How's it going guys? Welcome back to another J.J.R. review. And today we're going to be looking at the Aki-boshi yellow box. Now this is one of the many cookie boxes that I have reviewed from them before. This is actually the mid-tier one. It goes to blue to purple to yellow and then I believe red. And they all kind of go higher quality from there. The other one's having up to I believe 56 pieces of a cookie in them. But without further ado let's go ahead and undo the kind of plastic wrapping on the outside right here these little tabs. There we go. Alright so now all we have to do is lift off the top. Oh this one looks like it's going to be really good. Comes with their little card thing right here. And let's just go ahead and remove this top piece right here. Oh man this looks really good. Look at all of this assortment of different types of cookies. I spot a white chocolate here. One right here as well. I think this is uh maybe almonds and white chocolate I'm not too sure. And then I know one of these is like a green apple white chocolate which is really interesting. But there's actually I believe three in here that I haven't tried yet. So without further ado let's swap to the other camera and take a closer look at these guys. Alright guys you know me. The first thing that I'm going to want to go for is the white chocolate. Because white chocolate's my favorite. So let's go ahead and zoom in on this guy. Look at this guy right here. Got like a cranberry on the top. You know I think I might have tried this one before. But I think this one might be slightly different. It looks as though we zoom in really close right there. It might have actual peppermint bark on it. Another thing is I like my new phone I'm recording with. Because as you see in the background my hands completely blurred out. It has a really good depth of field so we can get those finer looks on things. But yeah let's go ahead and open this up and try it out. Let's give it another nice look. Part of me if my hands are dirty I've been digging in a barbecue and working on clay molds for the last three hours. So they might be a little gross. That looks really nice though.  Let's go ahead and try this out. Yeah this is really good stuff. Like I'd say this is top tier quality stuff right here. The crispiness of this wafer. And just the creaminess of the chocolate. It's not like a super dried out chocolate. It very much has that creaminess and a really good flavor to it. And then whatever these crunchy bits are just accented even more. And I just globbed right off that cranberry so I really enjoyed that one right there.  Going back to the box now. The one that we have next to it. We bring it in and zoom in on it. This is one that I've never tried before. But it says chocolate crunch on it. So I'm assuming that it's kind of wafery. I do see a light layer of chocolate that has a bunch of little crunchy stuck to it. So I'm excited to taste that. Let's go ahead and open it up and try it out. Taking a closer look. You can really see these tiny little wafery kind of crispies on the outside. You know a decent thickness too. Standard wafer on the bottom. Let's go ahead and try it out. The chocolate's really good. You would think that there wouldn't be a lot of like chocolate kind of flavor on it. Given the fact that it seems primarily wafer. But the layer of chocolate that it does have is definitely complimenting it. And it mixes really well. I'll still say the other one's my favorite though. But this one's also really good. I'm going to save the other for my fiance because diabetes. We have this really interesting one right here. Let's pull this up here. I don't even know what an almond leaf? That's interesting. I have never had anything that looks like this. Kind of just looks like a you know no offense if people eat these. But kind of look like a goopy mess.  But let's stop comparing it to things and take it out of its packaging and try it out. All right. So this is what it looks like. It's got all these kind of cavities in it. I don't know if we can zoom in on that real quick. Let's see how far we can zoom in. I always love seeing that. Look at that. All these kind of like cavities in there.  Let me see that right there. Oh fingers right there. Oh right there that little dot.  Interesting. But yeah this is really kind of cool. I wonder if it's like a caramel. Let's go ahead and try it out. Mmm wow it's definitely not a caramel. This is an almond kind of taffy. Kind of a crunch taffy in the kind of like a boat of wafer. I don't know if you can see that. Let's zoom in on that real quick. It's kind of like a boat of wafer-ness. It's very good though. I really like it. Unfortunately I can't have much more because of my diabetes. But you know let's move that to the side and it'll be enjoyed later. Another new one that we haven't tried yet is this. Let's zoom in on a little farther away. This almond soft cookie. And this one looks really good. I really like the individual kind of packaging. It always makes everything seem so premium. So let's go ahead and open this one. This is what the cookie looks like. It has some pitting in it and some light thinly shaved pieces of almond and back is flat. Very crispy feeling. It says that's a soft cookie but we'll see. So it's not a soft cookie as in doughy. It's a soft cookie as in a kind of soft crunch. It's not bad. It's not my favorite. It's kind of plain and kind of like the rolls that are in here. But those are kind of just like meant to have with like a tea or a coffee I think. Not bad though. Definitely interesting. And now we have the infamous white chocolate and almond cookie. Now this was my first favorite from the blue box I believe. And it primarily is because it looked just look at the pool of white chocolate in there. Let's go ahead and remove this packaging and show you guys real close up. We zoom in right there. Zoom in on that almond actually. Look at that almond glistening. Look at that. But yeah that's really nice and thick right there. I really really like how much white chocolate's on that. Let's go ahead and try it out. Yeah it's just as I remember it really good. Really nice wafer cookie. And I guess it wouldn't be considered wafer. It's more of a what are those cookies called? I'm always having a blank shortbread cookies. It's more of a shortbread. A very nice soft shortbread. But look how much chocolate is stuffed in this cookie. That is some really good stuff. Still one of my all-time favorites. And now we come to the... Let me zoom in on that. You guys can read it. The coffee macaroon. And this thing is really good. I've tried this before. Let's open it up and get a better zoom in on it. You know wipe my hands off a little bit. They're getting all kinds of crumbs on them. There we go. Look at that. There is so much detail in this cookie when you zoom in. There's all kinds of little things on here. These little crispy bits. I'm not sure what they are. I think it might be shredded coconut. And that's what this side looks like. Let's go ahead and break it in half. You're breaking my heart. No, let's go ahead and try it out. I don't remember what it tastes like. Yeah that's really good. I'm not much for the texture of the coconut. I'm not a coconut fan because of the texture. But the coffee flavor in it is impeccable. It's so good. It actually tastes like coffee. And then we have these guys right here. Let's go ahead and just pull both of these guys out. These right here. I think one is a burb. This is the green apple. Let's zoom in on it. This is the green apple. And I believe this is the bourbon. If I'm not... Yeah, this is the bourbon. So let's go ahead and try these out again. It has been a while. So let's refresh my taste buds with one of these guys. Kind of a powdery outside. Probably to seal it. Let's try it. The green apple is pretty good. I wouldn't say it's my favorite anymore. It has a little bit of a crunch on the inside. And this guy... I believe this one's just like a solid white chocolate ball with a little bit of bourbon flavoring. Let's go ahead and zoom in on that. There we go. Let's go ahead and try this out. You know, it's been a while since I tried those, but I'm going to be honest. I'm not the biggest fan of the bourbon one anymore. Green apple one is okay. Maybe I'm getting more critical to more sweets that I try. And this is just a milk roll. I'm not going to indulge in this because it is basically, if I show you right here, the milk roll is just basically the outside of this cookie. It's just standard wafering. There's nothing in it. It's just pure wafer. So there's not really anything to explore right there. And then this one over here is a tea roll, which is about the same thing. It has a slight bit of tea-ish flavor to it, I believe, but it's still very plain, and there's not much to really do on that. So yeah, that was the box. And even though I took one of each, we still have a little bit more to go. I think one more of each in here. So this is always probably one of my favorite things to indulge in these cookie boxes because you get a really large variety. All of them feel really premium. And honestly, where do you really get cookies outside of things like this? Besides like homemade, you know what I mean? So I really, really enjoy this. And not to mention, you can keep the 10 after too. So that's always a plus. Reuse your stuff and help the environment. A huge shout out to my Patreons. Thank you guys so much for your support. You guys are awesome. If you enjoy this video, don't forget to comment, rate, and subscribe. And as always, I'll see you in the next video.


Oh, there's another one. Oh gosh, that's a crappie. Oh, it's a it's a big and it's a huge crappie All right, everybody welcome back to the channel and to Jimmy Houston's ranch So we're here for one more morning. I've got to get back. I thought while I'm here Let's try to snatch the crappies.  That was my black crappie PB the other day, but I want to see if I can try to get one of those three pounders and the lake we fished yesterday Amazing time with Jimmy y'all just a man. It was just one of those Like lifetime memory type deals anyways I'm gonna go back out to that lake and try to fish that grass line where we did catch a couple of crappie Maybe move out to some trees, but it seems like the crappie are hanging in that grass Kind of in a tough fishing situation before they really move up and start spawning and it gets crazy We're gonna break out the spinning tackle Probably gonna break out a jerk bait as well Maybe some small shad type stuff with some jig heads because we're trying to go for big ones We don't just need to throw a little tiny crappie jigs But we might have to today since they're being a little fickle before we get started today I just want to give a shout out to Mercury motors power is through if you want to check out any of their Small to big engine systems linked down below now. Let's get out to the water and try to get us a big old dinner plate Oh Y'all there is a gobbler a turkey just running this fence right now White tail over here Okay, all we're on the lake. We're gonna put on a crappie jig and We're gonna see if we can get some crappie in the grass This is different than most situations I've crappie fish before catching them in The shallow banks for trees In the grass is definitely different for me. So What Jimmy was explaining was these fish were moving up to spawn the other day They were staging up and they caught like 80 out of one little pocket and When we went out yesterday, there was nothing in there and those fish had just pushed out They're just riding this front out. We don't have exactly a bluebird today. It's pretty bad, but we still have some clouds These fish are probably gonna be buried in the grass and just hold up Waiting for those conditions to get right and by conditions. I mean the water temp and right now It's 55 it really needs to get the 60 for them to to really start getting in there and going ham.  They really like that I'm probably gonna catch a few bass doing this as well, but I want to try to locate a crappie once I do well pull down Stay put and then we'll try to hammer hammer around a couple things, but I could get a big one on the jerk bait You guys can see this this grass on the life scope. It is really thick, but there are some edges And these crappie are probably gonna be on one of these sharp edges out here Mmm, there's one. Oh my gosh, that's a big fish, baby. Oh my gosh. Oh my gosh, it came off That was so big That was scary That was a that was a big bass I was not prepared for that That was a big bass Took me for a ride Got me hung on the grass The way Jimmy's got these lakes laid out is ideally what I would want to just crappie big bass and big crappie and they're living in some of the same areas And that's a big one too. That's a big bass geez The other one was much bigger than this It's a good way to start the crappie fishing morning though like that Come here you big big booger. Oh My There's a nice one.  Gotta love it. Awesome See ya that other one. I had on was just an absolute tank buddy Okay, we're gonna try a crappie jig right here. I just saw one on my life scope. I was chasing it That's either a small bass or crappie whoo, and then when this nipley Oh one's coming Come on got him. Oh My gosh micro bass never mind. Holy cow.  They want a jerkbait ladies and gentlemen holy shmoly Easy release Smashing all my barbs down here for for Jimmy's place Love the idea of that. I'll be honest with you. I'm torn right now the chance at a 10 pound bass It's here Higher chance though. Is that a three pound crappie? They're gonna be on one of these grass edges that one is loaded with bass It really makes sense because that is a that is a old pond where this bastard going into spawn and we caught him in there yesterday for Jimmy's show And it's cooled down. I mean it's in the 40s right now. Those fish have pulled out They're waiting to go back in there sitting on a grass line. Come on be a crappie Nope Dagon basser Rolling Dagon rascal basses Look about crappie size, but you're not there buddy Yep, there's one. This is a crappie. This is a crappie There we go Black crappie time Not a big one Just a gorgeous one Gorgeous Where's that hammer at? Come on big bass one of them Dagon bass You can get off It's always the ones you want to get off that don't get off. There we go All right, here's what I'm gonna do Wanted to try this is the perfect place to do it And it's just a like a beefed-up version. So we're going beef to beefed up crappie tackle here today so I'm gonna grab my My finesse rod right here. This is normally what I would use for shaky heading and You know small jig head type stuff Ned Riggs, whatever and I'm going to grab I'm gonna get this box out. This is like my finesse spotted bass smallmouth Tough large mouth clear water box. I've got little neds and all that sort of stuff.  I just want something that doesn't have a big hook on it and that looks to be About perfect. Okay. We'll try that thread this through a swim head would be better but We're gonna give that a shot See if the crappie can get that in their mouth. It's looking supreme I'm gonna try to get back on these little crappies here. I think they're just so far buried in the grass It's gonna make it Make it tough to see him with any kind of life-scape or anything Gosh that was a crappie Just plinked it Trying to get it that crappie's trying to get it right now. It's a little too big for First face We'll throw this crappie jig out there and see if we can get them. That was a good hard thump though.  I Will have you tattooed on my arm at some point Okay, I love you. I love you so much. Okay first one on the swim bait and That was awesome. I want more of that I want a three-pounder slam a sweat bait. How cool is that? Come on You know, there's super colored up right now too with With the spawn being just around the corner and there's another one Here we go. Now we're doing it. Now we're doing it ladies and gentlemen Now we getting them and that one's slurped it.  Yes Love to see you in the morning Sunrass This is definitely different for me guys. I'm normally looking at crappie and brush piles or you know suspended over a rock or round docks or something like that, but Catching them in the grass is different. I've I've seen it done but it's just It's hard to look at them with the electronics. You just kind of have to catch one and There's another one. That's a bass Bass mixed in Electrofun, Electrofun times here. Oh There's one. Oh, that's got to be a bass. Yeah, I think so. I think it is. If not, it's a magnum crappie. Oh Yeah, it's big big and just one of the big green devils.   Oh, there's another one. Oh gosh, that's a crappie. Oh It's a it's a big it's a huge crappie. Oh, yeah, baby. Oh Yeah, baby. That's a monster. No. No, I lost it. Oh my god. Oh Oh, geez.  Oh That was the freaking huge that was probably my PB. Holy cow. Yeah, that thing was in the twos for sure Maybe mid to high twos. Oh My gosh, I think hit it like a five pound bass. Oh That was the one little one It's a little runner dad go Oh You know catch the catch the little one So I'm using a barbless hook here guys, but oh Man All right, now that the Sun is popping out I can see a little something right here Might be holding these crops Drop you in the tree and that's a good one. That is a good one Not quite as big as That hammer Love to see it. There we go. Drop it time Okay, there's a pattern developing now trees that are on the flats. Oh Gosh hammered right there Right in the middle of that tree Pick up this jig and just pitch it at this tree a couple times See if we can get the big mama hiding in there Got it Right in the middle, and that's a big and come on, baby Come on big girl Get up in here.  That's probably about a 15-incher Not my biggest. We'll let it go See a big girl. Let's just see if we can get another one out of this tree Got him Come here biggin about the same. It's a nice one. I got a feeling There's a big in there Oh my Gotta be a bass. That's the old green one fish has been caught before recently See you girl Boy, there we are big crop big crop Come on Come on, baby Get up in here big and yes That's a mega flopper. Oh my gosh Easy easy easy calm down. I know so excited isolated stump Big and holy That's a nice one right there y'all. Oh my gosh, I just found the school This is the school suspended open water See this school of crappie right there guys Right there. Oh my gosh. Oh It's bass Is it no, it's a big white crappie. Oh my gosh.  Oh my gosh, oh My gosh, there could be a giant in here. Oh Oh There we go. Oh That's another black crappie. It's just light colored And he had it. Oh my gosh. I gotta stay on that school That was the school man. They were on the move They were just suspended open water Stud I could see that school suspended down there and they're just hovering out over this point And as soon as I I hooked that one the school just scattered They weren't all in anything or just open water come here Not a giant, but another crap had an awesome morning crappie fishing y'all All right, I let those fish go ended up being a 15-inch or and a 16-inch or Lost a giant I don't know how big that crappie was y'all, but it was a magnum But throwing the swim baits that is a new technique that I haven't done for crappie I thought I'd break it out today and It proved to be very useful.  It catches a lot of different species But if you're trying to go for a bigger crappie's target some bigger ones It is a good thing to throw and what I really like about it is I could get a lot of distance in my casting and Fishing the grass, which is something. I've never done before for crappie I could keep that bait in that zone just above the grass a lot easier than throwing a little like 16th or an eighth ounce crappie jig and you could just get so much more distance cover more water So using that quarter ounce.  This is just like a net head style But the hook was okay, but I need to find the perfect little jig head for doing this But I'm definitely going to keep this in my arsenal for fishing for crappie's in lakes that that have big ones and Use that to target long areas when they're spread out Or just pitch to trees where I know some big ones are hanging It's a lot easier for me coming from you know bass fishing background Just pick that up and I can target cast really really really easily with it So any if y'all there are the bass fish I'm gonna want to try that out for crappie Give it a shot, but I just got to just got to enjoy the experience I had out here today and man Come back so bad. So anyways, I hope you guys enjoyed watching today Make sure to subscribe here to the channel because we're almost at a million Subs y'all and you got to smash it for big old crappie's. I love you. God bless


Hi everyone, Joe for Jaspy's casewrakes.com. We apologize for the inconvenience here. Our computer ran out of hard drive space. We've been misfiddling with these settings since we've got this new computer and I think we accidentally had a setting where it made the file size of these videos way too big. So it sapped our hard drive space. But we're back. This is part two of the five star video. Here's the list of participants again. Part one is in a separate video and I showed everyone these cards before I actually signed off and restarted the stream. So we saw that Kyle Lewis, seven out of ten, that'll go to Carl and the Mariners. Nice low number on that one. And then there's Doc Gooden. What up Doc? That's going to go to Chris Walker and the Mets. Now we have three boxes remaining. Let's see what we got here. There's Jesus Lizardo for the Oakland A's, Paul for the A's. And we've got Silver Signatures, nice Vlad Guerrero Jr., 13 out of 15. It's for Robert and the Blue Jays. Two more boxes to go. We've got Ryan Jeffers, Rookie Otto for the twins. That's going to go to Robert. And we've got another twin. That's Dave Winfield, twins edition. Nine out of 25, that's pretty cool. Robert Montgomery, personal box. All right, there's Jock Peterson, Cubs edition of Jock Peterson. That will be for Greg. And last but not least, it's another Cub, Ryan Sandberg, 17 out of 40, Gold Inc autograph, Golden Graphs for Greg and the Cubs who won that spot. So he basically got a personal box, Greg, nice. There you go, ladies and gentlemen. Thanks for your patience on this. I know the break was interrupted, but we're back on track. So part one of the video is already up. This is part two. Thanks for watching, everybody. That's Brandon McKay's what we started off with. There you go, gang. I'm Joe for jaspeyscasebreaks.com, and I'll see you next time for the next break. Bye-bye.


All right, Cyber Traders, welcome on back here this Thursday, December 30th, shortly after 2.30 PM Eastern time, loud and clear from Chuck. He's always first at the punch. Great to see all of us live otherwise though. Inside the live trading room, great to see Gary Bell, Ari joining us otherwise, and all of us otherwise joining us here. Grant included, great to see everybody. And hey, if you're joining us back on social media, Facebook Live or YouTube, welcome on back as well. So without further ado, let's hop right into it. We have Neotrade on the screen to begin. We have another stock, DNAYY, which is actually making a nice pop right now. So hopefully there's a lot more to trade heading into the afternoon. But for right now, this Neotrade, it doesn't get much better than this. This ended up making a nice pop shortly after the market opened up. And really from there, it wasn't really on the morning watch list. It didn't really have that much activity throughout the pre-market. Traded a lot of volume, but no real trend to it. I mean, nonetheless, once the market opened up and this ended up making a bit of a pop, we called the stock out pretty early on. But from there, man, this is like the gift that just keeps on giving, right? A little post Christmas gift. But nonetheless, ended up making a nice push all the way up towards just over 33 a moment ago. You could see the big volume spike recently here. And that's when it ended up making the false breakout from the 33 levels. So, hey, NEO is up just over 16% right now with this near the highs. It's a no-brainer. Put this right on our watch list just to begin. And then like I'd said also, we have the DNAYY stock. This was one from yesterday, actually, that we started to watch and continued following it, heading into the pre-market this morning and throughout the whole day.  Pretty short lived and came back down. But, you know, this has been a nice runner, at least from yesterday afternoon, heading into this morning. We ended up following this, of course, 24 hours ago, heading into the afternoon. Unfortunately, I will say, from where we left off with this stock during the 230 meeting, it was looking pretty good. Right around 3 o'clock, it ended up topping off at $9.50. And then heading into the final, like, 15 or 10 minutes, even of the day yesterday, ended up running pretty nicely. So that takes us to this morning where it ended up coiling up quite a bit. Albeit, it ended up holding over support pretty well in a little shake at first, but ended up holding back over 10 pretty nicely heading into the mid-to-late morning. And nonetheless, right now, you know, although it just popped, it actually is starting to pull back a bit further here, which I'm not a fan of. So, you know, listen, to ask, how much more can this stock keep pushing up? We've seen stocks make bigger moves percentage-wise day over day over day. That doesn't mean that this is going to do that, though.  And the question really isn't when. The question is really where? Where?  That's it. And in this case, that big volume level seems to be 11. So once it broke over and back under 11, unfortunately, this DNA-wide trade does not look nearly as good right now at this last shake. You know, if it ends up making one more pop back up by the end of this meeting, I'll come back to it. You know, if it ends up showing more signs of life on the way up, I wouldn't mind adding this back on our watch list.  Lewis asking, is that a COVID-related stock? That is a very good question. I don't have that answer, but I don't mind taking a tiny bit of time to find out. So DNA-wide, let's see what happened on this trade, or at least, you know, what the company does. The name of the company is CodexDNA.  On Benzinga Pro, normally they give you like a two-sentence blurb about what the company does. It doesn't even give that for this stock year. So unfortunately, I can't really give you too much. Oh, I think I may have an answer actually, as I say that. So I think it is COVID-related vaccine supply contract. I believe that's it in Europe. All right, well, neither way. We'll come back to this, though, if it ends up, you know, pushing back up towards the 11. Now, what we'll do is just recap a couple of the others that we ended up calling out from the morning. Basically, we'll begin to build our watch list here for the afternoon, another stock, of course, that we did pretty well on today for all of us live inside cyber group Ari, Chuck, Gary, Bell, you know, all of us here were watching the KPRX trade as soon as the market opened up. We were all over this trade.  Ended up topping off for right now just under 1.50. Then I would say, even if it does break over 1.50, at least in my opinion, I think that there's a bit of a historical level. A couple of them, perhaps you could say, right off of 1.57, this should be right here. Then otherwise, 1.45 is a pretty strong bottom prior to that. Basically, these two bottoms here are likely to be a pretty strong historical level for this stock. So, pretty much topped off right around that bottom blue line on my daily chart. Should it pop higher? Wouldn't shock me if it ends up just going a little bit more up to 1.57 or so and then finishes its run from there. For right now, I'll put this back on our list. It's still showing strength heading into the afternoon. It's a cheap stock, more of a level one trade. All right, let's keep it going though. We'll see what else we got here. Pretty funny. I thought this was SPRB, SPCB. So, SPRB is the one that we've been trading over the last two weeks.  Little traders dyslexia there, different companies. But nonetheless, this is cheap. It ended up making a nice pop when the market opened up, but pretty much died off afterwards. All right, speaking of dying off, this one ended up trying to break higher heading into the early afternoon, this FTFT trade. We ended up trading this one back from Monday, if you recall. Ended up running back then from like a $1.10 up to basically like a $1.85, I think at the time. Ended up pulling back, and well, here we go today. Rinse and repeat. Ended up making a nice move, but it took a while for that to happen. Ended up bottoming out right around $1.40, $1.45, you could say that is. And then from there, it really began its move up from that point. It ended up holding over support at $1.50, and then that's what allowed it to make the pop later on. For right now though, I wish this was a lot closer to its highs. It's got a bunch of volume on the order book that it needs to fill before it even has a chance to get to the highs again. And if it does that, is it going to keep breaking? That's what we have to ask. So with the way this looks right now, it just doesn't seem that way so far. Nice pop back up on the GOTU trade. So some of these China stocks have been doing really well today. I don't know if it's China market altogether. We'll look at China ETF like YIN. And that kind of leads me to assume that healthy day across the China markets. The reason we say that is because there's a lot of different China stocks that are moving really well. We just talked about NIO. NIO is a China stock. IQ is one as well. TME is one as well. And then all these other Chinese education companies back earlier this year, when they ended up coming out with, they wanted to make the education companies non-profit, ended up crushing them by like 60, 70% that day, you could see on the daily chart. So that's GOTU. That's the EDU trade. That's TAL. All moving pretty much the same. GOTU looks like kind of the sharpest of those three. So I'm definitely going to put the GOTU on the list. I'll probably slap the others on just on the back end of this list as well. EDU, TAL. I'm not going to put every Chinese company on the watch list, mind you. But those three in particular we're pretty familiar with. IQ's at the highs. I can't put every stock on our watch list that's at the highs. We're going to have 50. Mike says LI. That's another one. Yeah, LI is a good one too. I'm sure you could say XPEV. XPEV, another EV China company. I'll put IQ on our watch list for right now. I'll put the education companies on the watch list for right now. I feel like the TME trade is a little slow. Oh, what about DD? DD is also a Chinese company too. And they ended up having a lot of volume filled in pre-market. This one also popped earlier on today too. Just really flat right now though, so not a whole lot happening there. All right, we keep it going. We keep it moving. Let's see what else we got. DOIU. I don't know if every stock at the highs now is going to be a Chinese stock or not. I don't care about that now at this point. But it's just to say, we have a good list so far. I want to see if there's anything else that just shows strength. Again, if every stock looks like this, we're going to have 120 stocks on our watch list. Now, solo, I don't know country origin here on solo, but nonetheless, I know it's an EV stock. It's literally in the name. So perhaps this is getting a nice push with NIO, with XPEV, with some of the others. But nonetheless, it's a cheapy and it's pushing back up pretty nicely to the highs. Definitely has a lot of volume on the offer for it to break over. So it really needs to get going pretty soon. But I like this one in particular. I'll give this a look. Solo, we're familiar with the stock too, ended up making some pops for us back over the last one or two years. All right, so we'll see what else we got here on the gainer's side.  I mean, number 50 is up 12.5%, near 13%. So if there is anything else, folks, that's up big, that looks good, that's like volatile, that's showing signs of life. Then definitely type it in the chat board. Let me know. I'll hop over to the loser's side here in the meantime, VGR. I don't know if you could short this stock. It is easy to borrow. It looks like on trade station, but not much really happening so far across the last hour and a half hour. T-Cat, not a whole lot happening there. Tiva down big, shortable, and it's near the lows. Interesting. Pretty interesting here, this Tiva trade. I hope that this ends up breaking under 8 and providing us a great short opportunity. So with the way this looks, it's hard for us to not put Tiva on our list here as a possible short. I think that just about does it, folks. For me, if there is anything else, like I said before, that's up down left, right, more than 5%, especially on the gainer's list. If there's anything else that's up that I missed, definitely type it in the chat board here. All right. So from Ari, at first, we talked about the LI briefly, but Ari mentioned earlier the lucid trade, lucid motors. That one is a little more volatile, so I like that. That's a good call in that sense. It can provide a quick 50-cent pop-up. It's up big. It's at the highs right now. I'm going to see what the best ones we have are, and then we'll see what we'll put on our watch list here. BTBT. How about that? Nice little push-up. I know that Bitcoin ended up making a bit of a pop earlier today. It's trying to make another push here. We'll do the Bitcoin stuff tomorrow. But just to say, at least BTBT, trying to push up with it. I'm not in swing trade anymore on BTBT. I told you that a little while ago. I'm putting my money towards crypto on that. So if this goes up without me, all good because I'll be in something else. But getting a nice push right now. Mara. Nice pop on Mara here off 35. I like the volume spike that came in there too. All right. Looks like we have a decent selection here to go through, folks. Did I mention KPRX later? Definitely. That's number one on the watch list. That was the first thing that I looked at there. The LGVN trade, this one, definitely pretty volatile, pushing up pretty steadily for the meantime. But it's got a really thin order book. What was it? LGVN and ISIG moving together or they had in the past? Clearly not today. Clearly not today. Or is it ISPC? Either way. Chuck just said ISPC 50 cent shake. So this thing's not looking too good anymore. Yeah. I don't know. The LGVN, I'd say the same thing. I like the chart, but it's just way too big of a spread right now. So listen, it's up a little bit. I feel like there's a chance it could pop. But we're here at the end of the year. This isn't really the best day to be forcing any trades out there or any stocks. So for someone that isn't normally trading a stock that has a 10, 12, 15 cent spread, today ain't the day to try. So that's just my opinion on that. So hey, you know who you are if you trade the stock, right? All right. BTBT, to go back to some of the Bitcoin stocks. BTBT up 7% this afternoon, maybe from low to high, but 2% it shows from the prior day's close. It's just to say BTBT's moving up pretty nicely, marries up nicely. I guess I'll put both of them on our watch list for right now in hopes of Bitcoin continuing to make a nice afternoon move. But we typically know what happens in the afternoons with Bitcoin, right? All right. I think that just about does it, folks. Oh, I guess let me go back to Lucid. A little flat. I don't know. If it ended up making a bigger pop there, Ari, I'd feel more compelled to put it on our main list. If you do well on Lucid on a day-to-day, then I'm sure that you'll be more keen to watch this. If you don't trade the stock frequently and do well on this stock frequently, then I'd probably just focus on something else from our watch list, that KPRX, the solo stock, the neo stock. So there's definitely a lot of options, no pun intended. I mean, we're not trading options, but a lot of choices to work with here heading into this market close, folks. All right. For all of us on Facebook Live, YouTube, I'm going to check the chat board lastly here. Let me know if there's anything else from you that I may have missed. Ibad with KPRX, we did talk about that. That was about three minutes ago that they had sent that chat there on YouTube. So no problem. EXPR and Vuzi worth watching. This thing's flat. I'm not dealing with that. Vuzi moving up a little bit. I like the trend. It's up over 7%. So I would rather this one over that Express, Lewis. Chuck says he's still hawking the BBIO. I forgot about that. Yeah, that's right. BBIO. I forgot about two. I like BBIO. I like BBIO here. And you'd say, well, why do you like BBIO? It looks flat. It's actually only up 2%. Very true. Good order book. Very good order book here in the meantime. And then otherwise, for as big of a bounce as this stock made, it's pretty close to the highs. And this stock is still down quite a bit percentage wise from Monday this week.  But hey, it ended up providing us a really good bounce after the drop off this morning. It was a great short this morning. I was in it from earlier and ended up bottoming out right from the 1343 major support level that we called out in Cyber Group. If this could end up pushing up a little bit more, then hey, game on for the potential gap fill here or potential partial gap fill, right? I would not hold your breath waiting for the gap fill in itself here. But nonetheless, I like this one too. I'll put BBIO on our list. We're familiar with this stock too, right? Just from this week. All right, so let me catch my breath here in total. I think we now have two, four, six, eight, 10 stocks. I really don't want to go more than that. All right, folks. So I think that just about does it for me here for all of us on Facebook, live and YouTube. I appreciate you joining me each and every day, each and every afternoon. As always, I post my email address here in the comment section of the YouTube stream. If you have any questions, thoughts, comments, suggestions, feel more than free to send over a quick email to josh at ctutrading.com. If you're ready to join us in our live trading room, feel more than free to do so by going right down to the link on the banner below the stream just to get yourself started. For Chuck, for Norm, for Lewis, for Michael Ari, et cetera, Leda, of course, and everyone else otherwise inside cyber group. I'll be back on the mic later on today at 3.30 and then we'll close things up from there. All right, for all of us on Facebook, live YouTube, if I do not catch you tomorrow, I don't know who'll be joining us for tomorrow afternoon. So allow me to at least say here, if you're not joining us tomorrow, if I don't catch you tomorrow, have a happy, have a healthy, have a really healthy New Year ahead folks. All right, take care.


Hey everyone, welcome to Archland, so this is another edition of the tier list, but this is for PvP, both modes which is our regular PvP and real-time PvP, and these will focus on your SSR heroes. So take note that we don't have SRs here, probably in another future tier list when there are different SSRs I can add those SRs, but for now we'll have to be contented with the SSRs. This tier list will guide you on who to invest in and who not to invest in if you want to focus on PvP content for both real-time and your regular PvP. So to start off, we are actually going to cover your tier 2. Tier 2 we have Capet or Carpet. Capet is a lightning warrior, while good as a suicide bomber, he can really reach the backline, is risky to use. So his only function is a suicide bomber, really squishy and with the pairing system in terms of the battle in PvP, sometimes most of your enemies that are paired with you are of higher level of view, so it's still risky even if he tries to kill off an enemy with a weaker element. So again, that is why Capet is a tier 2, although being a suicide bomber would be good for PvP, but again too risky. Next off for tier 2, it's only going to be 2 of them, it's going to be Silva, so Silva is a fire ranger, upside for Silva, she is very pesky, I had an opponent that used her, very pesky with her ignite damage over time but really very poor damage output. So you can only rely on her for her DOT, but not for her overall damage per se. So both of them are belonging to tier 2. Next up we go to tier 1.5. So we start off with Peacock, where is Peacock? So Peacock here has a good mobility, by the way Peacock is a dark warrior, good mobility for backline assassination, shines only with a debuff team, although she does have her own debuff but again for her to deal a lot of damage she needs to have the enemy have a debuff on them and she has poor survivability and no utility skill or low utility skill. So that is why she is at tier 1.5. I tried bringing her in PvP in the beginning but really she doesn't have an edge or again survivability is questionable. You actually have to have a vampire rune to make her viable enough for PvP, but again I wouldn't use her because of only being a high damage warrior with a reliance on debuffs. Next is going to be Kabir. Kabir here is a dark tank, also reliant on debuffs to increase damage but stuns to enemies is an average tank really, can't say much about him. There are better tanks on the upper tiers, so that is why Kabir is at tier 1.5 and the last at tier 1.5 is going to be Clarisse. Clarisse, I know she's free, I'm sure most of you have her. It's not really, especially if you're free to play, it's not really bad to bring her but again to be able to compete in higher levels of PvP, she's not really recommended so it's an element of concern because the dominant type of element in PvP will be water. I'll explain that later when we go to the higher tiers. So the element of concern ignores escort passive which is actually good for her especially in PvP where teams that bring a lot of tanks as escorts. Backline assassination is her specialty, she's mobile by the way but the problem is when she gets mobbed, she has good dodge but again she cannot really dodge as much so she will stay with tier 1.5. Okay so next up is we're going to be with tier 1. Starting off with Atom here. Atom is a fire mage, great AOE and ignite. Again for PvP, AOE and ignite is a very good ingredient to success in PvP but again for him Immortal if not killed in one shot, he has good survivability but again potential to be killed in early game is high because needs to be ranked higher and he is actually vulnerable as well to water. So again water is dominant in PvP so he can be good if he's in the higher ranks already but in the early game to mid if he's a low level and he doesn't have most of his higher level traits he is going to be vulnerable really to water. So moving on to Ibn Atar so he is a water assassin so big water helps really because again there are really very few DPS units, high DPS units for lightning which water is vulnerable too so there are very few I'll just point them out later. So that is why Ibn Atar is actually kinda in the middle of the pack. Very efficient with damage over time which is bleed but low mobility and survival skill that is where he falls on. Again his only advantage is his element, debuff cleanse is also his weakness. And the last one for tier 1 is going to be Michael. So Michael is a light assassin, again for those who aren't familiar with Michael. Michael is a girl but a light assassin, different gameplay as an assassin not really into the usual assassin archetype. So Michael is very debuff, she is actually very good in terms of buffing allies, being a light element actually helps her survivability and she is a counter to debuff heavy teams. But again she is actually also dependent kinda on her unique equipment because that unique equipment replaces a passive and which you could actually replace another passive without passive. So she is kinda on the average side of use, very good with buffs, counter to debuff heavy teams and again she is highly mobile but she is a jack of all trades that's the problem with her. So that leaves her at tier 1. Okay so moving on to the last 2 tiers here, so we have tier 0.5, we'll start off with Nola. So Nola here is a lightning mage, heavily dependent on crit chance for passives to works, that is actually her main problem and is gear and rune reliant. We don't have the right rune and gears early on, she's not gonna help you much probably in the mid game if you farm that much already. Biggest range in the game, that is actually her advantage, can decrease cooldown of her skills and get very good at killing single targets. So she's like your range assassin or your sniper in a way. So that is it for Nola, we will go next to... Next one is Sighart. Okay Sighart, I can speak a lot for Sighart, I've been using him since I started. Converts buffs to debuffs, self healing, very hard to kill, can't do additional attacks, just be careful guys because if there are water enemies he is going to be very vulnerable. Aside from that, he's good. He's gonna be very squishy when Charlotte is around so be careful on how to approach the enemy line. If Charlotte is up front, do not put him up front because he's gonna be useless there. Try to take out Charlotte first if you intend to bring Sighart, but he is kind of a tank in a warrior's body but again be very careful of water elements. Next up is going to be Gabby or Gabrielle. Okay Gabrielle is a light tank while she's not the preferred tank in PVP because of her element as light. Light tends to have the lower stats by the way, but she lacks crowd control as well. So that is also one of the cons about her, her element lacks crowd control but she's good with counter attack and also her counter attack has increased range. She can actually counter attack mages and rangers and she heals well. So again, she can actually take a few hits with a few counter attacks but eventually she'll wither down but she's all around that you can really take her. She doesn't really need to be very tanky because she can dish out also a lot of damage with her counter attacks. As long as you keep on healing her, I don't think you'd have a problem with her. Okay so next up we have Catherine. So Catherine is a dark mage, summons, debuffs, you have silence, unheal, decrease in magic defense. Just be careful in using her, she's very squishy, she needs her unique equipment to shine and her best skill is at level 55. So probably in the late game when all of her skills are unlocked she could move up to tier zero but at this point she's gonna be very stuck with tier zero five. So next up we have Erica. Erica is a light ranger, great at single target damage, converts debuffs to buffs as well. Really high range but you need her unique equipment for her to, you know, for you to maximize her range. High investment on traits and stats to increase stats because again of her element she's light. But if you tend to invest much in her equipment, traits, stats, she's also a good range assassin for you guys. And the last one, this one I have I think a word of caution, although Alicia, she's a darkness priest, is here in tier zero five, a zero point five. She is actually great in early game, don't get me wrong, if you get her she's great out of the box. Her only problem is she can be outshined by lower rarity healers in the late game. So probably your investment with her stops in the mid game and no longer invest in her moving forward. But she's a great healer guys, early game to mid game, if you have her invest in her cautiously. She has a very high investment on, sorry, she is actually, you know, she's going to be a resource trap if you invest heavily on her, because she will be outshined again, that is actually her only weakness. Just be careful. So that is it. That is for tier zero point five and moving on to our highest tier, which is tier zero. I'll move on to the obvious later. Actually, we only have six here, all of them are in tier zero. So Lena here, I would say is going to be tier zero for PVP. Lena is a water mage, being water helps actually in her defense liabilities. Her only liability is defense, that's it. But being water, she is more secure actually. So that is why she's moving to tier zero, can control the battlefield with slow debuff enemies and lower magic defense. Very mobile for a mage for as she can, you know, do an action or use a skill. She can move right after that, similar to a ranger. So she is top in your mage category for PVP. Next up is going to be Clefare, or Clefare, not sure how to pronounce her name, but I was very lucky to get her an off banner pull with Semis banner. Not really sad about pulling her. So Clefare is a light healer.  You don't have an element that is going to be stronger than you. And for Clefare, so her best skill is giving an ally additional action. So as long as that ally has moved and she gives an additional action, then that ally can move again. That's actually her best skill and very, very, very useful in PVP, by the way. I've enjoyed using it because I have her and I have Charlotte. So more on that in another video, great heals and great buffs. Probably the best healer buffer in the game right now. Okay, next up is going to be Cassie. So Cassie is going to be controversial pick. The only reason why she's here, it's because of her element. It's water and water is really solid right now in PVP versus the other elements. But in fairness to her, she is actually a great tank. If you have a tank in the game that is solely dedicated to her role as a tank, it would be Cassie. So if you're looking for a very, very tough tank to protect Charlotte, Cassie is actually the best protector for her. I've encountered a team with Charlotte and Cassie in it. And my God, it was really, really a nightmare for a matchup. So Cassie, water tank, great tank and take a lot of hits and she's water. What can I say? She can take a lot of hits and she can really tank as an escort. Okay, so moving on to the next one, we have Richard. Richard is Lightning, one of a few that can really counter water. So Lightning increased range in his escort skill, which is very, very good for PVP. He can do stuns and knock back and can do very decent damage or very good damage for a tank. So again, one of the few that can counter Lightning in PVP. Next up is also a Lightning hero, which is going to be Semi. So Semi is a Lightning assassin, great damage output, very mobile. Great dodge can be a good counter to Charlotte if given the chance. If you time it right, especially that Semi is Lightning, she can really dismantle Charlotte. So again, Semi, one of the best DPS for Lightning as of this minute at this time. Probably the best on only the best DPS in Lightning so far. Just have to make sure that you maneuver her well. She can actually survive a couple of hits because of her great dodge. Okay, and the last one and the obvious one of course is going to be Charlotte. Charlotte, what can I say? Doesn't have any cons. Very good in damage output. Can dish out multiple attacks as high as I've seen four. Four attacks in one turn and if you have Clifari in your team, you give her another turn and she unleashes another round of attack. Both of them are going to be bonkers. So Charlotte, the best SSR in PVP so far. I haven't seen anybody who can really match up to her in PVP. So if you don't have her in PVP, you will struggle a little bit. Okay, so just want to share with you guys. More or less, as I mentioned, there is a disparity in the element. So again, water is going to shine in PVP. The only DPS that can counter water is going to be Semi. It's going to be Nola and probably Richard. That's it. If you don't have those, you'll probably struggle against water in PVP unless you're going to be fighting water with water. That is it guys. That is a look into who you're going to aim for in terms of SSRs in PVP. Who you should invest in mid-game and long-term as well. So we'll have a new PVP tier list once we have unlocked both of the skills for all of the SSRs. And I'm sure that we will have new ones by that time. So thank you very much guys for staying this far.  This is The Warden and I'm out of here.


What's up everyone, Takedown here, welcome back to another video. Today, I'm going to be talking about some of the games that I wish existed. Let's get right into this. 🎵 So, recently I've been thinking about the games that either A. have not been released whenever they were in production, they got cancelled, or ones that I wish were created and released. So, I decided to piece together and put out this video, because it honestly will be a lot of fun. The first game on my list is Overkills, The Walking Dead. This was a game that they even put out a trailer for. They announced when it was supposed to be released, and there was a lot of buildup and hype behind this game, mainly because it was supposed to be, and rumored to be, a open-world Walking Dead game. That looks like it was going to be a lot of fun. I believe this was released either on Steam or on PC, but it never made its way to console, and I think in total it ended up getting scrapped completely. I'm not 100% sure on that, but I really wish I was able to play this game on the PlayStation 4, because it looks like it was going to be amazing. Now, there's a lot of rumours as to why this game was never released on console. Some of those have to do with the Walking Dead TV show ending after the 11th season. Some people think that they did not want to go ahead and go through with making an open-world video game for that. While others believe that the reason why it was never released to console is because they were not able to make it console worthy. It was easier for them to create it for PC and not to convert it. So they decided just to scrap it, and I believe there were some issues with the company as well, and they decided not to even go through with this game, unfortunately. It honestly looked like it was going to be a great game. I absolutely loved the trailers for the game and everything that was released for the game and announced for the game, except this game will, unfortunately, never happen. And now that the TV show is going to be ending very soon, it likely is not going to happen ever again. The next game is a game that was supposed to be released on the PlayStation 3. Now, I don't have too much information on the game other than it was going to be titled Heist. And you guys absolutely know, if you guys are not new to the channel, that I absolutely love Heist movies, video games, and everything like that. I love Grand Theft Auto 5 for the Heists. I loved Payday 2. I absolutely love playing that with the Heists. So a Heist game on the PlayStation 3 would definitely be amazing, especially if it had nothing but Heists to do. There's no information of what era this game was going to be. There's no information of what kind of Heists it was set up to be. If it was going to be an open world, if it was going to be you get to select like Payday, you get to select the Heists that you do, or if it's just going to be like a campaign where you go through it. Either way, I think I 100% would have been on board for it. Unfortunately, this game was scrapped. The next game for me is one that I honestly was expecting and really, really wanted. And that is Call of Duty Ghost 2.  It was originally released on the PlayStation 3, made its way over the PS4 after the PS4 was released, but a lot of people still hated it. And I think honestly, it just had to do with a lot of people not wanting changes. Call of Duty Ghost, I believe, is the first Call of Duty game where the map online will change as you progress through whatever game mode you are playing with a whole bunch of stuff in the environment, exploding and map changing. And a lot of people hated that. Another big change is they did not have Zombies this year. Instead, they had an Alien mode, which I've never been a fan of Zombies at all in Call of Duty. I don't really like it. It's not really my thing. I like Zombies in other video games, just not Call of Duty, but the Alien mode in Call of Duty Ghosts was amazing. I had such a blast back in the day playing this with my friends and going through because it was a lot more in-depth and a very, very special twist on the classic Zombie mode, which most people liked. I, on the other hand, did not. I honestly was expecting Call of Duty Ghosts 2 to be announced and release a while back.  I think Call of Duty has moved on and I doubt they are ever going to release this game. But if they ever did, it would definitely be something that would bring me back to the Call of Duty franchise because for years now, I've not went back to Call of Duty because I don't like how they do things now with everything being more based on futuristic. So I went back to Battlefield instead of Call of Duty. But if they brought out Call of Duty Ghosts 2 and announced it, you better believe I would be back on board with Call of Duty at least for this game. And the last game on this list might get a lot of hate, but that is WWE 2K21. This game was scrapped before it was even announced because of how bad WWE 2K20 was with gameplay, with crashes, and everything else that had to do with this game. For me personally, WWE 2K20 was a pretty good game. I did platinum the game. All of the trophies worked for me. Nothing really glitched out for me that I use. And the main thing that I play on it right now is WWE Universe mode. I basically just go make my own pay-per-views, custom pay-per-views, custom attires, custom championships, and play. And I honestly haven't experienced any crashes, which is why I wanted to add WWE 2K21 to this list because I think with an updated roster that would have been amazing. And even though it still might have been glitchy, I think it still would have been a great game. Now, WWE 2K Battlegrounds did come out. That's not really a WWE game that I'm really interested in. I would have rathered one of their annual games for Universe mode and Career mode, but it still was a nice twist. And I understand why they decided not to put out WWE 2K21 because they wanted to take a break, learn from their mistakes from the previous year, and move on and come back with a better game. I just hope that WWE keeps 2K being the ones that make their games. I absolutely loved back in the day when it was THQ. Of course, there was hiccups whenever 2K first took over, but that's because they were still using THQ servers. But once 2K was fully on board and making the WWE game solely with all of their tech, everything worked out perfectly. I absolutely loved the games. It's just unfortunate what happened with WWE 2K20. So this is my list as of right now for the games that I honestly wish existed, whether they were games that were never released or scrapped early on, or ones that were never really actually going to happen. These are the games that I really think I would have loved if they were released and I probably would have purchased them and played to them and absolutely loved them if they were done right. Comment down below the games that you wish existed, whether it being ones that never were released or ones that are never going to be released. And I'll see you guys in the next video. Please take care. Peace.


From DailyDoseOfWeirdNews.com, I'm Darren Marlar and this is your Daily Dose of Weird News. Researchers have begun testing a drug that they say could stop the aging process. Forget that! How about one that reverses aging? I'm okay living a couple hundred years, but not if I'm going to look like this. Funding to keep the federal government running will run out at midnight this Friday unless Congress passes a new spending bill and President Trump signs it into law. The way things have been going, would the government shutting down be all that bad of a thing? Experts agree that an aerobic exercise routine during the day can keep you from tossing and turning at night, even if they're not sure why. Maybe because you're too exhausted to turn over? A study says that being skinny is linked to depression. That's right, he's extra pounds here. That's mental health, baby. Instagram stopped working Monday afternoon. The social network experienced several issues, starting around 1.30 PM Eastern Time. Yet despite the panic, the world did not end. Since we're talking about Instagram, here is an indication of how influential Instagram is. Parents are now naming their babies after the app's photo filters — Lux, Amaro, Hudson, Kelvin, Valencia, and others. And if you name your kid X-Pro2, you should probably be reported to child welfare. It turns out that when men buy new undies, it means the economy is improving. The Washington Post reports that in general, sales of men's underwear are actually fairly stable, since they are considered a necessity. But when times get tough, financially, men make due with the old boxers and briefs, and that causes underwear sales to drop. So, men, do your part to stimulate the economy, buy some new boxers. The country is counting on you. An artist named Sabo has run around Los Angeles putting up posters for the movie It, but instead of it being a scary clown, the posters feature Caitlyn Jenner. Well, I gotta admit, that would be terrifying. Three people were treated for injuries after a fire in an apartment building in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Another person was arrested at the scene of the fire. Police say the person attempted to save their beer by pushing past police and firefighters. Sounds like somebody is obviously in need of a few AA meetings. Astronaut Peggy Whitson broke the U.S. record on Monday for most time in space and took a congratulatory call from Donald Trump. The International Space Station's commander surpassed the record of 534 days, two hours and 48 minutes, for most accumulated time in space by an American. Since having the phone call, though, Peggy has decided to stay in space a while longer to avoid meeting the new president in person. Be sure to join me for my first official live chat on YouTube. It's coming up Saturday, May 6th at 3pm Central Time. That's 4pm Eastern or 1pm Pacific. We'll do a Q&A. I'll have a giveaway or two. I might even tell a Weird Darkness story during the broadcast. That's Saturday, May 6th. Hope you can join me. If you liked the video, please give it a thumbs up and be sure to subscribe if you want to see more. And click that little bell next to the subscribe button to be notified when I post new videos. And if you're already an official Weirdo, please do me a favor and share this with your friends. You've been asking for it, well now it is open, the Marlar House store. It has daily dose of Weird News and Weird Darkness t-shirts, coffee mugs, phone cases and more. Check it out at MarlarHouse.com slash store. While you're there, how about you sign up for the Marlar Sheet? It is the official newsletter of Marlar House. Subscribers to the Marlar Sheet are automatically entered to win monthly prize drawings including those shirts and mugs I was just telling you about. Sign up for the Marlar Sheet free today at MarlarHouse.com. For more Weird News anytime, visit DailyDoseOfWeirdNews.com. I'm Darren Marlar and I'll see you next time, Weirdos.


I am sitting in Studio Saptar which is an alternative theatre space in West Delhi in the Shadipur neighborhood. With me are Sunil Shanbhag, Brijesh and Komita. We are sitting here because for the last 10-12 days we have been working together to create a new play. The play is called Katha Kaal Ratri Ki. This is a play by Jannatimansh written by Komita and Brijesh and directed by Sunil. I am going to engage them in a conversation about how this play has come about, how the collaboration between Jannatimansh and Sunil has come about and so on. Sunil is a theatre director based in Mumbai. He has long experience of working in Mumbai in at least four languages and some of you may have seen or heard of some of his most significant plays of the last few years including Cotton 56, Polyester 84, Story, Business, Song, Sex, Morality and Censorship, Word Zip in Utterd and Blank Page. He runs two theatre companies in Mumbai, Arpana and Studio Tamasha. Oh, right. The space is called Studio Tamasha. That's right, Tamasha Theatre. And he is with us. So let's just start with this Sunil. How did this sort of, how did it happen that you were here? Well, actually my first direct association with Jannatimansh took place when the Freedom Theatre from Palestine were here visiting on a long tour, study tour. Of course, I have known you in the past and have seen Jannatimansh work. But actually coming to the space and working directly with Jannatimansh actually happened at that time. I think I spent about four days working with the young Palestinian actors. And that was a very, very, I would say, very stimulating experience for me. And also, you know, then got the feel of Studio Safdar and the kind of space it is. And there is a kind of kind of kind of spirit because, you know, in the sense that I think small art spaces, you know, which are curated spaces or accessible to both audiences and theatre makers are vital. And you see that all across the country's spaces are open. And I really felt that that connection was very, very important. So when this suggestion came up that I would actually direct the play for Jannatimansh, I was excited because, you know, the form is challenging. Actually working with a completely new set of actors who I have no experience of working with before. That was very challenging. And also very excited to work with two writers who are steeped in the tradition of Jannatimansh. But also will be available in the rehearsal room. That's a luxury for us in the theatre scene. So I think it was a combination of all these things. This is Janam's 50th year. We were formed in 1973. And in March 1973, we complete 50 years. So, Brijesh, how does this production fit into the larger scheme of our 50th year? When we decided to do 50 years of Janam, celebrate. So we decided to have many things. But one of them was that this has to be some kind of continuation of our work. And also a new beginning in a way. So we decided that we will get eminent directors and they'll come and direct us in this space in street theatre. Sometimes in children's play, Shelly Sathya is going to come and do children's play with us. And also digital performance which Mallika will be doing. So Sunil was part of this that we thought of him as that he'll come here and direct us. And that will add to our strengths in the sense that we will get kind of a training on the job from such an eminent person as Sunil. And this will help us in our future work. Whatever we take from here will help us in our future work in street theatre as well as in proscenium. So that was the idea basically. So that's how it actually has a link with 50 years celebration. And why Sunil? Because Sunil's work actually if you look at it, I will say that it's kind of a street theatre in proscenium. Because you see, when I saw Cotton 56 and I was really, that's the kind of play which Janam should have been doing. I felt that this is the history of Bombay's trade union movement and how it was linked with the culture and the shayari tradition and how it was said. I thought it was amazing and it was very good. And Sunil we were talking to him and he said that once they brought the play to Delhi and Delhi audience laughed it up. So something which happens in Mumbai's history, why did the Delhi audience laugh it up? So he was telling me that they were discussing that many people have that kind of experience. But more than that, you see, there's been a history of trade union movement in Delhi also. And that is also helps in connecting with Mumbai's trade union movement and the history of that. So I thought that that was one of the reasons. Those were one of the reasons in many other reasons. People have been associated with Sunil in art management and smart courses etc. So that has also been there. There has been a link. He has been familiar when he came for freedom theatre. At that time also we saw some of us saw how he was working with these people. So I think that was the reason that we thought of Sunil. And also our earlier experience with Abhishek when he came here and worked with us on Tathagat. Abhishek Majumdar. So that also I think we thought this is the kind of association which is going to help Janam in growing. And when Sunil got in touch with you and said that you should write the play, what were your first thoughts on what you wanted to do with the story, with the structure and so on? Frankly at that time when Sunil said that he would like me to write the play, my first instinct was that will I be able to write. Because it is my first time to be working with Sunil and as Brijesh has been saying that he has a big body of work which he has seen. He has a politics, he has a kind of aesthetics. So in the beginning I did not have any structure in my mind that we would do this. But when the first thing happened, it was quite clear that Sunil also wanted this and he was already studying feminist fables. So it was something to do on the question of gender. But then when we talked more than once online, the structure was more clear that we are fables, which are fairy tales or Panchatantra. We will do something with these kinds of stories. And even if there is no one-to-one connection in today's era, but a larger commentary that we are seeing around us, we wanted to do the work on it. So I mean initially there was no particular structure in my mind, but as we started talking to each other, we realized that there were certain ideas that both Sunil and I, and then I roped in Brijesh also, and you were also part of the whole process. So we had some commonalities, some... a kind of thought that we wanted to take with us through the drama, we saw a common... we saw some common strings working together. And now the play is almost ready. We are going to be performing in two or three days time, Sunil. What was your starting impulse in thinking about the play? And could you tell the audience how the play... what's the story of the play in a nutshell? I've been thinking for a while about what we could do. There are certain... I had to think of something within the parameters of street theater, as I understood it, the half an hour, 20 to 25 minutes length, also the circumstances in which performance will happen. My last experience directing the street theater was from the mid-17s. So it's been a long time. But I can imagine that on the street what could happen, that kind of thing. So I felt that, you know, as Komitav was describing, can we tell a familiar story and subvert it? And I think that works always very well, because, you know, there is a... In India we are always hearing familiar stories, but the way they are told are always different. Every telling is different. So I thought, can we use that idea? Tell a story that is familiar to all. And then subvert it so that suddenly you are discomforted. I mean, the familiar suddenly becomes unfamiliar. That was the starting point. And that is what I really shared with them. And I think it's moved too well beyond that, because now it's not just talking about that, it's also talking about the whole idea of rewriting history. It's also touching upon the idea that, you know, history belongs to those who are in power. But that doesn't mean that you just accept it. There are many invisible histories, or histories that have been invisibilized to the detriment of the larger group of people, etc. So these are the areas that the play deals with. Using a lot of theatricality, using this character of a writer, a mysterious figure, but who writes in low Bhaasha. So it's the tension between the state language or the official language and the language of people. It's about rewriting histories, about voices that get invisibilized. It's all these things. That's really the broad canvas of this play. And Vijay, the play uses two languages, in fact. There is what might be called a standard Hindi, which we usually speak in cities, that type of Hindi. And a different type of language, which you can call Hindi, or Bhojpuri, or whatever you want to call it. So what is the politics of this play about the language? The source of the play, if I can say that, that mentioned something, in which we thought that this play can come from Bhaasha and very strongly. Because when Komita said to me on such a fable and on a story, to subvert a family or story, like Sunil said, the first thing that came to my mind was to go back to Katha Saritsagar. That's a text by Somdev, translated sometime in 13th century as in that time, because that is in Sanskrit. And Somdev was from Mukashmir. But the original text that is what we call as Bhritkatha, which is not, it's not available. It's kind of not found. So the preface of Katha Saritsagar mentions the story of how Bhritkatha came about. And in this, there's a tension between some kind of a local language, which is called Peshachi, and the Sanskrit. And the King, Satvahan King, refuses to hear this story and refuses to publish the stories, which are written in Peshachi. And because of that, the author goes and burns his stories and he's telling the stories to animals and all and that kind of thing. So that tension, that seed of the clash between the, not the clash, but the language policy of the state was there. So that's something which we were seeing today also. So that it kind of a uniformity all over that we should have a standard kind of language which is there everywhere. So that tension was there. So that is how we thought of that and because the seeds were already there in the story. The seeds were also there of why the author burns his book. So that question was immediately, burning comes like Perumal Murgan saying Perumal Murgan as a writer is dead. So that was also, the seed was already there. So that's how we came to this play actually. And the language, yes, the language is when we wrote for the first time, we wrote in the simple language. Then Sunil mentioned that, okay, the story within story, since it's a story of that writer, it should be in a dialect. So we changed it into dialect. But also there was one section, the song, which was already in a certain kind of dialect because that was supposed to be the creation of people end of Kal Rathri. So that was in dialect. So that is how we brought about these two different languages, not really languages, basically the spoken languages with a dialect which is quite local. So that's how we tried to create that, that tension within the play. How did the writing process actually happen, Kamita?  So just walk us through how the play was written. So after having our first meeting with Sunil, basically we started to read. Like I said before, there are many stories like Jatak, Panch Tantra, or Theri Gatha, or Katha Saritsagar. We read a lot of such things on the internet. There were a lot of small stories. The first idea was that we would take a story which would be familiar and we would subvert it, like Sunil says. But when we started studying, when we started researching, we understood that there was this anxiety that maybe we wouldn't get a familiar story that we would share with the audience who knew about it. But because we had read so much, we wanted to stick to the idea of fable. It was a very interesting idea. So in the beginning, we read stories. Basically, the preface of Katha Saritsagar and the premise of it, which is different from Katha Saritsagar, there were already many subversions in it. They are very traditional, conventional, patriarchal, regressive stories. They were very interesting. We wanted to take elements from them. So when the writing process started, we understood that maybe we couldn't take a story but we could take different stories and make a story. So we could make a fictional account but the elements that we were reading were in it. So we presented a draft and when we talked to Sunil, Sunil wanted to have a verse on the language so it would be good. So we started working on it. Then the story of Katha Saritsagar is the format of the story. There are so many plots in it. So in our meetings it was clear that we would use the form of the story which Jan Nathimanch did in his plays. So the story in the middle was written by Brijesh. The poem by Brijesh which is a local dialect was written by Brijesh. Many parts of it were already written and the inputs were written in it. Then we talked again about what we are trying to say. What is complicating the script. Or what are the big two or three things we are trying to say. So that was a process in which basically the structure slowly started to appear on the paper. By the time we reached our second draft that we shared with Sunil. By that time we were clear that these are the things that we want to talk about. The challenge was also which I think is also because we have seen Sunil's work. So as I said in the beginning that we understand the kind of aesthetics that builds on stage. So we visually wanted to see the script and when we worked with Brijesh because Brijesh has a lot of text and because I have already written it and directed it and made it short, so I was thinking of a visual idea. So I think that collaboration has worked pretty well in this play. Once the draft was shared, Sunil said that the draft is ready that we can work on it on the floor. And Sunil was very clear from the beginning that he would like to work with the text and not just devise the play. So that was very clear from very clear instructions for us. So that has been the larger process and when Sunil came here then also the text started to change and in fact for me you know I could see many more things that I was thinking in a certain way while I was writing but when I heard the voice of the actors with small nuances added more layers before going on the floor just in terms of reading I feel that it has flowered. I think it has become much stronger what it was in our second draft. A lot of your work, Sunil has been in one way or the other about language and about words and the importance of words as the carriers of meaning. And so in that sense this play very much is part of that much longer engagement with language and words and so on. Could you speak a little bit more about this? In today's time there is this interesting categorization of theater into physical theater in text based theater. We firmly belong and according to those categories in the text based theater is also conspired to be the older slightly more conventional form and I always smile because these categorizations are very ridiculous when somebody speaks the body is also in motion and there is no question you can't speak without the body you can't make meaning without the body. So I really believe that these categorizations don't really work I do wish that the problem is that a lot of young people don't work with text anymore because even in drama schools across the country not enough importance is given to text and most of our literature most of our theater has been text based theater in the form of school and you need to look around for work it's your ability to be with text that's going to be up there so I come very firmly from a tradition of words and I think that came about mainly because I learned my theater and Saty Dev Gupta it was really again a manner of words and ideas so that was ingrained in me for us the word is very very critical I think words, languages, ideas this is what we are interested in and in a culture where the oral tradition has been so strong both words and music work beautifully together and when I say words I mean prose, music these things work very well with audiences here and yeah that's been my favorite playing down as an actor Brigitte this has been your first time working with Sunil what are the one or two things that stood out for you as an actor as an actor I found that actually I am no actor but I have been doing street theater for a long long time and that is the kind of our voices are strong have become strong now when we came they were not so strong we can reach out with our voices and all and there has been always this tendency to cover the maximum audience when we we are in acting area though we have tried silences in street theater earlier as well it's not as if we have not vulgar silences and with what we have done what we have done but it says tendency it becomes that you try to go overboard and you just try to reach to the audience somehow or the other you have to capture this audience and I think when I was doing the Kathakar which is the role that I have been given in this play and my tendency was to just move around a lot, cover the things go out to the audience by raising my voice raising my pitch and the usual techniques that are there but somewhere Sunil just told me this thing that you just have to stay stay with the audience talk to them and just get across your meaning by you can be strong without actually shouting so that is something which has helped me a lot in the sense that in performing this I can see the way I have changed from when I did Kathakar on day 1 to when I am doing it now that I have brought down the speed of delivering my speech but I have not lost the strength of delivering my speech that is something which Sunil has not really but slowly he has done that and not the day 1 he never told me anything on day 1 day 1 I thought oh I have done well but then later he brought it in and he just kept on telling me so that is way of working so that is there and also the way I see with the other actors as well it is a very democratic way of working if I can everyone speaks I feel sometimes I think oh gosh these people are they have not even been one year doing theatre and they are telling Sunil to act like this so I am really amazed but that is how we all of us do that and then Sunil listens to them sometimes they take this thing and then he acknowledges also this idea has been given by Kaliya this is what he told me so that is there but then also he really saw that at some point of time he will also draw a line now you do this since you have brought it in you better as well do it and show it and the more things you bring in the more Sunil can actually polish and sharpen them that is the way I think you are accepting as far as and how has it been for you Kamita as an actor I have I don't want to I mean it is a I think it is a very frivolous word in many ways but I think I have been amazed by how perceptive Sunil is as a director as a perceptive it means that actors have this tendency to try to do something and they have their own instincts and some logic in their head and they are following probably the logic of the play narrative so on and so forth but how he catches that thing that he actually catches the exact intention of the actor that the person that actor is following when she or he is presenting something so it happens that you are doing this so why are you doing this but Sunil also asks why are you doing this but he also tells me that I know you are doing this because you are thinking this and sometimes I am like yes exactly and then if my instincts are not right and I am not doing it he has envisaged the role because I have also written the play so in my head I have also envisaged certain characters in a certain way so that I think has helped me also to kind of you know to think and rethink about how am I doing it the other thing is to also you know I have been struggling a lot and I see many of us I have been struggling with this to say the worst and how we have to play the worst I think it is not just to play the worst but the techniques that Sunil has worked on even when we are doing a prose drama the techniques are how they work so when Sunil said that we will do the worst it is very interesting for actors I couldn't really understand what does he mean I thought he means that it gives less and so on and so forth but actually now while I am doing it as an actor I think that saying things in worst is quite challenging and struggling so one is still struggling with the level of points that for me there have been many Eureka moments about myself that oh yes exactly that is what I was thinking how do you know this and once an actor understands that then it becomes and acknowledges it that ok this was my instinct and the director knows it then there can be a negotiation about it if an actor is not able if the director is not able to convey that why I think that your instinct is not going in the right direction and it has to take some other direction then sometimes and specially actors like us who are not trained in acting and we have learned whatever we have learned on the job I think these perceptions and these little little techniques that he tells us and I would not call them tricks because they are not tricks they are like techniques that one has to follow so I think that is going to stay with many of us for a very very long time Sunil you have been working with a large number of actors over the years so on this is your first time of working directly with Janam the last time you came you know we were working with mainly the actors of the freedom theater what have been your experiences observations the atmosphere in the rehearsal room is really wonderful in the sense that you know the decision mentioned the democratic democratic doesn't just happen I mean you can be in a situation where you say you know all of your negative solutions and actually nobody is forthcoming because there is no tradition of speaking you know your mind and I think the fact that Janam in itself has created a space where people are allowed to express themselves as part of your ongoing way you all work I think that is important and that allows for this kind of thing so having something to say and then being unafraid to say they are both getting involved and sometimes they feel that even if you it doesn't matter you know when you make a suggestion however silly it may sound it would actually turn out to be quite important and I keep my ears open for that because honestly you know what is augustian at the end of the day theater is a work with a group of people and at one level you have a device where everybody is involved at the other end of the spectrum you have this director or to your process right I think there are advantages at both ends and somewhere I think we are going to take but more important for me so this is the fact that most of your actors have a lot of experience of working on the street which I don't have and I am absolutely unashamed to say that I don't know so I am very eager to understand I think you mentioned Kalyar solution I felt so stupid after all I was kicking myself I said why didn't I think of that he just said that I had these guys lying on the floor playing these fire sticks and he said I don't know how to start the band so that it actually brings absolutely nothing what was I thinking right so these nuggets have come and I think the director will be foolish not to listen to these things at other levels it has been a bit of a struggle because you know there are very major differences in approach and that is bound together I was prepared for that but I think we both side the actors we have tried to find negotiators some kind of middle ground see the point is that in 15 days one has to actually make a production and have it out okay half in a length is much shorter than what you wish to work with whatever it is in the length and it has to be ready so I think the biggest challenge has been to balance the teaching and trying to get people to a certain level with the demand to actually have a production ready on day one which is not under rehearsed okay and that's a matter of great pride for me is that the opening show should never look under rehearsed you know so that's really been actually the exercise for me has the length of the play also been a challenge for you you can do one more run through or you can go over and have a drink in half an hour remember that I have done plays which are two and half hours long they never seem to end when you are in act 2 and sometimes when you do double shows in a day you lose sight of where you are in the play as the interval already happened no no no the brevity of the length is not a problem in fact I have had great fun playing with a certain pace that I hope that this length actually allows for yeah right so well thanks very much all three of you this has been a very engaging conversation for me as well even though I have been involved with the whole process from the beginning and let's see we are going to open the show in three days time and let's see how the audience respond to it and I hope that we do justice to cross a hundred shows wow that would be great thank you so much thank you