Rebecca said, but wait guys string women because they just want to entertain options, not get real with one woman. Possibly it's possibly that it's possibly that they aren't finding a woman that's meeting their standards and their criteria for a woman that they want to be in a relationship with. And so they settle for hooking up instead because they're like, you know, until I find a girl that I feel meets my standards and who I'm looking for for something real, I'm just going to date around and just have fun until I do meet one that meets those standards or makes me feel that way, makes me feel like she's the one, makes me feel like she's relationship material, she's marriage material, she's who I'm really looking for. That's what a lot of these guys are looking for because they've been burned.  And so you have to realize that when you're out there dating and you're talking to guys that a lot of guys are hurt, a lot of women are hurt, a lot of men are hurt and we're all bleeding all over each other because we're not healing our wounds. And so you need to just consider some of those things and a lot of guys are a lot more hesitant to get into a committed relationship because they're like, I'm not getting into anything unless I know this is right because I don't want some buddy, some woman taking my money, I don't want some woman, you know, I've gotten into toxic relationships so I don't want to get into another toxic relationship and so I'll just do the friend with benefits thing until I figure out what's going on here and he ends up getting comfortable there because he's getting all of his needs met.


Welcome to this, an episode of Justice in the Balance, which is our public affairs series here at ACMI that looks at justice from a number of different prisms, from criminal justice to, in this case today, voting justice. And I am glad, very pleased, in fact, to welcome back to our studios Neil Osborn, who I had a lovely conversation with a couple of years ago as part of a different series, but it's great to see you again, and we appreciate your being here. Neil is here today to speak, you know, as a, generally as a very learned person in this area, but also specifically because he is currently on the executive committee of the Mystic Valley branch of the NAACP here in Massachusetts. Neil, first of all, let me ask, let me, again, thank you for being here, but I know that what I've just described as your current position within the NAACP is not all that you do. So why don't you tell us a little bit more about what you've got going on as a professional? Sure, James, thank you again for having me back on. I guess I appreciate the opportunity to share some of my experiences. I don't know how learned I am, but we'll see. So my role at the NAACP, the Mystic Valley branch, now is on the executive committee. So there's a group of about 10 folks who actually meet more regularly than the general membership to help give guidance to the leadership. So before being on the executive committee, I was the branch president for almost a decade. So now I'm more into a mentoring role, the next generation is coming on. So I relish the older, more learned role in the organization. But also, during the day, my job now is I am the director of diversity inclusion for the city of Medford. And I have the privilege of doing my community work, but I bring along that city role that they are actively involved in making sure people feel welcome in the city of Medford. And we may have a chance to talk a little bit more about that as the interview wears on. But let me ask you first, and this is a bit of an aside, but before we get into the substance of the conversation, something that I have been curious about, and that has to do with the NAACP, and it's literally the name, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. Now, what I'm wondering is, have there, you've been at work with the organization for a while, is there a consciousness and awareness and a desire to rebrand that, given that, again, specifically I am struck when I think about it by the term colored people and how it seems to feel like it belongs to another time. James, I actually asked that question when I first arrived or started attending a branch meeting maybe 15, 20 years ago, and the name that I thought may be more appropriate would be the National Association for the Advancement of People of Color. But as you begin to work with local branches and their regional NAACP groups and you get to go to nationals, there is a great connection to the NAACP brand, and I guess it's steeped in history, it's steeped in the individuals who risked life and limb. So change would happen very slowly, and anyone in this nation understands when you say the NAACP, they understand what that means. So maybe in the future there may be a rebranding, but I wouldn't expect it's going to be any time soon. Yeah, I mean basically just that that's what I would have imagined that really it's just there's too much weight within NAACP as it stands, and that would just, it's not yet worth making all the changes you'd have to. Exactly. All right, well thanks for that. I had mentioned at the outset that we are interested in talking about voting justice today, and before we bring that up to the contemporary moment and what that looks like or doesn't, I would love for you to give us a sense of what the historical context is for this, and what I mean by that specifically is of course this nation was born with the stain of slavery as part of it, and people are generally aware of what the course of things have been over time since then. Right. But what I'm very interested in is the lingering effects of slavery, black codes, Jim Crow, etc., on how those things can linger long after perhaps the law changes, or even maybe societal attitudes change. Right. So in 2019 we are reflecting on 400 years of enslaved people being brought to this country. It gives us a chance to reflect on how far individuals and cultures have come to be fully integrated and respected for the contributions of black people in this country. Unfortunately, when you have the weight and baggage in a history of dominating individuals to do the heavy hard labor in almost not even respecting individuals as human beings, that has a long lasting and stigmatizing connotation to how we interact with each other. So I know when I'm talking to some of my friends and colleagues, one of their concerns of, well, that happened a long time ago, but actually what happened a long time ago still remains. And I think when you bring up the context of voter rights, it's that history and challenge of white individuals who, for whatever means, took to almost steal someone else's labor through brutality and threat and intimidations, that when it's time to recognize the constitution of this country, this nation was built on this notion of laws and everyone is being treated equal. It still remains because individuals go out of their way to limit the opportunity for people who are not white to gain power. And it's in German. It's in rules that legislators, elected officials change the jurisdictional boundaries of who gets to vote when. It's in the discouraging of people not to register to vote. And it's a whole bunch of different little subtle and some not so subtle things that say, okay, you're here. I guess the law says we have to respect you, but we're going to tinker around the edges so that we can hold on to power and pretend that everyone's equal. And there are some folks that are still around that will shine a light onto those actions that say, what you're doing isn't right. We aren't going to stand for it and finding allies to fight against these challenges. And that has a lot to do with what the, let's say the white majority or the white dominant population can impose and the ways in which we can allow this to happen in terms of, yes, the law has changed on its face. However, the application of it, the enforcement of it, et cetera, has allowed, again, for, as you say, white people in power to be able to curtail or outright deny these voting rights to populations of color. I am also interested, if you might comment, on the fact of, or the question of how much does the effect of long-term discrimination going all the way and exploitation going all the way back to slavery, how much does that affect the consciousness within people of color so that they may not feel like they can exercise rights that they actually do have or are granted? I think that's sort of the most insidious effect of enslaved people being in this country is sometimes there are folks internally who think they have no chance. There is no way to fight back. And they accept that role of being someone else who's going to dominate, someone else who's going to make those decisions, someone else who's going to be holding me back or creating barriers and there's nothing that I can do. And I think sapping that energy of individuals, I think, is the most hardest and challenging thing that we need to recognize that's there. Individuals of color need to say, you know, we need to sort of make sure our young people have an idea and understanding that folks are fighting out there so those barriers will be removed. I wish I could say there are no barriers and young people don't worry about it, but it's important not just for people of color to recognize we're not going to slip into that role of it's inevitable, but we have an opportunity to change. And voting is one of the strongest tools that we could employ to make sure that this nation lives up to the promise of the Constitution. And you have already mentioned Jerry Mandarin. Just in case we have audience members who aren't quite sure what that is, can you just explain what that process or what that tactic is? And then of course what its effect is. That is a, how do I say the right word, a tool used by legislators who are elected to redraw the lines of who will vote for local elected people. So for example your congressmen or congresswoman, there are certain districts. So if you can draw a district where there are very few black people within that voting area, their power to elect someone that represents their interest gets set. So the power goes to the individuals who are drawing the maps and it was a effective tool in limiting the ability for people of color to elect people to represent them. Yeah, in fact the last couple of decades have seen as far as I know a very successful, somewhat stealthy campaign. Republican legislatures in states around the country who are very, again, successfully redrawn maps to ensure going forward a much less of an opportunity for people of color to make their choices count. And also, again, not coincidentally, increasing the opportunity for Republicans to continue to win in these districts. I think that's an important point for us to emphasize. Why would any person or any group want to do that? It is totally about power. There doesn't have to be some big convention of white people getting together or Republicans getting to say, hey, this is the strategy. They understand it works. Their people can get elected and re-elected if you draw maps around spaces that limit the opportunity for folks of color to gain legislative leaders. Well, and if because we've now touched on this, I can't help but ask and feel free to say, hey, this is a conversation for another day or somewhere else. But it does feel, I said specifically this is Republican legislatures. There is that sense that as between Republicans and Democrats as a party, Republicans are both more willing to and much more effective at using these kinds of tools in order to increase and maintain power. Right. Do you see that as if we are going to postulate just for the purposes of this conversation that the Democratic Party may better represent and align with the aspirations and interests of people of color? If we just accept that for here, do you feel like it's important that the Democratic Party either change its approach to these kinds of things or in some way more effectively find a way to counter what Republicans, again, have been able to do right there in the open for at least a couple of decades now? It is such a challenging tool. When it's used in the wrong way, it harms us all. So it's almost Democrats have to recognize you can't fight that same fire with that same fire. It needs better education. It needs sometimes lawsuits. It needs to challenge people's moral judgment. It's like, why would you do this and you know the effects, the outcome is to limit people of color? So it's a dangerous, dangerous process. And we need to educate folks that it's not done to help us all. It's done in a way to limit someone to take what power they had and enhance someone else. You know, mentioning how important it is to educate people reminds me of the fact that it's only, I think, maybe six years ago or so that the United States Supreme Court was looking at a voting rights issue and basically found part of their conclusion was based on the idea that, hey, things have changed. That things are better now. That we don't have to worry about these things as much anymore. If you had a chance to educate me. Yes, the Supreme Court around that. What would you say? So I actually read that case, the Shelby County, Alabama versus Holder, the Attorney General. The Shelby County in Alabama was challenging the constitutionality of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. And one of their arguments was, hey, guess what? Since 1965, more people of color are registered. People of color are now getting elected to office. How come now us Shelby County gets to be treated differently than any other place in the country? That doesn't seem right to us. But the problem was Shelby County was held to a strict standard that they couldn't change any voting provision without getting permission. So what they were arguing was, please stop requiring us to go get permission to make sure what we're doing isn't disenfranchising people of color. And they said, that's just too tiresome, too burdensome. Well, the reason why the burden was there, because people in Shelby County, well before 1965, were going out of their way to deprive U.S. citizens of color any opportunity to cast a vote. So this Supreme Court decision, did we have nine justices, learned people, scholars in the law, heard a debate about whether or not Shelby County and other parts would be required to ask for permission? And the unfortunate result again. So they caught rule five to four that they were going to remove this requirement of asking for permission. The moment that decision gets passed, they're right there making those sort of changes that do what they were doing well before 1965, that they aren't claiming or standing up and saying, hey, look, we're being racist and we're trying to, it's like, oh, we're trying to make it more fair. But what happens it's being less fair because the opportunity for non-whites to gain access to the ballot box is being restricted. And it is to their benefit or some group's benefit that voting becomes more difficult. Voting is discouraged in a certain area. And I think that is quite challenging, quite alarming. And for folks who have the time and energy, read that decision, Shelby County versus Holder, and read the dissent of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who lays it on the line about how the five justices willing to roll back protections now is not the right place that we want to be. Yeah, it sounds to me and I bet that we could find many, many other examples that kind of are analogous to Shelby County. But it sounds like the argument that was perhaps being made by the attorneys for Shelby County and accepted ultimately by the Supreme Court is that was true before 1965. Then things changed, right? As soon as you have law, then, okay, everything changes. And then we have some data to show that things have improved. So therefore, we don't need anybody monitoring us anymore. And I think what you said is the actual effect of that has been to remove the monitoring and to see evidence that there is a return to pre-1965 type activity on the county level. Unfortunately, that's true. And people are getting very creative about their process. They're creating new ways. But the end effect, if it means people of color are marginalized, we're designing things unnecessarily that takes rights away. And that's not the America that I think a lot of us want to believe exists and that we're a part of. All right. So I think a viewer who has been following this conversation so far is apt to be and reasonably so rather depressed at this moment because what we're talking about is ostensible progress kind of disguising just the ongoing cycles of frankly oppression as we see them in this sphere. So let me ask you, Neil, are there any places or stories in the country at the moment that are encouraging, that are where you see and the NAACP sees that there is progress, real progress, being made? I guess I would start with the NAACP in and of itself. The fact that that organization is 110 years old, we are active here at the Mystic Value Branch. We're active in the state. We're active around the country. And I can assure you we are not asleep at the wheel. We have some learned, well-educated folks who are fighting legal battles where we can. We are out there making sure people get registered to vote. When we start telling people, guess what? They're trying to purge you from the voter rolls so that you have no voice. We want you to pay attention. Some people are paying attention. Some people are getting to the polls. More people are being registered. So we are happy that their actions are forcing us to be energized. But I guess we're hoping that maybe that we didn't have to force people to get energized. But we are not asleep at the wheel. Well, speaking of, that's a perfect segue. You may know it or you may not. But not asleep at the wheel is perfect for what I want to ask you about, which is clearly the NAACP in this state is not asleep at the wheel because just this last week or two has seen the passage of a hands-free law related to the fact that people could no longer be holding their phones in their hands if they are going to be speaking or using their phones in their cars, etc. I think legislation that has taken a while to wend its way through the statehouse and something that people in general are quite supportive of, for obvious reasons. There are real public safety benefits to the law, obviously. However, the NAACP has pointed out that there's a whole other series of considerations. So why don't you lay that out for us? Sure. So I will share that Emily Klein, a Medford resident, a friend of mine, has long been in that battle for getting this bill passed. Unfortunately, her father was killed by a distracted driver. And for years, she has lobbied people to pay attention that these aren't accidents, they're crashes. And we have had some very deep discussions about the NAACP's concerns because the biggest concern that we have was that it was that bill, if not properly written, would give police officers the chance to pull over people of color for no other reason but then being a person of color. So for a long time, there were legislators of color, and I know the New England Area Conference, which is the group of NAACP branch leaders that provides leadership to the local branches, had not been supportive of that bill as it had been written. And we put a lot of pressure on legislators to change the reporting part of the process. There are still people of the NAACP locally that think the bill did not go far enough that there should be more reporting of who gets stopped. My understanding of the bill that passed and got signed is that any time a ticket is issued, then they're going to save that data. But a lot of progress has been made. We understand the bill. It will actually save lives by forcing people to put down their phones and be less distracted. But we also, each and every one of us have to be mindful that for a long time police officers were pulling people over for no other reason that could be explained, but they look different. And that's not the nation that we want to be. So are you saying, though, that this just gives police officers who would be inclined to do that, to get somebody on a DWB, a driving wild black, that this just gives them another tool or another excuse with which to do that? Or is there something specifically about hands-free that would open a door to more of this? No, we were simply looking at the history of the data that says we know there are, the police force in Massachusetts unfortunately does not represent the population here. So right away we're at a disadvantage. So if white officers want to police slightly different and be more stringent on people of color, they have a badge, they have a gun, they have that... They have the authority. They have the authority. And the NAACP questioned the language to say, do they need another tool? And if you're going to create this tool, we really need to have some safeguards because the history of the data tells us black drivers get more scrutiny than white drivers. So lastly, let me ask you just to again focus on the state and the fact that your own experience over a lot of years now with the NAACP has happened within Massachusetts, right? My sense is that the NAACP is fighting battles all over the country and that there are states in which its relationships with the state apparatus are tough. How is it in Massachusetts? I think most of us would like to believe that this is a state which is a collaborator, a willing collaborator with and who are going to be listening to concerns raised by the NAACP in situations such as we've just been talking about. Is that what you have found to be the case? Yes, but it boils down to relationships. It's the ability to meet someone over a table, you can shake their hands, you can hear where they can explain, where they may disagree with you, and they can hear you when you explain how you can disagree with them. It also means that the elected leaders, that they begin to look more like the community. So having more and more women and Latinos and people of color running for office and getting elected means that the leaders who are listening to us begin to change. So yes, in the sense that I've been a part of discussions or meetings with high-level individuals based on my tenure with the NAACP, but there's still more work that needs to be done. It's always finding ways to create that relationship that says, hey, I'm the local branch president for the NAACP, Madam Mayor, can I come talk to you about this issue? And that takes some time, but we're at it. Okay, so very last question. Given the fact that you have experience and you also, I'm sure, have opinions around the situation as local as working with the branch of the NAACP with local entities, mayors, etc., to the state level and then looking at the federal at what's going on at a federal level, how optimistic or pessimistic are you looking out the next year, two years, five years about the issues that matter most to you and your membership? You know, where do you fall? I guess I came out of the room an optimist, so any challenge is an opportunity to create the reality that you want. So for me, I think a year from now, the national presidential elections, I think will sort of draw people's attention. Unfortunately, the current person in the White House tends to draw these distinct lines, but by doing that, folks who are paying attention are saying, okay, we need to get registered, we need to talk to folks, we need to talk to more people about the issue. I think one of the greatest joys of the job that I have as Director of Diversity and Inclusion for the City of Medved, I get to talk about race with people and try to create situations where I'm not forcing it down their throats or telling them they're wrong or their beliefs are wrong. I'm showing them that our future is in our diversity, embracing that. And sometimes having uncomfortable conversations about race will get us to where we need to go. So I am absolutely optimistic and hopeful that this nation is going to get better, and it gets better locally, it gets better by the state, it gets better regionally. But as long as there are folks like yourself who are willing to educate and make sure people know what's out there, I'm in the fight. I have a young daughter and she is becoming a young activist herself. So I have high hopes. Well, you said it. Our future, as you say, is in our diversity. That is true aspirationally, and that is true literally. So let us hope that we can recognize that and that can kind of inform much of the way that we move forward with legislation, just with the way that we treat each other going forward. So I'm happy to join the optimism, the optimism bandwagon for the moment. I appreciate very much you being here for this conversation. It was a real pleasure. James, again, thank you for having me on. Thank you, sir. For Neil Osborn, who again is part of the Executive Committee of the Mystic Valley branch of the NAACP, just the latest of a number of positions he's held with the organization, and on behalf of our series, Justice in the Balance, I'm James Milan. We appreciate you being here.


Well the fun they have, I'll just do the best I can, but I can't find a way to break. That is class, that is Oshine and his song RK. Stay tuned tomorrow at 9 till noon show and remember to help us tell you'll hear Oshine perform that live in studio. First of all the very best. If we get time between 9 and 10 we'll play you the Midnight Preachers who will be here on Thursday and Boy M5 who will be performing live on Wednesday. But we welcome to our next guest and he's an independent singer-songwriter from Germany. For the past couple of years he's been enjoying an increasing amount of airplay on both Irish and UK radio stations and he's been featured with a good friend Fetna O'Brainen on RT and he's been playing his music on his Let Dead shows. And his latest single is called Down to the Sea where he's worked with the Ilham Pipe, Blacky O'Connell from Ennis. I declare one of the driving forces behind the Ennis Tradfest and a true Rory Gallher on the pipes as was written here in front of me. Good evening. Nice to see you and welcome. You're a travelling troubadour, am I right in saying? Yeah, absolutely.  Well I travel everywhere my car would take me. But for the past couple of years it's mostly been Germany, the Benelux and Denmark, Sweden and of course the UK and Scotland and Ireland now for the first time with the car since last year. Is this your first time in Ireland? No, no, no. I have a long lasting love affair with this country and I've been coming here for more than 26 years. Excellent. What part of Germany are you from? I am from the town called Essen which is in the Ruhr area which is a big industrial area in the west. It's about on our north of Cologne and about on our east from the Dutch border but towns like Essen, Dortmund, you know the football Dortmund, people know that. Are you doing that up near Düsseldorf? Neimegen. Neimegen is about to the northeast about 100 kilometres. Düsseldorf, Born and Cologne. Yeah, that's kind of Düsseldorf, Born and Cologne and then kind of northeast of that. I worked there, I worked in Born, I worked in Cologne. Right. Many years ago, 1979. And then I moved up into the north up into this little island off the coast called Borkum. Right. I stayed there myself. I loved it, absolutely loved it. Yeah, well that's a lovely part of the country. I stayed there for six months and myself and my wife way back 40 years ago loved it. Wow. She should have stayed probably. But anyway, your music, you do a lot of songwriting yourself, it's always original songs. It's all original songs, yes. I usually have a cover on the record if it has been travelling with me and if it is meaningful to me. Which I mean a lot of songs are meaningful to me but not all of them I can play. I understand. Who's your musical influence? Oh, wow. A lot of the American songwriters of course grew up with Jackson Brown, James Taylor, but a lot of Tom Petty probably my biggest influence on my songwriting. Steve Earl would have changed my life with his guitar town album in 1986. Yeah. We're going to go into a song right away. I want to talk more about your travelling and your journey and where you hope to be and where you'd like to be. The first song you're going to do is Martin. It's a song called Out of this Town. And this is in reference to you. In reference, it is basically a song about, about, what is it about? I don't really, it's about... Alright. I can't think about what it's about. I'll tell you what to do. I'll just play it and I'll tell you afterwards. We'll work it over ourselves. Thank you very much indeed. If people are looking to, you're fairly active on the social media aren't you? Yeah. You're on Facebook or Twitter? Well Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, yes that's the... That's the three I do. If people want to get in touch with you and Sonda, what? Martin Pretorius Music is it? Martin Pretorius Music for most of them, yes. On Facebook, on Instagram. Twitter wouldn't allow me all those letters. So it's Marty Pretorius from Twitter. They wouldn't allow you to know. No, I don't know if they do know, but when I signed up about 11, 12 years ago. Ah, right. There was a limit to the amount of characters. It's probably different now, but you're used to that now, aren't you? I will, yeah. Tell me this now, you're playing in Cork this weekend. I was playing in Cork last weekend. Last weekend? Yes. I was doing a show at a fellow songwriter's house. He built this beautiful little venue right beside his house, and it sees about 35 people. Excellent. And it has a little stage and a little PA, and it's very tiny and very intimate, and it's absolutely... We were talking about that with our last guest who's on Tanya. Right. And she was saying that that's the thing that's only increasing at the moment, these intimate gigs. Yeah. And they're good for the audience, but they're equally as good for the artist because you're getting a better listening audience. Yeah. Would you agree to that? Absolutely, absolutely. And the closeness is something the audience usually doesn't get. Yeah. And what the artist usually doesn't get is being invited to somebody else's house, you know, meeting the friends and family and being a part of a community. Of course, yeah. Which is absolutely wonderful, you know. Absolutely. Very... Well, I made friendships, you know, on these concerts. That's good. That's good. And where do you perform now? When the next gig or what? What does work? What will you do? Well, I'm basically here in Ireland since last April, and I'm just trying to get into the scene. I'm working with different musicians, you know, and getting to know them, and we'll see where that leads to.  I have been releasing six singles actually from the forthcoming album. Uh-huh. That's going to be out in a couple of weeks, hopefully. And I have been releasing two albums before that under my name. And I have one from back in the 90s when I was with a band. Who... What was the band called? The band was called Scooter and the Street Heart. Scooter was my nickname back then. Right. And we came to a little bit of fame when we were touring in support of Joe Grosjecki and the House Rockers from Pittsburgh. Oh, yeah. And their album back then was produced by Bruce Springsteen. So... Very good. So, well... There's a connection there. There is, somehow. That's good. And as I said to you earlier, you talked about your album coming out in the next couple of weeks. And where did you record that album, or where was that done? The idea to actually put all these songs that I had written in the past couple of years on an album came to me in the first lockdown, really. Yeah. So, basically, I got the people... We never met in the studio. They were all... Everything on this album was recorded remotely. Wow. So what I did was I recorded my guitar and my vocals to a click-tack and send it to the drummer. And he recorded that in the studio which was amazing because he didn't really know where I was going. So he basically anticipated the whole album.  No. No? It's absolutely not because I know the people and I've worked with them before. Oh, you've worked with them before? Oh, yeah. And I trust them completely. Yes, absolutely. I thought it was just a case of you sent it to them and... I know the people. It's a different thing. How many tracks are on the album? I don't know yet. 12, 13. I don't... I'm not sure about the sequence yet. That has to be found. I recorded 14 songs there and so maybe it's going to be 11. I don't know yet. Something around that.  I do write frequently but I am two persons because on the one hand I'm the singer-songwriter on the other hand I'm the producer because I mix this album myself, unfortunately. And so basically when I'm producing and recording stuff I'm not writing. And once that process is over I go back to writing. You know, that's... So the plans for the rest of the years, I think you can tell us anything happening that you're excited about, apart from the album launch? There are no dates in the calendar at this moment. But I'm working on a lot of things but it's just too early to spill anything. So I'm here and like I say I'm collaborating with different musicians and trying to book the tour for the album. I wish you well with that. If people want to get in touch it's through your social media. Social media and there's a website too. That's martinpertorios.net and a newsletter if you want. Brilliant. Well we wish you well. I think the album will be... It's nice to get a body of work out there as an artist isn't it? It is, absolutely. And I was hoping I would be much faster this time but we started recording in June 21 and so basically yeah, almost two years but it usually takes me that I know.  As a performer it affected me massively but I was lucky because I was hunkered down in the north of Germany with a family who were doing house concerts themselves and they have a barn which has a stage so I started streaming life every week and I've done 100 live streams during the pandemic so basically I did it for two years and I missed four in those two years because of holidays or something Christmas. That's a lot of live streams. That was a stream every week. How did you find that? Every Wednesday. I found that first of all it was awkward because you're playing to a camera and you don't know if anybody's there and people started coming into the bubble as I call it. It's my dear bubble. Did you notice a wide variety of people watching from different countries? Yeah. A couple of times I had someone from New Delhi even watching it was amazing. It's amazing what the internet is. Absolutely. There was a positive side to that too because maybe you reach an audience that you might never have reached before. We're going to take a quick outbreak. We're going to come back with another song. This one is going to be called what? It's going to be called House with Yellow Windows. Right. After this break, don't go away. The perfect Mother's Day gift to see the one and only Tom Jones in Belfast. Join us as Highland Radio head the road to see the timeless legend at the headlines Belfast and your standing ticket to the outdoor event. Contact us today on 074 9125,000 to see Tom Jones at Ormo Park Belfast Friday 16th of June. You can rely on a gig a home. You can gig a stream or gig a weekend.  Vodafone gig a home combines super Wi-Fi always connected and secure net. For a broadband connection you can always rely on so get on the gig a train search Vodafone gig a home to find out more Vodafone together we can subject location and availability gig a home is subject to subscription cancel any time eligibility limitations in terms of apply see Vodafone dot IE achieve your fitness goals this year with the latest arrivals at Michael Murphy Sports and Ledger beat your personal best with new trainers from Assix Brooks and new balance or gear up for the gym with active wear and online now with free next day delivery on orders over 85 euro at Michael Murphy Sports Dot IE We at Highland Radio love Irish music and we want to show our support throughout Irish Music Month this March in partnership with hot press magazine we're asking you to support the Irish musicians artists and bands who make every party every drive home and every day magic that's right to celebrate Irish Music Month on Highland Radio we're asking you to support Irish artists and musicians by buying Irish albums Irish tickets Irish t-shirts and Irish Music Merch Irish musicians have shown that they are right up there with the best in the world so let's support them by buying Irish proudly supported by Highland Radio Hot Press IBI and the BAI sound and vision of the Irish Music Month Sleek, smooth, safe, modern oh you want to hear more do you want to drive the most modern car in Johnny Gall there's a reason why it's our county's favourite car the brand new diesel Kia Sportage the multi award winning SUV is available at iMotors now our team will take care of all of your needs visit iMotors.ie or call into us today because how you feel when you drive is important to us lovely song, lovely bit of guitar playing there thank you very good self-taught in the guitar self-taught, yes I think I had two lessons then it's enough for me you were quick if you learnt two lessons oh no no no no no I know what you're saying tell us about your collaboration with Blackie O'Connell a pipe player yeah Blackie I only met Blackie during the last summer I spent a lot of time in Dublin and Blackie and Cyril, Donu and Owen they played together four nights a week in the pubs in Dublin I was told that I had to go see them and so I did and I was absolutely blown away by their sheer musicianship and so I it became a regular thing I tried to see them as often as I could and I had to which I'm not going to play tonight unfortunately oh you're okay yeah down to the sea there was something missing on it and I was thinking of an accordion but then I heard the pipes and I said that's exactly what I wanted there so I talked to Blackie and he said sure you know we can record so we did did you join in the sessions with them when you were down there no no I don't I'm not much of a track player I'm only looking into this and so no I wouldn't be that kind of guitar player no but the pipes worked on the wealthy and the song absolutely yes and have you decided to do any more collaborations yes we just talked about it yesterday and there's going to be at least one more song that's common it's not going to be on the record bud but I have a song that I definitely want to work on with him it's just probably just going to be ill in pipes and vocals what attraction do they reach music what is it about their music you like it is it must be a Celtic thing it is something that is completely missing in Germany is a folk music that is a life and that is rooted in the heart and soul of the people like it is here and it is coming from hundreds of years and it will go on another couple of hundred years you find that in Scotland as well that kind of link I'm sure you would but I haven't spent much time up there so I don't know much about the Scottish thing I know of course a few singers there and of course Eddie Rader I'm a total fan of hers but it's a place here fairly often he's coming on tour actually I've heard that yes but I'm for support well as far as I know the support is taken by by Dee Cullen alright he's going to be on tour with her so good luck to him I want to say thanks very much first of all for coming up to see us we really appreciate it and it's lovely to see you we enjoyed following your social media because you seem to be a busy man so long may that continue and people will travel of course and car and guitar yeah car is the most important thing absolutely but you know what we'd love we'd love if you could tell us about Ronan Lennard Ronan Lennard is my initial link to this country Ronan Lennard walked into a studio I was running in the hometown area in the mid 90s recording and he walked into the studio with a tape he had made in the Canaries and he asked me if I could make CDs of that tape and I said sure I can and he looked at me and we kind of you know we kind of liked each other straight away so he says would you like to listen to it and I said yeah why not you know I had a bit of time so we put the tape into the Dap machine you know and listened to all of the album of 12 songs and afterwards he said you know think of it and I was going like what am I going to do now am I going to tell him the truth but I actually looked at him and said listen I love the songs he's a great writer but I didn't like the production because it was all MIDI files and it sounded like plastic really it lacked the warmth and everything but he totally agreed and to make a long story short we recorded that whole album over again with my band at the time and released it and that was another one called Faraway Hills and a year later so he invited me to Ireland for Christmas so I came here on Stevens Day actually in 1996 and the rest is history good story very good indeed well listen as I say the pleasure's been ours we'd love to get another song if you don't mind this final song you're going to do for us is is a song that I kind of half wrote myself and the lyrics I picked out of thin air because they were coming to me when I was writing the song it was at the time I was I was running this recording studio and if you have your own recording studio you never have time to do your own music so late at night I was in there and this chord progression happened in my head all day and so had the melody and the first lyrics that came to my mind were of an Irish children's rhyme so I married the two and this is what I made we're looking forward to hearing this whoops I have to sorry online tuning we chill because we care take your time tell me ma why don't you go home the boys won't leave the girls alone on my hair and they still don't come that's alright till I get home she is handsome she is pretty she's the bell bellphile city she's a chord in one two three won't you tell me it says he loves her boys fighting for her thumbs on her fingers bells on her toes old John Murray says she'd die if she doesn't get the fella she is handsome she is pretty she's the bell bellphile city she's a chord in one two three traveling from the sky she's a snake she's apple pie she gets home does that look moony she is handsome she is pretty she's the bell bellphile city she's a chord in one two three won't you tell me who is she she is pretty I love what you've done with that works so well just like a lovely story I think it really puts a totally different aspect on the lyrics you know it makes them an adult story it actually does I love that very well have you recorded that? I have recorded that kind of like a radio release is your music available online if people want to get it? my music is available online but only on Bandcamp I'm not on Spotify or any of the streaming services I know it's it's a sharp edge you know I'm walking on because it probably relimits my reach but I don't know I actually kind of don't like the idea of having the the music library of the world actually display for 15 quite a month it doesn't work for the artist I agree with you but anyway listen to it this is your Martin Pretorius check him out on his social medias and a travelling troubadour and we wish you well on your travels and we hope you stay safe and maybe you'll come back and see us some more time I would love to thanks for having me Martin thank you very much


Okay, how many people have you known that when you started in your business, that was the person you looked up to because they were the number one earner in your store? They seem like they were the best. You know what? They're not the best anymore. This is a big one. This is a big one right here. This says downslides after success. Who in here has done something really successful and then how to downslide? Freakin' socks, right? You see this? I damn sure didn't draw this. This is my brother, right? He's a good drawer.  He draws it like Pictionary. We make a killer Pictionary team, right? Brandon, where you at? Brandon, do me a favor. I want you to watch. And by the way, this morning as we're talking about this stuff, this is before we get training. Does everybody understand I'm building a house right now? They're working on the foundation before they build the house, okay? The foundation is more important than the home itself because even if we go and build a cool house, if it's built on sand, not on good foundation, it's gone. Can I ask you a question? How many of you in here want to make money for one year and how many of you in here want to make money until you die? You feel me? How many people do you know that had a great marriage at one point that don't have it anymore? One time you looked up to them and you're like, man, they're awesome. They're really cool. Now they're not together, okay? How many times, right?  And today they're just so lost, okay? How many people have you known that when you started in your business, that was the person you looked up to because they were the number one earner in your store. They seem like they were the best. You know what? They're not the best anymore. How many times have you seen a guy hit a month? He's killing it, crushing it. But then the next month, I am not interested in that life. Listen to this. There's only one word in my life. It's called scale, S-C-A-L-E. If I cannot get better every single month, it kills me. It's like a vampire getting staked in the heart, okay? How do you feel about it? How do you feel about it? You willing to go backwards again? You better not be, okay? It's to maintain, increase, and multiply until you die.  And by the way, he's really good at drawing, but we talked about this and I'm gonna have him explain it to you. Yeah, so we talked about this in two parts. One is the basically the self-inflicted wound, okay? So we talk about pride before the fall. Having that great month thinking, okay, I've got this or whatever, letting loose a little bit, letting your guard down a little bit.  There's the second part to that, which is just out of your control. So we have this guy, he's slid down, he's in the valley now, but he's got something lighting his path now. He's got this lamp that he's holding before him. He's also holding a book here, representing knowledge, truth, wisdom, things he's growing, he's training. The lights in front of him, doesn't matter that he's in the valley, that he's in this shadow. The shadow's behind him though. The shadow's his past, okay? He's moving away from that. He's moving forward. He's not scared. He's not worried. He's actually very confident in the light that he's holding in front of him. So he's got a little grin on his face.  Doesn't matter how hard it gets, he's good to go. He's gonna climb back out of this, but the light's gonna guide his way. Now watch this guys. I wanna tell you, this is my brother explaining that to you. Notice some key things here. Money, you're crushing it, right? You have a bad month. The month isn't as big as the last months. You know what happened? Guys, that's called a down slide. How you'll handle a down slide will determine how successful you'll be. Understand that, and I would write that down, okay? Because you're all gonna have them. How fast can you recover? He explained that the shadow behind the man, the shadow behind him, it's behind you. It's your past. Understand this, how many people, right? The down slide, they keep thinking about it while they're wishing they could go forward.  The shadow is behind you, move forward, okay? Look, every person in this room, right? Every person in this room probably doesn't deserve what it is that they could get. It's the truth, but that's behind you, including me. That's behind you. Look at the grin on this guy's face. I love this, probably my favorite part. This is the way I run through life. With the grin, I'm always excited. You know why?  Are you kidding me? When you're on a down slide, you've been in so much worse shittiness before. It doesn't bother you. You know you're coming back up. What's your light? Well, number one, this was me. Look in his hand, training, growing, getting better. I was always studying.  Let me explain what that means. Massive discipline had to come back into place. I had to take myself back down to ground zero. Watch this. We call this an emergency move. In my company, I'm doing this. This, this, all of a sudden plateau or this. I don't know why. Boom, we go back to zero fast. Stop, we chill. No more eating out, okay?  Done, lock it up. We're done. We're going back to ground zero. Remember when we drove the $2,000 cars, baby? Yeah, you got a 300 grand car paid off in the driveway.  You go back to the mindset of driving a two grand car.


Hey guys, what is up? Welcome to my channel. For today's video, we are going to be doing an episode of Shop or Drop, where I go through all the new makeup on Trend Mood's Instagram, and I tell you whether or not I will be shopping for the item or dropping them from my shopping list. As always, this idea was, of course, inspired by Samantha March's Will I Buy It series. So if you wanna go over some new makeup, talk about some news in the beauty industry, all that good stuff, then just keep watching. Hi guys, if you're new here, my name is Morgan. I am a product knowledge enthusiast. I just love knowing anything and everything about all of the new makeup on the market and sharing my thoughts with you guys. So this is always the first dive in to tell you what to expect on my channel, what you should not expect, and all of that good stuff. So let's start it off right here. This is not a makeup launch, but I mean, it's right there, right there, very close. So Jacqueline Roxanne, Jacqueline Hill, just launched a jewelry line, which is available right now on her website. I actually did not pick up anything, so let's give that a drop. Now it's not that I didn't like the pieces. I actually saw a few necklaces and earrings that I was very interested in, especially the necklace that was layered. I was super interested in that, but I did see on her Twitter that she was having issues, and I forgot about the launch, and then I saw that on Twitter and I was like, hmm, don't need it. I have a great collection of jewelry already. I make my own jewelry. I buy from a lot of other places as well. So it just wasn't anything that I need. I mean, I think the jewelry was a fair price point, but it still was like kind of expensive, you know? So I decided to pass. I don't love all of the pieces. I think some are a little bit outdated, but for the most part, I think she was very thoughtful with the pieces that she designed. And overall, I think it's a really great launch, really great collection. Very excited for her, but I just didn't buy anything. I don't know. I actually, you know what? I don't know if they have anything in stock, but some of these pieces might make good Christmas gift for somebody I have in mind. So I might actually pick up something for a gift, but not for myself. So I'm dropping it just because I have a lot of jewelry already. Okay, these looked very interesting. M Cosmetics has launched these highlights. And at first I wasn't very interested because there's just so many highlights that we have. It takes one of my favorite brands launching a highlight for me to actually be interested in. I trust the items that M Cosmetics comes out with, but they aren't one of my target brands. But what has made me raise my eyebrows is Michelle Fun, the owner of this brand, talks about how she didn't like us.  So she created a formula that worked very well for her skin type and sat on the skin very pretty. And for some reason I just have a really good feeling about these highlights. I'm gonna drop them for now, but this is something where maybe Black Friday if M Cosmetics has a really good sale or they have a bundle. I can see this highlight being in my collection eventually, but I'm not jumping on board quite yet. So it is a drop right now, but I really do have a good feeling about these highlights. I don't think Michelle Fun would steer us wrong. So I'm actually kind of excited to see what other people think about these highlights, because I think they're gonna be amazing. M Cosmetics does not come out with bad products. Okay, so I actually love this collection. So this is already launched. I mean, it's past Halloween, but Colourpop launched the Nightmare. Oh, I forgot to move over. Here we are. Colourpop launched the Nightmare, before Christmas collection. I don't like Halloween, and I actually am sometimes on Colourpop's PR list. I get some of their launches and I actually did receive this launch. I had no interest in picking this up for myself. If it's a collection I really love, I'll buy it just in case they don't get it in PR. Didn't buy this, dropped it. However, now that I have it in my collection, if I knew what I know now, I most certainly would have picked this up, because even though I don't really like Halloween, I've never seen the Nightmare before Christmas. I mean, I probably have when I was younger, but it has no meaning to me. The collection itself is amazing. The packaging is amazing. The palette I think is an interesting enough color story. I don't think Colourpop really has a color story like this. Everything about this collection, I love. The quality on this one seems really good so far from what I've swatched. So it was a drop, but I'm gonna switch it over to Shop. Knowing what I know now, if you're interested in it, I think you will really enjoy this collection. It's awesome. So I'm speaking from experience, that one is worth the shop. Lisa Eldridge is a brand. I think a lot of you guys really enjoy, but it's not a brand that I have dabbled into yet. I've never tried anything from the brand, but your love for the brand is really making me think twice. I've heard nothing but great things about the foundation, and then there is also these eyeshadows. I believe this is already launched already. I'm dropping for now, and it's not because I'm not curious. I absolutely am, but just, it's so busy during the holiday season with video ideas that I really don't want to add more onto my plate. Like if this had launched in, say, I don't know, February, March, April, May, when the makeup industry is a little bit slower, I would have picked these up, but right now I don't wanna buy anything and just feel too busy and not review it, but I'm really interested in eventually picking up the foundation because I've heard nothing but great things. The eyeshadows, though, I try and stay away from buying liquid eyeshadows because they're the ultimate product that attracts me. I love a liquid eyeshadow, but then they sit in a drawer and I never use them, so unless they're for my favorite, favorite brands, I'm not gonna pick up any liquid shadows. So drop for now. I don't have the time for it. I think the next collection that feels right for me to pick up, I want to add that foundation on. I really, really do. I honestly didn't even know this launched until I was going through trend mood. This is a stunning collection by Colourpop, right up my alley, The Quartz Collection. I believe it has already launched these singles. I'm very, very, very attracted to. The palette looks really nice. Do I want that? No, no, no. I can't buy more Colourpop. We're gonna drop that, but I don't think it will take much for me to want to pick that up. Honestly, if Colourpop has a good Black Friday sale, I might be picking up this collection. We're gonna say drop for now, because I don't need it, but I really just looking at this have nothing but positive things to say. Wow, cool tones are really popular now. I used to have to search and dig for a good cool tone palette, and so many good ones have come out now. And what is also kind of having me back away from this collection is I did get a PR package of a collection that I'll talk about later, The Mandalorian Collection, and one of the palettes looks similar to that, so that's why I'm going to back off on that. All right, Melt Cosmetics has, they had like a pre-launch, and then it will be launching again at a later time. The Amore Imari Posas Collection, and oh, you guys, I had decided that I was gonna shop the eyeshadow palette, but everything in this collection looks incredible. A little bit not my style, honestly, but the PR box is like $400, it looks incredible. I was gonna shop the eyeshadow palette, not the entire collection, but I'm gonna brag here because I'm really excited. They're sending this to me in PR, and let's be honest here, you guys, I don't know why they're sending this to me in PR because I have said some very not nice things about Melt, and I will continue to if they don't keep up the pace, but Melt Cosmetics is very hit or miss. I was gonna buy this palette because it's the first big palette that they were gonna have. I wasn't necessarily in love with the color story, it looked, it was a bit out there for me, but I just needed to know, you know, for my research purposes, but I am so excited that they are sending me the PR box, so unbelievably thankful. Again, like I said, I don't know if they know what they're getting into by sending me it, but I know for a fact the PR package is gonna be amazing. We'll just have to see about the colors. So it was a shot for me, not the whole collection, but the palette, everything else was a drop for me, but you will see it coming soon on my channel, that's for sure. Okay, this is random, but I just wanted to talk about this because I totally took a double take. So this is she glam official, which I believe is she ins, right? Maybe it's not, I could be wrong. This, I could have sworn was Denessa Myricks, and this is an affordable makeup brand, so we have multi-chrome highlights, eyeshadow palettes, liquid eyeshadows, these are available now. Wow, that palette in the upper left I'm very attracted to, the liquid shadows look awesome. I'm gonna be dropping it just because again, time-wise, but if I had the time, I think I would have picked these up because if these are good, like being able to get products like this at a good price, unheard of for these multi-chrome style products, I mean the packaging I can tell looks a little cheap, but these products look expensive. These types of products are expensive, yeah. Okay, Artist Couture has launched, and this launched last week, liquid eyeshadows. I really love some Artist Couture products, but I'm gonna be honest, in some ways, Artist Couture is a little chaotic to me, I just feel like, I don't know, I don't know. There's just like, most of the products from Artist Couture honestly don't appeal to me, and these don't, mostly for the fact that I'm just over liquid shadows, I know my behavior with them, so it is a drop, but they look pretty, it's just a little late to be launching liquid shadows in my opinion. Okay, a little bit of beauty news for you, if you guys didn't see this, Tati Beauty is now closed, I did watch the video, I'm sure it had to do with her litigation stuff. It's very sad that we never got to see this brand really grow, we only had the one product, and then the face product, and honestly, I did not like this palette, I didn't like the quality of it, but I mean, the layout of it, the curation of it was genius in my opinion. I love palettes that visually look like that, and are organized in a way that makes sense. I mean, I thought that this was a great first palette, and I thought it signaled to me that the brand was gonna be awesome, there's gonna be some very good releases, whether or not I would've liked the quality, I don't know, cause I didn't really like the quality of this, but yeah, I mean, I'm really sad for Tati. I don't want anybody's business to close, you know what I mean? Would love to see her belt's back come back with something else, but it is really, really sad because I feel like this was a brand, obviously that had so much potential, and in terms of creating makeup, I felt like Tati kinda knew what she was doing, I loved her vision for the palette, I would've loved to see it expand, I would love to know some of her ideas, but yeah, very, very, very sad. It never really even got a chance to do anything, you know? Okay, Lunar Beauty launched the Outer Dimension Collection, and I believe this is like a face palette, I did not watch his launch video on this, but it looks like it's a bronzing brightening powders for the skin, we have some lip products as well, a face product, I don't know, I'm like, face palettes don't excite me, that's a me thing, I think the packaging looks really, really neat, the concept of it looks really cool, and actually for makeup artists, this looks incredible, and I am a makeup artist, I never thought about it from that perspective, I'm not getting it, I don't need a face palette, I can actually see this being very useful, I do like to mix different colors on my own face, and layer, especially when I do clients as well, so I don't think it's like not useful, I just, I don't know, I didn't pick it up, I bet you if I watched his launch video, I would probably want to pick it up knowing me, but I'm dropping it, I don't feel the need to have a face palette, and you guys know I'm off of lips, and I don't need brushes. Okay, this one looked interesting to me, this is, I'm sorry, I don't know the person who created this brand, but is it Chiara for, I don't know the name, sure, or is it Chiara, Chiara, for, I don't want to be disrespectful, let me stop it anyways. I just thought that this was an interesting launch for a brand, it kind of looks like Nopla cosmetics, but I love how different the eyeshadow palette is, I love the packaging of the lipsticks, pink and glittery, it can run along the lines of maybe a little childish and cheap looking, but I like it, I don't know anything about the person behind the brand, I don't know anything about this brand, it seems as though it is going to launch in Europe, but I just wanted to say for me not knowing the person, and for this to be a first launch, this looks very, very promising, it's different, it's fun, unlike some other new brands that are gonna come out, so I'm excited about this one, just, I don't know, we'll see, I feel like I might be talking about this brand having really fun launches later on, so something I did want to mention was that, this is what I told you we were going to talk about, so part two of the Star Wars collection with ColourPop, and I don't watch Star Wars, so this has no meaning to me, but I have been eyeing the Child Palette, which is the Baby Yoda Palette for so long, it has been in my cart so many times, I've just never pulled the trigger because of the size of my eyeshadow collection, I am so pumped because ColourPop ended up sending this collection to me and PR, and yeah, I mean I was gonna shop this regardless, I'm so happy to have the whole collection, I love the colors of the Baby Yoda Palette, and then we have another new palette, which is also gorgeous and cool toned, really excited about this collection, could have passed on the lips, but the merch my mom is excited about, she loves Baby Yoda, so she's keeping the mirror and the bag for herself, this one's a shop, I love the color stories of these eyeshadow palettes, and even though I don't watch Star Wars, Baby Yoda is still cute to me, so I love the color story, I love that they did a part two, very excited about this, I wanted to talk about this, I wanted to go a little bit more in-depth on my thoughts about this launch, yeah, I've been keeping an eye out for Rem Beauty, which is Ariana Grande's makeup brand, this is probably one of the most anticipated makeup brands, Fenty, Selena Gomez, and then Ariana Grande is right in that group for celeb makeup brands that we've all been excited for, and I have to say, I am underwhelmed, the packaging, it looks really cheap to me, it could be different in person, it could feel different, but just from these promo photos, it looks like you could pull it out of somebody's dirty makeup bag from the early 2000s, that's what it looks like to me, really cheap, listen, I am an Ariana Grande fan, I am not an Ariana Grande fan, so I don't know everything about her, I like her music, I think she's really pretty, I was excited for her makeup brand, but this looks like cheap drugster makeup from the 2000s to me, I don't know, I mean, it could be different in person, but I watched Kelly Gooch's video on her thoughts on the brand, and what she thought the brand should have been, I wholeheartedly agree with everything she said, it's a great video, I'll link it down below, she said that maybe it would have been more on brand for her to come out with more pastel colors, or even if the packaging was more pastel colors, I don't know why I said pastel, pastel colors, yeah, no, colors look boring to me, the packaging, I am sorry, I really hate the packaging from these photos, I probably would have expected something more glam and a little bit more girly for this launch, something that felt a little bit, not luxury, but like more glam, a little bit more showy, you know, glittery, I don't even know if that's Ariana Grande's vibe, but for some reason that's what I was expecting, something pastel, I don't know, I mean, the prices are right, I think the prices are nice, they're not too expensive, what did catch my eye was a pair of lashes, I thought some of the lashes looked really good, when I think of Ariana Grande's makeup, I think of that pulled back kind of cat eye, so it looks like the eyelashes kind of have that feature, I don't even know if I'm gonna pick anything up from this brand, I think for Curiosity's purpose, I am gonna shop this, but if I didn't have a YouTube channel, it would definitely be a drop, so actually let me know, do you want to see me review these, do you want me to tell you what's up, I don't even know if it's gonna be worth it, it's maybe the quality is really good, I hope I can be proven wrong, I'm gonna shop it, we'll just say shop for now, I'm still kind of thinking about it, at the time that this is up, it's already launched, but other than me here, I shopped it this morning, about one of every formula, so it therefore is a shop, underwhelmed, it's a great word to put it, okay, the next launch that we have, and I saw a lot of you actually tagged me in this, this is available now at Tart, it's the Tartlet Full Bloom Palettes, I'm dropping this, I don't want this, I've never really been a big fan of the Tart eyeshadow formula, but I think this is a neat idea, looking at this palette, the shades look a bit redundant, a few of them, I bet you a number of them are gonna look the same on the eye, just because the colors, there's so many colors, but there's only like really three to four true shades, in this palette, so I imagine a lot of these shades might not be that useful, I imagine a lot of these shades might look the same, honestly, if I had a small makeup collection, though I'd be really excited about this, because they're pretty wearable colors, not for me though, I'm dropping it, but I know a lot of you guys were excited, and I can definitely see that, especially if you like the Tart formula, you kind of stay in this color zone, I think it's a good palette, like I like the idea of it, but logistically dropping it, I don't need it, okay, the next item that we have, makeup by Mario has launched some nude eyeshadow quads, and these look beautiful, it looks like there's a couple more glittery dimensional shades, those look wonderful as well, I will be dropping them, well you know what, I'm going to Sephora tomorrow, and I could totally see myself seeing these in person and buying them, so as of now, if I stay my butt at home, I'm dropping these, but I cannot make any promises while I'm at Sephora tomorrow, but I like how there's a nude one, two, and three, honestly nude three looks the most attractive to me, I'm kind of into them, I'm going to say drop, but don't hold me to it if I come home with these, because you know I don't need these, but we'll see in person if I see them tomorrow, I believe they should be in stores. Another update, I did go to Sephora today, they didn't have them, so these are going to successfully be a drop, okay I did want to talk about this, I've never heard of this brand before, but I've heard of the person who collabed, so this is Milan Ro Makeup, and they collabed with Doodles by the Bunny to create this eyeshadow palette, and you guys, I actually really want to buy this to support Doodles by the Bunny, because she is so talented, she creates her own ballads, like she draws them out, and if I was a makeup company, I would jump on hiring her and having her on my team, or collaborating with her just like Milan Ro, because she is such a clear vision, and if her drawings came to life, that makeup brand would do so well, you just gotta check out her Instagram page, but yeah this palette looks really cool, I like the color story here, really thought out as I knew it would be, the only thing that I'm unsure about is because I don't know the brand and the formulas, but I do want to support Doodles by the Bunny, so I might have to pick this up, let's say Sha, it's tentative right now, but if I see her post tomorrow, I'll probably just pick it up, because she is so talented, all right guys, that's it, sorry, I didn't realize that's where we were ending, but there we go, those were all my thoughts on the new makeup that's currently coming out, I try and get these videos out about every two to three weeks, so that's what I can cover for now, let me know your thoughts on what I talked about, seriously what are your thoughts on Ariana Grande's makeup line, do I need to review it, do you feel how I feel? Anyways, I hope you guys enjoyed this video and you found it helpful, if you aren't subscribed to my channel already, I would love it if you would consider taking the time to do so, and I will see you all in the next one, bye guys, have a good one.


Welcome everybody to game coding pie game platformer camera basics. This video we're going to learn how to add a camera to our simple platformer demo program. So hopefully you watched the previous video if you haven't go back and watch that. So of course I'd like to give a quick shout out to my members joining Kevin as a paddle member third month of membership. Thank you so much is Paul very much appreciate that. And thanks to everybody else who has supported the channel feel like to support channel directly click join down below. So moving on let's take a look at what we have so far. So this is our simple platformer and I can move left and I can move right. I could jump and player falls off the screen comes back to the top. So what we want to do is make it so that there is a camera following the player windows is simply as possible. What we have now would work really really well for a game like say Donkey Kong where the screen doesn't move just the player and the objects in the game. But what we want to do is we want to think like Mario and we want the game you know the background of the game to scroll and the player to kind of stay on the screen. So that's what we're going to be doing today is adding a camera. It's actually fairly simple to do. So why don't we go ahead and get started.  Basically what we're going to do is we're just going to worry about the X coordinate for now. So we want the player to stay basically centered and when the player moves the background moves. So if I move to the left you know the player should stay in the middle but the background should move to the right. If the player moves to the right the background should move to the left because it is relative to the player's position. And again it's fairly simple to do this. Now I'm going to do this a little bit more complicated way just to give us some more options later. And to do that I want to create a camera object or a camera class. So I'm going to say class camera and this is just so that we can keep track of where the camera is supposed to be. And we're going to initialize it and we're going to initialize it with a starting X coordinate and a well we'll say with a starting object to follow. Now I could have done this with an XY coordinate but we're going to use an object. And so I'm going to call that the target. And so the one I'm going to say is self.x equals target.x self.y equals target.y. And this all makes sense in a little bit. So I'm going to hit save. And then I've created the class. So that means now I need to go ahead and create the object. So I'm going to create that after I create the blocks and I could have created it before but it's got to go after the player and I'll explain why in a second. So camera, so I'll put the little thing here, so create camera object. So the camera equals the camera and what I want this camera to do is to follow the player. So the camera in this particular game is going to be centered on the player. Everything else is going to be moving relative to that player. Now let's look at the code again. Player, where was it? Camera. So our target is the player. So we set the cameras x-corded to the target's x-corded, we set the cameras y-corded to the target's y-corded which of course is the player in this situation. And what we have to do now is to update our render method because all the magic is actually going to happen here in render. So I'm going to go ahead and put player.render player and it's a little redundant because the player is actually following itself. But we can change that, we can make it another object on the screen if we wanted to. And the blocks are also going to be displayed relative to the player. So this is the object that we are focused on. So I'm going to go up to the render method and watch what I do here. Again, as I mentioned earlier, we're just going to be dealing with the x-coordinate. So when I draw this rectangle, I'm going to go ahead and put in here minus camera dot x. And that's what I have to put here, camera. Because the render method now is sending the object that we want to follow. This isn't going to work yet. I'm kind of walking you through the process that I did when I was trying to figure this whole thing out. Just took me a couple tries, to be honest. So as I mentioned earlier, if the player is moving to the right, we want the background to move to the left and vice versa. That's why this is minus and not plus. Let's go ahead and run it and see what happens. So we've got a little bit of a result that we wanted. Now it's not centered, so I'm going to try and move the player. So you see how the player is moving or the background is moving, but the player is not. The player is staying stationary, but at least in the X coordinate. So everything's still working. It's doing exactly what we want it to do.  And that's going to be a very, very easy fix. So I'm going to go ahead and click on and put this. And you notice how it was off to the left. So I'm just going to add width, which was the width of the screen, divided by 2.0. Now I'll give us a little bit of an extra offset. Now I'll put it just back to the center. So now if the player moves left, the player moves right, and that is keeping everything right where we want it to be. And if I fall off the screen, it resets right back to where we wanted it to be, which is pretty cool. Yeah, that was it, actually. I had actually some extra code. My original version required a little bit of extra code, but I guess this is all we need for that. I actually had an update method. And I guess for this particular one, we don't need that. But I did update it. Let's just kind of play around with this, since this was a lot faster than I thought it would be. Let's go ahead. I just want to try this, because I haven't done it before. I want to try the same thing with Y. You notice how in this particular thing, it still falls down. And then it falls off. But what happens if we wanted to keep it centered? I mean, in a game like Mario, which is what I'm kind of aiming for, I don't need to worry about Y.  And then let's say there's another platform off the screen, and that platform will come down. So let's see if we can add that. Again, I haven't tried that before, but let's give it a roll. Let's see what happens here. So I'm just going to do the same thing. Let's say minus camera dot Y. And I think this is going to be minus because of the reverse in the Y coordinate. The Y coordinate is positive going down. So let's just try it. I'm just kind of curious. I haven't tried this before. OK, well, it kind of worked. So it is working. Maybe that should have been a plus. I'm not sure. I thought that should have been a minus. Or maybe this should be camera. That's minus. Well, let's try it. I'm not really sure which one it's supposed to be. But it's only four possibilities. Let's try them all. OK, so that's kind of what I wanted. So you notice how the player is staying. The player actually never moves. I'm going to put my mouse there on the player. So the player doesn't move. But everything else moves around it. So you can see how you could really build up a different type of game where it goes up. And if you fall. If you fall, it falls off and it resets. But you can change those numbers later. So that's pretty cool. This is actually working out a lot better than I thought. And it was actually a lot easier to do than I thought. Now that said, I'm going to take that Y coordinate out of there just because I don't really need it for this particular type of game. I'm going to leave that out for now. But I'm going to test it real quick again. And left, right. Because I want this to be more like Mario and less like other games where you'd be moving up and down. And action. So that is that. Very, very easy. I was surprised at how easy that was. So I'll just review real quick. I created a new class called Camera. And the camera is set to the position of the target, which in this case is the player. And so we create the object. And then when we render, we have to use the player as our object. And that's why, OK, that's why it worked. OK. That's pretty cool. I didn't actually use the camera. So let's put the camera in there. That's why it was so easy. So let's go ahead and run that. And I'll show you. Yeah, and now it's not working. OK. Oh, that's genius. I'm going to put camera here too. So let's go ahead and run that. That should have been camera. So it's moving, but nothing else is moving now. And the reason is that I set this original location to the original location of the player. So now the player is moving, but I haven't updated the camera. And that's why I needed the update method. So I guess I was right the first time. So I'm going to make an update method for the camera. And I want to move it to the location of the player. And so up here in my camera method, or my camera class, I'm going to say Def Update, Self, and Target. So what I need to do is I just need to keep updating the target. So self.x equals target.x, self.y equals target.y. Now again, if you're not really worried about the camera, you just want to keep it directly focused on the player, you don't need to do this. But what I want to add later, and I'm not going to do it in this video, is I'll explain it in a second. So OK, now it's working back to the way it was. What I want to be able to add is so that the player can move a little bit in this direction, a little bit in that direction, and then. And so it moves a little bit in here, so the background doesn't scroll the whole time. That's something I'll add later when I get around to it. But I just wanted to get, this is what I wanted to get done, and talk about basically how cameras work. So that is what I wanted. And again, if you're just going to stay focused on that player, you can do what I did with the, you can just basically skip the camera and just update the render method. So really, basically, if you were willing to just, basically this is the only thing you have to update here. And then instead of sending a camera, you would just send the target, and that'll keep it focused. And the way I did it was so that eventually I could kind of play around with the camera physics and actually have a camera shake and do things like that later. So that's why I did it with a camera object, because it gives you a bit more flexibility later. So yeah, so that's it. Hope that was educational. And yeah, kind of interesting, different ways to approach things. So thanks for watching. Again, thanks so much to my members. And if you'd like to join, click Join down below. And yeah, keep on coding. Take care.


coach Steve Nash as he addresses the media post game talking about this 50 West Coast swing. Coach of the five and all on a road to this never happened before in French and I sister and so you guys just just accomplished that feat given with the way that you guys have played you know what from your vantage point are you most proud of in the way that you guys compete. I think that's it is the level of competitiveness we show consistently through the trip. Now going back to the Indiana game we've competed very well scrapped but also our concentration levels have been high. I don't think today was was you know perfect by any stretch. There's lots of breakdowns but our hustle and overall desire I think carried us for stretches and that's the way it's got to be sometimes.  You lose Jeff late you lose TLC a little bit early in the game. No KD but you still found a way to get the W and your 6th straight victory. Yeah positive for sure. I mean that's that's what it takes you know you got to win in different ways. Sometimes you're going to go through adversity obviously not having Kevin as a big blow but then TLC when we already were at eight man rotations tonight and then you know eventually Jeff so it's you know we put ourselves in a position to be able to weather those things made it interesting at the end but you know I thought over the course of the night playing well enough to win the game. Christian Winfield with the New York Daily News. Coach I'm not sure how many times we're going to see guys go down and then guys just find ways to win. I mean first you watch James win a game well not James you guys win a game with only James with Kyrie and KD out and then today you got Jeff going out TLC. I mean is this team kind of just built to I guess sustain itself despite players dropping in and out. I wouldn't I wouldn't go that far. You know I think it's you know you you don't want to build that as your model. So I think we show toughness. We show mental toughness and belief and connectivity by continuing on this trip no matter who was available or what the situation was down 24 Phoenix. Give up the lead tonight and are tied late. You know overall just show like that toughness that isn't non-negotiable if you want to be a great team and some of that toughness and resolve it has to be built. It's not just something you turn on. So you know I think that's what's really positive is just showing willingness to win in different ways and willingness to lock in and win games that look different on a night to night basis and that's important. Brian Lewis with the New York Post. I see two part one. I was just trying to see if you had any kind of clear idea on how TLC and Jeff were doing.  What started working for you there? I don't have an update on those two. I think they're still being monitored and figured out what their diagnosis is. But you know I thought the stretch in the second quarter our defense picked up we came up 21 points I believe in the in the second quarter you know which was outstanding. We didn't turn the ball over in that stretch in big shots. But you know make or miss you know when you're able to hold a team like that that is shooting the ball so well and has incredible scores to 21 points in the quarter I think that that is the the foundation of going on some runs. So that was I think the the best part and then like taking care of the basketball helps our defense and also clearly helps your offense and then you had it all up we were able to separate a little bit by the half we were able to maintain that so nearly the end of the game and uh and help out.