LBJ All The Way Play, Emergency Weather Alerts
A discussion of the play "LBJ All The Way" at the Zack Theater in Austin leads to observations about historical portrayals of J. Edgar Hoover and the Gulf of Tonkin. During the performance, multiple audience members' iPhones triggered loud emergency weather alerts, highlighting the intrusive nature of default government notification settings. The dialogue notes a recurring, oddly structured line in the play regarding what difference things make "at this point," mirroring famous political rhetoric.
lbj all the way· zack theater· austin· martin luther king· j edgar hoover· emergency broadcast system
00:00 Well, it's crowd control. Let's face it that's what it amounts to. Drenched from the mile Broadcasting live from the crackpot condo and FEMA region 6 in Austin Tejas in the morning everybody I'm Adam Curry and for northern Silicon Valley up here in that the Tower of Terror. I'm John Cena, right? Here's a little tip if you want to see it coming from the tower of terror You gotta sound a little bit like it
00:40 Tower of Terror. It was a throwaway, I was like, eh, Tower of Terror... Well there's a lot of garbage trucks floating around so it's pretty terrifying. I'm in my tower of terror once again. It's the tower of terror! Yeah but it's gonna rain all week here? It's actually been raining? No, sending our way. Monsoons yeah. Actually it was uh- I went to see the play LBJ All The Way here at the Zack Theater in Austin Why would they even show that play? Why?? Yeah, well yeah. Because it's a Tony award winning play that's why or nominated maybe not right now did they really display our show LBJ is the douchebag that he was you know I have to say they came pretty close he's also endearing in a way but first of all the play is really good I have to say I like it like the way they've done the set uh... the two active two main actors Martin Luther King and LBJ dynamite neither them from Austin of course you know they get these guys from out-of-state
01:44 The guy who plays Martin Luther King is from New York. Actually, I talked to both of them after the show that's how community theater works. That's how small town theater works! Hey we'll see you in the bar afterwards. How many? What size is the auditorium? It's pretty big...I don't know exactly how big the Zach Theater is but it's a good theatre and I've been there many times. What's the name of it? That's the name of the theater? It's actually the Toppler Theater, just Zach Austin. Anyway, the play does a number of things I think really well it shows how J Edgar Hoover when he was running the FBI was doing everything illegally including recording The King's extra marital trysts
02:34 As well as those of LBJ. They also brought up Gulf of Tonkin... What's his name, our guy that just quit? Holder? Just say that he was reinvigorating the FBI so it was like the olden days of blackmailing operation? Yes! Yeah, that's exactly where it is. In the play, all they have by FBI and really put a good portrayal of Hoover as well But the thing that was annoying, because we had such horrible weather completely drenched before I got into theater is you know you turn off your cell phone or people put them on silent. But of course this stupid Apple has by default the severe or emergency government weather alerts and so... And I swear to God! I'm sitting there watching this play and then I hear something like oh that sounds almost like the emergency broadcast system That's interesting because they had a lot
03:31 They played a lot of historical clips that had screen come down. It was well done that way, but like... Well the screen isn't here but I can hear the emergency broadcast system and then oh okay this is the iPhone weather alert which at least eight different people had this go off during uh during the play. Idiots! And what is it most people they have this thing? They don't know they turned it off to get their thing. They turned off the well They should turn off the whole phone really just to make sure can you do that with the Apple? Well, it's always on a little bit spying on you But at least you can turn it off so I won't do anything to you It was just stupid Anyway here Here's the one thing that really caught my eye or my ear I both three times in this play
04:19 Three times I heard a very famous line Verbatim and this is the line what difference at this point doesn't make three different times This exact sentence was uttered in the play at with the words. Yes, and it's pointed At this point what differences women it wasn't she says? Yes three times exactly exactly that way cuz I shot up like what And one time it was LBJ, one time it was I think Hubert Humphrey. Is that his name? Yeah, Hubert Humphrey and I think but one day... But it was definitely all white guys in the play who were saying this It was just one of those things. Martin Luther King never said that No not that I can recall no
05:17 And it was just one of those things, I'm sitting like what? It's a very funny structure too. That's why it's so obvious. Yeah because normally you would say I think... What difference does that make at this point? That's how you'd say it. Or at this point what difference does it make but what difference at this point does it make that structure was odd very odd huh yeah anyway the unintended consequences of technology ruining stuff Yeah, well that's never gonna end. I mean they could make it legal and I don't see why they don't. I know some people do it illegally. What? Just run a... Oh, a jammer? A jammer in the... This is not a good idea! Why?
