If you get a confirmation from someone in the audience that they can hear my voice and see my screen, we have a really a great visual presentation tonight so I want to confirm that everyone can see. Welcome. Welcome welcome. And I'm going to stick a link to tonight's event in the chat box. This also has the YouTube link so you can watch this again or share it with anyone. Also as Lucy talks and if notes and things come up I'll add those to the document if resources come up. Shall we get started while the room continues to fill up. Again we want to thank you for being here and joining us on this beautiful San Francisco night. It's gorgeous out. I do want to fix my slide. There we go. San Francisco Public Library acknowledges that we occupy the unseated ancestral home of the Ramya to Sholoni people who are the original inhabitants of the San Francisco peninsula. We recognize that the Ramya to Sholoni understand the interconnectedness of all things and have maintained harmony with nature for millennia.  In accordance with their traditions, the Ramya to Sholoni have never ceded lost nor forgotten their responsibilities as caretakers of this place, as well as for all people who reside in the traditional territory. We recognize that we benefit from living and working on their traditional homeland as uninvited guests we affirm their sovereign rights as first peoples and wish to pay our respects to the ancestors, elders, relatives of and relatives of the Ramya to Sholoni community. We recognize to respectfully honor the Ramya to Sholoni peoples we must embrace and collaborate meaningfully to record indigenous knowledge and how we care for San Francisco and its people. And that link that I shared shared in the chat box has a link to a great reading and resource list about first person culture here in the Bay Area, and some great resources you can find out. Just some quick library news that we have coming up. Tomorrow night we have another author talk at Fuller and Gary Grossman talking about their latest book from their red series red hotel series, red deception. So on September 29 the amazing Zizba, which is letters and journals from San Francisco issue number 121 the family issue and we'll have the readers featured from that issue so please come check that out we're so excited to have this I am excited. I love have loved Zizba for a very long time. On the 30th at noon we partner with Museum of African diaspora for Wally Shoinka, and this is part of a series they have going on called crop conversations across the diaspora. So a noon time event always fun. Celebrating Viva Latinx Heritage Month, and on Thursday night, come to the library you can actually come in person, and we will have a nice spread out event. You can wear your mask, but we will have the organizers and activists from international floor you can't toe, who is working to preserve and highlight the literary arts on the 24th street care corridor here in our mission neighborhood so we'll hear about their work, but we'll also hear their readings, and there will be books available so please come check that out. And if you can't make it in person we will also be streaming this will be our first hybrid event so either way come down watch, watch online, cut us some slack when we screw up, and we'll have such a great time. And some more Viva we have Jaime Cortez on Sunday. We have Carolina de Roberto's and Julian del Gato on Thursday I want to say it's a Thursday it might be a Wednesday, a Tuesday the 28th. It's going to be so fun they're both amazing humans. So come check that out and just lots of authors coming up Lord Gomez on inventing Latinos. And then another in person event, and I have the wrong time on here it's actually at 6pm in Latinx community rooms on our lower level of the main library. Very fun book. So they're going to be talking about their Bay Area history, being punk rock, and having family and teaching and living in the Bay Area. So please come on down. And then in October we hit off Filipino American History Month and we'll have a ton more events for that as well. And last thing I want to bring up is our on the same page, which is a bi-monthly read at San Francisco Public Library we're encouraged you all to read the same book. For September and October we're celebrating the work of Carla Cornejo Villavan-Sincio, and she will be in convo with Jonathan Blitzer on the 26th. The day before that we have the book club. This book is now available widely at all library locations, or check it out from your favorite local bookstore. And then the very end November we have at the Coret auditorium so you can see we're going back into business in person. Total SF our friends from the Chronicle highlighting Bonnie Swee's book, Why We Swim. Swim specifically in the Bay. All right, so without further ado, I would like to introduce tonight's author and speaker. So we're very fortunate tonight to have Lucy Antek Johnson, Samuel Antek's daughter. She was born and raised in New York City. After studying music, fine art, and ballet. She was drawn to the world of television production and spent her entire career in the entertainment industry, working with such producers as Martin Charin, Harry Belafonte, David Suskind, and Rune Arledge. When she moved to Los Angeles in 1978 she produced movies for television, then joined NBC as a network executive. She soon worked her way up to Senior Vice President of Daytime and Children's Programming for CBS, a position she held for 14 years. She paints, writes, and every so often gets up the nerve to sit at the piano and play a favorite Bach or Chopin prelude. And we are excited, like I said, to have Lucy with us and Lucy I'm going to let you take it away. Well, thank you so much for a nice introduction and what a pleasure to sort of be visiting San Francisco tonight I'm in Connecticut. So welcome everybody thank you for coming. Tonight I'm going to share some highlights from my new book, which is seeing the cover here as well as show a few photos along the way, but I'll start with a little story. So we can click to the next photo please number two. So for as far back as I can remember our Turo Tuscany's photograph picture set atop our Steinway piano in my family's New York City apartment. And to this day, many decades later it's still occupies a place of honor on the same piano. Now right over there in my Connecticut living room. And although I wasn't even born when the NBC Symphony was formed, and I only have a dim memory of seeing the maestro across a crowded rehearsal hall.  Our Turo Tuscany was a central figure in our home. Next picture please. My father Samuel Antec. This is not my father this is Tuscany. My father taught the Samuel Antec was only 29 when he already a violin virtuoso was handpicked to be a first violinist with the new NBC Symphony and orchestra specially created by Tuscany who was often referred to as the greatest musician of the 20th century. Tuscany had by that point attained the pinnacle of honor and success match by few musicians of any era. In fact, I would say by today's standards he would literally be called a rock star. Now we can change to the book picture which is I think number four yeah. My pleasure to share my labor of love with you this is it. This was Tuscany the maestro, my father and me, and the main title. This was Tuscany is my father's acclaimed memoir, which was originally published years ago, in which he shares his musical insights and observations about his 17 years playing under Tuscany's legendary baton. It's not a biography. It's an intimate behind the scenes and highly illuminating portrait of the maestro, his music and his creative process told from the unique perspective of a musician lucky enough to play under his baton and over hundreds of rehearsals and concerts and innumerable recording sessions. My father brings alive the work that made those memorable concerts possible. And he takes us right inside the almost two decades of performances and we feel as if we're sitting among the players of the orchestra experiencing firsthand as they experienced what inspired the maestro's dynamic approach to a score is conducting style and what triggered his explosive emotions. So I, I like to say it's though we're invited into a master class with an artistic genius, but also in this new and expanded edition as the subtitle suggests the maestro my father and me I'm the me. I've added newly, new intros newly written intros to my father's original narrative. And in them I share my own recollections about my mom, my dad, his illustrious career as a violinist and conductor, and the impact that the maestro had on our family during such a memorable time and classical music and history. It's a memoir wrapped in a memoir or a musical love story if you like. Next picture please. Number five, yeah. So you might be curious what inspired me to reissue his book at this time. Well actually a couple of years ago in 2017 it was the 150th anniversary of Tuscany's birth. And of course many articles and books were published about the maestro and his legacy. And the book that stood out for me was Harvey Sachs celebrated biography, Tuscany musician of conscience. And what particularly moved me was that Harvey quoted passages directly from my father's original memoir so I was absolutely thrilled and proud to see my dad's elegant writing in print, once again. What inspired me to reread the original, this was Tuscany, which I had not read in many years. And once I read it, I knew, I just knew that Tuscany's art was still relevant, absolute art, great art is timeless. And I knew my father's words deserved every new life. So now was the time to introduce this book to new generations of musicians students and classical music fans. I also knew in this new edition and what I was going to write that I wanted to include material about my family and bring my father more center stage, because his story deserved to be told as well. So off I went, spending hours in my dad's archives which I had donated to the New York Public Library at Lincoln Center. And also in our basement, there were many cartons Mark Sam or Tuscany, filled with letters photos recordings. And it's not that I haven't seen these items before but when you're looking with a new focus, all of a sudden things jump out at you that have so much meaning, and it quickly became a very deeply emotional journey. And tragically, my father had died very young, just as he was achieving his own recognition as a conductor. He was only 49 and I was only 12. And overnight our little family was upended. The world might have lost a rising star but I had lost my hero. So in my research, reading his handwritten notes hearing his voice on recordings watching him playing on all TV broadcasts or even holding a favorite photo again had a profound impact on me. It was I would call it a sweet sadness. It actually changed now to number six. Thanks. I'm going to quote my store Ricardo Muti who's now the conductor of the Chicago Symphony because he wrote something about Tuscany and I quote. Tuscany was a revolutionary of musical interpretation. He placed the performer totally at the service of the composer in sacred respect for and fidelity to the written text. Tuscany benefited throughout his life from his yet a very photographic memory. In fact, through the course of his career, he knew 120 operas and over 400 symphonic works by heart. Yet, he always referred to his score you can see in the picture he's looking at a score during rehearsals and always encouraged his players not to memorize the music. His credo was playward is written look to the score. And as many of you probably know conducting is infinitely more than just keeping a tempo and killing the entrance of a player. It's a fine art of genius and interpretation of a score and just as an actor interprets a role by a playwright or a dancer interprets a choreographer's work. So a conductor shapes the musical performance of a composer. How loud is forte, how soft is pianissimo, how many beats to build the crescendo. That's up to the conductor and but they can't create their art on their own. The conductor needs a composer score musicians and of course instruments. And for Tuscany the orchestra was his instrument. Next picture please. So for those who might need a refresher for those who may not know it all, who was Tuscany and what propelled him to this exalted place in music history. He was born into a working class family in Parma Italy in 1867. In 1867 he graduated from the Parma music conservatory as an accomplished cellist. And at 19 he became principal cellist and assistant chorus master for an Italian opera company touring Brazil. And it was on that tour that a historic twist of fate changed the course of his future and classical music history was right at the start the tour conductor abruptly resigned. And with his photographic memory of all the operas and their repertoire was thrust upon the stage to take over. And once he held the baton and took command. He never looked back. And in his twenties he revolutionized the production and performance of opera throughout Italy. At 30 he was principal conductor at La Scala in Milan, conducting the Italian premieres of operas that are still the foundation of repertoires today, including level when to end up only actually just to name a few. So not only did his music make headlines but his politics made headlines. His single minded and almost stubborn personality not only reflected his devotion to music but gave him the strength to stand up to Mussolini and Hitler. Tuscany refused to play in Germany once Hitler came into power and years earlier in Italy, with the rise of fascism, he refused to play the fascist party him, Giovannetta, which Mussolini required be played at all public events, but he wouldn't do it. And there were consequences in Bologna 1931 after one performance where once again, he did not play the anthem, he and his wife were brutally attacked and beaten by a fascist mob as they left the theater all because they claimed to use unpatriotic. And even Tuscany vowed not to play in Italy until the fascist regime fell. And even though he was regarded as a national treasure in his own country, his fame and status only protected him to a point. He was kept under strict surveillance by the fascist they tapped his phones they took his passports away every so often and even threatened imprisonment. He remained vocal in his democratic beliefs and kept performing throughout Europe, Israel and the United States. And just as life for him in Italy was becoming more challenging. In 1936, David Sarnoff RCA's chairman of the board and RCA owned the NBC radio network. Sarnoff made the dramatic commitment to create a new orchestra. When Tuscanini agreed to sign on as the conductor, Sarnoff knew would be the jewel in the crown of the NBC schedule as well as for their recording division. So the following year at age 70. When most people are considering retirement, Tuscanini made a life changing choice. He left his beloved Italy. He took his family to the United States to New York, and they inaugurated the NBC Symphony. The concerts were broadcast live from studio eight age in the NBC studios on Saturday nights I was too young to attend but I remember listening to them on the radio each week. Next picture please. This is the program of the opening night. The debut concert was Christmas night, 1937. And by the way, the programs such as this were never printed on paper. This one is silk. So they were all printed either on silk or on cardboard or on pork, because the mics, they didn't want the mics to pick up the rustling of papers during a live broadcast. And just to give you a little idea of how popular he was at that time. There were 1400 available seats for that first concert and there were 23,000 requests for tickets, telling him he was a rockstar. So, what was the first rehearsal with the maestro really like. So, on that memorable day the musicians they were very nervous and they sat rigidly waiting for him to appear. They were about to begin their first rehearsal for their premiere performance under the baton of one of the most famous men in the world. They were about to make history. No pressure. They walked in and crossed to the podium. The musicians spontaneously all stood in unison. They had been warned in advance not to make any verbal acknowledgement. So, you nodded to the assembled players for them to sit and without any formal greeting called out Brahms, and they dove into the music. Next picture please. Thank you. I'm going to quote just a little quote of my father's writing about that first rehearsal. One smashing stroke the baton came down a vibrant sound gushed forth was this the same music we have been practicing so as to do sleeper days, with what fierce new joy we played. So so so the maestro Bella cantata sustain a sing sustain Tuscany's battle cry. This was the first time these words were flung at us, and for 17 years, we live by them unquote. In the book my father shares detailed accounts of how grueling. So many of the rehearsals could be. They might spend a half hour on a particular string entrance, or in one instance they play the opening bars of Beethoven six over and over and over until the music on the page, the sound from the players and what Tuscany heard in his head, all meshed perfectly. Next picture please. Tuscany had a plaintive cry play with your hearts, not your instruments, but the process could be dramatic and as congenial and social as he was offstage in rehearsals he was sometimes tyrannical and well known for his artistic temperament. And he was famous or you might say infamous for his use of Italian curses. This particular sequence wasn't meeting his exacting standards, and standards that he was setting for himself. Next picture. There he is in rage mode. Vergonia shame was one of his favorites also the most tame, and one pasty show it's a mess was another favorite. And my father would bring home some more earthy curses at the end of a tough rehearsal day and as my father said they were to Tuscany. They were rehearsals on the aristocrat concerts. So what would set off these as per sometimes the simplest little era and no too loud or crescendo too soon anything was enough to set off the fears. And so often it was about his own feeling about his own work. And my father writes about quite a few of these memorable flare ups. But again I will quote one of them. If you would switch the picture please. One of his most violent displays of temper concern nothing more than two grace notes that had not been articulated in Wagner's 10 house overture a momentous crime in Tuscany's eyes. He was known to break his baton terrorist score rip up his jacket or stomp off and discuss dramatic staging. Yes. But every movement of his baton every motion of his hands every burst of rage served music and the musicians loved him for it. My father believed that as tough as the Maestro was on them they became better musicians because of it. And as the Maestro was known to say and I'll throw in a little Italian, quoting the Maestro, any Asino can conduct, but to make music a is officially. Just a picture please. We're changing to my dad now. Who was same Atlantic, what were his dreams and his challenges. He actually reveals very little about himself in the memoir. So in my new essays I take the opportunity to show a more complete picture of him and his musical career he grew up in Chicago and at eight six he was recognized as a prodigy so his parents who didn't know him and he scraped together the most they could to get him the best teachers in Chicago. But by the time he was in his late teens he knew he had to move to New York, and he studied with a very famous violin teacher, the appalled hour, and received a book to Juilliard, and he was soon concertizing. His big debut was a town hall and a few months later he was invited into the elite group of musicians hired to be in the original NBC Symphony. This picture happens to be the official photograph from the first year of the orchestra. He had always had a dream to conduct, and he had conducted some small ensembles, but interestingly similar to the maestro's twist of fate story or like a story out of a Hollywood movie. He got his first real chance on a radio show, when during rehearsal for his violin solo. Yep, the conductor got sick, and my father was asked to take over. He ended up conducting all the whole season and maybe the next couple of seasons I believe. So from that point on, he knew he wanted to pursue his goal of conducting more seriously he wanted to lead a major orchestra. Next picture please. His dream came true. And at the age of 39 with the support and encouragement of Tuscany and without having to give up his seat at NBC he was named conductor and musical director of the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, and he held both positions for many many years. And in the book I illustrate more fully the lasting impact that he had on the New Jersey Symphony, but to my young eyes at the time his crowning achievements were the interactive children's concerts, which he innovated in 1950, a few years before and each weekend it was a sell out event attracting kids from all over New Jersey. And sometimes I'd sit in the audience but sometimes I'd stand in the wings but wherever I was I was beaming with that's my daddy pride I call it his reputation grew rapidly. And soon he was guest conducting major orchestras around the country. His honor was when Arturo Tuscany invited my father to guest conduct the NBC Symphony and he knew his, his own future was sealed. I used to love, as I grew older I became more curious, and I used to love sitting next to him at the piano when he prepared a score for an upcoming concert that he was conducting I'd watch him unfold the mysterious and magical sheets of musical note paper depicting all the instrumental and choral parts, and he'd play a chord, make a notation he play another chord make another notation I was absolutely fascinated it was my first introduction to how complex that process was. Next slide please. So this was Tuscany this new book includes much more about what it was like to grow up in a house with my dynamic father, but it also covers many other dimensions of the maestro's personality and professional story, not just what he was like in the rehearsal hall. In the touring with Tuscany section my father tells of their triumphant cross country tour in 1950, and I after discovering my mother's journal and photos detailing the orchestra six week 1940 wartime South American tour. She describes the fears on the high seas as they sailed into Nazi territory. Tuscany would walk around the deck fingering or crucifix praying for the allies, he wouldn't see Italy again for many years is a fascinating chapter on the painstaking process of the NBC Symphony recording sessions. Because don't forget it was a whole different technology in the early days. And one of my favorite chapters is the visit where my father shares his rare and memorable afternoon visiting with the maestro in his home. And they indulged in lengthy conversations about composers, especially Verdi, who Tuscany had known when he was a cellist and an opera conductor Verdi was a contemporary as was Puccini by the way. So for my father I was his own private master class that afternoon. And the last chapter Tuscany's conduct over on is a feast for musicians. It's a bar by bar journey of maestro's unique interpretation of Weber's over on overture.  Sadly, Dave passed away before he could write the final chapter. We don't know what it would have been a quick wrap up or a more lengthy essay. We'll just never know. However, in my research as I dug through these boxes. I discovered some of his never before published handwritten notes that to me indicate what he might have chosen to write about, and he had titled it NBC final concert. Next picture please. Yeah, the story goes that during what was planned to be the symphonies last concert of the season in April 1954, Tuscany faltered in the middle of the program and just stop conducting. The orchestra absolutely didn't know what to do. The studio audience was stunned. The engineers and the recording thing they panicked and they put on a whole other recording to cover up so therefore the audience at home was completely baffled. And it was a harrowing few minutes until Tuscany knee rallied, and was actually able to complete the program but he wasn't his usual powerful self. And I'm going to read to you just a few lines from what my father wrote, but had never been published. As our beloved 87 year old maestro left the stage days and tottering, he pushed past me, and the baton dropped from his hand. It was to be the last of his conducting in public, unquote. Tuscany knee died a few years later in January 1957 shortly before his 90th birthday, and coincidentally, almost, it was almost exactly here to the day before my father died just before his 50th birthday. So how did how did it get published finally my mother was determined to publish his existing manuscript he didn't want she didn't want to write anything extra. And she joined forces with photographer Robert hooker who has taken these beautiful portraits that you've seen tonight. He took actually thousands of candid photographs throughout the years at rehearsals and recording sessions, and without the maestro's knowledge. So those portraits have since become the most iconic photos of the maestro used throughout the world, which you've probably seen on on record albums. And when the first edition of my father's memoir was published posthumously in 1963, New York Times critic Edward Downs stated quote, This book will probably remain the most enduring and endearing monument to the art of Tuscany. And I've got to say that this day remains the only full length narrative from a musician's perspective about Tuscany's creative process and what it felt like to work with and be mentored by this unique and gifted artist. Next picture. Well, during this emotional journey of writing and compiling this book, I not only was able to renew a long overdue relationship with my father after many years, but I enjoyed getting to know him through the eyes of an adult, rather than just the adoring young in order. Next picture. This is my favorite favorite.  And actually this is how I remember him that smile. Next picture. Yeah, this is the two of them conversation. In this process I also developed a soft spot for the maestro he was no longer just that imposing figure staring down from our piano top this irascible musically brilliant politically courageous and shy force of nature with someone I would have loved to have known truly love to have known I, I really got to feel very close to him. In closing, I hope I've given you a taste of this new addition. And the next picture. Here's the book cover again. This was Tuscany, the maestro my father and me it's my loving tribute to two musicians whose paths for touristly crossed, and whose individual gifts inspired each of them in their lifelong quest to make beautiful music. Thank you. Thank you Lucy. That was so great. And audience I know I always forget to announce there is time for q amp a, and you can either put that in the q amp a box or you can feel free to raise your hand if you'd like we can unmute you. But we do have two questions there now that gives our other audience members some time to think of some questions. Our first question is, I'm curious about your day to day life what your day to day life was like living with a musician, and was your mom a creative. I, yes, she was very creative she was a trained artist and a professional artist, but she also played the piano. So I was surrounded. I was an only child, it was a musical household, but it was, it was fun. We'd have to tip toe around and be quiet and we'd have to whisper when I come home from school because he was practicing behind closed doors. And we respected that, but there were a lot of impromptu music house. My mom would be invited to play the piano and some of the string players from the NBC Symphony would gather on a Sunday at the house and they, they would have their own. They would have their own music house for themselves. So, and w q XR which is the local npr station here. You know that was on all the time so music was in the home, but there was no pressure on me I play I studied the piano, and it was very young. But once I like discovered art, because I had a talent for it and once I really discovered ballet, which I loved. And the only thing I kind of put to the side until the next interest. And, although I majored in art and college. I knew I wanted television production. So there was no pressure to be in the arts but I, I am very proud and I remember very well the musical feeling in the home. Thank you. I have a question about how did you decide that you wanted to do this book. And how did you pursue a publisher. Well I described in my, my chat how how I was inspired by seeing my father's words and print in 2017 when a lot of his passages from his book had been reprinted in other books and in articles because it. The book is still considered the pinnacle the bell weather of of anything you want to know about what it was really like to work with the maestro. So, therefore it's still quoted and actually in some music schools it's still used in courses parts of it are referred to in courses. And that was secure that that his words were worthy of coming back and being renewed. And that also, as I've said, art is timeless and Toscanini was an artistic genius, and boy oh boy it was time that his work and his contribution, which was recognized by his own colleagues. And Paul, who was the conductor of the Cleveland Symphony used to say, or had said, that was before Toscanini, and after Toscanini. So even his peers, whether at the time or in retrospect, honored that he was, he was no more oh no there, he was the one to admire. I didn't know how I was going to publish it I just knew I was determined. I figured it was going to be self publishing because I didn't really know, and I could have spent years pursuing a mainstream publisher. But I wanted to live to see this done. And I can understand why the major publishers would find this maybe a little too niche for them for the audience. My attorney I met a wonderful agent, very lucky because that does not always happen. And she fell in love with the project to, and she said would I consider a hybrid publisher, which I didn't know what that meant. One books who published the book is is a hybrid publisher and what that means. It's a beautiful book. What that means is they provide all the services design sales editing so forth, that a mainstream publisher would provide, but the author contributes to the cost. So it's a step above normal self publishing and lucky me. They want the minute they read the manuscript which by the way they didn't change a word of what I had written, which thrilled me and surprised me actually they put commas in where they needed to be but they didn't really asked for changes. So commas out because I haven't a terrible abundant use of too many comments. But, and we made the deal almost exactly a year ago to the date and then it took all this time to put the design together, which I was part of I was part of all the process. All through coven. So I had the time and I was pleased to have a creative project to work on during the whole lockdown, you know those lockdown months, and by then everybody was doing everything online. When normally I might have flown to Texas where the publisher is to meet with them. Well that wasn't going to happen so we did it all online and voila. And that is, I think it's gorgeous. It got published a month ago officially released, and it's gotten wonderful response. I couldn't be more pleased with the response from civilians and professionals. I don't hear you. Sorry, I said it was it's a very beautiful book it's a little mildly oversized, but not like oversized oversized, and we do have it on order for SFPL so you can place your hold and get it it's very gorgeous like Lucy said it just came out so hot off the press. I'm curious about the photographs of Tuscanini and the photographer you mentioned so who owns those photos. They are under copyright by Robert hookers estate. And even though they were all part of the original book. I had to get the permission of the estate which I did to use a fraction of what's used in the original book. And then I also had all my own photographs from my own archives family photographs or my father's photographs or other.  There we go. Yeah. Right next to my Wi Fi so out of. Oh, it's the name of the game. It really is. And I think it's a great opportunity for me perks to being online and being in zoom and being able to have you from Connecticut which is a very big work. When you donated your the photos to the, had you already donated your photos to in my public, and then went back and photos I donated 10 by what turned out to be 10 boxes of memorabilia. All the drafts of this book handwritten drafts, letters from my dad's career both with New Jersey and NBC, a lot of information about the NBC Symphony photographs that I hadn't seen before again letters reviews, just a whole piece of wonderful, wonderful material that yes, although I had donated I hadn't looked at for 10 years until I went back to the library. That's really amazing. So you had to check out your own material. Yes. Well I couldn't check it out I had to. Yeah, have they already processed it and like. Yeah, I had donated it. Now it's about 15 years ago so by now my gosh I hope they would have processed it and yes they had, they had organized it beautifully. By the way in the same library at Lincoln Center is Tuscan in these archives. So now the live, you know we're working out a way together to do something in the spring to celebrate both, just as this book does but you know how can we. How can we do that so we're talking about how to do that. Do you think that you know the NBC influence and the TV aspect influence your career choice. You mean the NBC Symphony. It didn't influence it. In fact, because I was lucky enough to get a job my first job actually was in the record library of NBC radio. It wasn't because that I had was the daughter of but it enhanced my position and my status for people who hadn't had worked there during the concert years. And when I would go up in the elevators and 30 rock to my office. This is the early days, and I would walk through those beautiful marble halls if any of you have been in radio city the RCA building. I would say gee, this was where my father in Tuscany he took the same elevator how exciting. So it was more personal than. Then maybe the hook of why I got hired now, and I worked my way up in television, which really was quite a diversion. I must feel must have felt amazing to walk the same. That's amazing. All right, friends, do we have any more questions for Lucy. And the questions we can take from YouTube as well. And as I mentioned, you can check out Lucy's book from us or buy from your favorite local bookstore, or Amazon, or there to. It's a great gift I got to say it sound like I'm doing a pitch for myself, but it's, it's a small version of a coffee table book. Even though the narrative is fascinating and and compelling and captivating. It's, it's also a beautiful visual and it's a lovely gift for anyone who likes music. So did you hire a graphic designer to help you with the layout because that was all part of the brown books hybrid. And we worked very closely because I knew that I wanted the photographs to illustrate what I was talking about in the text, I don't lump them all together. Yeah, so each time you see a photograph it's, it's referring to something that I've just written about or that my dad had written about. And so we work together on the design. Yeah, that's my father conducting the New Jersey. Yeah, so we work very closely but they they have all those services and I mean my hats off to the work they did I think it was beautiful. And the, it's on very good stock paper stock so that these reproductions come off I believe very well and it's, it's, I don't know, it's classy. I don't know whether what other word to use right now. It's definitely classy. And with the holidays coming, you better get your books quickly as from what I hear. My question from the chat was any wild stories from TV land. I mean my own wild story. Probably. It's, it's hard to come up with, you know, one of my career experiences I was in charge of all the soap operas of CBS. And I don't know if any of you are watching I used to love soap operas. And these were the days when everybody watched soap operas.  Who's coming back from the dead, because of course, they had to bring people but they were really stuck in a jungle, they hadn't died at all they were going to come back. And those were fascinating years, working on, you know, for soap operas. 52 weeks a year of live programming, not live but I mean a fresh programming every day, 30 characters each program so that's a lot of stories. I also did the children's programming and in one incarnation, I was one of the people who put the Smurfs on television. So I can, I can remember that. I wasn't, you know, I was certainly part of the decision I was in the room where it happened as Lynn Manuel would say. It was definitely moments but I, Bob Barker I worked with him for years and years he was the host of the prices right. He became very good friend, and you just meet the most wonderful people. You know I mentioned Harry Bellifani and they, you did actually. He did a lot of work with Harry on his television specials early on. And we became very, very close friends. And I was just very lucky, the people I met, and it was a diverse production experience. It really sounds like a very exciting life Lucy, both growing up and growing out and doing your own. And so we want to thank you for being here tonight, friends and last call for questions absolutely will stay here for questions if you have them. Otherwise we encourage you to check out or buy Lucy's book. This was Toscanini, and I give them the name of the address from my website. Sure. I've put it into the chat box already but let me throw it up again. Here it is. Here it comes along the chat. There we go. Oops, that's the, I'm just really pushing that you check it out at the library. No, I agree with you. Libraries rule. There's Lucy's website, beautiful website as well. Congratulations. And you can, you can ask questions through the website as well. Excellent. Oh, there is a hand quays, quays raised. I'm going to go ahead and unmute you. Marina. Here we go. I'm going to try my cursors not moving. Lily may can you help me unmute. Thank you. You are unmuted. Or you could be. I have my chat box. I can't move my cursor to that window for something. There we go. There we go. Marina, would you like to ask your question. I think she's muted. I'm trying to unmute here. Here we go. Hello Lucy. Thank you so much. Thank you so much. Thank you so much. And I just want to ask you, what was your impression? I know you were a child. When Tosca Nene was alive, but how did you, what was your impression of him? As well. He was bigger than life to me. I was a very little person and it was more about him being talked about. And the reputation and the awe in which. And also the conversations around the dinner table when my father would come home from one of the. Recording sessions or rehearsals, I would just stop all that up. I mean, my goodness. So. I, as I said, that autographed picture really is still sits on my piano and I. He inspires me. And as I said, at the end of my talk. I'm just getting to know him better through this writing process and actually reading some of Tosca Nene's letters where you hear his. His voice, his opinions, not just people about him. I just got a big crush on this guy and. I just. I really, really, really would have liked to have known him or to been in the room with him. I'm glad I wasn't in his line of fire. If he got angry. But he was not a mean guy. He was frustrated. It was a rage to master. He was just so frustrated. This is a little scary to look at. Yeah. And a perfectionist, I'm sure. Yeah, but mostly the pressure was the pressure he put on himself. Yeah. You know, once he. Developed a sound for a particular piece or whatever it is. It's not that he stayed rigid with that piece and said, this is the way it's going to be forever. Each time he played it, he would rethink it and reinterpret it. And maybe I'll make this a little, you know, dark or a lighter. It's like a painter or a sculptor, you know. So he was constantly being creative. And that was appreciated. That's very much evidence in the last chapter about Oberon, because my father sort of compiles the years of them. And I think it's a little bit different. I think it's a little bit different. Playing that piece and the different ways that Toscanini would approach it at different times. Along with a lot more anecdotes. So. I love this picture of your father. Just, I love it. It's my favorite thing. Yeah. He looks definitely like he exerted it. He was it. He was happy there. Yeah. He looked very happy. He was like, Hey, I'm going to throw those YouTube videos that you recommended yesterday, Lucy. Oh yeah. And you know, you can all just pick this up and find all these links, but I'm going to throw those in there right now. Verde's him on the, of the nations. Him of nations. Yeah. This one calls it him of the nations. Him of the nations. All right. Yeah. All right, Lucy. Thank you for joining us tonight. Well, thank you. It was a pleasure. Absolutely. Visiting you. And I think I'll go to bed. Yes. Thank you. Good night. Thank you. Have a good one. Thank you. And thank you, Lucy. Have a good night.


Welcome to Hope Today. We're so glad that you're with us. I'm Anna and I'm joined by the amazing Angela and Sydney. And Sydney, we have a guest that we are fired up about today. We surely are, you know, coming up on Hope Today, uncovering the demonic culprit, trying to sabotage and hinder God's destiny for your life.  You don't wanna miss our conversation with Andrew on breaking the spirit of Delilah. You know, Angela, I love these conversations because it is time for deliverance and to understand the things that are holding us back, that are keeping us back from walking into all that God has called us to be. Yeah, it's important for the bride to arise in her rightful position. You know, as believers, we are those who have dominion and authority in this realm. But a lot of what we look around and see, it is believers who feel weak need and are crouching behind and lurking in the shadows. But bride, we must arise, Anna. That's right. I keep talking about Isaiah 52 because that's where the Lord keeps taking me that the Israelites were in captivity in Babylon and they're crying out for the Lord, like God save us, rescue us, set us free. And he tells them to awaken and get up to clothe their mind and strength to take off the chains that are around their neck to shake that dust off because they have been redeemed. And you, my friend, are the redeemed child of God. Like Angela was saying, you have authority in Christ and it is the season for the church to arise because there is work to be done. And it's so important that we understand our identity in Christ and knowing who we are because a lot of times if we don't know who what God says about us, then we can go into this trap, into that trap. And so it's so important in this hour, in this season, like I know a lot of people are like, I don't wanna watch the news and I don't wanna know what's going on, but we have to understand the signs of the time. We have to be like the sons of Issachar, discerning what's going on, discerning what's happening because if we don't understand the light and the love and the power that is in us through Jesus Christ, then who knows what's gonna happen in the world? So we are called for such a time as this. And so that's why we love On Hope today to bring you these conversations and talk about these topics to equip you to all that you are called to be. And we're gonna go there right now. Andrew Tao is an emerging prophetic voice for this generation. And he is the lead pastor of Ram Church in Chattanooga, Tennessee. In his book, Breaking the Spirit of Delilah, Assessing God's Power to Topple Ancient Strongholds, Andrew exposes the spirits that threatening to lead you down a path of destruction and why it's time for believers to wake up like never before. Andrew, we are so glad to have you on Hope today. Well, I am thrilled to be with you. I'm excited about what God is doing today. This is a great hour. This is the time for the church to awaken. You were mentioning the things that are on the news and the things that we're hearing. Absolutely, the enemy is raging because he knows that God's hour is at hand. And this is the time for the church to arise. This is our moment to get up and take back the ground that the enemy has taken. So I'm thrilled to be with you guys today. Well, we're so thrilled to have you with us, Andrew. And just can you share for a moment how you became so passionate about helping believers understand these demonic strongholds that are trying to hold us back. Can you tell us a little bit of your story? Well, you know, I was in a time of prayer and I was just seeking the Lord. And he spoke to me about a spirit. It's an ancient spirit that has gained momentum in the last few years, really. It's been around forever, but it's really gained momentum. And it's a slumbering spirit. It's a spirit that has put the church to sleep and the Lord began to speak to me in this time of prayer. And he said, Andrew, Paul warned Timothy that the days were coming, that the church would have a form of godliness but denied the power thereof. They would want to look religious, but they didn't want the power of God. They didn't want the gifts of the spirit. They didn't want any of that, you know, that would be out there. They just wanted to have a one-hour feel-good service. But I believe that this hour, the spirit that would lull us to sleep or the spirit that would put us in just a slumber is breaking. And I believe today on this program, that spirit is breaking over your viewers today.  Wake up from your slumber. Wake up from spiritual compromise. The hour is here. This is the moment that the church gets up from their slumber. And so that's why I'm so passionate about this book. I'm so passionate about exposing this spirit because that's what Delilah did. She was a real woman in the book of Judges but the spirit behind that woman to bring down God's champions. When God began to speak this to me, I said, Lord, I'm not Samson. I'm not killing Philistines left or right. You know, why would this spirit be after me? And you may be asking yourself too, why would the Delilah spirit be after me? It's a spirit of slumber. It's a spirit of compromise. And God spoke to me and he said, you may not be Samson, but you're my champion. You're my warrior. And God says that to you today. You are God's champion and you are called for such a time as this. That's why that spirit is after you. That's why the enemy wants to put you to sleep. For greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world. So that spirit is after you. You may not even realize that you're under attack but that's why it's come to steal your passion. It's come to put you to sleep but we are going to agree with you today that it breaks in Jesus' name. Yes, it is time for it to break in Jesus' name. And Andrew, can you just break down what are some of the symptoms? What are some of the signs that we are being attacked by the spirit of Delilah? Well, you know, the number one sign or symptom as I like to call them is a loss of desire for the things of God. Have you ever gone through a time where it's like, you know, just your passion for God. I was talking about this yesterday in our service here at Ramp Church, Chattanooga. We've been doing a series on the fire of God. And I said, you know, God is saying it's time for us to get off the roller coaster of, you know, one moment we're ready to run through a troop and leap over a wall. We're just running after the things of God. We're burning in pursuit of God and then life happens. Life happens to everybody. It rains on the just and it rains on the unjust. So then life happens and it feels like we're on a spiritual low. It doesn't, we don't want to go to church. We don't want to pray. We don't want to seek God. We're like, you know, I'm just dealing with this when everything comes together, when everything is just coming together just right, then I'll come back to church. I'll get back into my prayer life. I'll get back into my study life. That is the spirit of Delilah. That's what she did is she gave Samson a false comfort. She gave him just a slumbering. It's based really on that scripture that says, she made him, it's verse 19 in Judges chapter 16. It says, and she made him sleep upon her knees. She made him to sleep upon her knees. And see, that's what the enemy is doing. He wants us to sleep upon the lap of Delilah.  This is your finest hour. We've got to get off the rollercoaster of one moment being on fire for God and the next minute being down. I believe it's time to burn with passion to where we are the fire on the altar of our life never burns out. He said, I want the fire of God to burn. Jesus said, oh, I love the words of Jesus.  How I wish it was blazing in you right now. I'm telling you, it is time for us to blaze for Jesus. It is time for us to be on fire, not just one moment, not when we just come to church on Sunday morning. It's time for us to be in constant pursuit and constant fire, stoking that blaze in our lives.  Let's talk for a moment because I know this is so deep in your spirit about the fire of God and that how sometimes we can grow cold to the fire. You mentioned that in your book. Can you talk to us about how do we stoke those fires? How do we continue to burn in this hour and in this season? Well, I love that chapter in the book. I'm glad you asked me about it. It's one of my favorite chapters because I believe many of us sometimes, we go through times and situations that we're willing to get around other people's fire and we get warm. We come to church on Sunday morning and we're like warming by the fire.  But inside we're cold. We're not moved by the fire of God. We're not burning for God. I'm telling you, it is time for us to burn for God. Fire spreads. So whenever, if we want to change this generation, then we've got to start burning with the hunger and with the pursuit of God. We've got to start burning with His presence. If we want to see revival in our families, if we want to see revival in our churches, if we want to see awakening to this generation, then it's going to require that the church, the church, God's bride, begin off the playground of compromise and start getting on fire and burning with the fire of the Holy Spirit. And when we get around other people, our fire begins to spread. But the problem, see, I can talk about problems because I have the solution.   We sound like the world. We do the same things that the world does. And then we come back to church or get around Godly people and we put back on the armor real quick and we warm ourselves by other people's fire. He's saying, no, I want to fill you with a fresh fire. I want you to begin to blaze with the power of the Holy Ghost. I want you to begin to get into proximity of the fire. In fact, the Holy Spirit says, I want to fill you with fire. So those of you watching this broadcast, I want to tell you today, God wants to fill you with fresh fire. He wants you to begin to burn. He wants you to begin to have a zeal for him. He wants you to be contagious and let that fire begin to spread to your family, spread to your church, spread to your workplace.  When you get around the world, the greatest compliment you could ever have is when you go into a place and people feel that something's different about you. They begin to sense something is different about you. In fact, they don't want to tell those same jokes.  One of the greatest compliments I ever received one time I went to meet with an individual, they were a minister and I knew that they had gotten into sin and I knew that they had gotten into compromise and I went to go meet with them at this restaurant and I'll never forget the table that we were sitting at and we had just sat down at the table and I'm looking at the menu, just asking them how they're doing. I hadn't said anything about scripture, anything about their life, anything at all. But as soon as I sat down, I'm just saying, what are you gonna have? And they said, quit judging me. And I said, I'm looking at the menu. I, they said, I can sense that you're judging me. No, what they sensed was the fire of God. What they sensed was the presence of God and there was sin in their life. And so they started feeling conviction. What we carry as believers is powerful. It's the Holy Spirit. We're the temple of the Holy Spirit. And so it ought to affect change wherever we go. We shouldn't, you know, one day blaze for God and the next day be cold. And that's what the spirit of Delilah does is it's come to snuff out your fire. It's come to steal your passion for God. It's come to bring you in the descent of compromise. This spirit is after your vision. This spirit is after your destiny. That's why I had to write this book because God is saying, I want to break that spirit over my people. It will not have your vision. The enemy will not steal your destiny. I'm prophesying to you right now. The enemy will not steal your destiny. He will not steal your vision, but you are going to rise up man and woman of God. You're gonna rise up champion of the living God. This is your hour. This is your moment. You are the warrior bride.  Let a fresh fire begin to burn in you right now in Jesus' name. That is so powerful, Angie. And if you are responding to that right now, we just want to encourage you to give a call to our prayer line at<PHONE_NUMBER> because now we know as the time that God wants to get that draws. God wants to put you through that refining process that you can rise up and be all that you were called to be. And Angie, I love what you wrote in your book. You said, one of the quotes is, the enemy's plan is exasperate you until you give up and surrender to the enemy's evil plot. And I also like what you said about the spirit of Delilah. The spirit of Delilah gnaws, keeps biting at believers until they are weak and they surrender. So can you take a moment just to speak to that because I truly believe there's so many of us that are being bombarded, so many of us that are feeling like there's attacks happening at every side, but can you take a moment and speak to that person right now that feels like they have just literally like the arrows are by day and by night. The fire has just been like non-stop. Can you speak to that person that is under it right now? Absolutely, you know, I just released a word, a prophetic word called the Lord of the Fire-Dipped Arrows because I love it how it reads in the Passion because many times the enemy begins to send fiery darts. The word describes it as fiery darts. And so he's sending attacks at us left and right and I call them shadow man attacks because the Lord began to prophesy that word to me that out of the shadows you're feeling attacks. You don't even know where they're coming from because he's concealed himself. And so he's sending these attacks left and right because the enemy is defeated. He's defeated, but what he does is he begins to send things left and right, front and back to where you feel overwhelmed to where you just wanna forfeit. Have you ever felt like that? Many of you may feel like that today.  I just can't take one more situation.  You don't know how many times I've said to the Lord, I give up, I can't do this. I feel so overwhelmed with what I'm going through right now. And see the word says the enemies come to steal, to kill, to destroy. But then Jesus said, but I came to give you life and life more abundantly.  But what he can do is overwhelm us with circumstances, with attacks, with things that we're going through to where we just say, we forfeit, we give up, we surrender because we have gone through so much. Samson went through this with Delilah. She pressed him as what the Bible in Judges chapter 16. She pressed him daily with her words. She tormented him with situations until he gave up and finally compromised his walk with God. See, if you're under attack today, I want to give you good news. Your enemy is defeated. The devil is defeated and God has given you the victory because of what Jesus did on the cross. Child of God, you are victorious. Don't give up, don't give up. Many of you right now, you're sitting at the edge of breakthrough.  That is why the enemy is raging in this hour.  He knows you're at the point of seeing that God is coming through where everything is going to come into alignment and that miracle, that promise that God has made you, that thing that God has spoken over your life. I want to tell you right now, it is coming forth today in Jesus' name. Jesus' name. Andrew, thank you so much for just what you've poured out in that prophetic word. And we just want to encourage our viewers, grab hold of that today.   And today we declare that the spirit of Delilah is broken off of you in the name of Jesus. Andrew, thank you so much for joining us today and just sharing all the prophetic insight and this revelation about breaking the spirit to Delilah. His book is called Breaking the Spirit to Delilah, Assessing God's Power to Topple Ancient Strongholds. Andrew, thank you so much for being with us today. Thank you so much, it was my honor. You know, Anna and Angela, this is such a now and timely word for the body of Christ because so many people, Anna, are being under attack and under fire. But we know that there's a great hope in Jesus because he conquered it all. We can conquer it all as well. Absolutely. This is a season two to not only know your identity in Christ, but also to behold your Jesus because see, Jesus came gentle like a lamb. He was crucified on the cross and then taken to the grave. But then three days later, he had the power, the Holy Spirit raised him from the grave. Like our Jesus came back to life. Like that is power. There is no other God that has come back to life and that God is your God.   The one thing that I've been studying about are the weapons of our warfare. It talks about it in Ephesians that we're not just to sit by and have the devil knock us down day after day. Like the Bible says in Ephesians to stand firm, to strengthen ourselves with the strength of the Lord, to use the power of his word, to use prayer to break down those strongholds. I love how the scripture talks about our weapons are not carnal, but they have the power to tear down strongholds. And I see so many struggling with suicidal thoughts, anxiety, shame, anger, bitterness, and it's tearing them down. But we have weapons to rise up and stand strong again. Yeah, we truly are equipped with all the things that we need. In Jesus, we received all power and all authority to not only survive and overcome these personal things, but to truly take land, to take territory in this world that is full of darkness. Today's scripture actually calls us to just that. It comes from 1 Thessalonians 5 verse 6, and it says, so then let us not sleep in spiritual indifference as the rest of the world does, but let us keep wide awake, alert, and cautious, and let us be sober, self-controlled, calm, and wise. You know, when we talk about the spirit of Delilah and we talk about these things that attack us from the outside, it's aim is always to get us on the inside.  We must remain sober. We must not sleep in this world and let the comforts and convenience of culture rock us to sleep, but let us arise in who Christ called us to be. And as we arise, we will not just see our internal man freed, but from that same truth, the truth that sets me free will not allow me to show up in the world and bring a freedom to the creation that is groaning for the revealing of the sons and daughters of God. Today, my friend, you are not just strong in your own circumstances personally. You're not just strong there. It goes well beyond that. Your freedom paves the way for the world's freedom. So today, awaken in every space. If you feel like you're comfortable in your Christianity, if you feel like, oh, I'm good, I know God, and I'm just going to my nine to five, and I'm just gonna live like this, there's more.  He created you to bring release to captives, to bring sight to those who don't see, to give the good news and the hope of Jesus to those who are poor, who are destitute, who are crying for a savior. You, my friend, are more than just a believer.   Y'all are preaching over here this Monday morning. Y'all better get ahold of that. And one thing when you both were speaking that God was just even reminding me of like just two separate things. I think a lot of times Christianity, like that's, we're not, this isn't, we're not talking about religion. There is a big spirit of religion that's going on and all those things. We're not talking about that. We're talking about God. When Jesus came, it wasn't about religion. It was about revelation. He wanted to give us revelation. He wanted to speak to us so that we could just like destroy the things. We are called as the ecclesia. We are as the body of Christ. We are ambassadors that we are called to take dominion. We are called to have a kingdom takeover and we're called to demolish all these things that are happening. A lot of things that are going on in the world. I just want to say this might make some people mad, but we allowed it to happen because we are the church and we birth out things. But now that God is calling us. He's saying, I need my body. I need my bride to stand up in this moment. I need my body to heal. I need my body to deliver because what we are delivered from but what we are healed from then we are able to go out to the world and we can be the solution. We can be the dose of hope that they need. And the other thing that I just want to encourage you with today that I have seen over and over again in my life. There's a difference between Thanksgiving and there's a difference between praise. Thanksgiving is saying, I thank you God for this. I thank you God for that. But when you get a praise in your spirit, you are thanking and you are worshiping God for things that he has spoken that have not yet come to pass. Start praising God in the middle of your storm. Start praising God for the things that haven't happened yet. And it sends confusion in the camp of the enemy. So today, maybe after this program, I don't know the last time that you it's just been you and Jesus and you'll pray a closet or just had your altar, whatever it may be. But I encourage you and we challenge you today to get into the presence of God and don't leave until he speaks to you. Don't leave until there's that release. Don't leave until there's that revelation. That's what God is calling us to. Not just 10 minutes and 20 minutes and 30 minutes of prayer and trust me, I'm talking to myself today. Okay, that God is calling us to a new place where we just intercede, where we listen to him when we're like, okay, I'm gonna receive the revelation from you because when I receive revelation from you, God, it's wisdom and you give me the battle plan to fight my battles. That's what Jesus did. Jesus got away from everybody. He had to get quiet. He had to listen to his heavenly father for certain instructions to fight the battle. And that's what we want for you today. That we don't want you to be on the defense. No, it's kind of time to be on the offense. We win and that is the greatest news that we have today. Yeah, and I think too about the spirit of Delilah. Remember the story of Samson and Delilah.   And so beware like, look, check out the people who are constantly stealing your peace or causing confusion or pushing past those boundaries. Like friend, know that our battle is not against flesh and blood. You are battling against a spirit. And so we have to use the weapons that God has given us that are spiritual weapons because we are fighting a spiritual battle.  Friend, today is your day to awaken into who you are. That new, beautiful life that Jesus has given you through his sacrifice on the cross for you.  He is fighting your battles. He will bring justice. He will bring vengeance. You have the victory because your God has the victory. Remember if you need prayer, we are always here for you<PHONE_NUMBER>. Thanks for being with us today on Hope Today. Have a great rest of your day. On tomorrow's Hope Today, learn how to exchange your pain for God's perfect love. Speaker and author Kia Stevens shares her story of overcoming father wounds and offers practical tools for overcoming insecurity, low self-esteem, and trouble connecting with God. That's tomorrow on Hope Today. Cornerstone Television wishes to thank all our faithful viewers, whose consistent prayers and financial support have made this program possible.


Aloha and welcome to Business in Hawaii with Reg Baker. We broadcast live at 2 o'clock every Thursday here in the ThinkTech studios in downtown Hololulu in the Pioneer Plaza. We are stories, the show is about stories of successful business in Hawaii and I do have a couple PSAs, public service announcements that I'd like to get into that kind of highlights a little bit about the success stories. Now we've heard about Hawaii not being the best place in the country to do business. It's difficult, it's challenging, it's too expensive, etc, etc, etc. But I just wanted to highlight that the PBN last week had their fastest 50 and they awarded different rankings to 50 different companies throughout the state and I just wanted to mention that the 50th, the lowest ranked company in the PBN list, number 50 was the right slice which is from Kauai and she was a guest on here I guess about six months ago but their growth rate was 48.5%. Any company that can grow 48% in one year is successful and that was the lowest ranked one. And it would be interesting, I would imagine that there's well over several hundred companies that are growing at 10% to 15%, that's to me an indication of success here in Hawaii. So we do have success stories, we do have people that have made it work, yes there are challenges but the PBN list, the fastest 50 shows that we do indeed have people that can make it work here in Hawaii. A couple other quick announcements that I want to make before we get into our guest today. One, I just got a notice from the IRS and this is very timely with all the students going back to school. There is a new tax scam going around, there's being calls made to homes and they're asking for payments related to the federal student tax and that they're behind and their children will not be allowed to go to school, they might even be arrested so they need payment immediately for this balanced due on federal student tax. It's a scam, do not pay it, hang up and I would suggest that if you get any phone calls from the IRS or any tax department or agency for that matter demanding payment, don't comply, maybe give them a call back on a line that you can get somewhere that is on the internet or through the phone book if people still use that or call your CPA or tax advisor. Taxing agencies normally do not call up and make threats like that so be very careful and please avoid this federal student tax scam that's going on right now. As some of you may know I am on the national board for the Small Business Administration's Financial Regulatory Review Board, I'm the chair of the 9th region, we do have a round table coming up, people are invited if you're a small business and you have a complaint about a federal rule of regulation or a challenge you might have at the federal level, we'd love for you to come out to the round table and share that with us, that's on Tuesday August 23rd at the SBA district offices at Restaurant Roe, so love to see you there. And then finally the Hawaii Kai Chamber of Commerce is having a luncheon where I'm a speaker and I'm going to be doing a business update at that chamber luncheon, that's going to be out in Hawaii Kai on August 24th at the Outback Steakhouse, so hope to see you there. I'd like to jump right into the guest today, Steve Pengre, he's an attorney, he spends a lot of time criminal tax attorney, financial law issue, he's got a very broad background and very interesting website where he talks about some of this, he just wrote an article about some of the challenges that the medical marijuana industry has with bank accounts, he has some thoughts about that, but we're going to probably cover a lot of different areas it's got to do with criminal tax and foreign bank accounts and that sort of thing, but Steve it's great to have you back on the show. Thank you, it's a pleasure to reoccur. Yes, recurring returning guest, you just wrote this article and it talks a little bit about some of the issues with the banking side of the medical marijuana business, can you kind of share some of what you wrote about with us today? Sure, be happy to. The biggest problem that medical marijuana and marijuana businesses have nationwide is they do not have access to bank accounts and this creates a lot of problems as you can well imagine, first of all just the payment of their taxes, many taxes are paid through e-filing through your bank account, payment for anything for that matter and that's true and also you know the payroll taxes and that type of thing. The problem is and most people think it's just the banks don't like marijuana and they don't want to be involved with this kind of soared business and that type of thing, that's really not the truth because marijuana businesses earn a lot of money, gross income and they would deposit a lot of money in the banks so the banks would like to have the business. The problem is that still today marijuana is listed as a controlled substance on the scheduled one which means it's an illegal narcotic drug and it's illegal to possess or to traffic in it or in other words earn money from the sale of marijuana and we're to have any business that if you will touches marijuana proceeds so the banks are governed by the Department of the Treasury, what they call FinCEN, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network and the Department of Justice and they have all these rules and regulations that deal with what they can and they cannot do. The problem is it's the risk that the banks run if they do deal because in 2014 the Department of the Treasury and the Department of Justice came out with some opinions basically that said the banks are allowed or given permission to deal with medical marijuana businesses if they follow certain know-your-customer protocol and certain anti-money laundering protocol due diligence type of protocol of their customers. The key is that the banks are allowed to engage with marijuana businesses if they are willing to assume the risk. What risk is that? Money laundering primarily and money laundering is basically the process of making dirty money look clean and what the banks are particularly concerned about is they don't know the source of the cash you know they don't know where it's coming from presumably it's coming just from this one business that happens to sell grow and sell marijuana here in Hawaii for example but the banks don't know that they don't know the customers they don't know the original source of the cash they're concerned that it may come from either black market marijuana sales or cartel you know organized crime and that sort of thing. Or other drug type you know which I think you just mentioned I mean there could be a lot of different drugs involved in this cash generation so that's that's true crystal meth opioids you know cocaine and so on. So the the banks have very strict criteria for I won't go into all of them but there's eight or nine criteria for vetting or examining their customers and all this doesn't directly relate to money laundering it does relate to increased regulation if you've ever tried to open a bank account in the last couple three years especially if you have a company trying to open a bank account you know that it's very difficult you can't just give them your driver's license and sign you know they require a tremendous amount of information. Well you know and I have a little bit of a bank background in the banking industry and I know sometimes when you open up the bank account it's not only particularly for a business not getting proper identification and all the different support for the entity itself but you're even required to go out and do a drive by the business and take a look at the business and make sure it's a legitimate address and it's not a post office box or something like that so you know they've gotten pretty serious about trying to have a really good handle on who the customer is. That's that's very true and what I've suggested in the article specifically for the medical marijuana businesses in Hawaii is a list of seven or eight what I would call anti money laundering protocols that the marijuana medical marijuana businesses could institute within their own house if you will so that they know their customers and they do do diligence and they keep records and they keep track and and that type of thing. And so this pushes the burden a little bit over onto the actual medical marijuana businesses themselves to do some of this know your customer work for the bank. Exactly and and the marijuana businesses need to understand that it's their responsibility to know their customers and to go to the bank and say look here's my state registration here's my Department of Health application here's all of my employees they're all the criminal background checks of all our employees you know in other words give the bank a comfort package so that the bank will will feel like the risk that they're taking has been ameliorated as much as possible. Now I would imagine that if they put these best practices into use at the business level they need to have some documentation of what they're doing right. Exactly and they can do that. You know they first of all when patients come in to buy medical marijuana they have to register and they're registered with the State Department of Health and all that's in the computers and the you know the dispensary if you will will know each and every patient you know and they of course have financial records and records of the that tie into the marijuana that they grew and that they sold so you can they can demonstrate that it didn't come from a black market outside source and that type of thing. You know some of what we've talked about in the past that I know you've got experience with is doing currency reports right you know and I would imagine there's there's going to be a lot of cash moving through here and so would the medical marijuana business be required to do these currency transaction reports. Yes first of all the business itself right in the beginning if they receive more than ten thousand dollars in cash this is kind of interesting but it's supposed to be from any one transaction so which is kind of interesting because most transactions are two three hundred dollars or something like that but anyway if they have received let's say in a day ten thousand dollars in cash they are probably required to fill out what's called a form eighty three hundred the receipt of more than ten thousand that's number one that goes to the IRS then when they go to the bank with their ten or fifteen or thirty thousand dollars in cash the bank will fill out what's called a currency transaction report that identifies the the depositor the customer and the source of the funds and all that sent to the IRS and then there's another report called a suspicious activity report or an SAR that the banks file unbeknownst to the customer if they feel that there's something that's not quite right you know the deposits are out of sync or that there's a sudden huge increase in cash deposits which might indicate that maybe the customers taken in a little extra money from a black market source and put it with their source. Would a series of nine thousand dollar deposits be suspicious? Absolutely that's called structuring your deposits you know in multiple deposits under the ten thousand dollar reporting limit to avoid the currency transaction report that's a felony it's a five-year felony two hundred fifty thousand dollar fine it's a serious they take it seriously there's also monetary penalties too yeah up to two hundred fifty thousand dollars plus a forfeiture of the funds so if it adds up yeah exactly well and so I guess in some respects it's better to over report than under report yes and in not in particular I mean all businesses should but in particular because the medical marijuana businesses are under such scrutiny and criticism if you will they should be very very well and I imply it until things settle down they're gonna be under a microscope and people gonna be watching them really close that's and there's and it's not just a currency there's a lot of compliance issues that I think is you know gonna be a way of life for some of the medical marijuana business but we're gonna have to go on a short break here believe it or not we just went right through the first 14 minutes there's a lot to talk about yeah no we're gonna take a short one minute break we're gonna come right back with Steve Pengray and we're gonna talk a little bit more about some of the criminal activity reporting that might be needed if you do a lot of currency or have for bank accounts we'll be right back Aloha my name is John why and I actually had a small part to do with what's happening today served actually in public office but if you don't already know that here's a chance to learn more about what's happening in our state by joining me for talk story with John why hey every other Monday thank you and I look forward to your seeing us in the future hi I'm Chris Leitham with the economy and you and I'd like to invite you each week to come watch my show each Wednesday at 3 p.m. hello I'm Marianne Sasaki welcome to think tech Hawaii where some of the most interesting conversations in Honolulu go on I have a show on Wednesdays from one to two called life in the law where we discuss legal issues politics governmental topics and a whole host of issues I hope you'll join me welcome back to business in Hawaii with Reg Baker we're here today with Steve Pengray we're talking a little bit about some of the criminal aspects of having formed bank accounts and having cash transactions in Hawaii we've got this new industry the medical marijuana industry it's slowly starting to get some momentum going and there are a lot of issues a lot of compliance challenges ahead of them we talked a little bit about how we can maybe set some procedures up where it might make it a little bit easier for the banks at least consider opening a bank account and Steve appreciate all your thoughts on this we're gonna maybe switch gears a little bit and get into a little of the foreign bank accounts it's been in the news a lot everybody's been talking about you got to report the foreign banks as some of the foreign bank entities themselves are sharing information with the Treasury and the IRS could you give us a quick you know summary what's going on here the United States government in the last within the last 10 years let's just say they had basically created all of these rules to force foreign banks to divulge information and turn it over to the United States Internal Revenue Service so of bank accounts held by US citizens in foreign bank account does it just us citizens are going to be like green card holders or that's a very good point it's any US taxpayer which is a US citizen a green card holder which is a US resident alien is what they call them a lot of green card holders don't understand that they have to pay us taxes just like a regular US citizen and also some businesses that do business in the US they may be foreign home but if they do business in the US they're considered a business tax person so there's there's two basic reports one is called an F bar or a foreign bank account report and this is a separate report from the tax return return itself right exactly and it has to be filed once a year by June 30th and it has to be filed online and essentially if you have a foreign bank account and you have more than $10,000 US value in that bank account at any given time during the year so it could go up and down at the end of the year if it's less than $10,000 if it broke $10,000 a year you got to report it exactly and most people many people don't know about the F bar report the foreign bank account report and a lot of people again who are resident aliens or green card holders they don't understand that they're treated just like US taxpayers there's there's a little nuance in there that I've I've read don't totally understand it maybe you can explain it it doesn't the account have to be in your name or do you just what if you have access to it you can get your hands on it if you have signatory can authority over a foreign bank account or if you have control over the foreign bank it doesn't have to be in your name that's correct but for example if you have a corporation or a company you know overseas in some foreign country and you know the owners or the directors or so on or somebody else but you're actually a majority owner or you own more than 10% of that corporation and so you have voting authority you have to file what if your mom is in a foreign country and you are you you're on the signature card and you can have access to that account but she's got twenty thirty thousand dollars over there you are required to file the F bar report because you have a count you know it's a big problem in Hawaii because we have a lot of people who are immigrants and that's why I brought that up is that there are a lot of these connections and the penalties for non-compliance are pretty stiff they're very stiff first of all if it's a willful non-compliance if somebody just says I don't want the government knowing my information and they don't file that's a criminal offense and it's punishable by prison and very large fines and a felony right and a felony that's correct the second is sort of a negligent but you know civil type of non-compliance and that those penalties can range up to 100% of the value of the account each year so filing it basically we're just talking about a reporting process correct and a lot of cases there's not a tax implication it's just a reporting process that's correct because many times some people you know have earned money in the U.S. and they deposit for whatever reason in the home country of their spouse for example and they've already paid tax and they've already paid taxes on it but if they earn interest or a return on that money then they have to pay tax on the income which could be nominal I mean on $20,000 the interest on that these days is not going to be a whole lot so yeah and you earn interest of a few hundred dollars the tax on it might only be twenty or thirty dollars you don't want to run and jeopardize anything that you've got by not reporting that's correct that's correct and you can find the report you go to irs.gov and look for forms and look for F bar I won't give you the number of it but just look for F bar report and you can find it online and and report it the other issue is on a person's tax return and this is there's two checkboxes on well you know better than I but on schedule B which follows schedule A there's there's two boxes and one says I do or do not have a foreign bank account in excess of ten thousand dollars okay that's yes or no the second one is I do or do not have a controlling interest in a business a foreign business that I forget what the number is more than fifty thousand dollars something like that you know I don't have more than fifty thousand financial assets in a foreign country and you check that box yes or no it's a you sign the tax return under a penalty of perjury so if you check no or tell your accountant to check no and then you sign under penalty perjury and that turns out not to be true then you are guilty of filing a false tax return which is a three-year felony and civil penalties and so on and from what I understand I think you shared with me earlier that they can confiscate the balance in the account that's correct that's but that's pretty stiff that's right the fines are up to twenty seven percent to a hundred percent of the account balance plus they can confiscate the account balance itself in a very egregious situation but still and it's a good time to bring this up because a lot of people excuse me are on extension right now and we'll be signing there of tax returns either the corporate return in what September 15th I think and then their individual return by October 15th so they really need to pay attention to schedule B they do and you know the reporting is a separate reporting it's you know if you do have the balances of 10,000 or more you do have to report them and it's not part of the tax return years ago I think there was a form you could attach but they stopped doing that so now you got to go online and actually file this report separately now some tax preparers could probably help you with that but not all of them you know and so you need to ask but it's not a difficult process but you do have to set up an account to do this online when you do it right you know and for the sake of filing this one report you it's wise to do it because the repercussions can be very very large that's true that's very very true everything that you just said and you know it's the comment basically is the government has been increasingly adding on and piling on these regulations not only to American taxpayers which takes time money energy and knowledge to which a lot of people just don't have in this area but also foreign banks there's another new law called the foreign account compliance tax act factor they call it which came into enforcement in the 2015 which requires foreign bank accounts that's probably the IRS calling to get name and number and something like that they were saying I owe them money by the way parenthetically the to go back to what you talked about in the beginning the IRS never calls people to collect money never so anytime someone calls on the phone and says I'm from the IRS and you owe us money and we're gonna sue you that's a scam that's always good to know they never call and sometimes they can be very aggressive and scary and people can get intimidated and so don't let that happen if you're intimidated just hang up exactly you don't have to listen to them just remember they never the IRS never calls people so unless you have an appointment where were we over the factor the the foreign account compliance tax act requires all about a hundred plus banks institutions and their branches of course throughout the world to report the account information of all US taxpayers to the US Internal Revenue Service how do you like that and you know you say well why would the foreign banks want to do that and that it's because the US government has said if the foreign banks do not cooperate they do not have access to the American capital market that's huge you know better than I that's huge well I mean just think of all the transactions that take place in New York and San Francisco through the Federal Reserve System the clearing of the checks right you know we're not just talking about deposits we're talking about the entire movement of money on an international basis which at one point or another almost always gets into the US banking system right you know and not having access to that could actually ruin the bank mm-hmm and which is why over a hundred and some odd foreign banks have signed up and and again this isn't just you know one bank in one country it may be one big bank in a country with 500 different branches right you know and but anyway that's those are things to be very aware of right now is if you have a foreign bank account if you are married to a person who is from another country and has family in the country like you talked about the German person their family may in in a foreign country have bank accounts or property that also have the names of the children who happen to be US citizens on the accounts and really create a big problem we're in a final minute or so of the program and so I just wanted to we've been talking a lot about individuals but if there's a foreign company that say is in Hong Kong or Japan or China and they have a bank account in a foreign bank but they're doing a lot of business in the US what kind of reporting requirements would they have businesses that operate in the United States and you know earn income in the United States it as a general rule are treated just like us taxpayers now they're not taxed on their worldwide income for example the Japanese shareholders in Japan but the business in the US is taxed and also the beneficial owners of that American business have to report any foreign bank accounts that they may write in those bank accounts again may not trigger a tax it's just a reporting process that they have so all right very good well you know Steve it's always a pleasure to have you on that the show you always scare the bejiggers out of us I don't mean to do that but you know but this is important for people to know because if you know to get into something that could come as a surprise down the road would not be good and so it's good to know this stuff so we can take some steps to protect ourselves so thank you very much you're quite welcome this is business in Hawaii with Reg Baker we broadcast every Thursday at 2 o'clock we try to highlight the difference success stories in Hawaii and have topics that are important to the small business community so thank you for tuning in today and hope to see you next week