The Jack Benny Program presented by Lucky Strike. It is Excalibur. Smoke a lucky to feel your level best. Smoke a lucky to feel your level best. Your level best. That's just how you will feel when you light up a lucky, because lucky is fine tobacco, picks you up when you are low, calms you down when you're tense, puts you on the right level to feel and do your level best. It is important to you, as a smoker, to know that fine tobacco can do this for you. And every smoker knows, L-S-M-F-T, L-S-M-F-T, Lucky Strike means fine tobacco, smooth, mild, thoroughly enjoyable tobacco. No wonder more independent tobacco experts, auctioneers, buyers, and warehousemen smoke Lucky Strike regularly than the next two leading brands combined. It's good to know that fine tobacco picks you up when you're low, calms you down when you're tense. By putting you on the right level to feel and do your level best. That's the Lucky Level. So, smoke a Lucky to feel your level best. Smoke a Lucky to feel your level best. Get on the Lucky Level, where it's fun to be alive. Get a carton of Lucky's and get started today. The Lucky Strike Program starring Jack Spenny with Ferry Livingston, Phil Harris, Rochester, Dennis Day, and yours truly, Don Wilson. Gentlemen, one of the most popular restaurants in the country is the Brown Derby in Hollywood. Let's go back to yesterday afternoon and look in as the Brown Derby's headwaiters handle the overflow luncheon crowd. Gus, did you see Mr. Gable at his usual place? No, Chilius. Mr. Gable joined Eve Arden and her party. That's good. There's so many people waiting. Well, perhaps we can set up some more tables. Hey, Chilius, look who's coming in. Jack Benny. You take care of them. No, Gus. It's your turn this time. No, no. It's your turn. All right, all right. I'll take care of him. He changed networks. Why doesn't he change restaurants? Oh, Jack, here comes Chilius. Yeah, he'll get us a table. Well, good afternoon, Mr. Benny. Hello, Chilius. I'd like a table. They have some lovely tables at Romanoff's. I know. Romanoff sent us here. Good afternoon, Miss Livingston. I didn't see you. I'm awfully sorry, Mr. Benny. You'll have to wait. Every table in the place is taken. Well, maybe we... Hey, Mary, look. Hey, look, there's Jimmy Stewart having lunch all by himself. I'll ask him if we can sit at his table. But Jack, if he's eating by himself, maybe he prefers to be alone.  He'll be glad to have company. Come on. Only, uh, let me do the talking. Hey, Mary, look who's here. Hmm? Oh, hello, Jack. Hello, Mary. Well, if it isn't Jimmy Stewart.  You say, well, if it isn't Jimmy Stewart and everybody in the brown burberry applaud. Yes, yeah. By the way, Jimmy, we're in a hurry and all the tables are taken. Would you mind if we join you? How can he say no? You're already eating his rolls. There's enough for both of us. Sure, sure. Come on, let's sit down here. Here, I'll make room for you, Mary. Well, thank you. There we are. Now, Jack, I'll move over. Oh, just sit still, Jimmy. You need to move for me. I'll squeeze right in here and then we can... Whoops! Oh, I'm... I'm sorry, Jimmy. I knocked over the pitcher and spilled the water. Oh, that's all right. With this weather, it froze before it hit the floor. That's right. And here we are. Let me hand you my napkin. I knocked over the ketchup bottle. Better wipe it off, Jimmy. You look like an ad for Blood on the Moon. Yeah, I'm sorry, Jimmy. You know, Jack, I've been sitting here eating for 30 minutes. You've been here 10 seconds and you've got more on me than I've got in me. Well, I guess it's because we're in such a hurry. I take your orders, please. I'm sorry. Well, I guess it's because we're in such a hurry. I take your orders, please. Yes, yes. I'll have a club sandwich and a cup of coffee. Yes, sir. Yours, Miss Livingston? Oh, gee, I don't know what to have. What's that you're eating, Jimmy? Oh, it looks delicious. Oh, this is something my mother always used to make for me. It's my favorite dish. What is it? Mozzarella ball soup. Oh, oh. Chili, I'll have a Caesar salad and a pot of tea. Yes, Miss Livingston. By the way, Jimmy, I saw your latest picture. You've got to stay happy. And you and Joan Fontaine certainly make a wonderful combination. Oh, well, thank you, Mary. You made that picture for Universal, didn't you, Jimmy? Yes, yes. Before that, I made rope for Warners and then I made one over at MGM, one at RKO, one at 20th Century, and then one for Paramount. What's the matter? Can't you keep a steady job? It's just that Jimmy prefers to freelance. Oh, oh. By the way, Jack, what have you been doing lately? Well, I've been rather busy with radio. Radio? Well, aren't you a little late getting into that with television and everything? No, no, Jimmy, I've been in radio for 17 years, but I haven't made a picture since I was at Warners, and I left there because there was always a big issue, you know, when it came to casting. Well, I can understand that, Jack. You and Earl Flynn are the same type. Yes, yes, we are. Uh, Jack had the same trouble with MGM, but they decided to keep Lassie. Anyway, Jimmy, I'm not appearing in pictures because I'm producing them now. Oh, I didn't know you were producing pictures, Jack. Oh, yes, yes. Matter of fact, I just finished my first one. It's called, uh, The Lucky Stiff, starring Dorothy Lamour, Brian Dunleavy, and Claire Trevor, soon to be seen at your neighborhood theater. Jack, uh, what are you yelling for? Jimmy, if these people can eat here, they can afford to go and see it, you know. You know, a plug's a plug, isn't it? Mr. Benny, if you'd like, you can move over to this table here. Chili, I thought you didn't have any empty tables. We've got a lot of them now. We'll just, we'll just stay where we are. Yes, sir. Here's your food. Who gets the salad, please? Oh, the salad is mine. Now, let's see. What are we talking about before the food game? The picture you produced, The Lucky Salad. No, no, The Lucky Stiff.  Say, you know, Jimmy, I've just been thinking, you're a nice guy, and here you've been having a tough, not working steady at 1E1 Studio.  Jimmy, Jimmy, Jimmy, what happened? Jimmy. Oh, that's the first time I ever saw anyone choke on a matzah ball. I probably surprised him with my offer. Yeah, she certainly did. Uh, but Jack, the only reason I can't accept it is because I have so many other commitments. Well, Jimmy, we can make it after you fulfill your other commitments. But Jack, after that, I want to take a vacation. No buts, Jimmy, my boy.  Now, you've got to let me make this picture with you. Now, what's the salary you usually get for picture? $200,000. Water's on the floor. Sorry, you. You better discuss this with Jimmy some other time. It's getting late and the whole gang will be waiting at the studio for rehearsal. Yeah, yeah. I'll get the check. Waiter, waiter, our check. Waiter, waiter. Jack, just call him. Don't wave your toupee. Jimmy, this isn't a toupee. It's just a small hairpiece. Hairpiece? I'd have to have a fur coat like that. I'd like to have you read your line right. I suppose I run along and start the rehearsal. Well... I'll see you later, Jack. Goodbye, Jimmy. Goodbye, Mary. Say, Jimmy, have you heard the way people are talking about Mary lately? Talking about Mary? Yes, I hate to see this. Say this really, but have you noticed... Have you noticed how she always leaves the table just before they bring the check? It's embarrassing, you know. I hate to see it too, you know. But anyway, Jimmy, getting back to the picture I want you to do for me, now, I have a story. Excuse me for interrupting, but I happen to have a snapshot of you, Mr. Benny. Would you mind autographing it? Oh, I'd be happy. Hey, Jimmy, would you mind lending me your fountain pen? Not at all. Here you are, Jack. Thanks. Now, let's see. With my very best wishes, best wishes, Jack Benny. Here you are, lady. Thank you very much. It's a nice meeting you. Oh, wait a minute, lady. This is Jimmy Stewart. Don't you want his autograph? No, but 30 years ago, I would have. Look, Jimmy, I've got to run over to CBS and rehearse my show. Suppose you come along with me and we'll discuss a deal for a picture. No, no, Jack, I'd rather not. Here's the check, gentlemen. No, thank you, Julius. No, Jimmy, let me take it. After all, it was your table and Mary and I barged in. So I insist on paying it. No, no, Jack. I'd feel better if I paid for it. Well, if your health is involved, go ahead. I got to run along and... See, my hands are kind of sticky. Where's my napkin? Oh, here it is. I can't pull it up. What's the matter with this napkin? You've got my shirt tail. No, no. Well, here, I'm through with it. Um... Come on, Jimmy. Goodbye, Jack. I got it so late. I hope they start the rehearsal without me. Did Jimmy Stewart agree to let you produce his next picture? Well, not yet, Mary, but I'm sure he'll come around to talk to me about it. Now, come on, kids. We've got a rehearsal to do, so let's get started. Mr. Benny, I've read over my pot three times already. Well, good, Dennis. It's nice to know that you're diligent. Dilligent? Are we doing a gangster sketch? That's good! Well, don't I get nothing for being close? No. And, Phil, look at Phil. Watch your cue. Now, you come into the sketch on page 21. 21? Yes. That's all your fingers, all your toes, and one more.  Dennis and I are newlyweds? Yes.  Where am I? What? I don't know about you, kid, but I'm on page 22. That's 21. I've got 11 toes! Phil, you miscounter. Try again. Now, Mary, as soon as we... Who fired that shot? I did. That reverberation you just heard was the result of a firearm that I discharged to test the acoustical quality of the studio. Acoustical quality? Who are you? I'm Herbert, your sound effects man. Oh, oh. Well, look, Herbert, don't try any more shots. All I want are the sound effects that are written into the script. Well, you can depend on me, Mr. Benny. For years, I have devoted my artistry to dramatic shows, and I have mastered the most difficult sound effects ever heard on radio. Really? Yes. One in particular baffled every sound effects master in the industry, but by perseverance and sheer ingenuity, I managed to reproduce it. I see. It was on the prudential hour. The scene was a moonlit night, and two lovers were dancing out on the patio. Oh, yes, yes. I heard that show. As the soft music filled the balmy summer evening, the two lovers drew closer and closer until his cheek lightly brushed against hers. That was the most delicate sound effect of all. Well, I should imagine it was. How did you get the sound of his cheek delicately brushing against hers? I slapped a hot water bottle with a piece of raw liver. Those are the kind of effects we need on our show.  Jack, liver's 90 cents a pound. Well, just kick me in the pants with a cheek. Now, Don, let's take the rehearsal from that scene where we're in the house and there's a knock on the door. Okay, Jack. Herbert, give us a knock on the door. No, no, Herbert, a little louder. Herbert, that still isn't loud enough. Why is the knock so soft? I use jergens. Oh. Well, then maybe we ought to have a doorbell instead of a knock. There, that's more like it. Well, I didn't do that. What? Jack, there's really someone at the door. Oh, Don, you're near the door, openly. Say, Jack, it's Jimmy Stewart. You see, Mary, what did I tell you? You came after me already. Come on in, Jimmy. Thanks. What can I do for you? Well, Jack, I hate to break in on your rehearsal like this, but there's something I want to talk to you about. Oh, Jimmy, it's quite all right. We have plenty of time. Not me. I got to go to Niagara Falls and meet Mary. Then let's be quiet. Now, Jimmy, what is it you wanted to talk to me about? It's about the picture. You see, Mary? Now, Jimmy, we can start production on the picture just as soon as we... I mean the picture you autographed at the Derby. You kept my fountain pen. Oh. Oh. I wouldn't have bothered, but it's a lifetime pen and I'm young yet. Yes, yes. Here's your pen, Jimmy. Thanks. Now, Jimmy, let's get back to business. I know you made a swell picture call. You got to stay happy. But I can do so much for you that... Jack, why don't you leave him alone? Can't you see that Jimmy's not interested? No, Mary. I can help him. He doesn't need help. He's already won an Academy Award. An Academy Award, Jimmy? For what picture? Philadelphia story. Who cares about Philadelphia? I'm going to Niagara Falls. Now, be quiet.  And you know something else, I think you're very pretty, too. Oh, Jimmy, do you really mean it? Yeah, sure. Of course I do. Come over here, Mary.  Oh, Jimmy. And maybe sometime I could take you out dancing in the moonlight. Just the two of us, maybe. Out on the patio. He's getting close to a herb and get ready with the liver. Actors get bigger laughs than comedians. Now, look, Jimmy, let's settle that picture deal we've been talking about. Well, Jack, I... You're supposed to be mad here. Jack, I just can't make a picture with you this year. You've got to be awardy. Can't read. Jack, I just can't make a picture with you this year. You'll have to excuse me. I'm going over to dressing room G. I have to look over a dramatic script. Oh, that's right next door, Jimmy. I'll show you where it is. Ted, I'll be back in a minute. So, Jimmy, as I pointed out to you, it'll be to your advantage to make this picture for me. Jack, now, you've been talking to me for an hour and a half since we came into the dressing room here. Now, will you please just let me lie here and relax? How about it? Well, yes. Okay, okay, Jimmy. See you later. Yeah, da-dee-da-dum. Da-dee-da-dum. Da-dee-da-dum. He'll be back. Da-dee-da-dum. Oh, oh, Don. Don, bring the quartet in now. We'll go over to the commercial. Well, Jack, we're going to have a little difficulty with the sportsmen this week. They're having trouble with their wives, and they're all upset. What? Yes, yes, Jack. It's terrible. Their wives want to leave them. All four of them? Don, I've never seen a quartet like that. When one has a cold, they all have cold. When one has a headache, they all have headache. Don, I don't care if they're having trouble with their wives or not, we've got to have a commercial. Now, where are they? Well, they're in the dressing room talking to their wives on the phone. Oh, my goodness. Come on down. We're going to talk to them right now. And I can't imagine four fellas having the same trouble at the same time. Well, here's their dressing room. Let's go in. Look, Jack, they're still on the phone treating with their wives. Yeah. Say it isn't so Everyone is saying you don't love us Say it isn't so Gee, that's awful. I'm sorry. Everywhere we go Boys, boys Everyone we know Fellas, fellas, look. Whisper that you're real Say it isn't so Boy, I'm sorry, boy But I need a commercial Please don't go away Fellas, really, I need a commercial Promise you will stay A commercial We will fill the house With lucky strikes You'll get them every day Thank you Look, I'll talk to your wives I'm sure that everything will be all right Fellas, look, right now I need a commercial Fellas, it'll be all right Look, I need a commercial Boys, l-a-t-m-t-b Take them or maybe they'll feel better tomorrow I'll see you later, Don I hate to see those fellas so upset I hope they settle things with their wives But then that's their worry, not mine Oh, Jack Huh? Oh, hello, Jimmy Jack, I came out here to talk to you Yes, yes, about the picture No, not about the picture Then what is it, Jimmy? Jack, I realize now that When you took my fountain pen The brown derby You wanted me to follow you around What? So, uh When you took me into the dressing room Told me to lie down and relax And put my feet up on the chair I should have known you were up to something Huh? Jack, give me back my shoes Oh, yes, yes, your shoes Here you are, Jimmy I'll thank you from a sock, too Oh, yeah, your socks Now, Jimmy, as long as you've got a few minutes While you're putting on your shoes and socks Let's talk about the picture Now, if you will just No more talk, Jack I told you I have too many commitments And that settles it Okay, Jimmy, but if you just change your mind Come around and see me Well, I won't change my mind Say it isn't so Little does he know La, la, la, la, la, la Now, come on, kids Let's finish the rehearsal and make it snappy I'm waiting for me out in the parking lot with my car Oh, Mr. Benny will be out in about a half hour I better start warming up the motor Must be something wrong with the battery again I better take a look There's the battery and it has the positive and the negative Then there are the sparks The sparks are supposed to go from the electrons To the electrodes Or maybe they go from the generator to the distributor Then again, maybe they go from NBC to CBS Let's lose wire here is the trouble So I'll just fasten it and... Hello, Rochester Huh? Oh, hello, Mr. Stewart Say, has Mr. Benny come out of the studio yet? No, but he should be here any minute By the way, Mr. Stewart I was over to your house the day before Christmas Mr. Benny has me drop off a package for you Did you get it? Yes, but this time there was too much starch In the collars Well, don't look at me I'm rough dry Mr. Benny is the starch man You know, Rochester, your boss amazes me How long has he been in the laundry business? Oh, a long, long time Say, Mr. Stewart, you were born May 8th, 1911, weren't you? Yes, that's right How'd you know? You used to take our diaper service My dear Yeah It broke Mr. Benny's heart The way you and Gary Cooper grew up so fast But, uh... Rochester, I still can't understand a man Of Mr. Benny's position Having a laundry service in his home Oh, the laundry is just a sideline A sideline? Uh-huh Mr. Benny does more business in his living room than Eastern Columbia, Broadway at 90 Yeah On holiday, you can't get near the joint All right, Rochester Are we ready to go? Yes, boss, all set Good Now, first, I want you to drive me to... Uh, Jack I'd like to see you for a second Oh, hello, Jimmy So you've finally changed your mind And you want to appear in my picture No No It's not that There's something I'd like to ask you What is it? Now, look, uh... Jack, I...  Well, yes I must admit I did You're not angry, are you, Jimmy? Oh, no, no No But tell me one thing What is it, Jimmy? I... I know how you got my phone, Ben Uh-huh I can even figure out how you got my shoes And my socks Yeah But how, in the name of heaven Did you get the filling out of my tooth? I'll tell you when we finish the picture Come on, Rochester, drive home Jack, we'll be back in just a moment But first Smoke a lucky to feel your level best Smoke a lucky to feel your level best You see, lucky's fine tobacco Picks you up when you're low Calms you down when you're tense Put you on the right level To feel and do your level best It's good to know that fine tobacco Can do this for you And that's why it's so important That you select and smoke the cigarette Of fine tobacco lucky strike For as every smoker knows L-S-M-F-T, L-S-M-F-T Lucky strike means fine tobacco The experts, men who know tobacco Look to lucky strike for their own Personal smoking enjoyment Yes, more independent auctioneers, buyers And warehousemen smoke luckies regularly Than the next two leading brands combined So next time you buy cigarettes Ask for lucky strike and get on the lucky level Where there's real joy in living Where it's fun to be alive The lucky level where you feel and do your level best Smoke a lucky to feel your level best Smoke a lucky to feel your level best Get on the lucky level where it's fun to be alive Get a carton of luckies and get started today Ladies and gentlemen, I want to thank Jimmy Stewart For following me around on my program today And next Sunday, listening to CBS Line Up The Prudential Hour, Spike Jon... Jack. Just a minute, Jimmy. And after Spike Jon comes Jack Benny, that's me And my guest will be Mr. and Mrs. Ronald Coleman. Jack. Jimmy, just a minute. Gender, name is Mandy, Sam Spain. Jack, I've got to talk to you. In his life with Luigi, Armist Brooks and Helen Hayes. Jack. What is it, Jimmy? I want to go home and give me my pants. There you are. Good night, Paul. Don't forget the new Lucky Strike program. You're Lucky Strike's Carmen Garminici Heard every weekday afternoon over most of these stations. This is CBS, the Columbia Broadcasting System.


Welcome to DEF CON Safe Mode. I'm the Dark Tangent. I'll be your host along with hundreds and hundreds of other goons, contest organizers, village organizers, and other creatives. I'm trying to build you a virtual experience for a replacement for Missing Las Vegas. Far from Las Vegas, I'm in Singapore where I've been stuck since February, so I really am coming at you from the other side of the planet. Recording this just in case the live connection doesn't work, so hopefully I'll be at the end of this recording, available for questions and answers, but if it doesn't work out, sorry we tried our best. So, this is the part of DEF CON where normally I talk a little bit about the history of the con, what can be expected for the new year, some cool surprises, how to get the most out of it, but really honestly I don't really know what to tell you a whole lot besides we're online. It's new, exciting, the theme this year is discovery. Our color palette are these nice bright pastel colors and we're trying to evoke sort of a sense of wonder, discovery, new exploration, and there's going to certainly be a lot of that this weekend. If you look at what the villages are doing, the contests and events, so many different platforms online, we're really stress testing this environment to see what an online community like ours would be like. So, I'm really kind of excited to do this and I'm really terrified at the same time because this is a lot of skills that we don't exercise in Vegas. We're all about real life and in-person, face-to-face, and this is at a distance with keyboards and video chat and memes. So, I've been watching everybody on the line con for the last week and some great conversations are happening. I just don't know what's going to happen when we go live, so I hope to see you out there. So, let me talk a little bit about the decision to go live with Discord and a new platform for us. So, when I decided to cancel the in-person, I mean it was, if you read my post, it was pretty clear nothing was going to happen in the States. And we've been totally, totally borne out that that was the right decision. I mean everything's canceled in the States forever as far as I can tell. So, online it is. It's going to be online for a while. So, we quickly had to discover how could we do this? And we made a post on forum.defconn.org, talked about a whole lot of different platforms. Do we want to do VR with cartoon-like characters? Do we want to build a world? Do we want to have a text only? In the end, it was pretty much down to Riot, which has been renamed now, and Discord. And we wanted Discord because it had a longer history. Gamers are pretty abusive, and so their platform has been beaten up quite a bit. And they've got some pretty good moderation and server stability experience. And it was pretty extensible. A lot of people have built stuff on top of Discord. So, here we are. Now, in the last three months, Riverside, some of the guys from Wall of Sheep, some of the Defcon crew and others have pulled together, and really in three months, two months, done about a year's worth of work building this Discord server that you're now on. Please be gentle. We're in beta. This is like Google beta, I guess. So, there's a lot of different things to explore here. And I'm just going to give you a quick overview, and then we're going to move on to talk about some of the cool things happening at the show. So, first off with Discord, anybody can report an issue. Everybody on the platform has to comply with the Defcon Code of Conduct. And because we're guests on Discord's platform, we also have to comply with the Discord's Code of Conduct. And there's reporting tools. You can file a report or a ticket, as we call it, and get a goon to help. If you see a goon in red, they're on the right-hand side. You can message them and ask them for help. And then also there's Discord moderation that can help. And if you have any questions, during operating hours, just go and ask the Infobooth. They're there to help. They're at the top in the upper left-hand of your channel selection. And once you learn a couple of tricks like Control-K to jump to channels, you should start zooming around and it'll feel more comfortable. So, we're trying something new this year. We're making all the talks, all the videos of the talks, the presentations, PDFs, the music, album, everything, the original soundtrack, and we're dumping it all at once on Wednesday. So, by the time you've seen this, Thursday or Friday, I don't even know when we're playing this right now, by the time you see this, all the videos, all the speeches, everything will become available. We've never done that before because we've never had the speeches ahead of time. And what we're hoping to do is allow you to time shift. There's a lot of other villages and content that aren't doing that. They're going live.  And then what we are doing live, our big risky maneuver, is every day, all day from Thursday to Saturday, Sunday, we're having Q&A sessions. So, if you see a talk that you like and you want to interact with a speaker, you get a half an hour every day on each talk. So, just go to the DEF CON.org website, look at the schedule. You'll see when the Q&A's are happening. So, you'll also notice at the end of the day, we're operating in Pacific time zone, UTC-7, for those of you not familiar with Americanisms. We close a lot of the rooms at night. And this is because we don't want to burn out our moderators and our goons waiting around in rooms where nobody's participating. So, you'll see a lot of rooms lock at night. You might see some with the tag that say closed. You might see some disappear, depending upon how they're closing their room. But in the end, they'll pop back up the next day during normal hours, Pacific time. So, yeah, pretty excited about this. I've got my refrigerator stocked, I've got my caffeine, I've got my stimulants and my alcohol depressants, depending upon what situation presents itself. We're recording and capturing as much as we can. A lot of the villages and contests are recording as well on Twitch or YouTube. And so, after the CON, we'll start gathering all of this video and content and results and we'll start sharing it with the community. So, if you missed something, hopefully maybe it'll have gotten captured and you'll be able to see it after the fact. And for those of you who became human pluses to help support us on the server with a little bit of money, that's really appreciated. We've never done a free event because there's always costs. But this year, it was such a special occasion. DEF CON has canceled. Then I really wanted to give something back to the community. We're all in a pretty stressful place with COVID. I mean, everybody has somebody that has been impacted by it. And anyway, I just wanted to make everything open to our community and make this sort of a time of celebration and discovery. Get us connected one way or the other because we can't see each other in person in Vegas. So, yeah. So this is the best I can do and I hope it's enough. Now, to bring you closer together and make new friends, we always have contests. And one of the contests this year was the badge contest. So if you purchased a badge, which was a cassette tape, which was kind of a play on the last time, the Lost Boy did a badge for us. It was a record, if you remember that. But encoded on the audio and in the program, liner notes and in the lanyard, there were clues and hints. And this is really meant to be a challenge for you to explore before the con. And then during the con, Lost is deploying one of his super famous mystery challenges. This is a full blown mystery challenge. So things that were on the badge, badge challenge, don't get them confused with things you're going to see on the forums, which is the mystery challenge. And Lost is primarily going to perform the mystery challenge contest on forum.deafcon.word. But I'd like to introduce him next, so he can tell you all about the craziness of making the cassette badge at the last possible minute, putting it in a puzzle, getting the audio encoded, and then building a mystery challenge and what he's trying to get you to do. An experience for this show. So if you don't know Lost, he's a longtime super contributor to Defcon. Sort of a jack of all trades. I think he's been everything you can be from a school teacher to a linguist to a police officer to super computer hacker to cryptographer. He's kind of done a little bit of everything, a very envious of his skill set. But he also has a great inquisitive mind and is very detail oriented when he gets into music and puzzles and so hopefully you've experienced some of his puzzles in the past and if you haven't, hey, this is a great chance for you to get involved and start either at the ground floor with the badge challenge. I mentioned the badge challenge. If you don't have a badge, that's okay. All the materials are online for free on the Defcon media server, media.defcon.org. So you can still play along. You just won't have the physical item, but you'll have all the audio files. I'm distracted. Now, it's my pleasure to introduce you to Lost Boy if you haven't met him before and take it away, Virtual Lost Boy. Thank you, Jeff. Hello, everybody. Welcome to Defcon Save Mode. I hope everybody is doing well in spite of these challenging times. First and foremost, I'd like to thank DT for letting us even have a badge and making that happen and making that possible in spite of the fact that we're in the wonderful COVID times that we are. I'd like to also thank Neil and Nikita and Darrington for the help that they put forth on making sure that the badge happened as well as to Nellie Botte for the assistance on the lanyard artwork as well. For those of you who are working on the puzzle or recognize that there is a puzzle in the lanyard, obviously you've been focusing on that there. The only recommendation or hint I could give at this point in time would be to shave a little closer with Occam's razor. Don't overcomplicate things. Don't make it more complicated than it needs to be. Some people have already figured out quite a few clever things. I would recommend that you check out the forums or talk to some folks in some of the chat rooms here on the Discord for that. Recently, as you can probably see from around me, I've been really into music and synthesizers such as this record here, the Happy Moog and it is Moog, it's not Moog. There's a modular synthesizer there. It seems that synthesizers in the hacker community have that Venn diagram tends to overlap quite a bit. Same thing with electronics that are building things. I mean, clear back when we had folks like Forrest Mims giving us Radio Shack books and showing us how to build electronic music instruments. Along with that, during my earlier years, one of the things that always meant a lot and was a demonstration of a lot of thought and emotion behind it was the concept of the mix tape, which I think the younger generation just won't have a need to understand because you carry all of your music around with you on your phone or you have access to it or you stream it. But back in the day, you used to have to sit and listen to the radio for hours and then tape your favorite songs in order to get them. So you could listen to them when you wanted to. The cassette tape was the medium that tended to follow right after LPs and records. And there were other tape technologies such as the 8-Track, which was a continuous loop tape, which is very interesting if you don't know how an 8-Track works. The tape is round around a single spool and it's fed actually from the middle, goes around the roller in the tensioner and then gets wrapped back around the outside and it's self-tensioning. That's why an 8-Track tape doesn't have any access to the winders or the rollers. I've already seen several people making reference in the forums about the relationship between a cassette tape and a pencil for the younger generation. That's because when the tape would get caught up or not be tensioned properly, you'd shove a pencil through here and use it to wind the tape or spin it. This is, by the way, one of the original test tapes for the DEF CON tape. This is the Master, but it is one of the original test tapes. You can see a clear shell there. One of the early Goon prototype tapes. Experimenting with different colors, there's the red one. This one, if you notice, has no tape in it at the time. This is just a shell and the spools, the spindles have the clear take-up tape which is connected and so what the manufacturer will do is they'll come in and they'll splice that and they'll splice the other tape to it and then wind it up and that's how these are made. The shells for the DEF CON badge this year came from Italy and the tapes themselves were fabricated and recorded in here in the United States on the east coast, actually. What I was starting to say earlier was the mixed tape, you made mixed tapes for friends or friends or family or whoever that showed that you went to the effort, not only the order of the songs was important and the emotion behind why certain songs were chosen. I mean, some mixed tapes were like somebody were dating, sometimes it was a romantic gesture like, look, I spent all this time focused and the thought behind it is, I was thinking about you the whole time that I made this thing and oftentimes it would be handwritten on there because it would be a blank tape that was recorded on home equipment and there were actually so we all now have you wouldn't download a house well back then they used to have advertisements would be like tapes are killing the music industry which it hasn't even the original pirate bay logo you've all seen like the cassette tape with the crossbones because the tape was really the first medium that allowed us to tape to tape, allowed us to record our music and create bootlegs for example about the same time you started having video tapes as well but it gave people an opportunity to preserve music and have music and as we can see it didn't kill the record industry unfortunately I have my own thoughts on that the human badges this year are the purple color tape there that you can see we also made two other colors the artists all got copies in yellow it's kind of a neon yellow I like that color and all of the goons got a solid red tape the red tapes are actually very rare because we only made enough for the goons same thing with the artist tapes the the intent was people are going to be at home they're not going to we didn't think sit and wear them around their neck as a lanyard but one of the things I wanted to do and I talked with DT about it is I want to have kind of a mini contest that we're announcing right now which hasn't gone public except for when someone on Twitter kind of forced my hand we're looking for the most creative way that someone attaches their tape to their lanyard whether that's 3D printing sculpting action figure clay model electronics pick a thing I'm going to be talking in the badge forum about where you can send pictures or video submission about what you've done to me and myself and DT and a couple other people will vote and we'll see who we think the most creative badge holder creator is bonus points if you make it in such a way that it can be copied by other people points for creativity things like that but it's kind of a mini contest that I wanted to do live that I didn't want to start until DEF CON actually started some other interesting facts about the tapes so when I was talking to the fabricator which by the way is the same house that does the tapes for places like Disney which I thought was interesting and then I started thinking about it and well no there aren't that many tape fabrication houses anymore so those that have the capacity to do a large run and do a professional quality run are limited these days so it made sense that we wound up at somebody who would do something like tapes for Disney or for you know we kind of have a resurgence there's a resurgence in like 80s pop culture interest lately in music too although certain genres of music have been around for a while groups like gunship seem to have become more popular recently and kudos to them after a live stream that I did I do a live stream once a week where I talk about music science and hacking immediately following that stream and I'd like to think I influenced it although probably not gunship announced that you can use any of their music on live streams without being worried about copyright so kudos to them in the next generation but the tape when it's being fabricated goes through the machine at 60 miles an hour think about that it's faster than most like most cars on the freeway when the freeway is jammed up and the if you think about the acceleration deceleration for how fragile the tape itself is to say that it's going at 60 miles an hour is pretty impressive you think about how that machine must be capable of doing the other thing is that there is a 6 hertz tone that they use to tell where the breaks in the tape should be as opposed to like the 8 track who uses an actual piece that is spliced onto the tape and unlike splicing of audio tape where you would do it on the back because you wouldn't want it to go over the reed head on an 8 track it actually faces the reed head which I also find interesting I keep mentioning 8 track tapes because I don't want to show them yet but the uber batch for this year is based on an 8 track tape so there won't be very very few of those that DT will be giving out closing ceremonies to two winners of contests but we made even fewer than we normally do just because of the nature of where we're at in terms of Covid and everything else but I wanted the tape to be something to be representative of friends, missing friends wishing we were together but instead of focusing on that negative aspect of that something that brings people together the contest side the badge challenge for those of you who are new to DEFCON there are often puzzle crypto slash pop culture slash picket subject I've probably ventured into it at least a little bit but there are still challenges that are involved and some are relatively easy and some are incredibly difficult and the range goes all the way from badge challenge up through mystery challenge which is a separate contest this year specifically if you get to a certain point I was going to show you just the splash screen of a particular website that you will eventually get to if you if you if you happen to hit that that website you're on the right track so you'll know that you're doing something right if you were looking for other people to play the game with try the DEFCON forums or we will have some Discord channels that will be discussing a badge challenge and that might be a place to find other people that you can connect with even remotely work on the puzzles together I kind of like the crossword puzzles from the New York Times I always wanted to solve and finish one of those but again I'd like to say thanks to DT for letting this happen recently in my life I've started being really interested in music I mean recently passed like five years or so I've started carrying around one of these guys with me this is a zoom recorder you'll notice the XY recording head in there I've been carrying one of these around with me pretty much everywhere I go and when I hear interesting sounds or things out in the wild I've been recording them and incorporating them into some music and things that I've been making maybe someday I'll start releasing things I don't know but again thank you for coming to DEFCON Safe Mode we hope that we can connect with everybody the best we can in these trying times let's try and have some fun and focus on some positive for a little while I think we could all use it so now back to you Jeff so if all went well we're done with the intro we're going to move on down to the question and answer session live if I'm still here and Lars is still here you should see us popping up any minute and discord in the chat and we're ready to take any questions about community history why we're doing what we're doing how you can get more out of the show and really looking forward to seeing everybody and thanks a lot for being here


Hello, my name is Genius Black. Right now, I am at Portland Media Center sitting inside the recording booth, aka a whisper room. This is where I actually record all of the intro sections for the mains Black Future podcast. So I set up in this space with my nice condenser microphone, and I do my vocals right in this space and tell the story of one of the historic Black main figures that inspire me, and I believe will inspire many of you. After I record the introductory historical section, I move over to the podcast recording studio here at Portland Media Center, and I can sit down and have a conversation and engagement with one of the Black leaders that's currently influencing Maine and weaving Maine's Black Future. Dallas, Texas, okay. How'd you like growing up in Dallas? For me, you know, home is home for a lot of us. I loved it. You know, I played football, I did basketball track football every year. Eight tons of Tex-Mex or Mexican food, as well as this other food. So yeah, I love growing up in Texas. I'm cool with the heat. I can do it with all that. But yeah, I had a lot of fun growing up, you know, of course I'm in a different place now, but yeah, grew up in Texas. And I don't want to dismay, but do you think, I mean, people say that people in Texas are very friendly? Is that true compared to Maine, even? Yeah, you know, what's interesting is, yes, people, I think, down south tend to be some, what, nice, but sometimes it can even be fake. It's just being cordial. It's, you know, so I don't know, you know, I tend to find people in Maine very nice. I would say people in Maine are like rugged. They're like, right here for like the gusto. And you can still be nice while doing that. You know, so yeah, I find people in Maine pretty nice. But down south, people, the way that we're taught to act around each other is to be very thoughtful. There's like a Southern politeness there versus in Maine, people are like this rugged individualism. I always find it to be like, in Maine or New England, because so much of the time you're spent indoors, they're more kind of into themselves. Whereas, whereas warmer places, people are outside more and interact a lot more often. I definitely think places that have like the long winters and all that, they have, you have like more of an insular winter as well. And like the culture reflects that. So yeah, absolutely. And so you came up to Maine to go to school? Yeah, to go to Bowdoin in the year 2000. Yeah. I graduated high school in 2000, shout out Grand Prairie High School, because you know, everybody from my high school is going to see this. Well, we never know. But then, aside from just graduating and then taking that summer, I took a string of Graham buses. I remember that because they had this deal. It was like 100 bucks to go like anywhere in the United States, but there's necessarily one bus. So I really took mine. I swear it was like nine to 12 buses all the way up the East Coast, showed up at Bowdoin College and did the thing. You know, yeah, just to talk about that. Great. I remember that. I always thought of that was the interesting thing you can take, go across the country, but it's a long journey. You end up in Des Moines over to here in Nebraska. And you got to connect with a lot of buses. See, the country made a lot of interesting people, too, on the bus. 100%. Exactly. So at Bowdoin, you studied English major, also African, Africana studies? Was that what it's known for? Africana studies was my major. English was my minor. But anyway, same thing. And like for me, so first English, you know, I grew up in Texas, like I always had like AP and honors classes. And so I had literature and I was a pretty good writer. I won some contests when I was young. I've always been a strong writer and I like words, right? That gets me such like in the rapping and the music and stuff we record as well as writing. But you know, English for me was something that I really appreciated at Bowdoin. Again, it was my minor. But my major was Africana studies. And the thing that's interesting about Africana studies, particularly in a college or at a college desk, interdisciplinary like Bowdoin, where it's a local arts institution, you know, I had classes like African American Women's Poetry. Right. You know, which is about women. It's about poetry. It's about the African American experience, about Black experience, all wrapped into a single class. Okay. Right. So a lot of what I did in Africana studies was interdisciplinary and combined multiple disciplines. Did a lot of disciplines all at the same time. Yeah. Or at least two or three at a time, things like that. But again, it was a little arts. But yeah, studying, sometimes people say, well, what is Africana studies? Some colleges or universities, they call it African studies. Because it's true to say it's not African American studies per se, though that might be a part of it. The way I say it is, think of the concept of Africa. Think of her descendants throughout history, all over the world, coming and going. That's what they call the diaspora. Okay. Studying that, the African self and the reality of the diaspora over hundreds of years, that is what we studied in Africana studies. And that makes sense. I mean, you don't want to kind of pigeonhole just to African American studies, let's say, or something like that. I mean, it's so much more historical things going on in culture. Yeah. Exactly. Absolutely. And of course, there's plenty of African American and Black American things that I have studied. I continue to study, literally. But yes, Africana studies and learning about the African diaspora is very, it's quite broad, actually. We were talking before about how we're doing music at an early age. You started doing music as a teenager. Man, I would say when I was in elementary school, fifth grade, that's in elementary school in Texas, I tried out for the choir and I didn't make it. And as the joke slash story always goes, my teacher, who I really appreciated, he was like, Jerry, you did pretty good, but there's not a place for you in our choir because your voice has already changed and our choir is actually called the treble makers. So whether you think that's funny or not, treble, of course, is the high-pitched dial in your car, right? It's not the bass part. My voice had already changed to the bass part. You know what I mean? And so he was like, no, no. And he, because I remember, he was really trying to be like, don't be too discouraged. Next year in middle school, Jerry, they're going to need you. And dude, starting in sixth grade, all through middle school and then all into high school, I was in the choir and I was the bass section leader the last two years. So I was in the choir singing multiple times per week going to competitions all that. I grew up singing. Yeah, because you have a deep voice and you got that deep voice at an early age. So you aged out quickly of the one choir, but he kept going and singing. Yep. And that's, we'll talk a little bit more about that, but you're also, I think, producing music a little bit in those days. Yeah, so I like how you asked that. That love of music early on, dealing with my voice, but then being in the choir, like learning to collaborate. You know, if you've ever church choir, group of friends for the holidays, there's a certain feeling you get when it's you and like, you know, let's say at least three or four of the people singing together. And if he's even more, you really get this kind of vibe, this kind of rush from creating the sound together, particularly if there's great harmonies. But that being said, that, that did start to kind of spiral. I think in a good way for me, thinking about being in the choir, I remember I used to stay after school in middle school. Miss Amy Francis is my choir director. Love her to this day, because she really believed in me, taught me so much. She was one of the first people to start teaching me like a little bit about composing. Like, like we, when sight read music, and I kind of, you know, you might know music, but not know how to read or write it. It's like, not exactly the same thing, right? But she would help me like sit down at the piano, maybe translate some ideas. And we used to have these cultural art competitions in school. And I used to apply, like I used, I put like two pieces of music, three pieces of visual art and like prose and the poetry. And I remember that over the years, I would win three to five awards. And I started winning stuff from music. Not that it was good. I don't remember what it was. But when, you know, when you're in the sixth grade or seventh grade, being able to just translate an idea on the piano to something, they play it back and go, well, dang, that kind of sounds cool. You might be in the runnings, you know, I'm not, I'm not trying to say that I was blowing things out of the water. But I was competing against my peers and I was performing well. And so for me, I think I also had early feedback that like, I sounded good being a bassist in the choir. And we needed that. I won some awards that showed like, Oh, like you're doing something and then people dig on it. And I think that really helped propel me. And then I started producing. I would say I started producing seriously when I was like 15. One time we had went to the studio and I thought it was so cool, but I didn't know how to make beats. But I was inquiring, I knew something about music. And my cousin, let me borrow her keyboard, my cousin Erica, let me borrow a keyboard that her dad had gave her before he passed. And I sit down and I remember because you can make four tracks on it. You know, like, if you're going to practice playing the song, some keyboards can like play the drums in the background. So you know the timing. Well, that's takes at least two tracks, right? I had one where you can record four. It was as I was practicing, I was making beats like a big doll. Right. And that's when I realized, I don't know how to make beats. What? And also when we used to rap, we didn't have that much or any money. So learning how to start making beats early on made it to where we could try to make songs and stuff.  But yeah, at all, the entrepreneurship, the musical, synergizing via collaboration all started for me pretty young and rude. Right. And that's it. So let's talk a little bit more about when you got to Portland. Let's take a quick break. If you've been able to stick with us for a minute or two. I will. All right. We'll take a break. We'll hear more about when you got to Portland and what you're doing now. Yes. Okay. Awesome. We'll be right back. Connecting the state of Maine's rich black history to black change makers, weaving Maine's black future today. That's fire. We must stand in the unapologetic claiming and holding of our worth in every room, every interaction, every stage, every boardroom, every bedroom, all of it. Absolutely. I hear that. Yes. We are the flavor. We are the sauce. We are the soup of the day. We are it. Yeah. And we must always remember that. We're right back here with genius black. We're going to talk a little bit more now about, I think 2005 and moved to Portland, Maine. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. After, you know, graduate with Bowdoin and then and or maybe it took a couple more years, but you know, around the time I came to Portland, I mean, at the time I was, I think I was working in sales. And yeah, actually, I started working at Apple. That's what it was. Maybe right before I moved from Runway. And I ended up working for Apple Inc. for 12 and a half years. So I was there for quite, quite some time. It's quite some time. But you know, I think I would say that underneath like when I was at Bowdoin, for instance, I was always doing music in the studio, pulling all nighters and doing school as well. And then when I, you know, after graduating and I came to the Portland area and stuff, I was working, but I was still doing music as well. Sometimes I might get hired to do a couple sessions, maybe sell a beat or something. I didn't take it like a, let me stop everything in my life and just make music because you can't often do that. That's not sometimes the balance, right? But I wasn't able to keep it going. But yeah, I was working in sales and doing different things and getting to know Portland a little bit. And then over time, you know, working at Apple, I met a lot of people and I just kept getting better with media and music and stuff like that. And I started building up, I would say, kind of a crew. I was following my usual suspects. I have these people that I make music with. It became regular. It was more regular at certain times, but you know, people that I knew could really do really solid vocal performances. You know, one of the things, I'm building up to Jim City. That's right. Yeah. And just one of the things that I started to recognize was, you know, some people might hire me to, Hey, man, I want to book four hours in the studio so you can record me. Cool. Someone say, Hey, man, you know, I need you to make a beat or can I hear all the beats you have? I want to buy some, you know, all those things are one thing. But I started to find that it was cool right in session sometime, but honestly, let's be real. A lot of the people who came through to the sessions, I don't really love their music. I'm not going to judge the music. It just didn't hit me. Right. Okay. But I started to notice there were a couple of people that when they came through, even just like, I mean, let's just do something. Like they were dope. Like they were real good. You know, I mean, if I was to shout out some of the names in particular, people like KF Coast, people like Susie Assong. Now, there's people who aren't currently in the Jim City crew. We'll talk more about that. I mean, people like DJ Matt Perry. I mean, there's just a couple of like characters out here that when we came together, Ben Noia's, like, I was just like, did we really leave a session? Like, did we really just do that? That's crazy. They put it all so we can drive home and listen to it. You know, let's me know that you're excited. And I start to keep track of those people and like build relationships with those people. And then after a while, I mean, even when I put out my first album, which is under the Genius Black moniker as an artist, it's called Ferrell's Recipe. It's pretty proud of Ferrell's Recipe. A lot of those usual suspects appeared on that album. This was before we were per se Jim City. I was just again, bringing in certain people, running fewer sessions where people were like, fewer sessions where the person down there around the corner tells me that they want to meet me at five o'clock. So I can report them more sessions where I'm like, no, this beats fire. I wonder what Kev coastings about it. You know what I mean? Like, that, that became more of what I was doing over a couple of years. And then, you know, I mean, it built up, it definitely took a couple of years. But then we got to this place where I started to apply for some grants for a couple of things. Got like another camera. So then that's why I had two and some more stuff and backdrops. And I started, I started to focus on making better quality music by getting more gear. And I started making better visuals because in the world of music entertainment, the visuals and audio go together. You know what I mean? Like right now, there's things are going on while we're recording that you've got to take care of the visuals and the audio. And the audio. You know what I mean? So, but this was the genesis of Jim City, correct? Yeah, yeah. Kind of where it all formed. But at the same time, you were also, was this when you started the black owned main podcast too? Yeah, so the Jim City stuff was bubbling a little bit before, but that summer of 2020, to your point, it really solidified. Like the first Jim City album, any y'all that happens to tour or who want to go listen to it right now called Jim City by Genius Black featuring a lot of amazing artists. We made it a lot of that music that summer of 2020. And I kind of felt like we was really hitting on the musical vibes. And there was just a lot of like, I don't know, spiritual vibes, people was protesting the world's energy was shifting in some ways. Yeah, I think we all witnessed that like it or love it or whatever, that's what was happening. And for me, the music started to really solidify, particularly some of those relationships, so that we can get like tiny foot started coming through. We started having these intense songwriting sessions. That's when we wrote like head down, for instance, Tiny Foot's one of the artists shout out that I work with a lot. And then in that same flurry of energy was when, you know, this was after the murder of George Floyd, when Rose Barbosa, who is the founder of the company, I was one of the initial founding co-directors with her, she had approached me and I mean, it's someone I knew for years. And she started to tell me about an idea like where all her skills came together. She's smart, marketing degree, all this stuff. And she said, Hey, man, I want to make this. I really think that I want to make the first or the only or whatever I just want to make. No, she's wanted to make a direct an online director with all the black owned businesses in the state of Maine. And that was her vision. She started telling me about it. And then I started getting with her working on that. And that's, well, you had told me about how with that, it wasn't always supposed to be about racial justice, but it was an interesting thing because you can't intertwine that. Yes. Well, that's a part of it. I would say that it was black owned Maine as a vision, by my understanding, based on what Rose brought to me and then what we started to build, I would say that it did have to do with racial justice and social justice from the beginning, but the focus was like economic justice. The focus was supporting businesses in particular, supporting commerce.  Right. And so even if you feel like, yeah, of course, there should be black businesses in Maine and we support that. But if you never spend any money at a black business, then are you actually supporting it? Or do you just like want to be supported, which are two different things? Oh, so yeah. Yeah, because I mean, that is very important because it's like, if you're not able to be participating in the economy, it's not a lot of justice in that, right? It all goes hand in hand, especially in a capitalist system. Exactly. It's like, if you were in a communist system, they might give everybody equally, but here, you know, there's all of these things that go into it. But I do know also that that kind of spurred into the newer podcast that you have now, Maine's Black Future podcast. Yes. Yeah, absolutely. And I mean, I think part of the question you asked me before, with Black Own Maine as a company, one of the things that we started to do one of the programs was the Black Own Maine podcast. The only last for so long, but that was part of what we would do to talk about the message, interview a lot of the business people. It was pretty great. And some people really loved it. In more recent years, I was sitting on the vision for a while for something called Maine's Black Future. Maine's Black Future, right? And Maine's Black Future is manifested as a podcast produced by myself and the Maine Monitor. And yes, the simple way to understand Maine's Black Future is that I start off every episode dipping into the past. Maine's Black History. There are some amazing figures that are Black that have been in Maine for hundreds of years. I highlight them one at a time and tell some of their story. A lot of them are intriguing. They're all engaging that I've found so far. And then what I do is I move forward to interviewing and conversing with a Black man who's currently influencing culture and life of Maine and therefore weaving the future. Maine's Black Future is about tying together Maine's Black past, its Black presence, present, and then leading into the Black future. Yeah, I know the first episode, right? Alphine. Is it Natalie? Alphine Natalie. Natalie. She's kind of holistic wellness coach. Was that pretty interesting? It was. I really, like, I always enjoyed speaking with Alphine because I've had multiple times to chat with her, sit, you know, see her talk about things she's passing about in the past. So I figured we'd have a good conversation. You know, I cheated. I picked someone who I knew could, you know, and we did. We had a great conversation. I learned more about Alphine TV, it's this show she's putting out. She's been filming stuff for quite some time. I learned more about her history, like this is some of the wars, the way she's been recognized, this grant she got in the past to tell her kind of fun, some of the stuff she's doing. So it was cool to, like, uncover some stuff from her and just, like, get to know her better. Like, I already knew some stuff about it, but that's what happens when you have conversation, right? Like, you learn a little bit more. So I have to crack open. But yeah, no, it was really cool. It was positive vibes. I look forward to her launching Alphine TV and the team to support her, for sure. And you had Junes. What was his last name again? Junes State. Yes. And he's a cinematographer. I've met him. He's a really cool guy as well. And then his third podcast's up and coming, right? Is that with Mr. Muhammad? So just real quick, I was going to say about Junes. He is a very talented, upcoming cinematographer, but he's also a fashion consultant. Fashion consultant. And the reason I bring that out is that one thing that me and Junes, like, we both have a lot of talents, he's really talented. Like, I call him Junes the genius. And then I'm genius, you know what I'm saying? But the thing about it is that we both agree that you shouldn't allow people in your life to somehow convince you that you're only able to execute one type of art. I remember that, yes. If you really are a vibrational manipulator, if you're really in there, and if you're willing to take time and pick up the learning curves, you can shine in multiple ways.  What do you, what do you mean fashion? But you look at Junes, he be fly. And he said, yeah, a penny of, he's not having to stay in his lane, quote unquote. He's doing multiple things. Yeah. Well, we'll get Junes on here sometime and we can talk to him a little bit as well. Yeah, that would be awesome. But I was going to say, you talked about Adela Muhammad. She is the founder of Third Place Maine. And I look forward to going to be sitting down with her soon and doing an interview. Adela, you know, is the founder and helps to lead Third Place Maine, which has a lot to do with there being comfortable and engaging networking places all throughout Maine and different sectors for black and brown people, byplot people in the state of Maine. And although Maine is generally speaking a friendly state, the fact remains that a lot of black and brown people still end up feeling or being alienated in a lot of rooms and places and events and things. And so sometimes about like kind of having your own space that's easier to exist in general, and then to also feel good stepping into some of those other spaces until things continue to mix up better. So, you know, that's my way of saying it. But I really love the work that Adela does. And I actually help lead, actually we meet up here at Portland Media Center, the by-plot media and communications group, myself and Luke, we lead that. So yeah, definitely making a difference for black and brown people in Maine. But I'm going to have, I look forward to having a great conversation with her and to bringing the conversation to y'all. And I made a mistake. I said, Mr. Muhammad, it's Mrs. Muhammad's Adela. Adela. Yes, Adela.  We talked about that a little bit. More music artists. Yeah, yeah. You know, so I got a couple more episodes this season. I'm refraining from telling people exactly who will be what. But I think those cool things coming in. Yes, I am chatting with at least one really cool politician thinking about another person. We'll see. I just want, I mean, I'm being honest. I want to bring y'all people that you care to see, right? You know, what you're from. But I am also thinking a bit about season two and been chatting just a little bit with the main monitor about that because they support me in a bunch of ways to make this happen. And yeah, I mean, I've been very sorry one episode where I can get one to two musical performances in for some local black artists. Because I think getting to know them is one thing. Seeing them in their in their zone through their thing is like a different life. So yeah, I've been thinking about just how to bring value and to entertain my audience that's growing, you know, just keep them engaged and also just keep revealing to them that there's just so much brilliance here that some of us know and we're still discovering. I'll put it that way. Yeah, I'm important. It still has so much more to discover and there's just not enough great media outlets. It's great that you're doing that. And I know you wanted to give a shout out to a radio station that you work with. Is it WJZP? Absolutely. Shout out WJZP. There's multiple people. Dennis, Loida that I work with on a team over there and I'm trying to think there's a couple more people as well that I bumped into and that we've chatted. The thing about WJZP is that it is an FM terrestrial radio station, meaning that the waves actually go over the land, not meaning that it's not just like serious radio or you live on a computer, although you can and should stream it on a computer. You know, having a relationship with folks at an FM radio station that are out here in the community and trying to make a difference is cool because they enjoy this Black future and they are inclusive of me and I'm inclusive of them. The thing about WJZP, they play super dope, jazz, funk music. They spend a lot of time getting some modern shine on Black artists who in the 70s and 80s and 90s maybe didn't get the shine that they truly deserve. So shout out WJZP for doing that. And keep in mind it is also the only FM radio station in the state of Maine that is Black owned and one of very few in all of New England. So the thing about WJZP is that WJZP is an icon out here. It might not be the biggest radio station in the world, but when you hold a place that it does here. So yeah, I'm proud to be working with them, getting to know them more. And I've obviously figured out other ways that I can work with WJZP to make more impact. Well, I know you also work with the Amjambo newspaper. Is that the right pronunciation? Amjambo, yeah. I mean, so they printed articles about me a couple times, which I truly appreciate because it's great chatting with folks because I mean, I feel like I always have new conversations and they do a good job writing about my endeavors and you know, they have a lot of visitors on their website and a lot of people that check into them because they focus very heavily on the Black community, African community, immigrant community, a lot of people in Africa check out Amjambo Africa to like be connected. So, you know, when I get featured in something like Amjambo Africa, there's a lot of eyes on me and communities and you know, you can, there's different people that speak different languages that go there for new news and who might see me that wouldn't normally like that I wouldn't know how to like say, Hey, this is what I do. So I appreciate it. Oh, you know what I'm saying? And the other thing about it too that does kind of, I guess, touch me that hits, that strikes me is when I work with the folks at Amjambo Africa, you know, some other organizations too, but you know, that support a lot of the immigrants out here. Sometimes when I'm telling like the story of Pedro Tavuk in Paris, who was hiding in my second and my second episode of Main Black Future, I mean, he was illegally pirated across the ocean when they were no longer supposed to be transporting enslaved people across the ocean. But in a sense, you know, if they hadn't stolen him, I mean, he came from Africa. You know what I'm saying? So there's these stories of these different ways that human beings have come across the ocean from Africa to the United States over hundreds of years that I believe are worth dissecting, understanding and honoring. And I think in modern times, the nuances of what happened and why things are where they are still tend to get overlooked. So I believe in the anti-racial aspect of Main Black Future where it's like, let me tell you about the past. I'm also challenging you to rethink the now a little bit. And there's a million great stories, and they can find this podcast on Spotify, Apple Music, but also on the Main Monitor too. That's the main place we host it, and they support me to write it. The crew over there helps me edit, just gives me all kinds of ideas. And so I always send people there, you know what I mean? You can also go to themainmonitor.org slash podcast. You can then read about the podcast a little bit more than just hearing the episode. So it's a good way to... Yeah, they give you a big overview of it. Well, there's a couple more things I just wanted to, while we have you here, just talk about your photography a little bit too. That's another passion of yours. It's true. So I'm a Renaissance man. I feel okay just jumping out and saying that, you know. No shame you're here. Maybe later, I'll think about it. And I say that, no. But yeah, I am pretty serious about photography. And, you know, now I've only been at it for a couple years, two and a half years, two, I don't know, something like that. But, you know, I'd say in the last year or so, year and a half, I got real serious and just started studying more. I got some mentors.  My dude Colin taught me some stuff. But my multiple people, Junets, definitely do this now. No, Junets, he really challenged me to start studying light and shadows a lot. So I've been supported. I'm also just a curious person. And when it comes to pro apps and creative endeavors, part of my talent, like how I got the nickname Genius when I was a kid, is that I'm able to absorb those things like real quick. So I've been like edit, you know. So yeah, I've been able to get hired to do some shoots. And if we can, right now, we'll take a look at a couple of those photos while we're finishing up the podcast. Yes. We'll be having those right over the shot right here. If they haven't been already, we may have maybe we've already put them up and you've already been watching them. But we're also going to see a couple of clips. But let's finish up by making sure that you tell the audience exactly where they can find you. Yes. Get some plugs out there. Thank you. Yeah, probably. Yeah. Appreciate you all for taking the time to check out this interview and just keep supporting us. I think one of the main places that you can follow my journey and keep up on some of the things happening in my life. My Instagram is called Real Genius Black, R-E-A-L-G-E-N-I-U-S-D-L-A-C-K. Real Genius Black. That's where, I mean, you can follow Main Black Future stuff, promote or just see who I'm interviewing. Also, you can learn more about Jim City, Maine, my music and art collective. You can see examples of my photography there. So that's the way to keep an eye. If you want to follow the music stuff, merch, intellectual property, creation shows, then you want to follow Jim City, Maine, G-E-M. I know whatever I say, Jim. People are like, Jim, no, like a gemstone. Or GM, right? Yeah, yeah, I know. I'm from Texas. I'm from Texas. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Gem City, G-E-M-C-I-T-Y-M-A-I-N-E. Jim City, Maine on Instagram. We'd love for y'all to follow there and subscribe or hit the little bell. And then I would just say, if you want to know more about Main Black Future, you can search it anywhere online, but check out the Main Monitor. They have a whole bunch of cool articles. I really see the Main Monitor and the State of Maine is just part of the truth saying power. They really be telling it and doing a lot of research. So I would say check them out in general. But of course, at mainmonitor.org slash podcast, you can check out Main's Black Future and learn more about Genius Black and the different people that I'm able to interview. Thank you so much, genius. Appreciate it. Appreciate it. Thanks a lot.


Well, hi everybody, it's Sandy. Welcome to my channel where today we're gonna do a gumball shaker card I just bought this new stamp set from Lawn Fawn and it's so dang cute I just had to make a shaker card out of it I haven't really jumped too heavily into the shaker card arena, but why not do it before? Before the craze ends, right? So the piece on the left is for the card front the piece on the right is gonna be the pieces that I need and I'm gonna color them with the clean color pens on Montval watercolor paper and if you watched my recent getting started with watercolor video This is one of the papers that was tested in that And I'm gonna just make a C shape with a whole bunch different colors And I'll zoom a little faster through the coloring because it's just a C shape on the bottom of each gumball And that's gonna help us to watercolor them so that they look a little bit rounded when we're done with it And I'm gonna do all the marker work first instead of doing marker and then water and then marker and then water The zing pens are fairly new and lots of you have emailed me and said I can't use these I bought them because everybody said I needed them and now I don't know what to do with them So I'm hoping that I have a few tips for you in this as I'm learning things about them as well because none of us really knows much and I Just want to try to help you out as much as I can They're not something that I think everybody just has to buy so if you hear if you're hearing people saying you got to have these they're not as easy as People are making it sound and I'll tell you a few reasons for why So let's get started with the water I have a brush that has just water on it and I'm gonna clean it in between each use because if you leave Any of the color on there if I leave any of this green and go to another color the green is going to contaminate another color So that's one thing these this marker moves immediately and If you if you have any of it touching another color, it's going to move Here I wanted to show you a little bit and of course it didn't do it when I was trying to make it happen I'm coloring two wet pieces next to each other. I wanted to color the wet pink next to the wet Teal color and I was careful enough that I was able to not have them bleed like crazy But that is one of the things if you're coloring something that's got wet stuff next to it Just wait for it to completely dry and I mean completely dry because if there's any moisture they will run together in a heartbeat just because that's what these markers do and I'm going to set this aside and I'm going to work on the other piece And that's the good thing about having two pieces You might even want to stamp two or three of whatever you're painting and coloring and then you can work on them in successive progression and Not have to sit and wait until your thumbs while it's drying So I'm just going to continue painting all of these other Gumballs that are going down the front of the card and I'm kind of just pulling the color around and leaving a highlight spot If your marker gets crazy on you and starts going all over the place you can just add that spot in with a pen like a Signo pen or whatever kind of white pen works where you are I never have come up with a verdict for why the some of the white pens work in some places and For some people and they don't for others Okay, now on the front of the card. I'm going to do this practice piece Trying to figure out how to make these gumballs look like they're behind the Gumball and I'm doing it by not having the stamping going all the way around there And I'm just going to paint it on with the marker and a water brush And that's going to make it look like it's behind it any time you have something behind glass It's going to be a lighter shade and here we don't really get a lighter color because It's just not what we get But we are getting the fact that there's no black outline around it So it does look like it's behind it and This one is going to be cut out the circle is going to be chopped out of the card to make the shaker But the other one I can now follow Where I've put these circles these semi circles and created this little look so that when it goes behind there It's going to look like that pieces behind it now Most people may never notice that on the card, but I know it's there and if you ever want to do a card That's not a shaker. This is how you can create something like that Okay back to finishing off all of my little little circles my little gumballs And again making sure that I don't touch wet color to wet color because I don't want all that bleeding and stuff to happen And some of it is just planning out exactly where you're going to put your colors so that you don't have to do all the waiting in between So the zig markers do have really bright colors, but there are also a few dull colors And it's kind of interesting even that like the numbering system doesn't make sense to me I'm used to the Copic numbering system, of course, which most people don't make any sense of But here we have a gray marker. That's a cool gray and one that's a warm gray And numerically if you look at all the grays, I don't really see a pattern As far as why one is cool and why one is not So I'm going to have to make a little chart for myself in Visual color order or something so that I know what colors to pick Because it's even having the colors on the end of the marker and the the color on the The marker that comes with it on the the back end actually suits it pretty well So here I tried wiping off some of the gray marker and it didn't come off because it had already dried enough But look what happens if you put water over top of it These markers are ready to run the instant water hits them So I can put more water over top of them and rewet them and then dab off color So that means to me that if you're going to buy just a few markers I would buy darker ones than you think you need because you can always take off color like this At least you can take it off on decent watercolor paper You may start getting pilling if you do this too much and too often, but it seems to work here All right now time to assemble the rest of the card So I'm going to take my little finger knife, which I find to be a really comfortable one and it works really great it's a little tool by Fiskars and Just cut around the inside of that black line And then of course since it's watercolor card stock it does have a little roughness to it So I took a Copic marker around the inside. I tried it with one of the zigpins and that was useless for this So the Copic marker worked, but I'm taking it from the back because this paper Since this soft watercolor paper is going to absorb that Copic and make it bleed So I'm sacrificing my packaging from the stamp set since I'm putting them in stamp boxes anyway And I'm going to use that for my shaker there.  This works great when you're doing odd shapes It's not a straight, you know left or right side And you need to go around something just make little snips in it And don't snip all the way through And then you can just keep turning it as you get to each little juncture in your shape that you want it to make Make it go around Because this will leave it so that there's no spaces in between if you're using glitter or little beads or something You don't want any spaces in in between there for them to fall out And it also means that you can just peel up one piece of the whole thing and it just pulls up Super cute little tip And now we have the rest of our pieces cut out and ready to go I left enough room around the gumball in the back so that the adhesive will stick to it And then you want to remember to put any of your shaker bits inside Before you put your adhesive on the number of times that I've assembled the whole thing and then left my shaker pieces on the counter Has been kind of crazy and you can see they move around quite nicely in there with my little jiggly bits All right now since I'm me and I am the way I am I have to add some shadows underneath Of my little gumballs and originally I was going to try to just do some little lines Like this and I decided I wanted to add a little water a little softness to them. So Got my brush out and started painting a little bit and The way that that things happen with these pens and you know if this is your issue then know that I have it too Is that once you start hitting it with water then it's almost like you're committed And I started doing a little bit of water on here and I just needed to do more and then more and then more I probably should have quit while I was ahead but look then I started getting This color bleeding down further. So I added more ground under it than I had originally intended And it's just one of those things that you have to be careful of you almost have to have a plan Ahead of time so you know Exactly how much you're going to be doing color wise So I'm going to have more on my blog about this particular card including larger swatches of each one of these colors Because as I use them I am going to put together a little cheat sheet for myself That is going to help me and maybe it will help you too So here's the finished card, which is so bright and happy and cheerful And I just love all those little faces. Those faces are going to be great on a lot of different stamps that I have So you may randomly see them showing up from here From here on on different crazy stamps