convoluted, very difficult rug. So I think we stand in great danger of losing a large part of a great treasure of music which should actually find an audience whether it's large, whether it's the stadium people, full of people, or whether it's just a small room with 150 people. We need to keep digging. See I just want to add to this that yes it they have they may have been times when actually things look gloomy or things look like God you know who's going to come forward and you know take this forward but things happen like for instance when you're talking about rare rugs that is something that was bothering me for more than 10 years and I can see this project called our prayer which is not yeah it's a concept because you need guts to put up a 24 hour concept and we did that and we've completed four years we are in the fifth year this year by grace of God and you need to put up a big hand for that. We demand for the effort for the guts the risk and the conviction that people will lap it up the sponsors will stand by you because we are going to produce great authentic stuff I just want to add to it that when we produced it when we actually came forward and put that whole project together art prayer is based on the time cycle of Hindustani classical music and we are very fortunate that Hindustani classical music is the only classical music where in you actually have a ragtime base so we produced it and we've had four successful years and we've had thousands of people sitting there from morning six o'clock till 4.30 next morning and people have been traveling from across the world to attend it so it's not like it's getting how many of us are making that effort to actually do something I mean you know as artists you need to prepare yourself that you may be you know slaughtered in any slot and you better have options of ten rags five will not do and as a producer I have to take that risk that yes I have to come into the artist way in advance we have to come into the auditorium and we have to come into the press and media and everything I mean the fact is that there needs to be like you said conviction and possibly a bit of knowledge of the promoter of an event of a production because even all in the radio or the music labels when they used to record a lot of classical stuff you had classical music experts sitting over there we were talking about folk music so there's an earlier panel pop on which Jesse was mentioning about Punjabi music and how it's being sung at so many weddings etc what happens in the regions especially the northeast because we know very little about that region what happens with functions with ceremonies weddings etc over there is folk music the dominant music that is played there or have they all started singing Bollywood and Punjabi songs well I think till I'm not till I but some time back my my wedding I remember and so we have these women and generally in in both side of the families they are teasing the other side in laws in a very interesting way these are called be an arm so there I think it's all over India you get this folk a traditional wedding songs everywhere there is so ours is called be an arm so everyone would sing and they're on the spot make new lines you know while teasing suppose another guy's come with a red shirt she'll make the song and the guy with the red shirt like oh is he from the dulhan kisai dadi to we have you know so this amazing tradition where we grew up in it still rings those like the melodies in this few sets of melodies which every state will have that's dying and it's gone now I don't see any wedding it's mostly now for some reason we also have a song eat in a Sam which doesn't play it plays no it plays marshmallow also I mean it's not necessary Punjabi it can be anything you know so that whole regional beautiful thing should be encouraged you know and consciously with we should all do that so for those of you who don't know Abhinav Agarwal runs an NGO called the Anhad Foundation which is actually trying to promote folk music across India with folk music not popular but grassroot folk musicians so this is something that's a challenge right how did you think of getting into this it's so difficult to do why are you doing it concept I'll go to the neck out of my recording so that I can listen to them again so I thought I'll go out of my studio and record it before doing it I did research on how big the problem is I found out that 70% of our country's 70% of our entire music industry is folk and cultural music but only 2% of the entire revenues go to the 70% so this is the scale okay and this problem come in a kind of a technology say attribute cut for example called pep on a new gunner release kya I know so Facebook person up now abhi kya ori ki dunya badal riya pala a hammock analog zamane metha abham digital ke tarah ja rahe hain to recording industry ek aisa madhya meh jose ik supply increase karthi hai uske baad live us supply ko demand ke through cater karthi hai. Lekin in folk musicians ke pas itna paisa nahi hota hai ki wo ek recording studio meh ja ke 1000 rupee prati gante ke aisaap se ek ache recording kar pa hain. Ek sabse bada challenge ye, dhusa sabse bada ek structural challenge hai. Classical in folk music can't be recorded in a very pop music way. It's a jazz music type, jazz music meh jose ki ek koi metronome nahi hota hai, it's a free flow of the thing. Maine koshish kari ki hum folk music ek metronome pe record kar hain. And as soon as I recorded that thing, that totally killed the vibe of that thing. And hume kuch aise strategy nikal nahi thi ki hum joh meh folk music record kar nahi. Isko hume live hi record kar nahi.  Abhi kya aur hai ki studios hai humare desh meh. Lekin zada tar studios ke pas yeh live recording ke facilities nahi hoti ki hum multitrack hum art heart kar pa hain. So agar hum ish cheez ki baat karte hai ki radio pe aaj kail, inka time kum hota jaar raha hai aur iska sabse bada karun yeh bhi hai ki folk music ki jo recording quality hai. This is not sufficient enough. Uski quality itni bekar hai ki it can't compete with the contemporary music. And kahe nahi, kahe nahi agar woh sunne meh achha nahi lagega toh usse hum appreciate kahan se karenge. Right. So you are going out and doing a lot of recordings of folk artists. Durga, you've got a huge bank of stuff that you've recorded. Why haven't you put it out? Firstly, me and Neeraj, my partner over there who's sitting there with the phone, Neeraj Jaitley. We actually were traveling a lot across India, the length and breadth. So while we were doing that, we actually were meeting a lot of folk musicians across the country and we felt that this is the real wealth of India. And bohot saari jo cheez hai mujhe humne jab research karna shuru kiya state wise to dekhah ki har state ke jo humara research mil raha tha uske bohot saari genres ke musicians ni mil rehte. Wo toh saar paper pe rahega hai ab. To humne pachchi states me, har state me kuch-kuch kilometers ke doori pe recording studio dhunde, jiski quality achhi ho aur wahar us region ke konse folk musicians hai jo ye genres gaasate hai. To har state me, we have got now thousand tracks of each state. So 25,000 tracks of Indian folk music, we have recorded through our own, thank you so much, really encourages us really. This is huge encouragement. Right now it is raw. Like Papon asked that, I really, I loved your response.  I don't know. I don't have, it is the wealth of India. We have just recorded this in time, kyu ki pata nahi 10 saal ke baad usm se aur 30 genres honge jo log nahi perform kar pahenge. Lekin right now we have a recording of it. There's so much of possibility with it. We understand that because we have 24 gata hum log din ke wo hi sushte rehte ki humko iske saath karna kya hai. But the previous panel was brands. Why don't you go to one of the brands and ask them to do something? It's not all that easy. And everything takes time. And this is because I told him ki itna muskil kaam hai. Chahi 8 prayer ho, chahi you called idea Jalsa legendary, I'm really honoured. And also 8 prayer or even Panchat Atwar, Tiranga, whatever projects we have done, ki me ne ka, me ne itni idea gizge ki mere idea hi nahi bachi abhi. Jodh bol rahi, I can see them from here. Mai satch kaya ri hum, bagar people, I feel very happy doing everything. And that's why I think that happiness, that positivity of doing things like that. So at this time as I said ki 25,000 tracks hai aur usko humne authentic farmers jo, jo real musicians hai unse jake humn lo record bhi kar hain. It's of decent quality. We are still contemplating how do we put it out. But yes, radio is going to be the first medium we're going to be trying and applying and using and making them as local heroes. That's the strategy we have for which now we have also started Atenatus Foundation. So Atenatus Private Limited now has a foundation wherein we will be focusing on all these things and also very importantly, instrument makers and education of music in schools. So we've already started that. So any brands who are looking to promote music, please, please do promote folk music and our traditional music. Shubha, you had something to say about. Yeah, I was because this is a meeting of people who really care about music. I want to put across one suggestion and I think it's sorely needed, whether it pertains only to traditional music or whether it pertains, I think it pertains to all kinds of music in India. And I think that the one thing that we need desperately is a proper data collection of how many professional musicians are there in India with their demographic specifics and data. Are they professional? Are they semi-professional? Are they amateur? Do they have other day jobs and are they doing music after their day jobs? I think we cannot think of planning welfare schemes for musicians if we do not know what are the numbers that we are catering to. And I think it's very necessary. I know of so many eminent musicians who have set up charity foundations. Now, it's their money and it's their will to give to whomever they want to. But unfortunately, musicians who are setting up foundations very often are not looking at doing work like this because that's not an event-based kind of thing. I think it's desperately needed that we today work out how many musicians there are. They have to fly routes that nobody else wants to fly. Exactly, so. You had a thing to say. That was not so important, maybe, but I was just wondering, I mean, we know this answer, but as a layman, why can't there be a couple more radio channels which can play other kind of stuff? OK, so I just hold that thought. So you've done so many recordings as an NGO. Where are you getting the money from? Who's funding you? So we have won lots of competitions. The competition is the one thing. And apart from that, CSR is the biggest area. You know, this is very interesting. You guys have to listen to this. So please tell them about the whole CSR story. So the story started when I like registered my... No, tell me a short story. There are 7 minutes left. So I registered my organization in 2013. So my entire concept was that I had to work on preservation and documentation. For two years, I went to different places and asked for funds. I didn't get any funds anywhere. Everyone appreciated it. After that, they said that in our CSR policy, we have to make cleaners and toilets, but these things are not cultured. Your work is very good. You have our support. Gradually, I understood that policy making is very bad. All these CSR policies are related to UNDP policies. So there are 18 SDGs in UNDP, and they are about poverty, elevation, health care. There is no cultured in this. So what we did was we rebranded our entire program for the project. And we made it a project for a livelihood generation. And after that, we started pitching it to different CSRs. And our first selection criteria of working with this folk musicians was that if this is under the poverty line, as soon as we did this, we started getting funds. Lovely. Lovely. So, you know, everyone has said something about policy. It's a great thing. Everyone has said something about policy. So I want to ask you, if you ever made cultural minister tomorrow, what would you do as policy for music? First of all, I'd ask for that data, but apart from that, I would review policies and various kinds of programs that are already in existence. No, there is no culture policy that you can access very easily and has never been whatever government has been in place. I would also make a big effort to join hands with other ministries and other areas of policy. For example, tourism. But it is culture and tourism. Yes, but the tourism department very often doesn't know what is happening in the culture ministry. And those policies in the culture ministry, which are excellent. For example, one which is about to do with a repertory. So the government of India actually gives you a repertory grant to work with as many as 26 people in your repertory. And each one of those people is given a monthly salary for a year. You as director can actually get a salary as director of the repertory. But guess what the salary is? It is 6,000 rupees a month for your repertory members and 10,000 rupees for the director. Now this is below even the minimum wages that we have in place. So you see the disparity. It's a great idea. If I want to work on a project and I want 26 other people to work with me, I think it's such a brilliant idea. But we haven't reviewed it for many, many decades. And therefore we are still offering this kind of money, which would leave people. I mean, it would do me a lot of good because I'd lose weight. I think I just starve. But apart from that, it's not going to help me sing. So I think those reviews are required. And I would certainly ask for those reviews. Durga, what would you do? Well, I don't know if I would become a minister of a culture, but I'd like to put up my hand and say that I'd like to use the mainstream media to present. I believe in entertainment, the power of entertainment. I believe in the power of presentation. I believe in having good productions, which attract even the youngest person. You don't have to force everything onto anybody. It will never work. It has to attract your six sensibilities, you know. So whether if it attracts your eyes, then your ears will also give you time. If your ears give you time, your heart and mind will give you time. And that is the introduction. The window opens up and the world of music will open up to you. The journey then is, you know, can be of a single person or it can be a collective journey or whatever. Attracting the person into your industry is the foremost thing. And for that, the media and your production values and, of course, the talent. These three things have to be of great high quality. And you open, you put it on to television, radio, and now, of course, YouTube and many other apps and everything, everything that is available. So for me, that is foremost important. Papuan, we were talking earlier and someone was mentioning about a certain percentage of music that should be of the region where the broadcast comes from. So what's your take on that? Do you think it's fair? Do you think it's okay to be telling broadcasters, listen, 30% of your music or 40% of your music has to be music from the region? Would you do that if you were minister tomorrow? Yeah, I mean, that makes sense. Actually, all of this makes sense, whatever been said. That is definitely what, I mean, every region has to, there is a system like that in place. There's that they have to be more professional fees for the people who are working and so that better professionals will work in that industry, cultural affairs or whatever. And all the things reviewed has to be reviewed, have it updated, update them to the kind of production level which has to happen. All this has to happen. It is there, but it's not there. With that kind of money, it's just, they have to put in money and make it a thing that, you know, it's kind of, I mean, there has to be results otherwise. Okay, so you know, you've been mentioning money. I mean, I want to ask you something. Now these artists you've been recording, what kind of instruments have they been playing? Have they been playing traditional instruments? Are they playing keyboards? All of them are playing traditional instruments. So this is a conversation. So I have recorded five albums now. I've got two GMAs for two of the best folk albums and everything has been, I mean, everything has been traditional instruments as recorded and it sounded so good the way we record it now that as he said also the production has to be that good. So if people are playing traditional instruments, please understand, folk music comes from playing your local music on your local instruments. So why is it now that we are seeing, so the other day we were with an artist from Jharkhand and she was showing me an instrument that used to be made of leaves at one point of time, but today it's not being manufactured, it's being made of plastic or of steel. So why is it that this is happening and what is the problem here? Why are we not seeing these folk instruments? Shobha, you have an insight into this. Well craftsmen, you know, are not given, when you think of the welfare of an ecosystem, you have to think of the welfare of each person in that ecosystem. So for example, we've never had the tradition of saying that here I am on stage and I'm using tantras made by this family from Miraj. Giving that family and that master craftsman due importance and respect is absolutely necessary. Otherwise we are going to face a situation where there may be people making tantras outside India, but the craftsmen in India will give up that entire tradition. Absolutely. So we all know guitars by Fender, but we don't know tantras by whom. I mean, that's a reflection of how popular music has impacted traditional music and music forms. Can I just at 30 seconds? We have zero minutes, over time. Yeah, we are over time. I just want to add to this instrument makers have a problem. You know, I mean the thing is that whether it is sitar or tantra, the tumba, I don't know the English word for the tumba. The kadduka comes from Miraj and goes to even Calcutta's sitar. But the interstate taxations in the beach and every state's taxations are different. So unless that uniformity doesn't come and I hope that has been included in GST, otherwise what happens is that by the time it reaches Calcutta for it to be made into a sitar, it is already sky high and above. So there is no uniformity. And I think the problem lies there that plastic is easily available there. The tumba is not easily available. It will be available anywhere. So that's why it's being made of plastic and the leaves will be in a particular region where you are talking about the instrument. And who will recognize those leaves today? So the problem lies in that we need specialized people. For them we need to nurture them. For that you need to have. And I hope that Artenata's Foundation is taking some steps towards that and we are really looking forward to working on this front. Good. So anyway, we have overtime so I might as well ask another question. Why is it that we don't have music appreciation being done at the school level? So at least people are conscious of the music. So suddenly there's been this thing about state languages and compulsory, Marathi compulsory in Maharashtra, et cetera, et cetera, and this big debate that's been happening about Hindi. Why is it that we can't talk to our children about their music and the instruments that are used to create that music? What holds us back? We have art classes where people are given chart papers to cut chart paper and make baskets. How many basket makers are there in the future, I don't know. But definitely everyone will listen to music. So what holds us back? What is the problem? I think a vibrant arts education program has not been included in our education system. From 2005 onwards, NCRT has recommended that arts education be made available on a compulsory and not just compulsory but you have to evaluate it. So if you're not given marks in a subject nobody treats it seriously. So even for arts education there has been a move to introduce arts education and that includes a wide-ranging topics like music, theater, visual arts, et cetera. But unfortunately from the 2005 recommendation till today, NCRT has also set up an arts education department. But we have not developed ways and means of creating a syllabus that actually tells people how to appreciate music. We want each of our students to become performers and I feel that is a big problem. You can't have an army of, you can't have lakhs and millions of kids singing Darbari and Malkons. You can't have them singing Bihus also. So you need people to clap along with them also. You need people to say, hey, I've heard this 25 times from you. I need to hear something else from you now. So I think that has not been made a part of the arts education program. It still remains a very didactic, a very almost ad hoc kind of a situation where in an institution, if a principal feels that arts are important, they introduce them. Otherwise, that particular period is given to other more serious subjects like math, science, et cetera. And then everybody gets together before 26 January and 15 August, learns a song, stands there and sings it while they're hating it and that's it. So that's what our arts education is.  Yeah, yeah. I want to add to your point that we are teaching performance and I'll tell you one fact. We record so many songs and we do lyrical translations of every song. 60% of the artists we do lyrical translations don't know the meaning of their own songs. Amazing. It's a big problem. So Durga, you're going to schools now under the foundation. Will you be teaching music appreciation? We want to do music introduction. Appreciation is a little more evolved state. We just want to introduce them to the very basics and just leave it to them to like it or dislike it. But at least for us, the most critical thing will be the quality of teachers and how we, in a very easy manner, introduce it to them and not make it very heavy for them. It has to be at the level that you are playing Antakshari and you love Hindi film songs. Many of them who are from non-Hindi speaking regions actually told me that many times something has to be a fun and frolic and something that you enjoy. So hopefully create that kind of an atmosphere when learning is not a burden. Okay, listen, we'll have to pack up at some time, but so the government will be the government, we'll keep complaining, but one thing is for sure that the music will always be there and since we have two legendary artists on stage, we are not letting them go without hearing a little bit from each one of them. So I'm going to ask Papuan because this is also relevant to our discussion. They cut our time by about 45 minutes. They delayed us by two hours so now we can sit over here and be obdurate. So Papuan was talking about a form of folk music. Let him explain because I didn't even understand. Which one? Sorry, what is this? We're talking about the rhythms and the different kinds of rhythms. So this is a great clapping audience. So make them clap the rhythms with you. Okay, so there is this and Sam, I'm not just going to talk about it, I guess. Like we are talking about some art forms are, some music genres are also kind of dying slowly in India everywhere. So this is amazing stuff we do in Assam. It's actually Borghid, we call it Borghid, which is devotional actually. There's this guy called Shankar Dev who was 600 years now. This is at least 600 year old stuff. And he made these, I think classical happened three, 400 years back, right? The kind of classical music that Khayal is, we have a history of approximately, we can trace it back to about 200, 250 years ago. Even I was reading worldwide classical was the kind of last of the stages when it became really sorted. So this is 600 years back, also classical. And this is from that, I think, Iksharana, you know that stuff anyway, so one God. And so what we do, all of Assam, wherever you go, so the kind of following, whatever believer I am supposed to be, there's no idol, I mean we Hindus, but neo-Vaishnavism, so there's the universe. So all they do is pray and clap in the villages. They're called Naam Ghors, Kirtan Ghors, which is those temples. And basically a gossip session also there, all the women meet there. Okay, and then I can do that. Wow, what a mic stand I have. So the good thing is that normally worldwide, if you see the popular beat is four by four. And I mean worldwide you go rock music, any music that'll be four by four. And I was jumping with someone from Delhi recently, I was doing a seven or a six. And I don't name the guy, but no, why not actually? A friend, a very close friend. I was making a song.  I'm from Delhi, I know four by four. I'm a rocker. So as I always say, cool guys, I'm just saying, okay, this is seven beat. No, seven beat, do you guys, like even if you're non-musicians, it'll be difficult to do seven and six. That's why four by four is like one, actually. That's why the one is popular in the world. Apart from musicians, people don't do this. But in Assam, when you go, you go everywhere, your taiji, bohaji, maasi, khuri, jathai, mahi, whoever, the ladies in the village, they're clapping like 14 beat, the entire state in Assam. And I realize it's very late, people don't realize it.  This is Indian music, imagine, which you don't even know about. We still know about Karnati and Hindustani. But we still don't know about this. And this is Indian music. Again, you know, if we don't do this, who does it? It's the whole thing. So 14 beat, how does he change it? It's, the ball doesn't very interesting. Like it's a call we play on. So the ladies are doing, and then everyone clap. One, two, one, two, okay? One, two, one, two. Again, one, two, one, two.  You also, dekha, it's not simple like that, okay? Okay, one more time, two. One, two, one, two, one, two. And keep going on, okay? I'll do the balls. So, going on, and the melody is so simple. I'll tell you, my song is so simple. That's how the ladies can sing it. I have to read also, I have to take me down too. Carry on. Two, one, two, one, two, one, two. Okay, this is Akhwari, like Ashabari. I think they call it Akhwari. Two, one, two. Okay, so. And it's more too simple. One, two, one, two, one, two. Together, two, one. One, two, one, two. One, two, one, two, one, two, one. Okay, go ahead and sing it. This is my song. One, two, one, two, one. One, two, one, two. One, two, one, two. One, two, one, two, one, two. Come on. And it's more to it, it's like the 14, there's a bar of 32, which is called a ghat. So it starts at the 10 beat and completes 32 and it becomes 14 again. It's just so beautiful, imagine. And we have lost it. I'm the last guy who plays khol, I think, of my generation. I'm a guy from urban. Hey, where is this going to be? Okay, Shobhaji, your work is a bit more difficult. Dying forms of classical music. It takes half an hour. What time is dinner until? So we have to hear something. We have to hear something. You know, it's very funny, but because I sang this song called Apke Savan, very often people say, that Apke Savan is gone after I sang Malcons or something. And so what I do, I said, you know, the original Apke Savan, it was like this. So that's a wrap. All you thirsty people, you can head for the bar. I just want to say that Apke Savan is here. I hope India has good rains, really. We need them. And maybe God will be happy with your voice. Give big hand for her. If you're... Okay. I'm going to sing. I'm going to sing. I'm going to sing. I'm going to sing. I'm going to sing. I'm going to sing. I'm going to sing. I'm going to sing. Okay. Thank you very much, folks. As they say, you've been a lovely audience. You've done a great job. But play again.


The cinematic universe war that we're living through is completed, DC1. The DCEU has forced Marvel to push back its new movie Slate by a few months each. The internet is ablaze with conspiracy theories and reasons why this could be. I'm just here to report some facts. Before I begin giving you what will surely be riveting news, please think about subscribing to the channel. Adam does movies right here. I put out content almost daily at this point. It's bananas, Gwen Stefani. Let's begin. In all seriousness, no one actually knows why these were pushed back. My guess is because of COVID, is because they want to get those theaters full again. They want to get those numbers up. Black Widow had a bit of a snag, a little bit of a situation when they released it on Disney+. They got in a fight, a little lover's quarrel with Scarlett Johansson who wanted her fair cut. So yeah, they're probably trying to alleviate some of that disaster down the road. So what does that mean? Well, it means here are the new dates for the movies. And here's a fun fact. I didn't actually know when any of them were coming out to begin with, so this isn't really a disappointment for me. Movies get released when they get released, as far as I'm concerned. And when it comes to these superhero movies, Phase 17 or whatever we're on for Marvel, I really couldn't care less. I'll watch them, I'll probably enjoy them, and I'll move on with my life. Here are the releases.  We need to push everything back. Two or three months. I think this is probably just Disney wanting to make as much money as they possibly can. That seems to be what they do. Do you think it's over? Do you think Kathleen Kennedy is ruining the Marvel movies now by pushing an agenda and stopping the production of these films so she can put more SJW woke stuff in it? That's probably what's really happening. I mean Indiana Jones also got pushed back another year, so this reeks of Kathleen Kennedy, right? Or maybe, just maybe, Disney wants to, again, leverage these properties better, make as much money as possible. Could you possibly comprehend something so sinister from the House of Mouse? It's wild. It's pretty crazy. Let me know in the comments your take. I'd love to hear from you. Like the video if you had a good time, subscribe if you haven't already, and I'll keep you up to date as things progress. Take care. I mean this reeks of Kathleen Kennedy possibly ruining Johnson as well. Oh, you're still here. If you haven't already, maybe check me out on Patreon at Patreon.com slash Adam Does Movies. You could join up and say, you know what, Adam, I like what you're doing. I like the cut of your, the cut of your jib or whatever that phrase is. Here's a dollar a month. Or you can join right here on YouTube, not even have to leave this site. There's a join button and you can, you can do that. I'd appreciate it.


Well, hey there, it's Sandy and today I wanted to share with you how and why you should make a mixed media sketchbook with all different kinds of paper. And I will show you a painting and a drawing from the beginning of this one. I have been hunting for the perfect sketchbook for practically my whole life. And I bought this notebook. It's not an art notebook or a sketch notebook at all, but I bought it with the hopes that I can turn this into something that I have been seeking for a long time, which is a mixed media sketchbook with all different kinds of papers in it. Now this thing, you can get all kinds of office papers and planners and stuff to go with it. It has a disc binding system and that sort of thing. It comes with a bunch of just regular old writing paper in it, but it has this really cool disc binder and I bought the punch to go with it. And the book and the punch are not cheap. I'll just tell you that right off the bat, but I'm hoping that this is going to be something that's going to inspire me to use this sketchbook. And I'll talk a little bit about why and how as this video moves on, but I've taken a bunch of different papers of different sizes and punched them so they're ready to go and put in the notebook. And I've taken out all of the stuff, well most of the stuff, I left some of the journaling paper in there so I can make notes of things as well. And then added in all of my art papers. This stuff's really easy to pop in and out and change the order of your papers. And I've got some that are small ones and having multiple holes means that that paper stays more stably in there.  Sometimes I just want to do a quick doodle. I don't really want to do a whole page of something. And this gives me a lot of options. I've used lots of different types of art papers in here, all quality papers. And I've also got some cheapo yucky papers and I've marked them all in the corner so I know what's what. And I'm hoping that like even the pastel papers, maybe I'm going to get my pastels out to just play with sometime because of this notebook. And the notebook itself feels really sturdy. I like how the front cover flips back and stuff. There's a lot of things I like about it. But if you're going to do this with a three ring notebook, I would suggest you could go get yourself like a brand new really pretty notebook of some sort, something you're going to want to use often. If it's just feels like a school notebook, you may not be as inspired to pull it out and start working on something. But I thought it would be a good time to perhaps talk about what I use sketchbooks for while I paint these tulips.  And I'm always going from one sketchbook to another based on what medium I'm using, etc. And this one I'm hoping is going to get me to bounce back and forth, as I said, to other mediums I don't normally use. But also to have something that is a good place for practicing things that I want to turn into larger pieces. And I've always wanted to paint tulips. I live just south of the Skagit Valley, well I should say just south. It's a little road trip day. And this year, since we're doing social distancing, I can't go.  But since my state, Washington is bending the curve so well, I am not about to break our social distancing rules and go do something and cheat. I'm just not. I will not do it as much as it's sad. But I have dozens and dozens and dozens of tulip pictures from all of my years going to the Tulip Festival. So there's no reason for me to feel like I can't paint tulips. So I'm just going to work from my photos. This one has a really dark background to it. And I was toying with the idea of just painting the tulips and letting them be on a white background. And partway through, I realized I didn't really like that idea very much. But then I was stuck with having already painted these tulip petals and tulip stems. And there's different approaches that one can take for adding in the background. But now that I painted this much, I was kind of stuck with what I had. So I thought, well, this is a great time to see how it feels to go back to a way that I used to paint, which was painting in the things and then trying to paint in the backgrounds. This is all still wet. So I thought maybe I can still pull it off. Maybe I can save this piece of paper. I did not save this piece of paper, spoiler alert. That is not to say that any of this effort was not worthwhile. Because one of the things that happens for me when I'm working in a sketchbook versus working on something on my easel that's ready to be a finished painting, it's taped down, it's sketched out, everything's ready to go and I get really serious about it all of a sudden. And I tighten up and I'm not able to be loose and I spend more time than I should on it. On this one, it took me 20 minutes to sketch this out and paint it. Like literally it was super quick and I didn't let myself fart around with anything. I just wanted to paint it in. I really wanted to see whether I wanted that dark background around it because I wasn't sure if I did. This taught me that I do want that. I just need to find a different technique to get there. And for some reason, tulips have always stymied me. They've just always been a challenge and I thought this might be the year since I'm missing my tulips that I'm gonna focus on what is it that makes a good tulip painting for me. Lots of different people have different styles and I've painted some very expressive tulips in different years. This year I wanted to see if I could actually do some representational ones but in a loose kind of a way. And that's where I'm gonna be heading hopefully in the next couple of weeks is practicing more tulips and seeing what I can come up with. But I want to do it in a sketchbook because that's going to teach me so much more before I get to that finished stage when I'm ready to do the big serious painting. Because that's just a transition that I have not mastered.  I wish I had done that larger or that I had done whatever the problem is with it so that I could frame that and call that a finished thing. There's just elements that are in my sketches that don't show up in my paintings because I get so serious about them. However, if I were to paint this in a regular sketchbook, I have tons of sketchbooks. I have lots of watercolor sketchbooks. A lot of them don't have arches paper in them or they're really small because they're meant even if they have arches they're meant to be taken out on site and just do little quick sketches. I really need to learn techniques for doing the tulips large. If I'm gonna paint a large painting, I need the space to do that. And if I have a sketchbook like this, it gives me the ability to try out how many brush strokes does it take? Like that whole, you know, how many licks to get to the center of a bouncy roll pop. This is how many brush strokes can I get away with not using in order to achieve something.  That's one of my problems with watercolors. I overdo things. I want to learn how to do my watercolors a little fresher. And until I've practiced on a good piece of paper like this, I don't know what that's gonna come out looking like. If I do it really small, it's not gonna translate the same way. And here I was even trying to make the tulips feel more like part of the background instead of feeling so pasted on. And that didn't work either. So now I have like a dozen things from this sketch that I know don't work. And I don't beat myself up over finding that out. There are some things about this that I love. I love the layout that I chose, the grouping of tulips that I selected for this. I think that will at some point be a beautiful painting. But I also know that I need more practice before I am ready to get to that last step. It might be two or three more sketches like this. It might be playing with this same kind of techniques with different tulips and different colors of tulips. There's a lot of different things I can start working my way through as I'm getting my way toward the painting that I want to do. But without a sketchbook to do them in, I will just continue to take paper to a board and freeze up over and over and over again. And this sketchbook I hope is gonna help me get past that. And FYI, if you're interested in any floral classes in any medium, all the flower classes for April, 2020 are on sale, link in the doobly-doo. And if you're not watching this in April, 2020, you can still click on that same link and whatever is on sale at the time you're watching this will be on that link. So I'm gonna change those out every month or so so you get different options for what to get a deal on. Now, this other piece I wanted to share with you because of the quote and I wanna tell you a little bit about why I chose it. Miles Davis, one of my very favorite jazz musicians in all time said, do not fear mistakes. There are none. And I added the word art because I think there are some mistakes one might fear. Like maybe just maybe you shouldn't stand on a skyscraper with your toes hanging over the edge. That could be a mistake to fear. So I'm not gonna say you shouldn't fear all mistakes but definitely don't fear art mistakes. And the reason I say that is because I've learned the most from my mistakes rather than my successes. The times where I've painted or drawn something and it came out perfect the first time I didn't learn bupkis from those experiences in general. The best learning that I've had comes from experimenting and trying several times to get to a result and then understanding why I got that result. When it just happens and if you do enough art sometimes it just happens that things come out well. I have no idea how to recreate that. And that's kind of a problem when I'm trying to teach it. So I almost prefer the whole process of learning something new so that I can then explain how to get there. I can explain why it happens. I can explain how not to try something that a particular technique or application of the medium will not result in that particular thing and it will result in something else. And if I'm not trying it and learning and growing I'm not really much helped anybody. I can't actually explain it to you. So I prefer making those mistakes. I prefer trying them in my sketchbooks and testing things out and seeing what is going to achieve one result or another and trying it repeatedly so that I know it's a replicable thing that if I'm going to teach it that it can happen a second time. The alcohol ink class that I did recently was kind of a little mental freak out because there is no way to explain alcohol ink perfectly so that anybody can come up with something that will be identical every time. It's just not something that happens. But I found ways that I could explain enough that people could get a good start on the kind of technique that I was teaching so that they would have success eventually anyway. But a lot of the stuff that I teach just requires ongoing experimentation and growth and learning on my part before I'm even capable of telling anybody anything and being of any use to them. So that's where I think I'm on the same page as my man Miles in his music. I was listening to it while I was drawing this and trying to create something that had the feel of jazz to it and even put his trumpet in there. And as I was working through this whole thing, I just was listening to the way he played with the notes and he danced around in an audio way. He danced around tempos. He danced around different keys and came up with new things because of it. And it may have for an instant been a slight cacophony somewhere, but then he would resolve it because you could hear the way he was learning from what he was improvising. And that's the kind of thing I think he was talking about but it's the same principle. It's exactly what I've been talking about this whole time. And I just think it's really cool to have something in common with Miles Davis because he's pretty amazing. One of the things that is about to happen in this is that I'm gonna make yet another mistake. This whole thing has a gajillion mistakes. Lots of places where my pen went over an edge and I had to figure out how to fix it because my pen went too far. Or there were places where this particular paper I didn't know it's a Yupo-like paper. I say Yupo-like because it feels very much Yupo and they call it a Yupo. See, my hand just landed right there in the ink. Big goober, right? Lots of people would panic. Well, I'm gonna finish this section before I forget where I was going and then go back and fix that. But I didn't know that this Yupo-ish paper was going to hold the ink wet for so long. I thought it would dry faster than that and apparently I was wrong. So now I know a little bit better about how to not do that again. But now I have some little handprint things over there on that right hand side. I wasn't planning on my art extending any further than that. However, guess what? It's going to now and I can make more of these little drips off the edge that are going to cover all three or four of those little spots. Really easy to do and it stays with the flavor of the whole piece. Miles had this, I don't know, just this drippy feeling to some of the music that I was listening to and that's where some of these shapes came from. Just trying to translate his music into a visual form was fascinating and challenging and fun. In coming days, I'm gonna try to finish this drawing and I'll post it on my social media when I do. And if I remember, I will come back and post a link here so you can see the finished Miles Davis piece. And that's about it for me for today. I think that's more than enough. I'm gonna go and I hope you've learned something. Click the like button if you did. Subscribe if you have not yet already so we can meet again here on YouTube and I'll see you soon. Bye-bye.


And I try to sort this by name. Notice that name field isn't there so so so it's I still if I have the class tracking That might not be a problem because I could kind of break it out by class up here but but If I go in if I'm trying to sort in here, then I don't have that name field so I can't really sort it by Customer which is kind of like I might want to do that Because because there's no there's no customer name here Although it did still sort by the project. I think for customer to so that might not be a Problem so that that could work. I'm gonna go back and then the other side goes into the work and process same kind of thing so now it's in here as a journal entry no name if I wanted to sort this way by Customer Then I think it's still pulling in there by by customer even though there's not a name there So that might that might be okay I'm gonna go back on over if I go to the first tab The other thing to kind of test out is if I go to the left side over here And I look at my sales information for customer number two and I look at all my all my transactions The the journal entry doesn't really show up here So I don't like if I'm looking in this area. I don't really see the journal entry that closes out That job and and maybe I want to see that over here. So that might be a reason why I might want to use a form So let's just do that. I could I could use a form to do that So I could go back.  We're gonna do it a different way and then go back On up and so now it's back. It has reappeared. It has reappeared It has reappeared just like that Pimple that I've got on my nose anyways Now we're going to let's do it now. Let's do the same thing, but with an invoice. We're gonna say it's an invoice and Let's say that this is gonna be for project number two and It's gonna be five 30 and so if it was an invoice, I'm just gonna use this like a journal entry now So usually a counts receivable would go up and the other side would be going to To revenue driven by the items over here But what I want to do what I want to have happen is I want the work in process to go down in the billions account So if I think about it We're gonna say a counts receivable would normally be debited and so the Credit I'm gonna say it's going to work in process. So this is gonna be my work in process thing and That'll be the positive number of Just the straight or one oh oh oh one point two one oh oh oh one point two This is gonna go to class number two again And then the other side is gonna go to the billings. Hopefully I went the right way if not then I'll just go back In and fix it. It's not a big deal. Don't have to stress out about it or anything Don't get crazy if I'm doing it backwards because I'll just go back and fix it So there it is and this should be negative So now What's this gonna do? Well accounts receivables not gonna happen and then I got a tube that to cost a good sold I got to take something to cost of Goods sold so let's make another item Let's make it a service item. It's gonna be close Out to cost of goods sold item Just to zero this thing Down it needs to go to the cost to good sold account Just to zero it out because it's in material. This is in material It's not significant so we're gonna say okay and that needs to be for the 1.2 class 2 I Went the wrong way with that. This needs to be negative Okay, so that should do it right right All right, let's save it and close it and see what happens if I go to my report over here running now It closed it out again, and then if I go into this worksheet Everything is being recorded basically with an invoice, but I used like this invoice to just record a journal entry but The reason I thought that might be useful is because then if I sort this by Customer Then then the customer name is exactly the same so if you filtered by name Or something like that then it'll all be the same even though the journal entries seem to still pull in You know by customer, but everything kind of matches in this account. So if you sorted by any of these line items It should it should you would think it would it would be easier to filter for different options I would think the other side billing same thing Billings over here is now I zeroed it out with an invoice so it kind of matches everything else and then if I went to my internal stuff over here and I I see I could see the invoice and I might want to put in the in the memo Of course, this is the close to close out to close out like close out in transaction Or something like that save it and close it so that I can see that this so I've got all these invoices in Here that aren't actually going to the customer, but any invoice that has a zero balance I can I can safely assume is an internal invoice and as opposed to the ones that have balances and so that Works pretty well and I get to see all the detail of everything that's happening in this screen as opposed to if I had a journal entry where I can't really see everything in This screen now the last thing you can do to close this thing out as we can go to the project over here and We can say that I want to close out This project because we're done dude dishes are done, dude, and so I'm gonna say this is gonna be completed completed All right, so then it's done and so if I go back on over here now we've got the project has disappeared It's gone if I go back to my reports then I can run the reports by class I can run it for the full year here if I go to the tab to the right I can see it and a profit and loss format if I duplicate that I can also see the income statement Let's do the whole year 1231 25 and break it out by class because I did the class thing as well So we can have a classy report as well as a monthly report the last one was to monthly I prefer to have more class in less months less monthiness and more classiness It's any case then it breaks it out by class and it gives us that nice total at the end and I can duplicate this again and We can see reports on the left-hand side and we can check out the reports for the pro for the project project Summary report and I can make that from<PHONE_NUMBER> 25 and run it So there's our information By project and this one's nice because I can I can filter it, right? So I could say I just want the open projects for example So I've got my nice filtering field over here where I can say that I have the project status of If I just want the the Open project so in progress projects. So that's the number one because number two has been closed at this point in time So that's a nice Kind of feature if you look at the if you look at the projects In this format the classes are going to be pulling up all the projects that are within the class now You could go into the class field and Indicate that this project is closed with a with something You know you can mark it off to indicate that that class is closed and this class is open or something Put a C after it or o after it in your in your class fields or something like that


Welcome to An monde in Top як TV here is theеваen News Daily. According to reports today, 777 have asked for an extension with regards to paying off MSP, who have loaned evaenn money to do the stadium, there was apparently a deadline of April-15 or a target date it's now being reported, not a deadline a target date of Monday. 15 April to pay that off, the report that they say in a 777 was for an extension on that, but they still expect to finalise the deal for heaven football club by late next month. That is the latest report today, this is what Sky Sports News are going with saying they expect to complete the takeover late next month. It is becoming massively boring this story now, it's the same thing every couple of days, there's something else, this, that and it's hard to know where the truth is, is it the Premier League, is it 777, is it other people, is it somewhere in the middle, who knows, but one thing's for sure, what heaven football club is suffering massively because this isn't concluded one way or the other, I don't really know what else to say other than that and maybe 777, I don't know what there is in heaven there before they fully take the reins, who knows, who knows, but that is the stuff doing the rounds today. I'm fair that to that, there was reports before this story come out from football inside of that, it's 777, do you get older the club, they've been looking to replace heaven manager Sean Dyche in the summer, I'm replacing with someone more exciting because they don't want a firefighter in charge of the team, well last time I looked he was a football manager, hex football he wasn't a firefighter, but there you go, and again that can be just anything kind of he is say people, people guessing, doing whatever, but that was, you know, is that called into question now with the latest stuff, so it is all one big mess at the moment heaven football club and everything that is around it and this comes in a week when we've had the point deductions and everything else, so yeah it's becoming more and more difficult to process what is going on in our football club it really is. On a bright note, Everton today being linked with a move for Bruj midfield player Raphael Ongodica, 22 year old player joined Bruj from Mitterland in 2022 for 10 million euros. Everton have watched him on a number of occasions, he has played 79 times for Bruj, got three goals and two assists. Efytna joined by Crystal Palace and Nottingham Forest in admiring the midfield playmaker and obviously this would be... I guess in response to Amadu O'nanna leaving a football club that seems to be what is going around. It's expected that O'nanna will move on this summer and E Heavyna targeting his replacement and Onyadika is one of those apparently so we'll see whether there is any legs in that one. That is it for the news daily. Give the video a thumbs up, subscribe to the channel if you haven't checked out the 1878 FM podcast as well, which is out now. We'll see you later.


Hello again. Today's question is, perhaps on the face of it, a very simple one, but one for me that is the epitome of what we're trying to do. And the question is, what is permaculture? Now, many people who are familiar with permaculture, when you ask them that question, they'll usually say, hmm, that's a tough one. And there's a reason for that. Because when we're doing permaculture, essentially what we're trying to do is to mimic the ease with which nature meets her needs, if you like. So if we look at all of life around us, we're surrounded by permacultures. In fact, permaculture is what life has been doing ever since it evolved on earth apparently three and a half billion years ago. So why do we need to focus on that if everything's already doing it? Well, the thing is that we have made decisions in the last few hundred years that have disconnected us a little bit from nature. And that has brought us many gifts.  Those things have come about because of those disconnects, if you like, those decisions that our ancestors made. So it's not about blaming them, it's just saying, okay, so we've created all this amazing stuff and here we are. And actually if we step back and look at some of the things that we've done that we've created, they can be very clever, but also they've created some vulnerabilities. And so permaculture is looking at our landscape and how we meet our needs and saying, where are the vulnerabilities? How can we do those things better? And there's a couple of significant things that have disconnected us from nature. And the first one was to decide to settle. So most of human history and much of the rest of nature, if you look around, everything moves. And most of our ancestors have basically up until a few thousand years ago, our ancestors were nomads. They moved around, they gathered, they hunted, depending on where they lived. And then there's a certain point in history where agriculture appeared and people started to grow food and stay in one place in order to care for those crops, if you like, because when you start planting things, they become attractive to other things. So our ancestors settled and as people, some people settled obviously that put pressure on the people who were moving around to then either go somewhere else or to come into conflict or to settle themselves. And so we now live in a world which is primarily settled and we live in little boxes with, you know, this is my bit and some of us have much more than others, but essentially we all stay in one place. And we use a lot of energy in order to stop everything else moving. So even within the kind of nature conservation, you have people who are trying to keep this particular place as this kind of a habitat. And that can involve stopping nature, doing what nature wants to do, because nature wants to change that habitat into something else. It wants to turn a heath into a woodland, for instance. And if the heat is considered an important habitat, then we pull out the trees in order to keep it a heath. All of this takes a huge amount of energy. And we're only able to do it because of the gift of oil. And so along came the OPEC oil crisis back in the 1970s. And a couple of Australian chaps started looking at that and saying, hang on, we're very vulnerable to the problems with oil. If oil runs out or the price goes up, or it becomes very difficult to get hold of what happens. And so permaculture is really focused around that. And so what do we do if we don't have so much oil in the future? And of course, technology comes along and says, don't worry about that. We have hydrogen, hydrogen is just a way of carrying energy. It's not generating energy. We have nuclear, but nuclear again has proved not to be especially safe, and it has lots of inherent problems. And I did a degree in physics. And I was still not convinced by the nuclear argument, even having sat through a very pro nuclear education, if you like. And so, so permaculture is looking and say, well, nature, the rest of nature runs on the laws of physics, gravity, in particular, conduction and convection of energy and such. And so how can we work much more in the same way that nature does use the same materials that nature does, as much as possible, look at how we supply food and water and energy to ourselves. And just look at those vulnerabilities and say, how can we improve them? And so permaculture encourages us to learn from nature. There's a set of principles that come out of studying nature, guiding principles that can help us with deciding what to do, and so on. But essentially, what permaculture is about is creating a permaculture, human permaculture to meet our specific needs. And that has to be very much about where we are, because if I live in Russia, it's a very different climate from living in the equator, for instance, very different conditions, very different cultural history, very different body type really adapted to living in that place, very different foods will grow in that place. And so permaculture, we can't just make permaculture just like that, or from a recipe, we have to understand where we are. And so permaculture starts by observing where we are, looking at what goes on in that place, and how might we put components, things that work well in that place together in a way that to meet our specific needs in that place. And so essentially, when we ask the question, what is permaculture, we're saying, what is permaculture to meet my needs here, and it will be very different from permaculture for you in your place to meet your specific needs. And that's why we use a process of design, which is what my book, of course, is all about permaculture design, how do we go about going from where I am here, now, with the needs I have and the things that I don't have security with things that are vulnerable, perhaps food supply, water supply, and so on. And how do I get to a place where those things are more secure? And not just for me at an individual scale, but also for my community in the bioregion I live in and so on. So what is permaculture? Well, that's very much a question that you have to ask yourself where you are. But there are many tools in permaculture that will help you answer those questions. And I wish you a lot of fun in finding out.


A i ddim yn fath aeth –uredd, o'ch bod y cyfnodd cymrydol yn fath i ddod i'ryearn cyfeirio'n prynlluniaid, mae fyddwch fod yn gwneud o'r cyfnoddmem o'r cyfnodd yn y lleolol. Ond mae'n ddigwydd o'r cyfrannu i fath i gyfnodd y cyfnodd, ond mae'n fath i ddweud o'r cyr Burie i gydurio'r cyfrannu lleolol a siaradau o'r cyfnodd a mae'n ddigwyddio ddweud o'r cyfrannu lleolol i gynnwys Petaer, yng nghymru. Scotland is dirty. There is no way round this, and the amount of litter bears this out, in spite of well-meaning local initiatives such as Letha's Don't Litter and many others across Scotland. These measures can make a difference in the local area, and they are setting the exact example that we need to see replicated on a national scale. Unfortunately, the problem of litter is more prevalent in Scotland than in almost any other developing country. Gerry and Souza Farrell of Letha's Don't Litter are, amongst others, running a determined campaign that is spreading the message about the problem we face and what we can all do to help. As they have highlighted, problems include general rubbish, dogfowing, overflowing bins, flytipping and takeaway cartons. As for tackling this problem, they are right to highlight the difference from adopting a street and using a simple litter picker if locals make that effort for their own communities and such initiatives spread across Scotland, we can see the lasting difference we need. Having said that, local authorities also have a large role to play here. As well as clearing up reported messes, they must do their utmost to clear litter before it has to be reported and, of course, improve their standards in bin collection. It is not just the duty of councils because the key here is education. We have to educate people not to leave litter, and this education has to start in nurses from the age of three or four. I heard recently that in Germany they actually have litter classes for primary children and they all grow up having due regard to the problem of litter. The fines here seem to make no difference at all, although they have recently been increased. The problem is that when you see so many people dropping litter and you ask them to pick it up and say that they shouldn't drop litter, some of them just give you the happy motoring sign or tell you to go and see a taxi-dermist. The public, therefore, are not willing to confront littered out or littered droppers. Somebody phoned me the other day to say that they had seen bottles being thrown out of a car window, which is totally unacceptable. All I could do about this was honk my horn loudly to show just approval, but even this can lead to aggressive road rage. The other problem that we have seen is that when grassverges are mown and cleared on a country lane, nobody stops to pick up the litter that has been left, so it just blows all over the place. During this summer, this is what started on the debate, I telephoned Edinburgh Airport to say that there was an awful lot of litter on the approach road to the airport, left after the grass had been cut. I was told that it was not their responsibility to sit around in the council, so I then phoned the council and said that it wasn't theirs, but the airport. However, I don't know what happened, but it was cleared up very quickly. The solution, I think, is that people should be employed who mow the lawns and tend the verges, could pick up the litter while they're at it. It doesn't make much initiative, surely, to have a bag, as they do in other countries, to strap down your waste for picking up litter while it's being left. Another problem is the collection of rubbish bags in the street, and with the council now cutting back on the collections, it is even more important that the bins or boxes are both gull proof, weather proof and out on the correct day. I don't think we need litter wardens, however much we might want them, because the council wouldn't be able to fund them and there's no way of controlling them anyway. After all, if the other countries don't have them, why do we need it? Why is it necessary in Scotland? The problem surely is becoming a scourge, and I feel we should be tackling it head on. So what do we do about it? We've had these debates before in the Parliament, I've looked them up and they've just gone on and on. As I said before, it's all about, I think, education. We have to educate people not to drop litter and to put it in their pockets until they get to a bin, rather like trying to deal with the proposal of dogfowling. It cannot be a coincidence that countries like Switzerland and Austria, and even to a lesser extent, northern Italy, have a lot less of a litter problem than we do. It gives Scotland such a bad name and all the tourist brochures extoning the virtues of this beautiful Scottish countryside, it just takes a few pieces of litter lying around to destroy that image. Personally, I don't think straight panels are the answer, as they have to be enforced, and this also seems to be a problem. They have to be enforceable. We need to shame people into not dropping litter and also encourage children from a young age not to drop any litter at all. Perhaps we could have more dedicated days in schools that encourage children to pick up litter. Some initiatives like this might work. We must also remember that education initiatives have to extend beyond schools into adult life. Promoting awareness of the scourge of litter and what we can do about it has also to reach parent, dogwaters, takeaway owners and indeed adults across Scotland. The many local worthwhile initiatives are excellent for raising awareness locally, but we have to make sure that their example is spread nationally through education. Accordingly, I hope that this debate will play a small part in the collective effort that is needed to spread the benefits of local initiatives, like lethers don't litter around the country, and try to keep litter off our streets. Many thanks. We now turn to the open debate speeches of four minutes or so. Please check Brody to be followed by Alec Rowley. I thank Cameron Buchanan for bringing this important debate to the chamber tonight. I brought a similar one some three years ago. Litter costs Scotland over £53 million, each year monies that could be better spent on other services. It's a scourge, it's a blight. It decries any sense of proper national behaviour with regard to rubbish. It affects public health, the environment and landscaping. Scotland brought forward its first national litter strategy in June 2014. It is not working. The strategy identified ways to encourage people to take personal responsibility through communication, infrastructure and enforcement. However, it does not. In my view, local authorities certainly do not. I did at the time propose that on chewing gum, for example, we should apply 10-pence levee on chewing gum to avoid the chicken pox that destroys our pavements and our streets. Of course, it is a matter of personal responsibility. In the end, we will pay for it either as taxpayers or as customers of goods and services. There is now an £80 penalty if people are caught, which can discourage future offending. However, still today, the mess that lies in the streets amounts to something like £1.2 million, which could be a recycle and generate income for the appropriate authorities. We can influence behaviour when we work together. I have to commend Glasgow Council for its time-or-fine initiative where, if you cannot afford to pay the fine, you spend time picking up the litter that has been created. When we look at our attitudes to recycling 10-15 years ago, there has certainly been a societal change on recycling. There is still a lot to do, but the awareness is much greater. We need to ensure that we promote the social change in littering and fly tipping to the same effect. We can do that in a number of ways, making better use of materials that may end up as litter or fly tipping. The whole packaging industry needs to consider biodegradability packaging much more so than it does now. Ensuring our communities that are cleaner and safer is essential, where we live and where we do business. That will ultimately lead to a reduction in the damaging consequences of litter and fly tipping to our wellbeing and environment. Information, of course, is key in delivering our goals. We need to explain to people what the right thing is to do with waste. That starts with the schools. We need to educate. Along with education, there is now a need to ensure that we have the proper infrastructure in place. We need to work with the business and designers to ensure that their products can be recycled in the first place. We need to ensure that there are incentives and support in place to support activity that delivers litter-free environments. However, along with that, there needs to be, and has to sit alongside it, a meaningful enforcement, effective laws and procedures that deter littering in the first place. To deliver the strategy that we need to businesses, the resource management industry itself, the Scottish Government, local authorities and, of course, the third sector, including environmental charities and local community groups. Local authorities in bid districts are encouraged to apply for funding. Where that has been implemented, it has actually resulted in an average of 38 per cent drop. I would encourage much more of our local authorities to specifically create social enterprises or community enterprises to take over the management and cleaning up litter. If Scotland is to be home to tourists, if it is to secure Scotland, there is a beautiful country that we know it is. Government, local authorities, businesses and schools have to work together to push for the changing culture and behaviour that is very much needed. I would also like to thank and congratulate Cameron Buchanan for securing this member's debate today. On what is a really important issue to people's everyday lives, it cannot be stressed enough the impact of living in a housing estate that is continually littered up on the ground. I would also like to say that I always make the assumption that the majority of people are responsible and the majority of people are caring and would not litter up their streets or their public parks and would not just simply walk away and would clean up at the back of their dogs. It is a minority that tends to cause the major problem, but a problem is that if you live in a housing estate, for example, and it is fully littered, it impacts on the environment in which you live in, which can impact on the health and wellbeing of that environment and the residents that live in it. That is how important the subject is. Therefore, it is disappointing that there is a national strategy that is in place that does not seem to be working and perhaps we need to be asking the question if it is not working and the minister can perhaps pick that up, if the national strategy is not working, what is it that we can do about that? I would say that, as a former council leader, where you are faced with making cuts in budgets and you have the choice between the grass verges that Cameron Buchanan mentioned being cut four times a year or once a year or cutting into school budgets, then I am afraid that the grass verges is going to come first every time. The reality of that is that, as we have seen in the summer when you see the grass verges getting cut perhaps once, is that because they have not been maintained and the grass is so long, people have a tendency just to throw rubbish into the long grass and when that is cut it is an nightmare. That, in itself, is difficult. We have also seen a reduction in the amount of wardens, for example, that are in place. Again, if your choice is to cut wardens or to cut education to your children, then I am afraid that the wardens will come first. It is important that the local authorities recognise the importance of that. If they are under pressure and their budgets are under pressure, I am afraid that often that will be what goes first. My experience has been in five. We have had problems with dogfile and I did street surgeries throughout my constituency throughout the summer. Dogfile and came up as an issue in many parts of the constituency. Where the council has been very proactive, where they have put signs up, where they have put phone numbers up to report people and where they are clearly willing to act and find people who will not clean up at the back of their dogs, then something is done about it and you can see improvements taking place. Enforcement is important and we need to recognise that if we are going to tackle the problem. It is true that education is also really important. If you look at the recycling rates in Scotland, I am pleased to say that it is the highest recycling rates in Scotland. Part of that came around because there was a big push through the schools on the eco schools and recycling was part of that. If you like, it was the education of the children that was basically pushing constantly with their parents, with their grandparents, within the community to recycle. That had a big impact on us achieving the type of recycling that we are very proud of in five. Education is important, but I remember visiting a school last year and the pupils had been across in Germany. I was asking them how they got on there. They stressed to me that one of the first things that, when they got off the bus in Germany, their guide said to them is, whatever you do, do not drop any litter, because it is simply not tolerated in this country. Therefore, perhaps we need to get to that point where in every community it is simply not tolerated here. I think I am out of time, Presiding Officer, but again I would say to come and we can and congratulations for bringing this debate here. Hopefully it just does not stop today, but we actually say what is working, what is not working, because this is a very serious issue for people and for communities across Scotland. I thank Cameron Buchanan for raising this motion and securing debating time on what I think we all agree is a very important issue. Scotland is a country that is well renowned for its beauty, not only our vast rural landscapes but our towns and parts of our cities. However, such places are all too often tainted by an abundance of litter on the streets and waterways of our towns and countryside. As someone who has never so much has dropped a sweetie paper in my life, I find it shocking, incomprehensible and quite frankly distressing that in 2016 this is still a problem. Some 250 million pieces of litter are picked up every single year, a figure so high that it is hard to fully contemplate the number of people who must actually have discarded it. Reducing litter must be tackled. Sadly, not everyone is aware of the impact that rubbish has not only in the environment in Scotland's wildlife but also in people's health and wellbeing. While short-term ways of dealing with litter may work for a while, the only lasting way to stop this problem is by going straight to the source. Public attitudes to littering must change. There is no way around the fact that the responsibility for littering must always come back to the culprits. The very definition of littering itself must be challenged for our most people appear to be absolutely against ever deliberately littering. They view accidental littering perhaps only being a small amount or there only being a little bit here and there or perhaps because of a lack of bins or whatever as a different matter, but it is attitudes such as these that must be challenged. People are generally embarrassed about admitting to littering, so charging any littering could be helpful. However, as Cameron Buchanan pointed out, this could be met with aggression, so people must always be cautious. Of course, there have been moves in the right direction. Introducing a charging scheme for single use carrier bags in 2014 was a huge step forward towards cleaner and healthier streets in Scotland. Figures from the first year following the introduction of the charge showed that the number of plastic bags given out in shops fell by a massive 80 per cent, equivalent to 650 million bags. Not only that, but the scheme saved over 4,000 tonnes of material when taking account of factors such as increased use of bags for life and, as we all know, significant amounts of money were generated for charity too. Schemes like this help to change the public's attitude to the environment and what they are doing with our resources. This allows at least some pressure to be taken from local authorities who lie heavily under the burden of cleaning up litter. 15,000 tonnes of litter are cleared by local authorities every single year, and this work is costly. Included is around 4,000 tonnes of tobacco-related litter such as packaging and cigarette butts, so another reason to give up smoking. It is therefore extremely important to applaud the work of charities and volunteer groups who dedicate their efforts to helping to keep the streets of Scotland clean. The work that those communities do is invaluable, and they not only set an example to others on how to keep their streets clean, they can encourage others to fall in their footsteps. My own constituency I have carried out a Cumbria beach clean once a year for nine consecutive years involving the local community. Wearing Hive as Vest with Volunteer and Keep Scotland Beautiful helps to make people think, called Burning Community Council, carries out six such days a year, and others take place across my constituency from Beath to Fairleigh to Arran. The Arran litter volunteer network is at the forefront of such action, organising groups wherever possible. Such groups must be applauded as they work, they do not only keep Scotland streets clean and safer, but it helps to alleviate pressure on local authorities and allows them to use their time and resources on other things. I have long been an advocate of the Adopt a Road scheme, which works so successfully in North America, where groups, individuals or businesses take responsibility for keeping a given stretch of road free of litter working closely with local authorities. Schools work hard to inculcate responsibility for not littering. Indeed, adults are more likely to be responsible and so is their attitudes that must be focused upon. Scotland is rightly considered beautiful by many visitors, but it also finds it dirty by the standards of other European countries. In 1985, I had a German girlfriend who invited her parents to stay in Scotland for a fortnight with her. They left after three days because the country was just too dirty in their view. I found it profoundly embarrassing. We must work together to reduce litter and thereby change perceptions of Scotland for the better. I would like to congratulate Crawford McAnon for bringing forward this very important debate, but I also apologise to him, the cabinet secretary. I have to leave as soon as I have finished speaking. I should not really be speaking on this debate because I am due at a meeting very soon in my constituency, but I could not speak when I saw the motion because, obviously, of the reference to lethers do not litter. I will briefly mention education and enforcement, but I think that what struck me most recently is the contribution of voluntary groups to this effort. Of course, that has been brought to my attention because the amazing campaign of lethers do not litter has only been going for a few months and yet it has engaged large numbers of people in the community. It is certainly something that, when I have a bit more time on my hands in seven weeks' time, I personally would want to get involved in. One of the key things that they are doing is adopting a street, which is, of course, the concept that Kenny Gibson described a moment ago. If you go on to the Facebook page, people can sign up to adopt a street. Clearly, there is a focus on litter, but there is also a focus on dogfowling. They had a post a few days ago that there had been dog poo found even in a children's playground. That has prompted them to organise a demonstration of responsible dog walkers inleth. That, obviously, is again part of a community effort to put pressure on those who do behave in an antisocial way in relation to dogfowling, in this case, to change their behaviour. That is one of the best community initiatives that I have seen. I cannot speak highly enough of all the many people in my constituency who are involved in that effort. Clearly, they want to keep leth beautiful. Leth is beautiful. It is only spoiled by litter and dogfowling. If litter is bad, in my mind, dogfowling is even worse. I spoke about the example in the children's playground. I had an example from my own family last week, where my three-year-old granddaughter went to nursery school.  That is absolutely shocking from every point of view, from a health point of view, apart from every other objection to that. I really think that on that particular issue we have to have a special effort to change people's behaviour. I quite often say, not entirely jokingly, that any politician who could get rid of dogfowling in my constituency would instantly be elected to this Parliament, because I think that so many people feel so strongly about that issue. I think that enforcement is important. Education is obviously in schools, and I hope that perhaps there can be national campaigns about that, but perhaps particularly around the issue of dogfowling, I would suggest that there should be a national initiative and a national campaign. However, it has to be backed up by enforcement, and I do not see how culture change will be brought about unless there is a stronger element of enforcement. One of the problems is that there are not sufficient environmental wardens to catch people, and we understand the reasons for that, given council budget. However, another problem is that the fixed penalty notices that are imposed by environmental wardens are not always paid. In fact, on a very large number of occasions they are not paid, and then the fiscals are not willing to intervene. In a way, that offence has to be given a higher status. It is very serious antisocial behaviour, and there has to be an organised effort at the enforcement and legal level to deal with it, as well as the wider initiatives for cultural change. In the last 10 seconds, I will again pay tribute to Leithersdon litter. I cannot speak highly enough of the work that they have done and are continuing to do. Many thanks. Can I now invite Richard Lochhead to respond to the debate, cabinet secretary? Seven minutes please. First, I thank Cameron Buchanan for raising the issue once again in the Scottish Parliament, as many people have over the years in relation to the amount of litter on our streets. I can clearly see that all the members who have spoken in today's debate feel very strongly that litter is indeed a blight on our amazing country, and that those who continue to litter in Scotland are highly irresponsible individuals. Litter does affect the way we feel about where we live. Work can spend our leisure time, which in turn has a huge impact on a health and wellbeing. The numbers involved are truly jaw-dropping, with over 250 million items of easily visible litter dropped each and every year, as members have already mentioned. That is 26,000 tonnes of littered material. High-value littered items, such as plastic bottles and cans, would be worth more than £1.2 million if recycled again, as members have mentioned. Over £53 million of public money is spent each and every year tackling litter and fly-tipping. That is money that could be better spent on other important services in our society. Items that are littered or fly-tipped also pose a health hazard to both humans and animals alike, and we all know about the impact that marine litter can have on marine wildlife. Recognising all those negative impacts, the Government has launched a litter-free Scotland policy in June 2014, which was only about 18 months ago—our first-ever national litter strategy since devolution. So, 18 months is not a long time to properly evaluate its success or otherwise, given that this is an issue about cultural change in Scotland. As I said before, that is the first-ever national litter strategy in Scotland. As part of that, we did run a national media campaign against littering behaviour across television, radio and social media as well. As I mentioned, we also increased the fines for littering from £50 to £80 and for fly-tipping from £50 to £200 after the consultation that we had a couple of years ago. In October 2014, we introduced a charge in single-use carrier bags, a highly visible form of litter. That resulted in an 80 per cent decrease so far in the number of bags distributed over the first year of the charge, again, as Kenny Gibson mentioned. That is £650 million less bags being taken every year by shoppers in Scotland, which is good news in anyone's book. We have also committed over £575,000 towards Keep Scotland Beautiful's Clean Up Scotland campaign from 2013 to 2016. If members in this chamber have a view as to whether or not that organisation has delivered the goods for that resource or otherwise, we should hear about that. We are still hearing about the problem of littering in Scotland but, yet, Keep Scotland Beautiful and other organisations are being funded to make sure that a lot of activity is happening. A lot of that activity is happening to be fair and we all know that from the activity in our own communities. From April 2015, we introduced powers for Loch Lomond Nartroswch's National Park as well and other public bodies to issue fixed penalty notices. We are also continuing to explore the role that deposit return could play in Scotland in reducing littering and improving recycling quality at the same time. I certainly agree with many members that we need to find a fresh approach where necessary for some of those topics within the litter strategy. We also need to learn from what other countries are doing successfully that perhaps we are not doing in this country. So deposit return is not a new idea. It is new to Scotland and the rest of the UK. Of course, it works well in other countries and the Scottish Government has put in a lot of effort to ascertain whether that would work in Scottish circumstances. Zeroway Scotland was commissioned to carry out that work and we are now undertaking further research to look at issues such as the impact of deposit return in smaller businesses, corner shops, small grocers and so on. They would have to take back the returns cans or bottles and be part of that arrangement. Most likely, if that was to go ahead, we would have to make sure that we understood exactly how that would work in Scottish circumstances. However, this is a system that does work in other countries and if you attach a value to cans or bottles, people are less likely to litter it because they can go and get their money back. Or indeed others are incentivised to collect it from our streets and our communities because in turn they can raise money from doing that as well. That is certainly the experience in other countries. So deposit return could be if we decided to go for that in this country and that decision is yet to be taken part of a litter strategy as well. Tackling litter, again, as members have said, is about behavioural change. That is also very much a core part of our litter strategy. We are working with our partners to provide information, improve infrastructure and making enforcement more of a deterrent. We are encouraging people to take responsibility for their own behaviour. In addition to the national campaign mentioned earlier, Zeroway Scotland has developed a toolkit of signs that organisations around Scotland can then customise and use fee of charge. We are improving the infrastructure itself through our communities by funding an installation of over 3,300 recycling on the go bins since 2011, so more of them are now present in our communities. And we are supporting their use with the recycle for Scotland branding. Work is also on going to update the code of practice and litter and refuse, which covers the various ways in which local authorities in particular can intervene. We are bringing that guidance up to date to ensure that it supports our wider litter strategy. So we do know that real change will take time, innovation and commitment from everyone involved. I should also say another £500 million since 2014 has been invested in supporting innovative projects by local authorities and community groups to move away from simply cleaning up to also focusing on prevention. And these groups are helping to drive the behaviour change that we need to see. That has included Scottish Waterways Trust who are working to develop a crowdsourced approach to monitoring litter and raise awareness through working with school children. Other initiatives that have been funded through that are Greenspace Scotland, working with three communities to tackle litter and flytipping through a range of community-led green space and street improvements. So there's a whole range of actions under way at the moment and we know that littering behaviour costs Scotland £78 million in direct costs to our society and economy, as I've indicated previously. I think a bottom-up approach is very, very important as part of this debate and of course in Cameron's motion he talks about lethers don't litter. And I want to commend both Cameron for bringing that to our attention but also the people behind that fantastic initiative that Malcolm Chippen spoke about as well. I personally congratulate Mr and Mrs Farrell who founded that initiative and clearly looking at all the various actions that have undertaken and hearing about them today in the chamber. It's a fantastically successful idea and hopefully that's an example for other communities across Scotland to follow at the same time. I should make a personal mention of Pete Miners in Murray, my constituency, who tirelessly patrols the Lossymouth Riverbanks and collects lots of coastal litter in the Lossymouth area in Murray and gets a lot of press coverage for doing that. That's the kind of activity that we love to see local people volunteering to do and we owe them a huge debt. Indeed a young man called Joe Pernay phoned me at my office last week who is starting up with some others forest community cleanup group. And this is a young man who feels so strongly about what is to clean up the streets of forests and elsewhere that he's now started this campaign in that town. And I said to him of course that I look forward to working with him doing that. But all our experiences can give examples of people at grass roots level putting their efforts where their mouth is and going out there and cleaning up streets in the local community. And I think we have to do a lot more to encourage that and resource that in the years ahead. So we do a national voluntary effort across every town, village and city in Scotland. And I do believe that that will take us far along the road to having a much cleaner Scotland which is something we all want to see. And I thank members for their contribution today and I will certainly take away the good ideas I've heard about during this debate. Thank you. That concludes Cameron Buchanan's debate, keeping litter off streets and I now close this meeting of Parliament.


You won't know the narcissist is doing this. Narcissists like to keep secrets. They like to have things that are kept unknown and unseen by you. They have skeletons in the cupboard. They have discreditable facts that they wish to keep secret. But as long as they keep it a secret, it makes them feel powerful and in control. It makes them feel like they're better than you. But there is one secret that is worse than anything else. Which is something that most narcissists do. And you won't know that the narcissist is doing this. It will be hidden from you. They won't want you to see it while they are with you. You won't know that the narcissist has other sources of supply.  You won't know that they are being disloyal. But this is what they are doing behind your back. This is what they are hiding from you. This is the narcissist's secret. They're acting like they're loyal and committed to you. But they're either involved in sexual relations outside of your relationship. Or they may be emotionally cheating. They may be establishing a close intimate connection with someone else. Which is a violation of your trust. It's demonstrating a lack of loyalty. It's showing an absence of allegiance, devotion, obligation, faith and support. Because the narcissist made you believe that they were exclusive to you. They made you believe that you are in a committed relationship. But if you look closely, the signs were already there. The narcissist showed a lack of respect for you. They acted in an insulting way towards you. So if they didn't respect you in those aspects. Why would they respect you in being loyal? When a person cheats they are being disrespectful to the partner. And narcissists are very disrespectful. So it makes sense to assume that they would be cheating. They will flirt with other people. They will lead them on into thinking that they are single and available. Because they don't value you. They don't appreciate you. In their minds everyone is expendable. Because they're always looking for the bigger better deal. They're always looking for the next shiny new toy. And that is why they're able to turn against you. That is why they're able to get rid of you. That is why it's so easy for them to cheat on you. Narcissists are self-absorbed and they lack empathy. They lack consideration for other people. They're only concerned with their own profit and pleasure. So they do not care that they are being unfaithful. They do not care about how it might affect you. They do not care that they are keeping secrets. All they care about is getting what they want. All they care about is getting what makes them feel good. They have an intense and selfish desire for power and possessions. And they see people as their possessions. But they're never satisfied with the love that you give to them. They always want more. A person is never enough for them. They're always considering other prospects. They're always keeping their options open. Because they get bored easily once they know you're not going anywhere. Once they know that they've got you. They enjoy the chase. They enjoy the challenge. They enjoy seeking out other sources of supply. They're predators. And they cannot be tamed. They cannot be domesticated. But just because the narcissist is cheating. It doesn't mean they're with someone better. Narcissists often downgrade. And that is another reason why they will hide it from you. Because they're embarrassed. So they don't want you to know about it. Sometimes they may even return to their previous partners. Even those who may now be in relationships. Even those who may now be married. Narcissists like to be involved with people who are involved with someone else. They like to take people's things. Because they're very envious and jealous. They decide to have something that belongs to someone else. And if they can get it. It makes them feel powerful. It makes them feel like they're better than the other person. You won't know the narcissist is doing this. You won't know that they are cheating. But there are signs to look for. There are signs that can reveal to you what they are doing. You may start noticing that they are putting more effort into getting dressed. They may spend more time at the gym. They may focus more on their hair and makeup.  Or they will deliberately provoke an argument. So that you are no longer talking to them. And then they will have an opportunity to cheat. Without you being suspicious. But if you ever find out about it. They will say that you argued. They will say that you were not together. Or they will say that you hurt them. You upset them. So they needed someone to comfort them and make them feel better. But this is what they intended to do all along. They intended to cheat on you. If you catch them out. They will always have a reason for doing it. They will always have an excuse. They will try to convince you that what they did was not wrong. They will try to convince you that it wasn't cheating. It was just something they did because you made them upset. They will always blame you for their actions. They can't accept it. Because they know it doesn't make them look good. It's not how they want people to think of them. When the narcissist cheats. They will always leave you blaming yourself for their actions. It's a double blow.  But they also blame you for it. They will say that you were never there for them. You didn't care about them. But it has nothing to do with you. This is just what narcissists do. This is just who they are. They're greedy and selfish. And they get bored very easily. They're always looking for the bigger better deal. They're always looking for the next shiny new toy. So they're prone to cheating. It's inevitable when you're dealing with a narcissist. And you may not know about it. But trust and believe that it is happening. Because one person could never be enough for them. They're very good at hiding things. So you may never know about it. But just because you don't see it. That doesn't mean that it isn't going on. If they're not getting any attention or affection from you. They're getting it from somewhere else. They need attention. They need supply. They can't live without it. Thank you for watching and I'll talk to you soon.