Breaker Whiskey

[TRANSCRIPT] [click, static] Breaker, breaker, this is WAR 1974 calling out from Los Feliz, Los Angeles.  Huh. Low-s Feliz. Loss Angeles. Is it Loss Feliz? Loss Fell-IS? Lows Fell-IS? Francis always said Low-s Feel-iz, but I have no idea if he was right. I know nothing about Spanish, so I’m pretty sure I’d butcher any pronunciation.  Anyway, it’s a new day, I’ve made a shit ton of lemonade with al...

[TRANSCRIPT] [click, static] Fuck you, Harry. You absolute goddamn sneak.  I threw everything from the old car into the new pretty haphazardly, and I decided to really organize it today, take stuff out of my bags, switch out my cold weather clothes for warm weather ones and I guess I haven’t dug into all the pockets yet, because I found… You knit me goddamn mittens, didn’t you? Snuck them into my...

[TRANSCRIPT] [click, static] Okay, laying everything out for myself, part two. I got so distracted the other day with all the Birdie bullshit that I didn’t even think about the stuff I do know because I’ve experienced it. Once again, seeing my world through the lens of someone else instead of just fucking trusting my own instincts.  I’m going to try to go through anything and everything that’s fel...

[TRANSCRIPT] [click, static] Sorry, I got all worked up in my last transmission that I had to go outside and—well, I wanted to chop wood, but that doesn't seem like a common past time here, which isn’t a surprise, so I just went around the neighborhood picking as many citrus fruits from trees as I could find. I just needed to do something physical.  I’m just…I feel like I’m the only person not lau...

[TRANSCRIPT] [click, static] Alright, I’ve had some time to calm down. Get my head on straight. And maybe I should stop broadcasting entirely, but now that I’m on the other side of the country, who knows, maybe there will be some people here. Maybe this will finally reach sympathetic ears.  Also, I’ve gotten pretty used to talking out loud into this thing. It helps me think. So.  Here’s where I’m...

[TRANSCRIPT] [click, static] Fuck you, Birdie.  Are you serious? You don’t contact me for weeks except to say “Happy Birthday” and now you send me the first substantial message since the last time we talked and you said some stuff that you still haven’t explained and this is what you have to say to me? “You don’t belong?”  What the hell does that mean? Who are you to decide where I do and do not b...

[TRANSCRIPT] [click, static] Breaker, breaker, this is Whiskey calling out from my driveway. Well, my current driveway, I’m not sure I can call it mine.  Although, if “you break it, you bought it” still applies in this upside down world, then I guess the house sort of is mine.  I broke it. The house I mean. The wiring, at least. I know, I know, I said I wasn’t going to do constant work, turn this...

[TRANSCRIPT] [click, static] I picked a house a little bit at random the other day - it was on a block of a bunch of sweet craftsman homes and this one had a nice tree in the yard and when I went inside the power actually worked so…  I guess that isn’t entirely random. But it isn’t like it was entirely deliberate either. But it turns out, it’s nice. It’s really nice. All the furniture is, well, it...

[TRANSCRIPT] [click, static] Harryyyyyy.  [click, static] (very drunk) Harry, Harry, Harry. Harriet Harriet Elaine Stadtler.  Happy New Year! 1975. Who’d’ve thought, huh? Who would’ve thought we’d make it this far and who would’ve thought that we wouldn’t be ringing in this year together.  D’you know this is the first year in ten years that we haven’t spent New Year’s Eve together? I know, isn’t t...

[TRANSCRIPT] [click, static] Well, here I am, just under the wire, broadcasting a few minutes before midnight.  It took me the better part of yesterday and today to find a car, load it up, get into LA, and try to figure out what neighborhood I want to stay in. And then to figure out from there what house looked like it might still have power or have the capability to have power.  I think I found a...

[TRANSCRIPT] [click, static] Well, it finally happened. My car finally broke down. I’ve been standing on the side of the…210, I think? For the last two hours trying absolutely everything I can to fix the thing, but I think it is well and truly dead. Which is…inconvenient, to say the least.  It’s not as if I can’t find another car. I just wish this would’ve happened once I’d already settled in for...

Please visit breakerwhiskey.com for more information or to send a message to Whiskey's radio. Breaker Whiskey is an Atypical Artists production created by Lauren Shippen. If you'd like to support the show, please visit patreon.com/breakerwhiskey. As a patron, you will also receive each week's episodes as one longer episode every Monday. ------ [TRANSCRIPT] [click, static] Dear Harry,  I’m writing...

[TRANSCRIPT] [click, static] (sigh) Well, I think I had my fill of good cheer last night. I don’t think I’ve been hungover like this since I first got on the road. Back in that cabin in the country with the bourbon.  But that’s the spirit of the holiday, right? “Spirits” of the holiday. (a weak laugh) Sorry, that was terrible.  Do you know why it’s called a cup of good cheer? Apparently cheer used...

[TRANSCRIPT] [click, static] Breaker, breaker, this is WAR1974 broadcasting live from Las Vegas!  [click, static] I assume cheers went up around the world at that. Merry Christmas everyone! May you all be safe and sound and warm and full of good cheer, merry and bright, whatever sounds most festive.  Speaking of festive, I did find a Christmas record and while I’ve been indulging myself most days...

[TRANSCRIPT] [click, static] It’s Christmas tomorrow. I don’t know how that’s possible but it is. You’d think it’d be easy for me to keep track of, especially considering my birthday is five days before, but in some ways that makes it harder. My parents—they got that it could be hard for a kid to have a birthday so close to a big holiday. It was hard to have any kind of celebration with fellow kid...

[TRANSCRIPT] [click, static] (sighs) I suppose I should thank you for the birthday wishes, but I’m not feeling particularly gracious. Instead, I’m frustrated. I’m nearly to California—I think LA is going to be my next big stop, seems like a good place to ring in the New Year—but, I’m nearly to the other coast and it has me thinking about…what this is all for.  I came out here to find other people....

[TRANSCRIPT] [click, static] Dear Harry,  I’m goddamn sick of speaking to you already. At least with Birdie, there was some kind of response. And maybe you are responding. Maybe you’re somehow hearing this and shouting into your radio, trying to get me to hear you.  That’s sort of a funny image, actually. Finally, I’m frustrating you as much as you frustrate me.  Do you remember my last birthday?...

[TRANSCRIPT] [click, static] Dear Harry,  To think I was craving unpredictability just last week.  I’ve had to leave the Caesar—or, I guess I didn’t have to, but—well, I was working on getting the record player going this morning when the fire alarm started blaring. Scared me right out of my skin, let me tell you.  So I gathered up my things and did what any sane person would do and evacuated. I’d...

[TRANSCRIPT] [click, static] Dear Harry,  You would hate Las Vegas.  There are so many places I’ve gone over the last few months that you’d hate. The cheap roadside motels, the kitschy tourist attractions, the dive bars I’ve frequented.  That’s something I haven’t been all that forthcoming about. I mean, there’s plenty I do during my days that I don’t talk about on here. Some of its mundane but so...

[TRANSCRIPT] [click, static] Dear Harry,  I have no postcard to write on, but I’m still going to address this missive to you. I need to—it’s hard, to go back to talking to everyone after so many months of talking to someone. And you’re the only other someone I know, so you’ll serve as stand-in for the time being.  You’ve probably never been ignored by a friend. You’ve been ignored by me, but I’m n...

[TRANSCRIPT] [click, static] It’s been nearly two weeks since I last heard from you, Birdie. You asked about the difficult choices I’ve made in my life and then fucked off and it’s a little hard to think that those two things aren’t related.  God, to think I almost told— [click, static] I don’t know what’s going on with you. I don’t know why you haven’t sent me any messages since that one. I don’t...

[TRANSCRIPT] [click, static] Snagged another postcard today. Just a generic landscape of Utah, but it’s pretty. Rich oranges and warm sunlight. I’m not filling out an address obviously, which means I’ve got the whole postcard to write on and…anyway. [click, static] “Dear Harry, It feels strange writing these postcards now, knowing you might be listening. My friend, Birdie—that’s right, I did meet...

[TRANSCRIPT] [click, static] Breaker, breaker, this is Whiskey, sitting on the hood of my car, looking at newspaper rock.  You know, the further West you go, the newer all the buildings get, but the older the land. Does that make sense? Maybe it’s just that there’s more of it out here—more land I mean—but it feels like back East we completely destroyed what evidence there was that people have live...

[TRANSCRIPT] [click, static] I’ve been…slowing down this week. Everything from the tornado in Kansas to Estes Park feels like a blur. It’s getting dark earlier and earlier now and I don’t much care for driving in the dark when I’m the only one on the road, so I’ve been taking longer to get from place to place… I’m planning on going to Vegas for my birthday because…well, why the fuck not, right? An...

[TRANSCRIPT] [click, static] Yeah, I’m just going to keep talking to you like you’re listening. Because the alternative is reminding myself that there’s a nonzero chance that Harry is the— [click, static] Anyway. Hey Birdie. You’ll never guess my luck today. I saw the lights on in a roadside diner—I still cannot put together why some places have power and some don’t—and when I walked in music was...