 Today, we're doing a really discombobulated piece on Hyde Street, that's number one. Graffiti, that's number two. Show me the inside of your house. We go inside three houses. All of them have someone named Jay, except for my house, which is just my house. And then, we ask people questions. Maybe we run into some surprising people. Maybe we learn some personal stories about people's lives. Who really knows what we're getting up to today? Not us. Hello. Check this out. Whoa. This is my little man cave. This is all you? This is all me. Wow. Yeah. I got signs like here. That's so cool. What do you got in there, man? Check it out. Put them on the mic. Yeah. Can you tell us a little bit about your shop here? Your museum? Yeah. It's just, it's a man cave and I got all of these that I made and I actually put this all together. Wow. So, I'm pretty impressed with what I do. I've got a lot of collections and my Tweety Bird and Tasmanium Devil, signs and stuff. Where do you get most of your stuff? Goodwill. Thanks. Yeah. I did a lot and I used to work for them. I still do when the end, I mean, I had to stop because of old age. Well, other than that, I mean, I did all of this, so I was pretty amazed at myself. You know, I created it, so. And of course, you know, you'll have to listen to that. Right? Yeah. Do you have a favorite piece? Yeah, them two to start and then this one and that were my rules. What inspired you to put it together? My wife. What's your wife? Is your wife here? No, she's deceased. She passed last year in stage three lung cancer. I'm so sorry. So, but she inspired me. Yeah, in part of this too. Oh, yes. And I did it for her. She asked me to. We didn't want to smoke in the house anymore, so we ended up doing, I do this for her. And she was the loved one from my heart, so I gave her. And she loved it. I mean, I hated it all off. I had two parts of, up in the curtains up here, drapes, I should say. I had them down the road. Yeah, I put this all together. So, that's what love does to you. I know. Yeah, it's really. What was your wife like? Down to earth girl. Just down to earth girl and worked hard and got hardly anything for it. But it all paid off in the end because we both won. So that was really sweet. I came up here in 2010 to start a new life and it worked out good for me. Was she here? Yes. How'd you know? I used to know her back in the day when we were younger. Her and her husband were my best friends. So, we ended up knowing each other that way, practically related. But we weren't related. So, and when she was a young girl, like 18, I had a crush on her. She had a crush on me, but she couldn't do nothing because she was already married. Years later, I ended up coming up here, meeting up with her. It worked out for both of us. We were married for eight years. You found each other? Yep. She helped me, I helped her, and we had a beautiful life. That's all I took. Now I'm all by myself. I do all this stuff. Elberg area, and now I'm up here in Burlington. I will never go back there because there's nothing there. So up here, it's all nice. And you can at least make a dollar up here. We're down there, good. So, I'm pretty proud. Oh, I've loved me awful, so. And I gave her what she wanted in life and made everything work. Are you an invented diff? One of those cow rats. And I put the drawer in here. How do you get it on there? Pull it up. Oh, shit, you like... Pretty cool, huh? Push it back down. But yeah, I did a lot in the house, too. I mean, I got a lot more in the house. How long have you lived here? I've lived here since 2010. Everything's been pretty much a couple of years ago. You notice that it's all for yellow because of the cigarette smoke. Yeah. I mean, I get the plastic on it. I claim it will mask my brothers. Is it your brothers? No. Right, so I mean, I just claim it will mask my brothers. Is this like a living piece? Like, do you keep adding to it or is it kind of set the way? Yeah, but I have to stop because I'm getting a little carried away. As you notice, I keep collecting things. I mean, I just keep going. Every nicking cranny wherever I can put something and you'll notice that in the house if you go in. I did that, too, in the house. Now, I'm in the process now of fixing, painting up the bedroom because we wouldn't smoke in the house. We didn't get to finish it. So now I'm in the process of finishing it because now I can stay at home, collect unemployment and then go back to work in the spring. That'll make it nice. I work for Burlington Parks and Rec. Very nice people to work with. I pick up trash and recycle into 22 parks in Burlington. Yeah, I pick up all the trash and recycle and anything else that's in the park that don't belong. How do you feel about graffiti? Do you see it as art? Some of it, some of it, yeah, it's beautiful. I mean, as long as they don't get the other way with it, I love it. I think it's really nice, especially on the store down the road, you know, how he did it, it's really nice, I like it all. That's a different department that takes care of that. I don't clean up things for graffiti, but the other person does. But I've been there with them now for like eight years. So yeah, I'm pretty much family. I love it. Can't wait to go back in the spring, keep me going active. Are you like outside most of the time? Yes, all the time. I have to hop in the truck and go pick up trash and recycle. What's your favorite part of the job? Slacking off, no. Getting the job done for them and they're happy. My boss don't have to worry. You don't have to worry about me not being there. I'm there and they like that. I don't think I've missed three days in eight years. And I worked six months out of the year. Just about six months. I got one more. I did get picked with a needle out of trash. Yeah, well, yeah. But I tied the bag up and I pulled it out and when I did, it went down my leg, so it scraped me. So I had to go get shops and stuff. Monday I go for the last one. And apparently I ain't got nothing so I'm all good there. Pretty nice, I mean. Women. I'm sorry. I have to say it like it is. No, actually I like the atmosphere and the people. This street has been horrible at times but it's been good too. So if I had any place to live, I'd live right here. Because it's so nice. And we just had a guy move in right here on the side of me. And he's already going to fit. Oh, yeah. Have fun. Be happy. That's all I can say. Do you know a lot of your neighbors? Absolutely. I know more so. I live four houses down the way. Which way? That way. The one with the balcony. Okay. Yeah? Cool. I have to come down sometime. I have a few toddies. Me and cigarettes don't get along. I gave them up after 50 years. I've had three, four heart attacks. But they were mild and I took care of them at home. And I woke up that last time and I said, you know, I'm not going to put a cigarette back in my mouth again. My wife died of stage 3 lung cancer. And if you've seen what they took off her lung, you wouldn't put a cigarette in your mouth. It's scary. I thought it is. Yeah, so. Well, I tried to inspire her to quit. But no, she wouldn't quit. So I gave her her desires. And it was terrible. I'm glad I got a wake up call. Really. That's the bottom line. So I plan on going back to Burt some more. I gotta stay at home putting on weight again. And oh, I don't like it. But that comes with the age. These are the best things to have. What is that? Macultra and tomato. It's almost like a tomato juice. Yeah. But it's not. Yeah. And it's really, yes. And it's really good. Over on your side. There's a pin. There should be a wheel over there. Yeah. And I did this too. You play chess. You need to play chess or checkers. Nice. You got a little cover for it. And I fixed that. Yeah. And that's only the blue tape. It'll never move. Right. And I just squished it under when I ate you today. Yeah. I'm pretty creative. You are. I've always been creative. I've always been creative. This is the most I've ever put out in my life. Because I've always been a hard worker. It's potentials. Yeah. Yeah. J&S. J& Sally. I put that up here like that. So I can even put it down. I've alcohol in here. So I'm gonna have to read you the curriculum. All the privacy you need. Just like another room. The thing is it's not insulated. It's not insulated. Yeah. Yeah. What about it? Oh. Does it look like this? No. I'll give it back to you. I'm an Indian giver by the way. I want it back. That sucks. Pretty cool. Hey, you guys get to stop in more often. I'm more busy all the time. There you go. And I'm Jay. Matt. Matt. Okay. You're what? Brooke. Nice to meet you, Brooke. J-A-Y. Sweet. We should probably head. Thanks for chatting with us. No problem. Thanks for stopping. I don't feel so bad now. What are your thoughts on graffiti? I don't really have thoughts on graffiti. If someone spray painted your face, would you have thoughts on graffiti? I would not love my face being spray painted. But that's more because it's my face. Now what if it was like your house? Well I don't own my house. So I live in an apartment. I don't think I'd care. If I owned the house, I might care more. If your enemy started spraying progressive messages all over your apartment and you didn't like graffiti and had to start scrubbing it off, how would your neighbors feel? How would my neighbors feel? I have no idea. Because they would see you. Scrubbing off. I wouldn't really care if they saw me scrubbing off the messages. I feel like if I want my house to be clean then why not? It doesn't necessarily matter with the messages. You heard it here folks. What are your thoughts on graffiti? It's really not the hill for me to be completely honest. Of all the issues that Burlington has, I don't think it matters. We have a lot of lovely street art and it's just a bit of a bummer to get over with just a tag, but beyond that, yeah. What is a hill you would die on? Oh, I say this a lot. What was it? Gorillas aren't real. That's my most recent one. It's just a guy in a suit. Those aren't real animals. Have you witnessed the magnum opus Spongebob? No, I didn't watch Spongebob as a kid. I was a door girl. Me neither. There were gorillas in suits in that television piece? The gorillas were in suits? No, no. People or gorillas would wear fish suits so that they could pretend to be the fish. No, but that's excellent. Do you think that perhaps maybe we are actually gorillas? No, because we're pretending to be the gorillas. It's the gorillas that aren't real. I don't know if we're real or not, but that's a different conversation. Well, thank you so much. Hi. I think I have some of J's too. This is where I practice designing tags and stuff. Yeah. You might see this guy places. He's around. Yeah. J, you got one, right? Yeah. These are both J's. Rust? Yeah. Only orange paint, right? Only orange paint on the middle. Inside our house, we have the crayons that kids use for bathtubs. We have that on the walls of our shower. If you don't want to see that, we like to tag it. No. It is in the bathroom. Our shower is in the bathroom. Yeah, I'd be down. Also, I realize that this is not an omnidirectional mic, and I'm talking into it wrong. Oh, this is recording. Yeah. Welcome to my crib. Who is? This way to the bathroom. They've kind of faded, but we do like using our... This is less so tagging, but just... Yeah. This is my girlfriend's faded tag. She was here in June when we first moved in. So cool. Oh, yeah, we do have... Yeah. There's someone who works at the Flynn that might be good to interview. We're just trying to get to my house right now. Oh, that's fair. There's this old man who works at the Flynn who... he likes to collect stickers that he finds in the real world. What? I get a peace sign. Welcome to my crib. It smells like pesto. Yeah, I didn't decorate any of this. My friend made this, and we put it up. And they made this. And we got this from Red and Puppets. And I don't know where they got that. This is from BTU. That's a tenant. Rent tenants unite. Let's go look in the... My friend who we were going to interview was gone. That's my stuff. Let's look in my kitchen. We just need to serve him a shark and mites. This is out, but it's not... I don't know if we'll be able to make... Y'all want to help me make mac and cheese real quick. This is lighter. My friend gave me red and puppet stuff. Ooh, let's look at Sophie's screen prints. American Spirit. Ooh, blaze up! What is your art? Um... I guess it'd be more specific. Ready for art? I suppose anything I want. I do all sorts of stuff. Uh, right now this is... my um... my take on a yard sale. I suppose I'd call that an art project, sorts. Um... Yeah, any... Any other questions? What are your thoughts on graffiti? Um... I don't really think about it too much. It's getting pretty Halloweeny. Do you believe in ghosts? Um, I'd like to. I would like to believe in ghosts. I think that um... there's some... some ghostly things out there. The classic... definition of a ghost. You know, maybe there's some sort of... things, other worldly things that we can't see. Potentially. What are your thoughts on the Burlington Mayoral run? Um... I mean, who's running for mayor? We don't know. Yeah, I heard that. I heard that. He wants to... he wants to be in like the state senate or something instead. He's sick of being the mayor. I think um... What is Johnny Wanzer running for mayor? So I feel like he could be a solid contender if he did manage to figure out a way to run for mayor. I feel like that could be. These are some big hot takes. Do you think gorillas are real? I do. I do believe in gorillas. Yeah. I suppose like is our gorillas bigfoot? Do you think kids watching SpongeBob at a young age had negative effects on them? Um... Maybe if they uh... if they start doing the voices and then can't stop I met someone once who did the SpongeBob laugh probably too much. I think that affected them socially. So I feel like that could be considered a negative effect. But there's also a lot of people who would probably really enjoy that so they just need to find those people. You can turn any negative thing into a positive thing. Can you do a SpongeBob laugh? Um... No. No, I feel like that would be too scary. It's good to reach out to neighbors and go inside their homes. Hyde Street has a lot to offer here in Burlington. And we encourage everyone to take a stroll down Hyde when you've got some free time. Stop in at Jay's Man Cave. The door is always open. Go on over to our friend Mack's house. What do you have to say about your house, Mack? The staircase goes up to my house. I got a lot of problems with my landlord. But not that many. I like my house. I don't like it that much, though. And Mack might just feed you some mac and cheese.