The Craft Foods Company presents the Great Gildersleeve. It's the Great Gildersleeve starring Harold Perry brought to you by the Craft Foods Company, makers of Parquet, Margeron, and a complete line of famous quality food products. Now let's see what the Great Gildersleeve is doing. This afternoon he brought a tight-rider home from the office. He set it up on a card table in the living room along with a stack of paper and a box of cigars.  No Marjorie, I'm writing an article for the Summerfield Indicator. Oh that's wonderful, why? Why? Because my dear, the editor Mr. Powers asked me as a personal favor if I would. See it sounds exciting, Unky. What's it? It's about water. Oh. Huh? Oh it's a subject of vital importance for every citizen of Summerfield. We need some new equipment at the pumping plant and the taxpayers have got to be told about it. And Mr. Powers insisted I was the man to do the job. But when are they going to print it? Tomorrow. Got to have this finished and down at the newspaper office by noon. Well can I help? I might give you some ideas. Thank you Marjorie, I'll manage.  Everybody else is in. If you need anything call me. Yeah, thank you my dear. Good night. Good night. Eh, where was I? At the beginning. Water and Health by, uh, Throckmorton P. Giller Slave. Eh, that's a good start. Uh huh. Now, how to begin. Once upon a time, no, that won't do. Uh huh. Might not have heard to do an article like this every week? Get to be known around town. Throckmorton P. Giller Slave. Author, columnist and water commissioner. Eh, not bad. Yes, might even make it a daily column. Syndicated in the papers all over the country. Could happen. Walter Winchell, Drew Pearson, Throckmorton Giller Slave. This is Giller Slave reporting from London. Uh huh. Washington, the Senate. Mr. Gilslee. Zeef. Mr. Gilslee. What's up? What's the matter, Bertie? Breakfast ready. Breakfast in the middle of the night. Oop, it's broad daylight. It's on the table, Mr. Gilslee. Eh, tell Marjorie and Leroy to go to head. I have work to do. And this darn thing has to be finished by noon. Why did I go to sleep in this chair?  Yes, please. Strong coffee. And call Bessie at the office, Bertie, and tell her I won't be until noon. Four hours to write this fool article. I don't even know what I'm going to say. Eh, why did I tell Powers I'd do it in the first place? Well, here goes. I'll think of something. 1135. Well, by George, I made it. Deadline Giller Slave. You finished Uncle Morris? Yep, and right on time, too. You were sure batting that typewriter. Did you work all night? Yes, practically. Gee, for working all night, you don't look a bit tired. Leroy, when a man is creating something, he doesn't get tired. Now out of the way. Gotta get this down to the newspaper before they go to press. You going now, Mr. Gilsby? Yeah, and I'm in a terrible rush, Bertie. You going in your bathrobe? Bathrobe?  Oh my gosh, Leroy, get me my overcoat. 10 minutes to 12. Uh, plenty of time now. Hello, Gildy. Huh? Oh, good morning, Jed. Where's the fire? No fire. I'm on my way to the newspaper office. I have to be there by 12. What's the matter? Your subscription run out? No. I did a little story on the water situation in Summerfield at the special request of the editor. Turned out pretty well, too. What's it about? I just told you it's about water. Well, at least you didn't have a dry subject. Very funny, you old goat. Very funny. How long did it take you to write it, Gildy? Well, I batted it out in a few spare moments. I can put it down just as fast as I can think. I know. That's why I wondered. See you tonight, Gildy? Tonight. Uh, what's going on tonight? But didn't the chief call you? He's going to be away this weekend, police convention or something, and he wanted to get the Jolly Boys together tonight instead. A fine thing. Chief Gates running off to conventions and leaving crime in the hands of underlings. Is that any worse than staying out all morning and leaving water in the hands of Bessie? This article happens to be water department business. Well, can you make it tonight, Gildy? Well, I'll try. How about some lunch? It's five minutes to 12.  We're practically going to press. See you later. Gildy Sleeves? Hello, Bessie. What are the headlines for today? Anything happen in the office this morning? Nothing that I can remember. You look happy, Mr. Gildy Sleeves. Me? Well, I am happy. Remember that article Powers out at the newspaper asked me to write? Yes, sir. Well, I wrote it. And what's more, he liked it. Bessie, you're waking for a man who's going places. When will you be back? I mean, rise in the world, Bessie. Now, let's see the mail. Oh, someone phoned just before you came in. I think it was a man. You think it was a man? I sure it was. I think. Well, who was he? I forgot to ask him his name. He's a friend of yours, and he just arrived in town. He said he and you went to high school together. Don't you remember him? Remember him? Good night, Bessie. What kind of high school do you think I went to? I had all kinds of friends. Hundreds of them. Well, he said he was coming up to see you right after lunch. Right after lunch? Yes. Well, that's now. Bessie, clean up this office. Get that stack of newspapers off the floor and empty the wastebasket. But it's always this way. Don't argue with me. You think I want him to find me in an office that looks like the back of a fruit stand? Now, hurry up. Are you going away? I'm going over to the barbershop and get freshened up. I'll be right back. Anything else, Mr. Gilda Sleeves? Yes, take down last year's calendar. Commissioner, what'll it be? Just a hot towel, Floyd. A hot towel it is. And it doesn't take too long. Maybe a massage. Massage? Stepping out with a hot number, huh? What if she's blonde or redhead? Neither one. That hot towel is boiling. It'll cool off. You gonna make the Jolly Boys meeting tonight? I don't know, Floyd. My old friend of mine just landed in town. Followed me at the high school with. Haven't seen each other since we graduated. Class of 21. Well, bring him along. We don't mind. Well, can't promise, Floyd. A man of his position. He might feel a little out of place. We might not be good enough for him, huh? I didn't say that. It's just that, well, we'll probably have a lot of things to discuss. The national situation, literature. Do tell. I'm doing a little writing myself now. You'll see one of my articles in the newspaper this evening. I ought to be good for a laugh. What? Who is this high-powered friend of yours? His name is, uh, well, you wouldn't know him anyway. What's he do? He, uh, he's in several things. In other words, you don't know anything about him. I told you he's an old friend of mine. Just dropped into town, look, chef, huh? Yep. He's coming up to the office. If you're smart, you won't be there. What's that? You ought to know, commissioner, when an old friend from high school looks, chef, it's going to cost you money. That's the oldest racket in the world. Maybe with your friends it is, not with mine. Here, trim your sideburns a little. Huh? Huh? Why does a guy go out of his way to see somebody he knew in school? One reason to hit him for some dough. You don't know what you're talking about, Floyd. You went to school once yourself, or did you? Sure I did. All right. And sometimes, since then, why, you must have landed in some town and looked up one of your schoolmates. Yeah, I did, once, in Dallas, Texas. Found a guy who used to sit across from me in Algebra. There, you see? He took me out to lunch and I sold him $200 worth of oil stock. Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha. What's so funny? No oil. Well, you would. I'm glad you and I didn't go to the same school. Calm it well or dry, commissioner. Dry. Little oil on it? No. Hello, Bessie. Did he... Yes, your friend's in there, in your office. He is? I closed the door. Did you get his name? He didn't mention it. He... What does he look like? He's sort of medium-sized. Oh, that's a big help. I could just get a good look at him before I go in. I'll feel like a fool if I can't remember his name. Well, you could look through the keyhole. That's what I do. Oh, you do, eh? Oh, remember that. And maybe it's not a bad idea, though. Can you see him? Yeah, but I don't recognize him. Who the dickens? Well, I'll have to go in and take a chance. How do I look like an executive? You look fine, Mr. Gildesley. Well, here goes then. Well, look who's here. Well, Gildy, my old friend Gildy. Well, well, my old friend. You haven't changed a bit. You either. Just the same. It's certainly good to see you, Gildy. Just like old times. Yes, it's great seeing you, too. It's been a mighty long time. It sure has, Gildy. A lot of water under the bridge. Yes, a lot of water. How have you been, Gildy? Oh, fine. Fine, just fine. Yes, sir. How have you been? Oh, fine. You know, when I got into town this morning, I said to myself, summer field. Why, this is where Gildesley lives. Yes, he does. So I thought I'd look you up. Gee, it's good to see you. Well, it's good to see you, too. And what have you been doing? Oh, same old thing, Gildy. What have you been doing? Oh, I've been doing pretty well. Yep. How long are you going to be in town? Just for today, leaving tonight. It looks as if life has treated you well, Gildy. Oh, yes, I've made some progress. Nice office you have here. Well, I'm the water commissioner of the town. Just another step up the ladder. Of course, I have plans for bigger things ahead. I believe in the old adage, when a man stands still, he goes backward. That's certainly true, Gildy. Well, it's good to see one of the old crowd again. It's too bad we can't get together more often, isn't it? Yes, it's too bad. Still, in my position, I don't have much time for the social life. As one rises in the world, the responsibilities pile up. Sometimes wish I were an ordinary citizen again. Well, that's life, I guess. Yeah, that's life. It's certainly been good seeing you again, Gildy. No, don't rush off. I'll have Bessie bring in another chair. Oh, no, no, you're busy, Gildy. I don't want to upset things. Oh, I'm never too busy to talk to an old friend. Bessie? Yes, sir? Bessie, if they call from the mayor's office, tell them I'm in conference. What did you say? I said tell them I'm in conference. Who? Anybody. Oh, no, now, don't do that, Gildy. I have to be going. Hold on.  Oh, I wouldn't want to do that. You and Mrs. Gilderslee probably have plans. There isn't any, Mrs. Gilderslee. Just my niece and nephew. Oh, you aren't married? No, my philosophy has always been, he travels fastest who travels alone. How about six o'clock then, huh?  Well, six is fine. You won't have any trouble finding the place. It's 738 Lakeside Avenue. I'll find it. See you tonight then, Gildy. Yeah, see you tonight then. Goodbye. Did you find out who he was, Mr. Gilderslee? What? No, Bessie, I didn't. You talked all that time and didn't find out his name? He didn't mention it. But you do remember him. Not yet, but I will. It'll come to me before tonight. It'd better. The great Gilderslee will be back very shortly. Most women get genuine satisfaction out of planning little surprises for regular meals and lunches. And for parties too, Mr. Lang. In fact, I've been shopping today for some special treats to serve at a Valentine's party. This must have been my lucky day. The store was stocked with all my favorite foods. And did that include a favorite spread for bread? We like to mention now again on this program. Yes, it did, Mr. Lang. Didn't I say it was my lucky day? The store had parquet margarine too. Good, because it's always a treat at parties or at regular meals for the family to serve sandwiches, rolls, muffins, or waffles spread with delicious country sweet parquet margarine. Parquet's fresh, delicate flavors made it the favorite of millions. So these days, when top quality spreads for bread are still in such big demand, I suggest that you always make it a point to look first for this delicious spread millions prefer. Look first for delicious nourishing parquet. T-A-R-K-A-Y. Parquet margarine. The quality spread for bread made by the Kraft Foods Company. Now back to the great Gildersleeve. It's evening now, and he is on his way home from the office and just a little worried. He's been thinking all afternoon, but so far he hasn't stirred up even a spark of recollection of the old high school chum, the old friend who remembered him so well that Gildersleeve invited him out to the house for dinner. Um, Holliday, Hooper, Hoberman, Hagen, Hanraff, none of those. What names are there beginning with I? Eh, Ibbet, Icky's, has to begin with some letter of the alphabet. Eh, now I know how the princess felt trying to figure out Rumpelstiltskin. Hello, Leroy. Bertie says we're having company for dinner. Who's coming? An old friend of mine, and go change your clothes and wash your face with soap. Hello, Anki, I'm helping Bertie with the dinner. Eh, that's fine, Marjorie. Oh, Anki, when you telephone this afternoon, you didn't say who he was. What's his name? Your friend? His name? Yes. Just between you and me, Marjorie, I don't know. You invited him to dinner and you don't know his name? It's a perfectly natural dilemma. I had a lot of friends in high school. No one could remember all of them. You don't remember him at all? No, not yet, but it'll come to me. You mean you don't even know the guy?  When he comes, what are you going to call him? Hey, you? Leroy? Anki, I know. What? Your high school annual from the year you graduated is upstairs. I was looking at it once. You can look him up. By George Marjorie, that's a capital idea. Let's go up and get it. Dear high school days, haven't looked at this old annual for years.  They don't look one bit goonier than kids do today. At least we didn't have our shirt tails hanging out. Is he there, Uncle Moore? I don't see him on the first page. He's on the picture. Quiet. Let's see. Gillisleve, Gordon, Gottlieb? Eh, doesn't seem to be in that bunch. Hey, here he is. I found him. Where? Right here. Eddie Shoup. I remember him now. It all comes back to me. Eddie Shoup.  Good old Eddie. Is that him? That's my old friend Eddie. He's not exactly handsome. Well, Eddie always was a little undernourished, I thought. Eh, let's see what it says about him under the picture. Um, Eddie Shoup. To know him is to like him. Well, ambition to be an entomologist. What's that? Butterflies. Oh, brother. He doesn't sound too interesting. Well, maybe he doesn't. But while he's here, I want him to enjoy himself. Let's make dinner tonight something special. Leroy, put some stickum on your hair and shine your shoes. Just for dinner? Yes, for dinner. My shoulder will be under the table. I don't want him anyway. Somebody might drop a fork. And Marjorie, get out the solid silver and ask Bertie if we can have candles on the table. I think candles add a touch of dignity. Oh, I don't know if we have any candles. Is he that important, Uncle Moore? It's not that he's so important, my dear, but when you haven't seen a friend since you left school, it's natural to want to show him you've done something with your life. Achieved a measure of success. Oh. Someday, my dear, when you have a home and a family, you'll know what I mean. I know what you mean. Leroy, do you understand what I want to do? Sure. You want to make this guy feel like a stoop. Leroy, that's not true. It's simply that I know Eddie who looked me up because he wanted to see what I'd accomplished. I want to show him. Well, if he wants to know how important you are, Uncle, Leroy and I will tell him, won't we, Leroy? Yeah, we'll talk it up like crazy. Yeah, that's the spirit of it. Just don't carry it through extremes. You set a splendid table, Gildy. Really nothing, Eddie. Just the usual family dinner. You're lucky to be able to live like this. You've come a lot farther than most of the fellas in our class, Gildy. Well, I've worked my way up, Eddie. Success doesn't come overnight. Someday, I may be mayor of Summerfield. Mayor? Well, perhaps it's not far off. At every election, the boys in the city hall try to talk me into it. But I feel I have a big job to do in my present office. You know how it goes. Yes, I suppose. Uh... What are you doing now, Eddie? Working, are you? Yes, I have a job. Well, that's fine. Keep at it. There's no formula for success like hard work, I always say. Uncle Mort is the water commissioner of Summerfield. Yes, I know. He's the head guy. He can turn off people's water just like that. That's just Leroy's idea, Eddie. Isn't that like a boy? That sounds like a good job. Well, I have my problems. There's no water system here in Summerfield. More dessert, Eddie. No thanks. Everybody in the city hall depends on Uncle. What did the mayor call you, Anki? An armchair plumber. Leroy, that was the chief of police, and he was trying to be funny. Oh, I remember. The mayor said he was an indefensible man. Indispensable? That's what I meant. You certainly done well, Gildy. Hard work, Eddie. Plain hard work and plenty of it. Man doesn't reach the top of the ladder without getting in there and climbing. That's a fact. What sort of a job do you have, Eddie? I sell gasoline. Oh, run a gas station. That's fine. How many pumps? Oh, I don't run the stations myself. I'm with international petroleum. I have one of those office jobs. Keeping books? No, I'm vice president. Vice president? Vice president of an oil company? It's just a job like any other. Not as good as some in many respects. No home life. I'm traveling all the time. I practically have to live on ships and airplanes. Where do you go? Everywhere it seems. Last week, for example, I was in London.  Monotonous? Monotonous. Boy, would I like a job like that. Client and planes going all over. Mr. Shoup, have you ever been to Paris? I'm there every six months. It's a beautiful city. We received a carload of water meters the other day from Switzerland. Clever people leave Swiss. Yes, sir. And I received a letter from... From who, Anki? Nobody. Were you ever in Egypt, Mr. Shoup? He said he's been to Cairo. Who's talking about Cairo? Did you ever ride a camel? A camel? Don't ask silly questions, Leroy. The fact is I did, Leroy. I was inspecting one of our pipelines and we had to take camels. To make it worse, we were attacked by bandits and marooned in the desert. We wandered around for four days before a plane picked us up. Gee, it's like something out of a book. Speaking of books, I did a story for the newspaper today called Water and Health. The editor liked it, too. Say, that's fine. I do a little writing on the side. It'll be in tonight's paper. What kind of things do you write, Mr. Shoup? I did one a while ago, titled Oil is Dynamite. Well, I've seen it in the bookstore. Did you write that? Would somebody like some oil or something? Anything? Oh, why? I'm sorry. I forgot the time. Gilly, I've got to run. I told the mechanics at the airport to have my plane warmed up at 8.30.  Oh, don't go, Mr. Shoup. Oh, you heard what he said, Marjorie. Do you want his plane to get cold? Oh, thanks, but I have a cab waiting in front. Oh, Eddie, yeah, here's your coat. Oh, well, thanks. Goodbye, Gilly. It's been good seeing you. I really enjoyed it. Yes, so have I. Hey, goodbye, Margie. Goodbye, little oil. Hey, goodbye, Eddie. Goodbye, Eddie. Goodbye. For a walk. Well, don't you want your coat? No. Hey.  And he did it on purpose, too. Probably had it all planned. London. Paris. Cairo. Camels. Egotistical stuffed shirt. That's what he is. Floyd was right. This morning, I was a big frog in a little puddle. What am I now? The tadpole. Remember, the Jolly Boys are meeting tonight, so we'll go up there in just a minute. If you're looking for fine quality, delicious flavor and good nourishment and your spread for bread, you're first for Parquet margarine. Whenever your food dealer can supply you, you'll find that Parquet is the same fine quality as always. Country sweetened flavor, high in food energy, and with 15,000 units of important vitamin A, fortifying every single pound. The Kraft Foods Company is maintaining the high quality that has made Parquet a favorite spread of millions. And we're continuing to produce all the Parquet we possibly can. The secret is that there's still not enough available to meet every family's complete needs. So please be patient if at times the supply is temporarily short. And remember to always look first for that good name in quality spreads, P-A-R-K-A-Y, Parquet margarine, made by the Kraft Foods Company. Sound like you were waiting for me. Go ahead, sing. Don't let me stop you. Nothing's wrong, Chief. Go ahead, sing.  You don't need me around here. Well, no, I wouldn't say that. Well, thanks, P-V. You're a good friend. I wish I could say that about some other people. Sir, I know what happened. The old school chum gave him the business. Don't say I didn't warn you. Now, wait a minute. How much did he take you for, Commissioner? Floyd, if you please, fellas, let's all be jolly boys. Well, let me say something, jolly boy. For your information, Floyd, he didn't take me for anything. It so happens that Eddie is a wealthy and influential man, vice president of a big oil company. That's always a pleasant surprise. What's more, he flies all over the world, in his own plane, warmed up, has offices in Paris and London and Cairo. How'd you get a guy like that for a friend? Because we speak the same language. That's how. He's a brilliant man. He fought off a tribe of bandits in the Sahara Desert single-handed. He sounds like a very interesting man. Interesting. You have no idea, Judge. Of course, I think of him as just an old friend, and he feels the same toward me, good old Eddie. Oh, it's pretty nice to know a fella like that. Yeah, he's quite a boy. Wrote a bestseller, too. Is that so? Have a cigar, Gildy. Oh, thank you, Judge. Say, I read your article in the paper, Commissioner. You're to be complimented. Oh, thank you, Chief. It wasn't much. It was good, Gildy. Yeah, lovey cut it out of the paper to send to a mother. Explainin' that I do your barber work. Well, good. I'm glad you liked it. Mrs. Peavey wanted me to ask you something, Mr. Jones. What is it, Peavey? Since you wrote that article, she wants to know if you'll speak at the meeting of her self-improvement group on Friday. Well, I'll check my appointment book, Peavey. But I think I can make it. The Great Gilders Play, the play by Harold Perry. The music is by Jack Meatham. This is John Lange saying goodnight to the craft food company and inviting you to listen in again next Wednesday for the further adventures of The Great Gilders Play. Isn't this wonderful news? Now you can make real homemade ice cream in your refrigerator. Just ask for Frizz, F-R-I-Z-Z, the new craft product women are raving about. Frizz gives you ice cream that frees you velvet smooth, is rich with plenty of milk and cream. Just add water, a little sugar, and freeze according to directions on the package. Flavor variations from vanilla are easy. Made by an exclusive process that retains the fresh cream flavor, Frizz is the economical way to serve really fine homemade ice cream. Six generous servings from one small package of Frizz. This is NBC, the matter of fact. This is NBC, the matter of fact.


The objective for this lesson is to introduce the concept of a major scale. Now, to do major scales, we're going to use whole steps and half steps, which we learned all about in last lesson. We're going to use sharps and flats, which we learned about in the last lesson, and we're ready to get going. So, let's begin. A scale is a series of notes, and they fit into a predetermined pattern of whole steps and half steps. The pattern of a set of a major scale involves eight notes. Now, the pattern is whole step, whole step, half step, whole step, whole step, whole step, half step. Now, you need to memorize this pattern. This is the pattern of a major scale, and we will refer back to this pattern throughout the entire trimester. So, it's really important that you memorize the pattern whole, whole, half, whole, whole, whole, half. Now, every major scale uses all of the adjacent letters from one letter to the next time it occurs. So, how would we do that? Let's do it this way. Let's just use an example of the D major scale. If we start on D, the first and last letter of the D major scale has to be the name of the scale, or what we also call the tonic. Okay? Now, from there, we have to use every letter in the musical alphabet. So, E is second, F, G, A, B, C, and D. So, this gets us about halfway there on the major scale. Now, the next thing we have to do is to take a look at this whole step, whole step, half step pattern. Compare it to the piano keyboard and make sure that it lines up. So, let's do that. We're going to start here with the note D, okay? Now, you can see here that from D to E has to be a whole step. From D to E, half step, half step, it in fact is a whole step from D to E. Now, from E to F is also supposed to be a whole step. Well, here's E, and here's F, that's just a half step. So, we have to go another half step, giving us that whole step, and that would be F sharp. So, we have to change that F to F sharp to accurately fit into the D major scale. From F sharp to G is supposed to be a half step. So, here's our F sharp, there's our G, in fact it is a half step. G to A is a whole step, half step, half step, there's our A, that works. A to B is a whole step, half step, half step, for a whole step, that works. B to C is supposed to be a whole step, B, uh-oh, there's C, that's just a half step. We have to go one more, that C will be C sharp. And now, from C sharp to D is supposed to be a half step, and in fact that works out. And if you do it correctly, the first and the last letters will fit in there perfectly and the pattern will work. This pattern will always work for every single major scale. So again, the first thing you do is remember the pattern, then you write down the letter names, D-E-F-G-A-B-C-D, and then you go back and figure out the sharps and or flats, wherever they may be.  In this lesson, we're going to be constructing major scales from lots of different tonics. So if you take a look at lesson two, assignment one, you will see something that looks like the following. Let's go to number four to use as an example today. If we look at number four, we have an E-flat major scale. So here's the way I want you to do this. Before you write any notes on the staff, I really recommend that you write the letter names, E-flat to E-flat. And now we know we're going to use every letter name, F-G-A-B-C-D and E-flat. Put in your whole step, half step pattern, whole, whole, half, whole, whole, half. Refer back to your piano keyboard all the time. From E-flat to F needs to be a whole step. Let's find our E-flat. Here's E-flat, one, two. There's F, so that's fine. F-G needs to be a whole step. F-G, one, two. It is in fact a whole step. G-A needs to be a half step. Here's G. There's a half step. Oh, there it is. That's got to have a flat with it. Here's F-G, one, two. F-G, one, two. And then E-flat, one, two. There's F-F. F-G needs to be a whole step. There it is. That's got to have a flat with it. So let's go ahead and make that A a flat. Now A flat to B has to be a whole step. 1, 2. It's got to be B flat. So we need to make that a B flat. B flat to C whole step. B flat 1, 2 to C. There's your whole step. C to D whole step. 1, 2. Yep, whole step. And then D to E, half step. And in fact, or excuse me, D to E flat, half step. And there's your E flat. In fact, that works out. So this E flat, F, G, A flat, B flat, C, D, E flat is the E flat major scale. Now once you have that, then write it in. Here's your E right here. So I'm going to put a flat sign. And here's a rule that you need to remember. When you're writing the letter names, the flat sign comes after the name of the note. But when you're writing the actual note, the flat sign comes before the note. So there's E flat, F, G, A flat, B flat, C, D, E flat. And then we do the same thing on the lower staff. This is your note E. So let's make it E flat, F, G, A flat, B flat, C, D. There's a ledger line and E flat. This would be number four correctly done. And I'd like you to do that for all of the examples on page nine and page 10 of Linear Pitch, lesson two, assignment one.


Brainerd also taking part in that tournament. Warriors battled Duluth Marshall tonight. Early on, Warriors on the attack. Riley Johnson fires, stopped by Cam Brandt. Later, Hilltopper's making a move. George Grannis shoots. Brainerd's Colin Cleffman stops that one. But Grannis would bury the loose puck on the power play right there and make it one-nothing, Topper. Same period, Willie Stauber doubles the lead with the goal. And the latest on this one, it is Duluth Marshall up to nothing in the second period. If you've enjoyed this segment of Lakeland News, please consider making a tax-deductible contribution to Lakeland Public Television.


Hi there, Chris here from IELTS Advantage with another week and another mini course. So one of the most effective ways to improve your overall IELTS scores is to improve your grammar. Grammar counts for 25% of your total writing mark, 25% of your total speaking mark and it's also important for reading and listening as well. So in order to help you guys as much as possible what we're going to do this week is we're going to do a three day mini grammar course. So let's have a look at what we're going to be doing this week. So day one, we're going to look at how grammar actually affects your score because as I already mentioned it's 25% of your total writing and your total speaking score but it also can affect other areas as well and other unexpected areas. So we'll talk about that and we'll talk a lot about how the examiners think about grammar and what they're looking for and especially for the writing test and we'll also talk about a lot of myths surrounding grammar. So we'll talk about mistakes and how that affects your score, structures, tenses, complex sentences, simple sentences, all of those different things because there's a huge number of myths surrounding grammar as there are in other parts of the test as well. So in order to understand what to do you need to understand what not to do first. So we'll be looking at that today. Day two, we've got a lot of requests for help with simple versus complex sentences. What is the difference between those, how do you make complex sentences, how do they affect your score? So we'll be looking a lot about that and not tomorrow Wednesday. So Wednesday at midday on Facebook here, we'll be having a look at that live. And then on day three, which is Friday at about 11am, we'll do it a little bit earlier on Friday, we're going to look at a grammar improvement plan. So this is a plan that you can use at home for free by yourself and you can work on improving a grammar. So we'll give you that. It's a very simple, strategic plan that you can use. So we'll give you that on Friday. Okay, so without further ado, let's have a look at how grammar actually affects your score. So it's 25% of speaking, 25% of writing. Let's have a look at writing. So here we have task achievement, 25%, coherence and cohesion, 25%, lexical resource, which is vocabulary, 25%, and grammatical range and accuracy, which is 25%. So these are the things that the examiners are going to be thinking about when they're looking at your task one and task two writing. So a very, very common thing that we see is a student might have banned seven task achievement. They've answered the question pretty well. Their coherence and cohesion, is it around a banned seven and their vocabulary, is it around banned seven? What we see a lot is with grammar, it might be at a banned six. So what a lot of students think is if I get these three at a banned seven, it doesn't matter if my grammar isn't that good, because I'm going to get a banned seven overall. Wrong. That's probably not going to happen. Let me explain why that might happen, what that probably will not happen. So if you are getting a banned six for grammar, it means you're making a lot of grammar mistakes. Pretty much every sentence has some sort of grammatical error in it. And what happens is if you're reading someone who is at a banned six level, their writing is quite difficult to understand, because there are many, many, many grammatical mistakes in it. There could be some major mistakes, but there's going to be a lot of small mistakes there. So what happens is someone who is at a banned six, their coherence and cohesion, it can actually cause your coherence and cohesion to drop down to a banned six as well. Why is that? Because coherence means can you read the essay or can you read the task one response and understand what it's saying? Is it clear? Is it easy to understand? If your grammar is at a banned six, it can cause the essay to drop down. So if your grammar is poor, you can also start making a lot of vocabulary mistakes. If you don't understand how the word operates in a sentence, then it can lead to even more grammar mistakes. Sometimes it can also lead to the examiner looking at your task two or your task one response and just not knowing whether you answered the question or not because of grammatical errors. That's rare. More common is these two. So it's very, very, very common for grammatical range and accuracy to cause people to get a 6.5 overall because they're getting a 6 for grammar, but then it might bring one of these two or both down to that level. So that's one of the reasons why 6.5 is a very, very, very common score and there could be many, many reasons for that, but for a lot of people it is related to grammar. So that's what we're going to work on this week to help you because if your grammar is going to go up to this level, then you're more likely to be getting a 7 or above. If you want to get a 7, you should be aiming for all of these across the board to be at a 7 because you don't know what's going to happen on exam day. If you want a banned eight, aim for all of them to be at a banned eight. You shouldn't go in and think, I might get away or I might be lucky. Try and move everything up to the level that you're aiming for and then you'll get the score that you need on exam day. So what are the examiners looking for when it comes to grammar? It's really important that you understand this. Hopefully this is quite clear. I've made this like a seesaw. So I'm sure in playgrounds where you live, you have one kid here and one kid here and it's like a little seesaw when it goes like this. This is here for a reason. So examiners are looking for two principal things and they're related and that's why we have the seesaw. One is range. So range of structures, range of tenses, range of complex sentences, range of simple sentences, complex sentences, compound sentences. So that's one of the things that they're going to be looking for. However, the other thing that they're going to be looking for is accuracy. How many mistakes are you making? One of the ways that they will look at that is error-free sentences. An error-free sentence is exactly how it sounds is a sentence with no grammatical errors in it, completely free of any errors whatsoever related to grammar. In this, the more error-free sentences you have, in general, the higher the score that you're going to get. But why do we have this seesaw? Why is there a relationship between this? Because what happens to a lot of students and the reason why they get a band five or a band six for grammar is they put too much emphasis on range. So they try and really increase the complexity of their sentences, include lots and lots of complex sentences and complex tenses and a huge wide range of tenses and structures and everything. And when they try and do that, their accuracy goes down. All right? So it doesn't matter if you have this massive wide range of tenses and complex sentences and structures if you're making lots and lots and lots and lots of mistakes. So in general, as students try and increase complexity, their accuracy will go down. And that's why we have the seesaw here. And the interesting thing about this is for most students, there's nothing wrong with their range because as you write an essay, you're going to be using a variety of structures and a variety of tenses and a mix of simple and compound and complex sentences. That normally takes care of itself. What the thing that students really struggle with and the reason why like 95% of students fail to get the score they need in grammar is because of accuracy. Just making too many mistakes. And this is the thing that's very obvious whenever you get a student's work, you look at it, you'll just see mistake, mistake, mistake, mistake, mistake. And it's very, it's impossible to give them a high score for grammar and a high score overall if there are mistakes in multiple, multiple mistakes in nearly every sentence that they have. Looking for a seven or above, you should be aiming for the majority of your sentences. So more than 50% of your sentences should have no grammatical errors in them whatsoever. And by trying to focus on range, you're making that really, really, really difficult. So that's something to bear in mind. It's something that is the key to understanding how to improve your grammar is this diagram. So let's talk about myths. All right. We are here for a reason. All right. So if you do your driving test in the UK, I don't know what it's like in different countries. But in the UK, I think you're allowed to pass the test, you have to, it's less than, is it 16 minor faults? Is that correct? 16. 16, yeah? So you can make less than 16 minor faults on the driving test. A minor fault is something like not checking your mirror or crossing your hands or something like that. And no major faults. So a major fault would be speeding or not looking at a junction, something like that. And this is not exactly the same, but very, very, very, very close to how the IELTS test is marked in terms of grammar. Myth number one, your grammar must be perfect. That's wrong. All right. In order to get a band seven, you can actually make quite a few small grammar mistakes in the same way that if you were doing the driving test in the UK, you could make like 15. How many did I make? Nine, I think? I think I had nine minor faults and I still passed. No major faults, which we will get on to in a second, but it's very, very similar to the IELTS writing test and especially the speaking test.  Now, does that mean that you can make lots and lots and lots of mistakes and still get a high score? No, but the IELTS realized that you are an English learner. You will make mistakes. Even someone at a band nine does make little mistakes from time to time. They're just slips, but they are there. So often you will show a student a really good essay, like a band nine, band eight essay and they'll look at it and they'll see a couple of small mistakes and they'll say, oh, that's terrible. They made a small mistake. That's a band five. That's not the way to think about it, especially for this, the speaking test. If you try and be perfect, your fluency is going to really suffer and you won't be able to actually speak because you will be thinking of the perfect sentence and it will just destroy your fluency. With the writing test, if you are trying to aim for perfection, you're never going to get there. Even a band nine student is never really going to get perfect grammar. You're not aiming for perfection. You're aiming to use grammar as a tool to help you clearly communicate through writing. So don't aim for perfection. Try and improve your grammar as much as you can and minimize mistakes as much as you can, but only as much as you can. Remember this little analogy for the driving test and you should also try and avoid major grammatical errors. So what are major grammatical errors? Major grammatical errors are errors that stop the reader or the person listening, understanding what you mean. Smaller grammatical errors like countable on countable nouns mistakes, preposition mistakes, article mistakes, they can all count up. But if you're only making a couple of them in your whole essay or a few of them during your whole speaking test, not such a big deal because they don't affect communication. Myth number two, you must use as many different structures as possible in order to get a high score. This is not true. So again, using the analogy of the driving test. When you're doing the driving test in the UK, they take you out on the public roads and you're going to be turning left, you're going to be turning right, you're going to be going down two-way roads, one-way roads, you're going to be at T-junctions, you're going to be at level crossings, you're going to come across a whole range of different scenarios. So you don't immediately begin the driving test and start going left and right and doing all these crazy things because you naturally will be doing them throughout the course of I think it's like a 40 minute test or a 30 minute test. The same is true when you're doing the speaking test. You will naturally use a range of different structures because you're going to be speaking for about 15 minutes. In the writing test, you're going to be using naturally a range of different structures. So you shouldn't focus on that, you should focus on answering the questions and you will naturally use a range of structures in exactly the same way as in the driving test, you just follow what the examiner says, go where they want you to go and you will naturally do that but you focus in the driving test on minimizing mistakes, not making any major mistakes, not making any minor mistakes or as few minor mistakes as possible. So what happens is if you try and use as many different structures as possible, two things happen. A, you don't answer the question. Try doing that even in your native language. Try like just writing an essay or writing a letter or an email to someone and try and use as many different grammatical structures as possible. Like it's like something, a challenge you would set for yourself or something like that, a silly challenge, but it's just really difficult to do. You will naturally do that. You will naturally use a range of structures, focus more on accuracy. Myth number three, you must use as many different tenses as possible. This happened actually on Friday. I was working with one of my VIP students and I asked her a really simple question. What's your job? And she started talking about her job, just saying I work here and explaining what she did and that was all fine. Her fluency was great, her pronunciation was great, her vocabulary was great, her grammar was great. And then she stopped and started going on about, but in the past, when I was a little girl, I wanted to be this and then she started talking about and in the future, I want to be this. And she, her fluency started going downhill. Her pronunciation actually suffered as well. She was making lots of grammatical errors and I stopped her and said, what are you doing? Why did you not just answer the question normally? And she said, oh, my old teacher said that I must use every single tense in every single answer in the speaking test. I was like, no, you do not have to do that. You use the tense that's appropriate to use in the circumstance that you're using it in, exactly the same as in real life. You will use the appropriate tense when you're using it. If you're talking about the past, you'll use past tenses. If you're talking about the present, you'll use present tenses. If you're talking about the future, you'll use future structures. So don't go into the test thinking, I need to use as many different tenses as possible. Just go into the test thinking, I need to clearly communicate with the examiner and answer the questions effectively. And very much like number two, you will use a range of different tenses, especially in the speaking test. They will ask you questions about the past, questions about the future, questions that ask you to connect the past to the present. So you're going to be naturally using all of those different tenses. So don't go in thinking that it's a tenses competition. It's a speaking test. Myth number four, all of your sentences need to be complex. And if you don't have every single sentence, if it's not complex, you're not going to get a high score. Again, not true. It's not a test of how many complex sentences or how long you can write a sentence. It's in the writing test. Can you clearly answer the question, clearly communicate in writing?  Some sentences will be simple. Some of them will be compound. Some of them will be complex. As long as you're displaying a range of different sentences, you'll be fine. Again, focus on accuracy. It doesn't matter if you write a 50-word sentence if it has 50 mistakes in it. That doesn't really make any sense whatsoever. Myth number five, memorization is a useful skill. So memorizing bits of sentences or half a sentence or a full sentence and then adding those in to your essay. It's not a memorization test. It's an English test. Memorization is a useless skill. Why? They're not testing memorization. If it was a memorization test, you could just learn, memorize lots of different grammar structures and kick them into your essays and into your speaking test, and you get a high score. That doesn't work because grammar is just a tool. Just like having a hammer and a saw and a drill, memorization is giving tools to someone who doesn't know how to use them, like me. I don't know how to use a hammer or a saw or a drill. I'm completely useless when it comes to DIY or using my hands in any way. So if you gave these tools to me, I wouldn't know what to do with them and I'd make a complete mess of it. This is exactly what happens when you try and memorize structures and tenses and complex sentences. You don't know how to use them. So what's going to happen, going back to our little seesaw here, you're going to try to use all of these things, put this up, and then your accuracy is going to go down. Always remember that it is a balance between those two things and your range is probably fine. You will naturally use a wide enough range. Your problem, I nearly guarantee it because I work with students every single day who have this problem is accuracy. So hopefully you find those useful. It's really important that you understand the relationship between range and accuracy and you understand the myths and that they are myths because if you are going into the test, believing things that are not true, and giving the examiners things that they're not even looking for, then obviously you're going to be in a lot of trouble. So the first stage is knowing the truth, knowing what actually they are looking for. So tomorrow, or not tomorrow Wednesday, we're going to look at simple versus complex sentences. This really does help you improve your writing by understanding the difference between these and it also helps you, it really helps you understand the relationship between range and accuracy as well. And then day three, we're going to help you improve your accuracy. As we've mentioned over and over and over again, that is the key to improving your grammar score. So we're going to help you improve your accuracy by giving you this grammar improvement plan and that will be on Friday at about 11 a.m. and this will be Wednesday at about midday. And as always with these live lessons, if you join us on Facebook, if you have questions that I can interact with you and everything. What we're going to do is, a lot of you, every time we do these mini courses you say, oh that's great, but what about writing? What about speaking? What about reading? What about listening? We have a fundamentals course which covers all of those and teaches you the absolute fundamentals. It's totally free. So we'll put a link in the comments and we'll put it, if you're watching on YouTube, you'll get it in the description. If you're watching on Facebook, we'll put it up in the description there. If you need help, comment, help in the comments and we will get in touch with you and try and help you out as much as possible. And if you need any help, you can email us. We can't guarantee that we'll be able to give you individual help because we've thousands of people emailing us every day but we'll try our best if you do need help saying that you're feel free to send us an email and we'll try and help you out with that. All right, so I'm gonna take my broken phone. I dropped my phone, the glass is broken. And see if you guys have any questions about grammar. Every time we put up myths or things that a lot of people think are true but they're aren't actually true, we'll get a lot of people disagreeing with us. That's totally fine. Feel free to disagree as much as you want. And I'm happy to answer any of your questions or anything like that. Banjo says, Chris, we need examples, sentences reflecting component of each teaching. There will be on Wednesday, we'll be doing day two. We're doing simple and complex sentences. I'm gonna put up a lot of example sentences not so that you can copy them but so that you can learn from them and see exactly what I mean. So we'll do that. Let me see, a lot of you need help so you're saying help, that's fine. We'll get in touch with you. We'll send you a message. If you have any questions, feel free to put it in the comments. We'll get back to you if we have time. A lot of you are saying you need help with punctuation. We will be showing you how to improve every aspect of your grammar on day three. So we're gonna give you that grammar improvement plan. Also, can you help me start preparation? Yeah, send me an email or comment, help and we'll get in touch with you. We've got a lot of free resources that we can just send to you and you can use those for free or we have paid services as well. So send us a message and we'll figure out what's the best thing for you. Mario, how many complex sentences we need to write to get a band seven? That's the wrong way to think about it. You shouldn't go into the test thinking I need to write X number of complex sentences because you're just making it way more difficult than it needs to be. You shouldn't go in thinking I need to write this number of anything because you're making it way more difficult and it's a very unnatural way to write anything. So you should go into the test thinking principally I need to answer the question and I need to use grammar in a way that is clear and is accurate and you will naturally use a range of simple, compound and complex sentences by doing that and we'll talk more about that on Wednesday. Chris, give me your WhatsApp number. No. The reason why I don't give my phone number and WhatsApp number and stuff. A, I don't have WhatsApp on my phone but B, I'm not gonna give my personal phone number right to a million people and that would be a bit crazy but there's my email address that's a lot more manageable. Do the quality of ideas increase the marks? It depends what you mean by quality. The two things that you should be thinking about when you're thinking of ideas are a few things you should be thinking about. Number one, is it relevant to the question? Number two, does it answer the specific question? And number three, can you develop it by explaining how it answers the question and support it with examples? Those are the things you should be thinking about. There is no hierarchy of ideas. It's not like if you use this idea you'll get a band nine if you use this idea you'll get a band seven and if you use this that's not the way it works. Like there are a hundred ideas that could get you a band nine. Like it depends what you do with those ideas. Muhammad, could you suggest a book for IELTS Grammar? There's a book by I think Raymond Murphy. So M-U-R-P-H-Y Murphy. If you go to Amazon or whatever you use in your country I think he has intermediate grammar, upper intermediate grammar, advanced grammar. Those books are good. However, grammar books, most people they're good to refer to the grammar but they're not actually gonna help you improve your grammar and we'll talk about that on Friday. Because you need to be doing, you need to be practicing, you need to be getting feedback in order to really improve your grammar. Obviously a book doesn't really do that. Do you have review centers here in the Philippines? No, I don't. We're a hundred percent online because we believe that online education is much, much better than being in a face-to-face classroom with 30 or 40 other students. Can you create a WhatsApp group? No, I don't have WhatsApp. So thank you very much guys. I'm gonna leave it there. I know a lot of you have questions that I couldn't get to just time as always and we've got a lot of people wanting to get in touch with us in not enough time but thank you very much and hopefully you enjoyed that. And on Wednesday we will have lesson two and then Friday lesson three. Thank you very much guys and if you need anything feel free to get in touch. Bye bye.


I had an exchange with Peezy Myers on Twitter about a week back on his decision to close all comments and also, shockingly, even to disable ratings.  He suggested that anyone that wants to comment go to his own website forum where he moderates and has control over posting and users must register to post. This was on the day following blasphemy day, a day to celebrate solidarity with people around the world who don't have the freedom to utter blasphemous thoughts, who risk their very lives to do so.  After all, if we can fight on one day for people's right to say on Twitter something that offends Islamic sensibilities, how does it celebrate our own freedoms by restricting discussion to a moderated forum because Peezy doesn't like what people posted on his video? Now, I want to be very clear that Peezy has every right to control his channel. If he wants to determine who can comment or what content he deems of value, so be it. YouTube is the actual owner of the content and the server and the hosting service, but it provides for its users to have control over uploaded videos. The legal principle of free speech does not extend to private property, for the most part, and Peezy has no legal obligation to provide a forum for his critics. However, I have two objections to invoking that exception in this case. One, YouTube isn't really private property. Matt Dillahunt used the analogy of free speech inside your own house, but that's not the right analogy for YouTube. It may be privately owned, but it's a place for public personal expression to large audiences. I would say a better analogy would be a roadside billboard. Private property, yes, but visible to everyone passing by. I would say that YouTube is a privately owned forum for public discussion. Two, this isn't really a question of the letter of the law. On that basis, Peezy is legally justified. It's about the principle of allowing for, criticism, civil disagreement, and a dissenting viewpoint. It's not the legal issues of First Amendment protections. It's about the nature of debate and discussion. There are plenty of forums where only one view is welcomed, or where protesters, dissenters, critics, and skeptics are not permitted a voice. I just hope that the YouTube channel of a well-known atheist and skeptic is not one of them. Rather than drone on about my own views on this, I'm going to take three examples I find somewhat applicable. I'd like to hear if you think the same principles apply, if the principle of free expression deserves to be honored in these cases. One, Peezy Myers was expelled from Expelled. Peezy was excluded by the filmmakers of Expelled, a documentary produced by Creationist Organization, the Discovery Institute, when he was recognized in line for a screening. The filmmakers were within their right to refuse service to Peezy. It was their private property.  Peezy's free speech was not abridged, but his right to be critical in that forum was blocked. Now he was free to run back to his own blog and express his views there, and in that way the film attendees need never be bothered by his distasteful opinions. His voice was stifled, but his rights were never abridged, just like Peezy's decision to refuse his critics of voice in the public forum of his own videos. Two, the American Atheist billboard in North Carolina. The American Atheist put up a billboard along a highway to raise awareness for their cause. It elicited a number of complaints and even a few threats. And so the owner of the billboard, a private company, discussed removing the ads with the American Atheist who agreed that it was in everyone's best interest to take them down. Again, private property, and the owner of that property has every right to decide what content is acceptable in that forum. On the other hand, it's hard to deny the effect on the ability of the American Atheist to convey a message they want heard by the public. No one's free speech was harmed. The American Atheists are free to shop around for someone who is willing to accept their business and some other forum, or maybe they just don't have the right to put this information where it can offend someone. The property owners control the access, in this case, and in the case of Peezy's video. 3. Gelato Mio, an ice cream shop near Skepticon 2011 The owner of this little ice cream shop, a deeply religious private business owner, was offended by something he saw or heard while the Skepticon attendees were in his shop. So he posted a sign on his private property saying that Skepticon attendees were not welcome and would not be served. He was of course within his rights to close his shop doors if he didn't like what he saw. The Skepticon attendees were able to visit other shops, and that way the owner need never be offended by their blasphemous or disrespectful talk. In each of these examples, Atheists were on the receiving end of perfectly legal restrictions on free speech on private property. Although the threats in North Carolina were probably a crime, but the decision on the part of the billboard owner was not. I have two points to make on the general principle here. A. There's no good reason to close comments or disable ratings. There was one reason for Peezy to close comments that occurred to me later, and that is the financial one. Peezy's site is supported by ad traffic, and people who only visit his video on YouTube don't generate revenue for his pharyngealist site. It's possible this is the real reason for the disabling of comments to drive traffic to his ads, and if so, I prefer Peezy just admit to it. We can all understand the needs of a business owner to turn a profit. However, the other part of this equation is that Peezy also disabled ratings. That's not just someone trying to manipulate traffic. It's the kind of thing that creationists and science denialists do, simply because they can't tolerate criticism. My initial question to Peezy was who is harmed by an unmoderated discussion, and I never got an answer. Peezy may have been offended or annoyed. Other people might not like what they read, but there are already mechanisms in place to report threats, harassment, disclosure, personal details, and other violations of the terms of service. So where is the benefit to Peezy's audience? I just don't see one, except that Peezy will get increased revenue and have the ability to decide what content meets with his approval. That's a dangerous precedent. Again, this is not about Peezy's legal rights. It's about the principle of allowing for open criticism. B, there are some really, really important reasons to leave comments open. I'm just going to give four. One, diversity of thought. If comments are directed to your blog and your blog has rules about what is permitted, anyone unfamiliar with those rules will simply not post. That means that the only people who will comment are your regular posters. You close the door on people new to your work. You exclude people who are concerned about revealing their IP or linking their account. In short, you will restrict the kind of opinions you will hear to those who already agree with you. Two, integrity. Atheism, being a small and detested minority in the U.S. should be especially careful to protect minority opinion and detested speech. Given that we offend the majority of people with our very principles, given that we are constantly besieged by attempts to silence us, we cannot scoff at the principle that no one has a right not to be offended. While you may have a right to do so, every exercise of that right undermines the principle we shelter under, our only voice in this majority religious society. Three, reciprocity. There are only two groups of note who disable comments on YouTube, creationists and corporations. Neither are interested in critical voices. Neither are interested in hearing from the other side of the equation. If we, being the atheists and skeptics and rationalists of YouTube, set the example of allowing the opposition a chance to speak, not just on their own channels, but on ours as well, it sets up an expectation of reciprocity, that they will allow you to speak on their comments as well. PZ may not want Thunderfoot's fans commenting on his videos, but Thunderfoot, so far as I know, doesn't restrict pharyngeal fans from posting on his. Four, last but most importantly, a culture of free expression. PZ's blog is a place for his fans to read his thoughts. That's what a blog is. YouTube is a little different, and maybe PZ didn't realize that. This is a public forum that thrives on a lack of moderation. It is a populist paradise. The discussion here is, as a result, more varied and often more interesting. Of course, this leaves the door open to people with bad intent, people who don't have anything important to say, and people of all ages, nationalities, genders and educational backgrounds. I think that's a good thing. Every video posted in our community that cannot be discussed in that forum is essentially a dead spot in our otherwise lively exchanges. If you're listening to this, PZ, I'd like to make a final appeal on this topic. Restore comments and ratings for the simple reason that doing so doesn't hurt anyone beyond a little annoyance on your part. Leave them disabled, and you invite people to speculate about your motives.  That's all I have to say. Thanks for watching. Every cell of each pulse and hour.


Women today are doing more than deserve recognition. Your vibe attracts your tribe, the power of sisterhood is our topic for this episode. And joining the conversation is Crystal Kwok, director and producer, blurring the color line documentary and Sequoia Carr-Brown owner of Strange Fruit Express. Welcome, ladies. Hello. Hey, hello. Welcome back, I should say. Yeah. Yes.  And sisterhood is another hot topic in this world. And I just want starting with Crystal and this Sequoia, tell our sister power viewers all the wonderful thriving things that you are doing. It's all about vibing and thriving. Crystal. I like that, vibing and thriving. I feel like we should be doing a little dance on that. Yes. So hello everyone. I just want to tell you a little bit about my film because that's really what's consuming, it has been consuming my life for the last five years that I created this documentary that is really intended to disrupt racial narratives. And when I say that, I mean it because when I first moved back to the States after being in Hong Kong for many years, I really realized that everything here, obviously around the racial narrative is based on a very black and white divide, right? Very binary way of looking at things. And so I got to thinking about why, why are we so binary? It's not a black and white world out there. There are many colors in the spectrum and speaking to my personal experience, my grandmother grew up in the Deep South, Augusta Georgia to be specific. And this was in the 30s. And I just started thinking about, wow, what is an Asian girl, a very traditional Chinese girl, how does she grow up in the black neighborhood of the segregated South? Navigating both the racialized structure at the time, as well as a very strong patriarchal system because of the Chinese traditional ways of parenting. And so these kind of double pressure systems, how does that affect a woman growing up and how does that shape her perceptions on race relations and herself as a woman? And so that's how I started to dig into the idea of Chinese growing up in the Deep South, disrupting racial narratives. And boy, I'm telling you, you know how when you open up something, you don't realize how it's just the tip of the iceberg. This whole race relations story became way bigger than I thought it would be. And it's opened up to speak to the recent troubling aspects that I hope we can converse about today, which is the Afro-Asian tensions, but solidarity. I wanna say it's both, right? Because sometimes media likes to frame it as if it were just an animosity that's deeply rooted in these kind of pitting against each other type of stories, but at the same time, we've had a very connective history and it's very interesting. And I think it illuminates a lot of things that we don't see or learn in history. So I'm hoping this conversation today back to your theme of vibe and tribe is that through sisterhood, through women's voices, because I do focus on the women's voices, how do intimate histories reveal a deeper history? I think that's something that women come together and we have these kind of like intimate conversations and some people in the male dominated world will dismiss it as being something petty, but they have no idea the depth and the richness that comes out of a sisterhood conversation. And I think that's why I commend you for having the space for us to talk like this. So I'm just gonna leave it there for now and I just wanna say, yes, my film is in the festival circuit route now. It's going to different places. It has been going to different places. I'm very happy how it's been received. And we are gonna be doing another event here in Hawaii, the three of us. So we can talk about that a little bit later too. I hope that's a good way to kind of tease out what I'm doing. Thank you. I like that teaser, right? Vibing and thriving sequoia. Yeah, I'm gonna kind of just pick up from what Crystal was saying in terms of the historical significance of our community's AAPI and African-American communities and solidarity. The media indeed tends to divide us. It's the vice division makes money, big money and hate, right? But the real true story that isn't told is that we've always been united. There's been times of animus, but dating as far back as what the 1860s, like 1869, Frederick Douglass was a strong advocate for advocating for Chinese migrants, right? He has a famous speech called The Composite Nation and his whole concept of like, equality and justice for all free migration, right? And there's been a thread of that throughout the African-American community in terms of anyone coming, migrating in on terms of Asian AAPI, you have like, what was it, 1889 was the Chinese Exclusion Act? 1882, yeah. 1882, okay, thank you. And I know that that time period, 1880s, there's a lot going on and overlapping with Jim Crow. So both of these communities are, we have some interconnections here. And I think that the white social structure, constructed white social structure likes to pit us against one another to help keep that power. Because when they see that when we are united, that their constructs will fall, right? So my work at Strange Food Express kind of brings in these elements, community-based collaborative concepts. And I bring forth our history, those unsung heroes, those narratives that are swept to the wayside, and I use the arts to bring them up, to lift them, to lift those voices. Women, people of color in particular, I use dance, I use fine art, do art installations and all kinds of projects. I'm really, really excited to be collaborating with Crystal and you, Sharon, to bring this story forward and talk about it. It needs to be spoken of. Yeah, talking about vibing and thriving, the three of us were together in studio with Crystal, and we had such a unique conversation. I have some pictures of us, I think, in the studio. But later on in September 10th, this is a part of Hawaii, along with Strange Food Express, is one of the sponsors. And we're doing Your Vibe Attracts Your Tribe, September 10th. And this is such a unique way of women coming together at the Outrigger Canoe Club. And I'm so excited about that. Sisterhood is a bond between women who share common goals. So I'm gonna ask you this question, Crystal. What is the historical significance of Afro and Asian solidarity? Okay, well, picking, backing off of Sequoia's mention of the historical 1882 Exclusion Act, which really was a pivotal and the first and only real legal policy that forbade Chinese people coming over based on their race. And so that kind of like is the opening conversation of the Chinese immigration story in that sense of the racism against Chinese. But so in my particular research is that many people from China went to San Francisco as first immigrants and then eventually some of them trickled over to different parts of the country to make a living. And they entered the black neighborhoods of the segregated South because the white people didn't wanna do business with black people back then after the plantation life kind of fizzled out. And so there was a very interesting dynamic between the two cultures. And when we talked earlier about the both tension and friendships that kind of works together because there was a power structure, right? The Chinese were the storekeepers. They held the purse and they made money off of black people in the neighborhood. At the same time, some people claim as it was a symbiotic relationship because they needed each other to make the system work. But it's complicated, right? It's like, again, to Sequoia saying about how media frames us hitting each other against us against each other is that how do these, this past how does this inform us today of these preexisting kind of discriminations against each other? Where does it come from? And we don't think about the past informing these tensions today because we just wanna build our own narrative over, okay, well, that case or that violent case that was because of the so-and-so, you know it just, we wanna tell the stories we wanna hear. And I think that's a weak way. It's harder to make the effort to understand each other's history. For example, in my film, I did not when I interviewed this long time resident in Georgia, I didn't think about if I were a black person as a mother I wouldn't have to worry about, so if I, as it was a Chinese, sorry I wouldn't have to worry about my kids and the dangers of letting them go out and confronting police.  And so this ignorance gives me that kind of urge to need to grow out of my comfort zone of what I don't know. And we need to know about each other's cultures. We need to be in each other's seats to really empathize and to really figure out why we have these tensions. Yeah. You know, you did bring, I'm glad you did bring that up because just yesterday, the policeman, 2 a.m. in the morning, opened the door and shot and killed this young black man. He didn't know who was at the door. Brianna Taylor was sleeping in her bed and she was murdered by the policeman.     How does being open to community-based ideas attract like-minded individuals to your tribe? A lot of it has to do with being fork-right and honest about who you are as a person, I think. I find it works well for me. And, you know, you attend events or you find projects where life-minded people will be, right, where you develop this kind of a kinship, right? And you can't close your mind to assuming or presuming that because they don't, someone doesn't look like you, that they don't respect you or value who you are.   I can't explain it better than just knowing that this vibe, this energy, if you will, will exude from you and you will attract the right people to you.  Like, I think Chair and I would discuss this, you know, in terms of feeling and navigating through racism in certain spaces.  So you learn how to navigate through those, you know, those situations. So I find that overall being positive, knowing who you are as a woman, in your culture, having pride in that, I think your energy will attract the right people to you and you build the right events, have the sessions be open and your tribe will manifest. And I think that that energy, you know, Sequoia, you're onto something. It's really about energy and that's something that you have to develop, you have to work on, you know. Of course, people will have different energies, but then that positive energy comes from your value system, your core values and the way you embrace life and things around you and it really manifests. You don't have to speak and you'll know if something is soothing, like you said, positive or negative energy. Yeah, and it's not about everyone being looking the same. You know, not a lot of people kind of think that tribe means primitive or you have to be all the same culture and ethnic group, but not necessarily, right?  That vibe is there and it comes with wisdom too. Yes. Definitely comes with wisdom. So Crystal, let's discuss why your tribe matters, accountability, fulfillment. Why does your tribe matter?  I'm gonna say that because on one hand, it's great. We all work together collectively to have a certain in major pride, but at the same time, it doesn't give room for individuality where people can shine with their own specific ways of thinking, right? But I think that when I think tribe, I think of the positive aspect of that is that we learn from that. You know, a lot of younger generation and I'm not trying to critique the whole younger generation, but I find that a lot of people don't have that collective way of doing things now. There is something missing and that is why there are so many problems out there because people are doing things for themselves. They're not thinking for, like the village mentality is a beautiful thing back in the days, whether it was a China and Africa or, you know, wherever in the world, you work as a team because it builds your own life in such a richer way. And I think we've lost that and we need to regroup. We need to find that sense of power, you know? Well, we used to say it takes a minute. Yeah. You know who said that too? In my film, James Brown's daughter, Deanna Brown, who I had the privilege of interviewing, she was saying because James Brown worked as an errand boy for some of the grocery stores. And she says, you know, they all don't have to look the same, but you know, it takes a village. And it was just a beautiful way of consolidating it. Oh, great. So true, so true. You know, vibes are just, it's an emotional segment in our being, in our core, our vibes. And so what you put out is what you get. And Sequoy, I wanna ask you, are there, excuse me, other organizations working to unite Black, Indigenous and people of color? Well, very much so. We have the Asian American Advancing Justice, that's aajc.org. So that's more of on a domestic front. They are very active in bringing the communities together, understanding one another, various projects to inform the community. And then we have, oh, and that's or on an international front, it's the Asian, Afro-Asian People Solidarity Organization. And that's aapsorg.org. And that's more like over 90 countries. So you know, this anti-Blackness or this concept of dividing Conqueror AAPI against the African diaspora people, it's an international kind of vibe here, right? Negative vibe. But so we have to fight it on so many fronts, not only like in the interior, amongst within our own circles and domestically within our country. And then it spans out internationally, unfortunately, but there are organizations home in a way who are working to resolve that. And to dispel that old colonial myth that you have to divide everyone up and bring in countries that have been colonized to indoctrinate them with constructed state of whiteness to become anti-Black or to even just to not even love their own culture and not use their own language and feel ashamed, right? So I just love that the African-Americans have always been there. I wish more would be there for us from Frederick Douglass onto like both colonial wars, what Vietnam and Korea were, right? Their African-Americans were fighting and standing up against that. The Black soldiers of the Philippines, like the Philippine-American War, right? They deserted, right? And they fought with the liberation front and the Philippines, right? So, and even with Vietnam, he had MLK, Malcolm X, and Muhammad Ali. Yeah. You know, actually, you're giving me idea. You know, what you're saying now is this kind of cross-pollination of cultures because of our historical way, the colonized world and how we've been forced into situations that kind of bring us together, right? Militarism has brought together the experience of Filipinos and the Americans and the Black soldiers. But it makes you think about this blurring space, speaking to the title of my film, what does it mean to blur? And a lot of times I feel like to mix the in-between spaces. Like, there are some young, wonderful young people that are doing great work now. I just learned about this one. She's half Korean, half Black. And you know how there's that whole controversy about the hair shops with the Korean hair store owners and, right? She owns a hair store, but she's also an artist and she uses the idea of the hair weaving into her art making like amazing chandeliers. And her embodiment of being of mixed culture, she feels compelled to bring together these conversations. So I think, you know, it's hopeful while the dominant narrative is dismissing these smaller stories, there are some gems of people doing things that blend spaces that show the beauty of this combination and of how we can work together with different cultures, even though we were supposedly on each other's sides of the spectrum, which is kind of a silly concept. We really are blending our spaces like we are here to talk about really the positive connectivities as opposed to pushing us aside. Yeah. And come to, we're talking about the bond of sisterhood. I'm excited about February the 9th, 2023. And we want our audience to know that we're going to blend the cultures at Jay Dynasty. And it's going to be about, we're going to have a deep conversation of blurring the color line. So Sequoia, let's talk about that day, that Thursday that's coming up. Yeah, it's going to be fantastic. I'm so excited because we are blending, not only it's Chinese New Year, it's African-American History Month, right? So again, blurring those color lines, showing that we are more alike and connected and unalike, right? And bringing entertainment and conversation, the screening of the documentary, having a real heart-to-heart, deep, profound talk with activities to kind of engage the audience to get to know one another, right? And to see how we can move forward and press as a united front of people, like Wipoc working against the colonial mindset and kind of just decolonizing ourselves, mind, body and spirit. I'm loving it, I'm so excited. Yeah, and going to that vibe, we're utilizing through food as a wonderful, fun, engaging way to bring us together too, culturally. And I'm working with a Jay Dynasty menu and it's so fun to think about what are the connective ingredients that bring our histories together and to think about, like in my film, I talk about, I interview people and they say they remembered eating pickled pig feet a lot in the past. And so was that a southern thing? Because Asians ate that too. And it's so interesting to hear our blended history through food. So we're gonna really kind of utilize that as a fun way in to engage in these kind of conversations about our past. That when people attend this event, February the 9th, 2023, and we did deeper conversations and discussions that we have far more in common than that. Yes. You know, we all believe the same. We have emotions, we cry, we celebrate, we're happy for one another. And we have maybe four minutes left to Koya and Crystal, and I'll start with you to Koya. Let's, I want you to speak to the camera and motivate, educate and empower all of our listeners. I want you all to know that you are beautiful people. We are a united front of global citizen that are working to develop our mind, body, and spirit in a positive way to see that we are all more alike than unalike. We have much to learn from one another. And when you hear something negative against someone that you don't even know yet, that's a trope, cliche, shun it away and learn for yourself what is going on. Learn one another's history. It's a very rich history. It's not centered to just one particular group that conquered or colonized of people. We all have something that has contributed to the history of this world and made wonderful, beautiful culture. So embrace that, enjoy that, and I'll see you along the trail. Oh, that's so beautiful. Yeah. Crystal, take us out. Man, she said it all. Well, just, you know, because I also teach a course in women and film at UH and I talk to my students and I think about going back to questioning things, to never take things as space value because there's always a context to how something's framed. And I think we need to be critical learners and you don't have to be in school to do this. We are, as we embrace, when we look at social media, for example, all this bombardment of information to really have a critical view of who's framing something and who's setting the standard for what defines us. And we need to disrupt that. We need to resist these kind of so-called normative ways of thinking because it's not true. We are stuck into this very binary world and to complicate it. And that's what we sisterhood thing does too. We complicate the narrative because all these little nuanced stories that we all individually offer as a collective become such a powerful thing that we have no idea how much energy and power we can contribute to making change. And I think we all need to believe in ourselves to do that. And that's just what I want to leave with y'all. Yes, I am because we are. Woo-hoo. I'm loving this conversation. And I want to remind everyone that September 10th, your vibe attracts your tribe will be happening at the Outrigger Canoe Club and I want to remind you for February the 9th, 2023 Day Dynasty, we're having Blurring the Line a deep conversation. Thank you, Sequoia Carl Brown. Thank you, Krista Pop, for your expertise and your knowledge and your beautiful smile. I'm your host Sharon Thomas-Yarbaro and I want to leave you with this. Choose to live within your purpose. Aloha. Thank you so much for watching Think Tech Hawaii. If you like what we do, please like us and click the subscribe button on YouTube and the follow button on Vimeo. You can also follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn and donate to us at thinktechhawaii.com. Mahalo.


on the pad right on the machine. And I had my back turned to it and she snuck down and she just came and the machine was on and she just slapped the pads. Step that far. And it sounded really good.  That's hot. Yeah, we on Boss Talk 101. The music, man, that bout it, man. That bout it, that was, hey, listen, man.  When I heard it, bro. Everybody by, oh! I represent, I represent. I'm a young kid, bro, really. How old was you when y'all done that? I don't know, but my second daughter was two and she did the drums on that record.  No. Yes. How old? Two? She was two. Wow.  Yeah. How did she know? Well, I can't say that. Because they born into it. Well, it was more, she didn't initially, well, let me tell you how it went. Well, I was up in there, I was working, I had my drum machine right here, I had my keyboard right there and I had my drum machine in loop mode and record. Yeah, yeah. But she used to always come down there and just see me hitting on the pad, right? On the machine and I had my back turned to her and she snuck down and she just came and the machine was on and she just slapped the pad. Stuck, stuck, stuck, stuck, stuck, stuck. And it sounded really good.  That's hot. That's hot. So loud. And it worked. And it worked. It worked for me.  That thing made us turn up. Every city, you had to feel that, man. Yeah. Did you know it was that, let me ask this, did you know it was that impactful when you done it? Nah, because it's like, I really don't have this thing about when I make music, especially back then, I just made it whatever sound good. Why, if it felt like it was something else worth keeping, I just kept it. Wow. But I never knew that the beat itself had that impact, but the beat I was doing it, it was for a song for Mr. Servon. Okay. Called, it was a song called Bucking Like a Winchester. Okay. That Full-Blooded from No Limit, one of the artists that I bought there, he was helping him and Servo's writing that record, but that's what happened. And that was at the beginning stages of me meeting P. And P came to New Orleans and he needed to cut a commercial for Wild Wayne at the radio station. Okay. And it just happened, that beat was up. And he came, he cut the commercial and before you know it, the commercial got hot and he took it, we took it to California and made a full song of it. That thing went in. It was a remix too, wasn't it? No, no. That one now? Wait, which version is that? Is that the one on Ice Cream Man album? Yeah, that's part two. That's part two. I knew it was two of them. That first one. The first one was on the TRU album with my daughter did the drums. Did the drums. Yeah, that's part two. I knew it was two of them because I listened to both of them things. So whenever your daughter got of age and you told her what she did and that she's actually on the album where she could understand what she did, what was her response? She like, whatever. You wanna know? Yes, I do. Okay. When she used to see and understand what publishing was, she used to see these big Manila envelopes with all my checkers coming in. So when she found out that she did it, she said, with that, if I did the beat. Where's my check? Why I ain't gonna pay for it. I need that. That's it. Them girls gonna listen. No, they ain't gonna play with you. Yes. He's like, where am I cut?  So are any of your kids in music? No, but my grandson, he wanna do it so bad. Really? How old is he? He nine. Okay, you working with him? You been letting him hang around you? When I say working, which he's gotta see. He see me do it. I promise you. It's just natural to him. Pawpaw, you gonna teach me the day or what? Every time. He wanna do exactly what I do. That's hot. But you know with technology and everything like that, nowadays he'll go on YouTube and figure it out and stuff and say, Pawpaw, guess what I learned? Let me show you. Right, exactly. Because let me tell you something. I remember when he was like three and I promise you, we was in the bed watching TV, right? And I think he was watching Animal Planet or something and he was doing something about the prehistoric animals. Okay. And I promise you, and I'm not exaggerating. He was telling me all of these animals by these scientific name. Pawpaw, that's not a T-Rex, a Tyrannosaurus. Wow, he knew it. Yeah, he said, Pawpaw, that's a pterodactyl. He owned it. So. Kind of like Malachi. Malachi, I was son did the same thing. And just think about this is something, they're not teaching him this in school. No, he just like, nothing like that. No, he just like it. It's something that, I was son did the same thing. They go through this stage because he went through, our son went through the stage where he was into all the dinosaurs. He could, I'm like, where did you learn that? Sometimes it'd be on cartoons and the things that they pick up and we thinking that these cartoons are rubbish. Right. Unless it's just a totally educational. Right, right. But even the ones that are not totally educational, they still learn a lot from. Yeah, we on boss talk one on one.


If Shanghai Appendman had no background, no pension, I said. I know you can't speak Chinese. Shanghai Appendman had no background, no pension, I said. I know you can't speak Chinese. Well, he wants to interrupt and show his ignorance. Order. Order. Order. Order. Order. Order. Order. Order. Order. Order. Order. Order. Order. Order. Order. Order. Order. Order. Order. Order. Order. Order. Order. Order. Order. Order. Order. Order. Order. Order. Order. Order. Order. Order. Order. Order. Order. Order. Order. Order.