Episode 56 is a momentous occasion, with the news that HiFi will close at the end of October 2017, this is the last time we will tape our show in our beloved home space. Currently we are looking for another home and expect to return to a new space live in front of an audience in January of 2018. Christian & Shonali open the show with quality conversation about bunions, butts and adult day care. Our first guest is lawyer, environmental activist and national carryout bag expert Jennie Reilly Romer. After helping San Francisco and Los Angeles enact laws on plastic bag policy, Jennie moved to New York with the mission of doing the same thing here. She came really close! Jennie explains why these thin plastic bags are so problematic, what we can do to help (plasticbaglaws.org); who is lobbying against the policy and how Christian did the wrong thing by putting the plastic bags in the recycling bin. We salute Jennie on her work and look forward to her to running for New York City Council! Go Jennie. With the news that HiFi will close at the end of October, we are excited celebrate the man who created this safe haven for indie rock n roll bands in the mid 90's, East Village neighbors in the 2000's and podcasters and comedians in the late 2010's. Here is a special interview with the owner of HiFi (formerly the legendary East Village rock club Brownies) Mike Stuto. Find out about Mike's time as a club owner who had do idea what he was doing. There were good times (David Bowie, Debbie Harry, Mel Brooks) and bad (Sugar Ray, Milemarker) but Mike has always managed to this day to bring together a community that is heavily indebted to him for giving them a space to create, learn, unite, celebrate and collaborate. After listening quiz: What band made Mike want to work in rock n' roll? Our final guest is Grammy nominated singer and storyteller Chaney Sims. Like Mike, Chaney is a native New Yorker and the East Village was her playground. She is the daughter of a great blues musician, Bill Sims Jr. with whom she performs with in the Grammy Nominated Heritage Blues Orchestra. Her recent solo performance of songs written from her Haiku 365 project at Joe's Pub was with a string orchestral accompaniment by Root Stock Republic. The performance will be released as a live album recording soon. Listen to Chaney blow you away with her performances of Leadbelly's Go Down, Old Hannah and Nina Simone's C-Line Woman. Have a great rest of the year and until our next show, do yourself a favor and binge on the many earlier episodes of We Don't Even Know.
Read MoreWe Don't Even Know - Episode 24 - Special Live Edition at Hi Fi - July 29, 2014 →
For only the second time ever, We Don't Even Know was taped in front of a live audience (1st time being on the eve of Hurricane Sandy), but for the first time ever, this was in a bar with a proper sound system and a full bar in close proximity to the audience. The lineup for our special live edition of WDEK was a dream come true for us. And the show was a blast. First, we must disclose that we had some technical difficulties at the top of the show. Let's just say, it was the first time Justin, did live sound in such a setting and Christian had train issues - along with 50 people staring at them while we were trying to get everything working right. It may have been for the best, because Christian and Shonali's rendition of You Don't Have To Be A Star is probably something that doesn't need to preserved for eternity. Let's just say this was a special gift for the audience who joined us in the new backroom of Hi Fi, formerly the legendary rock n' roll venue Brownies, located in the East Village. We will probably be doing many more shows in this venue - while also continuing to do our regular in studio episodes.
In terms of the show, we are happy to share with you actor extraordinaire, Jason Butler Harner, who just co-starred with Greta Gerwig in the play, The Village Bike, and is currently finishing up work as a young Christopher Walken in the new feature, The Family Fang with Nicole Kidman and Jason Bateman. Most importantly Jason had a nice segue to Christian's story about wanting privacy in the bathroom. Who doesn't
Our next guest, was Shonali's longtime friend and musical talent Chris Maxwell. He sings for us and shares his witty stories of days in Arkansas playing rock n' roll as a teenager and more recently as a guitar player in a band called Skeleton Key in Brownies in the mid 90's.
We were lucky to have the smart, witty, and stylish comedian Aparna Nancherla perform and talk to us about many things, including her general state of anxiety. Lastly, Shonali took it upon herself to find the gentleman who created one her favorite videos, Soul Train Babies. She clicked and clicked until she found a message link on the YouTube video, and asked if by any chance he lived in NYC. That's all it took!
Ladies and gentlemen, Darell J. Hunt, the genius behind, the YouTube video, Soul Train Babies, was our final guest, and shared lots of his wisdom including, his nostalgic view of "Hood" life. Please be sure to look up all these amazing people including yourselves. It was wonderful to be in an intimate space with you, laughing, talking, and drinking! Thanks to all of you that came to the show! We look forward to seeing you at our next show. Please share this show with your frenemies.