Yeah Just it doesn't your memory does not Don't recognize at all even after they tell you who you are you're like wait Right, I just I would not recognize you on the street, but now that you've given me context I get it not not recognizing and not remembering at the same time. That's not good. Yeah, that's like Hey, it's me Bob Oh There are people who know me I'm like I have no clue we're who are no context at all But it's nice. It's nice to see you Bob Iran because I used to think it was Bob Iran, but not Barbara and Bob Who's Bob? Why are they saying about Bob? Bob or I'll see Bob So I asked I answered a core question. There was a core question that was What is what is the song lyric that you remember the most being wrong and and when I was a teenager What was in God of the Vita came out as No, yeah, I'm your Venus, you know, that's I'm like the one hit wonder. I'm your Venus I'm you know, I could swear I could swear she was singing I'm your fetus For a year Like the next time it's like your desire you're like Yeah, well, it sounds like she's saying something adult even in the remake I'm like Are they allowed to say that on the radio? It's like all that must mean something in fairness a lot of those lyrics don't make a lot of sense Well, it's a Dutch band that came up with it Oh the Dutch I I'm sure it had meaning back then well, it also came at a point where the The groovy 60s kind of was slowly fading away to the abrupt reality of the 70s in disco Who was the original Um, it was a for I'm your Venus that one for Venus. Yeah, I Blew something blue to say T-Rex shocking blue shocking. Oh, yeah, I would never know that Written by Dutch musician Robbie van Yeah, exactly, of course Robbie van Robbie van Dutch name is Van Dutch Dutch I'm making fun of other hits shocking blue included Never Marry a railroad man You might have mm-hmm love a buzz blossom lady ink pot and be Are you guys ready for the era of this episode of Daily Tech news show? Next ready as we'll ever be nice segue Tom. Thank you, sir We got a brand new pre-roll Hey Exciting here we go three two The Daily Tech news show is powered by me. I'm in Tom's backyard right now in a stationary cycle looked up to a generator Okay, that's not true But I am hoping to keep the lights on so can you go to daily tech news show comm slash support to find out how This is the Daily Tech news for Friday June 1st 2018 happy patreon day Thanks patrons in Los Angeles. I'm Tom Merritt and from studio feline I'm Sarah Lane and from a place where nothing is giving everything is earned. I'm Len Peralta. It's so true That's what they call Cleveland The place where those things he said are true Also joining us very happy to have Rob D'Amillo back CTO of Nimble Collective and I like to say friend of the show Welcome. Oh, thank you so much. I'm happy to be here and I'm up above a bar in San Francisco. Ah Which but I never mind I'll find out later Hey folks our producer Roger Chang is here two days straight of internet. Yes, I'm hoping that it continues for the length of my contract Yes Doesn't have a contract with me leave any time you leave right now. Please don't let's start with a few tech things you should know Sources tell gizmodo that Google Cloud CEO Diane Greene told employees Friday that Google will not seek another contract for work Providing AI to the US Department of Defense after the current contract expires in 2019 Project Maven was the one where Google was providing some AI mostly open source They say for the analysis of drone footage However, thousands of employees had signed a petition asking Google to cancel the contract so they're not canceling But they're not going to do any more after this one a Leaked list of E3 Nintendo games posted to 4chan indicates a version of fortnight will come to the Nintendo switch Eurogamer says it has sources that say the list is accurate fortnight launched on iOS back in March and is coming to Android as well this summer AT&T informed court officials It will not appeal a decision that the US Federal Trade Commission Does have authority over AT&T's internet business? So the court ruled that it does AT&T's not going to fight it any longer AT&T had challenged the FTC's authority in advance of a trial over AT&T's practice of slowing down the speeds of so-called Unlimited users when they reached a data threshold the FCC's decision to remove the open internet guidelines earlier this year rested in part on The justification that the FTC would have authority over consumer complaints about net neutrality violations So this lays that all to rest All right, let's talk a little bit more about what Facebook's doing. What are they doing Sarah? Well, so you know that trending section that was in the right hand upper corner that you could collapse if it was super annoying That's at least what I did Facebook says it's shutting down that trending section at the top of its home page Because it wasn't popular enough with users the trending section was launched in 2014 was available in five countries Facebook will add a new feature called today in that to highlight local events and let 80 publishers highlight their stories and have an optional breaking news tag So I hated trending topics. They were so stupid They weren't always stupid They were often stupid and I know that they were trending in part because it was kind of celebrity stuff But you also would see what a lot of us I think would now say Fake news or misleading and a lot of the stuff that Facebook has come to realize was bad for business I have I have a fistful of thoughts that I will throw out and and Rob and you and Sarah couldn't can respond to whichever ones you want One I always found Algorithmically generated trending lists like Twitter has interesting because it's like oh this this stuff is popping up a lot Whether I liked it or not was immaterial to I don't think there's any evidence that the trending section was the source of any of Facebook's problems, so it's an easy win for them because it might be perceived that way But I don't know if it's fixing anything and three if it really was just a low traffic part of their site It's an even easier win because you know why keep a part of your site that you don't think is performing well So so my fist is It was probably annoying a lot of people and so they were they were getting a lot of responses about that It it probably did amplify the echo chamber because the more things you click on the more the more of that type of Material would show up and you would personally think that there was a lot of activity around it and three that those that last Thing I just said would feed into the trending topics thing so well Except if it's not a highly performing area, then not very many people are clicking on it True so if not many people are clicking on it, then it's not really causing much amplification. Is it? Sure enough I'd like to know how many people just said I don't want to see this because you could collapse that area and once I did I was like it just sort of cleans up everything, right? I don't have my chat stuff open when I'm looking at it on the web either So that has a lot to do with it as well Yeah, and and that might be one of the reasons Facebook says they weren't seeing a lot of usage is most people I'd be curious how many people didn't even have it show up who had just gotten rid of it I'm not a big user of Facebook. I almost never go to the homepage of Facebook So I'm probably this is probably a useless observation, but I don't even remember what it looked like It was a lot of stuff like I Don't know some Star from the voice got into a car accident, you know that kind of stuff. We're like I Don't need I do wish I hope one day we can return now is not that day But I hope one day we can return to valid trending topics, which I Twitter seems to be able to show just fine Well, because it's just it's pure numbers, right? And it's and it's you have to go to a trending topic area in Twitter to see what is actually trending And it doesn't actually affect any of your feed stuff wait with Facebook if you click on that stuff it It did feed into itself. So yeah, sure All right arm announced the 7 nanometer Cortex a 76 CPU That's their latest CPU design the Mali M. A. L. I Mali G 76 GPU graphics processor and the Mali V 76 video processor arm designed the a 76 CPU from scratch calls it laptop class Because it is as powerful or more powerful than the arm designs that were being used in laptops before It supposedly improves performance by around 35% and energy efficiency by 40% The G 76 GPU claims one and a half times performance improvement It doubles the number of execution pipelines and it says it improves the energy efficiency by 30% and that v76 video processor can handle 8k 60 frames per second video or Multiple 4k streams obviously multiple HD streams to the G 76 GPU is available for sampling So you might see that end up in a product later this year the a 76 CPU likely won't arrive in consumer products until 2019 and see any estimates on dates for the visa 26 Roger, you know, this this is arm Saying, you know, this is our next generation We've got powerful processors and really trying to push the idea of our processors are good enough to be used in laptops Because they want to get into Intel space I I see it as like a not necessarily like a Definitely marking out territory that they want to they want to be in eventually Now whether or not this can compete with Intel's mainstream offerings Still still to be determined But it definitely points to signs that they definitely are interested in that space and that they're going to continue moving into it It also means at least in my mind that The rumors of apple developing in-house, you know, arm derivative chips to eventually replace intel and their mainstream offerings could be completely valid and You know, it they don't need to be More powerful. They just need to at least be as powerful and and do all the stuff That people expect from their run of the mill laptop like not everyone is going to be using Adobe creative cloud not everyone needs to have, you know, uh, you know a separate high-end GPU In fact, most people get by with the Intel integrated GPU Which if anyone's ever used it isn't, you know, all that to write home about but it's functional enough that you can surf the web You can write emails You can do spreadsheets you can do 90 of the stuff that most people use their laptops for So so the other conversation to be had here is being the cloud computing guy on the on the squad here We run into problems all the time with not having enough Machines in the cloud that are GPU based and so one of the questions I have is if they're really bragging about this chip that much Can you put a box around it call it a server make it a day? I mean like I mean definitely arm was pushing or not maybe arm but qualcom was was pushing into the server space and You know, they're allegedly moving back away from it but uh You know, I mean isn't isn't that one of the that's also one of the the places that arm wants to be is in the server market Not necessarily doing the the same high-end Number crunching but definitely in the the rack space where people are concerned about hey, how do I get the most? Uh number crunching out of the least amount of you know wattage Right. I don't want to necessarily light up, you know the entire city of of detroit trying to just you know Serve out a bunch of web pages to people across the globe Yeah, and and it makes sense to to say like hey, we've got an energy efficient laptop class chip Uh use that Yeah, and if do a blade server, I don't just stick it on a A card and put it plug it into a black backplane with you know A bunch of other similar cards and look, you know, you could you could even if you could if they could get the price Point right and they can you know show that it is an effective replacement or an alternative Maybe not replacement but alternative to like, you know what intel or amd offers I mean that'd be great because you know, frankly intel has been kind of been slowing the boat a little bit because they really haven't had a Need to damn things up so much in their space and rising from a and d which you know grand is an x86 architecture, you know kind of kind of let the Bunsen burner under the collective pain I will disagree with you that intel has been slow because they they don't think they need to They've been scrambling to figure out how to have a new Area they can move into and they keep getting scooped Uh arm is kind of doing that again with this I know rich straffolino was saying in our slack earlier today that that maybe intel shifts to fpga's because that Is a fertile market for potential ai applications and one that nobody has dominated yet That's that's a great idea. Yeah, we we we see a lot of we see a lot of invidias Like so there's a lot of invidia chips that are there in the the cloud based servers And those are uh, I think it's eating intel's lunch. I don't see a lot of intel based the gps and cloud In other news that's actually uh very timely since tom was in australia for a couple weeks amazon announced thursday It will no longer serve the international version of its website to australian starting on july 1st In order to avoid a new sales tax a 10% tax at that on imported online goods worth less than $1,000 Goes into effect july 1st amazon's australian website, which has fewer goods listed than the regular amazon dot com Will be the only version of amazon available to those at least determined to be indeed in australia When I was in australia people were complaining about amazon and how They would try to order things and they wouldn't show they wouldn't be available for shipping to australia anyway Because there was there's confusion over what's actually provided by amazon and what's shipped through third parties and a lot of times Third party sellers are like no, we're not going to worry. We're not going to deal with customs and and sending things overseas Uh, so I don't know how much of a burden this will actually be I'd love to hear from more of the australians in the audience about this, but uh, it certainly isn't great to say You know what? To avoid your tax australia, we're just going to rip out everything except the the in-country site This is feels to me like the old amazon that would try to punish states in the us Who tried to apply a sales tax to them because they had a warehouse by pulling their warehouse out of the state That always ended up with amazon coming to some sort of arrangement paying tax and putting the warehouse back So I have a feeling this is this is just a matter of bluster and eventually they'll the two sides They'll come to a conclusion Well, I know we had a story. Uh, gosh a couple months ago now of uh warehouses within australia and you know within the country of australia which helped with tariff, uh Numbers and and a lot of australians had complained. They were very high So you think okay, there's stuff going on Where the price can come down great But again, even if you're used to paying a little bit more and all of a sudden your version of amazon has A lot less than what you had enjoyed before Yeah, it kind of sucks and this tax was targeted at amazon apparently a lot of ebay sellers were falling under Rule other rules and having to pay the tax and we're upset that if you sold through amazon you could avoid the tax Did not hear that interesting Apple's worldwide developer conference will start monday with a keynote speech at 1 p.m Eastern or 1700 utc from san jose california apple will update developers on their various operating systems That's what they do every year Uh, though the smart money is on some kind of response to google's digital well-being announcements from io mark German and the bloomberg crew have been doing good work reporting on that There's no end of speculation about whether they'll have any other surprise announcements hardware announcements, etc now I will wait to tell you what they announced After they announced it. I used to have fun Trying to guess the announcements ahead of time. So maybe i'm just getting jaded but These days I just kind of want to ignore the guessing game and and wait for them to make the speech and then talk about it Am I alone on that? No, I I think if we were an apple focused show, of course He would be like the week running up to wwc Sure, but I think especially since we all we're all familiar with uh the news and how these sorts of things become Frenzied until the actual announcement and then you're either excited about what actually got announced because you were right Or you're disappointed because the rumor that you heard didn't actually end up happening Well, let's just wait till monday then we'll know Rob you're with us. I'm completely with you. I yeah What's it? What's sara said with a line in an exclamation point? I I I feel like I thought we would have more disagreement on this or at least different takes of this but I wonder how many other people out there feel the same way and and with sarah's caveat I think that's the perfect way to think about it is like, yes If you are listening to an apple show you're going to expect this But do you care to hear speculation ahead of time and it kind of creeps out into into other areas of coverage Like do you want to know all the google pixel rumors all the samsung galaxy s rumors? It's not just an apple thing but the more the more Hype and clickbait that's around these sorts of things ahead of time The less I want to cover them the more I just want to wait for the actual announcement and say okay now We know let's talk about it because rob. I know we were talking before the show Wwdc is not a place where you get the most interesting apple announcements anyway No, no, no you're gonna find out the notch is five millimeters larger And and and tim cook will be on stage and there'll be some some Yeah, well and to be fair sometimes you'll hear a crazy rumor about something before it's not just Wwdc, but lots of big company announcements where you're like wow really we're gonna get an iPad with wings or you know that sort of thing. It's like sure we might talk about I haven't seen anything ahead of next week's uh show that Moved the needle that much for me. It's kind of like, okay You know new ios stuff that'll happen later in the year and if we were in an iPad with wings We would be talking about right now, right, but we're not although we might All right, let's start that now Sources sources being sarah tell dtns me sources who asked not to be named Oh, sorry. I just named you tam No, I the most interesting thing will be to see how apple responds to the google digital well-being stuff If you if you missed it at io google did a bunch of stuff about here are tools to help you control How much you use your device and stop it taking over your life and immediately people say Well, why isn't apple doing this and my response was because their developers conferences in june That's why they're not doing it and this is the this is when we're going to hear that So I will be interested to hear what those plans are and if they're more evidence-based Googles were sort of like we think making the screen gray might help Uh, I like to see more research behind that but it's all meant well. So it's good Well, something that apple might talk about might implement along with a lot of other companies Is unicode 11.0 which arrives on june 5th along with emoji 11.0 Which means companies can begin supporting new emojis that were first announced back in february Just because they can support it doesn't mean they'll implement it But now they can so 66 new emoji code points in unicode 11.0 include a softball It can guru a llama A partying face whatever that means a parrot lobster and many more now Party face has a party hat and a noise maker Oh, so it's yeah, it's like a like a birthday party face now code points would indicate completely new emoji There is also a new emoji for example that it's a person with red hair didn't have that before or a person with curly red hair So that is not necessarily a completely new emoji. It's sort of a A new spin on an emoji that already existed because it's a person So all in all it's over a hundred now you might say well, hold on a second Wasn't the last emoji emoji 5.0? Why did we go to 11? Well, unicode says the contortion anyway explained in a blog post that skipping to emoji 11.0 Actually better relates to the unicode numbering because they're both 11 now So the next unicode release is planned for march 2019 Some of the draft candidates include a diving mask an axe And a hindu temple At what point do we reach peak emoji? We're not there yet tom It's not never ever get there not today because you know cold face emoji. I'm like, oh, okay I could see myself using that But there were ways to express that you were cold before just with the icicle. So we're we're almost Expressing nuance at this point, right? Uh, it's it's yeah I mean all kidding aside of all the emojis, which I'm you know, I'm emoji friendly Maybe not as much as some people but I use the same five over and over But it's actually interesting how emoji became It started kind of would like as what what is this? You know, it's this whole thing that was created in japan and then people started to be like Well, it's actually kind of an interesting way to express yourself.  We need an emoji for that It's developed into its own language. Yeah, I think You know, what's what what we're seeing is just kind of uh, the pains of it going through various iterations of Of use I I don't know. I think part of it is some of it is people like using it because they can shorthand everything um But at the same time, you know, I Would not be I would not be surprised if in some near future date It becomes a global language if you were like, oh, I don't speak your language But I can I can emoji what I need from you. Oh, I need I need this particular vegetable Or I need to find this, you know restroom or this hotel or something Did you guys watch dr. Who do you watch dr? Do you see this the second episode the last season with the robots in the future that only talked with emojis? Yes You know, oh earth technology. Yes, it is. I need more verbs I think you can't express a verb, but I don't know state of emoji Uh, california is launching two pilot programs to let autonomous vehicles pick up passengers in the state one program Is like other programs we've seen in pittsburgh in arizona requires a safety driver So we this is starting if anything the important part of that pilot program is we're starting to see this become a regular thing States that are participating in allowing tests like this are are starting to allow Pick up of passengers. However, there is another program that is being created and approved that lets companies Remotely monitor the car Meaning there doesn't need to be a human on board and it will still be able to pick up passengers now to get that license Uh, you obviously have to apply and passengers would have to be 18 years older. You'd have to be able to verify that Uh, you can't charge the passengers because they want passengers to give full unfettered feedback Uh, and the cars cannot operate near airports Interestingly, uh, these two companies one of which is waymo have applied I'll be curious to find out what the other one is Waymo also planning a driverless service in arizona that they announced Uh, they want to get on the road before the end of the year So that that is the biggest step to me rob is we've moved to Allowing tests of actual driverless cars. Yeah, are they allowing them on uh highways? Is that uh, is that a thing high speed Transport, I don't know it did not say in anything I read if there was a restriction or not about which roadways It only said they couldn't operate near airports Okay, that was that because that would be far more alarming if they would allow driverless cars remotely monitored or not To move at highway speeds would well, they do allow driverless cars to move at highway speeds now If they have a safety driver, they have a safety driver, right? Yeah, so without I mean putting somebody in a car Uh without a driver and remotely monitored and then getting on the highway and doing 65 miles an hour Although the highway driving is actually easier for the for the autonomous cars to navigate than the local driving they're most of the accidents Not tesla autopilot, but most of the accidents with actual autonomous car tests have been on local Byways and right, but if there's if there's an accident the fatality rates will be higher like if you're doing if you're doing 30 miles an hour on the city street and You get an accident That's a walk away situation usually right But if you if you're going 65 miles an hour and a semi truck jackknives in front of you and the car doesn't respond properly And somebody remotely is not going to be able to see that that that's an issue so the airport uh Things interesting because it's like okay. Well, you're not supposed to fly drones, you know Certain area of airspace either, but that's because it could interfere with planes That's not what anybody would be worried about with autonomous vehicles necessarily Although and I know a lot of airports are laid out differently, but my local airport lax is like that's where people drive the most erratically Right, so it's like that actually makes sense to me that it's like you know what just stay out of the airports because you're going to get an accident It's going to ruin the whole day. Yep Makes a lot of sense. It's interesting. I don't feel comfortable stating with certainty that it's not on highways But I'm not seeing anything that says it isn't so that's I mean This is yeah, this is the training wheels right for for getting completely autonomous vehicles up up and operating, but it's We're going a little too quick. I'm a little concerned being that you're concerned on the highway is going a little too quick I see what you did there. Yeah, uh, it's it It will be interesting to see what the other company doing this is waymo is Certainly taking the lead now as uber has put a pause On a lot of its operations because of the fatality in arizona because someone died Because of the because of what appears to be and we're still waiting for the the final final thing But it appears to be a fault in the system that just didn't identify the person properly that is A horrible price to pay to improve the service it will improve the service So waymo feels more confident that they it can avoid those things I'm curious who the other company that feels that confident is in california Isn't tesla being forced to change the name of their their Service from autopilot to something else. I have not heard that they're being forced to I I've heard they've they've said they aren't Going to change it even though a lot of people have been saying they should that I read something Okay Hey folks, if you want to get all the tech headlines each day in about five minutes Be sure to subscribe to daily tech headlines at daily tech headlines dot com We get letters lots and lots of letters, but they're electronic and we put them in the mail bag Which is really just a folder in our email. Sarah. What's in them? Sometimes we print them out. I don't know actually I that's not something I do But we could okay, so this first one actually refers to I think something we were talking about in yesterday's post show Or maybe it was two days ago where tom and I had both gotten an email from bank of america Which is a big us bank Uh saying that they had a new assistant called erica and we were like, how do they make these names for these assistants? And where are they all female? Stephen wrote I'm listening to more than a day behind So you might have gotten a lot of emails about this already, but I'll say it anyway Naming their chatbot erica is clearly a play on the full name of the bank of america Erica not even think of Right over my head and actually, uh, stephen you're the only one who pointed that out. So there is there is voice as well Uh in this which I didn't think there was Anyway, so erica america get it Hey rob. I did a quick Back of the seat of the pants research here and it looks like there was a group Uh filing a deceptive name charge against tesla Uh, okay, that's what tesla has said. No, we're not going to change it. It's you know We find that our customers aren't confused. So There you go Uh christopher sent us an attempt to explain time crystals that we talked about earlier this week And i'll link to an excellent d news explainer on the matter Uh, here's chris's attempt. All right, you guys tell me if this helps you understand time crystals a little better In a spacetime crystal the adams repeat not just their spatial arrangement like they would in an ice crystal or snowflake But repeat through time So the adams are in constant movement without being acted upon without being made to move and never come to rest Their resting state Is moving So this would be like having a lego sculpture where the blocks are rearranging themselves in a pattern on their own Yeah, that's pretty interesting Does that help you understand it more? That's that's that's pretty interesting. Wait, which has a lot of there's a lot of questions attached to that, right? So if if they're if the resting state is motion What does that mean for the energy state? Yeah, and there is uh, they're one of the papers did deal with the problem of of This appearing to be a perpetual motion machine of true And found there there is a way that that is not true that it in fact can't just power itself forever That's that's that's probably the time part, right? It's probably it's probably Troph is coming from the time there is entropy involved in the calculations I I don't remember how it works in but I remember reading that that they're like no not a perpetual motion machine. So Anyway, time crystals. Thank you christopher for that explanation and thanks to all those who participate in our subreddit You can submit stories and vote on them at daily tech news show dot reddit.com and facebook.com Groups slash daily tech news show Let's check in with len peralta who has been illustrating the show len. What do you got? Yeah, you know I uh, I have to agree with you tom that I think that we have reached peak emoji And uh, this is exactly I think what the this insane world needs right now Is more emojis And uh, this was my sort of monster creation of all the emojis that are coming out Very soon parrot lobster kangaroo llama softball party face bark new emojis bark crazy This isn't it was a weird weird news day today This is good. I want I want the emoji that Condenses all of my feelings into one and when you've illustrated it perfectly. It's the singularity. Yes the one singular emoticon We will all use Oh, obviously, this means we're going to go party at outback steakhouse after softball practice And get their peruvian special. There you go. I like it. That's that's perfect Or perhaps it's red lobster or or we're going to get red lobsters australian special Or you start off at outback and then you go and then move on to red lobster until there's an ipad with wings emoji We're not ready. That's right. Maybe 2019 So yeah, so this is in my online store.  You can also by the way conversation. What's that on your wall? Well Let me tell you about emoji 11.0 By the way, you can also uh commission me commission me for good stuff coming up for grads and dads and all that good stuff Just you know, think about that Excellent. Thank you. Go to commission len sweet Where do where do where do they go if they want to commission they go to the lenperall to store.com Good go there now. Also, thanks to rich jameel. I've robbed a meal. I'm sorry, uh for for being with us this friday Rob, what has been going on with you? Why are you thanking my brother? Uh, is your brother named rich? Yeah, it's actually yeah. Well, okay. Sometimes I get you guys confused Uh, working at nimble collective, uh cto. We're um, uh, ready to launch the studio version of our product at the end of the summer Congratulations getting pretty exciting. Thank you Go check it out folks. Uh nimble collective.com Patreon day today is the day uh when we start to collect everybody's pledges from patreon patreon.com slash dts Thanks to everybody who supports the show. We had two more Uh supporters than last month. Our goal is always to get at least one more. So we doubled that I guess So thank you folks. Uh, don't forget you can also get these fine hats that we're wearing in our videos As well as hoodies and t-shirts and show your dts love that way at daily tech news show dot com slash store Our email address is feedback at daily tech news show dot com If you want to watch live or listen great monday through friday at 4 30 p.m. Eastern 20 30 utc is our time Find out more at daily tech news show dot com slash live We'll be back on monday with justin robber young talk to you then This show is part of the frog pants network Get more at frogpants.com Time and club hopes you have enjoyed this program So wait a second rich Did he work at tech tv rich demuro worked at c-maps? No, no, there's a tech tv rich That's why I got confused. That's not your brother though. No, my brother was the cto peeler packard Oh Yeah, yeah, so he was he was Cto runs in my family so it gets very confusing Interesting. Yeah, so it was like, yeah like because there's someone that tom and roger and I worked with You guys knew what i'm talking about rich Rich Rich rich I can see him right now Was he the guy with the beard? No Was he me? He wasn't you I know who you are. I just Rich robber was he in sales? Oh, I think he was more of like hr I I was the last name my mother would hit me to his matinee Then he was also our finance But well, I'm gonna have to look it up now and now I'm just getting her could only you see him My mother wouldn't exist my mother would go through all the sibling names until she got to me when she was angry with me Uh, what were the sibling names? Uh, just two of them so rich rich and abby and occasionally the dog occasionally the dog would be in there So rich So I would get tim tom and he would get tom tim quite often. That's adorable. That is adorable. That's Tim tom. Yeah, I dated a girl. I dated a girl in high school named reberda. So we were bobby and bobby Oh, that's cute. Oh, it wasn't cute then It was So cute now. It's still not cute. I remember one of my classmates at jc She was from Oklahoma. Her first name was kim and she married a Uh, Korean guy's last name was kim. So she was kim kim Ah kim kim, of course. The girl so nice to name her twice. Yeah Uh, speaking of naming titles There is Unicode goes to 11 Hi No, uh peak emoji Have you seen mall? I am emoji I am emoji Uh, facebook breaking trending news. Why would developers care? winged ipads Winged winged iPads in flight From erica to erica Isn't that the most peak emoji is cute?  That's how you show your appreciation during the show sam was on my lap And he was he was very interested in being part of our conversation. Now. He's like Good day internet post show. I wanted to be on the action Winged ipads yowling over in the corner sure sure You're saying winged is it did they do something special or are you just oh, it's well It's a great wing. It is a great Blessed versus want to know how to spell it Just winged in ed What would I like to do? Is there anything I thought that was cute winged is a great thing Not winger like the band Kip winger winger. I loved winger. What was that one song? I don't remember any winger song you can ask them. Oh, but there is one Hello, we are winger. That was the name of the song I wear the replacement It's me kip winger Um, I have to listen. No, there was a song that I Because it winger was sort of one of those bands you kind of make fun of a little bit But they had some good stuff Did they Yeah, but you can't oh, yeah, I liked this one 17. This was a good song No, this is the thing about the eddie's hair bands is like The song is about a girl who's only 17 and you're like, yeah cool And then you listen to it later. You're like, this is pretty weird It's obviously not written by your father I My dad did not approve of this. Yeah.  I don't want that on your wall Because it's sort of kind of it's sort of a naked man, you know, so I know I had uh pictures of like I'm trying to think like uh, stefie gromp or Of course you did. Yeah, uh, there was a diver from the olympics in I think 88 or 84 Anyway, my parents were like, nah, I don't know if I want that up there because they're in swimsuits or you know, I think Yeah, yeah kids always want to have Sexy pictures up on their wall at an earlier time than their parents are comfortable. Right. Yeah But it was sort of like, you know guns and roses was you know, my favorite band for a while And it's like there weren't really sexy pictures of axel rose. He was more of like, you know, sorry To say there were no You know, so it was like that was never really an issue even though a lot of their lyrics are like Now he looks like benny hill He does look he looks shockingly different in our cover of I'm gonna find the pic. Yeah, look him up. Put him up there roger. He looks like benny hill Well, benny hill has a very unique Well, I'm telling you axel rose looks like benny hill now That first one Oh god, I'll give us a picture of benny hill and yeah That first one is the best one though that one. Yeah, I think benny hill passed away, didn't he? That was a good nail there flan that was not bad. He does. Oh, you're right That's benny hill back when he was younger. He always had a tick. He always had that tick in his face What do we think kip winger is doing right now? He was desperately clawing at the inside of his coffin I did not like if he's deceased. I was not trying to make a joke I don't know if he's dead. I'm kidding around. It's too bad because that was I think that's him, right? Isn't that his picture right here? You know showing this when he's still gonna get a copyright infringement Oh Look at kip looking good kip. No, my hair metal grows up. This was from six years ago the cleveland scene Is that why you give him a give him such a hard time because he's uh, oh, I don't know I'm just giving him a hard time because I I can I don't know Well, what if one day he turns out like he just he's shopping and it's like what if he said to your your high school reading tonight Oh my god, ladies and gentlemen, we brought a special treat for you tonight Class of 1988. Please welcome kip winger and they roll them out on the gurney Carlton, I want to talk to you right now Oh, man, you're in trouble. See me after class For nearly two decades. He's been studying composition and writing classical music including pieces for the samples. Yeah, see len See see from the inside of a coffin. It's amazing. How do you feel people people are allowed to change Amazing that he could he can do as a corpse the speed was which that phrase popped out of your mouth is You let a deep notion of kip winger as being dead that was wrong Well, we've just started a an an internet of rumor. So I love it. Yeah, that's that's something that we need more of in ashville fake news Ah poor kip. Yeah poor kip. He's in the fishing night. He's on classicaling While we've been talking I've been like looking at youtube videos of all winger songs that were in the late 80s that I might actually recognize The video is all the same video.  I think it's all the same video over and over. It's pretty good actually Yeah, he does great He looks good for him being good for him He passed away for he's the live That's just gonna come around and bite you in the tush Let's just be clear. Sarah roger robin tom are distancing themselves any comments made about kip winger on this show I do not endorse lenn perlton's Cops and comments to kip winger versus opinion on kip winger I'm not that it's not an opinion. I just you know, I was What if you find out on your death bed kip winger comes around and says she was on the other foot Yeah, wait, you could be crying at the edge of a coffin while alive That's right. Oh, that's true. That's why he was inside. Yeah, he was he was the real question is who buried kip winger alive Probably benny hill Season of riverdale I'm tweeting this out right now. I was all I could think of was the sugar man The guy with the hood is the hood benny accused of killing kip. I'm just going to It's so weird how like clean cut he looks it's just like, you know air metal and It happens. I look different. Look at metallica They still look okay. They look okay. No, I just mean they're it's, you know, there's less hair Yeah, they can't get away with it. Put up anybody from the stones then and now same thing Yeah, well, I mean just take any picture of us from when winger had 17 as a hit compared to now That's right. That's right.  Oh, wow, this is I'm blanking on this did jump Oh, uh, davidly rock davidly roth So davidly roth like his his daughter went to harvard and so I was like eating at a restaurant near harvard when I back lived back in Cambridge and The woman I was says turned to your right. I turned to my right.  That was a very strange strange experience rock rock stars Sometimes also dad. He had to stop. He's now jogging with the devil Land is on a roll I say this because as an old person I can make these yes, yes, right. That's right. It would be in poor taste other ones Yes, exactly except that I immediately go you're not old to which rob says none of you I'm not admitting to any of this I like that physical therapy with the devil. That was good All right, well, we're uh, we're gonna say goodbye to the youtube folks Thanks for watching the video and streaming along with us live And all of the wonderful things you do and if you are a patron, uh, stay tuned for a special few more minutes


How to import products from Walmart to our Shopify store. There are a few methods to add products from our suppliers to our store. The first method is by clicking on add products on the left and entering the products by URLs or IDs. The second method is by clicking Upload CSV to import products in bulk. The third method is by using our one-click importer available through the AutoDS Chrome Helper extension. This is the method we'll be demonstrating in this example. To begin, let's head over to Walmart and select a product to add to our stores. Let's click on the big cells that they have going on right now and select a nice product from here that's on sale like this robot cleaner over here. Now once we're inside the product page we'll notice an import to AutoDS button that's available through the helper extension. We're gonna click on that and right now the product is being imported to our store. Once the color changes we know that it finished importing the product to the drafts page of our store so let's head back to AutoDS and here in the drafts we have one product so we're gonna click on that and that one product is that robot vacuum cleaner that we just imported by clicking that button. Now we can start optimizing the product by clicking on the arrow and here we can optimize pretty much everything that's available on this product with all of its variants and images and everything else. Once we are done with the product optimization we are going to click on the import button and this is going to import the product from the drafts page to our products page and once it moves from drafts to products the product will be live on our store anyone will be able to buy it and AutoDS will start monitoring everything that we have configured inside. So the process is finished we're going to click on products and here it is on the top of our list so it's already on our stores anyone can buy it and if we click on the item ID on our store will be taken to that product that was just added to our Shopify stores and here it is right over here all of the products information everything that we had on the suppliers page is now on our Shopify store and we can start selling this product just one minute after we clicked on that import button from the supplier page and that is how simple it is to import products from Walmart to your Shopify stores in just one click.


Can you be as big as Drake as an independent artist? LaRussell has an opinion, you know, we're going to talk. He was going label meaners and I used to ask them, do you think it's possible to be as big as Drake as an indie? And we used to get a lot of doubt and like, I don't know, you'd have to go through this, this, through this system. And it's like, if I got here, independently, I can only get bigger. You know, I know what I did to get here. So if I do it times 10, that means I'm going to get a 10,000 multiple in my growth.  So yeah, I definitely believe so. I mean, I'm here and I'm completely independent. You feel me on this platform. Most of the people who come on here have a label behind them. It's part of their PR rollout, the press, but we don't have a label behind it. I got some thoughts on this. And I don't think you can be as big as Drake independent in today's climate, in today's climate. But that's also because we see independent differently, right? Partnerships, et cetera, independent of a major label and be pretty damn big. I think that's only going to grow. You're going to be able to get bigger and bigger, independent of a traditional major label, right? Cool. But if we're talking about the nuances of the relationships and things that have to be in place, the type of partnerships that ultimately are going to have to be in place, you're still going to need to to move in a very, very similar fashion. You'll just own a lot more than a Drake does of his own vertical. You might have that team of, again, content, your own distribution or something, somehow, whatever that might look like. But I don't think you can be that big. I'll get into some of the nuances. Why? And say, if I want to hear what you think before I go deeper. I think somebody will be eventually. I don't think it's going to happen anytime soon. Because that's a today's climate. That's what I said. Yeah. All right. Yeah, because it's like, we're just now starting to see the effects of people. What? Rest, start, prison and independent things. We're like, twenty, seventeen, maybe eighteen. Yeah, yeah. Right. So we're now starting to see the offspring of the people who were listening to him and paying attention to all those kids and younger artists that care another pair of attention to rest. They're all, you know, now adults, you know, now further along in their careers. And we're starting to see a lot of them move and take this type of stuff seriously. We're going to make rest the line in the stand and BR and AR. I think so. Who else could it be? Who else could it be? I don't know. I don't have a specific line. I just I just thought that he was getting out of the independent conversation. That's all I feel like mainstream for a lot of music artists. Because now 100 percent. Yeah, he was the he was the first one to like make it tangible, right? Like, I'm going to show you two in court statements. I'm going to I'm going to talk about this. And I'm going to show you the example of this generation for sure. And he he set the tone in a different way on a on a whole other level. And he made a point of making that sign. I'm not taking that from I just want to see what your thoughts were. You know, I got to kind of throw something. I get it, man. I don't look like I give it a rest on that, man. Because he made that I think there were people who talked about it, but always sounded like really like corporate, really stuffy. Like it was different. Like like watching like Russ on like an Instagram live stream. Like, oh, yeah, I see how my tone goes. We just like it made it feel more tangible, right? So now we're getting people who are in the era where they grew up on that. And we're starting to say a lot more arts care about that. Put it into practice. Now, the thing that I think makes it hard for indie artists to compete with major label artists is usually two things. It's typically, let's just say resources, manly capital, but just keep it at resources and then infrastructure, bright light. Infrastructure in a way that's like different, right? So like the rest about the point like, hey, I'm on Breakfast Club. A platform is typically, you know what I'm saying, used by major artists and I'm here without any type of major backing. Like we've known you can get on these platforms. If you are connected to the right people, right? If I go hire the same publicist that I don't know. J Cole is using. It's possible that I could get on some of the same publications that J Cole is getting on, because at least this person has access to that, right? Well, I think that's how it's typically looked at. What might not be considered is one, the way of the relationship from the other side, right? So if I'm a major label and I'm on the Breakfast Club, I'm probably tapping, the Breakfast Club is probably tapping in with the major labels. See how it was up there. They should come out the same way.   When you're an individual, and you're not tied to a major corporation, you don't usually get that same level of treatment from your partners unless you were massive, you know what I'm saying? You tell us with Spotify, these different platforms, probably reach out to her every quarter.  I would think they'd do that. But if you like someone that's even, not even just small, just say like three, four steps below her like that. You might not be getting those same types of reach outs all the time, right? So I think that becomes the part that makes it hard for artists to get to that level. It's not that you can do it, it's staying top of mind and then maintaining that level of infrastructure where you're keeping up with all these different partners and things that you need to pretty much your machine, right? Like your machine's got to be activating, keeping up with that for a long period of time. It's taxing, it's exhausting, it's expensive, you know what I'm saying? And that's the problem, yeah. Let me take a quick second to say if you're an artist trying to blow your music up or if you're a manager, a music professional in general, trying to help an artist blow their music up, I have something that's a game changer for you and it's completely free. As you may know, we've helped multiple artists go from zero to hundreds of thousands of streams. We've helped multiple artists go from hundreds of thousands to millions of streams, chart on Billboard, GoViral, all of that stuff. And we've now made the way we've branded multiple artists and helped them go viral completely free step by step in Brandman Network. All you have to do is check out brandmannetwork.com. You apply, it's completely free, but the thing is we're not gonna let everybody in forever. So the faster you apply, the better your chance of getting accepted. Brandmannetwork.com, check it out, back to the video. The problem is not just can people have access to my music today, right? Can I go direct to Kim Selmer on whatever part of my vertical, the music, the touring, the merch, whatever. It's because of the relationships at hand that mix music, such a partnership heavy industry. And that's when we get into the blur line between independent or just independent of a major label, right? So for me, I think it has to at least be acknowledged when we had these conversations, the economics of relationships, right? The way that for people to naturally move and their incentives to put people in the room that they're connected to, put people in a room that they can trust. Why can they trust them? Because they might be connected to them and their incentives are in line. They have a similar agenda, right? Where they've been brought in through somebody else that you trust, right? So once we talk about at scale, not make more money than Drake. I believe the wrestler, if that's his ambition and he has the way to do it, he can make more money than Drake ultimately, right? And not even necessarily just to use it, cool. Are we talking about bigger and being a superstar in the same traditional sense of superstar? That's a whole nother story, right? And look, by all means, go down route. Cause I'm not even somebody who desires that type of energy and like facial recognition. So it's a little different, but that's what you're going for in terms of superstar, be as big as Drake in that way. I think it's, you have to acknowledge not just big, not at home, all right? Not just big, you know, domestically. So in the city, not big in this nation, we're talking about big around the world, facial wise, not just more money. We're talking about facial branding, right? Consider the big artists and then how do you get into all the spaces that allow for that? Yeah, yeah. Right? Like, oh, and how do you continue to do the R and D that's required to continue to stay old time over time as an individual entity that doesn't have a lot of those same partnerships? Cause that's extremely difficult. All the R and D that we get from running our agency, right, but then also maximizing that to all these other streams like touring R and D, right? Let's just say NFT, R and D, whatever. You know, there's so many different categories. It's hard to truly master all of those things alone. So I want to be like discouraging or hating against the idea of the indie artists being big. I just think when we talk about specifically the facial recognition, traditional superstar box that we think of at the moment, as we both agree at the time it's hard for me to see that occurring without some partnerships that would make me personally say, you're not indie, indie. You know what I mean? So that's the way I think about it. Yeah, I mean, no, that goes back to kind of what I was saying earlier, like why don't, I think it'll happen. I just don't think it'll happen anytime soon because we are now in the era where we're watching artists attempt to do it. Yeah, so that means we're watching in real time, you know what I'm saying? Not even just rest, like we're watching major label artists leave their label in an attempt to go indie, right? We're watching artists pop on platforms like TikTok and YouTube and things and choosing to stay the indie route to build themselves out. So like we're watching in real time, artist trying to figure it out. Going back to what I was saying earlier, it's not enough of them to talk enough about infrastructure because you mentioned something, right? Even thinking about like the level of Superstar, right? Like you have your local practices, you have your regional practice, you have your national practice, like I don't think there's enough artists yet talking about what that entire pipeline looks like. You control that pipeline looks like because there's not enough of them that understand it yet. You understand like these artists that we're watching in real time are gonna be the ones that maybe four to seven years from now, like we've watched enough of them go through it. They've talked about enough to the same degree of the rush though and now artists coming at that time maybe have a serious chance of competing and making that happen, right? But I just think like we're in the guinea pig era of indie artists and like there's a lot that comes with being the first person to figure that path out for other people. Exactly, I think this era will run into problems and say, ah, that's why I didn't get there because I didn't have this, but then be able to teach it to the next generation. For sure, they're gonna do it, right? Exactly. Maybe they'll do it, but I still just because of the scale and the amount of humans involved, right? It's hard to do it independently, right? I think a better way of positioning it to me is I think there will be a day where you can be massive without losing your freedom in a way that you would lose it before. Like you have more control of your business. You can do shorter term deals. You'll have a lot of leverage without being tied up and without having to do it the old school way, which was I'm gonna go through the system and then by my way out of it and be free that way. Cause there are people who have done that. They're big and they're quote unquote free, right? I don't have ownership of all their stuff. I think technically Michael might've did that in some ways, but then again, this is where we get into the other part of the game, right? You get that big, you're that much of an entity and you're not tied to any other entities. Do people even want you around like that? That's a different game, not being a big company. Multiple people, multiple stakeholders that are keeping it all involved, partners, right? Being a single individual who has all of that power or invisibility within an industry that's built different. See man, now you got into some deep conspiracies, you know? I'm just... I know, you're right. I ain't dissagree on what I'm saying, that's where it gets to the other side of the game. Right, look, and I'm not even trying to tip toe way over on that side of the pond, the dark side of the pond, even just strictly business and competition and not even getting into the darker stuff. It's like, well, people are gonna make it hard. I don't think people realize how much there is a overall industry instead of to keep things how they are as much as possible.  Band together. Band together a little bit. It's just like, I can't remember which label, but I'm sure the majors fell screwed over a little bit by the first major who did the fixed deal with TikTok. Because they were all holding out, everybody wanted, hey, I wanna get paid per stream, essentially, right? And one did the big lump storm and that set the tone. Once you got that precedent, the other ones kind of got to fall in line, right? So it all affects them, how the industry's moving, how artists deals are set up, all that stuff. But right now, what do they do? They figured out a way to have these distribution companies so we're still connected and y'all can feel independent. Yeah, you get more freedom, but I still got a leash. You know what I'm saying? Still got a leash. Oh, I invested in Spotify, you know what I mean? I'm trying to get as much as TikTok as I can, but TikTok got a day, that's a different animal right now. Oh, I'm invested in what Spotify has, the CD Baby. Yeah. Oh yeah, Indie, but Spotify, I got CD Baby and major labels in Spotify. I can't remember if the majors are still completely in Spotify. I know that they had to sell off a little bit or something like that at one point, but like things, look man, the people in a certain space and that benefited from the industry being in a certain way, they're not gonna let it all go out. Like we talked about when Drake was up for a new contract and Drake could have left being completely independent and Domino effectively that would have had. Yeah, like it was incentive for me as a label, Drake signed to you. Hey bro, how much you need? You need 10 mil to make sure Drake stays deal with the ad on top. I'm like, don't be cheap, bro. Come on, go ahead and make that. That's what I would be like, right? Just to keep the climate the climate. Yeah. So I think we also underestimate that as a whole. It's like, the industry only money always wants to keep the old environment, let's put it that way. And then new money tries to fight for it and then when new money finally figures it out, they become old money when it keeps the old environment. You know what I'm saying? It's an interesting paradox that we're in but what I see in major labels history, they've been very good at buying time to figure out a new program. Right? It's like we use these rights to slow people down so she can't innovate too fast. We can throw copyrights and we can sue you. We can take all your music off your platform or not let you get music in the first place. So buys just enough time for us to figure out, oh yeah, we want to be distributors and we want to invest in this company and this company and this tech so you're still in business with us anyway. All right, so I don't know what that new thing is but the new thing that they're really trying to be, they're thinking less about independent artists individually and more about the AI music shit. Oh, how can we make sure that doesn't leave us, you know? So I don't know, it's an interesting argument about can you be as big as Drake? I think we generally agree that it's not, it ain't with that five years thing. Let's say that, let's say that. I'm telling you, we're looking at our new young superstars like between 22 and 26 right now so it's around when they hit May 30 with Stars in it. But one of them, I think, I don't know who. What type of genre do you think it'll be? Probably pop or rap. Yeah. Maybe not. I think pop. You think pop? Yeah. Pop or Latin. Maybe rapper or Latin. Maybe Latin. Oh man, I'm glad you said that because the one person we didn't talk about was Bad Bunny.


All right, how's it going guys? Welcome back to the channel, it's fantastic. Today we have the very awesome Eric Mencher here. His work is photography that I've been increasingly falling in love with since I saw it in Framish Magazine. So welcome to the channel, Eric, it's fantastic to have you here. Thank you so much. It's an honor, you know, looking through your channel is just incredible what you've put out there. It's like the art history class that I never took, the photography history class. Yeah. And you touch on everything that's so very important to photography.  You know, you've received many awards. You know, you've got here the well-pressed photo, picture of the year, best of photo journalism. You've had fellowships, I believe, at Penn State University. You just, it seems like there's a list of accomplishments that you have accumulated over the years. So really kind of what, where did this all start? Well, I guess it started in high school, actually. I actually have given presentations and they're called from Instamatic to iPhone. My first camera was a Kodak Instamatic. I don't know if any of your viewers will even know what that is. But to me, it's amazing because the Instamatic in so many ways was like the iPhone is now. It's, you're concentrating on what you're seeing instead of all this peripheral, maybe I can say that gets in the way of doing photography, particularly street photography. Anyway, that was in high school. And one thing led to another. I worked on my university newspaper, which was a daily newspaper, which is rare and it gave me great experience. And then I had a succession of newspaper, staff photography jobs, culminating in the job at the Philadelphia Inquirer where I worked for over 20 years. And in the 80s, 90s, into the early 2000s, was one of the best newspapers in the United States. We had a Sunday magazine. We had all kinds of photographic opportunities traveling the world. But as I like to say, I would cover something in Rwanda and my first assignment back in Philadelphia for the newspaper was to go photograph cannolis in a pastry shop in South Philadelphia. So, you know, it's the beautiful thing about newspaper photography in particular is the breadth of the, sitting down on the job for any assignment. And I put my heart out into almost everything I did, no matter whether it was the cannoli or whether it was Rwanda. Been incredibly passionate about it ever since I first picked up that Instamatic. That is the, I was just thinking another day about my first experience with photography in that kind of immediate, I think it was a Kodak, sort of similar sort of thing, it was a big brick. And it was, I found it was like a palchemy and seeing that image kind of just sort of grow on the little things you flicked it around. And that kind of echoes, did you think that sort of shaped the way that you approached photography sort of subsequently? Yeah, I think a lot of different things have come into play. Wow, my education as a child, the way my parents taught me how to sort of live in the world, relationships I've had probably most important the relationship that I've had in my over 35 years of marriage to Cass who's also a photographer, an amazing photographer. That's probably shaped me more than anything. However, there's also all the things that, everybody looks to. I mistakenly earlier said, art history course, but I meant photography history course. But on the other hand, art history is so important. I mean, it helped shape me. I love going to museums, literature, music.  Not that it always helps, but it's all those things that really helped shape me from the time I was very young to all those things you encounter. My experiences living on and off in Guatemala with Cass, it was a really spiritual experience, not in a religious sense, but just that brought out something in me. I think it's some of the best work I've ever done. So many things contribute to where I am right now. Now you've mentioned spiritual ideas and here on your website, which I'll bring up in a second, the first sort of section that you have with your photography is called tradition. So I'm assuming things at the top, it feels very important to you. And you got this striking image and I don't know the word for it, but no doubt you like a saint or some procession going through there. Exactly. Is this, these kind of these photographs that so touch on that, is this something that you sort of stumbled across being in Guatemala? Was it something that you inherently were drawn towards prior to being immersed in this kind of environment? A combination of a lot of things, what you just touched on, but just being there and knowing what is important to the Guatemalan, to some of the Guatemalan people, I just have to give you a quick background. Guatemala is 50% Maya. They have these traditions that date back thousands of years combined with Catholicism that came with the Spanish and somehow they seem to mix it pretty well and that fascinated me. I'm not Catholic, I'm not Christian, but I'm Jewish. But nonetheless, it just fascinated me. And being kind of person interested in how people play out whatever it is they're doing on the street, this was just a goldmine of photographic opportunity for me, not just to photograph what was there, but to, in a way photograph how I felt about what was there as well. It's interesting you mentioned that, how you felt about the image. It's often, when we talk about sort of story, in photography and so now it's a, I think often people confuse it with this idea of, you know, kind of like a, more like a Eugene Smith sort of thing where there has to be a story. Whereas if you're trying to communicate something, it often feels about feeling. So how do you get the way that you feel about a situation through the photograph? I was hoping you wouldn't ask, but. A lot of it is just luck to tell you the truth. I mean, there are some minor details in this particular picture. Do you mind going back just for a second? Okay, so on the far, on the right, kind of in the upper corner is a hand with some sort of smartphone, or some sort of mobile phone coming in. And the rest of it is this very traditional, but it's also a mix. And then it's detailed, it's hard to see here, but there's some sort of spray aerosol can underneath the likeness of Jesus there. And so it's this combination of modernity with these ancient rituals. And that's, I was feeling that I'm in the modern world. I'm there with an iPhone. And I'm feeling that, but I'm also feeling very much a part of these ancient traditions. That's a little bit more on the surface, but nonetheless, that kind of addresses how I might go about, but a lot of it's luck. I mean, I certainly did not see that phone coming in on the upper right when I photographed it, but later in the editing, that's real, because I had four or five frames of this man, so permanently, devoutedly praying that that was the one with the hand coming in, because it combined what I was feeling about being there. Yeah, do you feel about reacting to an image? You mentioned often that it's kind of hard to put into words sometimes why you took a specific photograph. But if you were to give advice to somebody who's just starting off or they want to be a little bit more fluid in their image-taking, how much of a gut instinct or how much does gut instinct play as a role in your taking photographs? Oh, I think it's almost everything to tell you the truth. It really is. You know, it's a matter of, do I make a right turn here? Do I go to the left? The light, all of those things. Do I go to where that one point of light is coming through the buildings? Are from a distance. I see this young woman who was just, I don't know what she was thinking, but she obviously was having some sort of personal experience and I saw that from a distance and I went racing up there. So it's a combination, it's also intuition, but combined with paying attention. I think paying attention is so important to this kind of photography, well, any kind of photography. It's important to life.  One of the things, as I've been looking through here that sort of springs into my mind is this is obviously quite clearly, this is not America. This is not what most people see in their day-to-day lives. And there is occasionally, I think there's a feeling that to create these kind of images or street photography or landscape or anything of this kind of stuff, you need to go that somewhere that is different, photo worthy for one of a better word. People will say, I can't take these pictures. Oh, it's easy for you, because you know, he was in Guatemala and great images just happened. But what would you say to people who don't have, say the capacity to travel, to kind of reconnect with the things that are around in the commonplace the everyday in a way that inspires them visually? Yeah, it can be tricky. Street photography in particular and documentary photography, photojournalism. It involves people.  But, you know, you can do this in your own backyard. It's rumored that Elliot Irwitt once said you can shoot good pictures anywhere. You can even shoot good pictures in New Jersey, which is a much maligned state in the United States. I don't know if he actually said it, but it's true.   It can be done anywhere, but it's difficult. I mean, here in Philadelphia, it's like, wow, in the beginning when I first moved here, I photographed everything and some things really fell into place nicely. Now I go out and it's a problem because it's all, it seems common to me. And I take, I walk everywhere. My wife and I, we don't have a car, so we walk, which is also key to good photography is walking. And when you're living, I don't know about that many other parts of the world, but if you're living in a small kind of suburban or rural town in the United States, you don't walk. You know, you're driving in your car. And I think it's really important to get out and walk, every town, everywhere in the world has some sort of central gathering place, whether it's a park or a cafe or, you know, a city hall. And so you go to those places. And maybe the first time you go, it doesn't work out. The second time you go, you start to see a few things. You start to see patterns, people coming and going. And so there's all kind of potential. It is more difficult, you know, but I did find, I mean, we went to Guatemala. We first went for three months, I know it was six months, then a year, and we ended up going, I think a total of a dozen times. And when I look back at my first pictures from there, they were what most kind of tourists would take. And, you know, they were pretty good because it's a beautiful place, but they didn't go beneath the surface. And it was really after I was immersed in it that I felt like my pictures started to get somewhere that were more meaningful. And I think that's true no matter where you are. It's a small town, you know, and the heart of England or, you know, wherever you may be, it's like, there are things to photograph. There's absolutely, there's always, I'm trying to, yeah, I tried to also remind myself to send some friends over from the States.  For me, it's kind of, yeah, it's a thing. Exactly. So it is, it's what you said about going beneath the surface, you know, having to scratch away at that little piece there sometimes. Now, you, when I was looking at your photographs, I was like, wow, these are really cool. And it was, I think it was specifically Guatemala images that I was taken that they felt really free. And I kind of use that, like, although they are structured, they're put together no doubt with a keen eye for everything, they have that kind of fluidity that it feels like it's something a little, you're obviously a master of taking photographs. But then I researched a little bit and I was like, wow, and you take them on an iPhone. Now, I was just like, I was like, oh, that's awesome.  And have you ever run into this thing where people go, that's not a real camera? Sure, all the time. And people, you know, on Instagram, where I'm pretty active on Instagram, I try and post something every day. People ask all the time, was this with an iPhone? Was that with an iPhone? It's like, yeah, almost everything I post is with an iPhone. Yeah, you know, it obviously has a stigma attached to it. And I think that that's been kind of self-attached by the photographic community, you know, it's like, okay, so if someone contacted me to do some big ad campaign, I'm not quite so sure an iPhone would work. On the other hand, it's how I see photographically now, since it's all I've used for over 10 years now, I haven't really used another camera. So that's what I'm comfortable with. You know, there are quality issues, there are limitations. I mean, it's basically got three, the equivalent of three lenses is actually three different cameras, the one I use, the iPhone 12 Pro Max. So you don't have those zoom capabilities that other cameras have. The quality is somewhat suspect, but so what? Look at the best photos of, look at Bresson. Have you ever been to a Bresson exhibition and you see, you know, granted pretty early on, he's using, you know, the Leica and slower film and so there's movement, everything's not tack sharp and that adds, I think, to some sort of quality, an intangible quality. So I try and take advantage of what the iPhone is and can do. There are times like here when I maybe apply a certain filtration more, not because it's an iPhone, but more because I felt it was appropriate for the subject matter and it brought out something in the subject matter that otherwise wasn't there without that kind of muted sepia tone. It's interesting, yeah, when I look at this one specifically, as you were talking about, you know, classic photographers and people like Bresson and going even further back to, you know, sort of the David Octavius Hill sort of crowd, you know. And those images, you know, they have an organic quality to them. And that's something I enjoy about digital, not about film. And digital has always felt that it was becoming increasingly, for some reason for me, somewhat sterile.  Yeah, right. Whereas, well, obviously this particular image is digital. It feels because that CP nature and the wonkiness of the little thing in the background that it has a sort of somewhat timeless quality. You know, there's nothing here in this photograph that specifically welds this to a place or a time. And I really like that sort of rough and ready almost, quality of just shooting with a camera that does have limitations. And have you found that that has given you maybe like a sense of freedom when you're taking photographs, you just kind of go, you have limited options. So you're concentrating more on the actual image itself. Absolutely. And the freedom starts with the physical aspect of it, which after God knows how many years of carrying around, you know, big cameras starting with, well, Nikon F3, Canon F1, big telephoto lenses. I was doing a lot of sports, you know, it took its toll on my back. And now I have a camera that fits in my hand, fits in my pocket. And so the mobility is a really important factor to me. I came to invoke Brisson's name, I read once where he said, I don't carry any parcels, you know, because it could get in the way with picture taking. And well, with an iPhone, I can shoot with one hand and carry a parcel and another. So, you know, it's like, it is so mobile and so easy to use. And is there another camera that has a screen as big as the iPhones to see, you know, holding it out at a distance? I'm really sold on it for me, the way I'm photographing and seeing right now. So, I don't know if I answered your question though. No, it is, it is, it is not, you know, one of the things, I look at these, and you know, to go back about the question about you know, people use an iPhone. I have a feeling it's, there is a case to be made that it is a tool that needs to be used, not necessarily with skill-dix, but you kind of need to know what it's going to do. And the people who complain about iPhone not being a real camera, why is it, they maybe are thinking about it in terms of the people who are just taking, you know, little holiday pictures of their kids. Yeah, that's a great observation. You know, the thing is now, the latest iPhones have better picture quality than the early generation digital cameras, but that didn't stop photographers from using those early generation digital cameras, you know. So, it's like you can't use the quality as an excuse when they were using something of lesser quality years ago. It does, I remember what your question was, it gives me a lot of freedom. When I was shooting film, I used an, like an M6 a lot, couldn't use it for everything, but for all my personal work, that's what I was using, mainly with a 35 millimeter lens, shooting triads, beautiful combination, printing in my dark room at home with lights in larger, I mean, it didn't get any better than that. And in some ways, the iPhone to me is like that Leica in ease of use and in portability and in how fast it is to use, you know, with Leica with the 35, depending, you knew where the point of focus was based on where the ring, the focus ring was on the 35 millimeter lens, you know, seven feet or, you know, infinity or so. And to me, the iPhone is kind of like that.  I mean, look at even the woman on the right in this picture, you know, she's pretty, pretty sharp. She's in focus enough and it goes all the way back. I mean, at least to the guy in the bow of the boat and even back to the mountains. So, you know, you're getting a lot of the sharpness. So the other thing about, you know, the high-end digital cameras these days, it's like, you can do beautiful, beautiful work with it. I mean, it's just amazing what they do on the novel of, you know, all of them, Sony, Fuji, Nikon Canon, they're producing incredible cameras. And then, you know, so people start with like a 35 millimeter, I did this, I was using a Canon 5D, 35 millimeter, 1.4, shooting wide open. So the background's totally blown out of focus. And it was leading me to a place where photographically it just wasn't me, you know. I didn't care that much ultimately about, I can never pronounce the right bokeh, bokeh, whatever the word is. You know, I like having almost everything in focus all of the time.   Fair enough.  And I'd often talk about technical processes on the channel. But I imagine, because these are obviously very different to how they would come out through the camera. So I'd imagine, do you photograph with a specific idea in mind in terms of the finishing of the image? Or is this something that you kind of come to in post? However, if you're doing it through an app or if you're doing Lightroom or something. Yeah, it's a combination typically, but so recently my wife and I were in Valencia, Spain and I decided, okay, I need to start shooting color.  Let me just challenge myself and do some color. And actually the iPhone has this, it's a filter. It's called, no, dramatic warm. And it's a bit like the old Kodachrome films in a way. And when they're tweaked a little bit in Snapseed, it does have a bit of a Kodachrome feel. And so there I had a preconceived idea of what I was going for as far as the overall feel to the technical part of the picture. But typically, early on I used Hipstimatic a lot. Like this picture, definitely Hipstimatic. Well, yeah, yeah, right. You know, and I was using a lens filter combination that gave the vignetting I use. So I was using that. Then I think Hipstimatic developed some shutter-like problems that were really throwing me off. So I went back to using the native iPhone camera. And the native iPhone camera to me is what I've stuck with. I know there are great apps out there, you know, and I can't recommend any others because now I'm pretty much using solely the native iPhone camera. But I do take images post sometimes in the Hipstimatic to apply certain filter combinations to it post. But it really depends on the subject. I mean, sometimes I just let it, this is totally plagiarizing my wife. I let the image lead me to where it wants to be. You know, but it's being playful. And, you know, having been a photojournalist where there are strict, strict, strict ethical guidelines. I don't know if that's such anymore, but there used to be. I kind of like the idea now of playing and experimenting. And that's not to say, I mean, I don't clone maybe once in a while, but I don't do, let's see, what would have been considered highly unethical principles in journalism. I mean, there's no need to a picture like this. You know, okay, so I burned in the sky. You know, Eugene Smith burned in his skies. So, but it's not like I added or took anything out of the image. And, you know, to the naked eye, this might have been how it looked anyway. So, but I technically, so I'm now using the native iPhone camera, I like the noir filter and I like the silver tone filter, but it's also nice that I can go to the original if I need to. So, and then I take it, and then let me just, I'm sorry. And then I take it into snaps, I take it into Snapseed and work on it in Snapseed. Yeah. You know, you're talking about color earlier because there is this thing here, it says the thing about color, which is very handy.  And when I first saw the color images that you've got here, it kind of, there seems to be a combination. It's a bit of Steve McCurry and there's a bit of Alex Webb there and, you know, and, you know, are you drawing inspiration from specific photographers when you go out or is this just a combination of, you know, everything you've experienced through your life is coming through in what I suppose we could loosely call the style? Yeah. I mean, definitely I'm drawing on those rich traditions and specific photographers. I mean, I think Alex Webb is more of my style than, you know, others, but, you know, I'm definitely, I have seen a lot of his work, I've seen prints, I've seen books and it's a huge inspiration. And then I'm trying to take that to develop my own way of seeing and my own way of photographing. You know, all of that's in the back of my mind though. I mean, I'm thinking about Brisson and I'm thinking about Walker Evans and Robert Frank and Dorothea Lange and, you know, August Sander and, you know, all of those people when I'm going out and contemporary people who I follow on Instagram too, you know, all of those things are weighing in on me. And then it's like kind of, it all coalesces into, I guess maybe how Eric Metro may see something. I don't know. Maybe, you know, when I'm looking through these photographs, you know, especially the color ones, it feels that the color is the subject. Yeah. And the subject itself is kind of almost secondary to the picture. And, you know, a lot of people have asked me, say, well, if you're going to go from photograph color as the subject, how do you go about that? How do you look for color and then interpret that into an image? Well, I think that's where intuition comes into play, but intuition based on experience and what you've seen in the past in painting. And a lot of that has to do with color combination. You know, you can see bright brilliant colors, but man, if they don't mesh together, the picture is going to be a mess. So I think an intuitive sense of color combinations are a lot of times where there are only two or three colors and not a whole mixture of them. Obviously, like in this picture where the light is falling and then this is also a matter of understanding how any camera, how photography works, knowing that, okay, I could have exposed for the shadows here, or I could have exposed for the highlights, which I did, and still even with the iPhone, opened up for the shadows if I wanted to. But I chose intentionally to highlight the spatial relationships and the color combinations by giving it really deep dark areas. So, you know, you're working with a lot of different things. One thing that's really important to me is, again, plagiarizing from somebody else, the idea of visual construction in the image, how all the pieces fall together. Obviously, that's key to, you know, most any photograph, almost any work of art, but it's not so easy to put it into practice. And that's really important to me to try and photograph in a way where the composition makes a lot of sense. And I do like images that are chaotic as well. If I'm in a situation that feels chaotic, like this one, it's like, boom, you know, that has a lot of detail, like on Instagram, you know, it doesn't read very well at all. It just looks like a big blob, not a big blob, but a lot of different color. But then when you start looking at each space in the picture and what the people are doing, I think, you know, maybe it's a bit stronger image than on the initial viewing. Yeah, and that raises an interesting comment because, you know, you mentioned it, obviously you have a background in print journalism and documentary and what have you, you've now moved to, let's, you know, I don't know what you recall, it's some more personal work. And you're very active on Instagram. Now, if there was somebody came to you and said, Eric, you know, I'd like to pursue this as a career. You know, I'd like to do this kind of photography. How would you go about, you know, suggesting people get started with that? Because as you said, you know, often on Instagram, a lot of the images that when they're bigger, that have a lot of depth of an interest, they just get lost in the, you know, that sea of small squares. So how would you stand out? How would you get going? How would you make it? Yeah, it's really tricky. One of the great things about photography, one of the things I love most about photography is it can be so many things from the kind of photography you practice, you know, whether it's landscape portraiture, weddings, photojournalism, to what you're doing it for, you know, whether it's to make a book or, you know, to make a friend. There are many different uses of photography. And I would say to somebody, find what it is that really appeals to your heart and find a niche for that kind of thing. And then do it, you know, like Elliot Irwitt, again, you know, he did a lot of commercial work and, you know, I'm sure his commercial work was incredible, but it helped support his personal work. So there's nothing wrong with doing that. You know, I know wedding photographers who do weddings and make a ton of money and then they do their own personal work and that's, you know, as important and not more important to them too. So I think it's finding what is closest to your heart, what kind of photography do you like to do and who do you wanna share it with and then try and find those niches, those markets where you can do that. And don't be afraid to do something to make a buck if you have to.  God, sure, anybody in photography, you know. Reminds me of a really bad joke. You can edit this out if you want, but what's the difference between a freelance photographer and an extra large pepperoni pizza? I don't know. A pizza can feed a family of four. I don't know. Yeah, it's a bit like how do you start, how do you make a small fortune in the restaurant business? And it's like, start out with a large fortune. That's a good one.  I like taking photographs and my friends have said I'm quite good at this and I would like to do it. And they want to, you know, make a career out of it or earn some money or sell prints or things of that nature. And I feel that as soon as you try to monetize a hobby, that it changes your perspective completely about why you're doing this. And these photographs here, do you photograph these, you know, all the images we've kind of looked at today, specifically just for yourself with the pure love of taking images or do you have something in the back of your head that goes, I could make a living from this or obviously you do make a living.  At this point it's purely for myself but it wasn't obviously always this way. I mean, I guess retired as far as financial dependence on working, you know, that doesn't mean I wouldn't work if the right thing came along. But, you know, I was really lucky as a photojournalist to have a steady income and benefits and all of those things and do every day what I really love to do. Those jobs aren't in abundance like they used to be. However, there's some website, I can't remember what it was, maybe it's Petapixel or something like that that occasionally has these pieces, how much the photographer made and they show the billing and they show how they went about it. Yeah, my mind is blown by how much money some of these photographers are making. So the money is out there if you can find it and if you're good enough then if you have the proper channels whether it's a great website, a great Instagram presence, a great rep, a great agent, all of those things all rolled into one, you know, you can make a living but getting back to what you said which I think is such a again, a great observation is man, if you spend your life doing photography basically for somebody else you're gonna look back at your career and go, why didn't I just take two hours on Sunday and photograph for myself, you know? It's like you're not really gonna be happy with, I mean, photography is a great way to make a, can be a great way to make livings but it's an art form, it's a creative form. We all have creative instincts and if you don't take advantage of that, you know, something may be missing. I would implore everybody to work on projects for yourself. Maybe the project is, okay, what does City Hall look like at 12 o'clock on Sunday and you go on your photograph a year round? Something as simple as that. I like the idea, I don't always follow it myself of having two projects going on at one time. One is a long-term project, one is short-term. It gives you something to fall back on. When times are lean, I don't mean financially, I mean as far as emotionally, where am I going with my photography? It can be so challenging.  You ever feel that, that you kind of, because I'm looking at your photographs and I go, wow, I take pictures on my iPhone and I quite like the pictures that the photographs that I end up with. But then I look at yours and I go, wow, your Eric's work is just outstanding and I feel slightly kind of like, which inspired and yet kind of also a little bit deflated, maybe, because I go, wow, he's really cool. Do you ever come across that? Because if you're active on Instagram, you must see a huge amount of photography that you see people's work and you go, that's, wow, that's really cool. And it makes you feel a bit odd inside.  That's a given that there are tremendous photographers all over the world photographing every day and it's just a given. So the onus is on me, if I wanna keep up with that to go out and photograph, one, as somebody said, wants something like, you're only as good as your last photograph. And that's true to a degree. It's like, well, okay, you look through this website and you see all this stuff and some of it's pretty decent work. But what am I gonna do today or tomorrow? Is every bit as important to me creatively, photographically, and I like the challenge.  But I've also grown as a person. And I think, you know, I used to be, you know, really jealous and really critical of other photographers. And I feel like I've outgrown that. I feel like, like I said, if it's not working, it's on my shoulders. It's not because of what somebody else is doing. So I try and use it as an inspiration. I see a great picture. It's like, wow, I wanna go out and make a good picture too. Not that I wanna go out and make a better picture, but I wanna make my own image. I think that is a fantastic way of looking at it. You know, rather than letting, as you said, letting that jealousy sort of just kind of stop you from creating something. Yeah. It took me a long time to take it over there as well. Good stuff. Yeah, it is hard. It is hard. But as we kind of like sort of bringing this around, you know, it's, I have to say, you've mentioned long-term projects and I believe you have a project going with your wife at the moment about the Lincoln Highway. Do you wanna just get, because I didn't see any on your website. So I'm assuming that's a project still in the works. Yeah. Well, it's kind of in the past actually. Oh, so. Yeah. So the Lincoln Highway is the first cross-country road in the United States. And it goes from Times Square in New York City to a park in San Francisco. And it goes through the state of Pennsylvania where we live. We first started photographing it in Pennsylvania. A lot of places, it's a two-lane road, other places, a four-lane highway, but it goes through 730 towns and communities. And so we started photographing it. And in 2010, which was really the last time we did anything serious on it, we took three months and drove it both directions across the country. And we kind of view it as a completed project. We made some self-published books to send out to publishers. And there was moderate interest, but not enough interest to get it published. So, you know, and we move on to the next thing. I don't know how much time we have left, but. Oh, I could go on all day. Okay. Okay. So this might be sort of interesting to people who, you know, maybe are a little bit deeper into photography. So we have been going to Spain numerous times, usually for three or four weeks. And then in 2010, we went to Guatemala for the first time, fell in love with it. We both did photography that we thought was, you know, pretty good, love the people, love the landscape, love so much about it. But we missed Spain. So two years ago in our first real trip, you know, since the pandemic started, we went to Valencia, Spain, and I made a reservation at an Airbnb, not knowing much about Valencia at all. And then I was in a neighborhood near the beach. And then I started Googling this neighborhood. And in 1952, Robert Frank went to this neighborhood in Valencia, spent six months there photographing. And when, and I think in two, I forget the year 2012, finally a book of his work was published. It's called Valencia 1952. And these pictures, you can see, set the foundation for how he photographed the Americans. I mean, he truly was like reaching for something and he got it in Valencia. I mean, the stuff is remarkable. The book is incredible. But to us, it was just like, was it the spirit, the ghost of Robert Frank that drew us to this neighborhood? So we were there for three months. We went back again, just returned about a month ago from being there another three months. And we actually hope to move there later this year. But so that's currently kind of a project, a loose project at this point. I love those happy coincidences that you find and you just kind of go, wow. You sort of say, yes, I am like Robert Frank because, you know, I have responded in the same way to his way. I think that's absolutely gorgeous. So you're planning to move to Spain. The work that you have created throughout your career and gladly is, I think, absolutely gorgeous. It has a humanity to it that I really connect with. It has a sort of a slightly, sort of also kind of ethereal feel, you know, especially the Guatemala with the pieces of driftwood and all those sort of things, you know, coming up out of lakes and what have you in there. It has been an absolute pleasure to talk to you, Eric. It is a rare joy to talk to somebody who is in the process of taking images and is about the image itself rather than about being tied up in the gear too much. So thank you. Is there some way, so people say, I will link to your Instagram. Guys, if you want to see more of Eric's work, I'll put his email, no, his email, but his website in the description box below along with your Instagram. And please go check in on his work. Also, if you're interested in seeing more fantastic work like this, you know, check out Frames Magazine. But Eric, I have to say thank you ever so much. Thank you guys. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. It is my pleasure to talk to you. And guys, if you want to see more like this, let me know in the comments below and we'll see you all again soon.