SPEAKER_02 0:00

You know what I mean? Well, we're gonna find out.

SPEAKER_00 0:03

Oh, shoot. What's going on, you guys? Corpuscurituries back at it again. We got Caitlyn Shook here. Big C. Hello. Here at the annex her spot down here downtown. What's the address here?

SPEAKER_02 0:12

Yeah, 312 South Chaparral. So it's basically a street that you would never go down unless you were deliberately coming to the bar.

SPEAKER_00 0:20

Yeah, yeah, for sure. I was thinking it of a what's the YMCA over there?

SPEAKER_02 0:23

Yeah, YMCA behind us is the U and I.

SPEAKER_00 0:26

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 0:26

Uh but aside from that, it's like a kind of an aptitude test just to like you're like there's three one ways to get here.

SPEAKER_01 0:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 0:33

And then when we first opened, we didn't even have a sign up. So it was basically an accidental speakeasy. Oh wow. But you know what I mean? Because it's like already dark out there. People be like, oh, are are we in the annex? I'm like, yes, you have made it to the annex. By miracle.

SPEAKER_00 0:50

That's what's up. Man, yeah. Yeah, I I saw you come in here. I met you at uh the artisan doing stand-up mic. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 0:56

And I And then you've come in here more than a few times and done our commod comedy collective.

SPEAKER_00 1:00

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:01

Yeah, for sure. It's cool. It's cool. It's cool what you got going on here.

SPEAKER_02 1:04

Yeah, we try. So, how have you liked jumping, putting your toes into the comedy community?

SPEAKER_00 1:11

Uh, I like it. I like it finding my groove. Uh, like you were we were talking about product productivity before coming on, and I think I'm kind of looking into like joke structure and writing, you know, getting into that stuff, you know.

SPEAKER_02 1:22

It's super fascinating because like you know, I I like to do it every once in a while, and that had never I'm always I've been a huge comedy fan, but it never crossed my mind to participate until I heard like two podcasts back to back talking about what a rush it was, and I was all oh, I could use a rush. I need a rush that's not drug related, and um, so I I gave it a shot because I mean I'm I've known Tina for ages, and uh and it's great, it's fun, but it is actually an art form because it's very different just being funny in general in a conversation extemporaneously, but to actually like lead somebody on a storyline or a joke path, really freaking difficult.

SPEAKER_00 2:06

Yeah, yeah, for sure.

SPEAKER_02 2:07

So it's pretty fun.

SPEAKER_00 2:08

Yeah, yeah, definitely. Yeah, I'm enjoying it. I'm enjoying it. So are you so you just it's kind of like a hobby at this point for you? Oh, for sure. Yeah, yeah, for sure. I'm just trying to get that rush. Well, shoot, you got all kinds of stuff going on, man. I know. I think I actually first found you on the your podcast because I was searching for podcasts. Really? Yeah, I was searching for Corpus Christi podcast.

SPEAKER_02 2:25

You're kidding me. No, I'm serious. You're the only person that has found me via podcast. I'm serious.

SPEAKER_00 2:30

That's how that's how I found you, the bad blonde, right? That's your podcast. And I was like, oh, okay. And then I saw I met you at the Artisan, and I mentioned it again there. Yeah. Your podcast, and then you're talking about having a rush and stuff like that. Yeah, so that was pretty cool. So you got that, and you have this.

SPEAKER_02 2:46

Yeah, well, so it's so funny. Yeah, the uh the annex, this bar has been a dream of mine since I was like 18, which is an odd dream to have before you're even 21. Uh, but how this all started was my first job ever was an Italian restaurant a block down the street. I was the bus girl, 16 years old. Wow. It's the best Italian food ever. I literally imagine being able to gain 10 pounds at 16. I get, yeah, again, I was like just like their family dinners and their free bread. I was just just blah blah blah. And um, so that was just down the street. And then my sister and I worked at Ty Cottage, which shout out Ty Cottage. Worked there, uh, you know, going through college, blah blah or going through Del Mar. And then when I went up to Austin, still bartending, waiting tables, and it's funny. So this has always been a dream for me to have my own spot. And you'd wonder why didn't anybody tell me to dream bigger? Oh, I'm kidding. I'm like, why didn't anybody tell me to be like a neuroscientist or something?

SPEAKER_00 3:50

No, man, it makes me think about like, is it because you were in that in that atmosphere?

SPEAKER_02 3:54

Oh, yeah. No, I'm and I'm kidding, because I love this.

SPEAKER_00 3:57

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 3:58

I love uh having a space and I that uh is very welcoming. Like I like to make people feel welcome and comfortable every time they come in these doors over there, and uh yeah, I uh it is a dream come true that's cool for over many many years.

SPEAKER_00 4:16

Yeah, just come it's nice it's very nice in here.

SPEAKER_02 4:18

Thank you.

SPEAKER_00 4:18

I like the color, like it's it's a good vibe in here.

SPEAKER_02 4:21

It's courtyard green. If anybody's listening and they want to know this, because it's not easy picking a green. And if you look, we have a lot of different areas where lighting is coming in. Because we first when we did so essentially my sister, my mom and I designed it. We didn't hire anybody out. I mean, we hired we were kind of our own general contractors, which is insane, frankly. But I know uh at one point my sister and I were just tired of arguing about the color for the green. I wanted it darker, she wanted it lighter, and so we kind of like at one point we just got we exhausted ourselves, and I'm all like, all right, you want that, you have it. And then in her mind, she's like, You want it, you have it. Wow, and so neither of us decided on a green we liked. And this whole place got painted a green. I walked in here and I was like, absolutely fucking. I called her, I was all we cannot do this. I was like, it looks like a putt-putt facility. I was like, we're heading back to Sherwin Williams. This is unbelievable, it can't be done. And uh then we decided on this. It's courtyard green, and I I want to tell everybody that because it is such a pain to pick a good green that if you're looking for a good green, we have already found it. You know what I mean? Like it's I can't it's a total hassle. Uh but yeah, we just celebrated three years here at the annex, and you've been here a couple of times, even though you don't drink, which I think is impressive.

SPEAKER_00 5:48

Yeah, yeah, it's always associated, and I'm glad y'all have mineral water. Oh, yeah. And Red Bull.

SPEAKER_02 5:52

You know, there's a Topo Chico shortage going on.

SPEAKER_00 5:54

No way.

SPEAKER_02 5:55

That's why, guys, Mineragua. Oh yeah, not Topo.

SPEAKER_00 6:00

What's the the bartender for y'all? Brittany, sweet Brittany. Brittany Tipper, when you guys get here, she she's like, Have you dressed it with tahine? I was like, No, I never tried it like that. Oh, it's good. So she hooked it up and super, yeah. Yeah, what do you and you're drinking, you got the special going there.

SPEAKER_02 6:12

Oh, this is a terramasu cold brew, which is super delicious. It's got a little caffeine in there. So the thing is, and to go back to that Italian restaurant that I bust tables at, they would have the most amazing teramasu, and I was in charge of making desserts, which not that hard. You just basically it's not I scooped out terramasu that was already made onto a plate. And terramasu doesn't have to look nice, it just I'm confused.

SPEAKER_00 6:40

You just thought you got me at teramasu. What is that?

SPEAKER_02 6:43

Yeah, so we I was I was like, man, I want something that tastes like terramasu, but also has caffeine because that's what the chicks want. You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_00 6:50

It's got alcohol too, or is that just caffeine? Oh, it totally is. Oh, totally. What kind of question is that? It's got plenty of alcohol.

SPEAKER_02 6:57

Yeah. But it's got, you know, the little caffeine kick. This has been a big hit with the ladies.

SPEAKER_00 7:01

Oh, dope.

SPEAKER_02 7:02

Yeah, it's been a uh Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 7:05

Yeah. Speaking of ladies, so you you're a woman.

SPEAKER_02 7:08

Speaking of ladies, I am a woman.

SPEAKER_00 7:11

Shout out. I I've got I think I'm gonna put this into a women's edition because I already had one episode so far. Oh, you know, because man, I mean, you're doing it.

SPEAKER_02 7:22

Well, it's not just me, so it's my sister and I.

SPEAKER_00 7:24

And we make a that's a lady too. So the two ladies.

SPEAKER_02 7:27

Yes, yes. Well, I always like to shout her out. Okay, yeah. She got two little ones, so she's not always at the bar for sure as much as I am.

SPEAKER_00 7:33

So both y'all, so y'all, sister, both of y'all, both of you guys are well. I heard you're related to some of the other cooks in town or whatever. Cooks? Like, that's your last name, isn't it?

SPEAKER_02 7:43

I'm mostly I mean, I'm mostly related to mechanics.

SPEAKER_00 7:46

That's what I'm talking about.

SPEAKER_02 7:49

I'm not my dad's a mechanic, my brother's a mechanic. What's up? Like, uh I don't think we got a cook yet.

SPEAKER_00 7:56

So so do you still work on cars or was it the last time you worked on a car?

SPEAKER_02 8:00

I got project cars. Uh, it's been a little while, to be honest. So, like, I know enough about mechanicry that mechanicry, yeah, about mechanics that uh I know enough to know I don't know that much.

SPEAKER_01 8:11

Oh wow.

SPEAKER_02 8:11

Well, I mean, think about it. Like, my brothers and my dad are Matt, like, they have seen everything under the sun from antique to modern, you freaking name it. Uh, it takes a tremendous amount of time and knowledge to be good at working on those cars.

SPEAKER_00 8:27

Oh, sure.

SPEAKER_02 8:28

Uh so I mean I can do basic stuff, but at no point would I say I'm a good mechanic.

SPEAKER_00 8:32

Yeah, you're talking about like specialty, like specialty cars.

SPEAKER_02 8:36

Oh, for sure. Like, we're one of the few places you can take a vintage Ferrari in uh south south of San Antonio. Oh man, that's pretty dope.

SPEAKER_00 8:43

I love that. That's awesome. So and and you're on your podcast, The Bad Blonde, do you talk like how do you is that just like all off the brain?

SPEAKER_02 8:51

It is well, so the thing is, is like I if you had told me 10 no, not like 15 years ago that I was gonna have a live radio show about automotive history and that I was gonna actually have an Instagram that in in social media, you know, I would be like, yeah, right. Because I I personally do not like putting myself out there for some like old white dude in Idaho to be like, you're pronouncing that wrong. You know, like so that this passion for automotive history has been something that since I was a kid, essentially. When I was 14, uh my dad got me a Porsche 912E to restore. Uh not not like a restore. People might be all at, uh, spoiled girl. I'm like, uh-uh. That that is considered the poor man's Porsche. So it has the body of a 911, but the engine of a 914. Wow. And at the time, I literally think the guy like probably paid us to get it out of his junket. Oh my gosh. Because nobody wanted it, nobody cared about it. But I will say, now it is actually a very important Porsche because it was only made in 1976. It's the E that's in there, the 912E. They did it one year in 1976, and the E stands for Einspritzen, which means fuel injection. So now, because it's scarce, people are like, ooh, 912 E. But when I was 14, which was many moons ago, uh, it was worth absolutely nothing. And mostly my dad just got it so that he was like, This chick is getting into trouble all the time.

SPEAKER_00 10:26

Wow.

SPEAKER_02 10:27

Let's uh let's get her busy. And um that's kind of how all that just came around. That's still my baby. That car is still my precious baby. It's a project car, and I did a lot of blood, sweat, tears. Honestly, I think that car is uh was very formative of my personality because I basically spent most of my teenage years around old car dudes and Vietnam vets. Wow. Yeah, and actually, this very building is where um so this we used to be an autobody shop. So when I was working on my 912E, it was in this building. Wow and I was working with this uh fantastic man. He was like the he looked like a Hispanic Einstein, his hair, his everything, uh, but he talked like uh a prophet. Like everything that came out of his mouth was some kind of like words of wisdom. It was amazing, and I just had the best time. But I will tell you what though, it is auto body work is mentally exhausting. You're just you're sanding, but you can't sand too hard. It's your instinct to push you, but you gotta like sand the orange peel very softly. Yeah, it's super interesting. It's a good time.

SPEAKER_00 11:43

So yeah, and you're talking about the external of the car and not so much the internal of the car.

SPEAKER_02 11:47

Oh, I had already done the uh completely overhauled the engine, and uh that was fun. Uh honestly, all of it was fun, and it made me a lot of who I am today. That's so interesting. So, yeah, the bait how that all how this whole conversation all started was cars has been in the blood for a long time. Cool. And uh I used to go to car, I mean I still do, but back I used to travel a lot for work, and so I would go to a different car museum, like any city, any city, any state I was going to, and I'm a I love to read a placard, so I will read the heck out of a placard. Fantastic. You learn so much, and I had over the years I had amassed so much, I guess, memory and knowledge of the history of these automobiles that one I just in 2019 I was like, I'm gonna go ahead, I don't care about how nasty people will be on the internet to a girl that is talking about automotive history. And I just started an Instagram, I started doing YouTube's about automotive history because it's genuinely a fascinating topic. Wow. And uh out of nowhere, the station manager at 1440 Keys reached out and he was like, Hey, I want to talk to you about maybe doing a radio show.

SPEAKER_00 13:02

Wow, that's cool.

SPEAKER_02 13:04

Well, I also I curse like a sailor. Can we drink on the show? Can we drink on the show? We we we've definitely had beers on the radio show before. And uh, so I I have a meeting with him and I go in there totally like, yeah, right. You know what I mean? Like, this isn't gonna happen. You couldn't believe it? Well, uh, no, I mean, it wasn't about couldn't believe it. I was just like, I shouldn't be on the radio. Okay, you know what I mean? I was like, I couldn't trust myself not to say the F-word. You know what I mean? So we go in there and he's talking about it and all this stuff, and I'm like, dude, this sounds cool, mostly because like I grew up watching like Frasier and uh what is it, new there was another uh radio show, and then also I loved the movie Airheads. So radio to me has always been fascinating. Uh remember that movie?

SPEAKER_00 13:55

Dude, so good. Was it uh the Lone Stallions or what's the what's the name of their band? Ah we're gonna have to solve that. Long stallions can't be lone.

SPEAKER_02 14:06

It's just it's you know it's that's a good show. It's that yeah. So I just thought radio radio was kind of fascinating, but I told the guy, I'm like, at the end of his spiel, I was like, look, I cuss like a sailor, and I don't have a voice for radio. And he's all you can fig you can fix the cussing part, which I have. I haven't I've only cussed like twice on the show live in six years. But and then he's all like, you might not have a voice for radio, but you got a personality voice.

SPEAKER_00 14:36

I was like, amazing.

SPEAKER_02 14:38

He's right though, because I I do not have a voice for radio. One of my I have a really good YouTube comment. It's one of my history videos. Because I'll I'll make I used to make I've been kind of busy with the bar, so I've done a little I've done less long uh long format videos about history. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And just stick with short lately. I'd like to get back. But I made a history video, and there was this guy that commented, and he said, That girl sounds like a frozen cat getting run through a band song.

SPEAKER_00 15:12

Oh my gosh. I was like, I wasn't even mad.

SPEAKER_02 15:16

I was like, that is the most like imaginative comment. Can you like I was like, dude, that's I don't have to be.

SPEAKER_00 15:24

I don't have this much time to make that kind of comment.

SPEAKER_02 15:26

I was like, I'm not even mad about that.

SPEAKER_00 15:29

Yeah, sometimes I I don't know if they're bots or actually people actually have those opinions.

SPEAKER_02 15:34

Oh, that was a hundred percent a wonderful human being with a good imagination.

SPEAKER_00 15:37

How do you so obviously you get a lot of that? How do you how do you handle that as a as an owner, entrepreneur, and all that stuff?

SPEAKER_02 15:43

Oh, I've gotten way, way better at it. Yeah, it's taken some deep programming.

SPEAKER_00 15:46

Did you used to like comment back like, well, this, this, and this about you? Or well, you know what I mean?

SPEAKER_02 15:52

I I still comment back if I find it personally funny. Like I'm not gonna bloody my hands for nothing. Like if a guy is just you know, you can also tell when somebody's actually looking for I mean, most of them are looking for attention in reality.

SPEAKER_01 16:05

Oh wow.

SPEAKER_02 16:06

Uh well, think about it. If anybody says something negative about you, I'm like, you know why? You're not doing anything con you know what I mean? Like if somebody's saying something negative about you, it's usually because they don't have anything important going on in their lives. Uh, but if I have a comment that specifically cracks me up, yeah, well, I'm gonna say you know what I mean? Like, oh, they're gonna track me down? Yeah, come at me.

SPEAKER_00 16:31

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 16:32

Um but I will say, uh, there are a lot of comments that I don't reply to, and it's taken a lot of deprogramming for me personally, because you know, I've never I grew up the youngest of four kids. Uh I was like homeschooled, went to public school.

SPEAKER_01 16:48

Wow.

SPEAKER_02 16:49

And so like I have uh really trained myself. Like, I'm like, and you you let somebody bully you once, they're gonna bully you for the rest of your life.

SPEAKER_01 16:57

Oh, shoot.

SPEAKER_02 16:57

And I'm all like, not today. So it took a lot of deprogramming to not immediately be like, let's fight.

SPEAKER_00 17:04

No, wow.

SPEAKER_02 17:06

Uh so yeah, it's pretty fascinating. Like your so your dad was involved in that part of parenting, or your mom, or like how did you own or my dad was being a mechanic behind at a he is one of the hardest workers I've literally ever met.

SPEAKER_01 17:21

So cool.

SPEAKER_02 17:22

Like, yeah, he just got he was uh just recently was in the hospital for like over a week. A lot of it. And then the very he got back on a Thursday and he was working on a Friday.

SPEAKER_01 17:33

Wow.

SPEAKER_02 17:34

And I'm like, dude, take it easy. You earned it, you've been working so long. Like, uh yeah, no, one of the hardest workers I've met. So my mom was my may primarily homeschooling us.

SPEAKER_00 17:44

Wow.

SPEAKER_02 17:44

Which is also why I still don't know fractions.

SPEAKER_00 17:47

Yeah, shout out to mom. Happy Mother's Day.

SPEAKER_02 17:49

Yeah, it is Mother's Day.

SPEAKER_00 17:50

Dang.

SPEAKER_02 17:51

Yeah, we were doing a little brunch action before it.

SPEAKER_00 17:53

You got three other siblings too, so that maybe that helps out with that growing process. I always think about that. I always come on that stuff, especially for people that are like us, entrepreneurs, business, business owners, and always creative-minded, like there's always gonna be people that are gonna say something, especially if we're blazing the trail, you know what I mean?

SPEAKER_02 18:11

Oh yeah. Um but really the when you really think about it, the reality is is can't nobody uh that is already too busy focusing on their dreams and goals have time to say something negative.

SPEAKER_00 18:23

You know what I mean? Yeah, if and you and it's like because I can because you could get stuck in that and totally forget about what you're doing and you're wasting your time with it. Is that what you're saying?

SPEAKER_02 18:34

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 18:34

Yeah, for sure.

SPEAKER_02 18:35

That's exact that would be exhausting. That's for sure.

SPEAKER_00 18:38

Exhausting for sure. Man, so you got the annex going on. How how do you like it so far? How long have you been open?

SPEAKER_02 18:42

Three. We just celebrated three years. Yes, like a couple of weeks ago, we had the best time. We had a mini farm, which I do that for me. Yeah, okay, okay. You know, well, I mean, I do it for everybody, but like when we've celebrated our first year anniversary, yeah, I'm all like patting myself on the back. I'm all like, way to go, you bitch. You know what I mean? Like, I'm all, what do you deserve? And I was like, I want a petting zoo.

SPEAKER_00 19:10

And it's so funny, isn't it?

SPEAKER_02 19:14

It was amazing. So we had petting, and so we've always had the petting zoo ever since that first year. Yeah, imagine petting a little baby bunny rabbit. It's like glorious, and baby goats, and this, oh, there was this like succulent little fat white pig that was so precious. And there's chickens, ducks, you name it. Yeah, that's well, like, I mean, you've probably seen this. We like to have experiences at this bar.

SPEAKER_01 19:38

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 19:39

I like, I also I I had a in a different life, I had a brand experience brand experiential marketing job. And so, like, not only does it bring me joy, yeah, but it also brings our customers joy. And I kind of love just sharing an experience, and that's essentially half a that's why we do what we do all the time here.

SPEAKER_00 20:02

It's interesting you say that because it makes me think about do you have a certain type of customer that you should like try to market to? You know what I mean? Do you get into that type of stuff?

SPEAKER_02 20:10

Man, you know, uh, I kind of pride ourselves in having every demographic come in this bar and feel welcome. For sure. Like legitimately. Like we have college students and we have 90-year-olds. Like uh, and so one of my favorite things about our events we do here, like let's say the plant exchange or the book exchange.

SPEAKER_01 20:31

Cool.

SPEAKER_02 20:31

So like you'll come in here, they're kind of they're they're similar in structure. Like you'll bring a book, you'll bring a plant, you'll say your name, you'll say yeah. Well, so the with the book is so cool. Well, yeah, with the book exchange, you'll be like, My name's Caitlin, and I brought this because I like historical fiction, which I do.

SPEAKER_01 20:47

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 20:48

And uh, and everybody will go around in a circle, and at the end of the event, I'll be like, one, two, three, and everybody's like, they like, they're diving for their books. It is the funnest thing, but really, what and I'm gonna, I already got goosebumps just talking about it. What really for me makes those events so special is that you have every demographic, wow, and they have a shared interest, so they are able to talk to the and and they do, they talk to each other, yeah, like and that's not something this day and age that happens much anymore, you know, in reality. So you have a 90-year-old buddy that comes in talking to a college student, they have two different uh genres of books that they don't even you know collide together, yeah, but they still have a common interest and they get a chat with each other. So there's been many friendships made wow through these events that honestly it makes me so happy. That's cool. Yeah, it brings me a tremendous amount of joy.

SPEAKER_00 21:52

It makes me think about community, like the importance of having community and just being for you creating a space to be able to see that. That's nice.

SPEAKER_02 22:00

It feels real special.

SPEAKER_00 22:02

Yeah. Like it feels it's Is it because you grew up? You think it's because you grew up in the community, would you say? Like with your sisters and your you know what I'm saying? Like how what what what made you what draws you to that? It's just just I'm gonna be honest with you. Like how like because my question is usually to people, why are you the way you are? Yeah, yeah. You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_02 22:20

I have always tremendously liked people, to be honest. And uh I've always liked sh you know, and I got lucky. I've you know, like my childhood was not a normal childhood between homeschooling and being around all the old car dudes, and then I did a lot of volunteering with my granny around like every age group. I honestly I I I have I was around a lot of different age groups and talking to a lot of different age groups when I was a kid, and uh I just genuine what sparks me is having a genuine interaction with people, and it brings me so much joy that I like to and I'm always pushing what I like onto people. I'm all like I want you to enjoy this too. I don't know, I like to spread the joy.

SPEAKER_00 23:08

Yeah, that's pretty cool.

SPEAKER_02 23:09

So yeah, it's a combination of things that you know you like what you like.

SPEAKER_00 23:13

Yeah, for sure. You just turn into somebody that you turn into somebody that you want to be, and you're you're you would hope so. You know what I'm saying? Like you're constantly working on yourself and you find new stuff out about yourself, like dang. I didn't know I was like that, you know? It's like you stumble upon it, I guess, sometimes too. That's pretty interesting. Yeah, man. So you got this to annex, and then you have your podcast. Man, what is that like?

SPEAKER_02 23:35

So you So the podcast is so it it I'm lucky because like it's a live radio show on 1440 Keys Saturday at 10 a.m. Which I'll tell you waking up at 10 a.m. on a Saturday. Like, you know, especially sometimes like I'm here late signing checks for a band or something, you name it, or I'm just behaving poorly. I'm taking Jaeger bombs, you know, like who knows what's happening. Uh so it's always funny. But so what's nice is 1440 Keys will send me that and then I upload it into the podcast sphere. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 24:08

So when did you start deciding to turn it into? Did you didn't have to turn it into a podcast, did you?

SPEAKER_02 24:12

No, I didn't.

SPEAKER_00 24:13

Because it's radio, right?

SPEAKER_02 24:14

I just thought, you know, so I have a pretty fair uh I have I have a really genuine uh cool following of car people on social media like Facebook and Instagram. Yeah. And they'd always be like, Well, well, we can't see it, we can't listen to it live. And so that's I kind of started doing that for them.

SPEAKER_00 24:33

And it's nice.

SPEAKER_02 24:34

Yeah. But it's like it's way nerdy, but it's okay, so it might be automotively nerdy, but I feel like anybody can listen to it because it's not all just like specs. Like, I'm not all like, you know, you know, this is a V8, blah, blah, blah. What is the best part about automotive history is that it is a telenovela that involves cars.

SPEAKER_01 24:58

Yeah, crazy.

SPEAKER_02 24:59

Yeah, for real. So, like they're just uh a few months ago, I one of the topics we covered were the Whittington brothers who showed up out of nowhere onto the racing scene with a ton of money. They were also talented, all right. So it's way different if you just show up with a butt ton of money and you race, whatever. But these guys actually had skill. You know what I mean? And so everyone, they just show up on the scene and nobody questioned, and this was like late 70s, and so nobody questions it. They're just like, oh, maybe they just came from money. Nah, dude, they were smuggling weed like no tomorrow, huge weed smugglers, just to just so they could pay for their racing habit. And then the best part for me at least is they made a lot enough money that they bought in Atlanta. There's this like uh I think it's called Road Atlanta, it's this giant racetrack. But what's really important about that racetrack is that it has like one of the longest uh straight for racetracks in America, which is really good for night drop-offs. So cocaine, weed, you name it. These guys made like I think I sometimes my memory's off, but I feel like it was $73 million smuggling. They paid to get into the Laman, and they did good at the Laman, which is a testament to them being actually great race car drivers. They but I think what they've obviously they got caught if I'm telling their story. And uh I think the oldest brother maybe served 14 years. Wow. Which man, maybe I would serve 14 years and get 73 million dollars.

SPEAKER_00 26:45

Man, that's so interesting. I you know I only heard a few episodes and I God, I hope they were good ones. Well, to be honest, I only heard like like 15 minutes. I didn't listen all the way through. But now that you weren't good if you didn't stay listening. Well, now that you say that, uh because I thought it was just like you're saying, the specs. No, yeah, yeah, but you think it's human interest. Do you think you ever run out of uh stuff to talk about? Like history, like like stories?

SPEAKER_02 27:09

Uh that's I'm not gonna lie, that's crossed my mind a few times. But uh no, because since the dawn of the automobile, like well, let's go even let's go all the way back to the race of creating the horseless carriage, the automobile. That's true. Super fascinating. And it so, you know, like times might change, but we're all still the same in a lot of different ways. So at the beginning of the race to produce the horseless carriage, aka the automobile, back then it was a fight of the power source. So you it was either battery or I should say electric, steam, or combustion. Oh, and you know, it's so fascinating because people say that electric is the future, where they don't realize it was also a big part of the past. And why electric failed back then is a lot of why electric is not, let's say, burgeoning as quickly right now. Imagine in the 18, like late 18, let's say like 1890s, you're gonna buy like people don't buy electric cars right now a lot of times because they're you know, if they want you, there's not a ton of places to charge them. Right, right. Imagine if it was 1890.

SPEAKER_00 28:20

Oh, shoot.

SPEAKER_02 28:21

Yeah. So it's so interesting. I mean, there's a place, honestly, there's a place for each one of those power sources, except for steam. Steam can blow your ass up, and that's why nobody really liked steam back then. But you know, like you can have a little, you know, if you mainly travel in the city, an electric car, sure, it makes sense.

SPEAKER_00 28:40

What do you think about the state of the of the automobiles right now? Oh, you're gonna have to talk about that?

SPEAKER_02 28:47

Yeah, no, that's totally cool. Uh I think uh, well, so okay, I'm gonna let's go back in time.

SPEAKER_01 28:53

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 28:54

There was a time period where cars were created, and there's still some, but not a lot. Yeah. Cars were created for you know uh for performance and uh thrill of design. Yeah and in the 1950s, late 1950s, a lot of automobile manufacturers were taken over by what you would call a bean counter. All right. So somebody who's looking at the bottom line, all right, how much money do we make on these cars?

SPEAKER_01 29:23

Oh, phone.

SPEAKER_02 29:24

And so uh you'll notice a lot of like a lot of these cars look the same. All right, and now that being said, we've had a lot of like safety improvements hands down, and that's wonderful for us. Yes, because there was also before the 1950s, they didn't care about our safety that much. Um there's actually a really fascinating story about uh automobile safety. So, like so crazy. Yeah, think about that.

SPEAKER_00 29:51

Yeah, I'm thinking about like what year or what time did like we start buying en masse. Because it seems like automobiles, when you're creating the automobiles, it's only a certain select few of people, maybe have maybe they have money for the material, whatever, whatever. And then we got to the point where everybody has a car. You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_02 30:10

Oh, it's so so it's so funny. Like when the car the when the horse they called it a horseless carriage, because you know, think about it, everybody had carriages, yeah, or ride the horse or whatever. They were terrified of them. Oh like there were no early, like they're only the rich people were early adopters of automobiles.

SPEAKER_01 30:26

Okay, yes.

SPEAKER_02 30:27

Like the average person was like, What is that thing? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, they were they were completely befuddled by these cars coming through. And honestly, that that was such a fascinating time period in automotive history because you had to be a true Maverick and a genius to be able to put, think about it, put all of the components together with an engine to have a car. And what was really cool is that it was any man's game at that time. Wow, you know what I mean? So, like you could have, and this is for a lot of automobile brands that you're familiar with, they could have been manufacturing sewing machines, and then all of a sudden this new invention's out, and they're like, Well, we're gonna make an automobile too. Or they could have been uh so a lot of like um a lot of they went from making carriages to making automobiles. And then a lot of guys just in their their their uh shacks, their like wooden farmhouses were like, well, let's make an automobile. So it's yeah, it's super fascinating.

SPEAKER_00 31:34

Do you think so? I I don't know, there's a rumor. I don't know if it's a uh the car that runs that doesn't run on gas or runs on water or something like that. Do you believe in that type of stuff? Or is it just people just trying to make up stuff or whatever?

SPEAKER_02 31:47

Uh well, I mean, you know, you can there are cars that run on like fry oil and stuff like that, you know what I mean?

SPEAKER_00 31:54

Yeah, and then there's a car that runs on butter.

SPEAKER_02 31:57

There's like uh turbine cars, which are super fascinating. They're like and then uh one of the coolest things I've ever talked about, and it actually never quite came to fruition, was a car that Ford was gonna make a car that ran on nuclear energy.

SPEAKER_00 32:14

Oh shoot.

SPEAKER_02 32:15

And this was like yeah, this was the when everybody thought nuclear energy was going to be this the savior for any power issues. They just didn't at the time they didn't realize uh well, you know, it was I don't know, what 50s or something, late late 50s. Uh they didn't realize that you had to do something with nuclear waste.

SPEAKER_01 32:34

Uh oh.

SPEAKER_02 32:35

And they also obviously they didn't have enough technology to even make a nuclear power plant safe, let alone put it in the back of your car or front of your car. You know, imagine just like a minor car, like imagine you rear-in somebody and you have a nuclear power source in the front of your car. Yeah, that was called the Ford Nucleon, which was super interesting.

SPEAKER_01 32:57

Wow.

SPEAKER_02 32:58

It looked, it looked like a little thumb drive design. Yeah. And that's what's so cool. Back then, you know, like the design of vehicles was more artistic and changing. Now it's just kind of like Yeah, like cookie cutter. Yeah, cookie cutter for the masses, a hundred percent. I know. So do you have a favorite car?

SPEAKER_00 33:18

Oh, I don't know. I like lowrider cars.

SPEAKER_02 33:20

Oh, hell yeah.

SPEAKER_00 33:21

Yeah, like lowrider cars.

SPEAKER_02 33:23

Uh yeah, dude.

SPEAKER_00 33:25

Monte Carlo, I guess. Uh oh, I I've I came upon the Grand National. Yeah. Yeah, that one seems pretty cool. Pretty slick. What was your first car? My first car? It was like a like, I don't know. I don't know what kind of car the lowriders are made out of.

SPEAKER_02 33:40

No, what was your first my first car? Yeah, your first baby car. Hell yeah.

SPEAKER_00 33:49

The back was white, the front was blue. I had to auto-body the front because and then the inside was red.

SPEAKER_02 33:54

Oh, I love that.

SPEAKER_00 33:55

Tape player.

SPEAKER_02 33:56

Dude, I too have uh driven a uh a multicolored car.

SPEAKER_00 34:02

That's funny, yeah. Yeah. Well, see, one of the yes, I've I've been in so many wrecks too in all my cars, and I don't know how the state of Texas ended up giving me a CDL.

SPEAKER_02 34:11

Hey. Well, okay. Were your recs when you were younger? Because that's an entirely different thing.

SPEAKER_00 34:18

Yeah, it's been it's been a minute.

SPEAKER_02 34:19

Uh same, knock on wood.

SPEAKER_00 34:20

Yeah, for sure.

SPEAKER_02 34:21

I used to get into, I mean, I was not paying attention. Also, apparently, the whole time I needed glasses. Oh, shit. I did not know that.

SPEAKER_00 34:28

You wear contacts now?

SPEAKER_02 34:30

No, I got LASIK.

SPEAKER_00 34:31

Oh, nice. Yeah. I guess that's a lot better than like every day having to put it.

SPEAKER_02 34:36

Dude, my eyes, look how tiny these little eyes are.

SPEAKER_00 34:39

I can't help. My eyes are smaller than a contact. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 34:44

Uh-uh.

SPEAKER_00 34:45

I think I'm gonna need some readers, man, because up close.

SPEAKER_02 34:48

It's gonna, we got at one point we all gotta read readers. That's the whole thing.

SPEAKER_00 34:53

Yeah, for sure. For sure. Man, so that's pretty cool. Yeah. So you so you grew up in Corlessy, how much time do you got?

SPEAKER_02 34:59

Born and raised, baby.

SPEAKER_00 35:00

30 minutes. Born and raised in the big CC?

SPEAKER_02 35:03

Yeah, I love it, dude. I love Corpus Christi, Texas. Uh, and anybody that does not appreciate this town, I it I'm not throwing a shade, but I I think it's genuinely a lack of perspective. Because, like, oh, you don't like in Corpus? Go spend a week in Freer. You know what I mean? That's not, I'm not talking shit to Freer. I'm just saying that you know how many kids growing up in Freer wish they could just drive to the beach, go to a pleasant downtown where there's like 10 bars and restaurants, have a nice burger at Sir at the surf club? I think it's a lack of perspective. They've not left. So uh for five years after I graduated college, I had a job where I traveled 330 days out of the year, and that was fucking dope.

SPEAKER_00 35:53

Hell yeah.

SPEAKER_02 35:54

How many times do you think I had to vacuum? What'd you say? How many times do you think I had to vacuum?

SPEAKER_00 35:59

Uh never.

SPEAKER_02 36:00

Yeah. Did I ever make my bed?

SPEAKER_00 36:02

Jeez, never.

SPEAKER_02 36:03

Yeah. Living in a hotel, I was like, I am living the dream. And I enjoyed it. But okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That was not the point of that story. The point. Did you have to drive everywhere? Oh yeah. Oh no, we were driving. Driving everywhere? Oh shit. Bop, bop, bop, different city, bop, bop, bop, bop, bop. Yeah, different city almost every night. Um, I worked and played, played heavily in 80% of the US coastline. Okay. And while I was doing that, I was also naturally thinking, is there anywhere else I would want to live besides Corpus Christi? Wow. And uh nothing, nothing beat it out. Because the cost of living, I mean, right now we have a water crisis, sure. Yeah, yeah. The cost of living, the lack of serious traffic, like I have encountered traffic like no end in the uh upper northeast. Oh yeah, oh, sucks balls. Like, uh, just generally, we have a great life here in Corpus Christi. And if folks do not understand or recognize it, it's just probably due to a lack of perspective.

SPEAKER_00 37:09

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 37:09

You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_00 37:10

Yeah, for sure. Like, it's either that and I'm thinking too, like, other family members influencing that person, like, oh nah corpus is this. Oh, yeah, corpus is this. You know what I mean? Without having their own opinion of the city. I definitely think that too. Like moving out, seeing what's out there, and then like appreciating where you live is is something big too. Because I'm guilty of being like, ah, corpus sucks, whatever, whatever. And a lot of us do. Do you still do that now though?

SPEAKER_02 37:36

Hell no. Well, yeah, you maybe you did it when you were younger.

SPEAKER_00 37:38

When I was younger, but like but now you have perspective. Yes, exactly. That makes a lot of sense to me. And then just starting this podcast and this brand Corpus Christi Originals, which has been nailing it. I appreciate it.

unknown 37:50

Appreciate it.

SPEAKER_02 37:52

Yeah, it's been nailing it.

SPEAKER_00 37:54

Thank you, thank you. And like just starting that and getting to know people like you, it's like, wow, there's people really like Corpus. This is kind of strange, but it's cool in a way.

SPEAKER_02 38:04

We're lucky. You know what I mean? Dude, we're way lucky. Because I've also worked in some very depressing landlocked state cities where these, you know, like there's also, so like I know people want to, especially during the water crisis, people want to shit on refineries, but they have never seen a city where there is no job opportunities besides maybe opening a hardware store or working at your local dairy queen. So the reality is, is we are blessed to have industries, but that we gotta every you know, we gotta make smart decisions on that as well. Of course. But the reality is to actually be able to have good jobs is a game changer in your quality of life.

SPEAKER_00 38:47

Yeah, for sure. For sure. I work in the refineries, like I work three, and I'm a truck driver, so they they help provide for my family, you know what I mean? Oh, it's a big deal. I'm not like praising them, but I'm just saying we have, like you're saying, we have those jobs available to us as opposed to not having it there, like you're saying, those small towns just happen. Oh Dairy Queen, Dollar General, or whatever, you know.

SPEAKER_02 39:09

Yeah, I don't I don't think people should shit on industry, and I don't think industry should shit on the environment. There's a there is a medium we can all meet at in reality. Cool. But yeah, no, if you're one way or the other, then you're just being dumb, frankly. You know what I mean? Think about that. That's all right. Because we need the jobs, and we also want to, it's not we all want to protect the environment as well, and we can definitely find a middle ground there, absolutely accessible. That's cool.

SPEAKER_00 39:35

I was talking with your bartender earlier. That makes me think about like you like being a business owner and stuff like that. Uh how do sorry, I changed gears really fast. Let's change them. I just noticed that. Oh my god. Automotive like automotive church! Oh my god, I'm so ADD, man. Let's start a club. I was already running with you on the next topic, so we're totally fine there. No, I was talking, I was talking to uh your I forget her name. Brittany. Brittany. Uh and she was saying that she really likes the place. It's nice and she likes working here.

SPEAKER_02 40:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 40:02

She likes the ideas that you have as far as the the chicken bingo and all that. So that's pretty cool. How do you go about like uh hiring people for your businesses? Do you look into that or just hire anybody? Like, oh, so we don't just hire anybody. Like, what's your perspective on the city?

SPEAKER_02 40:15

Um, I I guess I'm lucky in that I worked in bars and restaurants for so long that I knew what I like to work with when I was in that industry, and I know what I like to I like people that are genuinely pleasant. And you'll notice all of our bartenders are genuinely pleasant human beings, good people. And uh I also like it when they walk fast because I walk fast, and if you don't walk fast, shit ain't happening fast. You know what I mean? So uh I just I get a I guess when I'm interviewing them, I just get a feeling. And uh yeah.

SPEAKER_00 40:50

Wow. Yeah that's so cool. Yeah, yeah, it makes me think about the industry. So and networking, that's that's a big thing for you because you're saying that working in those, well, I don't know, did you network with people that you work with now? You know what I mean? I'm thinking about networking.

SPEAKER_02 41:05

Um so like I left Corpus when I was 19. I went up to UT, and then after I graduated from UT with P a put a degree in public relations, I literally just looked for I was working uh my I was working at a restaurant, I was working a day job at a PR company. I was like holding down two jobs, and I was all this ain't cutting it.

SPEAKER_00 41:29

No, shoot.

SPEAKER_02 41:30

Like mostly mentally. I was making fine money, but I was all want this. Yeah, I was all eh. I was like, what I do want to do is get paid for travel. So I applied anywhere that would pay me to travel, and I got super lucky. I got accepted on to a experiential marketing company out of Chicago.

SPEAKER_01 41:51

Wow.

SPEAKER_02 41:51

And experiential marketing kind of harkens back to what we were just talking about, is it creating experiences? If you create experiences for your customers, then they're attached to the brand. Oh, and uh yeah, and and it is it's also like it's to me the way I just made it sound sounds like more like uh this A plus B equals C, but the reality is it's like there is a beauty in being able to give somebody an experience.

SPEAKER_01 42:22

Oh, shoot.

SPEAKER_02 42:22

You know what I mean? Not just your regular come in, have a beer, watch sports, but we do watch a lot of sports here. Yeah, yeah. But like giving somebody something unusual to do brings me so much joy. Like our chicken chip bingo, our baby goat happy hour. But you gotta come to the baby goat happy hour. I think we we only got like two more left.

SPEAKER_00 42:41

So cool.

SPEAKER_02 42:42

Uh, and then our plan exchange, book exchange. Uh, if it's something pretty it's very special to be able to give somebody an experience out of their these everybody goes to work, they go home, they got bills to pay, they got house chores, they got this and that. So to give them something that they wouldn't typically experience during the week means a lot to me.

SPEAKER_00 43:06

So the when you started the bar, did you think, okay, I want to do experiences, or you just you did really?

SPEAKER_02 43:11

Well, yeah, I had already had experience doing like I had already worked for that experiential marketing company that I you know, and also I've always been that person. Like I will always choose experience over anything. Yes, just in my typical life.

SPEAKER_00 43:26

Like I'm yeah, so I guess it experienced your so there's different types of marketing, and that's the one that you I guess like to do.

SPEAKER_02 43:33

Oh I love it.

SPEAKER_00 43:34

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 43:35

I love it so much. That's so cool. Yes, yeah, it's just it's uh it's better, like it's more to me, it's one of the most special forms of marketing because you're offering something that is not tangible, you're giving an experience, and they're gonna always have that. You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_00 43:55

Yes, yeah, what I was talking about thinking about like my my wife going on. Us going on vacations.

SPEAKER_02 44:01

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 44:02

Right? Yes. Right? Rather than buying something. Whatever. Something that that can that'll wither away or whatever. The memories will last longer than the actual physical. Is that what you think?

SPEAKER_02 44:14

Oh, you could not have nailed that more on the head.

SPEAKER_00 44:16

For sure, for sure.

SPEAKER_02 44:16

That is 100% it. That makes sense. Just to be able to give somebody like a smile. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 44:25

You know what I mean? It's just, I don't know. There was this point in my life where I was smiling a lot, but I guess now that I'm married and have kids, I don't. Shut up! Uh like, but I used to be at work smiling all the time. They'd be like, why are you smiling, bro? I'm like, I'm happy. Do you want to be like not smile? Like what's the other what's the opposite of that? Yeah. You want to be that? You know what I mean? Um happy is first. Yeah, for sure. I mean, it's it's good for it's good for society.

SPEAKER_02 44:50

Yeah, I would agree.

SPEAKER_00 44:51

Definitely. Is there anything you want to talk about, touch on?

SPEAKER_02 44:53

Yeah, what else do we? Well, we talked about cars, yeah, talked about the bar.

SPEAKER_00 44:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 44:58

Talked about our events. I am gonna talk about I'm gonna talk some shit about you never coming to our chicken shipping.

SPEAKER_00 45:06

When is it? When is it? My schedule's crazy.

SPEAKER_02 45:09

I don't get out. Last Sunday of every month, we put a giant chicken coop in the middle of the bar. Okay. All right. On the bottom of this coop, there's a bunch of numbers randomly ordered, all right? Uh we have bingo cards. Okay. Once we sell out of our bingo cards.

SPEAKER_00 45:26

I like the name.

SPEAKER_02 45:27

Yeah. Once we sell the bingo cards, then I put one of my beloved pet chickens into the coop. And wherever she shits, somebody wins $240. $240. Dude, I am the wildest thing is that I've never seen some there's grown adults literally losing their mind and cheering on chicken chip. Like, they're like, dude, how did you come up with that idea? That's so cool. Well, it's not original. When I lived in Austin, my sister and I both lived in Austin, every Sunday, we would go to Ginny's little Longhorn Saloon. Wow, that's so cool. And they would do chicken chip bingo, and we had the best time of our lives. And so when I when we opened the bar, I was all we gotta pay homage to Ginny. Dude, the original like UT Longhorn Bar on Burnett in Austin. It's a dive, total dive.

SPEAKER_00 46:22

Well, so how come we didn't pick Austin? Like I know you like Corpus.

SPEAKER_02 46:25

Oh.

unknown 46:26

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 46:28

How did I pick that? Yeah. Uh literally, I do more research on the restaurants I go to at night than I did in where I went to college. But okay, but in my defense, wild story, yeah. Uh I actually I got kicked out of high school when I was 16.

SPEAKER_01 46:44

Oh.

SPEAKER_02 46:44

Yeah. And uh I was like, well shit, I don't want to be a total fuck up. You know what I mean? I was all I got kicked out.

SPEAKER_00 46:52

So just playing around.

SPEAKER_02 46:53

Yeah, oh now it's real. Now I'm in real life. So I'm 16 and I have to get my GED to be able to go to Del Mar to start my basics. But you have to be 17 to get your GED. And so, like, you also have to have a driver's license to get your GED. Okay, okay. I'm 16, I haven't gotten my driver's license yet, because you also have to be enrolled in school at 16 to get your driver's license. It's like it was like I was stuck in a perfect storm of fuck around and find out. Also, it was my fault. Like, I was I was I uh could have been up to your name. I could have, yeah, exactly. The honor, the good blonde would have been dishonest. Uh yeah, I wasn't uh I was, yeah, I would find trouble for the most part, but I get lucky. I'm trying to sign up to get my GED, and they're all like, you have no identification, we can't do this, blah, blah, blah. I get lucky, some chick comes out of the office that when I was a kid, oops, when I was a kid, we uh we swam competitively with, and she's like, Oh, that's yeah, she's all that's Caitlin Shook. And then I got to take my GED. I was all hell yeah. So I uh I took my GD, I went to Del Mar, which I cannot speak more highly of Del Mar. Like it is 10 out of 10, at the like just the how much the professors cared, and also I loved just the eclectic mix of students. You know what I mean? Like you're with somebody who has a family and is doing night classes, you're with a kid, you're with somebody who's just gotten out of rehab, you name it. Yeah, like and that's the beauty of life, and the beauty of souls is what I love so much about Delmar. And also very 10 like top-tier education. Yeah. At the time, Del Mar was like in the top eight junior colleges in the nation. If you can imagine that, that's fantastic, like in the nation. In the nation, in the nation. So um, while I was finishing up my basics there, my asked my oldest brother, uh, I was like, he's all where do you want to go? And I was like, I don't know. He's all well, you should just go to UT. And I was like, okay. I didn't do any research, I didn't do anything. I just applied to UT. Wow. And through the great, I mean, I was also working pretty hard because I had a chip on my shoulder from getting kicked out. I was like, I'm not gonna be a total fuck up. Damn. So UT transferred me in with 71 hours, which is almost unheard of because those colleges want to make money. So any hour they let in means an hour they've lost money-wise. Uh so it was hilarious. I showed up there, and uh neither of my parents are like college football people, all right. I'm just gonna preface that. I showed up there for I don't, whatever they call it, orientation day. Yeah, just oblivious. And uh I was all why is everybody wearing that color? And now I love that color. I love my time at UT. It was great. So that's the the only reason I chose it is because my older brother was all like, why don't you go? Wow. And then I went. And thank God he did because I had a tremendous time. Austin was great, UT was good. I mean, yeah, there was a little bit of a transition period where I got used to being around that many fucking frat boys and sorority girls.

SPEAKER_00 50:27

Oh, wow.

SPEAKER_02 50:28

Because I really loved the eclecticness of the students at Delmar.

SPEAKER_00 50:32

Wow. Amazing. So you knew college was the play. Did you say you knew you thought that college was the play for you? Like you knew, like when you were 16, going back to get your G.

SPEAKER_02 50:45

Oh, no. No, no, no, no, no. I actually tried to talk, I was I tried to talk my dad into me becoming a mechanic.

SPEAKER_01 50:53

Oh, wow.

SPEAKER_02 50:54

And he was like, over my dead body, bitch. Well, because uh the the nature of the well, yeah, I didn't want to go to college, to be honest. Uh I was all like, whatever money you would have spent there, I either I was also detailing cars, like I was a little hustler as a child. Um no, I didn't, I they my parents were like, you go there so you have a better future. Uh because I wanted to, but the the and I appreciate, I get it, because like you know, my dad has worked with his hands his entire life.

SPEAKER_01 51:23

Right.

SPEAKER_02 51:23

And there's only so much time that your hands work. The reality of that, you know what I mean? Yeah. So like being a physical laborer, you only have so much time in that. He's like, he's all no bitch. Wow. You're not he he was like, absolutely not. You're going to college, not today.

SPEAKER_00 51:42

Wow.

SPEAKER_02 51:43

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 51:43

So you had to bang. That's amazing to have a father, like have a father in your life like that.

SPEAKER_02 51:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 51:50

You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_02 51:50

Oh, I'm I'm I've got real lucky. My parents are angels.

SPEAKER_00 51:53

Yeah, that's a blessing. That's amazing. So you got to college, you had to pay, was it like picking a major? Did you switch so many times while you had a lot of hour credit hours?

SPEAKER_02 52:03

No, no, no. I got a lot of credit hours from Del Mar because I knew it was gonna save money. You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_00 52:09

Yeah, even to lay out.

SPEAKER_02 52:10

Yeah, so I saved as I took as many as I could at Del Mar. And then when I got to UT, I pretty much had an idea it was either gonna be business or public relations because the reality is I love the public, like I really genuinely enjoy interacting and uh with with people, yeah, and I like the understanding of like a PR campaign, so I really liked my major. Um I I liked most of all the experience that you know what I mean. Yeah, I wasn't like a normal college student either, you know what I mean? Like I didn't uh I was working the whole time, which is a little unusual at UT. I worked at Hyde Park Bar and Grill, bartending and waiting tables. You know, I come from like we're mechanics, it's a nice shop, but we're still blue collar as fuck. You know what I mean? So uh I took there were so many kids at UT that took college for granted because they were like preppy and expected they were all, you know what I mean? But I had come from give me a second, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 53:19

Sorry about that.

SPEAKER_02 53:20

Oh, you're good.

SPEAKER_00 53:21

Yeah, it was it was framing over there. Man, so I'm sorry.

SPEAKER_02 53:23

No, you're great. Go ahead, go ahead. So yeah, I didn't take college for granted because I literally got kicked out of high school and all that bull. Uh and uh that was honestly when I first went to UT, there was a little bit of a disenchantment because I'd come from Del Mar where we're all working, like nobody's at Del Mar that's just effing around.

SPEAKER_01 53:41

Right, right, right.

SPEAKER_02 53:42

Whereas UT, you know, these are just kids that are just like, you know, like mom's money, and blah blah blah. Uh so there was, but I found my own people within uh there and I made best friends, and yeah, it was great. I genuinely enjoyed uh all the classes, most of the professors, like yeah.

SPEAKER_00 54:02

Wow, so you were working while you were in college. That's that's I've been working since I was sixteen. That's unheard of, like you're saying, like, because there's a lot of kids to maybe borrow money from the government or whatever and just live off of that or whatever. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 54:15

Well, I okay, I will I will say there's also some kids that can't, uh, and that's no shade, but there's some people that can't do all of it at once. You know what I mean? There's some people that cannot do work and school at the same time. Yeah, that's I think I would be a mess if I was like I the busier I am, the better I am.

SPEAKER_00 54:34

Oh personally. So you even to this day, you have to you always feel like you have to be doing something? Is it hard to relax?

SPEAKER_02 54:40

I've gotten really I've gotten way better at relaxing. I I have. I'm so like pat on the back. You know, because like I my parents are never not working.

SPEAKER_00 54:50

So like even then to this day, they're still they're still doing stuff. Wow.

SPEAKER_02 54:54

Oh, all the time. So like understanding recreation for me as like an adult took a while to understand. Like, I, you know, I'm like, if I'm not doing something, I if I don't get it, if my to-do list isn't done, then what is what am I even doing? Where is my self-worth? Uh but no, I've gotten way better at uh being able to appreciate and understand recreation because it's actually important to have time off and to enjoy what you like to do. Uh yeah, people should have ego you you I would way encourage a good balance of working and enjoying. Yeah, and I do a lot of enjoying, like I go to car events, I go to birding because I loved a bird. What do you what is that? Birding, like bird watching? I fucking love that you just said that. So, yes, birding is bird watching, aka bird identification. Right now, we're like in migration period. So I have been enjoying, I've had some what do you all do? Dude, you can go around everywhere? Oh, you can literally be driving your car and see a bird.

SPEAKER_01 56:01

Like that's one right now. That's what I'm saying.

SPEAKER_02 56:04

Like they're everywhere. I uh just yesterday morning I had like six hummingbirds, ruby-throated hunting birds flying around in my backyard. I've had some orchard Orioles, uh, mature and immature, in my backyard. But so Corpus Christi is the birdiest city in America, and it allows you it allows you to literally enjoy migration. People travel across the world to come to Corpus. Seriously. Yeah, oh, it's glorious. And so also I will say this birding, bird identification is not that different from car identification in a way. Like it's still like you like to see it and you like to identify things, like it's a very specific, nerdy fucking tendency. And I love it though, like it's glorious, it's kind of pretty special.

SPEAKER_00 56:49

So what you got special binoculars, you got like what how do you what is your gear? What does your setup look like?

SPEAKER_02 56:55

I don't have like so. I'm in the Audubon Outdoor Club, which is like the the which is a way nerdy club. I joined it as soon as I moved back from Corpus after traveling. Yeah, all bird all day. So uh it's so cool. Oh, it is. So though I don't I have Well, I'm noticing the birds you got on the wall, these pictures and stuff. I know, isn't that nice?

SPEAKER_00 57:17

Oh yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 57:18

It's got our walls have birds and cars, which are I'm just pushing my hobbies on people. So they have Swarovski crystal uh binoculars and telescopes. I don't have anything that fancy. Those are like thousands, like two, three, four, five thousand dollar binoculars. I'm not that into it. I mean, like I'm not that I'm not gonna spend fucking three thousand dollars on binoculars. Not on my one. I'll do that, nah. But I got a nice pair of binoculars I keep on my uh dining room table because I have two big windows. I'm like, wow.

SPEAKER_00 57:57

Oh, what is you?

SPEAKER_02 57:59

Dude, I saw a summer tanager the other day, which is like this gloriously red bird, which yeah, no, it's it's really mind-blowing. It's like eyeball crack. You see a vibrantly colored bird. When you see a vibrantly colored bird, you're all you know, you just like your eyes get absorbed in it. It's just it's so wonderful and fascinating. Yeah. Oh, you got some bird stuff? Yeah, ooh, that's pretty dope. Thank you for that. That's my man right there. Hell yeah.

SPEAKER_00 58:31

Pretty cool.

SPEAKER_02 58:31

I don't those weren't flamingos. They weren't flamingos. I don't wait until you're gonna be.

SPEAKER_01 58:40

I mean, I'm a birder.

SPEAKER_02 58:42

Yeah, I'm not gonna tell him while he's here. But those were absolutely not flamingos. Honestly, they look more like cormorants.

SPEAKER_01 58:48

Oh, dude.

SPEAKER_00 58:50

So obviously you gotta study the bang. I hope. Is he a regular?

SPEAKER_02 58:53

Does he watch your podcast?

SPEAKER_00 58:54

No, I don't know.

SPEAKER_02 58:55

Okay, thank God. I don't want him to hear me being all but honestly, though they didn't have the beak of a flamingo. A flamingo beak is pretty specific.

SPEAKER_00 59:05

So what you also weren't pink. So you got oh, they were what were they like light pink? I'm thinking like light pink. So flamingos are an outline.

SPEAKER_02 59:13

Okay, maybe. I mean, I need to watch it again. If if what he saw was potentially pink, it could be uh rosy at spoonbill, but really those no, those didn't even have the body. Yeah, anyways, we'll continue on. I honestly think those were cormorants.

SPEAKER_00 59:32

But so it can look like a flamingo, but there's only there's certain things that make it not a flamingo.

SPEAKER_02 59:36

Those did not look like a flamingo. So a flamingo has like a very distinct bill.

SPEAKER_00 59:40

Oh wow that's so cool.

SPEAKER_02 59:43

All I saw was that he had essentially those what he showed me in that video was like an outline of birds flying uh against the sun, which all you see is a shadow, or you know what I mean? Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 59:57

Wow, so cool. You got books on that stuff? You research you use, do you use AI?

SPEAKER_02 1:00:01

I don't with birding, nah. You oh, okay, nah, you got so and bitch, you got you're gonna get a book too. So I buy like 20 birding identification books like every six months, and I hand them out like chicles. You know what I mean? You're gonna get one.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:19

Table table reading room, too.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:21

No, no, I mean, no, not at the bar, just in personal. Like, yeah. So next time I'm gonna next comedy collective, I'm gonna bring you one. Oh because it's it's like uh it's like an avalanche or a domino effect. Now that you and I have talked about birds, yeah, you're gonna notice birds more often. And then you're gonna be like, well, what bird is this? Yes, and especially you have kids, right? So wouldn't that be nice to those green ones?

SPEAKER_00 1:00:49

They're like parrots.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:50

They look oh yeah, they're monk parakeets.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:52

Monk parakeets.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:53

But aka parrots, you name it. But yeah, so like the interesting thing is those have been in Austin for a very long time.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:58

Uh they're an invasive species, but they're a welcome species. They're so cute. That they aren't like originally from here, they're like basically escaped parakeets that have formed populations. Yeah, super fascinating.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:12

Is there some that stay that are around here during the wintertime? Huh? Is there some that are around here during the because you there might there's a migration season right now?

SPEAKER_02 1:01:20

So yeah, so they're yeah, there's migratory birds and there's birds that just stay put around here.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:25

Like seagulls, that's what I'm thinking about. Because they're here all the time.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:27

I fucking love a seagull.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:28

You do?

SPEAKER_02 1:01:29

Yeah, dude, they all they audacity. Yeah, you know, the seagull don't fuck, they don't give a fuck.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:34

I don't care.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:35

There's zero fucks given out of a seagull. Which I respect. That's like a spirit animal side quest. Like, well, I will, like, if I had no manners, I would steal your hamburger out of your hands. You know what I mean? Like, say less.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:48

Don't try to tame me, bro.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:49

So, anyways, I'm gonna give you a birding identification book. Oh, come on, all right. That way, next time you see a bird, maybe with your kid, yeah, you can teach that. You know what I mean? Because that's my thing, is I think, oh, here I am. Go go go go experience maxing. But the reality is, it's like a lot of kids are now on uh screens and on TVs. And the one beauty about birding is it is the most uh accessible observational hobby. Like, think about it. Like some hobbies, you gotta buy something. You and I could walk out of this fucking door right now and see a monk parakeet, we could see a uh great-tailed grackle, we could see an Inca dove, we could see a morning dove. Like, you literally don't have to have a fucking penny in your pocket to be able to bird. You know what I mean? Yeah, and that's special. And why it's also special is because you're actually participating in nature. You like you, you so many people are disconnected from nature that you could this is your easiest way to be in tune with the moment and nature. Also, I want to say it was the original motherfucking Pokemon Go.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:59

Let's go.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:00

You know what I mean? Let's go. Oh, they came out with Pokemon Go. I'm all hello, Birding has been here forever.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:05

Oh, really?

SPEAKER_02 1:03:06

Oh, think about it. People are like going somewhere to see a specific Pokemon. That's what Birding has done. Well, so when we had the Cattle Tyrant, do you remember that bird that came out out of nowhere? Cattle tyrant? You don't? Oh, I'm gonna tell you.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:19

Tell me.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:20

Oh, it's fucking dope. So out of nowhere, uh, and one of my uh the actually the president of the Audubon Outdoor Club, Liam Wolf, originally spotted spotted a bird called the Cattle Tyrant over down by like Tokyo, okay? Just down the street over there. And this bird has never been seen north of Panama.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:41

Wow.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:42

Which is wild. Yes. So super wild. Everyone's like, how did it get here? Yeah, yeah. Well, what they believe is it got here by accidentally getting trapped in one of the containers that come up through the port, right? Now, think about this. This bird has never been north of Panama. It's here. There are people coming down from Washington, from New York, from Seattle, you name it, to well, to see it because they have the opportunity of getting a bird on their year list without going all the way to fucking to Panama? Panama. And it's just a it's such an oddity. Yeah. So it's super, super fascinating.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:23

That's awesome. You know what I mean? Like it is. I didn't expect we were gonna be talking about birds right now. This is cool.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:28

Yeah, it's my thing. That's awesome.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:30

I like birds, cars, yeah, birds and cars, and cocktails. Cocktails. I was I drive from Portland through here where I used to. And then there's like that bird uh set it's like a sanctuary, I want to say. You know what I'm talking about?

SPEAKER_02 1:04:44

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:45

That's straight from here to Portland. Oh, for sure.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:48

Yeah, you can say, yeah, you can see osprey, you can see blue herons, you can see egrets, you can see kingfishers.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:55

Is there one that is there one that's like the majority of the birds, would you say? Like wild, like like is there one of is there one of Is there a bird that you see more often than the other? Yeah, there you go.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:07

Yeah! Oh, well, for sure, pelicans. We see a lot of pelicans, we see a ton of egrets. Pelicans are dope. Dude, I fucking love a pelican. They're on my top five favorite bird.

SPEAKER_00 1:05:17

Oh, shoot, that's awesome.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:18

And they're wild stories. So we all have. Top five.

SPEAKER_00 1:05:21

You got a top five?

SPEAKER_02 1:05:22

Bitch, yeah, I guess I'm a big burder.

SPEAKER_00 1:05:26

I'll play around. Caitlin go play around, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:29

You well, after I give you this bird book, you too might be um you might be a you might, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:05:35

What's the name of this bird book, Caitlin?

SPEAKER_02 1:05:37

Oh, it's just uh North America Identification Bird book.

SPEAKER_00 1:05:41

Nice.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:42

Yeah, but so cool. It's a game changer because like it's really fun to like you're all you see something, you're all you're like, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:05:52

It's uh cool.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:52

It's uh did you ever get into Pokemon Go?

SPEAKER_00 1:05:55

Not really. I mean, I've got to nerd shit.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:58

Yeah, I was already doing My bird ship. But the reality is, is like I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:05

I don't I don't like Pokemon Go. It's on your phone, and you're like, I'm like, no, like you're saying, we could just go out and walk in in the grass or go to the beach or whatever.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:16

Yeah, I only bring it up because it's like relevant modern times, but it allows people to understand.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:21

And if people do that, that's that's their thing. I and I'm I'm like that too. Like, that's your thing? Go ahead. Be a lot cooler if you're looking at birds. Yeah, yeah. Just be honest. Yeah. I'm a musician. I'll be like, I wish everybody could learn how to play the guitar.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:35

That's why I that's how I am.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:36

It's a very special talent, though. It takes you know, skills.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:41

Piano, like piano is probably the easiest. You just it's like hammering down, you know what I mean? But I get into that too. And then like I started teaching and see the public schools, and there's not there's not a lot of that hype around music as I wanted it to be, because they're just kind of elective. The sports are the big thing, yeah. You know what I mean? And so I was like, damn, this sucks. You know what I mean? I wish there was more people uh into music.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:08

Yeah, got me online.

SPEAKER_00 1:07:10

Into the arts, I guess. I totally agree. You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_02 1:07:12

Well, I it they're just I feel like there used to be a larger focus on that. There, you know, what do you think?

SPEAKER_00 1:07:18

I I think so because before you didn't have your phone, you had you had to find stuff to do with your hands.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:25

Blessing and a curse right here.

SPEAKER_00 1:07:27

Yes, exactly.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:28

But I will say I love being able to Google something like that.

SPEAKER_00 1:07:31

Same here, yeah, definitely.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:32

I want I want to end an argument immediately by googling something. But the other bullshit that comes along with it.

SPEAKER_00 1:07:39

Yeah, for sure. It definitely had an effect, like riding bikes. Because you got a picture of a person on a bike right there. I mean, I'm thinking a lot of our a lot of the newer generations are not learning how to ride a bike. You know what I mean? That's that's that's kind of scary.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:55

Well, so there are statistics, you're totally right on that. So there are statistics lately that have come out that uh the teens, late teens, they don't want to get their driver's license, they don't want to have sex, and they don't want to drink. And all I wanted to do as a teenager was get my driver's license and get my hands on booze. You know what I mean? Like that was it. How's it going? Yeah. I like that we have customers coming in. And they're all what the fuck is going on around the house.

SPEAKER_00 1:08:28

What's going on here? I was asking, yeah. I told you this would be a good place to set up because you could see him in the background.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:32

Yeah, it looks good.

SPEAKER_00 1:08:33

It's pretty cool. Man, well, Caitlin, thanks for coming on the show. Please.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:37

This was a fantastic conversation.

SPEAKER_00 1:08:40

For sure, for sure. We have definitely put some clips on there, and man, this is a good conversation. I'm glad I had you on the show. Uh I think Melody or Melody or I don't know.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:51

Yeah, Melody or Bartender.

SPEAKER_00 1:08:52

Yeah, she was suggesting to have to have you on the show.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:56

She's a sweet angel. We're lucky to have her. That's cool.

SPEAKER_00 1:08:58

That's what's up. That's what's up. Well, is there anything you want to share? I gotta go take my wife's car. I gotta get her car fit, her her tire fixed. She hit a nail the other day. That's good last night. Yeah, I gotta get back to life, man. I wish I could just talk to people like that. Not all I talk to people. No, I bet you get it. Not all the time. Yeah, that's what I'm gonna say. Not all the time. I like having this conversation, but then when I leave, I'm like, oh, for sure.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:21

I can't.

SPEAKER_00 1:09:21

I can have some little bit of solitude, but it's that's just how my brain is. I like I want to be social with people, but at the same time, I don't want to be social with people. My brain is always like two like things fighting against because I'm ADD, man. And like, I'm just like, yeah, I want it, but then I don't want it. But I want to get something started, but it takes a while to get started. You know what I mean? A hundred percent. And I'm not like I'm not like those people, like, oh, 5 a.m. every day, go to the gym, work out, this set. I try, I tried that one time, but it's just like 5 a.m.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:51

is the middle of the fucking night. You see what I'm saying? Like, all right, these people are crazy.

SPEAKER_00 1:09:55

I'm not gonna get up that early unless I have to. Like, since I got I gotta go to work at 2 a.m. You know what I mean? Oh, yeah, gotta figure that stuff out. But yeah, thanks for coming on the show. Is there anything else?

SPEAKER_02 1:10:04

Ah, this is what a good time. That was a blast. Yes, the best time.

SPEAKER_00 1:10:09

You guys hit up the annex, you guys, listen to the Bad Blonde podcast. Um, yeah, check out you guys got drink specials every day. We got a list here.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:18

We do.

SPEAKER_00 1:10:18

Yep. They got, and if you don't drink alcohol, they got the Topo Chico's uh alternative, and then they got a Red Bull, which is what I usually always get here. But you guys can enjoy this right here behind the U and I restaurant. What's the address? 312 South Chaparral. Already, you guys, thanks a lot for watching. You guys, Caitlin, thanks for coming through again one more time. My pleasure, you guys have a good one. Yeah, see y'all later.