Good evening. My name is Andy. I'm normally in Shanghai. I'm here for vacation. But if you find this talk interesting, please buy me a drink. And today I'm going to talk about TypeScript. A little bit background, JavaScript is dynamically typed, which means you can have a variable name A, and you can basically be anything you like. And the compiler, there's no compiler. The engine doesn't know what it is, and you as an author often don't know what it is. That also means when your program becomes larger and larger with many, many authors, the kind of variable that you can have, the content you can have, becomes very complicated. Sometimes you see something, some function like that, a config. At first it was one or two lines, then it grows and grows and grows. And in the end, when you take over, you don't really know what config can be. So that's where the people have this idea of introducing static type to JS, which is actually a very old news. Azure script, which was a dialect of ECMAScript. We already have that in 2006, but we all know that Apple killed Flash, and as collateral damage, Azure script is basically dead as well. And then it's also proposed in ECMAScript 4, which, as we all know, for political reasons, is also dead. So for 10 years, we don't have it. But meanwhile, we have also other similar ideas. Google's Web Toolkit, which transpiles Java to JavaScript, which is, of course, strongly typed. And then Dart, which was by Google, same idea. And HAC, which is by Facebook, is also about introducing static type to PHP. And Python is the most extreme one. They actually officially support static type, type hinting, really, in 3.5. Python is basically dynamic. Yeah, and I will talk about it. And then there comes TypeScript, which is a Microsoft product. And it is compiled down to ES6 or 5 for browser execution. And it supports, remember correctly, all ES6 features, and many ES7, ES8 features. And it gives you compile time type check, which means there's no runtime check. So you could still write 40 programs. And then Flow. Two very similar ideas. One is by Microsoft, the other by Facebook, very similar goals, very similar syntax and semantics. Unfortunately, not 100% compatible, which means your TypeScript program will likely work with Flow, but probably not. And the other way around. So you need some minor modifications to transform code between them. I believe that TypeScript has better tooling by ecosystem, but it's not a nice point. And I think either one is fine. Now, talk is cheap. Let's do some coding. So I'm going to use this Visual Studio code, which is also a Microsoft thing, if you don't mind. And let's do something. Let demo.ts. Okay. So, as I said, if it works in ES6, it's still, can you see it? So, as TR goes to hello, it works. But it has the added benefit that you got all this nice completion because the editor knows that it's a string. Also, if you try to assign a number to it, it will say, oh, no, it's not, no, it's not assignable. And also, you can explicitly declare something. You can say, as is a string, then you can do basically the same thing. And also, you can do something like, say, B is an array of Boolean. And then when you push stuff into it, it will check, oh, man, no, it's a one. It's not a Boolean. And also, you get something like, excuse me, like when you pop something out of it, the editor knows that it's a Boolean that's getting being popped out. Now, let's talk about functions. So, functions basically is input and output both can be typed. Let's say you had two numbers, which is A, which is a number. Then B, which is a number. Then the output is a number. And return A plus B. Okay? And this will work. And if you try to use that, say, oh, one plus two, you know, that works. If you try something crazy, like one plus two, you get an error because, you know, it doesn't conform with the definition. Then let's talk about objects. These are primitive types. Objects are defined by interfaces and types and classes. Interface is basically just something like, you know, you define a shape of an object. You say, oh, config is true. It's a Boolean. And something like ID is a number. Then you can declare something as that. And then you get a typing. You need an ID is a number. And you can't do this anymore. Hello? Because ID is a number and trying to assign it to a string. In addition, interfaces can be extended. So you don't have to do everything again. Let's say you somehow have an async config. I don't know why. Yes, it's done. Property, which is a Boolean. Then you can have async config, which is async config. Then this thing will have an async property. It will also have an ID property inherited from the config stuff. Interface is usually used to define something that doesn't exist before. And you can also use something like code type to usually to combine things that you already have. Let's say sometimes you have an ID which you don't know whether it's a number or string. But it has to be either a number or string. Then you can define something like this. And then you can define an ID variable, which is of that type. So it can be one. It can also be one. Both works. But it can't be a Boolean. True. It doesn't work because it's either a number or string. Types. Let's talk something more advanced. You can also use what's called generics in TypeScript. That basically means that your type is somewhat wearable, has some flexibility. One example is promise. When you use a promise in JavaScript, you don't really know what's going to be resolved into. But with TypeScript, you can. Let's say I'm going to make a type called number promise, which is a promise of a number. Then I'm going to define this thing as number promise. And for simplicity, let's just say it's resolved to 5, 42. Then the interesting thing is you can do this. And then you can say result console.log result. The compiler will know that result is a number. Because MP is a number promise. A number promise is a promise of a number. So when it is a number, then the result has to be a number. So here you can't say something like what can you do with a number? Let me see this. You can still do that. So this is going to be a number that the compiler knows. Another use of generics is to do something like a clone. So let's say when you want to write a function to clone an object. You don't know beforehand what's going to be cloned. But still you can try something like this. It's going to be cloned and it has to take a parameter called t, which is the type of the input. And the return is going to be t. And let's just define it as json.pass json.stringify.input. Let's just say this clone. Now you have, let's say you have an object is like this. A is one. Excuse me. B is two. And then you clone it. Cloned object equals to clone object. Now, although you didn't explicitly specify the type of cloned object, the compiler still knows that it has an a, which is a number, and it has a b, which is a number. No, error. Because the type doesn't work. Because it can guess from here. And then it flows into this and this and it shows in notes. What else can I talk about? Oh, let's talk about classes. So let's say you want to model a boy who's trying to get into the bar under age. And what you could do in JavaScript is use some crazy hacks to try to hide a, hide a property. Let's say an age, which is, you know, number. Let's call it 16. And it has a say age function, which returns age plus two. You know, he tries to, sorry, try to look 18, but couldn't. But then if you have a boy thing, every user of this variable can directly access his property.  In TypeScript, you don't have two. You can just do this. And you can error because age is private. You can't do that anymore. So you have to say age, which is, you know, 18. So this is about hiding data. Also interfaces can be combined with classes. So if you, this is very useful when you have a large team, so you need to, different team, different teammates need to cooperate with each other. You might want to define the interface first. Let's say, you know, we all want to build a guy, which has a first name, which is a string, then a family name, which is also a string. Then different people can implement different classes on it. Interface. And you can say it's implements guy interface, which is an error because I haven't implemented this too. Let's just copy it and say hello. Well, then it will work. Then, of course, some other guy can implement it differently as long as it fits the definition here. All right. Next, I want to show you about three-party libraries. So, of course, you don't write all your JavaScript program in one go. You will use other people's code. But other people's code are not written in TypeScript in general. And so what the community come up with is they have this thing called Definitely Typed. So everybody can contribute definition for the libraries that didn't have TypeShape that doesn't define their functions clearly over there. So let's say we want to use load dash.  So this load dash is just a JavaScript version. It doesn't have the type definitions. But you can also do what you can also do is do this at types thing load dash, which downloads the TypeScript definition, which it does has one. So you can say something like import everything as underscore from load dash. Then you can use it as if it was written with TypeScript. That means, for example, you can say something like one, two, three. And let's say we want to square them. So first of all, the compiler knows that this parameter is a number. And array equals to this. So you also get this number because it knows that you are trying to convert square numbers to numbers. If you do this one, for example, then array will become an array of strings because every number will become strings. And also you got, let's call it let. Also, if you use this, let's stick with the squaring version. And you try to put something that doesn't make sense. You get an error because it shouldn't work because you can't time, say, a string to another string. So this is basically how TypeScript works. How much time do I have? Two minutes. Any React people? One, two, okay. Right. So let me show a little bit about how TypeScript works with React, which was what I've been doing in the past six months. So to do that first, we need a TSConfig file, unfortunately, which is as the name suggests, it configs the TSX. The good thing is compiler options, I think, JSX. It's smart enough that it actually autocompletes your options. And let's call it React. And so in React, you got this idea of components. Install React, let's install everything. And so in port, let's trace React from React. It has error because the type isn't done. And when it's installed, it's okay. So let's say you want to create something called MyView. You can say it's a React component. The interesting thing is it takes two parameters and prop types. Let's say id is string, state, types, whatever, number. So what you can do is you can, when you define this React component, you can fill in its props and states, state, types. And which means when you use it, you can boolean. Oh, sorry. True. When you try to do this, it's an error because you define it prop as a string. Oh, sorry. You define it as a string, but you are giving a boolean. So it won't work. Instead, you can say it's high. Then it will work. So that's how it works with React. And also the state can be typed. So when you are using state, if any, it can also help you to check your type. And that's all for my presentation. Yes, sir? Oh, good question. So first of all, there are many ways to do this. The most loose way to do this is to say that this object is of any type. So, you know, oh, sorry. It can be object. So it can be, you know, anything without an error. But that's stupid, right? So what you can further do is to say that, let's say your object, it's, the key is a string and everything is number. Let's say whatever. So you can, what you can do is to do this, who say it's an object. So what you can do is to say, you know, a is one, that's okay, but b is true. That won't be okay because you said that all things are numbered. But if you want to do it deeper, let's say, you know, a is, you want to define something that dynamically a is number and b is, so the shape is defined dynamically that it won't work because TypeScript only checks your type in compile time. When in dynamic time, all types are gone. Okay. Thank you. All right. Thank you.


Your coca-cola bottler presents Claudia based on the famous play and novels by Rose Franken Brought to you transcribed Monday through Friday by your friendly neighbor who bottles coca-cola Relax and while you're listening refresh yourself. Have a Coke and now Claudia That's enough dinner for tonight. I ever see another carrot. I should die. What's the matter mother? Don't you like carrots coming out of my ear and I'd be coming there too. Who did you have to plant so many carrots? No, we haven't planted so many just that they all decided to come up at the same time as a matter of fact That's something I've been thinking about. Oh, oh, there should be a better way of doing it So everything doesn't come up at once if all you had more rabbits on the place I'm starting to feel like a rabbit Dice grab it tough grab it I used to love rabbit mom is a little carrot happy David You'll have to forgive her mother each of these carrots are worth their weight in gold Was it going to tell me they're 14 carrot carrots? Oh, mom.  She beat me to it I never get tired of corn though. Do you it's a good thing. There's plenty of it around this house I meant on the car. Oh, let's go into the living room before this goes any further What do we do tonight to Jess the carrot, but it's a wonderful night to do something more than that Look, can we just stay home and enjoy it? What digesting the carrot? We can do that out. Just as well Friday night is the night to go out my man. Your daughter mrs. Brown is afflicted with conventionalism Oh, all I'm affected with is a desire to go out tonight and breathe the air and plenty of air around here It will be cooler Rising I didn't mean it that way She just doesn't know how to take insults does she David?   You sound like such an old man, David Yeah, I'm going to read my paper to know you want you're going to decide what we're going to do tonight How would you like to go for a ride? No, I'll let you do the driving you bet you will It is not hand me my knitting clothes. Oh, no, you start knitting and you'll be settled for the night, too I want to spread my wings tonight Friday night is the night for spreading wings, is it? What about a movie you spread wings there? It's too crowded. I don't like movies in the summer. That's where you're wrong, mrs. Brown And I'll prove it to you. I had to open my mouth. Now. What is the temperature here at least 85 and in a movie house? Aha, you do not answer in the movie house. It is freezing air-conditioned each breath you take Dripping with icicles But you can even catch cold in the movie house in the summer and you often do is that an inducement Oh, you always look in the dark side of things cold side of things Then it's several we're going to the movie. Well, is there anything decent playing around see mama? I've won him over. Oh, I'm willing to go to the movie But I'm not going to waste my time seeing something. I don't want to see somebody has to stay Home with the baby I volunteer don't be so self-sacrificing. I'll stay home with the baby You will not I will that'll be fine David because if she stays home We'll have to stay home and keep our company and we'll stay home Fritz and Bertha can go to the movie Probably gonna go to bed already. We're all good people belong then it's subtle. We go But first we have to find out what's playing. I'll not see a romantic picture. You don't like romantic No, I don't Why do you what do you call a romantic picture David well a romantic picture is a picture in the first scene where the Handsome young man meets the beautiful young woman and he says You're so beautiful Then in the second scene the handsome young man finds out the beautiful young woman as a husband and he says Why did this happen to us? That's where the music comes in hand me a comb mama. Oh, and he says Oh Darling, I love you so but it can never be My rich old husband would kid you And he says and then he says I'd better never see you again and she says Goodbye Then in the third scene the beautiful young woman finds that she cannot live without the handsome young man She goes to a rich old husband and she tells him the rich old husband has decides to have the handsome young man destroy Then what and then they lived happily ever afterwards? That it um-tom-tom-tom-tom-tom Who lives happily ever afterwards the beautiful young girl and the handsome young man, but what happened to the rich old husband? Oh, didn't I tell you he dies and they accuse the handsome young man of murder. Yes Well, then the district attorney who is a schoolboy friend of the handsome young man finds out that the rich old man had a secretary What does she have to do with anything everything the district attorney who's a school friend of the handsome young man was in Love with the secretary, but she'd been playing up to the rich old man who killed the rich old man Who knows you can't leave us hanging like this. That's why we go to the movies That's why we pay 85 cents to find out who killed the rich old man. Let's go Let's go. I won't sleep do we find out, but I don't care who killed the rich old man Oh Sound well, it was an exciting movie now. We don't have to go It'd be off the anti-climate anyway, wouldn't it mama listen? We're gonna be late for every movie in the neighborhood if we don't hurry up Would you go and see a Western? There's more my meat. Good buffalo meat. I like the High hole for Maldehyde the charge of the meddling cattle across the prairie the expression on the heroin space the Courage of the cowboy In the sheriff's eyes Christians aren't bad, but an awful lot of people get killed for nothing. What a performance.  I like the horses in westerns, but I hate the people Well, maybe there's a good animal picture around good Then we can send bluff to the movies and we'll stay home You have me believing you don't want to go to the movies. Now you wouldn't believe that Going to the movies in this family is like undertaking an African expedition Operations movies synchronize your watches women. Let's be under way Paper we if we don't decide first what we're going to see in what time it goes on. Oh my you're so organized I just hate walking in in the middle of the picture. I agree with my because you like to get your money's worth Well, I don't like it because the seats are warm Oh Claudia there are the newspapers on the window seat if we're going for heaven's sake Let's go and we won't get home too late. I just love your enthusiasm. No, we're going isn't that enough to read off titles Mom, be sure you read tonight's movies. What do you take me for I'd rather not say At the cinema In Eastbrook Center is playing Penny for your thoughts admission 85 sounds like a romantic picture. It is very stable dinner Sounds horsey too. And let me see at the cinema in Eastbrook is playing Hell bent for leather. Yeah, obviously a boots and saddle leather. I don't think I feel up to such a strenuous picture They're both so difficult. What's playing at a redberry? Redberry, Redberry, Redberry, let me see Fine arts theater and Redberry. Who killed Cot Robin? Mother are you interested in who killed Cot-Cot Robin? Not the least bit. No I've got it just the one in Westbrook is playing the picture. I simply must see I've been dying to see it ever since I read About it in a movie magazine with the hairdressers dying to see it sounds tragic. What is this legubrius picture? It's not legubrius. It's historical. Oh, that's a beautiful costumes and dueling You know with swords. I know that was the general impression I got with swords It takes place during the French Revolution Wager, you don't even know when the French Revolution was that is one of the reasons I want to see this picture. I think it would be instructive Hollywood's idea of history is rarely instructive You just read different books than they did that. So don't be snobbish darling Now listen if we start out now, we'll get there just on time. It goes on at eight five Hey, just a moment since when do you like historical pictures? That's true since when you usually don't appreciate anything to do with history I am a mother now. I like historical pictures and objections No, merely surprised and impressed with your intellectual curiosity. What's I got to do with motherhood? Nothing. Hmm. I haven't even told us the title of this wonderful picture. It's called Mr. Guillotine. An incisive title very cutting. He gets his head chopped off It might be rather good at that David. Well, there's something so final about the Guillotine. So, Blasey! As a matter of fact, I should rather like to see it. I've always been interested in the French Revolution Now I don't have such bad ideas do I? Every now and then you come through. Gotta make a confession I think that I'll enjoy seeing Mr. Guillotine very much. I certainly would never have accepted your invitation to take you to the movies If it weren't the I thought this was going to be a decent picture. Well, the stone man cracks. What are we waiting for? Let's go. I'm ready. Car weights, operations, movies, underwears. Are we almost there? I wouldn't want to be late. Just another couple of blocks. Aren't you glad we went instead of sitting at home as if we were married. That would be awful. At least we'll be out early. Oh, the parking space is right in front of the theater. Well good. That'll save us time. Mr. Guillotine. Sounds exciting. Yeah, Roger told me that he saw it when it was playing in New York and liked it. Oh, now he confesses mama. I bet he had it in the back of his head to go to the movies all evening. Don't jump to conclusions. I hope it's a good long movie. Maybe there'll be Mickey Mouse, too. Oh, there's the theater right down there. And there's no line. We'll be able to get right in. No line. You know what that means. That means that it can't be such a good picture. Oh! Folly, what's the matter? Is that something in your eye? Well, I must have. I'm not seeing right. Mama, what do you see on the marquee on the theater? Penny, for your thoughts. My thoughts aren't worth that at this moment. David, they must have made a mistake. They have the wrong movie advertised. Maybe they've just changed the signs for tomorrow. Drive slowly, darling. Let me read what's written. Coming tomorrow, Mr. Guillotine, Saturday through Tuesday. Oh, no! Oh, yes. In other words, Mr. Guillotine is not getting his head chopped off tonight. That's not fair. The newspaper's headed. The newspaper probably said that it was coming tomorrow. I should have known better by now than to let you look it up. What do we do? Go home. It's a mistake anybody can make, David. It certainly is. And you made it. Disappointed, Mama? Very. Disappointed, David? Me? Disappointed? Yeah. Very. So am I. So were you then. Anyway, it's a lovely night for a drive, isn't it? That's what I wanted to do in the first place. Claudia, are you sure this mistake was a mistake? David, can you ever be sure of anything? Lean over here while I choke you. The average housewife is apt to make lunch a hasty pickup meal if she's alone and in the midst of housework. Well, that's bad.  You should relax and enjoy your meals. Include an ice-cold bottle of Coke and see whether lunch isn't the more agreeable, even a more festive occasion, when you lunch refreshed. Well, Mr. King, we never got to the movies, but we did have a lovely drive. Do you think that's what Claudia had in the back of her mind all the time? Don't quote me, but I think yes. She is devious, that girl. Devilish would be a better word. Now confess, Mrs. Brown. It was a pleasant way to spend an evening, wasn't it? Frankly, yes. We had a beautiful drive through some woods I didn't even know existed around here. You see, again, Claudia was right. That's the worst part of it. I wish she didn't feel she always had to take me along. Well, if Claudia didn't insist, David probably would. They like having you along. I like being along, but it's not always right. On Monday night, I'll see that they go off by themselves. Where to? Well, some of it, perhaps. We'll see. Have a nice weekend, Mr. King. Same to you, Mrs. Brown. Every day Monday through Friday, Claudia comes to you transcribed with the best wishes of your friendly neighbor who bottles Coca-Cola. So listen again Monday at the same time. And now this is Joe King saying, or of war, and remember, whoever you are, whatever you do, wherever you may be. When you think of refreshment, think of Coca-Cola. For Coca-Cola makes any pause the pause that refreshes. And ice-cold Coca-Cola is everywhere. In this program, Catherine Bard and Paul Crabtree played the parts of Claudia and David, and the entire production is supervised and directed by William Brown Maloney. And now here's a word from your friendly neighbor who bottles Coca-Cola.


Which one do you think should matter more? Your image or your music? And we're not talking about image like a pop in social media, a follower, a influencer, whatever you want to call it. We just mean the way you're truly perceived as an artist and how that impacts how people receive your message. There's a crazy conversation in this clip that talks about an artist's career being potentially killed, ended maybe, just because of his image, even though people loved him beforehand. But we want to get y'all's opinions and see if y'all can guess who we're talking about. Check this out.  You feel me? Like we can say whatever we want to say about people's albums and if we like them or not because music being good or bad is subjective. By the way, this is Vince Staples on the Joe Budden podcast. But we had the biggest rapper in the world say he loved his wife and the niggas called him Corny and took his career away from him. Something we talked about generational wealth. Who's the biggest rapper in the world? Oh Chance, when I was paying for it. Chance wasn't paying for it at the time? Yes, but... You know what happens when they pay for it. Don't let the same niggas that pay for him pay for Frank Ocean and pay for Drake. At a certain point in time. So he wasn't Drake, but I'm talking about up and coming. He was, yeah. So at a point in time, come on, let's talk about generational wealth. Niggas don't even want families no more.  I know, but you like R&B, though, right? Love it. What's the difference? That's a great point. What's the difference? What's the difference between R&B and talking about I Love Your Wife? I think he meant to mention. It's like R&B music is essentially a musical expression of love. What's the difference between that and a rap expression of love? My counterpoint is you don't want to hear anybody talk about they love their wife over 19 tracks, but you'll listen to somebody talk about they want to kill somebody over 19 tracks. That's fair. What's wrong with that redundancy, all right? I don't want to hear all R&B talking about I love my wife and my content was the issue with that album, by the way. No, I'm not saying them, but I... You can't love your wife that long. You can love your wife, but it's got to be fire. Think about what you just said. Give me one person that did it. They love their wife? In hip hop? Over 19 tracks. I have a long one out of the world.  All right. All right. Give us one person that did it. I would say I should know one person, one artist, one amazing super talented human being that has managed to traverse the rocky terrains of being a rapper in love, and that is Young Thug. Young Thug, dude. He had appeared where he was rapping about how much he loved. I can't remember her name. Was it Carly, maybe, or something with the J? It was before Mariah the Scientist, which you could argue doesn't matter now because life has took him to other places. But at that time, yeah, he was rapping all about how much he loved her, bro, and it worked out for him. I don't know if it's because we didn't believe him or it was interesting to see, but he did it. Well, Parks mentioned in his video, he said he doesn't think it was all subject matter, quality of music played, which I know there were a couple tracks that I didn't necessarily like. Maybe it was the very first track I didn't necessarily like, and it's hard to come back from when I don't like how a project starts. And that's somebody who I appreciate Chance to rap and stuff. A lot of people are saying, Chance was never going to be big or he never was big. A lot of these people just don't get, maybe he wasn't in their demographic. But Chance was huge in terms of who he was, positioning and what they specified in terms of upcoming. He was the biggest rapper in the world in terms of who was up next or who was trending at that time. Yeah, and at the time, he was definitely the biggest indie artist, which was interesting. You know, if we agree with him and believe him on that, the biggest indie artist. I don't know, man. One thing that I think doesn't get thought about enough in this debate, because I've heard this debate a couple of times before. From a couple of different platforms, I've had a debate with friends in real life. And that album came out with like, what was it like, 2017? Maybe something like that? 18? Probably like 19. This is what I think happened, right? I think Chance was starting to get bigger. He was starting to appeal to a bigger demographic of people. Actually, before I even get to that point, we have to also think about what the image was of Chance before he got to that point. I was about to say, because image is what this conversation is about. So it's like, before this album, you were a delinquent, high school kid who did drugs and smoked cigarettes. And we learned that your mom likes cocoa butter more than she likes lotion. That's all we know about you. You know what I'm saying? Ain't you from Chicago? We know that about you, right? And then you transition away from this seemingly imperfect character that you built for us to enjoy, to now almost being arguably this preachy, almost like father figure-esque. We don't do the same drugs no more. That's what I'm saying. It's like, who don't? You know what I'm saying? Your fans are like, wait, we're still? But that was two years ago. I didn't really move on to nothing else. You know what I'm saying? Like, unless you know about some shit, I don't know about. And so I think it's that point, right? You've propped up this character, and then now you've removed yourself from the character in certain ways, right? There's another angle of it where I was going to earlier is that sometimes you got to think about the life of the person on the other side of the music. Right? 2019 was pre-pandemics. I can't use pandemic as an excuse for nothing. But what I like to think happened is that Chance was getting bigger. Chance was starting to appeal to not only a broader demographic of people, but he was also starting to transition into spaces where younger audiences were paying attention to him. I will argue, and I'm sure there's some young people out there who disagree with me, but I will argue 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, maybe up until 25, 26. You don't really know too much about love, you know what I'm saying? Most people of that age have never been in like a serious committed relationship. Your 20s, that's his fan base at the time, that age, yeah.  They really love me.  You know what I'm saying? That's a, that's a, I mean, you married, man. You get it, bro. That's a completely different level of love, but like my life is in your hands, and your life is in my hands, you know what I'm saying? That's a commitment. They don't know about commitment. That's what it is. That thing that means I'm going to be there even though I don't want to be here today. This, that's a good point, because at that age, people are going through the, usually the more toxic parts of love and discovering what love is and everything they can relate to. Everything's extreme. You know, exactly. Everything's extreme. So now you're overreacting even though, and, you know, there's fighting and fussing, you're hurting, and you're relating to music that expresses in that way. Mm-hmm. All right? This is all Juice WRLD and X. Right. You know what I'm saying? You impressed or F that man, F that B. That's the type of music that a lot of people, you know, are relating to. Because we all been heartbroken. We all in experience love. Yeah. I remember having those moments myself, all right? But yeah. So the love, the love hits different. The love does hit different at a certain age. So now you outpaced the growth of your fan base, and that's the other phenomenon that some people try to say with Drake right now is like, he's not growing with his fan base, right? His growth has done it. Chance just shot through the moon, you know what I mean? Had one of those summers where he was like five, five, and next thing you know, came back to school and he was six, ten. Exactly. You know? It's like, hey, bro, that evolution. Or it's like watching the school bully come back is like a Jehovah Witness or something. It's like, I don't believe you. Exactly. I want to rock with your message, but I just cannot receive it from you. Can't receive it. And another artist who called Flag that year was J. Cole. Remember that's the same year when motherfuckers on J. Cole asked about that. I want to fold clothes for you song or something that had came out. I forgot about that. I didn't even really take that seriously. I couldn't even listen to it at all. 2019 was a bad year for niggas in love.  It was ostracized. Drake wasn't dropping nothing to reinforce it. You know what I'm saying? I don't think he dropped nothing that year. I might be wrong. See what happened when there was an attack on love? Old world bottomed out.   It's just like, but that's what.  Now y'all going to be in love. Y'all want to come home? Well, we going to force you to be home.  That's what I'm thinking about. Man, I was like, damn, man.  Like, nobody be here. You know what I'm saying? Like, make sure I'm okay. Like, that's not all right, man. I got to start looking for love. Hey, bro, you thought of the thing. That's the old portion of a damn, bro. Who will get my medicine? If I fall down the steps, who going to pick me up? It's just me. You know what I'm saying? And I got, I got high steps. You know what I'm saying? And, but that's what makes me think about the, the age and the life experiences of the audience that he was starting to tap into at the time. Because like I said, J Cole was catching that same flag. And if you really, if you were paying attention at that time at where the critique was coming from, it was mainly from outlets and platforms that lean towards younger audiences. Facts. Like you didn't hear like the, the adult contemporary radio station host saying that, you know what I'm saying? He would hear like the, like the young blogger, you know what I'm saying? That was posting about, like I said at the time, the Kodak Blacks and the little yachties, same things like that. Because they were voices of the youth. The youth have not yet had life experiences to where they could relate to that same type of message. To your point, it was a 19 year old that just got his, his, his heart broken by the little John that told him that she loved him. And he heartbroken. He's sad. He just got done listening to the juice world. All girls are the same. And then the Spotify radio next song is Chance the rapper talking about, I love my wife and I want to be with her. It's like, I ain't trying to hear all that. The fuck? Stacey broke my heart. Exactly. Stacey is a thought.  Yeah. And I don't believe in love right now. Exactly.  And it's like, you know, that's something I don't think it's talking about enough is sometimes you create like every artist is allowed the right to put a message in that music. But that does not mean that we as the audience have to accept it. It does not mean that I have to, it does not mean that I have to relate and or I have to speed up my life experiences to catch up to it. Like, no, I am going to naturally seek out the music, the vibration, the frequencies, the, the fields that more so encompass like what I'm going through and what I feel like I'm relating to.  The average music fan to the average artist, they're just going to ignore it. Now someone at chances level, you know what I'm saying?  It's just the reality of being at that level, you know what I'm saying? Yo artist, there's a lot of distributors out there, but if you want a distributor that will take you seriously, not just look at you as a number, then Too Loss is a platform from you. I'm talking about helping you beyond just putting your music on all the DSPs. That's what y'all are supposed to do. Too Loss actually helps you with your money. I'm talking about whoever's a part of the song dealing out the splits easily or more importantly, helping giving you an advance so you can actually create what you need to, whether that's studio time, whether that's your music video, but helping you get money to help fund your career and most importantly, a lot of these distributors don't really help with the play listing and things like that, unless you are a signed artist, you have some kind of serious deal, but Too Loss has that ability as well. And some of our clients, when they switched over to Too Loss, they've given us shining reviews. So check out Too Loss at TooLoss.com and make sure you put in the code NoLabel. Again, that is NoLabel N-O-L-A-B-E-L and let them know that y'all came from us. It's completely free. Make sure y'all let them know where y'all came from. No label. Let's get back to the episode. You connect with me here as my friend, as somebody who reps what I rep. You walk the walk that I'm walking, but then all of a sudden your image, you shoot way up there and now I feel like you're that friend that changed and you think you're better than us. Exactly. That's, and I get it. I get it. I get it. Because again, I remember being in that space and all I wanted to do after a breakup was f'ing around. I had a whole chant, which I'm not going to repeat. I'll talk to that, talk to you about the after apology, you know what I mean? But I wanted to be mindless for a minute, you know what I mean? Not feel for a bit, you know what I mean? I feel that, man. That's all it was. It all, we all go through it. Well, you know, depending on how old you are, if you ain't got there yet, you will get there. Yeah, exactly.  Oh, this is hell, this podcast work. If you ain't got there yet. If you think you're lonely now. Uh-oh. Wait until tonight. Wait until you're 23. But it all goes back to a very big ethos of this podcast, which is, in order for you to be a great creator, you have to think about the thoughts, feeling, emotion, and life experiences of the people you're creating for. And sometimes there's going to be a mismatch. And if you're small, like I said, you'll get ignored. And if you're big, they are going to talk about it and voice their grievances. And you have to deal with it. Because I look at it like, you know, I don't know if Vince has been facetious or not if he really feels like that's what killed Chance's career. I personally, I don't think it died. I think that it was like Pokemon GTA style KO.  You know what I'm saying?  And I look at it like, what else could he have done?  But then he would have real life consequences to deal with. He got to go home to his wife. I'm sure his wife listens to his music. You know what I'm saying? And who wants to deal with that? And y'all should appreciate that congruence versus the lack of authenticity that these other people are out here with. Living a great life, great relationships, but knowing that y'all are in a toxic place and trying to, instead of trying to show y'all what better and giving y'all hope, they just feed in that space that you're in. And they're pandering for the pay. Sierra, that's the most recent example. And you put your names out there. That was the most recent example, but every time I heard her ask about that shit, we didn't know when they talked about that. He said, Sierra with a little vitriol in your voice. Sierra! Man, I love love, man.  That's crazy, man. That's crazy. And it's crazy, man. And I don't know, man. I just, it's, yeah, great example. Like some artists would just pander to the emotion of their fans. And you know, sometimes you can feel it. The music doesn't feel as authentic.  I'm like, you don't love, man. I don't see your gram, you know what I'm saying? I actually got a couple of real life examples of that. I've not personally been through recently, but there was some artists going through it. We're like, I have a client now.  You know what I'm saying? She not in that space anymore. Not in that space anymore. She in love. She in like great, seemingly happy relationship from what I can see. And you know, her newfound lover is also a music artist. And they made a song together. And I remember telling her like, yo, I think y'all should really lean into like the happy couple content for this song. And she was like, yeah, but my audience is a lot of women who kind of like a, you know, like love gives them a bit of taste in their mouth. Do you think that that's going to negatively impact me? And I was like, I'm gonna be real with you. That's a very valid fear that you have.  Cause nah, you're right. That's something to think about. I was like, now you could flip it and you could now be the best of that shows and like, hey, like we can heal and move past this. And this is what that looks like and the ones in your audience that either want that or get that will receive it well. And that's what she did. And that's been the impact that she's been getting. Like it's been mostly people like, oh my God, you making me see that I can't find love. Be the hope. Yeah, exactly. That she can be the hope. I have another artist homie where similar situation to a bigger degree, the song that made him go viral was a, juice world, all girls on the same type of song, a very sad melancholy love song. But by the time the song started taking off, he was happy and in a relationship. And I remember talking to him and he was like, how do I introduce my girlfriend without it impacting my career? And at the time I didn't have the knowledge I have now to really give him a, like the answer I gave the current client, I probably should have gave him, but I didn't have the, I didn't have the expertise of the proper concepts to really like see that vision all the way through. And I just remember being like, I don't know. And he was like, man, I'ma just like, slowly introduce her in like increments and see how that works out. So like I'm gonna make her the lead in the music video, maybe make her a cover art or something. And then I don't think he's still eventually, like he's basically still rolling it out. You know what I'm saying? If you ask me, like, she ain't been- I roll out the girl. Yeah, she might hit the deluxe and that'd be when, you know, it'd be legit. It's like, if you know him personally, you see her a lot. You know what I'm saying? She's there. She's one of the fam. You're a music artist. You know what I'm saying? And, you know, we see this in so many different spaces.  And as a party's like, I don't want you doing that. Hold up. Are we dating her or are we paying? Dating, I said dating. But you said we're dating the baddie. And then you said 30% of her clientele. Yeah, like for her job. Like, let's say, let's say, let's say like- Like, who was her clientele? What's her job? That's what I'm saying, man.  If she, if she working at McDonald's and she the bad cash register at McDonald's, you're going to think about getting the McDouble on your way home from work just because you know she's there. Ah, yeah, let me let you finish. Cause I just, maybe I, yeah, maybe that's why. Maybe that's why I go ahead. But it's like, all right, she does a profession. She does something where you know, like, okay, there may be 20, 30% of her clients at least that are coming through because of how she looks. You know what I'm saying? You as the significant other man, I like that, right? You may want that aspect of the business to stop. But then there's also a part of you that knows like, damn, if she doesn't do that, money's going to get lost. There's a part of her brain that knows that if I don't do that, money's going to get lost. And it's a very real reality that you have to confront if you're in that situation. I look at this is the exact same way. Like, you know, there are lots of rappers out there right now who are happy and in love and they're in front of reality. Like, if I introduce this information to my fan base, I'm going to lose money. I'm going to lose opportunities. There are, there are people that are going to now be disgusted by me. And now I have to make a very real decision of my love for you versus my career. And now I am not the person that is here to tell you which side to pick. I think there's a case that could be made for either side. You know what I'm saying? But it's a real thing to think about. That is a fact. The constant thing actually.  So again, but this is just how image plays into your audience. We spoke heavily on the relationship aspect of it. Maybe we'll speak more in a different episode or clip. But for now, we'll leave it there. Want to know what y'all think? Of course. Because this is yet another episode of No Label's Necessary Podcast. I'm Brandon Shawn. And I'm Cory. And we out. Peace.


out here at the ranch again. Got Dale with me today. Fingers crossed I can get this railing this time. Third time's a charm. Last two times didn't work out. I've been watching some YouTube videos. I've been watching like rock climbing dudes. How they put the little anchors into the wall that they have to climb. I guess cause their life depends on it. It has to be like in there, in there. So I've got a better idea of how to do this. The bolts from last time, or the red heads are still in the ground. So I was thinking. Oh, you put it in a rail today? Yeah, yeah.  That is so, wow. What are you doing? Yeah, I just thought we could put the rail in and then skate, we haven't skated this yet. Like still here, it's still all good. Definitely set in right now. So I'm going to position the rail so you can still get on and off the rail and you can just pop over these like they'll be underneath or in front of the rail. Oh, are you going to end up taking these out? Eventually, yeah. Okay. And they snapped. So what happened? I just didn't drill the holes correctly so they didn't go in all the way or they went in crooked. Oh. Oh, so are you about to re-drill holes right now? Yeah.  I hit rebar again. You okay? I mean, you're not going any lower. Yeah, that's not going any lower. God dammit.  I mean, you're going to have to hacksaw them up, down. I'll hang around them eventually, but it's sketchy to have to pop.  Maybe just try and see, put one in there. See if it works. How many do you have left? Six. Oh. So three on each end? Really?   Just get it away from, yeah, give yourself some room. We're going to move the rail over a bit. And hopefully it works this time. Just don't want it to be like, the rebar's here, all right? How, you know? Maybe move it just a tiny bit over more. We don't even know how to tell. Oh, this thing is hot. Oh, yeah. I feel like this is plenty of space over here. Yeah. This is crazy. He wasn't even in, dude. Oh, God. I think you went all the way through the concrete. You went through the entire concrete, I think. Yeah, I think we did. Dude, that's crazy that it's not even that thick. How, how many inches is that? That's like three, four? No, that's like three. Shit. Maybe, I don't know, maybe two and a half. That's not very, that's not a very thick slab of concrete. Yeah. Cause you, you just, it gave out. You went through.  Whoa, that's crazy. All right, well, let's make sure that it's straight. Shit. Dude, I mean, hey, come, come look at this. I can see it. I can see it. It's, I mean, I'm hoping once the bolts go in it, you know, it strains it out a little. It's some hope. Cause there's a little, we're a little sideways here, guys. Love construction. Oh my God. It's in though, I mean. I mean, if it holds, it holds. Yeah.  Do you have them all, all six of them in? You guys aren't going to believe it, but the rail has been installed. We've got it in. I've just got to sweep up a bit and then see if I can hammer out the old redheads to get them out the way. Cause at the moment they're not that much in the way, but it's still kind of sketchy, you know? So I'm going to have a little bit of break in the shade, drink some water and then I feel like I should be the first person to hit this rail just to see it'll hold up, you know? Check it out. Looking pretty good. Got the rail in, got the ledge in and still see the little dinobolt sticking out, which I'm going to angle grind next time. Quick break in the shade before I wax everything up and then run first tracks on this slab. What a moment. What a time to be alive. We're going to get this rail wet, guys. Look at that. Look at that glisten. It's like putting oil in a frying pan. It's that hot out here. Here we go. Sticky, huh? I just feel upside down. Ah, you've been, you've been rolling and sitting. It's a little sticky though. Yeah, just that fresh angle. I think it's too hot. You reckon? Yeah, cause the heat is expanding the metal. Yeah, and when you try and wax stuff, when it's too hot, it just turns into mush and melts. Yeah. I think the rail will go, I'll be tribute to hit the rail first in case. I mean, I can hit, if you want me to. If you want to hit it, I just don't want you to get. Here, let me grind this. Bucked. Yeah. That's solid, yeah? Okay. Yeah, we're sweet. Rail is in finally. Some of the dinobolts didn't take, so it's a little bit sketchy, but it'll hold for now, you know. You'll be able to skate it for a while until we've got to ultimately fix it or replace it. I don't know. Wedge is in, of course. You guys knew that from last episode. Try to wax it, but it's just too hot. I think it might be how sharp the angle is as well. It needs to be like grinded down a bit. So this is it so far. Wedge, rail, eventually some transition. A little pocket corner there would be cool too. You could rip around and then come back out. I want to put a pole jam in here too. There's some bits of steel length laying around up there that could be cool for a pole jam. Just got to figure out how to do it correctly. Make sure you comment down below what you guys want to see us build next. I feel like a little bit of transition would be sick. Maybe a couple parking curbs up there would be sick. I definitely want to make another raised parking curb, but yeah, let me know. I'm going to leave my Venmo link in the description. If you guys want to donate a few bucks to help out with supplies for this spot, you can donate to my Venmo. So yeah, link is in the description. Cheers for watching the video. I know you guys are stoked on these types of videos. So if you want to see more, let me know. So I want to build more, but yeah. Until next time guys, thanks for watching the video. Make sure you subscribe if you're new here. But yeah, see you guys in the next video. On your way back, bring me this sign.


Aloha, and welcome back to Talk Story with John Wahey. We've got another exciting show for you this afternoon. I have as my special guest a very good friend and colleague of mine. We have spent some time working on the community and trying to make things better for Hawaii. I want everybody to welcome the former mayor of the city and county of Honolulu, Mufi Hanaman. Thank you, Mufi. And Mufi now is the president of the Hawaii Lodging and Tourism Association, and you were just explaining to me that that's a broad name because the people you work with, well tell us about your job. We used to be called the Hawaii Hotel Association. And then I asked the board to change the name to Hawaii Lodging and Tourism Association to reflect that we're more than just hotels and lodging properties. We in fact encompassed all of what is tourism. And that includes retail businesses, transportation companies, airlines. And these businesses are all part of your membership. They're all part of our membership. We are about 700 strong. We're the largest private sector visitor industry organization in the state. Mufi, you've always had not only an interest but a talent for working on things like travel and international affairs. Folks, we were just talking about the fact that way back in the day, the mayor was my international director, and you did, in fact you were, I think the first international director in the state of Hawaii ever had. There's a special statue creating that job. I don't know about that. Well, you know, it was so exciting moving back then because as you know, as we were discussing, you actually created a network of offshore states starting from Jeju Island in Korea, Okinawa in Japan, Hawaii, which is offshore of the continental U.S., we even went down to Thailand with Phuket and Malaysia and Taiwan and Hainan Islands. So not only did this network take one side of the, covered all political spectrums, and we combined that with the American territories like Guam and Saipan and the rest of these places. And you actually had a summit. Tell us a little bit about those good old days. Governor, I need to give credit where credit is due. You know, it was really your vision. Well, no, you did the work. I had to, you know, I had to dream. You had to dream, you had to vision. I woke up one morning and said, Mofi! I was very fortunate to work under you, Governor, because you had this vision and it was my job to implement it. And that's exactly what we did. You were the first governor to kind of reach out. And you saw this as more than just missions to exchange macadamia nuts and gifts and so forth.  I want trade to come out of this. I want tourism. I want investment. And that's exactly what we did. We did a sister-state summit where we brought in all our sister-state relationships and we included the American flag areas that were part of the Pacific Basin Development Council. Can you imagine, in that sister-state summit, we had, this is way back when, we had Taiwan sending delegations in mainland China, which in those days was unthinkable. In fact, I remember you were telling me you had to do something with the logistics. They couldn't catch the same elevator or whatever. But they had a chance to meet and talk and do that.  I remember we planned a trip for you to go to Vietnam. And I remember when the idea was broached. You didn't even care that we didn't have diplomatic relations with Vietnam at that point. You said some day they're going to be part of this international community. Let's get in there. So we were the first state. And you went. You went to Vietnam. Well, the last minute, you couldn't go. And so you said, you go. I said, me? And so I went on your behalf. And you know, this is more than just about tourism. Well, in my opinion, it's more than just economics. I mean, President Clinton was just here. Exactly. And we were talking about why he was here. And he had come to address a travel association. And the point that he was making was that tourism actually lays the foundation for peace. That people who visit other cultures, who spend time in other countries, who visit America, visit Hawaii, actually not only spend money, which is important for our economy, but actually learn enough about each other that they contribute to peaceful relations. Absolutely. You're really in the business of the peace business. Well, you know, and it's marvelous because it also speaks to the fact that at the end of the day, we're all part of this worldwide community. And if we can understand each other by traveling to each other's places and so forth, you come away not only getting a better appreciation of that culture, but then when people say things about certain areas of the world or have impressions based on what they see over the media or anecdotally in the like or in social media, you're able to say, wait a second, I was there. It wasn't that way. Yeah. Or so-and-so came to visit us here, and I had a better understanding of it. So tourism is a wonderful, wonderful industry. Well, tell me what the difference is between the, I guess, the traditional Hawaii Tourism Association and your organization. What do they serve? Our mission is basically education, advocacy, and philanthropy. So we try to promote everything that is good about tourism and try to make sure that whether it's with government or the private sector or the military or the communities, we're working collaboratively in partnership. And then we also have an objective to give back to the community. We do the most successful single-day fundraiser in the state called Charity Walk. Oh, okay, okay. And where we raised this year a record $2.26 million. This year alone? This year alone. Wow, congratulations. And what we do is we give that back to the non-profit social service agencies who sometimes, you know, their hands are tied or they're not getting as much money from government because government can only fund so many agencies. We try to help fill that gap and fill that void. It's statewide. It's four charity walks in the four counties. And we do this each and every year. Wow, I didn't know that. And I don't know where many people do, but it's an important fact that people know that you are there not just to, again, not just to do business, which by the way is important, but to give back to our community as well. And so where do most of the participants come from? Are you bringing some people from offshore as well as local? No, it's all here. All our members are basically from the state of Hawaii. And we have some members who are based on the mainland. And then on the charity walk, it's all done on each and every island. It's three weeks in May. We do it, we start with Lanai, Molokai, The Big Island, Maui, Kauai, and then we culminate here the third week in May on Oahu.  This year we anticipate to do more. And obviously, $2.26 million is going to go a long way. Well, congratulations. That's really nice. Now, you not only helped me do my international affairs and later on became director of DBED, which is Department of Economic Development and Tourism, but you became, you were the mayor of Honolulu. One of the great mayors of the city and county of Honolulu. You had a chance to be... What was it like to be in that seat? Well, you know, Governor, again, I want to give credit where credit goes. I learned a lot from you when I was working for you. And one of the things I tried to do is exactly how you did with your cabinet. I always tell people, one of my fondest memories of working with you is you appoint a person to the job and then you let them do their job. Yeah, well, that's important. Although Donald Trump doesn't know that. Well, maybe he will now, go ahead. But, you know, I tell people, what's good about being mayor is that you're involved with grassroots issues. Yeah, this is a different kind of... Yeah, you're there, you know, talking about people's parks, their potholes, public safety, law and order, the water that they drink, the sewer that flows through our system, and I like wastewater. All those things are issues that are near and dear. So a mayor, a council member has to be very accessible to the people. And also very hands-on. You know, I had, recently, I had the opportunity to learn more about city government. Really, I thought I knew government. You were on the Charter Commission. I was on the Charter Commission. And then I realized, as I was on the commission, how hands-on that level of government is.   You can set, you know, lofty goals. But when you're in the city, lofty goals don't mean much when somebody's roads or streets are flooded or there are too many potholes. That's right. And you've got to go out there and make priorities. Right. And so it was a wonderful job and certainly one that also has a feel-good type of activities. I always said Frank Fosse, one of his biggest contributions to Honolulu is Honolulu city lights. Yes. Because every year, there's a smile on everybody's face as they come to get city hall and doing that whole Christmas season. And, you know, some people used to say, now we know why you really wanted to be remembered. You wanted to like the Christmas tree and sing a Christmas song everywhere. I said, you got it. You know, it almost didn't last. I mean, there were people who didn't want to have the city lights going on and remember this. In fact, I think it was your department that got involved with it when we lit the capital and we had the state join in with the city. Exactly. And there were a lot of people saying, well, you know, but actually government, Pandiyoka Oji told me this a long time ago. He said government needs to be more than just about solving the worst problems of humanity. It needs to also do things that make people happy and express the best of the world. I couldn't agree with you more. And I think nothing makes me happier than to see somebody smile and say, wow, what a difference this program is making. What a difference the city is doing in this area and so forth. And even now in this job with HLTA I have a nonprofit group say, well, we were short of funding and thanks to your charitable contributions. These children got help. These children got help. But every once in a while you've got to deal with the tough issues. So it's one issue that you and I both dealt with for years and you much more than me over the years since then is solving the transportation problem on this island. And as you know, we when we were in office together tried to get started off the mass transit system for City and County of Honolulu. And it was great days back then. The federal government was giving us 90% share of the money and the rest of it but it didn't happen. It took you to get this mass transit system started. And so here we are today. And what are some of the differences between what we faced when the state and you and I were looking at this problem and when you had to deal with it as mayor. Well, I think lessons learned. I think the fact that the last time when you were governor and tried to get it through you had a great working relationship within Mayor Fossey was also a strong transit component. But the last piece was not part of the package and that was the local funding aspect. So we had the federal government guaranteed almost up to 90%. The local government's got to put up first because of what happened last time and then go and petition the federal government for help. And I thought the stars were aligned because we had a president at that time. He was very much aware of our traffic problems here. Senator Inouye was a key fixture in the Senate. So my job was try to make sure that the local aspect would come into place. And we're going to come right back to that because as you know the local aspect is where we now find ourselves having to deal with. So we're going to take a short break and then come back and hear from Mayor Hanuman about the challenges of building a mass transit system. Thank you. She's sad. All the better to see you with my gear. What are you doing? Okay. Research says reading from birth accelerates the baby's brain development. And you're doing that now? Gosh. This is over. Read aloud 15 minutes. Every child. Every parent. Every day. Aloha. My name is Steven Phillip Katz. I'm a licensed marriage and family therapist and I'm the host of Shrink Rap Hawaii where I talk to other shrinks. Did you ever want to get your head shrunk? Well, this is the best place to come to pick one. Shrinks that you can look at. I'm here on Tuesdays at 3 o'clock every other Tuesday. I hope you are too. Aloha. Welcome back to Talk Story with John Wahee and our special guest, Mayor Mufi Hanuman who is now president of the you know, I've got to remember that Hawaii Lodging and Tourism Association with over 600-700 members. And so we are now discussing the Mastransit system and the challenges that you have. Now, Mufi, first of all, I'm going to really get in there. You created this system as mayor without you, frankly. And I mean this as a compliment because I'm a supporter of the system. And I tried to do it and I couldn't get it done. It's one of the little disappointments when my book family comes out if I have a right one, you know. But you did it. And so you created hard. Tell us about what your thoughts were. How did this all happen? Well, and I tell you what really got me going on this is I was sitting at Governor Lingo's first state-of-the-state address for his speech. I'm looking forward to working with the new mayor of Honolulu to do a Mastransit system. Both he and I have been longtime supporters. I popped out of my seat and I said, wait, wait, wait a second. Did I hear correctly what she just said? And I remember a couple years earlier she tried to do it. In her first or second year in office, she was working with Senate President Bobby Boone at the time. And she pulled back a lot of opposition from within her party to raise a general excise tax. So this was to raise the half percent excise tax. It needed a funding mechanism. So she pulled back. So when I heard that, I said, let me get this. Maybe if I go down now and I do the heavy lifting and as long as Governor she'll support it. She catches the pass. Right, the bipartisan support. So that's exactly what I did. And we were able to and I know people don't like to hear about raising taxes but we got the general excise tax increased in one legislative session. Yeah, it was fantastic because you remember when I was in office we passed the half percent and then it couldn't pass the council but you actually worked it backwards. Didn't you pass it first? Yeah, I went to the state first and then I came to the council. It passed. It passed both sides and then at the end Governor Lingo had some misgivings and so she almost vetoed. So I remember I was in Japan promoting tourism and I had to come back because I got this message from my office. It looks like it may be vetoed this weekend so I came back convened the leaders of the ledge and said, you know, we've come so far and I really believe the stars are aligned. I went to the White House. I had already talked to outgoing Secretary of Transportation Norman Manetta who almost threw me out of his office the first time I went to see him in the waiting days of the Bush administration. He said, wait, wait. You know I sat on that money for Honolulu the whole time and then I got the news that the city council voted rejected that money disappeared in nanoseconds. That was my time. I went back to Washington and reconvenced them. I had to reconvence them, yes. So I thought that we had to do things differently lessons learned if you will and that's why I reversed the process by having the state and the county come up front first and then ask the federal government. And what's the... You also created the heart. What was the purpose of heart as opposed to doing it as a normal CIP project? Well, I think because the council also had to weigh in on this everything that I did, the governor I made sure the council was a part of it and they felt very strongly that we needed to remove it from the city. From the day by day. Day by day there are other things that the Department of Transportation Services City needs to focus on and consider and this was such a big new initiative that based on what we had seen in other cities too some form of a heart authority the best way to do this was to have heart. Now the way I understand it is that Oahu only got the ability to raise a half a percent excise. Well, governor, at that time the neighbor islands had the option to jump in and say they wanted a half percent also. Yeah, but they didn't. They didn't because when I petitioned the legislature I lobbied for that too. It shouldn't just be for Oahu they should have the half percent whatever they wanted for transportation point of view. Why didn't we take advantage of it? It seemed to me that one of the weaknesses of the present system is that we keep treating the half a percent as a tax specifically for mass transit. What we should have in my opinion what we should do is put the half a percent on the table as something that counties all counties, any county that wants to take advantage of it can use it. And just give them that option. Well, I think what the state has done what the process was that the counties had to ask for it and had to push it and approve it and I think that's where the breakdown came because it's the idea of raising the half a percent. But we need to start treating our counties a little bit more like grown-ups don't you think? And I think maybe this is a time to revisit it as they're looking again at making up the shortfall for rail. Which brings us to today. So right now they're looking at making up the shortfall which in terms of one of the proposals on the table is that you make the half a percent you extend it and but or why don't we just make it permanent? I mean seriously I mean everybody has been paying it for a number of years now I don't know is that an option on the table? Well it's all going to depend on what the House and the Senate come forward with. The last legislative session we supported the Senate version when I say we Hawaii Association supported the version that came out and said extend the general excise tax. We really believe that the TAT is not as good an option as the TAT. Which brings us to the transit accommodation status of the hotel room tax. So now one of the options now before under discussion and as I understand it seems very likely that there'll be a special session this summer. So one of the options in addition to continuing or extending the half percent increase in the excise tax is to increase the transit accommodation tax. You folks obviously have an opinion about that. So I'm not going to guess what that opinion is I guess I could but why don't you tell us what your position is. We did last session we prefer the general excise tax you know it's more reliable it's more stable it's something that was set aside for transit. The hotel room tax is really straight from its original purpose during your time in office it was supposed to be for funding of the convention senate assistance to the counties and marketing. Right now the biggest recipient of the transit accommodations tax is the general fund. 52% of the $485 million that's collected in TAT goes to the general fund and government can use it for whatever purpose that has no nexus of tourism. Fine they're doing it that way so that's why we got concerned when they talked about raising the TAT by another percent and using it for a purpose that we need to have a much clearer understanding of how it's going to be. Instead of continuing to go along the path of the general excise tax which we feel and I did as mayor at that time when I lobbied for it that you know tourism goes up and down in good years and we've had six straight years of good years the tourism special fund is robust but when we take a downturn as we've seen in the past it's not going to come in at the same amount and this is our number one industry. I can see where industry people might be afraid that when there is a downturn the general fund portion of this doesn't get reduced. Exactly. But the promotional side and the side that now is going for tourism and there are a couple other issues related to this that I want to touch on Can I just say one thing though? However, if the will of the House and the Senate collectively is that we take a portion of the TAT and if the governor Governor Iggy is for that and if our congressional delegation is saying that we don't want to stand in the way because we are pro-rail. The rail would be a big boom to tourism and our workers who live out in Ewa and Waipahu and Kaligi. If that is the case and we want to be part of the discussion we want to be in the tent as opposed to outside the tent saying what's the nexus to tourism how are we going to benefit from Olimwana sorry, airport to Olimwana and so forth. Well if you did that would be perfect. In fact, even you and I know that the best result would be for the rail to end up in Waikiki and up at Manawa at the university and then we will have a real genuine system. One of the differences though between the TAT and the increase in the excise tax is right now the neighbor island counties are not being really to support the rail but I'm assuming that if there is a increase in the TAT it will be an increase across the whole state so the neighbor islanders might have to weigh in on this. Well this is where as I said we're in the tent visitor industry. We like to say that our preference is that the neighbor islanders not have to use that portion to pay for the rail system on Owahu that they can use for transportation related projects that can benefit the government. No, why not build it at grade? Everybody says the reason why this thing is so expensive is because we're going so high up in the air. It'll actually cost more to go at grade. We looked at it when I was mayor which is why we went elevated. You talk about going in at grade you're going to be dealing with EV issues. It's also going to be a lot slower because you're competing with cars with traffic signals and the like I mean above grade where you can just kind of go through. In Phoenix alone there were 52 traffic accidents in one year because they're in that great system. So you have that. Now let's talk about the cost. It could cost as much as $2.2 billion. Just to change that? Just to change everything and go at grade. So it's already expensive. So to me, rather than try to build at grade, why don't you take that $2.2 million and use that to extend to UH Montenor? And out into Kapolei? Absolutely. So it's more expensive to go out? It's more expensive at grade. It's not going to be as efficient. We're going to have to build a base yard in town also for that. Real quick, why is the state taking 10% of the exercise thing? This was something they forced it upon us back when I was mayor. And they said they needed it for administrative purposes. They take only 5% from the airport. That's my chance. I can answer that question. And so they've never returned it which I think is the first thing they should try to return so that it goes strictly for rail and what it was suited for. And here's the other thing that we have concern about is that anytime they've raised a special fund, say if they raise a TAT we want to make sure that when they say okay the rail project is pow then they have a tendency to put it into a general fund for something else. We're saying if you're going to raise that tax, raise a GT, keep it permanent and let that be part. I think my opinion is we ought to permanentize the half percent for all counties and then let the counties be responsible for how they spend. I really want to thank you. I wish we had another hour but I appreciate your coming and I appreciate your candor and I wish you the best in the special session. Mahalo. Mahalo, thank you very much. Take care. Thank you.


This week on the Sportsman Experience. Jim is joined by his good buddy Alex on some of their home waters in Charleston, South Carolina They're taking out the all-new Masters 247 in hopes that this beautiful bay boat can get them shallow enough to target some winter schools of red fish I got him. I got him. Alex 2, Jim 1. Just so everyone's clear. Kiss him. Pretty little fish, we got tail. Where's the next spot, Jim? Well, they're trying to go up here. I got a roofing catfish hole. Good job catching those last two fish, buddy. Yeah, man, they're taking out them thoroughly. Fishing is a lifelong passion. The pursuit of new species and lifelong memories is why we are up before dawn and coming home salty in the evening. My name's Jim Isaac, lifelong fisherman, boat builder and student of the water. Join us as we bring along family and friends to pursue new waters, learn new methods and enjoy our time together outdoors. Welcome to the Sportsman Experience. I'm always early. I better get some practice casts in before Jim gets here. I just hooked the bush. Oh, there's Jim. Better late than never. Oh, here there, Jim. I was a little early. I thought I'd get a couple practice casts in before we head on out. Yeah, you're going to need it today. Yeah, let's go ahead and get everything loaded up so we can get going. Let's get it done. All right. Fish catching yet? Do you got anything else in the back of the truck? No, we're good to go. Okay. A beautiful morning.  It is a nice cold morning. Oh, you're free. You good? All right, give me a little pop back when we get to go. All right, let's do some fishing. Absolutely beautiful. Low country morning. The boats in the water and the boys are headed down the iconic Shem Creek in Mount Pleasant. Shem Creek is known for its history in the shrimping industry. Full of shrimp boats to this day, it's the local spot for the freshest seafood in town. Growing up, I mean, this is like our home base. You know, I grew up, my parents' house is probably a block that way. We've always just, we've always come out of Shem Creek. My grandparents had a shrimp boat in Shem Creek. We, you know, commercial fish got at Shem Creek. It's just been such a great access point to get to all the fishing grounds that you need to. It's grown a lot. Back in the day, this whole creek was wall-to-wall shrimp boats. I mean, from the bridge all the way out, it was, you know, three deep shrimp boats. It's kind of, the demographics kind of change a little bit. These guys kind of get hit with hard times. But I mean, there's still a few of them pushing along out here. Hopefully they don't go away and they kind of, you know, keep that lifestyle going. You know, kind of what makes Charleston great is the amount of shrimp that we have in here, crab, you know, mud minnows, mullet, things like that, the bait fish that the bigger game fish go after. Yeah, it's definitely a great extra to wear. That's what makes Charleston great. It's just all the amount of bonus of bait that we have in here that stays in here. It's low-country living, man. It's like right now we're going to try to target just structure, just to try to find some of those schools, because they'll just sit on one dock. It'll be, you know, 50, 100 fish. It might be 30 fish, but you should never know. You kind of bounce around there by the first couple casts. Yeah, exactly, exactly. Today we're fishing on our brand new Masters 247. This is a newly redesigned boat for this year. We've got a nice large casting deck on it. We've got the newly integrated D tubing with the glass windshield enclosure. We've got the nice premium seats on this boat. And then also we have the large rear casting deck with the twin aquarium live wells. And once again, this is our new 2022 247 best-selling bay boat in the market. Great family boat, great fishing boat, all around just a great platform. Inshore, near shore, sand bar, you can do it all. So part of the goal today is getting out out into the water, show my buddy Alex, you know, some of the area that I grew up fishing, a lot of areas around Charleston. Alex loves to fish. He just doesn't get to get out there as much as I do. I was able to grow up here, grow up on the water, you know, whether it's fishing on sport fishing boats or fishing in the creek in the John boat, we kind of did it all growing up. So it's nice to be able to bring somebody like him out here and, you know, hopefully we can catch a few nice fish along the way. It's like a bar, two hours away from the old village. We had neighbors that let us come down here and fish.  During the day, we just go down to the dock and we fish. That's all we did. Yeah, this fish is my whole life.   We'd fry fish for lunch like every day. So it's a crab pond sound. Oh yeah, we do crab it, shrimp it.  Sunrise on the water is a great sunrise. That's a good day right there. It's a good beginning to the day. We can't beat that. All right, now try making a cast. Just kind of right off that little grass patch that sits there. While you're working on your casting this morning, give it a little other whack. They're probably pushed up against the shell rake if they have to be. Zing it. Let me get up there, heave one in there real quick. Heave one in there. There you go. Try to blow one out. Yeah, probably blow them out if they were in there. Usually, I mean, that water can't be that deep right there.  But this time of year, you just got to keep moving around. Moving around until you find them. That's what it's all about. People get hung up on one spot. It's just running good.  Kind of spread out. Not very dense. Typically this time of year, that's what you get. Just keep moving. Different sections. Different squares. Sometimes you find them in front. Sometimes you find them in the back. You never know.  They'll usually take it and just roll with it too once they have it. They don't peck around with it. No. They'll pick it up and just start. I always kind of just let them run and then just kind of give them an easy pull back. Let them really kind of take it in. Yeah. Well, that's what it's great about fishing. It's all about just different tactics until you find something that sticks. Fish move around so much. They'll hold into like certain little, like, you find a little gully or something like that. I mean, you can get them to hold in there. You got to get real skinny to get into a lot of the spots. That's the problem. This is the fish of the morning. See, no further back. No further back. They go redfish. He's not cooperating. I got you, my partner. They're a little stout sucker. He's got some wipers on them, yeah. Let them play around a little bit. Usually these guys in the winter are pretty feisty. He hit it pretty hard. He ate it. Ron, don't overdo it. Just kind of play with them a little bit. See that net? Right in the corner. Just where you want it. Nice. Awesome job, my friend. Down the deck. There's the first one of the morning. Fish. Nice, healthy fish. They have that black spot on the tail because it mimics the way their eye looks on their front of their body so when they get attacked from behind, the fish has a chance to swim and get away. The predator misses the fish, the body of the fish, nice, healthy release. He's off. There we go. Good way to start the morning. It's a cold morning so far here on the water but things are starting to heat up. Jim got himself a stud of a redfish to start the morning and this has the boys excited in hopes of some more big redfish and maybe even some other good inshore species. He said that's slow food. He pecked at that one for good. That's probably maybe the same one you had before that you're like something's tinkering. That's fishy. Just let him eat it. Little puppy. Still counts. Little juvenile. They have a nice color, the small ones do. Pretty fish. I had the hues with the one that was pecking at it for five minutes and finally decided to eat it. Little blue hue on his tail. The blue hue. All that casting paid off, huh? Finally did. That's a hole. That's right. Swim another day. Let's get back after it. Little puppy.  For the next location? Let's get one more cast and we'll pull him in. Franchi hauls out like the nine-pounder from under the big dock. Where's the next spot, Jim? We're going to try to go up here. I've got a real good catfish hole.  We're going to look for some different structure. Pulled a couple fish off of that one. I think we can find some more. Stick to this kind of running gun strategy and just make some moves. Wait on that tide to start flowing out a little bit. Yeah, for sure. It's definitely a slack tide today which is kind of weird but we'll see some more guys popping their head out here down the waterway. Yeah, we're just kind of sticking the plan and moving around. Sounds good. Let's go. The boys they've had a good start to this cold winter morning in the low country. With a couple of nice fish on the boat they're headed out to a new spot in hopes that it will bring some more action to their morning. It's tough just because we haven't been fishing in months. You know, if you fish every day you can come out here and bang on them but the guides obviously have an advantage because they're out here every day and they feel out where the fish are and they know where their schools are. I feel like in the summertime when you get a lot more bait moving and all it's easier because it's just fish everywhere it seems like. Yeah, it's just tough. The ups and downs of the temperatures fish are just more congregated. They're not really spread out. I mean earlier in the year you can kind of go anywhere bumping into some trout. This time of year the red fish are just kind of they're not as widespread as they are in the summertime. You just got to find little areas that will hold them. Yeah, this is kind of our setup we're using right here. Trying to switch it up, try to catch the little trout. Basically we're using a popping cork probably 18 to 36 inch leader on there 20 pound leader. You can get a little bit lighter than that. It's DOA shrimp. Basically it's supposed to mimic like feeding fish just slowly kind of popping it back to the boat. Get the fish to come up and we'll see if it works. It's kind of tough right now but we're trying it out. Covering some ground just kind of trolling down this bank and just working the grass line. Got to keep changing up locations different tactics bait blue worse things like that eventually you'll get on.  Any day outside is a good day so it's okay if it's slow. After trying spot after spot the boys are seeing the true difficulty of wintertime fishing. At times it can be very rewarding and others can be very humbling. The small tide swings have water moving slowly and the cold temps have the fish push down. Though it's been rough since their few fish early on they're not giving up just yet. Alex is taking full advantage of the natural structure and the ample amount of rod holders on the boat.  We're all tied right now. One fish for peace. Yeah we gotta step it up man. As we're talking all that smack I'm back here running two lines can't handle one line. That's how I guess sometimes managing two rods is twice the work. Alright Jim see if we can't pull something out of here. Sure it's nice big red fish just hanging out underneath there. Just ripping shrimp. Just ripping shrimp or a big black drum. There you go. Bring them away from that stump. Yeah there you go. Right when you did that I hung up on one. Little puppy drum. There you go. Little bit bigger than the last one but it's got a nice dark blue tail. Pretty pretty pretty red fish. Little one he'll grow up to be bigger. Kiss him. That was sweet. He's sweet on him. That's how he'll grow up to be bigger. He'll grow up to be like a nine pounder. He's smooth loose. Very nice. Slowly picking at him. Alex two Jim won. Just saw a lunch break. Nobody's keeping count. It's on now. Now he's all feisty on the back of the boat. Now it's on. He can get rigged up and catch another one. I love that color. Pretty little fish. Look at that tail. Purple blue. Beautiful little gold color he's got going on.  There you go. Perfection. Good job catching those last two fish. Yeah man there you go. Picking at him slowly. Sometimes that's what you gotta do. Slow and steady. After these last few fish their luck started to run out. Winter fishing most of the time is more about taking advantage of a nice day. Getting on the water and less about the fish as they're much harder to find this time of year. Wrap it up for the day. Fish have been kind of slow. Not much current so the bite wasn't really there. We picked out them. We got a few fish. I think we're going to take the boats back and get them cleaned up.  Get on them next time. Next week on the Sportsman Experience Jim is mixing things up and testing out his skills as a middle school fishing coach. He's joined by Redfish. He'll be fishing the Brody Bates Youth Redfish Open here in Charleston, South Carolina. See, he's got that good fishing flow. That's what I work for. I'm trying. I'm trying to bring my fishing flow back for the summer. Baby flounder. Yes, it was a flounder bite. Look at that big old minnow.


I think it's even worse when it happens to a TV series, mainly because of that time investment you put in. Today, I'm going to talk about my biggest disappointments on this episode of Breaking Bad TV Shows. That's a working title here on Guru Hub. Entourage was great because we got to live through the lavish lifestyles of a Hollywood playboy and some of his buds. Watching Vincent Chase struggle with movie roles, drug use, the paparazzi and his love life was exciting at first.  It made for great TV at first, but wore very thin after years and years of the same thing. There was also a completely unremarkable movie made down the road just to remind audiences that this show should have quit after four seasons. When it was announced that the lead protagonist, Eric Foreman, was going to pack up and leave after seven seasons, the show should have done the same thing. But the showrunners decided to keep that dumpster truck rolling for one more awful season. And those faithful watchers that stayed on this ride would be treated to one of the worst characters in TV show history, Randy. Can I help you? Leo, it's me, Randy. I got hired last week. We drove in together. It was the worst. I asked people on social media what their favorite TV show was that went to crap. A couple of people agreed with me about Randy, such as LSE, stating that 70s show, one through seven was great, but Randy ruined season eight. What a d***head.  The premise started off simple and compelling. Vampires are out in the open now and most of the world hates them. The problem really kicks in when it's revealed that most of these normal people were actually werewolves, werepanthers, and fairies. I'm not joking. Those are things that are in the show, werepanthers. When everyone is something magical or supernatural, this show loses its themes and its entire purpose. I will always love How I Met Your Mother because of Neil Patrick Harris and some brilliant song ballads by Robin Sparkles. What I won't love is a completely bizarre choice to have the final season take place over a single week and then sloppily brush past half of Ted's later years. Jack hated the finale as well, stating that the last episode ruined everything. In its prime, community was a quirky and often creative show that pushed itself in new and exciting directions. The show also had a whole mess of issues going on off-camera from public feuds between actors and the creator to multiple writer changes, cast departures, and time slot shifts. It's a shame that these things took place on top of the poor viewership, which ultimately led to its demise when moving to Yahoo Video, where everything goes to die. A rest of development might be the most meta show in existence. Every episode builds on jokes from previous ones and it was nice to see a dysfunctional family full of terrible, self-absorbed individuals that wasn't the Kardashians. It was never a very popular show and was canceled after just three seasons. When it was announced that Netflix was picking the show up for a fourth, fans, including myself, were very excited. Unfortunately, this was not the same show we grew to love. Because the actors now had busy schedules, the show could only focus on a couple characters in episode. It changed the entire dynamic, so when people ask me how many seasons there are of a rest of development, I tell them there's three. There's no denying how big of an impact The Walking Dead had when it hit TV. The show was incredibly well executed with a great ensemble cast, phenomenal makeup, plenty of scares and a simple premise that could last for years. It's a shame that that last part of my statement still rings true today as The Walking Dead just won't die. It's become a soap opera, relying solely on stunt deaths and end-of-season cliffhangers. The show is becoming its subject matter, slow and lifeless with no reason to exist, which will also be on my tombstone someday. Most would agree, the office went to complete sh** after Michael Scott left. I disagree. I think it went downhill way quicker than that. I think it's almost unwatchable after five seasons. You always left me satisfied and smiling, so... That's what she said! Michael! Michael! Michael! Please. Please. Dexter's a fun little show about a serial killer who murders people in his free time while moonlighting as a blood splatter analysis. It's a nice weekend watch with The Misses and by season four the show is really becoming something remarkable and that season has one of the best finales to date. Just don't get that confused with the series finale, which is complete garbage. After a brilliant fourth season close, the show takes a huge nosedive and never recovers. The writers rob the audience of what could have been amazing reactions from Dexter's close friends and family. Instead, he's a lumberjack. Previously on Lost, Crazy Sh** Happens. Crazy Sh** doesn't get explained.   This show is an enigma, wrapped in a riddle, drawn on the back of an apkin with crayon at three in the morning to the coffee shop. It didn't even bother me so much that the writers were clearly stringing us along without a single f**king idea where this was gonna go. No, no, no, no, no, no. What bothered me more than anything else was that people believed them. Why was Walt so important and special? What was the point of not being able to have babies on the island? Why are there ghost animals showing up? What did Charles Whitmore have to do with anything? Why were the others brainwashing people? Who cares? Now there are two magical brothers fighting for control of an island that can be moved in time by a f**king wagon wheel that's wedged into the center.  It's tough to follow TV characters over many years because they could abruptly leave or their character could be a shell of their former self. Thanks for watching How I Disappointed Your Mother. It's a terrible working title. Take care.