Hi, Venus Flytrap, Marissa McBride. She's trying to help me with my computer. It's not working. The prompter's not working. Mercury's in retrograde. There are ghosts. Okay, fine, I'll let you go. Come here, bro. The show starts now. Somebody hit the button. The show starts now. I know you're feeling my drive. I got the energy. I'm rooting for you today. I don't, oh, oh, some things are happening here. Institute, you know what happens? It's more ways to win comes in here and they muck with everything. And that's who I, that's who I'm deciding to blame James Jones. James Jones was just in studio. He finally came and said hi to me. He's been here, I've been here 15 weeks. He's roaming the halls. And I think he probably tripped on some wires. Or he looked at the wires funny. Something happened there. Marissa McBride came over to help me. Marissa McBride said, quite a week. We've had so many fun interviews and that means a lot of work for her and we've got a great show ahead.  Oh my goodness, AFC East Battle between the Patriots and the Bills. Eric Weddle will be on our show and Naim Hines playing in tonight's game. We sat down and talked. He's been learning the playbook. He wants a bigger role we talk about. I mean, he swore. I've never in my life thought Naim Hines would swear and he does it right here on Up and Atoms. Let's get to it. You can tweet the show. And we're looking at that week 13 slate. It looks amazing. By the way, Matt Hamilton will be joining us to break down things as only he can, digestible, upper teeth, good meal, a little dessert and we'll get rolling here on a Thursday. All right, that's what it is. All right, so let's do this. We've got some heavyweight matchups. Buffalo, let's move on to this. They have righted the ship after hitting, I don't wanna say like a slowdown but they hit a bit of a moment of some struggles in the middle of the season. But none of that matters or they can take control and do it tonight and get it going here. Even though they're winning, the one thing that worries me a little bit is that Josh Allen still doesn't really look right. Now over the first six weeks, Allen is on fire, leading the league and passing yards and touchdowns. And over the last six weeks, he's throwing for nearly 100 fewer yards per game. His passer rating has dropped by almost 34 points so he needs to get going again if the Bills wanna reach their goal and their goal is the one set for themselves, set by every pundit that exists that all pre-season, all off-season and that's a Super Bowl championship win. Not even appearance, it's a disappointment for the squad if they don't go and win handedly. And now they're playing without their star off-season acquisition in Bonn-Miller and left tackle Deon Dawkins and they're showing a bit of vulnerability. I think, actually I know, because I've done this a year or two, beating New England tonight, Bright Lights, Thursday night football, meaningful games, playoff fixtures being painted. I do think that would go a long way in perception in settling people down. That being said, I do think this is unequivocally a bigger game for New England, specifically for Mac Jones. Now, I've sung his praises all week. He had that 382 yard performance. I'll be in a loss against the Vikings but this is a totally different animal tonight under the Bright Lights Thursday night football on prime video with our guy, Andrew Whitworth doing his thing. And it's not only because they're playing against the Super Bowl favorite and the Rating Division champs of course but because this is the team that Mac has struggled against more than any season. And these kind of full screens can follow your career. You know, this is his second year. You keep adding losses. You keep adding these sort of numbers. You know, he did get a win by the way. It was a weird win last year and there was that crazy storm up in Buffalo. Remember guys?  But he did lose the next two including the 47 to 17. That one sticks out. That's a sore eye there. It was a blowout in the playoffs and the numbers to that weren't pretty. Those kind of full screens can follow you in your career. It's like the Bears up against Aaron Rodgers. We have a lot of splits like that and they're like Kirk Cousins and Primetime. You don't want to give those. You don't want to feed the gremlin that is the full screen depicting the negative split for your career. And I don't think to add on to this for this matchup. I'm not convinced and I work on a show in New England Quicksilence at Tom Curran every week and I'm plugged in with that fan base quite a bit. I don't believe and I'm not convinced that Pat's Nation is over the zappening. You know, I think he lost a segment of that fan base. I'm talking about Mac Jones here with those early season issues and then Zappy comes in then there was this Jeff Howe article. I don't know if anybody saw in the athletic yesterday talking about the potential for Tom Brady to return to New England this offseason. So this is a whole scenario that would make Mac Jones obviously worry about this and he might get shipped off somewhere else. That scenario were to play off though it's a complete hypothetical at this point. I say all of that to say that the pressure is mounting. And I think Mac has a chance to win back real mon in like a lobster or something. What's that? What else? What swims out there in New England? I don't know. I'm completely great lobster. There's something in my ear. Get some lobster. Get some of those New England Patriot fans back to cement you in their eyes that's just as important as the Patriots quarterback of the future tonight, tonight, tonight. This is a game that can completely change the narrative on Mac Jones. One drive, one throw, one moment can impact his entire perception around the league. And I mean that. And I think we're gonna see Mac Jones embrace the challenge and give them all he can give them. So for more on Mac Jones, Matt Hamilton, I know I've been singing his praises all week. We've got another edition of the singing, the dancing, the reeling of lobsters, the computer issues. We've had it all. Love to see you. Love to see you. I know you've been doing a lot of work this week and this matchup is great. I've talked a lot about how Mac Jones has looked good over the past two weeks. Does it even matter? And what are you seeing on tape and how do we apply it for this game hours from now? I think it absolutely matters. And I think we're seeing some growth in Mac Jones that's significant. You have been talking them up all week and it's deserved even in that lost to Minnesota, but you're right, the stakes are even higher tonight. And you'll see here, wanna show a few examples of how he's grown. They're gonna play action here. Hunter Henry up the seam, Nelson Aguilore running that curl. And watch on the play fake, the linebackers are creeping up. And Mac Jones is gonna be able, Hunter Henry is releasing behind them on that seam. Watch how quickly Mac Jones gets his head around here. He plants that foot in the ground. He gets his eyes to Henry. He sees that those linebackers have creeped up. And look at how quickly he gets this ball out of his hand. It's accurate, it's on time. He gets it to Henry before that safety can make a break on the ball, which allows Hunter to turn around, make him miss, get up field and eventually work his way into the end zone. And that quick processing is something that stood it out with him at Alabama. But we haven't seen it as consistently this year. I feel like even his confidence was shaken a bit at times, but it's back now. And he's taken it a step further. Here a little post dig combo at the bottom of the screen. Devonte Parker running a go one on one up top. The Vikings are in cover two at the bottom. They're running quarters up top. But I want you to pay attention to Harrison Smith here because we know he's an all pro safety. He's very smart. He knows Mac Jones loves getting the ball out quick, processing quickly, getting the ball out of his hands. And look, Jones' eyes come to the right. Look at what Harrison Smith is doing. He is cheating on that post dig combo. He's breaking on it. And that leaves no one over the top to Devonte Parker. Mac Jones gets through his progressions, gets to Devonte. And he's gonna get this ball out. Now Harrison Smith's in no man's land. There's no one to make a play on that ball over the top. And it's an absolutely beautiful throw. So we're seeing Mac Jones now. It's not just efficient football. It's not just getting the ball out quickly and allowing guys to make plays. He's picking his spots to take shots down the field too. And I think that's something he's really struggled with in the past. And it's an evolution to his game that it's making him a much more dangerous quarterback. And he's a winner. That matters. He's winning. That, you're talking about the confidence. That matters. As we've seen, look at what we're all, what are we talking about a week with Tua and McDaniel and how it's all confidence. Mac Jones, when you win three to last four, when you're pass the rating or last two games, ranks in the top three in the NFL, that adds confidence. I ask you, what's the biggest challenge tonight against Buffalo for him? Absolutely right. You're seeing that confidence building. It all does come from winning, but this Buffalo defense, they're down Von Miller, as you mentioned, they still have some waves of pass rushes. And I think that's where Mac has to be able to stay comfortable in the pocket. He's going to have to hang in there, probably take a few shots.  It's forced him to have to deal with some pressure. So he has to keep that confidence even in the face of pressure tonight. Tredavis White, anyone? Brian, what did you want to? He should get more sense. He should get more, okay. Tredavis White, trying to get, I read something this morning. Yeah, that's great. The restructure is constructive early. Did you see this? Something's going on. He might, Brian says he might need more money. He is one of the best corners there is, but I'm also looking tonight. There's a little, there's a little parlay action going on tonight. And I'm looking at Mac in this Patriots offense. Mac Jones over the 225 passing yards. Remandry Stevenson with Damien Harris being out tonight as an anytime touchdown scorer. And Hunter Henry going for over 25 receiving yards. Okay, so we like that one. I'm looking at it right now. Okay, so Bill's at Patriots, same game parlay in Mac Jones. 225 plus, got it. And we like that. And tell me, real me this quickly before we go to, we have a big show. Eric Weddle on the show, Naim Hines on the show.  And remember, you reminded me of this earlier this week, Naim Hines had the opening score as a colt, of course, against Bill Belichick and company. And he's got like, he goes way back with Josh Allen. We've got lots to talk about quickly with the parlay stuff. I might dip my foot into the parlay pool and pond a little bit later this weekend. But isn't there something cool tonight about what goes on? Like Fandal does something cool for Thursday nights, right? People are like texting me.  Don't put words in my mouth, I'm sorry, I'm sorry. Yeah, so for Thursday night, if you go in on a parlay and it doesn't hit, you get your money, you get that money back in free bets. It's the no sweat parlay. You get your, so it's a good, if you're new, it's probably a good chance to go in there because it's low, is it low? Would you say it's low risk-ish, yeah. Yeah, because they're gonna, they'll give you, everything back in free bets if it doesn't hit. So really it's a good, it's a good time to take a chance and throw some things out there. A no sweat, same game parlay. First I'm hearing of it, but appreciated. But people are texting me that that's the day that they decide to do it. I'll say hammer, it says no sweat there, but I always work up a sweat when I do. Hammer time. Oh boy. Go reel in some lobsters. They're giving me 10 seconds of dancing till break. Go to break. 10 seconds for 10 seconds. Coming up, my conversation with Bills, running back. We just talked about him and Muscle Distribution Association spokesperson Naim Hines. How can you possibly enjoy returning punts? Honestly, I mean punts are better than kickoffs. I mean, at least in punts, you can fair catch it. And it takes a special skill to be able to read the ball and be able to look up and down and, you know, catch a ball while there's 10 or 11 other guys trying to kill you. So what do you tell yourself when you're back there the second before it happened? Uh, honestly, excuse my language, what I'm saying is f***ing, like that's exactly what I'm saying. I mean, not on a bad way and not a reckless way, but you kind of have to just be like screw it. What do you mean not a reckless way? Hey everyone, this giving Tuesday, I encourage you to join me in supporting the Muscular Dystrophy Association. MDA funds life saving research and care for people living with muscular dystrophy, ALS, and related neuromuscular diseases. Donate today at mda.org. That was one of the most passionate players in the NFL. He switched after being with the Indianapolis Colts for four and a half years. Goes and gets traded to Buffalo mid-season. Now he's in prime position to help that team win a Super Bowl ring, but he's passionate about everything wherever he goes, whether it's on the field or returning punts or it's helping Muscular Dystrophy Association as you just saw, as he serves as their spokesperson for this year. He helped on Giving Tuesday. He's helping all season and it's got special meaning to him and to tell us more about that is my sit down with Naeem Hines. Naeem Hines, spokesperson for MDA. You're wearing a t-shirt. We see all the social media coverage, raising money, doing the right thing, and we can't wait to get into it. But first, almost five seasons in one place, middle of the country, Indianapolis, those Colts. Talk me through landing in Buffalo and joining the Bills. I think it really just starts from that Tuesday, that Tuesday at 3.55 when... Naeem Hines is going to the Buffalo Bills. Wow. Wow. With a shot clock expiring trade on the books made official.  And then the next question was, can you get on the seven o'clock flight? So I was in Buffalo at 12 a.m. the next morning. So what are the feelings you're feeling about leaving India and then being in this new spot? You know, there was some tears shed when I went in there and I turned my iPad. It was, you know, I've built a lot of relationships with my coaches, a lot of guys, equipment guys over the past five years. And, you know, that's a hard place. It was like home.  So it was really hard to leave. But ever since I've been to Buffalo, I've been super happy, even though there hasn't been that bad. So it was bad, but honestly, when you go somewhere where you feel like you're wanted and loved, you know, it just makes it easier.  And then all of a sudden, you are the air guitar, the karaoke, the karaoke stuff, it's amazing. What was that like? I tried to get on with the habits of people I've never heard of before. It was just great. I told them, they tried to pull me on there. And honestly, I just said a playing song I like. And I was actually in the equipment room, in the back of the equipment room, I'm packing my stuff from Indy. And then I heard, I write, since night tragedies come on, and I had to run in there and, you know, get my two cents. I was going to say, it didn't really look like they were trying to get you to do it. It looked like you were like, oh, let me do that. Yeah, I mean, they tried to give me like 10 or 15 minutes ago. And I guess the right song was the plan. Then I heard one of my favorite rock dance songs came on. I guess I just had to go out there and rock out. What's the energy like? Give me, you know, lots of expectations on this bill squad. They look like they're having fun, but the pressure is thick. What's it really like in there? Like you said, we're having fun, but we know the pressure that comes with this. You know, they're trying to be super contenders. They're trying to get over the hump, get past the AMC championship game. The only way you can really get through all that pressure is trying to keep a little bit loose. Lab, joke, and honestly, all that looseness makes you become closer as a team. Who's like the class clown that you've already noticed three or four weeks? Like everybody, Josh Allen, Stefan Diggs, and probably Isaiah McKenzie. All those guys are funny, and everybody else is funny too, but I think those are like the leaders of making everybody laugh.  I think what I want people to know is, with this process, everything in life that we want, we normally want it in instant gratification, but unfortunately, in life and in football, it's not like that. So really, you just got to start from scratch, start from zero, and try to learn and get in where you fit in, and just have some great helping hands along the way. I cannot wait to see the nine-hines breakout game. Like, I know there's a new man. Just if you touch it that often so far, what is the plan, and when is that game coming? I don't really know the plan. I know that they're trying to get me going, and I want to come here and have 10, 15, 20 touches of offense, but it doesn't work like that. I have to know what I'm doing, after those guys trust. And that's really where I'm at. I've had to play a special team to do some things I've never done before, but that's where it takes sometimes to get to where you want to be, and what it takes to be great.   And my question to you is, how can you possibly enjoy returning pucks? Honestly, I mean, punts are better than kickoffs. I mean, at least in a punch, you can fair catch it. I mean, but honestly, it's just a skill. Like I tell a lot of people, either you can do it or you can't do it. It takes a special skill to be able to read the ball and be able to look up and down and catch a ball where there's 10 or 11 other guys trying to kill you. So really, I think it's just the type of player I am. It's just like how I run across the middle and catch slants. You just kind of have to be fearless back there, trust your teammates and trust your technique. So what do you tell yourself when you're back there the second before it happens? Honestly, excuse my language when I say this, like, that's exactly what I say. And I mean, not on a bad way and not a reckless way, but you kind of have to just be like, screw it. What do you mean not a reckless way?  You kind of can't think about that. You don't know what's going to happen. You know what type of kick is going to be and you don't know who's going to be there when you catch it. So you really have to go out there and really be as fearless as possible and be ready for anything to happen. You have a big game against the New England Patriots, but what do you think? It's Josh Arlen, I mean, when you get to practice them every day, you get to see what makes them really great. And Josh is very, very smart. I mean, I don't think people really talk about how smart of a guy he is. They just talk about how incredible of an athlete he is, how great his right arm is, which are also very, very great, but he has an answer and when those answers to the test aren't there, he can pick it up with his legs. How do you sort of break down that wall when he has chemistry with these guys here in your app? To start with, I'm on Josh's good side. I remember we were at the rookie premiere together the first time I met him and I remember he was just over there and we were all dancing in front of the camera. So each guy had their own dance. And for whatever reason, they played Shake It Off by Taylor Swift. And you know, most guys aren't going to do with that. So I remember him not knowing what to do and I came over there immediately to start dancing while we had videos of it. So that's a great icebreaker. Outside of that, you can just kind of go with them, joke to them. We talk about Call of Duty Warzone and stuff like that. So it's really easy to talk to Josh. So this game against New England, I got sidetracked.  You are the spokesperson and you have been raising awareness all over social media and through charity events, raising money. How did you first get involved? A long time ago, my grandmother passed away with it in 2004. My mom and uncle currently have it. And ever since about college, I've had a platform. So I've been just trying to raise awareness for something that's very, very rare. And the Muscular Dystrophy Association has done a great job of helping me raise awareness. They cover a lot of things that people don't even realize. Like ALS is a form of muscular dystrophy. So if you actually look into muscular dystrophy of this rare genetic disease, there's a lot of people who might be affected and they just don't know what it's that type of muscular dystrophy. And your mom, you were only 14 when she was diagnosed. And she, as I understand it, telling me of her wrong, she spent a lot of time in the hospital the past couple of years. And you sort of grown up watching her battle. How has her strength affected you? Yeah, like you said, my mom in 2021 and 2020, she was in the hospital over a hundred days. The past two years, I watched my mom, she's lived by herself. She's fallen and broken both of her hips. It's two separate times. So it's been definitely tough, but I think the easiest thing for me to just remind myself is how watching my mom wake up every day. She has to struggle to brush her teeth. I have to help her with her hair sometimes. And it puts things in perspective that life is not as bad as you ever think it is. It can always be worse. And you know, there's obviously, I play a sport that's very, very physical. So there's days where times, even in a game where I'm like, I'm not even your legs are tired. Like what can you do? And I think about my mom. My mom's legs are tired every day once she wakes up. Like she just doesn't have it like she used to. I used to race my mom and now she can't hardly walk. I think the biggest thing with all this is just hearing my mom and my uncle's stories of everybody telling them they can't do something. And you know, just thinking about me as a 5995 running back and people telling me things that I can't do and still can't do. And I'll probably try to prove try to prove that I'm wrong the rest of my career. But I think just seeing a lot that my loved ones struggle like that has been really hard, but it's been made me a stronger man. It has. Now you're going to be wearing those cleats on Thursday and you're helping raise money. And the money is so important. I think especially, in particularly with Master of District Association, which you know I work closely with as well and strongly support. And it's a really easy cause to support because there is progress and they are close and there's hope. And the fact that there's hope is such a powerful and beautiful thing. And so the money matters. The time matters. The awareness matters. Like I've learned in life, like hope is a very, very positive and contagious thing. And even as athletes, when you have hope, you can do a lot of things that you can't, that you can never imagine. How can people help? Well, the first thing to do to help is you can just go to mda.org, forward slash donate. And that's just for donating. But after that, you can just go on mda.org and look up and just really brush up on your research on it. Because I feel like if you just Google what Muscudistry is, you will learn a lot about it. And there's probably somebody within your family or friends that is affected by it. There's over 40 types. So if you can just brush up and really just raise awareness of it and just figure out what it is, you can help out and change a lot of lives. And there's probably somebody who is closely affected to you. Are you excited to wear this cleats? Well, I'm super excited. They're blue. They got a little bit of gold in it. I haven't seen it. My guy, Ronnie Jackson's done well. I'm super excited to wear it where we're in all white. I'll have the blue on. So this week I'll have a little bit of extra motivation. I can look down and see the people who motivate me every day to play well. So I'm super excited. And you know, it's Thursday night game. So I'm excited for prime time. It's prime time. It's MDA on those cleats. Your family's names on them. It's such a beautiful thing and a powerful thing. And I'm just, I really hope that you score that to have touchdown. I need that. I think, but now that we've had this chat, I just feel like it all kind of makes sense that you get in the end zone and then everything can just sort of come full circle. What do you think? Like we talked about hope is a great thing. And I'm hopeful that that is, that is a real thing. And I think it'll be a great day for us. MDA.org is where to go. Bills fans, NFL fans to help support this incredible cause. Good luck against Belicheck Thursday. Thank you. Thank you for having me on. I hope to talk to you again soon. You can help transform lives. Go to MDA.org. He talked a lot about hope. And of course you can't help. You can't say that you're going to score a touchdown in a game against any opponent, but you can certainly do what you can to help a cause that has, like we talked about, so much hope and so much momentum behind it to help find a cure and improve lives for families that live with neuromuscular diseases. MDA.org is where to go to donate.  I thought to myself, man, if he scores a touchdown, and you know, he's just learning the playbook. He just got there. So I can go, you see that shot that he's doing this? He's, by the way, this is not a running, this is not a running back who, you know, is a top five running back in the national football league. He gets moved and always an opportunity to win a championship, which is incredible. But a guy who gets uprooted from the only NFL team he's ever known, goes to a team and immediately starts learning a complex playbook on a team that has the most pressure of any team in the national football league. And he still makes time to be a spokesperson. He still makes time to sit down and have a half hour chat with me about what's really important to him, which is, of course, his family and this cause. So I thought to myself, man, like, if he scores a touchdown, somehow crazy. Like, on a return, like, I'll donate $1,000, that's fine. But if the bills win tonight, I will donate $1,000 to this right here, Muscular Distrophy Association. This is some easy thing. I don't know how you guys make these. You just make them somehow. Some wizards that I have backstage created. This thing, you just click on it or go to MDA. Or it's probably the easiest way. If you're, you know, technologically unsavvy, like I am. But you can go there and learn, like, like Naim was saying about neuromuscular diseases, how you can help. And you can also donate to make a big difference. So thank you to the bills. And Naim Hines, I'm rooting for you tonight. We'll be back with Eric Waddell after this. Fandle Casino has a special offer for new players, 21 or older. With Fandle Casino's play they can. You can play your favorite casino games and get up to $1,000 back. If you don't win, that means you can play Blackjack, Wheatley-Fortune, Live Dealer Roulette, and more. And if you don't win, you'll get up to $1,000 back to play it again down the Fandle Casino today. Super Bowl Champion in our midst, he's here. And I know he's enjoying that music and those highlights. And he is with us right now. Rams Ravens Charter, superstar, dominates the carpool lane as well. Loyal teammate and best friend to everyone that we know and love on the show. Eric Waddell, how are you? Gosh, my interest just keeps getting better and better with you, Kay. What do I, how do I repay the favor? Kay is the best, unbelievable. No, you gotta give me the goods. You just gotta give me those sound bites, baby. It'll make your favorite go across the internet. I try my best, I try my best. Love having you. Listen, we're just trying to get better every day. I hear on the up and ad show. Hey, we're just trying to be great. I see you. You know who's great? You're youths.   They're taking on USC. Pac-12 championship tomorrow. Are you going to Vegas? And how does Utah pull off the upset over USC? Of course, of course I'm going. Flying out late tonight. Chanel and I are flying out. Get a little day and a half mini vacation away from our crazy regrets. So we're looking forward to that. It's going to be an amazing environment. The place is going to be packed. I'm sure that we'll have more fans than they will because we travel. We travel well for university. And I don't know, I like the matchup. It's very similar to last year. We beat Smash Organ at the end of the year. Then we had to play him again. And we're the only team to beat SC this year, even though it was a crazy back and forth at our place, I understand all that stuff.  And Cam did the last time had the ball last. I think you going is a big advantage. That's what I think. I don't know. Because I'll footage I see of you. You're standing on the sideline. You're in the end zone. You're rooting everybody on. Yeah, you were honored this year. I think it all matters. So Reggie Bush, you keep doing your, what does he do in Wendy's commercials? What does, yeah. Reggie Bush, don't show up at this game. We have one superstar on one side and it gives the UC advantage. That's my analysis for this one. But that's not what I'm here to do. That's your job. So let's get this going here with the Ravens, okay?  They squander a nine point fourth quarter lead to the Jags. Now, here's the thing. And I did some simple addition here. Baltimore has blown four fourth quarter leads in all of their losses. Every loss is a fourth quarter blown lead. What exactly is keeping them from putting teams away? Well, the early in the season it was, it was, you know, miscommunication, big plays. You could even say that offense had a hand in them, not maybe getting a couple more first downs or maybe scoring in the red zone. This past week, I mean, sometimes a quarterback just gets hot. And when you go 15 to 17 for 170 and two touchdowns in the fourth quarter, you know, you tip your hat. It's not like we were blowing coverages or miss tackles. Like they were just making plays. Marvin Jones in the corner of the end zone makes an unbelievable catch. And then, you know, the two point conversion, I would have liked to see better leverage on that play, you know, with the defense that they were running. But listen, that's that's football. And to say that there's something wrong.  And you tip your hat and you chalk it up and you just hope that you learn from it. It's a reoccurring theme is a little bit concerning. And we're not putting these games away. But listen, this is the NFL. And at any moment, any team could be any team if you don't play your best football in the critical moments, which is two minutes, two minute situations in the fourth quarter.  So, you know, tip your hat and say great job and you learn from it as a player. Because it is something that they aren't learning from within the in losses, right? In these fourth quarter things, do you put, you mentioned the offense, do you put it more on the offense or the defense for blowing leads or the offense not putting the games away? No, I think it's a complete team effort. You don't win and lose one side of the ball. Obviously, there are moments in the game where one side picks you up, you know, you may be reeling as a defense.  So you need your offense to just, hey, let's just get a couple of first downs, let us regroup, let us figure things out. I think just the only trouble mark has been the red zone for the Ravens, especially this last game, you gotta score touchdowns. And when you don't and you're kicking field goals, you let, you give the chance for the other team to hang around. And then when they hang around, they do special things and you end up losing. There's, I know you're not on Twitter, but this is hot on Twitter right now. Veteran, awesome player, still doing it at a really high level. Patrick Peterson, one of the best. Patrick Peterson came out and made some comments about Kyler Murray saying that Kyler Murray only cares about Kyler Murray. Now there's been a lot of talk about Kyler, the independent study clause in his contract, that in and out, then the arguments on the sideline with his coach, then he said this schematically, they were effed up last week and now this.  That's my opinion. Do you think he needs to change the way he's approaching the game and his teammates, given what you can't discredit what Patrick is saying?  And I think looking back on it, like there's some things that should be said and some things that you just, in my opinion, stays between yourselves as teammates. Like you were a teammate of Kyler Murray. Like you may not have liked him, but there is a respect factor that you guys went to battle together. And I don't know. I just like, I don't really necessarily agree with like airing out stuff, personal stuff that you don't know what's going on with the Cardinals right now. You're not even on their team. So for you to say some stuff like that, it's like it just creates controversy for really no reason. So I see both sides, whether it's true or not true. It's just not the way I do things. For Kyler, I see an unbelievable talent and a guy that brings so much to the table. There's just some type of dysfunction, right? Why has his play kind of capped out? And for whatever reason, and you just see a disconnect, whether it's schematically, whether it's his teammates, whether it's him himself, not playing at the level he should be playing at, I don't really know. And I'm not going to say one way or the other, but he's a pro and we all learn, was I the same guy I was my first two, three years then I was eight, nine, 10 and actual turning into the leader and accountable and all those things like, no, you live and learn and the quarterback position gets all the scrutiny and gets all the praise. That's just part of the deal. So he is a different personality. You deal with different personalities on every team. It could be your quarterback, it could be your star defensive player that loves to practice, but as soon as practice is done, he's out of the building, doesn't want to have anything to do with his teammates and you just figure it out and that's the head coach's job really. Thank you for, I'm glad you brought up the head coach because I was going to say a quarterback that's a personality, developmentally, he's got the talent, what kind of coach is going to get the best out of him? That's the question I think a lot of Arizona Cardinal fans are watching and I respect the hell out of you that you never went there.  And I've heard some things around the league and I don't bring up with you, but about things that, the ways that things have gone down between you and certain teams and stuff like that. And you always take the high road battle and I really do, I admire that, I appreciate that about you.   If you just want to talk Paul, and listen, I cherish my friendships in relationships and across the league and with yourself, like it's just not me, it's not my personality, like if you want that, I'm just not your guy and that's okay, that's okay. I love that about you. And now I also love that you are not afraid to put on safety goggles. We've got a big one in the AMC's. Yeah, the Buffalo Bills and the England Patriots. What's a matchup you want to put focus on? So this matchup is Josh Allen, quarterback for the Buffalo Bills. Obviously one of the best quarterbacks in the league has had some ups and downs last few weeks, could be injuries and whatnot. I want to see him and how he's gonna face his defense, but especially going against Devon McCordy. Devon McCordy has been one of the best safeties in the league for over a decade. He does it all, can cover, can tackle, can disguise, can rush, he's a playmaker. I love his game, I loved him from the minute he got in the game and he is a true leader, pro, disguiser, manipulator of a defense for the opponent. And if he can make Josh Allen mess up in the sense of maybe force the ball into a coverage where he thought it wasn't or force the mistakes, that's gonna be huge in a game like this in New England, cold night game, division game. It's gonna be a great matchup between those two. And on the flip side, Josh Allen, you just play your way, do your job, correct reads, correct decisions. You're too talented, too good to force the issue in a sense, just take what the defense gives you. When the plays are there, go take them and be great. I asked you when we met, like week one, to make a list of your favorite safeties and you put him on it and then I made you pick one of them out of the 19 that you picked, that game on the line, Super Bowl on the line, who would you pick? You said me and I said, you can't pick yourself, Derek. And then you picked Devon McCordy. And I don't know if you know this, but earlier this week, Devon was doing, you know, he's the captain on the team, he's talking to the press up there in New England and Robert Kraft walks in and he interrupts his press conference to honor him because McCordy's playing his 200th game as a patriot tonight. So it's all the things you said and this one's a little bit extra meaningful. So I know Devon, I used to do a show with him up in New England, I'm a huge fan of him, probably more for what he is off the field than what he means in that locker room and on that team. But let's send him a message before tonight's game. What would you like to say? And I'll say first, Devon, congratulations, go kill it and stop Josh Allen, we love you. Yes, you know, funny story is I saw that clip and I actually texted Dev to congratulate him on what an honor and his success. That's a great thing about this league. Like, you know, Dev and I go months without talking but as soon as I shoot him a checks, he texted me back within a few minutes and that's just the type of guy he is in the bond that we share his safety.  Live it up. All right, now we do what we do here, important business to get to with the great list. So let's take a look at last week's for those of you keeping track here is what we have. Justin feels that touchdown run physical gritty. Yeah, these two teams face each other, the Bears and the Packers this week and Aaron Rogers through a block than he flexed. That was cool to see, but now he's got broken ribs and Matt Ryan, oh Matt Ryan running like a giraffe, baby giraffe carrying a refrigerator out there. Who we got this week? So this week, Sam Darnold, you know, not an overly athletic explosive touchdown, but talk about the wherewithal, the awareness, knowing the situation, knowing I haven't been touched yet, the ball is on the ground. I'm gonna just roll in and get a free touchdown and talk about Broncos. You guys have had amazing years trying to keep this team afloat.  We got number two Devonte Adams. I mean, he's been making spectacular catches all season, I've always loved watching him and competing against him, but the guy's got one arm PI and still makes a catch. Aaron Carr, roll the ball to Devonte, every other pass, please. And we got number three coming in for my top three. We got Robinson coming off the swing pass and just trucks. I think it's Tyrell the corner. Tyrell, this isn't the college anymore, babe. You got to bring your free-boy pass in the sideline. You got to take him a little lower. Listen, I've been trucked many times. I know exactly the feeling. Okay. You just got to take him a little lower on the sideline. So our new top three. I'm going Sam Dargold. What? Because of the awareness, the grit, the understanding of the situation. Listen, it's not always about the physical plays, the physical traits. Sometimes the mind is the most important. A-rod number two. And then Devonte Adams, one-handed catch that he does every week. We are the show of record for Sam Dargold. I picked him every week. I picked one performance that I loved. And I just liked that he came and he won and he had the touchdown and he did more all of that. You just made him, like he's usually on a list, Sam Dargold, on teams that were, that rhymes with grit.  Can I say it?  Yeah.  And he gets in there and gets a win for his team, man. He's got to take it. Let's go. That's being great. Good luck to the Utes. We are supporting the Utes here on the Up and Atom show. And I don't want to hear from any of you Trojans out there. We'll be back. We appreciate you- Don't leave him, stay at home. Enjoy, enjoy here. We were a couple of days without, what did he say? His Rugrats? What did he say? Rugrats, we love that for you. Okay, coming up. You up anybody? Benny Snell is, that's right. Benny Snell and Sam Dornals. That's what we do here. You want sleepers? Okay, just cause I love you. I'm going to send it to Texas. It says, you what's up? How about Trevor Lawrence? He's been on a tear, putting up over 300 yards a game. Five scores over the last two weeks and he's got the Lions defense. Me likey. Benny Snell at Atlanta. If Najee can't go, get Snell in your lineup. He had a score against Indy after Najee went out Monday night. Falcons, top 10 most generous. It's the holiday season. They love getting fantasy points to running back here. Wilson clearly has got something going on.  Hell have no fury than a receiver who's feeling himself and they've got Minnesota. David Anjoku at Houston. He's finally back to full strength since returning from an ankle injury. He scored last Sunday. I think he has a big day against his struggling Texans defense. We've got more up in Adams up ahead. Big game tonight fills Patriots. Gear enough for another huge week of college football. You can get it on the action and win part of a $20,000 prize pool. It's part of Twisted T's college football picks contest. Free to enter. You will make six picks and earn six points for each correct one. Sign up today at fandual.com. Welcome back to the up and Adam show. Hamilton is here. Have a time. Okay. You don't need any more dancing to that. I think we've had enough. No, no, because we are going to get musical. We're getting musical. Don't worry. Oh boy. Spotify Brat dropped yesterday and it's calling everyone out. No one is safe. Marissa McBride, AKA Rissy Minaj here are her most listened to songs, right? This is what it is. We love it.  Fleetwood Mac and Rihanna. I mean, that's who that's beautiful. Music and music is being made here. So what we decided to do is put the playoff picture spin onto this. We did the AFC yesterday and let's do it. We'll see how that works out. Big AFC matchup tonight, but let's get in here and talk about the NFC. So let's do it here. Okay, let's do it. Hamilton, want to take it away? We've got lots of bookings here. NFL purists, right? They're excited. They got the classics. We've got the Eagles, the Vikings, the San Francisco 49ers. Those are the NFL purists, right? That's where we're going next. All right, let's get to this. Let's do it. Oh, here we go. Here we go. Here's your headliners. The Philadelphia Eagles. You've got your Minnesota Vikings, your San Francisco 49ers. These are the guys on the big stage. Hamilton, your thoughts? Yeah, I mean, the Eagles right now are kind of running away with things.  We'll see if that continues. We'll see some powerhouses on the top row as we look at that lineup now. Let's go to teams. These are the teams that people drive to Indio for, right? These are the people who sit in traffic. You're slapping on the sunscreen. You're wasting your money on sugar water for $70 a pop. Like that is what it becomes out there, 104 degrees. These are the main stage headliners, your current NFC division leaders. You've got, oh, sorry, these are not them. Okay, I think I'm all messed up in my things. These are your Cowboys, right? These are your New York Giants, your Washington Commanders. They get everybody going, but they haven't quite broken out yet. As said, openers, Hamilton. Yeah, and it is interesting. All three of them, NFC East teams, all these NFC East teams now are in the playoff picture. We'll see if that table continues. They kind of pick each other. I think they may pick each other off as the season goes. NFC East dominating wild carton spots, all forwarding the playoffs if it started two days. So there we go. And these then, what are we left with? The supporting acts, right? So this is like the Indie band scene you know and love, but they've got to sell more merch to make it this year, right? The t-shirt tables are popping. We're trying to get it to happen. Have you heard of our band? Here's our mixtape. This is this. This is the NFC teams on the playoff bubble. It's the Seahawks, very trendy Indie. Maybe it's Grunge or bring Grunge back from the 90s, a little pearl gem action. Or it's the Carolina Panthers. Hamilton, I like those Seahawks. They looked like they were a lock for the playoffs just a few weeks ago. How do they get back on track? Man, I identify with those teams out there pedaling their mixtapes. I'm with them. I hear it. I think the path is still definitely there for Seattle even though they've hit this little bit of a speed bomb. If you look at the schedule, I think if they can take both games against the Rams, we're extremely banged up right now. They beat the Panthers. And then just take one of those three games against the Niners, Chiefs, and Jets. That gets them to 10 wins, which I think is enough to take out either the Giants or Commanders as we talked about, those NFC teams kind of beating each other up down the stretch of the season. But in order for it to happen, in order for them to get back on track, I think they really have to get Kenneth Walker going again. If you look at what's happened in their wins so far, the four wins since he became the starter, he's averaging 106 yards per game, almost five yards a carry, six touchdowns. In the losses, look at those numbers. 21 yards, 1.8 yards per carry, just two touchdowns. They gotta get him going again. And a lot of it's on that offense line up front to do a better job. Now this might be crazy, but they are those Panthers. They're a game out of the division lead in the win column. We've just a couple seconds left. Can they catch Tampa? I know it does sound crazy, but with the way their defense has been playing lately, it's the defense we expected to see from this team. I know you were big on them going into the season. They're finally starting to play like it. Maybe there's a chance. Maybe. We're buying tickets, baby. We're headed to Rissy Minajfest. We'll be back tomorrow. Bye.


Hey guys, how are you today? All right, so my friend Donna Mulholland and if you don't know who she is I'm gonna try to include a link to her website or blog or whatever in the description below You can look her up on the internet, too. She's a really great artist. Anyway She's been posting for weeks now Topegs and pencil cases and things that she's been painting. I think she's got an open studio coming up or a Show a say a gallery show in sale or something coming up Anyway, she's been making tons of these things and I have to say to her. Oh my god, Donna. They're beautiful and I might have to email you because I might need to own one But in the meantime, I thought I'd I'd give it a shot and do some in my own unique style because it's such a good idea So when I was a Dollar Tree today looking for something else mind you I found these small Tablet cases. Yes at Dollar Tree. These are neoprene now. They're not super thick Any kind anytime you buy a sleeve like this. It is not intended to Prevent your device from impact There to keep it clean to keep it from getting scratched if you want Something that's really gonna prevent it from getting broken in a you know hard impact You really need to get like an order box or something a lot harder than at you know Yeah, neoprene sleeve. It's just not gonna be thick enough now How much no matter how much padding that they put in there and if you don't believe me I'm gonna include a channel linked to another YouTube channel called gizmo slip and they do a lot of Videos where they drop smartphones and tablets from a hundred feet in all kinds of crazy Coverings and cases and including order box and all kinds of stuff So you go watch some of their videos some of them are hilarious Anyway, so I found these cute little slaves which would be great If you have like these little ones are great for like a Kindle or an iPad mini You just want to slip it in there and then put it in your backpack or your purse To keep it clean because you want to take it with you and it has a little bit of padding too It's not a lot. It's from the Dollar Tree, but you know, you could also if you're an art journal or hello These would be great for a small art journal and a few pens To put in your bag, you know to keep the journal from getting scratched up and the edges, you know dinged up They had this little one and then they had these big ones So I got some of each now You hear that That's because I took them out of their plastic packaging I put the plaque packaging inside the pocket and then I resealed it So that when we're working on the backside anything we do the backside if it leaks through it doesn't go through to the front side Then I took some painter's tape and I taped off a rectangle on the back of all of these Now we're going to take some Deco art gesso. This is white. You could use black.  It has a gesso booger in it. Hold on You can see it. I'm trying not to get my finger in there, you know, I Can see it. There it is. Let's get rid of the booger All right, so I'm going to take a nice generous blob of The white gesso and I'm going to add some fabric medium to it now I don't know that this step is strictly necessary and I don't ever plan on Whoever has these myself or if I give them away them ever being washed But it is a stretchy knit fabric neoprene and I don't know if I give them away what they're going to do with them So I want the base coat at least the gesso to be something that has the Fabric medium in it and then I know it's going to really stick now I've added fabric medium to paint plenty of times Gesso is basically paint Granted it's a really thick white base paint, but I've never actually added it to gesso I'm a I think it'll work just fine, but I guess we'll find out right It's an experiment Monday with decor slash experiments Okay, so we've got that well mixed I'm not going to go too far with the palette knife in case I need it so I'm just going to stick it in the water And I've got a nice fat wide flat brush here. This is a Some kind of Chinese painting brush. I don't know I bought it at the art supply store So we're going to take each one of these and we're going to prep them with a coat of gesso and I'm going to like if you were doing if you were doing like a painting on a wall and you had Lots of painters tape on the wall and you wanted when you looked it up to have a nice clean line Then what you do is you start with not too much paint on your brush for one thing and you start actually on the tape and pull down All the way around you can see what I mean about If you peek right there, I don't know if you guys can see that you can peek under the tape I don't know if you can see that but the tape is lifting a little bit, but it's a nice clean line So then you want to just let that dry and you know, hopefully I'm not like gnarling up the back side of the Back side of the case so I'm going to do that to all of these And then we're going to come back with some colors now for the next layer, of course You can use another another booger. You can use of course fabric paint.  I would probably recommend to you that you use fabric paint And some of these colors are probably going to take more gesso Than others to cover up the color of the fabric Which is something I do I do want to have as a white of a base as possible. There's another gesso booger I think my gesso has been sitting a little long Okay, so do that to all of them that you want to do and then let it dry and we'll be back Okay, hey guys, so we have our little tablet covers and the gesso we put on there is dry and so now we're going to add color because we put the white gesso on there and Essentially erased the color of the fabric not completely in most of the cases, but at least in part We can put some color on there. It's going to really be brighter and pop. I do have two brushes here I have the deco art a one-inch angle brush Americana deco art and I also have a filbert. I do I am really attracted to using this brush today So I think that we're going to do that. I have this is the tealy colored one So I have a few different colors of Decorate paint here. I'm going to start with this yellow. This is cadmium yellow. I'm going to put it right I'm not going to even put it on a palette. I'm going to put it right on the Fabric cover and you notice I have yellows and greens and blues. These will all blend nicely together Without creating any mud So I'm going to put a little bit of a couple of colors on there and I'm going to put some white Just a little bit. I think we'll add a blue. Some of these aren't even open yet This way might be easier. I Don't like taking the plastic off. It's a pain in the neck. All right So I'm I'm going to just I'm going to keep it very loose and abstract. I'm going to make some marks with the paint I'm going to let it blend on here and create secondary colors I'm not looking to create anything that you know is exact or precise or precious I'm just Creating something that's fun and colorful and abstract Who doesn't love that? I do want to make sure I cover up all the gesso. I like that So now I'm going to take one of these. I have a couple other colors of blue Let's take another one of these and this time I am going to put it on the plate And this isn't dry, of course, but That's okay, I think it'll still be okay And each one of these I'll probably do a little bit differently And then we have to let it dry again, and then we're not done. This is actually the plastic Sanitary lid off of a deodorant and it's this perfect oval shape So I thought it might be fun to make some marks with that that is certainly a lot of fun And we have this lighter blue and this is a piece of a silicone potholder Now my friend Donna Mulholland.  I do think that I want to add Carefully because I don't do it carefully. It's going to turn into mud. I want to add a little bit of pink Just a little bit. I don't do it carefully though. It's going to be like brown. It's not pink So I think we're going to get out some sort of a dauber tool Something to make a dot With this is just a stippling brush by Royal Literally like I'm not going to move the paint around too much Because it'll just not be good Okay So then once you have something that you think you kind of like Go ahead and you don't necessarily have to wait for the paint to dry to pull the tape off. Just do it carefully There we go. Now. We didn't get a perfect rectangle, but that's okay It didn't get the paint did get under a little bit in a couple spots, but that's okay I'm going to do the other ones and we're going to let them all dry and I'll be right back Okay, so they're not completely dry, but they're dry enough. They're dry to the touch barely So we're going to continue and then I let me then you need to let them dry for I think 24 to 48 hours I'm sorry 48 to 72 hours And then if you want to you can wash it and that and that after 72 hours of paint is cured We're not going to wash them, but this way at least I know You know with stretching and wear and tear the paint is not going to go anywhere So I've got some black Deco art so soft fabric paint. I have got a stencil now This is one of my stencils that I cut it's an arrow stencil the design for it is Available as a digital download in my Etsy shop the links in the description below if you have a stencil cutting system That allows you to import images Then you can cut one of these yourself if you don't have that you of course can still buy the digital download And then cut it by hand. I Have a silhouette So I can do those things. I put large arrows and a small arrows on here And I think we're going to I Want it I want to Yeah, I want to put some arrows on here. So we're going to stencil some arrows on here. Hopefully we're gonna do a decent job let us sit down and We're gonna use a stippling brush and just a little bit of paint I'm gonna hold the stencil down with one hand, and I'm just gonna go up and down up and down up and down Not to move it around too much. You could tape of course tape it down if you're worried about it Or use maybe binder clips You could skip this step. I mean, you know you could doodle Once the fabric paint is dry, you could get a sharpie or a fabric paint pen and you could doodle on here Maybe put some inspirational words. That would be cool So I like that a lot. I am going to take a baby wipe and maybe the little smudge I see Will come off Maybe Black paint right there. Yeah, it's that one won't come off, but that's okay So I really like that. I think that's super cute So let's do the other ones. There is a little like whites. I wasn't real neat about this Why would I be neat about anything? There's some like white paint or gesso up here probably from my fingers would be my guess But it's okay, it's you could barely see it. I don't even know if you guys can see it. I can see it But anyway, that's super cute. Okay, let's do here's the other purple one This is the bigger one and and you could do any use any stencil. I really like these arrows There's something about the arrows. I don't know what it is. I don't want to do Then this way the bigger ones and I might want to do all of them That's gonna take a lot of paint. So the paint is going on here a lot differently on the raw fabric than it is over the other Fabric paint that we've got on here. So You want to just you know kind of keep that in mind.  Here's the little little one the little teal one now. I don't need these at least I don't need all of them So I will probably be gifting some of them in racks in the future If you're interested in receiving racks from me or someone else Go and join my Facebook group We have a list under files for racks and sign up there And maybe while you're there look up a name Maybe somebody you've never heard of or and don't know and send them a little something Rack stands for a random act of kindness for those that don't know That one's a little smudgy, too, but I like it. I don't care. All right Now on these these are already black So I don't know if I want to put black paint on them On the arrows I might want to do a different color Like maybe on this one. Maybe I don't know maybe I don't know I don't know I don't know maybe blue Let's just do blue. We're gonna just put it right on if it mixes with the black a little bit It's gonna be fine. I'm not gonna worry about it. It made like a blue gray, which is pretty You don't want to do straight block on this. It's not gonna show. Well, that's very messy, but You get the idea So see this is what I mean because we prepped it with gesso and because The color that we put on there is dry to the touch as long as I don't press too hard I Can get this up there we go And so what we're gonna do is we're gonna dry and we're gonna wipe off the back I think the back side of this stencil got dirty. I got a little too sloppy a little few too many times All right So we'll line it up again with the one that's on here Not that we really need to do that. It doesn't really matter. Maybe not be a gorilla with a brush here Yeah, that's better That I like a lot. All right. We have one more. I didn't really want you to do an arrow this way So I think we're going to again on these big ones. I like to know there's something about putting it that way So once you get all your stenciling done, let it dry According to your paints directions, like I said for the deco art so soft fabric paint You want to let it dry for 48 to 72 hours? So if you're doing these for a craft show or you're giving them as a gift You want to plan it to do these well in advance that one wasn't all the way dry. Okay, it's okay So that they have time to cure I'm not the best stenciler on the planet, but I love these They're cool. All right, so that's it. I'm gonna let these dry for a few days and then I will Have them ready to rack I hope this gave you some ideas of what you can do With things found from the dollar store. These would be a cute little gift For anybody who has a tablet or a Kindle. They would be a cute craft fair item I think I'm gonna rack these and think I'm gonna fill them up with like maybe little journals and things and some postcards with my artwork and Send them off. All right, that's it for today. Don't forget the most important thing Go out and have a great day. Do something nice for yourself because you deserve it and I'll see you later. Bye Okay, it is late in the evening and I was working on some other stuff And I just can't help myself but doodle on here. I just I just can't See so I just have a Posca paint pen and a Sharpie paint pen and you know, I'm not getting Perfect lines or marks, but if you've been watching my YouTube channel for a while Then you know that I'm not really about perfect lines and marks. I Just think that there's not enough That you can do to this to just make this look fun and dress it up There really isn't now if you want your lines to I'll look the same way that you might want to keep them on the paint painted part They look different on the fabric than the paint. I am okay with either one And my favorite gold paint pen by the way is a Sharpie I think it's the best one out there and It's inexpensive so I'm just Using the white one on the arrows and you'll see right here on this arrow because half of it's On the fabric and half of it's on the painted part and the Sharpie is going to react differently nobody's home yet They're all they're all I shouldn't say they're all the daughter moved out So it's just the husband and I and he's out at a football game with his buddies So which is cool because that means I get to Catch up on all the projects this week that I didn't get done yet Art-wise so I just love I love the way that looks it's just so much fun I don't really think you can go wrong with this the more you know marks and things you put on there I think the better it's gonna look so you know if you're gonna do a project like this whether you're just doing a One tote bag, maybe you're doing a pencil bag for back to school Maybe you found some of these tablet covers at Dollar Tree Then just have fun with it Decorate it Use what you have and if you are going to buy stuff You don't have to spend a ton of money Deco art products work really well and they're very affordable They do Have some glass paint pens But I don't know if they have fabric paint pens and I had these so these regular acrylic paint pens So I'm gonna use them of course if there's a deco art product out there. I'm sure it works fabulously But these paint pens write really nicely over the deco art fabric paints The nice thing about the deco art fabric paints is when they dry They're not crunchy Some fabric paints dry stiffen kind of they feel kind of crunchy on your clothing These don't they wash really well My galaxy pants are holding up really well You haven't seen that video yet. Go look it up. It should be under a month Monday with that go up playlist And there you go, I love that you could even write a word here if you wanted all right That's it for today everybody for reels this time. Have a nice day, and I will see you later. Bye


The span of efforts to position the nation's creative industry, major stakeholders have met to discuss sustainable business models as well as the future of the African music globalization. The event was put together by the African creative market in partnership with Parliament Africa and was themed supporting the globalization of African music. Our correspondent Paul George reports. This gathering has young chief executives, entrepreneurs and other attendees. The interest here is how Nigerians can get more partnership to monetize and sustain their acts globally. They all shared their experiences in an interactive panel session. A lot of people are interested and truly many people have been talking about how we can continue to grow the economy within the creative sector and now that we're here and we've created the platform, more and more partners are coming on board and we're very grateful to our partners. We're very youth focused, our youth are very talented, but they need training. The convener Enya Lawal speaks on the need for partnership to foster growth. Essentially, if we grow the creative economy, it means Africa is sustained in that way. As you know, music is doing well for Africa and it is one way for ensuring that our youth continue to sustain themselves. In terms of what's in it for us, we are building a force and growing our general economy within Africa and we're getting better for it. The keynote speaker, U.S. Consul General in Nigeria, Will Stevens, rules out the support for Nigeria. He says his country has built capacities of different organizations in the country. The U.S. mission here in Nigeria has invested in a variety of ways. So first of all, we've supported organizations like Africa Creative Markets for many years. We support the African International Film Festival each year financially as well as a partner and then we've funded programs such as One Beat, Next Level, which are programs that train young artists and help find the next the new pipeline of great performers and get them the training they need and connect them with partners here and in the United States. However, Will Stevens says the U.S. is ready to continue to partner and support Nigeria's creative industries. We're going to get it right. We have to be partnering on all levels. And one of the great things about working in Nigeria is the incredibly deep people-to-people relationships. There's over half a million Nigerians who are Nigerian Americans live in the U.S. They're incredibly well educated, well connected. Those connections, those cultural ties are what form the very basis of a partnership. And so when we support music, we support film, you're furthering those ties and something I'm really deeply proud of. Issues on intellectual property rights management and artistic collaborations with international counterparts also took center stage. Meanwhile, other stakeholders are confident that the Nigerian music industry has come to stay. We are focusing for the second year focusing on intellectual property and enforcing intellectual property, I would say, and also enabling the creative industry with technology. If you're informed. So that's why we're happy to be collaborating with African creative markets this year to have right conversations that keep our mind open and prepared for the influx of the entertainment that's going to be coming this way. I tell you guys, fine, we have collaborations now with international acts. There's an affluent category that has been created at the VMAs. Too many times the focus is on the talent, on the performers, on the key players. People have to realize that behind every Trubaba, behind every whiskey, behind every Buena Boy, is a whole gamut of professionals. To consolidate on the inroads Nigerian artists are making globally the organizers called for government support for sustainability. Paul George plus TV news. Hello, hope you enjoyed the news. Please do subscribe to our YouTube channel and don't forget to hit the notification button so you get notified about fresh news updates.


We're here in North East Kansas, in Olathe, Kansas, which is a suburb of Kansas City. We have a 10 acre certified organic farm and we are interested in value added processing so that farmers can sell more of what they grow, maybe sell it for a little higher price and the SARA grant is allowing us to spend a year researching this. We've done the literature review of what other people have tried and we're now in the middle of our own efforts. I can show you one sample of a successful product. We had strawberries that were perfectly ripe, we couldn't sell them and we didn't want to throw them away so what we did was we individually froze them. So we have done this by, we have a certain protocol that we've learned from our FSMA training is safe and we wash these, we take the caps off, we lay them out on a parchment paper tray and freeze them in our walk-in freezer, it doesn't take very long, then we put them in 10 ounce bags, weigh them on the scale and it comes out with something yummy. What we did for our processing, we bought a baker's rack that has 20 shelves and we have these 20 shelves that are this big and we cover them with this parchment paper here. It's made to fit on the baker's rack perfectly and it sits there, you line them all up so they're not frozen together and we put them in the rack in the freezer, we actually do have a walk-in freezer but not everybody does, but you could put them in a chest freezer, you could put them in a smaller freezer on a smaller cookie sheet if you were doing it on a smaller scale. We've sold ours at our farmers market, I've taken a cooler down there with frozen berries and I sell everything I have when I go down there. People make smoothies out of them, they juice them and we're charging a price that's higher than a pint of fresh strawberries because we have the extra labor involved. Butternut squash is a beautiful product when it's diced and it just glows, people use it in soups and so that's one of the motivators, you see something that is going bad and you spend all that time and effort putting it in the ground and taking care of it and then for it to not bring something back to you, it seems to be, there's got to be a better way. SARE is helping us and we hope to provide them some important data about how much it costs for equipment and how much labor time it takes to add the value so a farmer can decide for himself or herself if it's going to be worth their time.