Now with the federal grant and the change the administration is there have been 10 bus manufacturers in the country that have now been whittled down to two.

And one of them is in Gillag, is called Gilllig.

They're in Livermore and they're the largest in North America.

And they and the other bus manufacturers said we are no longer making electric vehicles because we can't trust what's going to come down from the administration.

We are not going to be making any more clean energy vehicles until at least 2029.

Well, this puts us at a compromise in being able to even meet the state mandate.

We just probably you probably heard yesterday that 427 million dollars was taken away from uh making windmills uh that uh in the Pacific Northwest that will help provide energy for these clean energy vehicles.

We're taking that away.

We're giving the advantages, not just to other countries, we're taking away jobs that would be would be employed here, and they're not going to exist, and those are job losses too.

So now we're seeing sustainability that's being impacted.

We're seeing public works because we're not getting funding for Daisy Valley Road to be able to repave it.

Sidewalks in some of the county areas that I know your count some of your county areas want sidewalks too, and and any of us that have cities that are near areas of unincorporated areas, we want to be able to provide sidewalks where we can.

That comes from federal grant funding.

So there's all these things that are being impacted, and we're all working together to try to make sure that we can keep the airplane flying while we're trying to fix it along the way.

And uh and I think we're all invested in clean energy being part of the future, but now we're just trying to hang on to what we already have.

So these are the challenges.

Thank you.

Lynn.

Just a time check.

Do you want me to hurry it along if you well, take your time on this question?

After that, I think we'll go to shorter.

Okay.

All right.

Because schools are very important and Lynn's reference.

Schools are very educational.

Thank you for saying that.

And schools are nonpartisan, so everybody, right?

No matter what your priority is, we should really believe in educating kids and having safe and well-functioning schools, right?

So just as uh Chanel mentioned, we haven't actually seen cuts from the Doge cuts or the um the bill, the federal budget yet.

We haven't.

So if you're from San Ramone or um West County and you know that there's been cuts, those were cuts that were already going to happen, those were cuts that had nothing to do with this.

But we're projecting, I mean, just so Monday when the house education um proposal came out on Labor Day, kind of under the radar.

So I haven't even had so I haven't had a chance to read the big fat thing, right?

But um what I did was read some summaries and did some looking into it, and the proposals are very, very dire.

So the funding we get for federal programs in our county, we get about two hundred million dollars in federal funds that go across the county.

Uh, some districts get just a very small amount, some districts get a large amount.

It depends on the um amount of students that you have in poverty because that's what federal funds are supposed to support are students in poverty.

In Contra Costa County, we have roughly 170,000 students in Contra Costa, and 40% of them live in poverty.

They all qualify for what used to be free and reduced uh lunch count.

Now everybody gets free lunch, so we don't really have that, but they all qualify for that.

So when we talk about cutting medical or cutting SNAP, those families are gonna be drastically impacted.

They really they really are.

And so many of you know the uh term Title I schools.

So those are the schools that are going to be impacted, those are the schools that are going to be um losing money.

In the in the big ugly bill and in the Senate proposal that came out in June or July, there weren't drastic cuts to education, except for the Department of Education.

I'll talk about that in just a minute and how that affects our county and our education system.

But the one that came out on Monday had like a 27% cut to title one.

Those are for the students most in need in our nation, right?

And I'm just gonna read some to you because it's really uh twelve twelve billion dollar cut in um for the department of education, the five billion dollar cut for Title I, and that is for our low-income students.

And some of the proposals are eliminating, and you know, I really do believe that budgets reflect your values, they really do.

And so when you see some of these cuts, it's just so disturbing.

So Title III, which supports English learners, it's been proposed to be eliminated, just a limited.

The funds just proposed.

Granted, this just came out.

I'm sure they will.

I used to say I know there's gonna be some negotiating, but who knows?

I don't even know what's gonna happen now.

Adult education federal funds eliminated.

Um the proposal for Title II, and that's for training teachers.

That's additional training for teachers to go work in the most challenging schools eliminated.

It's proposed to be eliminated.

Um there was a slight, um, you know, we also receive special ed fence funding from the feds.

It's never been fully funded, it's always been about 13% of what was promised to us, and they haven't proposed cutting it.

They proposed it's about it's considered flat funding, and they've proposed an increase for charter schools for 60 million, which is the highest increase of this budget.

Now in California, we've got some great charter schools, and they're all public education, they all have to follow ed code, but that's not the case throughout the country.

Throughout the country, they have um you can have uh private entities run schools, it's for profit in California a number of years ago they did away from that.

So there's no charter schools that can be for profit in California, but still you can just see the values here, right?

Cutting programs for our um population are English learners, and in our county we have roughly 22% of our students are English language learners.

Now, the thing that Doge did to that was um cut the department of education, not cut it wholly.

They can't, they they do not have the power to do that without Congress, and who knows where that will stand.

But what they did was make so many cuts to the um workforce there that it's basically you know gonna be non-functional.

And what they used to do prior to January with the Department of Education was do research for best practices for supporting students, did research around literacy, provide really good professional development, and manage all of these huge grants financially, and also made sure they did a lot of work around civil rights and made sure that schools and education systems were not discriminating against young people based on race, gender, all of that.

So, with the um, that's a whole nother topic though, the presidential orders is a whole nother educational topic that we could talk about that I might uh go into.

But the it's dire, it or it might be dire.

If these proposals that came out on Labor Day go into effect, then we are going to see cuts to our most uh vulnerable population because it will be our Title I schools, it will be our English learners, it will be students that really really need our support.

Um I'd say thank you, but that was so sobering.

I'm not sure I appreciate that.

But thank you for filling us all in.

So I think it might just add to the federal cuts and just jobs, um, because um working for the federal government and knowing that the different departments were here in San Francisco, so there's federal job losses, right?

So from the Department of Veterans Services, from health and um human services, from FEMA, those are federal job cuts where as congressional staff we used to work and have liaisons as county um staff, we had direct relationships with those individuals who will help us with our programs, and so those people are no longer here locally, uh, and now we have to work with them from afar, where they knew our programs and our systems for Contra Costa County, and now they have gone away.

Um so now you have a lot of um employees who were part of the federal government that are looking to come and work for the county or looking to work for other systems or companies and organizations within Contra Cross the County.

Great, thank you.

So I've been looking at these questions from the audience, and I I'm gonna try to put some together here.

So there's a question from Eve Burge.

Hi.

From White Pony Express, and she she goes into some detail about the kind of services they provide to hungry people in our county, our neighbors, etc.

Um, and I think the question she's asking can be a little broader, and it is how are the cities and the county going to help us provide access to healthy food for our 80,000 hungry neighbors?

And I guess the question is these are big budget cuts from the feds.

You have your own budgets from the tax dollars we pay.

I mean, those are coming from our federal income taxes, right?

Or granddaughters or whatever income taxes.

There's other budget dollars that are available through the county and through the cities.

Is there, and and I assume you're thinking about how do you are there's an opportunity to move money around to help with the neediest of our community members?

Is that question make sense?

Yeah, I'm just gonna say.

The community block grants, I happen to serve on that standing committee, community development block grants or federally funds, federal funds that come to support local, you know, for um food, meals, some of the programs, White 20 Express, number of the programs that I've heard are other cities speak to.

And our biggest concern, I went to Washington, D.C.

and met with representatives from the housing successor funds and that sort of thing.

And our concern is what happens moving forward.

Right now we're okay, but potentially if the cuts that are being presented to us when we were in DC, what we're hearing around the table, is potentially cities are gonna have to figure out how we're gonna be able to provide services without programs like White Pony Express and other agencies that we currently are able to get support from the federal uh budgets.

Others have you, Carla?

Thank you.

Yes, and I had mentioned that earlier, one of our concerns, so I've heard that as well.

Um, what I would just add is some of us um do receive, and I believe Antioch does as well, uh, funding um through a community benefit fund from some of our storefront uh dispensaries, our cannabis dispensaries.

It is not a large amount of money though, because apparently the the illegal the the under the table, the black market for cannabis is still very live and well.

So if you are into those products, please go to an actual licensed retailer, please.

Uh you're gonna get a safer product as well as help support the local community.

And I bring that up because we have designated a fund that um these uh the three dispensaries that we currently have operating contribute to.

And so it is kind of a smaller version.

So we do have our community services commission uh that goes through a biannual process where all these nonprofits, I'm sure White Pony Express has applied as well, uh, and then the this uh group of community members they select and it's always oversubscribed, uh, different nonprofits to contribute to as well as this uh fund has been folded in, and then we from the cannabis proceeds, and then we also have the John Muir, which includes Concord Pleasant Hill, uh health care district.

So that's something in addition that they contribute uh grants to the to the community annually.

So Eve, if you're not playing for all that, let's talk because yeah, yeah.

So if I if I may, um uh the cuts that we are experiencing are actually directly connected to federal funding.

It's nearly a third of our budget.

I don't expect the cities and the county to solve this problem, but uh but I would like to say to everybody in the room, and the more we can talk about neighbor helping neighbor and the community coming together and not waiting on big bureaucracy, is it a time for revolution, but it's also a time for us to just look around and take responsibility for each other because I can't, I mean, I don't know how WPE is gonna make up for this shortfall, and I I can't look to you because C D B G and that other that that's small potatoes, you know, in comparison to these cuts that we're experiencing.

But what we need to do is figure out new ways of leaning on one another and really taking individual responsibility for one another right now because I there, I mean, I don't see any other way.

So I'm not I don't mean to put that question on you to answer, but it's it does.

Thank you, Eve.

Yeah, and if I could just add to that, so I think I was mentioning earlier, so you got 200 billion over the next two years, 10 years of CalFresh or um SNAP, that's gonna be cut.

And so, you know, we do lean on our nonprofits and community-based organizations like White Pony Express, like the food bank, like Mills on Wheels, like Lowe's and Fishes, um, to help with that um, you know, shortfall of people who may not be receiving um cowfresh.

Um, and so we right now as a county um do provide funding to all of those organizations that I just mentioned, which if they receive these large cuts from the federal government, we'll have people in the county that don't receive SNAP or CalFresh, plus unable to go to like a white pony express to get food.

Um, so it is a dire need, and so we just want to thank you and um all the food um collaboratives um here in our county of what you guys do each and every day, um, because you are you know keeping us afloat um with what you do.

Um I think when we think about the federal government and the cuts, it's not for counties to look at backfilling.

Um, as I was just sharing, our own health care system is gonna receive a huge hit that we're gonna have to use those reserves for, right?

And so then if we looking at using reserves, then now you're looking at using reserves to support our food insecurity for our community.

Um, we already receive uh mandates we're working on now, um, to provide uh mental health services, substance abuse services.

We um just received a grant from the state to build three facilities, um, one in Pleasant Hill, um, one in Pittsford, and one out in the Oakley area.

Um, but that's just one-time funding to build them.

The state is not providing us funding to make sure we provide these services, um, but it's a mandate for us to provide these services now, um, and so as we continue to receive more mandates, unfunded mandates um from our state and federal government, that's causes the even larger strain on our county um as well.

And so, um, as um Eve was just sharing the community block grants that comes from the federal government, um, me serving on the city council, like that does help our small nonprofits and community-based organizations within our communities, um, and hopefully that does not get cut, but it's it's really not enough to help um our food and security collaborative to stay afloat, um, if SNAP benefits um get cut as well.

Um, and so I think on a larger scale, it's still like engagement is important, getting involved is important, having people live in that live in different states to get them to encourage their member of Congress to make a change.

I keep saying like these individuals individuals in these other states right now feel like it's not gonna happen to them, and then once January comes and it happens to them, they wake up and like, oh my goodness, then they'll start encouraging their members of Congress or senators to make these changes.

Um, but if there's ways that we can start doing that now, then we can get them to push.

I'm like, oh, I wish they would make changes before January because it's gonna is scary.

Um working for um the congressmen when um the Trump administration came in the first time.

You know, it was all of these executive orders, it was all of these things going on, but this time is different, it's very organized, right away.

So it's something that we really gotta get engaged, work together, and have other states join us.

People join us to get their members of Congress to make changes quickly.

Great, thank you.

Um, a couple anybody else want to comment on that, like moving money around.

It's probably been said okay.

A couple of questions specific to schools.

Want to know what the impacts will be to um special.

Maybe you mentioned this, Lynn forgive me if you did special ed services as well as um development and disabled services any one and the same in in education so that is the same bucket of money so as I mentioned there actually isn't a cut there's actually a small increase proposed for special but not even the cost of cola so we only get um roughly about 13% of our special ed funds that we're supposed to receive from the feds but that doesn't it hasn't mattered who's in office they have not fully funded special ed ever right ever so what we're doing we're also seeing so many more people qualify for special education services so our districts are using much more of their general funds to support um can you not hear me sorry no I just died to make another one oh okay I'm sorry I saw your hand raised while I was talking but so I didn't have just add um one to what you're saying what you said about the labor day um the information you received the house bill yeah I was just gonna add that Antioch high school where I was at for a long time is a title one high school and we received title one funds and title three because we have a large English language population at Antioch high school our free reduced lunch was at the 80% range meaning that eight of out of eight of ten kids qualify for free reduced lunch because their family income is below the poverty level so yes these will be drastic impact on communities like um the high school that I was in charge of for such a long time so for me it breaks my heart that students with special needs transportation services staffing that goes to provide one to one and others required services for our students our English language learners immigrant families that are frightened and scared right now to even go to school and I'm very concerned about what support they're going to receive moving forward.

So great thank you so I'm aware of the time it's almost 10 of nine so what I'd like you each to do and maybe this time we'll start with Carlin and then just go around is give some closing comments and if you this has been um sobering to all of us I think and the two messages I've gotten is buy local and be compassionate to our neighbors and think about our neighbors in our communities where people if they're not already will be really hurting a lot more so um I would ask that you leave us with some sense of hope about our ability to manage our way through this together.

So Carlin you take it up but but let's just do it for like a minute each if we can okay no pressure a message of hope so again I do appreciate uh the spirit of empathy that has been lifted up here I think also this crowd makes me hopeful that all of you came out on a Wednesday night to learn more so please share what you learned tonight or something that you learned tonight with somebody who is not here.

And then I'm also going to say something that uh might not be popular with organizers I do apologize but I will tell you then I have been frustrated since the beginning of the year whenever people say to me oh Carlin what are we gonna do about and you fill in the blank and some terrible thing has happened like my brother in law works for the EPA and he's watched most of his colleagues get doged because they worked on the environmental justice team or you know looking and and being very terrified as to people getting pulled out of the immigration court and so I'm a person of action and I think most of you are here so I will just say that I am going to be participating and I just want to encourage you all to take a look and decide for yourselves but I am going to be utilizing some of my political capital and knocking on doors for prompt 50 because I think it's very important for us to at least try to level the playing field so hopefully I'll see some of you after careful consideration joining me this fall.

I'll be joining you.

I know that.

There's three three points I just wanted to quickly hit on that uh that we sort of uh skirted around the edge on.

One of them because we either are of an age or we have parents of an age.

When Medicaid is cut, that means that community-based care goes down and elders have to go into institutions, and that costs the taxpayers more money.

And these people don't get a second chance, they're of an age and a population that this is the one shot.

So we all know people that are in that bucket.

So that's something that we really need to pay attention to.

The second is who likes driving on traffic.

It'd be like going down Ignacio Valley Road at 5 p.m.

on a weekday.

Probably the number one thing that I get more emails about than anything else.

Traffic monitoring, dynamic signals, and communications technology are all federal funded.

We use those to help make traffic as good as we possibly can, and to help keep the roads going on highways as well as on our big regional roads like Ignacio Valley Road and Treat Contra Costa Boulevard, some of these other ones.

If we if we lose funding for this, traffic just gets worse.

That goes with public transportation as well.

Because if public transit isn't getting the money, guess what?

People are driving on the roads even more.

So that's a huge issue.

And the third, and here's the little bit of hope, because everybody can do this right now.

And thank you, Carlin, for mentioning this very early on.

When you buy in person, the sales tax rate in Walnut Creek is 9.25%.

The county rate is 8.75%, and we passed measure O.

Measure O gives that half percent directly into Walnut Creek, and that pace for all of these different infrastructure projects like Heather Farms.

But the city and pretty much all cities get one cent of that 8.7%, 8.75%.

That's one cent.

It all adds up.

That's really important.

When people shop on Amazon, does anybody here not shop on Amazon?

I mean, it's easy, right?

If you shop on Amazon, the city gets one tenth of one cent.

That's the difference.

When we talk about us being a sales tax-dependent city, this is a third of all of our funding.

All of you right now can make dedication to, sure, we can't find every product in our local cities.

But if you can shop in person, and you tell your friends and family to shop in person, that's more money for the cities, more money that we can do things with to provide services for all of our residents.

It's an easy fix.

So I'll leave you with that.

Great job.

Okay, Lenny.

Okay, my quick message of hope is that we have wonderful students.

So I was this weekend meeting with about a hundred students at over it was a Labor Day weekend, and they were student board members doing wonderful things.

You know, last time I presented it something like this, I I made it sound like dystopia.

That's what somebody said, and I'm and it was, it was kind of dystopian.

Some of these things are dystopian to me, but there is hopeful things going on in our schools.

You know, to me, it's like I get to mostly talk to people who are not happy with our schools.

So I get to hear about how things are going wrong for some students, but I I've got to tell you the majority of things that are happening in schools are are incredible.

We have great teachers, we have incredible administrators, great superintendents, who are all going to do to the work to continue to serve the students, even if we don't get the funding.

We have great like so just we just met uh with White Prony Express.

They reached out and said, hey, let the schools know we can pick up their unused food and we can redistribute it.

So, you know, and they're just thinking of ways of and they're supporting food banks in our schools.

They have food pantries in our schools.

So we're working with community, you know, working with our local agencies to try to make sure all the students' um needs are met on what to do is like Chanel said, it's and it's not just your friends in other states, it's your friends in Central Valley.

Because the truth is we're preaching to the choir when we call our Congress people here in the Bay Area, still call them.

Call them anyways.

Preach to the choir, but having people that you know that live in the Central Valley or live in other states, because they don't want to hear from us, like the Bay Area people can't call the Modesto people, and but have them call their federal legislatures and say we support education in all this, but education.

Thank you, Lynn.

Louie?

I'll just uh to piggyback on that education.

Of course, I come from that world, and we have wonderful young people doing wonderful things.

I don't always get um communicated out to the public, and so I'm optimistic about the future with our young people.

One of the things that um I'm we're doing in Antioch that I'm excited about is the City of Antioch and the Antioch United School District are meeting together about how we can share our resources, our facilities, our programs because we're one in the same when you look at the city and schools.

The other thing I would say is that Antioch faced some really challenging times.

That's one of the reasons why I was um asked to run for city council.

We have a new council majority.

Uh we now um have uh about 90 officers in Antioch moving to 17.

So we'll be fully staffed within a year, and what's nice about that is we're having a neighborhood watch groups, community people are coming together because they want to see their communities, their parks be safe.

And so there's a lot of good things happening in Antioch downtown on second street with the riverfront.

We have a lot of new businesses opening up.

We have the uh farmers market, just a lot of positive energy with change coming.

Even though we're all faced with challenging times, I think we need to work together for the better of our own communities and all the region.

Thank you, Luigi.

Chanel, you can wrap it up.

I get to wrap it up.

All right.

So stay positive too um as we move into this upcoming election.

I think is really important to get people out to get them to vote.

Um, you know, we need to do everything we can to um fight this administration, and I think that part is really important.

Um so if you can get out and walk, walk, make phone calls, do text messages, encourage your friends.

Um, you know, you can do little text messages, parties, phone banking parties, um, and then really focus in on community.

Um, I think that's where we're stronger.

Uh I believe that we're blessed to live in Contra Costa County.

Um, you know, we all work together.

Um, and when we come together is something that's really amazing for all of us.

We need to form public private partnerships that support food and security that support housing, um, that support our unhoused community.

Um, we have a lot of organizations on the ground that's nonprofit and community-based organizations that's doing the work that we need to lean on.

We have a lot of funders that have a lot of money and they're looking to invest in our community and just need to know where those resources are of where to invest at to provide those resources, and so we need to form those groups.

Um, I was just talking to someone yesterday about Rodale, and I'm trying to get services there and talk to some of the funders.

And what can we do in Rodale?

We haven't touched Rodale yet.

You know, they are looking at bringing services to different parts of Contra Costa County and forming those partnerships really matter.

Um, you know, lean in on your congressional members.

Um, like I said, we have rock stars here in the Bay Area, and I'll just say that because I used to work for one.

Uh Congress of Mark DeSelier, but you have an awesome Bay Area um delegation.

Um, you know, attend those town hall meetings, um, let your member know how you feel, go out and do walks.

Um, you know, I think that is something where we we can come together um to look at change, and then looking at ways that we can get people employees.

So I'm constantly looking at our youth and what job training programs that we can be supporting to help our youth or helping our workforce development program to be stronger so that people in our community be able to get the training they need and get the jobs um here locally as well.

Um, and then lastly, I would say, you know, the constant level of engagement.

We can't just do it today, and then we back off because those things will change.

And so we go through these cycles of um be really engaged, and then something new is dangling in front of us.

And then we forget about the one thing that we were engaged about because then we all rush over here to stay focused on this.

And then something new happens because we're watching TV or on social media and something else dangling in front of us.

And then we go and focus on that.

And so as soon as we get distracted, because that's what it's designed for, to get us distracted, to keep us divided, and that division creates discord between of all between us all of us.

And so we need to stay engaged.

We can form groups to stay focused on our food and security to stay focused on our in-house community to stay focused on health care needs to stay focused on education.

And that way that if we have different groups to stay focused on all of these things, we won't miss the ball on the one thing that we for we were working on in the first place.

Thank you.

Okay, so three things.

Shop local, particularly cannabis products.

Remember that.

Everything.

Be empathetic.

And finally, how about showing a little appreciation for our elected public service servants here?

And I really do have a sense of hope that we have people like this who are taking care of things, and we may be going through a rough time.

Absolutely.

I think we all agree with that.

But we are under steady leadership, and that really matters.

Okay, switching gears.

It wouldn't be the league without talking about the next election.

November 4th.

There's going to be a big proposition.

Let's get out and demonstrate.

Okay.

Well, I'll talk about that.

Okay, this is your guy right here.

He's going to use our sign.

But first, let me tell you, we are going to be doing pros and cons about Prop 50.

And we're hoping to do them in libraries like this and some others, etc.

So we you're would you be interested in a prop 50?

Pros and cons?

Okay.

Thank you.

Yes.

Prop 50 is not taking a position on it.

We have a paper out front that you can grab that gives our complete rationale.

Yeah, we understand there's been a lot of confusion about it.

It's all explained out there, and we will explain that fully too at our pros and cons, but we're totally out of time now, although I appreciate your question.

So voting really matters.

If you want to join with us, unite and rise 8.5.

It's only 26,000 people here.

We can make a difference here.

And I will tell you it's really fun.

It's fun to do it together, and there's a great feeling of community and empathy that all of us have when we're out there marching.

I've really felt really good.

I've also done it in Walnut Creek, and Monday we did it in in Pittsburgh, and it can be very heartening and can give you really good energy.

So thank you for your energy tonight.

Thank you again to our panel.

Very much appreciate it.

And we're only about one minute late.

Yay!

Hello, I'm Metal Matt.

I'm at the Toyota Pavilion at Concord for a very special moment.

The pavilions turn in 50.

It's amazing, this venue in the foothills of Concord.

I've had many great moments, including my graduation from high school in 1983, and I produced CC Rock and hosted it in this facility for 10 years with lots of great bands like Bad Company, The Scorpions, Motley Crew.

I've got a lot of great historical footage of this venue, including the Reconstruction back in the mid-90s, and some great sound bites from the key members of the staff back in the 70s, 80s, and 90s.

So sit back and relax.

It's gonna be a great walk down memory lane at the Toyota Pavilion at Concord.

For the summer festival demonstrated the need for a larger permanent performing arts facility in Concord.

In 1973, a joint venture between the city of Concord and the Mount Diablo Unified School District was made.

The city asked numerous architects to develop and present plans for the Concord Pavilion.

Frank Gary was selected to be the architect.

And on May 16th, 1975, the pavilion opened its doors for the first time for a benefit concert sponsored by the Concord Jazz Festival, featuring Henry Mancini and Sarah Vaughn.

Carl Jefferson was there, and he remembers it well.

I'm from Concord where the pavilion is and so forth.

Everybody's proud of something good.

John Toffelly Jr., director of leisure services for the city of Concord, helped the funding and building of the pavilion and became the general manager.

The Concord Pavilion was opened in 1975 as a place to enrich our lives and those of our children.

And it certainly succeeded in that over the past 15 or 16 years.

Well, when you work for John Toffley, I mean, you know, John was hired from Richmond, and he was brought over here to to form an arts department.

Because Concord didn't have that.

So Bud Stewart, who's a city manager then, brought brought John over, and that was his job.

And he did.

But little did we know he was this dreamer, this person with great ideas.

And he didn't want to be bothered with the small stuff, or you know, he would develop an idea and then throw it out all of us in the department and leave it up to us to try to make it happen.

You know, that happened not only with the jazz festival, we did swim meets, uh, we did uh softball uh tournaments, major tournaments, uh we did golf tournaments, we we did all kinds of stuff because of him because he was this visionary, and I think that's why him and and Carl Jefferson hit it off so well because uh Jeff was the same thing, he was a visionary as well.

This is a remarkable key for the city of Concord for John Chopley and his staff that this place was so cleverly done and uh what by an age, you know, an architect, everything about it with John.

Exists up here.

I had something to do with promoting it.

Credit is due to John and his staff who operating that so it's amazing, really.

Oh, I know it's great.

That commercial cost me a lot.

But what John wanted, he wanted to have everything that he could possibly have here, uh, so that so the community would at least have a chance to see it, to see something.

And believe me, we did everything you can imagine here here.

I mean, we had one ring circus, we had uh professional wrestling, boxing, uh, we did Broadway plays, the symphonies, the ballets, and what happened was as we evolved after a couple of years of operation, we saw that the the dynamics were changing on city council because you're always subject to the council's opinion, and uh so we started seeing that the finances became a little more important.

Concord wasn't really interested in underwriting these these special events.

So John found himself in an awkward position that he's gonna have to start doing shows that maybe he didn't like, like hard rock and roll, acid.

I mean, he didn't like that stuff, right?

But but we had to start creating a balance that those shows would pay for some of the shows like the symphony.

I mean, when we we would have the San Francisco Symphony here, it would cost a bloody fortune.

And quite frankly, sometimes they didn't do very well.

And and even the Concord Jazz Festival didn't do as well as it did in the park because now it's competing uh with with some of the major pop shows, the middle of the road or what or what have you.

Well, it was we I always used to say I had two jobs.

We had an office job during the day when we were planning advertising or looking at box office issues or booking acts or whatever the case may be, and then 75 to 100 times a year.

We had a night job when we came out to the facility.

Our offices were in downtown Concord, the administrative staff.

And so whenever there was a show of any type, we would come out here in the evening and settle up with the act, and then we'd know right before they were going to finish.

We'd come out, I'd love to see if there was gonna be an encore and just see the reaction of the audience who would come to see a show that we had been marketing and see if they enjoyed it and happy faces leaving afterwards.

There wasn't a whole lot of media exposure.

You know, we knew the jazz festival had been the impetus to build the concert hall, and so they were ours rendering that you know, a pen and ink uh version that that would be marketed, but the public really didn't see the construction.

It was just up on Kirker Pass Road, and uh the that was the road from Walnut Creek to get over to the East Contra Costa County, and uh um actually one time it was gonna be the east-west freeway, and that's one of the reasons they picked this because they thought there was gonna be a major thoroughfare, and boom, you could get right from highway 24680 to the pavilion, and that never happened.

So uh, you know, ahead of time it was most people probably thought, well, the Jazz Cecil has a permanent home.

And we're saying, well, we're gonna have a lot of other uh entertainment, and actually, when it was first built, the city council said there'd be no rock music at the pavilion.

You know, this was the mid-70s and of course in the 60s and 70s that rock had not the best reputation and you know, sex drugs and rock and roll, and very early on in the first year, we realized that economically we weren't gonna be able to survive without having rock music.

So after two weeks of the second year, we'd had a sell-out show with uh Seals and Crofts, and then the next week one with Boz Skags.

And the day, the Monday after the Boz Skag show, Bill Graham presents called this and said, hey, let's talk about having us rent the pavilion.

So in our second season, they actually came out and rented the pavilion and did six concerts.

And so by then the array of artists we had was, you know, from symphonies, country music, folk music, jazz, which had helped build the pavilion and rock and so forth.

And uh, you know, we took great pride in the fact that we had a very diverse thing.

You know, one night we'd have Marshall Tucker band and we'd have security on horseback patrolling the hills around the pavilion, clean up the pavilion, and next night have uh Arthur Fiedler in the Boston Pops, and the next night have a jazz show on Friday, and then on Saturday and Sunday have two other shows.

So we you know took great pride in having a diverse thing and hopefully something that everyone in the city would would and in the broader Bay Area would like to come out and see.

Well, I think makes the Concord Pavilion special is that uh it was a community-built uh theater, it's a beautiful uh outdoor venue uh that um uh Frank Geary helped design, and uh it had a great uh blend of top concert acts coming to perform here and community events, and on that warm summer night, uh it's just a great place to see a concert and get on top of the line and see Mount Diablo and beautiful Diablo Valley.

The original Concord Pavilion was designed as a symphony hall and to also host the Concord Jazz Festival.

So when the money for the symphony wasn't bringing enough revenue in to support the operation, concerts were starting to be brought in, and subsequently a lot of the shows that arrived would come up with their van or their truck and try to figure out how to put this equipment into a symphony hall.

It was a challenge, and so my job was sort of straighten that out.

I had a lot of road experience, a lot of traveling prior to come to the pavilion.

I did seven years on the road traveling with various groups, so I knew it from the artists' perspective coming in and try to help them understand how to fit their show into this building.

So it was it was a it was a tough time, and ultimately we had a change.

Otherwise, we're gonna those artists weren't gonna come back.

So that's what caused the expansion or the remodel of the building to occur.

It's really exciting.

And I think the most important thing is is that the pavilion didn't change that much.

It uh it's still intimate, it's still it's still what it was in the the twenty-one years before.

It's interesting.

I was just reading the other day, Live Nations building in Michigan, I believe, a new amphitheater.

Hundred and forty million dollars to build amphitheater.

The original building here in 75 was four point two million, and we spent another eighteen million remodels.

So for three for roughly twenty-five million dollars, you have an amphitheater that's worth over a hundred and fifty million dollars.

It's pretty good return on your investment in my book, and plus what it does for the wealth of the community and adds popular music.

So it was fun to do the remodel.

We did it without missing a season, which was impressive.

Um, and uh it was it was challenging.

The first opening show was tough.

Um, we were doing the House of Blues tours with Joe Cocker as a trial run just to see if all the bathroom toilets flushed and make sure people could get in the parking lot okay and such.

And I had called the manager about two weeks before and said we're not gonna make it.

And we eleven days before the first show, there was no concrete in the lower bowl here.

None of the even the seats were in.

I mean, it was it was they were still pouring concrete.

And the day we opened up the show to come in, they were still bolting chairs on when the audience was coming into the into the venue.

And so I later on I was talking to the tour manager of the and she said, Well, my uh you can't cancel the show because my um my family lives in that town.

I'm down in LA at the House of Blues, but we're doing this tour, you can't cancel it because I my I come from Concord.

And I said, Oh, well, I think we may have to.

So, we're okay, just put us up on the holiday in down the street for a dressing room.

So if we don't have dressing rooms, we'll we can do the show.

So we did the show, and then a year later they came back, and I saw the woman again, and she said, You know what's interesting story is that uh my sister came to the show and she met the guy who was installing the seats.

Now they're married.

Wow, amazing what happens at the pavilion, you know.

A lot of friendships and a lot of uh great times.

And that's I think that's probably the best thing about the pavilion is that the friendships and the and the audiences, the the staff was fantastic.

A lot of close friendships came about, a lot of marriages came about.

Now the kids are working here.

It's a it's it's quite an honor for for Concord to have a building like this.

There were some artists that really liked coming back here.

I think James Taylor was one where they just enjoyed the, I think the vibe of the of the facility, again being that outdoor amphitheater.

Some artists prefer doing the indoor arena shows, but I think there are some artists that really enjoy uh the outdoor.

The night before I got a call at like 3 a.m.

in the morning at my house when I'm sleeping in bed.

Woke me up.

And it was the tour manager for the Blues Brothers.

And they just he said, hi Doug, we're down in LA, we just finished the show.

And I'm thinking to myself, oh my God, are they gonna cancel?

Am I gonna be pulling the plug?

And and he goes, no, we just finished the show.

And it went very well, but John was having a really tough time.

John Bellushi was having a really tough time with the catering, and I need a few things on the catering to be fixed.

And I said, what's what is it?

He says, make sure that he's going on a diet.

He wants diet guacamole dip.

Make sure the guacamole dip is diet, okay?

I'm like, okay, I can do that.

And hung up the phone and went, cheated death.

I thought I was gonna think of the show was going to cancel, and here we is all I had to worry about was the catering.

So we never knew what diet uh guacamole dip was, but we labeled it guacamole dip when I'm the on the on the bowl.

But uh it was fun.

You know, he was and I've never I never knew that John Belushi could be aerobic, you know, he was he he could do backflips on the stage, and so he ran up in the old stage all the way down the hall and started doing backflips across stage and then landed.

It was quite impressive.

I he was an amazing, it was an amazing show.

If you were here, you saw one of the best shows of of the pavilions' history.

John saw the need, once again, his vision.

He he saw that the arts was not going to be able to support, be supported in this facility, and we were gonna have to take this this other direction in the middle of the road music, rock and roll music.

So he he had to find some way to uh create a uh a mechanism that would support the arts.

So a nonprofit organization that he worked with, Scott Belding was the executive director, and it was their job to keep the arts alive.

So they wouldn't get lost.

So the original concept was to keep the arts alive and and they did that.

I mean, they they provided volunteers, they had fundraisers, they would they get they had grants.

And even at one time, when uh when we lost a concession contract, the pavilion associates actually ran the concessions here to carry it along until we got somebody else.

So they they were really a great tool to help us.

Bill Graham and John Toffe and I met many times in his office and once he started coming out here and so forth.

So we we had many interactions and and for the for three years, the second, third, and fourth year of the pavilion, they were rented the building more than any other promoter to put do shows.

And after that year, we had this lawsuit with James Taylor, and we realized we're trying to book an act at the pavilion, and then one or two promoters were trying to book the same act in the same place.

And you know, Bill Graham called me one time, we were booking Andy Gibb.

And he called up and he was screaming in the phone.

He said, How can you pay that kid $35,000?

And I said, Bill, I don't know that much, but Andy Gibb is the Concord Pavilion.

I mean, you put the picture in the dictionary, he fits our audience, the suburban audience and so forth.

And he sold out in like two or three days.

The night we booked uh the city council voted to have Bill Graham start in the 1986 season as the sole booker.

We went to uh dinner afterwards after the city council meeting at TR's restaurant, which is now our Congressman Mark DeSalmy's restaurant.

And I was sitting right next to Bill Graham, and I said, you know, Bill, we gotta get the Grateful Dead here.

Uh we'd had their bands when they'd split up, but we never had the Grateful Dead, and of course they had quite a reputation.

And uh Bill says, not gonna happen.

He he realized that he was taking too much of a chance to have the Grateful Dead and their audience come out to the pavilion.

So that that actually never happened.

Uh on the night that Huey Lewis was playing here, uh, we were sitting up in the conference room.

Uh John and I'm not sure if uh Jay Bettercray was there, but uh I was there and it was raining and it was bad weather, and uh Bill, we said, Bill, you can't, and he arrived in a helicopter, and he said, You can't leave here.

I mean, my understanding was that his pilot did not have instrument uh training.

So the low ceiling, you can't fly home.

He lived in Marin.

And he said, no, no, no, I trust.

His pilot's name was Killer.

Uh so uh so uh he said, no, I I trust killer.

I mean, I know he he can get me home safe.

So we said, no, no, let's we'll get you a limo, he will drive you home.

Well, you know what happened.

You know, he was killed.

I mean, the pilot was following uh highway 37, I think, and just ran into the tower.

But I'll never forget that as well.

So the next morning, you know, I get a call that what it happened.

Soccer's woke, money talks, but it came touch my free lock box, oh baby.

You got to go.

One thing we found is that we the we were the summer home of the San Francisco Symphony before Davies Hall was built for about three or four years.

And they would book, they'd call up and say, hey, we booked Maserat Cabaye, who was the most famous soprano in the world at the time.

And I'm thinking, who's gonna come out to Concord to watch that?

And sometimes no one did.

And we used to John Toffley's analogy was that you look through a telescope and you look at the small end and it goes out to the big thing and you see the stars.

And he says, you know, people in Concord look through the small end of the telescope, they look out, there's San Francisco.

You're gonna go in there for dinner to go to a concert, go to a giant skein, 49ers game.

People in San Francisco look through the big end of the telescope and they look out, and here's Concord at the small end.

And you have to go across the bridge.

Did you go across the Bay Bridge?

Can you drive all the way out to Concord?

So we realized that a lot of acts that were big box office acts, weren't gonna play in Concord.

And conversely, some things that wouldn't work in San Francisco would be a smash in Concord.

So you may see you live.

You may live by the promise.

It's quite an honor for Concord to have a building like this.

There's a lot of cities that would die to have a pavilion in their city with the attention that it brings to the community.

Well, I hope you enjoyed this historical look at the Toyota Vivana Concord, an amazing amphitheater here in Contra Costa County.

Thank you very much to Live Nation and Polo Loco for making this video possible.

I enjoyed making it.

It was a labor of love.

So I'll see you at the show.

Bye-bye.

Hi, I'm Mayor Cindy Darling, and today we're here at Mike's Spikes to talk about e-bikes.

Now, e-bikes are a fun, eco-friendly way to get around town.

But they can also be powerful and very fast.

We've heard from many of you with questions and concerns, especially parents wondering how to keep kids safe.

That's why I'm joined today by Officer Adamson from Wanda Creek Police Department.

Together we're gonna go over the basics of e-bikes and share some tips for riding safely.

So, Officer Adamson, thank you for being here today.

What's the first thing that people, the most basic thing about e-bikes that people should know?

Thank you, Mayor, for being here as well.

So parents might think that they're buying a safe e-bike for their children, but not every e-bike that's being marketed is actually a great e-bike for kids to be riding.

Um there's some things you want to keep in mind to make sure when you are buying an e-bike.

First, you want to make sure that you have the right class of e-bike, have the right proper safety equipment, and follow the rules of the road.

So where can you ride a class one or a class two e-bike?

Yeah, so mayor, you can ride these bikes in the bike lanes.

If there's not a bike lane available, you can ride them on the city street.

You're also allowed to ride where on trails where regular bikes are allowed, but it's very important to remember this.

You are not supposed to be riding your bicycles in the downtown corridor on the sidewalks.

I've also seen some bikes that really look a lot more like dirt bikes.

What's up with those?

So what we're seeing is an electric motorcycle or electric motor bike.

And I think the confusion is that people think that they're giving their children an e-bike when in reality they're giving them an electric motorcycle.

So if a vehicle can go over 30 miles per hour without pedaling, it's not an e-bike.

E motorcycles require a license, registration, insurance, and a DOT approved helmet, not just a bicycle helmet.

Plus, those vehicles need features like headlights and turn signals to be street legal.

Kids used to ride dirt bikes.

So it sounds like these electric motorbikes are like dirt bikes.

You shouldn't be riding them on the street.

Correct, mayor.

They're the exact same thing, except one's electric and one's gas power.

All right.

So if you're a parent shopping for an e-bike for your child, Christmas is coming.

What should you be looking for?

Yeah, so you want to make sure the motor is 750 watts or less.

Check that the assisted top speed is no more than 20 miles per hour for younger riders.

When it comes to the class one and two, riders under 18, they must wear a helmet.

And then for class three, helmets are required regardless of your age.

And that's what we recommend for all e-bike riders, no matter what the class.

So, what other tips do you have for parents or people looking at e-bikes?

Yeah, parents, educate yourself.

That's the most important thing.

So educate yourself on what your kids are actually riding, and then talk to your kids about how to ride safely.

It's very important.

Education is the number one thing that we recommend.

So, what are some good resources a parent could look to?

Yeah, you can go to the City of Wanna Creek website.

Also, California Highway Patrol offers a great short class which helps educate parents as well as young riders on what to pay attention to when it comes to riding the bicycles as well as purchasing bicycles.

Great.

Thank you for sharing this information today.

I really appreciate it and uh look forward to helping kids ride these bikes safely.

Yeah, thank you, Mayor.

I really appreciate it.

Welcome to At the Theater.

I am Matt Bolunder from Walnut Creek Television.

Tonight we have a very special show with George Winston.

This piano virtuoso.

We're playing several numbers from the Leisher Center for the Arts in Walnut Creek.

We'll also sit down and talk to George about his career and about his newest piece of work coming out soon on At the Theater.

Be right back.

Okay, so Welcome back to At the Theater.

I'm now joined by George Winston, the piano virtuoso here at the Leisure Center in Walnut Creek.

How you doing, George?

Nice to meet you.

Well I wouldn't say virtuoso, I'm still working on it.

Oh, I don't know.

I I've heard a lot of I've heard a lot of pianists, and it's funny how your music has really kind of touched so many people's lives, especially in nature.

I mean, that's one of the interesting parts about your music as a person who's very visual and works in the visual arts.

When I listen to uh Forest, for example, great, great, great disc and beautiful sounds, and it really it's the visuals that really kind of draw me to you so much.

How do you pull up the inspiration?

Do you actually have to go somewhere to actually inspire yourself to actually create music?

Well, I go a lot of places.

And it's it's the seasons changing that's my main inspiration, and then topographies are second, whether it's forest, ocean, island, particularly the Great Plains, because I grew up in eastern Montana, mild city of Billings.

So the changing of the seasons of the Great Plains is the primal thing for me.

Uh but really anywhere on the planet has its season that it's in.

It's topography.

It has whatever the earth energy is there.

So I'm glad to be able to go to a lot of places and just soak all this in.

So it all goes into the music for me, you know, all the places that I go, one way or another, directly, indirectly.

Um, depending on just what I'm taking in that day, what the place is.

And I'm glad I'm just I'm just grateful to be able to go to all the places I go to.

So, mainly mainland America, uh, a little bit uh Asia, uh, particularly Korea and Japan, usually every year.

Mm-hmm.

What about Yosemite?

What do you think about Yosemite?

Is that ever inspired you for any music before?

Never I've never been.

You've never been to UCM.

We've got to do a project together.

I've done I've gone to most two hundred mile race radiuses in the in the you know continental U.S., but uh some reason that's eluding me.

One of these days I've got to do it.

Next time I'm in Fresno or something.

I've just got to go.

I know it's it's on my list.

Uh it's definitely I've I've been there several times, and I'd say once again back to your music.

It's when I'll play something like Force example.

A lot of the tracks on that disc have a lot of inspiration for Usemini to me.

Now obviously you've worked a lot of influences your life.

I mean, you've had, you know, Ray Manzarek, a big influence of your earlier days.

The only vocalists I listened to were a bit of Ray Charles and Sam Cook, but it was all instrumental adventures.

Floyd Cramer Kramer, Booker T and the MGs.

There were a lot of great instrumental groups in the late fifties, early sixties.

And you know, I heard vocal groups on the radio, but um, you know, I was more of a Tijuana brass fan, Booker T and the MG's fan, Jimmy Jazz organs, Jimmy Smith.

Then I heard the doors, and I just said, This is the greatest thing I've ever heard.

They re I got their first album just they weren't known at the time outside of LA.

It was just because it said Ray Manzara.

Mm-hmm.

And I put it on, so this is the greatest thing I've ever heard.

I've got to get in Morgan playing the band, and that was January sixty-seven.

And that album is the door's first album, like one long song.

And that's the second time that it happened to me.

The first time it happened to me, December sixty-five.

I was a fan of animation, so I watched the very first peanuts episode.

Charlie around Christmas.

And I was much more a fan of piano of organ than piano.

But that piano drove me crazy, especially Linus and Lucy, like it drives everybody crazy.

And I wasn't aware it was Vince Garaldi because I didn't I missed it on the credits.

I was aware of him from his hit Casturfate to the Wind from the 62.

Uh, but anyway, I in six December sixty-five, I went to the record store the day after just to go to the record store, and there it was up on the wall, Charlie around Christmas, and I got it.

Looked for that song, Linus and Lucy.

And I said this album's like one long, beautiful song with twelve different parts.

So that was the first time that happened to me.

The doors first album was the second time.

Um Vince didn't push me over to being a player, but the doors did.

But uh Vince Garaldi is the person who I play the most songs of.

The three composers I've tried to play all their songs are Vince Garaldi of the Doors and New Orleans pianist Professor Longhair.

And we were talking about the next record, and that'd be out January February two called uh Love Will Come, the music of the Vince Garaldi volume two.

In uh ninety six, I did volume one called Linus and Lucy.

Right.

The second and final volume, but I just love Vince's songs.

I don't play that much like Vince.

I'm much more of an R and B player.

He was a very much a jazz player.

And but I love his songs and find a way to I've tried them all.

All the cues on all sixteen of the peanuts he did.

Probably tried two hundred of his things, and you know, these particular about forty-five worked out.

Yeah, some platin albums, I mean, December, one of the most beautiful.

I mean, Thanksgiving, that that is a number, I'll tell you.

And you play that number Thanksgiving, it just it brings so much uh life to your family.

I remember you played during the holidays a few times during that time of year.

And how do you, I mean, when you're writing this music, uh, do you obviously go places, but do you meet people?

Do things inspire you in situations that actually, I mean, obviously, as a composer, you've got to kind of get away and kind of gotta go to your own space after these moments.

How do you kind of transpire these these images?

Well, I've never tried to compose a piece.

You know, I'm I've got my routine and my work and drive to work like everybody does.

Um things we got to deal with personally and with the work like everybody does.

So I just living normally, you know, trying to play the best concert possible.

That's a little abnormal, but being a dentist is abnormal too.

Everybody's job is really unique, and we're all really doing the same thing, just trying to, you know, find our own way that we like to do it, you know, synthesize what we've learned from our inspirations, our influences, grow, develop our own styles, uh, keep being inspired, trying to try to help others that have questions.

Um but it really is just living life normally, and then occasionally usually at the piano, not so much away, uh, something just kind of emerges.

I'm well, that reminds me of, you know, Eastern Montana in October or something.

And if it has a picture with it in my mind, then it stays around.

You were mentioning visuals.

Same thing with interpreting pieces of somebody else.

If it gets if it gives me a picture, it it stays.

If it doesn't, it's not the composer's fault.

It's no, there's no fault here.

But if if a visual doesn't go in my mind with it, even though I'm not a visual artist at all, you know, you know, I don't draw or take pictures or anything or video or anything, but um, really.

But my way of doing visual arts is what I suppose you could say.

That I like to um, if a song needs to have a season, I'll create a picture with it, or else I don't play it.

Is there a lot of those images have you ever do you actually create I mean your o pictures that you choose to have behind your on like a in a live concert or is it actually just that's just somebody's own expression of it.

But in on stage you've never had images behind you on stage, it's all just conjured up by everybody's own image of their own.

Yeah, I like to just keep it plain.

Let the music do all the work.

Well, that's funny because I I read a little article I guess they're saying that you know you come out there and you're stocking feet and you're very you know, that's so you don't get the Yeah, the thumping, huh?

Yeah, like to try to eliminate that.

You're very you know, mild manner type of guy, you know, and for somebody a lot of people who are as talented and have such great skills, you seem like a very normal down to earth type person, which I think is very unique.

Well, I am a student, you know, I um I'm about halfway there in what I want to do on the piano and the guitar and the harmonica.

So um there's no big deal about it, you know, to me.

It's just trying to play better every day and be a better person, whatever that is.

Now that's what what does that mean?

That's a whole nother conversation.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

That's true.

Being a good person's an important part of life.

And obviously you've played a lot of different venues over the years.

Is there a venue that you think of that maybe you a concert you just remember so visually as being one of the most important or maybe the m the most I wouldn't say maybe not important is the b that's word for it, the best experience for you.

Well, maybe the mont the uh Custer County high school auditorium in Miles City, Montana.

Oh wow.

And and there's a lot of wonderful venues.

I since I grew up there, that's special to me because and then the Alberta Bear Theater and Billings, which was the Fox Theater, or I went to movies as a kid and um just all all the venues.

But those those two amongst many others really stick out, because I grew up in those places.

Well what do you do for hobbies?

I mean obviously you obviously are playing the so much around the country.

What is it what's your what's George doing away from the piano?

Um, guitar or harmonica or producing other artists and I wouldn't say they're hobbies.

I don't think I have any hobbies.

And maybe reading the latest cosmological discoveries, you know, the Hubble and things like that, but and that inspires the music, uh a sliver, you know, but the earth is my you know, it gave birth to me and to cats, which I love so much and so it's really just uh it's very interesting, like where does the earth end in a rock begin?

Where does the earth end in a tree begin?

You know, in the rainbow, where does blue end and green begin?

You know, all the where does the earth end and I begin?

I mean, I'm walking around, but so it's it's an interesting um I I think it's not definable to my own self.

Like are my c all my cells, are th are they me?

If I lose a cell, I'm still here.

Mm-hmm.

If I'm gone, the earth is still here.

If I'm gone, it's it's it's um interesting that you know how leaves fall off the trees and then they fertilize the earth and you know, um new leaves come up and you know, living beings pass on, they fertilize the earth and somebody else gets a chance.

It's amazing it's an amazing uh little universe, this planet is.

And then, you know, later we'll be interacting with the rest of the universe and you know, and then that'll be the planet, you know, a billion years from now or something, and it'll be that the you know, a whole n whole nother, you know, uh, concept of evolution that that the whole universe is a is a is a is a black spherical planet.

If that's what it is.

That uh that's that's the deep question.

And maybe there's an infinite amount of little bubbles going along with this other ones.

We'll know it someday.

Wow.

That you you just kind of blew my mind.

I'm trying to focus on your work and you these these conversations are so it's so intense.

We got spaced out, you know.

Yes, we did.

I mean, but your your music, like I said, it does draw you into different realms.

And I think that's the interesting part about everything comes back to your music.

And obviously you inspire so many people, and there's so many people around the world who obviously enjoy listening to your music.

What do you think when you have these clamoring fans who come up to you sometimes and they're they they just want to be part of you?

I mean part of your life, part of your music.

Wha how do you uh you feel humbled or what what's what do you feel like?

Well, nobody really does.

I mean, just want to sign something or ask a musical question.

So it's pretty normal.

You're not like you're not like the Rod Stewart or the the Robert Plant of the world.

Well, I don't know what anybody else does.

I have no I'm so busy trying to keep it together, I don't know what anybody else does with their life personally, but it's it's pretty much just normal if I have time to talk or make an email, you know, a question in to the office.

You know, if they've got a musical question in particular.

Wow.

Cause I when I first started, I would stand go to dances without a date and stand by the organism behind the organism, take notes, and then in intermission, I would ask them.

What'd you do during that the Smith by the Cat by Jimmy Smith or what'd you do at the end of I feel good by James Brown?

And only one person never wouldn't tell me.

Everybody else told me.

So you might want to ask me something about what I did, I'll tell them.

So he told me, even though it didn't want me to, so you know, I like to be a good librarian.

If the the information that I've put together, it's on the website, everything about everything that I've been able to put together with a wine slacky or tunings on harmonica, anything that I can help shorten somebody else's journey a bit.

As long as they are, they could be a lot longer if nobody had done anything, or imparted the information.

Sharing.