Kevin Spacey Is My OJ

In Episode 10 of RideShare RoadTalk, we give a shoutout to the Oyster Jamboree Crew and chat with a visiting Arizona native who's working with non-profits. We also dive into everything Kevin Spacey, the DC theater scene, the Wharf area, and how my less-than-stellar high school grades led to an invite to a White House Christmas party with my Mom. Let’s Drive!

Chapters

• 0:00 Intro
• 0:36 Oyster Jamboree Shout Out
• 1:01 AZ Rural Community Non-Profit
• 2:59 Kevin Spacey
• 5:40 DC Theatre Scene & The Wharf
• 6:57 The White House Christmas Party
• 8:37 Show Wrap

Transcript

Welcome to another episode of Rideshare Road Talk, conversations in Motion, a podcast where we create unfiltered talk space that examines the meaningful lives of my passengers while engaging in personal and topical discussions. 

I'm your host and driver, John Foundas, and we're cruising the streets of Washington dc Buckle up. Let's drive. Before we get started on today's podcast, I need to throw a shout out to my oyster jamboree people. This is a group I met last week. They couldn't come onto the show, but we had such a great time talking about stuff and laughing. I need to know how your evening wound up. Reach out to me through the pod. Let's talk and let's try to get you out. Let's drive.

I'm with a nonprofit that we specifically do project type work. We can go in, for example, and work with a rural community college to build out new programming for what employers in that community need and their current and workforce of the future, so that's like project stuff. Then we do just ongoing high level stuff, like an annual forum for all things rural, so anybody who works in and for rural, they might be at a state agency or a nonprofit. Tribal tribes are included,

Of course.

Yeah. We do a big event to bring 'em all together and just help them share best practices, resources, tips. Arizona has 7 million people in it. The vast majority of them are in Phoenix or Tucson, and 1 million of them are then spread out and the other 13 counties. So

You must be in some seriously wide open spaces.

Well, they're just little communities that it is too bad because there are a lot of people who, if they don't have enough money to have a local little bus system even or something, they're really, if you don't drive, you're dependent on friends and family. There's just not really any way around, but you have to remember this because we do big events that we take out to rural, and people coming in from Phoenix, Tucson think I'll get a lift and we have to tell them, no, you won't. It's part of the urban rural divide.

You'll get a horse.

You'll get a horse. So I feel lucky to be a part of it. It's one of those grassroots kind of movements, I guess so to speak. Right.

That fascinating how things germinate and kind of grow from just little seeds like that, and the reward is seeing that right. Grow and

Yeah, absolutely.

Hopefully that next person when they've expanded and they send the elevator back down and do the same thing and yeah.

I love that. That's a good analogy.

I can't claim it. I think Kevin Spacey, remember Kevin Spacey?

Yes, I do. I

Don't care.

Remember the guy

Who

Around

Kevin Spacey is my oj. I don't care what he did. I love him to death.

Well, he's a talented actor. Talented actor, right?

Yeah, no

Doubt about that. What is the story with him, by the way? Is he out in the world? Again,

I think he's struggling. I don't think he's recovered from the initial hit of the scandal or allegations and all that

Stuff, which was what, I

Think it was like eight years,

Well, maybe not eight years. Five. It's got to be a while. It,

It has been a while. It has been a while, but on paper it didn't sound good. But in reality, who knows? Consensual the Age thing, I don't know. I

Don't pretend about, he was one of those actors. I never really knew anything about his personal life, and I thought he was just one of those deeply personal private celebrities. So that makes it hard. When that kind of thing goes public, you're like, I'm working with nothing. I don't know anything about the man as far as

I met him once.

Oh, you did?

Pretty cool. In a past life. I was a photojournalist here in town, so I'd go to the White House correspondence dinner every year, and that used to be a really, really fun event.

It's

Where, yeah, it

Was a signature big deal.

Yeah, and so it's in the Hinkley Hilton where Reagan was shot back in the eighties. Every year it would happen at the Washington Hilton in the main ballroom, but down in the basement level, all the salons were like the after parties were and the pre parties and after the event, vanity Fair would have a big function and there's some mansion next door or something like that, and so we happened to cross to say hello, and he was just in the room having a drink and found him very, very engaging, very gregarious. I wouldn't call him private at all. Yeah, interesting. And he was a little aggressive with language and

What

He was into and whatever. Man, you're into what you're into, but long as it doesn't run astray of the law, I guess you're fine. But

It's interesting because I'm trying to remember if I ever even saw him in late night taught show interview or

Anything.

I don't think I ever did. I really had no idea what his personality would be like, but that is not what I would've guessed what you're describing, so that's interesting. Yeah,

Hell of an actor. Oh my god,

Yeah, he is. Yeah, hell an actor. No doubt

About it. It's just a shame what happened.

I'm about to find out a little bit about the DC theater world, and it's at this Folger theater, which I'd never heard of, but looked up the Shakespeare library and theater in the same place, so it looks like they might have some really cool stuff going on out if it's open now,

They do.

I assume they'd keep it open if the theater's got a show, get poke around

There. Arena Stage is also a very popular place as well for shows and theater and things,

And

That's over at the wharf area, which is this revitalized area along the water. It's very cool.

Oh, what was it? All industrial before just a harbor

Was, I don't know what it was. It was kind of just like a wasteland of third tier motels and restaurants that no one

On

Earth wants on earth would go to. Nobody. You

Get sick

And it was this really great old school fish market that they kept, thank God, because aesthetically it's really cool.

Oh, yeah,

But they just blew it out with retail and restaurants and hotels, and there's this wonderful live music venue there called Anthem.

Oh, nice. You

Should check it out if you have some time at least.

Yeah, let's always get these tips too

Late.

I've been here all week.

Oh my gosh, tomorrow I

Could have done that.

Yeah,

But I'll file it away for next.

There'll be a next step for sure. For sure. Right before I picked you up, I was dropping someone off at Cafe Milano and they had a service detail and they come over to the car and asked me to keep moving, and my first instinct was like, well, who the hell are you? Just,

Maybe I will, maybe I won't

Slash the badge. And I was like, oh, right, okay,

Okay.

I used to have the eagle and so I know what the deal is.

Oh, really?

That was a fun time when it just had a hard pass and you could just come and go from the White House just pre nine 11 and 4th of July you could take guests out to the South lawn to watch the fireworks and had little summer spring ice cream socials and they had the Christmas party and all that. It was really

Fun. It sounds so American.

I was a disaster high school student, so I mean disaster

Type thing.

Oh my God. I mean, I was smart. I just didn't care and I tortured my poor mother, but I took her to a White House Christmas party and it's like the universe

Made up for it entirely.

The universe came back together.

Yeah. She's like, I forgive you. That's amazing.

Anyway, it just had this moment I standing on the north portico and just like,

When was that?

Oh gosh. That was when Clinton was there, so 98

Ish

And it was just this great moment. We're just standing out there at night. Oh

Yeah. What a wonderful memory with your mom.

How did this happen? I'm like, I don't know. Take it all

In. She's like, do they know who you are? They let you in

This story. Exactly. There was a background check.

She knew too much Your mother. Yeah, she knew

Too much. It's good stuff.

It is such a beautiful city though. When you visit it, you're all around all this beautiful architecture, but I just wonder what living here is. People probably just get sick of it or blind to it.

Right. It's very pretty at night. Traffic lays down. It can be very captivating for sure.

Well, just the history things are so old out west, the Native American, everything is of course old and ancient, but the settled stuff is the pioneering newer, and we also just tear things down. It's like, oh, it's 20 years old. Let's rip that out. It's crazy.

Alright, this has got you on the corner, I think.

Thank you so very much.

It was lovely chatting with you,

Your podcast. Yeah, thanks. I look forward to giving it a listen

To Absolutely Rideshare Road

Talk. Rideshare Road talk.

Yep.

I love it. We got one more listener.

Thanks. Take care. Have one.