The Romance of the Ranchos New Mexico 1841 workman Roland party starts for California Los Angeles 1846 American's lives saved by revolt Los Angeles 1876 panic closes Southland banks The title insurance and trust company of Los Angeles presents the Romance of the Ranchos a weekly Dramatization of the colorful events which make up the history of our southern California each week our wandering Vecchero Frank Graham tells another true story of famous people and happenings rich in romance and adventure Now a word from the title insurance and trust company about a kind of insurance that takes precedence over all others today Victory insurance That's what your regular purchases of defense bonds and stamps really are For the money that's made available to our government in this time of greatest need We'll provide the planes tanks guns and bombs that alone can ensure our victory And don't forget that in buying this victory insurance. You're also ensuring the future financial well-being of your family Defense bonds are a sound business investment guaranteeing a definite and substantial return So put your dimes and dollars to work for America and for you do it now Do it regularly do it often and now here to tell us the story as our wandering Vecchero Frank Graham We're not no chase senior assi senores Our story tonight concerns two of the Southland's early pioneers Partners in ownership of a vast tract of land in the fertile San Gabriel Valley The great ranch on a pointy of William workman and John Roland here is a story rich in the romance of the ranchos Our story starts about the year 1841 when two business partners in the little New Mexican town of Taos near Santa Fe Discussed an important matter But John does this mean that our partnership is to solve that you're striking out on your own of course not Bill Who ever said anything like that? Well Well the firm of William workman and John Roland is gonna go on as long as we live as long as we live and maybe longer Now that ain't the idea at all It's just that we'd be well transferring operation somewhere else, but you want to go to California. Oh sure sure I want to go to California. You want to take a look around See if it looks like a good place to settle down and start our business all over again You know we can't stay here. No, we can't Get him more unhealthy every day Sure, Ben Wilson says that are me. Oh the governor has gotten word somehow rather that the Texas boys are Organizing to march in here and take over new Mexico Bad enough for Americans here now, but when that happens none of us will be safe from these new Mexicans and Indians And we got to get out while there's still a chance. Yes, you're right, but then California That's a long way off. It's another Mexican province. There aren't many Americans there Why don't go back to Missouri back to civilization? What chance did we have? No, Bill. We ought to go out there where we can start something Well, we have a chance to really make a place for ourselves Not just get in on the tail end Yes Well, perhaps you're right Seems like a peculiar place to start a business out on the wilderness where there's nobody to do business with Yeah, you may be right. That's what I want to find out Why I'm going out there Anyways, I've always had a hankin to see it Ever since the first time I heard tell about California.  All right Yeah, more than that though.  I trust your judgment, John Go on see what you can find Whatever you decide will be all right with me as long as we have to move anyway. It might as well be west I suppose good. I'll make arrangements to leave right away. Man, that's a hard trip In fact, nobody's ever made it except a few trappers. How'd you get there? He seemed to forget Bill. It well, I've been a trapper Oh, yes, I've done a lot of exploring around this West and I haven't forgotten all I knew I'll find my way to California All right, and I'll be back in the spring Back in the spring ready to take both our families back to a new home in California So John Roland took leave of his partner William workman and made the hazardous journey across Indian infested mountains and deserts to the remote Mexican province of California Once in Southern California, the young American was pleased with what he saw and back He went to Taos determined to persuade the others He arrived in the new Mexican town in the nick of time to find his family and friends considerably upset Listen to them John. He's right. You've been getting worse and worse Governor Armijo has whipped them up into a frenzy against them. No Americans have been attacked, have they? No, not yet, but if this keeps up, it'll only be a matter of days They've been threatening several times. We've barricaded the doors and windows just in case how many of us are there about 20 men with their families All together about 40 Americans Men Wilson and I have rounded them up and taken whatever measures we could to ensure their safety, but we're outnumbered 20 to 1 more than that Well, thank heavens. I got back in time. They still have a chance to escape Bill we'll call them all together tonight. I'll aim a plan before them. What is it California? That's right We'll find safety in a future fortune there and non-proposin that we stock up and get ready to leave as soon as possible The American pioneers of Santa Fe accepted John Rowland's proposition and escaped the trap of the new Mexicans just in time Across the parched plains and hazardous mountains the tiny caravan plotted and after almost two months of difficult travel On November 5th, 1841 they came down through Cajon Pass into the promised land of Southern, California It was the first party of American settlers who come to the Southland with the idea of making it their home The vanguard of that great westward migration which made world history As such the workman Rowland party with its honor roll of future great names in Southern, California annals made history Besides the leaders there were Don Benito Wilson, Lemuel Carpenter, John Reed and many others Most of them were to make their homes here Many of them would have followed much the same procedure that John Rowland did One day he had costed his friend Don Benito Wilson. Well, that's what I said How about coming up north with me to see the governor and get some land? You mean all you got to do is just ask for it? That's the size of it I've got some real nice country picked out for Bill and me and I'm going up to claim it. How about you, Ben? Oh, no, not me.  Who said I won't look what they're with you But only because I want to find a ship that's headed for China now Maybe I'll be lucky enough to find one in Monterey Anyway, it's worth a try. All right, you old rolling stone. We're all for Monterey North to Monterey wrote the two friends and John Rowland paid a visit to Senor Agüeyo the prefect of the district Senor Rowland did you say? What can I do for you? Well, I understand you're the man who can help me prepare the proper petition to obtain a grant of land A grant of land? Uh-huh. Oh, but you Senor are an American or are you not? See, well that is I was born an Americano, but I'm a naturalized citizen of Mexico. Here are my papers I'm a resident of the Department of New Mexico. I married a Mexican wife. In fact, I've produced seven little citizens of Mexico You really do Senor and in that case, I shall prepare your petition. I can get the land Do not know but you have passed the first requirement Tell me Senor, where is the land you want? The lands to the east of the San Gabriel River near the bridge La Piante Known as the Exmission Lands of San Gabriel The Padres will not like that But no matter, there is government land now, so you are entitled to it See, that would make a good place for a rancho. That's what I think. Then you'll prepare the petition Oh, I shall draw it out. Uh, when can I take possession of the land? As soon as the provisional grant is issued. Uh, but when will that be? I mean, well you see, I was planning on going back to my family and partner and I'd like to know I had the land before I left. Oh, yes, of course And when are you planning to leave, Senor? Oh, on a day or two Santa Maria, a day or two Senor, you, you Americanos are too impatient You shall be lucky if the grant is issued in two months, let alone two days Is that so? Well, that seems a long time just to say yes or no Senor, wait until you have been here a while. You will understand. It is much easier. Just take your time See, senor. In fact, here it is easy to forget time Oh See, senor Time was made for slaves In spite of the Californian's contention that time was nothing John Rowland and William Workman chafed at the bit until in 1842 their provisional grant was issued They were able to take up their abode on their rancho la puente Once on their land the two friends and partners built homes close by one another and started the irrigation and cultivation of their land But when the final provisions had been lived up to they received their title papers Discovery was made. Bill, I don't know how I could have made such a mistake. It's all right, John We have the land The grant is legal. Everything will be all right But the grant is made out only to me and not to both of us in partnership And it doesn't really matter but it does legally you couldn't will your part to your children or I couldn't anyway neither of us can That's a provision in the grant. Well, it isn't right.  We'll have it re-granted without any provisions at all And john rollin did have the rancho la puente re-granted to himself and william workman Thereafter the two partners shared evenly in the profitable growth which followed The two men had arrived in california at a period of extreme upheaval and within four years after their arrival They would take part in the great events In 1845 when the army of governor michel terena was being defied by southern californians both mexican and american It was william workman who aroused the local americans to support the defenders of los angles Michel terena is advancing on los angles He'll be in the city tomorrow. Let's be stuck. He must be stuck I appeal to every one of you. Do all know what this man's army means to us We ever want to have any degree of self-government here in california If we want to live in a society which has respect for law and order If we ever want to be rid of the brigandry of michel terena's lawless mob We must end firm and fight beside our neighbors. The californians. Are you with me? With workman as leader don venita wilson john roland william mckinley and some 50 other americans did stand firm with the californians And defeated michel terena in the battle of cahuenga They made po pico governor and now calm was restored For the last there were only a short time For an 1846 came war with the united states The american forces of commodore stockton took los angles as the commodore moved on He left a small force to guard the city It was then that word came to john roland bill. It's revolt a general revolt of all the californians It's bad. It's bad. Surely gillespie's men can stop it stop it that handful be annihilated as they don't get help It's really serious one florie's is the head of the insurgents and they're out to get every american That's bad. I'm having a horse settled. I've got to write out and warn ben wilson Yes, he has a squad of soldiers. Maybe he can get to gillespie with help I'm afraid we'll have to have more than ben squad. They were just organized as a border patrol Now i've got to warn ben to save himself florie's has sent out a hundred men to round him up but john you're an american too If you're caught with captain wilson, you know what it will mean.  I'm not going to stand the side and do nothing to help We're supposed to be partners on everything. All right then partner The best way for you to help me is to stay here and take care of the ranch I'll be all right.  It's been kept up. Yes, but look no buts about it I'm on my way. Take care of things. I'll be seeing you soon. But john john Roland reached captain benjamin wilson and his men just as the californians were closing in And together they would be sieged in the williams ranch house at chino The time they held the attackers off, but There we can't hold them off much longer john. No the ammunition's almost gone. No, wait a minute. Do I smell smoke? It's a fire they've set the roof on fire. It's going up like tinder. Hurry men get out back out in the patio Well, they'll smoke us out even there then. I know we're done for. I will give up right now. We're prisoners and may god help The americans undertone benito wilson were hurted into an improvised prison in los angles There they remain for some time in great physical discomfort. Then one day Won't you sit down? I have something important to talk to you about Well, I've not seen you for some time No, not since this trouble started I only come now senior because of word i've received from my good friend john roland Those you know has held prisoner here. I know it is unfortunate senior. I come to you because you're an honest human gentleman As our most californian. That is in your I know that even though our sympathies may not lie on the same side You are a man of honor And you will not countenance dishonor among your countrymen Design a senior among us californianos Come senior workmen speak up very well I have received word from my friends that general floris plans to send them as trophies of war To the government at mexico city Your you are sure see or so floris has already told them During not your you will not allow him to do anything so inhumane so dishonorable. Will you in your Many of us have not liked floris treatment of the americanos But we have felt uh, we could do nothing The royal you sent here from me he called see When the americanos forces come back he will flee to mexico again Leaving you californianos to bear the shame of his dishonorable dealings. I know that senior His whole unpleasant matter is much to be regretted senior workmen But you have my word for it. There shall be no more to be regretted floris will not carry out this scheme Don't ignore. So I knew you would not allow it. I shall call my friends together right away And we shall take action with force if necessary Quickly don't in us your polymaris gathered the honorable california don't surround him and challenge general floris command of the insurgents Anxiously the prisoners waited in their quarters The sound of firing ringing up to them Then seems to be fading away there's not as much firing as before here sounds like it's peter now I'm afraid with some john Only we could do something not just sit here in prison waiting and praying when Out there our fate is being decided. I'm afraid it's been decided The firing's almost stopped I didn't think floris would give up that easily then we'll Soon be on our way to mexico Then wilson it's bill workman Bill what are you doing here workman how in the world all of our men you're safe We've just finished off the last of floris men who held out but how Most of his own men were on our side general floris is in irons and you're safe Whom do the public records show to be the owner of the land upon which you're living right this minute Do you know for sure? Do you know what they show about who owned it before the present owner acquired it? What rights or claims or interest any person or any corporation or any municipality has in that land Suppose you didn't know the answer to all those questions But you wanted to know and surely you would want to know if you were buying that land Or if you were lending money with that land as security It is the business of title insurance and trust company of los angles to determine from a mass of millions of different records The answers to all these questions When that determination has been made not only from an examination of these records But by an interpretation of these records it issues what is called a policy of title insurance This ensures you against any loss you may suffer by reason of mistakes and the policy of title insurance as to any of these matters When you buy real estate or lend on real estate just think title insurance is my protection The americans under captain vengerman wilson were freed from the threat of being taken to mexico city as trophies of war By the prompt action of the californians pluris was later restored to his command after promising to refrain from any mistreatment of the american prisoners From now on roland wilson and the others fared better, but they were still captives Then on january 8th 1847 the day before the battle of the san gabriel General andres pico visited them in herself. You mean henderal pico. You're releasing us See me amigo for we have no one to guard you all of our men go to the battle and you would not be safe here The mob might get out of hand here in depueblo. You're letting us go for our own safety See but on one condition that you promise not to join the americano forces against us I'm sure that you have our promise henderal You're being more generous. Thank you We have never had any ill will toward you senores. I only wish that this unpleasantness could have been avoided See henderal pico that goes both ways But i'm sure that whatever happens we can all live here in this grand country together peacefully and happily On general andres pico's horses wilson and roland make good their escape and return to their homes The next day the californians were defeated at san gabriel And all californian knew that it was to become a part of the united states of america But the course of events changed the even tenor of life on la puente but little For a time at least on the workman roland property grew up a virtual community in itself In 1855 workman built the first brick house in california, which still stands Beside their crops and vineyards the cattle and horses John roland built a flour mill in a winery this plower and the guaguente supplied many in the pueblos Those were prosperous years during the 50s for settlers were pouring into california Gradually with growth conditions changed from the sleepy frontier village Los angles began its growth as an american city of commerce and industry As the years passed the american ron cheros took an active part in the development William workman joined with his son-in-law francis f p temple and isaac w helman to go into the banking business Later on in 1870 workmen and temple established a bank of their own and for a while prospered Then three years later on the little barren plot of ground on rancho la puente A sad scene was enacted Don't you think we'd better be getting back to the house mr. Workman sir. No francis just a minute more I want to stay here with him a minute more, but it's getting late I can't believe it yet francis There under the soil he loved so well Lies john roland. It's where he'd want to be sir. Yes Yes, it's where I want to be too francis Remember that when the time comes John and I lived and worked and fought together We've been friends and partners most of our lives And where it comes to me too I should be like to Like to be laid right here at francis Here beside my old partner John. I promise you it will be done, sir But what are we talking about? That's far in the future. You'll probably outlast me many years. Oh son I have a feeling that Now john's gone and won't be very long for me And william workman was to live only a few years longer contentedly at home on his rancho la puente Surrounding him were his children his grandchildren his sons and daughters-in-law Among them many names illustrious John read francis temple There were the boils and john roland's family including william the sheriff who captured the bandit boscus The old pioneer left his banking business pretty much in the hands of temple And all went well until in 1874 workman was hastily called to the bank Oh Mr. Workman, I'm glad you're here. What are all these people doing here? It's a run a run on the bank It's getting worse and worse. It's a panic sir a panic, but why what's the cause of it? Well yesterday in san francisco the bank of california closed its doors and all over the state one bank after another is following suit Close but francis. There's no need for us to close is there? Yes, sir. I'm afraid there is We can't keep open in the face of a panic like this. We've given out almost all of our cash now That's why I asked you to come. I want your permission to to close the doors Should I lend money to a bank every one of them's closed but the scare is over I'm sure if we can reopen we'll be all right. Mr. Baldwin the helman's reopening tomorrow ej And we want to do the same if you'll put up this money. We can you say you want three hundred and ten thousand Huh, that's a lot of money. Let it's safe ej both francis and i are willing to stake our property on it Yes, we'll give you a mortgage for our combined real estate All right, all right. I'll do it, but I don't envy you fellas looks to me like you're jumping from the frying pan into the fire Well francis, how does it stand you've been pouring over those figures for hours. It doesn't look good sir You mean yes, we can't liquidate our assets. We can't call back enough loans and our money is gone And that means We'll have to close again. Yes, but this time for good and our land the rancho la puente. It's gone The shock was too much for william workman in the short time later They carried him to his final resting place Besides his old friend in this little liquor of god Just where he wanted to be May he rest in peace We who knew him shall never forget him Not forgotten is william workman or john roland pioneers of early los angles Today, there are many descendants of prominent in southland affairs Including a famous president of the city council the honorable boyle workman Who was written much about his kinsman and his life in early california They are remembered to on the land of rancho la puente where today prosperous farms and homes And the thriving cities of covena puente and baldman park are located For it is men like these who have helped to make southern california as it is today Such is the romance of the ranchos When you deal with land you deal with people Because things which happen to people may affect their land You must know for example what legal disabilities if any a person might have which might prevent him from or affect him in dealing with land Now suppose you were buying a lot from catherine jones spelled with a c Suppose the records disclose that one catherine jones spelled with a k is incompetent Is that the same person? It doesn't appear to be but it might be It's the business of title insurance and trust company of los angles to establish the identity of these persons And to ensure you against loss by reason of any mistake in any such identification Incidentally, there are at least 24 different ways to spell the name catherine Does this give you some idea of the magnitude of the work which must be done by the title insurance company? Now frank, what's the story for next week next week? We'll trace the history of catalina and the channel islands along the coast where the romantic sea otter trade was carried on And there's a tale about the lost woman of san nicolas a fascinating chapter in the romance of the ranchos So until next week, this is your wondering vaquero frank graham saying Hasta la vista The romance of the ranchos a presentation of the title insurance and trust company of los angles Featuring frank graham as the wandering vaquero is dramatized by john dunkel and produced by ted blitz with special music arranged by urbano bob lomond speaking This is the columbia broadcasting system


So, thank you Chris, thanks organizing committee for allowing me to share some of my musings on neo-algument therapy prior to surgery. Some of the definitions up front, what is neo-algument therapy? It means treatment given prior to planned surgery, the surgery has to be given with a curative intent. So we think we're going to cure patients with these interventions and it can be form of systemic therapy, pills, infusions, or it can be local therapy such as radiotherapy. Now why is neo-algument therapy relevant and I think even more relevant than in the past is because our landscape of systemic therapies has expanded tremendously. We now have drugs that actually work and then they may be targeted therapies or more excitingly they can be immunotherapies, drugs that turn on our immune system. Let's not forget that modern radiotherapy is effective, traditionally radiation has been sort of food food in the world of kidney cancer but we now have modern techniques such as stereotactic ablative radiation or saber that's highly accurate and enables delivery of high radiation doses with excellent local and systemic control rates for our patients. So let's not forget that. Why would one consider neo-algument therapy? Well first and foremost to improve survival, improve our long-term cure rates. There are some technical aspects that can be useful. It may make surgery easier, decrease complications, allow us to resect things surgically that we could not resect without systemic therapy. And the only other reason I would ever consider this type of approach for technical reasons would be to for preservation of kidney function in an imperative setting to avoid a need for nephron replacement surgery, nephron replacement therapy. So can we make tumors smaller with targeted therapies? Yes we can. There's a plethora of anecdotes like this where a large tumor with bulky adenopathy probably borderline receptable by some standards could be shrunk down to something that's very very manageable and maybe safer to do with less complications, less blood loss, shorter hospital stay. You get the idea. The best study on this subject actually comes from Dr. Karam and Dr. Wood. They did a phase two trial looking on excitant prior to surgery and have shown us very nicely that you can shrink the tumors but the shrinkage percentages are I would say modest 30% or so. So certainly not a home run. So yes, there are some borderline cases that maybe not receptable up front, we can shrink them maybe by 30% or so and make the surgery more palatable and easier on our patients. Now we know that a lot of, you know, up to 20-30% of our kidney cancer patients present with a tumor thrombus and this can be quite significant. Some of these thrombi can extend all the way to the heart. Surgery for something like this is complex with high complication rates, requires sometimes going into the chest, astronomy and sometimes requires a cardiopulmonary bypass. Can we give targeted therapies to maybe shrink the thrombus and reduce the morbidity of the surgery? We've looked at that. We had 48 such patients that got targeted therapies prior to surgery. And again, what we've noticed is not a home run. Yes, in some patients maybe in 10% of the cases we can shrink the thrombus, maybe make the surgery more palatable and easier. But in majority of cases there's no change and you have to weigh the risk of this approach against the fact that in some patients the disease can actually progress. Again, certainly not a home run. Now this is, I think, something more interesting and something more feasible. In some instances, removing the removal of the whole kidney can render our patients ineffric or in need of dialysis.  There's several trials. I'll just highlight one from Cleveland Clinic where they looked at 25 patients where patients would have been rendered ineffric essentially and they gave them posopinib, which is a targeted agent prior to surgery. And you can see there's two examples of such situations where probably the whole kidney would have had to be taken after posopinib, the tumor shrunk and this patient was managed with a partial nephrectomy, preserving the kidney and allowing him not to go on dialysis. And so in this particular study, 80% of the patients that were thought not to be candidates for partial nephrectomy, then were able to receive partial nephrectomy after they were treated with drugs. There's certainly a feasible approach and something to consider, potentially consider in some of these cases. Now, can neo-adjuvant therapy improve survival? As of 2018, none of our systemic therapies in perioperative setting can improve survival in an adjuvant or neo-adjuvant setting. So we don't have any data to suggest that. There are multiple drugs, sutens, posopinibs, excitinibs that have been tested in an adjuvant setting after surgery with curative intent. And none of these trials so far have demonstrated any survival advantage. I think it will be remiss to think that usage of such drugs or targeted therapies prior to surgery would also result in improvement of survival. Now, the hottest things in cancer therapies now are drugs that target immune evasion or checkpoint inhibitors. And remember, you may have already heard this today, tumor cells are very smart to know how to turn off our immune system. So now we have drugs to turn our own immune system on. How about giving such drugs in pre-surgical setting? Well, I think it actually makes a lot of sense because unlike targeted therapies, our immune therapies, and this is in metastatic settings, actually produce complete responses. So we can now actually cure patients long term with checkpoint inhibitors or immunotherapies. And so what that means is that now we have capacity to eradicate micrometastatic disease, which we did not really have with drugs such as Sutent or targeted therapies. Now, I think there's also a great rationale in giving these drugs prior to surgery. Now, think about your kidney tumor as an immune factory that has been shut down. And what these drugs can allow us to do is actually turn the immune factory back on and increase the immune cell production. There is certainly pre-clinical data, especially in mice, that shows that neo-adjuvant checkpoint inhibitors actually produce better results than giving these drugs in an adjuvant setting or after the surgery. And what's more important is that the duration of neo-adjuvant exposure doesn't have to be long. So the patients or the mice in this setting can progress the surgery very quickly and not waste time after initial exposure to the immune agents. So this serves as an impetus or served as an impetus for the Prosper trial, which I think is probably the most interesting trial right now in kidney cancer. And this is a trial where patients actually get randomized to a checkpoint inhibitor in the volume lab for two infusions.  I think it's a very important trial. It accrues now in over 180 sites in the United States up to this point. I think about 90 or more patients now have been enrolled out of 700 plus. And any Canadians over here? Yes, so this will be open in Canada very soon. Again, I think very important trial is very important for us to support this. Now, moving back to the radiotherapy as I suggested, and we've talked about stereotactic radiation, we know that this modality causes rapid endothelial death. It can cause necrosis of the cancer cells and it actually induces immune response. With excellent local control rates in metastatic or local setting. And there's multiple studies that I've shown that. So what we at my institution hypothesize is that in patients who are at very high risk for recurrence after surgery, such as patients with kidney cancer and tumor thrombus, where the metastatic risk may actually be increased by manipulating the thrombus during surgery, that giving the stereotactic radiation prior to surgery may actually reduce the metastatic risk. Again, by killing those tumor cells prior to surgery and eliciting immunologic response. So this is the trial that we actually have ongoing in our center. Patients, again, with very high risk for relapse, patients with cable tumor thrombus get five doses of stereotactic radiation into the thrombus. And then proceed to nephrectomy and thrombectomy. The study, we already finished our safety lead in of six patients. And the primary endpoint is one-year recurrence-free survival. This is just sort of an example of what we're targeting. Here you can see a large primary kidney tumor with a tumor thrombus going up the Cava. And this is what we're radiating. We're radiating the tumor thrombus. Again, the idea here is not to treat this cancer completely and forget about it. All these patients progress to surgery. The idea is to sterilize these cancer cells that are sitting here and then released into the circulation as we manipulate this thrombus during surgery. So again, the initial sort of lead in safety phase of this trial has been finished. There's really no untoward radiotherapy related or surgical effects. So the patients tolerated the surgery and radiotherapy very well. What we have noticed is that two out of six metastatic patients that were enrolled in this trial exhibited a very nice and very unusual upscropal effect. And just by radiating the thrombus alone, you can see here that pulmonary nodules have disappeared or gotten smaller in a lot of these patients. There's certainly a test to the fact that there's an ongoing immunologic response to radiotherapy that's giving to the thrombus. Obviously, with testing all these patients, we checked the various serum parameters and immune responses. So we're gonna, I hope to learn a lot from this trial. Now, can we combine radiation therapy and immunotherapy to maximally prime the immune system prior to surgery, right? Radiotherapy elicits the immune response. We can prime with checkpoint inhibitors prior to surgery to elicit immune response with the primary and place key. But can we combine the two modalities to produce maximum results? I don't know, but this is a trial that we're about to open at our institution where patients, again, we know that majority of these patients with really bulky tumors, positive nodes, receptable metastases, even though we can put them through all kinds of surgery and do it very well. Technically, we know a lot of these patients will relapse. But can we combine our radiation experience with our checkpoint experience and really prime the immune system? And so in this trial, again, these patients are exposed to a checkpoint for two infusions followed by radiotherapy to either primary or one of the metastatic sites. And then they go on to nephrectomy and a resection of all visible disease, followed by, again, checkpoint inhibition afterwards. I'll keep you updated, but again, I think this is a very exciting trial, and hopefully we'll produce good results. So to summarize, what is the current role of neodermal therapy in kidney cancer? I think in some select cases, this can be used to improve receptability, to render something that we don't think we can resect prior surgery to something that can become resectable, maybe decrease excessive morbidity, prevent unnecessary complications. Maybe in some select patients who would be rendered a nephreg by surgery, maybe we can allow them to have a nephron sparing surgery and keep them off the analysis. I think this is actually a minority of excitement here. I think the major, the most exciting thing here are therapies such as checkpoint inhibitors and modern radiation together or separately. And I think these therapies prior to surgery can actually revolutionize the neo-adjuvant paradigm and actually move this field forward. If you don't remember anything about my talk, remember, as of now, neo-adjuvant therapy in kidney cancer is investigational, which means if there is a clinical trial looking at this concept, and it's reasonable, I think we'll have to support it. It's a very interesting paradigm. We'd like to thank all of you here, obviously, our patients and our families that have contributed to these studies and have helped move this field forward. Again, please support the clinical trials. Very important, and I list here my email. If there are any questions or you guys want to reach out to me directly. Thank you very, very much. Thank you.


Hi, I'm Rusty Komori, and this is Beyond the Lines on Think Tech Hawaii, and I'm super excited that this is my 90th episode. I was the head coach of the Punahou Boys varsity tennis team for 22 years, and we were fortunate to win 22 consecutive state championships. My books Beyond the Lines and Beyond the Game is about peak performance, leadership, and creating a superior culture of excellence, which is what this show is all about. My special guest today is an extraordinary man who's been a super close friend of mine for decades, and he's the owner and CEO of some of our state's best restaurants. He is Aaron Plakarakis, and today we are going beyond fine dining. Hey, Plak, welcome to the show. Nice to be here. In fact, I'm impressed that it took 90 shows to finally get me on. I know I'm one of your 90th-closest friends now. I'm in the top 100. Plak, you and I know each other for decades because I trained you privately in tennis, and we've had so many experiences on the tennis court. What do you remember about our training, our tennis days?  In fact, it's funny. In my industry, I've always had the little hobby on the side. I was kind of an athlete in college. I played water polo, UCLA, but once I got into the restaurant business in my 20s, I was a racquetball freak, and then in my 30s, I decided once my daughter, Lexi, got into Punahon's kindergarten, I said, ah, maybe I'll play tennis because the courts are right there by the kindergarten area. That's when Chris McLaughlin said that I went to him and said, hey, can I play some tennis? You got anything to teach me? And that's when they gave me you. Wow, all people. I didn't know what I was getting into. That was a great decade of tennis, and I learned so much about not only that, but many other things. And that started my friendship with you, which is a joy. And Plak, you were our boys' varsity tennis team's biggest supporter for all those years, 22 years.  You kind of got me in on that one. I remember when we first started, I was so impressed with you and the whole program, and I remember thinking, I think it was your first year of coaching, right? Yeah, it was. And I said, hey, listen, if your boys win the state, we'll do dinner at one of my places. And I remember thinking, that's a safe bet. I didn't even know much about tennis. Needless to say, 22 years in a row, I was hosting 20-some-odd people in our different restaurants, and you got me good there, but it was awesome. Yeah, we had the best potlucks at your restaurant, I guess, huh? Would they call potlucks? No one had to bring anything, and they left full. I know that. Yeah, for sure. It was so awesome. It's priceless with you, Plak. And let's talk about your family. You have five kids, Gabby, Jesse, Lexi, Aris, and your young one, Manoli. And Manoli's in ninth grade now, so tell me about your kids. There's certainly the highlight of my life. My oldest, Aris, is 34 years old. He works for a very cow boat, which is the largest producer of raw cocoa products in the world. They supply Hershey's and everything, and they've got seven offices throughout the world. He's in the Chicago office. In fact, he's in Europe this week. Great kid, self-sufficient there in Chicago. My daughter, Lexi, is 31. She's in Dallas, and she has given me my only grandson, who's seven, and his father plays for the Cowboys. Really good people there. Jesse's 29. He's working with me here in Maui, which is kind of one of the highlights of my career, actually, to be able to have a son working with me. So that's kind of cool. And then Gabby just moved to New York. She's modeling. She's working. She's doing her thing. She's a go-getter and very impressed and proud of her. And then Manoli's 15, the final chapter.  He's a tennis player and guitar player. And it's really been kind of the joy of my life having one at this stage in my life. You know, older dad, kind of fun. Your kids are, they're all amazing.  She's the iron woman. How's everything with your wife, Rhonda? Well, she is definitely the love of my life. And I feel blessed to have been able to trick her into marrying me. It wasn't easy. I had to dig down deep, use all my tricks to get that to work out. But we just celebrated our, this summer, it'll be 17 years of marriage. And she's not only a personal trainer. She works with me in our company with the five places. She's very helpful there. And she's, we call her the Food Nazi. She's what a normal wife of a restaurant person would be the opposite of. You know, she believes in the actually good, healthy products. And actually we've learned a lot and our menus have reflected a lot of that influence. So it's been a win-win. So, Plack, how did you get started in the restaurant industry? Well, when I was at UCLA, I was, I got a job working in the kitchen. And actually it was the first next fish market open in 1975 or 77 or no, 73 or 4, that's right. I was a freshman in 75 and I was a cook for them all through college. Oh yeah, there you go. And I kind of worked my way up. I was, you know, pre-law. I didn't know what I wanted to do. I kind of went the opposite. I figured, what don't I want to do? And I started eliminating things. And then I found that the restaurant business seemed so multi-dimensional, where you weren't just doing one thing. You were being creative. You were being teaching. You were in the community. You were building.  You were doing so many different things. I thought, geez, this kind of fits my disposition. I thought this could be something that works for me. So I got an opportunity to go to Europe and spend a year with the International Hilton's in Roman Athens and worked in the kitchens there. And that's when I said, ooh, this is me. This is what I'm going to do. And I was lucky enough to make that decision young. So I was able to really sink my teeth in at that early age. And came back from Europe in 1977 and opened the Knicks Fish Market in Chicago and was there for eight years before we came, actually moved here in 1985 to open Nicholas and Nicholas, which later on became Aaron. So that's kind of how I got here, because Maui and Hawaii was always, as a kid, romantically the place that I always wanted to be. And I just, it came once when I was 15 and the way it smelled and the people and everything about it, it was always in my mind, Hawaii. So to be able to come out here in 85, and I was supposed to only come and to help them open the place because I was running the Chicago operations at the time. And certain things came up and they needed me to stay. And that was a quick, easy one to get talked into. I said, yeah, I'm in. And so ever since then, this has been my home base 35, 36 years now. And if I never had to leave this island, the islands, I would be a happy guy. Well, you know, when you opened up Aaron's and Sorrento's top of the Ilikai, I mean, those are two of my most favorite restaurants on Oahu. And when the lease came up, why didn't you renew the lease? Well, actually, 25 years in each place, I happened to renew a number of times. But after, you know, certain times it, it went its course. And at the time, 21 years ago, we opened the next fish market in Maui. And then I opened another Sorrento's on the beach in Maui.  And the top of the Ilikai was a great place and even the top of the Alamoana. But, you know, we had our challenges there. And after 25 years of fulfilling my obligations there, I thought, you know, it's time, especially being on the top of the Ilikai. It's an older building, the first elevator that went up there.  I mean, it was, it was a challenge. But I'm very proud of the fact that for 25 years in each of those places, I was on the top of those hotels. And I thought represented our industry and my family well. And certain times it just, they end their course. And when I started focusing on Maui, that's kind of what I didn't even really plan on. Not renewing the lease. It just kind of happened that way. And now with Maui Nix's 21 years open, Sorrento's will be 20 years. I have the Steakhouse, Sun Steakhouse at the highest, 15 years. So, you know, I've been sunk my teeth in here real deep. And kind of didn't even know I was moving to Maui. And about 10 years later, I said, geez, I think I live in Maui now. Yeah, because you lived in Oahu for so long. And then you started opening up restaurants in Maui. So in Maui now, you have five of them. Can, can you go through all five and where they're located? Yeah. Well, Nix Fish Market was the first. We're at the Fairmont Kaolani Hotel, beautiful property on Wailea. And like I said, 21 years there. That's a, that's kind of the landmark. And just love that property. Then we have Sorrento's on the beach, which is right where Kihei and Wailea meet. And that is literally on the beach. And that we have a little more of a Mediterranean flair. Similar to what we had up at the Ilacai, but a little different being right on the water. It's got the little Italian Greek, Portuguese, Spanish, French, all the influences that, that make it easy when you're living on the water and living on a place where you have produce and veggies and, and seafood and everything all year round. So that, that fair fits in perfectly. And then Sun Steakhouse is the old Swan Court at the original big, Hematers Big Grand Hyatt at the time. And that we converted to a steakhouse called Sun Steakhouse. Been there, yeah, 15 years. So that's been super. And eight years ago, we opened a cool little casual pizza place called Manoli's Pizza Company. And Manoli's my son and was my father. And on that same note, Sorento's was my grandfather and Nick was my uncle. And these are the three men that really influenced me in my life. And to be able to have a tribute to them was the reasoning behind that. And then sons, I have three sons. So those kinds of things in the, you know, it's an extension of me and us and the restaurants. You know, to me, I'm kind of a dinosaur, old school where I like to smell them and touch them and feel them and be a part of them. They're an extension of us. And you never, it never really gets old because that's part of what the hospitality industry is. You don't really learn it. You kind of just learn with it. And I think that's what's made this little community here so great for me. In fact, then I purchased a place called Coho's, which is a 30 year running breakfast, lunch, dinner place in the Kapu Manamal, which is kind of local place, cool place. In fact, when I took it over, part of the agreement sale was that I retained all their employees. And they had seven people that've been there since they opened 30 years ago. And so we got a bunch of, yeah, just sweet people, good hard worker. It's a real nice, cool little local spot. And so those five places keep me busy, 260 employees keep me busy. And just being a part of this community is just a joy. Plack, you know what? And some of your longtime employees are some of your best managers now. And they started as bussers, right? Everyone pretty much starts at the bottom, especially in the old days. It's, you know, when we opened Nix, we brought 39 people over from Oahu. And a number of them are still with us. In fact, our general manager, Doug Mosman, that's a Kamayana family in the Oahu, Kamehameha grad is running our operation over here. Great guy started with us when he was, he was working at Aaron's at Nicholas Nicholas, when he was in college at UH. And been here, just had triplets three years ago and raising his family here. So yeah, we have a bunch of stories like that. And it makes it that much more awesome to be here.  What do you, what do you look for when you're hiring people to join your team?  You can't teach someone to be nice. You know, you can see a resume where someone's worked in New York and they've had all these great accomplishments in the industry. But maybe they are a little stale or they don't just get the fact that, you know, sometimes when I'm interviewing someone in the kitchen, the first or even a chef and they're used to and they're ready to get, to cook for me and do something. And you know what I'll ask them. I said, you know what, make me a tuna melt. And I can tell right then, I can tell right then if they look at me like tuna melt, you know, I'm trained in France and they have that attitude or if they say, I'm going to make you a tuna melt. You're not going to ever forget because that's what our business is all about. It's not saying finding a way. Not everyone's going to want exactly what you want to serve. You want to be able to take care of people and that's what it's all about. And sometimes you can't really train that. That's what that's what the hospitality comes in. I rather have a guy that's never even been in a restaurant that's got a big smile and wide eyes and enthusiastic. Because you know what? I can train him on our system. But I can't train some pro how to be nice. I don't know how to do that. So me, that's the most important thing. Plack, that's why you're the best. That's why you are the best. And Plack, we're going to take a quick break and when we come back, we're going to continue going beyond fine dining, okay? Right on. Thank you. You're watching Beyond the Lines on Think Tech Hawaii with my special guest, Aaron Placarakis. We will be back in 60 seconds. Aloha, I'm Keisha King, host of Crossroads in Learning on Think Tech Hawaii. On Crossroads in Learning, our guest and I discuss all aspects of education here in Hawaii and throughout the country. You can join us for stimulating conversations to enrich, enliven and educate. We are streamed live on Think Tech bi-weekly at 4 p.m. on Mondays. Thanks so much for watching our show. We look forward to seeing you then. Aloha. Welcome back to Beyond the Lines on Think Tech Hawaii. My special guest today is my friend who is truly one of a kind. He's the king of fine dining and I can say with confidence there will never ever be another Aaron Placarakis. So let's continue going beyond fine dining with him. Plack, you are a huge fan and big supporter of my book Beyond the Lines. I want to ask you, what is it about the book that you liked? Well, other than your picture that was where you have it like four or five different times. Oh no, you have it in the front and the back. That's my favorite part. But no, actually the book, the thing that I like most about it is it's common sense. And the little things that you do are things that anything you can do today, you don't have to do tomorrow. The things like the way you train your guys, not just on this actual sports part, but make your bed in the morning. That's the thing that resonates with me. It's getting that organization, being composed, being ready to be able to start your day the same way every day. And that pertains to any business. So to me, the things like that, just like our business, it's not a scientific formula. It's common sense. You greet people with a smile. You pull the chair up when you see them. You offer them something and get it to them promptly. You thank them for coming. Those are the same things you're doing. You come to work out on time.  You come knowing that it's not going to be perfect, but you're going to have to dig down deep sometimes. And that's why to me, the book resonates so well, not just with me and all my people that we read. It's common sense. And that's what life really is in business. I like comment shifts. Yeah. That's what it's all about. Yeah. And plaque, I talk in the book a lot about creating a superior culture of excellence. And that's exactly what you have done and continue to do for all these years. How do you sustain that superior culture with your teams? Well, I think a lot of it is just, not just the attitude is a big part of it, but you got to walk the walk. It's easy to talk, but you got to really show it. And a lot of it's not just what you say. It's the body language. I like to be in my places, not because I just feel I have to go. I think customers, especially with the prices we charge, it's important that ownership's represented. I think it's also important that my employees see that I care enough to want to be there with them. And so when I do have to pull rank and see this and see that, I got the street cred to be able to see something. I'm not just someone looking at a computer, looking at numbers, analyzing this and saying they don't do this, don't do that. So I think that's really one of the biggest parts of any business, but certainly ours. Yeah, that's for sure. And Plaque, I think there's a big difference between attention to details and superior discipline details. And I feel that elite organizations all have superior discipline details, and you have that as well. So tell me about how important details are. Well, I think they're super important. And I think more important than the details is explaining the details. Like, for instance, when we put, when we're training our bussers on how to put a coffee cup down to the guest, we tell them you put it at four o'clock. You put the handle at four o'clock and people are cleaning four o'clock and they're looking at a clock and they're trying to figure it out. But basically, if you put your hand and you drop it down, that's where your hand ends up. So you're not lifting, you're not going anywhere. But after you explain to them, that's why it's at four o'clock because I don't want a guest having to go around and turn around to get the handle of the coffee cup. So it's a detail, but not only is it a detail, it's an explanation of the detail that then makes sure they never forget it. They're never going to forget that you drop your hand down, that's four o'clock, that's where you put the handle of the coffee cup down. They're never going to forget it because you're telling them you're explaining to them. So that's what, to me, details are one thing, but the common sense and the explanation of the details so they retain it is the important thing. Yeah, and right there, what you mentioned about communication, I mean, you're explaining why you're having them do that and why it's important. And communication is so key. Absolutely. And that's probably the easiest thing to do. And sometimes we're in this new high-tech society where it's four this and scan that and there's nothing beats the one-on-one talking, taking the time to articulate what you're talking about both good and bad because, I mean, some days in the restaurants, I feel like it's my first day. You never get it down. You never stop learning. So if that's happening to me after 40-some odd years doing this, I mean, can you imagine what the new people are or even experienced people are? They still need to be told in a way that shows the compassion. You can be firm and stern and highly disciplined, but also fair and compassionate. And I think that's how you really get your message out. Not the fear factor, the common sense, the understanding factor.  I want to know why are you successful? Well, it depends on what you mean by success. And I think what makes me successful is I thank you for saying that. I'm certainly not the richest guy in the world and I certainly haven't made all the best business decisions ever and I haven't done a lot of that. But I think my success is based on how I feel about the people around me, my family, how I'm able to be a role model for my kids and the people that mean something to me, how I've respected the people that I've looked up to in a way that now I can give back and like I say to my kids, you become as a parent a coach. But there comes a point in time when that coach becomes now a cheerleader.  You want to, when they ask you something, you tell them. But basically, I tell them, I'm a cheerleader now, guys. I'm not your coach. You're on your own. I'm a cheerleader. And I like cheering for them. And if they do ask, I'll tell them, but they're adults. Yeah, I like that. It's funny how things get flip-flopped after a matter of time that goes by. Now, Plack, what are some of the challenges that you face in your business? Well, I think nowadays, especially in Maui, probably Oahu also is just virtually no unemployment. So, you know, you don't have a plethora of people, you know, when you're looking for openings and different jobs, you don't have what you did in the old days where there were a bunch of people coming and you had the interview process. Now it's, you know, you got, that makes it a little more challenging because there is no real unemployment over here. So I think that's part of it. And then just keeping everyone focused on, you know, everyone has families, everyone has their own problems, everyone has other things they're dealing with. A lot of people have two jobs, you know, to get them to actually, you know, smell the roses. You know, we're still, you know, things are tough and business is tough and you have things, but you know what, we're alive.  And I think that we got to remind ourselves that, hey, you know, we are blessed to be on this earth as long as we are, let's try to take advantage of it and spread the love and spread the goodwill and enjoy ourselves. I totally agree with you, Plaquen. You know, some of the best leaders in society, I mean, it takes courage for them to make tough decisions. Have you, is there an example about you having courage to make a tough decision in your business? Well, yeah, a lot of times, actually, you know, every day you're dealing with smaller things, but as far as real tough decisions, you know, would be evaluating if I'm going to expand, if I'm going to open something else or going to add on something, then you know, you got to make a decision that, you know, you have to do your homework and justify the expense and see if you think you can be able to get a return on it. And sometimes you're tempted to do it and it's like buying a house. You fall in love with the house, but you know, you got to look deep down. And you got to be able to not get too excited when it's good and not get too bummed out when it's bad and minimize those huge decisions that can make or break you and just be able to realistically look at things and put all of the situations down on paper and going to just decide if it's a justifiable thing that you want to chance. Plaquen, you know, most successful teams are never complacent and they're always taking calculated risks. How important is risk taking for you and your success? Well, I think it's no different than tennis or anything else. You know, you know the shots that you can depend on and you know, once in a while, you can take, you can go for a kill, a really aggressive shot, maybe when the score is a little different. So, you know, when you're way ahead, you'll go for that ace. But when you're right in the middle of a tough match, you're going to be a little, you know, focused on what you're good at. And I think that that's in our business, that's the same thing. Yeah, once in a while, you may want to take a risk, but no, I want it to be a calculated risk, just like you coach your guys.  You stick to the plan. And when something happens that you weren't quite ready for, you know, you're able to take that deep breath and regroup and stick to the plan and not start freelancing. And all of a sudden you get an opening. Oh my God. And you start, you got one ace. You're going to start acing everyone. You got to stick to the plan. I think that's what it's like in life and relationships and business and in tennis. Yeah, I totally agree. I like that analogy, Plack. You can use it. Now, Plack, what's the best advice you've ever received? You know what? I got to give this to my pops, because he said it best. And I've always loved the way he said it. He said, treat your family like friends and your friends like family. And you know what, it's just kind of, it says it all. Because so many times you see families that are fighting in this and that, because you know what? They take families for granted. Yeah, we're family. Yeah, we're family. And then friends, they treat them like, you know, and sometimes you have those relationships with your friends where you don't really cultivate it. But if you take the time to treat your family like friends and your friends like family, look at the relationships. You're going to be able to cultivate on both of the important areas of the people that are important to you. So I give my pops credit for that one. I like it. Now, Plack, what's the- And you can use that one too? I'm going to use all of them, Plack.  Let's see, cheese, you know, because you're always learning on a daily basis. I probably would say not taking anything for granted. You know, appreciate what you have. Try to make it better. But don't ever get on that little pity potty because you wish things were a little better. Or this guy has more than you and this girl has more than you. You know, don't compare. Just appreciate what you got. And if you don't like it, then do something about it. Yeah, look at the big picture in life, right? Exactly. Now, Plack, I want to ask you one more thing before we wrap. What gives you fulfillment? I think this next stage in my career and as it is with my parenting, you know, as I mentioned earlier, turning from a coach to a cheerleader, you know, I'd like that next chapter in my business life to be that way, where I'm getting my managers to put them in a position where they can, you know, eventually get a piece of the pie and eventually be accountable for that place and me being able to coach them more and cheer them on more. And I think that's the next stage, the next chapter as you do it. And that's why I always think whether it be your sports, your family, your business, your relationships, it's all the same thing. It's all the same thing that resonates in all of them. And I think that's what makes life easier. I think we got to keep it simple and get rid of all these complications that I think get people kind of dizzy. Plack, you know, that's why you're successful because you go beyond the lines and I'm so excited for you to get my new book beyond the game. Yeah, I'm looking forward to that. And just let all your viewers know that if they're in Maui and no one will feed them and they're dying of thirst, I'm their guide. I'll let everybody know. I'll take care of it. Yeah. Thank you. Hey, thanks for joining me on the show today, Plack. Thanks for having me, my man. I'll see you soon. And thank you for watching Beyond the Lines on Think Tech Hawaii and a special thank you to my clothing sponsor, Ilani Incorporated. For more information, please visit RustyKomori.com and my books are available on Amazon and Barnes & Noble. I hope that Plack and I will inspire you to create your own superior culture of excellence and to find your greatness and help others find theirs. Aloha.


Finally did it. They finally did another plus trap skin. Let's go! If you can't tell, I'm excited. I'm very excited. I'm always excited when it's a plus trap skin because plus trap skins are fricking awesome unless your name is Frost Plus Trap. So if you can't tell, I'm excited. Number one, because it's a fricking plus trap skin, let's go! And plus trap has that mixed reality thing. It's so cool. And number two, because the skin itself is even more amazing. I mean, just take a look at it. This is Piranha Plus Trap. Frankly, it doesn't really look a whole lot like a Piranha. More looks like that dinosaur that has the things on its side of its head. I don't know what it's called. And also there have been leaks about his environment. It's like an underwater ship. That's amazing. Now the skin was delayed a couple of days. As usual, it was supposed to come out on Thursday. It's now Monday. I'll let Illumix off on this one because it is a plus trap skin, plus trap skin. And it does have a very unique environment and a very detailed one. Again, I really do love the skin. And you don't hear me say that often. So I'm cherishing the moment, okay? Last time a skin got delayed, they gave us the 3D profile picture. So I'm hoping they do the same thing because again, like three days, that was a long time. Anyways, I don't really have anything else I wanna say at the beginning of the video. Besides, I really like the skin. I think it looks amazing. I think his environment from what I've seen from the leaks also looks absolutely incredible. So yeah, let's hop into it. Make sure to subscribe. Hit the like button. Let's go. And there he is. Piranha plus trap looking good there, buddy. And also like his, his icon is so amazing. I love it. It's so detailed. Usually these things are pretty hit or miss, but this one is an absolute hit. Ooh, hello there, bud. Oh my God. I love the skin. 50 bucks, damn. Oh, that's right. He's gonna be super expensive. 20 bucks? Is that how much frost plus trap was? Wait, I'm looking this up. Dude, I didn't realize just how expensive fricking plus trap is.  What? That's insane. Damn, well, there we go. Ooh, he does have a 3D profile picture. We didn't get it for free, which is weird because usually, or I guess last time they gave it to us. I don't know what's going on. I'm gonna buy these though, the new profile icons. I think they look again, absolutely incredible. And I would buy this, but like 20 bucks. Dang, bro, no way in the heck am I buying that? Okay, here's the first one. Looking very good right there. Moving on to the second profile picture. There we go. Again, I think the icon in the profile pictures are very, very nice. And now let's hop into the actual fight because plus trap takes quite a bit to defeat if I remember correctly. Here he is. Let's activate two for now. We'll go back to the other two, go back to the other two later. There he is. All right, let's see his animation. Is it any different from plus traps? I don't think it is. It doesn't look like it. Yeah, I don't think it is. But here we go.  I forgot just how amazing this is. Holy crap, this is amazing. Oh my God, it's amazing. Okay, so I think we charge these up. Look behind us, yeah. Okay, okay, okay, okay. Sorry, I need to relearn all of fricking plus traps things because his mechanic is fricking incredible. I don't remember praising this new mechanic as much as I think I should because, oh, well that was easy. That was easy. Anyways, as I was saying, I fricking love plus traps mechanic. I think he's by far the best character in the game with the best singular mechanic. If you can't tell, I love plus trap, man. All right, no suit, but that is perfectly fine. I'm nearly at level 10. So let me explain what happened because it went by kind of fast. With plus trap, he has a mixed reality mechanic, which, as you just saw, puts you in their environments instead of putting them in my environment, around my room. So as you saw, this new plus trap skin, the Piranha plus trap has a incredible, incredible mixed reality, you know, like sunken shipwreck environment. Unfortunately, it didn't sound like there was any underwater ambience. But yeah, he comes closer to you and you have to turn to your left, turn to your right and shock these batteries. And behind you, you're gonna see a meter and you have to get it into the green. And then you turn around, you shock him when they're in the green.  If you don't charge them up fast enough, you die. So a very difficult mechanic to get the hang of. But here we go, fight two. Hopefully this one goes just as smoothly. But yeah, oh, and if you charge it up too much, as you just saw, I will lock out the other battery so you can't charge it up enough. I feel like they made it lower. I feel like they made it lower. Are you on the ground, dude?  I don't know what's going on. Oh, that one's not green. Charge it up a bit, charge this one. Okay, that is getting kind of close to overheating. Let's not do that. Okay, just barely in the green. I don't know where he is. Let's activate these. Okay, he's just there. Okay, put that up a bit. Okay, they're almost out of the green. Charge it up a bit more. There we go. Super easy, super easy. Let's go, bro. So good. All right, two for two. Do we get his suit? And no. All right, the final two lures. I'm having so much fun. Oh my gosh. It's been so long since I've had fun playing FNAF AR. You're probably not used to this. But I love Plus Trap. I love this new skin. It's definitely like a tear for me. Maybe even S-tier. I don't know. I think like this is absolutely insane. A huge step up from the last skin. What is that? Oh, that's why you shock him? Dude, that's insane. I never noticed that. It does use up a lot of your battery. But yeah, a huge step up from Frost Plus Trap who was like severely broken. Oops, didn't mean to do that. During his update. Okay, hold on, hold on. Okay. Dude, that is terrifying. Actually terrifying.  Oh, let's go. I feel like they nerfed his fight because this feels very easy. Or maybe I'm just a God gamer. I don't know, man. All right, here we go. Any new suit? Nope. All right, dude. I mean, final fight. Let's get right to it. All right, final fight. I'm having so much fun. Oh God, I thought I crashed there. What is that? Oh dude, it's so good. It's so good. I don't even care that they delayed it a lot and that we didn't get the icon because the fight itself and like the environment and the skin, it's all so good. A lumex, you did so good on this. I know you're probably not watching, but if you are, man, you guys did so good. I'm assuming, and I kind of hope that this is the final skin in the event because it's a banger one to end on. Oh, that's overheating almost. Where is he? I can't see him. Okay, we're in the green. Oh, he's right there. Come on, come on. All right, we're in the green. A bit more.  What do you mean? Dude, I nearly went four, four, four. Come on, man. I don't care. That was a good skin. That was a good fight. Good environment. What did we get? Two XP. Not even level 10. You couldn't, cool. Dude, I had so much fun. I had so much fun. Bye for the best skin. I think they have released maybe even this year. Definitely in the event. I think I was very happy with Dark Water Bear Endo. Like, he was so good. This whole event kind of besides, what's his name? Sunken Toy Bonnie. Took me a little bit. I think Darko had a good point in his video how Sunken Toy Bonnie should have been like coral, you know, like colorful corals and all that stuff, but he was just kind of like mucky, brown, disgusting. Yeah, I feel like that skin should have been more colorful and all that stuff, but like this is a great skin to end on. I hope they end on the skin because I feel like they might mess up a fourth skin if they do one. Yeah dude, like honestly so good. I can't remember the last time I've had so much fun playing FNAF AR. Like even when I lost, I was like, you know what? That's fun. Because I enjoyed the fight. I enjoyed the skin. I enjoyed the environment. I think small critiques. I think in the workshop, I believe he's still on the default wooden chair. Would have been cool if he was on like a throne of seashells, I don't know. And then also like the environment, the ambience of the environment, the ambience, whatever, should have been like some sort of, I don't know what they could have done, but some like ocean-y, I don't know. But even that, like that is nitpicking. I think, yeah, I think that's maybe the only thing keeping it from S tier. I think it's a very, very, very high A. It's just missing those like small details, missing those very minute details. But then again, it's like, I don't know. I realize I'm talking a lot just because I love the skin. And normally, I don't get to say that, so I'm expressing it a lot. Yeah, Halimax, you did good. Congratulations, you didn't mess up an event. Paul, go. Yeah, I think that's about it. Thank you guys so much for watching. Hopefully we have a new character soon. I know, talking about characters, but like we need one. We really need one. I think they walked a lot on the gameplay update. They probably walked a lot on this new skin and the environment. So I'm hoping they take time and they create a new character, right? I feel like they now have two very big projects off their shoulders. So I'm hoping we can get a new character. Anyways, that's it. Thank you guys so much for watching and I'll see you all on the flip side. Goodbye.