Thanks for checking out this unboxing video. This will be obviously what's in front of you the BAM box But first of all, sorry, this one's kind of late. The box did not come late It came late the last two months in a row, but for June it did not come late I'm doing it late because I was on vacation. So the box came while I was away. So not the BAM box's fault This is a heavier box than usual because there's supposed to be two additional items in it one of those items was the Patch that was supposed to be in the May box that did not make it which on my unboxing of that I had forgotten that they had actually like sent something out saying that that patch is not going to be in the box And then it would be in the June box But I mean at that point I kind of honestly would have just rather than just hold up the box a little bit Because it was already late and then you know get it in there and set it out but but the other additional item that will be in here is the Makeup item for them being late on the April box So April was the very first time they were ever late on shipping boxes. They felt really bad So they said for the June box Because everything was already set for the May box So they said for the June that they would include just a free additional item is like a sorry. So That's what there should be some random item in here because of that So June's theme for this one is heroes and villains unlikely heroes one one of the the things that they tease that they're gonna have an item from I was like Because it's a it's a it's a film I really really Despise it's and a lot of people do honestly. It's pretty terrible. So we'll see what item that is tied to I Hope it I don't know I Don't know how they can make that like an actual good item whatever it has to do with but we'll see maybe I mean, I've been proven wrong on stuff before so All right, so let's get into this. So you should have all these extra items to go through two extra items. It's awesome All right As for oh, okay I'll just do the the patch the patch is actually on top of the tissue paper this time So I'll just go over the patch right now. Okay. Oh Bent Crease it like that. It's not that bad Okay, so this is the basically a replica patch from alien It's the US CSS Nostromo So that was on the the uniforms for the people in alien So, I mean, it's a good representation. It's it. I mean it does look like a replica patch I don't know if I'm really gonna do anything with that. Honestly Just maybe set it somewhere kind of display it. I don't know. All right, my cat's favorite part tissue paper and Even better, it's it's usually two pieces. There have been times where it's one piece or one time I didn't get any tissue paper. My cat was really bummed and that sucked But she should be happy today because two pieces. All right first thing on the top. I don't even know what this is This is weird I don't even know. I'm just gonna have to pull it up Want this well, I mean this could be kind of fun It's in certain instances, but okay So this was actually the film that I said I didn't care about is terrible It's it's a replica mask from the movie of Nacho Libre.   I Mean this is actually not that bad of an item because Actually, I feel like I can't even hear myself. You might not be able to hear me in that I hope you got a kick out of me putting it on but this is actually um, I Mean it's kind of cheaply made but not too terribly cheap There can be some uses for this People that just have fun with you know who has a luchador mask not many people have luchador masks So now I can just kind of mess around with people with this luchador mask So if we were gonna get an item from Nacho Libre, that's actually not that bad. I'm okay with it So the next item The next item to me feels like it's probably like a journal or a sketchbook or something Not big into those things. We'll find out. Oh, it's Batman though. That's cool. I Mean At least I know some people Who I could give this to? Yeah, and it's just like a journal Journal 192 page journal It's got Batman symbol on it. Obviously if it's Batman It's been getting better lighting up there we go and you can't see it because it's wrapped up But there's actual like texture on it. That's kind of like his chest plate suit Like the the pecs and the abs and everything which is an interesting detail to put in on that. It's all right. I mean Not for me The next thing oh I got a one up. I know they're gonna bring these one up cards back and guess what I got a one up Awesome, I think they brought him back last month, and I just didn't get one So I got a one up card. You have an upgraded or limited edition item in your box That's exciting see and that's what's awesome about bringing the one up cards back. It makes you even more excited It makes you way more excited Do I have Okay, here's another patch. Oh my god. Oh, that's right. There's gonna be something from the Goonies and here's a sloth patch I'm getting anything from the Goonies. I'm glad it's sloth It's not the best Like his face looks more messed up than it actually is in the movie, but Too terribly bad, but that's cool. Just to have like a Goonies patch. All right. Oh, thank goodness I didn't feel the pin at first I was like where's the freaking pin because that's the thing I look forward to probably the most with this and Actually since I have this one up card it might mean that I got like the exclusive pin, but we'll find out the pin Oh, yeah, I'm gonna bet. This is what's exclusive It's Shawn of the dead Pin and it's blood splattered. So I'm gonna guess that's what the what the special edition variant is limited edition And if I was gonna get something I'm glad I got that so it's Simon Pegg's character from Well, let me take it out of here. So just so you can see it better cuz It looks good and the blood splatter on it. I want you to be able to see so Here you go It's pretty good. It's pretty nice.  I'm sorry cricket now. It's very different Yeah, and there's the blood splatter all over it I'm gonna pretty much guarantee that that's the limited edition item that I got. All right next thing It could either be the print or the signature. Oh No, it says on it. This is the extra item that I got Okay, so it wasn't that okay. I got Just an extra it's a print and it's I mean it's well done I'm not a huge fan, but it is well done. So this is an art print for ET It looks good actually looks really good. You can see the detail in that ET touching Elliot's forehead and They're kind of shaped him into the woods With the moon in there with them, you know in the he's in the basket on the bike It's well done. I'm just not a huge fan of that, but It's well done. It's cool. That's awesome. So then I guess I got Another art print. I did get another art pin and this is actually a friggin awesome art print I got to be honest. I love this art print. I have number 438 out of 4,000 Certificate of authenticity and all that it's a Goonies again, this is great chunk and sloth together and if you notice chunks holding a baby Ruth It's what brought those two together in the first place. It's very cartoonish, but that's cool I mean, they're they're a cartoonish bunch basically That's cool. I like that. I'm gonna put that up. That's cool Signature oh Okay No, here it is that this was not my one-up when it's marked extra item. It means this is the extra item that we were It's supposed to be making up for the April box being late So this very well could have been the limited edition thing I got. All right, so Autograph I know some people who would really like this. I'm not a fan. So I'm gonna give this to a friend of mine, but it is a signed picture of Austin st. John The Red Power Ranger and if some people will actually go nuts for this so there's been a lot of Fanfare recently around Power Ranger stuff not just because of the movie But it's just been having a resurgence in popularity anyway. So this is actually a really good idea for a signature It's not my it's not my bag, but Like I said, I know someone I know a few people who would love to have that So I'll just give it to them, which is that works. Oh, they got a new artwork on the inside here for the box see There you go. There you go. There you go. I love that DeLorean in there Who doesn't love a DeLorean? Okay, so the booklet Unlike heroes and villains unlikely heroes.  There was a regular one, which is what most people got then there was a The blood splattered one, which was only a thousand made and then there wasn't even more rare version Which was shown as a zombie and there were only 250 of those so I got the one that was a thousand not 250 but Cool nonetheless Honestly, no matter what pin you got out of that It's all good. Those are good pins Okay, then there is the sloth loves chunk fan art collection patch This was done That doesn't say Yeah, it doesn't say who did that one Just as fan art and then there was the sloth loves chunk fan art Art print and there was a limited edition of that one. I did not get the limited edition of that one So the limited edition of that one was only 500 and it was the same picture except sloth has Pirate hat on that's a really small variation and the colors just a tad bit different That's kind of I Don't know That's kind of a stupid way to do it to do that variant But who did our Tim oddland? I think it's worth pointing out that Tim oddland did that. This is a good job It's nice the variant on it limited edition isn't that In my opinion, it does not warrant being called limited edition. It's whatever. It's such a minor change I hate when I hate when that's the limited edition Which you could say the same thing honestly with the blood splatter on the Sean pin But I do think it changes that enough to be limited edition All right, then we have they're talking about the band box signing that they had with Austin st. John the original red power ranger That's fine. That's cool Like I said, it's not for me, but it's cool for a lot of people. I bet so yeah And they just have a picture of him like doing the signing. That's cool. I like that they do that Then the prop replica the nacho Libre mask Um, yeah, just not your Libre mask. Okay, we really care much about that one Then the hardcover journal with Batman notes. Oh They're act are there notes in there with Batman notes Embroidered on a potentially deadly mission Batman drops a journal in which he has been jotting down notes on the case That's where you come in this rule general can journal contains several pages of notes and sketches created by Batman Before giving way to blank ruled pages on which you can jot your own notes. It's actually not a bad concept See, well actually not I have to open it I feel like I have to open it so I can actually like show you guys a little bit Do that I can still give it away. It's fine No one no one has to know that it was ever wrapped to show you guys a few of these pages It feels nice like rubber Yeah, see, yeah, like that's a yeah, see some of the pages already filled out Let's see if there's anything. Oh, see that's what like the one that they showed To face building anything else cool nice, I Mean Yeah, and then the rest you can whoa You can write it. Oh, yeah, and then there's like a marker so you can okay. That makes it cooler Still not up for me type thing, but I can give it someone once again, so that's good And then they have their little teaser for July which is animal influence That seems like a weird. I don't know that seems like a really weird Concept so it's a hero's and heroes and villains one So I don't I guess they're doing a series of these heroes and villains one So this is here heroes and villains animal influence So, I don't know if that really tips you off All right, and then they're gonna do a giveaway for a Hugh Jackman signed photo. That's cool Hype very high-profile name Win this Hugh Jackman signed 11 by 14 Wolverine photo to enter Post a picture of you wearing your nacho Libre mask and post it to Instagram or Facebook or Twitter using hashtag Win bambox and then they will randomly select winner That's a good sign of them right there It's a good sign item very well known iconic so very good anyway Good box for what it was supposed to be Unlikely heroes Batman's not an unlikely hero really he's established Power Red Power Ranger not unlikely hero. This is the extra item. It's often chunk unlikely heroes nacho Libre, I guess unlikely hero, but a terrible movie and Shauna the dead Shawn and Ed yes unlikely heroes, so Themes a little loose, but I don't really care that much but for people who do care the themes a little loose But anyway overall pretty good Pretty happy that I got the Additional item the blood splattered very nice. That's going up on my corkboard. I have a corkboard where I keep all my pins so Anyway, this one's gone kind of long probably because we had some extra items and everything But thank you everyone for checking this out. Thank you bambox for doing a solid job pretty much every month Um, and I look forward to what the animal influence one in July will be like. I don't know that that seems I have no clue what to expect for that for that. So here's hoping it's a good one Anyway, thanks everyone for checking this out and keep it brutal


This is your host Beatriz Cantelmo. We all want to be safe and secure, and to live without fear. And that is a human right that we all have. However, in the U.S., gun violence is an epidemic that directly threatens these rights, and we have reached a point where this is an issue that must be addressed as a human rights crisis. A staggering number of people are killed with guns in the United States every year.  Among high-income countries, the United States accounts for 80% of all gun deaths in the world. Yes, you heard it right. 86% of all women are killed by guns, and 87% of all children younger than 14 are killed by guns in the United States. African-American, Latinos, and Native Americans are disproportionately killed by gun violence in this country as well. What fuels this epidemic? Federal, state, and local governments are not meeting obligations under their international law to protect people's safety because laws on guns in the United States are inconsistent and weak. None of us are exempt from being a victim of gun violence, not even here in the state of Hawaii, where we have one of the best gun control laws in the nation. Today, we are graced with the presence of two amazing students and activists, Taylor McKenzie, who is a senior at Sacred Hearts Academy of Honolulu, and Sarah Katino, a Uaichi Manoa student. And the Hawaiian students are standing in solidarity in support of Parkland students, staff and parents on March 14th, to say never again. And again, a march in our lives for March on March 24th. Today's discussion will shift this focus from gun control to the rights we all have to live free from violence and fear, and on common sense legislation at the state and federal levels that can protect everyone from gun violence. This is a student-led and community-driven movement of thousands of individuals who demand that their human rights to be safe and protected from gun violence happens in the United States. On that note, welcome to our program. Thank you. Thanks for having us. Absolutely. What an honor. So I always start the show by giving our viewers a little perspective about where you come from and what you're up to in your school and how did you get involved with this movement. So I'm going to start with you, Taylor. Okay. I got really inspired talking to the other students at my school. We really wanted to do something because we're the same age as the victims of the Parkland shooting. And this is something that affects us even though in Hawaii we're so apathetic to what is happening on the mainland that I think that some friends and I, we really wanted to make a difference. And that's why I reached out to Sarah on the Women's March website. And that's how I got connected to this. That is wonderful. What about you, Sarah? How awesome is that? Yeah. I got involved with this movement in particular. About two months ago I had Scarlett Lewis come to speak to our classroom at UH and she's one of the mothers of a six-year-old boy that was murdered at Sandy Hook Elementary School. And when you meet a parent that lost a kid at six years old, it's hard to not feel connected to that person and feel like you should do something to change it if you are in the position to do it. And my whole adult life this far has been to put myself in a position to be the change. Instead of just talking about it, I feel that it's important to get out there and do things and to get the education that you need to be able to do that. And when the Parkland shooting happened, Women's March had created a Facebook page to reach out and formulate walkouts for students in high schools. And I just went out there and said, hey, I'll help. I don't know how I can be of service, but I'm down to do it. And that's kind of how I met this smart high schooler right here. So let's talk about all the students who really also came together here in Hawaii and said we wanted to be really the leading organizing and voice and asking for community support for this movement to happen here. So you have all the schools and all the students who have been involved in the core organizing of the events that we're going to be having on Oahu? Yeah, I think that a lot of high schools, middle schools and even elementary schools are getting involved. And it's really like the most grassroots of a grassroots organization I've ever seen. It started with something short on Facebook and having people reach out and putting an email out there and saying if you want to get involved and just last week we had the meeting and over 40 people came just for the planning meeting for the March 14th walkout at UH. Their school's on break that week so we invited any students who are on spring break during the week of the 14th to come to our event at UH Manoa on the 14th, 10 o'clock in the morning. And from that we've had students from Kaiser High School. Just yesterday I spoke with an eighth grader at Moanalua Middle School and they're doing a walkout. Their school actually changed standardized testing or I'm not sure if it was standardized but they changed test scheduling for the 14th and the bell schedule so that they'd be able to walk out in solidarity with the rest of the students. And that's wonderful. And I was going to ask you, Taylor, and for you too, Sarah, I don't interject anytime. You have made a remark in your initial statement about the apathy that you saw initially from students in response to gun violence on the mainland. So my question to you is why do you think this is happening here in Hawaii and what can students and the community do to support schools and also students and parents to be more educated and engaged actively to get the world out too? I think that what's most important is to start having conversations to talk to people about this. This is an issue that we believe that we're safe from in Hawaii because we do have some of the best gun legislation in the United States but there's just a threat at mid-Pacific high school and last year at UH, we're not immune to this. We're not immune to gun violence. No one is. And I think that what really impacted me was I have a friend at my school and she called me in the early morning just she was so upset and she was like, oh my God, we need to do something. This is not right. And I was like, yeah, we do. Because so often at my school we have discussions and we talk about how this is terrible but we don't do anything more. It ends with a discussion and I think that's why the second step after you start talking to people is to do something to reach out to do what I did with Sarah to just email people to connect over social media because that is the power of social media and that's the power of people my age. We have this ability right at our fingertips to connect with anyone across the world and I think that's really why this is happening now is because not only is it youth led it's connecting to everyone through the media. Exactly. And I think you touched on a very important point of this false sense of security that we have here in Hawaii of being immune from having our youth impacted by gun violence and the truth of the matter is it can happen to anyone of us and yes I think it is up to students under our youth and everyone in the community to demand that our representatives at the local level and at the federal level create stricter laws for gun control and reform as well so that all of us are safe. And students and young people have enough to worry about going to school and with from home stuff and school work and having jobs in high school and all this other stuff that going to school and when you're sitting in a classroom and the door opens your first thought shouldn't be like I hope that we're okay and I know for me that there's times that that definitely happens or when somebody's walking down the hallway when class is in session there's that sense of unease and that shouldn't be you know we like to think that we live in such a wonderful country and place that we can live freely but when you sit in a classroom and you're trying to get an education and you're distracted from what your classmates or your professors are saying because of footsteps in the hallway I mean how is that? Conducer to learning or even wellness Exactly. So my question to you even though we do get the sense that students in Hawaii feel a little bit isolated and safe how have these shootings on the mainland impacted you emotionally as a student as you are more aware and what would make you feel safer and your peers safer in your school setting and in your community? I take the bus who went from school and I found myself after the shooting looking around these kids who were my age and younger and thinking about what would happen if a shooter came on the bus I mean there isn't many exits there aren't we would be stuck and I just I think I would feel a lot safer knowing that there is no possibility of that happening there's no possibility of that happening anywhere in the U.S. And I think that the solution is multifaceted right and everybody says I've been getting some backlash lately and they're like well what's the solution how are you gonna you know solve this problem and I don't think that it's any one answer and I think that it's obviously more gun control sorry people don't want to hear it but it's the truth and we have to look into that we have to at least be willing to look into that fact and decide where that goes we have gun laws that have been written for much less than 17 students and their faculty being killed in a school and why we're so quick to just turn that down and say absolutely not it must be something else well it might be something else but it might be that too and why not you know change the culture around gun violence and change the culture and how we speak with other individuals and teach our kids to be loving and compassionate when they're young and sure if you want to talk about mental health we can we can go that route too but we know that that's not really the issue here but it would be all of those things and right now we're kind of at a stalemate we're getting small victories especially today in Florida but the fact that so many people are just like nope don't want to talk about it can't take our guns and we're like well I want to get an education and I don't want you know this girl to go to school tomorrow and and that be the last day right and you know there's a big difference between the second amendment rights of carrying a concealed weapon which was you know something that was defined so many decades ago where there were no AR-15s and K-47s so I don't think that as a nation you know any civilized or uncivilized you know so there is room for anyone to carry guns and munitions that are designed for war you know and it's so easily accessible by civilians you know because at the end of the day you have to look at the source of you know and how easy it is to get these machines and on all of the carnage that happens year after year Columbine is just having its 20th anniversary I think it's like next month April 20th and to think that 20 years later we are still here dealing with the same issues and this cannot be normalized and I think that this movement of enough is enough you know it's very in the right time I would argue that it's past the right time that it should have happened 19 years ago when the Columbine shooting happened it should have happened last month it should have happened years ago this is way past the time and it's sad that we're still dealing with this and I honestly think that if the Founding Fathers did see the type of weapons that we have today that they wouldn't have included the Second Amendment they would have changed it in a way that protected everyone because we are the nation of the free and I have the freedom to go to school and not be afraid and that should trump anyone's desire to have a gun and I think that really we need to start looking at that when we look at our gun legislation we have to see what our priorities are is it education or is it people's right to have a gun and more importantly education is very important but is it people's safety at stake that is what should be priority everybody's safety fast and not protecting gun rights and there's a disconnect so we're going to take a quick break and jump right in again alright sounds good yay aloha my name is Mark Shklav I'm the host of Think Tech Hawaii's Law Across the Sea Law Across the Sea comes on every other Monday at 11am please join us I like to bring in guests that talk about all types of things that come across the sea to Hawaii not just law people ideas history please join us for Law Across the Sea aloha hello I'm Dave Stevens host of the Cyber Underground this is where we discuss everything that relates to computers that just kind of scare you out of your mind so come join us every week here on thinktechawaii.com 1pm on Friday afternoons and then you can go see all our episodes on YouTube just look up the Cyber Underground on YouTube all our shows show up and please follow us we're always giving you current relevant information to protect you keep in you safe aloha aloha welcome back to Perspectives on Global Justice Think Tech Hawaii program this is your host, Beatriz Gattavo and we are back with Taylor Mackenzie and with Sarah Cattino so we were talking about the United States Second Amendment and in 2018 we may need a little adjustment in interpretation of it so who would like to speak fast on that? I'll go I would like to start off by saying when the Constitution was written us three women wouldn't be sitting in this room discussing the laws that we're having anyway so clearly we make amendments and we ratify them when we feel like they're what's right for the country and for the people of the country not the lobbyists of the country not the NRA and I think that just the fact that we progress as a nation that's supposed to be one of the amazing things of America and a democracy is being able to have a say in what goes on and be able to vote for the things that you want and make progress and forward progress and we don't want to go back and I know I think of that the whole happenstance is making a lot of people in the country uneasy and I think that's why there's so much polarization and there's so much opposite their opposition and it's hard to meet in the middle right now especially but we need to say something's not working and we can look at the Second Amendment and say well when the founding fathers the Second Amendment was put in place for militias right it wasn't of course it says for an individual to have their arms and have a militia you know these things are different today if the government was coming to take us over and we've seen governments take over a people many times with or without guns you know your AR-15 at your house isn't going to stop them anyway you know there's a reason why flamethrowers are illegal and we don't have tanks in our backyard you know there's just a line that needs to be drawn somewhere you know and when the AR-15 and then the M16 for the military during Vietnam they were made literally to cause more damage to go into a human person and destroy them it wasn't you know made for protection in your home it was made to kill the most people possible and why that fact is so hard for some people to to see and acknowledge and then say okay alright maybe we can make a little bit of a difference here you know yes yes I would like to add something to that I think it's sad that when people think of the United States of America they think of fast food and gun violence is that what we want to be known for it's there's so many other things that are incredible about us this is women's history month March and I have seen girls from high schools all across Hawaii just come together and and that's what we should be known for we should be known for collaboration and that's sad that's not what we're seeing and that when we think of the history that we want to create now how do we want to be remembered I don't think and I think to bring it to a micro perspective too we need to look at countries that are in the middle of conflicts and wars and that you all know that these individuals you know like families and children I mean are really a massacre you know and that these guns are organized and we all have these images you know that's so gruesome of gun you know violence and fatalities and this is what we are actually fighting for by protecting the second amendment of the constitution the way it is right now and that we need to start making those connections I actually come from Brazil where and I was raised that in the city near Rio de Janeiro and in my campus when I was a medical student we had actually physicians coming from Iraq in the 90s and the early 90s to learn how we were handling gun wounds shots of individuals who were injured by AR-15 and AK-47 guns it's not pretty you know when you see all the countries and actually Rio de Janeiro is a very interesting place for the world to look at it especially the United States right now because we've been dealing with this level of gun violence for the past 30 years where these weapons have been in the hands of civilians and unfortunately also of individuals who commit crimes and so life becomes very disposable and we have the numbers equivalent of civil war every year well you know like a couple of years ago we had 33,000 individuals who were killed by gun violence in the country alone and that's unacceptable and I really hope that in the United States that everybody every state every community really becomes unified and really work with solutions and regardless of political affiliation you know there's about everyone's safety and wellness you know so let's talk about March 14th what do you have planned for your campus and for your school and what do you know is happening for our island with other schools and also for other islands so I know so for UH Manoa we are having it's a student-led walk out at 10 a.m. we have asked well the Parkland students have initially asked and we're kind of following their lead to get up and leave your classroom and we're asking that they walk to the Bachman lawn which is essentially the front lawn of UH Manoa we have invited any students that don't have a home that day that are on spring break to come the walk out is from 10 a.m. until 10 17 a.m. on Wednesday March 14th but at UH I keep saying since we're the big kids and we get to make a little bit more of our own decisions we're going to kind of have a rally there until one o'clock and we're urging younger people to come and get involved and there's going to be a ton of organizations if you need help to like register for voting we can have people there helping for that and just to get involved in this movement because March 24th is what 10 days later and that's going to be where all of the schools come together and all of the students for that meeting and the community just what do you have planned in your campus in your school well I'm one of the school students today was my last day of school I'm on spring break now so yes I'm so glad to be here so yeah I'm meeting with people and we're trying to get a group of us to come to UH I'm very happy to be invited there my friend and I will be saying speeches and trying to really empower the high school students who are able to come to the march I've been reaching out to different schools to see if they are on spring break if they want to do something because I think it is sort of I don't know it's kind of like it makes you feel smaller when it's like you're on spring break but you want to have a walk out so we're very happy that we'll be able to go to UH I was just going to say I think it's important to say that the 14th is kind of the first day of the activation of the movements and the 14th is for the walk out to memorialize the 17 people that lost their lives but to bring awareness that on the 24th you know we're marching again on the April 20th a lot of students are doing something for the anniversary of the Columbine shooting right now in Hawaii we have the bump stock band going through legislation we're trying to bring awareness to that the NRA has specifically asked that people fight against it here in Hawaii so we're asking specifically that you fight for it exactly it is very interesting because we actually are in one of those very special states we're already in very good shape with our legislation but even to go further it sets the tone also for other states what kind of halfway through or who may be wanting to look at a state that's been modeling the example that we should follow so I want to talk to you both about and part of this movement has to do with education and mobilization and gathering together of course and just like in any movement if you think about civil rights movement for example the voting aspect of it might have a big difference because we can half and puff and talk about as much as we want but what we want and think we wish to see happening at a legislative level either locally statewide or fairly however we hit the road running when it comes down to constituency, civic engagement and the power of voting so I would like to hear both of your perspectives on that so Mackenzie may I ask how old you are I'm actually 17 and when people ask me what are you most excited for I'm like I get to vote and I get to vote like soon so let's talk about that because this is going to be your first time voting registered so there is that power of registration so like now that you're starting to engage in civic engagement as a very young voter what has been your process to learn about the political platform of candidates about your choice in process and what do you want any politician who is either in the house right now or thinking about running for a position what do you want him or her to hear from you as a voter oh well as a new voter it's kind of exciting to think that we are the next generation of voters and we do have power and we have a different perspective than previous generations of voters so I guess I'd like to say also that for me it's been sort of an interesting process which about politics about a year ago two years ago maybe and then presidential elections came and I was like wow this is not right what's happening what's being said that's not normal and I would ask the adults and they're like I'm sorry that this is the first presidential election you'll remember I was really young when Obama was elected and I never really cared at the time I guess I was too young it is interesting to me to think that people my age it's like they're growing up in this Trump presidency and it's hard not to care about politics it's hard not to either choose sides to argue and I think that what's important now is that we do keep the conversation going we don't just say well I'm a Democrat so I'm gonna vote for this I'm gonna believe that and I think that right now what's such an issue is this partisanship and that that's what needs to stop and I think that voters in my generation and our generation is gonna end that is gonna be able to say that even though you're a Republican you don't have to vote for this person you can vote for what you believe in that's a very good point we have very few seconds left what would you like to tell to our politicians as a young voter what I would like to say to our politicians honestly honestly yeah watch out because we're growing up and we're the next generation and this is the next generation and I cannot be like more proud of these kids and these students and I think that a lot of us grew up with Obama as our president and saw forward progress and change and you're not gonna be able to push us back at all and we're gonna keep you know the momentum's coming and yeah well straight from the young adults and children's mouths so I could not have a better way to end this program I hope that both of you come back for follow-up episodes and if you want us to come back absolutely bring your friends can I say hi to my brother he said I better get a shout out thank you so very much and that concludes our episode of Perspectives on Global Justice for today and see you next Friday bye


The high sign? Here we go. I guess that's the high sign. Okay, so good morning, everybody. This is the BPS budget subcommittee meeting. And I need to remind you that only three microphones can be on at the same time. So us board members can talk all we want. And you guys can be quiet, I guess. But anyway, so I guess the point is when you're not speaking, mute your microphone. We are now taking, let's see, a roll call. Is that on here? Okay. Anyway, Madam Secretary, can we have a roll call? Yes. Board member Sierra. Here. Board member Bartholome. Here. And Chair Wright. Here. All right. Let the record reflect that all subcommittee members are present. Okay. Now we are taking public comments and item two, public comments. If you're in the room, please move the microphone and wait for the timer to appear on the screen. Anyone wishing to make a public comment who is present at the meeting will be able to use the microphone. The chair will, oops, that's me. Anybody making any public comments? I don't see any. Okay. So now I guess Director Burke, do you want to introduce the next item? Sure. Thank you. Chair Wright, members of the subcommittee. Our only item for today's budget subcommittee will be our fiscal year 24-25 budget overview. And Nick Harvey, our acting deputy director of water and water administration will be presenting. Good morning, everyone. As Director Burke mentioned, my name is Nick Harvey. I'm an acting deputy director of administration for Santa Rosa Water. Today we're going to be going over some of the, especially for the benefit of our new board member here, going over some of the fund background and regulatory environment around some of the funding that we do, that we use. Then we'll talk about some preliminary financials from last year's, the 22-23. Since that was our last completed fiscal year, we'll talk about some of those results. And then we'll go over some preliminary budget assumptions and information that we're using to currently develop the 24-25 budget. Okay. So we're going to look at our three water enterprises being water, waste, water, and regional. And then we'll also touch on stormwater. And as you, as you may recall, I believe the current fiscal year is the first year that the stormwater enterprise, sorry, 22-23 was the first year that the stormwater enterprise was brought under the purview of the Board of Public Utilities. Okay. So the current year. And so we always like to update you on what's going on with stormwater so that you all get a better feel for what's going on policy-wise, especially now that you have budgetary authority. Okay. So our first enterprise, our water enterprise for the fiscal year ended June 30th, 2023. We got approximately $43.6 million in rate revenue and $5.2 million in fees. The rate revenue is collected across approximately 54,000 water accounts. We have both the usage and fixed rate. And we have a two-tiered rate structure whereby residential property pays. They have their indoor use up to, so tier one is indoor use. And we determine indoor use by looking at the sewer cap, which is a three-month evaluation every winter for each residence. And so up to the sewer cap, they get the tier one or indoor rate. Above the sewer cap, they pay a tier two commodity rate. And the commercial and irrigation accounts all pay on a single tiered commodity rate. Another distinction between the fees and the rates you see here is that the rates, the rate revenue is collected from all customers evenly. The fee revenue, the $5.2 million consisting of demand fees and miscellaneous fees, those are not considered a rate revenue. And those are only collected from rate payers or from customers who have a nexus.  And the same with our miscellaneous fees. Wastewater enterprise for the fiscal year 2022-23, $70.2 million in rate, million dollars in rate revenue across approximately 50,000 sewer accounts. You'll notice that 50,000 sewer accounts is lower than the water accounts. And that's because water, we also have dedicated irrigation meters, which obviously don't have a wastewater component to them. There's only one rate, but there is some variation on the commercial side, based on the strength of discharge from a particular business. And then we collected approximately $7.2 million in fees consisting of demand fees, South Park sanitation, maintenance fees, and the miscellaneous fees. Our water, our regional water reuse enterprise consists of the Laguna treatment plant. And it's funded by our five partner agencies. We distribute the operating costs every year based on flow into the plant. So we have flow meters and we pro rate the operating costs by those flows each year. Debt service payments are calculated based on when and what debt issued, debt was issued for. So depending on the type and timing of the project, that's what determines the debt service. CIP costs are distributed by the original sub regional operating agreement. And as a reminder, Santa Rosa's share is paid by our wastewater fund. So if you were to look in our financials, you see wastewater, you're not going to see wastewater in regional because those are always combined, get solidated into one financial statement. Okay, on the stormwater in 1996, city council added title 16 of the city code creating stormwater enterprise. This was formed to comply with national pollutant discharge elimination system permitting requirements and to reduce flooding property damage and stormwater degradation in the city. It's funded by an annual parcel assessment for creek restoration, water quality improvement and drainage improvements. And the funding is somewhat subsidized by the city's general fund. So there's two personnel sections in particular that the general fund contributes to. And the capital improvement program receives some enterprise funding, but also receives outside funding such as facility fees, gas tax and grants. Okay, so on the stormwater assessment, so this is used to fund regulatory compliance, but funding is insufficient for infrastructure improvements, which is evidenced by the fact that we are bringing outside funding sources to execute our capital projects. The funding is split. The revenue is allocated between the two funds, 47% and 53% creeks, stormwater creeks respectively. The annual assessment is escalated based on the consumer price index. And so every year we run the consumer price index for our area. We do the calculation. We give Sonoma County the calculation and they include the assessment on the property tax roll. So it's on every property owner's tax bill. And it's for the fiscal year 2324. So the year that we're currently in, the per equivalent residential unit was $39.98 per ERU. And that's the piece that gets escalated every year. Okay, and as a reminder, getting into some of the regulatory requirements, water and sewer rate payer funding is governed by Prop 218. May not intermingle funds, subsidize customers charged for costs of services, sorry, must charge for cost of services and approve rates through public hearing process. The two big ones here for us anyways may not intermingle funds. So we have a very strict fund structure in center as a water to where we ensure that we're only moving money, water money between water operating and capital funds, sewer from sewer operating and capital funds and the same for regional. Because obviously if we get into a position where we're using water money to pay for sewer than the water rate payers are subsidizing somebody's sewer bill. That second piece is important too may not subsidize customers. You may, so you may not subsidize customers with rate revenue. So our water fund does have a program called the H2O program to help to others program where we work with a local nonprofit to vet low income families. And we do offer some subsidized assistance through that, but that's paid via sell tower lease revenues that we get. And so they're not rate revenues and therefore we remain in compliance with Prop 218 even though we're offering a subsidy. And the regional funding again Santa Rosa pays our portion from the rate sewer rate payer funds or local sewer enterprise governed by the regional agreement and the stormwater funding is allowed for both stormwater and creeks. And a vote is required to do anything other than escalate the P per ERU price by the CPI every year. Here's a look at our annual budget for the water enterprises as a whole, not including stormwater, just the three core water enterprises in the current fiscal year. And that budget consists of $169 million, $103 million O and M, $38 million and CIP and $28 million of debt service, of which most of that is going to fund the debt service piece of the regional enterprise rather than our local system. Our current annual budget for the stormwater enterprise is $5.5 million, $3.3 of that being in operations and maintenance 2.2 and capital projects $480,000 of the that CIP funding is coming directly from the stormwater and creeks enterprise funds directly. $1.72 million is the outside funding sources of gas tax, capital facility fees and other miscellaneous sources that were spoken to on a previous slide. Okay, so here's the distribution of our O and M expenses, our O and M expense budget in the current fiscal year. Two of these stick out more than the others, salaries and benefits and water purchase. And lo and behold, those are two hot button items as we look into programming next year's budget as well. So, you know, the city's MOUs are expiring at the end of this fiscal year. We haven't negotiated them yet. So we're not sure what salary and benefits impacts are going to be over the next couple of years. And Sonoma water has also been bringing pretty aggressive proposed rate increases. The, you know, last year we sold at 10 and a half percent this year. They brought force over 14 percent. And we're currently in talks to see where we end up with our final proposal will update you accordingly. Okay, so now we're going to go over some of our budget information for next year, including assumptions, talk a little bit about purchase of water and some of our revenues. I'll speak briefly to CIP funding. You'll see what I mean when we get there. And I'll remind you all what our remaining schedule is for the budget approval process for next year. Okay, so as I just mentioned, the first expenditure assumption is that there's no colas. So as such, we're not building any colas or increased benefits into our budgeting for next year. And that's true of every department in the city. It's not unique to water. Insurance this year, we've in our water funds, we've seen between 19 and 65 percent increase in our insurance premiums for liability and property insurance. I believe the smallest increase I saw was 19 percent. So that's pretty aggressive. Electricity, obviously PG&E's raising rates. You saw pretty aggressive electricity budget last year. We're trending about on that budget for actuals this year, and we're looking to make another increase next year. Not exactly sure where we're going to land on that, but it is going to be another significant year of increases. There's talks from our energy and sustainability group that PG&E, I believe, is proposing 18 percent at ACPUC meeting next month, I believe. So anyway, there's a lot going on with that. We'll have updates for you later on in the budget cycle as more information comes available. Water purchase budget, obviously, with the Sonoma Water aggressive increase request, that's a big line item. So we'll keep you apprised of what's going on there. Software as a service. As we all know, most software these days is going cloud-based. We're utilizing, we're trying to increase our use of technology and different asset management programs, and we're always upgrading. And so we're having to buy a lot more software licenses than we have in years previous. Not all of that is an increase, though. Some of it's just a change as to how it was paid for. So for example, this year, you'll see some sharp increases on software as a service if you were to look at that line item. But our IT allocation from downtown went down. And so basically what happened was instead of them paying for our licenses and us paying them, we've stepped outside of that model and started paying for some of our licenses directly. And we're also putting forth some staffing changes. Doing the math, oops, there we go. We're looking at possibly putting forth a new utility system supervisor on the regional enterprise. The title of that position would actually be a reclamation supervisor on the reclamation system. We're also looking into the possibility of adding a trucked waste coordinator to manage our waste tipping program at the plant, which is now our largest revenue generator currently. And just a reminder, our rates, we're coming into the final year of our rate increases. July 1, 2024, we're going to increase water use and fixed 4% and 2% on the sewer use and fixed. We're expecting development to stay stable. We've seen in terms of water demand, we've seen some growth. So like when we budgeted this year, we budgeted for about a 5% rebound in demand. And we're seeing about that, but about that in reality year to date. That being said, I don't think we want to assume that we're going to get another 5% bump in demand next year. So we're going with the 1% growth assumption and flat demand. And as I just said, volume of water increasing by 1%, that's the 1% growth rate assumption. The Sonoma water rate increase. I spoke earlier that we're in talks with them about this. They came with over 14%. Just came back yesterday, I believe, with 9.88%. That by no means, it's not certain that we'll end up here. We may see more changes, but we're still very much in process on that. On our revenues, like I said, increasing volume 1% plus the 4% rate increase. Sewer, we're increasing revenue by the 2% rate increase. And then just to remind you here that the sewer revenue changes more slowly than water revenue because of the sewer caps. So if you use more water than the tier one, you get billed tier two rates for the rest of your usage. If you use more than your sewer cap of water, you pay the sewer cap as a residential customer. You don't get paid charge incrementally up above the sewer cap. So we see the growth behaves differently in the wastewater side than it does on water. Then in terms of our regional revenues, like I said, our truck waste tipping fees are increasing. I believe we've seen pretty big year over year growth on that. We're budgeting 3.6 million for next year. And we have made some downward adjustments to interest and miscellaneous revenues. Just looking at the actuals for several years, the miscellaneous revenues and the interest earnings were just over budgeted. So we've adjusted those numbers down to be more in line with what we think the actuals would be. Now looking at our reserves, just a reminder, we can only show you the reserves as of June 30, 2023 because we're currently in the year, ended June 30, 2024. So we're always two years in arrears on these looks. Operating reserves, we always keep at 15% of operations. Catastrophic reserves are for emergencies. We've kept those static for several years. Wastewater and regional have small reserves as being the rate stabilization reserve and the 1.25 million geysers reserve. Other than that, we have all three funds have an undesignated fund balance. It's actually called reserve for contingencies, but regional has the refund reserve. Reason we call it refund reserve is because any amounts turned back by regional is therefore refundable to those agencies by the amount in which they overpaid. And we've retained that in the fund to use as rate smoothing. But when you see refund reserve, undesignated fund balance, it's the same thing. The only difference is on one hand you're talking about a local enterprise and when you talk about a refund reserve, it's always with respect to the regional enterprise. Undesignated fund balance, I wanted to point out this 6.4 million and 3.4 million. So we ended the year in water with 14.8, ended the year in wastewater with 13.6. The 6.4 and the 3.4 million are the amount of undesignated fund balance that were consumed as of June 30, 2023. So from July 1, 22 to June 30, 23, our reserves went down by that much in each of the funds. With that being said, we intentionally budgeted approximately a $3 million deficit in both of the funds last year. And our actuals came in a little higher than that. Some of that has to do with our contributions to the 115 trust. But we just wanted to show you because sometimes you see these reserve numbers and they're just like these huge numbers and you don't really have the context. But as you can see, if we're not careful budgeting, we can spend down those reserves pretty quickly. Do you have a question? Is the fund balance is at negative 6.4? Does the fund balance is the difference between the 14 and the 6.4? I've seen that, right? No, no, sorry, sorry. So I did a bad job on the slide, so I apologize. So 14.8 million is where water ended up. And that was after consuming 6.4 million. So that number was north of 20 for June 30, 2022. So that's our fund balance. And that is now, I think that is now as of June 30, 2023. It's a, yeah, it's a balance sheet account. So it's always moving, you know. And then the wastewater fund had a little over 716 million in undesignated fund balance. They spent 3.4 to get down to where they are today. Can we know that you have a fund balance today? No, it's impossible to know because we, in order for, in order to know reserves for a given operating period, you'd have to close out the books and we just, it's not something you can do mid-year. Yes, we do have small deficits built into this year's budget. I believe it's on the order of 3 million per enterprise. No, the current year. Yeah, CIP funding is to be determined. So we're we're looking at our budgets. It's high on our priority this year is priority lists this year is to pass a balanced budget, meaning that our expenditures are covered by our revenues. We're not there yet for next year. We're looking at different options. And so we are going to be evaluating our CIP funding, figuring out what approach we want to take, and we will be updating you all accordingly once we know what the CIP is going to look like. And a reminder of the upcoming budget schedule. Be back. We'll be in front of the full board March 21st to talk about the Sonoma Water Rate increase, taking that same increase to City Council March 26th. Regional partners, the the sub-tact we met with them on the 9th. And then we're meeting with them again in March 14th and we'll schedule a third meeting if needed. We will see you all again for the second time on March 19th, followed by BPU on March 21st with our full budget study session, April 4th at BPU for the formal recommendation to Council, April 16th City Council for the preliminary approval of the regional budget, and then City Council study sessions on May 7th and 8th and hearings and adoption on June 18th. And with that I'll take any questions you all might have. Any questions from board members? Great job. Thank you. I think this is your first time doing this presentation, right? It used to be Kimberly. No, you've done this before. It looks like it, but no it didn't. It didn't. But I was going to give you, that's not what I meant. I was going to give you extra brownie points for that, but you deserve lots of brownie points either way. I guess it, I mean it sounds like every, you know, prices costs are going up, up, up, up. There was only one area where I saw a little bit of downward pressure. And I guess I'm wondering if an increase in fees above the CPI is something, I know it takes a vote it to go above that increase. I just, I'm just wondering, you know, what, what have discussions been around that, if, if any? Yeah. Oh, okay. Not if the BPU. Okay. Never mind. Okay. Go ahead if you have. I have nothing to say. You have not. Thank you. You're welcome. No, I'm good. Thank you. Okay, so thank you very much. I'm just going to say, I guess this was just a overall learning session today and our next meeting will be more of a strategy of moving forward. So, yeah, this today's meeting was to provide some background information, see if the board had the subcommittee had any questions or additional information that would be helpful to receive. And then we are looking for any direction that the committee might have on the assumptions that you saw. So, if you had any direction for us on the flat demand and growth that we're projecting or other assumptions, if those all seem to be reasonable from the subcommittee, then we will move forward with preparing a budget based on those assumptions. I think that increase in demand of 1% seems reasonable, but I was, when, when I was listening to it, I was wondering if with two years now of, you know, good, good water delivery by Mother Nature, if you think that might change. I mean, I know our messaging has been all around, you know, the drought and being careful with our water consumption. I mean, do you think there's a possibility that that might, I mean, it's a difficult thing. You don't necessarily want to encourage that because we could be in a drought next year again, but, but I guess I'm just wondering how that might come into it. So, and I don't know, Nick, if you want to come back up and speak to some of this as well, but, you know, we do look at the trends in the water usage data and we did project a 5% rebound in this fiscal year. We are tracking on that. We're not tracking more than that and based on historical rebound from droughts, we don't see year over year it continue because a lot of the savings tend to be permanent savings. The other thing is it's always difficult when you have a wet winter. There's a double edged sword. So with a wet winter, we tend to see irrigation start later and that's our greater demand. And so I think we're wanting to make sure we're being conservative, but as realistic as we can based on historical trends and I'll let Nick add more detail on that if you'd like. Yeah, I was just going to add as a reminder, you know, we're only talking about budget and when it comes to budgeting, I think the best policy is to under promise and over deliver. And so being as conservative as possible without pulling the rug out from under our own feet is actually beneficial on revenue because if we, we only drive a deficit with expenditures if we blow the expenditure budget, we drive a deficit with revenues for every dollar of revenue we don't collect and that's what's lost on some people. And so I think conservatism is actually good on the revenue side when it comes to budgeting. So I agree. I'll just add my two cents worth here that we in water are almost like farmers that we depend on the weather.  But you know, everybody talks about the weather, but nobody does much about it. So anyway, those are my comments. So now the meeting is open for public comments. We're now taking public comments and item 3.1. If you're in the room, please move to the microphone and wait for the timer to appear on the screen. Anyone wishing to make a public comment who is present at the meeting will be able to use the microphone. Are there any people standing up? Doesn't look like it to me. Okay. Then I will adjourn the meeting. Thank you very much, everybody.


21 wake up Wednesday. What's good?    I think wait. It's today Wednesday even think so whatever I had two good days of working out feels like Thursday Hmm. I guess the first day was Sunday. I worked out anyway two really good days of working out felt crazy If you listen to the podcast yesterday welcome to the show I don't have any intro don't like daily we out here we out here Wednesday I had two good days of working out Felt great yesterday was kind of a rest day because I went hard and I wanted to see if I could maybe dunk today or have a Hard day today, so I kind of took it easy yesterday and then ate so much I gained two kilos. I gained two kilos of drugs in my system. I'm just kidding It was but literally two kilos from the morning to the night, which is frigging six pounds I'm 182 pounds last night before I would say I'm already sweating. It's not even that hot out here I think my body is like ready to go nuts. I Gained so much weight just because I'm super bloated ate so much food I don't normally eat all the different factors hydration. I fueled up for today. I'm fueled So today knowing that and knowing I want to get back to my Fighting weight before I get back. I want to go absolutely nuts today yesterday talked about awareness of my body I felt super good felt super lean So I'm not really too worried about the weight the scale might be off whatever it is I do feel really good but I do want to get some jumping in today because I had a little bit of that stimulus the other day, but um, I I uh, I Feel like I really need to burn a ton today because I don't want to come back really heavy and sluggish and just way out of shape I had a made good progress up and doing cardio. Yes. Okay today What I want to talk about is comparing yourself judge yourself. I love it compare yourself to others is what you should be doing I know what they say. This is not the norm, but let hear me out. I'm comparing myself to the top tier athletes physique people Podcasters everything I do I compare myself to them So the point of I'm saying with that is that for example my physique trying to get lean I have friends that are in crazy shape So I'm trying to get to their level and constantly comparing myself to them I'm not comparing myself in a judgmental looking down I'm like I'm trying to get to that level and it's constantly pushing at me because there's other ways to look at it To I can go to the gym and I'm dunking and I'm dunking better than every single person in the gym Sounds arrogant actually because I know how to say that but it's true Nobody's really dunking but all I do is practice but when they say how do you like they see me doing that?  I definitely think finding people that are doing it better than you and trying to match Match what they're doing up with with your resources like me podcast freaking Columbia on vacation one-man show Professional Mike capturing all the birds in the background. Hopefully not really the most Best Mike but ever good camera getting my quality everything I can do one thing I learned from this podcast so far Is that my camera needs to defrost so freaking cold when we sleep and I bring my camera outside If I try to film too quick it's super foggy So I brought it out here first thing in the morning you learn you got to do it I would never know that if this was my first day if I tried to do one video for the first time and make that the killer one Would have fucked it up because I wouldn't have enough time. I have to get to breakfast I have to have my day have to live dunk life. I have to live have to live a little bit Where this is going point is push yourself make the most of what you can do with what you have and try to match Those people that are already doing it. I'm trying to make this channel the biggest. That's my next thing I want to talk about as my goal my birthdays in Four months and five days. I believe December 4th I'm trying to hit 50k by then and that's just a goal. I have I have no clue how the growth is gonna go You know your boy might hit that friggin tidal wave and I skyrocket to 500,000 point is shooting for 50,000 I think it's realistic and also it's just gonna push me to make the best possible content all the time every single Video so I want to have that one goal in mind So it's my north star and I'm constantly reminded by of it. So I'm saying it here now. Let's get it I already tweeted it. No one follows me on Twitter. Let's go That's it. I got to get to it today. I'm feeling Thick, but I'm feeling like I'm feeling lean but sort of thick. I don't know I feel super bloated from dinner.  I had some desserts every day But I feel lean and light I don't know it's a hard feeling to not know what what I'm weighing and what I'm feeling and all these different things But I'm super excited to go super hard today. I'll put my work out on my Instagram Whatever I do probably just gonna be a ton of jumping maybe running on the beach probably film some of that Um Yeah, feeling really good. Otherwise looking forward to getting back to dunking if you're new to this This is on podcast to subscribe to put the notifications on new youtube because it helps me out pretty much That's the only thing I really need to say but also I do this freaking daily So if you miss one, it's gonna you're gonna get behind quick So I think it'll be helpful for the channel Helpful for you to catch up with these things because I like to start with the energy I am your leader in energy every single morning Vacation or not rain or snot Allergenic kids see what I did there We're out here people on their balcony babies are crying. They're looking at me. I'm doing a podcast out here on vacation Let's go. Okay. Have a great day what's up wednesday and Oh, yeah, gotta do your favorite part on this day in history every day is frigging history. I'm making history Let's see On this day in history july 31st 30 bc that's before Comets Battle of alexandria mark anthony achieves minor victory over octavian But most of his army subsequently deserts leading to octavians invasion of egypt god damn it octavian. I don't know if that's good or bad Um 1961 shout out to mom israel welcomes. It's one millionth immigrant. She'll like that if she listens I bet you she comments about it. Hi mom um Today in film 1912 u.s. government prohibits movies and photos of prize fights In parentheses censure sends wow censorship Today in music 1959 cliff richard in the shadows have their first british number one single with living doll biggest british single of 1959 Thank god today in sport 1928 halena konopaka of poland hurl's discus world record 39.62 meters to win the first gold medal in wimples Women's olympic athletics and interest in games american lillian copeland and ruth swebberg in sweden take minor medals thank heavens for them And now the dunk lifer of the day. I gotta respond to these comments and I will I just been Busy Um sky my boy more dld the tan of the skin baby. That's right. I'm getting tannous Try not to get burnt mgn on these skin to rim dunking with skin these fools. I'm jumping out of my skin Love it. And then my boy adam You apply awareness. I apply sunscreen. It's hot out here in these streets And crazy rabbit says your mom is cool And shout out to the first clement the kerpel the first Anything else I wanted there was something else I wanted to say, but I guess I'll save it for tomorrow I'm out. I'm gonna go nuts. Check my instagram. I took amazing pictures of the city I was in yesterday if you're trying to follow my vacation I'm also trying to make my photos about everything chase the best in whatever you're doing Compare yourself to those don't be hard on yourself But push yourself to get to that level surround yourself with that all I see is the people the elite The people doing the most and I want to do the quality. I'm not I'm not saying I'm doing great Yeah, I'm doing great. Whatever. I want to do more.  Let's go to the loo


Hi and how are you all today? Let us discuss the question. It says solve the inequality with 3 bracket x minus 1 less than equal to 2 bracket x minus 3 bracket closed for real x. We need to solve for real x. So let us rewrite the inequality given to us. On removing brackets we have 3x minus 3 is less than equal to 2x minus 6. Now on adding 3 to both the sides we have 3x minus 3 plus 3 less than equal to 2x minus 6 plus 3. After simplification we have 3x is less than equal to 2x minus 3. Now on subtracting 2x from both the sides we have 3x minus 2x less than equal to 2x minus 3 minus 2x. After simplification we are left with x is less than equal to minus 3. So as x is a real number the solution says set consist of all real numbers less than or equal to minus 3. So solution set is equal to since it is less than equal to minus 3 so minus 3 is included from the minus infinity side it will be an open interval. So this ends the question. I hope you enjoyed the session. You take care of all your calculations. Bye for now.


This is Dennis McMahon and welcome to Positively Vermont. And today, we are going to be speaking with Hector Del Curto and Pablo Esti Caliba about the Stowe Tangle Music Festival, which is coming up in beautiful Stowe, Vermont, August 18, 19, and 20. Welcome Hector and Pablo. Thank you, Dennis. Very nice to see you again. And I just wanted to tell you that the festival has already started a week ago because we have our students here that they are preparing for the big dates on the 18th, 19th, and 20th. That's great. Now, can you tell us first a little bit about yourself? Well, let me introduce Pablo. Pablo Estigarribia is our guest artist together with the trio of Victor Blauazen, Horacio Cawarcos, and Pablo Estigarribia. And he's also a faculty member. So he's coaching the students, the piano students. And he can tell you a little bit about what his experience is with this music and his career. So... Excellent. Well, I gotta say I'm one of those lucky guys that got to play with some tango legends back in Buenos Aires. I lived there and I was born and raised there. And at one point I started coming to the United States a little more frequently. And I ended up living in New York for a few years. That's when we came close with Hector. And we started taking upon the mission of bringing the true tango artists of tango history to the States to teach and to communicate what Argentine tango is really about. And I can't tell you the smiles we've seen from American and musicians all over the world to get to experience this, you know, this transmission of Argentine heritage firsthand. That's great. Well, tell us Hector a little bit about the festival, how long it's been in operation and what's going to be happening in the next few days. Mm-hmm, sure. So the festival started in 2014. So this is our ninth year. We are preparing a big celebration party for the 10th anniversary of the festival. So that will be next year. But this year we have students from all over the world. We have students from Japan, from Korea, from Canada, from US, from Argentina. And the idea of the festival is to coach musicians that are not tango musicians and some of them are already tango musicians. But we bring the maestros, the people who have been in contact with the, some of them were part of the golden age of tango. And they come here and they, it's the way that you give the artistry of tango to students, it's not through a book, it's not through a manual. It's by performing, by getting coached by being exposed to these tango legends. So that's the mission of the South Tango Music Festival. And so we have been working for a week with bandoneon players. I will show you later what the bandoneon is. I know you know it, but for those people who haven't been exposed to these instruments, and I'm a bandoneon player, I'm from Argentina as well. And then Pablo was coaching the pianists and today is when all the string players arrive. So a typical tango orchestra has strings like violin, viola, cello, and double bass. It has a piano and it has this instrument called the bandoneon. And this year we have about 10 bandoneon players that are going to be joining the orchestra. We're expecting quite a big orchestra this year. It's going to be a big orchestra. So we have to make everybody play together and that's a big task that we take every year upon us and we have the help of all the effort that these students put into learning this art form. And you're going to have a competition to the bandoneon, correct? Yes, we have the Chebandoneon Competition and that will be on Friday. There are three finalists that were selected already and they are here and they will perform. They perform as a soloist and they also perform with the orchestra. And then the judges will decide who is the winner for this year. As I always say, competitions are a way of having people looking after other people to improve the level of playing. And that's our mission here to improve the level of bandoneon playing. In Argentina you have many bandoneon players, many teachers, but in US we don't have that many. So we have created and that's our mission with the competition as well. That's great. Could you just give us an idea of how the festival is going to proceed? That's starting on the 18th and continuing through the 19th and the 20th and give us an idea of the location and also the program that's going to be going on. We have a few different places, but all the information will be at www.cdc.org and you will find all the information on the venues, but one of the venues is top notch. We have a Milonga classes in there. We have Milongas in here. This is a beautiful venue and that is with passes. So people will buy passes, but unfortunately those passes have been sold out for a while. So what you can still, I believe there are not many left, but there might be a few left. It's the concert that's Spurspeak and that will be on the 19th and at the Spurspeak Performing Arts Center. That's when we have the orchestra, the big orchestra about 30 musicians and also there is a Milonga where people will be dancing to tango. So that's on Saturday and I hope everybody will come and have an experience and exposure to this beautiful music from Argentina. I just gotta add that that concert is really exciting. That's the culmination of two weeks of very hard work. Like a tango retreat, you know, hanging out with this tango legends and it's very exciting to see how much work can be done in only two weeks. Amazing. Now you're gonna have a major tango legend with you. Does he tell us about him? Well, the tango legend, one of them, because Horacio Cawargo is also a tango legend and he's a bass player that had played with many of the famous orchestras in Argentina. And but Victor Lovagen is a legend, not only as a bandoneon player, but he is also a composer. And he was the arranger to many of these famous orchestras in Argentina. So it doesn't get better than that. He's still active, very active in a project called Escuela de Tango, Emilio Valcarce. That's in Argentina. It's a program that students also from all over the world come for two years and the train to perform tango. So they do it in two years. We do it in two weeks. It's, imagine how intense this workshop, sorry, in here. But Victor Lovagen is one of those artists that you have to look at, listen to and learn. And we learn a lot, even myself and Pablo, who both are professional musicians, every day we learn with somebody like Victor Lovagen. Victor's one of those guys that, even though you don't know him, you know his work because he's behind a lot of iconic recordings and you've probably heard him play, even though you don't know it. It's very exciting to have someone like that among us. He was already active when he was 14 years old in the 50s and he never looked back. He's still recording, he's still composing. It's quite an inspiration to have someone like that around. I looked him up on Spotify and came across some of his albums and shared a few of them and it's amazing material. Yes, and he is actually, I shouldn't say, I don't say this, okay, but he's 88 years old and he plays like when he was 35. It's insane. It's really an inspiration in many sense of the word. That's amazing. Give us some ideas, some of the other faculty members you have or performers you're going to have during the festival. Sure, my quintet is always the artists in residence and that's Gustavo Casenave, on piano, Pedro Giraud on double bass, Sammy Mardinian on violin, and Gisuo Concello. And we also will have some performances by my son, Santiago del Curto, who's 15 years old, but he's already an accomplished clarinet player. And we have Pablo, we have Horacio Cabarcos, we have Gisermo Rubino, who is one of the younger generations of musicians, but a very experienced violin player that is also an educator and we are very happy to have him this year. That's great. Besides that, yeah, we have dancers. I was just gonna ask you about the dance workshops. Tell us about that. Yeah, we know that when we say tango, people are expecting to see dancers. Every year we bring two couples that come to dance with us. And this year will be Miriam and Leonardo and Giovanna and Gisermo. And these are very well-known tango dancers and Miriam was the star of Forever Tango. And they are going to give some classes as well as perform at Spruce Peak. And people will have the chance to see what real Argentine tango it's about because many people know tango as a part of ballroom dancing and it's very far from that way of dancing tango, the Argentinian tango. Ballroom tango is more about figures and choreographies and also people dance away from each other.  We don't have any of that. And people dance very close and it's a coordination of the bodies like no other. And that's what people will be able to see at Spruce Peak. One of the things that I see here on the program is up close with the maestros. Tell us about that. That will be a conversation and where people can ask questions but we also tell the story of each one of these maestros. And it's quite an interesting story because these orchestras have been very, very active in the 40s and in the 50s. And then there was a revival around the 90s that grew a lot until what is today 2023. So tango has been around for 100 and almost 150 years. And these people are part of that history and it's really a great opportunity to be able to be close to them and ask questions and get to know what really happened in the history of tango. And I see also you're gonna have workshops on musicality. Tell us what that's about. Yes, so in order to be able to dance or to enjoy the music as a listener, it's important to know, there's a lot of information to grasp in the music of tango. There are many layers and having a musicality workshop helps you to be able to appreciate the art in a much better way. It's like going to a museum and you know nothing about the art. You will cruise through the paintings or any piece of art and enjoy it as a view, but you really don't know much of what's going on. But if you have an insight of what is the art about, the art form about or what the story is behind the painting, then you have a much greater appreciation and enjoyment of the art. So this is the same with our music. Well, in addition to the classes and the hands-on work, tell us about these afternoon melongas that's gonna be part of this. Yes, so the afternoon melongas are, as I said before, people know tango through the dance mainly. There were shows in that made tango famous all over the world like Tango Argentino or Forever Tango. And one of the ways that you experience tango is listening, but the other way that you experience tango is by dancing. Tango is a social dance. So it's not just what happens on top of the stage, it's also what happens as a community. There is a big community of tango dancers all over the world. And these melongas give the opportunity to mingle, to have a fun dancing, and also to have the connection with the musicians, which is very rare these days. I think it's important that that experience, you know, that melonga experience, that it's, you know, get together, dance tango, that's a very important part of tango heritage that still happens in Argentina every single day. And, you know, that's part of what we do for tango in Buenos Aires and to be able to share that with people in the United States, to share that experience, I think it's very important because, you know, many musicians today even were exposed to tango by dancing first. So I think it's a very powerful tool and it's a very important part of our heritage. And I'm just happy that this is happening in such a beautiful venue as well. Wonderful. Tell us about the concert that's going to be taking place. Actually first tell us about the orchestra, the orchestra. Yes, so the orchestra will be, it's part of the whole two weeks that we are working here the part of the result of these two weeks. And the idea of having the maestros join the students or the students joining the maestros to experience the music firsthand. And the orchestra prepares for these two weeks very intensively and I just mentioned something that happened this week. There are many students, not many, but a few students that come here with the idea that we will give them a chart and they will have the melody and some few chords and they will just gather with other musicians and everybody will play the same thing. This is nothing like that. This is very, very, very serious orchestra that we have amazing arrangements from Pablo Stiarrivia from Victor Lozien, arrangements from the very famous orchestras like Aniva Troilo, Osvaldo Pugliese. And we coach these musicians very intensively and we perform with the orchestra. So this orchestra is the highest level orchestra that you will find around the world. And it's all with musicians that are not only, they are not amateur musicians. They are professional musicians that are experiencing tango at this time, but they know how to play their instruments. So the level of musicianship is very high and the orchestra sounds amazing. If you go to the website, stotango.org, you will hear some samples of it. You'll give us an idea of how many, I know you're recording this and you're at the festival and the festival itself is gonna be the 18th, 19th, and 20th, but tell us how many people are participating now and how many people either as guests or concert bowlers or performers are involved in this tango festival. Yeah, musicians, we have about, we keep the number to a limit because we don't want to not pay attention to each one of them. So we have about, I would say 30 musicians or maybe a little bit more. And besides the guest artists and the quintet, my quintet and in terms of audience, we expect about 500 people every year because that's the capacity of Spruce Peak and the capacity of the venues that we have in Stowe. That's why we get the passes sold out very quickly. And so next year, if you didn't get one for this year, next year, check the website earlier and you might be able to enjoy the whole package of the festival. And now you're up there now. And can you tell us some of the, maybe the experiences that you've encountered with people and musicians and maybe newcomers and old-timers and people just starting and people, very experienced. Give us an idea of the atmosphere that's going on up there now. Yeah, so we have many of the musicians that come every year and some of them had to skip some years because of work and we have new musicians every year. So the musicians who were here before are able to help the ones that came this year only. And these musicians are from, as I said before, Japan, Korea, Argentina, we have from all over the world. And so it's a great atmosphere because this is not including the competition. It's not a competition where people look to beat each other but they look to help each other. So the students listen to each other and the participants listen to each other and make constructive criticism and they make progress. And also the musicians that are performing, they have the opportunity to all be in a soloist at some point, to experience the being a soloist. And in terms of the people that participate the dancers, there is a big community in Stowe itself and of tango dancers, but there's also people from Montreal, people from Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York. So there are a lot of tango dancers that come and experience the festival. And this is one of the largest in the world, isn't it? Absolutely. The largest in North America, correct? Absolutely, yes, not sure, yeah. That's great. And you said before that you might give us a little sample of the music. Are you ready to do that now? We are almost ready. So you just give me, actually, do you want to play something for Dennis? I could, definitely. And I'm going to get my bandoneon. Excellent, excellent. So I'm going to move the image to the piano. All right. Hopefully you can see it. Okay. Wow, wow, that's absolutely amazing. Is that one of your own compositions or who wrote that? This was a piece composed by the great master Orazio Salgan, which is kind of like our Astor Piazzolla for tango pianist. Yeah, I got to say it's very exciting to get to share time with people. To get to share time with people here. They come from the best schools, her technique is insane. And the fact that they get the opportunity to be trained by people like Victor, it's, I mean, sometimes I think if this was jazz instead of tango, that would be like hanging out like with Miles Davis, you know, it will be something like that. So when we were talking about the atmosphere here, I think appreciation is a word that comes to mind as well. Everybody seems so grateful to have the opportunity to have someone like that.  He jumped into a plane, came to Vermont, and he's playing and hanging out with people that love tango and want to experience that firsthand, which is pretty amazing to me. While we're waiting, I just want to say, because of the time that the festival is going to be going on August 18th, 19th, and 20th, one of the largest tango music festivals in the world, we're gonna publish the website. So if anyone wants information, they can go there. And meanwhile, let's hear from Hector, who is an Emmy Award winner. Actually, I have to correct you, it's a Grammy. Oh, Grammy, Grammy, yeah, it's kind of.  A Grammy, I'll say it's been kind of busy with all this Grammy. I used to make a mistake and say Latin Grammy Award.  Well, Pablo is a Latin Grammy Award winner. And so, yeah, we have a few Grammys in this festival. That's wonderful. Yeah, so I wanted to show you a little bit of this instrument. This instrument is called the bandoneon. And this is not mine. There is a collection of bandoneons in the room behind that will be donated this year to the Orquesta Escuela in Buenos Aires. And this instrument was invented in Germany to replace the organ in processions. And it went all the way to Buenos Aires in Argentina. And became the voice of tango. So this is an instrument that is not an accordion. It's called bandoneon. And it sounds a little bit like this. We will play, what should we play? What do you feel like? Maybe. There is something very that nobody knows. Okay, so you're going for the anthem, huh? Yes, well, one of the anthems. The one in D minor or the one in G minor? The one in D minor. Okay, you got it. Absolutely marvelous. That is fantastic. Thank you very much. And that is just a sample of what people can see and participate in at the Stoltango Music Festival. That's a wonderful way to conclude. And I want to thank you both for being here and for performing and say hello to Jesus for us and Santiago and all the other people involved. And this is just a great way to spend days learning about this wonderful art form and meet these wonderful performance. This is Dennis McMahon. We've been speaking about the Stoltango Music Festival taking place August 18, 19, and 20 in Stolverman. My guests have been Hector Del Proto and Pablo Estigariba, La Libia, who will be organizing and performing and running things up there.  Thank you, Dennis. Thank you so much. And it's always a pleasure to share this time with you and hopefully we'll see you around. Thank you. And this is Dennis McMahon for Positively Vermont. Thank you for watching and most of all, listening.