Body's Choice
4/10/15 - In a special IRL episode from Amina’s Palm Springs birthday compound, we discuss the origin of CYG mantra “body’s choice” with the woman who coined it. We’ve got a primer on who’s in the Illuminati. A listener says our use of “baby feminist” is condescending. California is in full drought mode. And Carolyn Pennypacker Riggs of BOUQUET on the business of making music.
Transcript below.
Listen on Apple Podcasts | Stitcher | Overcast | Pocket Casts | Spotify.
CREDITS
Producer: Gina Delvac
Hosts: Aminatou Sow & Ann Friedman
Theme song: Call Your Girlfriend by Robyn
José González - Heartbeats (filous & MOUNT remix)
Jay Z - On to the Next One
Katy Perry - Teenage Dream
BOUQUET - Come to Your House
Jamie xx - Alba
Hannah Rad edit of Robyn - Call Your Girlfriend
TRANSCRIPT: BODY’S CHOICE
Aminatou: Welcome to Call Your Girlfriend.
Ann: A podcast for long-distance besties everywhere.
Aminatou: I'm Aminatou Sow.
Ann: I'm Ann Friedman.
Aminatou: And we're live from Palm Springs. [Laughs]
Ann: Have you waited your whole life to say that?
Aminatou: I mean I'm a part-time Palm Springs resident now so yes.
Ann: This is live from a pool house in Palm Springs to be exact.
Aminatou: I know. It's getting a little hot in here.
Ann: This is also our first-ever live audience.
Aminatou: I know! I can't hear the audience clap though so . . .
[Cheering]
Aminatou: Thank you.
Ann: I kind of want to cheers because we're here in person and we can do it. [Glasses clink]
[Theme Song]
Aminatou: Ann, what's going on?
Ann: I mean your birthday is tomorrow.
Aminatou: Yes, I'm very . . .
Ann: The thing that's going on in my life right now is being in this pool house.
Aminatou: Okay.
Ann: Being on a mini vacay for your birthday.
Aminatou: I know, I'm very . . . I'm very, very, very excited. I've been drinking a little so yeah, I'm hot and excited. Happy birthday to me. [Laughter]
Ann: Dropping a mix tape with that title.
Aminatou: I know. I will also confess that we actually don't have an agenda for this conversation so that's why it's a little free-wheeling and crazy right now.
Ann: This is the third spritzer of the day for me. I don't know about you. [Laughter]
Aminatou: Listen, I also had a Dairy Queen dipped cone and there was a situation with that with the top . . .
Ann: What happened?
Aminatou: I mean the wind took it away. [Laughter]
Ann: There are many wonderful women assembled for your birthday.
Aminatou: Mercedes Claire Krauz (?).
Ann: All the way from New York City.
Aminatou: All the way from New York City, good-time college friend. Carolyn Pennypacker Riggs, A++ lady, all the way from Los Angeles.
Ann: L.A. lady.
(2:00)
Aminatou: Aisha Bailey, all the way from L.A. The most beautiful woman in the world, and I just found out that I'm older than her and I feel very accomplished right now.
Ann: Great.
Aminatou: And then Brittany Morgan Calendar. I should just give everybody's social security and birthday at this point. [Laughter] BMC, college roommate, all the way from Austin, Texas. Awesome lady.
Ann: Also I know we've talked about this a lot this week but I feel like it's a concept that needs broader distribution that Brittany is the inventor of the term -- the concept -- body's choice.
Aminatou: Body's choice.
Ann: Which basically . . . sorry, go ahead.
Aminatou: I know. I think maybe Brittany should come explain body's choice.
Ann: I was just about to say which is probably explained by the woman, the legend herself.
Brittany: Hi. [Applause] This is the voice of Brittany Calendar. [Laughter] Okay, so body's choice is where you let your body decide.
Ann: Everything?
Brittany: Everything. What you want to eat that day, what you want to drink, how late you want to sleep in. It's really simple but you just let your body choose.
Aminatou: Body's choice.
Brittany: Body's choice.
Ann: How do you tell what your body is choosing?
Brittany: You ask your body and then normally it will tell you. It's normally -- really for me it's salty or sweet really. [Laughter]
Ann: Also I just realized that Brittany Calendar, BC, Body's Choice, BC. Like it's fate. It's some kind of . . .
Brittany: It's really good branding.
Ann: Yeah. Okay, wow. Thank you for that.
Brittany: You're welcome. [Applause]
Aminatou: I will say this about Brittany, not to talk about Brittany for too long, but to this day -- I'm a grown woman. To this day I send Brittany my lunch options and I let her pick for me. And it's my favorite part of every day.
Ann: That seems like some Christian Grey shit. [Laughter]
Aminatou: She's -- I'm not good with options and she always has the best reasons to pick things.
Brittany: The answer is French fries.
Ann: Always the body chooses French fries. [Laughter]
Aminatou: And duh, our bestest podcast witch Gina Delvac.
(4:00)
Ann: Ugh, Gina live and in person. [Cheering]
Aminatou: I know. She's like the only professional here. Like she's wearing real clothes. She's doing -- making things happen.
Ann: Like she could go outside in that. I cannot say the same for either of us.
Aminatou: Listen, I want to talk about our new tattoos also. Gina brought us temporary tattoos.
Ann: Produce tattoos.
Aminatou: Produce tats. I'm really thinking about making mine permanent though, it's so good. It's the eggplant emoji except a little fatter a.k.a. great.
Ann: I mean so Drake gets an emoji tattoo and now you are going to like join those ranks?
Aminatou: Sure Ann. Whatever Drake does I do. [Laughter] It's not the worst choice I've made in my life.
Ann: Okay, were you wearing the . . . wow, this has gotten very erotic. Where are you wearing the eggplant temporary tattoo?
Aminatou: You know, where would you wear an eggplant tattoo?
Ann: I mean . . .
Aminatou: Actually it's in the inside of my hand.
Ann: Okay.
Aminatou: Or I don't know, what body part is this?
Ann: Wrist.
Aminatou: Wrist. I don't know what it's called in American. Wrists. It's on my wrists.
Ann: Fantastic.
Aminatou: Where is your tattoo and what is it?
Ann: I'm wearing an ear of corn with some husk around it on my upper thigh.
Aminatou: Very Iowa.
Ann: Very Iowa. I will not be getting this as a real tattoo. I have some pride about where I'm from, but you know, the inner thigh ear of corn tattoo is really a new level that I'm not prepared to reach.
Aminatou: I would be really down with an Iowa dude with a fucking ear of corn tattooed on the inside of his thigh.
Ann: I'm sure he's in Brooklyn. Go find him.
Aminatou: I know, right? No, those guys all have cuts of meat on their . . .
Ann: Oh man, really? Eww.
Aminatou: Seriously -- Brooklyn tattoos.
Ann: Is that the cut of meat is the new state outline tattoo?
Aminatou: Yeah, it's like what all the Midwest bros always do.
Ann: Well the Midwest bros I feel like in the early aughts were all like an outline of the Midwest state I am from.
Aminatou: Uh-huh, now they're like "This is flank." [Laughs]
Ann: Wow. Maybe produce is the next frontier.
Aminatou: Okay, we can make it happen.
Ann: All right, well who knows? Maybe we'll be here for your birthday next year and I'll just be like -- I'll, you know, take off my caftan and you'll see my inner thigh and be like "You didn't."
[Music]
Ann: Not to go straight to menstruation, we usually save it, but Instagram drama related to menstruation pics.
Aminatou: Okay, explain the drama.
Ann: An artist/photographer I believed named Ruby Kaur -- sorry, Kaur? Kore? K-A-U-R -- posted a bunch of pictures to Instagram. I think it's just photos from this art project showing women kind of looking like they're in various places that you might find them everyday like lying in bed, or I don't know, oh yeah, like in the shower. Stuff ladies do every day. Sitting on a toilet like removing a tampon.
Aminatou: Is that a tampon? Oh.
Ann: A toilet bowl with some blood in it.
Aminatou: Gnarly cool. I like that.
Ann: It's a pretty real . . . there's some pretty real blood stains.
Aminatou: Oh, blood clot on the shower tile. That's my favorite thing!
Ann: Yeah. Chunky. [Laughter]
Aminatou: Listen.
Ann: Anyway . . .
Aminatou: I'm a lady with chunks so I understand this problem.
Ann: It happens. It happens. So anyway she posted this -- photos from this photo series to her Instagram account which is later shut down.
Aminatou: Was the Instagram account shut down?
Ann: Or they were flagged. They were flagged.
Aminatou: The pictures were . . . so the pictures were flagged?
Ann: Her efforts were definitely shut down. I think the pictures -- I don't know about her whole account but I believe the pictures were removed.
Aminatou: I thought the photo series was really beautiful. I particularly love the one that everybody shared on Tumblr that's the woman sleeping or napping and then there's like a blood stain both on her bed and her pants.
Ann: It's like she clearly rolled over in a crampy moan.
Aminatou: You know, ladies with [0:07:45] understand this. It's real.
Ann: Mm-hmm.
Aminatou: But here's the thing that made me a little upset: everybody was angry at Instagram and I feel like that is not fair.
Ann: Oh, defending big Internet.
(8:00)
Aminatou: I mean I'm going to defend big Internet in as much as those processes are automated. So when jerk people on the Internet flag your thing it automatically gets deleted because Instagram's like we don't have a million humans to look at a million things over time. We'll review them later. That's how big dirty Internet works.
Ann: So super bully responsive.
Aminatou: Yes, and it's honestly . . . it's like a really popular trolling tactic. Like a lot of -- like MRAs and awful people on the Internet do this to feminists and to women where they just flag your accounts and then they get deleted because the tech companies are like "We'll check it out later."
Ann: Oh, sorry. Okay. Update. Update.
Aminatou: So tell us. Update.
Ann: From the podcast witch.
Aminatou: They apologized to her twice.
Ann: Yes, Instagram has since reinstated both of the photos and apologized to her.
Aminatou: I think it was the same photo got removed twice, like that's what happened.
Ann: Right, and explained that they were accidentally removed by a member of the Instagram team.
Aminatou: Oh, even more dramatic. So never mind, I walk back a lot of my stuff, support of big Internet. Support periods. Next topic.
Ann: Right.
Aminatou: It's hot in this pool house.
Ann: I mean you're wearing a bathing suit. You could lose a layer.
Aminatou: I know. My mustache is sweating though. [Laughter]
Ann: If we're not careful we're going to sweat off the tattoos.
Aminatou: I know!
Ann: Somebody -- I was talking to somebody about this and they made some comment about like "Oh, you know, it's not like it should've been flagged for removal but it's kind of gross to see people's bodily fluids out and about. I don't really post photos of other things I put in a toilet bowl."
Aminatou: No, I think that that's a fair conversation to have. I think the thing on the Internet that's really fascinating is that people will take really suggestive photos and we're like "Oh my god, Rihanna looks so sexy." But then there's a mom breastfeeding and everybody is like "Can't look at civilian breasts. That's awful."
Ann: Pause button, do you have a favorite sexy Rihanna photo?
(9:50)
Aminatou: So, so many of them.
Ann: I know. Just tell me about one.
Aminatou: Because her new -- like her best friend, her assistant, is who takes the photos.
Ann: Right.
Aminatou: Her Christmas tree photo series was my favorite.
Ann: Tell me about it.
Aminatou: She just looked really hot and her Christmas tree was like . . . wait, Marcy's signaling to me. What do you want to say about the Christmas tree?
Marcy: I just think it was a designer Christmas tree.
Ann: Come. Come to the mic. Here, come to the side.
Aminatou: Okay, Marcy, discuss the Rihanna Christmas tree.
Marcy: All right, listen, I don't remember the exact details for reasons aforementioned. [Laughter] But it was this sculptural silver thing, built box, pyramid, ziggurat Christmas . . . like nobody does that.
Ann: Rihanna does that!
Marcy: People like trig . . . I know! That's what makes it so good is that it was the most non-traditional thing ever.
Aminatou: Okay, question: do you think Rihanna is in the Illuminati?
Marcy: Absolutely. Are you kidding me?
Aminatou: Okay, good answer. Who else do you think is in the Illuminati?
Marcy: Well as we discussed earlier today Nori West.
Aminatou: Yes.
Marcy: And her parents.
Aminatou: Do you think both parents or just one parent?
Marcy: That's really hard . . . obviously one parent, maybe both.
Aminatou: Which one?
Marcy: I mean obviously Kanye.
Aminatou: Thank you, okay.
Marcy: Kim is like courting the Illuminati head council, you know? To like get admission. So she's kind . . . she's halfway there. My criteria for who can be in the Illuminati, one of them is have you been to Davos? [Laughter] And there are other possible criteria but . . .
Aminatou: First, my dad goes to Davos. Do you think he's in the Illuminati? [Laughter]
Marcy: I mean . . . right. We'll just leave that there.
Aminatou: Okay, one . . .
Ann: Can you explain what the Illuminati is?
Marcy: Well right, the . . .
Aminatou: Marcy, what's the Illuminati?
Marcy: Okay, the Illuminati's a secret society of all of the world's top leading leaders, and across all industries and disciplines. They have influence. These are the people who run the world and they just make it seem like they don't and that we -- you have a choice in your life. You don't.
Aminatou: Okay, Davos, and that's the second criteria? I feel like Aisha knows a lot about the Illuminati.
Marcy: Definitely. She's been gesturing a lot while I've been talking.
(12:05)
Aisha: Definitely being part of Hove's clique.
Aminatou: Hove as in who is Hove?
Ann: Oh my god.
Aisha: Shawn Carter?
Aminatou: I just want to explain . . .
Aisha: Shawn Carter, also known as Jay-Z, also known as Jigga.
Aminatou: Shawn Carter, definitely in the Illuminati.
Aisha: Absolutely. Beyonce, definitely in the Illuminati. Justin Timberlake, definitely in the Illuminati. No one talks about that but he's in it.
Ann: I feel like white members of the Illuminati are like black Scientologists.
Aisha: Absolutely. I mean like Will Smith . . .
Aminatou: Lady Gaga is the most famous white member of the Illuminati, clearly.
Aisha: Clearly. Is Obama Illuminati?
Aminatou: No. Michelle yes. [Laughter]
[Music and Ads]
(16:08)
Ann: We got some mail. Oh my god, you're out of spritzer. I'm going to hit you with some hard news. Somebody mentioned that they thought our use of the term "baby feminist" was condescending.
Aminatou: You know I don't like to tell people how to live their lives, but I will say this: baby feminist is a term of endearment, because like Kanye says, gotta crawl before you ball. So maybe this young woman is no longer a baby feminist but we say it with only love.
Ann: Right. It's definitely not an age-based criteria. I think that there are people who are baby feminists at age like 12.
Aminatou: Yeah. Okay, let's talk about famous people who are baby feminists. Beyonce.
Ann: Oh, such a baby feminist!
Aminatou: The ultimate baby feminist.
Ann: Yeah, so good!
Aminatou: Yeah, she's just like "I watched a YouTube video with Chimamanda Adichie and now I'm a feminist."
Ann: Oh man, and hitting the two-year mark of feminism is where you really start using the F word a whole lot. Like I feel like it was like -- you can tell.
Aminatou: Totally, yeah. She's baby feminist. Who else is baby feminist?
Ann: Hmm.
Aminatou: Taylor Swift is a baby feminist.
Ann: Oh, good one!
Aminatou: I know. She's a really good baby feminist. We love her. Most celebrities that come out as feminists are little baby feminists. We have some reporters that we think are baby feminists but maybe we'll save that.
Ann: Too hot for this episode.
Aminatou: Yes, it's too hot for this podcast. [Laughs] But it's pretty good.
Ann: It's true though. It's definitely not . . . I don't think it's an age criteria. It's not like referring to all . . .
Aminatou: It's a state of mind.
Ann: Yes, exactly. And it's also just like where are you on your journey?
Aminatou: Exactly, you know? Because as Mary J. Blige says we're all on a journey.
Ann: I mean it's true. It's true.
Aminatou: So don't be offended. Just get with the program.
Ann: The implication of condescending is not that we mean it to be condescending. It's just that it's perceived that way.
Aminatou: Yes, it's honestly a term of endearment. Also somebody tweeted at us, and I love this, they were like "We should share baby feminist resources under the hashtag #feministcanon" and I am onboard.
Ann: Oh, excellent.
Aminatou: Onboard.
(17:55)
Gina: If you had a feminist canon who would you shoot out of it? [Laughter]
Aminatou: Katy Perry.
Ann: Oh, so real!
Aminatou: No!
Ann: She could also wear an Evel Knievel outfit. It would totally go with her look, yeah.
Aminatou: I know. I can see her in the outfit but also, you know, Katy Perry is half an event away from becoming a baby feminist. Like she's always teetering the line and I have faith.
Ann: She's like a fetal feminist.
Aminatou: I have faith. I have faith. Every once in a while I'm like you're going to get there. But you know it's also okay. Not everyone has to be a feminist. It's cool.
Ann: It's true.
Aminatou: It's cool.
Ann: But it wouldn't be sad if everybody were a feminist.
Aminatou: Yeah, it wouldn't be sad, but you know also like not everybody can get on our level.
[Music]
Aminatou: Oh yeah, we haven't heard from Carolyn who's our other favorite person in this room. Carolyn is an amazing artist with a great musical talent.
Ann: Multi-talented musician.
Aminatou: In fact you heard one of her songs in I believe last episode?
Ann: Two episodes ago at least.
Aminatou: Two episodes ago, my bad. Fact check. Two episodes ago. She is in a great band -- leads a great band called Bouquet and they're going places so invest on the ground floor.
Ann: Okay, I had a question about this.
Aminatou: Yes?
Ann: Because they just released a ten inch record and it's very beautiful. It's a business. Watching you go to the post office before we came to the desert and mail lots of stuff, and knowing you have to make decisions about who will manage you and how much money they will take and all of this stuff, I'm just generally very interested in the biz side that creative ladies have to deal with.
(19:55)
Carolyn: Yeah. Thanks. Thanks for the intro. [Laughter] And yeah, well I've always done -- I've never had a manager or really even a label. I release with friends and retain rights of all the music so far. Yeah, now we're coming to a point where we have to contemplate further and I actually wish I could tell you more about it. I'm still learning, and yeah, still doing the mail order myself and designing all the packages, talking to the pressers, the masters.
Ann: So how did you have the money to make it? If you don't have a label.
Carolyn: Yeah, I mean I just work and save money.
Ann: Whoa.
Carolyn: We released with Folk Tale Records. They paid for a third of it. That was helpful.
Ann: So just it's all your own money? Like the cost of printing all the records and mailing it and doing . . . wow.
Carolyn: Yeah, it's like heavy investing on the front end.
Aminatou: Are you on any streaming services like Tidal or Spotify?
Carolyn: We're not yet actually. Part of that is because of a weird lapse with . . .
Aminatou: Is that a thing that's worthwhile to you though? Like being on those services, is it worth the actual investment of getting on there and do you get paid enough?
Carolyn: It's easy to get on. No, you don't -- it's not for payment. You have to get so many plays to get 35 cents.
Ann: So it's exposure?
Carolyn: I would love to pull a Tay Swift and like, you know, yank it all off as a spat -- is this like spoiler?
Ann: No.
Carolyn: I like her move. I thought that was very savvy.
Aminatou: If it was the right brand would you do a car commercial?
Carolyn: Oh my gosh, yeah, maybe an electric. Yeah.
Aminatou: I love this. An electric car? I love car . . . the music in car commercials is always great.
Ann: So Robyn did a car commercial.
Carolyn: Which one?
Ann: But before she would agree to it, it was like . . . I think it was a Volvo ad.
Aminatou: Phoenix did a car . . .
Carolyn: It would have to be a woman driving.
Ann: Well, she was like before she agreed to do it she was like "I need to meet with your engineers. I need to come on a tour. I need to hear about your long-term sustainability plans. Are you releasing an electric vehicle soon? Etc., etc. And I get to pick the director of the video, and . . ." Like it was basically she called all these terms and I don't think she was advertising any hybrid whatever.
(22:12)
Carolyn: Yeah.
Ann: But, you know, you do have some leverage in that case I guess. Yeah.
Carolyn: She's responsible. Yeah. Bless Robyn.
Ann: Yeah, anyway, so I just wanted to put that out there as an example of someone we respect having done a car commercial.
Carolyn: Yeah, no, I love that. I mean we do some non-exclusive licensing and in the contract are like no Koch Brothers, no bro-positive stuff. [Laughter]
Ann: Whoa, you have no bro-positive stuff?
Carolyn: I said like -- yeah, well bro-positive, actually that could be a good thing. It's a misphrase. Okay, nothing that's like encouraging bad bro culture. That is in the contract.
Aminatou: Whoa.
Carolyn: And they were like "Ha, ha, ha." And I was like yeah, but for real. [Laughter]
Ann: So what would you consider something encouraging bad bro culture to be?
Carolyn: Like a party scene where some guys are being sexual predators. Like not . . . you know, that kind of . . .
Ann: Sure.
Carolyn: Where you're just like that's every beer commercial. Not every beer commercial.
Ann: A lot of beer commercials.
Carolyn: A lot of beer commercials. I would be like no thank you.
Ann: What is your dream like commercial to have? To be the soundtrack for? If you could advertise for any product or anything.
Carolyn: Tourism would be really fun.
Ann: Oh my god.
Carolyn: Right?
Female: Yes.
Carolyn: Like I mean . . .
Ann: Just like a come to Palm Springs.
Carolyn: Come to Palm Springs.
Ann: Oh my god, you might have to write a jingle.
Carolyn: Please don't flush the toilet every time because there's no water here.
Ann: Because we use it all on our golf courses.
Carolyn: Mm-hmm.
Aminatou: That's awesome. Also you're going on tour, correct?
Carolyn: That's correct.
Aminatou: Very excited. Where can people find out information about your awesome tour so they can go see you?
(23:45)
Carolyn: Oh, they can find it at bouquetmusic.com. Thanks for asking.
Ann: Oh my god, everyone needs to go and just bliss out.
Aminatou: Oh, last question: why Bouquet?
Carolyn: I like that bouquet has a lot of different meanings. You know, bouquet -- and you can say it a lot of different ways. People misspell it all the time which I'm also into.
Aminatou: Ugh, Americans. [Laughter]
Carolyn: I know. But, you know, bouquet is like . . . it's a group of flowers but it's also a smell but it's also a gift that's so precious.
Aminatou: Last, last question. Who does your album art because it's pretty rad?
Carolyn: Oh, moi. [Laughs]
Aminatou: You have every talent.
Carolyn: Oh, thank you. Thank you so much. Yeah, I'm really . . . I'm like a control freak so I do . . . actually . . .
Aminatou: A really good quality to have.
Carolyn: Thanks. The most recent album art features a sculpture by the civil rights lawyer Dennis Cunningham.
Ann: Huh.
Carolyn: But it's a photo I took of it, so . . .
Aminatou: Today I learned something new.
Carolyn: He's important, yeah.
Gina: This is Gina chiming in for a last, last, last question: what's a song other than Stacks on Stacks on the new record that we should let our listeners here?
Carolyn: Hmm, um, maybe Come to Your House.
Ann: It's full of teenage longing.
Carolyn: Ain't it? [Laughter]
[Music]
(25:50)
Ann: Okay, let's talk about the drought.
Aminatou: Okay.
Ann: We're in California. We're in like drought capital but like fake drought capital.
Aminatou: Since you made a drought joke earlier or somebody did the drought is real, y'all. It's finally . . . we are in a state of emergency now. I love that the governor was like four years in I guess this is the time to do this.
Ann: Jerry Brown, not a sense of urgency.
Aminatou: I know. But, you know, now there's no water and the water's never coming back which I will say that since I moved to California that's been the actual creepiest thing in the world is how there's no rain and people are okay with it. But did you read that article in the Times? I think it was . . .
Ann: Sunday?
Aminatou: I think it was Sunday. I read it on . . . you know how they release that shit early? I hate it. And I was really disappointed by the article. It was like a deep-dive. It was a deep-dive on the drought and it was so focused on personal behaviors that you could take to reduce the drought.
Ann: Rude.
Aminatou: Yeah, like maybe don't brush your teeth with the water running, you know? Whatever. And then 29 paragraphs in it finally acknowledges that 80% of the water is actually consumed by big agriculture.
Ann: Yeah. And golf courses.
Aminatou: And golf courses. And I was like maybe you should lead with that instead of telling people that not flushing their toilets is what's going to help.
Ann: And basically end up on if you have no power to rip up a golf course down the street or use less water for your business because you don't own a manufacturing company, yeah, sure, turn off the water while you brush your teeth. That's probably a good idea. However . . . like that should come at the bottom.
Aminatou: I know.
Ann: Those photos were incredible though. Actually the photos were of . . . I don't know if you saw them, or if you read it online, but of around here where there's just a line down the middle and one half is subdivisions that are green.
Aminatou: Yeah.
Ann: That look like they could be from, you know, a place with a fresh water source nearby like the northern Midwest. And the other half is just like barren desert, totally.
Aminatou: Yeah. The thing that was also really scary in general is how like yeah, the governor is like "Here's our long-term plan to fix the water issue."
Ann: Yeah.
(27:50)
Aminatou: And yeah, it's been four years now. Every restaurant is shaming you into, you know, cooling it with the water drinking. I don't know what to do.
Ann: But it's hard if you're a woman who likes to stay hydrated like me.
Aminatou: Yeah.
Ann: I know.
Aminatou: We're in the desert. We're drinking out here.
Ann: I know. I know. Aisha's pointing to her unborn child. [Laughter]
Aminatou: Who is like the biggest water guzzler in the . . .
Ann: Seriously, like stop talking about . . .
Aisha: The entire drought.
Ann: But really the endgame here is war with Canada over fresh water.
Aminatou: I mean it's going to happen, and you know, we'll probably win.
Ann: I don't know.
Aminatou: What? They have like two people in their army. This is like known facts.
Ann: I know, but then we've got to figure out how to get the water here.
Aminatou: Oh. Pigeons. [Laughter] We've got this. I clearly can work for the Bring the Water to America Commission.
Ann: Right.
Aminatou: I have a whole plan.
Ann: Right. Strong-arm them into a treaty.
Aminatou: Yeah, you know, I'm also . . .
Gina: Amina XL.
Ann: Amina XL.
Aminatou: [Laughs] I don't know how science works. I hope the drought gets better otherwise we'll be living somewhere else soon. That's cool too.
Ann: That's the thing. This is why we rent, not buy, in California.
Aminatou: [Laughs]
Ann: We can always move. I know that sounds terrible, this is like the worst possible thing to say, but for real.
Aminatou: I was like we rent, not buy because we can't afford it.
Ann: I know. This is the joke. The joke is -- I like creating high-minded reasons for why I don't do things. It's like oh, yeah, like I don't dress head-to-toe in Dries Van Noten because I'm opposed or whatever. [Laughter] It's like it's all about my principles. It's not about money.
Aminatou: You do look really good in that one Dries van Noten dress.
Ann: I only own one item of designer clothing. I'm glad you're referring to it here and thank you.
Aminatou: [Laughs]
Ann: I would wear a lot more of it if I could afford it.
Aminatou: One day. One day.
Ann: Ugh.
Aminatou: When Carolyn gets her big car commercial we'll all wear Dries van Noten.
Carolyn: One for everyone.
Ann: Right. When we do a live show that doesn't have five people in the room with us catching up.
Aminatou: First of all it's two, four, six, seven. So you're right, five people then the two of us. [Laughter]
Ann: Yeah. I know, it's like maybe you need to hydrate.
[Music]
(30:20)
Aminatou: So obviously we're doing many, many birthday activities because that's how I roll.
Ann: Going to Dairy Queen, hanging out in the pool.
Aminatou: And the Dairy Queen still makes me sad.
Ann: Tomorrow's a new day.
Aminatou: The cone up and flew out in the breeze. [Laughter]
Ann: I hope it at least landed in a water-guzzling country club.
Aminatou: I'm still so sad about it and there's like ice cream on my boob.
Ann: There's a pool for that.
Aminatou: But -- so we're doing that. Tomorrow we're doing fun things. Then on Thursday what are we doing Thursday?
Ann: Ugh, we are going to a very fancy dinner with some other -- some out-of-town besties since right now technically we are same-town besties. We are in the same room. Besties from D.C. are coming, our friends Laura and Phoebe. And Kenesha, the woman who made our logo, and all of our . . . like she's why we look so good everywhere all the time.
Aminatou: 100%.
Ann: And then one of our listeners plus let's be real, her bestie, and we're all having dinner together. It'll be like . . . we got a table through this 100 Open Tables thing, project, effort, promotion. I don't know what to call it. Anyway, we got a table at a nice restaurant and we're going to meet a listener IRL.
Aminatou: I know. I really hope they like us.
Ann: I think this is why we were like you can bring a bestie so it's not awkward. Like if we don't get along at least you can talk to your friend.
Aminatou: It just would make me really sad if they went home and they were like "Those girls, that was a little awkward." Because, you know, I take a little bit of pride in the fact that we're good with everybody. I think that's true, right?
Ann: This is our first chance to live up to the hype though.
Aminatou: I know, but now I'm nervous!
Ann: I know. Don't worry about it. We'll have a lot of drinks.
Aminatou: I guess we've got to go back to the pool. I would like to be swimming right now.
Ann: Yeah. I mean we only have like many -- two hours of daylight left?
Aminatou: I'm so glad that everybody's here. I'm really excited to turn 30. I think it's the best age.
Ann: Ugh, happy birthday, boo.
Aminatou: Hey! [Cheering]
Ann: And thanks to our live pool house audience.
Aminatou: I know! I can't wait until we do this all the time.
Ann: Ugh, all the time.
Aminatou: Ugh, when Carolyn makes us rich!
Ann: I mean when everyone makes us rich.
Aminatou: Listen, I don't shine if she doesn't shine.
Ann: Aww. Yeah, so . . .
Gina: Where can people find us?
Ann: Oh my god.
Aminatou: I've got this down this time. People -- you can find us many places on the Internet, on our website callyourgirlfriend.com. You can find us on iTunes. Feel free to leave us a review and subscribe. You can find us on Twitter at @callyrgf and feel free to email us, callyrgf@gmail.com.
Ann: Ugh, see you on the Internet and in the pool in two seconds.
Aminatou: See you in the pool, boo.
Ann: [Laughs]