What is up everybody, it's Stas here and in this video we're going to be doing an overall market update, taking a look at the Dow Jones, the S&P 500 and the NASDAQ. We're also going to be doing a trading update talking about what I did today in the markets as well as some stocks and ETFs that I'm watching and looking to trade right now in the month of November, heading into the month of December here in 2019. And as you guys read in the title, we're also going to be talking about the natural gas report, doing a breakdown, what numbers did we see there, as well as my opinions on UGAS and DGAS doing a technical breakdown and kind of what to look out for here over these next couple of weeks. But before we do get into that, all I ask from you is if you enjoy the video, you find value in this video, just simply go down below, hit that like button and consider subscribing if you do want to see further content from me and if you want to be a part of the Strive Smart community, the Discord group chats down below as well as the Facebook group. So without further ado guys, let's get into it and talk about the S&P 500 here and what it's doing today with about 23 minutes left here in the market. So if everything holds the way it is now, today's going to be yet again another red day, the second day in a row that has been a red day for the S&P 500.  They're not slowing down completely, it doesn't seem like they're breaking trend, but they're just simply slowing down after this huge run up that we've seen over these past, I guess you can say 10 days without a significant pull down, right? We've seen a huge run up ever since here, 3029 really, pretty massive run up without any huge retracement at the end of the day. So here we see from 3127 down to where we are right now, it's really not too big of a pull down, it's really just about 0.75% but based on this trend that I'm seeing here especially on the 5 day 5 minute, you know, this still seems like we could potentially fall even further, especially if we get rejected here officially by gapping down even further by this 180 S&P because as of now, we failed to break out of that which would have been a very big breakout towards the end of the day here for the S&P which leads me to believe and especially since we're trading below the 50 S&P and the EMA, you know, that leads me to believe that this thing could continue down here again until we do break out of that. Tomorrow, the futures are gapping up like extraordinarily, right? At that point in time, we're going to be running up again, we're going to potentially see another all time high and you know that the uptrend will be continuing, that's if that does end up happening. So those are a couple of things I'm watching out for here, you know, on the S&P 500, if we sell off, maybe we touch that 50 S or the rather the 180 S&P here on the hourly chart, that's definitely a possibility in my personal opinion and judging on this four hour chart guys, if we get all the way down to 3080 which would be a sell off of about another 20 points which really isn't too out of the ballpark here, I would consider that being a very healthy entry point if you want to go along in these markets, if you think that, you know, another all time high is around the corner. You could potentially trade, you know, SPY which tracks the S&P, if you want to play that dip, you can also trade maybe SPXL which is a leveraged ETF that tracks the S&P, these are some things you can trade if you want to play that dip on the S&P, right? So going to the Dow Jones right now guys, it's down about 47 points, down 0.17%, nothing really crazy today but if we zoom in to the 20 day one hour chart you can see all time high at around 28100 and ever since that day guys which was on the 19th, we had one red day followed by another red day, two red days in a row and today it's going to be if this holds the third red day for the Dow Jones. So if we see a further retracement, this could probably go I would say to around 27500 bucks, that's the next level of support I'm seeing, that would probably put us on top of that 180 S&P as well on this hourly chart. So that's where I'd look to see if the Dow could find a support, that's what I'm looking at there and if we go to the 5 day five minute which really reiterates my point as to there could be more downside here, we can see on the 5 day five minute just like the S&P the Dow is struggling to break out. We actually got rejected by that 180 S&A here, we're trending below the EMA as well as that 50 S&A. So this thing could definitely run down again right even further unless these futures gap up tomorrow and let's say we're doing something like this breaking out, that could indicate a green day and potentially an all-time high on the Dow. So just keep an eye on this, this is still looking a bit bearish in my opinion, it's just worth noting and worth keeping an eye on. So the NASDAQ right now guys down 21 points, down a quarter of a percent and just like the Dow, the S&P this thing is seeing a retracement right, we've seen a massive run in these markets guys and they're finally slowing down a bit here and like I've mentioned this is completely healthy, this is completely normal, do not freak out right, but on the hourly chart you can see you know 83.79 is the peak here, now we're trading at around 82.70, we've seen a retracement of about 1.2 percent and at the end of the day guys that's really nothing, we saw a huge sell off last year of 20 percent, imagine that right 20 percent last year, another sell off last year of 10 percent, so a 1 percent correction at the end of the day, it's really nothing which is why you know we saw on the 5 day 5 minute for the Dow and the S&P there could be some further downside here, maybe another half a percent before we do end up finding some sort of support and you can see that on the 5 day 5 minute on here as well, it's still down trending, we're not really seeing a full on breakout on the NASDAQ quite yet, so I'm going to be watching tech stocks tomorrow morning, futures of course, if these are gapping up this can completely go out the window in terms of the potential theory that the markets could fall even further here because that would be a technical break to the upside right, so keep an eye on which way we move in the morning, that's going to be extremely extremely important here for the trajectory of the market over these next couple of days, so let's talk about what I did today guys, today was a fun day for me trading, ACB which is a MJ stock that I actually bought a couple of days ago did quite well for me today and I actually traded it in two accounts, you guys saw I bought some ACB two days ago at about $2.28 per share, I literally bought like 70 shares, a tiny tiny position here and those shares believe it or not guys they're up like 30% right now, so I actually put another buy order in today at $2.80, a limit buy order in two different accounts, one of those was that same long-term account that I bought the shares in two days ago, so I have about like 400 bucks in that particular account, but the other buy in was in my day trading slash swing trading account where I ended up taking around a 4% gain on ACB on the swing, so right now I rather the day trade, so right now I'm owning about $400 in my long-term account and those shares guys, this is like the quickest growing position that I've seen in a while in terms of my long-term account, again these shares are up like 20% right now in two days which is crazy and this is because we'll talk about it in a little bit here, but MJ stocks they're seeing a lot a lot of optimism right now because of the federal ban they're voting, I believe that they won the vote, let me pull up the note right now since we're talking about it, you know historic vote to lift the federal ban on MJ, the bill passed on Wednesday by at 24 to 10, that was the the favor there 24 to 10, it includes provisions to expunge past criminal records and would introduce a 5% cannabis sales tax, so this is what's been running up these markets in terms of the cannabis markets over these past couple of days and we can see they're extremely bullish, these stocks you can see CGC, you know you can see all the other ones as well, heading into the close today, so these are going to be ones that I'm watching tomorrow as well right, so 280 I got in one account I'm holding it, I ended up exiting in the day trade account for a 4% profit, so that's pretty much all I did today in terms of day trading, I'm holding some other swing still guys like we talked about PayPal ended up selling out of Facebook, PayPal kind of bit me in the butt today, they acquired a 4 billion acquisition I guess it was yesterday or something like that and it seems like investors didn't like that because of the stock ended up dumping, I'm not too sure if the stock dumped because of that but it's a weird correlation because we can see you know over the past two days ever since we've gotten this news you know the stocks kind of fallen but I'm still holding on to PayPal and pretty much break even at this point, again I'm in Chipotle, McDonald's and what other ones am I in Shopify, I'm still holding I might cut that one tomorrow we'll see how it goes but that's what I'm doing right now in terms of my trading, so now let's talk about the natural gas report, we'll break down natural gas, a technical breakdown of it, UGAS and DGAS and kind of my thoughts around the subject, so first let's take a look at natural gas right now and I'm watching NGF 20 that is the ticker symbol and these are the natural gas January futures make sure you're looking at the January futures right now guys so open these up and this is what I'm looking at right if we zoom in a bit actually let's let's do that in a second here but if we look on the four hour chart first we can see like I mentioned in yesterday's video we're trading between 257 up to around 297 so we're in a 40 cent window right now that we've been trading in in terms of natural gas over these past couple of months really since I guess you can say the middle of August which was about three months ago at this point so one thing I'm seeing here is this does kind of seem like a short-term bottom at least for natural gas we hit 257 we held that quite nicely this was on the 19th right if we zoom in a bit we can see that we tested 262 and ultimately held that as a support now we're starting to fill the gap up to the next resistance which is at 266 another thing that I'm liking here from a bullish standpoint and just briefly looking at these technicals is this double bottom breakout pattern that we're seeing right now again we hit 257 we kind of consolidated at 260 we pulled down and retested 257 and we held it now we're breaking out so that is a double bottom bullish breakout which whenever we see a double bottom you always have to think in the back of your head like okay is this going to end up breaking out and in this case it is breaking out so tomorrow I'm watching to see the 266 level and from a bullish perspective you know if you have a bullish perspective you want to see a break above 266 and ultimately a test at this 180 SMA and of course a break above that test so you know you know this is this is looking good starting to reverse in terms of that perspective right because we broke above those moving averages but it's not quite there yet for a full on breakout that I want to see if I'm a bull here on natural gas which honestly guys I still am remaining bullish here over these next one to two months I definitely see more potential in natural gas so now let's zoom in a bit to the one day one minute so we can see the volatility right when the report was released then we'll look at the report so at 10 30 a.m. Eastern Standard Time is when the report is released right you can see here natural gas shot up sold off aggressively that's where we tested that 257 level like I said that's where we double bottomed and from there we broke out very viciously hit a higher high and now we're looking to close the market very very bullish right so like I mentioned all the time in these videos guys natural gas especially on Thursday when the report comes out it's extremely volatile it's up and down up and down up and down up and down right so let's look at Safari very quickly and talk about this weekly natural gas storage report so like I mentioned yesterday IR dot EIA dot gov is where you can get this report or you can simply just go on Google type in natural gas report it's going to be one of the top links if not the first link that comes up so let's talk about the numbers here we'll compare them to last week and look at some data from a year ago that was reported then we'll talk about some notes in my phone so we can see here for the week that ended 1115 which remember these reports are actually a week behind so in terms of these numbers in these different regions in the east we actually had a 23 billion cubic feet withdrawal of natural gas in the Midwest we had a 37 BCF withdrawal in the mountain region we had a two BCF withdrawal while in the Pacific we had a two BCF injection in the south central region we had a 33 BCF withdrawal in salt we had a 14 BCF withdrawal and in non-salt we had a 20 BCF withdrawal totaling to net change from last week being a 94 BCF withdrawal and the net change is really just this number subtracted by this number right giving us that 94 BCF withdrawal and this is the first withdrawal of this season and you know that this is a sign that the demand is starting to kick in and people are using this natural gas we're getting into that season where we're starting to see withdrawals right so a year ago we can see compared to what you know we have now we have a lot more production right now compared to a year ago right right now we have 36 38 and BCF in terms of natural gas storage compared to last year a year ago 11 15 18 we had 31 32 BCF so we have about 500 BCF more natural gas and storage right now so another thing worth mentioning is this withdrawal of 94 BCF actually came in on the high end and the high end meaning out of the 20 analysts that I was looking at yesterday and that we talked about in yesterday's video you know they projected a withdrawal from 65 BCF to about a hundred and 102 BCF so we came in on the higher side there at that 94 BCF level so how is this going to affect natural gas and you guys moving forward well the truth is what affects this storage is the weather guys at the end of the day the weather across the US the east the Midwest the mountain all these different regions that that we've mentioned and really how cold it ends up getting because the colder it is over these next couple of weeks next couple of months that really correlates to how much natural gas we use and the reason why you know natural gas ran up so much last year if you guys remember was because we a didn't have much production and B we actually had a ridiculously cold winter and there was a ton a ton a ton of demand of natural gas and let me show you guys what I'm talking about if you if you're more new to trading natural gas you guys and D gas right last year we ran up from 280 all the way up to $5 that's why we saw you guys go up so much in terms of a percentage and people keep asking me still like do you think you guys is going to 100 bucks 200 bucks and the truth is that's pretty mathematically impossible unless we had natural gas run up to those same levels and even then I don't think you guys will be up to those levels and the truth is because guys like I mentioned in yesterday's video there is a ton of production of natural gas right now we have much more in storage than we had last year as you guys can see based on the hardcore numbers the hardcore data and the weather is not supposed to be as cold as it was last year but then again guys you know these weather forecasts they're as wrong at the end of the day as these economists are economists have been projecting recessions over the past five years weather people they they always project things and they never come true right so at the end of the day that's why we have to wait and see how cold does it actually get will natural gas end up picking the upwards move here in terms of the trajectory of the trend that's another thing that I'm personally waiting for right so although these weather models you know over the past couple of days and like we talked about in yesterday's video they're not looking as cold as a lot of people would like at the end of the day you know we're still early on the season and a lot could change and a lot of unpredicted things could happen here a huge cold front could come and wipe out the US in the next month or two that we have no idea about at the end of the day so what I'm watching for is like I mentioned a couple of minutes ago what you know what direction is this going to pick are we going to run out and break above this 180 SMA combined with this this cold weather that we could potentially get here over these next couple of weeks are we going to get that formula to then run up natural gases prices with the demand kicking in across the country or since we have a lot of production let's say the flip side happens you know the weather doesn't get as cold as you know it did last year which again a lot of people are predicting let's say we don't see a cold weather a cold winter across you know in terms of historic numbers here let's say we have a warmer winter right this thing could definitely start to run back down especially if the demand for NG is weak in terms of natural gas let's say the demand is super weak and we start to really just sit on the supply we have this price could definitely definitely go down even further and that's kind of what I'm thinking right now at this point I'm still sitting on the sidelines just watching this because I see a lot of potential as I know a lot of you guys do but I just want to see what it does at this point we're so battered down you know this double bottom breakout could be something especially again if we break that 180 SMA which is kind of what I'm hoping for right now for you guys so that's kind of my thoughts the natural gas report breakdown all the numbers and just some stats to just keep an eye out for and just kind of my thoughts surrounding the subject so let me know down below in the comments what do you guys think about that now let's talk about some other stocks that I'm watching right now in the stock market other than natural gas you guys and D gas because I talk about those all the time so Johnson and Johnson is another one that's kind of been flying under the radar here over these past couple of days and it's been doing quite well breaking resistance level after resistance level so now we're trending in this range that we haven't been in since the middle of October I guess you can say about a month ago at this point so now we're trending between 135 and 140 so recently we broke 133 which was good and again we broke 135 just today or yesterday and now I'd love to see if this thing finds support here at 135 since there's a dividend coming up is this the payment date actually no it's not the payment date because I own Johnson and Johnson in terms of my long-term portfolio I know their payment date is in December I think it's on the 10th of December if I'm not mistaken so that might affect it because typically when stocks do pay dividends their share price does fall for that day a lot of the time so that could affect it but again that's in about three weeks from now so before that we could probably make a move here maybe up to 140 especially if people if we start to see some volume here before the X dividend date which this this could be why people are buying in right now believe it or not to get in on this dividend but there is a theory out there and a lot of people know this may actually many people don't know this that theory is kind of a myth in terms of buying before a dividend because that dividend essentially is lost from the price depreciation that the stock goes down after paying the dividend so if you're looking to buy a stock just to get the dividend and hop out you're likely not going to make money that way look into that it's actually pretty interesting and it'll probably you know be a learning lesson for you guys because I know a lot of people don't know about that so anyway you know if we profit on this in the short term here you know and try to exit before that that dividend payment to avoid the drop I think we could potentially make you know money up to 140 bucks which could be a 3-4% profit more 2-3% profit on Johnson and Johnson so another one that I'm watching is good old Tesla guys they're actually unveiling their good old Cybertruck today so I'm interested in seeing how that's going to fluctuate the stock do I have a position in Tesla no but it's always interesting to see how this stock moves especially when they have an event that's that's going on they're revealing something it's interesting because if the investors out there if the sentiment around it is positive it could fly the stock up fling that stock up if it's negative of course the opposite could happen so another one I'm watching guys is Neo Neo believe it or not did quite well today up 14 cents and a lot of people ask me Stas do you do penny stocks this and that the truth is I never day trade penny stocks anymore actually that's false because I did it today very very rarely do I day trade penny stocks do I hold penny stocks in my long-term accounts I do I own Neo and then of course I own ACB like I mentioned those are the only two stocks that I'm involved with right now that are penny stocks but this is actually opening up a decent opportunity for a swing especially because we're holding this $2 level of support here this is worth watching because last time we broke this level guys we ran straight to 250 so from 2 to 250 it's going to be a massive margin of profit again these penny stocks especially Neo they fly quick so this margin of profits around 17% so I'm watching this to see if it ends up breaking out and if it does end up breaking out it's going to look something like this this is arguably you know kind of like a bull flag here in my opinion you know if we end up breaking out you can see kind of the flag there if we end up breaking out like this I don't know why my cursor is not working but you know you guys know what I mean if we do something like that tomorrow that could trigger a reason to buy in my opinion for Neo and then we can end up grabbing that 17% sure we probably won't grab that whole 17% but maybe 5-10% out of it I think it's doable especially since Neo does have some positive news around it in terms of their deal with Mobileye the Intel subsidiary look into that if you guys have not yet so overall that's pretty much it PayPal again it's another one that we saw the deal with Honey Science the stock drop so that's one worth watching that's pretty much it without holding you guys too long let me know what you guys think down below in terms of these stocks natural gas you guys what do you think in the future I'd love to know if you guys enjoyed the video let me know down below by just simply hitting that like consider subscribing if you want to see further content for me and if you want to wear some Strive smart merch like I'm wearing right here if you want to buy a hoodie sweatshirt that is linked down below as well thanks again for watching I really do appreciate every single one of you guys as always peace out


Thank you for your interest in our virtual session entitled see you at Lily's a focus on LGBTQ plus cultural heritage documentation I am Cynthia Lachace Torres, and I am the manager of Arlington County, Virginia's Historic Preservation Program. My pronouns are she and her And I'm Katie Hummell an architectural historian with fire blinder bell architects and planners based in Washington, DC My pronouns are also she and her Our presentation will highlight our collaboration on a do an a new documentation effort to study LGBTQ plus heritage in Arlington County, Virginia We'll be discussing the life of gay rights pioneer and activist Dr. Lily Vincennes who moved to Arlington in 1969 and hosted a weekly gay woman's open house at her residence here in the county During our research we came across a poem from April 1976 written by Mary Ann Daly It is called Lily's commercial and we wanted to read an excerpt to you to give you a sense of the community that Lily fostered at her home You can come early you can come late you can come sober But don't come straight because even Noah Webster knew that gay means good And if you've never been to Lily's I reckon you should Carlin Springs to eighth place. I'm feeling all right at Lily's open house on a Wednesday night Before explaining our research, I first want to outline some learning objectives Through our session, you will be able to one Discover some of the research resources that can help identify significant LGBTQ plus properties both in Virginia and nationally to explore the history of the homophile movement and the development of a lesbian social community here in northern Virginia Through the life and activism of Dr. Lily Vincennes three Identify criteria under which properties associated with LGBTQ plus heritage could be eligible for the national register and for Understand relevant preservation issues such as how to assess existing historic sites through the lens of LGBTQ plus heritage How to consider sensitive public outreach strategies and ideas about historic interpretation possibilities We hope to inspire other groups and localities to consider similar documentation projects We also will share some of our lessons learned towards the end of our presentation I'll start with a quick historical overview of Arlington County in case you are not familiar with it Arlington is the smallest self-governing county in the united states and it is among the most densely populated It has an estimated population of more than 238,000 residents within just 26 square miles Arlington is the closest locality in virginia to the nation's capital And historically was known as alexandria county of the district of columbia until it was renamed arlington in 1920 Much of arlington's history is 20th century history This fact really helps define both the architectural fabric and cultural heritage that we celebrate today Arlington's built environment was shaped by its transformation from a rural agricultural area To a bustling commuter suburb with distinctly urban neighborhood villages clustered along its main transportation routes From the 1920s to the 1950s arlington experienced a population boom spurred by the rapid expansion of the federal workforce in the nation's capital There was a critical need for affordable plentiful housing for government workers With the creation of the federal housing administration or fha in 1934 Various programs helped finance military housing and homes for returning veterans and their families after world war two Arlington's proximity to washington dc and the planners and designers at the fha Allowed the county to become a testing ground for these new planning ideas and architectural prototypes Thus the garden apartment as a building type was born here in arlington First with colonial village a garden apartment complex built in 1934 And then followed by other examples such as buckingham courthouse manor and dozens of others In fact by the mid 20th century arlington boasted about 174 garden apartments and complexes Pictured here is maywood, which is an early 20th century streetcar suburb of single family homes That is both a protected local historic district in arlington and listed in the national register Also pictured is the barcrop departments a quintessential example of one of arlington's largest garden apartment complexes That dates to the 1940s and 50s But arlington county is defined by more than just its garden apartments and its architecture Due to our location in the county's department of community planning housing and development The preservation program is an active participant in many of arlington's major planning initiatives countywide In our work, we serve not only as advocates for historic resources But we also identify and research both people and places We educate the public about local history and cultural heritage As well as help manage changes in historic areas with the county's appointed historic preservation commission Currently our program helps steward 41 local historic districts 73 listings in the national register which equates to more than 12 000 contributing historic buildings 12 preservation easements and more than 100 historic markers Our preservation program is always seeking to diversify our listings and ensure that our preserved cultural landscape is equitable And representative of the various communities found throughout arlington There are several protected historic properties associated with historic african-american history, for example Including dorthy ham middle school pictured here and originally known as strattford junior high school This building has local state and national significance as the first public school in the commonwealth of virginia To desegregate on february 2nd 1959 But despite the variety of historic resources that our program helps oversee to date None of them are designated for their cultural value to local lgbtq plus history As briefly mentioned earlier These designated and are protected historic resources do not yet fully represent arlington's breadth of cultural identity and diversity Despite the county's rep reputation for being an exclusive For being an inclusive trailblazing and forward-thinking community To highlight this point as of 2019 54 000 arlingtonians were foreign-born and about 30 of households in arlington speak a language other than english at their home arlington's public school system includes students from 146 different countries with the most common country Countries of origin including el Salvador Guatemala, ethiopia honduras and mongolia with 107 different home languages spoken To help celebrate this diversity over the past decade Our preservation program has been making great strides to broaden our programmatic scope To emphasize a more inclusive sense of community identity As well as the importance of cultural heritage to understanding arlington's story We began by prioritizing cultural heritage projects Especially pertaining to both local african-american and vietnamese history Most recently we have expanded those documentation efforts to include lgbtq plus heritage And by prioritizing these efforts We are dedicated to telling a more inclusive narrative of our collective past While also providing an important act of repatriation to a community that has experienced disregard slander erasure or worse And the national park services publication lgbtq america a theme study of lesbian gay bisexual transgender and queer history Susan farantino's writes that studying cultural outsiders not only reveals insight into their experiences But also sheds light on the experiences of the mainstream and what behaviors are and are not considered normative in a particular historical era And according to the williams institutes lgbtq demographic data estimates. There are 250,000 excuse me 257,000 lgbtq individuals in virginia alone as of 2020 Which is approximately 3.9 percent of the state's population So how can we help ensure that the stories of these individuals are told? To work towards our goal of highlighting the stories of the lgbtq plus community in arlington Our staff began to identify potential sites in the county that merited future research Relying on information already collected by the state historic preservation office Which in virginia is the virginia department of historic resources or dhr We chose to collaborate with dhr on our documentation efforts given the commonwealth's ongoing lgbtq heritage initiative statewide In summary the goals of dhr's lgbtq heritage initiative include Engaging scholars preservationists and community members to identify research and tell the stories of lgbtq associated properties They encourage local governments tribes national parks heritage areas and other organizations to interpret their lgbtq stories They are working to identify and document lgbtq associated historic sites And they would like to increase the number of virginia listings of lgbtq associated properties in the national register of historic places To date dhr's work has been very broad and thematic And the state has been relying on individual localities to undertake detailed research and documentation Just a handful of jurisdictions in virginia Including richmond ron oak and the tide water region have begun to research their lgbtq plus heritage The fact that research had not yet gotten underway in northern virginia presented an opportunity dhr has been incredibly supportive of our documentation work here in arlington And we look forward to continued collaboration with them to eventually honor arlington sites in both the virginia landmarks register and the national register In november 2021 our preservation team partnered With arlington video group within the county government To produce a brief video featuring freddy's beach bar and restaurant freddy's which is located in the heart of the crystal city neighborhood near reagan national airport and the new amazon headquarters Is a focal point of arlington's lgbtq plus legacy To give you a sense of the importance of the story to our local and regional history We wanted to share that video with you now When people hear the phrase historic preservation, they likely think that it only involves old buildings Historically this has been true for the preservation field overall for decades nationwide efforts have mostly centered on preserving older buildings And preserving a primarily non-inclusive narrative But what about the preservation of less tangible cultural resources like stories traditions and community spaces? What about the buildings that are important for their ties to the community? Rather than for their architectural merit That's why we're here today at freddy's beach bar and restaurant One of the legacy businesses of arlington and the only lgbtq ia plus and straight friendly bar in the county freddy's is an integral part of the cultural heritage of arlington Join us to learn more about why preserving and recognizing spaces like freddy's matters I always say it's not done until it's over done And if you come in here at christmas, it looks like santa claus threw up in here We probably have the most diverse clientele of any bar i've ever seen in my life.  So I decided to bill us as straight friendly And some of my business cards say the only straight friendly lgbtq bar in north virginia. So I think it's it's nice that straight folks feel comfortable in here, too I think there's something about my art background and the Gay world colliding that just blew up in here The barbies one interviewer Asked me about and I said I've been collecting them since I was a little girl And he put that in the article which I thought was hilarious.  So when you open him up, he comes out of the closet It's pretty awesome adam sasso I think spent eight months with the company getting that doll made to absolute perfection The doll even talks It does the opening number for the drag show, which I do usually on saturday nights in here Sean was in charge of the largest battalion in the country at fort mayer And his spouse adam was a physician with the honor guard They were the first same-sex couple to lay a wreath at arlington cemetery and johnny and I got to witness that Eric fanning former army secretary under obama Kristen back. She's a former navy seal that transgendered Amanda simpson first-ever transgender presidential appointee in history obama appointed Amanda To the commerce department Gordon tanner former chief counsel for the air force All those people come in here on the occasion of the repeal of don't ask. Don't tell we were packed in here I they passed around two cocktail napkins and there must have been 30 signatures on there of former former generals Most of them women that were gay, but they weren't allowed to admit it So as somewhere I have those napkins saved. So that's the kind of military presence we have here I didn't realize it was going to be As big a deal as it really is. I mean, we're totally respected by uh Pretty much everybody the police the fire the county the state The governor flew a flag over us to commemorate our 20-year anniversary this year and Presented me with a proclamation amazon who seems to love freddy's reached out to me and they said We love freddy's and we'd like this was during covet We'd like to partner up with you to serve 10 000 meals to the first responders Which we did with the help of some of the local restaurants on the street I had I was here at a sundae brunch and This one for summaries always sticks out in my mind. There was a family with A five with three little redheaded kids and they were just adorable And the dad said to me the little one said I want to go to the rainbow place See that uh flag in that rainbow The box with the rainbow stars So tammy smith first ever out brigadier general in the army presented that to me on the stage here And she flew That flag on the occasion of the repeal of don't ask don't tell over boron airfield In my honor for providing a safe place for the folks from The pentagon to hang out at and When I stepped off the stage this boy came up to me very attractive boy and he said, you know, I met my partner here thank you so much and it's uh The three little redheaded kids and that That mean a lot Thank you for joining us today. I hope you learned something new about the importance of cultural heritage And how it helped tell a more inclusive story of arlington's history and character In addition to freddie's there are many other examples of restaurants throughout arlington that contribute to the cultural heritage And the diversity of the county Many can be found along columbia pike in clarendon in buckingham and in several other neighborhoods I hope you feel inspired to advocate for the local places people and stories that matter to you And that make arlington such a special place and maybe i'll even see you here at freddie's We hope that you enjoyed that glimpse into freddie's and can appreciate its cultural importance And so now let's bring our attention back to lily in july of 2021 buyer blender bell architects and planners approached our preservation program about partnering on a documentation project Related to arlington's lgbtq plus heritage We were eager to collaborate and decided to embark on a pilot project together To study the history and significance of an arlington specific site So now i will turn the presentation presentation over to katie Thank you, sythia My firm buyer blender bell and i personally have been incredibly grateful for the experience and opportunity to work with sythia and her team And participate in this documentation effort with arlington county It's been so incredibly interesting and rewarding to learn about the lgbtq history and the community through this project After some initial conversations With arlington county and with the virginia shippo We enthusiastically started our research to identify lgbtq plus sites that would be good candidates for a more detailed research study Our first step was to familiarize ourselves with the existing online resources Especially several of the historic context statements that have been recently published Which provide excellent understanding of lgbtq history themes They discuss historical constructs of gender and sexuality and consider preservation specific topics in 2019 The dc historic preservation office released their context context statement for dc's lgbtq resources Due to the proximity of dc and arlington many aspects of the dc context statement can be applied to northern virginia dc was the regional epicenter of the lgbtq plus community and many of arlington's residents likely socialized at the various lgbtq friendly establishments in the city That said we cannot rely on the dc context statement fully and are still dedicated to learning about the lgbtq plus experience That is specific to arlington county Preservation maryland and the maryland historic trust also published a historic context study In 2020 which provided some very helpful guidance and reiterated some of the challenges to be aware of when approaching lgbtq plus history and preservation For example changing historic constructs of gender and sexuality Mean that people in the past understood their identities and desires in ways that are entirely different from how we understand ours today This means that while we make glimps motivations actions and desires in the historical record that resonate with our contemporary understandings We will not find pre 20th century references that adhere precisely to our 21st century constructs explicit evidence of same-sex activity let alone transgender Or other lgbtq plus identities is extremely rare until the 20th century For so long the lgbtq community has been relegated to the fringes of society Meaning that they have largely Socialized and organized in secret which can make it difficult to find their stories and historical records Reliable archival material can be difficult to find and may require Researchers to look at existing collections with a renewed perspective and focus on finding these out-of-sight narratives In many cases collecting oral histories is critical to bringing the long undervalued and overlooked stories to light the national park services lgbtq heritage theme study that was released in 2016 is also an excellent resource It mentions many lgbtq Histories and places across the country and includes And includes an appendix that identifies all the locations that are mentioned in the text So it's a great place to start for anyone who wants to complete similar research Though virginia does not have a historic context statement of its own The shabo has assembled a variety of research materials available on this website That include an lgbtq timeline of history in virginia and the us A relevant laws and legal cases a list of lgbtq persons of virgin from virginia of note and a list of virginia places associated with lgbtq heritage Although this did not include any places from northern virginia, let alone barlington county several online resources Mapping resources and archives were also helpful in our initial research History pin dot org is a crowdsourced mapping website with a map Of lgbtq america, which pins a lot of the places that are mentioned in the historic context statements Um mapping the gay guides is a national endowment for the humanities funded project that maps listing listings from the damron address books that date from 1965 to 1980 started by businessman bob damron the address books list um A bars and public spaces that were friendly to gay men They were in effect similar to the green book used by afric americans while traveling during the jim pro era In 1965 only five locations in virginia were listed and none of them were in northern virginia However, there were 14 listings in washington dc Which reflects the social ties between those two locales In 1975 the wooded area of the ewojima memorial was the first location listed in marlington It was known as a cruising location for gay men looking for anonymous sex The guides used a code of letters and symbols to designate certain features of the listings D was used for dancing oc for an older crowd and b for blacks frequent Hot men sites that were dangerous and could be rated by police In 1978 the damron book explicitly warned against cruising at the ewojima memorial Stating that there were quote murders muggings and arrests the lord and quote We also found several online archival resources that include the rainbow history project and the GLBT historical society museum archives that's east in san francisco that provides a great online repository of information and collections The library of congress also has an informative reading guide that offers information on on their lgbtq plus related collections And is a good content then provides good contextual information as well So based on this initial research, we were able to identify a number of sites connected to individuals or events highlighting lgbtq plus history They included the residences of dr. Lily Incense a gay rights activist Carl and rizzi a well-known drag queen and jay fizette the first openly gay person elected to public office in virginia Freddy's as you've seen in the video was identified as a well-known gay bar in south arlington And there were also several properties that are already listed. However, their significance As currently reported is not derived from any connection to lgbtq history The pentagon and ewigimum memorials Were scenes of pickets and demonstrations against the treatment of homosexuals and the unitary Universalist church of arlington constructed in 1963 And which actively supported the lgbtq community since the 1970s But it was listed solely for its modernist architectural significance and its connection to architectural goodman and so from this list The residents of lgbtq incense stood out as an ideal candidate for further research Incense was referenced in the dc Contextual study which noted that she had hosted the gay women's open house at her home in arlington for an extended period of time A more detailed search revealed that she was a very important figure in the homophile movement in dc In the 1960s and 70s and had important ties to other gay rights organizations across the country In 2013 the library of congress acquired her collection of personal papers and other memorabilia Providing a wealth of archival Information that was readily available to us as we're based in dc Furthermore the columbia heights west neighborhood where her residence is located in arlington had been recorded in a virginia ship Oh architectural survey boards association with the development of sub-urban neighborhoods For the growing working and middle class communities in arlington following world war two Thus there were many interesting angles to approach the study and we were confident in the range of archival resources available And we felt that felt that the properties did a good chance of being national registered criteria And so we delved into researching lily incense the gay women's open house and the history of development Of the columbia heights west neighborhood lilies collection at the library of congress materials from the dc history center articles from the blade which was wash is washington dc's lgbtq newspaper um as well as materials from The arlington linens records and archival material Available through the arlington public library Were used in in our in our research We were also able to connect for a phone conversation with lilies friend. Bob Which it who had memories of attending the open house on On special friends nights On which men could attend Born in 1939 and raised in germany and in new jersey lily first recognized her attraction to women in her late teens In her early 20s. She struggled with depression and sought the help of a therapist in 1962 after dropping out of her english phd program at the university at columbia university She enlisted in the women's army corps as a neuropsychiatric technician This reflected her interest her growing interest in psychology As well as her desire to meet other gay women in the surface She was posted to the walter raid Army medical center in washington where she was introduced to the gay bar scene in dc Not long after in 1963 Vincennes was outed by her roommate and was honorably discharged lily wrote quote My reputation was sacrificed But a heavy burden of hypocrisy had dropped for me as well I decided to build another me no longer dependent on the approval of others Following her discharge from the army consents connected with the macha sheen society of washington Becoming a sparse lesbian member Originally founded in los angeles in in los angeles in 1950 The macha sheen society was a civil liberties and social action organization Dedicated to improving the social status of homosexuals It was part of the larger homophile movement throughout the united states And the washington chapter was founded in 1961 by frank camony and jack nickles vincennes Vincennes recalled that she had joined The macha sheen society of washington to quote be with gay people Help the movement help unmask the lies being told about us Correct the notion of homosexuality as a sickness and present it as it is a beautiful Way to love and quote In 1965 she joined the first pickets in dc Including those at the white house and at the pentagon to protest the u.s. government's treatment of homosexuals At this time. She was also editor of the ms w's magazine homosexual citizen Through her ties with ms w incenses met lesbian activists and life partners barbara giddings and k. Lausanne Both of whom were involved with the daughter's abilities the first lesbian civil and political rights organization in the u.s Which was founded in 1955 in san francisco by several lesbian couples including delmar in and phyllis line In 1966 she was featured on the january cover of the daughter's abilities magazine the latter Which is a very public expression and a big deal that reflected her self-assuredness and gave positive pre Incense became an important spokesperson for the homophile movement Doing radio and television interviews to educate and familiarize the public with the gay community Refute commonly accepted fallacies about homosexuals and made make appeals for an end to prejudice and discrimination As a nascent but passionate filmmaker She was in philadelphia to capture the third reminder day picket and in new york city For the first christopher street liberation day parade in 1970 Which was organized to commemorate the first anniversary of the stone wall riots And served as new york city's first pride march These films are also part of the library of congress collection and are available to watch online, which i highly recommend In 1971 frank camony who had founded the magician society of washington's msw Entered the race for dc's non-voting congressional delegate and vincennes helped with the campaign Though camony finished forth it was a watershed moment and changed the perception of and political presence of the lgbt community in washington dc Following the election there were many calls from women To the msw wanting to meet others and lilies was the only number available to give out She quickly realized there was a need for a place where gay bisexual and women questioning their sexuality Could meet in a comfortable and reassuring space Thus lilies vincennes started the gay women's open house and stopped and stepped away from her involvement in the magician society While hosting the weekly open house. She began studying for a master's degree in psychology Graduating in 1976 from george mason and began her private practice in psychotherapy working mostly with lgbtq individuals and groups One of the most significant efforts of the magician society was to publicly refute the american psychiatric Association's designation of homosexuality as a mental disorder In 1971 vincennes participated in a panel discussion at the apas annual meeting Such panels eventually led the apa to remove this designation in 1973 During the 1980s she and her life partner nancy ruth davis Set up a counseling group for people with AIDS at the whitman walker clinic in dc In 1990 she earned her phd in human development and psychology from the university of naryland Continuing her work as a psychotherapist and in 1992 She and nancy established the community of self development that hosted conferences and workshops Dedicated to the creative spiritual and psychological fulfillment of gay women and men Over the past two decades Dr. Vincennes has been well recognized for her activism and contributions to the lgbtq community In 2009 she was honored as a superhero at capitol pride and in 2019 Dr. Vincennes was inducted into the association of lgbtq journalists hallowed fame in recognition of her pathbreaking journalism and video journalism And gay rights activism during the 60s and 70s Vincennes has been a long time resident of arlington county and still lives in the region Dr. Vincennes's dedication to the lgbtq community was manifested in many ways However, one of her most significant contributions that was faced in arlington was the gay women's open house Vincennes moved to arlington in 1969 Renting a duplex in the colombia heights west neighborhood that was developed in 1950 On moving she recounted quote I moved out of dc because rents were too high and because I absolutely needed a house with a yard with trees in it end quote The open house began in march in 19 In march of 1971 and was held every wednesday as an alternative social environment to the gay bars in dc Vincennes said of the open house quote There is no agenda or discussion topic. The purpose is to provide companionship and the atmosphere is friendly not cruzy Some women who call have never dared to express their gay inclinations to anyone and are talking to a lesbian for the first time end quote Advertisements for the open house were placed in the silver times as well as the gay blade to the lgbtq Newspapers in dc at the time She also wrote to her friends and fellow activists to spread the word While most attendees were from the washington metro area many drove from baltimore and populous maryland from north of virginia west virginia and pennsylvania the vast majority of Open house attendees were white women in their 20s and 30s But on occasion uh, colivia carter a black gay activist Who co-founded the langston hues and elinor roosevelt democratic club would also attend Other times groups such as the puries and the washington feminists were also in attendance vincennes wrote quote Ideological differences don't seem to matter much in our group and sisterhood prevails Whether you are a lesbian under 21 or over 50 Whether you are a radical or reactionary a dropout or a professional a daughter or a mother Single or in a gay or straight marriage. You are welcome and invited to make yourself at home end quote The impact of the gay women's open house on the lives of hundreds of women is best captured In the personal stories as well as the letters and cards that incensed received over the years one reads Lily, I wish I had known a place like yours your open house 15 years ago when I first became aware of my gay feelings Back then I didn't have the courage more than knowledge of what to do with them I admire you lily more than anyone I know I admire you because you're so natural about being gay because you dare to be free and open to be who you are and The last open house at lilies was hosted um on january 31st 1979 This was a personal dedication to stop or personal decision to stop hosting But also reflected the greater number of social alternatives that existed for women than at the by that time However, the open house format inspired other similar gatherings The dc now sexuality task force held open houses on tuesday evenings at the arlington unitarian church for a period of time and from 1980 to 1993 they gave women's alternative Which initially started in new york inspired by lilies open house and eventually came to dc Provided another relaxed non-threatening atmosphere at the washington ethical society in dc impacting still hundreds more women and continuing the legacy of lilies open house And so based on our research and findings and with the knowledge of the gay rights movement through the noted content statements We determined that lilies arlington residents meets national register criteria a and b It is a site that is associated with a pattern of events that gave women's open house Which made a significant contribution to the development of a lesbian community in arlington and the wider dc area It also is associated with dr. Lillian fence who is significant within the national homophile movement of the 60s and 70s Furthermore, the property is directly representative of her historic contributions The property retains integrity though aspects related to its design have Been impacted to a certain degree by recent alterations as you can see In my background, which is an image of the residents The sight sighting has been added to the original concrete masonry walls and the windows have also been replaced But it does maintain a large expression of its original design And aspects of location setting and association remain strong As preservationists in the united states the national register Criteria remains the foremost framework used to assess significance of heritage sites Listing on the national register has many benefits including national recognition the eligibility for historic tax credits and Consideration and federal projects through the section 106 process Increasing the number of lgbtq plus properties included on the national register Is an important goal and the register should be used as a tool to ensure such stories are represented As part of our national historic narrative However, there are inherent limitations of using the national register to recognize lgbtq plus stories The national register is a place-based preservation framework that favors longevity of permanent physical imprints Qualities that are not always possible considering the ephemeral and underground nature of many places and events tied to lgbtq plus stories Requirements for integrity pose another limitation, especially those relating to design materials and workmanship Qualities that are unlikely to be retained at sites associated with marginalized And underrepresented communities that frequently experience gentrification removal and redevelopment Additionally, these qualities while important for properties of architectural significance may not be as relevant to properties nominated for their Significance to cultural heritage and his and social history There are many instances where social and cultural significance is spread across multiple locations Annie's caramel steakhouse in washington dc is an interesting example of a property that has been recently listed in the dc inventory And has been nominated to the national register It is significant as one of the earliest lgbtq friendly establishments in the district The two different locations of the restaurant over time Meant that the nomination covers two non-contiguous properties under a single landmark nomination However, this didn't impact things And the washington blade dc's current lgbtq Newspaper said it best quote the paramount has become an institution in the gay community There was never much concern about history being left behind when the paramount moved to its new place It's people who make history and quote In our research, we have to be aware that in many cases Places of importance to the lgbtq plus community may already be listed However, their connections to those histories has not been realized or has been overlooked and or admitted in Arlington, there were several properties where this was the case for For listed properties that are recognized for their architectural Or other historic significance It is important to broaden the documented narratives to include lgbtq plus stories Historic districts are traditionally recognized for architectural significance And or historical association with the development of a certain locality And they're prone to ignore social histories I believe it's still the case that to date No historic district is recognized for its social significance to the lgbtq btq plus community Many existing districts including Greenwich village and other so-called gay birtheds in cities across the us Have long been recognized for their significant connections to the development of lgbtq plus communities Yet this isn't yet reflected in their national registered documentation There are also many instances of individual property nominations associated with important individuals That emit reference to their sexual or sexual or gender non-conformity Now that these topics are more commonly discussed It is important that we revisit and reflect on the existing narratives and embrace the full complexity and histories of the people Who are recognized at those historic sites William Murtaugh was the first keeper of the national register of historic places And he wrote quote at its best preservation engages the past in a conversation with the present Over a mutual connection for the future And which I think is a beautiful statement and especially important to consider So in looking to research and recognize lgbtq plus history A good starting point may be to revisit already listed properties with a renewed perspective We'd like to end with some final points on research and lessons learned and discuss some of our next steps As arlington continues to research and recognize the lgbtq plus history in the county Firstly, we found it very helpful to start our process with conversations with the shippo To understand common goals to discuss existing resources And just be made aware of other localities groups and individuals with similar initiatives There is an ever-growing number of books content statements articles feces online videos recorded panel discussions podcasts Etc etc Discussing lgbtq plus history and preservation While we mostly relied on the content statements previously discussed Other archival material and other Archival materials. We also wanted to acknowledge Some additional resources that we used including the dismantled preservation panel discussion That's entitled queering preservation multidisciplinary approaches to telling lgbtq stories Which is available on youtube And the national trust trusts online leadership forum page entitled preservation and inclusion Which offers a lot of articles on interpretation and storytelling community engagement and social justice that we will continue to read in reference As we continue with our projects in lgbtq There's so much inspiring and thought-provoking work that's being done And it's really exciting to be a part of that A major component of our project that is still forthcoming Will involve engagement with the local lgbtq plus community to ask them to share their stories and experiences Recognizing the personal and intimate nature of the information and stories. We are seeking It is paramount that we are sensitive patient Open and honest working to build trust while emphasizing that these stories matter While combing through information in existing archives and online is a great place to start and often leads to further investigation So much of lgbtq plus heritage relies on collecting oral histories and personal stories targeted outreach to prominent groups and members of the community who are trusted And who can offer advice and support will be very important in this next step Another aspect for us to be aware of is intersectionality Recognizing that there is not just one universal lgbtq community or experience Our future outreach and interpretation must consider the racial gender class and generational diversity Amongst different lgbtq identities It is important to be aware to be aware of unconsciously favoring gay and lesbian stories, for example Whereas bisexual and transgender stories may be more difficult to find We likewise encourage that documentation projects present all historical evidence Rather than shying away from uncertainty even where ambiguity may be present Also understanding that ideas about sexuality and gender have changed over time as have prejudices against lgbtq identities It is necessary to be sensitive to the vocabulary that is being used and then to make explanations and clarifications where appropriate Looking ahead Arlington will continue to examine its listed and documented historic sites through a lens of diversity This will allow us to build on the traditional known narratives by considering and incorporating lgbtq plus experiences and history While there is indeed value to documenting and interpreting sites in traditional ways such as through national register nominations and historical highway markers We also encourage the exploration of other creative and impactful ways to tell cultural stories We see the benefits of producing more cultural spotlight videos like the one for freddie's beach bar that we've shared with you And other digital tools such as memory mapping where community members are encouraged to tell stories about particular places Even if those places no longer exist physically But this allows memories to be read and interpreted topographically thereby creating new potential digital spaces For lgbtq plus stories and social histories to be recorded A great example of this is the glbt historical societies virtual tour Of the home of lesbian activists del martin and phyllis lyon in san francisco Their house was digitally documented and then interwoven with the narrative of their lives their activism and the use of the space So in conclusion, thank you so much for listening to our presentation We hope you have learned some helpful research resources and techniques And that you will consider some of the preservation challenges and opportunities for recognizing lgbtq plus heritage We hope that you now feel inspired to delve into lgbtq plus history and preservation efforts in your own communities We think you'll be amazed at what you discover We've certainly been inspired by dr. Lily vincennes and the work of so many others across the country We are excited to continue to learn about preserve and celebrate lgbtq plus stories in history. Thank you


Welcome to the wide world of eSports, a show devoted to all things eSports. I'm your host, Catherine Norr. Today, our topic is partnering with eSports Next, Sports Planning Guide. With me is Christopher Silvernoggle, writer and social media manager of Sports Planning Guide. Welcome, Chris. Thanks for having me, Catherine. I'm excited to be here. All right. So, Chris, what is Sports Planning Guide? Sports Planning Guides, well, we've been around since 2009, but what we do is we try to connect event planners with the destinations that they want to host those events. So, for example, someone goes out and says, I want to host this youth sports tournament and I want to do it in the Midwest. They'll go look on our website and we'll direct them to places like Illinois, Iowa, Indiana, etc. to try and find them the best type of facility for their sport for them. OK, so I understand that you're partnering with eSports Next. Tell us about that. I'm really excited about that. We just started the partnership this year and what we'll be doing is we'll be taking that aspect of sports tourism and putting that into the eSports industry. So all the kind of old school mindsets of trying to connect those people with the type of facilities and everything they need, but putting that in the eSports perspective, but also bringing as well with our writers and the perspectives we have and the knowledge base because we do have the eSports knowledge and putting that into in-depth research and putting out great articles for eSports Trade Association with their eSports Next brand. All right. Let's show the video. All right. So tell us what we just saw. What you just saw was a brand video for us. It's just kind of like what we do, how we connect those destinations with those event planners and just the overall aspect of bringing that kind of sports tourism brand to the market because it's such a huge, huge market. Specifically in terms of dollar count, as I think it was just last year, Sports ETA, which is the head body of sports tourism, they actually estimated it at around $92 billion. So it's a huge industry and considering we're going to take that and put it into eSports, I think that's a good gateway for that. Okay. So your magazine is called Sports Planning Guide and do you consider eSports to fit within that? Not exactly. So what we'll be doing is we'll be actually taking a bit of a step away from the Sports Planning Guide for that, and we're going to give it its own highlighted package. So SPG will still be its sports tourism piece, but then the eSports stuff will be branded specifically as eSports Next Magazine, which will be directly tied to eSports Trade Association. Okay. So that's part of your partnership with eSports Trade Association, correct? Correct. Yeah. Okay. So why did your company feel that it was advantageous to partner with eSports Trade Association and eSports Next? Well, number one, I went to the eSports Next conference last year. It was just to cover them for kind of like our interest delving into eSports. We didn't really have the mindset of diving this deep back at that time, which was around August last year, but we were really impressed with how they had that show, how they ran that show, all the guest speakers they had and everything. And so we started negotiating with them more particularly because they're also a Chicago land-based organization like we are. And we saw this as advantageous to team up to really kind of, I don't want to say dig our cause, but really solidify that market and really dive in and really try to do something that not too many people, I guess, really talk about, which is eSports tourism. I don't think that's really a huge, huge part of the market yet. It's really about the streaming aspect. And I think that more and more we're going to see more destinations bringing in people for those types of events and not just streaming them live. Sure. I think you're absolutely right about that. I think that there will be more, especially now that we're done with COVID. I can see eSports being kind of a destination and especially with these huge tournaments that are held in South Korea and in other countries, these huge arenas in Europe and kind of Canada, I mean that are kind of popping up all over the world. What do you think about that? Absolutely. And even local stuff, by local I mean statewide. We have Arlington, Texas is one of our clients and partners we prefer to call them. And Arlington and built one of the first major eSports centers in the country. So I think more and more we're going to start seeing places like that. Raleigh is another one that's really on the ball with eSports. We're building a surge center in Chicago. I don't know if it's been delayed, but it was supposed to be 2024, but they're popping up all over and I think we're going to just see more and more of that, especially because Asia has just been on the ball.  I can't remember the exact layout for that, but I think the prize winners got like 500,000 each or something. That's crazy. Yeah. You know, I think it's kind of interesting when you talk about the Middle East. I actually just attended the World Association of Sports Management Conference in Doha, Qatar. Oh, nice. Yeah. And actually I had five presentations at that conference. And I do see the Middle East as a huge, they have a huge future in sports and actually esports as well. I think I just saw that Abu Dhabi is, they're creating or have created a venue, a big venue for esports. And I, you know, they're putting a ton of money into that industry, their tourism industry for sports. So I think that that would include esports. Is that on your radar? It is on our radar. We have been talking with Dubai we've been talking with Saudi Arabia. Those are the only two so far, but there's nothing concrete yet. But we are aware for sure that those are huge markets going for the future. And as you said, not just in esports, but in sports in general. So, tell us more about the magazine for esports trade association. So this magazine is going to be an exclusive for the event. I guess you can consider it as a gamer, a collector's edition in a way. Because people still enjoy print no matter how much we say we want more digital. And I personally like more digital myself. I don't want to go off topic too much here, but you know, it's easier to keep track of things. But people like special edition things that they can physically hold, especially to come to an event. And what this magazine serves as a purpose for is not just giving people who attend and their members a membership directory, facility insights on actual esports facilities across the country, but also in-depth articles and features, especially in particular, I can give this away. And just this one is that we are going to have an in-depth interview process with a couple of CVDs across the country and how they see esports being played out in the future for travel and tourism in general. And I think that's huge. It's great for the industry that more and more destinations are paying attention to esports as a market. And it's interesting to focus more on esports business in this show, but part of the esports ecosystem is tourism. And I think that it's kind of when I look at your video, I notice that some of the sports that you feature are volleyball and there was, I probably, sport climbing and some others that are not like baseball, basketball, football. Do you kind of like to feature more unusual sports or do you also include those more ball sports that are huge stadium events? So it's really what the destination wants to have us highlight for them, but a lot of them like to be diverse. And I think that's great because you're not going to just make money off of the ball parks or the arenas that are going to have basketball or volleyball. They do want to put rock climbing. They do want to put hiking and even anywhere essentially that you can host an event. If it can be an event, let's say a triathlon somewhere, then they want to market it. And I think that's a good idea. One thing I'd like to say on that too is an interesting question that came up to me recently was whether we think that esports would conflict with something like ball parks or anything like that, but it's not. And that's why we want to separate it because physical activity and these types of things don't conflict. And I like to bring up this as an example is, for example, video games and actual sports. And by that, I mean like physical activity sports. So you can have an esports activity, an event, a real sporting event with like FIFA, I would say, but people who play FIFA tend to like soccer. So there's no conflict of interest there. So I think it plays all together really well. So that's why I see it as such a huge market is because it just complements every single thing going forward. And you know what? Actually, you could probably even combine esports and traditional sports in the same issue because like even now, I just read this morning that Roblox or Minecraft, I can't remember which or maybe it's both, are focusing on Wimbledon. That's interesting. Yeah. And if you look at during the pandemic, every traditional sport, they kind of transitioned to a kind of a gaming or esports kind of application. And like Madden, like FIFA, a lot of these, they have that component. So you can combine the two. And when especially you're looking at different generations, the older generation might be more interested in focusing on the traditional whereas the younger generation, the more esports application. What are your thoughts on that? I think that's true. And I think that's actually why our business is trying to get into that because sports tourism, in terms of numbers on individuals that are in the planning aspect, they tend to be around the ages of 35 to around 60. And it's a pretty big gap. But I mean, it's definitely an older crowd. But that can't sustain itself. So it needs to have a new opening for that. And I think that's why more and more of those destinations are getting into that. And I think that mixing the two aspects together would definitely be more beneficial than anything. Absolutely. So how are now I assume that for your magazine that you sell sponsor, I mean, you sell ad space? And we do. Yeah. Yeah. And are you finding that advertisers are really interested in a shift to esports? They are. We see a lot of interest in advertising for both. For this particular magazine, it's not been as easy, but it's because we got this off on a late start. That's not to put it down or anything. Everything's going smoothly on that end. We have the interest. It just depends really on, let's say, timing. For example, certain destinations and CVVs have a certain threshold of time that they have to get certain numbers in. But in terms of the interest of saying, hey, going forward for your newsletter for esports next for the next year's edition, we want it. And I think that that's fantastic because it shows that the CVVs are starting to become more and more aware of that. Sure. And I would think that esports next with all of its advertisers, all of its sponsors that they would take and so you're attending esports next. What are you excited about about esports next? I'm excited about quite a few things actually. I'm excited to see their speakers. I haven't seen all of them that they've listed up, but I know they just keep popping up more and more, but they always have really, they had a really interesting discussions last year. One thing I really love is that they have a custom jersey and they put love into that. It's not just something where it's like, here I'm going to slap the logo and some sponsors and then there you go. It has specific things to it. And just one example I'll give is like last year, you could flip the cuff of the sleeve and then it would have a little icon that said plus 10 luck on it. And I'm like, that's awesome. It's a little subtle thing, but it's just great. And I'm wondering what kind of little subtleties are going to have this year. Are they going to do like the more popular athletic sports jerseys now where it's like, some kind of message on the back of the collar or something? So I'm really looking forward to seeing that. Also looking forward to networking there because networking is a huge deal. They put a lot of great effort at Esports Next to put all these people in a room, in multiple rooms, and get them talking. And it's not just like, you're going in there to think about, oh, I just know these certain aspects of how Esports run, et cetera. For example, when I went there last year, I didn't know that there was a huge, huge market for Esports lawyers. I'm like, I didn't know that. So I ended up going from one interview aspect to the other and I came away with so much more knowledge within just the span of let's say 15 to 20 minutes of doing a speed, almost like speed dating. They had like this little thing where it was like you went from one person to the next and just spoke to them for a couple of minutes and some people will make an impact. Some people might not, but I'd say for the most part, I learned a lot there and it was really cool. Yeah, I'm looking forward to going as well. And I am coming all the way from Hawaii. So it's kind of a big deal. And what I'm looking forward to is I'm really looking forward to the Cubs game the day before. And there's a lot of opportunities. So the weird thing is my one year, I mean, no, it's three year anniversary of hosting this show is coming up in about a week. Congratulations. And throughout hosting the show, I've had many of the people that will be at Esports Next as guests on my show. So now I actually get to meet them in person if I haven't already. And so I'm looking forward to that. And there's also an elevator pitch competition, which I think is really interesting. We get to hear about really exciting new businesses that people are starting and that they're pitching. And you're right, there's a lot of really good content, but I'm really excited about that jersey too. I had forgotten all about it. I didn't realize that they had a little surprise. I know I voted on a style and I noticed that my votes were different than other people's. So I have a feeling that my favorite won't be picked. I think they did finally finalize it. I don't know if you picked this one, but it has like the Chicago famous that every Chicagoan is obsessed with adding, but it's true. You have like the four stars on the flag and it's a huge symbol for us. So I totally understand and I get why it got, but it also looks good. I do know it's really cool also that you get to have like a gamer tag or your last name, or you can have it blank. I chose my gamer tag. So I think that's going to be fun. What's your gamer tag? My gamer tag, depending on what I'm playing on, is usually Kellanoff's key. And if you're interested, that's just a reference to a song from a band that I've liked for the longest time. Unfortunately, it doesn't exist anymore, but yeah. Oh, that's cool. So what do you play? In terms of music? No, a game. Oh, games. Oh my God. Right now I'm playing Two to the Kingdom. I've just been obsessed with that. In terms of competitive gaming, the last thing I really, really got into was Mass Effect. And I've also been playing online with a lot of people through the Switch Premium that they have, the expansion pass. I've been playing GoldenEye because I love GoldenEye. When I was a kid, I used to play multiplayer contests with GoldenEye all the time. Oh, wow. Okay, that's fantastic. I kind of like to ask my guests what games they play because we need to find out where to find people. So what other esports venues or destinations that you're most focused on besides esports next and your neighborhood, Chicago? Well, I'll be attending Nintendo's live function in Seattle, so I'll be covering that for esports. Well, it's technically for esports next, but it'll be for the newsletter. We'll also be looking at college esports facilities because college esports programs are becoming a huge, huge deal. They have a fantastic contest for college, and it's a great way for young collegiate players to learn all the fundamentals that come with being in competitive sports. In general, empathy, leadership, teamwork, all kinds of great things like that. So I'd say collegiate esports is definitely something that we're really looking forward to diving into because a lot of our partners in their destinations, they have a lot of places they want us to talk about and that we're excited to be talking about. You know, I think that's smart to get into collegiate esports. Last I read there's about 400 collegiate esports programs. It might have grown since then, but I assume it's grown since I last looked at that. But the thing is, your brand will become familiar to those collegiate players and those involved in collegiate esports and ecosystem.  Yeah, like I said in an earlier part, is that the sports tourism industry is an older group. And I definitely think that grasping that out of college, group is really important for the industry as a whole. And you know, again, not conflicting with traditional sports, something that is easily able to not be conflictive, have a conflict with one another and really complement one another. So sports tourism, it's kind of finally able to come back after the pandemic. How was it during 2020 to kind of more recently for you? So I really got into this around 2021. So I came in just after the really bad part of pandemic, but I did intern for them prior to the pandemic. So it was tough, I think, all around for just about everyone in the sports tourism industry and tourism in general. Just because of all the shutdowns, you couldn't do anything. A lot of people couldn't even have outdoor events. It was crazy. It got to the point where, you know, and this is not exclusive to sports planning guide. For a lot of places that do publications online or even in print, we do both. Which I think is unique for us because we do print. But I digress. It's really a lot of people in that industry look to free work. And I think the people who bought into that and helped keep that industry afloat by doing free write-ups for those types of companies, they're the ones that got rewarded. And I think I'm a pretty good example of that because while the pandemic was going on and I was doing other work, I was still writing for them even though I was just post-interim. And I didn't really need to, but I wanted to because they're good people. And I got the job after. So it all turned out well in the end, but I don't know how well that turned out for all print and online publications. A lot of them have disappeared, just like we've seen a lot of other things get hit by the pandemic when it comes to tourism like airlines. It was madness. Yeah. And print magazines have had lots of challenges anyway due to digitizing. And there's a lot of change. And the competition between videos and actually reading something. And as a writer, you probably understand that very well. But you know, one thing that we wanted to do today with this show is to really plug esports next for esports trade association. And it's going to be held August 21st and 22nd next, actually almost next month, but this year. Is that, are those the dates? They are 21st to 22nd. Yeah. And then the day before is the special Cubs game.  I think it's worth going though. Yeah, I can't wait till that. It seems like a great networking event. Exactly. And you know, if people are interested, they can go to esports trade associations website and find out all about it. But how can people, our viewers find your magazine? They'll be able to find it soon. We'll be putting it up on our website. In a special tab selection. And then I believe esports trade association will also have it up, probably on their esports next.gg website. But I can't confirm that yet. Everything will be available in just like page formats, but also a digital guide. So it's like a flip book. So people can feel like they're actually having the magazine in front of them. Fantastic. Well, Chris, thank you so much for being here today. And I wish you the best of luck and I can't wait to meet you in person. Sam, thank you so much for having me today. It's been a pleasure. All right. And thank you to our viewers for joining us today. In two weeks, my guest will be Ryan Hawks, a coach at GameSync. See you then. Com. Mahalo.