Transcript for the Piece Audio version of Eat Cake
Elizabeth [location]: Happy Valentine's Day! Happy Valen- look at - Triscuit? Triscuit?
Elizabeth [interview]: Today's Valentine's Day.
Elizabeth [location]: Happy Valentine's Day! You're my Valentine, right? You're my Valentine.
Elizabeth [interview]: It gets to be a bit much with all the couples everywhere and candy out everywhere and cards and bears.
Elizabeth [location]: Let's see, flour…
Elizabeth [interview]: But I have this tradition.
Elizabeth [location]: I'm gonna make a cake!
Elizabeth [interview]: I make a coconut cake, and I then I go to a movie.
Elizabeth [location]: [singing] Where is my sugar at?
Elizabeth [interview]: It started, like seven years ago, the last time i had a boyfriend on Valentine's Day.
Elizabeth [location]: Turn on the oven.
Elizabeth [interview]: The first year it was actually a chocolate cake, 'cause Chad liked Chocolate cake. And he wanted to go see a movie. Oh, we went to see some stupid movie.
Elizabeth [location]: Eggs.
Elizabeth [interview]: What was it?
Elizabeth [location]: Oh no! Oh, do I have eggs? Yes! OK!
Elizabeth [interview]: The next year, I had just broken up with him on New Years, so I still made a cake but I made a coconut cake.
Elizabeth [location]: This is not for you.
Elizabeth [interview]: Cause that's my favorite.
Elizabeth [location]: You don't like cake, Triscuit.
Elizabeth [interview]: Nobody likes coconut cake. Chad hated coconut cake.
Elizabeth [location]: Get away get away go away! That is hot!
Elizabeth [interview]: And I went to a movie that I chose.
Elizabeth [location]: [singing] Triscuit is the cat! Who's that cat? Triscuit is the - what is, what is all over you? Oh, gross. What do you do all day?
[phone rings]
Elizabeth [location]: Oh, I'm coming, I'm coming. Hello?
Brian: Hello, I'm calling to speak with Elizabeth Kostik.
Elizabeth: Uh, this is she.
Brian: Hi Elizabeth. My name is Brian Privit.
Elizabeth: Hello.
Brian: Hi, I am calling people I haven't met before on Valentine's Day to say hello.
Elizabeth: Are you serious?
Brian: Yes.
Elizabeth: Are you selling something?
Brian: [laughs] No!
Elizabeth: What is this?
Brian: It's just completely random, I picked your name out of a phone book, and I'm just calling to say hello. So, hello, I'm Brian!
Brian [interview]: There's something about talking to people I don't know that feels better than talking to people I do know on Valentine's Day. My friends, they've already heard, they've heard it hundreds of times before that I'm alone, they don't need to hear it again.
[internal phone ring]
Pat: Hello?
Brian: Hello, Pat? Pat Etchill?
Pat: Yeah?
Brian: Hi! Hi, my name is Brian Privit, and I'm calling...
Brian [interview]: I guess it's a tradition now. This'll be the third year that I've called people on the telephone who I don't know, just to reach out and connect with someone.
Pat: How did you get my number?
Brian: I just picked it at random.
Pat: Random from where?
Brian: Oh, just the telephone book.
Pat: W- why are you calling?
Brian [interview]: Some people don't want to talk on the phone.
Man: Uh, no thanks. [phone hangs up]
Brian [interview]: Sometimes it makes me feel worse.
Woman: I'm sorry, I just don't have time to talk to someone who's weird right now. [phone hangs up]
Brian: Uh, oh -
Brian [interview]: I understand it but it doesn't feel good. But you'd be surprised, I'm, a lot of times I'm surprised by how many people will chat, and it's nice. It's a nice surprise.
Pat: So I appreciate it when somebody will listen to me.
Brian: Oh!
Pat: So that's why I listen to people when they call and talk to me.
Brian: Oh well that's good.
Brian [interview]: I've never seen any of these people. I don't know what they look like, and I've definitely never met any of them. I don't want that, and I don't try to take it to that.
Brian [interview]: I always look in the phone book and, same thing here, I just opened it up and it happened to be on the Ks.
Brian: All set. Here we go. Elizabeth Kostik. All right, here we go Elizabeth.
Elizabeth: [on phone] OK, well, hello Brian. That was very weird and interesting of you. Have a good night.
Brian: If you'll only take a moment -
Elizabeth: I'm actually, I'm sort of busy right now, I'm making a cake.
Brian: What kind of cake are you baking?
Elizabeth: I'm making a coconut cake, so good luck with your thing.
Brian: I like that, I love coconut cakes, I had one-
Elizabeth: Now you're definitely a weirdo.
Brian: No no, I had one for my birthday when I was eight.
Elizabeth: Really?
Brian: Yeah.
Elizabeth: Did you ask for that or did your parents just do it?
Brian: I asked for it!
Elizabeth: Really?
Brian: Definitely, I've always loved coconut on everything, and I asked for it on my birthday, and not everybody ate it, it didn't get finished, and it was great 'cause I got to eat it.
Elizabeth: Hm.
Brian: What's the flavor on the inside?
Elizabeth: Uh, just white cake.
Brian: Yeah, that's good, that's the best.
Elizabeth: I feel like it sets off the coconut taste the best.
Brian: It is! That is the best, it's the best for coconut cake, some people try chocolate in coconut cake.
Elizabeth: I always want that to be better than it actually is.
Brian: Yeah, cause it's moist, but it just doesn't go together.
Elizabeth: Yeah, they don't work right.
Brian: Different kinds of creaminess.
Elizabeth: Why am I talking to you?!?
Brian: Because it's nice to talk to someone, isn't it?
Elizabeth: Is this how you pick people up?
Brian: No. No.
Elizabeth: You do this, you call somebody, and you're like, hey come one, come -
Brian: It's not about that at all.
Elizabeth: It's not about that at all?
Brian: No. No, I never, I never meet the people face to face.
Elizabeth: So, you'll call people but you won't meet them?
Brian: Never.
Elizabeth: How do you know?
Brian: Oh. Um, well, I didn't think. Maybe on accident I've met them.
Elizabeth: Hm.
Brian: It's possible, I guess.
Elizabeth: So you could accidentally meet somebody, but you just don't do it on purpose.
Brian: Right.
Elizabeth: Like, if I was gonna go to the movies, you could accidentally go to the same movie?
Brian: Yeah, that, if that happened, if we accidentally, a few years from now, went to the same movie theatre, and I happened.
Elizabeth: But what if later tonight I was going to go see The Princess Bride at the Biograph at 9:30?
Brian: Oh, no, I'm not trying to get a date out of this, this is just -
Elizabeth: Why not? Are you scared?
Brian: Um.
Elizabeth: You sound scared.
Brian: Heh. Um, I mean, I just called you on the phone. That would be weird if we met, wouldn't it?
Elizabeth: It was just an offhand comment. You can do whatever you want. I just think it's weird that you call people and then are scared to actually meet them.
Brian: Well, um, OK, I think it's not that much stranger to ask somebody who you've just met on the telephone to come see a movie with you, you don't even know.
Elizabeth: I don't know that that's what I did.
Brian: I - That's not why I'm doing this, uh, you know I'm going to make some other calls after this, and -
Elizabeth: OK fine.
Brian: OK.
Elizabeth: But just so you know, 9:30.
Brian: OK.
Elizabeth: And I'm going to have a whole piece of coconut cake.
Brian: And I hope you enjoy it.
[city, car horns, traffic]
Elizabeth: Taxi!
[car pulls up, door slam]
Elizabeth: Uh, thank you!
Taxi Driver: No problem.
Elizabeth: Um, I am going to Greenwood and 47th.
Taxi Driver: Ok. That's the theater, right?
Elizabeth: Yeah, yeah.
Taxi Driver: Yeah. Goin' to the movies?
Elizabeth: Uh, yeah. Mmm hm.
Taxi Driver: What're you gonna see?
Elizabeth: Um, I'm seeing, uh, The Princess Bride.
Taxi Driver: That's an old movie, right?
Elizabeth: Yeah, they're showing it again for Valentine's Day.
Taxi Driver: Oh yeah? Date?
Elizabeth: No, no.
Taxi Driver: No?
Elizabeth: No, no, I'm, um, maybe meeting a friend.
Taxi Driver: What do you mean?
Elizabeth: Well he might not be there. We've never met.
Taxi Driver: You've never met the guy?
Elizabeth: No he just called me on the phone.
Taxi Driver: He called - How did he get your phone number?
Elizabeth: Out of the phone book.
Taxi Driver: He picked your name out of a phone book and called you?
Elizabeth: Yeah.
Taxi Driver: And then you told him where you're gonna be?
Elizabeth: Yeah.
Taxi Driver: That's bold.
Elizabeth: I'm gonna be in public.
Taxi Driver: Is this how you date?
Elizabeth: No. It's not a date!
Taxi Driver: How many, how many boyfriends you had before?
Elizabeth: It's none of your business.
Taxi Driver: Ok, fair enough. I've had a lot of girlfriends.
Elizabeth: I'm sure you have.
Taxi Driver: Guess.
Elizabeth: Guess?
Taxi Driver: Yeah.
Elizabeth: I don't know, uh, 20?
Taxi Driver: That's a good guess.
Elizabeth: You've had 20 girlfriends?
Taxi Driver: Those are girlfriends, those are serious relationships. I've, I've, I've, I've had dalliances with hundreds of women.
Elizabeth: Oh, and this all works out for you, you're telling me this is the way I should be living?
Taxi Driver: It's workin' for me.
Elizabeth: Your way sounds lonely to me.
Taxi Driver: Really?
Elizabeth: Yeah.
Taxi Driver: But at least I'm with somebody.
Elizabeth: At least I'm with somebody?
Taxi Driver: Yeah.
Elizabeth: That's a great life philosophy.
Taxi Driver: Well what's your life philosophy?
Elizabeth: I don't know. See what happens next?
[speaker static]
CASHIER: Can I help you?
Elizabeth: Hi, I'd like to get one for Princess Bride.
CASHIER: It'll be $11.50.
Elizabeth: Here you go.
Brian: Pardon. Elizabeth Kostik?
Elizabeth: Yes.
Brian: Brian.
Elizabeth: Uh, y- OK, hi!
Brian: Hi!
Elizabeth: Did - you knew me cause of the cake.
Brian: Yeah, I thought about that after we got off the phone, like, how will she know, and I was like, she'll have cake.
Elizabeth: Yeah, I brought cake.
Brian: Yeah.
Elizabeth: This is, this is all very weird, isn't it?
Brian: Yeah, it's a lot different than talking on the phone.
Elizabeth: You don't look like I thought you'd look.
Brian: Oh, uh, clothes, hair?
Elizabeth: Yeah, you have clothes and hair, which I wasn't expecting!
Brian: [laughing] Yeah, you too, I didn't uh-
Elizabeth: I didn't expect you to be blonde.
Brian: Uh, I don't know if my voice is blonde.
Elizabeth: Yeah I don't think it is.
Brian: I don't know.
Elizabeth: Well we should go in.
Brian: Yeah right.
[door opens]
Elizabeth: So what happened to uh, to not meeting people that you called?
Brian: Coconut cake and Princess Bride, how could I -
Elizabeth: You broke your rule!
Brian: Well, it's going pretty well so far.
Elizabeth: OK.
Brian: Yeah.
USHER: Oh, I'm sorry, uh there's no food in the theater ma'am.
Elizabeth: Oh.
Brian: Oh, oh, well she -
Elizabeth: It's just a piece of cake.
Brian: Yeah, she made it.
USHER: You'll have to take it outside.
Elizabeth: OK.
Brian: Uh, all right.
Elizabeth: I'm sorry, I didn't even think of that.
Brian: I don't, I mean, it's not like they sell cake we're not gonna buy.
Elizabeth: You know what, I'm just gonna throw out the cake, and we can just go in, watch the movie.
Brian: No, no, you spent so much time making it, and it looks great, it looks delicious.
Elizabeth: Yeah, I sort of have this thing, I see a movie every Valentine's Day.
Brian: Well, um, maybe this will be a new tradition, getting kicked out of movie theaters for trying to bring in cake.
Elizabeth: But I don't know, I mean it's -
Brian: Let's uh, we'll find a place where we can eat cake.
Elizabeth: OK.
Brian: Alright.
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