Right, sub-internet. Again, another Halo 4 stream before dinner. So, we've been doing, making pretty good time. We've been duped into releasing some forerunner alien dude. Because we thought we were trying to warn off a UNSC ship that was intern trying to rescue us. Medyo pa rang soap opera din tung... And who can blame... And who can blame them, right? I mean... Ay, mother. Cracker. Cheese. I mean, over the course of like a multi-title series, merami talagang...  Interestingly, Halo 1 was supposed to be a standalone. They didn't have any plans of doing a sequel. But since it was such a hit, of course they had to make a sequel.  That's why I like the... Cheese. Like the Black Marine. If you guys remember your Halo 1, he bites the bullet. He's infected by the Covenant. And then they just kind of laugh it off in Halo 2 na... How did you survive? And he's like, that's classified. Of course that Black Dude doesn't... Survive all the way through the series. Which I will not spoil. Oh, Covenant Carbine. I think the Covenant Carbine is my favorite weapon. Except maybe for a real god. God. Damn it. Oh, mother. I got a new weapon and I'm trying to figure it out. And I don't know. Sub-Deo, sub-Kaiser. Lambo, give away when we can afford it. Which will probably be never. Coal Pay the one. Let's go, sa'n yon? Actually, di ko pang anay explore multiplayer nito eh. I wanna finish all the single-player stuff first. And then... Wow, you can... How many shots in the back can you take? Probably naman. Okay, that's my Covenant Carbine. Don't waste the ammo of my Covenant Carbine. Yes, as I mentioned yesterday... Oh, oh. Sports long, sports long. I have not watched the Halo movie. Halo movie, sorry, Halo TV series. But I do understand it's not... Oh, what the hey? That's the second time in the exact same spot by the exact same thing. Halo 2 ba yung send me out to the bank? Okay, you gotta avoid that spot. Cheat, man. Kinda cheap of me to do a backstab like that. All fair. In lovin' war. Oh, oh. Ow, ow. Ahh, can't think of... Can't just... Ahh. Kahit yung ma-needler dito ano yung? Stop shooting rounds for my Covenant Carbine. Okay, drone. Cover my back. Okay, let's draw some to you then. Damn, drone thing. Covenant Carbine, Covenant Carbine. And what's this goss rifle? Okay, let's... Fair enough, let's finish you first. But let's stay away from these things. I have no idea what... Ordinance keeps blowing me up there.  Where's my carbine? Where's my carbine? Ahh, rocker. There, there, there. Covenant Carbine, Covenant Carbine. Just go. Where's the goss rifle? Railgun pala, railgun. Okay. What does the railgun do? All right. Okay, you got your drone. I got my drone. Yes. Hate those drone support things. Oh, that's what the railgun does. I'm on board with the railgun. Oh, mother, crack. Oh, mother. Ouch, ouch, ouch. Wait lang, wait lang. Needler. When I play Master Chief, he does an embarrassing amount of running away. Sorry, Chief. This is unheroic, though. So, you know, not like it's a... Oh, there's a range thingy now. I didn't even notice that before. God, I need a better gun. Am I supposed to use a railgun on that? Because I will, don't tempt me. Ganunan pala. Parang it just kind of shrugged it all. Are they dropping troops? Get out of there. Get out of there, Master Chief. Distresion is the better part of valor. Anticulus. Where, where? Behind me? Please, please. Oh, hi. Trying to be cute, pa. Hit him, Master Chief. Hit him harder, Master Chief. What if I go railgun? Target remains. Are you out of ammo? Those are the kind of moments you game for. Please, give me a better gun. Ah, gun, gun. Scatter shot. Ah, god damn. Anticulus. Sige, sige. Run and gun atayo. Oh, life rifle. The life rifle is okay. Ow, ow, ow, ow. And you guys with your shields are so annoying. Okay, there we go. Trying to be cute, pa. And gun, Master Chief, is very fast when he's motivated. Cortana Tulaski, LV is secured. Roger that, Cortana. I'll give you the coordinates. Mayday, Mayday. Hostile elements attempting to gain entrance to the Infinity Bridge. Since return to Infinity and meet all force. Running through with those men and take back that ship. Yes, sir. Good luck, Chief. Laskie out. Why am I still taking orders from like random people?  There's another rail gun. Why didn't we find that rail gun earlier? Hi. Oop. Ha. This is Pelican 595.  But we're always weapons free. Get in the tank, get in the tank. Get on board, get on board. Clear out those guys. Oh, there's somebody behind. Okay, we got him. Cunigo. What's the hate, what's the hate? Get out, get out. Get out of the way. All right, all right. You see that, you see that. Hey. Why did one get in our rear? What's in charge of that? Uh oh, uh oh. Uh oh, so, so. Sorry, Warthog. Okay, okay. That was my bad, but in my defense, there was like an enemy tank right behind you. So, I don't know. I don't know if that mitigates matters. Wait, wait, wait. I think we got another enemy tank up ahead. Elevation. Miss. There, there, there are kids. Nice shot. Oh man, this thing is such a maneuverability of an elephant. All right. That went wide. I think that one was a kid. It's very confused driving. Oh, there we go. Jeez. Stop, Jose Marie Karl. Hunters. Hunters. Wai pa, wai pa. Hoy. Sir, what's our status? On the ship's defenses and is extracting data from the ship's main frames as we speak. Can we break the connection? Tags on the ship's upper hull. The fastest route is through the maintenance causeway. There's a mantis, docked inside the door. Take it. You'll need the extra firepower. This mantis, that small thing. I can't remember anymore. Oh no, okay. Well, who was the smart captain that got himself any ship in the trap in the first place? I mean, you know. Oh, you're blaming. Why are you blaming the master cheat? Oh, this is new. It's like a mech suit. Mech suit. Causeway is jammed. Reload. No jump, but pretty maneuverable for a mech. Aye, aye. Okay, okay. Relax lang, relax lang. Those guys look like floods. I miss the floods. Ah, ah, ah. Nobody likes those lasers. Oh, oh, oh.   Why did you guys disable my beautiful mech? Ah, you've got to wake up. Okay, okay. Just clearing the way for my mech. Back online. Hey. Aye, aye, aye. Sorry, sorry. Wasn't paying attention. Aye, aye, aye. Does he sneaky little bugger? And why did nobody think to put jump jets on this thing? Ah, nice shot, nice shot. Got him, I got him. What the hey? What the hey? Aye, ah. Aye, ah. Oh, no. Oh, don't.   Oh, he can crouch. All right. On one hand, it's good to know he can crouch. Okay, I think he's bit battered up. But, we're still good. To be honest, I don't even know when I'm blasting. The cursor turns red. I fire. Oh, is this it? Oh, I got it. Oh. Well, so far, you have just been a big paperweight in need of rescuing. It's away. Second jammer down. Oh, okay. Oh, that's like a frenzy gun. Sorry.  Take out the jammer. Take out the jammer. Oh. Lots of fancy. Take him out. Take him out. What happened to all of the big guns that were supposed to be on our side?  Oh, thank you. Toloy, Toloy. I remember ODST where we piloted one of these things. In four minutes to what? Morpah. Morpah.  Get out of there. No, not my dude. Not my beautiful mantis. Still with us. Still with us. All right. Okay. Got a landing on the right side. All right. Got to get rid of the roger. This mech was not built for speed. Go, go, go. Master Chief on the other hand. Oh, I thought that ship was a goner. My player tag. I think peripiti 47. I think. Wait. Who is this guy bossing me around though? Sensor data is all that was left. Interesting. These symbols are a derivation of the forerunner glyph system. And our geeks managed to pull some coordinates. I'll give you three guesses where it led. Sir, gypsy company is prepped and ready to roll on your orders. Thank you, Palmer. These voices aren't familiar. You take point. I won't boot on the ground in 60. Captain. This is the first contact scenario, Master Chief. Prior is to free infinity from requiem's gravity well at threat assessment back at fleet com. You mean relieving? Sir, infinity drove the didact back. He's vulnerable. He isn't the only one. You know, I think you, of all people, would appreciate the benefit of living to fight another day. What's that supposed to mean? Ya, to be honest, those player tags and stuff, di ko machado napansin. Oh, it's peripitea 22, I think. It's my username. I don't know if that's my player tag. Peripitea is Greek for a sudden reversal of fortune. If you can't tell, I was a lit major. I think we should depose to Captain. He's obviously gone power hungry. Infinity to Gypsy Company? Was blocked by a network of particle cannons. Infinity shields are still down. Open the lane for us to move up and provide air support? Captain, what's force recon's assessment of the terrain? I know you've been off the field for a while, Master Chief, but this is a blow through lock. Sending in a recon would just slow us down. Telemetry indicates the particle cannons are being controlled from a command post southwest of our position. Roll on that target and neutralize those guns. We'll meet on the other side. We'll take the gravity well. Infinity out. I don't know about you, but I usually like a little more intel with my intel. We'll make it work. Well, we've had two good captains.  I mean, uh, this my usual gun. That's the usual gun. Well, someone's overcompensating. That is a very big truck. Reminds me of the spiders, but what do they call them? Chief, unfortunately for us, we've got to manually bring down a couple of particle cannons before we can get to the command post. We do have experience with... Oh, I think it's on the SD also. Stop jet. Look at the size of that gun, man. Look at the size of that gun, man. Can I control this gun? I can control this gun. All right. What about the other side?  That's not going to end well.   I got it, I got it, I got it. Reload and fire, reload and fire. I mean, because it's really like spray and spray. Ow, ow, ow, ow, ow. It is a satisfying spray and spray, though. Oh, you want me to go down? Oh, sniper rifle. Actually, maybe that wasn't the brightest move. It needs to be bright when you're the master chief. So, to the friendly. We'll get you out of here. Blast them. Oh, yeah, I... Oh, reloading pa. Punyeta. I have used this guy before. In reach. Nice warthog. Target-designated. Lordy. Wait for me. Krabi naman. Di mo lang hinintay. Ow, what was that? Who dared shoot at master chief? Ah, fare this.   Maybe sniper rifle wasn't the best. Or anti-air. You guys are being annoying. So, on me again.  I mean... Oh, did somebody run over me? Bayon. I think somebody... I think my own... Can we use the railgun? Ah, no, it's just airborne target. Oh, favorite gun. Favorite gun. Here we go. Covenant carbine. Oops, sorry. Why can't we just hit it? Arty, you can't hit it. Race? Where? Where? There's the race, yes. Why waste ammo? Where's the race? Where? Where?  Oy, putika. Oy, putika. Pastusan. Still haven't been able to pick up my favorite gun. There was a flaw in my approach. Where my war tag? Oh, come on. Take him, take him. Yes, let's do this, let's do this. It's the same guy. It's the same guy. 3-4, god damn it.  Ay, no. Ah, but...  Alright, let's do this. Oh, frick. Sayangaling. Stop, O.T. How come it's always just... How come it's Master Chief? Let's do this together, guys. Like this. Grab it when you're sponsored after you take out the first one. I set up my sniper, what do I have? That's a bad dude. That's a bad dude. Take him out. Alright. Also a bad dude. Take this guy. Ow, ow, ow. Shields up, shields up. Ow, ow, ow, ow. Cricky.   Take out this tank, take out- Ay! Ay! Okay, okay. Back it up, back it up. Krabi naman. So annoying. Krabi ang ilit na to. How much punishment can you take? A lot. Alright, got my Covenant Carbine. Neat. Map-up muna, map-up. Lagi annoying. It's truly a long time to clear that one guy. Am I even denting this thing? hours or there? Come on, come on. Cycle blast that thing. Get out of there. I literally already dodged it. Stupid. I saw it coming. I dodged to the side. Come on. Okay, okay. Wait. Gotta have dinner soon. But let's just clear this. Let's just clear this stage. Ah, okay, okay. Objective. Alright. I like how- I like how you- Okay, let me just take this guy out. Alright, alright. You know what to do now. Alright. Go, go, go, go, go. Gravity lifts take me back. Yes. Oh, you're suicidal, ah? Ay! Okay, got turned around a bit. Got no shields too. Stay on the move. Keep your shields up. Oh, freaker. No, let me finish single player first. Oh, it's just made it. Guys are so annoying.  Wala na? Ooh, ooh.   Thought I had more grenades. Eh, munch. Shields, guys. Shields. Come on, Master Chief.  Ay! Ay, tanga!  Okay, okay. Let me just- Let me just finish this ship. Be strategic about this. Please, God.  Oy, oy, oy. Same guy. Same elite. Sorry. That was my bad. That was my bad. It's like a scarab in here. Okay, okay. Okay. I shouldn't have smart grenades, bro. Oy, tanga. Premature. Premature. Nobody likes premature shooters. Where's that elite? Okay, almost there. Ay? The computer is taking pity on me at this point. It's like this guy. This guy. All right, he's down. Masingyan na pala kailangan. All right. Play smart. Play smart. There's still a whole bunch of them up here. Oh, I need more ammo. He's going down. He's going down. Oh, don't go down on top of my ship. Oh, it's running away. Did I- Did I not do my job properly? Do my job properly? It's away. Ammo. Ammo. Ammo. Ammo. Oh, damn. Let's make a girl a promise you can't keep. Ammo. Copy-gluncher. Meja overkill. All right, all right. I really don't know what to do. I don't know what to do. Meja overkill. All right, all right. I really got to- All right, I got to prepare. I got to have dinner, guys. Thanks for tuning in. Thank you to our sponsor Colorful. Thank you to our usual sponsor CDK Offer. We do have a new video dropping tomorrow, which is- What's the thing? Tomorrow, sorry, is- Oh, no. May overlap. We do have a stream tomorrow. It's the- Finally, the SOTA Part 2, the Raterig, Roasterig Part 2. One of the members kasi I was having internet trouble the past few days so it got pushed back until tomorrow. We are also releasing a sponsored CDK video tomorrow. But one tomorrow is pretty fun. Like kung you haven't been building in a while, parang matagal na since nakabilt ka ng computer, anong current PC building trend. So that's pretty fun. Then we also have another one releasing on Saturday and then on Monday. So pretty- pretty bunched up schedule for us the next couple of days. Alright, thanks so much for joining me.  That elite. Yung nakashield tapos so good lang na so good. Anyway, thanks guys. Have a good night.


Now, there's lots of different ways we could talk about this. This is one thing that I was hoping was really going to be in the textbooks for the new grade 11. This comes from the Iroquois, Casuenta, as you know they have the wampum kind of tradition there. It's a specific form of literacy again. They keep track of events in these ways, but I want to draw your attention here to this two-row wampum here because in there is sort of the Iroquois record of how they understand their relationship with the government. Let me read to you an interpretation of this, Casuenta. When the Haudenosaunee were the Iroquois, first came into contact with the European nations. Treaties of peace and friendship were made, first with the Dutch and then subsequently with the English for the Iroquois. Each was symbolized by the Gasuenta, or the two-row wampum. There is a bed of white wampum which symbolizes the purity of the agreement. There are two rows of purple and these rows have the spirit of your ancestors and mine. There are three beads of wampum separating the two rows and they symbolize peace, friendship, and respect. These two rows symbolize two paths or vessels, traveling down the same rivers together. One a birch bark canoe will be for the Indian people, their laws, their customs, and their ways. The other a ship will be for the white people and their laws, their customs, and their ways. We shall each travel the river together, side by side, but in our own boat. Neither of us will try to steer the other's vessel. The principles of the two-row wampum became the basis for all treaties and agreements that were made with Europeans and later the Americans. Yes. There it is. Thanks for that. This is obviously a different context. Eastern Canada and Western Canada are very different places. The Iroquois, not the same as the Blackfoot, but we know that the treaties moved east to west and that this kind of relationship, this kind of understanding is what informed the treaties that we have out here. One of the things that's also critical about understanding this two-row wampum is that people will say, so they have this idea of these boats going parallel, but they'll say that doesn't mean, of course, that they're not related. They're in the same water. They're side by side. So it's not that they're separate from each other. They're related, obviously, but it's that distinction, that difference that's important. And Blackfoot leaders will say the same thing. They'll say, yes, we have this idea of nation. It's important to us, but our TPs are all held down by the same pegs now. We can't ignore each other. So the question is, what governs this relationship? How can we move forward? Just one last slide before I get the film on. This is a very important scholar. If you're interested, I would highly recommend his work. He's a legal scholar. His name's John Boros. He comes from the Chippewa of the Nawash, which is down by Sarnia, Ontario. He's Anishinaabe, Ojibwe. But he has this theory, what he calls landed citizenship. And this is something I think is what I think we need to be sort of moving towards. His argument basically is that Aboriginal people can no longer remain isolated. If they want to influence what Canadians think about them and what the policy is, they have to move beyond their own communities. They have to use and transmit their culture and matters beyond Aboriginal affairs. Many Aboriginal groups have well-developed notions in their philosophies and practices about how to recognize the land as citizen, how to recognize the land as citizen.  So the idea is, yes, we recognize immigrants, we recognize their experience, we recognize what they bring to the country, but they need to know about this idea of Aboriginal citizenship that he's talking about. Recognizing the land as citizen. And bringing this idea to the attention of Canadian institutions is what he's arguing. And I guess I support that view.


In his Explorer Series talk, NCAR scientist Dr. James Dome discusses a new era of extreme weather impacts. I'm driven to understand how extreme weather works, how we can predict it. I'm going to review what we know about extreme weather, how we know it, and then also how we conduct science in collaboration with non-scientists. Climate change is a hot topic in the insurance world. I work with the insurance industry to better enable society to face this changing risk of extreme weather. So I think one of the main take-home messages is that climate change is not something we're waiting for. A portion of it has actually already happened.


Hi I'm Shanfei and this is Sean this way and in this video I'm joined by a very special guest as lead singer of electro prop trio years and years. His debut album communion has achieved global success but he's also distinguished himself by being a public advocate for youth mental health and being an openly gay man in the mainstream music industry. His name is Oli Alexander and now he's a king under my control. I'm really interested to talk to you about being an openly gay man in the mainstream music industry. Will Young who obviously enjoyed massive success at the top of charts through pop idol who's become much more vocal in recent months about the impact of being openly gay while famous but also not being able to speak about that during the early years of his career and also the death of late George Michael who obviously was kind of a pioneer in that respect but obviously his career began before being outed and you've pretty much been open out since the start of your music career. Really early on I mean obviously everybody knew you know like the management team and the people that we all worked with and knew that I was gay but it's not really spoken about in a way it's sort of like oh you don't need to make that obvious you don't need to kind of come out and start talking about that and I actually had one media training session really early on with this woman who kind of advised me not to come out she was like you don't need to it doesn't need to be you don't need to make it a big deal like why should you why should you have to express your sexuality why does it matter you know which is all kind of like I can see where she was coming from and like I understand why that might have been the norm to tell you know like musicians in the past or whatever so after a certain point I realized actually I just I was getting this real anxiety and stress from worrying about you know what interviewers might ask me in an interview or like I felt like everything all the music was just about me and my identity in a way so I was like doesn't make any sense for me to not talk about this so yeah I just made the decision I did kind of it did feel a bit like a choice really really early on to be out as much as possible and then it kind of developed from there yeah and I'm just wondering because you've actually almost now from that starting point ended up becoming quite a vocal spokesperson as well not just openly gay but about community and political issues and I think there is kind of a debate around pop music so really like even saying like at the highest echelons of pop music so with Beyonce's formation there was kind of a lot of discussion about what is the role of artists to talk about politics and whether or not actually there are still a school of thought that political messaging through mainstream music is in some ways inappropriate or it's kind of shoehorning something that doesn't belong there and that it could be damaging for the artist too and that you kind of get boxed in as a professional gay yeah um totally well have you been worried about that I think that's probably something I prescribed to as well in the past I thought you know well these people it's not their job there aren't politicians it's not you know is it really their job to be discussing these issues and but then I suppose now I've kind of come I have a different mindset about those things and I think we're all kind of living in a time where just and really being alive is being political you know in all the choices and decisions and things you make probably they do have some political kind of aspect to them whether you like it or not and I do think you kind of if you do have a platform you that's a privilege really that people are listening to what you say whether so really you can make a choice to kind of be political overtly political or not we all have responsibilities as human beings to just kind of try and do our best you know and that involves kind of helping each other and I think actually yeah if you remain silent and political on things you're not really helping anybody or yourself yeah and I think it's kind of interesting in pop music that with queer communities in pop music is that actually pop music has always been kind of integral to queer community formation and to and to queer culture's understanding of itself so through the prism of gay icons like from Judy Garland pretty much on words that queer people sort of denied a place in pop culture or visibility have kind of used pop music as well to articulate a lot of their own political struggle but there has been this huge displacement that actually there still aren't that many openly queer people in that music and that we still haven't really called up to that despite the fact that we're supposed to be living in a bastion of LGBT legal rights I think actually for a queer person to reach the same kind of level of influence that someone like you know Judy Garland or Beyonce or you know Ed Sheeran to have they need to overcome so many steps along the way and I think it is going to take a while for a queer person to get to that same level just because the way you know you need to have the support of just so many different groups of people to get to that level you know to then even but I think you know it's so I don't think we're quite there yet one of the things that you're saying as well which I do find really interesting is how historically you know a lot of our kind of gay icons have been women you know heterosexual cisgendered women who we you know LGBT community have really kind of deified and identified with in a way that's maybe actually not is it that relevant to our to our lives I don't know but and then it's sort of a question that's like why is that and why do we find it so hard maybe to support another kind of artist I don't know it's it's I don't know it's just I feel like men make quite bad gay icons do you want to be like queer positive while you're gay icon totally um yeah well I mean but yeah I think that is largely because of like you know cis heterosexual women's femininity and pop culture has been kind of like loaded with all this meaning for queer people yeah and I think it's the first introduction I think actually Matthew Todd's book Stray Jacket had a really good section I think on this on why it's particularly for young gay men your first kind of maybe like it's your first introduction to pop music is usually with these like these these women who have these almost kind of who are these like extraordinary women that they often have these quite like tragic storylines in a way like Whitney Houston and Britney Spears and we identify with this kind of brittle femininity yeah and that's kind of because we don't see it reflected in kind of male stuff I don't know it's yeah it's interesting it is it is not making any points but it's interesting um so there are different types of you know of gay representation you can be out as a gay man but I think one of the things that I find interesting about political discourse around certainly like gay male sexuality is that it is now obviously acceptable on the basis that you conform particularly to heterosexual notions of sex but what's quite often there um and I was thinking about this um obviously with George Michael's death is that if there's any hint of kind of like untoward or kind of especially queerness in sex life or talking about gay men's sex lives in a way that isn't about actually being in a monogamous relationship that mirrors um heterosexuality there's still quite a level of harsh media judgment um about that I'm not going to necessarily name names but there are obviously there have been examples in the media of gay men you know high profile gay men having had lurid stories about their sex lives published and I'm just wondering because I know with Desire you did a video that was quite like you know explicitly pointed towards a more sexualized notion of queerness and do you feel that's quite a dangerous game in particular you know I think a lot of the like you're saying discourse around um LGBT rights is all kind of centered around love and and finding a partner and maybe getting married and like that's all great and really relevant but actually there's so many other different kind of sexualities and different sort of ways to have a relationship different ways to love on or be or even if you're asexual do you know mean that we need to also like highlight and give room to um and so that was kind of part of the reason why I was like actually you know I'm just going to try and be asex positive as possible and it definitely freaked some people out they were like people aren't going to like this it's too you know and it's but it's crazy you know they just like we have this one music video for um the song worship where you know there's no explicit male or male action at all I lick the windshield of a car as you do you know and they were like we can't have that gotta cut it gotta cut it out and you just think if I was a woman doing this you know there would be no you know they wouldn't there would be no they just there would be no question yeah but you know and the video wouldn't get shown on daytime music channels and everything gets edited so much and I think we we do have a culture that is very sort of doesn't doesn't want to see any of that side you know if it's if we have to sort of like a safe I'm sort of talking mostly about gay men here but like we have like a safe gay man in who feels like non-threatening then then that's acceptable but anything that's sort of other than that I think I think can be a bit hard for some people to deal with I guess this kind of reason to like the mental the mental health stuff you're doing in your documentary yes growing up gay I guess one of the things that I'm interested in is when your approach to do a documentary and they say well you've spoken about mental health and and we're going to do this documentary it's sort of focused around you about lgbt people and mental health and there have been quite shocking statistics from stonewall and stuff this year about that yeah is what do you hope in your mind you want to make it because you want to like because we always say like let's raise awareness but it's like how that translates politically I know you've mentioned that you have a crush on Jeremy Corbyn is it that you hope that Jeremy's going to be my boyfriend it's all one long bio that essentially that you are just like you do a tv documentary then it's written about in the press then you know through social media get shared around then maybe hopefully someone shows like a junior politician it and then they show it to get someone more senior is that what you hope that kind of material well I think that's part of it I think there's there is one aspect that is kind of a bit campaign led and like political in a sense because actually there there really is stuff that we can do into you know a policy level to help young lgbt kids you know specifically in schools I really think that would be really so it would be a really great way of getting like lgbt inclusive sexual relationship education and that is something that was part of the reason why I wanted to make something like that but also really I think it was an opportunity to kind of access a you know quite a wide audience and introduce something that maybe then they haven't really come into contact with lgbt mental health and you know the idea that like you know families might watch it and parents of an lgbt kid might have a better understanding and that's I think that was kind of that was a big part of the decision as well yeah I think there's probably a fear that we've just had gay pride in London that there are a huge amount of brands there are lots of people there's a lot of media coverage of that and it seems very much like we're there everything's accepted and actually a lot of the legal rights you know in Britain you should be grateful because we actually have some of the most you know sophisticated and progressive laws in place which on the one hand could be true but on the other it's kind of like you know you have to kind of the conversation has shifted to be like well actually there's still quite a lot of social damage yeah exactly it takes place that is it can't be covered by an act of harm and yeah completely I think you know we should feel really you know good about the laws that are in place and the rights that we do have that we have achieved so far but but but not forgetting that actually attitudes take much longer I think to change and and and you know the experience of a young person growing up queer that experience has not been you know magically made perfect because we have almost the same rights to straight people it just hasn't and I've really noticed that some of my straight friends have been really shocked by the statistics that have come out recently from Stonewall as well about young you know young trans people being the most at risk in our society yeah young gay people being bullied it's you know it's so prevalent and I think they they have been really shocked because I think there is this kind of idea that it's fine and you know you can get married and and this is maybe like a bit of a non sequitur is that the right yeah that's it um I think you can go non sec I think you can shorten it like I um I got to a really bad habit of um of shortening everything until until I like found myself saying prima jack I was like that is literally like you know if anything deserves a shortening it's prima jack oh dear well it's a non sec a non sec to pride and how I don't know how you feel about this but because a lot of my queer friends have quite an uncomfortable relationship with pride yeah and I think there's a feeling that it's become massively corporate and it's sort of just like an excuse for people to advertise and like for Tesco to like throw out food and keep like especially this year with London pride I know there was because all their advertising was sort of seemed to be centered around like straight people saying it's cool to have a gay friend or something and it felt like who is pride for anymore like is it still for our community and if not why and how can we make better help you know engage how can we better engage with it I think there's a yeah I think there's a huge difficulty there about um it happened with gay rights and it's interesting that we're probably going to approach that moment um with Jeremy Corbyn and the and the Conservatives announcing they're going to reform the gender recognition act for trans people is it's very tempting I think when you're offered a bit of kind of like a bit of political solace to just like bite their hand off and um and increasingly just be grateful and then actually to kind of forget and what that kind of includes is obviously forgetting the people who are most in need in your own community and so I think there is a huge risk with pride events in particular that they stop serving yeah I like I had a transphobic experience at Pride really just like for fuck's sake yeah um what happened oh someone a woman called me overturned so I was expecting it's going to be like she's going to tell me I'm beautiful you look amazing she was like you're very beautiful and I was like thank you and she was like you had me fooled and I was like wow and then when I was like that's actually very upsetting you probably should apologize to me um she really went off on one and I was like you've come to Pride I think one of the interesting things because mental health is a difficult more difficult issue like gay marriage for example or um the equal age of consent or even repealing section 28 which was done by active parliament it's actually not that hard for parliament to sit down in the path of vote and do that something like um mental health requires money and I think it's really interesting that um a lot of the first things that happen the LGBT rights are the ones that don't actually like to actually allow gay people to marry doesn't require any money um and something like LGBT mental health is actually going to explicitly require oh yeah um giving people free healthcare albeit mental health services exactly yeah you're totally right I mean LGBT services in that mental health well it have just been completely demolished and also you know it does you're right it takes so much it would take money to also train doctors and train gps to understand maybe LGBT specific issues or how to do you know what I mean like because yeah those are relevant and if you have a gp that is completely doesn't understand that then you're not going to have any hope of accessing the the care that you that you need but to be honest across the whole second you know across all the health services the money there seems to be no money so it does seem like it's a really really um yeah tough uphill struggle yeah I'm interested about because obviously some of this is you know related specifically to mental health and isn't just about queer people in mental health but mental health in general is that mental health itself is still hugely stigmatized and I'm wondering like you know how do you feel about you know having been very open what surprises me sometimes is that I feel that we make ground and you know the royal family do advocacy for mental health and then you'll see um quite stigmatizing headlines about use of antidepressants and whether you know or um or we just talk about depression and anxiety and not about um some of the more kind of ugly side effects of like chronic mental illness um and I do feel that one of the things that homophobia and definitely transphobia and mental health politics are going to always be tied because to really to really trash queer people you have to kind of also um you you also have to be like they're all crazy and and then you are actually being rude about people who might identify as crazy yeah you're concerned as well about being open about your own mental health but it's just for the fear that you might be like written off for me I found I found sharing my own story and trauma was part of my kind of healing process okay of my recovery so you know and that has helped me just as on a personal level you know so that's why I sort of don't have to I have some some conflicting feelings about it but I sort of knew that for me that that it did help me kind of get over some stuff but um yeah I don't it's it's it's going to take a while I think for us to kind of reach a place where we feel like we're addressing things in the right way I think celebrity culture um is you know is quite a difficult one because actually there is quite a you know if you look at Amy Winehouse review of Britney Spears 2007 like people still will talk about like her meltdown I know like almost like a sassy way and actually um or it's a meme and I think it's kind of interesting that that's actually quite like that's perhaps about women and mental health about if you actually push famous women into a misogynistic male you know celebrity culture that actually when that kind of cracks and breaks and that the mental health problems are exposed but then it becomes you know that becomes like you know and we all participate in it totally I mean I think a large part of celebrity culture is is making fun of women it just is really and like poking fun at and like and I get it because you know it's so it's so predominant that kind of and I and I think I probably used to take part in it as well and then over the years I've gone actually this makes me really uncomfortable and I don't think it's right well it's your headlines now so like you know it'd be your circle of shame so that's exactly it's in your interest yeah um you made documentary that obviously went out on BBC very mainstream um and was you know obviously talking to young LGBT themselves but also to people who are not used to these issues I think one of the interesting discussions as well about LGBT mental health is how within LGBT politics within communities within the way that we organize politically but also socialize our own relationships about the extent to which mental health affects our political relationships with each other so you know so for example the sexual competitiveness and body image issues of gay men are often reinforced among gay men by themselves but that can be something you literally experience as a young person I don't experience it anymore because um I transcended and you don't experience it anymore because like you're a pop star no one's going to tell you to go away in GAYY but you know but I'm sure you remember those experiences and in trans politics there there can be huge um you know on the one hand I think what's great about kind of queer politics is that I'm sure you've seen a lot of it takes place online and that's because I think like young queer people particularly not fully out if you're at home if you're like if you're a trans person you're in your parents bedroom and they don't know that you are a trans girl or whatever you can you can go on to tumbler and you can say my pronouns is she her and you can incarnate yourself online politically as the person that you can't be outside of that I think there's a toxic underside to that too you know some of the nicer things that content notices and you know being respectful and talking about issues of race and intersectionality can be really positive but on the other hand it can also cause you know people don't realize that they are still traumatized needing acceptance and then that can become that kind of talk about um how to help us can be just as toxic as as what we were doing before yeah I mean I think I absolutely right like you said it so I wish I could yeah articulate that as well as you just did because it's right you're right you know there is this it's really a really positive aspect of you know online communities and the and people having access to communities that they otherwise would never have been able to but at the same time I think it's made the kind of conversation just very extra you know like one sided or extreme and it's sort of just people attacking each other and you know and and some of the some of the like really intense misogyny I see online is from gay men or some of the transphobia I see is from gay men and or from sections different sections of community or racism and it's not it's it's hard to know how to address that in a help it's like how we can stop that from happening you know really if we're all and if we're still all doing it online you know it's I don't know if we're going to reach that point where with yeah because I don't know is it do you agree with the grouping lgbt I always find this interesting do you do you believe there's a rationale for that when there's so much diversity amongst us like are we really a community is it is it really a sustainable umbrella it's worth it because I think we have a lot of stuff support we can offer each other and stuff we can learn from each other you know and I think that in that aspect it's good I'm so happy to be grouped in an lgbt queer community because I I feel happy there and it's but it's I think it is you know the word community is kind of problematic in itself you know and it's like it doesn't it is very hard because we are so diverse and all the experiences are so different you can't you know so I think it does make it hard for lots of people to really feel like they are included yeah because they often aren't really the reality is lots of people don't feel included in the community no that's true and I think it depends what you yeah what you mean by it because I think you know what my kind of standard political answer is I think that's a political identity and it's because we have the same enemies exactly what I agree maybe like a perfectly free society where they weren't there wasn't the kind of like you know personal because actually the home phone on the street doesn't really care how how you identify gender-wise mm-hmm they largely just care about how you look and what that means for them and I think you know there's that kind of we have the same enemies but also kind of the same structural things like housing and yeah you know experience of prison and kind of healthcare because even like you know trans people obviously have unique health needs but like the prep yeah struggle in kind of you know you just showed again that kind of yeah I think we exactly huge health we face a lot of the similar sort of obstacles similar struggles in you know it's hard I feel like the the the possible benefits and positives from being in the community together outweigh currently outweigh what I think the negatives or drawbacks could be but I think it's really you know I still feel like we can have a conversation about how we are how different parts of the community are different but still support each other and still feel like we can be a community but still recognize the differences I feel like that is possible it's just I don't know why we haven't quite got there yet I don't know but it's possible that's so uplifting solidarity is possible guys that seems like the perfect note to tie up when we haven't quite resolved the answer but it ends a segment nicely so Ollie thank you so much for joining me thank you for having me in this wonderful garden I know I know I just thought let's go so extra let me know what you think about LGBT mental health let me know in the comments below tweet me at Sean Fay use the hashtag Sean sway and don't forget to follow Navarra media at Navarra media thank you so much for watching bye


Good evening and welcome back to Byline. This is a public affairs show sponsored by the Amherst League of Women Voters and Amherst Media. It's an opportunity for us to get to know our town councillors, our newly elected state legislators, and as our town government evolves from our charter to an actually operating government, there's a lot to learn and a lot of things that we're exploring. And today's guest is our district one town councillor, Sarah Schwartz, and she does have a compatriot with her because there are two town councillors but she's here this evening solo because she was selected by the other members of the committee on outreach communications and appointments as the chair. And so it's a very important committee but before we dig into that, just a little bit here your family has been farming the same farm in Amherst for 100 years, celebrated just this year. Yep, this year we turned 100 years old so it's my husband's family's farm and yep, we did it. I remember being really young and thinking how old will I be when this farm turns 100? 100. Well here you are. Here I am. And the kids are... So I, two children, I eldest is 19 and then my youngest max is 15, so... Very good. And who knew that was coming along? Who knew? Who knew? Exactly. Fantastic. And town government is not new to you either. Tell us what you did in town before town council. So in the beginning I started, somebody said I think it should be... There's a great book that started that way. In the beginning. Yes. I'm sorry. So somebody said I think you should be on town meeting and at that time I think I was maybe, I don't know, like maybe 26 or 27 and I was like town meeting, right? So I went on and it was fabulous and I loved it and I was definitely involved. And so I was on town meeting for definitely over a decade and then after that I'm a farmer. The agricultural commission was something I was interested in and I served on that and eventually was vice chair of the ag com and then later on I got a call and I was asked by the moderator if I would like to serve on the finance committee for a year to finish out someone else's term and that was fascinating. Great. And so did you seek that out or they just called you? It was very funny. They just called me and it was in the middle of a dinner. I had a ton of family over and so I was like, me? Are you sure? So you must have felt pretty good about that. I mean basically you obviously performed in a way that caught people's attention and you didn't even have to go after that because that's a prize seat being on finance committee. Finance committee is a prize seat and at that point I had been thinking wow I would love to do that and of course it's a stepping stone at that time to be a select board member and that was, I remember walking into town hall one time and seeing the picture of everyone and thinking I want to be there someday. Like I just, I love this. And you are now. And I am now. It happened. Which still, sometimes I just think wow that's amazing that that dream happened. That's great. Well congratulations and thank you for coming on to the show. It's my pleasure. Let's dig in on this committee because it's got three charges. Two of them are kind of related, the outreach and the communications. Let's come back to that because the big area that you guys have a lot of decisions to make is about appointments. Absolutely. Because the town manager makes some appointments, the president of the council makes appointments, some appointments are from the council, members themselves, others are people from the community. So let's see if we can help our viewers understand how this is going to unfold. So let's start with from the very beginning. You want to be a volunteer for the town serving on some kind of a board or a commission or whatever. How do you start? So I would say that the best thing to do is to go on to the town website if that's possible. And when you're on the town website you will be able to click on boards and committees and either or sometimes it's the first time that you click on you will see an advertisement for there are vacancies on this committee, that committee and then it will lead you to something to a place that's electronic and it's a community activity form. So it's a very simple form. I know I was afraid the first time someone said I had to fill it out. I was like oh no this is going to be complicated, this is going to be long, it's not. It's fairly simple and so you would fill out your community activity form. It has a place for you to check off not just one board or committee but if you're interested in several, several things you think I think I might fit here, you now can do that on your community activity form. So you don't have to submit a second form for the second committee or the third and the fourth. You used to have to and now you can't. Now you don't have to excuse me. You do not, you can just do it on that form and it's no longer paper, I remember when they were paper. Paper, okay. So now the town manager has before him a list of people who are interested in serving. He knows there's an opening or two or whatever on a particular board. So now he has a group of people that he can consider. Yes. What does he do next? This is actually, this may sound, so before they would be put out in a certain way. We had a different form of government. Now that we have the charter, right now all of them are staying with the town manager until we've actually figured out the process of how we're, which appointing members are going to do what and how we're going to give these CAFs. So I believe the most. Because not all appointments are made by the same authority. No, so some authority, some authority goes to the president and the president has the authority over certain appointments. And then the town manager, there are some appointments that are exclusively his. And then there are some that are the town council's appointments. So right now we are trying to, we're looking at what's in our purview, which is participatory budget, rank choice to voting, planning board, and zoning. Where does finance committee fit? So here's a very interesting thing. So to make this even more confusing for people, there are some committees that actually have part of their members appointed by the town manager. And some, they also have another half or a quarter of that done by the town council. So that's... So finance committee would be an example? Finance committee is something that is completely different because when the charter was written, it tried to capture, you know, a large scope of things, but not everything was captured. And if you look at charges for things, some things are not quite clear. So originally when we all were seated in the town council, it seemed apparent that the appointing person to appointed the town councilors to finance committee was the president. Now we also have residents, that's what we all decided, because of that charge there would also be residents on finance committee. It seemed at that time that it was fairly clear that it would be town council who would appoint those residents. Now it doesn't seem so clear. So now it has gone to another committee, which is rules and procedures. And the idea what's going on right now is deciding should the president actually be the one who appoints the residents as well. My committee, Outreach Communications and Appointments, is saying I think this is still ours. And I think there's also a discussion on whether or not it should be the chair of finance committee who appoints them, only because finance committee is a really steep learning curve. It's complex. And there's a lot to learn. And it's good to be able to have someone on finance committee who knows exactly everything that's going on there to be able to choose a person and to be able to bring them along. So this is still sort of up in the air, but I expect by maybe... So the charter was clear that there should be some residents of the community who are non-voting members on the finance committee, but it didn't say how they get appointed. It simply said they were town council appointments. But that's gotten a little fuzzy. Within the town council, it could be the president's appointments. It could be the appointments, your committee that could make those appointments. And it could also be informed by the work of the rules committee. So basically the council president, you as chair, and Alyssa as chair of the rules committee, have to work together and guide the council through that conversation to make that decision. Once that decision is made, that'll become a rule of procedure, and that's how it will unfold over time. Now the budget's being put together even as we speak. So you're under the gun to get that piece resolved. Yes. So usually what happens when you're appointed to finance is that you come in generally at the beginning of the budget process. Even though it's very difficult, when your first year you go through it, it's really difficult to grasp everything. You start at the beginning, you go through the middle, you get to the end, you have a sense of the entire, yes, to finish, which really does help. Right now we're smack dab in the middle of it and we're heading towards the end. So a discussion that we're having is, is it fair to someone to put them right in the middle of a budgeting process when they really haven't been through the beginning with the rest of the committee? Is that just too much? And then appointments right now, the way that the charter has done them is that all existing appointments are actually up at the end of June and new appointments start July 1st. So it's conceivable that someone who has jumped into the middle of this, struggled to get themselves to the end, may not be appointed again. And that would just, I think that would be really discouraging to people and nobody wants to do that. And the appointments that would start with the beginning of the second budget cycle, how long is that term? Well, so this is very interesting. This is also something you'll be hearing from us. I would say in the next two meetings is that originally it was set at one. The feeling that I think Andy Steinberg expressed, I also expressed is that that first year is really for learning. It's a lot of learning. And it's a lot of learning. And then you're much more confident in your second year. So, but then, so originally some people thought, well, three years, three years is good because then by your third year you're ready to mentor people and you really got it going on there. But then you get to Town Council where we were elected, the inaugural Town Council for three years, but that's not going to be the way it stays. After we're out, then elections go for two years. So now people are saying, maybe two years is better because then you will have a year to learn and a year that you're up to speed. And then it's up to the next Town Council to then appoint people that they want. So that's the process we're going through. Great. So the spirit of the charter is that there should be some residents on there. And the challenge for you at this point is to balance the question of putting them into the middle of the budget process. Is that fair to them and their contribution? But the letter of the charter suggests that you would put them in and so there may be some other ways of managing that around finding some people who had done budget in the past but are no longer... So that's a question that we have and that was posed at our last meeting was should we just maybe bring on people who already have experience who could help us get through this process. But I think another line of thinking is we are now setting up procedures that will work from now to 200 years from now. That's right. So there's some hesitancy to try to do something too quickly or to set up a procedure that says the president's going to do this but later on it will change that charge. To somebody else. So there's some thinking on that. So there's two questions who's going to make these appointments and is this the right time to appoint residents? Yes. Okay, got it. So let's leave finance for a minute and go back to let's say zoning or planning which is in the purview of the town council. Who in the town council do you expect are going to make those appointments going forward? So those appointments are absolutely the job of the town council. These are town council appointments. So my committee was set up to basically be a subcommittee that helps do a lot of the background work in looking at all the people who apply and then bringing names forward to the full town council to vote on. So the recommendations of your committee go to the full council. Yes. And at that point the full council by majority vote will decide who to appoint. And these, I would also, so yeah, that is very true and I would say that when we're trying to figure out the process for this because this process has to be very different than it was in the past. We're a legislative branch, we are open meeting laws, something that we definitely need to adhere to. So it's a different process. It's a very interesting distinction because the select board was executive and if they were making an appointment it was the executive making an appointment which is where traditionally in government these kinds of appointments get made. You are a legislative body and so now there's a question of how do you do that properly and appropriately. So we want to make sure that we make people that we have people that our residents feel very comfortable in applying for these positions that they want to be engaged in this process. We also need to really keep an eye on transparency because that's something that's really important and so where we I think are very close to finalizing our process to how to appoint people but when you look at it and when you see it you will see where a lot of it is as much of it as possible a lot of it's in public which was important to a lot of people and Is your application a public application or is that a private document that the only the town manager and eventually the town council will see? So I think the way that it's looking right now and this again this has not been nailed down at all and our viewers should know that we're having a conversation here the first of March and they may be seeing this show three or four weeks from now and some decisions may have been made so you're giving us some context. This kind of gives you the context of how we went through our thinking process so that it makes sense to people so in the past in a different form of government when we had a select board all the CAFs were treated as personnel files now that so in that had to do with a select board being an executive body right that's the application so things are sort of different now in which you know they may not be completely seen as personnel files because of the fact that we it's not completely this but because we are legislative we are very subject to open meeting law there are certain steps along the way we do need to bring names forward so I believe there will be something on your CAF saying at a certain time in a process if you have been chosen if you're a nominee that's being brought forward with other nominees then the things in your CAF and your CAF maybe will most likely be made public knowledge. So once you are basically a semi-finalist or maybe a finalist it may become public which is what happens in a lot of important jobs in the public sector as well because at some point people need to know who you are and what your views are etc so once the application is processed and there's a list I'll give you the process I think we have but it needs to be finalized to make sure that it's completely legal so you would send we'll talk about planning and zoning you're like I have to do this this is amazing you fill out your CAF online you send it in right now it goes to the town manager now what we think could happen but we're not 100% sure is that the five members of OCA would be able to which is your committee sounds kind of organic we loved it kind of like a vegetable so we're proposing is that entire committee be able to see all the CAFs for this for each particular committee that come in we see the entire pool with open meeting law it is absolutely important that nobody talk about those names we can see them we can take a look we can kind of see what they do we cannot discuss with each other or anyone else any of those names we're also hoping will be possible but we're not completely sure is that one member of our committee and it's to be determined if it's a chair or not would then be able to with the help of perhaps we would want to have the chair of that committee beyond with us maybe we would want to have a staff liaison they could come into the interview process with this one OCA member my committee we would have interview questions that would be set up and would be public and would never change forever and ever so everybody is being asked the same questions same questions and also so say we really want to have the chair of the committee there because the chair of the committee could be able to tell the person who is applying this is what our committee really does and this is how much time it takes and these are the things that you should really expect because that's really important for someone applying to know and sometimes it can be a little daunting or it can be really exciting so the other people who would be there with the OCA member do not ask questions they're not asking questions, they're not the interviewer they're not part of the process for choosing so then after we will be interviewing everyone we are asking everyone including existing members of committees to also fill out a new CAF because they've changed a little bit and we're starting new so then when you say you'll be interviewing everybody every candidate for that position who's filed an application if there are 30 people who have said they want to be so everybody is going to get to that stage yes we want to make sure that it feels fair and people feel heard and that when they send in a CAF they're taken seriously and then from that point after the interviews then a finalist list would be created what happens then so that's the point where things definitely become public so I'm not 100% sure yet but I believe that say there's one position open we would need to bring whoever is interviewing would need to bring two people to the Outreach Communications and Appointments Committee we do that and in that point it does trigger a public process because that's the job of the committee to come up with the recommendations for the full council at which point after that point after that interview and discussion the committee makes a decision and moves it to the full council for consideration or they can kick it back they can kick it back to whoever the interviewer was say it's the chair we're not satisfied we need to Sarah I don't know what you were thinking about that morning but no none of us can ever mention names because that would be inappropriate we all agreed on what we think that we want from someone else's committee we need experience we also decided we really needed someone who knew the effect of swallows on buildings you didn't bring this to us so those are the kind of things we can talk about this committee has agreed ahead of time they made public what we're looking for you didn't bring this to us and then they would reject but you would hope that in most cases the council would say these are good candidates the only reason I bring this up is because a lot of his appointments are powerful and they're important and one of the things that I as a chair especially want to make sure is that we have checks and balances in place so some parts of this long process you might be like my goodness it's so long like how are we going to get people I also think it's important to take the time to make sure that everyone's feeling comfortable with things as it goes on so if then my committee says these are great names then the people would be who were hoping to be nominees or nominees would be told you will now have a public interview your CAF will be public and then it goes to the complete full town council so that's where nominees would then be brought keeping in mind that if then the full town council thinks that they don't know where our head was they could bounce it back too and they can go back so there is safety I feel in place the whole point of having the full council vote is not to just rubber stamp the work of a committee respect the work of a committee but if you see a problem you raise it and move on now what about the process do you folks have any hand or role in the process on the town manager appointments or does he continue to make those appointments in the way he has traditionally made them because they are in his control which if I recall includes the resident advisory committee that helps the town manager sort out the candidates for various appointments that he has is that process likely to stay in place and do you have any role in that as you folks we do have a role in that there are some things like again it's just crazy but you kind of have to take each piece so the resident advisory committee the way it is written into the charter is that they are the town managers committee and his appointment so there's that's what it says so they sort of operate like your committee does in relation to the town council the resident advisory committee operates that way do for Mr. Backelman for his appointments and I believe that the thinking right now is the way the charter has set that up that that's fine that Mr. Backelman will take a look see who we want to appoint them and then they will be there they will help him with his appointments Excellent so what is the role of your work with the staff we only have a few minutes left so I just want to touch on the outreach and communication side of this what is your work and role with a couple of staff people who have been named to work with your committee around outreach and communications before I do that I just realized that I didn't say there are some other appointments that the town manager makes it does make clear that the town council has to evaluate and confirm so we have no idea how that's going to happen yet but some of his appointments do need to be is there discussion about sending those nominations to your committee before it goes to the town council it is on our agenda to figure out how to do that but honestly right now we have to figure out one process we're going as fast as we can so we should stay tuned on that one because that's interesting because you might end up repeating the whole process a second time or maybe coming up with a hybrid put somebody from your committee on the resident advisory we have one minute left so outreach very important something that we are going to be forming a subcommittee on our OCO meeting on Monday it is very important it is to help town councilors with their setting up their district meetings their office hours getting information out to the public it is also to reach out to the public to let them know what positions we have available and to help bring them in so very important which takes you back to the appointments process so the only way for appointments to know that they're really doing outreach right is to see how their outreach is coming in we have 45 applicants so very important and we're trying to get up to speed on that well that's terrific you have a very important committee and by the time people see this a lot of decisions will have been made but I hope that you will now understand some of the thinking that went behind those decisions and in the bottom line is if you want to get involved go online fill out the application know that the town manager responsibility for making sure that the town council gets to see all of those through your committee and that be prepared to be called in for an opportunity to have a face to face discussion with your committee if it's an appointment that's going to be made by the town council in the end correct and that they will be an open transparent consistent process that's what I want there's several steps so it isn't one person or one stage making a decision it goes through a process so there's an appropriate amount of vetting and appropriate transparency in that process so that once people are pointed to these very important positions people will have confidence that they were well vetted and are well suited to do that job and it could be you so fill out that application and get involved so thank you for joining us thank you Sarah for being here that went by fast very good thank you see you next time


Far as Randall of the apes brought to you from out the pages of Edgar Riceburrow's gripping book If you must roar, Clayton visualizes porter in Philander attacks bleeding perhaps dead He rushes headlong into the jungle stumbling stripping crashing through the thorn and bush He plunges deeper presses farther, smashes onward He comes to a jungle trail that leads to the waterhole He stops, glances up the trail, sears into the tangled mass of vines that is the jungle listening The distant roar comes from beyond the matted wall Heedless of piercing tearing thorns, he plunges straight ahead Again he stops, he strains his ears, glistening for that cry he dreads to hear For the past moments it seems like centuries there's been no outcry from porter in Philander A horrible, strangling fear drips him What if he should be too late? The thought hurls him forward Desperation lends the speed of frenzy to his feet Meanwhile back at the hut, Jane Porter anxiously staring through the lattice bars of the window sees her father and Philander approaching the hut Jane, Jane, Jane, Jane Did you see him? Drink my toast Thank you, Daddy Oh, my God I've been nearly targets with worries Where's De clashe important to you, Jane? Did you go out? Well, we went out after you we read the hut, we heard the lion roar that we heard two commons and지efson took a rifle and shot it out after you It had very strange that we didn't meet you But they had to be here amazing thing, my dear. Her Philander here interrupted my discourse to tell me that a lion... Yes, sir! But a lion! Did he need... We were walking along. When the lion growled, I turned and saw him following us. I immediately urged the new our father the necessity of speedily removing ourselves from its immediate vicinity and made up most undignified spectacle of Northfield, Philander. And my dear, I was myself forced to accelerate my locomotion in order to complete my discourse here, Professor Porter. You mean to say I'm there again? Oh, never mind all that. If Russell didn't get the lion, how did you escape? Well, as I was saying, when Philander interrupted me, I ran to catch up with him when suddenly something picked me up from the ground and I found myself in a most undignified position, hanging precariously to the limb of a tree. I have, of course, retained complete control of all my faculties. Yes, yes. What did you say, Philander?  Yes, I will. I looked back, dear, and to my utter amazement saw Philander likewise clinging to a somewhat higher branch.  But the same godlike creature who rescued your father from certain death also hauled me to safety. But who was he? What was he like? What did he say? Well, why, why, now that you mention it, dear, he didn't say anything. And I'm not sure that I can adequately and accurately describe him. He's a splendid proportion, the, I might say, the living embodiment of a Greek statue. And, and while I am not a large man here, it's safe much for his physical prowess that he lifted me as I might lift a baby in arms. Well, well, I mean, why, black? Oh, dear, couldn't you tell? He's clean of feature. And as you will understand, I did not, under the stress of existing circumstance, examine him with a scientific attitude. I feel, nevertheless, that he is of the higher order. Yes, yes, yes. When Philander first saw the lion and started running... Oh, my daddy, I can't think of a better thing to do than to run from a lion. You hear, Professor Archimedes, you quarter? Are you still trying to claim that you were only running away from that brute in order to continue talking to me? I mean, Philander was running, as I said, my dear. You're accusing me of cowardice? Professor, the time has arrived when patience becomes a crime, and mayhem appears garbed in the mantle of virtue. Oh, Mr. Philander, please. Mr. Philander, you forget yourself. I forget nothing, Professor Archimedes, you quarter? But believe me, sir, I'm cuddling on the word to forgetfulness after your exalted position in the world of science and your gray hair.  Bless my soul. Why, Arch? Arch, how good that sounds. When you're human, Arch, I love you. But somehow, it seems as though you'd forgotten how to be human in the last 20 years. Well, thank heaven. Maybe you two can stop your speaking for a little while now. Here I am, trying to find out about this, this, this, well, whatever it was that came to your mind. Yes, yes, yes, my love, the most remiss of me. My fault, James. I lost my temper. Well, now, now, don't you get into another argument as to whose fault it was. Oh, dear, well, what's coming to happen to this fellow? Why does he do that? He's so standing up, arguing, we should be out looking for him. Ah, yes, yes, you're quite right. Quite right, my dear, quite right. I will start now and conduct a search with the utmost diligence. But you were just lost in the jungle yourself. How can you expect to find your way? I forgot to mention, dear, that this thing I can think of no suitable word other than gentleman. Yes, this same gentleman who rescued us from the lion led us back to within sight of the hut. Then, then he must be Tarzan of the ape. Eh, eh, what's that, my dear? He led you back here. He must be the one who left the notice on the door of the hut.  Of course, that is the solution. Well, yes, yes, yes, yes, it's pretty spice later. But what about Clinton? Really, Professor, why don't all like the idea of leaving Jane here unprotected in case some of the mutineers should return? Oh, I forgot to tell you, the ship has gone. Well, what's gone? The ship gone, did you say? Gone, vanished. Come here, look what you've said. Dear, dear, you've missed me, and the ship has gone. With the treasure, dear, dear me, the lost of science in general and archaeology in particular will be the most regrettable, the most unfortunate, absolutely irreparable. Well, I was one, I'm glad to be rid of the ship and those terrible men. Of course, with those hierarchical villains in charge of the ship, the situation was decidedly uncomfortable. One could never be quite sure in one's mind as to what their next action would be. But no, no, no, dear, the loss of the ship is not nearly such a catastrophe as the loss of the treasure. But Professor, without a ship, how could we have removed the treasure? One thing at a time, one thing at a time, Phil Lander, how often must I tell you that concentration of the mental faculty? Oh, I thought you would pick up the revolver, sorry. No, no, no, no, Clayton might be unnecessarily alarmed, my love. Your previous suggestion that we search for him has my hearty approval. Now, where are those rifles, eh? Ah, here's one. Yes, and if you will take that other rifle, Phil Lander. All right, all right. And be careful you do not shoot yourself. Oh, nothing. I, I will arm myself with this gun, at least it seems to be loaded. Be careful, Professor. Yes, be careful. Tarzan from the lofty branches of a northern twisted tree watches Clayton utterly exhausted his sense of direction gone thrashing about in the tangled maze of underbrush. Jury also be outweighs the ape man's feeling of contempt for this stranger who violates all the laws of jungle prudence.  He shakes his head. Had it been earlier in the morning or later in the evening, the man surely would have fallen prey to the lightning-like stroke of new mother lion or the death-dealing lunge of sheet of the leopard. Clayton leans his rifle against the ball of a tree, not so forward and glances at all him. The impenetrable walls of tree-on violence scrub him in securely in the tiny clearing. In his anxiety the rescue porter and philandery is blundered, broken and thrust his way in, and now he's hopelessly lost. There's a crackling of brush behind him. He whirls. He's nothing. But Tarzan has caught a glimpse of sheet of the leopard. He hears the soft bending grasp, a silky pad of beast. He glances back at Clayton. He wonders why the young white man's not warned. Can it be that he's failed to hear? Never before has Tarzan known she did to be so clumsy, so careless in his stalking. A ripple passes under the softened silk machine of the leopard's coat. The muscles, strong as steel, perhaps tight and dense. Seven Tarzan watches. She does ears flatten, tails straighten. The tip of the milk tail twitches. The twitch that signalizes the charge. Tarzan's call of warning spits the flattening silence to the jungles. She departs with motionless. The beautiful glare dyes from sheet of eyes. Gives way to a disappear. The standing hairs ridged down the leopard's spine. The flattening deal twitches and petrified with a mean good call for fear and anger. She has healed between legs. Slings off into the jungle.


Standing on an island of someone else's creation, you enter the House of Beavis.  Statue after statue greets you with accompanying dialogue, punctuating the sublime with the vulgar, but things are stranger than they seem. A monolith dances to the seance of an ethereal voice, the structures of sentience, as you press towards the end of the dock. The strange turns into the psychedelic, the surreal, as Pegasus tears across the sky. However, joy quickly turns into abject horror as it seems the House of Beavis was alive all along. Walking through the building once more, windows, doors, any point of exit, shut themselves, trapping us inside this House of Horrors. The previously inanimate comes to life, we have transgressed surely, entering this place was a mistake.  The meaning here is unclear, like any dream, the symbols are vague, distributed, and deeply personal. As you leave the remnants of the house that once was, burning in your wake, you can't help but feel you were complicit in perpetuating some injustice. You crossed a line of some kind. This haunting but beautiful experience is called House of Beavis, and was created by Beavis too. Amazingly, it was made using the creation tools available in the game Dreams, and as such is only available to play in that game. For those still confused, Dreams is a recently released game that functions like a game engine off its own. Developed by the creators of LittleBigPlanet, MediaMolecule, Dreams is the combination of years of development to extend the play-create-share model they pioneered with that game.  It also has features that allow you to share and remix other people's assets, to engage in collaborative creation, and its interface functions something like a YouTube for games. In essence, it is a user-friendly game engine with social media features. Creating whatever you want might be an understatement as well. Anything from music to visual art to animated shorts are present, but it also features fully functional games. There are whimsical platformers with cute characters, horror games inspired by Outlast and Resident Evil, and shooters that scarcely seem anything like Dreams anymore. There is a level-called slide-out that could be mistaken for the next wipeout, showing the technical proficiency of the engine, a puzzle game called Cuberth, where you manipulate cubes to allow for your character to progress, showing genuine design ingenuity, and a level called The Last Constellation that is a surreal blend of Death Stranding and Rez, as you travel through a desolate landscape and livening it with music. Dreams is an absolutely fascinating experiment in game design, decentralizing the very act of creation by bringing all the community into the fold. However, this actually just brings us back to the origin of game design. One of the lead designers, Mark Healy, explained how the vision for Dreams was inspired by the Commodore 64, and how it came built in with the ability to make games. Somewhere along the line, the idea of handing creative control to players was lost, but with their games, media molecules set themselves the impossible task of enlivening the creative spirit once more. On its surface, it might seem strange. What sets the game apart from other game engines? It allows you to sculpt and animate and create logic, things you can do elsewhere, but here, it is all built into a singular service that is more accessible than most. Also, in omitting the need for any programming literacy, it lowers the barrier to entry substantially, allowing artists to participate in the act of creation more directly. However, how this relates to the history of design highlights some interesting things about the future of our medium. In his book Handmade Pixels, Jasper Ewell traces the origin of independent game design in our media, and outlines how there have been many competing narratives for their inception. There is the traditional narrative that most of you are familiar with, that says indie games started with games like Braid and Super Meat Boy, a counter narrative by people like Bennett Fadi, who say game design has always been indie from its inception, but also competing philosophies for how games have inherited the traditions of other independent media. One strand, best exemplified by Jonathan Blow, conceives of indie games as a financially and aesthetically independent form, one that stresses the aesthetic aspects of games and how they are a viable medium for exploring artistic ideas. Another strand, though, views games as a community of alternative creators, who are all expressing their authentic voice. In an interview Ewell conducted with Blow, Blow articulated how he perceived design as still being a difficult, technical field, whereas a contrasting interview with Anna Entropy reveals how she thinks of indie as a collaborative community of creators. In his talk Preventing the Collapse of Civilization, Blow expands this idea and expresses how we need to have a better grasp of the fundamentals of programming, computation and design if we want to move forward with creativity, and more broadly to solve the deeper problems that pervade our reality. This is perhaps why he is now developing a new programming language through which to make games. Conversely, in her book Rise of the Video Game Zenesters, Anna Entropy argues that the tactically advanced nature of games has excluded many voices from expressing themselves and how more accessible tools like twine are enabling people from more disciplinary and cultural backgrounds to participate in creation. Each presents a compelling case and perhaps represent two sides of a dichotomy that is somewhat false. In democratizing design, more people have access to tools and this eases the barrier to entry. However, perhaps Blow is right in suggesting that design is and will remain a difficult, technically laden feel and easing the use of tools may only lead to more creative stagnation. The inspiration to become a game designer though has not only come from technical proficiency. Derek Yu, the creator of Spelunky, explained how it was the simple game editors he played around with when he was young that inspired him to design. And Will Wright, one of the most vaunted developers in our medium, explains how he started with games like Pinball Construction Set. For many even technically driven designers, creative inspiration can come from giving people the ability to play around with tools. The idea of sharing community assets also aligns with what many have argued as the precondition for creativity. In his book, Common as Air, Lewis Hyde argues for the necessity of a creative commons to inspire people to create once more and claims that the commodification and monetization of creativity has stifled all of our creative spirits. In Dreams, we are encouraged to share our assets, incentivized by experience points, gamifying the very act of creation and sharing without letting money get in the way. It represents a model of creativity which many are now arguing for, which is the pooling of ideas, knowledge and techniques. It's a beautiful dream, but many still express concerns with concessions to accessibility. In her book, The Second Self, Sherry Turkle argues that our loss of direct interfacing with computers leaves us in a position where we are no longer capable of actually communicating with them, mirroring some of Jonathan Blow's insights. She worries that as we deal with more abstraction with non-programming elements, we lose a sense of how machines operate. Effectively, as tools become more user-friendly, perhaps the literacy we need to truly push machines might be lost. The answer to this conundrum though seems to exist in the book itself, where she outlines how different children play in different ways with computers. Some children show proficiency with systemic thinking, capable of grasping programming in pure abstract terms, but others have a different, more relational style where they see objects in more aesthetic terms. The dichotomy between technicality and artistry doesn't need to exist if we acknowledge that people learn in different ways and relate to systems using distinct methods. Teaching people technical proficiency with computers is important, but so too is cultivating an artistic spirit that allows people to come at technical questions from a more aesthetic perspective, from emotions, ideas, themes and relationships. Dreams, or something like it, is exciting because it provides a bridge for us to reconcile that divide, to invite more people to create using computers. When LittleBigPlanet came out in 2008, it was a revolution, a revolution that reignited our dormant impulse to create. However, it was another game in this lineage that rose to mainstream popularity. Minecraft shares the same DNA of Play, Create, Share, and is effectively a digital Lego world that allows players to act out stories, create anything they want, and find a community to play with. Minecraft captured the imagination of an entire generation of kids, kids who are now becoming players and designers of games, perhaps endowing them with a deeper understanding of systemic elements, abstract constructions, and dynamic, playful narratives. It is a blank canvas for creativity that the real world seldom provides that accommodates all kinds of players. With Dreams, though, the ambition is much broader and perhaps more inaccessible as a result. It is about blending mediums together and accommodating different styles of creativity itself. In his book, Avangard Video Games, Brian Schrank argues how art games, games of an experimental bent, are instrumental in pushing game design forward. Games like Rod Humble's The Marriage, Jason Rohrer's Passage, and The Tale of Tales Games are all part of an Avangard tradition that blurs the line between art and games, something Dreams is equally as adamant in doing. He argues that games can challenge games on two dimensions, either on a political or formal axis, or on a radical or complicit axis. What this means is that Avangard games critique games politically in terms of their formalism, or in terms of the medium they exist in. Dreams, in its blending of techniques, media formats, and creators, seems to be the Avangardist dream, a collaborative art installation that is constantly evolving and organically enmeshing the ideas of a diverse array of people. We already see some bizarre experiments in musical creation and interactivity, and these all live alongside other conventionally gamey games. Dreams is also being showcased to more than just game creators, including more educational contexts and art schools, and so this vision of a multimedia creative format is already being recognized by the creators. By placing the high next to the low, Dreams makes the Avangard project more manifest. It reveals the permeability of creativity to all. Creative inspiration can come from anywhere. It is an interdisciplinary phenomenon, and it is also subversive in how it places games next to other media. So it is not just Avangard, but also postmodern, blurring the lines between elitism and commercial entertainment, artistic ambition, and fun. House of Beavis is a stunningly crafted art experience, but it can live alongside a game called Art Therapy, where you are tasked with scoring points by smashing the venerated objects of the museum. This is the famous Fontaine moment of Marcel Duchamp in interactive form, as fun and destruction take precedence over artistry and creation. However, the subversion exists in how both games can exist side by side, both expressions of art in different ways. Media Molecule crafted a dream of their own, Art's Dream, that speaks more clearly to their vision.  It's a beautiful little tale that holds a clear microcosm of Dreams' ambitions. In Hegel's lectures on fine art, he argues that art is not just a reflexive aesthetic enterprise, but an endeavor that can allow us to transform the world around us. He states, only through making a leap of faith into a new historical form, a new consciousness for utopia, a new setup for play, could the limits of each era be known. Art is an integral part of the history through which humans have had to remake the world. In essence, every era has had an art form which speaks at that time. Art's Dream, as it were, is to facilitate transformation of the self and the world. Dreams is a strange blend of the classic and the contemporary, melding social media features with sculpting tools, computers with free form design. By blending art forms' disciplines in the line between art and play, Dreams gives us a glimpse of a new vision for the future, one that tries to speak the language of our present day. Recently, the community of Dreams participated in an event where they outlined what Dreams meant to them. There are fascinating and beautiful stories of how people have been inspired to pursue their ambition, of being pulled out of depression, and of finding an output for the tragedy that life inevitably thrust upon us. In characteristic fashion, media molecule responded with a video of their own, stating what their community meant to them, but we see it in the love and passion they show for their games. There is an electrifying sense of positivity that exudes from the studio, the studio that somehow convinced Sony to fund this audacious project for the best part of a decade. In keeping with the spirit of sharing, I will express my own view of what Dreams means to me. Some view Dreams as a form of memory consolidation, whereas others see it as an insight into our very subconscious. However, what happens when our collective unconscious is allowed to turn into reality? By attempting to provide a platform to answer that question, media molecule is giving us a glimpse into a future I would like to see made real, one where people are encouraged to create, to become the best version of themselves and enliven the world with positivity. I dream of a future where the artist is free to express themselves and is rewarded for doing so, and they live alongside the scientists in creative harmony. I have no idea if Dreams will be successful, but at the very least, it gives me hope that there can be a more playful future.


In space science, I imagine that we'll be able to continue to build robots that can explore the planets. We already have a Mars rover up there looking for signs of life in the rocks over there. Much more powerful equipment can be sent. Eventually, human beings can go if they really want to. That's a much harder, more difficult thing than doing scientific exploration with a small robot. Because we like to come back. We don't just want to go one way. We will be able to send our robots to the outer solar system. There are several places where life could be occurring already on moons of Jupiter, even possibly on one or more of the moons of Saturn where it's warm enough and wet enough in certain places. So we can begin to learn something of the origins of life. That to me is one of the key questions for philosophy and for understanding our place in the universe. Are we the only ones here? Well, probably not. That's my opinion. Are we ever going to talk to the other ones? Probably not either. The universe is too large and they're too far away as far as we can guess. So it says, okay, now that we sort of know that, let's take care of the place that we live. The Earth is our home. We'll be our home for a long time.   We've only been going for a short time. So let's see what we can do with that. I think there's probably no limit to how far you could get. We could even, according to some people, create artificial life using silicon or some other robust material that can travel through interstellar space and maybe go visit another planet around another star. It's possible, I think.