Interview · moment 11 of 29
Giving Up the New York Apartment
from 158 - Leaving Hell · #158
6 min
Guest
Tim describes his depressing, run-down New York apartment that he's finally giving up as he moves to LA, and he and Ray discuss his attraction to chaotic, low-level hustler friends and why that appeal is fading as he realizes it's mostly about avoiding personal growth.
- Tim decided to give up his New York apartment after moving to LA, realizing he won't actually come back to the city much.
- The apartment itself is depressing—old radiator pipes, broken-down school doors, radiators from before the Depression.
- He admires low-level hustlers and criminals partly because he romanticizes old New York street culture and wants to see it cleaned of gentrifying idiots.
- After talking to a friend, Tim realized that while these chaotic people are funny and never boring, they eventually do become boring because they never actually evolve.
- These people use their crazy lives and wild characters as an excuse to never account for their own selfish behavior and refusal to grow.
- People in the entertainment industry now claim to resist convention and be the good guys, but they're doing the exact same things as the people they claim to hate.
- Everyone in Congress thanked Robert Mueller for serving in Vietnam, but he just torched villages—the same congressmen who were supposedly against Vietnam.
- Mueller served one year in Vietnam, told his wife he wanted to stay longer, then got transferred to a desk job because he didn't want to give up combat killing.
- Mueller's actual quote: he didn't enjoy the Marine Corps without combat, revealing he just liked having his boot on somebody's neck.
Vietnam WarRobert MuellerGuantanamo BayShawshank RedemptionConfederacy of Dunces25th Hour