Such an important initiative than with MENA theater makers whose work has been in its own way groundbreaking. I am delighted to be joined by two Golden Threads beloved advisory board members, Samaral Saber assistant professor of theater and performance studies at Stanford University without whom this collaboration wouldn't have been possible. And arts professor and director of the Lark Middle East US playwright exchange Catherine Coray and also a very warm welcome to playwright Adam Masayir whose courageous play Drowning in Cairo was read at our New Threads in 2018 and warm welcome to stage director Pironius of Sada who was just announced the next producing artistic director of the fine arts center theater company at Colorado College. I am so thrilled to be in your company. I would like now to pass it on to Samaral Saber to welcome and introduce our guest of honor today, Marjan Musawi. Samar. Hello, thank you so much Sahar. Today I have the great honor of introducing Dr. Marjan Musawi. She holds a PhD in theater and performance studies from the University of Toronto's center for drama, theater and performance studies where she trained in theory, craft of theater making dramaturgy and diasporic performance. She is the lecturer at Roshan Institute for Persian Studies, University of Maryland. Marjan has also served as a faculty member and designed curricula for the University of Toronto, York University, Portland State University and Parandazad University. Marjan is the author of several scholarly articles, books, chapters and interviews published in the drama review, New Theater Quarterly, Asian Theater Journal at Humanica and online journals. She is the principal investigator and curator of a prolific photo exhibition on Middle Eastern theater and the regional managing editor of the Iran section for the theater times.com. Recent collaborations include those with gatherings, IPCCR, Persian Digital Humanities and nowadays theater. You can learn more about her work at marjanmusawi.com. But today Dr. Musawi is here about a unique project that is the first of its kind on Middle Eastern theater. It is called the Digital Guide to Theater of the Middle East. In the next minute or so, I would like to tell you why this project is exceptional in its conception and scope. It began with a clear interest by the scholar to show evidence instead of only discussing it. Years ago, I received what appeared to be a random message from an emerging PhD at the University of Toronto asking me for images of performances in Palestine in the mid-20th century. I suggested a few and gave the bibliographic citations and we began to be in touch ever since. These photos were to become part of a large photo exhibition which she has grown into a meaningful platform that we are to look at and discuss today. What is most significant here is that marjan created a place for those artists and scholars who are committed to Middle Eastern theater. This is a project about creating infrastructure and foundation, one that is desperately needed for artists to promote their work and scholars to research and better understand the region. In a continuing race to digitize human experience across the globe, we have seen a proliferation of these platforms, the most known of course being Wikipedia but we've also seen aggregators and creators of content like HowlRound and TheaterTimes. A version of Marjan's model is the Hemispheric Institute created by Diana Taylor. It functioned as a resource for those of us who are interested in the theater of the Americas. For a long time, I had heard a complaint. Why don't we have a platform like the Hemispheric Institute for Middle Eastern theater? That was always a great question. Today in 2020, 2021, enter Dr. Marjan Musavi. It is a great honor to have introduced this colleague and someone who I am very proud to call a friend. I can't wait for this discussion. Please take it away, Dr. Musavi. Thank you so much. I mean, wow. And thank you so much for the kind introduction. I go directly to share my screen. Hello, everybody. Thanks for coming. Again, thank you, Sahar and Summer for this kind introduction and for joining me in launching this digital platform. I'm really honored to be here. As the endowed Roshan Lecturer for Persian Studies at University of Maryland and the founder and principal investigator of the Digital Guide to Theater of the Middle East to any first century volume, I welcome you all. I'm delighted to start this much anticipated launch with the happy news that my intellectual home, Roshan Institute for Persian Studies is now hosting DG2Me and committing its resources to intellectual, technical, and financial support for the project. For this rare opportunity, I'm indebted to Dr. Professor Fatemeh Keshavaz, Director of Roshan Institute for Persian Studies at UMD and also to Professor Matthew Miller, the Founding Director of Roshan Initiative in Persian Digital Humanities, Perstig, the pioneering project for constructing the digital infrastructure and promotion of Persian Digital Humanities research. At the time of my arrival, almost a year ago, Perstig at the University of Maryland Initiative housed two separate projects, the Persian Manuscript Initiative and the Open Islamic Text Initiative, both building digital resources for the study of the pre-modern Persian world. DG2Me has now been welcomed as the third major project to the fold. I would also like to gratefully acknowledge the significant role of my colleagues at the Golden Thread Productions, Sahar, Asif, and Bindi for the idea of celebrating the launch of the website. My special thanks for today's launch. Also go to the Sohaib and Sara Posi Program in Islamic Studies at Stanford University, especially Dr. Samara Sabar and Colleen for sponsoring and co-hosting this event. Without their support and sponsorship, this project might not have taken off or at least been much slower. The reason I'm emphasizing these academic supports is that as many might know, universities acceptance of digital scholarship and projects is uneven, but the acceptance of DH projects like DG2Me by my host institute and APOC program at Stanford University is exemplary. And last but not least, a big thank you to my co-panelists today. I look forward to our discussion. Now let's see what DG2Me is and what it does. The Digital Guide to Theater of the Middle East 21st Century Volume, or what I call shortly DG2Me, provides essential information and the most significant plays or performances written and performed in the Middle Eastern and North African theaters and their diasporas since 2000. The goal is to recognize and display the breadth and diversity of theatrical visions, creations and collaborations of the meaner theater artists to the members of the world academia and theater community in an accessible and sustained form. In addition to increasing the visibility and inclusion of meaner theater in a scholarship and curricula and on a stage, DG2Me pursues three objectives. To make digital archiving of meaner theater more sustainable, accessible and searchable, to enhance the digital capacity of scholarship in the English language about meaner theater and to create a platform to connect with artists and experts in the region. The idea of the Digital Guide came to me after teaching the course Middle Eastern Theater and curating the first photo exhibition of Middle Eastern Theater at University of Toronto. The project of the website began with preparing the digital form via Google form. Each form, as you see, asks details of theatrical performances, including titles of the works and names of artists in two languages, the original language and English, their gender, dates of writing and staging of the plays, number of characters, production history, genre, major themes and significance and synopsis of the play. And this is an image of the Google form. It's a two-page Google form. Next, Adam Masayek, my dear colleague and assistant and I communicated with about 40 experts and artists based in and from the meaner region. I should acknowledge Samir's help as he said at this very first state. To my great surprise, 26 contributors from 12 countries and their diasporas volunteer to complete the Google forms. You can see their names on the contributor page on the website later on. And I'm so glad that some of them have joined us today from Iran, from Turkey. Yeah, I just don't see everybody, but I'm so glad I welcome them. So to this state, they have submitted 118 Google forms or entries from 11 countries and their diasporas. To select the works, we asked, and this is the image of the website that you will shortly see. To select the works, we asked the entry writers to give priority to plays with sociopolitical themes and to artists belonging to marginalized communities, including diasporic groups and underrepresented theater practices and productions. The database includes many remarkable plays featuring humor, tragedy, reflections of everyday life, the wide range of settings and three dimensional characters in a range of styles and genres. Experimental, historical, interactive, romance, political plays. What distinguishes this database is that the local contributors created and its data are verified by theater scholars who reside in the region or are in close contact with the contemporary theatrical scenes in the region. The core team consisting of the, core team of the project consists of the web developer, Hamid Razadeh Khan and my assistants, as I said, Adam, as Sayegh, Arjun Davan and Martin Yusef Zabarian. They have been painstakingly and voluntarily helping me with designing, uploading the content and dividing the website. The process that is ongoing. In terms of who can benefit from digital to me, it is intended for educators, students, researchers, theater practitioners, translators, the general public. Each group can benefit from different subsets of data about the place, text, context and production history. Most importantly, this resource is intended for those individuals who just cannot get enough of this field. As you will see shortly, for the time being, we have presented the data of 104 plays from nine countries in addition to the section of diaspora. We are adding more plays than countries as we go. For instance, I have recently received entries from Kuwait and Bahrain, but they're not here yet. The website is an open access, as you will see, and user-friendly and has a customized advanced search. You have the option to apply a number of filters. You can either search by the title of the play, name of the artist, or you can filter your search by country, year and genre. It also has a responsive design, can be used on different interfaces, cell phone or laptop. You might have noticed by looking at the form that I first shared with you, that the categories of information are different from the form. Here on the website, we're presenting the title of the play and name of the playwright in two languages. The year of writing and staging, major themes, synopsis and significance, country, production history, and some useful links, for instance, the YouTube links. In the next phases, those categories like number of casts, name of the director will be added. Speaking about other features of the website, technically the website has a search engine optimization to be compatible with Google SEO requirements. Its loading speed is optimized and multi-editors can work on it at the same time. Users can subscribe to our listserv and there will be a newsletter soon. In a nutshell, digital means is at its first phase. You could call it beta version, still updating, evolving, but ready to get developed. There are definitely a lot to do and a lot to cover. One of our challenges in addition to difficulty of accessing the archive and information has been the shortage of financial support and human resource. It is also important here to make visible human labor aspect of digital humanities projects. We keep receiving entries from the region, even now that we have stopped or we have actually limited our communication with the experts in the region. So there is definitely a need to expand our team. In addition, we acknowledge that information about the place is captured by particular people at particular places and times. We all know that data and algorithms are not neutral. We also acknowledge that digital tools and spaces require decisions about taxonomy and representation that are often challenged by creative works and the information we receive about them. We know that in the process of selection, curation, narrative, some extent of erasure might happen. It is inevitable. That's one of the biggest challenges for me and my team is how to present without being the voice of knowledge. I believe the backbones of every digital project are digital infrastructures and infrastructures of collaboration. In the field of Middle Eastern theater studies, there's often a division between digital work produced in the region and digital work that is about it but is done outside of the region. My vision is to create the bridge between these two works. So in addition to my first challenge about how to present this data without being the voice of knowledge, my other concern is how to invite users to engage in it and how to invite people to make connection themselves. Addressing these concerns allow us to construct the infrastructure of collaboration in the field of digital humanities. I now study about theater of the Middle Eastern region. Digital Me is a project that goes beyond universities and national boundaries. And what I value most is the infrastructure of collaboration that has been constructed through this project. It's a peer-generated repository and my hope is to create the digital network of collaborators and users who can connect and exchange works and ideas. That explains why I embarked on this journey. And as you know, other humanities fields have made the jump into the digital age by creating digital corpora, digital repositories, et cetera. The field of Middle Eastern theater studies needs to do these as well. What I hope we can do by conducting such projects is to facilitate the transition by creating digital infrastructure such as repositories of digital scripts, documents, images, digital archiving of oral history, digital mapping or story mapping and machine actionable corpora, et cetera. To give you an example of what we can learn from our data, even at this stage, some interesting findings transpire from the received data. For instance, out of the 118 entries that we have received, almost 80% of plays are original and 20% are adaptations. Or 24% of the corpus we have gathered are diasporic and 76 are created in the region. Another interesting finding is that half of these plays have their scripts available online which is so helpful if you want to include them in our curricula, for instance, for our company production. I acknowledge that a small example of the statistical population cannot be fully representative of the repertoire as a whole but in future, when we aggregate our database, we can certainly conduct a more precise statistical and computational analysis. Talking about future phases. In the future phases of aggregation, we will add more plays from our historical periods as well as those featuring wider thematic aspects. I plan to collect and digitize a large corpus of play scripts and prepare them for text mining and distant reading so that researchers can study different trends and ideas and find patterns that are not visible to us through conventional research methods. In addition to this objective, the future developmental phase of this digitization involves structured visualization of data and findings about aesthetic features, production history, cats, size, practitioners, originality, and gender of the artist and place and time of the performers. Another ongoing objective is cultivating the culture of doing and using digital humanities in our theater community and academia. I'm lucky that I have the support of Perstig at the Roshan Institute and today I'm very delighted that the project will receive this intellectual and financial support in the near future. But we need us to start asking questions about the scope of supporting digital humanities projects about the theater of MENA. We need to define more projects of DH if we think about revisioning, redefining, and revisiting our understanding. My strong belief is that we need to think about the state of digital scholarly research on in and from the Middle East and North Africa and we need to envision what will the next five to 10 years of digital research on the theater of the region looks like. Now, the exciting part. I invite you all to copy and paste this link to your browser and start navigating the website. I don't know if I can type it on the chat. DG2ME.com trying to find the chat. Someone already has Marjan. There is the link up there. Okay. Very good. Thank you. Yeah, and then thank you so much with that note. I finished my presentation and as I said, I very much look forward to have a discussion. Wow, Marjan, thank you so much. This is such a brilliant initiative. I would like actually, before we continue our event, I would just like to take a moment to welcome folks who are just joining us now and just a brief reminder, this is no summary, Golden Threads live stream series of conversations with artists who don't fit in a box and we're in conversation with Marjan Musawi about her great initiative, the digital guide to theater of the Middle East. Also with Samar Al-Sabir, Catherine Coray, Adam Al-Sahir, Piron Yusuf Zada, we will be sharing the biographies of the speakers in the chat shortly. I would like to invite you folks in the Zoom room with us today to utilize the chat function to post your comments and questions throughout the conversation. And those of you joining us over the live stream on HowlRound and Facebook, you may post your questions on Facebook live, on our Facebook page for artists to respond to. Thank you. I see the speakers. Where are you, Catherine? I don't see Catherine, here you are. Hello, everyone. Thank you. And please, guests in the room, feel free to show us your faces and join the conversation with love for this to be as friendly and informal as possible. Hi, Muna, hi, Sarah. I see many friends in the room and I know Marjan also mentioned collaborators in the room. Please come over, join us. This is a big celebration of Mina playwrights and Mina theater. From Iran. Yes. Maybe I guess from the... It's so wonderful to see everyone. Catherine, I want to start with you and I want to ask you, you especially because you've been building bridges, between the US and the Middle East and you've been creating all sorts of spaces for Mina plays to be born for a long time. We are all super grateful for your work. And especially like the highlight, what some of the work that stands out is your work with the LARC, Middle East US Playwright Exchange and Arab Voices. So I want to ask you, how do you envision you will be using the DG to me in the future? How do you think it will support the tremendous work that you're already doing? First of all, hi everybody. And hello to friends in Beirut, Giselle. I see you are here. That's so great. I guess I would start by saying that my first thought about making the most of this amazing project would be to introduce it at New York University at the Tisch School of the Arts. And especially to share it with particular colleagues who teach Arab theater and film such as Ted Zeiter and Naila Avatras who is one of the former heads of the Higher Institute of Dramatic Arts in Damascus now teaches for us at NYU very happily. And also to make it immediately available to all of our students and staff and faculty, we have actually a database that we are creating called the Archival Voices, which we are currently working very hard to diversify. And creating links between the two databases makes tremendous sense to me. Making the plays available to students at Tisch for academic study and also for performance possibilities. But what really excites me too is the idea, because this is really more the nature of my work as a producer and curator, is to create moments where the database can be brought to people live. And actually to create a situation where performances can be derived from the plays that are in the database. One possibility, for example, is to create connections between the work that Marjane has done in collecting these plays and the Middle East America Play Rights Lab at the LARC where it's a treasure trove of Middle Eastern American writers. And I know that they're going to be very excited about this initiative and this resource. And also, I immediately started to envision an event. An event to celebrate the database here on the East Coast. Why not? You're doing it out there. We could do something here in New York. And I just think it would be terribly exciting to invite Marjane into the room either in person or via Zoom to discuss the database, but also to engage the Middle Eastern American theater community here in New York and see what the additional possibilities might be. I think I have found it to be most effective to combine information opportunities with a chance to experience the work. Every event that I have put together, even if it's one where people are engaged in conversation for a couple of days at convening, it's punctuated with the work, the artistic work of the people involved. And I think that makes a big difference. So that's sort of where I'm at. I'm very excited to engage with you. This is also great. And we know that you make things happen. So I see these events happening very soon. Samar, do you want to take us forward? Do you want to? Yeah. Absolutely. So I was curious about how our artists who are on the panel are seeing this as a useful way to either promote their work or to find new work to engage with or new playwrights to engage with and how that might also bridge this work that could be happening in translation from the region as opposed to the work that happens here in the United States. So the short version of a question is, how is this useful to you as an artist? Perhaps Perrone and Adam could tell us about that. Thank you. That's such a great question. I mean, I've been friends and peers with Marjane for a long time. And when she first reached out to me mentioning the idea for this, I got so excited because I feel like in my own life, I juggle a couple of different things, which is being a playwright who immigrated to the US within the last three, four years and also being an academic student and aspiring scholar. And at the same time, also having been in curatorial and producing capacities. And in all three of these settings, I have found myself in conversations that, to say the least, are non-generative because I'm expected to represent a whole thing or a whole idea of who I should be. So for example, my play being the play that can be talking about a queer Egyptian experience or in curating a syllabus for a class that would be teaching, having there be one week where we can have one era play, often a historic play. And so I was so excited by this because just by the virtue of the existence of a guide like this, there's a resistance to the notion of a monolith or one thing existing being representative of all Arab theater or armed with Eastern theater or all Arab or Arab American theater. I also, as an immigrant, find myself in this liminal space where my lived experience and how I write is not necessarily going to be similar to someone who is still living in Egypt or in Lebanon. But I also don't really identify as Arab American, at least yet. And so the fact that it is curated and in the way that Marjan curated it leaves a room for that nuance and for a structure where nuance can really be embraced and beyond the categories felt very queer and very exciting. And I find that when I'm in a committee where we're discussing how to curate, how to put together a syllabus, or saying, oh, there just aren't enough plays from this or from that, I feel like I could pull this thing out and be like, well, actually no, here are 17 plays about this thing that you could consider. So it's not a question of a lack of availability. Adam said most of it, or all of it really, well. And so I second everything you said, and I am so excited to use this resource often and very fully for a lot of the reasons I think Adam mentioned, having now recently assumed a new role as a producing artistic director of an organization that is not specific. Thank you, Sahak, that is not specifically dedicated to mean-all work, I look at this challenge ahead very similarly to the way Adam does in terms of disrupting these monolithic ideas. And I found a rather disturbing trend in the white American theater that if stories of Middle Eastern, that the stories feel so unfamiliar, that the aesthetic has to be highly familiar, that there isn't room for as much aesthetic curiosity or experimentation, because there's already a sense that things feel far away from a predominantly white audience. And so it has, I think, also created a very reductive perception of what Mina writers write and the theatricality that ranges, I think, in a really beautiful and incredible way. And so I'm hopeful that in using this database, we can continue to disrupt those assumptions as well.  So that feels really critically important to me. And the other component of it is the fact that this Fine Arts Center is situated on a college campus. There is an incredible, I'm already so eager and sort of chomping a bit to really dig into how a professional Fine Arts Center can more meaningfully interface, not only with the college's theater department, but all departments and create a kind of sense of civic engagement where the Fine Arts Center becomes a destination for students and not only for wealthy subscribers and patrons and donors. So the ability to use this database both as a way to consider programming choices for the Fine Arts Center, but to also offer it to my colleagues at the college as they're developing their syllabi, I think could yield some really exciting exchanges of ideas and collaborations and very selfishly directing projects for me. So I just think this is so incredible and to be perfectly honest, I want every American theater to know about this and to utilize it so that we never hear again, oh, well, we tried to program Amina Play, but there just wasn't anything in the pipeline. There wasn't anything that suited us because it's never been a pipeline issue. It has always been an issue of an opportunity gap and not an achievement gap. So I think this database does a really wonderful job of both dispelling those myths as well as creating a future of abundance that I think we can all embrace and enjoy. Well, thank you so much. I personally second every word you both said. And Pironi, I wanna share also when I first heard about the Digital Theater Guide, it was like two years ago, I think, Majan, when you emailed me, I was teaching theater at the American University of Beirut and also producing work at the theater initiative. And the email came and I was like, oh, great, I want this now. I was actually developing a syllabus for a Middle Eastern theater course. And I was like, can I contribute more than one play, perhaps? And Majan was like, of course. And I did and I contributed some of my favorite plays, Lebanese plays, one by Aliya Khalidi Ambara, Zoukhah Theater Company, I love their work. And as you say, the work that I contributed, for instance, by Zoukhah, that I put in there, these are works that are devised. These are not, of course, the text is there, but they are not text-based theater. They are theater-based on collective devising together. So the aesthetics is really varied and very rich. And there's so many things to follow up on from what you said, but I want to ask Majan about the question of language, because we know the Middle East is not one language, it's not necessarily English, and the platform is in English. The contributions are written, at least the entries are written in English. Some of the plays are not. How are you dealing with the question of language? How, for translators, for instance, you did mention this will be a great resource for translators and people interested in adaptations. But I'm curious to see how you envision this growing at the same time, keeping the diversity of the languages that we have. That's a very good question. Not the question that I have been actually thinking about since the inception of the project. For the time being, I decided to focus on English only because my target audience at this stage, I thought that would be North American or European academia and theater companies, theater communities. The Google form, of course, is in English. That was one of the limitations that I had to, if I wanted to, for the practical reasons, to aggregate data at this stage. The thing is that absolutely, I believe that the scripts must also be available for translation, and my hope is that in near future, I would be able to connect the theater company to the artist and then try to facilitate the translation of the script. This is something very ideal and what I have in mind. That's why that for now, I'm also focusing on living artists, those who are available. And I know that recognizing their voice and their art is so motivating for them to continue their work, especially those who are working in the region, despite all the difficulties and censorship and everything. So, yeah, Google form is in English, although I was notified by, interestingly, by one of the contributors from Syria that the Google form appeared in Arabic to them, which was very interesting. I thought, oh, okay, this is the possibility that Google, I think, is giving to the contributors. But I was lucky that I had Adam from the beginning with me who helped me with translating the Arabic. And I'm working with Persian. I also have good friends, Turkish friends who helped me with translation of the Turkish synopsis and information that we received. And overall, then we needed editors to edit the whole content, the texts that we received. So, yeah, this is, as I said, this is my hope that we can make accessible the script into why only English or Arabic, Persian, Turkish, Armenian, other languages that are in the Middle East, because how many languages are spoken there. And that's also only possible through further collaboration and help and contribution from the academia and also theater community. If I may, I have another question in regards to how the platform functions. What happens technically in terms of trying to figure out how the scripts get transferred? Meaning, will there be a point where you see the platform as a sharing platform either peer-to-peer or maybe through PDF that the script appears and you have a PDF of the actual script? And has there been any discussion about royalties and how that might operate? I know these are all complications and in phase one, you start working these things out, but I'm curious about what the team has thought about in that regard. Can I invite Adam as a playwright too? Because I know there is copyright and loyalty and you... Sure, I mean, I personally have all my independently of this project, all of my plays. And to the best of my understanding, a lot of like emerging playwrights plays in a North American context have their plays that are not published on New Play Exchange, which is very much also like a new play. I don't know how to best describe it. Platform where playwrights post their plays that are unpublished for other playwrights, for other artists, for other producers to engage with them. It is a subscription service for that website. And so with some of what, for example, with my play that I added to the website, I just put the link to the New Play Exchange. It is... I don't imagine a world where we would expect a playwright to, if it is a published play, where you would expect the playwright to have to put their play or PDF of it on this platform. But definitely, if a play is published or available for purchase online, including a link to it, I imagine is something that we would potentially do. I think this question obviously becomes more complicated because some of the plays were published in other countries and some of the plays were maybe published in the US and then there becomes a question of what are the rights and how do these rights translate around laws and so on. But I definitely do not imagine any context where a playwright would be asked with their play if they are not comfortable with that. I think for the most part, we've also set up a system so that playwrights or artists can be contacted for a quest of their play, which I know also a lot of on National Play Exchange that other platform, that's also a possibility for people to solicit plays and then have a playwright approve them having access to them. So I think that's how we've talked about it so far. Absolutely, thank you Adam for highlighting that. I believe that the least we could do at this stage is just connecting those who want the scripts to the artists and then they can start a negotiation over the loyalty and copyrights and the possibilities of staging their play. If I may ask Catherine, in terms of the voices project that you have, how would it be compared to this project in terms of doing different things and functioning in different ways from the end user perspective? Sorry, you're asking about the archive of voices? Yes. Well, the archive of voices was begun as a way of collecting plays, both historical and contemporary and making them available to the community and beyond. And a committee of people of which I'm the chair, she said happily, have been addressing the plays, the diversity or lack thereof of the place in the archive. And basically we were tasked with creating more diversity in the collection, both from a US perspective and also, and I believe this is why I was asked to be part of it from a global perspective, having worked in various parts of the world and knowing playwrights all over the place and having those connections and being able to draw from them. The hope is that our database will become extremely eclectic and we're working very hard on it. And similarly to what I said earlier about making it a living document, so to speak, and interactive, my hope would be that somehow because my passion lies in meaner work to actually create the connection between this database at NYU and the one Marjan has created and is on its way to becoming everything she wants it to be, to actually have, to find a way to bring it all together and make everybody aware of it so that, so for as an example, it's great that it exists, but how do we get the word out to make sure people know about it and know how to use it? And I feel that that takes a lot of effort and over time, many conversations and events and invitations and ways of creating, you know, connection between the efforts of other people and the wonderful efforts of Marjan and this particular database, the overlap between this and what people are trying to do from an informational perspective and from a performance perspective and a programming perspective, as I know, Perron will be deeply involved in doing and Sahar is involved in doing and Jamil in Chicago and Noor in New York City, we can find a way to come together and highlight, yeah, lift up what each other is doing. That's what is swirling in my head. How do we make something like that happen? Not just once, but over an extended period of time? Absolutely, I agree. I totally agree. Collaboration makes a successful future, you know, and we definitely need to join and boost each other's, you know, force. I totally agree. I would like to name that I think like the existence of an archive or a digital guide like this, so much of the conversation around it is about representation and about how we further, we further our representation for better representation and more representation in the field. And that question is so tethered to EDI goals and equity and diversity. I'm also really interested in thinking about the process by which we do that so that we are not engaging in the systems that have marginalized deaths. And I think creating a project like this is so much labor, just in terms of expertise, in terms of number of hours, and Marjahn has taken on so much of that labor. And a lot of the conversations that we have had have been about what it means for more people to be engaging in that labor and what compensation looks like and what it means for volunteer labor to exist. And so obviously like having resources and having continued something we've consistently talked about is being able to do this in a way that is sustainable and in a way that compensates everyone that is involved that is putting in their labor. And that fundamentally might mean that the project takes longer, but I feel strongly, and it is a growing project that won't take longer because it will continue to grow. But I feel really strongly that that is the only way to do it so that we're not continuing to engage in the system that has marginalized us in that way. Thank you, Adam. Yeah, I wanted to say it's here to grow. It's here to stay and to grow. I wanna just be mindful of our time. We have 10 minutes left and we have two questions in the chat from Leslie Kalarichian, playwright, actor in New York, asking, is there a plan to engage theaters in regions where Mina theater is not as common? How would they discover the database? And I wanna read also the second question from Sonali Pahua, forgive me if I'm mispronouncing your name. How can those of us teaching in academic theater departments help to spread the word about the database? And actually I'll put these together and ask you Marjan, what can each and every one of us here today do to help spread the word, grow the database? I know we have playwrights in the room. I'm inviting you, Giselle, I'm looking at you, Leslie, like go ahead, go to the website, contribute your work. What can we do, Marjan, to make this grow fast and spread fast? The best question that I'm asking, I'm really thinking about the ways to spread the word. That's why that I'm so honored and grateful for today's event. Of course, yeah, we need to spread the word. The project needs sponsors, need help. As Adam said, the question of compensation is so important for me. I've been thinking about it. We don't want to work on volunteer, you know, basically. Just spreading the word, please, and there is, on the website, you can find that there is a submission page and you could have access to the Google form. For those artists, experts, critics in the region and diaspora who want to fill out the form, I encourage them to do that. And then we collect them and we are parsing them and reading them, going through them, verifying them. And then finally uploading them. But as I said, this is my heartfelt wish. I really want to compensate whoever is competing in dreams, you know, and also the editors and those who are making me be uploading the content. So there's also a donation and as I said, my own host institute has accepted to help with that. But if we want to develop it faster, of course, we need more hands, more resources. You might need more resources. Yeah, this is what I can say. Yeah, the most practical way. Thank you. I think also I'd like to give the chance to our speakers and panelists today because you got a chance to look at the website, especially Catherine and Perron, because Adam was working on it throughout with Marjan. But Marjan shared the link with us. Today is the official launch. Today went public, I believe Marjan, right? But you had a chance to look at it. Do you have feedback to Marjan? Like, did you come across a bug, something that wasn't making sense for you on the website? I think Marjan would be happy to hear your feedback on it. Absolutely. I mean, it cannot be improved and developed without others' opinions and I really look forward to it. Even after that, I put my email here and I would definitely welcome all the opinions and helps with regard to better making the website more accessible, more user-friendly. Catherine. Just say that, yeah, I've been in touch with Marjan with a few ideas and one that stays with me because this is, again, it's a living document. It's going to take years before it becomes everything that you want it to be. I think that's part of the beauty of it. It is not a static thing. But one thing that is close to my heart is the distinction between work that is coming from the Middle East. It is written in other languages and is translated and is loved and appreciated. And Giselle can tell you I'm devoted to that project. But then there's also the Middle Eastern American playwright and who, I believe, needs to be lifted up and appreciated on their own terms. Telling stories that often touch on our countries of origin but are really about being Arab or Middle Eastern American in a very particular way. And I'm so proud, I would say, of the people I know who are writing about those experiences of being American and being Middle Eastern, having a foot in each world. And I think that there's something we said for making the distinction even in the database between writers whose plays are coming from the region and writers in the diaspora. It's just a thought, but it's something to consider. Absolutely. Thank you so much for highlighting that. And as an immigrant, of course, I value this. I'm myself an immigrant. So there is a section diaspora. And we are still, as you see, at the end of the list of those nine countries. And as I said, we are still working on make the distinction better. There are also some plays that have been produced in collaboration between two countries. So that's also something that we are working how to educate the website to show this collaboration. So yeah, highlighting the diasporic quality and origin and also highlighting these collaborations are on my agenda to do. And I appreciate that, Catherine. Thank you. Marjan, there's one more question in the chat. Would you include non-middle Eastern Americans who have lived in the US? Barbara, do you want to elaborate on your question? Yes. Yes, can you hear me? Yeah, we can hear you perfectly. I mistyped. I meant not American. I meant Americans who have lived in the Middle East. That's a very good question. I mean, as far as it's about the experience of living and reflecting the life of living, why not? I mean, this is something that I definitely pay attention to this from now on. That would be interesting. Oh, great. Because it was a great influence on my life. I love it. So if it's a play about the Middle East, you think Marjan would also belong in the website on the platform? Yeah, it again goes to the question of how we are categorizing. Right. These are the questions that we need to address if we are. And absolutely, this is something that we need to work on it. Several of my friends, who most of us lived in Iran, but they have written books. But I don't think any of us have written plays. So interesting concept to explore. I agree. There was one question about translation of the plays, if there is any fund for translating the plays. Yeah, sorry, I missed that. Go ahead, Marjan, please. I know there are some funds for translating. And I have done translation of the plays, but for free. So if you can all find, I mean, this could go under the resources page. We try to find the resources, the grants, and fundings for translation. And then put it on the website for those who are interested and want to translate the plays. Yeah, thanks for asking that. Well, thank you so much, everyone. I think we're coming to the end. I want to just give a moment to Samer. If you want to say anything, and then I'll close. All I have to say is creating a platform is a very challenging project. And Marjan and the team have done something quite extraordinary here. It is much easier to live a life where we are constantly reflecting or constantly engaging than it is to create foundations for others to be uplifted, have their feet on our ground that we created for them. And that is the beauty of this project. And that's why it deserves our attention and deserves to be highlighted. So I'm really just thankful for Marjan's vision and for the team's work on this. And thank you, Samer, for moving this collaboration forward. Without you, as I said, it wouldn't have been possible. I want to thank Marjan once more for such a great initiative. And thank you to our panelists, Katherine Coray, Piran Yusuf Zada, Adam Al-Sahir. Thank you so much for such an enriching conversation and insights and all of you audiences in the room. I want to also thank Halround for hosting this session and especially Thea and Vijay for all their support throughout. I would like to thank our folks behind the scenes. Colin, Hommel at Abassi Program, and our very own Wendy Reyes and Chris Steele. This episode will actually live on Golden Threads and Halround websites. Briefly next at Golden Thread is a hybrid rendering of our play development annual series, New Threads, launching on August 3rd with a reading dedicated to Beirut and continuing on August 10th and 17th with new plays from three of our extraordinary resident playwrights and a new voice from New York, who's actually in the room today. Leslie Kalarychian, so happy that you're here. More on our website, goldenthread.org. Thank you everyone and see you next month in a new No Summary episode. Bye-bye.


Honestly being being up four or five ended up being six runs made it a lot easier to pitch you just kind of attack zone. I didn't have great command my fastball but I just knew I needed to be in the plate or on the plate. Got a couple swings and some hard hit balls but luckily judge made a great play out right. Some of them were right at guys. Gabor bounce back got the play ball right after that. So yeah I mean just kind of being in the zone and letting him swing and put it in play. Garrett Cole made the comment he was impressed. It's been a while since you've been pitching at this level because of some injury just how difficult was it to get back and how satisfying is it for you to be back out there and have success. Yeah I mean rehab is not fun ever and so yeah I mean it's been two months since I've been back and I felt like I had a pretty good base in my rehab outings and had some confidence coming in. I was able to get some success in the Mets game and then kind of keep moving forward and continue to build and get more in rhythm and everything there. So it's been feeling really good. Did you expect them to use you for a little bit of a longer outing. Yeah I mean that's my role. I know Boone's told me that there's kind of a couple of different roles that I could fill into. But I know that my I guess major role is to provide length to the team. So whenever that opportunity comes I'll be ready. When you throw 47 pitches typically how long does it take you to recover to be available again thereafter. I'll tell him tomorrow. But I guarantee it'll probably be a couple days to three days. Thank you. Yeah. I just sort of along those lines. Did you feel any fatigue toward the end of your outing or anything like that. I felt good today against the Mets that that third inning. I started to feel a little fatigue just like kind of my army and late that kind of thing and not staying in sync with my mechanics. But today I felt pretty good.


Vitamin D helps decrease thyroid autoimmunity. More good news. Hi, this is Dr. Ruscio, and you may have remembered several months ago we discussed a landmark study to my knowledge the first of its kind that showed that supplementation with vitamin D could lower thyroid autoimmunity, which was very exciting because we've seen a lot of correlation data showing that people with certain autoimmune conditions also have low vitamin D, but not nearly as much data showing that supplementing with vitamin D can actually improve autoimmune conditions. So the study that we discussed a while back was very exciting in that regard. Now, thankfully, another follow-up study has shown similar results. And I'll put the abstract up here on the screen, and I'll quote for you. The title of the study was the effect of vitamin D on thyroid autoimmunity in that levothyroxin treated women with Hashimoto's, thyroiditis, and normal vitamin D status. So a couple of things that we can pull away just from the title is that this was treating women who had hypothyroidism and were on levothyroxin therapy, and, and this is maybe even more importantly, they also had normal vitamin D levels. So they were above 20. And so even for women with normal, and again what we call normal is somewhat debatable, but generally normal levels of vitamin D still benefited from some additional vitamin D supplementation with regards to their thyroid autoimmunity. Vitamin D reduced the thyroproxidase antibodies and the thyroglobulin antibodies to the more common antibodies that are tested to assess the activity of thyroid autoimmunity. The greater effect was in the TPO antibodies. And I'll read the conclusion here, vitamin D preparations may reduce thyroid autoimmunity in levothyroxin treated women with Hashimoto's, thyroiditis, and normal vitamin D status. So very exciting, because what this means is you could simply take a maintenance dose of maybe two, four, or six thousand IU's of vitamin D a day, even if you have normal vitamin D levels, and see a positive impact on your thyroid autoimmunity. You do want to be careful not to overselp them with vitamin D because levels that are too high can also be problematic, but certainly a lower maintenance tight dose of around two-ish thousand IU's a day is very reasonable and may help with thyroid autoimmunity. I'll also link to the review of the previous study on vitamin D aiding with thyroid autoimmunity, where they showed a 20% reduction in TPO antibodies after supplementing with vitamin D. So what's really nice about this study and the nice piece that it adds to the whole picture is that even in women with normal or semi-normal vitamin D, an additional supplementation of vitamin D can help benefit thyroid autoimmunity. Now there's many things that kind of fit into the mosaic of managing thyroid autoimmunity. Vitamin D is one selenium, another may be helpful, and the health of one's gut can also be incredibly important, so don't forget about that. I guess that's it. If you're struggling with thyroid autoimmunity, then vitamin D may be a nice option to help quell that process. This is Dr. Ruscio, and I hope this information helps you get healthy and get back to your life. Thanks.


Today we are going to learn a topic lubricant and from that topic we are going to learn a particular point that is problem solving section how to calculate the acid value and saponification value of a given sample of lubricant. This is the learning outcome for today's session. First we will learn the basic terms involved that is what do mean by acid value and saponification value of a lubricant sample. By knowing the theoretical concept of these two terms that is acid and saponification value then we will apply the knowledge to calculate the same that is acid value or the saponification value of a given sample of lubricant. This is the content. First we will learn the different types of properties of lubricant. Then we will come to our point that is acid and saponification value. These are the two important terms of the today's session and then we will learn how to calculate acid value and saponification value of a given sample of lubricant. What do mean by lubricant? Lubricant we know it is a material. So for using every kind of machine a material is needed to introduce between two metallic surfaces to avoid wear and tear is known as lubricant. So what is lubricant? It is a material that is used in between two metallic surfaces to avoid their direct contact to protect them from wear and tear and that material is known as lubricant. Lubricants are mainly used for avoiding direct contact of moving surfaces to absorb frictional heat and to maintain efficiency of the machine. Solid, liquid and semi-solid lubricants are used under different working conditions of the machine. So these are the three possible types of lubricants such as solid, liquid and semi-solid lubricants. This mainly shows viscosity, viscosity index, oiliness, acid value and saponification value as an important properties. So the usefulness of that lubricant, the selection of that lubricant for a particular given machine is based after learning its properties and what are the machine requirement. So how much it is viscous that is viscosity, what is its viscosity index, what is its capacity to stick the surface that is oiliness and how much acid and how much fatty acids are present in that particular given sample is known as acid value and sap value of that lubricant sample. There is a great impact of these properties on the objective of lubrication of the machine. Acid value of a lubricant indicates level of mineral acids present in the sample and saponification value indicates level of fatty acids present in the sample. So acid value and sap value what they indicate first acid value indicates what is the level of mineral acids present in a given sample of lubricant and saponification value indicates what is the level of saturated fatty acids present in a given sample of the lubricant because the reason is that the source of the lubricant is in nature that is either animal oil, vegetable oil or the mineral oil. So there is a more possibility of coming either mineral acids or fatty acids in the given sample of the lubricant. So before its use before its selection we must measure how much mineral acids are there and how much fatty acids are there. Now we will come to the definition of acid value. How it is defined? The numbers of milligram of KOH required to neutralize the free acids present in 1 gram of the oil. So it is correlated with the titration because how we are going to determine? We are going to determine by titrating the given sample with KOH and we know that it is a simple acid based titration because acids are present in a sample. We are titrating the sample with a KOH just it is a neutralization and we are measuring how much KOH is consumed for neutralization and from that we are coming to know what is the level of mineral acids present in a given sample of the lubricating oil. So what is its definition? One more time I will repeat the numbers of milligram of KOH required to neutralize the free acids present in 1 gram of the oil. Therefore acid number or value is equal to number of ml of n by 10. N by 10 means n is always 1 normal 1 upon 10 that is 0.1 normal KOH divided by weight of the oil taken in gram multiplied by 5.6 that is a standard factor. Similarly what is the definition of saponification value? The numbers of milligrams of KOH required to saponify the total fatty acids present in 1 gram of the oil. Only the difference is that in case of acid value we are determining the mineral acids and in case of saponification value we are determining the fatty acids because the concept is that in acid value we are titrating with base and in saponification value we are treating with the alkali solution that is KOH where the fatty acid converts into soap and how much KOH is consumed for this process gives us the knowledge about the total milligrams of the fatty acids present in 1 gram of the oil. Therefore saponification value is equal to volume of n by 2 HCl in a blank experiment minus volume of n by 2 HCl for a test experiment divided by weight of the oil in gram multiplied by 28. Now I would like to ask one question here lubricant is used with the objective of and the correct answer is that all of these because A is also correct, B is also correct and C is also correct. Now we will apply the theoretical knowledge in case of determination of acid value and sap value of a given sample. So, this is problem number one in an acid value determination experiment for 8 gram of an oil 13.5 ml of KOH is required for phenophthalene end point calculate acid value of the sample. So, what is the given data the weight of the lubricant sample we have used is that 8 gram how much volume of KOH we have required for neutralization 13.5 ml so that is consumed for neutralization of mineral acids present in the sample. So, by using the formula we will put the values. So, 13.5 is the number of ml of n by 10 KOH divided by weight of the oil sample is 8 and multiplied by the standard factor 5.6. Therefore, the acid value or which is also known as acid number of a given sample is 9.45. One more numerical we will see the same that is in an acid value determination experiment for 8.9 gram of an oil 23.5 ml of KOH is required for the phenophthalene end point calculate acid value of the sample. So, what is the given for numerical in this numerical we are using 8.9 gram of an oil sample and we are carrying out the neutralization where we observed that 23.5 ml of KOH has been consumed for neutralization. It is simple acid based titration we are used phenophthalene end point and the end point for such experiment is that color less to pink when we got the pink color then we will stop the addition and then in particular case it is mentioned that for the end point we have required 23.5 ml of KOH. Then we will put the same value in the formula therefore acid value is equal to 23.5 divided by 8.9 is a weight of oil multiplied by 5.6. Therefore, acid value of a given sample is 14.78. Now, we will see the another type of the numerical where we are going to find out the saphenification value of an given sample. Now, what is the numerical 7 gram of an oil sample after reflecting with 50 ml volume of KOH solution which on subsequent titrating with 0.2 normal ethyl solution gives 7.8 ml of burette reading for neutralization to phenophthalene. A blank experiment was performed and found 50 ml of burette reading for neutralization calculate sap value of an oil sample. So, first of all I will clear you what do you mean by this statement. In this statement the two parts are there one is up to phenophthalene and second part starts from a blank experiment. So, there are two experiments up to phenophthalene is one experiment and blank experiment is another experiment. Now, what happened in first part we are using the 7 gram of the oil we are mixing with the 50 ml of KOH and we are heating for a subsequent period of time. In this process what happened saphenification process completes and what do you mean by completion of saphenification process all the fatty acids have been converted into soap. Now, how to come to know what is the exact KOH volume is consumed for this process we don't know then after saphenification to the same sample we are carrying out the simple experiment that is acid based titration. Then the sample is used for titration with 0.2 normal ethyl solution which gives 7.8 ml of burette reading that means 7.8 ml of KOH is left out of 50 because initially if you see in first line we have used the 50 ml, but we don't know how much consumed but after titrating the sample with ethyl we come to know that as we got the burette reading 7.8 ml therefore 7.8 out of 50 KOH is left and what is second a blank experiment without taking oil we are carried out the same experiment. So, as there is no oil no fatty acids are there therefore directly 50 ml is a burette reading. Now, what is the standard formula volume of n by 2 ethyl in a blank experiment and volume minus volume of n by 2 ethyl in a test experiment divided by weight of the oil multiplied by 28. So, if you put the value that is 50 that is blank minus 7.8 divided by 7 is oil weight multiplied by 28 which comes 168.8 therefore saphenification value of a given sample is 168.8.


Getting y'all set up for the live today. Hope you're all having an amazing today. I think it's Wednesday. Pretty sure it's Wednesday. I Could be wrong about Wednesday, but I think Wednesday is the thing so I sent the client the results of the sample piece that we all did collectively with you guys as well yesterday and I was given some notes Which is fine perfectly fine perfectly acceptable and natural whenever I do a large commission or a countertop commission we always do Sample boards so that we can ensure that we're on the same page With the client because it's a whole lot of not fun once you do a really big piece for somebody and And After you think it's completed they are like I Really Wish this Whatever whatever was different. So to avoid that you do sample pieces and so yesterday's live feed was a sample and And So today is going to be their sample number two we do two samples anything beyond that is a fee $25 per sample and so The notes were that they thought that the background was too gray And so they were wanting to incorporate some gray lines in the veining So that's what we're going to do so that's how I address Sample pieces I take their Criticism I'll discuss it with them and then I'll make a new piece based on The notes that I received from the client Within reason if she was like I don't want any beige tones no creams Just solid white then we would have to discuss Why having solid white anything is not the best idea Happy happy everybody happy today Thank you guys for coming in and watching what I'm doing today. I'm going to be doing a sample board this used to be an ocean and I'm going to Since this lip isn't that big. I'm pretty sure I can coat it and Make it Not noticeable So that's what we're going to attempt to do so I'm going to use a lot of the colors that we used yesterday But also a lot of the colors that we didn't use yesterday We're going to do a translucent white We're going to be using titanium for both our translucent white and our opaque white Let me turn a light on Also have some kind of allergies today apologies for the sniffles We're going to do our shimmer pearl. Nope. Yep from Color passion We're going to do some abalone from resin arts We're going to do Some beige luster Not that much not going to need that much We're also going to do some Bright gold from just resin. I'm not going to use the rich gold shimmer and then we're going to make a little bit of a gray With just titanium and black I have a lot of grays, but I want to Use colors that I already have Going in the piece Then we're going to need a translucent white Nope an opaque white and then I'm going to have some left over in this cup in case I decide to Have more of another color Somewhere That fell over quickly Hope you're having an awesome day. Thank you for coming and seeing what I'm doing today If you haven't left me a thumbs up, please do so if you haven't subscribed also do that and also if you're so inclined we Share our video because That'll help our channel grow and we're really trying to hit 100k By the summer We can do 40,000 subscribers in a year We haven't had We haven't been asking people to share and subscribe so I think that's the issue, okay So I'm going to use just tea tiny bit of titanium white This is a paste by just resin and We're going to stick my thumb in the next cup because I'm talented We're gonna make a milky colored white and the reason I'm going to do this is because Anytime you have variants in Opacity You can create a whole bunch of depth and actually I think I put a little bit too much in there, so I'm gonna Put a little bit of this Extra leftover we resin Just in there I Did get a lot of great feedback on the first version of Do you get jalapeno in your eye? Jeff's cooking dinner and he almost just got peppers in his eye. That's fun Okay, so we're gonna use pearl white luster This is just another white, but when you use multiple whites, it'll give your Design your finish more depth Also, if you notice your paste getting a little bit solid just Put it in a warm water bath or hit it with some heat and it'll just Liquefy right up super easy. I get emails about that quite often and it's a super easy fix Won't be chunky or anything like that This also has a little bit of a shimmer a luster to it and who doesn't love just a little bit Of a shimmer something eye-catching So we have our translucent white. It's like a milky kind of hue. We have our opaque Pearl shimmer we're gonna do some Abalone This one is by resin art. We don't want a whole bunch of it. We don't want a solid color. We just want some Translucent sparkle. I went ahead and prepped this board just like I did yesterday, but with less gray so it's mostly white with Just a little bit of gray and so this abalone is going to Help some of that gray color show through Now we're gonna use some beige luster by color passion I'm not using a lot of this color I just want a little bit of the cream to show through it helps to mask any eventual yellowing or amber ring Should the client put the piece in the sun Or lock it in a garage and it get really hot that will that can also cause some amber ring But this really just warms up the piece. It is Just on camera a color that I wouldn't normally use I don't like using flesh tones ever even though my flesh has never been that color Because I'm pale forever Okay, so the gold that we have decided to use for this piece is just resin bright gold It's a beautiful molten gold color We're not mixing a lot of it up. So I don't need a lot of paste if you guys don't know pastes Kind of like a powder except for better Well, it depends on what you're using it for but I Prefer paste. I don't have to worry about those little flecks of color that never really quite Melt into your resin But I'm warming up to I'm warming up to powders Rhonda has opened my eyes to What they can do? okay now for the Gray color I'm gonna use some just resin black that I haven't used in forever. So it is a little bit solid And I'll liquefy it some Oh, you like the beige and yesterday sample. Well, thank you I think it did some fun stuff for the piece, but in my regular everyday art in The colors I usually pick are more loud so Here's the thing with dark colors Especially when you only need a little bit of it It goes a long way. So I basically put my stick into the paste and wiped it off on the rim So it's basically just a residual We're gonna start there because As you can see Little bit goes a long way And I'm going to put I'm gonna just put some of this pearl in there so now my gray has a little bit of This shimmer and if we decide to add a little bit more black to it and make it a little bit darker of a Gray we can do that too. So hi panda puffs. We are live. Okay. Oh We didn't make my opaque white So I'm gonna use the same white I did for the translucent but use a little bit more Paste but you still don't need that much a Jar of paste should last you quite a while depending on the size of pieces you're doing I Do resin every day and my paste lasts me probably a month Depending on the color So I don't want to be able to see through the white to my stir stick Unfortunately, I can so I'm gonna add just a little bit more Using my handy dandy patents already established Stir sticks all these colors and more can be found on our website. We have over 800 colors on our website And we have more coming The next shipment to arrive will be a color obsession tents and pastes Alright, so now I can't see it through the resin to the stick good to go Good to go so like yesterday I'm gonna put some gold down under and I think I'm gonna put some of the gray that we did down under as well Just to give some depth Some people think that under painting is just Actual painting under a piece When in reality you can do it with resin because resin likes to go where it's already been and doesn't like to move From where it already is so where it is now What it makes sense doesn't it?  Okay, good, and maybe a client won't like these extra lines. I'm adding So we're gonna find out togetherish You're gonna need a bigger studio. So I've been needing a bigger studio one day. We'll get it very wise business person once told me When you run your own business, you just have to do it till it becomes uncomfortable by yourself and Keep doing that even after it's uncomfortable Until it's not possible anymore and then move on to a bigger space my quest Okay, so I'm putting down some of the translucent white and then some of my abalone in the areas where I Want the under painting to show through where the grays are I'm gonna use some What I assume is pearl. I'm just gonna meld these colors out just with my hands I'm not trying to mix them together. I just want to create a solid base For the next part of this design so because I used translucent or transparent colors over What I already have down for a base painting you can see Through them and even though I'm running my hand over the areas They're not moving. So that's a great pro tip to give your peace depth I mean, I can move it if I wanted to I can get extra rough with Hi, Bowie. Thank you. That's enough So in areas like that where I needed to feather it out a bit Bowie Go see stop barking from over here. He's he is barking from outside of the club So this will I be able to be a finish all on its own But we're gonna take to the next step Rhonda TM Bondi is super nice How long have we been in this space? We've been in this building for Six years and we've been in this loft for three of that Yes Okay, then we've been in here for four years Then could be finished all on its own. I Actually, I may take a picture of this Because she may like it just like that. No, she won't because it won't have the floating gold on it I'll just take a screen grip actually can one of the mods screenshot this and then send it to me It's up Kim. If you guys don't know Kim gal is the inventor of color passion So all the CP colors that we use They came out of her brain Thank You vamp for in this face, right? Bowie Okay, next thing we're gonna do is just like yesterday We're gonna do a nice dirty pour or exotic pour. So I'm gonna put a really heavy heap of The translucent white We're gonna put some opaque whites You can see the difference in tone even though it's the same color But when you put different amounts of the pigment into the resin gives you different tone Super pro tip different tones give you different amounts of depth and color and it's awesome And then we're gonna put some of the colors that we mixed up, but just not a whole lot So I just did a little squiggle of the beige Put some pearl in there let's do a Squiggle of the gold Voila We'll put put some abalone on top of that and let's do Some more pearl then We'll do a squiggle of the gray You don't want to put too much because those squiggles are really add up and some more abalone put some more of our Accent colors some of the gray Some of the beige. I don't know how these two colors will work together, but we're gonna find out together I hope you can see the difference in that pearl and that opaque white Maybe not because they held it way out of camera frame angle area Okay, now we have all of those Colors in there. I'm gonna give it just a swirl for interest Because if you just pour it out how you put it in Okay, so anyways It's gonna come out funky So now I'm just going to pick where I want my ribbons of color to go Every time I do this over a base painting that I like it makes me nervous. Is that weird? That's probably weird, but it's fine I live with it. So a lot of the deeper tones the accent colors we did are hidden in all of the whites that we used but That's okay They'll come out. So I'm gonna put some veins of Just the the accent colors that we are using Maybe some of the gray that we made up a lot of times you have to talk your clients out of the artistic decisions that they make and sometimes That doesn't happen and you have to give them a sample of what they asked for For them to see that you were right the whole time That's not the case in this Instance but it's often the case So I put some of the translucent white next to those darker gray lines So the colors you're adding don't mix before you pour it Jerry I'm trying to understand your question. Are you talking about mixing the colors in the resin or are you talking about in the Exotic or dirty pour cup. Now. I'm just heating it to pop bubbles. I'm not trying to create any movements Becoming one color Yeah, I just put a swirl in my dirty pour exotic pour cup just to give it Just not the puddle look I want to swirl it around in my opinion. It makes the Pour that you Ultimately put on your piece look More fluid could just be me, but that's what I like to do So I'm also going to do some opaque white lines Because the opaque white will sink through the other colors and give it even more Depths, all right. I'm gonna let this sit for just a moment so that The white that we just added that has no heat on it as we heated it up before I added those white lines so the resin that was down that I heated is just a little bit thinner than the Cooler temperature white that I just added the opaque white lines. So since it's cooler It's going to be a heavier resin and it's going to sink through All of the resin that I had down it Before so while I'm waiting on it to do that. I'm going to take you guys down and show you What we're working with presently You can see some of that gold sinking so it's got that dark line next to it But it's also some of it floating. That's why it has that spine down the center Then all this under painting is showing through so it looks like there's multiple layers So much depth and then the gray that we added that I'm hoping I can make it look good Slash we'll make it work So you can see the exotic pour lines And then I'm going to put in the end the floating gold. So this look of the ribbon candy this scallop look is from Hesitating as you're pouring it out. So it came really Okay, so it's gonna be a TD after dark came out really thick right here. So I slowed down the pour because of that It gave it that overlapping look that almost snakeskinny You guys remember that ribbon candy that your grandparents probably had That's what that reminds me of but when we tilt it around it's gonna look really nice Okay, so I think we're good to move on If you guys are partaking tonight Cheers tank sippy sippy alligator tail. I see that Let's have Clara. Hope you're feeling well Glad vamps on the mend a little bit Okay So I'm gonna bring out the torch and the difference for me between the torch and The heat gun is I can control How much resin moves off the piece because I can spot heat it and control that a little bit more Then I'm gonna tilt down this way actually So I'm gonna heat these areas so that those move and these are a little bit cooler because I haven't heated it in a while So that won't move quite as much Then I'm gonna tilt it back When you tilt a piece You make all of the parts of the piece Move in a more cohesive Flow so all those lines that I added after the dirty pour Maybe didn't quite flow in a really cohesive Pattern, but when you tilt it everything is moving so everything's gonna Flow in the same direction So if it looks kind of crazy and busy and not put together if you tilt it then you can bring those Pieces together So I think the gray looks okay. I'm gonna add a little bit more in Following the pattern that I already established with my dirty pour I'm not gonna put any more beige in because that's an undertone color I am gonna put a couple more opaque white lines through it as well. I also like to vary the thickness of the lines that I add I think that gives a Lot more natural look not every line in a natural Stone is the same width. I know I'm covering up a lot of my snake skin, but It's okay. I'm gonna let that sink for a quick second And then we're gonna tilt it again Hello all you beautiful mods if you guys haven't subscribed yet, please do so Leave me your thumbs and if you have a second after a video post please leave a comment because I Like to hear from you guys, and I can't see every comment while I'm live and it helps my channel with Oh my good engagement. That's the word Also, all these colors that I use today can be found on my website artists till death comm at the end of the video I'll go over what colors I use and That's not gonna be very long from right now So I'm just gonna tilt it a little bit more Kind of get the flow of everything how I want it when you tilt and you have different Temperatures of resin some of it was warmer when I added the next layer The next color Then it's gonna sink When it does that It'll create an awesome shadow So I am gonna add the floating gold, but I want to show you guys where I'm at before I add it because I think it's Really great. How big is the client's table? It will be a five-foot Buy something Dinner table a dining room table. What's up? Pensa-tucky? But all of that natural flow all that great soft movement Hey tutor It did look like a heartbeat at the bottom of the piece boom boom So this gold on its own the just resin Bright gold it has particles that sink and float so it's catching the light, but also all of this is From where it originally sank and then we tilted it this way So you can see these translucent colors roll over where the gold originally was But this that's showing that shiny part. That's the spine that I mentioned Earlier in this video All right now, let's do the floating gold and class will be dismissed So I'm gonna just bring you guys a little bit over here so you can see what I'm gonna do with this gold I Need a pipette I'm gonna take my pipette comes with every one of these Liquid golds that we send out and I'm just gonna put some Right there if you guys don't know this liquid gold is basically spray paint really good spray paint That's just not aerosol, but it still has a propellant in it. That is what is Basically gives it the ability to be put through a sprayer spray can aerosol one of those words is right and so It's also in there. I'm hoping you guys can see the shadow. That's around This puddle of gold. That's the propellant soaking out. So if I were to just take this and Put it into resin It's gonna grow and bloom because of the propellant. It makes it really liquid and really fluid But if you let the propellant soak out Then you have a lot more control over the thickness of your lines and They won't crack when they bloom the propellant equals less control So if you just let it soak out on the back of a paper cup Not the inside because the inside is typically wax line. So it's not gonna It's not absorbent. So you have to put you could use just printer paper. This is Double-sided butcher paper. So the back side is glossy. I'm using the not glossy side Whatever that mat satin the not shiny side and So when it looks like there's no propellant left, I do another little test and it looks good so that is when I'll go through and add some tendrils some veins of The floating gold I posted this video today of yesterday's sample piece almost everybody In the countertop world that wanted to know about anything of the piece Was asking about the gold So think everybody should give this gold a shot Highly recommend letting the propellant soak out. So you have more control But it's your rodeo. If you don't want to do that then Don't all I can tell you is what works for us and this is What has been working Love using our stir sticks to do this because I have more control Because it has a crayon crayon Oh, yeah, my bad, I was still showing y'all the Propellant just give me a second to show you guys what this looks like in real life I'll give you guys a close-up The shine on this floating gold will blow your mind I shouldn't have put this gold right here, but I did the reason why I shouldn't have is because You don't really want the most Noticeable feature of a piece to be smack dab in the middle So I'm gonna have to Do some balancing now. This is a little Art theory for you college days It is pencil tucky, but I've just jarred it down into smaller containers because Most people don't need that big Thing that it comes in Just like the other lines. I like to vary the weight of It so some thick some thin And I think I love it with this molten gold this last gold that I used you really want to Have you ever taken a glove off and it didn't come off, but it pops you that just happened to me All right, check it out That gold just glows Just another way you can add depth and dimension to a piece Agreed don't do too much with the floating gold It can be too much But also It just lifts in my opinion it Elevates the work in my opinion. So you guys I Hope you like how I addressed the clients comments concerns and Notes on this product sample For the table that she's interested in I'm worried about this It's not that natural, but it's also not not natural because you can't control nature I'm worried it just stands out a bit I'm considering like so if you be I need your face.  This bit right here This bit right here do what again Do that cuz I like this. Yeah, it's just that little heart beat. Oh I forgot to tell you guys. I have a sale right now I'm looking at it on camera. I have a sale right now and the sale is 2023 it goes on till tomorrow if you want to get these products and any of our other products also I'm teaching a class in Pasadena on oceans and geodes The 20 something of this 29th of this month and I have a couple seats left. So if you want to come and do Geodes with me and Oceans I'll teach you in person in Pasadena and you can get your seat With a discount right now With code 2023 as well as all the other paints and colorants on our website So I'm gonna start the live classes in February and that's where we teach a class on Our channel on YouTube using our stuff and if you want to pre-order the colorants I have it all in a little box. You just open and you're ready to go To pour with us on the channel But if you already have all the products you just pour with us on the channel We typically do at the 24th of every month if that's still good with everybody, please leave a Comment saying that you're good with that date Hello Kelly So, yeah This is the second option for the client. I hope she likes it I hope you guys enjoyed it. If you try this look, I would love to see it post it in our group atd's poor people and and Make sure you tag us the colors that we used all are available on our website artists that calm our beige luster by color passion Just resin black Just resin bright gold Resin art abalone you can also substitute diamond dust or Milky Way shooting star Just resin titanium color passion pearl shimmer Liquid gold and that's it So I hope you guys Like the piece Give me a thumbs up if you did share it if you think it's worth sharing and we will see you guys in The next video, which will be tomorrow No idea what I'm gonna do yet depends on what the client says about this piece Probably won't do three marbles all in one day You guys did send me a recommendation on a Another type of stone you want me to attempt so I may start investigating that tomorrow But anyways, I hope you guys enjoy the video and we'll see you guys tomorrow Till then be kind to one another because you never know what someone's going through Well, we do the test so you don't have to and then Bowie says hi Because people can't hear you in there Hi, Bopo.   We'll see you tomorrow. Bye


So I want to talk about this article from the New York Times that really illustrates the consequences of the Republican Party and the right-wing media spheres politicization of the pandemic and not just that their politicization of the COVID-19 vaccines it shows that this is hurting Right-wingers more so than anyone else at this point in time in the country and the data here It's not necessarily the most surprising thing in the world But it confirms what we already suspected and seeing the data is still pretty jarring It shows that there's one conclusion out of all of this and I think you already know what it's going to be Get the vaccine, but nonetheless, I want to show you the findings from this article David Leonhardt of the New York Times writes during the early months of COVID-19 vaccinations Several major demographic groups lagged in receiving shots including black Americans Latino Americans and Republican voters more recently the racial gaps While still existing have narrowed the partisan gap However continues to be enormous a Pew Research Center poll last month found that 86% of Democratic voters had received at least one shot Compared with 60% of Republican voters The political divide over vaccinations is so large that almost every reliably blue state now has a higher vaccination rate than almost every Reliably red state because the vaccines are so effective at preventing serious illness COVID deaths are also showing a partisan pattern COVID is still a national crisis But the worst forms of it are increasingly concentrated in red America as is often the case State by state numbers can often understate the true pattern because every state has both liberal and conservative areas When you look at the county level the gap can look even starker And as you can see here red counties do in fact do worse both in terms of vaccination rates And also in terms of the number of deaths that they're seeing due to COVID-19 and these charts here They demonstrate that they show that there is a clear difference Now this wasn't necessarily always the case in the beginning of the pandemic There were a lot of blue areas that were disproportionately affected and rural areas weren't really seeing that much of a surge, right? And it's because in these bigger cities more urban areas areas that are densely populated that tend to vote democratic They just have more people and even though masks help to mitigate the spread of the virus They just weren't as effective As the vaccines are But now that we have vaccines That kind of changed everything, right? The masks indeed did put a cap on the spread of the virus But the vaccines are just they're second to none And the author of this article points that out vaccination has changed the situation The vaccines are powerful enough to overwhelm other differences between blue and red areas Some left-leaning communities like many suburbs of new york san francisco and washington As well as much of new england have such high vaccination rates that even the unvaccinated are partly protected by the low number of cases Conservative communities on the other hand have been walloped by the highly contagious delta variant since delta began circulating widely in the united states COVID has exacted a horrific death toll on red america in counties where donald trump received at least 70 of the vote The virus has killed about 47 out of every 100 000 people since the end of june according to charles gaba a health care analyst In counties where trump won less than 32 of the vote the number is about 10 out of 100 000 And the gap will probably keep growing and this chart right here. It just says it all I mean, you don't really even have to say much more. Just look at this chart Show this chart to someone share it with your friends counties with large trump vote shares are seeing higher COVID death rates due to widespread vaccine hesitancy among right-wingers And this didn't happen on accident the vaccine hesitancy is being pushed By republicans not all republicans, but it's especially being pushed by the right-wing media sphere fox news tucker carlson oan newsmax And the result is that right-wingers are contracting COVID-19 at higher rates And they're dying at higher rates their disinformation is killing Their political group. It's it's sad The conclusion obviously is get vaccinated. What are you doing? This shouldn't be a political issue. There should be no partisan divide when it comes to a life-saving highly effective safe vaccine There shouldn't be This red blue divide here. It should just be the vaccines available There's evidence stating how effective it is and how safe it is. I'm gonna take it It doesn't matter if I'm a republican a democrat or apolitical And I know people in my family who are apolitical who get the flu vaccine every single year And guess what?  They want to endanger others, but they don't view it this way They believe that by spreading anti-vaccine misinformation They're saving people's lives because some folks believe that either the vaccine isn't safe or that it's dangerous even And these people are a threat To society. They're a threat to public health They're effectively bioterrorists in my opinion and I have no love for any anti-vaxxer My patients has run out because this misinformation this anti-vaxx sentiment is literally killing people And it doesn't matter if republicans are the ones dying more so than democrats or leftists I don't care. I just don't want people to die It's that simple like as a leftist when I push for medicare for all I don't push for medicare for all Except republicans. I push for medicare for all period I think that if there is a way we can save lives, we should do it and combating anti-vaccine misinformation I feel like that's my responsibility as a leftist the vaccines work and they're safe facts Don't care about your feelings.