Whenever Leonard Raskin joins Nestor on the show, we discuss the American Dream but sometimes that dream involves Canada – and even other countries! The first night of the Rush tour got our host to Los Angeles but this pending Baltimore Ravens adventure to Brazil in September also has the New World Man talking music, travel and football as the Rio de Janeiro plans start to solidify around the beltway.

Nestor Aparicio and Leonard Raskin discuss their summer plans, including travel and concerts. Leonard shares his family’s vacation preferences, contrasting his wife’s adventurous trips with his own relaxed beach vacations. Nestor recounts his recent experience attending a Rush concert in Las Vegas, highlighting the emotional impact of seeing the band perform. Leonard expresses his excitement about attending a Rush concert in Brazil in September. They also reminisce about past concerts, including a reunion with The Who. Nestor plans to attend more concerts, including a trip to Brazil to see Rush, emphasizing the importance of living life to the fullest.

• [ ] @Nestor Aparicio – Tell Ryan Ripken about the passport issue and how the Ripken name helped with the State Department so he can be aware of the situation.
• [ ] @Nestor Aparicio – Bring up Quebec as a future travel destination with Kathy whenever you see her, to encourage the couple to plan a Quebec trip.
• [ ] @Nestor Aparicio – Plan and book a trip to Brazil in January to see Rush, considering the Brazil tour dates.
• [ ] Travel to Rio, Brazil in September with his wife, as already booked and visa arrangements completed.
• [ ] Prepare for and attend the July 28 Rush show in Baltimore, getting your voice ready for the event.

Maryland Crab Cake Tour and Summer Plans

• Nestor Aparicio introduces the Maryland Crab Cake Tour, sponsored by the Maryland Lottery and GBMC.
• Nestor mentions the Ravens and Orioles seasons are over, and he is looking forward to summer.
• Leonard Raskin talks about his family’s summer plans, including relaxing by the pool and occasional adventures.
• Nestor shares his own summer plans, mentioning he doesn’t feel like flying anywhere and prefers local activities.

Sports Journalism and Personal Connections

• Nestor discusses the changing dynamics of sports journalism, mentioning how access to athletes has changed over the years.
• Nestor shares a personal anecdote about his friendship with Luke Jones and their shared experiences covering sports.
• Nestor talks about a trip he planned for Luke to cover a game at Fenway Park, highlighting the importance of fulfilling personal bucket list items.
• Leonard and Nestor discuss their travel experiences and the importance of making memories with family.

Travel Mishaps and Reflections

• Leonard shares a story about a business trip to Quebec that he had to miss due to a passport issue.
• Nestor and Leonard reflect on the impact of missed travel opportunities on their personal lives.
• Leonard talks about attending a conference in Quebec and the experience of missing out on a trip with his wife.
• Nestor shares a similar story about a trip to Chile that he missed, emphasizing the importance of making up for lost time.

Rush Concert Experience

• Nestor recounts his experience attending a Rush concert in Las Vegas, including the logistics of traveling and attending the show.
• Leonard expresses his excitement about attending a Rush concert in the future.
• Nestor describes the emotional impact of seeing Rush perform, including a special moment with Annika Nils.
• Leonard and Nestor discuss the significance of attending live concerts and the joy it brings to their lives.

Traveling for Concerts and Personal Goals

• Nestor talks about his plans to attend more concerts, including a trip to Brazil to see Rush.
• Leonard shares his plans to travel to Brazil with his wife to see Rush perform.
• Nestor and Leonard discuss the importance of saving money and making travel plans to fulfill personal goals.
• Leonard reflects on the impact of attending concerts and the joy it brings to his life, emphasizing the importance of living in the moment.

Reflections on Past Concerts and Musical Influences

• Leonard shares a story about attending a Who concert 43 years after seeing their farewell tour.
• Nestor and Leonard discuss the significance of attending concerts and the impact it has on their lives.
• Leonard reflects on the importance of following one’s dreams and making memories through travel and music.
• Nestor and Leonard discuss the importance of living in the moment and enjoying life’s experiences to the fullest.

Nestor Aparicio 0:01
Welcome home. We are W N S T A M 1570 Towson Baltimore. We are Baltimore positive, positively getting the Maryland Crab Cake Tour out on the road this week. It’s all brought to you by the Maryland Lottery. I’ll have the Ravens, excuse Raven scratch-offs. We’re getting close on that. Six weeks from now have the Raven scratch-offs. I have the Maryland Treasure scratch-offs. It is not Ravens season yet, GBMC also puts us out of the road, along with Farnon and Dermer. They are the comfort guys, keeping us comfortable. This guy’s gonna be comfortable, because I, and I knew he was headed to the beach, because it’s summertime, and I’m thinking Stanley Cup’s over, NBA is over. You don’t really care about the World Cup, although you’ll watch Leonard Raskin joins the series, Raskin Global, he manages money and the American dream for my family and others. And how’s your son, man? It finally feels like summer, right? Really well, right? It’s getting there.

Leonard Raskin 0:50
It’s getting there. The weather’s weather’s getting warm. Pool’s open, sitting by the pool, relaxing, being at home for a little while. Go to the beach a little bit, get some sand. I gotta get my toes in the sand, you know, when we go on these family adventures, we have a saying in the house that if, if Kathy and Matthew plan the trip, it’s not a vacation, we’re touring, we’re traveling, we’re seeing, we’re doing from morning to night, we’re going and going, when I plan a trip, it’s a vacation, I like sitting by the pool, toes in the sand. An occasional.. I’m good for an occasional, you know. Let’s go see whatever. Love great food, go into like a major place, but I’m good for a couple hours a day. And then I just want to chill, relax, enjoy. That’s that’s vacation to me. The other is adventuring. So I’m looking forward to a little vacation, and the

Nestor Aparicio 1:46
same way, dude. I swear to God, the last five days I’ve been thinking, because people are thinking, like, man, you’ve been a lot of places in South America, right, Vegas, or in California, rush last week, right? Right. So I don’t feel like flying anywhere right now, like, are having this debate. I’ll let you little, little backstage, because we don’t really have a big backstage at WNST anymore. We used to have a lot of drama. I got rid of a lot of that along,

Leonard Raskin 2:10
absolutely

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Nestor Aparicio 2:10
more people, more drama. But because the Orioles stink, and because the Ravens don’t stink, but are really jerks. And by the way, I just shared a pointer journalism thing about sports journalism. I just shared it on Facebook as of Tuesday morning. I shared it, and it’s about reporting being gone. The fact that people like me will never know people like Ray Lewis ever again. It will only be his coworkers that will ever write about him or have access to him in any other way than that. Two minutes at the podium once or twice a week, that’s it. That’s Lamar’s never going to really know Luke Jones, if even if he does. So that’s a different era, you know, than from where I am, right? So I, you know, Luke and I, we don’t travel together anymore, right? The world, the Super Bowl combine, we used to do that every year. You know, spring training was something we did around here for a long time. So I said to him, we got through something together, you know. We haven’t been anywhere, and it’s not like he’s gonna go see Rush with me or anything like that. I’m like, what do you really want to do what’s on your bucket list, right? Your

Leonard Raskin 3:22
right

Nestor Aparicio 3:23
dream trip. There you go, Luke. Because I was trying to take him out to San Diego and San Francisco for baseball two days ago last year. We were, we went to Toronto, we had a great time. Yeah, and the team stunk, right? We, it was our fault that they stunk on opening day, and he said to me, you know, I really like to cover a game at Fenway Park, and I’m like, well, that’s easy. I said, right in the Fenway Park. He’s like, yeah, I’ve been there, but I didn’t cover a game. He’s like, I just, there was a fan. He’s like, while I’m a journalist, that, you know, I want to, yeah. I’m like,

Leonard Raskin 3:53
yeah,

Nestor Aparicio 3:54
well, it’s a $49 flight to Boston,

Leonard Raskin 3:56
right? Come on, let’s do it. Figure

Nestor Aparicio 3:57
this out. So, I have a flight for us, and it’s a little bit of a shtick. I don’t know whether we’re really going to do this or not. I think we’re going to do it,

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Leonard Raskin 4:04
sure,

Nestor Aparicio 4:04
but I got a cheap flight in a cheap room. It’s on July 20-first. It’s a Tuesday.

Leonard Raskin 4:08
There you go. The

Nestor Aparicio 4:09
Southwest discounts on Tuesday, right? So we have a Tuesday up and a Wednesday back. I have no agenda other than Luke’s going to cover the game, right? And I’m going to, I think Toto is playing their pier six that night. I don’t know, but I mean, I’ll probably go to the game, but right, Luke’s trying to make it like, well, let’s see if the game means anything, and I’m like, no, it doesn’t, the Russians didn’t mean anything the other night, I just went because I went

Leonard Raskin 4:35
right,

Nestor Aparicio 4:36
doesn’t need to mean anything, that’s right, that means something to you that it matters, most meaningful thing, that that it matters, right. That’s

Leonard Raskin 4:43
exactly it. It’s exactly on your wife

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Nestor Aparicio 4:45
and kid. Where’s the place you haven’t been that you almost went, but you didn’t go, and you screwed it up. Chile was the place for me and my wife, and I made, I’ll

Leonard Raskin 4:54
tell you this, and I, I don’t know if I’ve told this story, you’ve heard this, the. The Quebec trip, what? So, about, about 10 years ago, maybe 10 years ago, I had a conference in Quebec at the, whatever it is, Mont Saint Michel, whatever, the.. I can’t think of the name, the, the amazing hotel.

Nestor Aparicio 5:17
The hotel looks like a castle.

Leonard Raskin 5:18
Yeah, it looks like a castle. Okay, yeah, okay, so I had a conference there for five days, and we went to Quebec,

Nestor Aparicio 5:25
you mean Quebec City, just, yeah, Quebec City in

Leonard Raskin 5:27
Canada, so we had tickets to go, we had Air Canada, we had hotel, we had a couple nice dinners planned, you know, it was going to be a beautiful few days, and you speak

Nestor Aparicio 5:37
French,

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Leonard Raskin 5:38
yeah, no, that’s the only thing, you’re gonna happen, French. Well, you know, we’ll survive, but it’s a, it’s a fabulous city, great food, crepes on the street, you know. It’s just,

Nestor Aparicio 5:47
was this summertime or winter?

Leonard Raskin 5:49
This was a spring, late spring.

Nestor Aparicio 5:50
Okay, I went in the summer, my wife went at Christmas last year, completely different experience. Yeah, so this is late

Leonard Raskin 5:56
spring, and it was, it was going to be beautiful the day before the trip, as we must, gotta check in for the flight, so I check in for the flight. It’s 10 years ago, so we’re talking 2016 now. I hadn’t been to Canada for quite some time before this.

Nestor Aparicio 6:15
You don’t have a passport,

Leonard Raskin 6:16
I do. Hers is expired, had no idea that, since you know, the old day, you can’t go to Canada with a license.

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Nestor Aparicio 6:27
I had that happening to me when the Beijing trip happened with Ripken. Yeah, and my wife had been beating on me, saying, ‘Dude, you’re getting up on this, you don’t want to be six months out on right, you don’t want to be six months, your expiration

Leonard Raskin 6:39
date isn’t really the expiration. And Ripon announced the trip to

Nestor Aparicio 6:42
Beijing and Guangzhou and Shanghai, China, right before the oh eight Olympics, and I had to like

Leonard Raskin 6:50
scurry,

Nestor Aparicio 6:51
I had to get expedited, right. Well, I couldn’t even get expedited Ryan, I’m gonna let Ryan Ripke know this. Next time I eat burnt hot dogs is Ryan Ripken.

Leonard Raskin 7:02
There you go

Nestor Aparicio 7:03
on the strip. I’m going to tell him, you know, the Ripken name and the State Department part of had a little,

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Leonard Raskin 7:10
had a little bit of help.

Nestor Aparicio 7:11
I can’t say that I’ve used a whole lot of government poll, not lately, anyway. But I think I think I got expedited. I think I had to pay another 80, bright or something, right, but I got expedited, and I call other than that, and the Brazilian State Department. I told you to give my passport to the Brazilian consulate. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And this is going to lead into a really good rush conversation, so continue with your Quebec. So, what happened?

Leonard Raskin 7:36
So, so I called the State Department, because

Nestor Aparicio 7:38
the day before you’re leaving,

Leonard Raskin 7:40
yeah, because we’re here in Baltimore, I could drive to DC and get this handled. No, can’t do it. No, just can’t do it. It’s just impossible.

Nestor Aparicio 7:48
I’ve been to that office, so know where it is. So sort of like the

Leonard Raskin 7:52
sort of like the Tampa trip where I ended up with a new living room because I didn’t take her to the Super Bowl.

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Nestor Aparicio 7:58
Oh, okay.

Leonard Raskin 7:59
This was not as bad, because you know it wasn’t that thing, but she stayed home. She had to stay home. There was just no choice.

Nestor Aparicio 8:06
Did you go?

Leonard Raskin 8:08
It was a business conference. Yes.

Nestor Aparicio 8:09
Oh my god, you without her.

Leonard Raskin 8:12
Yes, I had several

Nestor Aparicio 8:15
pictures of you eating crepes and poutine or anything. Did you?

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Leonard Raskin 8:17
I had pictures of crepes. Wait, it gets better. So the conference, the business conference, opening night dinner was back.

Nestor Aparicio 8:27
Yet we

Leonard Raskin 8:27
have not gone.

Nestor Aparicio 8:29
All right, it’s a place you asked about

Leonard Raskin 8:31
a place we got. We went to go right. I got it. We got to get to Quebec. So here’s

Nestor Aparicio 8:35
great.

Leonard Raskin 8:36
Wait, here’s the, here’s the second part. The morning, the next morning I get there, the dinner’s lovely. The next morning they have the opening of the conference, and they have the keynote. First morning, the keynote is never quit, never give up on your dream. It’s a woman who played the lead in Phantom of the Opera on Broadway for like 10 years and was.. I don’t know what happens when you go to the audition, and you don’t get the part. Is that turned down? Are you turned down?

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Nestor Aparicio 9:08
Yeah, you’re rejected.

Leonard Raskin 9:10
Whatever, she was rejected five, I think four or five times over the years, because that part doesn’t just come up, you know? The women that play that play that,

Nestor Aparicio 9:21
yeah, so

Leonard Raskin 9:22
five different times she, she auditioned and didn’t get the part, and she talked about her life story and about what she did and how she prepared and went to the audition, and then and then she got it and talked about how this is this is true for any professional that, that does that, you know, performs. She said eight times a week, she had to walk out on that stage and be that person. And she said one thing I remember very clearly was somebody in the audience has never seen the show before. And they’re got to be wowed about how amazing this show is,

Nestor Aparicio 10:04
that was a DiMaggio line, right?

Leonard Raskin 10:06
And somebody else is coming for the 100th time, they know every song, every word, and you can’t screw it up because they know exactly what it’s supposed to be. She said, so I had to be on eight times a week, you know, 40, whatever, 50 weeks a year, she took a little vacation, whatever, for 10 years, or however long she did it, and she talked about the stress of that, that it was her life’s dream, and she finally got it, and then how incredibly stressed, difficult it is,

Nestor Aparicio 10:33
yeah,

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Leonard Raskin 10:34
and then she finished her talk, it was about 20 minutes, 25 minutes, lights go down, curtain opens, a piano shows up, and she starts singing from the show. Oh, it was incredible. So, it wasn’t

Nestor Aparicio 10:49
just a keynote, it was no,

Leonard Raskin 10:51
yeah. And I could not tell my wife how incredible this woman was, and I recorded. I had my phone, and I recorded her singing, you know, the whole thing. I never.. she’s never seen when I see Catherine. I’m not bringing

Nestor Aparicio 11:07
it up. When we have crabs, Acosta Raskin is here. He is Raskin Global, so gotta get to Quebec. Dream just to go

Leonard Raskin 11:13
to Quebec. I

Nestor Aparicio 11:15
will bring Quebec up every time I see Kathy. That’s right. That’s right. We should bring Chile up with my wife. You know what’s funny

Leonard Raskin 11:21
about it, or interesting about you, asked that, and she’s never.. we’ve never kind of had the conversation about we should go to Quebec. It’s never come up like we should go there, but we have to. Gotta go back. Matthew brings it up. Tell her

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Nestor Aparicio 11:34
that Rush is playing in Montreal.

Leonard Raskin 11:35
There you go.

Nestor Aparicio 11:36
You know, you get there, Ottawa, right up the road. You know,

Leonard Raskin 11:40
Quebec, Quebec is not far, you know,

Nestor Aparicio 11:43
yeah, Vu. So, this brings us to full circle, because we’re going to do Stanley Cup, and, like, all, yeah, sure, Orioles are on the West Coast, who cares, right? So, I went to see Rush last week, you aware that I was going to see Rush, like, yeah, I think when the tickets went on sale, you and I had a thing, right? You’re a Rush guy, right?

Leonard Raskin 12:02
Yep, I’m going.

Nestor Aparicio 12:03
Why are you going? What do you love about Rush?

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Leonard Raskin 12:06
I just.. it’s amazing. I remember back in the day, my favorite 2112

Nestor Aparicio 12:13
Oh, okay.

Leonard Raskin 12:14
Listening to that whole album, just

Nestor Aparicio 12:18
see, you were more on the property side, I was more on permanent waves and moving pictures and melodies, and sort of the jazz, and I love all their stuff,

Leonard Raskin 12:27
all their stuff, but that, that album, yes, it was an album in my bedroom with the with headphones on, not with the speaker, so it

Nestor Aparicio 12:37
goes left to right, oh man, and like the rocket ship kind of sound like you’re in space, yeah. 2112

Leonard Raskin 12:43
will be in the bedroom,

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Nestor Aparicio 12:45
but I wasn’t when I was okay,

Leonard Raskin 12:46
I wasn’t either, right? Yeah, what year? Tell me, imagine

Nestor Aparicio 12:50
listening to drug, listening to Russia’s like, oh my god, it’s awesome, but I did it as a kid, no, I was not a drug kid, no,

Leonard Raskin 13:00
whatever year that was, I had, I had the album, I had a phenomenal stereo, and I had the most incredible quadraphonic headphones, and when that,

Nestor Aparicio 13:12
you learn that from The Who,

Leonard Raskin 13:13
right, when, when that thing started playing, and I never in my life, that was just such a fabulous, that that hooked me forever.

Nestor Aparicio 13:23
Okay, well, forever is a long time. Yes, 26

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Leonard Raskin 13:27
So now they’re coming, and I gotta go. Forever

Nestor Aparicio 13:30
has taken Neil Pierce.

Leonard Raskin 13:32
Yep,

Nestor Aparicio 13:33
Alex had arthritis in his hands and was having trouble playing. Alex, by every uh account in Getty’s book was not the healthiest man right now. Alex was the guy always smoking weed in the studio. Alex was always the guy getting too drunk in the hotel room in Europe and ripping the room up and having right

Leonard Raskin 13:54
now 70, so

Nestor Aparicio 13:56
there Alex went to some place in Austria, and had a medical epipherical, yeah, right, like something about I don’t know what they did to him. I have not heard that. I have not heard an interviewer in him on that. When I get Getty on the phone or Alex on the phone, if it ever happens,

Leonard Raskin 14:16
yep,

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Nestor Aparicio 14:16
I might not even delve so much into the music and stuff, because I’m fascinated by this part of it, having witnessed them for three hours the other night with Annika Nils,

Leonard Raskin 14:25
yep,

Nestor Aparicio 14:26
and Lauren Gold, the keyboard player.

Leonard Raskin 14:28
Sure,

Nestor Aparicio 14:29
I went out to LA, I’ve seen them, I don’t know, I was looking through ticket stubs, JT the brick was on last week, he always brought number 5352 you know, I don’t, I have no idea how many times I’ve seen Bruce Springsteen or Jimmy Buffett or Billy Joel, or literally, but I have the Stubs, and with Rush, it’s not like 100 because they didn’t tour like Springs, right? Right, you know what I mean, like they would come out, they would tour a lot, I’d see him at the beginning of the tour, the end of tour, most of their tours in the 80s, I was a poor kid just trying to get the. The thought of seeing them in New York was not feasible, of course. The first 20 years of their existence for me, right? Like, I just wasn’t going someplace like that. But as my life was, yeah, as my life progressed into the 90s, I did see them in lots of places. I saw them in San Diego with my cousin in his shed, you know? I saw them in Dallas, Texas. I’ve flown around to see Rush, but one of the things with Rush, and one of the reasons I did not see them 200 times, honestly,

Leonard Raskin 15:30
yeah,

Nestor Aparicio 15:30
they always did the same show, they would switch out one song, maybe two in the middle of the set, and they had an A and a B set, and they would play 24 songs, 22 of them were the same every night, from the first night of the tour in Manchester, New Hampshire, to the last night in Rio, it was the same show, minus a song or two, because that’s the way they worked, right, that’s the way their videos worked, that’s the way everything worked, was it a whole

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Leonard Raskin 15:56
different show every night,

Nestor Aparicio 15:59
I’m so fascinated by Getty Lee, that I like, he’s my favorite rock star, probably has been since I gave up Tommy Shaw in 1982 you know, or whatever. And I’m gonna see Sammy Hagar next week, I’m gonna see the Black Crows in a couple of hours. Everybody knows Steve Gorman, the drummer, the former drummer, is my friend, he’s not in the band, he gave me permission to go see the band, so I feel better about it now, but I don’t share it on media, because I don’t offend him, but, but I still love the black, I mean, and I love Bryan Adams, so I love my band, yeah, yeah, yeah, Rush is one of those bands, sort of like, I mean, I remember the moment that Neil Pierre died, I was in the parking lot at Dave and Buster’s in Florida, putting together a Lamar Jackson Super Bowl party that never happened in Miami back in 2019 and I cried in the parking lot. I couldn’t believe it. I mean, there was no warning, just an early warning on that, and the rush thing. I never thought they would play again. I went and saw Getty, of course not, three years ago, do his speeches

Leonard Raskin 16:57
right

Nestor Aparicio 16:57
with the book,

Leonard Raskin 16:58
yep,

Nestor Aparicio 16:58
the big base book, the base. How would they,

Leonard Raskin 17:01
how would they play again? That was the question, right? Well,

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Nestor Aparicio 17:04
they would find a drummer, they would find, they would let Taylor Hawkins, who would have wanted to have been their drummer. A lot of guys, and Getty said in his book, and I don’t think he said this on stage as much, but he said in his book, when Neil died, drummers reached to him, right, and he was offended by it.

Leonard Raskin 17:23
Yeah,

Nestor Aparicio 17:23
he was, you know, he just offended by it,

Leonard Raskin 17:27
right.

Nestor Aparicio 17:27
And because they’re their grieving process, right, like,

Leonard Raskin 17:31
let the coffin seal,

Nestor Aparicio 17:32
extraordinary, yeah, you know, with the band and their future and their age, and Getty wrote about that in the book, and in the book, there’s no thought they would ever tour, right?

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Leonard Raskin 17:42
Right,

Nestor Aparicio 17:43
so the word comes out, what, about nine months ago, was around Christmas time, right? Yeah, that they announced, like,

Leonard Raskin 17:49
a half a dozen stops, that was it.

Nestor Aparicio 17:51
And they were going to do four shows in, like, eight cities, six cities, and you went out, spent 1000 bucks, you bought tickets, and I laid a little low, because I just wasn’t going to spend that much, right. Um, and then they announced a gob of dates, yeah. Then they came out with American dates, right? They’re in Mexico City tonight, right? Yeah. Well, so hanging out with the World

Leonard Raskin 18:15
Cup,

Nestor Aparicio 18:15
then then without playing, they announced European dates,

Leonard Raskin 18:22
right,

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Nestor Aparicio 18:23
and I’m like, last I checked, Alex couldn’t grab a guitar. Now I know they’ll figure the drummer, and I know Getty’s going to be spry until he’s 90,

Leonard Raskin 18:32
right.

Nestor Aparicio 18:33
Getty’s like me, he’s got a young heart, you know what I mean. So, still wears tennis shoes, you know, still throws his hair long, and Maynard Gibbs, Maynard Krebs, I should say, Maynard Gibbs, Maynard Krebs. So, um, then they announced South American dates,

Leonard Raskin 18:49
right?

Nestor Aparicio 18:50
So they’re going all

Leonard Raskin 18:52
over, all I mean, and

Nestor Aparicio 18:53
they’re not doing a couple of South America, no, I mean, they’re doing 20 dates in Europe, they’re doing like 15 in South America, or maybe a dozen, but nonetheless, all of these dates are out, and I don’t have a ticket for any of

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Leonard Raskin 19:05
it, right.

Nestor Aparicio 19:06
And then they showed up on the night of the Junos, which is the Canadian Grammys, and they played Finding My Way with Annika in sort of a kitschy sort of Bastille Day look up, they played one song, three minutes, Juno’s dropped the sticks, and said, ‘See you june 7 in LA.

Leonard Raskin 19:26
Right,

Nestor Aparicio 19:28
you are excited about your tickets. My friends in Chicago are excited about their tickets. I had a flight to San Diego in LA, and I’m like, I will be at the first show, because I’ve been at the first show the last five years of a run sport, right? I was in Tulsa, Oklahoma, 15 years ago, so I was gonna go, and I bought a ticket the night of that finding my way, and I spent $215 on my ticket.

Leonard Raskin 19:50
Okay,

Nestor Aparicio 19:51
and I just didn’t want it to get more expensive. Yeah, sure, like it might get a little cheaper, but I got a ticket, and I said, which I never do, no. Was a ticket in my Ticketmaster app for three months, which doesn’t exist for me. I don’t buy right ever, so my wife said cancer twice, and we’ve had Trump already ran the country into the ground one time. We put masks on, so I don’t.. I’m thinking about buying green bananas at my age, sort of like, you know, I’ll buy the Black Crow’s ticket tonight when the rain clears at Meriwether, and I can go, so I had this ticket, which is really rare for me, and I wasn’t like looking forward to it, looking forward to it, looking forward to it, like, right? It was in South America opening day, I got things to do, I got a job, I’m like, I just prayed that they stayed healthy enough at their age that they can go one show, let alone the last show in Helsinki, Finland, yeah. Next April, they’re playing Health Sinky Finland. Next, got your tickets. I’m getting to that. You are my American Dream inspirer, and in addition to being an advertiser, and you used to like, but we talk about this American Dream. Absolutely, why?

Leonard Raskin 20:59
Absolutely,

8

Nestor Aparicio 20:59
people that see me on the top of Machu Picchu wonder what gets into him, that nasty Nestor redneck Venezuelan guy from Dundalk and Democrat, all what gets into him to get on a plane, leave his wife at home while she runs off to Italy, and she’s in Maine with her father and her sister right now running around kayaking and something I don’t do, I look like I want to kayak? So I look like I want to hike? No, I want to hike it on the lawn at Merriweather tonight with Chris Robinson and Rich Robinson and John Allen. So for me this Rush tour, my wife kept saying to me, I can’t believe you’re not like talking about it, and you’re not geeked, and you’re not listening to Rush and banging 2112 at an insane level at 5am in the basement,

Leonard Raskin 21:43
right?

Nestor Aparicio 21:44
I didn’t think about it much, because I didn’t want to get it’d be like getting hopeful about an Oriole World Series when you might not be one, you know? Right. So I was just sort of like really low key in it, and I flew out to Vegas, and I saw Bryan Adams, and I saw Rod Stewart before he bailed on San Diego and went to Scotland, and went for a drink, went for, yeah, went for a wee dram, as they would say. So

Leonard Raskin 22:06
people are pissed. This is

Nestor Aparicio 22:08
my pathway last week, because I haven’t had you on last weekend. I went to Vegas, I took a train from Baltimore, because you’re my money guy, you really appreciate, yes, right, yeah. So I could not get my points to get me to Vegas quick enough with the 14 days, right? But it was a really cheap flight out of Philly. There was a $210 flight out of Philly. Okay, 14,000 points. I just got to get to Philly by 11, and then I can’t drive because I got one car. My wife, I wasn’t going to make you already screwed your wife on Quebec. You think I’m gonna say to my wife, drive me to the Philly airport, drive to come home, let me out. No, I ain’t doing that. How the hell would I get Uber exactly? Train, you’re thinking like me, train, I’m thinking, how can I get to the Philly airport by 11 o’clock on Wednesday? I’m sure I can get to this Brian, right? $63 yeah. My wife drove me and dropped me off at Penn Station right in the morning, right? I took a 530 train to Philly. I got to Philly at seven. Do you know in Center City, Philly? I’m just giving you this for anybody listening that thinks I’m a maniac. Great, I’m giving you really good traveling, right? Okay, there is a train from the station in Center City, Philly, you know I’m talking about, right? Yeah, right. There is an $8.75 airport, one stop train to the airport. It’s an express, yep, to the airport. Yeah, I did not know that existed. I’ve driven by that airport 10,000 times. It smells like when you drive by there, you know, going into Philly. I was at the Philly airport, which, where I’ve never been. I’ve been here once. I transferred a plane into US Air. I’ve never really been to the Philly Airport. It is a catacomb cocoon. It’s a, it’s a hobbit. It’s a bunch of like trails. I walked to Philly Airport. I did a segment with Luke in the Philly airport, so I wound up flying to Vegas. I do Brian Adams rots, 110 degrees, Hooker’s here, drinkers there, country boys there, EDM girls there, Wayne Newton over here, all that. I didn’t think anything of Rush the whole time I was there, but I was wearing a Rush jacket, right? Sure, in the casino, people were coming up, Tour Star, yeah, you went LA, so I had a little bit of that, I took the Flix bus for 36 bucks at 5am at the Fashion Valley Mall on a Sunday morning. It was me and 28 people. It reminded me of my Raven trips. I got on the bus, the Flicks bus for 10 bucks. I could have had the seat empty next to me. It was empty, and I watched the sun come up over the desert

Leonard Raskin 24:45
driving to LA.

Nestor Aparicio 24:46
I wasn’t driving, no, riding to LA,

8

Leonard Raskin 24:49
right? Right.

Nestor Aparicio 24:50
So I got a free ride for 36 bucks to LA, my Uber to the Fashion Valley Mall from the X Cap. Caliber,

Leonard Raskin 25:00
yeah,

Nestor Aparicio 25:00
was more

Leonard Raskin 25:01
than the bus than

Nestor Aparicio 25:02
the bus from Vegas to LA, so I get to LA, and now I’m in LA, and I’m at the train station in downtown LA at 930 10 o’clock in the morning, and was a special day, you know, why Rush was opening their tour in LA, that right right now I’m getting like all right, I’m in LA. I pulled in, you know, came down the mountain, you know, it was cool, and it was

Leonard Raskin 25:29
hotel

8

Nestor Aparicio 25:30
$12.75 nonstop bus downtown LA to LAX Terminal One threw me out. I get out of the Terminal One, and there is my bus to the Fairfield and El Segundo, waiting $5 tip. Next thing you know, I’m in LA, and I, I went over early at like 5o’clock and I went to a liquor store in Inglewood.

Leonard Raskin 25:51
Yep,

Nestor Aparicio 25:52
exactly the way you think it, liquor store in Inglewood would be, you know, bars up in front of it. Yep, and I got two tall boys for $2.80 Coors Lights, and I 48 ounces of beer, and I went in the parking lot, and I had a little rice bowl, poke a rice bowl, and I sat there watching the sunset, and I, and the best part about it, I sat with these three fellows from St. Louis and their 82 year old mother, oh my god, they flew in from St. Louis, the three sons took their C, Rush, C, Rush, and I sat with them, having a beer, and everybody that walked by, I was judging their T-shirt on whether it was an original from the 70s or 80s or 90s, right, whether it was a knockoff or whether it was a modern internet buy, yeah, because there was so much merch, just looking at the merch that people were wearing was unbelievably awesome. And then I went in, and I had a great seat, and the show was so unbelievable that I haven’t talked to anybody about some

Leonard Raskin 26:54
of the video. I saw a little bit of the video.

Nestor Aparicio 26:56
It

Leonard Raskin 26:57
can you imagine?

Nestor Aparicio 26:58
Only cried twice. Okay. All right, I got, I got very, very mistied, yeah. When, when she hit, when she hit the Tom Sawyer thing, right? I was holding my camera on her, about 40 feet away from her, yep, and Alex came in behind her and gave her the big, gave her a big smile behind, and I caught it all on video, and I just, like, I just started to get like

8

Leonard Raskin 27:22
weepy,

Nestor Aparicio 27:22
weepy, and I, so I came home. My wife met me at the airport. She was going to Maine, handed me the car keys, and I had slept all night on the plane, and she, she looked at me. She’s like, she handed me the key. She’s like, I’m wearing a rush sweatshirt. She’s like, How was it? I said,

Leonard Raskin 27:38
amazing.

Nestor Aparicio 27:39
I need to like think about this for a week and try to figure out what I’m going to tell Leonard Raskin when I have to go, because I know you’re excited about it. I can’t wait. Have you done? I have three or four friends have done no research at all, nothing.

Leonard Raskin 27:53
I’m just going.

Nestor Aparicio 27:54
They have four different set lists. I’m just going wherever they play. You’re going. They are playing 2112 in its entirety on

Leonard Raskin 28:01
all that I heard, and you just

8

Nestor Aparicio 28:02
need to figure out what night they’re playing moving pictures one night, yeah. And then the night I saw, I love the set list so much, the night I saw them, yeah, that I thought, how could it be better? And it’s got it’s this different, but the set list I saw was my set list, it had free will, it had vital signs, it had right, it had songs I love, so I’m just telling you, follow your dream, that even when you’re 74 years old and you have arthritis and you’re one of the greatest guitar players in the world, they don’t want to do it and put you on stage, make it, Daddy’s there, amen, drummer’s unbelievable, and I guess the long story short for you, my Rush reviewed for you today was that I’m I’m looking at Paris and Amsterdam. I’m looking at Helsinki, and more than that, I’m looking at places in Brazil that they’re playing. Yeah, I have never considered going, because the reason, really weird places in the reason they’re, they’re, they’re playing Brasilia, they’re playing in Brazil. So, I think I’m going to go to Brazil in January.

Leonard Raskin 29:01
I’m going to Brazil in September.

Nestor Aparicio 29:04
Are you going?

Leonard Raskin 29:04
I am.

Nestor Aparicio 29:05
Did you already book it?

Leonard Raskin 29:06
All booked.

Nestor Aparicio 29:08
What are you doing? You’re going

8

Leonard Raskin 29:10
all done. I’m going to Rio.

Nestor Aparicio 29:11
You’re taking your wife,

Leonard Raskin 29:12
taking my wife. She has her passport. We’ve already.. it’s all done. We got our Brazil visas all hooked up, ready to go.

Nestor Aparicio 29:19
I need a visa to go to Brazil,

Leonard Raskin 29:21
you need something online. It’s an online thing. You just go online and do a thing.

Nestor Aparicio 29:26
I asked my chat about it. I literally was doing this before you came on the show this morning. Yeah, literally, literally looking like so I did an Esther trip. Shows, am I going? I did the

Leonard Raskin 29:34
Nestor trip, you know, Jimmy’s Jimmy Seafood and the Ravens are hooked up together to do the trip to Brazil, they’ve, they’ve done a whole thing. Waste,

8

Nestor Aparicio 29:45
I’ll never have a crab cake in my life, but go ahead.

Leonard Raskin 29:48
Oh, well, sorry about that. Another story for not another day, but the, the, the, they got a whole day, you know, they got the whole thing booked. Hotel, right on the beach, they got a keep your cell

Nestor Aparicio 30:03
phone in your pocket.

Leonard Raskin 30:04
Oh, believe me,

Nestor Aparicio 30:05
that’s all I’m gonna say.

Leonard Raskin 30:06
I always, it’s always in my pocket. Stay

Nestor Aparicio 30:08
away from kids that might dump ice cream on your shoe.

8

Leonard Raskin 30:10
Yeah, well, there you go. So you bend over, it’s over.

Nestor Aparicio 30:13
Brazil’s.. I know, I know about going to.. I know, no, I know this is dodgy a place I’ve ever been.

Leonard Raskin 30:19
But the good news is, this is all I’ve been

Nestor Aparicio 30:21
to Cartagena.

Leonard Raskin 30:22
This is all busses and boat trips and all the stuff with the group. It’s all an inclusive. You’re gonna have a great time. Oh, there’s no doubt. You’re

Nestor Aparicio 30:31
90 days out on going to Brazil, hopefully the race. And then you’re gonna come back and you’re gonna tell me about how nice and modern Brazil is, because I’m gonna go see Russian Brazil. That’s what American dream. This is why we save our money. This is that I can tear up 50 feet for Monica Nils in a rush.

Leonard Raskin 30:49
This is why we do what we do, because there are things in life that you want to do. You know, my thing to come

8

Nestor Aparicio 30:54
on the air and talk about the greatest thing. You

Leonard Raskin 30:57
said you couldn’t go to New York when I was a kid. We talked about this enough times, you know. When I was a kid, listening to 2112 I was 12 or 13, I was probably 12 years old, 13 years old. There was, there was no chance in the world I was going to ever see this group play, you know. And, and, like you said, they didn’t tour much, they didn’t come around much, and unlike you, I didn’t chase him, I didn’t go find him, so the opportunity now to go see him when it’s not even a thing is, is awesome.

Nestor Aparicio 31:29
All I can say to you is it’s going to be better than you even think it’s going to be, and that, like, there are very few things in life, and that’s what I said to my wife, very few things in my life that I never thought I’d see again, right, ever. In any, it’d be like, tell me Elvis is coming back, or Tom Petty’s coming back, or I’ll give you

Leonard Raskin 31:44
another one, I’ll give you another one, I went to the heck company, you know, this going to the heck company, and I was with a bunch of friends, we went to various heck company locations, and what we did was we each bought back in the day like four or six tickets, I don’t remember the exact to see the Who farewell tour at the Capitol Center, 1980 something,

Nestor Aparicio 32:09
82 I was 82 yeah, eminence front, it’s put, yeah,

Leonard Raskin 32:13
so I was a senior in high school, and all I wanted to do was see the Who’s farewell tour, because they were the best, they were it, it was it, that was it. So I went, we all went, whoever got the best tickets are the ones we used, and we sold the rest, like Fast Times at Ridgemont High. Where were you when I had Blue Oyster Colt? Timon, or Damon, whatever his name was. So, so we sold off the rest of friends, other, we had floor seats, 1520, rows, I don’t remember exactly, I didn’t keep the stubs, and saw the who do the farewell tour, and nothing was more exciting, and then a year and a half ago, no, two years ago now, two years ago, I’m at a conference down in DC, three day deal down in DC. I go down at least once or twice a year to lobby Congress about money, make sure they don’t screw things up for people that we advise, don’t put in stupid rules that you know hurt people that we advise when it comes to money. And so I’m down there for this conference, and I’m on the hill, and that night we have a free night, and the next night we have this dinner that you go to if you want to go to at the conference, and I just happen to put in my little phone concerts near me, lo and behold, the Capital One Arena is hosting the Who, so I go online and I’m thinking this is going to cost something stupid, and Nestor, the day of the concert, 10th row floor right in the middle was still on sale, source tickets like from Ticketmaster, the original 60 bucks, something stupid like not scalped for 1000 on the floor trying to

Nestor Aparicio 34:10
get 1000 and they couldn’t sell it and they discounted it to 450 then they discounted to 270 60

8

Leonard Raskin 34:16
bucks.

Nestor Aparicio 34:17
Well, that’s because nobody bought it. Yeah, that’s what

Leonard Raskin 34:18
I’m saying. Yeah, I asked some friends. Well, that’s

Nestor Aparicio 34:20
what’s going to happen with talking to some friends. I said, “Hey, you

Leonard Raskin 34:23
guys interested in going to see The Who tonight? They’re like, “What? I said, “Yeah, let’s go see the Who. So, five of us, about five tickets,

Nestor Aparicio 34:30
43 years later,

Leonard Raskin 34:32
yeah, we go over, we go over to the arena, and we walked from the hotel to the arena, and

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Nestor Aparicio 34:39
well, that’s the best when you don’t know what’s happening, right? It just shows up right.

Leonard Raskin 34:43
Pete and Roger come out on stage, and they throw on an amazing

Nestor Aparicio 34:48
concert,

Leonard Raskin 34:50
and they had

Nestor Aparicio 34:52

Leonard Raskin 34:52
they had this gal who played electric violin.

Nestor Aparicio 34:56
Oh, I saw that tour

Leonard Raskin 34:58
came out and did.

8

Nestor Aparicio 35:00
Up,

Leonard Raskin 35:00
just the most amazing side by side with Pete, just nonstop, a couple songs, phenomenal. They had orchestra on the stage, amazing. And I’m singing from start to finish of the of the whole night.

Nestor Aparicio 35:17
Well, get your pipes ready, and a friend of mine, july 28 because Rush thing’s gonna be good

Leonard Raskin 35:23
after the show, it’s over, and he goes, “Holy crap, you knew every song. I said, “Dude, that was it, Judas Priest and The Who, they were the two that I.. that was it, gotta

Nestor Aparicio 35:34
get you at the heavy metal parking lot if you’re Judas Guy. So,

Leonard Raskin 35:37
oh yeah, so, so those were just stunning, and as you said, I didn’t run around and see them, I didn’t have any money to do that. 998

Nestor Aparicio 35:45
80 and 770 on sale at the Hex, there you go, Heck Company box office, there you go. Who

8

Leonard Raskin 35:52
farewell tour? I’ll

Nestor Aparicio 35:53
find my ticket still, but hold that up for you a little bit. From September 1982 Slido Rascus, here, Raskin Global, it is a great summer for concerts, run around next week, Merryweather, you know, big concerts all over the place. Enjoy yourself, enjoy your money. I am, I got back from that rush thing, and I didn’t sleep much. I’ve got the fever, you know what I mean? I mean, I got the fever, and I’m feeling like Getty’s not going to be doing this forever, so I don’t want

Leonard Raskin 36:22
again. That’s my thing.

Nestor Aparicio 36:23
Letter Raskin handles money, he handles the American dream. He takes care of my money, so that I can do things like be a cheapskate and take a $36 Flick’s bus out of the desert on a Sunday morning. I’m Nestor, he’s Leonard. We’re gonna do some more sports, by the way. The Orioles are on the West Coast, we’re Baltimore positive. Stay with us.