Welcome to Restaurants Hawaii on Think Tech Hawaii. I am your host, Cheryl Matsuoka, the executive director of the Hawaii Restaurant Association. And today, it's my pleasure, I have two guests, and I'd like them to introduce themselves. First, Rocky, could you introduce yourself? Aloha. Thank you, Cheryl. My name is Rocky Bustamante, and I am the Food Service Sales Manager for the Hawaii Market for Pepsi Beverage's company. I've been in Hawaii for two years, but been with Pepsi for nine, and thank you so much for having me, Cheryl. Thank you, Rocky. And Michael, you want to introduce yourself? Hello, everyone, and thank you, Cheryl, for inviting me to this great show. I am the Hawaii Regional Sales Manager for a company called JTM Food Group. We operate out of all 50 states, including Hawaii on every island, and I've been with them a little over five years, but I grew up in Hawaii, lived here over 40. So we're excited about today's show. Over 40? You're not even past 30 years old, Michael. What are you talking about? Thank you. So today, we are giving our viewers a taste of the hotel and restaurant show, the official trade show of the Hawaii Restaurant Association and the Hawaii Lodging and Tourism Association and StarVest. This trade show, the Hawaii Hotel and Restaurant Show, is a trade show, and it is open to our food service and our hospitality industry. Registration is highly recommended. In 2019, we had over 3,000 people registered, and at the end of the day, we had 4,000 attendees. So please, we anticipate a larger attendance, so if you could register early, it'll really save you time in the check-in line. So when is the Hawaii Hotel and Restaurant Show? It is Wednesday, March 30th and 31st. That's right. We are three weeks away from the Hawaii Hotel and Restaurant Show. There is so much buzz. In the last two days alone, I had six phone calls from companies that inquired and ended up reserving boots, and they're excited to fly in their teams from different parts of the United States. Our show will offer the latest and greatest in food service industry and the hospitality industry all in one place, and this is the show you won't want to miss if you're in our industry. 2019 was our inaugural show, and it was a huge success. How do I measure success? Because I heard firsthand from many of our HRA members that business transactions were happening right there on the floor of the show, which is how I know we will sell out in boots this year. We only have a handful still available, so if you're interested, contact me ASAP. So first, let's go over to Mike, and Mike, share with me your experience back in 2019. Why you decided to get a boot this year at our 2022 HHRS show? Well, it was a very successful show on so many fronts, and it was new, it was an inaugural, and so no one knew what to expect, but what I really enjoyed and JTM really enjoyed is the fact that the people attending the show are all industry leaders in the hotel restaurant, whether they're owners, chefs, or procurement executives, so every person walking through or past you is a potential customer, and that was exciting, and we really leveraged all of that. Unfortunately, COVID hit, and here we are with our second show, but the buzz is out there for the show, and if you don't have a booth currently, I highly recommend getting it. I mean, it was very successful for us. Gerald Shintaku from Star Events and his team did an amazing job running it, made it very simple, load in, load out, trash pickup, everything you can think of was all handled, so from my perspective, from a vendor and a participant, I'm excited for this show and the future of this show and where it goes. I believe it will be the biggest show in the Pacific over the next three to five years for sure. Thank you, Michael. So Rocky, what was your experience in 2019, and why did you decide to get another booth this year at our 2021 HHRS? I mean, 2022 HHRS. Yeah, so Gerald, this will actually be my first time attending the Hawaii Hotel and Restaurant show, but Pepsi has had some really good experiences in the past. I know during that inaugural year, we actually made contact with Hawaii Volcanic Water, a distributor that's just hit it off really well with our leadership team. And a year later, we were distributing the products in Hawaii and now in the West Division. So great, great contact from that standpoint. And then, you know, beyond that, for me, it's about a couple of things. You know, I think it's great that we can support our partners and the local Hawaii industry out here. After the challenges these past couple of years with restrictions and limits on the industry, it's nice for us to go back out and do things like this again. And then as you know, Cheryl, I'm a little newer to the market, only been in Hawaii for two years. Me and my wife moved right during the pandemic. So it's been really hard to meet people and make those connections. And I think this is a great way to meet those industry experts, potential customers, and even like-minded individuals, a Hawaii Restaurant Association event is where I met this guy, Mike, over here. And we did it off pretty well. And then, you know, the last reason we want to get a booth is to really showcase the new and exciting products and services with the industry. We have all the movers and shakers for the hotels and restaurants in the same room and definitely want to connect with them and show them all the new things we have to offer from PepsiCo for this industry. Thank you, Rocky. And I missed, I know that you had your latest drinks at our last event. And I missed it. I'm so sorry. Do you want to share a little bit about some of the products and the new products that you'll be featuring at the 2022 HHRS? Yeah, absolutely, Cheryl. So we at PepsiCo pride ourselves on our innovation. And so we're always coming up with something new, whether it's the fun chips or the new flavors for Mountain Dew. Mountain Dew Spark is out, great taste and flavor. But one of the ones I wanted to highlight that we'll be sharing with the exhibitors at the HHRS is a new product called our Soda Stream Professional. So Soda Stream Professional is part of our journey to provide more sustainable beverage options to our customers and consumers. And what it is, is it's a modern water refill station that creates drinking water that tastes and hydrates without any single use plastic. And what really sets us apart is the flavors and the technologies in this machine. First off, it's fully customizable. You can select if you want sparkling water or still you can adjust the temperature of the water. And then from a flavor standpoint, you can add shots like raspberry lime or lemon mince and even adjust the boldness from just light flavor to really strong. Really good product. Definitely recommend the team check it out at the show. And then the other thing I wanted to talk about was the technology with the unit, both for the user and the operator is just really phenomenal with the team is put together for consumers. It provides an easy user friendly system, contactless pouring options, ADA accessibility and even tracks how much plastic bottles are saved and waters consumes. And then for the operator, it allows access to full data tracking, alerts for filter changes, low flavor shots. And most importantly, it offers options to monetize if necessary. So these are all great things that competitors in this space aren't doing today. And we're really proud of the so extreme professional system that we have and can't wait to show it off at the booth. That is so cool, Rocky. And that's what the show is all about. It's about featuring all of the latest technologies and current trends that are happening in our food service industry. So, Michael, I'm always at your booth. You always have really tasty newest products that you are also distributing. So do you want to share a little taste of your newest products that you'll be sharing at the HHRS show? Would love to. I kind of have two umbrellas at the show under the Cisco umbrella. We're featuring our newest item that Cisco National just picked up. It's going to be launching March 15th. It's called Roasted Street Corn, and it will be in Hawaii. So usually we're six months to a year behind any national launch in Hawaii just because of our location. But we're excited to announce that item, which will be in the core food booth, core food service food booth under the Cisco umbrella. And that's our newest, latest, great item. Goes on a bunch of things from fish tacos to nachos to, I mean, it goes on everything. It's a great item and goes sample it. And the nice thing about it is two-year shelf life from frozen, all you do is heat and serve, which is exciting. And it's a labor saver, which we all know is the number one thing plaguing Hawaii's Hotel and Restaurant Association and the restaurants and hotels out there right now. So that's what we do. So we make 600 items for customers all across the country. There are chef quality speed scratch items that are easy to use and they save on labor. So come by my booth where I'll be featuring four items that are already on island. So you could literally buy it from me today or that day. And the four items are premium chili. It's a very kind of a medium spice chili, small bites. It's good for the whole family. It's not too spicy. I'm also doing two mac and cheeses. One is our deli mac and our other one is our three cheese white mac, which I call the adult mac and cheese because it has cavatapi pasta in it versus an elbow. But and then my last item, I'm featuring something different this time. It's our it's our cinnamon apple filling. So if you own a bakery like Liliha, it's the perfect apple pie filling, but it can be little desserts and everything else. And and what we what I want to emphasize is that during COVID, our company really reached out to a lot of the hotels under the Avendra umbrella. And we became an Avendra partner, which will be announcing at the show as well. And there is a lot of hotels here that work under that umbrella as under Avendra. So I got 20 items there on a list, but I'm only featuring four that you could get on Island at this point. But the nice thing about what we do is we target employee meals. So one person can pretty much feed 300 to 1000 employees with what we provide to a hotel. So again, if labor is your issue, come see me. I'll help you solve that problem and give you great chef quality speed scratch items, which will help you save some money with the labor. So that's what's going on with JTM Food Booth number 111. I love it, Michael. And I'm always at your booth. I just enjoy, you know, tasting all the different food offerings that you have. And they're so delicious. One of the things that Michael, that you shared with me last year, was that you were able to connect with somebody at the show. And do you want to tell our viewers and share with them a little bit about what happened? Sure.  But the show was so awesome is that everyone that I had a list for pretty much showed up and came to my booth and I was able to meet them, get their contact information, show them what we do. And it's more important to have that face to face engagement which you get at the show. And we were very fortunate. We had a great response from this. We got into several large hotels. I don't want to name them, but yeah, several large hotels. And we're excited for the same clientele visiting us this year, if not more. And like Cheryl said, earlier is the excitement is out there. I mean, we've been down for two years. People are looking for new items, new technology like Pepsi. And and this show is going to have it all. So I strongly recommend that you come. Thank you. Especially if you're in the Outer Island. Sorry. Yes, you're right. Even the Outer Islands and the Neighbor Islands. Yes. We have also special hotel pricing for people coming over that need to have. So that's the calls that I've been getting. You know, they want to reserve a booth and want to know if we have special hotel pricing. We also have a trolley that will be going around the Waikiki area, picking up people at designated locations. I think there's three designated locations to make the transportation a lot easier. As right now, you know, rental cars are very hard to come by. So we try to give as much convenience as possible to get to this show. So before I switch the topic, is there anything that two of you want to share more about the show or what you're doing to prepare for the show and what you're looking forward to for the show? I'm looking forward to visiting Mike's booth. Man, all that stuff sounds so delicious. Thank you. Exactly. I'm always visiting Mike's booth. It's always so fun. And we have many, many other food vendors that will also be doing the same thing. Right, Mike, in the show, right? So what I see in 2019, which I know will happen this year as well, is all the booth vendors are all going to kind of walk around and see each other and things are going to spark ideas like Pepsi is going to come to my booth. I'm going to go to theirs and vice versa. You're going to see technology, you're going to see equipment, you know, people that sell in equipment and everything else. So it's a it's a great one stop food show that you should be a part of, especially since we've been shut down for two years. And the first one was such a success. This one I know will be even more successful. You you should be at this show. I mean, if you're on the Outer Island, make the commitment, come here, see what everybody's doing, and then you take great ideas, great technology back to your your island and and really stand out from the rest for sure. Yeah, and just speaking on that neighbor island point, all the things that we're showcasing at the show, it's not just for Honolulu. It is for the neighbor islands, Big Island, Maui, Kauai. We have Pepsi teams out there as well that are always looking for great ideas to partner with their restaurants and hotels out there as well. Good point. Thank you so much. And I know, Michael, you cover all islands also. Yes. Yes, yes, set me home. Not yet. Another another component that's going to be different this year at the HHRS is that we'll be having silent auctions and so how it's going to work is the two silent auction fundraisers, each held by the Presenting Association. So Hawaii Restaurant Association will have their own silent auction and the HLTA will have their own silent auction. And each of the fundraisers will benefit our educational foundation. So if anyone would like to donate an item or a gift card, the items that Hawaii Restaurant Association collects will support the HRA Educational Foundation and our future workforce and our future employees with scholarships. And that will help them further their culinary and hospitality education. The HRAEF, which we're fondly called, supports local public high school two year pro start programs. And these culinary programs are for juniors and seniors in public high schools and they receive a two year culinary training. So for those restaurateurs out there looking for future employees, this is where you're going to get the pool in the pro start culinary program. They have the opportunity to receive their food safe handling certificates. They learn knife skills and all the components on how to run a kitchen and how to run a restaurant. We just held our pro start instructors quarterly meetings. And I'm thrilled to announce that every single instructor stated that their enrollment in their culinary programs will be growing in August of 2022. So that's really great to hear when we are struggling for employees. So to learn more about how you can get involved or donate to the Sun and Auction, just email me at info at HawaiiRestaurant.org and we'll make arrangements to collect it. And we want to thank you for participating in our fundraiser to support future scholarships. The Hotel and Restaurant Show is the largest showcase of Hawaii's food service and hospitality industry. Our show connects the very best in our industry. So again, everyone, March 30th and 31st at the Hawaii Convention Center. I invite our food service and our hospitality industry to register for free. But remember, it is only open to our industry only. It's a trade show. We also have just a handful of food still available. So as Michael said, you know, to reserve your booth and to register to attend the show, just go to HawaiiHotelandRestaurantShow.com and you'll be able to register. So gentlemen, we have like another few minutes. Is there anything that I missed before we close the show? Well, I just wanted to again, thank you for inviting us on, Cheryl. It's always it's always good talking with you and always good seeing you. For those who are coming to the show, definitely stop by the Pepsi booth to check out the so extreme units. But even if that's not something that's right for your business, come stop by and say hi, you know, for Pepsi partners. It's always good to see you. And for non Pepsi partners, you know, we it's also good to see you too. And in talk story, we offer lots of services from fountains, coolers, bar guns and all the best products at really competitive prices. Or if you just want to say hi, you're welcome to say hi too. OK, and for me, I just wanted to and I forgot to mention that for my position, I do travel to a lot of mainland shows all across the country. I would say five to seven a year, including the National Restaurant Association and in comparing Hawaii and what we're doing here and what they're doing on the mainland, I really enjoy the Hawaii Restaurant Association show very well run, like I said, with Gerald Shintaku and Star events. But it's just getting that personal contact where we weren't getting it before versus the mainland where it's just a madhouse. So you're basically fighting for the same people. So it's a little more relaxed. You have a lot of time to chat with people, get to know them, get their contacts and get to see what they're interested in. And because a lot of the stuff that we make sometimes comes from the industry where they're looking for something, I'm not providing it, but three, four months from now, I could, you know, so it's a win win for everybody to be there. If you don't have a booth, you should get one. If you at the very least attend, especially the Outer Islands, I know it's getting busy out there and to have all these great tools and new ideas and things that will help you save money and labor with great JTM food items and other competitors of mine that will be there. It's a no brainer. You need to be at the show. Thank you, gentlemen. And another valuable component of why attend the HHRS show is our educational seminars. You know, that's where you'll learn what's new and cutting edge in our industry and where you'll get to meet all of the industry leaders. So check out the website again, Hawaii Hotel and Restaurant Show. Register so that you can cut through that line and not have to fill out all the forms at the registration desk. And you'll see the list of our educational seminars. They're always well attended. It's how you will stay informed and updated on what's happening in our food service industry. So, gentlemen, before I close, is there anything else that I miss because I'm getting the two minute warning? Nothing else I missed. So great. Thank you, everyone. So again, the Hawaii Hotel and Restaurant shows the largest of Hawaii's food service and hospitality industry. Our show connects the best in our industry, March 30th and 31st at the convention center. And we do have a handful of booths still available. So to reserve, just email me at info at HawaiiRestaurant.org. And again, Hawaii Restaurant Association is the voice of Hawaii's restaurants and food service industry. Thank you, everyone, and have a great day. Thank you so much for watching Think Tech Hawaii. If you like what we do, please like us and click the subscribe button on YouTube and the follow button on Vimeo. You can also follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn and donate to us at thinktechhawaii.com. Mahalo.


Jimmy K here, Metal Voice. Look at this. The metal voice shirts are now on sale. Just go to the video description to find out on how you can purchase one. Metal! Welcome to the Metal Voice. Today on the show we have the one, the only, James LeBree, singer of Dream Theater. Fellow Canuck. Yeah. How you doing guys? Kind of early. I think he's at his morning coffee here. We're ready to go. Yeah. I got the two espressos in me. So pretty much all the, uh, all pistons are firing for sure. Yep. All right. So we're go a view from the top of the world upcoming album tomorrow, 15 studio album released on Insight Out October 22nd. That's tomorrow. Big, big new album. And I guess we could start off with the tour. The tour that never happened and everybody was looking forward to. So maybe you could just give us an update on that, James. Yeah. So it was a, uh, it just came down to how comfortable we were with going out. And, you know, we were getting kind of, uh, uh, mixed messages from promoters and, uh, our, our agencies and just everywhere we were looking, our management was looking into it across the board with, uh, people that were out there, tours that were going on, tours that had come down. And it just seemed to us, I mean, you guys, I'm sure you guys are aware of this, but when you put together a tour and, uh, the amount of money that's put into a tour is, it's astronomical. Um, you know, and the kind of production that we go out with is, is pretty big. It's pretty substantial. So, uh, you know, we were just getting a lot of, indication that the bands that had been going out, uh, were out for a week or two and somebody within the band or the crew came down with COVID and then the whole camp had to be shut down up to 10 days. Well, that, that's, you know, that's financially, uh, disabling to, for any tour of any magnitude that you can, you know, just pull down a whole camp of, uh, let's say 30 something people and the amount of, uh, money that's generated while you're out there, it's just, you're talking 10 days where you're just dead in the water. So it didn't make sense to us. One, we were still concerned with our health going out.   There was three of the guys in the band that said, no, we don't want a tour and we're not going out. And there was two of the guys in the band that said, come on, let's do it. Let's go for it. We're all for it. And that's what it came down to is that, you know, it was a majority vote that said, no, we're not about to go out. Yeah. What are you going to do? Well, yeah, I know that John Petrucci just said, you know, he was one on the, on the two. Yeah, that's right. Yeah. And you know what?  Well, you know, truth be known, we're all frustrated that we're not out there touring. That's what we love to do. We love to be, to be out. But, you know, some of us felt that we weren't willing to take that risk and, and come down with this, you know, unfortunate virus. It just, it just didn't seem to me and to the other two guys that were on the side of fence that I was on, that it didn't make sense to, to risk it at this point. But, you know, everything's being rescheduled. It's been postponed and everything's coming back online in February. And I think we're going to be closer to not only more people being vaccinated, but also herd immunity. So let's see what happens, you know, definitely. Yeah, I know a lot of bands that were hoping that 2021 would be the year, but yeah, I mean, the concerts are getting pushed back every day now into 2022. So it's, it's part of the norm in the world. We're keeping our fingers crossed for 2022. So sure. Absolutely. Yep. So let's get to the album of you from the top of the world. I mean, again, another Dream Theater classic. What's, you know, I hear a lot of influences on this. Do you still incorporate some of your earlier influences into the music or you're just, you're too much in the Dream Theater mode or sound to, to, to let other outside influences affect the writing? Yeah, I don't think that we, you know, we're aware of what's going on, you know, as far as being contemporary and being in the now, we're aware of what's going on musically out in the, in the world around us. But I think that we've always just stood true to ourselves first and foremost. So, you know, there's an identity there. There's a familiarity when people spin any given Dream Theater album, there's, you know, you can identify with it immediately. And I think with us, you know, definitely, like a lot of people have been saying that a lot of fans that have heard any snippet of the album have said, well, you know, it seems to be reminiscent of some older material or more classic Dream Theater.  I guess you could say that. And, you know, I've been saying all along since I started doing interviews for this album, that I think subconsciously, you can't help but be affected, you know, on our last world tour, we were playing Scenes from a Memory. We were honoring that anniversary 20 years, and we were playing that album in its entirety from beginning 10. And I think that you're, you're somehow reminded of what happened throughout that album, what made that album so dynamic and enamored our fans with it, is the fact that the way that it did play, and it was very cohesive, and all the styles were incorporated. And whether you are going from a song of strange deja vu or home or, you know, finally free, there's just something that it speaks volumes as far as who and what we are, and what we represent musically. And I think that kind of, you know, just you play it every night, you get close to it, you start to analyze it, we'd even have discussions about, you know, some of the moments throughout that album and why it was so special, not only to us, but to the fans. And so I think when you sit down, I mean, we knew before going into the studio that we wanted to write an epic, that was absolutely, you know, everyone was on board for that. So I think when you know that you're going to do something like that, it opens up all the possibilities for the rest of the album to unfold as such. We didn't want any time constraints. With distance over time, it was about, hey, let's get in, let's bang out an idea, let's, you know, conclude, and then, you know, move on to the next. And it was, you know, those songs were very concise, they were anywhere like four or five minutes. And I think it really spoke loudly to our fans because they weren't expecting that. Whereas this album was, let's get back to not having any parameters that we need to be concerned with consciously. And just let's, you know, write what we feel we're all being inspired by or influenced. And we need to create, to make a classic dream theater. And I think it really does stand on its own itself because of that.  I mean, there must be an outsider feel when you're writing or playing with the band or trying to get together with the band to write this album. Yeah. No, I, you know, if anything, I'd say that it's for the Canadian jokes always going on. Well, no, we, yeah, we do that once in a while. Yeah, we do that once in a while.  And, but I mean, that's seldom, but, but we do have fun with that, you know, and then I'll go right into the Newfoundland kind of accent, which is what is that a combination of Irish and I don't know, but, you know, I'll go, hey, guys, we might want to be going down there, you know, but it's, it's, it's all in good, good nature. But the thing is, is that I think that it creates an identity. I mean, you know, with Dream Theater too, there's that, that respect because, you know, one of their bigger influences was, was rush, you know, growing up and then being from that country, there's just that, that immediate recognition that there's a lot of great talent in Canada and there is, there always has been and continues to be. So I never felt like an outsider. I felt like, if anything, it just gave me my own identity, you know, and, and it was something that I could proudly, you know, carry the flag and say, yeah, you see, you know, here's an American band and they, they searched and searched and it wasn't until two years after searching that they found the vocals for their band and that was a Canadian. So it just, you know, I think it's, it's a true testament of the, the kind of talent that stands in and has always been in Canada, for sure. Well, mentioning Rush, I mean, I'm listening to Transcending Time, which is probably my favorite track, besides the title track on the album. And I mean, just that opening feel with the guitar and drums, it just feels so rush, rush like. Yeah, yeah, for sure.   And those guys are incredible. You know, I did a few years ago, I guest on a Rick Emmett solo album. And, and I had the pleasure, it was my second time meeting Alex Lifeson. And what a, what a gentleman, you know, just a true down to earth, amazing musician. I've always said that, you know, he was one of the unsung heroes for some strange reason, as far as a guitar player, I think he's one of the greatest guitar players out there. The stuff that he created on the guitar is unbelievable. It's just incredible.  And, you know, so being and sitting amongst those guys and, and those guys, you know, knowing about Dream Theater, it was funny because Rick Emmett's son came into the studio that day to get a picture with me.  He says, my son is more into you than, than his father is a singer. And I said, Hey, trust me, Rick, my kids both love other singers besides me. So it just, it runs the garment, you know, we're both part of that. So, but yeah, it was, but, you know, I think that's what it comes down to is that there's, there's a lot of incredible talent. When I first came into the band way back in 91, you know, the first thing I said to them as I said, you know, hey, one of the beautiful things is that I lived just in Toronto. So for me back then to fly into New York, it took 50 minutes from gate to gate. Nowadays, it's an hour and a half, but we all know the reasons why. But, you know, and I said, I have no intentions of moving down here. So if you guys are good with that, let's be a band, you know, but I want to stay in Canada. I love the area, friends and family. And they're like, yeah, of course, you know, and it's worked out beautifully over the years. You were introduced, right? Was it from Lee Aaron's management or? Yeah. And Aldenova was in the mix somewhere and. Well, you see, it kind of hails from. So it's all Canadian. Yeah. So it was all Canadian. So I was in a band called Winter Rose, and we were out with Lee Aaron touring. Lee Aaron came up to me and said, hey, do you have any stuff that you've recorded because I really love what you're what you're doing out on stage every night and how you sound and blah, blah, blah, blah. I said, yeah, here's a disc. And I just thought she wanted to like listen to it. And at the time we were being looked at by Atlantic Records, Winter Rose. So unbeknownst to me, I guess her real name is Karen, and she sent it to this guy at Aquarius Records, which is up around you guys at the time. And it was his name was Pierre Paradis. I think I'm not. And he listened to it. And he called me at the time and he just said, hey, I just want to let you know that I'm so and so I was told about you and I've been given a disc of yours. And I'd love for you to offer you a solo album. And I said a deal. And I said, well, no, I got my winter rose. I'm sticking with these guys, you know. And he said, okay, well, you know, let me get back and he got back to me. Hey, how would you like to sit down and write with all the Nova you and him can write an album together? And I said, hey, listen, I really appreciate that. And I think all this great. No doubt about it. And I said, but that's not my plan. It's either winter rose or it's nothing. And then so what he does, he sends the tape down in New York to MCA Records, because he had connections down there. They heard it and then they threw it at Dream Theater, the guys in Dream Theater and said, you got to listen to this guy. And rest is history.  And like you said, a view from the top of the world, that's the epic that you made out to that you, you know, was your goal to to write. And I mean, how does this feel compared to all the other epics you've written? Well, I guess you're just kind of caught up in the moment. I mean, right now, we're really excited with with this current album. And then, you know, I think it just each album has its place and its its closeness to you. And so I think for any band or any artist that's releasing an album, it's you're currently, you know, engaged with with the present. And with us right now, it's it's all about this album. It's all about the songs. It's it's what we created. And you're just really pumped and excited about people really being able to immerse themselves and really engage with with the with the music at hand. I mean, when I sit down, sometimes I can sit down, I can listen to the song from this album or that album. Once along, I do it very, very rarely. It's just be and the reason is that I think, you know, when we are touring, that's we're just inundated with Dream Theater music.  And I think that stands true for any artist out there is that you want listen to other artists, or you're just you're just not you just get away from like I the other part of this is that I have another solo album coming out in May, May 20th, 22. So what I do a lot when I'm when I'm writing that kind of stuff is I don't listen. I tend to make myself not listen to other music, because I don't want in any way something to influence me that's coming on online from someone else. So I want to just be completely isolated and thinking within my thoughts and what I'm feeling at the time and that becomes the music. And so I think, you know, it's it's when I hear something like, well, you just said it, it's probably one of your favorite tracks is a view from the top of the world. Well, I'm listening to that, you know, and then I listen back to whether it be the count of Tuscany, and I go, yeah, you know what, these two, they make sense. These two, you know, obviously, the view from the top of the world is longer, is a longer epic. But the fact is, is that you can tell it's from the same band, and you can tell that it brings you on that same kind of a ride, that same kind of a journey. And I think that's, that's extremely, well, that's the point to any of this is that, no matter what we're doing at any given time, it has to be something that you can stand behind 100% and feel that you've you've done it with full conviction. Well, a quick question. I got a two part cork. My good friend cork is the biggest dream theater fan in this neck of the woods. He wants to know who your favorite singers are and the bands that you listen to regularly. Oh boy. Okay, well, favorite singers are Robert Plant, Ian Gillan, Freddie Mercury, Lou Graham, Nat King Cole, Rod Stewart, Steve Perry. Oh my God. Geez, I don't know. That's what's on the top of my head. And then and then with that, like, I mean, you know, Robert, Robert Plant, just, and Freddie Mercury, and, like I said, even like Steve Perry, those guys, what stood out with me, oh, Stephen Todd is another one from Aerosmith, like all these guys, you could, you could tell within the first line who you were listening to. And they all created their own style. They definitely had their own voice. They had their own sound. And I think that's what I was influenced by. And it was the way that they used it was, you know, whether they were being aggressive or a bucket of or whatever it might be, that they had nailed the what you would expect to hear when you listen to any singer and that is expression. And that even if you didn't understand the language, you can still feel what the message was. It's conveyed strongly. And so that's why those those vocalists influenced me. I remember my dad saying to me when I was about 10 years old, because I was singing since I was five. And by the time I was 10, I was singing around the house all the time, all the time.  And I remember thinking, as I, you know, as I grew older and that, and I'm listening to my inspirations, I'm thinking, yeah, that makes sense because each and every one of these guys has their own sound, and has created their own style. So it made perfect sense to me from an early age to pursue that goal. As far as bands, pretty much any of those bands that those guys front are bands that I listen to regularly. And, you know, another band that I love and another singer is Bono from U2. You know, he stood the test of time. And I think he has a beautiful voice. He has a unique voice. But, you know, I also like Young the Giant. I think that they're a very cool band, like One Republic. There's another guy, Ryan Teter, just a great singer and great writer. So these are bands that definitely strike the chord with me. Yeah. I got one for you. Okay. Here's a question from Orlando. Like these are all my friends who want to ask you questions. When Iron Maiden lost Bruce Dickinson, was there any talk or any ask, you know, or audition? Would you like to join Maiden? Because you would have been the person who fitted the time. Yeah, sure. Yeah, absolutely there was because at the time we were being looked at to be managed by Iron Maiden's management.  Dream Theater, we had already recorded images and words. We were looking for management. We were getting ready to try and set up a tour and get out there. And I remember him saying to me, you know, he takes me aside and the rest of the guys in Dream Theater, they're there too playing darts and that because we were looking at him for management. And he says, I just want to throw something at you. And he had this assistant with him to Merck at the time. And they're both standing there and they're going, what do you think about, you know, being the singer with Iron Maiden? And I said, what? Dude, what? What are we talking about here? I'm confused. Are you not here for the reason that you might start managing Dream Theater? Or are you here to get me to become and I'd already recorded? Yeah, can you imagine how bizarre that was? Anyways, so I just said, no, no way. You know what? I'm going to tell you the reasons why I'm not going to do this. And they said, what's that? And I said, one, Dream Theater. That's it. Period. And I said, but if I need to go any further with this, way back when I was 22 years old, I sang for a band called Coney Hatch for a year. And I walked into another singer being Carl Dixon. Is it Dickens or Carl Dixon? Right? Yeah. And I said, and basically what I felt like was a glorified jukebox. And I said, because I came into a band, I was able to sing all that stuff, no problem, no problem. And, and I said, but there was never that this is me. And this is what I created. It was about, can you accept me? And are you looking at me for who and what I am? I don't think so. And I don't think you ever will. So walking into Bruce Dickensons, and Bruce and I have this mutual respect for one another. We've met several times. We've done several shows. I remember doing the BBC show with him, you know, and there's that mutual respect between the two of us. And I remember just thinking, I'm not going to get out there and be singing maiden every night, even though I think they're a great band. And Bruce is a great singer. No, thank you. It's, I need to create something that I can say, no, this is what I created from the beginning, you know, and we all know, okay, I wasn't on the first album, right, when Dream of Day Unite, but neither was Neil Peer. Neither was Bruce Dickensons. And neither was Bruce. There we go. See, you guys are talking my language. Exactly. So you know what I'm saying? So it was just a bizarre and it came and went as fast as it was asked. It was dismissed and they went, all respect, totally get it. No problem. Boom. And we moved on. All right. Closing two minutes here. We love the album. At least I do. I think it's, you know, it's, it's, you know what it is? They're short, quick, and they feel like short, quick melodic songs. Yeah. They're not. Yeah. Then you look and it's 10 minutes long. They are so enjoyable. I really dig this album. I love the solid production. You do a great job. I love the vocal hooks, the melodies. You know, they're contagious and it's a real grower. It really is. Well, thank you. I appreciate that. I appreciate that a lot. I think we really do, guys, you know, I say it every time, but I'll say it again and fully behind this 100%. It's a, it's a real gem. And I think the fans, once they can get their hands on each and every song, you know, they're really going to appreciate what we put out here. And I can't wait to get out touring. You know, there's no doubt about it. When you, when you have your solo album, when you want to release it, come back on. We'll talk about that. And we'll talk more about Canadians. Absolutely. Tomorrow is the big day. Everybody will get to listen to it. It'll be released tomorrow. Yep. Excellent guys. No, absolutely. Thank you very much. And we'll definitely talk about the solo album. Absolutely. We'll do it. Thanks guys. Stay well.


Yu-Gi-Oh! GX! Generation X! Well, it was a bit delayed, but we are back with another Yu-Gi-Oh! GX duel, and this time, it is one that has been requested for a while. Jaiden vs. Chazz. I, of course, will be using Chazz's deck, and you just spent, like, $40 on your Jaiden deck, right? Yeah, yeah, this guy has some URs in here that I didn't think I would have to craft. Bro, why are you in silver? Bro, I mean, I've been playing like that, bro, but it's fine, cause we've both got platinum borders, bro. You know what else is fine? My O'Jama's, bro. My strategy is unbeatable. Well, that's a bit scary now, isn't it? I would. I would rather you play your... I need that extra card. And by the way, from that Jaiden and Cyrus duel, don't worry, this is not the same Jaiden deck. This one actually, like... This one is different. We've upgraded it. This one actually has a polymerization in there, so, like... Hmm... Hmm... Hmm... Now this is an opening hand...  You know what? You know what I'm gonna do, bro? I'm just gonna go ahead and do this.  Yeah, bro. I'm going to get my... I'm going to Chazz it up. Wow, really strong one. Not that Chazz. Doesn't know what to say. My older brothers don't much care for me personally. I'll start out with E-Emergency Call. Oh, brother.


Tantra does not mean unbridled promiscuity as Americans have projected it. Tantra means the technology. There are many things, if I say, things that happen around me, they're too fairy-tale-ish.  Questioner- Namaste. Can you talk about mentalism? Sadhguru- What's mentalism? Questioner- Mentalists like… Sadhguru- Oh, mentalists that move like that. Questioner- Mentalism, yeah. Sadhguru- Okay. Don't… don't go by the Hollywood movie. A lot of things are exaggerated there, but can human mind do things outside? Of course, of course it can. Today, if I utter this word, I'm sure there's a whole lot of misunderstanding because this comes from elsewhere. This is what tantra means. Tantra does not mean unbridled promiscuity as Americans have projected it. Tantra means the technology. Technology means when those times, when we did not have any external instruments of technology, we realized the highest grade of technology is here. And to exercise this in many different ways. Now, if we want to see outside that door, we need a periscope. Now somebody found a way to look beyond, without a periscope, using your mind beyond the realm of your body. Right now, mind is functioning within the realm of your body, you want to use it there. It is possible to do that, it's not not possible. It's just that all kinds of wild and absurd things are believed. If you trim those things, in many ways, knowingly or unknowingly, many of you are using this. You create what you want in the world when you really want it. In a way, it's simply your focus which makes those things happen. Maybe it is not as tangible as it's in a cinema, but every one of you to some extent you're doing, isn't it? How effectively do you do it? Depends on… there are many things if I say, things that happen around me, they're too fairy-tale-ish. I wouldn't believe such nonsense if anybody told me, so I won't tell you because I don't want you to believe or disbelieve those things. But every day people around me witness things which they think is nothing short of a miracle, but there's no miracle. Life is a big miracle. Are you a part of it or are you out of it? That's a big question. Isn't this a big miracle? This guy eats a noodle and becomes like this. Is it not a miracle I'm asking? It is a miracle, isn't it? Question is, are you consciously in it or are you out of it? That's a big question. If you're in it, you're… see, if you use any thought, this is… well, he was asking, how do we do it in the beginning? Suppose you generate a thought. Have you noticed this? Suppose you generate a thought and then you invest your emotion in this thought. Suddenly this thought becomes boom, huh? Yes or no?  But now I invest my emotion into that thought. Now suddenly, you are not just another person to me, you're something else to me. Is it reality or no? Just because you invested your emotion into your thought, now there is a next thing. If you invest your life energies into it consciously, suddenly this will become something else altogether. Suddenly you become like life is a play, is no more a struggle because miracles are always happening.  I'm saying this is happening to… it's happening all the time, just see. You put filter into the root, just see, it becomes fragrance. Is it… is this not miracles and miracles all over the place? The question is only, are you consciously a part of this miraculous creation or are you stuck in your own logic and outside this miracle? That's all the big differences.


What I'm here to talk about is the brave sailors who in time of crisis stepped up with everything that they could control at true risk to their own life and limb. To number one, save their shipmates and save their ship.


Welcome to Access to Trader, the number one community for those who are committed to taking control of their trading in order to achieve success, profitability, and longevity. Thank you for joining us. Here's Dan Shapiro to help you find your edge, master your process, and own your future. Hey guys, good morning and happy Saturday everybody. Welcome to another edition of theaccessotrader.com weekend update show. If you are brand new to the channel, all we ask is take a second, click a like, share, comment, be proactive, right? Be proactive. We'd love to hear from you your experiences, whether it's with a brand new trading career or a mid-level trading career. If you were doing it for a long, long time, I think it would always help everybody. So for all you guys who are brand new guys, welcome aboard. So I joked around yesterday on social media. I was looking at charts last night, I always start looking at preliminary ideas for the next day, especially for the next week. And I literally joked around, I go, if you watched any of the videos for the last pretty much two weeks, it's the same thing. Meta, Microsoft, NVIDIA, AMD, they're all strong, right? They're all strong. They're all breaking out. The market's going crazy.   But the point is, it was the same message. And if you look at the price action this week of the market, I always joked around I said, what's the point of you watching the weekend video? I'm going to be basically saying the same thing. It's literally the same stocks taking out the previous day's range and going higher. NVIDIA, AMD, right? AMD, Meta, Microsoft, we talked about on Thursday's video. Amazon woke up, right? So it's kind of counterproductive for me to sit there for the next 12, 13 minutes and say exactly the same thing. Instead, I want to be a little bit different and kind of give you guys a little bit of a glimpse of potentially looking, I don't want to use the word outside the box, potentially looking for ideas in those strong names or in that weak name. We'll talk about Tesla in a second that potentially could give you an alternative move in the opposite direction. And what do I mean by that, right? So if you saw what was going on in the Nasdaq this week, I mean, every single semiconductor stock has been going nuts. Avago, we talked about on the weekend on Thursday's video. SMCI had guidance. This stock is only up 112 points in the day. Nothing to see here. AMD continues to pull in in the video. We'll talk about in the video in a second.  You have the amats of the world. You have your clacks of the world. And you're saying to yourself, wow, this is just an incredible move. And it absolutely is. And it really kind of amplifies the statement that I made a week ago, a week and a half ago, that fund managers, they're chasing profits. They're chasing moves because so many of them missed that 54% rally on the Nasdaq 100. And if you look at all the data, whether it's inflation, jobs, whatever the case may be grouped in, it all spells the same thing. The market is strong as hell. Now, the question is, what happens next week? We don't know, right? We have to assume unless something really dramatic happens, the market continues. This is an election year. You have Trump back running. You have Biden hanging on each day. So look, I don't know who the president of the United States is going to be in 2024. I'm not a Trump guy. I'm not a Biden guy. I'm not a really big political type of guy. But I know it's not going to be Biden. It's just not. There's no way you could be the most aggressive Democrat in the world. There's no possible way you can see this guy for another four years. Having said that, right? Having said that, the market loves to be strong in an election year, and that's kind of where we are. So I don't know what's going to happen next week. I still see a lot of value, for example, in the chip space. Like, look at Micron, right? Look at Micron. Micron is very, very close, very close to breaking out. You know, this is, again, if you're going with the theme, right? If you're going with the theme of strong semiconductors, well, a name like Micron, you know, you should definitely be watching. A name, for example, like Apple, right? We talked about Apple getting above the 50 day. Well, Apple is finally above the 50 day. And this is where this is with news coming in of potential scheduling delay for their new product, right? Super bullish. You have Amazon very, very close to attacking the January highs, right? You know, very, very bullish. You have AMAT, again, another semiconductor, big, big three day move. But hey, even if it gets one or two days consolidation and gets above the upper Bollinger band, things can really, really stretch as well. Here's kind of where I take off the euphoric glasses, right? I take off the euphoric glasses and look at things from the point of, well, reality, right? The one thing we do know as traders, there's something called buyers getting tired and sellers getting tired. So for example, let's start off with Tesla. And this is kind of where I want to give you guys a little bit, an alternative view is at least the way I'm looking at stocks. So if you guys remember, you know, we've been pretty much on the short side of Tesla every day, whether it's overnight, we came in last Monday for that six, seven point gap down. And every single day, we're either getting a natural pivot on this thing with some sort of rejection on this thing. But you guys, you know, if you've been following this broadcast, as soon as Tesla lost the 50 day moving average and confirmed the 200 day, I kept on saying is, you know, just rip out your buy button. Again, it won't go straight down, but rip out your buy button. And we should get a move to around 207, right? So Tesla's been the only one that's not participating. And this whole rally is down about 14 percent to start the year. And we talked about that 207 level was the first target. Well, that's where it got, right? If you look at Friday's low 207 fifties, there's two things happening in Tesla right now that is interesting going into next week. I don't remember the last time. And for you guys who trade Tesla, I trade Tesla religiously. I don't remember the last time that Tesla broke out or broke down without significant, significant repeat buying either to the upside or to the downside in the options market. And for all you guys who have paid attention, especially for you guys who trade Tesla on a day to day basis, you kind of know that this whole move to the downside was very, very small and deep out of the money puts. Yeah. I mean, on Friday, did we see, you know, when the stock was at 215, did we see two tens? That's not what I'm talking about. Usually when the stock is breaking down like like Tesla has, usually you would see like 20, 30 point out of the money puts, especially breaking down big levels. And the second thing that I noticed on the way down here was a news blip, right? The news blip was, and you guys kind of, if you've been watching the video or you kind of just know the general news, you kind of know that Elon, you know, basically said, Hey, if I don't have 25% control of Tesla stock, well, what's the point? Right? What's the point of me going all in mentally? I could work on AI projects outside of Tesla and I got the stock down. However, what we did notice, and this is a very, very big key for the whole week, there has been a significant and absolute significant reload buyer into the stock, literally every dollar. It feels like like it feels like somebody is accumulating shares and you could turn around and say, maybe it's Elon Musk, right? Maybe he wants to get to down to that 25, get up to that 25% threshold. It would make sense, you know, not that it's, you know, not that it's morally the right thing to do by making that statement and having the stock come down because he knew after he made that statement, the stock was going to come down, right? So maybe it's him accumulating it in stock, maybe it's brothers accumulating stock. I don't think first I was like, maybe it's Cathie Wood. I don't think so. Maybe it was one of those. I know Cathie Wood started buying at 232 with literally when she started buying, I was shorting the 200 day moving average. So the stock has come in 25 points in the last week and a half or so. So it's been it's been a great, great trader. But what we did notice was continuation of lack of option flow for deep out of the money puts, we saw this reload buyer. And the most important part is when I see a stock that I trade every single day is stalling out levels that it should be kind of really starting to speed up, I start paying attention. And Friday, you know, Friday was a perfect example. I took a short on Tesla on the opening range lows. And I was literally fighting with this thing. It went down like 70, 80 cents. It would not crack. It would not crack. It would not crack. And you see this buyer coming in. And as it was approaching this 207 level, right, as it was approaching this 207 level, because you could see 207 fifties was the low. And that was kind of the first measure potential. I started seeing that buyer just wouldn't give up, especially he was sitting there very aggressively around 208 fifties, reloading, reloading, reloading. So at that point, I was like, you know what? Let me take, you know, let me take my profit here. Let me get out of the trade and let's see what happens next. And as we saw what happens next is Tesla actually had a reversal into the close. Obviously, this is its biggest winning day of the week. It was up 30 cents for the week. The stock is down, you know, a considerable amount. So overall is a very, very successful scenario interval on Tesla. But what I want to watch this week is any potential gap down, potential reversal back to the upside. Now, the key with Tesla is don't anticipate that reversal. OK, don't, because as long as this market becomes euphoric, continues to be euphoric, this is a name that you want to see confirmation. So what I want to see this week is any gap down, I want to see the call buyers come in, if they start coming in, we're going to know it's a sign. If this guy or this guy girl, whatever the case may be, continues to continue to buy stock at the bottom, we're going to know it's only a matter of time that the reversal will come. But for me personally, and again, it doesn't have to come Monday, it doesn't have to come Tuesday, it doesn't have to come at all. We could be having this conversation on Tuesday and Wednesday, talking about why look at the stock, what a move down to 194. And we continuously continue to short these bottom channels. And again, that's still on the table.  If there is an opportunity for a previous day's low, a previous channel to get violated, I want to be in that trade. But what I'm saying is to be at least aware after a 25 point move down to the downside, first target achieved, what we want to start seeing, collecting all this data that we just talked about, it potentially taking out a previous day's highs and reclaiming the five day. If it does reclaim the five day and takes out a previous channel, then I do believe we can have a two, three day worth of potential bounce. Right. I don't want to say rally because, again, until the stock reclaims back the 250 day, we don't want to deem this as a rally. But for the point of reference, right? From the point of reference, I am definitely aware there is a reload buyer. I'm definitely aware there was no aggressive out of the money puts being bought. I am still aware that the stock can go lower and I will continue to short bottom channels if they could confirm. But I have my one eye open. I do know what's up and I will be watching for an aggressive, you know, an aggressive reversal at some point this week. Again, something just something alternative to watch this week. Let's look to the other side of the equation, right? NVIDIA, we joked around for a number of days and saying, well, put it at 600 and start from there, right? Just put it at 600 and start from there. That was the joke. That was a joke, you know, 30 points ago. That was like two days ago. Well, the stock is five points away from 600. Here's where I think instead of, you know, how people always try to try to pick a top. If you're going to pick a top on something, OK, the highest probability where you can pick a top, or at least I don't use that word. I don't want to use that word and confuse new traders. At least if you're in an area that potentially could have a reversal, it's going to be at a whole number. OK, let me give you guys a reference point. So if you guys recall, here was the first time, you know, here is the first time NVIDIA hit 500, right? It was in November. And what happened? The first run up, right? It was kind of the similar run up. The stock went from 392 all the way to 500. What happened at 500, right? Buyers got tired. They got gas out a little bit. And what happened for the next couple of days is they kept on testing that 500, kept on testing the 500. Eventually they gave up and the stock went from 500 all the way back down to 450, right? It's the same thing. You guys see that, right?  It got rejected at 500. Because again, if you're an institution, you're long from 390s, 400, 420s, you're not going to be making sales at 391.13. You're going to be making sales at whole numbers to get rid of your position. And that's where you're going to wind up seeing the biggest amount of reload sellers. So it couldn't get through 500 on 1120. It couldn't get through 500 and 11 through 21. And finally buyers gave up and it gave a $50 reversal, right? Fast forward kind of where we are, right? Fast forward where we are. Here we are again. Another hundred point rise, right guys? Another hundred point rise. It finally got about 500. It went on a hundred point rise. We are approaching another potential area that institutional money flow can start unloading shares at $600 a share. Again, if you bought the breakout and a lot of you guys did, I did. I've traded in the video throughout this whole move, not every single day. Friday was the last time I traded in the video. We caught a great, great bounce off the bottom range, four or five points very, very quickly. But the point is, the stock is doing exactly the same mirror image that it did all the way back in November. I'm not saying it can go through 600. I'm not saying it doesn't even blink at 600. You can get the 610, 620. But be conscious of that area. And that's the whole point where we talked about Tesla. And that's kind of how we talk. Now we're talking about in the video. Be conscious of the 600, right? Be conscious of the data that we, at least, we saw going back to NVIDIA in November. So if NVIDIA stalls out or gets rejected at 600, right? Just the same way you got rejected and stalled out at a 500. You might want to take a short there, right? You might want to take a short and you might want to just use the high of the day as you're out. So for example, if the stock stops at 600, right? And starts going all, it starts going down.  And if it goes through 600, you could flip it and actually go long. So that's an area at least you can get the biggest bang for your buck. Now, let's take a second scenario in that situation, right? Let's say NVIDIA, the first time goes through 600, right? Goes through 600. I don't think it will. But who knows? I don't know anything.  But let's just say, let's just say for the for the for the sakes of the argument, it does goes through 600. Let's just say it puts at a high of 601, 602 and immediately get slammed down on the 600. Then what you can do is what we call a remount, right? Remount off that 600 area. You can shorter off that 600 area and use the high of day as your stop. 601, 602, hypothetically, whatever the case may be. So this is a couple of situations. One, a potential reversal from the downside of Tesla to a potential reversal of the upside of NVIDIA. Again, these are something we want to be prepared for. I don't know if it's going to happen. We could be having this conversation on Monday and be like, I can't believe in the video how strong it is.  It's possible. We saw 700 calls coming in. You know, we saw literally 700 calls coming in for February. So it's all possible. It's all on the table. How I would like to personally play this thing on Monday is the same way we've been playing it this whole run up on weakness. If this thing does, for some reason, gap down on Monday, right, and gives us, you know, gives us an entry into the rising 60 minutes support, then yeah, I would like to get long because there's a high probability shorts will get trapped once again, go right the green in a day and then test that 600 level. And hopefully then, you know, we could have a, you know, 11, 12, $13 potential runner. So sometimes in trading, you're just looking at a chart, for example, you know, like an MU and say, wow, look at MU. It looks great, right? Like look at MU, it looks great. And if it takes out the top of the channel, right, this is basic bare bones, technical analysis. What we just talked about on Tesla, what we just talked about as Nvidia is an alternative way to spot value, potential value that most retail or most traders just are not thinking that way. Because again, they have the rose color glasses on Nvidia. And again, can the stock go to 650 this week? Absolutely. Absolutely. But at least our job, like I say on every single video, be prepared. Don't be naive. Don't think things can happen. Things can happen. They do happen. And they will happen when you when you are when your ego and your bovado is is providing guidance instead of common sense. So the most important part this week, guys, again, continue, you know, continue putting in the work. If you're only trading a couple of years, it's not clicking. It's again, guys, it's not supposed to click. OK, every trader is different, like I've been saying for years. Some traders, they get it the first year or so. Some people don't get it for seven or eight years. It's just the reality. Every kid, especially in school, right, was a different caliber of students.   So everybody develops different. So don't get down on yourself. This is the hardest business in the world for a reason. Time will make you whole, right? Time will make you a better trader. Continue to put in the work. Continue to grind. Continue to put in that extra manpower that most traders won't. And they just they're lying to themselves and they're saying that doing everything possible in their in their path to make things work. Continue to work, continue to grind, guys, continue to have faith. And with God's help, I will see you all on Monday. Take care, everybody. Have a great, great weekend.


Hey everyone, Nathaniel Rovell-Jancer from Nintendo Prime, and we're gonna be talking about the Nintendo Direct Mini, but we're gonna be talking about less about the games that were contained in it, because I feel like it was an okay partner showcase, but more about Nintendo's marketing strategy. Let's get into it. After I tell you about our giveaway, we are giving away a copy of, well, a game that was actually featured in the Nintendo Direct Mini Partner Showcase today, Final Fantasy Chronicles Remastered. We actually have a release date finally. It comes out literally tomorrow. That's great news for people. We are giving away a copy of this game at the end of this month, so on the 31st and or the first of the next month. To enter all your throughs, comment down below, like this video, subscribe to the channel and hit that bell icon. Beyond that, we are also on our road to 50,000 subscribers, and if we can hit 50,000 subscribers by November 1st of 2020, we will be giving away a PlayStation 5. An Xbox Series X or a Nintendo Switch.  All right. So there was a surprise partner showcase today. Now, Nintendo did tell us we were going to be getting more and more partner showcases, and they reiterated during, in the middle, and after this partner showcase, that we're gonna keep getting more partner showcases the rest of the year. At this point, it feels like we got one in July. We got one in August. We'll get one in September. We're probably gonna get one every month for the rest of the year. But obviously, there's a lot of disappointment in the air because people want a general direct or at least a regular Nintendo Direct Mini or at least a Mario Direct where we get those supposed 3D remastered Mario games coming. Are they even real at this point? I think it's fair to question everything. And obviously, we have to talk about where all this information came from that even got us hyped for this week in the first place because it came from a lot of genuinely reliable places. But to be clear, the only person, the only person that ever really said that this week would be a general direct was a guy that goes by Nate the Hate. Now, he has been generally reliable in the past and he does have some big name people that come on his podcast. However, he put out a statement on Twitter today that I want to examine and show you guys that I feel like it's important that we talk about this because he's the person that made us feel like it was a general direct. And you guys can decide what to do with this after. So Nate the Hate put this up today, obviously in response. He said, I don't intend to mislead people. The information I was given to a direct this week be it a mini or general. After today's showing, it appears the company will designate any presentation going forward that omits first party games as a mini partner showcase. A direct mini partner showcase aired today. It lacked Nintendo pulver software like the 3D Mario collection. Based on the info made available to me being 3D Mario should be dated this week plus a direct this week. I concluded this week would be a mini slash general. I'll be more clear. There seems to be some confusion. I'm not saying the 3D collection is being announced this week. Maybe it will. I don't know. If so, we'll be surprised together. I'm saying I was told that it should have been this week with the direct meaning the former was an accurate info. The Mario 3D collection still exists. It'll be announced soon. No, not this week, but sooner enough. Rejoice in that. That's what he claims anyways. Whether or not you can believe him is a whole nother story, but that's what he claims. Now, he's not the only person that puts stuff out there. Jeff Grubb, for those who don't know, he is an actual journalist at VentureBeat. Was the one who said we were gonna get a direct this week. And he was wrong in some senses too. He said that we would get one on Friday. He thought the Friday date was weird but that's what his source is told. We heard from like five different people. The thing is, obviously, we're probably not getting a direct Friday. Maybe we are. Maybe we're still gonna get a general direct on Friday. It is only Wednesday. To be fair, we don't usually get directs on Wednesday either and here we are with the mini partner showcase. So maybe there still is a big general direct for Friday. I doubt it at this point. This is probably it for the week, but you never know. Maybe it is still happening. So Jeff Grubb is here on Twitter. This is the guy who gave us all of the information that we were going to see this on Friday. He is an actual journalist. And obviously, he's not very confident in it. He made a mistake about this back in March of this year and ended up regretting it and saying, you know, hey, why didn't you listen to your past self? You know, it's still happening tomorrow, March 25th. March 26th, why didn't I listen to your past job?  But here's the tweet he put up today. So yeah, this is why I'm less certain about Friday now. You know, he's tweeting out the trying to direct mini and he says, here's the good news. There are non-Nintendo games that are supposed to be in a non-mini direct that are not in this. So he knows about some games that are supposed to be in a direct but aren't supposed to be in a mini. So I guess speculation can continue, but needless to say, he's not sure about any of this Friday business anymore. Again, a direct could still happen on Friday and Jeff Grubb could end up still being right. Like he's saying he's less certain about Friday now. He's not saying that Friday won't happen, but there's a reason that he's not certain because if you scroll down even further, you'll see right here for transparency on what he knows, seven hours ago. You know, it says, you know, this seems totally possible and if it's a mini, I wouldn't expect Mario here instead I would expect Nintendo to come back at some point in mid-September. That's just his personal expectations. But he says for transparency, and this is why leakers, it's easy to attack them. It's easy to attack these people in the media that bring this stuff out here, but Nintendo does things intentionally to weed out people, not to weed out the leakers, but to weed out the people that are leaking the information. So, you know, say Jeff Grubb has five contacts in this case, it says for transparency, let me show you what I know. Something is happening this week, but I've heard like five different variations. There was a non-mini direct coming up, but Nintendo also said there are more partner showcases coming, so I think this is still right. So, reality is that Nintendo kind of goes after, puts out false information basically. So, what Nintendo has done in the past to get rid of certain leaks in the company is they have put out intentional false information to certain employees, and that might be suspected of leaking info. And if that info reaches the ears of certain leakers, it kind of confirms to Nintendo, hey, look, this is the person that's leaking info, and either that person's obviously either fired or asked to leave the company, or is kicked out of certain meetings. I'm not really sure how Nintendo handles it internally. That's up to them, because obviously they're breaking contract and leaking this information. So, like Jeff Grubb is a game journalist, and it's not his fault that his inside sources are potentially giving out false information, because he's heard a whole bunch of different variations for this week from different people. So, I think that in the end, this direct mini-dropping does probably cast a shadow of a doubt on this Friday, but also doesn't necessarily mean that people like Nathan Hate, people like Jeff Grubb, people like Kingzel are all wrong, bad, terrible people that are intentionally misleading. I saw a post up with a BitBlock today, a fellow YouTuber who's working out some highly unique Nintendo content right now for the holiday season, I think starting in September. So, he put out this community post about YouTubers like me and these leaguers as, Nintendo is no more, this company has lost all leadership. It is 100% tone deaf with its audience and consumer interest, and the worst yet, most of their modern games lack the quality that Nintendo feel that was once standard with nearly every game they made. To be clear, as much as I enjoy Josh Thomas' content, there's very few Nintendo franchises. He's actually into. So, the few franchises he's into are spinoffs that he doesn't feel have held up to the quality standards, but he's not as into like the Super Mario Odyssey of the World or the Breath of the Wilds or all that jazz. So like the games that have been hit in home runs, he's not into. So it's kind of a false narrative because he's making a blanket statement about the whole company. Well, he doesn't really enjoy a majority of that company's games. He's very specific with like Animal Crossing, Mario Tennis, Mario Party, et cetera. Anyways, he says, also stop listening to the losers on Twitter and reset era. When they tell you rumors of directing games, they know nothing, despite the fact that they've actually gotten a lot correct over the years. And today was another example of this.  They're creating a toxic community that lacks any kind of charm, creativity, or passion. On the bright side, at least I know my Halloween Nintendo direct will top anything Nintendo's doing, which it's gonna probably be really, really cool. I'm gonna give them that much credit. It's gonna be really, really cool. But like, I don't fall. I've been covering Nintendo news for over a decade. And I don't fault people like Jeff Grubb and Nate the Hate, Emily Rogers or anyone else that would put out stuff and then I'm getting misinformation from their sources because it's not their fault. Now ultimately, the fault is with Nintendo. And for people that want to call out channels like mine and others like me, which there's a lot, I just have to say, hey, you do your thing, man. Some people like to have these super creative, unique concept ideas like he does. He does make extremely unique content. Some people like to just talk about things and people enjoy listening clearly because there's a lot of us channels out here that have a lot of followers. So I guess stick to what you do best and leave everyone else alone. I guess it's my advice to him. I'm not gonna get into a war with him. I just vehemently disagree that he needs to be that assertive with his opinions, I suppose. I guess I can't tell him not to say him. He can say him. It's fine, he did. He's always been quite abrasive with that stuff. But that's not the hearing order there. The point is that, yeah, these directs, these rumors, these leaks, it's tough, man. It's a tough world we go into, tough sledding. And I think, honestly, what makes us hurt for so many people is that we just, we feel like we need Nintendo news. We feel like Nintendo owes us Nintendo news. We feel like it's just, we're in this weird, 2020 is just a weird year. It's a weird year. Can we all admit that? It's such a funky, weird year. Well, whatever. When Nintendo's ready to tell us about their games, they'll tell us about their games. Until then, I think it's just safe at this point. The safest thing you can presume is Nintendo's got nothing for us the rest of the year, but Pitman 3 Deluxe, because that's what they announced. These 3D remasters that everyone says are real, we'll find out eventually if they are, and if they're not, well, then we guess we won't hear about them at all. So either all this stuff ends up being legit or it ends up being fake. I got nothing else for ya. Bloomberg's telling us about a new Switch next year that is more next-gen, more 4K than people expected. Is it legit? Is it real? I have no idea. I'm just a talking head on the internet. I'm just giving you my opinions. So you guys don't even know what you think about Nintendo in the comments below. Obviously, we didn't talk a lot about the direct mini itself. I thought it was fine. I mean, we know what it is at this point. It's a partner showcase.  Anyways, thank you guys so much for tuning in. Catch you in the next video.


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