how do you say it? Impressed, humbled, taken aback in a good way and all that. So, and I thought that. I don't know how to respond to that. Say again? I don't know how to respond to that. Oh, you don't have to respond to that. It's just, I mean, it's all good. You have, I was very impressed and pleased in the whole nine yards. I mean, you know, and also all of the notes and questions that you guys asked me were really, really smart and they were really good in the sense that they helped direct, you know, my thoughts to a broader scope of what I was, you know, what we intended on doing. All right, I'm back on, sorry. Okay, no worries. Well, I mean, Nestor, as I told you in Havana, you know, I've been involved with television production down there before. Yeah. And... And the problem is, you know, I mean, part of the reason I was trying to get you to think in another direction is you're not only dealing with trying to create a product that you potentially want to sell. Right. But you also are dealing with, how should I put it, certain restrictions as to the message that you can convey and still convey. Yeah. And so, you know, I think that's one of the things that I think is really important. is that you don't get cooperation, you know, and the end, the goal is for it to be a win-win situation. Right. You know, so you can produce good product in the easiest manner and you can garner as much cooperation as you can from Cuba. Right. No, I got all that. I got all that. Your questions and your ideas and everything were great. I mean, I think I told you that when I, you know, I went there to meet you, but also to, you know, to tell you the idea, which was the general idea of the Torsador. But in my heart, there's so much that you can do in Cuba. There's so much. I mean, Cuba is, you know, I told you, it's complicated. I mean, that kind of covers the broad spectrum of the whole thing. And there's so much that you can do there. And then the thing is, you know, I'm not going to do it. And then the thing is, okay, so, but what do I want to do or what can I do, you know? And the culture there is the first thing that just like blows up. I mean, just everything about the culture there is amazing. Well, I wouldn't say everything, but there's a lot that is amazing. Yes. Well, when I say amazing, I mean, it's not just good. Not just good. I mean, there's, you know, there's a lot of things. I think I told you, I went to the La Factoría. The Artes Cubanas. And I think I told you that I was blown away by that place. I was fucking blown away. I was like, holy shit. I mean, how could this place exist here in Havana? You know what I mean? This is like, it was mind blowing. And everything was great. I'm sorry, go ahead. You know, it's privately owned. Yep. Yep. Yep. No, I know. I know. And the guy's an artist and all that and all this stuff. What I'm saying is, well, what I was going to get to is that towards the end, you know, my friends and I decided around 2.30, you know, 2.40, all right, let's get going. And around that time, a mob of people were trying to get out. Yeah, because they closed at 3. Yep. But it was dangerous at that point because they only have two cashiers. And, you know, as you know, they have that ticket system. And everyone starts pushing. Some people were drunk and some people were talking in English and saying, you know, if we just barrage this, we could all get out without paying. You know, the mob mentality. I thought to myself, man, this is such a brilliant idea. Yet the end there was really, really dangerous and scary for me. And I'm from New York. I've been through like all sorts of crazy shit. So I don't know. I was just kind of like next time I go, I think I'd leave at 1. Well, we usually leave at 2 and go to another club. There you go. There you go. 2 is a good time. 2 is a good time. 2 is a good time. 2 is a good time. 2 is a good time. 2 is a good time. 2 is a good time. 2 is a good time. 2 is a good time. 2 is a good time. 2 is a good time. Benchmark. Yeah. And that's generally when some of the other clubs really get good anyways. Right. Right. So anyway, so I brought Jeremy up to speed as to what you, you know. Yeah. We chatted a little bit online. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. And so here's the deal. I love it. I love the idea. So what I gathered and what I, what I got the impression was now, the father of your godson, Mikey is his name? Yeah. Mikey. Okay. So, so what I gather with Mikey's questions and your questions was that the Habanos, it's, it's, it's, it would be a good thing image wise and business wise to have the tobacco factory torsador element. In that, in the project. Well, well, yes, but you don't want to have it focused around the life of a torsador. Right. Right. Right. Right. No, I got that. What about the life with just within the factory and not so much their personal life? You have to be careful. The reason being is in the chain of, of, of things on a financial scale, the torsador is. More or less at the bottom. And, you know, I mean their hands, right. I mean, they're, they're, they're hands with training, but their hands. So you don't want to, how should I put it? Convey the message of, of what is lacking versus what is available. The focus should be what is available. Right. Yeah. The torsador. Yeah. The torsador thing is that, and also Mike, Mikey, you know, and you guys, both of you guys made it clear that the, the factory is yet one more level of approval that you would need to get. You just can't go into a factory and, and have, you know, them think, you know, it's almost like, I know this is a really stretched analogy, but for Knux, you know, everyone has their own secrets and that's just one more thing. And I think that. Well, it's, it's not so much about. Secrets to, to be honestly, I mean, yes, there is an element of that because you know, they don't know who you are and what you're doing with the tape and they, they want to make sure that it doesn't get into the hands of their competitors. Right. That, that's not the big impetus of it. I mean, the thing is, is also it's, it's disruptive to production. You know, I mean, it can be minimized the disruption, but, but it, it is disruptive to production. And at the end of the day, they're all measured by numbers. So to pull a roller or to disrupt one rollers production will affect that rollers pay. And officially you couldn't make up what he's losing because then it would be as if you're paying him and not others. And you know what I mean? Right. Right. So it's, it's a, it's complicated. It's complicated. And, and, and also being that the rollers in the factories for the most part are the lowest paid in the chain. Their struggles, their story is, will have an element of depravity to it. Mm-hmm . And. Mm-hmm . And that's not. Mm-hmm . That's not a message that Habanos nor the, the government of Cuba necessarily. Wants to portray. Yeah. I guess I, I didn't even consider any of that because I was strictly thinking from a perspective of, you know, first, first day on the job what it's like to learn that process and strictly just. Um. Just about the job. Just about the job. And I, I don't even care what his pay is or, or what he does outside of the factory. That, that's what I was more thinking about. Yeah. The, the, the, the problem. Because that, that's just interesting to me. And I'm just thinking about what's, what's interesting to me. And I, I love that idea of, you know, what are their, the apprentices in school for nine months or something like that initially or, you know, whatever it is. And, and then they move up to the next level and that kind of stuff. And then there, there are those who don't make it for whatever reason. Right. Now, you know, certain aspects of that you can, you can weave into the story. But the reality is, is, um, it would then take you, well, between nine and 15 months to, to, to film an eight, eight episode series. And then once, because you're going to have to follow the rules. Right. Yeah. And then once you're done with that, you're going to have to, you're going to have to follow somebody through that schooling. I mean, not daily, of course, but. Over the course of a year, let's say. Yeah. Which, which means multiple trips. Right. But what if you picked different people at different stages of the process? Well, I mean, you can do that, but again, if you do that. And I just want to clarify, I'm not, I'm not stuck on this idea or anything. I just. He's just asking you. I'm asking questions because I, I, I would even think maybe this is something that you could have in. An episode or, or something. Not, not, not the entire story arc, so to speak. Or the whole theme of the show or the main focus of the show. See, look, I mean, I mean, I totally wholeheartedly got what you guys were saying. Right. So, so I was explaining to Jeremy and, and we, and we, and we can, we can go back to those questions. Right. But I mean, I, I, I got that, you know, the connection. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You get that. You get that. You get that. You get that. You get that. You get that. You get that. You get that. You get that. You get that. You get that. You get that. You get that. You get that. You get that. You get that. You get that. You get that. You get that. You get that. You get that. You get that. You get that. You get that. You get that. You get that. You get that. You get that. You get that. You get that. You get that. You get that. You get that. You get that. You get that. You get that. You get that. with the roller is it's very very difficult to weave the story outside of the factory without starting to make it a personal story about one person right um with the reader there's a tremendous history there both both as far as education as far as introduction to culture um the the reader is actually considered a national uh treasure in cuba but as beyond that it is a much better gateway to other subjects because once you start bringing up the culture you can talk about you can segue into many many different aspects of the culture the music the art the ballet the architecture architecture uh opera food exactly and and and and that to me you know as as i was telling you in havana and tried to summarize the jeremy that's the difference between you know an eight segment uh mini series to something that could potentially be an ongoing series because as you're filming it's still evolving so so when the the lecters are in the the factories and they're they're they're beginning the day or their read how does it work in the sense that how is the subject chosen that day or or is it just random whatever the lector decides is the lector up to that no no what is it up to the lector is is in the morning the lector decides what's going to happen in the morning and then the get your get your get your ongoing until the book's finished. So it's a study, so to speak, of that book, in a way. Like you're reading a few chapters. I mean, obviously they're not going to finish a book in one eight hour or whatever the shift is. No, no, no. I would assume it's a matter of a couple of weeks, but that's just a guess. It depends on the book. And there's still readers doing this, right? Oh, absolutely. Present day? Absolutely. In every factory? In every factory. And so the interesting thing to me about that as well is it kind of shows the dedication to tradition, which I think is an important thing. Absolutely. Because, you know, they could just throw a radio in there if they wanted to, but they choose to keep the lector. And in some of the smaller factories, they do that. But the problem is the torcedores tend to be multigenerational. You'll have the very young. You'll have the very young with the more mature. So while the young want to listen to reggaeton. Right. Un poquito para atrás, por favor. Un poquito para atrás, por favor. Exactly. Or thereabouts. I don't want to go to those factories, by the way. I'm not into that type of music. Well, that doesn't matter. I mean, at the end of the day, in all fairness, you'll probably be filming just out of one factory. Right. Right. You'll probably be Havana situated. Uh-huh. And it will realistically either be Partagas, La Corona, or Romeo and Julieta. Uh-huh. Just because, A, I know the directors of them all, and B, they're big enough that you won't be in the way. Uh-huh. You know, you'll be a novelty, but you won't be in the way. So, I'm thinking, because since I left, I'm fucking thinking like crazy. I'm thinking that... You know that'll kill you. Of course. But that's why we have cigars. So, while I'm thinking and shit is burning up here, we get together and we'll smoke a cigar and bring it right back to reality and we're good. So, no, I'm thinking that the shooting in the factory and, you know, the introduction of the lector, especially if we're doing one of three, three factories, that that aspect of the show could be just a really small segment intro at the beginning of every single episode. Absolutely. Because you... That will be the serialization. That will be the story that continues to be told episode to episode. Uh-huh. And, you know, let's say it's a 22-minute episode. You know, that'll be five minutes and then you'll have 15 minutes that you can focus on, whatever the subject of that episode is. Whatever the subject is. And that's what's going to keep it interesting. I mean, right now, Cuba is all over the news. It's all over everything, especially in your backyard. Uh-huh. And now there is the thirst for the knowledge. Uh-huh. You know, if we were speaking in three years, we'd be having a completely different conversation. I'd say, you know, pick a subject, come down, do a one-hour speech, do a one-hour thing, and that's it. Right. But right now, there is that thirst for so much knowledge because so little has been portrayed in a way that's non-politicized. Yeah. That, you know, you can actually... I mean, yes, I mean, Anthony Bourdain just recently did a very good hour down there where he actually interviewed the owners of FAC. Uh-huh. But, you know, again, I mean, this is a one-hour thing. Uh-huh. Whereas I think you have the potential, if you do this right, to turn it into the type of thing where every three months you come down and you film for a week or 10 days and you have enough for five or six or whatever... Uh-huh. ...segments. Uh-huh. Yeah. And, uh... You know, you can combine... You can use the reader, the lecturer, as the continuous thread. And in fact, what may even be a good idea, and I know a couple of the lecturers, but you find the right one, and he sort of becomes the host of the show. Right. Yeah. Right. So he's the one that takes you to the nightclubs to listen to music. He's the one that takes you to the school. Right. Right. Et cetera, et cetera. Right. With... He could be the Cuban host and they could be, you know, an English-American speaking host, so to speak, and together they... Absolutely. They're having a conversation, so to speak. But... Exactly. I mean, you know, when you see... I like that. ...Anthony Bourdain's show, for example, which, you know, I think his new show is really good for what it is. Has it aired yet? Yes. Okay. Okay. But it's part of his CNN... Yeah, yeah, yeah. ...series, right? Yeah, yeah. Parts Unknown. Yeah, Parts Unknown. I haven't seen that yet. I haven't seen that one. So he's always got a local guide. Right. And the local guide sort of plays off with him. You know, they have discussions, they talk about things, and the local guide takes him places, shows. Now, of course, it's all preplanned, right? Sure. I mean, they said, we want to see this, we want to see this, we want to see this. Right. And their producers arranged it, and then the guide takes them there. Right. With the exception of maybe a small neighborhood restaurant or whatever that the guide threw in for, you know, they said, okay, just take us to a small neighborhood restaurant. Right. But it adds an element of reality to it, because the problem is, is I don't care how Hispanic your background is or how good your Spanish is. Right. You're an American. Right. So if I'm following... If I'm following you, I'm not getting the Cuban perspective. Right. I'm getting what an American believes is the truth or what an American thinks is the correct perspective. Or just a second, like, once-removed experience, right? Well, here's the thing, though. The opportunity is to have your audience, learn along with you. Right. So obviously you've got some prep work, so you know what to ask and you have background and you can fish, you know, you can interview for the information that you want to get, even if you already know it. But your audience, the impression that your audience has to get is that they're experiencing this along with you. Right. That's what makes it enjoyable and learning. Both the predictable and the unpredictable. Right. So, I mean, we can find a reader that, you know, is well... The one beautiful thing about the readers is they're almost like old-school radio personalities. You know, they have voice training. They can... Because when they're reading a novel, they're not just imparting words. They're imparting thoughts. Mm-hmm. And it's sort of like listening to a radio play. Mm-hmm. Without the sound effects, of course. But because his audience are people that are busy rolling cigars. Right. So they're getting it all through their ears. And so as long as, you know, we select a reader that has... a intriguing personality, aside from just his reading voice... Right. ...they will generally present quite well on edited television. Mm-hmm. I like that. Yeah, I think it's pretty important that it comes from the person themselves, you know? Yeah. Speaks directly to the camera. Yeah. In all fairness, if you want to do an American... perspective on Cuba, first of all, you're too late. Yeah. No, I don't want... I'm not interested in doing an American's perspective on Cuba. Absolutely not. No, no. But the other thing I was going to say is at this point, because everything has opened up as much as it has and continues to open up even more, nobody wants an American perspective. Now they can get the Cuban perspective. Right. But there's always been... an American perspective. Right. It's always had a purpose, whether it's political or, you know, a cultural organization. It's always had some sort of purpose behind it, but... It's not a very good educated perspective, the American perspective. I'll just say that. It's just not. Well, it's also not that interesting. Yeah. No, no, I'm with you. I'm totally with you on this. I'm totally with you. I want a... It's like you're there and the Cuban is your tour guide, and he's telling you how things were and how things are and enlightening you and showing you and et cetera, et cetera. Absolutely. Like, I mean, in all fairness, I mean, I watch probably... I wouldn't say everything that's broadcast about Cuba, but pretty damn close. And 90% of it, I look at it and I go, you know, this is utter bullshit. And I read, you know, I subscribe to three or four... Clipping services online that send me all the articles about Cuba. And I'll tell you, like, I mean, I read a lot of the business magazine articles on Cuba and things like that. I mean, both for my own work. And it's a very enlightening perspective. Because it's like, what can we get out of there type thing? And most of it's absolute bullshit. I mean, including Forbes, Inside Business. I mean... You know, some of the bigger publications around, the crap that they're writing is ridiculous. It's of absolutely zero value. Right. So this is an opportunity to... You know, I mean, yes, you can carefully speak about certain segments of the politics and not because the people are afraid, but because in itself, it's not going to be an ongoing interest. But you can... You know, the things that are remarkable, to use your word, you know, Alicia Alonso, you know, the godmother of Cuban ballet. There is an event going on in mid-January to celebrate her 95th birthday. Now, we all know how great, you know, how well respected the Cuban... the Cuban ballet is. In fact, you know, one of the lead dancers of the London ballet is a Cuban. This is a woman who was not only the lead dancer, but she went blind. And she danced blind, which means she can't even see when her feet are going to hit the floor. Right. Wow. You know, she's a choreographer. She's... I mean, her husband ran a ballet school. Her kids are choreographers running modern ballet, because it's not all traditional. This is a story that doesn't get told. Right. But yet, it's of interest to people beyond those that are strictly interested in a politicized Cuba. Anybody that's into the arts, anybody that's into ballet, anybody that's into classical music, anybody that's into jazz, anybody that's... This is a demographic that you can keep interested. Mm-hmm. Yeah. So you really... I really want to dive into subjects that are politically neutral, really. Right. That really don't... Because the audience, you know, everyone's going to have... Everyone has their opinion about Cuba. But these are subjects that apply to... appeal to anyone. Right. And they're neutral. Exactly. And also, you know, the politics... You know, the politics is evolving and temporary. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. You get your result. He's going to be your host. The second episode, you've already known your lector. He was introduced in the first one, right? And so he's going to maybe take you to meet Alicia Alonso or where she came from. And we're going to talk about the ballet. Absolutely. And the beautiful thing about that is you're more fluid. If somebody, you know, as while we're doing all the prep for this, because there will be pre-prep for everything. And while we're doing all that, you know, one, you know, I might be talking to a curator in a museum and they might say, you know, there's this young photographer that's really making a lot of news right now. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. So it's because you're not tied into a very specific storyline. You may decide, well, hell, you know what? Let's do this while it's still young and fresh. The symphony will still be the symphony next month. Right. Yep. Yep. You know, were you and I talking about that documentary? Not the documentary, but the film Soy Cuba? Yes. You and I talked about that briefly, right? Very briefly. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I don't know how the hell that came up in our conversation, but that's a fucking brilliant film. It's not a documentary. It's a film. It's propaganda. But yeah. Yeah. Well, but the cinematographer is still alive. Yeah. The Russian cinematographer. It's brilliantly done. Yeah. Yep. Amazing. Have you seen it? No, I haven't. I haven't. It's like, what is it? Like three hours long or some shit like that? Something. It's a two sitting showing. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But the opening scene, I mean, the opening shot, and it's just a continuous shot. And then it goes down to a pool. It's just brilliant. A friend of mine actually just last year, an Irish friend of mine, recreated it with his GoPro. Really? Yeah. Really? Because as you're talking, I'm thinking, you know, I'm into titles. And you're... I'm also a visual... I mean, I've been a visual artist as well. I've been a painter. And I know you were... I was. An art dealer and whatnot. But I'm versed in a lot of different mediums, photography, the whole nine years. But as you're talking, I'm thinking the title of this could be Soy Cuba. You know what I mean? I am Cuba. This is Cuba. You know what I mean? Or something to that effect. I'm just throwing titles out. I would say Estoy Cuba, but not... Esto es Cuba. You mean, this is Cuba. Or we are Cuba, as opposed to I am. Okay. We are. Nosotros somos Cuba. Is how you would say that. I think. But anyways, I mean... We are Cuba. But at the end of the day, I mean, you know, you can get to do some pretty funky things. Because every time you do a segment, there will be opportunities to segue into other things that are further and further away from the lecture, right? Right. So, I mean, you know... So, there is a bicycle polo league in Havana. Interesting. A bunch of kids get on bikes. You know what? I think I read about that. I think I read about that. Bicycle polo. Yeah. I mean, these guys are so... The thing... Listen, the thing that fascinated me the most... Well, I guess it's the thing that's always fascinated me about Cuba is how have they survived all these years as a kid? 18 years old, 19 years old. I've always had this thought. And of course... You know, I just went when I was 50 in March for my birthday. But that is the thing that really, really amazes me about the culture. The ingenuity and how they just keep reinventing certain things or recycling things and just how they keep going, you know? Yes. But see, that's dying now. It's dying? Yes. Because now they don't have to be as resourceful. Now they, you know... Yeah, but it's part of their culture. It's... It's... It's... Well, it's born out of necessity. It's not born... Yeah, it's necessity. Yeah, yeah. I can tell you stories about the 80s where, you know, they'd cook a leg of pork for dinner and what was left they'd throw at the dogs because things were so plentiful. Got it. No, I seen a dude cooking soup. You didn't see this on a Saturday. Because I was in different neighborhoods. I seen like a bunch of guys, like they were drinking and they had like a fucking, like a pit. It's just literally... You know how we have like those little patches? Patches of grass outside of houses? Yeah. Or buildings? They had like a little pit there, sans the fucking grass. And they were like firing it up and they were making soup. But I was joking. Oh, it must have been... It was on a Saturday. I said, it must have been soup Saturday and they were cracking the fuck up. Yeah, but... But listen, I mean, I go to restaurants where it's, you know, 40, 50 bucks a person to eat and you'll see Cubans there. I mean, there... Yeah, yeah, yeah. There is... No, I know. That's bizarre. And... And... And... Well, it's not bizarre. Why is it bizarre? Okay, it's bizarre to me because... If I go to a restaurant in LA, I expect to see locals there. Well, no, no, no, no, no. What I mean by it's bizarre is simply this, okay? So my friend, my friend's parents had me over and we had dinner, right? They cooked dinner for me. Now, here's another thing that I am. I'm an electrician. I was an electrician in construction for 17 years. In the bathroom, there's basically a bare light bulb with a socket. And the wires, and they don't even have wire nuts, okay? And they don't have a toilet bowl seat. Okay, that means nothing. Well, a lot of places don't have seats. Okay, right. But to me, as an American, I'm thinking, how the fuck is that possible? I mean, how much does a fucking toilet bowl seat cost? Which makes me think, A, it's not important. B, they couldn't afford it. Or C, they couldn't get it. It's hard to get, right? Or all of the above. So I go... But again, Nestor... That's the American perspective. I get it. I get it. But hold on. When you say, why is that bizarre? I'm telling you why it's bizarre. I go to a restaurant in Old Havana, and I order pork chops. They bring me four fucking pork chops for five, like, for the equivalent of six-something American. Four fucking pork chops, Amir. How is that fucking possible when people... Some people aren't even eating. That's bizarre to me. Excuse me. You live in the city of excess and conspicuousness. You live in the city of excess and conspicuousness. And you have homeless and starving. Oh, oh, oh, oh. We're not going to talk about that. I mean, this is the worst here in Los Angeles. This is the worst. You know? We're not talking about that. I'm just talking about, to me, I find it interesting. People a year get hit by Austin Martins, you know? Yeah. No, it's ridiculous here, Amir. It is fucking ridiculous here. The homelessness here is unbelievable. The fact that... Yeah, it's embarrassing, Amir. Yeah. I mean, that's embarrassing. I mean, that's just plain fucking embarrassment. But that... But that's why I'm saying... Why is it bizarre? Why you should try to minimize the American perspective. Right. Show people what it really is. It's not only people that don't have... Toilet paper. Wire nuts, you know? It's also people that are driving around in Mercedes. Right. Legitimately. Not because they're a friend of Castro's or anything. Yeah, yeah, yeah. They're artists. They make money and they're famous. Whatever. Yeah, I get it. Or they want to go to a restaurant. Right, right, right. I get it. This is what you want. This is what Americans are hungry to learn. Mm-hmm. Because these are stories that have never been told there. Right. Because politically, it didn't serve a purpose. Right. Right? Yes. The story about the guy that can't afford to eat, that's been told 150 times. Right. Because it serves a political purpose. Right. Look at how this communist state has failed. Right. But there are a lot. And you know what? The Americans that are now going to go down there to see the failed system, I mean, they're just voyeurs. Right. They're just looking to feel good about their system by looking at somebody else's, you know. Do you think that that's true? I don't think that people who are going there as voyeurs are doing it so they can feel good about their system, per se. No, no. The people that are looking to reinforce that stereotype. Uh-uh. Because I think people now and Americans in general want to go there because they haven't been able to go there. That's it. Yes. But the problem is, and I'm not saying all of them, but a lot of them are going there with preconceptions. Of course. Of course. Absolutely. I mean, I met on our last night there, Caroline and I decided to go to FAC and, you know, check it out. I'm not going to do that again. That's the factory. And yeah, that's the Fabrica de Art Cubano. Mm-hmm. We met some Americans there. Mm-hmm. And they were so proud of the fact that, you know, they knew somebody who hooked them up with an apartment for 25 cook a night. Right. And yes, it doesn't have hot water, but blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Right. And they were almost like proud of the fact that they were surviving it. Right. Look, look at how open we are. Right. We're, um, excuse me, I pay 35 bucks a night and you saw the house I live in. Yep. Yep. And I have hot water and I have air conditioning. Yep. I have breakfast and I have whatever I want. Yeah. Um, but they were happy and, oh, and, and, and the $25, you know, it goes to the family. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. That family has to pay 300 CUC a month in tax, regardless of how many rooms they rent. A month, right. It's 300? 300. Jesus Christ, I thought it was a little less. Including July and August, when they were probably not renting a single day. Wow. Yeah. No, I get that. I get that. So your 25 CUC is helping the family, but most of it they're not seeing. Between paying the maid, paying for your food, washing your sheets and towels, etc., etc. The fact that they had to probably refurnish the rooms, etc., etc. I mean, they're not getting rich off this. Now, mind you, there are houses that rent for $1,500 a night. Right. But these people have probably put a million dollars into renovations. I mean, it's... $1,500 a night. Oh, yeah. With butlers and swimming pools. That's ridiculous. Well, five bedrooms, swimming pool, private swimming pool, outdoor kitchen. That is ridiculous. That's ridiculous. I'm just saying. Whoever, I mean, I can't imagine somebody going there. I know they exist. Trust me. What are you talking about? They're the first ones booked. I get it. I get it. You know? I get it. But at the end of the day... You know, it's the Cuban story that will keep people interested. Because from a Cuban perspective, they're seeing something for the first time. Right. From the American perspective... I'm sorry. Maybe American perspective is the wrong term. But from the politicized perspective, whether it's American or Cuban, that story's been told. And there really isn't anything to learn there. And the Cubans have a saying. You know, I mean, they have their truth. We have our truth. And the truth is somewhere in the middle. Right. Be in the middle. Show the middle. Then you're educating people and you're keeping them interested. I imagine an American viewer who has their preconceived notions about what Cuba is... and how great it would be to show them all these things that they... I think there's really a lot of people that have no idea what beauty, talent, art even exists in Cuba. I think there's people that think that that doesn't even exist. Right, right, right, right. Exactly. And the joy and happiness. Yes. And humility and hope and joy. The joy and happiness. Definitely. And by the way, this is a... This is a population that is better educated, more literate than the American population. Yep, yep. Well, fuck, I live in a country that's more literate than yours. Of course. But you're not saying much. You're not saying much. Costa Rica is more literate than fucking most cities in America. But all I'm saying is if you are looking to produce a product that's going to appeal to a greater demographic for a longer period of time, I think that's... And that's what I was trying to hammer into you. Yep. Okay. Fine. You want to do... You know, cigar rolling can be... You know, you can even do segments on cigar rolling as part of the show. The culture. But at the end of the day, you got me, Jeremy, and 5,000 other people. And if your television show has 5,000 loyal viewers, you're off the air. Meaning one of the questions he asked me is, who's going to watch this, right? So you have people who are interested in cigars, and then you're going to have people who are just cigar aficionados. Well, yeah. I think... I think it definitely makes sense to have a much more broad... A broader, yeah. A broader perspective. Yeah. But there is one thing, though, is that if you do ask any American what they know about Cuba... It's cigars. They will say Cuban cigars. Yeah. Even if they're not a smoker. Which basically speaks to the fact that most Americans are fucking illiterate and retarded. No, no, no, no, no, no. But... But... But... But... But... Just because they haven't been exposed to it, which actually speaks to why this is such a great opportunity. Right, right. You know, but... But again, Jeremy, I mean, you know, you asked me what I know about Germany, and I'll say cars, lederhosen, and beer. And I'm not really interested in how lederhosen are made. Okay. Yeah. Right? Yeah. Or if I am, I'll watch a 15-minute segment on some... Cable television show, and then I'll forget about it for the rest of my life. Right. Um... If you want... I mean, it really depends on what you want to produce. If you want to produce something for a small, dedicated segment of society, um... But... Produce a documentary. Right. But this is a thing that not every episode is going... Regardless is going to appeal to everyone. Because not everyone cares about ballet, either. No, but it's just learning something new about Cuba. Mm-hmm. Yeah. But you... Hold on a second. You don't have to be interested in the ballet to find that particular episode fascinating. I'll give you an example. There's a series, a documentary series on ESPN about sports. I could give a fuck about sports. That's not my thing. But there are some of them, and I forgot the name of them, where there are highlights, certain aspects of a tournament, let's say. There was one in particular about a... Some sort of a World Cup that happened in the 40s, and Brazil beat the shit out of Germany. And Germany had, like, their whole Aryan race going on, their whole propaganda, and they got beat. And so that made it very fascinating. Of course, there's politics in that. Well, but I think what they do... You know... You can take any subject, and whether you're interested in that subject or not, it depends on how you... It's about the people. Mm-hmm. Right? Yeah. Exactly. So it's not you're going to do an episode about what ballet is, but you want to know what is it like to be... You want to know Alicia Alonso. Right. You want to know about the person involved. Mm-hmm. But not only Alicia Alonso. You want to know the teachers that are teaching four-year-olds. Right, right, right. Yeah, yeah. Right. Math. Right. But it's down to the people. Yes. Yeah. It's all about the people. Always the people. Yeah. It's all about the people. But, but... And you can... I mean, after we spoke, I spoke to some people I know in film and television in Cuba. And really, you know, if they see that you are trying to non-politically highlight things that they are proud of, things that are good in a country that everybody knows is considered a third world backwater, which it isn't. You would get all kinds of, I've got producers, directors, sound people, lighting people with equipment ready to jump on board for, well, certainly not union scale in your, you know what I mean? Right, right, right. You know? Right. I think that the general idea of where we need to go with this is there, right? You know, I mean, the Cuban story told from the elector non-politically highlight the things that they love, Cubans, right? Yes, and you can do a food segment, you can do, I mean, right now, the restaurant scene in Havana is probably the fastest growing in the world and most interesting. You know, I mean, we were eating in restaurants where the chef trained at El Bulli, which was like, God, I can't eat in a restaurant in Toronto with somebody that's trained in that. Right, right, right. Which, by the way, I wanted to ask you this. You posted something on your Facebook page, and I know this is a very famous restaurant with a big, a rooftop, and there's like, it's one of the oldest paladares there. La Guarida. What is it called? La Guarida. Guarida? Guarida, yeah, G-U-A-R-I-D-A. And where is that? Is that in Vedado? No, that's in Centro. Uh-huh. It's on a street where if you didn't know that there was a place there, you wouldn't want to get out of the cab in the dark. Right, right. But, uh... So what's the deal with that place? I'm just curious. I know this is kind of... Well, let's see. Steven Spielberg's eating there. No, I know. I saw the pictures. Jay-Z. Yeah, Jay-Z, Beyoncé. You know, Helen Hunt was there last week. So, but what's so fascinating and amazing about that place? It's a truly unique experience. First of all, it's in a decrepit old mansion where this guy's slowly restoring the whole building. People are still living in it. You walk up broken stairs to this place that's filled with modern contemporary art of the highest quality, serves tremendous food. What kind of food? Traditional Cuban? How about table-sized Caesar salad service? Okay. You know, where they actually make it right at the table with the raw egg and the whole nine yards. Yeah, that's like old school, you know? Yeah, that's the traditional Caesar salad. And fish tacos that are just out of this world. And rabbit and, you know. Mm-hmm. I mean, it's... So, I have a friend that we met with yesterday. He does these pop-up dining things here in downtown Los Angeles. I've known him for a few years now, maybe eight years. And so, he's a chef. And, you know, I hadn't seen him in a while. And so, he was saying that he'd love to open up a restaurant in Cuba. And his, I would love for you to meet him. So, the next time I go to Cuba, when is the next time you're going? You're going in March? In February 22nd. February 22nd. And you're there from what time to what time? Until the 7th, I believe. Of March? Is that Habanos Festival? Yeah. Of March 7th. And the week before, yeah. So, February 22nd to March 7th. Is that what you said? February 22nd to March 7th. I'll take. Let me just double check that. Okay. Because I want to go there when you're there next. And, you know, maybe I won't be there the whole duration of when you're there. But at least a couple of days. Yeah. 22nd to the 7th. So that you and I can at least maybe meet once. Because I know you're a busy fuck, let me tell you. And I'm truly grateful that you made the time. Oh, it was a pleasure. Yeah. Listen, I mean, here's what my recommendation would be. You know, I mean, you know that end of the business far better than I do. But, first of all, you know, try to sketch out a synopsis. Mm-hmm. Um. Of what you want to do. Mm-hmm. Then try to figure out what the thing is going to cost. Right. Or what the budget is that we have and what can we do with the budget. That's really more like it. Exactly. Because you're the one that probably will know, you know, what things will cost. Right? Because you can figure out a budget if, you know, I don't know. Here's the thing for Americans that I think a lot of people may not know. Right? You can go there and use a credit card. We can't. So the first time I went to Cuba, someone told me, yeah, if you bring about $200 a day, you should be fine. Right? But there's no way you can tell how much money you're going to need to spend in a place you've never been to before. You know? Well, I mean, I usually say $150 to $200. Now, it's going up quickly now because of all your damage. I'm Yankees. Right. But, you know, I mean, but I always say, you know, that's excluding purchases. Right. So, you know, if you want to go and buy $5,000 worth of cigars in three days, well, there's your, you know. Right. Right. You know, but that's not your sleeping, eating budget. Right. Exactly. So. Yeah. No, no. I mean, you know, if you tell me, you know, what. In fairly detailed, you know, what kind of things you want to do, then what we can do is work together and come up with, let's say, 20 different segments you want to fill. Yep. Yep. Yep. Right. So then you can edit and choose which ones work and whatever. Yep. And you figure, you know, you've got a shooting schedule of, I don't know, say, two weeks, three weeks. I mean. I personally wouldn't do much more than that anyways. Because you really, your first, your first scheduled shooting down there is really still a learning experience. Right. Correct. And then you want to take that home. You want to look at it. You want to do some. Digested. Yeah. You know, do some editing, see what you can put together so you can be better informed as to how to formulate it the next time down there. Right. Right. And then, you know, we have to go down in advance and set up permissions and access and schedule it all. I mean, just like you would anywhere else. Right. Yeah. But at the end of the day, you know, you will have a marketable product if you do it well. You will have a product that would be of interest to a large enough demographic. And, you know, the sooner the better being that right now Cuba is hot. Yeah. In three years, it'll be old news. Right. And even if you film today, it's not going to be seen for six months. Right. Right. So, so I'm thinking, here's the deal. So I'd like to go somewhere in the, in a, in a window where you're going to be there. Right. So when is Habanos Fest exactly? Is it a whole week? It's February 29th to March 4th, I think. Okay. So it's safe to say. So 29th to March 4th. Hold on a second. 29th to March 4th. So if I was to go somewhere like a little bit over March 4th. So if I, I mean, right after Habanos Fest, the 5th, 6th and 7th, there's a couple of days where you're going to have some downtime. No, come before. Come before. Yeah. So come like what? Like before the Habanos Fest starts? Yeah. Because I'm going down the week before the 22nd. It starts on a Monday. Ends on 8. Ends very late on the Friday. And then Saturday, Sunday, we'll be mostly spending with friends from all over the world. We're flying back. Yep. And Monday I fly home. Okay. So, so you tell me. So Habanos is 29th to the 4th. We're talking about maybe a couple of days before the 29th, right? I would recommend if, if you can do it, fly down like the Wednesday before, which is what? The 24th? Hold on. Give or take. Let me see. Well, I want to definitely make it happen so that it's. But here's the thing before, before that happens. Yeah. You have to have, because if you've got two, three days, four days to, to try to research and, and, and make things happen. You can't just be flying, you know, by the seat of your pants. Oh, let's go see if this guy's here. Let's go see. Right, right, right, right, right. No, I get it. I get it. First of all, the reason I'm asking you this is because I definitely want to meet one of the, one of the lectors. Right. I want to do two things. Okay. But, but, but, but here, but see, it doesn't work that way. Okay. Okay. Here's the way it's going to work. Okay. And, and, and, and, and I'm saying this just not to waste your time and money on, on making trips down there that are not productive. Right. Okay. Write up a fairly detailed proposal. Mm-hmm. Okay. Okay. Then let me get it into the hands of people down there, officials down there. Mm-hmm. That will then grant you access. If you just walked up and, and, and, and, and I introduced you to a lector and you started talking to him, you don't know what kind of a reaction you're going to get. I set up, I set up a lot of interviews. I set up a lot of interviews for Gordon Mott when he's down there. Mm-hmm. And he's doing a story on the 50th anniversary of Cohibo as, as everybody else's, right? So, you know, I set him up with Mikey. I set him up with, with a couple of the ex-directors of Elohito. But, you know, he wanted to speak to two ex-directors of Elohito who are good friends of mine. Emilia Tomaya, who was the one that really made it. Yeah. As famous as it is. Mostly from the mid to late 90s to about 2003. And the last one that just left there, Jose Enrique. But, so I called them both up. They were all fine. I mean, they know Gordon, you know, I mean, he's, you know, what, founding senior editor of, executive editor of Cigar Aficionado. He's not unknown down there. Right. Especially in that world. And at the last, you know, I don't know, I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I said, you know what? We don't know what he's going to ask. We don't think we want to do the interview. So, and it wasn't because he was asking anything controversial and it wasn't because they didn't know him or trust him. You know, coming in with me, you know, they trusted him anyways when I gave my word. But the point is, is. They don't know. how things are going to be edited. They don't know how things are going to be portrayed. And I got news for you. The officials there see everything that is broadcast on Cuba. Right. Now, they can't do anything to you, but they can make sure that you never film in Cuba again. Right. Realistically, you'd be finished by the time they see it, unless you want to do a season two. Mm-hmm. No, we don't want to do that. We want to... And you want people to cooperate as opposed to be hesitant. Mm-hmm. Well, this is the reason. Okay, I could write a synopsis. That's not a problem. Consider that's the goal. It's going to happen. Write a synopsis and a list of potential segments. Okay. Now, that's not a list that you're going to have Okay. that you're going to have. to live by. Right. New opportunities may come up. Others may just prove to be either too difficult or uninteresting. Mm-hmm. But at least to give them an idea of the kind of... the scope of things that you're going to want to see. Right. So, let me ask you this. So, the reason I said I would like to meet a lector, and I definitely want... You know, I've never taken a tour of one of the factories, which I know it's not that complicated. I just never have, right? Right. So, but I'd like to... For instance, if you know that we might be able to shoot at the Romeo or the Partagus factory, it would be great if I could take a tour of one of those factories and meet the lector or one of the lectors there. Sure. And the reason I'm saying this is because, you know, I'm going to give you the synopsis. The budget, I have no idea what the budget would be. And the potential segments, I can easily do that. Synopsis segments. The reason I'm asking is because before... I mean, I know these are things that on your end will make it easier to facilitate approval on the various levels. It's not just approval. It's levels of access. Yeah, okay. That's what I mean when I say approval. And the freedom with which they will interact with you. Mm-hmm. You know, I mean, you can get permission to film certain things in North Korea, but you're never going to... You're going to get a scripted answer that the government's going to give you. Right. No matter whose mouth it comes out of. Right. Um... So, I'd like to do... Here's the deal. I would need to do a small sizzle reel, okay? Right. Now, that has... You know, when I say a sizzle reel, it's all generic, general stuff. Images, sounds, whatever. Right. Of the... When you say potential segments, of those potential segments, of, you know, La Factoría, of this, of some music, some jazz. You know, I may not even have to do that all there, right? Because that stuff is all available online. I can just extract some of those clips and videos or whatever and put it together. Sure. That's not a problem. But, for instance, the lector, like, if we're looking at a lector and he's going to be our guide, that would be something that I would love to, you know, know ahead of time. This is our guy. He's going to be the voice of the show. He's going to take us around. No, absolutely. Now, again, I mean, once you... Once you have the proposal approved, you know, then, you know, we can say, okay, we'd like to speak to this guy, this guy, or this guy, or do you have one or two that you think would be better? And then we can, you know, you can audition them, get to know them, just, you know, sit down, have a drink and chat. You know, first there'll be the official meeting at the factory, which will be supervised, and then go for a drink with them and, you know, just... take... get a take on them. Absolutely. They're not going to tell you who you're going to have to use. You will choose the person that you think is best suited for the job. Right. And I wouldn't be opposed to it anyway. I'm just, you know, I mean, I would be willing to, you know, I'm amenable to making it happen however it's going to happen. I was just saying in terms of me so that... And I don't know if this could happen in this next trip, meaning if I can meet one of those guys and have a conversation with them or whatever, or off the record. It depends... No, off the record until they know that you have permission to talk to them. Or on the record. I mean, I don't know. I'm just saying. Let me rephrase that. I mean, I know lecturers, but I wouldn't say they're the kind of people that are close enough to me that when I tell them, hey, everything's cool, say whatever you want, they would necessarily feel comfortable doing so. Right, right. I can do that with directors of factories, but not with... With lecturers. Right. I mean, I even had one of the lecturers from... The readers from Partagus write a chapter in my book. Right. The goal... Here's what's going to cost you, okay? Mm-hmm. This is what's going to chew up your budget. Aside from post, right? Because I have no idea what that... That costs. Right. Well, as long as we don't use any fancy music that's copyrighted here in the States, we're good. Because that's a nice chunk of change. Yeah. You know, but you can use original Cuban music. Right. I can set you up with Egram, the record company there, which is also the music licensing company. I can set you up with Akayak, which is essentially their film institute. Mm-hmm. Akaya or Akayak? Akayak. Institutes Cinematic... Instituto Cinema Artístico Cubano or something like that. Mm-hmm. You know, I have contacts with all those. The thing that is going to chew up your budget the fastest is you. And what I mean by that... Mm-hmm. Is if you have to take six trips in what could be done in three... Mm-hmm. That's going to chew up a fair bit of your budget. Sure, sure. You know, the price of airplane tickets and accommodations and your food, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera, down there for a week is... If you're using a Cuban... I mean, first of all, you only need a skeleton crew anyways. But, I mean, if you're using Cuban, you're talking about a three-week shooting budget. Mm-hmm. Because here's the beauty of it all. You don't have to pay to shoot. Right. You don't have any film permits or any of that stuff. You get... You will be registered. You will... I mean, your visa is going to be $100 instead of $25. Right. Or something like that. Or a little bit more because you have to register it in another journalistic department. I was looking into that. Yeah. The International Press Corps. Right. And you do that at the consulate. Right. And, you know, you send them a little bit of your biography, things you've done. They want to make sure that you haven't done any, you know, anti-Cuban political shit. And that you are... I mean, I've many times had a press visa down there when I was doing the television shows. Because you need it. Right. It's a pain in the ass to get for Americans, though. I mean, I looked into it. I even went to the Cuban consulate in Montreal. We were in a film festival in Montreal. I went to the Cuban consulate. They were like... It's very complicated in America. I can do it for you up here. Yeah. Yeah. That would be the way to do it. There's a consulate here in Toronto. And I know a lot of people there because I know a lot of Cubans that work here. No, the Toronto consulate actually... The consulate in Montreal, they actually recommended, you know, if I was traveling to Toronto to do it there. That's what they were saying. It's just complicated. I can do it. I can do it here. I even know half the embassy staff. I know the ambassador. I mean, the Cuban ambassador here, I know. And she knows of me quite well as well. Right. That can all be sorted out through here. Right. But you will need to show, you know, a resume and, you know, bibliography or discography or whatever you need to do. Right. Or whatever you call it. Yeah. Resume. A resume. Yeah. And, you know, it takes about three weeks, you know, to do that. Mm-hmm. And then what you do is when you land the first day, you go to the press office and register and they give you an ID. Right. That sort of says that you've been okay, clear to film. Right. Because you're not... I mean, we went down there with full HD equipment and cameras going back to 2000. So, you know, we were taking a lot of gear. We weren't... We didn't look like tourists without... Without registering? No, we registered. Oh, okay. Because here's what's interesting. Have you seen the Conan O'Brien Cuba CD? Yeah. He registered. He did? He registered up the Yazoo. Of course he did. Okay. Because I went to a Q&A with him. And he was there and he was talking about it. And he made it seem like they decided to just go to Cuba and just, you know, just show up. Yeah. Well, that may be so. But guess what? The American government and NBC wouldn't let him just show up. Right. Right. And he's filming with... You know, he was probably filming with handheld small cameras. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But he had to register at the... The Office of Journalistic Activities there. Or at least if not him personally, I mean... His producers. Yeah, exactly. And let's face it. I mean, when I used to do it for Cruise, you know, they'd be eating breakfast at the hotel and I would just take all the visas that have been stamped that they came in and the visas they got up here and I would just go to the office and register everybody. Right. Right. You know, it's better if everybody is with you because... Right. Really, they want to... They give you a picture ID, which is actually a pretty cool souvenir too. Right. But at the end of the day, without it, you're going to be dead in the water. I mean... Right. Yeah, you can sneak around and do it. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. I mean, you know, we're talking about doing something, you know, on the up and up and, you know, this is not a one-shot deal. We're talking about... Exactly. Exactly. So, you know, I mean... No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. You know, definitely. I'd like to talk a little bit more about, like, you know, when I come in March or February, I should say. So is it possible for me to meet? I mean, is this something you have to look into or think about, you know, just to meet one or two lectors? Just to meet them. I've never met any of those guys. I can probably arrange it in advance. Yeah. I have never met any of those people. You follow? And I can also introduce you to some television people I know there so you can try to get a basis of what you need. I would love to do that as well. To bring yourself and what is available to you, you know, and what it's going to cost you. Right. I would love to do that. Definitely. So, yeah. And so, you know, if I can maybe even do a tour on one of those factories, meet the lector. Those will be two separate instances because you'll be going on the tour as a tour. Got it. Like, yeah, I can arrange a more detailed tour for you than the normal tourism one. But for you to be able to speak one-on-one to somebody that's working. Got it. Is going to be a separate issue. Got it. Got it. Got it. That makes sense. And also, I mean, he's working, right? Yeah. That may be after hours. Yeah. Yeah. So, but all that can be arranged. But what you've got to do is hammer down your proposal. No, for sure. For sure. I'm going to work on the synopsis. That's going to be the goal. It's just, I was hoping that I'd be able to get the concept down completely, but I don't think I need to do that at this point. You just need a synopsis of the intention of it. What's the show about? What's it going to project? Hammer it down as much as you think you can. Right. You know, because the more you have, the better. Right. And, you know, a list of... 20 proposals, you know, proposed segments. Segments, yeah. You can do baseball. You can do the different arts. You can do food. You can do cigars. You can do rum. You know, I can get you the master blenders from Ron Santiago to take you on a tour of the factory, which is actually not available to the public and, you know, explain to you the different blendings that they do for the different rums. There's a lot of things that are available. What's the possibility of doing a show on the methodology or the process for news there? Like the newspaper, for instance. The reader does... The lector does... Reads the news, right? I mean, I find that interesting. Sure. And about the same possibility as betting a pair of identical hermaphrodite twins. Got it. Got it. And I didn't mean... And by the way, I didn't mean... Yeah, you probably don't want to touch anything dealing with the news. No, no, no, no, no. Not the news, but the process of the newspaper or how the news gets to the reader and from the reader to the... How a government controlled information... Got it. Why don't you, you know, do a segment on how the CIA briefs the president in the morning? Well, I did already. I tried to... I called up Barack's secretary of interior and he told me to go fuck myself. So that's not going to happen. Yeah. And that government's not a dictatorship. Right. No, no, I get it. Maybe I can pose as a Cuban, get a phony Cuban ID, get a job within that department. Oh, right. Because they're not going to vet you. Hey, Amir, side question. How's the internet? Is it progressing? Very good. Yeah? Really? Yeah. Where are you getting internet? Of course I'm getting internet. No, I'm saying where? I was having a hard time. I went to Cohiba with my laptop. I got a card and the pages would open and it would just wouldn't... It would open, it wouldn't open. I couldn't send an email. Well, okay. But first of all, again... You're nothing but a damn Yankee. Yeah. You know? I mean, first of all, the Cohiba's the worst place to go for your internet. Got it. I went to the Presidente also with a Nalta card. Yeah, that's better. And I got on there and for... You're right, it was better. But it was spotty. Here's the thing. Each hotel gets the same bandwidth. So if you go to a small little hotel in the middle of nowhere, there might be 20 people using that bandwidth. You go to the Cohiba, there's 400 people using that exact same bandwidth. Second of all, the Cohiba hotels have their own internal servers that you have to go through. So that slows it down as well. Right. Because they segregate part of that bandwidth for their rooms. Yeah. Got it. So only a smaller portion is available to the public. But there are Wi-Fi hotspots in the street. Right. Yeah, I read about Wi-Fi being available. But how do you... So you access that by getting the same Nalta card, like three hours or whatever. Got it. Yeah. Now, I have unlimited data on my phone. Right. So you're able to tether through your phone on their network? I have unlimited data on my phone when I'm down there. Okay. The reason I ask is because if I do go down there, I'm just wondering... Your carrier may not have such a deal. Yeah, no. I know my phone won't. No, Sprint just has a contract with Atexa. So Sprint in America... But I don't know... Like, I mean, my carrier here has a program called Roam Like Home. Right. And for $10 a day, up to $100 a month, after that it's free. When I'm away from Canada, it's only $5 in the States, but when I'm away from Canada, I can use my phone... I can use my phone as I would at home. You fucking Canadians are so progressive, I swear to God. And my $10 is only worth seven of yours now, right? Right. So, you know, I can update my Facebook page. I can use WhatsApp. I just need a way to be able to connect to work while I'm down there. If I'm down there for any extended period of time, that's all I'm worried about. The best way to do that, Jeremy, is a hotel that I like to go for Wi-Fi is the Panorama. Panorama in Miramar. Okay. It's... If you recall, along the beach in Miramar, there's a strip of hotels. Yes. Everywhere from the Media Habana to the Commodoro. The Panorama is all the way at the end. It's not a very big hotel, but... You know, I've never seen it where there are more than 20 people. I've uploaded 10, 15 megabyte files, like, with no problem. That's a Panorama. Yeah. Okay. And it's, like, I think $3 an hour. Yeah. So, you know Manuel, right? So, Manuel had WhatsApp. And I'm like, I didn't know Cuban had access to WhatsApp. Basically, WhatsApp anybody can use as long as you're on a internet. It's on your data. Yeah. Or mobile data. Uh-huh. They have mobile data. It's just very slow and very expensive. But, I mean, you know, I'm running 4G down there. Wow. And how are you getting 4G? You're tapping onto the Atexa, onto the Nauta? I'm using it... My Canadian phone... Well, I've got a Canadian and a Cuban, right? Yeah, but you're roaming off of their network, no? Yeah. Absolutely. So, Nauta. Yeah. Atexa. Atexa. Yeah. So, but... So, then... So, you're... And that's off of your Cuban phone? No, that's off of your Canadian phone. Yeah. Why would I pay for data on my Cuban phone when I've got a dissension? Because I was in St. Kitts two weeks before. So, you know, after three days in Havana, all my usage was free down there. Right. Okay. Got it. So, I mean... And here's the other beautiful thing. On my Canadian phone, calling Canada is still considered local and calling wherever I am, i.e. Cuba, is local. So, it's got... Yeah. It's gotten to the point where I only use my Cuban phone for Cubans to phone me so they don't have to dial along. Right. So, then maybe what it might be good for me, for instance, is to have a Cuban... Cuban. Open up an account with a Canadian service provider. The one you want... The one that I have it with that you want to do this, that has this package is called Rogers. Yep. R-O-G-E-R-S. Yep. Yep. I know Rogers. And... And how... How would that work, like, from America? So, if I want... I mean, without having to go there, can I... Is it possible to go on... Go online and open up an account with them and just send them the money and they'll send me a phone and that whole thing or no? Why a phone? Just all you need is a SIM. Okay. And an unlocked phone at your end. Okay. It's probably cheaper... It's cheaper for you to... Because then you don't have to go under contract, right? Right. So, is that possible? Fuck if not, I can set it up for you. Okay. Okay. I'm just curious because... It's... It's... You know, I was actually... When I was in Montreal last, I was thinking, man... And I didn't find an easy way to do it, which was to get a Canadian credit card. Because, unfortunately, if I was going to open up a Canadian credit card, they'd give me one in America. You know, RNC. And there were like three different banks in Canada that have... I mean, obviously, there's more than that. But the three that I found online and then I was reading and most of the people who applied for a credit card there, they would just get an American one because they have a subsidiary here. Yeah. Our banking laws are fairly strict, which is why we never had a meltdown. Mm-hmm. So... Once again, cheap Canadians, boy. You guys are fucking progressive. You know what I call Canadians? The other white meat. You think you guys want to be? No, no. The other white meat is what I call Canadians. The other white meat is what I call Canadians. Probably the easiest way to do it, in all fairness, would be for me to get you a phone and you just send me... Like, get you an account. Right. And you're talking about like a SIM card, not necessarily your whole phone. No, I'll just send you the SIM card and you put it into an unlocked phone down there. Yeah. Well, I can do that on my iPhone now. They used to... The iPhones... Didn't even have SIM card slots. So I can unlock my phone and put a SIM card. Yeah. Mm-hmm. All right. I use an iPhone down there. I mean, I work... Yeah, so this is what I'm going to do. I'm going to lock down my next trip. Well, first of all, I'm going to work on the synopsis. And as we were talking, I wrote down some segments. I'm going to try to put between 10 to 20 segments. You know, possible segments. And then lock down... I'm going to try to put in a little bit of time frame where I'm going to go, which is, you know, February 20, whatever the hell it is, like right around the corner. Right. So I'm going to find that out. Get Jeremy and June to come. Yeah. Well, Jeremy... Jeremy... I don't know if Jeremy and June are going to come. You think you might want to go in February? Probably not, right? I, you know, I never know what's going on. Because your job... I'm... So if... I may be switching jobs in February. And if that happens... I'm going to be switching jobs in February. And that's going to make my life a whole lot easier to do this kind of stuff. So... But that's not set in stone yet. So we'll see. And then June has her own work constraint. So if you do... June's a workaholic. Yeah. So if you're able to go, that'd be... You're talking about just you. But Robert Beeney, who is the chef, I definitely want him to come down around the time where you're going to be... Where you're going to have a break. Because I want you to meet him. Oh, absolutely. I'll be there. I told him all about you. I'll introduce him to some very interesting chefs that have opened restaurants down there. Because this guy... I mean, to do what he's done here in Los Angeles is pretty ambitious. And he's pretty successful doing what it is. He's pop-up dining. Well, there's a trio of very famous chefs that are... I mean, global celebrity chefs that are opening in Havana now. Right. I forget exactly who they are. I apologize. But... The restaurant scene down there is insane. Yeah. Just absolutely insane. Yeah, no, it's interesting. But over the holidays, take some time to try to hammer out something. And if you want me to look at it, I'll be happy to. No, for sure. For sure. But really, because as I was saying earlier, your biggest budget is going to be you going back and forth. Right. Aside from post, right? Because I... Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. Right. I'm assuming with all the toys you guys have, you'll be doing most of your own editing anyways. But... Yeah. Well, everything's digital, so it's not that complicated as far as getting it done. It's just about who you're going to pay to do it. And then that could be, you know, that could be a nice chunk. Now, the other thing you may want to throw in there... Fuck, I should save all this time until I'm on the clock. But anyways... Well, actually... Well, you're on the clock, so don't even sweat it. Oh, good. Because you don't even know my hourly. No, you're on the clock. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. I mean, seriously, you know, you would be an associate producer and you'd be involved. I mean, you'd be involved in this and whatever it is. The thing is to get money to make this happen. So, you know... Here's the other really cool thing you can do. Okay? And this I have not seen done. While you're down there, bring two or three GoPros with like head and chest straps. Yep, yep. That's what I was thinking. So, if you're doing a segment on Cuban surfing, because there is a Cuban Surfers Association. Awesome. I know an ex-president of it. Strap one on them and see the skyline of Havana as they're surfing. Okay. Are you talking about this time when I go in February? No, no, I'm just saying... In general? Yeah. You know, the... That's part of one of the segments or whatever. There can always be something you can... Like a buddy of mine this last trip threw a GoPro camera on the head of a roller. A cigar roller. So, they could see what they see when they're rolling. Yeah, that sounds good. I like that. You know, the bicycle polos, right? The skateboard. Yeah. I mean... You can put a GoPro on a prospective American John on his chest so everyone can see what it looks like to penetrate a Cuban... Let's not go there. No, okay. That's not where we're going. Okay, sorry about that. I don't care if you're kicked out of Cuba, but I don't plan on being... No, I'm not going to get kicked out of Cuba for that. No. But you know what I'm saying. Yeah, no, I know. You know, you might even get... I mean... I have some connections with musicians down there. You know, throw a GoPro on the chest of somebody playing at a big lively club. Get a perspective that nobody's ever shot. Right. You know, I mean, there's a thousand... They're always good to have. There's a thousand and one things that you can do with them. Mm-hmm. Well, definitely. I mean, GoPros are the thing. And digital cameras now, the quality of the digital cameras... And the size of them, they've gotten obviously much smaller and just as good. I mean, shit, people are shooting films with iPhones. Yeah. Like legitimate films. There's a film that just came out that was just shot on iPhone, wasn't there? Yes. And I think it's nominated for an Academy Award or something. Yeah. Mm-hmm. I forgot the name of it. I think it's just being released next week. Yeah. I just heard about it last night, actually. What's it about? I don't know. It's about trans... Yeah. It's about transgenders. I saw that. It's called Tangerine. Tangerine. That's right. I saw that like... You saw it? Yeah. Like four months ago, we saw it in Hollywood. Did you like it? Yeah. We fucking loved it. It was a great movie. Yeah. It was Tangerine. That's right. Yeah. It's shot all over Hollywood. Yeah. That's it. Mm-hmm. And... Yeah. Yeah. So, I mean, you know, having stuff like that in your back pocket opens up a whole bunch of shit. But here is... My biggest advice to you. Try to shoot... Start shooting this spring. And I'll tell you why. Because once the flights start opening up, and that's not going to happen until... What is it? June or July? Flights from America? Yeah. It's still illegal to travel to Cuba as a tourist. So... As of today... Two days ago, they signed an agreement for commercial flights. They haven't worked out the details yet. To fly from the United States to Cuba as a tourist? As commercial. All those licensed flights are charter. Right. Correct. Correct. But you would still need to fall under one of the 12 general licenses under OFAC. You can't still travel to Cuba as a tourist. So what you're saying is that... If they're agreeing to commercial flights, that's going to go. Because, let's face it, you can't fill commercial flights with licensed people every day. Yeah. That's true. Well, the only way that you can travel, from my understanding, as a tourist... Today. All that shit's changing so quickly. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. I'm saying as a tourist, not just today. In general, is if the embargo is lifted. Unless there's a specific... Nestor, two days ago, literally, Cuba and the United States agreed on the terms for commercial flights. And I believe they're starting to... They're starting at the end of next year. Really? Now, you may still need a license. A general license, yeah. You know? But it means that they're going to be very easily available. Right, right. So the thing is this, right? So, because I took a charter flight out of Miami. So there's like one... ABC Charters flies out of Miami to Havana twice a week. And from Havana to Miami twice a week. So the commercial flights would just be a little bit... A little bit more frequent. That's all. And from many more cities. So that's why... Right, right, right, right, right. Right. No, but with an ABC charter always also goes to Trinidad and they go to Santiago. And those are like once a week. No, no, no, no. But we're talking Chicago, New York. Oh, got me. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Got it, got it. Blah, blah, blah, blah. Yeah, yeah. Now that makes sense. But all I'm saying is the minute that happens, everything's going to get more expensive down there. Right. So, so... And you, and you will be filming post-invasion, let's say. Right. You know? Yeah. The, the whole thing right now that, that you, and, and believe me, just, just trust me when I say this. You're not the only person that's spoken to me about this. I'm sure. Yeah. Um... I've turned down a lot of people because I don't like... I don't like what they're trying to do, perspective-wise, et cetera. Mm-hmm. Um... But... If, if, if, you know, I mean... At this point in time, there is a hunger for real information coming out of Cuba. And, and, and most of the people sitting at home watching their television sets or their computer screens or whatever really don't care about the politics. Right. You know? The, the people in the headlines care about the politics, but that's because they want to be in the headlines. What you want to do is feed that hunger for information. Yeah. And show that. Get people excited about going to Cuba, not just because it's previously forbidden, but because there's actually something to see and do and appreciate down there. Mm-hmm. Right? Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. episodes down we have the concept down right my my whole poker game is tv industry right so so i have people to ask i don't know if i have access to it well i mean don't i have people like i know who who would have that answer right it's available there's canadian funds for for for film and tell well for film for sure yeah i'm not sure about tv but no for tv there's a lot too yeah but i mean it's it's it's mostly for either canadian productions or to lure american producers up here to hire to hire canadians canadians yeah well that's a different story the for to lure american productions what they do is they give them a big huge tax break and that's why a lot of uh or they reimburse them uh tax incentives and stuff but they have to hire from our union oh of course of course you have to you have to have a certain ratio of of your production team hired locally for sure but i don't but but you won't be able to fulfill that if you're filming in cuba no no no no no but but i mean there is there is money from cuba from canada to produce content and so if the production company happens to be canadian which any of that stuff can you know it can be done either way you know i mean well i i think i think if it's canadian um production company it it will probably be a hell of a lot easier for you right so it's just a matter of forming a canadian production company you follow what i'm saying yeah yeah so i mean production company means this is the title you get a few people that are your your core people right that that you go down there the rest of the people you're hiring locally and it's the canadian production company just to see what's going on that's the only reason i'm saying so yeah i mean that that i mean the stuff that i used to do is is for was for a few canadian production companies and i'm not saying that's not something that's something that's something that's something that's something that's was their fixer. They would tell me what they want. I would go down there, make suggestions, make the arrangements, you know, get their crew, their cars or whatever they needed. And off we go. Right. All right. You know, I mean, that's the easy part of it. Right. The hard part of it is getting a concept together that somebody believes in enough to finance. Right. And then to do it. Right. Right. Now, I don't know what, you know, what avenues you would use to actually sell the finished product. Well, that's so. So here's the deal. So I have a friend of mine. His name is Rick Tejas. He's been in the. Reality TV production realm for many, many years. The show Surreal Life was his project. OK, so he knows all these guys and all that stuff. That's his arena. There's a two person production team that I met with Rick. I met with Mike and Moni, the two Puerto Ricans from New York, and they they work for the Smiths, the Will and Jada Smith. So they do. Yeah. So they do most of their content, but they also have their own projects going on. Namely, one of them is called I think it was called Our Thing. And it's basically showcasing Latino artists all over, you know, which is what I thought, you know, it's it's relative to what we're trying to do here. Well, it is now that you've changed the concept. Right. Right. Right. Right. But no, but believe it or not, believe it or not, Amir, in all honesty, my my thing going was to go and see what you thought and how this would work out with the Torsador and all that other stuff. But also there's more to Cuba than just the cigar and the Torsador. And I was like I said, I mean, I've worked on a couple of documentaries about the cigar industry in Cuba. If you if it's going to be focused on cigars, it's a documentary. Right. Right. It's not a series. Right. No, I'm serious. So so so what I'm saying is that I went there and I think I mentioned this to you, Jeremy, one of the last nights before I went there that I just wanted to go there and just see what kind of cracks are open, you know, idea wise to to do something there. When we met, that was it. I mean, what what everything you were saying, all the questions you were asking me were leading me, guiding me to that, you know, unforeseen ideas, you see? At the end of the day. It's not going to be an expensive shoot. I'm telling you that. So, you know, if you have people that are in that business and, you know, see the potential of getting it aired, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera, you won't be asking them to throw millions at it. Right. Right. So it could be the kind of thing where if you get somebody enthusiastic about it, and the potential of being the first people. I mean, you know, there's already Cuban chrome. Right. Right. Which which really, in all fairness, the head mechanic on that thing is a Cuban actor. I've seen him on a hundred different things. Really? Yeah. That's hilarious. But, you know, but I mean, that's, again, a very. That's a niche segment, but it's a bigger segment than than than cigars, cigars. Now, here's. Here's one for you. Che Guevara's son. Who's also named Ernesto, who I have contact with, runs Harley Tours of Cuba. Really? Yeah. I'd love to just meet that guy. Interesting. Oh, fuck, man. Which which which, by the way, you mentioned him as a hangover. What's that? Meeting him as a guaranteed hangover. Sounds fun. Yeah. What's interesting, you know, you're a Harley. So I'm at the Presidente and there's a whole slew of fucking guys like middle aged guys, older guys with nothing but Harleys, every single one of them. There must have been about I would say about 10 to 15 Harleys. And it was some sort of motorcycle club. Yeah. That was bizarre. Well, like I said, Che Guevara's son runs Harley Tours. So maybe that was part of it. Yeah. You know. But there's all I mean, that would be a great segment. That would be an insane segment. Cuban Harley Tours. Yeah. How do you connect the Cuban Harley Tour to the reader? That's the thing. To the lector. Ernesto Guevara. That's political, though. What? He's a national hero, you know. No, I understand that. But you still. No, but this is a private business. No, no, no, no, no. I get it. But how are you connecting that as a culture? As a as a as an extension of the Cuban culture? If old cars are part of the culture, so are motorcycles. But Harley's are American. They're not Cuban. Yeah. And so are the cars there. All those old cars are American, too. How are the Harley's getting there? I'm assuming by boat. They're too heavy to ship by plane. But I'm saying so. So so obviously some people with money have invested in Harley's and shipped them over with the idea of doing that. Yeah. And there's old Harley's. There's old Harley's. Uh huh. OK. But I mean. And and he's. I love it. I love it. I'm just saying in terms of the proposal synopsis, how I can fit that in. Well, you know, everybody hears about Cuban music. How many people know about Cuban rock? Cuban rock or Cuban rap? I saw something on TV. No, no, no, no, no. I know rock, but I'm saying also Cuban rap. Cuban rap is gaining an audience and is quite, you know. But again, that's all things that you can do. There are a lot of things that you can do as segments. And here's the beautiful thing. One leads the other, especially as far as filming goes, because all the musicians know each other. Yeah. Yeah. But I mean, seriously, the Cuban hip hop scene is pretty big. There's a hip hop festival once a year there. Yeah. So that's also connecting a younger audience. You know, we don't want to just I mean, just in terms of music, rock, rap. Absolutely. I mean. And contemporary art is is is always has been bleeding edge. Mm hmm. Mm hmm. And. It's officially recognized, you know, I mean, that's, you know, they're jazz festivals out of this world. One of the great Cuban guitarists for a lot of blues actually lives here in Toronto now. He's a friend of mine. He's he's been on something like 100 albums. Mm hmm. What is the jazz festival there? December. End of December. OK. I saw something on TV about the young kids into metal and stuff and they meet in some park every week. And. Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. And they're very much into the bike culture. So, you know, you go to music to to them. Got it. From them to motorcycles. Got it. From them to motorcycles to Che Guevara's son. There you go. That's it. I mean, that's the beautiful. I'm just asking the connection. Rock bicycles. Got it. That's perfect. No, but it's it's it's also a culture, right? Of course. Of course it is. Not all culture. Not all cultures are about salsa. No, I know. I know. But when you think about motorcycle culture, especially Harley culture, that's American. Right. Yeah. But but but, you know, the whole world is into Levi's and whatever. Absolutely. Absolutely. Absolutely. So. So what I'm saying is. In all fairness. You could do 40 episodes if you if you can make it financially work. Mm hmm. You could do more. Right. I think I think the thing to do is to I'm sure you could do more. I think the thing to do with within like a three week scope of time, once we get the synopsis down, once we get the concept down, you know, we decide, OK, we're going to start with this episode. We're going to do this. We're going to do this. We're going to do this. We're going to do this. You get your get your get your get your get your get your get your get your get your get your get your get your get your get your get your get your get your get your get your get your get your get your get your get your get your get your get your get your get your get your get your get your get your get your get your get your get your get your get your get your get your get your get your get your get your get your get your get your get your get your get your get your get your get your get your get your get your get your get your get your get your get your get your get your get your get your get your get your get your get your get your get your get your get your get your get your get your get your get your get your get your get your get your get your get your get your get your get your get your get your get your get your get your get your get your get your get your get your get your get your get your get your get your get your get your get your get your get your get your get your Yeah, yeah, for sure. Because also, you always have to have a plan A and plan B. If the weather, if it starts raining, then you have to film things that's predominantly indoors. Right. You can't just say, okay, well, we'll come back tomorrow because you don't have that luxury. Right. So all the people, all the permissions, everything, effectively the shooting schedule within reason has to be lined up. Now, here's the beautiful thing. Your shooting schedule is going to be for eight or ten hours a day. Right. You're going to shoot for 15. Right. Because things are going to come up and somebody's going to say, oh, there's this great concert going on tonight. You know, you should go film. I mean, a lot of it could be B-roll that could eventually become a segment. Right. I mean, we used to do a ton of that. Right. We used to shoot probably twice as much B-roll as we did A-roll. And in editing, they would come up with some great segments and frequently fly down to film whatever was on the B-roll. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. So three weeks of shooting realistically is going to be, let's say, a good 250 hours of work. Mm-hmm. Right. But out of that, you... You'll be able to... The things that are easy and well-known, you'll be able to shoot complete segments. Right. But you will line up enough teasers and interest for another... You know, if you shoot 10 segments in three weeks, you'll have enough teaser roll or things that go, oh, geez, we just stumbled on this and it was interesting, to probably do 50. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. The second filming trip would actually be more productive. Right. Sure. Don't ever count on shooting for more than that. You're going to get tired. You're going to get fed up. No, of course. Of course. Of course. And then you're going to come home with 2,000 hours and it's going to take you forever to edit. Yeah. No, no, no, no. Three weeks might even be a lot. But... Two weeks might even be better for the first time. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. For sure. For sure. For many reasons. But, yeah. Most of which I don't want to spend a month at a time down there. No, no, no. It's rough. It's rough down there. It can be rough. You know. But, I mean, that being said, so the next step forward, you know, because we could talk all night and still get nowhere. Right. The next step forward is to come up with as good a synopsis proposal as you can. Yep. But then try, based on that, to figure out who you need just to meet and talk to and maybe, you know, tape a short interview with. Right. In February. Mm-hmm. All to prepare yourself to go down in May and shoot. Mm-hmm. Because you don't want to go after that. It just gets too hot and humid. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. You know. What's the deal with the Teatro Nacional? Is that open? Is that open during a certain part of time? And I'm talking about that big building. Say again? There's seasons. There's the ballet season. There's plays. When is the ballet season? Do you know? Okay. In a second. Or the play season. I'm talking about the big building in Old Havana, right? That gorgeous building. Yeah. The Spanish Refurbishing. Correct. Because that building right there, you can do two segments right there. Okay. This year, the annual ballet festival was October 28th to November 6th. Okay. So we just missed that. Now, there is the National Ballet. Okay. So there's the National Ballet Festival. December 16th is the homage to Alicia Alonso. Yeah. It's generally around the autumn. I think after that, they go touring. Okay. So like from October to December. National Ballet. There are a lot of ballet companies. A lot of contemporary ballet and things like that. You know, there's the baseball season. Yeah. When is the baseball season? In winter. So it'll be like February. I think their version of the World Series is February, March. So baseball season is now. Okay. Because remember, it used to be the winter baseball for the American Leagues, right? Got it. Here we go. Okay. Okay. The official, it starts in September and goes on to February. Got it. Oh, fuck. And the jazz festival you said was also in December, right? Yeah. Guess who was just at fuck? Who? Like last week. The producers of Games of Thrones. Oh, really? The Game of Thrones, yeah. Oh, they shot something there? No. No, they did a talk thing. Oh, got it. Yeah, because when I was there, there was a camera crew there. I think it could have been like a German camera crew. Oh, there's always camera crews. Yeah, yeah. It's a fucking amazing place. I mean, it's unbelievable. That place blew me away. So thank you. They were scouting. Oh, okay. What side are you looking at? This is Havana Times. Okay, Havana Times. So, and that's again why I re-inf, you know, being a small production with small budget, the one thing you got to do is get in there quick. Right, right. Because once these things go, who's going to buy your product? Right. Well, I mean, you know, the thing is at the same time, yeah, urgency, but also you want to create good content. No, no, absolutely. But you want to create new content. Yeah, new. No, no, for sure. For sure. For sure. I think, I think what you said, if, because I wrote it down, you said, how do you make something old new is what you said in, in, in our little meeting. Yeah. Hold on. Because I wrote it down here, which I like that, which you said, you said, focus on what this country has to offer that our countries don't from the concept of the reader. Yeah. That's one of the things. And then. I mean, there's also, you know, the whole Hemingway angle. And you said, you said new story you can tell, not trying to tell an old story a new way. That's what you said. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. This is one of the last, I mean, there, there are very few new stories. Right. Of course. Of course. You know, I mean, all art is retelling the same stories. And, and, and I say that as a creative guy. Yeah, of course. Of course. This is one of the last. New stories you can tell. Exactly. No, I get it. Your, your, your next option would be North Korea and that's not going to happen for a while. Yeah. I'm not really interested in North Korea. I'm interested in Cuba. My passion is in Cuba. No, no. But what I'm saying is this type of opportunity. Yeah. My passion is in Cuba. That's it. Well, buddy, you're, you're preaching to the converted, right? No, no, I know. No, I know. And by the way, the project, the nonprofit project that you have. Yeah. For building a school for autistic children. No, no, no, no, no, no. I'm not building a schools. There are exist. There's a whole existing school system. I'm just raising, raise donations for specific, you know, for, for things that they need. Right. Well, if there's anything that I could do for that, right. Like, I don't know what that is. You know, if you're trying to raise money, I, I'm, you know, I have a, I'll give you an example. I have a friend of mine that raises money for orphanages in Mexico. And what he does is he'll buy a laptop. For instance. Right. Yeah. And then he'll sell raffle tickets and he'll raise a couple of thousand dollars. Well, actually the kind of things we're looking for are, are, are actually, you know, last year's laptops to donate, you know? Okay. And, uh, sporting, sporting equipment. Um, I mean, there's some things they need, which, which have to be done on a commercial basis, you know, like air conditions and things like that. But, um, you know, like. Yeah. Laptops that are a couple of years old are, are, are very much in need because they have this educational software for the kids, but they don't have enough equipment. Mm-hmm. Uh, sporting equipment is, is, is big ones. Um, educational toys. For what age? Well, these schools, these schools work from five to 21. The same schools will have students from five to 21. They're there for like 16 years. Mm-hmm. Uh, most of these schools, I'm, I'm working with two right now, um, both in Havana, uh, one in Huevo Vedado and one right in Vedado. Mm-hmm. Um, they have about a hundred students, so it's very specialized. And the nice thing is, is most of the staff in the schools, meaning at reception and things like that, are actual students. Got it. So, so, you know, art supplies are, are a big thing. Um, you know, I mean, there, there are, there are bigger things, but you know, they're, they're, they're the kind of things that I'm going to try to hit corporations for. Right. As, aside from the fact that I can't put air conditioners into my suitcase, you know, that has to be. No, that has to be shipped. That has to be shipped and, and, you know. And that's a whole other planet. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You get your whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole Things like that, they will waive the importation tax. Got it. There's a way to do it. Well, because it's not like you're carrying it in your suitcase. To sell it. Or whatever. Yeah. It goes directly from the dock to the intent. Right. To the intended people. So the stuff is not out of their control. Right. But, you know, sporting equipment is a big, easy thing. Art supplies are big. Stuffed toys, believe it or not, for the younger children. Stuffed toys. I mean, I've got lists, but some of the lists are what the buildings particularly need. You know, things like fans and things like that. But I try to focus first on what's going directly to the children. Right, right, right. I'm just curious because I got ADD, man. So there's always some shit going on. And if I meet somebody or I'm talking to somebody and, hey, by the way, you know. Yeah. No, no. I mean, I don't know how I'm going to grow it yet. Because to be honest with you, I'm just so busy with my own shit right now. Right. You know, I mean, my house in the suburbs just sold. And, like, I'm in, you know, downtown with my girlfriend living philosophy. It's four years. So if you look up behind me, you see all those boxes. Oh, those are nice. Those are nice. Well, that's my dining room. And that's all part of my antique cigar collection stuff. The actual cigars or documentation or what? Documentation, old humidors. Jesus. That shows the museum, man. So you're going to give us a little tour now? No. I mean, most of it's packed away at the moment. But do you. Do you recognize that thing, Jeremy? Isn't that the Trinidad house? No, that's the Bojillo. Oh. There were a hundred of these made 67, 68. They were only for gifts from head of state to head of state. So these would come directly from Castro. Wow. To another head of state, not another. And. Wow. This was the original Cohiba before the brand was made. These would all be Lanceros. Oh, shit. That's amazing. And is that filled? Those cigars? Well, it would have been as a gift. Got it. Wow. Okay. That's unbelievable. That's in such gorgeous fucking condition. Wow. You see that pile of three? Yeah. That middle one was the humidor of President Menacol, an old president of Cuba. Wow. I mean. That's pre-Batista? Yeah. We don't have a house right now. I mean, we're. We're. This is. This is like sort of like everywhere you look. It's just cigars, humidors. Jeremy wants to go to Toronto to meet you at some point. And I told him this is not the right time just to go to. You got. What's the temperature there now? Right now? It's not that bad. It's probably around minus three. Okay. That's not too bad. That's not too bad, actually. Well, that's, you know, minus three Fahrenheit Celsius. Celsius. Celsius. Yeah. You know, I mean, like I mean, these are all old books and documents. I mean, like the whole. The whole friggin house is just because, you know, I went from 5000 square feet to 1800. Yeah. Yeah. But those those humidors. Wow. Thanks for showing us that. Oh, fuck. That was amazing. Oh, here. Let me pull something out. Just a fucking humidors. Unreal. Great history. Holy shit. But it's in such great condition. Thinking about how old that was. You know. You get your old old old old old old old old old old old old old old old old old old old old old old old old old old old old old old old old old old old old old old old old old old old old old old old old old old old old old old old old old old old old old old old old old old old old old old old old old old old old old old old old old old old old old old old old old old old old old old old old old old old old old old old old old old old old old old old old old old old old old old old old old old old old old old old old old old old old old old old old old old old old old old old old old old old old old old old old old old old old old old old old old old old old old old old old old old old old old old old old old old old old old old old old old old old old old old old old old old old old old old old old old old old old old old old old old old old old old old old old old old Cigarillos inside. Oh, wow. But what I keep inside are these two things. Wow. What are those? That's from Revolutionary Soldiers, right? One star, my friend. Oh, wow. It's a star. I see it. Wow. Some Russian. No. What? Commandante. Wow. Okay. There were three Commandantes. Or four, actually. There was Che. Che, yeah. There was Sinfuegos. Right. Sinfuegos. There was another guy that I don't remember his name of. And Fidel. Wow. So I'm going to assume that one of those does not belong to Che or Fidel. I don't know if you can see that. Hold on a second. Can you see? Can you see that? Um. Fuck, the writing is. It's a little hard to read over the camera. Okay. December 22nd, 1963. Fidel Castro visited the Partagus factory, took these off his shoulders, and signed and dedicated them both to the World War. Wow. Holy shit. Jesus Christ. That is amazing. That's unreal, dude. Maybe what we need to do is do one of the segments on you, because I think you have more fucking connection to the Q. Cuban culture. That's amazing. That's unbelievable, man. That's really cool to see. So they were both from Fidel? One from the left, one from the right. Holy shit. That's unbelievable. That's unbelievable. Thanks for showing us that. Yeah, man. That's unbelievable. Well, yeah, that should have never left the country. And actually, when the Partagus factory, the Partagus factory was given to Cuba to be the new home of the tobacco museum. Mm. Because the tobacco museum now is in Old Havana somewhere, right? It's a small... The tobacco museum now is an office. It's not even a museum. It doesn't have exhibition space or anything. Got it. But they're being given to make a real museum with exhibition space, with study space, with conference space and everything. So when that gets opened... That is going to be donated to the museum. Yeah. Wow. So when is the Partagus factory reopening? The plan is three years, so I'm guessing six or seven. Okay, by 2020? It's not going to be a factory anymore. The whole building is being turned over to the museum. Okay. There is another Partagus factory. Right. To the old El Rey del Mundo factory. Oh, okay, okay. So that's happening. All right, listen. What I want to do is I'm going to get a synopsis going here. I'm going to draft something out really nice. I'm going to meet with Rick Taez, the reality TV producer. He has really, really good... I mean, he's got a couple of sizzle reels that he sent to me. One of them is about Hector Macho Camacho, the Puerto Rican boxer who died and all that other stuff. He had a reality show that he tried to pitch, and the executives at whatever network, they weren't interested for whatever reason. Cuban boxing is pretty fucking big. Cuban boxing, yeah. That's another thing. So I'm going to make this video available just between us three if we want to review it or whatever, but it's all been documented. Oh, great. Pictures of me. I'm going to be chain smoking. Yeah, but think about that, because the easiest way to go is to know what you want to do, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah, for sure. Just leave yourself open to opportunities. Right. So that's why I'm saying we'll schedule eight to 10 hours shooting a day, but we'll probably be shooting 15 because something neat will be happening. Here's the deal. Here's the deal. I want to be able to, more importantly on this next trip, be able to make... Make it as efficient as possible, whatever that means. Yeah. So once I have the synopsis, which I'm hoping to have it by, you know, let's say January, even if it's a rough one, like the end, you know, somewhere in January. Okay, let me throw something else at you there. Okay. Let's completely throw this around. You want to make it as efficient as possible, okay. Think about this as a proposal. Okay. We work as quickly as possible to get as much... Of the pre-work done as we can. Mm-hmm. You know, solidify the idea. Mm-hmm. And then just fucking fly me down. We'll do a week where you have all day, all time, and we'll just run from place to place to place and get as much done as we can. So in February, when I go, do as much pre-work as we can, meaning... No, no. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. Pre-work. Everything that you were hoping to get done for the end of February. Get done before, fly down for five days, and just concentrate on it. Fly down for five days and concentrate on... Getting everything that's on your to-do list, on everything we need to do before you can go down and... Okay. Okay. So you're talking about getting all the approvals and all that other stuff. The approvals won't get done before the 1st of February. What I'm saying is to go down, meet the people. So you, you know, meet as many of the people that you would need to help you on this, to give you access to everything. All based on, you know, you having the press visa to do it. Right. But for this particular trip in February, I don't know that I'm going to have a press visa. You're not going to, you're not going to be, you're not going to be filming. No, right. What I'm saying is if you want to catch me the week before festival, that's fine. I could probably give you a day, a day and a half. Right. What I'm saying is if we go down three weeks before or two weeks after festival. Right. If you're willing to, you know, to finance the trip down there, I'll come down and we can spend five days. And get everything done. Okay. Okay. I hear what you're saying. And meet people and line up segments. Got it. And do everything so that when you do get your paperwork in order and your financing in order, all you have to do is let's go shoot. Got it. So we're talking about after March 7th, planning on going there for like five days. Well, yeah. So in the reality, you'll be looking at the end of March because I mean, I can't go for two weeks. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. No, for sure. End of March. Yeah. Okay. I mean, it may be that I'll go there for, you know, before Habano's Fest, right? For five days. And then at the end of March. But the reality is, is before Habano's Fest, you know, I could give you a day. Yeah, yeah. No, I get it. I get it. The reason I'm saying that is because at the same time, if this guy Beanie wants to go down around that time, you know. So bring him down. Bring him down at the end of March. Okay. I mean, the only reason I'm saying is because then, you know, we could spend the whole time together. We could figure out everything you need. So then at the end of the day, you will be, you know, you will have budgets in hand. You will know what you can and can't do. You will have probably more ideas to try to sell. And then your next trip down there will be. It would be to shoot. Right. So in other words, skip the pre-festival. Right. The pre-festival, we're not, because a lot of it is. Yeah, yeah. I get it. I get it. A lot of it involves sitting in people's offices waiting for them to give you time. Right, right. I get it. I get it. And that's not the most optimum conducive time. I get it. End of March or somewhere around there. Not only that, but it's not just the most. The reality is, is you can't do it every other day. You got to do it consecutive. Like, here's what we need. Here's our shortlist. We want to film at, you know, at La Florida, you know, like B-roll stuff that might happen or might not happen. You know, how to make a good Hemingway Dobley daiquiri at La Florida. Right. You know, shit like that. You can shoot on a handheld GoPro or whatever while we're there. But just to run around. And solidify the ideas. So when your next trip down there, after you get your papers, which shouldn't be too difficult. After you get your papers, you can actually have things scheduled and shoot. It'll save you a trip. Right. Got it. And at the end of the day, those trips are what's going to cost. You know, it's 50 percent shooting, 50 percent post. I'm just guessing. I don't know. Right. I don't know. I'll find all that stuff. Like I said, I'm going to meet Rick. Yeah. But half of that shooting, half of that Cuban budget is going to be travel. Right. So if you can cut out two trips out of five, you've got that much more money to shoot with. Right. Right. I get it. I get it. Right. Yep. So the more work you do, the more work you can do on your computer at home. Right. The more prepared you are down there. Mm hmm. Because at the end of the day, it's going to be a budget production. Right. And it's not going to be one of these, oh, we've got a sponsor and, you know, whatever it costs, it costs. No, no, no, no, no. It's going to be like most likely what's going to be. And unfortunately, the way it works is you shoot a sizzle reel, which I, you know. And hope somebody finances it. And you sell the idea and somebody's on board with the money. Or I get a couple of guys to self-finance this with the, you know, I sell two, three guys, not a network in other words. Right. And we shoot three episodes. Yeah. And we cut them. And then we sell that. Yeah. And then you go back. So, I mean, that's kind of how it works. Now, where were you thinking of selling this? As we're talking right now, I was thinking. Are you thinking broadcast or are you thinking internet? No, I was thinking broadcast. I was thinking like maybe even the History Channel or something like that. It would all depend. And I don't know. I think the History Channel might be a good fit. What's that? History Channel might be a very good fit. Yeah. Well, as you're talking and as we're talking, I was just listening. I was just thinking of the Pawn Stars intro, which is the guy just basically thinks, you know, I'm going to sell this. The guy just basically talks about him, his family. You know it's a Pawn Star. And then you go right into the episode. And I think part of this whole thing has to be an intro. You know Cuba. You know this. But you don't know that. You know what I mean? And this is where we're going to go. Here's whatever, whatever. I got to figure that out. Well, you know, I mean, I think that Cuban phrase, you know, there's their truth, our truth, and the real truth is somewhere in the middle. Mm-hmm. Could come up to be a, you know, or we are Cuba. You know? I like we are Cuba. But, you know, again, I have to digest all that stuff. There's a lot of work to be done before I could even, you know, get a title. I mean, it may come up to us, you know? Yeah. I thought of Cuban gold. I mean, but, you know, there's a bunch of titles. I mean, that's not even an issue right now. I think the concept and the synopsis. I wouldn't go with something like that, to be honest. Right, right, right. No, I get it. You know, I would try to find something that's more identifiable Cuba. Like the other Cuba or, you know. Yeah. I like that we are Cuba. We'll figure that out. I mean, that's, you know, that's neither here nor there. But, I mean, you know, the intro, you can shoot during that five days. Right, right. Nobody will know. Because it's not going to be broadcast. Exactly. No, I get it. I get it. The thing to be is to be prepared, though, you know. So the thing to be prepared is to try to shoot the sizzle reel during that five days when you don't have your paperwork. For sure. For sure. Listen, I may even be able to get a sizzle reel based on just footage that's already available on the Internet. You follow what I'm saying? Because the concept, I mean, everything's, I mean, there's been a ton of shit shot down there, whether it's jazz, whether it's, you know, sports, whether it's this. So the sizzle reel concept. But that's all, I mean, how should I put it? That's all jazz. Yeah. That's all generic stuff. Like, you know, Havana at 4 a.m. Mm-hmm. You know, there's a segment for you. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. No, no, no. What I'm saying to you, though, is, like, my friend Rick has put together a sizzle reel. Like, I would have to send them to you so you can see. And 90% of it has been, you know, footage that is available already. Yeah. The reason being is you don't need to, like, reinvent something or show something you don't know. Right. You don't need to do anything or show something new to sell a pitch. Yeah, you could probably do a few searches on YouTube and come up with something. Oh, yeah, there's a million things out there. There's a million things. So, so, so, I'm just talking about as far as the sizzle reel, maybe not. I have to talk to Rick just to get an idea. I've already spoken to Rick about it, and I'm going to see about the concept of the show. There is a wonderful, there's an amazing Cuban mystery writer. Pedroza? Pedroza? Pedroza? Pedroza? Pedroza? Pedroza? Nelson Pedroza, I think his name is. And his books are phenomenal, and they've been translated to English, a lot of them. And the series in English is called Havana Gold, Havana Black, Havana Blue, Havana Red. I highly recommend you read it. At least Havana Gold. That was the first one I read. That was the mystery novel? Yeah. I'm just... It was called Havana Gold. It's a crime. Mm-hmm. Leonardo Padura. And he's available for interviews too, who lives in Havana. Leonardo Padura? P-A-D-U-R-A. Yep. And the name of the book is Havana Gold? Well, that's one of the series, Havana Gold. It's a quartet. So there's Havana Gold, Havana Black, Havana Blue, and Havana Red. Havana Blue and Havana Red, but Havana Gold was the first one I read, and I think it was the best one. Got it. There's also, you know, like the whole used book market at Playa de Armas. Yes, yes. There is. Which I don't really know what the whole thing's about. Hey, could you hold on one second? I got to use the bathroom real quick. Hold on. Yeah. I want to see that 4 a.m. tour. I missed that part. Well, I do it every night when I'm down there. Yeah. I get home between 4.30 and 6 a.m. every night. Wow. And then I wake up at 8 o'clock in the morning to work. Wow. No, you know, this has potential, but, you know, timing is a big part of it. Sure. Cuba's hot right now. So Jeremy's not the only. I'm the only person thinking about it. You're speaking to Jeremy. Oh, sorry. Nestor, yeah. No, no, I know. I mean, we know that better than anything here in the United States because of all the press, you know. Yeah. And everything changing so much. But, yeah, you know, above all, I think it would be really fun and a great learning experience. You know, a day in the life of a ballet dancer, a day in the life of. You know, a violinist in the symphony, a day in the life of a tour guide, a day in the life of, you know, I mean, there's so much shit he can do. Yeah. Yeah. And nobody knows anything about that here. You know, Cuban disc jockeys. Yeah, that'd be cool. Huge. Yeah. There's a laundry list of possibilities. Oh, you could never fill it. Yeah. You know, and I think doing it in a sort of underground, you know, like, what's the term I'm looking for? In photography, they call it snapshot photos. But, you know, where it's not all scripted. I mean, yes, obviously, there are segments of it that are guided. Right. Yeah. But. You know, I mean, what are young Cubans doing at the clock in the morning at clubs, you know? Yeah, exactly. You know, the music scene is different at 4 a.m. than it is at 11 p.m. Yeah. What are Cuban artists doing? Cuban graffiti. Right. Is huge. Yeah, that's part of the whole hip hop scene. There's a hip hop. A friend of mine performs down there. I got to find out when the hip hop festival is. That's a completely interesting story and segment. Yeah. And, you know, like I was just saying, you know, the rock, the nightlife at 4 a.m. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. your demographic. Yep. Yep. Tremendously. May. What's that? The hip hop fest? Yeah. May. Yep. That's right. Which that might be a goal. Oh, no. Okay. Okay. Hold on a second. International. And then of course, you know, you've got the biennial every two years. Right. The art. Which is phenomenal. When is the next biennial or the biennial? They just had one this year. So two years. I'll say two years from now. You're right. They just had one this year. Yeah. Yeah. Cause I was there. It was August, September. Got it. Got it. And then there's also the Havana Film Festival. Yeah. That's annual. Yep. Yep. All right. Listen, let me, let's, let's, let's, let's, I mean, there's, there's more than 20 episodes. I mean. I mean, some of these episodes, you can't even cover them in one episode, you know? Well, that, that's the magic of editing. Well, no, I mean, when you're talking about film, for instance, the history of film in Cuba, that's not one episode. No, no. But that's going to have to be segmented over and put into a number of episodes because otherwise. Correct. That's what I'm saying. You're, you're, you're dealing again to a very closed demographic. That's what I'm saying. That's what I'm saying. So, yeah. So, listen, let's, let's, let's, let's, let's, what do you call it? Wrap it up. Yeah, let's wrap this up. And then, and then, you know, I got a lot of, we got a lot to think about, a lot of work. And then I'll, I'll be in touch with you. Yeah. Hip hops in August. Yeah. Okay. Oh, August. Okay. August. Thank you for your time, Amir. I really appreciate it. Oh, no, no. My pleasure. Amir's, Amir's in on this, dude. Amir, Amir's part of this, this thing. I'm, I'm, I'm sold on this idea, man. Yeah, he's, he's, he's a, he's a, he's an associate producer, producer, consulting producer. I don't know what the fuck all those stupid titles mean. It doesn't matter. What it means is that you're, you're in this. So, I mean, you know, this fucking, a bunch of retarded titles. I don't even know what the fuck they mean. I mean, I guess in legalese, it means that, you know, in regular network TV, if you're a producer, that means you're a writer and you get credit and money and whatever the fuck. But. Money's good. Money's always good. Yeah. Money's always good, but. That's why I work 20 hours a day. Creative endeavors and fulfillment in that, in that area could be just as good. So, well, thank you so much for your time, Amir. My pleasure, guys. I want to say Merry Christmas to you. If we don't get a chance to speak in any way, shape or form. And if I don't speak to you or communicate before the new year, happy new year. Thank you very much. To you and your family. Absolutely. To you and yours as well. One day we'll finally meet, Amir. I know it's going to happen soon. I'm avoiding that, Jeremy. You are? You just met him. This is, this is him right there. One hundred percent. Jeremy, Jeremy and I have had quite a few conversations. I know. I know. We've talked for a very long time. I know. I know. But you've never spoken to him like, like this. Um, yeah. Not over Skype, but you know. Have you had a phone call? Yeah, we've had phone calls. Oh, okay. Yeah. We've had some pretty long phone calls. Yeah. Especially when you were doing your cross country trailer in the back of the car trip. Yeah. Oh, really? Oh, so that way back then. You mean to, you mean to New York? I've known Amir as long as I've known Victor. You remember Victor, right? Amir? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, wow. So Nestor's met Victor as well. Oh, so you're talking way back. Yeah. Way back. Yeah. Jeremy, I mean, Jeremy owned the radio station where I did, I first started doing my podcast. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. for a broadcasting convention that Jeremy was going to be speaking at. And we had the cigar connection in addition. I mean, I haven't smoked a cigar since 1990, 91. I think the first Cuban cigar I smoked was a Petit Julieta. I don't even know if they make those anymore. They don't. They don't, yeah. So, yeah, so I smoked one of those. That was the first one. There's a reason for it too, but I won't get into that. Well, shit, man, as someone who never smoked, I mean, I was smoking, my entree into cigars were Macanudo Hampton Quartz. So, you know, it was a mild cigar. And anyway, so Jeremy and I connected. Now, here's the other thing. If we can plan this for the end of March. Yeah. March 25th. March 25th. There is been a lot of talk about a Rolling Stone concert. In Cuba? In Havana. Interesting. That's going to be insane, though. Yeah. That's insane. That sounds amazing. That's worth a trip. That's only because he loves the Rolling Stones. Where would they do that? Amir loves the Rolling Stones. That's his thing. They're talking about the Pan American. No, you know what? I just... I... I was down there in 2006 when Manu Chao did a free concert in the street. 100,000 people. It just was absolutely insane. I was 20 feet from the stage. And it was held at the stage in front of the American Embassy. Mm-hmm. Yeah. And the Malecon was closed. And it was shoulder-to-shoulder people going all the way around the curve of the nationality. You couldn't even see the... Holy shit. Wow. That's pretty big. Manu Chao is pretty insane. Yeah. He's great. Put on a fantastic show. I'm not familiar with him. Jeremy. Yeah, yeah. They have a lot of shows in front of the Interest Building, right? Yeah. Is that what? A jazz group? No, it's a rock group. No, he is... He's a Spaniard who lives in Argentina who does... I don't know how... Well, he's a rock artist, but his most famous stuff is... I don't even know how you would... He played here about two blocks from my apartment in Pershing Square about three years ago. Oh, that must have been amazing. That name sounds very familiar. I'm just not familiar with the work. You would probably know it if you heard it, actually. Okay, okay. Havana Radio, Megusta 2. Yeah, just Google him. Yeah, no, no. I will. I will. Well, I wrote it down. So, did you eat yet? No, but I want to check out the lightsaber fight over in Pershing Square. Oh, that's some crazy shit, guys. Is that why everybody's fucking walking down with lightsabers? Yeah, yeah. They got a lightsaber battle going on like two blocks from my place and everybody's going there. Well, I just saw a bunch of people. I just want to see it. It may be too late. Well, it's from 8 to 11, so... Oh, okay, okay, okay. I just wanted to check it out. I was wondering, why the fuck is everybody walking around with lightsabers? Yeah. Lightsabers. Yeah, that's what's going on. I mean, no one told me. I have like three of them in the house. That's funny, yeah. Two blocks from here, lightsaber battle. Got it. So, Amir, Merry Christmas. Happy New Year. I'm going to be in touch with you. I'm going to get on this shit within the next week and a half or so. And the goal is end of March. That would be ideal, I think. That's the goal. Okay? Cool. Okay, perfect. Thanks, Amir. Good to talk to you. Have a good night. All right, guys. Peace. Enjoy your weekend. All right, you too. Okay, bye-bye. So, you have any...