So, this is gonna be a new type of video. I originally intended to use my big awesome expensive camera, but that got busted, so instead I'm going to be using my dingy $5 Best Buy camera. My apologies, I hope you can forgive the whole grade. Anyway, let's begin. Toward the beginning of 2022, I took part in a big blockbuster larp called Reckoning LARP, on the recommendation of a bunch of my friends who were also going. It was this new first time ever event being sold on Kickstarter, with a website that advertised massive PvP battles between four unique factions and political intrigue as you try to see your faction come out on top. My friends and I thought it would be awesome, and now, half a year after playing it, I have only just now gathered the courage to speak about my experience. Even if you aren't a fan of larp, or you haven't had the chance to experience one before, you should still be able to follow along as I explain how this larp was my Reckoning. But with that out of the way, let's begin. As I said, Reckoning LARP was a kickstarted blockbuster larp, which in layman's terms is a huge event that focuses on spectacle and grandeur with a $200 price tag, or a $175 price tag if you bought it on the Kickstarter. And me and my friends were lucky enough to grab our spots before the hot deals ran out. The main draw was that it was a three-day event, from Friday to Saturday, where you joined one of four fantasy factions representative of some type of historical army, and throughout the weekend you would take on challenges and negotiate with other factions to become the most influential group by the end of the game. Factions were color-coded so that you would always know who your teammates were, and you were expected to dress up somewhat similar to the historical era that your army was taking inspiration from. I chose the Hadrian's, who were the red team, inspired by the Roman legions, and they were in lore, the most powerful faction, having taken over most of the country and trying to take the rest of it in the name of their empress, an oracle, who could divine the future and came to the conclusion that some great calamity would befall the world if we did not unite under one banner, that banner conveniently being Hadria. The other factions included the Rivlins, the Green Team, whom Hadria was trying to take control of, and that rose up under the banner of a Popper King in a sort of guerrilla warfare revolution, then the Vatican, the Blue Team, Viking-style Raiders, who were terrorizing the Rivlins before Hadria showed up and would really like to get back to that, and lastly the Suzec Mar, the Yellow Team, Middle Eastern mercenaries from another continent that was dying, and now they have to move to a continent that is not doing that. The central conflict was that Hadria had just signed an uneasy peace agreement with the Rivlins so that they could diplomatically discuss non-violent solutions, but tensions were high and violence could break out at any moment, so everyone was being very careful not to accidentally trip and start an international incident. I went with a team of three friends, two of which played Rivlins, and one of which played a Vatican, meaning that of the factions, the only team that I didn't have insider information about is the Suzec Mar. We live in central Michigan, so we drove about four hours to Indiana, got by with only one instance of a gas stop worker warning me to look out! The young cashier girl loves hitting on pretty guys like you. And we made it to Reckoning's playfield with gods stolen rainbow intact. The actual playfield was a large, open plan, with a few branching paths that led us to the areas where each faction was separately making camp. There were also porta-potties under a tent near the central area, and a 15 minute walk would get you to a working shower that, for the first half of the LARP, didn't have a workable heater, so you had to make do with cold water, or else be medieval. This was in May, the days were warm, but the nights were freezing, meaning you had to be careful when you took that shower, or else when they found you in the morning, you'd be a set decoration. As far as the faction camps go, there were no provisions given to us besides the locations themselves, so the overall look and feel of each camp got to be designed entirely by the players, who were required to bring only LARP-appropriate camping gear for their weekend, to the point where there was an issue with one of my Rivlin friends almost not being allowed to use their tent, due to it using modern metal spikes to hold the ropes down. For what it's worth, though, once people started pouring in and assembling their camps, all the sites looked really good, which can't be said about the central area that the game runners created. I had mentioned that the porta-johns were hidden under a tent, so that they wouldn't just be within eye shot when you were looking to role play, which is great, but that was where the considerations ended. The main indoor location was a stark white wedding pavilion, with generic unfolding tables that had black tarps thrown over them and weird modern cafe lights hanging up on the upper corners. Other than that, the only other structure was this octagonal arena that was made up of long planks of wood thrown together with a nail gun, and it hadn't even been assembled until an hour before game time, which meant that the game had to start an hour late as the staff scrambled to assemble the weird octagon thing. For a game that costs $200, I would have expected a little more showmanship, but at least there was a small booth right next to the pavilion where they were giving out free booze. More on that later. So the game starts an hour late because the staff are scrambling to build the frame of the arena, but as soon as it does start, all the factions immediately started scrambling to make alliances with each other because we've all played Fall Guys before and we know what happens when you're the odd team out. The politicking is fun. There were a lot of people getting used to playing their new characters and we all started testing the boundaries of what we were allowed to say and do within the context of the story. My character was a medical doctor who studied the four Bloods and healed you in-game by cutting you open with a straight razor to get the bad blood out. For roleplay, I requested that anybody who I was healing needed to scream as loud as they could because their screams would be my indicator of how good a job I was doing. Since all healers were required to be non-coms or non-combatants, basically we couldn't participate in fighting outside of the healer role, my sociopathic doctor became the central diplomat of the Hadrians given that roleplay was the only thing I could do and the rest of the Hadrian team was super accommodating. In the LARP scene, people play non-coms for plenty of reasons, whether they be health risks, psychological issues, or maybe they just don't like combat and it has a tendency to be an overlooked part of our community. So to see a LARP that not only takes time to consider non-com roles, but also makes entire classes dedicated to non-com, it's a breath of fresh air. I really have to give reckoning props for that. But yeah, politicking began and the one thing that immediately became clear to me is that while the Hadrians were the strongest faction in lore, in the game, they actually had the second smallest number of players with the Susak Marr being the actual lowest.  The Vatican were the second highest and the Rivlins by far had the most people, which is very funny given that they were supposed to be the guerrilla warfare faction. What this meant is that I had to negotiate under the pretense that I was part of a super powerful nation of well-disciplined soldiers being led by a future-seeing matriarch. But in reality, I was backed by roughly two dozen dorks in armor and no sooth-saying mommy monarch to ask for help. It's also worth pointing out that as the narrative-invading force, the Hadrians were already predisposed to be the villains, making the Rivlins the clear good guys. However questionable their commoner king was. And the Vatican, despite being antagonists in the past, clearly wanted Hadria gone as much as the Rivlins, which meant that not only were my numbers small, but I was playing from the disadvantage of being the red team, which if you don't know, red is psychologically predisposed to be perceived as the villain. That's just a little color theory for ya. This all came to a head in the middle of our opening feast, which along with all the food at the event was provided by the game. All the players were brought to the mighty wedding pavilion of destiny and we all ate together at our individual faction tables. While we were eating, drinking, and being merry, suddenly, out of the blue, the commander of the Hadrian army, played by one of the staff members, came into the tent, dragging a Rivlin by the wrist. Everyone got up in arms and the commander accused this Rivlin person of sneaking into our base and trying to steal our stuff.  There was shouting. The heads of each faction were trying to corral their people and it only stopped when the Rivlin king admitted in front of everyone that he had actually sent the spy to steal from us. Apparently, he was fine with political espionage, but drew the line at fibbing, which, hey, you do you, but it at least stopped the scene from being a bloodbath right at the gate. While it was a cool scene in the moment, it ended up having severe ramifications for the Hadrians as a whole, because once everyone saw us remove a Rivlin's right-hand salute, we were effectively persona non grata and nobody wanted to work with us because we were barbarians. This was doubly annoying because the scene had apparently been planned way before the event started as a way of kick-starting distrust and getting the political ball rolling, which meant that the staff had taken agency away from the players in what was predominantly a political role-play-centric game. Tripoli annoying is that it only negatively affected the Hadrians, which the story writers I'm sure didn't mean, but the player saw the Rivlins as justified given that Hadrio was an invading force, so it undid all the progress that our team had in trying to find allies, and this was all from something that wasn't even a player-led scene. Either way, it wasn't the worst thing, and at the time I was definitely willing to take it on the chin and keep trying because I was having a lot of fun role-playing with the other players. After things settle down, we go back to our base and we get told our tasks for the rest of the event. Apparently, the Hadrians had two relics of great importance, a sword and some other thing that wasn't a sword, and we were supposed to keep those items protected at all times so that the other teams couldn't grab them. Likewise, the other teams all had two items of their own, and this was meant to add a little bit of bargaining power to the game since factions could fight, stealth, or negotiate their way into acquiring the other team's items, and I guess whoever had the most items at the end was the winner of prom. While this gameplay mechanic was fun at first, the glaring issue was that there was no end goal. Factions would just fight over these items that didn't provide any mechanical benefit, they were just really important for some reason. By the end of the event, I had forgotten that these items existed entirely and they truthfully had no greater impact on our game, but I guess they were a thing to do, so that's fun. In the meantime, night had fallen and everybody wanted to rest, so we got in our tents and braved the cold.  But what I did not realize until after we had arrived on field was that the entire area from back to front was absolutely covered in poison ivy. Not only that, but ticks had infested the grass and nowhere was safe. By the end of the event, I had four ticks pulled off of me and I was covered in more poison ivy than Harley Quinn. Still, we were sleeping in tents, so it wasn't the worst thing, but I spent both nights thinking about that $200 price tag as I continually checked for ticks. Come the morning and it was back to business. The Hadrian's were on the low end of the social totem pole, but we were going to change that. We got to work making allies and over time, it became clear that a fight would be happening soon. It was just a matter of who would be on what side. We managed to strike a deal with the Vatican where we arranged to pay them a lump sum of money if they agreed to fight with us during the battle, which didn't work with the Suzechmar because they had already been coerced by the Rivlins. The Vatican agreed and took the money, which money in game is used by the healing classes to revive somebody who had been killed in a fight. So it might seem like money is super useful, but up until now, a fight hadn't even occurred, so money existed predominantly for bragging rights. The plan was for the Vatican to stand alongside the two other factions, and then once fighting began, they would turn on the other two while the others were distracted with us. Not the most noble of plans for the Roman faction, but all's fair in larp and war. When the big battle was set to begin, the Hadrian commander lined us all up in double file, and even though we were the smallest faction, we marched onward like a trained legion. It was honestly really exciting to be a part of a big unit like that, and we stood at one end of the field gazing out at a sea of green, blue, and yellow garb opponents. The commanders of the different teams yelled threats at each other, and then everybody charged. The fight began, and we looked to the Vatican for aid, and they said, Apparently, when the Vatican took our money, their very next move was to walk over to the other factions and say, Look!   So instead of a game of 40 chests where the second smallest faction managed to squeak out a victory, the battle lasted for all of 15 seconds, and we became a red smear on the tick-filled ground. Upon realizing that the game was rigged, my player interest dropped to zero. I didn't care for the combat mechanics, and I was a non-com, so I couldn't participate in them anyway, and finding out that a day and a half of talking to people and trying to forge alliances was actually for nothing? Really put the nail in the coffin for me. Even as far as combat goes, what ultimately happens when a person dies is that they will lay in the ground for however long until a medical person comes over and spends a minute healing them, and then they get back up and play like nothing ever happened. Medical players, like I said, are required to be non-combatants, and hitting them is expressly forbidden. Your character will die immediately, and you will be reprimanded because that is not allowed. So when the big fight happened, I was in the back, grabbing people and healing them, but I was very quickly surrounded by enemy soldiers who didn't know what to do with me. I couldn't be harmed by the game rules, and they could just knock down whoever I healed as soon as I finished healing them, so they ultimately decided that with the other three factions having formed a bond built on Hadrian blood, the Hadrians as a whole were simply not a threat because the numbers were so much in the other group's favor. So they didn't even bother taking the hostage. They just left me to fix up my two dozen party members. I'm not gonna lie, spirits were low in the Hadrian camp. We had our image of being noble knights shattered. We couldn't go into the central area for fear of embarrassment from the ridicule and mockery that we would receive from the other players, and I couldn't even lay down on the grass and accept death because the ticks were there, waiting for me to let my guard down. We did try once to get back at the blue team for betraying us by raiding their base after the big fight had settled down, but while we managed to knock a few people down, the green team swiftly came in and trounced us again, which cemented our place as bottom tier losers. Really, combat seemed pointless in general since there wasn't a consequence to dying, and I eventually decided to just stand, staring at the sun and hoping that if I died in the game, I might die in real life. Solis finally came near the end of the second day when after a few more pointless political dramas, the majority of us were out in the central tent, and some of our commanders had told us that the forces of evil might be mustering and that they needed scouts to go check it out. I was thinking of going along with the scouting party, but my commander suggested that I stayed behind, which I thought was weird, but whatever. They go off and we don't see them for another half hour. Now, small tangent, in the lore of this world, everyone is basically human. Monstrous races like trolls and orcs are explicitly manifestations of the evil darkness that used to rule a long time ago. There are not so much races unto themselves as they are byproducts of dark magic, and in the current fantasy year, a few of these monsters pop up every once in a while, but it's almost always a very small affair. This is a very low magic setting, and while magic is commonly accepted as real, nobody has it save for a select few who can perform small feats like heal people or see the future. I mentioned this to give you context for how shocking it was when after 30 minutes of being gone, the entire scouting party came back marching towards the central camp with black veins running across their face. They were seemingly possessed by dark magic. The whole group of them lined up in formation against the forest wall and just stood there battle-posed. At this point, the rest of us were confused and trying to get in some form of formation, but it's important to note that the scouting party consisted of roughly 40% of our collective player base. Most of those players were bored and had nothing better to do, so they jumped at the chance for plot, and now here they were, standing as vile enemies against all that is good. Once everyone was in position, the possessed army yelled out but didn't charge. Instead, their yells served to mask the accompanying yells of what was right behind them. All at once, a group of half a dozen fully armored uraki just burst out from the trees and came charging at us. The possessed army followed suit and the resulting battle was pandemonium. This battle, which lasted all of 15 minutes, was everything that I wanted all weekend. Maddening warfare where enemies were on all sides and you didn't know who your friend was until you spun them around and saw their face. I was running to a fallen ally as more people were just dying around me, and an orc stood in my way only to get stabbed in the back by a ranger who then quickly had to dodge role to avoid another possessed soldier and they both kept fighting around me and one paranoid player just spun around and struck me in the chest. On accident!   Overall, this 15 minute struggle was a glimpse into what reckoning had advertised on their Kickstarter and I felt genuine excitement during and just after the mighty struggle. If this was what the entire weekend was centered around, I would be a lot more copacetic over spending the $200. Although it still wouldn't fix some of the more glaring issues that we'll get to later but now there was a common enemy to fight. Anti-Hadrian resentment was lowering and we, with a capital W, were ready for whatever was next. The battle ended with the invading monsters being pushed out and with them gone, the mind control on the infected players ended. And then... the game runner himself as his in-game character stood up in front of everyone and began this big speech about how the enemy had finally revealed himself and we must be prepared for what the future holds! And then, led a big champion cheer for everyone else which may be is a little self-indulgent, but hey, that's fine. But then, after his performative speech at the height of the excitement, the game runner announced out of game that all of the staff ran plot for the event was over and that we were free to keep role-playing until game off tomorrow morning but as far as the story was concerned, that was it. I honestly didn't know if I should laugh when he did that. The game wasn't over yet so not only is it a bad idea to announce prematurely that your game is effectively over when there's still the rest of the night and Saturday morning to get through but you especially shouldn't do that right after the climactic battle that just reignited your game. He was just like, Congrats! You've finished the ride! Please enjoy the rest of your made-up side quests! If you have to announce that your game is basically over for some reason, like maybe so that people can get a head start on their drive home, you should probably give that message to the rest of the staff so that they can spread it to the other players quietly in a way that doesn't destruct the role-play. The reason being, as he immediately learned, is that everyone suddenly broke character and went off to the Rivlin camp to drink and sing folk songs. I can't be too mad about that though because if there's two things I like, it's drinking and singing folk songs. Like I said at the beginning of this video, the main pavilion had this bar next to it with a person staffed to pour alcoholic drinks for people but there weren't any cups provided so you had to have either bought your own or find someone who can lend you one. Luckily, I knew the person manning the bar and they gave me one of their own tankards that I filled up a lot that night. I'm a responsible drinker but between singing, eating and moving around a lot, I'm ashamed to say that I spent the first night underneath the tree and the second night bloated with very little supervision. It wasn't terrible, but I can see how it could easily slip into terrible if someone isn't careful. But the last night eventually gave way to Sunday and in the morning, we all spent time hanging out halfway in-game, halfway out before saying our goodbyes and returning to our depressing lives. So overall, was it a good experience? For $200, I can't really say so. I've been larping for five years and I've been to a few different games, all of which have different price tags and outside of the incredible Orc fight, I got the same level of enjoyment out of reckoning LARP for $200 as I do going to my local backyard LARP for $40. To give you context, the biggest pro for reckoning is its player base. Everyone I interacted with was awesome and looked really cool and they were all really wonderful role players. Honestly, I almost want to go back just for them. I also want to give a shout out to skill tree and living anachronism to YouTubers that also went to reckoning and shared their very positive experiences in their own videos. If you want a completely separate take on reckoning that seems to be just absolutely glowing, you should check those channels out. I also talked to the guy who runs the Orc battalion that showed up in the final fight. Apparently, they're like a whole squad of 30 or so people who dress up in really high-standard Orc garb. They go around from LARP to LARP playing this wandering tribe called Nartung Kall. The lead Orc also played one of the two commanders of the Suzak Mar and he sat down for an interview with me, which you can find right here. He's a super chill dude and the long and short of our talk is that of his group, about six people made it to reckoning and they all played Suzak Mar and they all had a very good time. How was the actual event of reckoning for you? Good, bad, all the stuff. I had a great time. I think for the most part we all did. But Suzak Mar did a really good job of taking advantage of that player agency and just kind of like doing their own thing. They did say that more Orcs would have gone to reckoning if it weren't for the huge price tag but of the people who did go, it was a grand experience. Unfortunately, my friend who joined the Vatican could not say the same. Apparently there were some people harassing her and also one of the Vatican commanders who also happened to be a woman to the point where my friend switched to the Riveling Camp and had a much better time. Luckily those players were reprimanded but the point is that my positive player experience isn't universal. Still, the player-to-player experience was amazing and I hope that I can one day play with them again in reckoning or out. And I say out of reckoning because players are not the event. Enjoying the people and loving their costuming and vibe is irrelevant to the venue itself. You can try to create a good community but the only thing that you really can do is prevent yourself from having a bad one. Outside of that, the community will grow as it does out of your control. And as far as what they had in control, all reckoning could provide for the experience was the wedding tent, food, outhouses, the half-cold showers and I guess you could say that they provided the field as well but that's not exactly a point in their favor. Most of these things didn't really have to do with the in-game experience so as far as creating an immersive event goes, they didn't really create much. It was the players playing amongst themselves. Not to say that they didn't try but of the plot that reckoning could muster, there was the hand-chopping scene that wildly backfired. The one battle on Saturday that was mostly player-organized, the weird fetch quest items and one thing that I forgot to mention in my breakdown were the side quests that were being given out by this mysterious lady known only as the Countess. I didn't interact with the side quest much so I don't have a lot to say but the seeming intention behind her character was to stir up trouble amongst the factions by giving out antagonistic quests for gold which gold, again, was not very useful. And unfortunately, because nobody wanted to cause an international incident, I don't know how many people followed these side quests down a meaningful path. But yeah, contributions from reckoning felt improvised and poorly implemented which is fine if you're a backyard lark running things for $20 but totally outrageous if the cost is $200 or $175. In fact, I want to go on a diatribe to talk about who really did contribute and what really spurred me on to make this video. The staff. From what I heard from multiple people who helped run their first event being staff at reckoning lark, it was disorienting. It was a mismanaged experience and none of the staff members were compensated for their efforts. On the contrary, staff were allegedly given an incredible discount of $25 off of the normal $200 ticket price. This is the same discount that everybody got if they pledged to the Kickstarter and that infuriates me. They had to pay practically the whole ticket. It's honestly the biggest motivator for why I wanted to make this video in the first place. Hobbies in general but especially larks have this terrible habit of treating their workers poorly and giving them peanuts in exchange for those same workers lifting the sky for them. We are well past the point of not giving staff members who are working a free ticket and in all honesty, we should be past the point of even considering hiring someone without paying them. Discounts are arguable if the person is only playing an NPC for like a couple of hours and their time is by and large spent playing the game. Like the orc dudes who by the way weren't discounted at all but from what I've heard and in some cases seen the staff went beyond the call of duty for things that they weren't even signed up for. Like, they're not your buddies when you make them assemble a giant octagonal arena from scratch. They're your employees or at the very least they're your volunteer workers and volunteering does not automatically mean you don't have to pay them. And even then the staff did not know what they were getting into. The octagonal arena was one thing that sprang up out of seemingly nowhere and it held the game up for an hour after the players were supposed to start but that wasn't the only thing. Apparently, according to several staff members who I spoke to after the game was over the check-in list wasn't alphabetized so whenever someone showed up it was a scavenger hunt to find their name. The fire pits hadn't been assembled so the staff had to scramble getting that done. The booze wasn't bought early and I know that one for a fact because I personally drove with someone to pick it up. Every meal was late by hours. The equipment to move people's supplies to their camps was never provided so staff had to burn gas money driving it all themselves. There was no definitive list of things for the staff members to do. It was just wait until I tell you to do something and then I'll tell you to go do this other thing. There's more but the list I have from disgruntled staff members is very long and we would be here all day. I did talk to one particular staff member who out of the many others who were infuriated they said, well, we all knew what we were getting into and I'm ignoring the fact that no, they did not know what they were getting into. When you get into this mindset of well, it's a terrible deal but if I don't do it, it won't get done. Then you invalidate the efforts of people who are willing to say no to a raw deal. You cheapen their work and you make it harder for them to argue for better conditions because why would I pay someone with self-respect when there's this other guy who will roll around in ticks if I ask him to and he'll still give me money for it. To be clear, I don't think that the game runner set out to abuse the good nature of his volunteers. This feels less like manipulation and a lot more like sheer negligence. According to several accounts, people tried to communicate these issues to the game runner but they fell on deaf ears because the game runner felt like he knew better. I think there were a lot of speed bumps and I think for the most part those things have been addressed and I think Thomas is super aware of that and I think this year he's a little more willing to listen to other people's experiences whereas the first year I think it was a lot of like whatever, like I know what I'm doing kind of mentality. Ultimately the staff allegedly had to make do with what they had and use it to entertain the entire LARP for that weekend. It looks like Reckoning is gearing up for a season two and the location is changing so no more bugs and plants to ruin my day. Before shooting this video I did send a version of the script to the game runner so that I could potentially get his side of the story before I just started blasting. In his defense, he responded very quickly and a lot of it was apologetic. I'll leave my whole breakdown of his response in a different video which hopefully by the time this video is out you can find in this link here. Oh, look at it go. But ultimately, he said that a lot of what happened fell on him and that the learning experience of Reckoning 1.0 pushed him into taking steps to fix things for 2.0. He said he really did consider it a massive learning experience and on the staff side of things according to both him and the Orc camp leader who is now acting as leader of Monster Camp for Reckoning 2. They've actually started paying their staff and they started giving discounts to people who NPC. I don't know the exact figures but it looks like a good sign to me. That being said, it's not all good news because in the same document he sent to me where he was apologetic he also seemingly tried to shift some of the blame to several members of his staff by stating and I quote, During the event there were a couple of volunteers who were absolutely busting their ass and I am eternally grateful. Without them there would not be a second Reckoning. The same could be said for a few players who stepped up. However, not everyone in staff actually took that initiative or even completed the things we had all agreed to as our responsibilities. We had several complaints about our own staff from other staff members and players for either not helping being too drunk to handle player issues or creating plots slash quests which led nowhere and made players feel undervalued. After the event I had to address those who didn't contribute and I explained that as we moved forward especially now that we are in a position to compensate that we expect responsibilities to be taken care of or that they would be better suited as players. This led to an immediate falling out and division. Several of these staff members won't be returning at least not in any sort of volunteer capacity. Now having read that I have some... discrepancies. I don't know about you, but if I were working under someone who failed to clearly lay out what my job was I would probably not accomplish all of my tasks either. Likewise, if I had a staff of reportedly 20 people and the majority failed to do their jobs I wouldn't actually be inclined to blame the staff members. When he sent me this I sent him back another response and what I said to him was it's very hard to believe that out of the people working that event there were only a couple of volunteers that pulled their weight and the rest were some mix of drunk, belligerent or simply unhelpful. Likewise, talking about the staff members creating plots that were poorly implemented or went nowhere is a responsibility of the game runner. Everything falls on you when you're the head guy and if your writing staff is not writing or writing poorly it is your job to be on top of that and fix it before it hits the players. The game runner also claimed that part of the miscommunications during the event were due to a lack of setup before the event. He said that they were supposed to spend Wednesday and Thursday working on the site so that all they would need to focus on during the event days would be the actual event. Unfortunately, the game runner says that he was the only one who showed up on Wednesday and when it came to Thursday only two staff members showed up at the correct time and even then only seven people showed up who set up their tents and then left. If true, this would paint a pretty damning if anecdotal portrait of events that exonerates the game runner for not being able to manage his staff. Unfortunately, when it comes to portraits I happen to have some of my own and by that I mean screenshots. I have screenshots from the disgruntled employees. From what these screenshots show none of the staff members were ever told to show up on Wednesday which would explain how out of 20 people not one of them showed up to work. After getting his first response and seeing all of the discrepancies I tried to get a second response from the game runner because his own explanation did not paint him in a good light and I wanted to give him the chance to perhaps clarify. Once again, he seemed very on board even offering to set up an actual virtual interview. Unfortunately, his schedule was wild which makes sense. He is a businessman. So I said, no problem. If we can't schedule a day you can respond via written text at your earliest convenience. He seemed gung-ho on doing a virtual interview though and we tried for a couple of weeks to make it work but his schedule seemed to be busy. This was December so it was holiday season. Makes sense. Curiously though around the time that we were trying and failing to set up an interview I received several notifications that the tickets for Reckoning Season 2 had just become available for purchase. I'm sure that's just a coincidence. Eventually I had to say well my due date is right here so if you can't make it this time maybe you can write a written thing and he said I'm sorry. I just can't make it work. And so here we are with me left alone with my thoughts and I think personally I can't bring myself to go back to Reckoning until I'm sure that things are on the level and while I want to give the game the benefit of the doubt I'm not going to take the game runner on his word that things will be better. If things are better in Reckoning Season 2 maybe I will check out Reckoning Season 3 it all depends on the optics and what people actually say and even in spite of this a lot of people had fun at Reckoning. I know that for some people it was their favorite LARP ever. This is not me trying to guilt-trip you into not enjoying Reckoning. This is me sharing my experiences and the experiences of other people who felt like theirs weren't being shared. But time will tell how this whole thing shakes out. Until then I hope you all enjoyed this long-term version of something that nobody asked for me to talk about and I hope that I can talk about more things that nobody wants me to in the future. But yeah. Davi out.


Now, Auto-Lite and its 60,000 dealers and service stations present... Suspense! Auto-Lite brings you Gregory Peck in Michael Vanning's murder through the looking glass. A suspense play produced and directed by Anton M. Leader. Friends, even a camel can't compete with an Auto-Lite stay-full battery because an Auto-Lite stay-full battery needs water only three times a year in normal car use. Yes, sir, that dandy, dynamic, dependable Auto-Lite stay-full battery has extra plates, too, for extra power protected by fiberglass insulation for longer life and stronger life. Did I say longer life? Well, I admit it. An Auto-Lite stay-full battery has almost doubled the life of an ordinary battery. Why, in tests conducted, according to the Society of Automotive Engineers of Life Cycle Standards, Auto-Lite stay-full batteries give 70% longer average life than batteries without stay-full features. So get wise, get Auto-Lite. Remember, you're right with Auto-Lite. And now, Auto-Lite presents Gregory Peck in a tale well-calculated to keep you in suspense. The sound was a dull monotonous roar in my ears, and I... and listen, wondering if it were real or part of a dream. Suddenly, I was awake, and I knew that I was riding on a train. But where? I didn't remember getting on a train. I opened my eyes and saw that I was in the lounge car. There was only darkness through the window. A man sat across from me reading. There was a bridge game down the aisle, a porter serving drinks. Everything nice and normal, except that I had no idea how I got on the train or why I was there. I tried to think of a reason for being there, but I couldn't. These spells of forgetfulness had been coming on more often lately. I leaned back and closed my eyes, listened to the rhythm of the train. A melody began to fit itself to the rhythm. I couldn't remember ever having heard such a song, but somehow I seemed to know the words. Down in the valley, valley so low. Late in the evening, hear that train blow, hear that train blow. Your singing is disturbing the other passengers. Oh, I'm sorry. You understand, sir, it's the other passengers. I kind of liked your singing myself. Your singing didn't disturb me either, young man. In fact, it was rather a pretty melody. What was the name of it? It's, uh, I... You know, it's silly, but I... I don't know. I can't even remember the tune now. That's the way it is with songs. I've had the same thing happen to me. So what train is this? Why, it's New York Express to Philadelphia. Oh, to be there any minute, too. You must have been on some party if it lasted all day. What time is it? Seven o'clock. PM, that is. Yes, sir, it must have been pretty drunk out where you were. I think he said something else after that, but I wasn't listening then. I noticed that I was wearing a brown topcoat. It wasn't mine. Maybe I'd accidentally exchanged coats with someone. If I couldn't remember it, it must have been that kind of a party. If so, I felt that my wallet was there. I opened it to see if I had any money left, and my eye was caught by the driver's license, made out to John Blake. In another pocket of the wallet, there were engraved cards reading John Blake Insurance. I wasn't John Blake. I was Jeffrey Bruno, a writer. I couldn't even drive a car. I didn't know anything about insurance. I'd never heard of a John Blake, but here was his identification in my wallet. What's the matter, young fella? Are you ill? A man across from me said something, but I didn't hear what it was. I looked through the other pockets. There was a bank book showing that John Blake had a bank balance of $647.55. My balance had never been higher than 15 bucks. There was a letter, a bill for shirts addressed to John Blake. It had an address I never heard of before. There was a moment there, a few crazy seconds when I wondered if I really was John Blake. No, I couldn't be. I knew I was Jeffrey Bruno, who lived at a two-room apartment in Greenwich Village, and wrote mystery stories for a living. I knew who I was. Going on downtown? See, I could get a train back to New York here, couldn't I? Sure, right across from the other platform. That must've been some party. I had to get back to New York and straighten out this business about John Blake's coat and identification. He, whoever he was, might even be thinking I'd stolen them. Besides, I wanted to find out where I'd been the night before and all day and why I'd awakened on a train to Philadelphia. Then just as I got up from the seat, I glanced out of the window. The newsboy was holding up a newspaper. Across the top was the big headline. Killer Blake escapes! Blake. And just below it, there was a picture of... me. Going down my hat and turning up my coat collar, I managed to get on a New York train without anyone recognizing me. Then, fortunately, no one pays any attention to anyone else on New York Subways. Two blocks from my apartment house, I stopped at the corner stand to buy a newspaper. Oh, there you are, Mr. Bruno. I haven't seen you around for a couple of days. Yeah, I've been busy. Hey, you know, I saw your picture somewhere today. You got a story in one of the magazines, maybe? No, no, well, well, good. Wait a minute. I'll remember where I saw your picture. I never forget a... Yeah, I've got to go now. You can tell me about it tomorrow. I had to get away before he remembered. I looked down and saw my picture on his papers. At home, there were a lot of letters in my box. Too many for just one delivery. When I got to the apartment, I looked at them. Two of the letters had been postmarked in New York three days before. It doesn't take three days for letters to be delivered locally. Where have I been for three days? Who's there? Rosalie. Rosalie, just a minute. I thought I heard someone in here.  He ran into me on the stairs and asked if I lived here and then wanted me to give you a message. Burnett was his name. Bill, I think he said. Oh, yeah. Well, I'm glad you're here, Rosalie. Stay and talk to me. We can have some coffee or a drink. When did you say Bill was here? Yesterday morning. He said something about having had a date with you the night before, but you never showed up. Yesterday morning.  What's the matter, Jeff? Don't you feel well? Oh, sure. I feel fine. Rosalie, tell me, do I ever do anything out of the ordinary? I mean, do I... Well, have I ever seemed strange?  Well, you've always seemed very sane to me, if that's what you mean, in spite of your vanishing acts. My... My what? The times you disappear. You don't know? I'm sorry. Let me finish it for you. The days when I've awakened, thinking it was Tuesday, only to turn out to be Thursday. You mean I'd disappear for a couple of days, go somewhere else, become somebody else. Oh, I wouldn't have said anything, Jeff, but... Then why don't I remember? Now, I've heard of people drawing blanks because they've had too much to drink, but... now, maybe it's something different. What is, Jeff? Well, I told her all about it. All I knew, anyway, and first she was frightened, but then I guess she felt sorry for me and she got over it. Before Rosalie had always been just a beautiful, desirable girl. I'd had drinks with her a few times in her apartment of mine, but that was all. Not that I hadn't wanted to take her out, but... She was a model, and I was sure that she led a glamorous life with rich men begging to take her out. But now she didn't look as glamorous as she looked understanding. I needed that. I was beginning to believe that the explanation of John Blake wasn't as simple as I first thought. I'm glad I came in, Jeff. You need someone. And it doesn't matter whether you're John Blake or not. Well, it matters to me. Look, I know I'm Jeffrey Bruno and not some guy named John Blake. I can remember my whole life living on the farm, going to school, working on a newspaper, coming to New York. I can remember every minute of it. Every minute? Oh... No. No, not every minute. You know, Jeff, such things can happen. White bearded old men with eyeglasses write books about such things. They've got a word for it. I can't pronounce it, but it means that you can be two people at one time and not know it. So maybe... So maybe I'm John Blake, too. I was a way ahead of you in thinking that. And if you are, that's a sickness, and people can get over being sick. Maybe you'll remember all the things John Blake did. I already know one thing he did. He killed someone. But I, John Blake, murdered someone. You brought a paper home. Why not see? Whatever happened, Jeff, we'll find a way to work it out. Thanks, Rosalie. Here it is. His name was Rufus Carrington. He was an old man and wealthy. I, John Blake, worked part time for his nephew, Roger Gunn. There's money missing from the firm, and it's believed Rufus Carrington may have found out about it. I see. This morning I was told by the butler that the old man was in the study with an unknown caller. Roger Gunn was talking to the butler when they heard the old man cry out. He ran to the study and found him dead. The nephew saw me, the killer, escaping, and recognized him. Well, if I were John Blake, my other self didn't do things in a small way. I never wanted the things John Blake must have wanted. I never wanted riches. Never thought of going into a business like insurance. I just can't understand this thing. They'll understand, Jeff. They have people who understand things like that. Rosalie, whatever happens, will you promise me that if you don't like Jeffery Bruno, you'll like John Blake? But like one of us, it doesn't matter which one it is.  Whichever one of them you are. You see, Rosalie, I'm innocent. Even if John Blake isn't, I haven't murdered anyone. It was another part of me. But if I try to run away, they'll find me. They'll hurt me for what John Blake did. Where can I go? What can I do? You can go to the police and tell them the whole truth.  You're not responsible for what you did as John Blake. Yeah. Yeah, maybe you're right. No point in running. I know I have no right to ask it, but... would you go with me, Rosalie? Of course I will, Jeff. It's like being haunted. Knowing that somewhere inside of me, there's another man. Never knowing when I'll be him. Say... Say, what if... What if I turn into John Blake before we even get to the police? For Suspense. AutoLight is bringing you Gregory Peck. In Radio's Outstanding. Theater of Thrills. Suspense. Cap, the sound men and I have cooked up our own suspense show. Yeah, we'll let you hear it. Our hero, Jim Brown, is in a frantic rush to get to his office. He leaps into his car. Tries to start it. Will it start? Won't it start? Will our hero get to his office in time? To read his morning paper before his stenographer puts him to work. That's real suspense, huh? Ah, but I come along. I give him a hot tip on sure fire starting.  And now this happens. There, you see what I mean? That AutoLight, stay full battery takes the suspense out of starting and puts it on CBS. By an AutoLight, stay full battery needs water only three times a year in normal car use. That liberal liquid libation practically eliminates one of the major causes of battery failure. Imagine, an AutoLight, stay full battery needs water only three times a year in normal car use. An AutoLight, stay full battery has extra plates, too, for extra power. And fiberglass insulation adds months to the life of a battery. Money can't buy a better battery. So switch to AutoLight. And now, AutoLight brings back to a Hollywood soundstage Gregory Peck as Jeffrey in Murder Through the Looking Glass. The tale well calculated to keep you in suspense. Rosalie was right. I thought about it as we walked down the stairs. They know what to do with a case like mine. I know that Jeffrey Bruno wasn't responsible for what John Blake did. Of course they'd lock me up for my own good and... and they'd leave me in there. What's the matter, Jeff? Wait, wait, Rosalie, you're right. I mustn't run away, but first I've got to find out about the other me, about John Blake. All I know is that he murdered someone. I have to know other things about him, what he was really like. I understand, Jeff, but you mustn't do anything foolish. I have to know about my other life, books I read, what kind of girls I like. You can see that's important, can't you? Of course. Jeff, I just thought of something. I know a man, a psychiatrist. Maybe if I called him you could see him tonight. He'd understand. Maybe he could tell you what to do. Will you talk to him? I'll do anything. It'll help me to understand what I was like when I was John Blake and why I was like that. I'll go in the drugstore here and call him. I'm sure he'll see you and we'll do whatever he says. Now, Mr. Bruno, you say there have been many times when you haven't remembered what happened for days. Oh, not many. A few times it only happened after I'd been drinking and I thought that's all it was until this. I see. It's a very interesting case. What is it, Doctor? I've done some reading on psychiatry and it sounds... is it split personality? Schizophrenia? Yes, very possible. For instance, subconsciously you might have had a desire for things which consciously you'd convinced yourself were bad. That desire became so great that you created John Blake so you could satisfy it without compromising Jeffrey Bruno. Wouldn't I be partly aware of wanting those things? Isn't it possible that I'm not John Blake, that all of this is something else? I'll let you answer that yourself, Mr. Bruno. How can I? If I could answer it, I wouldn't be here. Mr. Bruno, do you honestly believe that there is a real person named John Blake, a person who looks exactly like you, a person whose coat and identification came accidentally into your possession? No, I guess I don't. But there must be another explanation. The alternative would be to believe that someone is framing you. Do you believe that someone drugged you several times, or there'd be days you couldn't account for, that someone forged the papers of John Blake and planted them on you? Can you believe that someone planned to commit this murder months ago, rented an apartment in the name of John Blake, filled it with clothing in your size, put your photograph in the apartment? According to the newspaper story, the nephew of the murder victim was the only man to identify your picture. Therefore, he would have to have been the one to frame you. Well, this would imply that this Roger Gunn knew you and you knew him. Do you? No, I don't remember. Then can you believe that he was able to drug you to know your clothes size to get a photograph of you? Besides if he framed you, that implies he is the murderer. But that can't be because according to the butler, the nephew was with him at the time the murder took place. You see, Mr. Bruno? I see. What can I do, doctor? Well, if this were not a murder case, the answer would be a simple one. I'd undertake to treat you. But as it is, I'm afraid I must suggest that you go to the police. I suppose you're right. I'm sorry I wasn't able to help you, young man. If you'd only come to me sooner. Jeff, can you help him, doctor? Under the circumstances, it's too late for me to do anything directly. I've advised Mr. Bruno to go to the police. Come on, Jeff. I'll go with you. All right. Well, thank you, doctor. Oh, not at all. Sorry, I can't do more. Good night. Good night. Good night. I'm sorry, Jeff. But they'll have to believe you. They can't make you suffer for what John Blake did. And then, when you're well... When I'm well? What? We'll see. Rosalie, there's one more thing I want to do before I go to the police. I want to see the apartment where I lived when I was John Blake. I still don't know what I was like when I was being here. Maybe if I can only see how I lived, it'll give me a clue. The lobby looks empty. Now, let's see. The address on the letter is apartment 203. Wasn't there anything in the letter? It was a bill. It seems that I'm not only an embezzler and a murderer, but I paid John Blake's bills. Please, Jeff, don't joke about it. All right, Rosalie, no joking. I don't think it's very funny either. Now, if I were John Blake, I ought to have a key to my own apartment. This must be it. I don't remember ever seeing it before, but the number 203 is stamped on it. Well, Rosalie... I'll stay here and warn you if the police come. Good luck, Jeff. The lobby was empty. I got on the self-service elevator and it too was deserted, and I walked to the door of John... of my apartment. I hesitated, wondering if maybe there were a policeman inside. Well, I... I had to take the chance. I key worked and I stepped inside. The place seemed empty. I turned on the light. It was a small apartment, inexpensive, perfectly correct and dull. There were hunting prints on the wall. There were two suits in the wardrobe. My size all right, even though I couldn't remember buying them. There were even monogramed handkerchiefs. It was unreal. Yet I had to believe all these things belonged to me, that there had been times when I liked wearing them. My head was spinning by now, and I leaned up against the wall. I don't know how long I stood there, unaware of anything except the pain inside. Gradually, I... I was aware that somebody was knocking on the door, but it was several seconds before I located it. It was...it was at my door. The police? Oh no, Rosalie said she'd warned me. It was the police. I wasn't ready to give myself up yet. I ran to the window. There was a fire escape outside. I raised the window and looked out. I couldn't see anyone. I took a chance that there wasn't a cop at the bottom of the fire escape. I climbed out and closed the window. As I started to break in, I ran down the fire escape. I jumped to the ground and looked around the corner. There was one man sitting in a police car. I turned and ran the other way. I must have run two blocks before I heard footsteps behind me. I turned and it was Rosalie. You said you'd warned me. What happened? But I did, Jeff. I rang the buzzer twice while they were getting out of the car. When I saw you getting away, I thought you'd heard. You must have heard it. You rang twice? The bell must be out of order, just like John Blake. I didn't hear it. I almost didn't hear them knocking. I'm sorry, Rosalie. I just...I don't know. It doesn't matter, Jeff. I was so frightened.  I promise I won't do anything to involve you or hurt you. I wasn't thinking of myself. You can't go on like this, Jeff. You have to go in. Give yourself a chance to get well. I know. You know, upstairs there for a minute, I... I thought of running away, of going to some little town and changing my name, but... Ah, that's no good, either. That wouldn't get rid of John Blake. Then... I've got an idea. Just one more try. Another hour won't make any difference to the police. All right, Jeff. Where are we going? Not we, Rosalie. I'm not going to involve you in this anymore. I was John Blake. I did the things John Blake did. I have to see it through to the finish. At least tell me where you're going. It'll be better if you don't know. Oh, please, Jeff. No, this is the way it has to be. Then if it turns out worse than we think, you can just remember that for a few hours you were friendly to someone who needed it. If I come through this, if I get well, then... Yes, Jeff? Well, as you said, Rosalie, we'll see. I put her in a cab and gave the driver the address in the village. Then I went to the place where I was afraid to go. Yet it was the one place I had to go. Yes, sir? Well, don't... Aren't you Mr. Carrington's butler? Yes, sir. Clark is the name, sir. I've been... I was in Mr. Carrington's service for 40 years. But why do you ask? Well, don't you recognize me? I... I don't believe so, sir. Of course, there were so many of you here today from the newspapers. But I was here even earlier. I'm John Blake. Oh... Then you're the gentleman who murdered Mr. Carrington. According to the newspapers. Why do you say according to the newspapers? I don't believe you killed Mr. Carrington, sir. You... You don't? Why not? Why, he didn't even know you, sir. Well, maybe he only got acquainted with me this morning when I came to kill him. If he had made an appointment with you, sir, I would have known. But didn't you let me in to see him? Oh, no, sir. He answered the door himself when his visitor arrived. I see. Is Mr. Carrington's nephew here? Mr. Gunn? Yes, sir. But he left word not to be disturbed. He did, did he? Clark, did Mr. Carrington have a gun? Yes, sir. Would you trust me with it if it might help catch the murderer? I guarantee it'll catch him. Won't you step in? Thank you. I was very fond of Mr. Carrington, sir. He kept the gun here in the hall near the door. Oh, here it is, sir. I'm an old man myself, and perhaps I'm foolish to even... Don't you worry. Just take me to see Mr. Gunn. Oh, but I can't do that, sir. Clark! Oh, pardon me, sir. Yes, Mr. Gunn. Who are you talking to, Clark? Is that the attorney? No, sir. It's the young... Wait a minute. I know that voice. I'm sorry, Clark. Who the devil? You. Yes, me. Mr. Gunn? Or should I say Dr. Gunn? Clark, leave the room. Yes, sir. Well, this is all a terrible mistake. You bet it is. And I want to hear why the nephew of the man I'm supposed to have murdered is also the psychiatrist who convinced me I was crazy and ought to surrender to the police. Don't move. Don't point that gun at me, please. I'm expecting a phone call from the attorney about the will. And then I'm sure we can straighten this thing out. I... I'll give you money. Will's straighten it out now without money. You killed your uncle, didn't you? No. I was with Clark. He can tell you. Don't answer that. Clark will answer it then, on the extension. And he knows I'm here. And let Clark answer it. But I'm gonna get the truth out of you before you have a chance to talk to anyone. I... I meant you no harm. Not much. You just wanted me to take your seat in the electric chair. You told me the whole thing when you were posing as the psychiatrist, didn't you? You told me the truth, making me think it couldn't have been like that. The only thing you didn't tell me was about the person who killed your uncle and helped frame me. I beg your pardon, sir, but it's an urgent call. Don't move, Gunn. If it's so urgent, I'll take it for you. Yes? Roger. I'm calling you from our usual place. He hasn't gone to the police yet. Roger, are you there? I... yes, I can't talk now. The attorney's here. Wait, Roger. I think he's on his way over there. Be careful. All right. You don't sound right. Are you getting frightened again? After all we've done so far, you've got to keep your nerve up. I'm coming over, Roger. Good. I'll be there in five minutes. Stole him when he arrives. Goodbye, Roger. Goodbye, Rosalie. Clark. Yes, sir? You were right before. Mr. Carrington opened the door this morning for a beautiful young lady after a date had been made by Mr. Roger Gunn here. I told him she was blackmailing me, and I wanted him to see her because he'd had experience handling that sort of thing. But I swear Rosalie didn't tell me she was going to kill... Never mind. Clark, call the police. Tell them by the time they arrive, the murderer of Mr. Carrington will be here waiting for them. To Gregory Peck for a great suspense show. Say, Greg, while out driving one Sunday afternoon recently, I heard you on the family hour of stars. Busman's holiday. Yes.  Just like a stay-full battery. A battery I'm being compared to now. Well, not just a battery, Greg, but auto-light stay-full batteries. They're as tops in their field as you are in yours. Well, then you can just call me stay-full Peck from now on. Tell me more. Well, Greg, stay-full batteries are made by auto-light men who make over 400 products for cars, trucks, airplanes, and boats in 28 auto-light plants from coast to coast. Yes, sir, and auto-light also makes complete electrical systems for many makes of America's finest cars. Spark plugs, generators, starting motors, coils, distributors, all ignition engineered to fit together perfectly, work together perfectly, because they're a perfect team. So folks, don't accept electrical parts that are supposed to be just as good. Ask for and insist on auto-light, original factory parts at your neighborhood service station, car dealer, garage, or repair shop. Remember, you're right with auto-light. Here again is Mr. Gregory Peck. Well, as usual, it's been great fun to do a suspense play. It's one of the programs that every actor in Hollywood most enjoys to appear on and to listen to. For instance, I wouldn't miss next week's show when Pat O'Brien stars in a really outstanding story, Dead Ernest, another gripping study in... Gregory Peck can currently be seen starring in the 20th Century Fox production Yellow Sky. Tonight's suspense story was by Michael Venning, whose books have also been written under the more familiar name of Craig Rice. The adaptation for radio was by Ken Croson. Music was composed by Lucian Morrowek and conducted by Lud Bluskin. The entire production was under the direction of Anton M. Lieder. Next Thursday, same time, here Pat O'Brien in Dead Ernest. You can buy auto-light electrical parts, auto-light resistor spark plugs, auto-light staple batteries at your neighborhood auto-light dealer. Switch to auto-light. Good night. We have the highest standard of living in the world. Safeguard the American way. This is CBS, the Columbia Broadcasting System.


For more videos on people's struggles, please subscribe to our YouTube channel. A caravan of more than 1,000 Honduran migrants was brutally repressed by the Guatemalan military and police forces on January 17th. A migrant caravan, which is on its way to the United States, has to pass to Guatemala and Mexico first in order to reach the U.S. Both Guatemala and Mexico have signed the Safe Third Country Immigration Agreement with the U.S. under threat of economic sanctions. They have taken measures to stop the passage of migrants to their territories. Warnings were issued by Guatemalan authorities that migrant caravans would not be allowed to the country. According to the Guatemalan national police, between 6,000 and 9,000 people have entered the country since January 15th, making it one of the biggest caravans since 2018. The Guatemalan Migration Institute reported that between January 15th and 16th, around 1,000 immigrants were arrested and deported to Honduras by immigration and security officials. So what has bought thousands of Honduran migrants to leave their homes? Honduran migrants including women, men and children have set off on this perilous 4,000 kilometer long journey on foot to the U.S. with the hope to apply for humanitarian asylum there. Ever since the ousting of Manuel Zelaya in 2009 in the U.S. backed coup, things have gone from bad to worse in the country. More than 60% of the country lives in poverty and the unemployment rates are soaring. The migrants seek to escape extreme poverty, violence, unemployment, lack of education and health within the country which has been worsened by the COVID-19 pandemic. The devastation caused by the Eta and Ayurveda hurricanes, which struck Central American countries in November 2020, have also made people's lives miserable. Most of the people who have joined this migrant caravan say that they have nothing to return to. Some migrants have also stated that the U.S. is a root cause of their problems and it is on the U.S. now to take care of the migrants. Where are the migrants now? Thousands of Hondurans who left their country last week in different phases on January 13, 15th and 16th, from the city of San Pedro Sula, remain stranded in Vado Hondo, in the northeast of Guatemala, and are fighting the authorities to let them continue on their way to the U.S. Mexico. The security forces maintain barriers along the Chitimula department to prevent the migrants from advancing. More than 20 military and police checkpoints have been placed on the highway that would lead the migrants from their current location to the border with Mexico. How has the United States reacted? The administration of U.S. President Donald Trump has adopted a hostile policy against these caravans and imposed harsh restrictions against undocumented migrants. Migrants are hoping that the situation would change after President-elect Joe Biden is inaugurated on January 20th. Biden promised to reverse Trump's strict immigration policies and rebuild asylum processes. However, the possibility of allowing the arriving asylum seekers to enter the U.S. has already been rejected by Biden's transition team officials.


I'm really excited to be back at our Get Stuff Done podcast. This is episode 12, and I'm really excited about our guest here today, you know, a man that, you know, we grew up not too far from each other. I was in South Jamaica, Queens, and back there as young people, we were just in admiration at this great three letters, you know, Run DMC. And I'm here with one of the talented brothers from that organization and that just entertainment a pioneer, Daryl Matthews McDaniels, better known by his stage name DMC. He's a founding member of the hip hop group Run DMC and is considered one of the pioneers of hip hop culture. Who would have thought hip hop would have brought us this far? That's crazy. Welcome here in City Hall. And it's just really good to see you have a powerful story, powerful narrative, ups and down, twists and turns, but you're still here. We all do. Right? And I'm sitting here, looking at your book, Daryl McDaniels, 10 Ways Not to Commit Suicide. You have a Comet book as well, and you have a book by your child, it's your son or daughter. Well, no, that's me in the third grade. Okay. Yeah, it's a story about me in his third grade getting teased, bullied and picked on, but finding my own voice and following your dream. Love it. Because we all have dreams. Love it. What schools did you go to, by the way? Well, elementary schools, St. Pascal Baylor Elementary School in Hollis, Queens, New York. It was one of the last Catholic schools in the neighborhood. The priest in the nuns was, we can't give up on the little black kids, we got to stay here for them. So, they trouped it out, but it's crazy, Mr. Man. I took three trains and two city buses to travel from Queens to go to Rice High School, 124th Street, in Lenox, yeah, and they was known for basketball, but it was all boys' Catholic high school, and I was a small enough student to get in there, the beautiful thing about making that trip. All the kids used to say, why in the world do you take three trains and two buses? Rice was a good school, but plus, when I got there, it gave me a first-hand look at the culture of hip hop before the records. So, when I got to Rice, most of the kids in the school were from the Bronx, Manhattan, and Harlem. Never remember, Harlem has been a beautiful renaissance. Right, right. It's Harlem now. Right. It's Harlem. It's Harlem. It's Harlem. I'm super fine, all of that. So, you know, the rap records came out, the hip hop records came, the hip hop came to Queens via the live performances on the cassette tapes, the recordings. But then it was the records. Rappers are like messaging, but when I got to Rice, those kids, they grew up there. They lived there before the era of the recorded hip hop. So I'm learning about all the hip hop from 79 to 73. So I'm learning about the purpose and the motive behind these young people creating this music. Now, it was for fun, but I discovered that it was really about inspiration, motivation, education. Right, right.  Now, since people think we have no resources, what can we do? So I learned that the music, the art, the dance, the style, the poetry, all had a purpose to allow us to evolve. And you've got to think about it. The Bronx was burning in the 70s. Right, that's right. I grew up in Queens. Well, Harlem also, Harlem? Yeah, Harlem. South Jamaica, Queens. Yes, South. You know, all of this. Every place we were, I looked at the Supreme Team documentary that talked about during that time. You know, we were coming out of the heroin, getting ready to enter the crack. It was a different time for all of us. But when you started out, it wasn't even about making money. It was about telling your message.  What was what was the thought back then? We grew up in the same neighborhood in the two hours or the three hours that you had at a hip hop party, block party, park party, a house party was heaven.  But it was basically based on creativity. For me, hip hop wasn't, like you said, it wasn't about entertainment and fortune and fame. I was like, oh, shoot, you could tell stories about who you are over music. Right. So it gave us a little kid down McDaniels from Queens, New York. I could tell people who I am. When did when did you realize that? Hey, I'm on to something. Well, it took a minute because, you remember, in the early years of hip hop, it was no albums, it was no videos. We wasn't on MTV. It was singles and people was like, it's a fad. Where you going to be in in three years? But I would say with the advent of MTV, because MTV was significant because it put all of us young kids, you know, from these ghettos and lower income neighborhoods, it put us in everybody's living room. Interesting. So Beverly Hills and all over people were seeing this culture, this way of life. And some of the people were a little nervous. Right. About having these. The image would have looked like and what it represented. It's almost, I was telling someone the other day, it's almost like jazz. Whenever you had those genres that were created by, you know, black and brown folks, it was actually demonized until it reached a level of acceptance. And now jazz is cool and hip. And hip hop is everywhere. It was rebellious. Yeah, right. But it was the truth. Right. You know, when you think about the seventies, people thought New York city was heaven, you know, which was cool. New York has always been a cool place to be. Right. But our reality wasn't fortune, fame and opulence. So hip hop basically allowed real people to tell their story and it allowed us not to be ashamed of our conditions, but by sharing those truths. By having that communication, by having that interaction. It was like, what could we do next? The message was the message. Right, right, right. It's like a jungle. The message was a mental health record. It's like a jungle sometime. Don't push me. But then Planet Rock was close to the edge, right? I'm close to the edge. I'm trying not to. But then Planet Rock was we know a place where everybody could eat, but we don't have to fight where we don't have to sell drugs in our own communities and it's the arts that allowed us to make those dreams come true, though, the Aerosmith piece sort of took it to another level. And I was reading something the other day, how there was a lot of tension behind that Aerosmith collaboration of people were angry. It was taboo. It was really right. Yeah, the the white, dedicated, religious rock fan. This is blast for me. Who these black young rappers, you know, it was like, what are they doing? But what they didn't understand was it's all rock and roll. Now, first of all, let's be true. Blues is the roots. Everything else is the fruits. So you could talk to the greatest white rock stars in God. Keith Richards, Mick Jagger, Stephen Tyler, Joe Perry, for Aerosmith. You'll sit down and talk to them about them. They will talk about the black blues artists that started it. So for us, in the beginning, we didn't have access to studios. So we had to find things to wrap over. So we took the break beats. Of course, we took it from James Brown. We always had a funky drummer beat. Of course, we took it from Parliament Funk and Della, because they had the funk. Of course, like you just mentioned, we took it from jazz. It was a lot of instrumentals. When the when the world drew disco away, another man's trash is another man. Give it to us. So we started using it. But also in the crates of Grandmaster Flash, Cool Herc, in the Grand Wizard Theatre were rock records. Love it. You know, a movie I saw the other day, I was on a plane and didn't even realize I would like it, but I really enjoyed it. Elvis was incredible. He and he talks about his beginning and, you know, going to the movie. Who was he hanging with? There you go. That's right. Who was he hanging with? It went into the Black Church. He saw it. Right. Right. And it just showed a little Richard for advice. Right. Right. Honey, just do your thing.  Exactly. What's interesting is that don't push me. I'm close to the edge, you know, you were close to the edge. And that's what your book is about.  You know, talking about this mental health piece, something that really men of color don't like to really talk about. Right. Because they think it's not cool. Right. There's this stigma. Oh, you ain't supposed to have feelings. You ain't. The most powerful thing that you can do is talk about when you're weak, scared, afraid and vulnerable. Then your power will come to you, but we have been programmed and hypnotized not to do that. So over the course of many generations, we mask our true feelings and our emotions. And how do we do that by harmful, destructive behaviors? If something's going on with me, I'm going to go fight everybody. Right.  I'm going to take drugs. I'm going to take alcohol to try to calm those feelings down.  I don't want to be here to deal with this. So I grew up, had a great life, had the best parents ever. Ever coming up in St. Alvin's, Queens, mom and dad, mom and dad, Bifrit, son of Bifrit, brother of Al, banners, my mother runs my pal. It's McDaniels, not McDonald's. These roms are Daryls, those burgers are Ronald. I ran down my family tree, my mother, my father, my brother and me. Oh, so I had a great life. And then I got the opportunity to have hip hop culture. Bless me to give me a purpose to help inspire, motivate and educate people. But I'm still human. I still go through things. A lot of us, we mask our feelings through harmful and destructive behaviors.  When people was praising me, I felt like killing myself. And I didn't know why it was just this void in my life.  But I want you to know Daryl. Daryl is no different from any human being on the face of the earth.  Now, I should have said, mom, I'm dealing with something and snap, but you don't want to worry your parents. And I'm saying, so what I was doing, I was dealing with my own things. So I call my mom's up and say, mom, I want to write a book. You know, I got my records. What time was I born? What hospital? What day? She tells me everything. I knew my birthday was May 31st. So hung up the phone. Hour goes by, Mr. Mayor. So all I wanted to do was say, in addition to my music, my Adidas contract, walking this way with Errol Smith and my tricky songs. I'm really just Daryl McDaniels, like all of you. Hour goes by, she calls back with my father on the phone. Hey, son, hey, dad, what's up? We have something else to tell you. I was 35 years old. I was an alcoholic, metaphysical, suicidal wreck who was thinking of killing herself. They came with this. We have something else to tell you. You was a month old when we brought you home and you're adopted, but we love you by click. So that was a life changing revelation, something that shook me to my roots. But then I calmed down and I said, wow, my Adidas walk this way, everything I ever did. I shouldn't be ashamed of being adopted or even a foster kid. So I started talking about it. That led me to say, you know what? I need to be a strong body and mind. So I went to rehab to stop drinking. And Mr. Man, when I got to rehab, I found the most gangster thing an individual man, woman, boy and girl, black, white, Puerto Rican, young, old, can do for himself. I found this thing called therapy where I was able to talk about how I felt and not be ashamed. My therapist said, you can be mad. You can be angry. You can be confused. You can have anxiety. Right. Right. So me being in hip hop, hip hop is about keeping it real. I get out of rehab and therapy and people say, yo, DMC, what's up with you? I would tell them, yo, I was going to kill myself just in that and all the celebrity stuff would leave a hundred percent of the time. Two things about me being honest with who I am and not being ashamed. These two things would happen. They would say, Darryl, thank you for telling me that. Me too, or if it wasn't them, they would go, my mother, my father, my sister, brother. So I realized that the King of Rock thing, the thing that I did with Ron and Jay, the Adidas deal was just to set up for what I was really put here to do. Finding a purpose is crucial. You know, it was interesting being told that you are adopted. You know, I'll never forget when my sister's dad died and I didn't know that she had a different father. I was in school when I got the, found out about it. And I was surprised. That tore me apart, you know?  That's one of the most devastating things that you can learn in life. Depression is based on traumas. Traumas that people tell you, you're too young to be thinking about that. Don't deal with that. Oh, man, up and stuff like that. No, deal with those feelings right there.  Why do you feel like they won't tell you? So that's why I did The Children's Book Down with Dream. All of the stuff that we go through in life as adults, our work environment, our interaction with our family, our friends, your career, everything that we go through, our playground is your work, your home, your friendship area. It's the same thing for the children, but their environment is the household, the backyard, the street, the classroom and the schoolyard. So a lot of anxiety, a lot of fear, a lot of confusion begins there. And when we bottle it up, we hold all that in so it took me 35 years to just wake up and say, I don't know what's going on with my life. What is this void in me? Sure, I was fine as DMC, but there were things and feelings that I wasn't allowed to or didn't think it was cool to address. Like if I would have known earlier than 35, I'd have been at eight years old telling everybody, I'm scared to death. I don't want to do that because I'm dealing with my truth. And by admitting I'm scared, I'm vulnerable, I'm nervous, that's your victory. I tell kids how I communicate with the kids. I say it's the hip-hop's 50th anniversary. Yeah, I've been involved for 40 of the 50 years. And I tell kids, I'm honest, I still get scared. I use these words before I go on stage. So that's just telling the kid, even if they don't know Run DMC, oh, it's cool to be scared. And you know what, there's nothing wrong with that. And people look at the celebrity status of performance. They don't know the hours working in the studio. They don't know what it's like being on the road around the stress of performance. The stress it is. Take us into that a little bit of, you know, moving around, I'll never forget one day, and it's that image stays in my mind often. You guys were coming back from performing overseas somewhere. And I saw the three of you walking to, it was Rochdale. You were walking inside Rochdale and everybody was saying, it's Run DMC. They don't know how beat down, tired and overworked we were, but we still will call you. But you gotta understand, doing your thing takes energy. It takes a lot out of you. And like you just said, I was speaking with Jesse Jackson about 25 years ago. He said, they look at people in the media. They look at celebrities. And he basically said, MTV Cribs is cool, but it shows results. It don't show process. So everybody's looking at us. They'll look at you and say, oh, his life is perfect and this and that and this and they don't know you get sad. They don't know you have thoughts of, am I sure? They don't know that you have doubts, but we mass those truths. So everybody will look at a so-called celebrity and think they're indestructible. My greatest power was having people who looked up to me all these years, realizing that the mighty king of rock, there is none higher. Sucker MC, Shakur Messiah is weak and vulnerable like all of us. And that's the breakthrough. And you know what's fascinating is that that's why you have to really find your center. You know, people talk about that. I get up early in the morning, meditate, exercise, get my green smoothie. If you don't take care of yourself, it's almost like the pilot saying when you're on an aircraft, put the mask, if the cabin pressure drops, place the mask on yourself before you do who you're traveling with. You gotta take care of yourself. And we're not doing that. We're so busy. Giving to other people, but you won't be effective if you're not okay. Well said. And you know, you are doing something amazing that I like. In 2006, you started and founded the Felix Organization to help children and foster care. We're doing some amazing stuff around foster care that was important to me. Whatever you need me to do, I'm there. Love it. I think the numbers, when a child aged out of not having the support that they deserve, we did something called Fair Futures, allow children to age out and learn at a later age with life cultures. We're paying college tuition for those who want to go to college and giving them a stipend for if they go to a one in all schools without a doubt. People, they don't want to be babysacked. They just need an opportunity. That's beautiful that you do. No, without a doubt. Tell me the exact reason why we started the Felix Organization. Tell me what it is about and what are you doing? What is up? Well. And tell me about the name Felix. Well, we found out later that Felix means happiness. Okay. Well, we named it Felix to explain the people, to make people understand what adoption of foster care is. So we had to come up with an example. So we grew up with Felix the cat on TV. So we created this. In his bag. In his bag of tricks, you know what I'm saying? He can make anything happen.  And they won't name them Rover. They don't name them Fido. They give them a cat name. But he grows up and he realizes, why can't climb trees? Why? I don't like playing with yarn in this scenario. Why? I don't like milk. And they go, Felix, sorry, never told you, but you're not really a cat.  The situation doesn't define who you are.  So we gave him inspiration to let him know and these children, the situation doesn't define who you are. You do. Take advantage of every opportunity, especially the ones that's educational, artistic and creative. And there's nothing in this world that you won't be able to do. My therapist had to tell me because I was acting differently when I found out I was adopted. She said, that's just your situation. Right, right. Don't become that label. You could be a doctor, a lawyer, whatever, whatever. I could.  I searched for my birth mother. I grew up in Queens. She was in Staten Island. I searched for her. I found her. Two brothers and a sister and I didn't know I had. But when I met my birth mother, the first thing she said was this, I know you're dying to know why I gave you up. I was like, shoot, lady, that's an understatement. She looked me in the eyes and she said, to give you a chance. And when I sat back and looked at, so what you're doing is giving these children these youth a chance. I went to school early in life. I took a trip to Fort Worth, Texas to go to DeVy Institute of Technology. And I took the bus down and on my way down, I stopped at Waco, in Waco, Texas. And I was on the college campus and everybody was calling me Kevin. Kevin, Kevin. And I was like, my name is Eric. Little did I know I had a brother around the same age as me from Brooklyn at Waco College. My dad had a whole other family, man. You know that. And you walked in there, Kevin. Right. Looked like everybody, they were calling me Kevin. I lost him a couple of years ago. He got caught up on crack when I was in the 88th Precinct. He got arrested one time and the prisoner van came by and he said, that's my brother inside there. So we don't know the roles in the journey we are. And sometimes people look over our lives and it sounds so unreal that it's hard for them to understand this is the life we live. Exactly. We didn't go home to Father Knows Best. Exactly. Somebody wasn't standing there waiting for us. We had to figure it out. In many cases, we didn't have all the answers. It's like those boys and girls in the Bronx that created hip hop. People thought they had nothing but they had everything necessary inside of them. And that's the beautiful thing. I tell people, everybody has a story that could change and save a life. Well said. Don't call me a celebrity because that is something I could never be. I am you and you are me. But people don't know that unless we share and communicate. Mr. Mayor, there's no such thing as a generation gap. With the OGs and the young Gs don't get along. It's a communication and sharing of information gap. Well said. The reason why hip hop is so great is we looked at what James Brown was doing. We looked at what Slot and the Family Stone was doing. We looked at what the Reefler was doing and Curtis Mayfield. Even the rock stars re-read about what David Bowie was doing. We educated ourselves with the information so that when we got up on that mic, when we got up on that stage, okay, we're gonna get some money. Okay, it's all fortune and fame but there's a responsibility to you in that position. That's something that grandmaster flashed in the first five tortoise to funky four plus one. The plus one was a female girl, shy rocked the only one. At the beginning of time, one girl in the midst of all of these dudes, bold enough to get on that mic and show that she belonged there. And opened the door for so many more. It's so many more. Adidas, you weren't that big endorsement. First non-athlete endorsement but I do want to touch on something before we close. It had to have been a dark moment in your life when you lost, you know. Jen and Master Jen. Yes. To gun violence. To gun violence, people often don't realize it was gun violence, something that we fought for. Even he couldn't get away from it. Right, something we fought against. Where were you? How did you get here? I remember that we were supposed to go to the next day down on Washington DC to perform half time after Washington Wizards game. So I'm at home and first it was the 10 o'clock news. Channel five and channel nine. Jam as to Jay shot in studio. So now I go, all right, maybe somebody did get shot because it was Queens as high as, but not Jay. They're just saying, Jam as to Jay shot. So it didn't sink in. So 11 o'clock, turn it to two, turn it to four, turn it to seven. Okay, this must be something. But then again, maybe somebody did get shot up in there but it wasn't Jay. So my manager, Eric, who is here with me now is daughter calls, crying. They killed Jay. Still didn't believe it. I'm living in Jersey at this time. I get them out, me and my wife, we get in the car, we get a babysitter, we drive the Queens. 165th Terminals where the studio is at. I know it very well. Across the street from the precinct. Hold up. Right across the street from the precinct. Yeah. So this is when it was reality, Mr. Mayor. I pull up, I see Chuck D of public enemy. And I see Ed Lover from your MTV raps, balling like little kids. And what's crazy is Jay could have his studio in Hollywood. He could have his studio in Manhattan down the block from Puffy's studio. He chose to keep his studio five minutes from where he grew up. Cause he found the doorway out. He left that doorway open for all of us. And I remember I was on line and I put, I put, I typed in. I'm not mad at the dude that shot Jay. I should've never did that, Mr. Mayor. I got cursed out like my stream was like crazy, crazy. I said, no, let me explain myself. I said, my fight isn't against the brother, the person that shot Jay. My fight is so, I said, our fights are so much bigger. What do you mean, DMC? My fight is against the mentality that will cause a person to do that. He didn't just stop Jay. He's like, he stopped the next producer, the next manager, the next film maker, stuff like that. So when I started explaining him like, when I started to explain myself like that, it was like, yo, D, that's right. Cause that got it pulled to trigger to realize he didn't have to. So hip hop for us, you know, our parents can tell us stuff. You know, we can read about it in history books. We can, we can get chaperoned and we could get taught not to do these things. The one thing that was so powerful hip hop, it was us young people talking to each other.  Let's become the Zulu Nation. So how are we going to get through? Instead of shooting and selling drugs, we going to dance. We going to play some music. We going to do art. Graffiti was wrong. Right, right, right. I tell you, graffiti was wrong cause we was writing on property we didn't own. But when those people in the properties that didn't want us writing on their wall said, yo, let's give them a canvas. Right, right. So we created the attention to have people give us opportunity but we were showing something that was positive and had a lot of potential to change us. So the young brothers and sisters, Jay and Poc and Big Dian, oh, it hurts my heart. But what hurts my heart more is the Jay Pocs and Bigs that die every day. That's right, that's right. That's who we fighting for, Mr. Man. And what goals in the grave with them? Yes. So as we close, what's next? The next thing for me to do is continue to do what I've been doing ever since I was put in this position. I used to just go to colleges to speak for the paid lectures, right? And I would go and speak and tell my story.  So I go to the high school and when I get to the high school, they nervous cause, you know, a lot of the kids, I don't want to take the money out the school systems. They want to pay me. I go, no, keeping them for the kids. And I'll speak at the high school. Then those teachers are going, you got to take this to the middle school. So I'm like, okay, I go to the middle school and then I get to the middle school. D, you got to go to the elementary school. So for me to go to elementary school, I had to put myself in a scenario that kids can relate to. So I don't know after dominating the world, walking this way in my Ditas with Errol Smith and Jay to tell the world how tricky life can be. I'm in colleges, I'm in high schools, I'm in elementary schools, I'm in group homes, I'm in foster care agencies.  What's next is this, Mr. Mayor, wherever you need me to be or anybody listening to be, that's where I'm supposed to be. You know what? Let me tell you something. And I'll rock a good rhyme when I'm there too. Let's not forget that.  I'm just gonna walk this way. Yes. And it's gonna be a good walk while we at it. My man. Thank you. Good to see you, man. And you know what? I'm gonna read this book. Thank you. Adele McDaniels, 10 Ways Not To Commit Suicide. And then we don't have. Thank you. Appreciate you, brother. Thank you. Thank you.


When I see homeless people on the street, I really can't imagine how you can survive like that. We want to have them integrate in the society. Just because you say that everyone has to have a home to live, that doesn't have to mean that it is free. That feels like quite an elementary expectation. Now it's worth like 30 million euros. We could sell it and all become rich, you know. The good conscience is the one thing that these huge real estate management agencies don't offer. And this is nothing we want to have. I think we really have to work against that. So you want oligarchs to pay more? Yeah. I would just really decommodify housing completely.