0:03

Welcome to the Musician Centric Podcast

0:05

. We are two freelance violists

0:07

living and laughing our way through conversations

0:09

that explore what it means to be a

0:12

professional musician in today's world . I'm

0:14

Steph .

0:15

And I'm Liz , and we're so glad

0:17

you've joined us . Let's dive in hi

0:31

, everybody , hi , you know , I have to say that I did not like this one as

0:33

much as the last one . It felt very um , it

0:36

wasn't multi-dimensional yeah

0:39

, this episode and it's . It's unfortunate

0:42

because it's like taking

0:45

place in south

0:47

america and they're on tour and it

0:49

should be like a little .

0:50

I there were parts of it I really liked , but

0:52

yeah , I agree seems

0:55

that kind of felt like , yeah , after school special

0:57

, kind of like don't

1:00

make assumptions and that's what you're supposed

1:02

to learn .

1:05

That's pretty true , yeah , yeah

1:07

. So

1:10

the orchestra is on tour . Orchestra is on

1:12

tour and I'm jealous

1:15

. I want to go on this tour .

1:16

I know , I know , I

1:19

know it seems , so I

1:22

don't know , I don't know where they were , but it

1:25

seemed kind of magical and amazing .

1:27

I definitely saw , like Brazil , and

1:29

there were certain things you could catch

1:31

it . You're like , oh , that's where they are , oh , that's where they are , oh

1:33

, that's where they are . And then , of course , they land in Mexico

1:35

City . But yeah

1:39

, I'm going to manifest this , the opportunity

1:41

to go on a tour of South America .

1:44

I will go on a tour of south america .

1:45

I will go on a tour anywhere out in the universe . Let's be .

1:47

Let's be honest yes

1:49

, yes , so we were there

1:51

at the airport . That's where we're starting , and

1:54

rodrigo and his assistant , michelle

1:56

, are , you know , in line to

1:58

get their tickets . And rodrigo is nervous yeah

2:01

because this is his big homecoming

2:03

to Latin America and

2:11

he doesn't know if people are going to be judgmental about him or welcome him

2:13

back or what it's going to . What's going to be like so ?

2:14

that's right , he's , he is , he's very nervous

2:16

. Everybody else is kind of like in line

2:19

waiting at the airport for all their stuff to

2:21

take place and Haley

2:23

super excited and

2:28

Cynthia is like I remember when I went on my first tour . Now

2:30

it's just hotels and I'm

2:32

like , come on , cynthia , it's still

2:34

yeah , don't you dare have fun , yeah

2:38

jaded once again um

2:41

but it turns out , michelle

2:44

did not notice that his passport

2:46

was expired , even though it had

2:48

like a baby picture of him on it .

2:55

I don't think that's gonna hack it , buddy funny story

2:57

.

2:57

I've had to renew my passport twice and

2:59

both times I did

3:02

it so last minute that I had to have it like

3:04

express rushed .

3:06

I am not shocked . I am

3:08

not shocked , but I feel like that's everybody going

3:11

out of the country that doesn't have the fact , and

3:13

you know it's like to travel in Europe , don't you

3:15

need a visa ? Now maybe so

3:19

there's another level of oh gosh

3:21

. I procrastinated too long . Now it's going to cost me

3:23

60 bucks probably means extra .

3:25

I probably won't be going to europe anytime soon

3:27

.

3:28

Maybe we should all just go ahead and get our visas

3:30

. Yeah , just in case , just because

3:32

you never know when

3:35

a european tour might happen , yeah that's

3:37

right . It could happen any minute you

3:39

could be spontaneous any day I

3:41

like this what if someone wants to whisk you away

3:43

, like for a lunch in paris ?

3:46

you know , you meet like you don't want to say no you

3:48

don't want .

3:48

You're in like pretty woman and

3:52

richard gear is like let me take you

3:54

to rome for

3:56

some . You know pasta , and

3:58

you're like I can't because I don't have . I feel like those

4:00

.

4:00

Those offers now have to with

4:03

. I got a visa for you , baby .

4:08

It's included .

4:13

The rush to the visa is included in the offer .

4:14

Oh , I want to say some more sweet talk to me , baby .

4:16

So guess who has to be Michelle on tour .

4:19

Oh , haley , I was so angry for her

4:21

.

4:21

Yeah , she's like saying no , no , no no , no , no .

4:23

And then ultimately , it's like too bad , you have to do this

4:25

yeah , she wants

4:27

to be trashing hotel rooms and sleeping with hot

4:30

latin dudes . I

4:33

would love that episode if that actually happened . That

4:37

would have made this episode better yeah , not so much

4:39

, not so much um

4:42

, so then we see a montage of

4:44

all the first stop , the first stops on tour

4:47

before they get to mexico city , and

4:49

it feels very real actually , because they're

4:51

they're not letting it look super

4:53

glamorous , which anybody who's been on

4:55

tour you know . It's

4:58

a lot of hotels and airports

5:00

and uncomfortable

5:02

bus rides .

5:04

Right , exactly Yep , just

5:09

kind of shoveling around , sort of surreal . Hopefully they had

5:11

enough time to see things , but who knows the

5:15

?

5:15

schedule's kind of crazy .

5:17

Yeah , and

5:19

the last stop is is Rodrigo's hometown .

5:22

Yeah , mexico city .

5:23

They go .

5:25

So they're checking into the hotel and you see virgil

5:27

with his fake baby . Yes , why

5:29

?

5:30

why would he bring the fake baby to tour

5:32

?

5:33

one tour it's . It's the most like

5:35

. It's the . It's

5:38

the egg thing that you did in

5:40

high school where you had to take care of an egg

5:42

, but it's a baby he's

5:44

been doing it for like he's been doing it for like

5:46

six months . This is a lot like at some

5:48

point do you get to just be like all right , I'm

5:50

ready now yeah

5:52

, I'll take a real one I'll take a real one now

5:54

, oh

5:58

, um , but he's being very specific

6:00

about you know , you

6:02

don't drink the water and only get in

6:04

pink taxis that are that

6:07

were arranged by the orchestra . We

6:09

don't need to lose anybody here . Yes , and

6:12

and warren , of course , is like

6:14

oh , I , I need to go get gifts

6:16

for my girls , I'm just gonna go . And

6:19

I immediately said warren is going to be abducted

6:21

. I wrote that in my notes warren is going to be abducted . I wrote that in my notes Warren

6:23

is going to be abducted . He

6:26

is like the least street smarts of anybody 100%

6:28

like him wandering around .

6:30

Yeah , it's not great

6:36

. And of course , Haley is riding around in the

6:38

car with Rodrigo and they're talking about

6:40

what's coming up and they

6:42

run into union Bob

6:45

and DD eating on the street

6:47

. Except union Bob isn't eating on the street

6:49

, he's got his lunchables inside

6:51

his check .

6:54

Well , remember , he's the one that parked , that packed

6:56

all the toilet paper .

6:57

That's right .

6:59

And the prescription meds . No union Bob is , he's

7:01

not taking any chances .

7:02

Okay , that makes sense Totally .

7:05

Hey , he's prepared , he

7:08

knows what his system can handle

7:10

, he knows what it cannot .

7:11

And meanwhile Rodrigo no longer knows what his system

7:13

can handle .

7:14

Yes , so he ate some like mystery meat tacos

7:17

off the street and paid for it

7:19

. Yep

7:33

he's got food poisoning , which is

7:36

not great . You know when he's got a

7:38

pretty big's . This one review and I did some , some

7:47

translate , some Google translate , and

7:49

you know the name of the um

7:52

. The episode is called regresso del

7:54

del Rey which is

7:56

return of the King . Yeah

7:58

, okay , and on the

8:00

um , on the paper , and

8:06

on the paper it said Return of the King . What side are you on ? What side

8:08

are you on ? So I guess the

8:12

media has kind of picked up on this storyline

8:15

of are you really from

8:17

here or are you now like an

8:19

American ?

8:21

Have you lost your ?

8:24

allegiances or whatever to Mexico .

8:26

Yes , Yep , yeah

8:28

, he's struggling with that too . I feel like his identity

8:31

, you know . But that's also

8:33

really funny then when he gets food poisoning from

8:35

the food , because it's like this is American

8:37

Constitution now .

8:39

Yes , oh , also

8:42

Haley , let's slip that . Well

8:44

, she's saying you need to find yourself an assistant

8:46

while we're down here because I need to practice . Yeah

8:48

, and I feel her . Okay , she's like

8:50

on tour with a New

8:52

York symphony Second

8:55

oboe nonetheless and

8:58

she's like I need to practice . And

9:01

then she says you know , andrew Walsh gets

9:03

up at 4.30 every morning to practice

9:05

.

9:25

And Rodrigo's like how the face

9:28

and you know he's looking rough , and you're kind of like

9:30

, oh little warren , you silly man yeah

9:32

, and they're like why are you ?

9:33

carrying your violin around you know

9:36

, like oh , yeah , and he's like

9:38

, oh , my insurance policy

9:40

says that I have to keep it on me at all times

9:42

yes , I don't think that's what .

9:44

Is that a thing ? I don't think that's a thing I

9:46

don't think so let

9:49

us know people we don't know mine , does

9:51

not say that . I don't think mine

9:53

says that . But then again I'd

9:56

be lying if I said I read the whole thing . So that's

10:01

true um , yeah

10:03

, no , he's . He's clearly very shaken up about

10:05

it and rodrigo has

10:07

a solution . He has somebody he thinks he can

10:09

help , he that can help , he has connections

10:12

, he has connections . So

10:14

, in comes , Manuel

10:17

oh . Manuel , manuel

10:20

I want to go on a joyride . I mean , that's what we all tuned in

10:22

for I want to go on a joyride with Manuel

10:24

.

10:25

Yeah , he drives a flashy BMW

10:27

. He's a problem solver .

10:29

He is a problem solver and he is a load

10:31

of fun . Yeah , yeah

10:34

, and it gives us a little window

10:36

into what rodrigo might have been like when

10:38

he was yes , when they ran together

10:40

I loved , I loved like

10:43

the all of the exchange

10:45

when they were just like talking to each other and hanging

10:47

out , having great time and I'm glad we got subtitles

10:49

for a lot of it , um , because it happened

10:52

real fast , but the back

10:54

and forth is just so funny . And then , and then they're

10:56

just like , yeah , they're like making stops along the way

10:58

. You know , manuel's got to pick up his I don't know

11:00

, is it his sister-in-law , is it his cousin ? Is

11:02

we don't really know ? He's like a

11:04

friend , um , a

11:07

babysitter , who knows like it's yeah

11:10

, they're in a bar and they're hanging out and so

11:12

all the meanwhile , warren

11:14

is like what

11:16

, can't we just go to the police and file

11:19

a report ? Can't we just ? And you know Manuel's

11:21

like no , no , no , no , no . I'm going to get to the bottom of this

11:23

. And he's asking for details . He's like I'm going to find

11:25

out how to get your violin back . You

11:28

know I'm going to find this thing for you .

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.

12:35

So they're making all these stops . Meanwhile

12:38

we flash back to the hotel

12:40

where everyone's staying and their poolside

12:42

.

12:43

And this is a cute little scene .

12:45

So Cynthia's lounging on a chair and

12:47

there's a live music being played and

12:49

Union Bob comes over and invites her to

12:51

dance , which is really cute

12:54

, and then they make a little

12:56

dinner , dinner date a little

12:58

deal , have a little no strings

13:00

attached fun with each other yeah

13:03

I love that , I love that for her too . Yeah

13:06

, hayley even gets to relax a little . She's forced

13:08

to , she's forced .

13:09

Cynthia , yeah , throws her phone away

13:12

yep , and , and , and , dd's

13:14

there gang is there . Meanwhile

13:16

, up above from the window

13:18

we see Gloria and

13:21

a very hot looking lover

13:23

. I don't know when did he come from

13:25

, it's .

13:26

Pavel .

13:26

Was it Pavel ? Yes , oh

13:29

, I didn't know that . I thought it was somebody . She

13:31

met down there .

13:32

Oh no , I think it was .

13:33

Pavel . Oh , okay , that's

13:35

been brewing and they're really doing a thing . I

13:37

knew that from the last episode , but I didn't

13:39

know if he would come on tour with them , so that's I

13:42

mean obviously , well , that's . I mean I didn't get a close-up

13:44

, so who knows if it was

13:46

really him but she's having all kinds of fun

13:48

, or she's having fun with pavel , which

13:50

is equally as great , equally

13:52

great . Yes , yes , the whole

13:54

thing in there is having a great . They're having a great

13:56

time also at the pool , although

13:59

rodrigo's freaking out because he's calling and

14:01

haley's not answering .

14:03

But you know what are you gonna do right

14:05

, um , and

14:07

I wrote this is a complicated

14:09

relationship between

14:12

rodrigo and madelineelle , because

14:16

he , like , pulls a knife on rodrigo . Yeah

14:18

well , there's a whole , yeah , so

14:20

he's .

14:21

So he's in his car and the police start chasing him

14:23

and we don't know why the police are chasing

14:25

him , which is kind of a whole like

14:27

funny sidebar . But then it turns into this

14:29

wild like a car , like a literal car

14:31

chase from like an action movie , where he flips

14:33

around , he gets out of traffic , they evade

14:35

the cops , they get out and , yes , rodrigo

14:38

is very mad , understandably

14:40

, because he's like hey , like I

14:42

, I like have stuff I have to do

14:44

here .

14:45

He's like tiktok yes , I have a concert to

14:47

conduct and like t minus one

14:49

hour and in all fairness , man was like hey , you

14:51

don't even know what real life is like anymore .

14:53

Like this is real life , like I'm living a real

14:55

. So they have this fight , but then the

14:57

funny part is , like you said , this knife

14:59

gets pulled and they start

15:01

laughing together

15:04

. Meanwhile I wrote poor

15:06

warren at this point , so I'm like warren is just standing

15:09

there . He's got to be like what all

15:11

this is happening . In spanish it's like what is happening

15:13

right right

15:16

it's yes

15:19

it's wild . It's a wild storyline

15:21

yeah , so they . They find

15:23

someone who has a violin oh , after

15:26

, after rodrigo hot wires , a car after

15:28

he hot wires . The car . That's right

15:30

, they needed a different car so they could

15:32

go incognito yeah

15:34

, rodrigo has um all kinds of skills

15:36

that we didn't know about , just makes

15:39

it harder so

15:43

they ?

15:45

there's a contact that manuel has who has

15:48

a violin . It is

15:50

not warren's violin , but this guy

15:52

can play violin .

15:53

this is , this is insane , like he's

15:55

literally playing like the opening . What concerto was he

15:57

playing ?

15:57

Zygmunt Weizen . Yeah

16:00

, it's like the beginning of you know

16:03

, a showpiece .

16:05

And he's like listen to this thing

16:07

, you know . So they

16:09

end up taking that violin because they don't know where

16:11

he is . And they're like you

16:15

know , let's just

16:17

call the police now and manuel's

16:19

like , hold on . He's like I haven't . It's

16:22

like just give me a little more time , right

16:24

, give me a little more time yeah

16:26

, he's like a detective and we have no idea

16:29

, like what he's up to we don't know where , like

16:31

I'm thinking to myself , like he must have some connection

16:33

somewhere , that's , or he knows , as

16:36

warren is describing the details of

16:38

this event to him , he's like

16:40

getting an idea in his head of who he's talking about

16:42

. Or , you know , like he , he can help him

16:44

this way .

16:45

Right , that's , it was a tall guy and

16:47

a medium guy and they ran

16:49

down the alley and he punched him the right

16:51

yeah , the right right handed

16:53

and yeah

16:55

, um , so we're .

16:57

you know we're picking up more and more information

17:00

about that , but now it's getting to be concert

17:02

time .

17:03

Yes , and I was having a full on panic attack

17:05

. I'm like this is what I have

17:08

nightmares about , that I

17:10

have a concert in you know an hour

17:12

and I don't have my viola . That's

17:17

the stuff of nightmares .

17:17

That is the stuff of nightmares the

17:23

stuff of nightmares .

17:24

The stuff of nightmares . Gloria um talks with thomas on

17:26

the phone . Who's stuck ?

17:26

in houston , which is also .

17:27

I wrote also the stuff of nightmares , totally for multiple reasons

17:29

yeah , and there's

17:31

a moment where gloria is like , you know , she

17:33

, her , she's there to schmooze , she's there to

17:35

make money for the orchestra , get people to

17:38

donate , and so she's trying to

17:40

talk with this um senator

17:42

delgado delgado

17:44

and um , it

17:46

was just I was . I thought it was cute that she was trying

17:48

to speak spanish I was trying to figure out if

17:50

he was the .

17:52

Um , if he was the guy I

17:54

, I think he was in . Uh , for

17:57

those who watched , if he was in ozark oh

18:00

, I didn't ever watch that I think , and

18:02

I think he was very scary in ozark , so I don't

18:04

know if he's

18:06

gonna play a good guy . I haven't often seen him

18:08

play a good guy . I will say if ever

18:10

okay that actor who's ? Delgado

18:13

and we're not done with him because he's

18:15

like a pretty recognizable actor

18:17

.

18:17

So he , you think he's

18:19

gonna be in the next one .

18:20

I think there's got to be some storyline with him coming

18:22

up , okay , but

18:24

they're also talking about

18:26

Rodrigo's big time mentor

18:29

, his first teacher .

18:31

Right , he's given this honored seat to , and he's

18:34

very excited to have him

18:36

there , and and

18:39

we haven't seen him yet I don't

18:41

think no no , um

18:43

, but apparently everything

18:46

works out and they get back to the hall in time , because

18:48

rodrigo is backstage with hayley and

18:51

he's nervous because , yeah

18:53

, like you said , this is a significant thing for him

18:55

. His mentor is going to be there , rivera

18:57

, and he goes

18:59

on stage and he dedicates this performance

19:01

to Rivera , who is not in the box

19:04

that he had reserved

19:06

for him .

19:06

He looks over , he doesn't see him and it's like then

19:09

he just looking and he's hoping that he's there

19:11

. I'm like , oh , it's okay .

19:14

Oh yeah , I felt for him .

19:16

Yeah , yeah .

19:18

And then they play the huapango .

19:20

Yep , I'm going to play that this week too

19:22

, are you ? I

19:24

love that piece it's fun , it's really fun

19:26

.

19:28

Well , anyway , they do a great job . There's a standing

19:30

ovation , people are super enthusiastic

19:33

, and then they have the after concert

19:35

reception and

19:38

Gloria is trying to get

19:40

Rodrigo to talk with the Senator who

19:42

apparently has lots of money . I think they're

19:44

trying to get money from this guy , right .

19:46

Yes , yeah

19:49

, but they don't get that chance

19:51

at the reception he gets to see

19:53

.

19:53

Rivera Right and they have

19:55

a really lovely little fun

19:58

kind of back and forth , and

20:00

Rivera is a character clearly yeah

20:03

, yeah , it turns

20:05

out that he doesn't want to sit in the box because

20:07

the box seat doesn't have as

20:10

good acoustics . You

20:12

can't hear what's going on in the hall , so he likes

20:14

this specific little sweet spot

20:16

in the orchestra seating

20:19

that , um

20:21

, that has really good balance . You can

20:23

hear everything , which makes total sense

20:25

yes , um and

20:28

oh yeah , that's .

20:29

The other thing too is they have plans to spend time

20:31

together , so I'm guessing we're gonna get to

20:33

see that too . I hope I don't know

20:35

yeah , another episode , yeah I want to see

20:37

both those storylines play out a little more

20:40

, but all in all like yeah

20:42

, just a sort of rousing

20:45

success for Rodrigo at his hometown

20:47

and that's nice

20:50

to see . And

20:52

it's nice to see Manuel and his wife

20:54

there hanging

20:56

out they look fabulous

20:59

, having a great time .

21:01

And Manuel that dress dress . Yes , that dress

21:03

was amazing it was like

21:05

gold and off the

21:07

shoulder and her hair was

21:10

like snatched back she

21:12

looked great and also his suit oh

21:15

, I didn't notice that as much super

21:17

, super , super good looking suit .

21:19

Yeah , it was like shimmery nice

21:22

, so sheen to it . Um . So

21:24

he says you know , rodrigo , to rodrigo

21:27

, you gotta grab warren and come outside yeah

21:30

, yes .

21:31

so then we realized

21:33

that manuel has been like sherlock holmes

21:36

sherlock

21:38

holmesing in the background and

21:40

he has solved the mystery

21:42

of the violin . And

21:45

it turns out that Warren

21:48

was going to ship it back

21:51

home , but claim that it had been stolen

21:53

in Mexico and claim

21:55

the insurance money .

21:56

Yeah , trying to commit insurance fraud

21:58

, warren .

21:59

Insurance fraud . Yeah

22:01

, he's struggling . He's

22:04

living in New York City . He's

22:06

got like what , three kids , Two

22:08

in college . Yeah , I mean

22:10

he's working for a symphony

22:13

orchestra . That might go on strike .

22:14

He's worried about the strike . Yeah , he

22:19

feels like he's in desperate straits .

22:23

Yeah , and it's not okay to do that

22:25

, but I can see where

22:27

he's coming from .

22:29

Yeah , yeah

22:31

, but

22:33

I like that it turned out that way

22:36

. I think it's a lot

22:38

better than the cliche type of thing that that

22:40

storyline could have played out with , and right

22:43

.

22:43

So this was the after school special

22:45

conclusion

22:48

got

22:50

to the bottom of it .

22:51

He was real smart about it and he and he shared

22:53

how he figured it out and everything and and

22:56

um , and rodrigo was very upset

22:59

and also very compassionate and

23:03

, I think , handled it well and who knows how

23:05

that storyline's gonna play out . But I

23:07

thought it was amazing also to see manuel

23:09

and his wife get in the stolen

23:11

beater car . Yeah

23:14

, that rodrigo . Then hot

23:16

wires for them one more time in

23:20

their fancy gear from the gala .

23:22

Yeah yeah , he's

23:25

fun . These are real people , real

23:27

characters from rodrigo's

23:30

past , and it

23:32

was nice to see him reconnect with that version

23:34

of himself yes it was .

23:35

It was very lovely that the it was . It was kind of fun . It was a to see him reconnect with that version of himself . Yes , it was . It was very lovely that the it

23:38

was . It was kind of fun , it was a whirlwind . I feel

23:40

like the episode was like a real whirlwind . Um

23:43

, yeah , I don't know

23:45

something about the pace and energy of the city

23:47

or something like that was kind of cool .

23:49

Um , yeah , but I would be totally exhausted

23:51

if I was on a tour like this . You

23:54

have to go on some like caper where you

23:56

have to find

23:59

the stolen violin yeah

24:02

, yeah , it would be a long day

24:04

oh my god I'd

24:08

be all about it , though you know that'd be fun

24:10

yeah , well , mean think of the stories

24:12

that you had . I know .

24:14

And then you go play with like an

24:16

extra fervor .

24:18

Yes , yeah

24:21

.

24:21

So okay it wasn't that bad . The

24:24

recap was better .

24:26

Yes , the recap , once we boiled

24:28

it all down . Yes , yes

24:30

, we hope you enjoyed it .

24:31

Absolutely , and stay tuned for the

24:33

next one . We hope you enjoyed it Absolutely and

24:56

stay tuned for the next one .

24:57

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community . You can buy all your musician-centric merch , including shirts , water bottles

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, koozies and a variety of other fun

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items .

25:04

Our theme music was written and produced

25:06

by JP Wogeman and is performed

25:08

by Steph and myself .

25:09

Our episodes are produced by Liz O'Hara

25:11

and edited by Emily McMahon .

25:13

Thanks again for listening . Let's talk soon

25:16

.