This snow storm has stopped everything look at this So we looked everywhere guess where it was on top of this roof this whole time That joint bro. It's too froze Diddy came back today with another door that's video huge shout out to everybody tune in if you aren't subscribed Make sure you smash the subscribe and if you are subscribed give me a thumbs up and do not skip those ads one more thing Happy New Year New Year, baby is January 1 in the time to get it done so far today Has me hasn't been going to greatest we only got one Walmart order Which is right here wham have to drop that off and we also want to go pick up a McDonald's order right now So you guys want to make sure you stay tuned again if you aren't squabby she's my subscriber If you are squabby give me a thumbs up. Let's go In here baby. I need to get a car. You only got one item to pick up and it's only one order It's super dead in here everybody tea I've never seen this dead in here. It's the first of the year baby time to get busy What's going on See what they talking about Hello, I'm up front. Can you have someone come up here to give me the Walmart in-store pickup? All right. Thank you very much All right. Yes, sir for Jerome All righty. Thank you. You have a good day. Happy New Year Here baby, I noticed that a lot of older people be kicking in that mega. Let's stay a little spot I'm gonna have a door that's zero six one the last three numbers zero six one Thank you. You have a good day Happy New Year There you go. It's pretty heavy. Yeah, it's a lot in there You're welcome. You have a good one Yeah, we are here, baby See, I hate this sometimes because you can't see exactly which one it is. I need 306, but Okay, that's the last thing If you answer not we gotta drop the charm right here and keep on moving Please leave your message for That's critical That's the second time calling call them again Third time the charm they say right. I really know I'm gonna leave this all here Now I want to wake other people up because I really don't want to leave this right here Let me text them Call them and answer I text them and answer. I want to do it but I'm here to answer. So guess what?  One Wendy's be on the way, baby 2.2 miles of 575. Let's drive Look at this crackle barrel two items 14.3 miles for five dollars Absolutely not Y'all don't know how bad we need this. This is what I'm talking about pet smart for order seven items 47.4 miles 45 dollars and 75 cent. Let's go So we reconfigured everything is gonna be 35 miles one hour and 14 minutes. Let's get in it Superbizer here. How you doing? I have four orders We got here We have Jake name of you transferring over to me now people calling me Okay, so that this one right here, right? Yeah I hope I don't have to go through what I Guess can I get 60 large crickets with cardboard bagged up this we're all out of large So bag up a hundred and twenty small that's the only thing we're gonna be able to do You need to take that Jake through 715 688 79 688 79 715 688 797 I gotta go through this again That's really good man here. Oh, oh, this is what it is. Oh, that's for a moment or a window Look at this. I never seen of it. Yeah, let them know that the large figure What did it y'all what do they feed this to? Hope I'm busted. It's gonna be everywhere. All right, you guys have a good one Coming around look these joints live hopefully I'm busting the car my business partner's gonna have a bit She's gonna jump out the car but Guess what one of the orders was cancelled again, so we have to go through the same thing you went through yesterday. Let's get it first order Get busy. They got the big boxes. I got carried on the side If not, they going right here, baby. Hello. I'm here with your pet smart order Awesome. Thank you. I can just give you one at a time as you want There you go you have a good one Baby, I think we're here. I get lost Because there's so many parts Hello Arcelly Who's your pet smart order? Thank you. All right. Thank you. Have a good one All ones because they said they didn't have the large ones 120 of them instead of 60 Okay, because they didn't have the large one. This is your paper too. Just so you know. Oh, yeah, thank you You're welcome All right. Yeah, my my geckos are about to have some fun. Oh, yeah Yeah, that's that's why I get them for I should order them for my geckos. Oh, okay. Yeah, so All right, thank you. You have a good happy new year It's one McDonald's three items 1.9 miles for 5 25. Let's drive God us one cues pay two two items 2.2 miles for 6 25. Let's go Today has been terribly slow, god Thanks, sir. You're welcome. Thank you Hello I have a door that should pick up the last number 508. All right. Thank you. You have a good one That's about that make it easy. I don't know about that screen, but We got right there.  It is close Close I don't even know Oh, I just got to take the picture of it says close Let's see stores closed. That's how you do it. God. That's how you do it, right? I'm gonna show it to you Hit the hit the a question mark right there at the top, right Put stores closed Then you have to take a photo I didn't want that photo. It's all already not on It's like, hello, take that photo Use photo Mark stores closed Just like that, you can have pay 312 cent Let's go Okay, we got one Jewel Osco two orders five items 16.6 miles 36,095 cents. Let's go We're in this job hopefully It took us a while to get here man. It's a full blown snow storm man So we're late For sure. We're supposed to be here if I don't even know what time We're super late Hello I'm gonna have two door dash orders one for Cheryl and one for Kelly I need an ID for Cheryl's Oh, yes, I need one of them has alcohol. So If you could just wait Over there, we'll bring you Where you want me to go right here over there? Where you want me to try the triscus? Okay I'll put it right here because I don't want to block everybody I don't find them I think at the next lady over here today They're gonna get us together I think she I've never seen her up here. So maybe it's my business partner on that stuff. Maybe that's what happened But you know Again, like I was telling you guys before I try to avoid drumming at all costs because I know how the I know how I will be Once once I go there I go there So I try to just be smooth and try to avoid the situation if I can because I don't want to deal with the bull Thank you very much Thank you This one's Kelly and the other two. Oh, okay I've got all of them right here at one time That makes sense Give me all at one time You didn't tell me how to pick confirm pick up I think there's sometimes us man.  Well hangles I don't like that. But sometimes people just get this power trip. They want to be tough Especially with a woman. They just want extra Thank you. You have a good new year Alrighty Look at all this snow I'm talking about full blown snowstorm. Hopefully we get a big tip from this one because We had to drive Most of the miles was coming here We were all the way in like a whole another city and then we had to come all the way here for the 3695 We had to come do this drive. You know i'm talking about but look at that snow And luckily it's not many cars out here, but it's about to be a snowstorm So what we're going to do is we probably maybe do this order. Maybe another one I don't know if we're going to do another one But we're going to stop early today because we're not going to come off a dinner shift because it's supposed to snow all day It's not supposed to stop until tomorrow morning So we don't want to be out here in this this this critical No, snowstorm. So let's get busy. AB we delivered to this house before it was a full water though. It wasn't It wasn't uh, broken water at that doorbell I want to leave that stuff right here because it's kind of snowing and stuff, but Hopefully come out and get it some other or if not, it is what it is Kind of like somebody That's what our deans tell us Hello That's what our dean coach did. He used to tell us it is what it is. I'm trying to make it some day He said on the morning. I was supposed to every morning Hello, it's actually not actually for your ID for somebody And then I have a one more trip is this a you're wanting everything Here you go Thank you and thank you. All right. Do you have a good new year? What's going on? I got to walk down the street in the snow because we were driving and the thing The windshield wiper was froze. So my partner tried to Lift it up and smack it and it flew off and we can't see So we looked everywhere. Guess where it was on top of this roof this whole time Oh that joint bro. It's too froze We just needed us to let us get to ace harming home. Auto's on or something. Get the new one Finally Hey, look at the little doggie Hello Got that Thank you very much. You don't know the wish it warped this flew off on our way. That's what took us longer So we had to look for on the street. Hey, be safe. All right. Thank you. You have a good one This snow storm has stopped everything. Look at this This is the whole state of illinois everywhere. It's very busy. Look at that.  We were driving. It was pretty pretty decent last night They did like three dollars and three dollars extra last night.  It was terrible.  I made about 134 bucks Which ain't bad. Right. I mean so I can't complain Yeah, we did we was doing it early today, but now it's over. All right, yeah We stopped at around two because it was just getting worse and worse And there you guys were doing it right now or no No, we stopped I had to go edit the video because you know, I got youtube so I edit the video And now we got to get this windshield right because I don't want her to be driving home and then they fly off again 17 minutes So it is the end of the ship. Well, it's been over the end of the ship. It's been so much going on. You guys know I Yeah, boom. We door dashing everything's going fine Then it starts snowing. I'm talking about snowing snowing. I'm talking about for real snowing like blizzard snowing It's supposed to get six to eight inches by tomorrow morning. So it's been super snowing all day, right? Boom, we drive making our way down down walking driver down the street There's the uh, the windshield wipers blade gets a lot of ice on it. So it's not cleaning in how it should be My business partner comes. It's just okay.  She would fly off. I'm talking about fly off and this it happened It's so much like cool So Then you guys see me walking down the street We're in the blizzard Looking for the looking for the uh looking for the windshield where I guess what the whole time the windshield where we're sitting on top of the Rule we I'm talking about me walking in the street. We can't see it We're looking for his car driving beeping and all that. I know it's a lot to have It was a lot to us a little to y'all because the video is not as long as it used to be But let's get down to the nitty gritty, baby I know you got to wait on this How much we pay for yeah, that's like That's literally half of what we pay for the corona in the infinity and the answer is $684.28 In the infinity we spent $1,227.88 so it's just about half And I'm well pleased also Not just the gas. It's the cost of the maintenance of the car, man. I'm talking about this mom I told y'all we had to get his head like it was $2,000 We just got we just got these windshield work. It's like $55. I mean stuff be costly Causing me the most so you got to pay for But I hope you guys do the video. I hope we back at it again tomorrow depends on how bad the road is But we most likely back at it So I see you guys then make sure you smash the subscribe button if you want to subscribe You want to subscribe give me a thumbs up and do not Skip the ad we going we going we flowing you already know in the vdk and I'm on my way


This is Stink Tech, Hawaii. Community Matters here. Welcome to Quack Talk. I'm Crystal here. It's the season. Christmas is here upon us and it's time for Nutcracker. Now classical ballet always has this beauty of tradition and gorgeous sets and costumes, but today on Quack Talk, of course, we're going to have to deconstruct that a little bit and challenge these stereotypical gender and racial roles that kind of are assumed into a lot of classical performances. So on that note, I have two professional dancers here to talk about the beauty and trials and tribulations of being in the production of the Nutcracker here at Ballet Hawaii. So let's introduce our guest. So this is... Hi, I'm Redward Simer. I'm playing the role of Clara in this year's Nutcracker and I'm also a student at Mid-Pacific and Ballet Hawaii. So people don't know who Clara is if you don't know anything about ballet. It is the story that evolves around Clara and maybe Red can explain that a little bit later. And then we have Miss Mickey. Hi. I'm Mickey Colver. I'm a dance teacher at Ballet Hawaii and I'm not a student. No, you're not just a student. You're not just a Ballet Hawaii. Not a lifelong student. And Mickey, share a little bit about your past because a lot of people just from Ballet school know you as a teacher, but they don't know your past as a professional dancer. Okay. Well, I have a very short career, but I started training professionally at the Kirov Academy in Washington, D.C. and from there, I was a trainee with Ballet Austin. A trainee is like an unpaid company member. And then I danced professionally with the Louisville Ballet in Kentucky. And then I moved to England and danced with a small company in London called Ballet Black. Ballet Black? Is that still around? Yeah. It's an interesting title. Is there anything referenced to...? Yeah. It was a pretty amazing experience. It was kind of a weird find. I wasn't planning on performing with them at all. I didn't even really know they existed at the time, but they're specifically for black and Asian dancers. Cool. And the company right now has seven members. When I was there, it was about five. And the artistic director, Casa Poncho, is a female, not your typical male artistic director. And she's put together this amazing little company that tours throughout the U.K. And they've grown and they don't do Nutcracker yet, but I'm thinking at some point they're considering it. That'd be great. A little mini. Everybody has like five different parts. Yeah. Right. They have to move around. Quick change costume. Yeah. But you've brought up some very interesting and important issues is that the aspect of color, as in like racial distinctions and gender roles in the world of ballet, read...  By the way, if anybody doesn't know her, she's my daughter. She's just happy. That's just a weird coincidence, right? But what is the story of the Nutcracker? And from your perspective as Asia, well, biracial, growing up in Asia and coming here and seeing interpretations, that's kind of, I don't know if you both agree that Nutcracker is mostly Euro-Shen centric based on the history and the tradition of the story. Well, there are many versions of the Nutcracker. And basically, Clara, she kind of carries the whole story. Drossmeyer is her mysterious uncle and he and his nephew, the prince, kind of take her on this magical journey throughout this land of wonders and candy. Everybody's dream. Yep. Do you think the role of Clara and a lot of the roles are just very clear cut, like feminine and masculine in the Nutcracker? Yeah. And in a lot of classical ballets? Yeah. You agree? Yeah. Definitely. Do you think that something needs to be challenged? Yes. How?  And then the prince is my savior and he fights the rat king while I just act scared in the back.  I don't know. At least give me a sword. That's awesome. Thank you.  You know, we're always assuming that it's the damsel on distress. It's the girl who's the fragile one that needs to be saved by the prince. And to the, in today's age, you know, we can't just kind of accept those old, I mean, there's a beauty to tradition, but there's also a beauty to challenging and then reinterpreting things. Mick, you said that there were other interpretations of the Nutcracker that you've seen before too. Yeah. Well, there's some more like modern versions, not just classical ballet that take, I think they play with the role of Clara a little bit, that she's not always the same dimmer, sweet little girl. I know that the traditional, I mean, most companies do a traditional Nutcracker. But what I think actually is interesting about the female heroine in ballets, in all classical ballets, is that the ballet does revolve around the female. It does revolve around her story. And it's always the female in the end who's standing in the center of the stage. Yes. A couple of photos of the classic version of the, you know, the fairy. I think this was our ballet Hawaii version. Let's take a look at some, what we have of the ballet Hawaii version of the Nutcracker. Well, that's the new one. Well, let's talk about later. We don't want to, the old ones were the classical ballet, where I forget the name of the ballerina who came on last, the last couple of years. She was like the Sugar Plum Fairy? Yeah. That's Megan Fairchild. Yeah. Do we have that photo? Okay. So is that her? That's actually Leslie Rausch. Okay. So this is the Waltz of the Flowers. Leslie's with the Vic Northwest Ballet. Okay. So this is the classic interpretation.  Yes. I think typically ballet features the strength of women, but the roles that they play aren't necessarily up to date. Yes. But definitely it's about the ballerina. And I know both PNB and New York City Ballet are influenced heavily by George Balanchine who kind of revered women. Yeah. And found them as his muse. Right. But he also choreographed a little bit more contemporary, jazz style ballets that put the women on a different, you know, it wasn't necessarily a story ballet, but it put the women on a different front, I think. Right. I believe Harlem Ballet, is it their company name? The Harlem netcracker, they transformed it all to use Duke Ellington's music. So it was jazzy and it's very cool and reinterpreted. Now the one we are doing at Ballet Hawaii is the Tchaikovsky's, right? And how do you feel about the different roles? Like, you know, there's the, okay, we're going to talk about racial stereotypes. Let's, we have to talk about the Chinese dance. What's with the, what's the sign? I don't even know what that means. I don't know. It's a pop stick.  Yeah. Why isn't it like this? And then they have the Chinese accent. Yeah. It's really embarrassing, really. It's such a character of Chinese culture. I mean, I guess they're trying to, they're trying to obviously represent different countries, and I guess in order to do that, that's, that's what people believed would make it. I mean, now we're, we have so much more access to. Yeah. Seeing things worldwide without leaving the comfort of our home. So I feel like people are a little bit more educated in that aspect. But I think people just take for granted that this is a classical piece and it's traditional, so nobody cares to think about how things were portrayed. Because Tchaikovsky wrote this in 1892. And then when the ballet came out, you think about maybe their version of Orientalism. Was that, and what about the Arabian dance? Mickey, you performed in that, and you still are doing that this year. We have a couple of photos of you doing the Arabian dance. But let's talk about that. How do you feel about the image of, it means a very seductive dance. Yeah. I mean, there's a beauty to that, but some people criticize the racial undertones of it, but is that kind of part of that? I think so.  The music is just very sultry. Yes. As a dancer, I tend to just, you know, to listen to music and interpret it, and there's no other way to interpret that music than to, whether I want to come out feeling sexy or not. You're dressed in a photo. You're dressed in like an Arabian costume. For this one. Yeah, this one. This is a Hawaiian version, though, which is really neat. So we're interpreting, our characters here are actually Hi'iaka and Lohi'au, which are traditional Hawaiian goddesses. So pretty. So we, yes, we're dressed in nothing but a leaf. Now, so, but this goes back and forth with the reinterpretation that the Valley of Hawaii has brilliantly done to use the Hawaiian backdrop instead of the Arabian one. Yeah, I think that's been, that's one of the reasons why I'm enjoying this one. Septim kind of has taken the traditional, not cracker, and for Hawaii has been able to change it around the suit Hawaii's needs. And that's something that's quite groundbreaking, yes? Yeah, and he's incredibly creative. Yeah, can you tell a little bit about Septim and who he is? He is, I think, a creative genius. I think he really knows how to... Where is he from? He's from Washington Ballet originally, and now he's working as artistic director of Hong Kong Ballet. Right. So that's a great connection to us. Yeah, and speaking of all the kind of revamps, I don't know if we want to... This is a pretty special kind of behind-the-scenes clip because I'm involved in a little small part, so I was able to film the rehearsal. So there's a small video if we can pull up of the behind-the-scenes rehearsal process of the neck cracker being practiced now, if we can find it. If not, we can do it right after the break. But let's talk a little bit about those roles, like you say. You know, when you said that, how come Clara can't do the sword fighting? And then when I re-look at the story and how it's portrayed, like how the girls are rocking their dolls. We've had a lot of discussions about that. Oh, really? Yeah. But more on the aspect of that, she's more mature, Clara. I believe she's a little bit... She at least appears more mature than the other Clara's we've had, I think, in the past. She's not as little girlish, and so she and I have been talking about how to portray Clara as her and a little bit less as a little girl, but as a girl who's, you know, maturing and becoming a young adult in that journey through the kingdom of sweets. And that's a little bit different, I think. And I think there's that dynamic between, like, the prince, this distant, intimidating but attractive figure that you don't know really how. You know, like a teenage girl. You don't know. You're kind of... Yeah, there's some kind of intrigue and mystery. Yes. And especially this year, our prince is an older man as well. He's an older man. Sorry, older boy. He's like in his 20s, I believe. So, in that tip, last year, it was a teenager. So it was very different. You know, we have two very much more mature people, I think, in the roles. And who, Jose, where is he from? Jose Rodriguez. He is from... I'm not going to say it because I don't want to get it wrong. Well, how about this? We'll show people a glimpse of this rehearsal process. Again, to remind people, this is a really just working process. They don't really give their full out. I know Red's going to be super critical of her dance technique. But it's kind of a little glimpse of the process of rehearsing and the beauty of this process of creating an amazing dance. So let's take a look at the clip. You know, because then it goes into the kids and the beauty of their little... the innocence and the energies of all the... And then it goes back to the old man who was played by Carlos, which is brilliant, too. What is the process of rehearsal for you? What are some experiences you want to share? Or some challenges? Challenges.  And I don't know, finding, you know, how would she react to this.  It's really supposed to be... If you don't, I don't know, I think if you don't build the character for yourself and you don't really believe it, the audience isn't going to believe it. So I've been struggling in rehearsal, trying to get into that mindset, like, you know, Clara is naive, innocent, you know, very youthful, maybe curious. What does she want? What does Clara want? What does Clara want? What does Clara want? That's her dream. Because you think about the whole act, too. There's a lot of interpretation of whether this is Clara's kind of vision of something, you know, the dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy, or is it something that really comes to life for her that she's transported into an amazing place because of what she wants in life. Kind of neat. I think that's up to the audience. I guess so, yeah. Yeah. Lead that to the audience. Deep, by the way, do you know the background of the Nutcracker, the history of the actual Nutcracker? I think it's German. And it used to be bought and given to people in their houses as presents to ward off evil. It's kind of a sign of good luck. And also, the Nutcracker, it shows its teeth. If you always see the image of the traditional, because it's supposed to ward off evil, it's like, and it also represents the cycle of life because you crack nuts, and then the seeds go back into the ground, and then it's really quite the nice metaphor. So it's another layer for you to think about. Yeah, there you go. Another layer for you to think about. So, yeah, there are lots of little elements we want to break down a little bit more, but let's take a quick break and then we'll come back and then we'll talk about, you know, the world of a teenage girl and her interpretation of dreams and Mickey being a professional dancer and coming here, and I can't believe you just said that you were going to be retiring because is this like public knowledge? I know.  This is Think Tech Hawaii, raising public awareness. I just walked by and I saw what's happening, guys. They told me they were making music.   Hello, Hawaii. It's Monday of each week. Please take a look. I'm your host, Seikari Nisei. Aloha. Back to talk talk here. I'm still talking about Nutcracker, the traditions and how it kind of places gender stereotypes and racial stereotypes in it and people don't really think about questioning it, but when you do think about it, then it goes, wow, that was pretty racist or maybe it's the movement of the times and we're really reading into things when we shouldn't. I don't know, it's up to you. Let's talk about it back here with Red and Mickey. Do you agree there is some little nodding of the heads there? Yeah, that was an interesting movement of the times. I don't know how we were taking it too far. What do you think about that? Are we hypersensitive to women's issues now where we're kind of like scraping into things where we shouldn't or is this important and is it good to challenge why Clara should be this passive girl who just gets a doll and doesn't get to fight in the scene? Yes. Well, she does get to stun the Rat King. I'm not sure if she stuns him or kills him. I don't know. I see my slipper and it's not like a dagger. What do you do?   This is the only thing I had. Like the sword doesn't kill the Rat King, my shoe does. Hi, heel shoe. Let's take a look at a picture. You're all dressed up when we were taking photos for the netcracker and you have this beautiful dress on. You have to work with a hoop. You've got gloves on. Do we have that photo? And you're like, just look at that. Okay, so you have this embroidered big dress and look at their little mice. I mean, they have to dance around in these costumes and you have this... Think about how people dress them, I'm just thinking. A teenage girl would have to wear gloves, hoop skirt, corset, right? You can't really be taking a sword, right? You think about it. And the hair. What about the process? What's with the curls? This is so ancient. I mean, it's beautiful. Oh, it's gorgeous. But if you had modern hair on that like now, it really wouldn't do it, would it? So people take it for granted. We don't know the process that goes behind in making up something. I mean, six hours to set your curls. What are some issues that you have to deal with?   It takes so long. And fixing your dresses and figuring out how to dance with certain things. And that's Miss Pam. And she's the gorgeous founder of this whole Valley of Hawaii and made it what it is today. And she's always on ball watching everything, too. So, yeah. I mean, there's a woman's role for you. She's a strong woman. I have a lot of respect for Miss Pam. So you can be feminine and strong at the same time. Do you agree? Yes. And I agree it's important if you're a female and it's okay with you to be female. I think that's interesting that you brought up that. Are we overthinking it? I think it's very powerful to be female and to embody everything about that. What about the combination of being female and being a woman of color? Because it's interesting that you danced for a company that was supposed to be of color. And you mentioned before that you've had – have you been kind of typecast in certain roles because of Asian? Oh, yeah. So, speaking of when we were talking about the Chinese variation before, I've done every Chinese variation in every nutcracker I've ever been in. And you didn't know those were chopsticks? No, I have no idea they were chopsticks. They probably thought I knew, but I didn't know. But it was bound to, you know, every year the cast list would go up, I kind of know. And a lot of times in companies your roles are based off of your height, as well. And I specifically remember being much taller than all of the other girls who were doing the Chinese dance. But there was probably another reason for me being cast as Chinese. I'm not Chinese. I'm Korean. You can't even distinguish that. So if you're under a Charlemagne hat, it's all the same. She doesn't need to do the makeup. It's okay. But Valley Hawaii actually is the first nutcracker I have never done to Chinese. Oh. And it's not even Arabian. It's like Hawaiian now. Yeah, it's very different. I did get to do the Arabian variation in their original production which was also pretty amazing because I have never done the Arabian variation other than here at Valley Hawaii. Let's talk about that. This new revamped Hawaiian backdrop for the nutcracker at Valley Hawaii. What's that? And how long ago did we start that? I think this is our third year. So what's the reinterpretation? What's it set in? It's set in the 1858 Kingdom of Hawaii, so it's still a little bit ancient. It's not modernized. And the party scene takes place at Washington Place which is a historical monument, I guess, in the city with Mary Dominus hosting the party with her son, John.  The party is the first Christmas tree, I believe, in Hawaii. Oh, wow. Yeah, I know there's some things that I didn't know. But apparently, SEP team and Pam did a lot of research to put these little elements into the ballet that I think sometimes the audience doesn't really know about. I think we have one photo from the opening in the party scene where all the kids are surrounded by, is that Drosselmeyer with the eye patch? I don't know if we have that one to pull up, but continue talking. This is really interesting. I didn't know that there's so much historical locations. So it's this Christmas party. Mary Dominus, I think, actually held a Christmas party for children in Hawaii. And that's where the influence for Drosselmeyer came from. So this is the actual first party, kind of reenactment of the first Christmas party. And then we've sort of changed the dolls and toys around to represent more Hawaiian characters. We have a hibiscus doll and a palace guard doll, I believe it has something to do with the Liliwa Kalani's palace. I've been dressed as if it was Hawaiian though. I mean, but it was kind of colonial. Yes, exactly. So that's why even Lydia and David come dressed in western wear. At that time with the western influence they were dressing differently. So it's really interesting to see similarities and differences when you, not challenge tradition, but you highlighted by using a different kind of cultural background. And with us being all of different cultural backgrounds, it's really interesting to throw that into it too, right? I mean, is Clara, I don't know, do you ever think of her as being Asian or is she western? What's her upbringing? What your family background is? If you really want to crack into the role of a person, you have to think about the backstory.  Yeah, girl. That's interesting. When I was a little kid, I went to Washington DC and saw the Universal Ballet. They're from Korea. And that was the first time I'd seen an entire ballet company of Asian dancers. And I said, I want to be in that company. And that was what drove me to go to the cure-off, actually, because they feed, they're connected to Universal Ballet. But I never ended up dancing with them. But it was pretty amazing to see that. You do always grow up thinking, I did too, that Clara is this little blonde girl. That's why culture is such an important element in creativity, too, because you want to feel like you fit and you want to feel like you're being represented. And, you know, that's the beauty of Hawaii, too, because we're so surrounded by such a heavily Asian influence, too. And you look at the cast, I mean, you want to talk about the cast, like, where everybody... There's a nice mix and it's really quite international there, right? But there's always an outweigh of more girls than boys, right? In previous productions, a lot of the girls had to play the soldiers, and they still do. So that's kind of a gender-reversing of both. Sometimes party boys, too. I used to have to play male roles. Did you? Did you not enjoy that? I played the Jester in Cinderella when I went back and guested with my former from school. They didn't have a male guest dancer to do it, and I could jump, so they put me in that role. Oh, okay. It's really funny. But yeah, there's always that. That happens. I guess it wouldn't happen on a larger scale. It was a pretty small production. They would want to have an actual man do that role. Right. What are some big names of principal dancers coming to Valley Hawaii that are part of this production? Do you guys know? Well, this year we have some new people, right? Yes, we do. Joaquin DeLuzzi's coming back. He's been our Cavalier for many, many years. He recently retired from New York City Ballet, so he's going to do one more with us. Awesome. And then our Sugar Plumeria Oh, I like that. This year, yes, is Angelica Generosa. She is a soloist with Pacific Northwest Ballet. And speaking of ethnicities, I believe she's Filipino, I believe. Okay. But I think that's always interesting to bring dancers here to Hawaii who look like people here because I think then, you know, you'll have the little kids going to see the show and they won't have that question of can I dance or not? Because they're being represented on every scale and we have Leslie Roush who is this amazingly beautiful, tall blonde woman. We have a complete scale of dancing. Can we pull up that gorgeous picture of the flowers? There's this one. That was the Hawaiian version and this was the ending scene. We saw it in the beginning with all the flowers. What kind of flowers were they? Those are crown flowers. Those are trumpet flowers. Crown flowers are these like purple. Right, green. This is amazing. I mean, I don't even want to show it because you have to come and see the performance itself. But it is absolutely spectacular and the reinterpretation of the traditional ballet with the Hawaiian rainbow. You see the background of the ocean and like you said, the inclusivity of people representing different nations. I see you there in your skimpy Hawaiian. I actually sewed another leaf onto that costume last year. So let's tell everybody how to get tickets and what we should look out for because this is a show not to be missed. I mean, I'm serious. It is an absolutely gorgeous production. Hawaiian background interpretation of that cracker by Tchaikovsky. Tell us how to get tickets. I think you just go online to ballethawaii.org and purchase your tickets. You can go through Ticketmaster. You can go down to the Blaisdell office in person and go to the box office and buy tickets. And again, so we have Miss Mickey who is playing the Hawaiian... Oh, Hii'iaka, who is an Arabian dance and I also get to do Lidiapaki in the party scene. Okay, and... I'll be Clara. You'll see me as Clara. Playing the role of Clara. No, but it's a beautiful world of the teenage girl going and embracing all these fantasies and dreams and desires, right? And I have a tiny, tiny part as a black widow. Oh, the Mary widow. She's in black. So again, this is a really nice celebration of the holidays, of the Christmas spirit. It's also a celebration of inclusivity, as I said, traditions, reinterpretations, intercultural connections, and international kind of a combining of a fantastic production. So wishing you both an amazing production. You too. Thank you. Go see it and let's celebrate Hawaii and Christmas by seeing the night cracker and thank you for joining us today.


Hello and welcome to NewsClick. Today we have with us Panujay Guhatakutta, of course a noted media figure. And we are going to discuss the recent controversy about ABP, which has seen the sacking of two major figures in ABP and also one of the anchors being taken off the air. Panujay, Pune Prasoon Bhashmi has now gone public that how this whole issue came about because he could not take out Modi's visual image, shall we say, from the government pronouncements. And he had been asked that Modi's name should not appear in any criticism of government. And his picture also shouldn't appear. And the consequence of that was he said when he looked at all the press releases, all the pronouncements of all the programs of the government, whatever the government is promised to do, all of them has Mr. Modi's picture in it. So, that was virtually an impossible task. Do you think that this is now made open what we have always known, the ABP case, that essentially media today being controlled by big business houses, the consequence has been that they are not willing to offend the government, particularly Mr. Modi. Because he was told apparently that Mr. Modi is not to be touched, others could be criticized. Pune Prasoon Bhashmi, who had earlier worked with Ajdaq and now recently with ABP News, has, I mean, what he has written and which has been published in the wire in Hindi and in English says more than this. What you are saying is absolutely correct. He says the management or the owners, the proprietor if you like, his name is Othideb Sharkar.  They said you can criticize the government's policies but don't criticize the prime minister or don't show his face or don't show his picture. So, he says how can you do it? In criticism. So, he says there are over a hundred schemes which have been announced by this government and each and every scheme has Mr. Modi's picture. So, how can he show even a poster or a signboard about the scheme without showing the picture of the prime minister but it goes much more than that. It goes much deeper than that. There are three or four very important things he said. One is the level of intolerance. Here is a woman farmer from Kanked district in Chhattisgarh who has been tutored to say good things about how her income has doubled in front of the prime minister. So, when their reporters go and examine the reality on the ground, first they are dissuaded. After the first story, the Chhattisgarh government puts out a retraction.  And before you know it, Pune Prasoon Bhachpai is asked to go. Now, what is interesting is before he left, suddenly, mysteriously, during prime time when his program Masterstroke was being made, suddenly the screen would black out. Electronic interference which had to be done by telecommunication infrastructure being disturbed in some way. Now, hear me out. What he said is something even more shocking. He said there are something like 200 individuals who have been employed, and though he hasn't mentioned them, been employed by Bessel, the broadcast equipment corporation of India Limited, which is a public sector company, and their job is to monitor the television channels. He says 150 of them are involved only in monitoring the channels, 25 members trying to influence the shape it should get, and the remaining 25 reviewed the final content. And he goes on further to say whenever any channel puts out anything which is critical of the government, officials and the prime minister's office are involved. Now, it doesn't stop there. He says, and he alludes to them that before his program was taken off air and he was asked to leave, one particular advertiser, Patanjali Ayurveda, which is headed or its chief mentor happens to be Baba Ramdev, and as you know, it advertises his products quite a lot on television channels. He spends a lot of money on the advertisements. Stop advertising. And after he leaves and somebody else replaces him on that same program, he's back to advertising in them. So I think what is very, very clear is the manner in which the government is putting pressure. So let's summarise what you just said. A pressure directly on the management. And it's very clear why because he says how Mr. Sharkar or Othidev Sharkar actually rushed in to the newsroom and he said, stop the broadcast, literally. And then Millind Khandekar, one of the three people who had to be in marginalised leave, he says, how can you do this? There's a live broadcast happening. He says, no, you can't do it.  So what is the criticism in the show? If it continues, of course, the management gets upset, etc. But the two other things you just said, and they are really very worrying. One is the electronic, shall we say, line, electronic pipe, which goes from the studio to the viewers. That was being disturbed. Now that is really totally malefied government action if that is true. If it can be established that the government had a role to play. Or even if it can be shown that somebody actually may have paid money to these cable operators to somehow disrupt that. The cable operators is only one part. As you know, it goes to the satellite. So there are multiple satellites. So that's a very difficult route. The route is actually from the studio to wherever it is being uplinked. So let's leave that as one issue. And the third issue that you are talking is the advertisers who also were pressured by the government, or they on their own decided to aid the government. The other part you were talking about is that there is a 200 team to essentially monitor and tell the government. Let me read out exactly what Pune Prasoon Bajpayee has written. He said there would be 30 to 40 instances of disturbances in the satellite links. He said after this happened first day, second day on the third day, there was a consensus within the channel that the viewers should be informed about this. Therefore on the 19th of July, the channel started airing a message from the morning itself. Saying in the last few days, you must have noticed there were some disturbances in the signal during our prime time telecast. We are trying to locate the cause of the problem which has arisen all of a sudden and we are trying our utmost to fix it. And we request you to be with us children. This was one of these disclaimers. Now, it happened only in that one hour. Absolutely. Now listen to me. After this message was put out, it was suddenly taken off. Two hours ago. The message was taken off. That's right, the message. So it's truly amazing the kind of pressure that is being put on anybody who is critical of the government. And now let me also tell you what the wire has reported. It is said during informal discussions with journalists in parliament, Mr. Amit Shah has virtually acknowledged that he's going to show ABP News its place. And I want to add a little twist to this story. When Arun Shuri, Yashwant Sinha, Prashant Bhushan went public and said that the Raphael scam is the biggest scandal of its kind and he says none other than the prime minister of India should be held criminally culpable. The telegraph, which belongs to the same group, put it up on the front page as the lead story. Now it's interesting, maybe because the telegraph is in English, maybe because it is published from Kolkata, maybe it really reaches a different audience, from the audience that is there for the Hindi channel. And it's been very clear that the TRPs had started going up and now the TRPs have fallen down. I mean, so the whole covert manner in which any dissent is being sought to be suppressed is really scary. I mean, people talk about the emergency, this is the new emergency. There is one distinction I must make here between the emergency and this one. Emergency was explicit direct censorship by the government. Here it's a tie up between the big business houses and the government and the fact that media is far more centralized in the hands of just a few entities today. That is also the threat. The democracy, the threat is not only by this from the state, but also big business houses and the kind of monopoly of ownership of news that we are seeing, of television we are seeing, newspapers we are seeing, all of it and you are very much a part of that. You know, I agree with you, 40 years ago, 45 years ago, the government had a monopoly on the TV. There was only Durdhachan and nobody to compete with Durdhachan, nobody to compete with all India Radio. You recall that famous day in January 1977, when Jayaprakash Narayan had assembled leaders cutting across political lines in Ramli Lamaidan and to coincide with that event, they showed Bobby on Durdhachan. Now the point is, we are seeing a new kind of, what should I say, censorship happening. Look, in some ways it is not just equally dangerous but I would say more dangerous. Now insidious and far more effective because this is willing censorship by the media and by the owners of the media. Now you see what Pune Prasad and Vajpayee has written. He said two days prior to all this happening, this particular incident and one day after it, the BJP president had instructed people who work in the BJP's social media team in Ranchi and Patna not to spare Pune Prasad. Now when something like this comes from the BJP president who for all intents and purposes is the second most powerful person in the country, my God, it has a chilling effect. I happen to be the president of the foundation for media professionals and we issued a statement saying it is not only to intimidate these people. And look, when the BJP president says this in front of large numbers of people, it can't remain off the record. When he says it, it's passing a public message in parliament out. So you send out a message to everybody else and that is the chilling effect and that is what is really in my opinion extremely dangerous and a matter of great concern. Same as the Barkha Dat issue that we had discussed earlier in our studios where Barkha said that she is being attacked and sort of anybody willing to talk to her and give her space? Anybody willing to give her or to support her to run a television channel was being intimidated. And this is a continuation and the utterly prison manner in which they have done it is to me I am absolutely shocked and I think this is to be deplored and condemned in the strongest possible language. Now the other issue that I think is something to worry about. What has been the response of the media other houses? You have also various organizations that exist in the media. Apart from your organization, I think Editors Guild has also put out a statement. Yes, but Editors Guild did not name names. Editors Guild made few general statements which are absolutely unexceptionable. There are statements which says there have been attempts that are being made to stifle the dissenting voices. The foundation for media professionals, its statement we named everybody, we named all the names. Now journalists are notoriously, what should I say, fractious. They don't stick together. The unions, the associations, the guilds. We rarely sort of stand up for each other and that's unfortunate but true. But I am seeing that even if the mainstream, so-called mainstream media has ignored it, at least in the social media, the web portals are showing it. It's the same way I had somebody from Mumbai saying that look, none of the television channels were broadcasting live what Mr. Arun Shuri, Yashwant Sinha and Prashant Bhushan were saying. But I got to see it on the website. I mean there was a live broadcast happening in some of the portals. So I think after a while they can try very hard but we live in a different day and age and you can't stifle the voices. For some time, yes. In some places, yes. Not for all places. Absolutely. You are turning around that old adage that you can fool some people all the time, all the people, some of the time but not all the people all the time. So we are in that. But do you think this is also a good reason for the journalists to realize that the unions which have weakened and which never really came out of the print space into television space, it's time that the journalist starts unionizing and thinking about it. They have to stand with each other. They have to show solidarity with one another. Otherwise, you know, again, when you are being singled out, there will be nobody to stand with you. Again, that very well. Yes, first they came for the Jews, then they came from the unions, then they came from the communists. And when they came for you, there was nobody there left for you to support you. So I think it's about time we stood by our sisters and brothers in the profession and realized that an attack on them is an attack on you as well. And if you are intimidated and scared, they'll be emboldened to continue in this manner. Thank you very much, Paranjoy. Specifically to raise that the media freedom is a matter that everybody should be concerned with and the journalists have to be at the forefront of this struggle because this is really their struggle for the core of their profession. Their spirit, the soul of their profession. Thank you. Thank you, Praveer, for discussing this subject, which I believe is a very, very important subject in today's day and age. Yes. This is all the time we have today. Do keep watching, news click and visit our website.


This is stock number 9367. We are here at Summit Automotive in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin. You're new and used heavy-duty truck headquarters. Today we are checking out this super clean 2008 Ford F450 crew cab long box duly. From this HD video you will be able to tell that this truck is extremely clean all the way around inside and out. Front bumper is in really nice condition, no dense or dings on that. It has good year, 225 70 R19.5 tires, has the factory polished aluminum rims that are in really nice condition and these tires look like they have probably about 80 to 90 percent of the tread left. We shoot all of our videos in 1080p so if you have HD capabilities on your computer tablet or smartphone device or whatever you may be watching this on turn them on now because it's like you're right here looking at the truck with me. I didn't see any chrome peeling on that front grille. Fenders in really nice condition right here and this rim is in pretty nice condition as well. As we go down this side of the truck you can see just how clean that body is, how reflective and glass like that paint is. We shoot all of our videos in 1080p so if you are far away or if you're close by this cannot make the trip down. You can still see the truck, hear the truck and of confidence in the vehicle that you're looking at before you even get here. Back rims in pretty nice condition, just a little bit of corrosion but nothing major and the back tires have just as much tread as those front tires. You can see the frame and underbody has a little bit of corrosion but nothing terrible considering that it is a 2008 and 10 years old. The frame and underbody looks really good. You can see that it does have the straight pipe exhaust so it has been DPF deleted. Factory chrome step bars has the 4x4 off-road package which gives you the skid plates. Rear bumpers in pretty nice condition, one tiny little ding there but that's why we do the videos. We want to make sure we give you the most accurate representation possible. It does have the tailgate step assist and a Pace Edwards, I believe it's Pace Edwards tonneau cover. So I know it's DPF deleted because there's the diesel particular filter right there. Has a spray on bed liner, fifth wheel, bed rails and it has the tailgate step assist as well. Tailgate shuts nice and solidly and is in really nice condition. As you go down this side of the truck just as clean as that passenger side for full disclosure here's the back rim and those tires have just as much tread as the rest. But very clean on this side of the truck. We want to make sure you get the most accurate representation so that when you get here there's absolutely no surprises. Very clean on this side. The Dooley tub is in nice condition. It's not all rock chipped up or anything like that. Has the power scope mirrors so they power fold in and power fold out which I'll show you in just a second. This one has the Lariat package which gives you the tan leather interior. Both of these seats are power and heated. You can see that these seats are in really nice condition. No rips or tears, has factory floor mats throughout the truck. Carpeting is really nice and clean. Power windows, power locks. Like I said the power mirrors but you got the power scope so they power fold in. They also power telescope in and telescope out. Finally you got your memory driver seat right there and auto headlamps. See this truck has 47,418 miles. It has a compass display right there as well as a tripometer, steering wheels and really nice condition. No rips or tears on that and it has radio controls on that side and cruise controls on that side. This one comes with the factory navigation system with a six-disk CD changer. This one also has a hard drive in it that you can store music on. Probably one of my favorite radios that Ford ever put out because of that feature. Dual climate control has the backup sensors turned out four-wheel drive. Here's your power sliding window. Factory brake controller or tow command as they call it and then you got four upfitter switches that you can put lights on and stuff like that and they act as an on-off switch for whatever you want to hook up. Power pedals. This truck's never been smoked in. Cigarette lighter has never been used. Smells very clean in this truck and passenger seat is very clean as well. No rips or tears on that and we have factory floor mat on that side as well. We'll take a quick look at the back seats and then we will check out under the hood. Back seats are just as clean as the front seats. No rips or tears back here either and it does have that power slide rear window like I said and these seats fold up. Four extra storage. It comes with a steel load floor which is really nice if you got pets or boots or whatever you want. Got a nice flat surface here. Tools so you're not going to wreck your seats and we have the programmer right here. It's an SCT programmer for this truck because of that DPF delete and stuff that's been done to the exhaust. No rips or tears in the carpeting back here and these seats come down just like so. Take a quick look at the hood as the driver side door code entry. I didn't see any dents or dings on that hood. This one has a 6.4 liter power stroke diesel. You can see it has motocraft batteries. It's usually a good sign that it was always serviced at a local Ford store. Engine base very clean, runs very smooth. This truck has been fully safety and inspected by our service shop. Has a fresh oil and filter change all the fluids have been checked and topped off and this truck is 100% ready to go. To see more pictures of this truck or one of our other 400 new and used cars, trucks, SUVs, minivans, Wranglers, halftones, recorded tons, one tons, you name it we got it.  Videos of every single used vehicle that we have all at summitauto.com. Thank you so much for checking out the video. If you want to make this truck yours, give us a call right now<PHONE_NUMBER>. Ask for one of our sales associates standing by to take your call. Once again that number is<PHONE_NUMBER>. Thanks again for checking out the video. If you want to check out more go to youtube.com slash summit auto remember to like, subscribe, and share on this video and all the videos you see there. In fact in a second you'll see a link to subscribe to our YouTube channel on your left. A link to more heavy-duty truck videos like this one on your right and if you haven't been to our website on the bottom link to this truck. On our website click those check us out. We look forward to helping you with this super clean 2008 Ford F450 crew cab long box power stroke diesel duly. Thanks again.