[Mike] I was really excited to get started getting tattoos when I was in high
school - all my buddies had them. My first one's here- it's a big blob. I drew it
myself. You know - 17, I was like drawing my first tattoo in class and then I
took my graduation money ... [Dan] Oh you didn't do it yourself- you didn't actually etch it into your flesh [Mike] No no no I
drew - you know - I planned it out. I wanted to draw my own tattoo. And I
took my graduation money, I was 18, and I went to get a tattoo. And I remember my
parents sat me down and they're like [Mike mimics parents' accent] "We noticed your graduation money is missing,
and we know where it went." and I was like - oh man - and so it was one of those
conversations where I thought they knew I got a tattoo, but they were actually -
they I thought I'd spent it on drugs. [Dan] Oh! [Mike] So then I told them, oh no, I got a
tattoo and they were so relieved... and then got upset real fast. [Laughter] [Dan's voice] When the courts,
the legislature and the institutions that govern our daily lives are broken,
we have to look for ways to make the world a better place on our own. We're
learning from people who know you don't have to go to big cities to do big
things. This is Midwesticism. To start off our series we're going to talk to
Mike Bridavski of Bloomington, Indiana. He's a recording engineer, the son of
Russian immigrants, and the owner of Indiana's most famous living cat. [MIke] I was
conceived in Russia. my parents immigrated in - they started immigrating
in 1979. You know they - the US I think closed Russian immigration in like '80 or
'81 so we almost didn't- we almost got held up in Italy. So I was almost born a
Russian Italian Jew - soon-to-be American. But we made it to Kansas City. I think we
had like $30 to our name. My mom was pregnant. So I was born in Kansas City
and then my dad ended up getting a job in Cleveland which is why we moved to
Cleveland when I was about 1. [Dan] When did you start studio - what year?
[Mike] Well I started it in 2003 in Brown County, okay, and when I started I was
working at IU full time. So the first five years of my studio I was also
working at Indiana University. I was the technical director for the
African-American Arts Institute. Sort of my business plan became to have this
world-class studio in Bloomington, which is a cool town that people know about,
but have it be extremely affordable. 90% of the records I record
are with people that are technically like below the poverty line. You know,
People who've graduated college, don't have jobs, and they're just like working minimum
wage just so they can save up enough money to go on tour. Those are
the people I connect with and those are my friends. And I love to be able to
make kick-ass records with people that can't afford to do it. Money has never
been a motivating factor in my life - at all.
What's been a motivating factor is to do what I want to do, and that's kind of why
I found myself in some pretty deep financial despair at several moments of
my life, the biggest one being when I quit this job at IU took out this...
I don't know how I convinced the bank to give me this money, because it was 2008 -
[Dan] Right yeah [Mike] right so [Dan] Oh! it was 2008! [Mike] Yeah. [Dan] I was gonna say like the freewheeling
early aughts but I guess not. [Mike] No, I didn't... It was 2008, things were super tight, I
didn't have a real business plan. I came in there with a stack of records that
I'd recorded. I said - you know I bring bands from out of town, it's good for the
culture of Bloomington, the musical culture. It's good to bring folks into
town and it's... You know the studio has been a big part of the music scene
here. And I want to do this full-time, and I hope you'll support me in that - and
they said yes! So this is the control room. This is where I spend most of my
time. The studio is fully analog or fully digital. You can actually just switch
from the tape machine to the computer with these two giant cables. You just
move them there. Once Bub came around I realized that
what I'm doing with the studio is cool, providing.. I mean the arts are very
important in providing a place for bands to record, and providing a service to
them to fulfill their dreams is great. But at a much bigger level the work
that I do with Bub is you know... I mean it makes me cry regularly, the work we do. I
mean it's beyond... I mean there's animal welfare but it's beyond that. I mean she
means a lot to a lot of people. I mean I remember the very first crazy message I
got. It was just a blog for fun, for friends... But it spread pretty
quickly like - to a like - 500 people were following it. Which to me it
was like this is supposed to be like sort of fun. I mean I thought she was
truly the most remarkable creature in the world. But it was just for fun. Ididn't
think anything of it. And someone's like I just hope you never stop posting
photos, she's the only thing that's gotten me through grad school. [reacting to Dan] I know! And
the first time I saw I thought that is insane really but now that pales in
comparison to the messages I get every single day. [Dan] Really? [Mike] Oh yeah - children that
are, you know like chronically ill, children that only have a few months to
live, people suffering from depression, people... I've had - gotten so many
messages from suicidal people that - I mean I have one that I've saved that was
like, I logged in to Facebook to say goodbye - I know this was the not the best
way to say goodbye to your friends and family - and Bub's picture came up on my
feed and and made me realize, you know - If she can make it through all
these challenges that she's had, so can I, You know her story is that she was born
with a multitude of genetic anomalies, she's quite literally like one in a
trillion, everything combined. And she has this very rare bone condition. She's the
only cat in recorded history to have osteopetrosis. The way I see is that
she's driving the ship. I mean that's that's where my decision not to pursue
any opportunities actively or do anything I don't reach out to anyone to
do like 'hey we want to do this' like none of it. Everything we've done - the Animal
Planet's special, a book for Penguin, I mean - tons of crazy - I've had crazy
stuff. You know Bub's met Robert DeNiro, we've been on The View, we've...
We did a talk show. We got asked to do a talk show- Lil Bub's Big Show - I
don't know if you know about it. But me and my friend Mark did it.
We interviewed Michelle Obama we- [Dan] Oh my gosh. [Mike] Yeah, and she came to us!
Like really the way she connects to people on a daily basis and changes
people's lives and makes them happier... I think elevating the general level of
happiness on the planet is kind of a big fucking deal man, because the big problem
with everything is people being bummed out about shit, right? I mean we're our
best when we're happy. She has a bone infection right now, and we're trying to
treat it with this long-term antibiotic, so she just gets them every day. And then
I also- let me move over there - I also add water. She doesn't drink water, so we mix
it in with her food to keep her hydrated. And Bub actually eats - she's only three
and a half pounds, and she eats enough food for a 16 pound cat every day. She has
the most ferocious appetite. In a way it made it desirable to help special-needs
pets - and that's what we talk about. Like we do a presentation called the Story of
Lil Bub and it's obviously about the details of - a lot of things we talked
about - how I met Stacy and just a story about how it all came to b. But I really talked
about what it's like to care for a special-needs pet, why it's important, why
it's not for everyone. These are the pets that need our help
the most - they're the the first to get euthanized in shelters and the hardest
to adopt, and the ones that cost the most money just to keep healthy- and - Which is
why they're the first to get euthanized. So Lil Bub's Big Fund has helped a
lot with that because it's the first national fund dedicated to providing
grants to shelters specifically for special needs pets. And that's where
money's needed the most which is why it's the most applied for a grant. [Dan] How
did you meet Bub? [Mike] Sure, the story is that- I mean I've...
She's my sixth rescue cat. But I had four cats at the time, and I
just moved into a new apartment. The cats stayed at the recording studio - I was
kind of relieved to kind of be cat hair free, you know, at least when I was
sleeping. But then my friend sent me a photo of her as a kitten said you have
to meet this cat because all my cats are sort of misfits. I got the big fat one,
the one with no tail, and they're all rescues. And I was never like actively
try- Similar to how I don't seek any opportunities in general I also never
sought out any cats. They all found me. [Dan] They found you, yeah. [Mike] Yeah. So I had to meet her though
because she looks so wild. Just... pictures like that big [gestures]. She looked like a
combination of Gizmo meets Snuggles the Bear. I was like, I mean, I have to.
She didn't even look like a cat! So I met her... And she was found as the runt of a feral
litter in rural Indiana in Unionville. [Dan] Oh wow okay.
[Mike] And it was my friend's girlfriend's sister's roommate's boyfriend's mom that
found her- [Dan] Oh you - okay you've got that one down. [Mike] Oh yeah. And then um...
She like bounced around with a couple friends. I didn't know anything about her, and
no one wanted to take her in. I mean it was clear she would require probably special
care or wouldn't probably live very long. I mean she was half a pound at 8 weeks
old. She- her teeth never grew in, she's polydactyl on all of her paws, so she
has extra toes on every paw. She has an underdeveloped jaw,
and these are just the things that we could see. Sorry I'm always picking at her.
These are the things you just see. [Dan] Don't you bite him! [Mike] We didn't
know that there would be anything wrong with her. Yeah, medically, physically.
15 minutes later she was in my house. So we hit it off pretty quick. [Dan] Awesome.
[Mike's voice] Being able to just - or to like encourage people to be empathetic I think is a huge thing,
and to really like consider others. I feel like that's her biggest contribution.
Midwesticism is viewer-supported. If you like this story and you want to see
more, visit patreon.com/dancanon .
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