Brian Oliu | Author

This week, Short Takes again and I'm Blaine still to this day.

I've got Brian Oliou on the podcast today.

We recorded this back in May of 2021.

Brian and I go friends primarily at the famous Egans rumors that it may Egans gets his flowers.

I wanted Brian on the show because as a writer he takes a different approach.

Viewpoints on or original, they're not like you're going to hear in an English class.

But we get more into other things as well about how to stay positive without being toxic about it.

That's a phrase I'd never heard up until this point.

Brian discusses Personas we all have, particularly with the Internet.

He discusses writing processes behind it, his running routine, Orton and how others may take something away from course he gives us something that's good for him to end the episode.

Got to be honest with this episode.

The show's title is Short Takes.

Yet this ended up being the second longest talk to eight throughout our three seasons of the all coming online in the form length of this had a lot to do with Brian and I really catching up way and on top of it.

Brian's a thoughtful guy.

He gives thoughtful, detailed answers.

Gives you something to sink your teeth and you'll enjoy it.

Let's hear from Brian right now.

Hey, welcome everyone.

You have tuned in once again, I hope to the Alabama Take series, Short Takes.

I'm your host and I'm the editor in chief of the Alabama Intake.

That's my fancy title that I gave myself.

My name is Blaine Duncan.

If you're just joining us for the first time by chance, Short Takes is a brief talk show with an artist, writer, painter, you name it.

We limit ourselves to only four questions once we get the ball rolling.

And as you may know by now, that fourth question is always the same for everyone.

With me today though, he's a writer, he's an instructor at the University of Alabama.

He's a football, basketball, donut, track jacket, cologne aficionado.

He's a poet, he's a runner, he's a dj, he's an Instagram and Twitter Persona.

He's I'm gonna run out of breath.

He's a jack of many trades and so many trades and he is such a great guy.

Mr. Brian Olio is here with us today.

Hey, Brian.

Hey, Blaine.

How are you?

Thank you so much for having me and for that fantastic introduction.

I will try my best to live up to it though.

As you know, it's a lot of titles, it's a lot of monikers.

And so it's hard to live up to one of them, if not all of them.

But I'm going to try to do my best.

So before we begin, I'm going to give you a bit of a stage with just a few things to let everybody catch up with you as well.

So tell me about what you've been up to.

What works do you have going and on the horizon that you can mention here?

Yeah, absolutely.

So it's funny, I just received.

I have a book coming out.

I have two books coming out.

One is a book on professional wrestling.

It's called Body Drop.

And so that's coming out through the University of North Carolina Press.

And so that's going to be out in the fall.

And the subtitle is Notes on Fandom and Pain in Professional Wrestling.

So it's a kind of personal memoir.

I keep coming back to this idea.

I was talking with a friend of mine who they kept asking, I write about pop culture and things like that.

People are like, oh, are you like a scholar of these things?

And his answer was always like, I'm not a scholar, I'm a fan.

And so I think they asked him, this is my buddy, Jason McCall.

Oh, yes, love Jason.

Yeah, he's great.

Hey, Jason.

So they asked.

Yeah, yeah.

So they asked him at his, like, MFA thesis, where they're like, are you a scholar poetry now?

And he was like, no.

He's like, but I'm a fan of poetry.

And so that's what I keep coming back to, especially in terms of that.

It's like, oh, you know, are you going to learn every possible thing about professional wrestling through this book?

The answer is no.

But, you know, you're going to kind of learn about my fandom and kind of what I find appealing about it and kind of those.

Those deeper looks into the kind of interesting nuances to it.

So, yeah, I'm super excited about that.

I just got some book covers to look at and pour over, which is always a super exciting day.

That's the exciting time.

Yes.

Yeah.

So that's one of the best days of the book writing process.

So I am very excited about that.

So, yeah, I'm looking forward to kind of going that.

And then my other book I mentioned, Jason McCall, we have a book of poems coming out about the Rocky film franchise.

And so that's gonna be.

We did a collaboration together where we kind of wrote poems back and forth, which was really fun.

So that we did that last poetry or two poetry months ago.

So I mentioned.

I think we were talking Beforehand about National Poetry Month.

It is National Poetry Month.

It's April, at least, when we're recording this.

So, yeah, no, that's gonna be.

That'll be coming out, I think, this summer.

So that'll be out actually before the wrestling book.

And I'm excited to do that.

And, you know, kind of hopefully we'll be in a position where we'll be able to do some promos for that.

We'll be able to kind of have some readings together, kind of bounce around Alabama a little bit and do that.

But so, yeah, we both of Rocky.

And so we decided let's kind of get together and write some poems about the whole series.

So, yeah, those are kind of the main things kind of on the horizon, at least in terms of creatively.

And, you know, as always, you know, there's.

The book gets finished, you have to do that work.

But then there's always the work of writing the book.

So that are different books.

So that's pretty fun.

So Jason's a great writer.

His poems are really moving, so they're phenomenal.

That's exciting to find out.

And also, I've known your work to be poetry.

And then also this lyrical blend of prose and poetry is the wrestling book.

More narrative this time.

So it's a combination.

So, you know, kind of the way in which the book is structured.

There are highly lyric things, and they're usually kind of about.

The lyric pieces are about wrestlers in particular.

And so that's.

That's kind of what's being utilized there, which is pretty fun.

And then there's another narrative that's a little bit more explanatory, a little bit more straightforward that kind of talks about my own kind of interactions with wrestling, kind of my own kind of feelings about my own body, et cetera, kind of being a fan.

And so there's kind of.

And then there's like, some small sections which are like spot calls if people, like, watch wrestling.

Like, sometimes wrestlers will talk to one another about, okay, clothesline, okay, go to finish.

And so there's little sections of that in there as well, which almost serve like little poems.

So there's a bunch of kind of cool things that.

That operate within there.

So, yeah, it's a kind of a hybrid of all those things kind of put together.

Kind of the extravagant element of wrestling, kind of the performative aspect, kind of has this highly lyric piece to it.

And then there's like, the down and Dirty, which is a little bit more straightforward narrative.

So there's kind of a fun balance between those two.

That's exciting.

I've always wondered your history with wrestling, so I will save it for the book.

I will read it in the book.

Yeah.

All right.

So when can we see a return of Idiot Man?

Does he have.

Does he have takes on baseball?

Is he.

What are his origins, by the way?

Okay, so Idiot man kind of came about.

The origins of Idiot man are actually pretty fun.

So I.

When I was a graduate student at Alabama, we started a flag football league.

And, you know, it wasn't even a league, right?

It was like a bunch of us getting together to play flag football.

And so we play on Saturdays.

And, you know, you just like, trying to let people know that were in the department, like, hey, we're playing flag football on Saturdays.

And so they just turned into these like, massive, like, ridiculous emails that I would write.

And kind of from this Persona of idiotman, slash, like the commissioner.

And so I kind of went and took upon this mantle of that.

And I just send these out to, like, you know, it would just be like these, you know, 900 word, more than 900 words.

At some point, they were like 2,000 word emails that I'd send every week.

And then at the end it would be like, we're playing on Saturday at 10.

Like, you know, it's just kind of like this kind of performance thing.

And I did get kicked off the listserv for them and then, like, brought back on and it was kind of this whole ordeal, so it took on this life of its own.

And so I started.

I sent into McSweeney's, which was, you know, the humor website, and this was a long time ago.

And I sent them one of the emails and they were like, we like this, but we're going to pass.

And they're like, send something else.

And so I sent them another one and I got an email back.

And I remember it's just like, how many of these do you have?

And I was like, a lot.

Like, I've sent like 30 of these emails.

And so they're like, we'll take all of them.

So I was like, all right.

So I just kind of.

Instead of, they rejected the one, but they're more interested in, like, the collective.

And so that was kind of the origins.

And so even to this day, they'll still post links every once in a while that it's like emails to the English department listserv regarding the English department flag football league.

And so there's a series on McSweeney's that are.

So that's the Birth of Idiot Man.

And then just kind of.

I just decided just to kind of write once a.

You know, I was asked to, like, write about sports.

Friends of ours kind of started like a blog.

This was a couple years ago.

And it's hard for me to write about sports without getting very excited and kind of like over the top.

And I'm like, well, you know, there's so much sports commentary and so much sports conversation that happens.

That's just the same.

And so I said, well, what if I kind of ramp up this idiot man Persona and it's someone who's just like.

So I have.

We adopted a greyhound.

Summer the greyhound.

And she's this perfect angel.

She's just walking there right now.

She's this perfect angel of a dog that, like, is a.

She was trained to be a racing greyhound.

So she's this.

She's a people pleaser.

She just wants to, like, help, and she doesn't want to do anything bad, but her prey drive is through the roof.

Right.

And so she's someone that, like, she's just like.

If she sees a cat, she, like, everything short circuits and she just, like, needs.

She, like, freaks out and wants to go after the cat.

So to me, I'm like, this is the perfect metaphor for the idiot man.

Here's somebody who's like, very.

He presents himself as very well read and very astute and someone who, like, has all this weird, arcane knowledge, but he can't help but, like, just freak out over football.

Right?

Yeah.

And so he's like, use it.

That's kind of my mentality.

And so, like, someone getting very excited and using all this, like, bizarre language and bizarre way of talking about it.

So that was kind of how Idiotman came to be.

And kind of the crafting of that.

The impetus of that actually fascinates me even more.

And it's also great to see the idiot man Persona pop up because it's a signal to me that football's either near or in the midst.

And I'm pumped for that, too.

Yeah, yeah, no, absolutely.

It's fun.

It kind of was a nice tradition to kind of, you know, because it gets me excited too, and allows me to kind of like, oh, here's it's game week.

Let me kind of, you know, get my weird thoughts on what the heck's going on, so.

Great.

Yeah.

So before we get in the show proper, why don't you tell the audience about your short, short poem production that you're doing on Instagram and where they.

Can find that oh yeah, no, absolutely.

So I decided, you know, it's funny I've mentioned National Poetry Month.

I decided in for 2021.

I was like, well, I'm gonna do one poem a day every day this year.

And I said I want them to be four lines.

A maximum essentially of four lines.

I think I wrote a couple three line poems.

I was like, well, I need more than that.

I was like, well, we'll kind of make them Tuscaloosa based.

And so that was my idea.

So there's an Instagram account, it's called Tiny Tuscaloosa.

And so it's instagram.com tinytuscaloosa and so yeah, I write little four line poems.

They're little things, just kind of usually reactions to kind of what's going on at the usually.

Some things that are hyper local, some things less local.

I find myself writing about the weather a lot because the weather obviously in west Alabama is bizarre.

And so that's kind of the thing that's constantly on my mind.

So it's been really fun.

It's a nice thing for me to do either to like end my day if I'm up late, like if it's midnight, okay, let me write my poem for the day or late at night or something along those lines.

Able to kind of do small little reactionary poems to things.

Let's say if something happens, I'm able to kind of say, oh, this is something that's going on today.

Right.

Whether it's a sporting event at Alabama.

I didn't.

I should today or yesterday.

I guess I should have written about the giant elephant statue that's being installed in front of the stadium.

He might get a poem.

He might get a poem tomorrow.

That might be a poem for tomorrow.

Cool.

Deservedly so.

So if you're watching this, you're probably watching, you can go back on April 14th, 15th, and maybe spot a poem about the big elephant, our new elephant in front of the stadium.

Yeah.

Now I'm gonna have to do it.

So.

Yeah, it'll be the 14th.

Yes.

Your fourth.

Your poem.

The 14th will be about the elephant.

Awesome.

You ready for your four questions?

Let's do it.

I'm ready.

Let's dive in.

So you're known for your positivity.

At least that's.

I know you for your positivity.

You spread love, joy, humor.

Really good advice online.

How do you manage to maintain that feeling and attitude in a day to day life?

And do you, I guess is maybe the better question.

Do you maintain like when the computer's off when the phone's down and it's you, the wife, the greyhound.

I mean, is.

Is that still the same Brian that they see?

It is.

You know, it's funny because we mentioned, you know, I talked about wrestling.

They.

It kind of works out.

It's like, okay, it's still.

It's Persona.

Right.

There's still kind of this element of a Persona where everyone has an online Persona whether they're aware of it or not.

Right.

I agree with that.

This is how I decide to type, even just things and saying, oh, this is the punctuation I use.

Maybe I won't use this word as we craft or we kind of craft our Persona, because this is kind of what we see.

And so I'm aware of that.

I'm hyper aware of that.

I think it's one of those things that I'm very much aware of my audience.

And so I always try to think of.

Of my audience of, you know, because my role of an educator, I think of like, okay, my audience is always going to be kind of college students.

Right.

Like, you know, what.

In these kind of, like little things and kind of, what.

What am I going to get away with?

Or how do I present myself as somebody who is kind of.

I have information that needs to be presented, or.

So here's something I care deeply about.

How do I acknowledge that I care deeply about this thing, you know, was still kind of representing this kind of role.

Right.

So for me, I would say, yeah, I am that positive.

I do.

I mean, not to say that I don't.

Like, sometimes it's turned up a little bit.

Like, I lovingly love to use exclamation points online.

I'm a big exclamation point guy.

I wouldn't say I'm necessarily an exclamation point guy in real life, but, you know, so I do love doing that.

Yeah.

So that's kind of my mentality and kind of crafting it.

What is kind of interesting, I think for me, especially this past year and something I've worked on a lot, is sometimes, like, I try to back away from, like, toxic positivity, right?

Yes.

Which is hard.

Right.

Define that for me.

Who?

Sometimes that's fuzzy for me.

So tell me what that exactly would be for you.

Toxic positivity.

So toxic positivity would be like something like, oh, you know, someone, let's say someone doesn't get a job.

Right.

So let's say someone doesn't get a job.

You know, sometimes the thing that you don't want to hear is like, oh, everything's going to be great.

Just forget about it.

You're amazing.

You know, blah, blah, blah, blah.

Kind of like.

Because it sounds like you're not necessarily hearing that person, right?

And so, you know, sometimes it's just like, oh, don't worry about it, whatever.

You know, kind of passing on this kind of element of toxic.

Possibly there are better examples, but that's the first one that kind of popped into my head.

At first I thought it was maybe like a hint of disingenuous Persona or attitude.

I think so too.

And I think like, you know, there.

Because I think.

Or the same way it can seem very dismissive, you know, let's say.

Actually a great example, I think is like, you know, obviously if something like Black lives matter hap.

You know, in terms of somebody expressing their.

Let's say it's a.

It's a person of color, you know, expressing their hurt.

They're hurt in a certain way, right?

Like, here's how the system has failed me.

So on and so forth.

And for someone to come be like, you know what, Talk about the positive things.

Look on the bright side of stuff like that type of thing.

And that you'll see, it's like, well, you know, if we just, like, we should all get along, I, you know, we'll see good in each other's heart and that's.

That's what really matters.

And it's like, well, okay, but you're not listening to what this person's saying, right?

Exactly.

And so that kind of.

You kind of recenter your.

The experience upon you as opposed upon the other person, right?

So that's something that I've kind of had to work on, you know, in just in certain ways, like where, you know, I'm always somebody who tries to fix things, right?

That's just kind of in my nature.

I always want to help out.

I always want to fix.

I always want to kind of.

If someone's upset, I want to make them not upset, right?

I'm like, okay, what can I do?

Right?

And sometimes there isn't anything you can do.

And so sometimes, you know, instead of providing those suggestions, countless suggestions, be like, oh, this is how this will do this.

Sometimes you just gotta like sit with that person, right?

And be like, this sucks, right?

Like, I acknowledge the fact that this situation is terrible and then kind of like move on from there.

So that's something that I kind of have had to kind of check myself on, you know, and because it's in my nature to want to Help.

It's been my nation to be positive and be like, hey, you're going to be all right.

This is good.

But to be able to kind of hear and acknowledge those things has been something that I've worked on personally.

Yeah, I was trying to think in terms of myself.

I do get upset.

Right.

I do get crabby.

You know, the things that do kind of make me upset.

I guess I don't like my time doesn't feel valued.

That's kind of a thing that I kind of get upset about or I think it's funny, you know, especially confirmation bias elements of like looking into zodiac signs.

Right.

I'm a very, very straightforward Sagittari.

And one of the things they said about Sagittarius is like, like, what makes you angry.

And the thing that spoke me most is like, when someone asks for your advice and then doesn't take it, like, that's something that makes me very upset.

So someone like, man, that can make.

Me really upset too.

I'm not getting the specifics of that one, but yeah, and I'm glad that you mentioned that we have Personas online because you kind of reminded me that I'm a little bit too much of a smart ass online and maybe I should check that and be more not toxic like you talk about.

I love that example.

Yeah, that's a, that's good not to be aware of not doing that as well.

Yeah, absolutely.

And I think like, you know, for me, for example, I kind of took a step back, I think, you know, especially online Persona, where another thing that makes me upset, I think is like when people are like, mean for the sake of being mean.

Right.

Or kind of doing something like that's obviously in bad faith.

Right.

Like, I know I can recognize that pretty quickly whether it's a, you know, I'm a very liberal leftist person.

I can recognize what a conservative viewpoint is and I can observe like when someone's trying to troll me.

And I don't like that.

And so as a result of that, I kind of find myself disengaging from those types of things, those kind of dis.

Genuine moments.

So, yeah, that's kind of where.

But I had moments, I think, especially over the past couple of months, because it's been hard that I found myself being a little bit more snarky than I normally am.

And I was like, I don't like that.

Like, I don't.

I don't like feeling that way.

So that's kind of those moments where I found myself, okay, I need to disengage a little bit because I don't like kind of that way I'm presenting myself and the way it's also making me feel where I'll put down my phone and you said and be like, oh, I'm mad about what this person said online, and I'll kind of stew over that.

I'm like, what am I doing?

Right?

There's no reason for me to kind of stew over that.

So that's kind of been an adjustment, for sure.

Gotcha.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So you mentioned being an educator.

You talked about that.

I do.

I have a.

This is a question I saw you almost sort of answer on one of your Instagram stories, so I'm going to present it to you here.

What's a major.

What are some of the major errors of the education system and what can we do about them?

Because I too, am an educator.

And, you know, that's no secret to probably the people who listen.

So.

And watch.

So what do you think major errors are there?

Fixes?

You know, I think for me, it's hard because it's so easy to obviously, you know, come up with, you know, here's what's wrong.

And then, like, being like, who's to fix it?

Who's to say?

Right?

But.

So it's hard to kind of put that thing.

But I think the main.

The thing I keep coming back to about it is kind of like two things, right?

One is the perception of what the education system is.

And I think, like, you know, it's.

It's a very dated perception, right?

We all want to kind of.

We kind of project.

And I say we, right?

Let's say older folks, right?

Like, as an example, whether it's a baby boomer or someone even who's gone through high school, gone through college, gone through elementary school, middle school, et cetera.

You could say boomer.

I don't think they watch.

Okay.

Yes.

No, I don't know if they know the tech.

Right.

So, yes, the boomers.

So.

But I mean, just the people who act very boomer.

Right.

Even if you're my age, Right.

Or younger.

Of course, I'm not to vilify everyone who's above the age of 50.

Whatever.

So.

But I think, like, what winds up happening is we try to, like, transpose our educational experience upon the current educational experience.

And so.

And obviously, things have shifted, right?

So, like, I mean, one of the common complaints that I always hear as an English teacher, if I run into somebody, they're like, oh, these kids don't know grammar anymore.

And I'm like, yeah, grammar is elitist and it's nonsense and it's racist and we shouldn't worry about grammar.

And the English language has evolved and continues to evolve, and we don't talk the same way we used to even 10 years ago.

So why would I teach these, like, strung and white antiquated concepts, right?

Like, so.

So, like.

But at that point, it's appalling.

And so I think it's that kind of projection or, you know, even for you.

Like, I think, you know, you have folks running into.

It's like, oh, these kids.

Something always pops up online where it's like, these kids don't know what, like the Berlin Wall was.

And, you know, these kids don't know these basic American facts.

And, you know, it's like, well, yeah, because they're.

We're beyond that, right?

Like, education is less.

The problem is, I think we continue to kind of perceive education, or lots of people perceive education as a commodification, right?

It's a big commodification of learning where we're, you know, we're into like the freer, like, banking model, right?

Where it's like, I am a teacher, I have information.

You come, I give you this information, I deposit this information into you, and then you, this transaction happens.

Like, I have something, you do not have this thing, you know, therefore I'm going to give it to you, right?

And so I think, like, that perception of education is what's kind of like driving a lot of this anti education rhetoric that we hear, especially if we've heard the pat.

I mean, we've been hearing this forever, but especially during the pandemic where, because it's still perceived as, oh, this teacher is not bestowing this information upon these students in their zoom meetings because these students are not retaining it.

It's like, well, that's because it's, you know, what inherently winds up happening in these, like, banking models is students become passive to their own education, right?

You sit back, you wait for the lecture, the lecture is delivered, you take the information of the lecture, right?

Like, but that's not how learning works and that's not how it's worked for a very, very long time, right?

And so, like, education has shifted that we're more active.

We're kind of having ourselves look at students as like, active learners, that they're adaptable.

We're trying to.

We're understanding the fact that not every student learns the same, and that's kind of what was kind of needed to be done, right?

And I Think, like, you know, I think education as a whole has a bad PR problem.

Because, of course, people think back to their educations.

They were miserable or like, they don't they remember the teachers that were bad, the teachers that were mean to them, you know, all of these things.

And so I think, like, it's hard to even just kind of regard that example.

And so I know from my thing is, especially if people hear I'm at the university, you know, they talk about these kids these days that they don't know anything.

And I'm like, they know a lot.

They know a ton.

And they kind of understand how the world works.

And so for me, I think that's kind of what I keep coming back to, is everyone wants to boil it down to a transactional process, and it's not.

It's 100% not.

And that's what, like, good learning and good teaching does, is kind of taking away that, here's this piece of information.

You must memorize it, and now you have it, you know, instead, it's more active learning.

It's learning how things work, learning how things operate.

Something I always come back to, I think, in terms of my teaching, especially if I'm teaching, like rhetoric or composition, is I always tell my students, you know, this already.

I'm like, this is something that you know.

This is something that you do.

I'm just making you aware of the tips and tricks about it, right?

Like, you know, everyone when they're writing a paper or having a conversation, uses sources, right?

You find yourself, you know, if you're in an argument of somebody, you find yourself talking about Kevin Durant's, you know, you know, points per game, right?

Like that you're using a source, right?

You're using statistics.

And so it's.

A lot of those things are just kind of pointing those things out.

It's like, well, what makes this more effective?

And saying, okay, well, this is how you kind of do these things and present these things.

And so that's something I always try to come back to.

And so that's kind of my, I guess, way of battling that, is being very open about how this works and how these.

These classes operate and what are kind of moving ourselves away from this memorization.

And I hope that as a result of that, you have students leave your class thinking, wow, I learned a lot.

I learned about how process works, or I learned less about, oh, here's the exact piece of information about what, like, realist literature is.

But I kind of learned to appreciate kind of what to look for and you know, different kind of elements and different thematic schemes for things.

And so yeah, I always try to really press that big picture element as opposed to being like, here's this stuff that I have and I'm giving it to you.

Yeah.

So I mean, again, that's kind of my own personal crusade and kind of how I operate.

But yeah, it's hard for me to kind of say like, oh, as a whole, as an education system, this is what we need to do.

But I think a lot of it starts with kind of deprogramming what we think education truly is, that it is a commodity that you kind of learn this information and when you receive this information, you level up and you, you earn, you, you get an A.

Right.

Like this, you get this.

I'm an anti grading person.

I'm more of a grading contract person.

So kind of removing that commodification where it's like if I do blank, I get this when that is not how anyone has ever worked.

Right.

So, or has ever learned.

So that's, it's kind of, that's a personal small crusade.

Again, I don't know how we kind of implement that from the top down, but these are kind of little things that I can do.

I couldn't hear the lie in any of that.

So it's a good personal crusade, I think.

I hope so.

I hope so.

So tell, tell me a life altering event that you think would help everyone and it, maybe you haven't experienced it, maybe you have.

Yeah, this is a tough question.

So I think for me, the thing I kind of come back to, I came back to, I thought about this a lot.

And so the one thing that I, the first thing I popped into is I think we mentioned before that I'm a runner.

And so I've done long distance races, I've done marathons, half marathons, things along those lines.

And I am not a good runner at all.

I am an awful, awful runner.

But there is something I think like kind of magical about training for a race and then completing the race.

Right.

And I think that's, that's kind of something that I wish upon that people could do and people could try because it's like kind of a really wonderful thing to do.

But of course I understand 100% that like this is kind of an ableist view, like not everyone can do this.

You know, we all have different bodies and ways in which our bodies perform.

And so, you know, that I started thinking, I was like, well, I like this idea of training to do something to accomplish Something.

So that's one thing I would suggest first and foremost.

I would say, well, you know, if you want, I'm not going to suggest everyone go out there and train and run a marathon, because not everyone is built for that thing.

It's kind of a magical experience.

But if it's something, if you've been thinking about doing, I would definitely just go for it and learn a training plan.

So that's one thing that I think is like a cool experience and something that I personally very much cherish are those moments of training and then actually doing a race, traveling someplace to do a race, whether that is, I got to go to Barcelona to run the race.

My grandfather founded the Barcelona Marathon.

So it's this very kind of spiritual, emotional event for me.

And so I always kind of think fondly about that.

Yeah.

So that project I'm working on and writing about.

So the other thing that I think I would say, which is also very much of my ilk, is to collect things.

I'm a big.

I like collecting things.

And so to have something that you're passionate about that you collect, and this could be anything.

Right.

This doesn't have to be an actual commodity.

This can just be whether it's a traveling to someplace, whether it's a small token, whether it's something that.

An experience that you collect, oh, I want to try this thing.

But I find so much joy in collecting and trying because that automatically is built into trying something new or obtaining something new.

So for me, I always mention that I am somebody who loves track jackets.

So I have an extensive collection of track jackets.

It's.

Unfortunately, it's 84 degrees here today, so I'm not wearing.

Yeah, I'm shocked you're not wearing one.

I know.

I'm not.

I was a little disappointed.

I'm sorry.

I, you know, I did.

I forgot that it was like video.

But I am wearing.

Of all the things I'm wearing today, I, like, never wear a T shirt.

But a friend of ours is running for District council in the elections today.

So I was standing.

Me and my wife Tasha, were standing out on Queen City and 15th with, like, a board wearing.

Wearing the Q. Chandler T shirts for District 1.

And so, you know, yeah, it's an odd thing that I'm wearing today, but I do.

I have over 125 track jackets.

It's wild.

I have an entire closet that's dedicated to them.

But there's so much joy to me in that.

It's like tracking those down and learning the history about them.

And, like, try to find cool ones.

Or let's say there's something that is a collect or something that is released, but they released in, like, four different colorways.

And I'm like, well, I want all four.

I want all four of the colors.

And, you know, so I think there's kind of.

I find a lot of joy in those collection things.

And the other thing that I find myself is I'm a donut lover.

I love donuts.

And so I view donuts as a collecting thing.

So I'm somebody who's like, I'm going to this place.

I'm seeking this thing out.

I'm trying this donut to be able to say, oh, I've been there, right?

Like, here's this thing that I collect.

Here's this thing that I kind of obsess over.

Just be able to kind of be like, oh, this is kind of a nice grounding thing.

It's something kind of fun for me to think about to work on.

So that's something I find myself enjoying.

And so I always try to advise people to, like, find your own, like, little thing, right?

Whether it's, you know, I was talking to a buddy of mine who's a.

He's a chiropractor.

He is my chiropractor.

So he was talking to him and he was like.

He's like, I'm a breakfast burrito guy.

He's like, everywhere I go, I try the breakfast burrito, and it's like.

And I know that some places are gonna have a terrible breakfast burrito, but I still want.

I still want to, like, this is part of it, right?

This is part of the quest.

This is part of kind of the reasoning for these things.

And so I think it's always nice to kind of have that in terms of life.

I mean, I think of video games, like, it's your side quest.

It's always nice to have, like, this side quest of, like, oh, this is how I go about my day.

This is what I do.

But, like, oh, here's this small interest that I have.

So.

So is your chiropractor, Drew Brooks.

You know, I'm sure he's definitely, like, cracked my back in old Egans before where you've, like, put your hands on your shoulders and you've got kind of, like, you know, his dad strength that he's had since he was 5 years old that he'll be able to kind of do that.

But, yeah, the breakfast brewery equal opportunity.

Burrito eater, Drew Brooks, he seems like.

A break from, I think so, too.

Yeah.

No, absolutely.

I bet he is.

100%.

Yeah.

No, absolutely.

I'm just picturing Drew Brooks as my chiropractor.

It's pretty funny.

It is a funny picture.

So, yeah, I think going back to kind of those, you know, I think those small things that give you lots of experiences, right?

It's not just one universal.

It's a mosaic of experiences.

And so it's like a mosaic of, like, things that you do.

Whether it's.

You're like, oh, I collect these things, or I hear this place has.

Whether you're on a road trip, you're like, oh, I want to stop at this place, because I hear that this thing is good.

Or this is something that I wanted to check.

So it allows you to kind of do those research when you travel and kind of find.

Track those things down.

So I guess I would say to me, that is kind of the.

The thing I continue to come back to is kind of this collection of things.

So, yeah.

Yeah, I love that.

And even not.

Not tangible things, that's.

That's a great answer.

And I will.

I will just throw this out there.

We talked about running again.

I'm trying my best to get back into it now that the pandemic's over.

I do a lot of my running in a gym.

Yeah, that's neither here nor there, but whenever I don't feel like it.

And it's a day for me to go running.

Sometimes I will think, but Brian's out there.

So you keep posting that because you're.

If.

If no one else is inspired.

Sometimes you get me off the.

The couch or out of.

My bad.

Well, thank you.

I try.

I know.

I think that's part of the reason why I do like being so public about it.

And I like.

Because for a long time.

I mean, it's funny.

We talked about Persona before.

For a long time.

When I first started, I'd be like, oh, I hate running.

Running sucks.

You know, this is kind of my running Persona.

And one time, my wife Tasha checked me on.

She's like, you're saying this just because that's what people want you to say.

You actually like running.

And I'm like, yeah, you're right.

Like, I actually do really enjoy running.

And so I kind of got away from that negative correlation of running and was like, hey, I'm out here.

Like, you know, I didn't do great, but whatever.

And so I think that kind of positivity element kind of goes into talking about the reverse of being negative about running, because that's what it expected of you.

So I'm glad that that positivity kind of came through.

It did.

All right.

It's our.

It's our favorite question.

It's borrowed from the original Alabama Take podcast, which we hope we can talk Corey out of hiatus at some point.

What's.

What's done up real good?

What's done up real good?

So I thought about this from a philosophical standpoint, and I think what's.

Probably.

If someone asked you what's done up real good?

And I imagine that you would say, are people familiar with it?

It's like, you know it when you see it, right?

Like, that's kind of one of those things where it's like, okay, this is done up real good for me.

I came back to a couple elements, right?

So I said, okay, it's something that shows itself as, like, its, er, self, right?

Like, it is this thing that is the core of this thing.

It cannot be more the thing than it is.

And so.

But it also exists as its best self, right?

So something that is, like, distilled, something done up real good, is like something that has been distilled down to its core, but.

But it's still, like, maximum, right?

So for me, it's like walking into an Alabama tailgate that has the most ridiculous spread you've ever seen in your life, right?

And it's not like the spread itself is not, like, super fancy stuff, but you walk in and someone is mixing yellow hammers.

There's like, the massive tray of pork and, like, smoked meats and, like, 12 different types of golden flake potato chips.

Like, this is in, like, the publix cookie tray.

Like, this is.

This is like.

You walk in and you're like, this is it.

Like, this is the moment.

This is.

This is done up real good to me.

So I think of something that has done up real good is like something that is pure but also exists as a tribute.

And so that's something I kind of, like, come back to, which I think is kind of fun.

I was like, oh.

It's like, okay.

Like, this is what this exact thing is, but it's also acknowledging a higher concept, right?

Like, this is as close to the core as possible, but, like, this is done up real good, right?

So, like, even I think of, like, you know, we've obviously, being a musician, it's like when you go see, like, the glory fires play, like, it is distilled to, like, a raw element, but it's also all the way maximum.

And so it kind of has these Two kind of inner these things playing at the same time.

So I kind of find that to be like, it's not extra for extra's sake.

It is just what it is.

And so that's kind of those moments when I come in and I say, that's done up real good, you know?

That is so good.

The dichotomy.

The dichotomy of done up real good.

I was going to jokingly interject when you were talking about how it can be the er and also the best.

And I was gonna say, oh, Alabama football.

So that's gonna be your.

No, absolutely.

Yeah, exactly.

It's, like, steeped.

But you were so close in tradition.

Right.

And then.

But also just like, what the hell's going on?

Right.

Like, you know, still like, that maximum element where it is kind of has that extra ness to it, but you're like, this fits, though.

Like, this deserves this, like, pomp and circumstance, and it's not pomp, I guess.

I don't know.

But it deserves this kind of, like, celebration, right?

Yeah.

Well, where.

Where can folks find you and your work?

Do you want to plug a couple of websites?

Yeah, for sure.

So the main thing is brianolu.com you can find me there.

That is where all of my professional work is held.

We mentioned my Twitter before.

Twitter is kind of the main spot where you can find me hanging out.

That is twitter.com brianoliu O L I.

So, yeah, those are kind of the main spots.

And you can probably find me.

If you can find me on either of those websites, you can find me literally anywhere else.

So I'm easy to track down.

Yeah.

And then if you want to follow the poems again, they're instagram.com Tiny Tuscaloosa right.

And I see a lot of people on Twitter, like, almost daily, at least weekly, say, I hate Twitter.

I hate coming to Twitter.

It's a cesspool.

That's the key phrase.

Cesspool.

Follow Brian Oliu and it won't be okay.

I will be your spray of, like, in those science projects where they drop, like, the Dawn Liquid soap and then it, like, spreads everything out.

I will be your Dawn Liquid soap in the mire and muck of twitter.com There you go.

There you go.

Well, I appreciate your time.

Thanks for bringing the positivity to the online world and the real world, as we've come to find out.

That's a real thing for you.

As for our viewers, there's more to be found at the Alabama Take website, and we hope to see you next time.

Thank you, Brian.

Thank you.

We went walking and was blown away.