you've got a really condensed season because of the Olympics and a bunch of your guys playing the Olympics, and then you have health issues on top of it. It was a lot. I mean, it was a lot for everybody, but even more for them than most other teams. Were you surprised that the Minnesota series went the way it did? I mean, sort of in the manner it went, yes. But the fact that Minnesota beat them, I mean, didn't expect it, but it's not it wasn't like it was a huge upset or anything, I didn't think. I did. And I I looked back on it and I don't know why I did because, like I say, clearly, the team had just run out of shit. I mean, they had a hard time finding the energy for every one of those games. Minnesota was really feeling it. Yep. They were a team on the rise. They were really feeling it. And they showed up at the rink ready to give it their best every night. And I don't know what the Stars did. The Stars gave it what they had, but what they had at this stage of the year was not what they had in the early stage of the year. And I guess that only makes sense. Right. Well, and especially when you're missing your top center, your top winger is hurt. Mhmm. You can't score five on five. You're relying on the power play. You know, your top defenseman's nicked up anyway, but playing through it. There was a lot of there were a lot of hurdles in that series. Minnesota came out probably heavier than I expected them to come out. And probably than the Stars expected them come heavier than you expected. What do you mean by that? They were on them immediately. Anytime the Stars got the puck in their own end. Yeah. Like there was a two man four check that they could not figure out their way around. Lots of turnovers, lots of just trying to get the puck out and giving it away on the, you know, bail and change. You know? Yeah. You can't get any sort of sustained pressure on their own. They were better in in some of the games than in others, but I mean, to come to completely look not ready in the first game was bad. I was not expecting that at all. Does that land at the feet of the coach? Probably to a degree, but it probably lands more to what you said, which is they ran out of shit. Yeah. Yeah. Alright. And then they took it out of Minnesota. You know, Minnesota won one game against Colorado. Yeah. But that took it out of Colorado. They won none against Vegas. Yeah. That's true. These playoffs are a bitch, man. They are. It's the hardest trophy to win. There was a trade today. Yep. Break this down for us. Okay. So they traded Maverick Bork, really the rights to Maverick Bork, and Ilya Lebushkin to Nashville for a second round pick and a third round pick. I'm not sure the years of the picks off the top of my head. But Maverick Boric is a restricted free agent, which means they issued him a qualifying offer the other day, which meant he was eligible to be offer sheeted. And if he signs an offer sheet from another team, the stars have a week to match it or let him go for whatever the compensation level is relative to their qualifying offer. And I don't know what the offer was. And that trade, that part of the trade allows them to get something in return. Yeah. Ilya Lebushkin, who was the sixth or seventh defenseman, is a throw in that lets you dump $3,000,000 in salary. Because you need some salary cap space. Mhmm. Because your big problem right now is Jason Robertson. Which we are going to discuss next. K. So what happens here? I mean, it seems like Jason Robertson, even though he I've read that he is not even the third or maybe even the fifth best player on this team, he scores goals. He may not be the third or even the fifth best player on the team, but he is their best goal scorer. Yes. He is their best goal scorer. He it it seems like he finds it easier to put the puck in the net more than any anybody else on the club. For sure. And it would seem to me that that is somebody that you've just got to find a way to keep. Well, you do. And there's the problem here is again the salary cap. If you look at the things that have happened in the last couple of weeks as it regards Jason Robertson, the apparent having a deal worked out with Seattle, contingent upon Jason signing a contract with them and him turning down $15,000,000 a year for eight years, kinda says to me that I think he really would prefer to be here. But he wants to be here at a number. I don't know what that number is. Yeah. It probably is 14 or more. It does seem that 14 to 15 is pretty much where everybody's nailing it. And while they might be able to make that work next year, they cannot right now make that work this year. Why? The salary cap. There's just not enough room under the cap. They have think after they trade Lebushkin, I think they have twelve twelve and change available. Oh, okay. But they still have other business 12. To They have other business to do as well still. Like what? Well, is Jamie Beng gonna come back? Mean, I the number is not going to be big. But if he's not, I mean, you just have you have to have enough bodies. That's going to cost you a couple million dollars even if they're just bodies. So you have to find the room and unless you move out more salary somehow. So I think that they're exploring all of their options. They're trying to work something out with Jason. They're also looking at possible trades. And now you may not get full value for him in a trade because he may get traded to a team that he's not going to sign with. Yeah. Or only signs they qualified him also. He's restricted also one more year. And so, I'm sure they qualified him in a number that if he signed an offer sheet, they would get four number one draft picks in the next five years. But that doesn't help you today. What would help them today? Well, either getting him signed or you need to sign not necessarily somebody that's a 40 goal scorer, but somebody that's a 30 goal scorer. I mean, you need to replace him if you trade him. Yeah. Any names out there? Not that I not that I've really heard. Would imagine that the teams have a 30 goal score. They're not gonna they're not looking to trade him. No. But there are guys that are looking to move out. That's happened at a couple of times already in the last couple of weeks. The salary cap went up quite a bit finally after it was flat for several years due to COVID. And a lot of the people that would have been big name free agents this summer re signed over the course of the last year. So it's not as big a free agent market as it usually is, but the trade market seems to be bigger. But now you're talking about throwing darts at a board Yeah. As far as who might be available or what deals might be there to be had. Alright. Let's say we're in a perfect world where there's no right, no wrong, no rules. Just right. If they're out there, yeah, no God. Thank you. What is that? Choctaw? Outback Steakhouse. Oh, no rules? Yeah. I don't No rules just right? Maybe. See, it's masterful bon mons like that that have put him where he is. Thank you. Thank you. I lost my train of thought there over that. Sorry. You were looking for the perfect scenario of I am this guy. No rules. It's gone. Related to the stars. Yeah. I I know. It's it's in there somewhere, but I can't find it. So I think, basically, what do you see as the best case scenario in all this? Best case is they figure out a way to get a deal done. What would be good to like in my mind, and I'm surely they've thought of this. And I honestly don't know between the CBA and the league what the legality or the rule breakingness of this may or may not be. But it'd be great if they could sort of have a handshake deal with him to sign for $10,000,000 this year. Mhmm. Knowing that the seven year, because that's all you can do next year, The seven year 15,000,000 a year contract awaits whenever it is he can be extended after agreeing to the one year deal. So they'll say to him, look, just cut us a little slack on this this year, and next year, we're good for it. Basically, yeah. Because next year, Tyler Sagan's contract comes off the books. And even if you manage to find a way to keep him, you keep him at a much lower number than he is currently costing you. I felt sorry for Tyler Sagan this year. Oh, yeah. For sure. I mean, he was really playing good. He was playing great and then tore that knee up and in sort of a weird collision Yeah. Up there in New York. Yeah. I felt sorry for him. Yep. Did you get all your company's taxes done on time? No. In fact. You had to file extensions? Somebody did. Yeah. But not you? No. I told the people that handle it that they needed to file extension because I was not gonna have the information ready for them in time. What made you ask that? That's incredible though. I don't know. I was just wondering. Alright. That's a very Ryan's question. Yeah. Do you enjoy open enrollment? No. I do not. I hate it. Because I'm the guy that has to deal with that in the place, my day job. I'm the one that has to make all you know, get all the information, present it to the boss, let him make a decision on how we're going to go, and then get the information to the employees. I hate it. What other questions you have? I know how it is when he hates something too. Yeah. I've heard. Expo hating stuff is quite unlike most people hating stuff. Most people are fairly docile about it. And sometimes he is too, but there are other times when he is not. Yeah. He gets his dander up. I'm more I'm more docile now than I used to be. You are? Yeah. Much more. I the temper that you saw back in the day, you rarely see unless I'm talking to you. I rarely I rarely saw it back then. Yeah. Well, some I people saw it didn't see it that often. But now, unless you're a phone customer support person, you you don't really have to deal with it too too much. You gotta really mess up for me to to really losing my shit now. What do you do anyway? I do the money stuff at a company that my friend owns. He called me one day and said, hey, you're you're good at this. Do you mind coming to work? And I said, sure. Because I was sort of done with what I was doing at the time. Which was what? I worked at a place that did property tax consulting. I just chased data. What was the place? They don't get a plug. Did that not end well? I I mean, I turned in my notice and worked gave them a month. I mean, it ended fine, but I'm not really interested in giving them any pub. Yeah. My friend my friends that used to work there now work in other places for competitors, but I don't know what those places are called. I just know that they still work in property tax, but for somebody else. How would you describe what you do these days? When I get asked that question, usually what I say is I do the money stuff at the place that I work. I send out invoices. I pay bills, and I do payroll. All that's that's Pretty solid. Yeah. It's pretty solid. That's easy enough to understand. Is there more to it than that? I do other things, but that just gets you stuck in the muck. And you don't wanna get stuck in the muck? Not particularly. I handle a lot of the I handle all the shipping too. Oh. Oh, you handle all the shipping? Yeah. Logistics? Not logistics, but, you know, we have to send a lot of stuff, UPS and FedEx, and I'm the one that the boss says, hey, this thing needs to go there. And so I go make the label and leave it out for the whoever's picking it up to pick it up. Do you like logistics? I like logic. But do you like logistics? I don't really do logistics. But I like logic. Do He's a logical guy. I am. I mean Oh, I know he is. Yeah. Like make me make me understand whatever it is the thing you're trying to do logically. Like I don't understand why you did the thing you did. It doesn't work with my logic brain. And There is no logic brain like the logic brain of Expo. Right. He and I are not the same. No. He and I are not the same either, but I wish I was more like him than I am. Oh, I do too. I'd be a lot more squared away. Yeah. I mean, look at him. Yeah. He's as squared away as you can be. Then there's us. And then there's us. But you're at least wearing pants. Yeah. You were when you walked in. I was. The adult job. Yeah. What happened? What happened? I can't be funny in pants. So you think you've been funny today? Funnier. He had a had at least he had more of an opportunity to be funny. There you go. Okay. So the shorts and the flip flops created for you the opportunity to be funny. I got my head right. Maybe that's what I needed today. I'm telling you. You had you're on your game, but you could have been a little sharper. I don't have to And I think those shorts and flip flops would have helped. No. No. I can't be sharper. Sharpness eludes me. Fair enough. My my my days of sharp are over. Well, and everything's thrown off today because of the disappointment of last night. Yeah. We're all a little down. We all could use a whopper. Yeah. What are we gonna do? At least you didn't have to drive a couple hours to find out. I texted you and What a beating. Who says? Well, I was up there with Bill Porter and we were all ready to go. How far away were y'all then? We we hadn't gotten underway yet, but we were about to. But your journey was probably gonna be close to an hour or so. Right? Yeah. In fact, he lives up in, Lewisville. Oh, man. And as I was driving into his cul de sac, that's when word started coming down that it was gig off. Word beating. And I was he he called me on the before I got there, and he said that come on come over and stop by because I'm I'm trying to I'm wondering why this is not up on the Rush website. He was thinking that if it's gonna be anywhere, it it it's gonna be there. You know? Right. Yeah. But they actually posted it to socials first. Yeah. Instead well, they yeah. It was out there everywhere. I don't even know if it made the Rush website. I'm sure it did. It did. I think it eventually did. I actually haven't gone to look, but I know the thing from last week made the Rush website. But I I have a friend that I have known for a long time as a booker in Deep Ellum who actually got elevated got hired by Live Nation. It was a local production manager. And he was the production manager for these shows. And so when the guy knocked on my window at the parking lot right before I went in and said, hey, the show's canceled, just turn around. I'm like, I don't believe you. And so I sent out a text which got answered within five minutes of yeah, and here's the new dates. And not too long after that, things started hitting social. And later last night, they posted a video message from Alex who apologized and Yeah. Went through all the stuff and explained. And this was my only you know, they didn't really know until sound check how exactly how bad it was Yeah. Which is why we didn't know until 05:20. Well, I'm sure this has happened to me somewhere along the line that I've been going to a show to find out it got canceled day off, but I can't remember when. So And probably not even that late in the day. Yeah. Like the fact that Expo was there, you say you were fourth in line in the parking Well, was the fourth car. There were three cars in front of me. I mean, were plenty of cars in the lot already. But I was the fourth one in my line waiting to get my little parking thing scanned. You got shooed away instead. Yeah. And I'm sure it wasn't moving because they were starting to tell people you're gonna have to just turn around. And so at least I didn't even have my thing scanned. It's weird to look at your tick my Ticketmaster app and see show rescheduled Yeah. Bannered across a thing. Bannered across, you know, the ticket thing or whatever. And it is now on the Russia website. I've I've been I would have figured. Well, I think I'm not sure, but I think I'm going tomorrow night. To what? To the don't they have a show tomorrow night? No. Oh. Okay. The eleventh? Yeah. I guess that's that's They they postponed them both. Yeah. Okay. Alright. Screw me. So now they're now they're eleventh and thirteenth. Yeah. Alright. Are you going to both? Oh, no. I think I'm just going to the eleventh. Okay. That's a Saturday. That's a week from Saturday. Yeah. Because otherwise he'd be having to miss our show potentially. Yeah. I would be. That probably wouldn't be a thing. Because it's Monday? Yeah. Yeah. That would be It'd a whole thing. It would be a whole thing. Well, Kevin. Kevin. It has been a little slice. Michael, I've enjoyed it as always. Always good to see you. Always good to see you. You were awesome. You were a the veritable font of Rush Poop and we always enjoy that. I almost brought show and tell and I was like, it doesn't sort of loses it for everybody else. I almost brought all my all my programs and old ticket stubs. I don't have all the ticket stubs, but I have programs from every tour going back to my first one that I ever saw. Damn. We do show and tell around here. Yeah. We love show and tell. Oh, maybe if we do this again, I'll I'll do it. Yeah. We're a visual medium now. The last time I did show and tell, I just sat here and solved a Rubik's cube, so And that was fun. Yeah. That was fun. They did the great job. Yeah. Oh, yeah. It showed everybody what a genius That was the was first time. Yeah. That wasn't really my show until Becca did that. I just Yeah. The I I mentioned the thing and she's like, think I know where that box of stuff is. All the old nameplates. Yes. Except mine. Somehow, I don't think we ever found mine. No. We did not. Weird. I found the wake up with the wolf thing and told him he should hang it on his bedroom door. That can still happen. Yeah. It can still happen. I guess. Alright. Thank you, Shoopy. Thank you, Ashley. Thank you, Kevin. Great having you on once again. And thank you for being by the channel. Now you know what we need for you to do for us to keep little YDC going and everything, we need you to share us on your social media and help us get out there because the farther out there we get, the farther out there we will get or something like that. Mhmm. Anyway, you do that for us. We'll do this for you. Bye. Bye. Alright. I'm gonna go take my pants off. You're Dark Companion is a stolen water media presentation.