I have a scrambler in my brain.
May 21, 2008 8:23 AM Subscribe
Tom Waits interviews Tom Waits. A charmingly rambling (but what else would you expect?) interview in advance of his PEHDTSCKJMBA tour. Includes these tantalizing words: I’m doing songs with them I’ve never attempted outside the studio. via reddit.
There was this, but I guess it's not a double. Also:
Q: Can you tell me an odd thing that happened in an odd place? Any thoughts?
A: A Japanese freighter had been torpedoed during WWII and it’s at the bottom of Tokyo Harbor with a large hole in her hull. A team of engineers was called together to solve the problem of raising the wounded vessel to the surface. One of the engineers tackling this puzzle said he remembered seeing a Donald Duck cartoon when he was a boy where there was a boat at the bottom of the ocean with a hole in its hull, and they injected it with ping-pong balls and it floated up. The skeptical group laughed but one of the experts was willing to give it a try. Of course, where in the world would you find twenty million ping-pong balls but in Tokyo? It turned out to be the perfect solution. The balls were injected into the hull and it floated to the surface, the engineer was altered. Moral- solutions to problems are always found at an entirely different level; also, believe in yourself in the face of impossible odds.
It's funny.
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane at 8:42 AM on May 21, 2008
Q: Can you tell me an odd thing that happened in an odd place? Any thoughts?
A: A Japanese freighter had been torpedoed during WWII and it’s at the bottom of Tokyo Harbor with a large hole in her hull. A team of engineers was called together to solve the problem of raising the wounded vessel to the surface. One of the engineers tackling this puzzle said he remembered seeing a Donald Duck cartoon when he was a boy where there was a boat at the bottom of the ocean with a hole in its hull, and they injected it with ping-pong balls and it floated up. The skeptical group laughed but one of the experts was willing to give it a try. Of course, where in the world would you find twenty million ping-pong balls but in Tokyo? It turned out to be the perfect solution. The balls were injected into the hull and it floated to the surface, the engineer was altered. Moral- solutions to problems are always found at an entirely different level; also, believe in yourself in the face of impossible odds.
It's funny.
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane at 8:42 AM on May 21, 2008
Perhaps you're thinking of the press conference?
posted by 2or3whiskeysodas at 8:42 AM on May 21, 2008
posted by 2or3whiskeysodas at 8:42 AM on May 21, 2008
Oh I really liked this. Thanks! I have Tom Waits on the brain right now. I had a wonderful dream the other night where he was the Attending at the hospital I work at - reading chemo orders out loud in a wrinkled lab coat. The husband and I are going to see him in Tulsa.
posted by dog food sugar at 8:57 AM on May 21, 2008
posted by dog food sugar at 8:57 AM on May 21, 2008
I love Tom Waits for too many reasons to list and I hate him because he will probably never play a show anywhere near New York for the remainder of his life.
posted by shmegegge at 9:01 AM on May 21, 2008
posted by shmegegge at 9:01 AM on May 21, 2008
I love Tom Waits music. I love every sound he makes. If there were a recording of tom Waits peeing into a tin cup over the telephone, I would buy it.
posted by Wonderwoman at 9:15 AM on May 21, 2008 [4 favorites]
posted by Wonderwoman at 9:15 AM on May 21, 2008 [4 favorites]
Flying to Houston from Albuquerque just for the upcoming show.
posted by signalnine at 9:40 AM on May 21, 2008
posted by signalnine at 9:40 AM on May 21, 2008
I really like Tom Waits and paid $300 for a ticket to his show in Chicago last summer (or was it 2 summers ago?). I was disappointed. It was a good show, but he did way too much hard rocking stuff, and only a couple songs just on the piano. And very little talking. Solid, but disappointing.
I'd still pay another three hundred to see him again. I just don't want to go to St. Louis.
posted by jeff-o-matic at 10:06 AM on May 21, 2008
I'd still pay another three hundred to see him again. I just don't want to go to St. Louis.
posted by jeff-o-matic at 10:06 AM on May 21, 2008
Q: Favorite scenes in movies?
A: ...Julie Christie’s face in Heaven Can Wait when she said, “Would you like to get a cup of coffee?”
Q: Can you describe a few other scenes from movies that have always stayed with you?
A: ...The speech by Rutger Hauer in Blade Runner as he’s dying.
I can't explain why I am thrilled that Tom Waits, who is, after all, just another human being, shares my love of these very particular things.
posted by Turtles all the way down at 10:19 AM on May 21, 2008 [3 favorites]
A: ...Julie Christie’s face in Heaven Can Wait when she said, “Would you like to get a cup of coffee?”
Q: Can you describe a few other scenes from movies that have always stayed with you?
A: ...The speech by Rutger Hauer in Blade Runner as he’s dying.
I can't explain why I am thrilled that Tom Waits, who is, after all, just another human being, shares my love of these very particular things.
posted by Turtles all the way down at 10:19 AM on May 21, 2008 [3 favorites]
I had a dream once that I was engaged, and he'd been hired by my dad to approve the marriage. He sat in an overstuffed chair in a dark, dusty office and asked my faceless dream fiance things like "Sooooo. Why d'ya'wanna marry herrrr, anywaaaaaay?" in a "What's he building in therrrrre?" kind of way. And then he embarrassed me by scaring the shit out of said faceless fiance only to burst out laughing because all that stuff he said about skewering the organs of my last candidate was a lie. It was a good dream.
posted by katillathehun at 12:11 PM on May 21, 2008 [2 favorites]
posted by katillathehun at 12:11 PM on May 21, 2008 [2 favorites]
I saw Tom Waits in NYC in 1999 or so... ($80- most i ever paid for a single band). One of his "influences," Keith Richards was in attendance, as was Elvis Costello. I had better seats than either of them.
posted by TechnoLustLuddite at 12:40 PM on May 21, 2008
posted by TechnoLustLuddite at 12:40 PM on May 21, 2008
Absolutely brilliant.
posted by billypilgrim at 12:45 PM on May 21, 2008
posted by billypilgrim at 12:45 PM on May 21, 2008
I love Waits. I'm never NOT in the mood for his music. Even working out. I once even played Bone Machine during a sparring session for the kick boxers at the boxing gym. Usually they listen to Panterra and stuff like that. And sometimes that amps them up past the point of productive practice if you know what I mean. They spaz out. So I put on Waits and all the 20 year olds start bitching. Then about three rounds in you can see them digg'n it and playing like they should. Like fighters in a trance and moving in molasses. So now they ask if I have the "crazy old man" music every once in a while.
posted by tkchrist at 1:47 PM on May 21, 2008 [1 favorite]
posted by tkchrist at 1:47 PM on May 21, 2008 [1 favorite]
dogfoodsugar, signalnine: any reason you're not catching the show at Jones Hall here?
posted by 2or3whiskeysodas at 3:46 PM on May 21, 2008
posted by 2or3whiskeysodas at 3:46 PM on May 21, 2008
The husband's band conflicts with the Houston show date so we picked Tulsa as a little mini vacation. Jones Hall would be nice - I love all that red inside that hall - but the Brady in Tulsa looks like an interesting place too. I'm getting rather excited about Tulsa. It looks like a quirky town.
posted by dog food sugar at 5:10 PM on May 21, 2008
posted by dog food sugar at 5:10 PM on May 21, 2008
I wonder why Waits passed up on Fayetteville, AR, my old college town. He would certainly draw a large enough crowd there. And he passes right through it.
posted by zardoz at 7:56 PM on May 21, 2008
posted by zardoz at 7:56 PM on May 21, 2008
he remembered seeing a Donald Duck cartoon when he was a boy where there was a boat at the bottom of the ocean with a hole in its hull, and they injected it with ping-pong balls and it floated up.
I wonder if this was before or after the Mythbusters episode.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 1:23 AM on May 22, 2008
I wonder if this was before or after the Mythbusters episode.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 1:23 AM on May 22, 2008
« Older Helping to dismantle the walls of deception, one... | Last.fm beta. Again. Newer »
This thread has been archived and is closed to new comments
posted by ghastlyfop at 8:32 AM on May 21, 2008