Cool. Yeah, so what's going on? How are you? How are you feeling? I think what Nestor mostly wants to talk about is, I think he wants to kind of come up with a schedule or something, from what I understand. But yeah, Nestor is always forgetting that L.A. has bad traffic, so he's late. Yeah, no worries. I don't know. I mean, between you and me, he's not there. And we've chatted openly for years now, so I'm just not feeling right about this. Okay. Yeah. You know, I... I'm just not sure of what he wants, first of all. And secondly, you know, what my role is in this whole thing of his. Yeah. Yeah, I don't know. It's kind of... It's hard to say. I mean, the thing is, is that I pick up on things when we're just hanging out and having conversations and stuff. I don't think that necessarily means that the vibe that I'm picking up on will come out in what he wants to produce. Yeah, no, no, no. I... But I... You know, I mean, I trust... Trust your gut, right? I... Yeah. Because he's... He's sort of... You know, he's like... Sometimes when he gets excited, he's like talking to a kid on meth. That's... That's one way to put it, yeah. You know, and I listened to a couple of his podcasts, you know, hoping to get a... Better idea. Right. You know? And I don't think they did much to... This is not the kind of project that... And you guys know better than I that you can sort of wing it and see where it goes. Right. You know, you sort of have to have a goal in mind and work towards that goal. And there has to be a fairly good vision, shall we say. Otherwise, you get completely distracted. And more importantly, you piss people off. Yeah. You know, I mean... You know, like... And to be honest with you, I'm... Getting a little frustrated. I'm frustrated by him. Okay. Well, I don't know what kind of... What conversations you guys have had. Not significant. But, I mean, it's more things like, you know, he... The whole poverty angle. I understand that... He wants it to be... Like, he wants to be a central focus on this. And that's fine. I, you know... The last... Email that he sent, you know, I told him. I said, fine. I mean, you can be the host. Whomever we do, whether it's a reader or somebody... Somebody else can be your guide. Right? You can be the on-screen host. Yeah. You know, like Anthony Bourdain doesn't pretend to... Oh, I think he's knocking at the door right now. One second. Just... Just... Just... Just... Just... Just... Just... Just... Just... Just... Just... Just... Just... Just... Just... Just... Just... Just... Just... Just... Just... Just... Just... Just... hello hey what's happening man how you doing good yourself pretty good no complaints well happy to hear that yeah you may be the only one well nah no complaints good day today oh good well that's a nice way to have a Friday yeah how about you everything good surviving yeah a lot of crap going on up here that you know life is weather bad up there right now no I mean not out of the normal because DC is about to get slammed Toronto could be extremely cold it depends on the time what's the temperature right now hold on a second I'll tell you according to my trusty do everything phone minus 5 Celsius yeah that's not extremely cold no no that's not too bad this time last year was minus 25 right right right that's not too bad no and and this storm isn't going to hit us it's it's south of us so right you know storm Jonas I don't know when they started naming well I mean it's not at least it's not being called storm Bieber you know well Jonas isn't that far off I know you're right you know you know but no I mean you know just generally just trying to deal with life yeah how are you guys I'm sorry how are you guys we're good you know the studio is coming along I think we we had a first month in January at the new location with Jeremy and there's about five shows right now five or six shows and they all seem to be going well we've been using Skype and there's a bunch of places that Jeremy might not be seeing your early so it's great I think it's awesome your early so it's great I think it's awesome your location you mean Jeremy's living your your location you mean Jeremy's living your pretty much well your well Jeremy's pretty much well your well Jeremy's got a big big ass law so a good a good got a big big ass law so a good a good half of his entertainment space is half of his entertainment space is consumed by the studio nice place meaning the studio to be able to express yourself and be creative and why not I was just telling Jeremy I listened to your podcast the other day which one mine? which one? one of the older episodes? I don't know it's the one Jeremy sent me a link was that the one with Simon Jeremy? I think it might have been the one with Simon what were we talking about Militia? yeah yeah that was with Simon Simon used to be one of my co-hosts when I first started doing the show and then he moved up to Seattle and some of our earlier episodes are really really really good you know we just go off on acting stupid and just he raps and we just go off so it's informative and it's entertaining and it's just fun so the earlier episodes were good now you're just sliding? no it's just you know now I don't really have a co-host per se so you know the show has kind of reincarnated itself so you know right now we're just doing interviews so you know topical and then interviews with people who know what the hell they're talking about in that arena which I should have you on the podcast to talk about your extensive knowledge of cigar and Cuba and all that other stuff that'd be awesome okay but not at 11pm no we could do it earlier I think let's see what time did I do my show yesterday Jeremy 6, 6 to 7? you did 8 to 9 yesterday right right because I got stuck in traffic but normally I mean I could feasibly do 6 to 7 which would be 9 to 10 your time okay well we can work that out yeah for sure it'd be great though it'd be awesome I warn you I tend to do one of two things when I'm public speaking I either shut up or I ramble on no it's gonna be the latter you talk you like to talk which is good that's what you want in radio you're not gonna shut down you're gonna talk you're gonna talk about what you know I don't know anybody who knows a lot more than you in that subject but the reason I say that is sometimes I find myself when I'm speaking about something that I don't want to use a term I know so well but I'm so passionate about and so involved in I tend to catch myself at some point saying that I am speaking above my audience you get caught because when you're excited about something you know like the old phrase God is in the details oh well what's the difference between that and the devil's in the details well that's true but to people who aren't as passionate about the subject right the boredom is in the details but you know what they're looking for the big story no no no here's the deal when anyone is passionate about something I don't think people who are listening need to know what they're talking about they're interested in your passion you know what I mean and so the details are I mean people who are interested in you know cigar cube of the whole world they're interested you know and I think the whole thing is compelling I mean it just is well it absolutely is at least I mean listen I think it is and it's pretty obvious right I mean it's it's become a very large focus of not only my life but my identity right so yeah I mean and that's a good thing that's not a bad thing I mean you know yeah yeah yeah I mean you know the world needs people like you you know and that's how it is hey Amir is UK Cigar Scene going to do like a video interview with you at some point I don't know I mean Nick and I go way back right now we're actually talking about an ongoing series on the history of the Cuban cigar like just pick out you know a two page spread little piece of detail and just run it as a continuous series of articles because I've written a number of articles for him yeah yeah I love his publication I mean the video interviews are great yeah and Nick's doing it right I mean he's got the right people behind him and he's really developing a fairly strong advertising base which I'm very happy for him because he he spent a lot of time putting this project together and I personally think it's the best free digital mag on cigars out there and I think it's a good thing I think it's a good thing definitely I like reading what Jeremy says all the time so Jeremy's like my favorite online digital cigar magazine I mean the thing is and it was sort of a little bit of what I was alluding to earlier discussions on cigars if it's not a good thing it's not a good thing between two people that know each other very well and know each other's speech and thought patterns can often become very dogmatic yeah I was going to say religious I mean people that have in their own minds a well formed and experienced opinion on Cuba and cigars tend to not only extol their own virtues their own opinions but try to tear down any opposing opinion and sometimes it becomes very personal it sort of goes back to the discussion that we had on our last Skype call which you know two and a half hours in was rudely interrupted by if I remember correctly a mass lightsaber fight oh yeah yeah yeah that was ridiculous but it was interesting I mean it was interesting but you know I mean the problem is is the people that are well informed and when I say well informed I mean experientially not through second hand reading or any other method which they think that they've educated themselves the people that have experienced it tend to have a very how should I put it either an open minded perspective or a very closed minded perspective but the people that are closed minded it's a lot of people that are closed minded it's those kind of people that go down because they can and they've marked it off their checklist and they're on to the next thing people that tend to go down frequently and really experience the place sort of tune into the vibe you know I mean they get it and they see beyond the obvious and it becomes very much more experiential than it does intellectual um um um um um um um um um um um um um um um um um um um um um um um um for sure you know you feel it as opposed to know it no absolutely so what tends to happen is when you run across and unfortunately the biggest culprit of this is the general masses in your fair country um listen you don't have to be polite okay you don't have to be polite when it comes to our country no no Nestor I'm Canadian they take away my passport if we're not polite um it's it's you know it's what we give the world right you know you know the old joke you know how do you get 200 Canadians out of a swimming pool how say please you guys are polite though for sure I love I love Canadians polite as polite as they can be but the problem is is is is a lot of mass and when I say mass I mean American mass um um um um um um um um um um um um um um um um um um opinions on on on Cuba tend to be based on a little bit of fact that has been elaborated by a lot of propaganda right um from both perspectives mm-hmm those that defend it and those that try to cut it down mm-hmm there is there is there is no middle of the road. And I tend to have very, very little tolerance in my life. It's a weakness, but I have very little tolerance for, I don't want to say ignorance, but specifically defended ignorance. You know, it's like that saying that, you know, when you're dead, you don't know it and you don't have any problems. It's all those around you that have to suffer. And then the continuation of the phrase is, well, the same thing can be said of stupidity. I don't do, I don't frequently speak politically. And when I do, it tends to be rather passionate. Because if you've gotten me to the point where I'm going to go down that path, and because I don't tolerate ignorance, if I find that somebody is continuously reverting to a stupid argument based upon no experience of their own, but something that they've read, somewhere, I tend to get very personal. You know, it's the short Jewish Scorpio thing. We know we're not going to win a fight unless we fight dirty. You know? Listen, you have a lot of passion about things. And that is awesome. Seriously. I mean, I don't particularly, like, my opinion, your thing is about people who are ignorant and offering their opinions and whatnot based on uneducated bullshit that people read and whatever, whatever. But I tend to appreciate and like anyone who is passionate about something. You know, preferably if it's in a positive light. You know what I mean? Yeah, exactly. And when it comes to Q, you know, the thing that irritates me most is people are so blinded by the propaganda that they don't allow themselves to see anything but. You know, it's sort of like the old line about statistics. You can skew things to support any argument you want to make. Right, right. Of course. And because you have a belief, and you see something that doesn't make your belief inaccurate, but it doesn't make it exclusively right. Right. And Cuba, you know, opinions on Cuba tend to be a lot like that. You know, I mean, but the funny thing is, is people look at it with a distorted perspective that they would not reflect upon their own lives with that same perspective. So. There's no continuity. There is no substance to their perspective. It's directed at the communist political system. You know, I mean, like you just mentioned. Just offhand, and it has nothing to do with it. You know, I mean, that that, you know, Jeremy has this beautiful large loft. And, you know, I mean, Jeremy and I have spoken and, you know, I mean. You know, he's, you know, he's, you know, he's, you know, he's, you know, he's, you know, he's, you know, he's, you know, he's, you know, he's, you know, he's living a decent life. Mm-hmm. And, you know, he's getting to pursue his passions and all that. But yet, you know, if you look at a map of L.A., that beautiful loft is how many yards away from Skid Row? Two blocks. Yeah. Exactly. Yep. Yep. Now. You know, somebody with an open mind can say, well, look, there's two sides to this story, right? Yeah. Not everybody whose address happens to share a postal code or zip code with Skid Row or very close to it is, you know, a down and out guy, you know, pushing a shopping cart down the street with everything he owns. But you have to be open minded enough to be able to see that. Yeah. No, it's crazy. I mean, you actually enlightened me on that the last time I went. Well, the second time I went to Cuba when we had the Skype call because I was kind of like blown away by certain things that I didn't see the first time I was there. And like, I think I mentioned that. I mean, some people didn't have toilet bowl seats or whatever. And you said, so what? I mean, you live in one of the richest countries in the world. And right down the block, there's like a whole fucking homeless. Like amusement park. And Nestor, you know, 20 some odd years ago. Well, no, I guess 30 years ago now, I was going to university in Paris, you know, the city of lights, one of the most enlightened cities in the world. And most of the bars still had squat holes in the ground for toilets. Right, right, right, right, right. Yeah. And then you're going to tell me that, you know, Paris isn't civilized. Well, most of it. It's considered high civility. No, I get it. It's just certain things that, you know, I mean, anyone who has been to Cuba and knows a little bit about Cuba will agree that it's complicated. Most people that I speak to, Cubans and Spanish or whatever, within five minutes of having a conversation, they'll say, es complicado. Yeah, but again, what I'm trying to say is. You got to take Cuba out of that equation because go to Guatemala. You know, I don't think they have a lot of padded toilet seats down there either. Right, right, right. No, no, for sure. For sure. For sure. I hear. Yeah. Once you step off the resort. Right. You're in a whole different world. Mm hmm. And, you know, if your Cuba consisted of Veradero, your impressions would be very different. Right. And also the problem is, is people go to Cuba and whether they do a resort, you know, 98 percent of them do. But even those that venture outside, they're hearing what they want to hear and they're being told what the Cubans think they want to hear. Right. And so, you know, the taxi driver is going to tell you how poor his family is and how hard because you're going to give him a bigger tip. Right. I made a phone call to my taxi driver, one of my taxi drivers yesterday. A friend of mine was looking for cigars and he ran down to the store and bought twelve hundred dollars worth of cigars to hold for when my friend gets there in three weeks. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. somebody he's never met. No, for sure, for sure, for sure. Anything is possible there, for sure. Well, no, all I'm saying is it takes time to peel back the layers of the onion. Mm-hmm. And the people have to know where you're coming from, perspective-wise. Right. In order for them to open up, just as you wouldn't open up to a stranger either. You have certain levels which you're willing to confide in people. But if a stranger came up to you and said, you know, how many times a week or a month do you make love to your wife? You're going to go like, fuck you. Right. Maybe not even that. I'll just like keep walking. Exactly. You know, we all have different levels. And what I'm saying is Cuba is very much like that, even more so because it's a culture that most of the people grew up in secrecy. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. You know, when things were really bad, they were afraid to publicly say what they wanted to say. I mean, they would in the privacy of their own home, but not publicly because it was Soviet-style. You know, CDR, you know, spy on your neighbor. Right. Every neighborhood had an office for the committee of the defense of the revolution, you know? Well, how do you defend a revolution in a poor residential neighborhood? Well, you just make sure nobody's talking shit about it. Yeah. Really. That's all they had the power to do. Yeah. So, you know, I mean, the thing is, and, you know, be completely frank with you. I'm a little concerned about your, I don't want to call it an obsession, but the fact that you keep reverting to the poverty angle. Myself? Yes. Yeah. Well, no, I'm not. I'm not. I mean, I hope that that's not what you got from me, the poverty angle. It's not, I mean, I don't look at Cuba and go, it's poor or people are fucked or any of that stuff because like America, there's everything. There's a full spectrum there. Right. As an American, I just, you know, like you said in the beginning of the conversation, most people who have never been to Cuba, they're not going to be able to do that. They know about Cuba from things that they read and propaganda and, you know, that whole thing. And for me, I've always had a passion for Cuba. I just had never been there. I've always had a passion for it. No, no, I believe. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. So it's not really about, it's not really about the poverty. I mean, it's, I mean, yeah, that exists. I mean, you know, there's a whole myriad. I mean, there's so much. Which, by the way, is, is, is, is the, the, the, the purpose and the reason for the show that we're trying to do, you know, it's, it's. I mean, that's where I was trying to go with this, because the reality is, is if it is skewed in such a way that it is going to play off misconceptions, I don't think it'll have a lot of longevity because, because, because there's nothing there. And there's nothing there. And there's nothing there. And there's nothing there. And there's nothing there. And there's nothing there. And there's nothing there. And there's nothing there. And there's nothing there. And there's nothing there. And there's nothing there. And there's nothing there. And there's nothing there. And there's nothing there. And there's nothing there. let's say, and I see a newspaper headline and it reaffirms it, I read the first paragraph and it reaffirms it, I don't bother reading the rest. Right. But if I see a article on something that I have a strong opinion and it educates me to something I am not aware of and something I'm not seeing, then I would read the whole article. Right, right, right. Exactly. Which is why, I mean, right from the bat, when we sat in my backyard in Havana, you know, I don't think the poverty part of it or what people lack should be used as any sort of focal point. In fact, quite the opposite. I think it will be more enlightening and more interesting. It will be more interesting to say, in spite of what we perceive is lacking, there is all this richness underneath. No, for sure. I mean, I think that's what I had, something to the effect of what I wrote in the synopsis, you know, which is something to the effect of people know certain things about Cuba. Let me see. Yeah, I mean, I mean, pretty much what I wrote was as a result of, you know, our conversation in your backyard and talking about this to a few people that, you know, when they say to me, well, what are you up to? Right. And I expressed to them. And after talking about it a few times, one guy in particular. An older gentleman that is friends with this woman, Liliana, who does musical tours. I think I mentioned her to you. And hopefully I'm going to meet her sometime in the beginning of February. You know, he wanted me to write something to pretty much describe what I'm trying to do. And so by the time I got to that, you know, I needed to give something to you as we discussed, you know. Absolutely. And I have it in front of me. And yeah. Yeah. I mean, what you said is the idea is to connect what people are already familiar with in the cultural world that they don't necessarily know. Right. To enlighten the world, which is one of the words that you had, you know, you had talked about, you know, enlightening, which is, again, what you just said, you know, introduce something that you may not know. When people are learning, they will stick around. No, I agree. Especially when what they're learning. Is of interest. Mm hmm. Mm hmm. You know, look at the great. Series that have had longevity, both news, news type and entertainment. You know, I keep going back to the. Anthony Bourdain's series. Because I do believe that. It's a really good. Model for infotainment. You know, I mean, especially his new series, he talks about some. Pretty dark stuff. You know, when he was in Burma or Myanmar. You know, he was talking about the oppression when he you know, when when he's going through. The food stalls of Vietnam. He talks about the poverty. But yet he uses that. To. Just. Just. Just. Just. Just. Just. Just. Just. Just. Just. Just. Just. Just. Just. Just. Just. Just. Just. Just. Just. Just. Just. Just. Just. Just. Just. Just. Just. Just. or has been shown but hasn't really been delved deeply into is the way to connect and have them tune in next week. Right, right, right. No, for sure, for sure. Listen, you know, I'll say it again. When I met you and, you know, you were generous enough to, you know, give me your time, A, I knew that you were interested and you were passionate about it. You know, the idea was something that spoke to you. And, you know, when Jeremy and I spoke about this, you know, I think this is like last spring or something like that because I remember talking in the summertime about it. And, you know, it seemed like a good idea in terms of doing some sort of reality show and all that other stuff. Having the conversation with you, I mean, in the back of my mind, my goal was to go to Cuba this next time. And just see this is the time that you and I met. And just to see things, you know, how they are, what they were. And, you know, and when I met you and you were like, you know, you want to connect the cigar world, you know, through the lector to various facets of culture and, you know, that's, I mean, I was looking for something like that, right? And so, you know, I think we're in. I think that's a great concept. We're doing it. And now the thing is, you know, to see, as I mentioned to you in the email, to see what, like, my goal would be to do two or three episodes, right? Like, just, but I don't know what those episodes are, right? Unless, A, I go to the ballet, for instance, and I just take the whole thing in. I take the building in. I take every single facet of it in. I'm probably not going to be able to do that in one shot, but you get the idea. And the beautiful thing with the ballet is that, you know, the theater was just restored. I know, I know. So there's that whole, you know, I can connect you with Esubio Leal, the city historian who's responsible for that, and you can get into the architecture and to the restoration of Havana. I mean, there's. What's his name? Esubio? Esubio Leal. That's E-S-U-B-I-O, B-I-O, or V-I-O? B. B as in Bob, yeah. Esubio, what's his last name? Leal, L-E-A-L. Uh-huh. Yeah, that's awesome. He's considered, he was considered the second most powerful man in Cuba after Fidel. Nice. He's the one that rebuilt all of Havana. And the reason that he is considered that is because it is a predominantly self-financed project. So. Being that it is, like all the businesses in old Havana pay a special tax that goes directly to his office. His budget is not controlled by the government. Who pays the special tax? Well, all the businesses in old Havana. The businesses, got it. And beyond that, they run many businesses as well to help finance. And there's nothing like your own. Just your own. Just your own. Just your own. Just your own. Just your own. Just your own. Just your own. Just your own. Just your own. Just your own. Just your own. Just your own. Just your own. Just your own. Just your own. Just your own. Just your own. Just your own. Just your own. Just your own. Just your own. Just your own. Just your own. Just your own. Just your own. Just your own. Just your own. Just your own. Just your own. Just your own. Just your own. Just your own. Just your own. Just your own. But ironically, they're both going under renovation right now or restoration. So he was being interviewed and he spoke to one of the architects that was involved in the restoration of the Capitol building in Washington. And he said, what's your budget? And they said $100 million. And they asked him what his budget was for restoring the whole Capitolio. And he said $1 million. Wow. You know. And the Capitolio, I mean, that's not, I mean. It's a bigger restoration. Yeah, but I mean, is there a specific date when that's supposed to be finished? I believe this year. Really? Yeah. Because I was speaking to Carlos Fernandez, the torcedor that was in the casa over there in Tijuana. Right, the one whose sister doesn't run the store. Yeah, I may have. I may have. I may have, you know, misunderstood him because it was a weird, you know, thing because the manager of that place was there. I don't think you misunderstood him because while you were there, I was receiving texts from Jeremy. No, I know. I know. What's the name of? But no, no, no, no, no. I was writing down what I, you know, understood him to say and Jeremy was saying. I mean, I was speaking in Spanish to him. So, you know, he gave me the name and I, you know, I'm not sure if what he said was the, hold on a second. Yeah, I forgot. He told me that his brother was, I think, jefe de obra. But I don't know what that means. You know, I don't know. I don't know. Yeah, gallery chief. There you go. There you go. So, I mean, I don't really know the specifics of that, but I was asking him. Well, I was asking him about the Partagus factory and if it's going to get renovated. And, you know, everyone has a different opinion based on, you know, their political perspectives on things. You know, whether they're from there or, you know, well, specifically if they're from there. I don't know. What was he saying about the restoration of the Partagus? Because I'm pretty well enlightened about that. No, he just said that he doesn't believe that it's going to be renovated for the purposes of it being a functional factory again. No, it absolutely isn't. Right. Cuba Tobacco no longer owns the building. Right. That's pretty much what he was saying. He was saying that they're going to probably make offices in there. And, you know. No. No. It's been given to the Museum of Tobacco. Oh, OK. All right. Well, that's not bad. No, it's actually very cool. It's a project I'm quite involved in. Yeah. I mean, that's not bad. I mean, and the Tobacco Museum is not open right now, is it? Well, it has a location, but it's effectively two rooms in an office. Right, right, right. Because it's in Havana Vieja, right? Yeah, in Mercaderes. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah. In the building Puerto Rico. What do you mean? That's the name of the building. Oh, it's called the building, the edificio Puerto Rican. No, Puerto Rico. Puerto Rico. Got it. Not Puerto Rican, Puerto Rico. Puerto Rico. P-O-R-T-O. P-O-R-T-O-R-I-C-O. Got it. Yeah. Yeah. Got it. I don't think it goes by that name anymore, to be honest with you, but that's the name of the building. Yeah. Got it. It used to be a private house. I guess the guy that owned it or built it at one point was Puerto Rican. Got it. Yeah. Well, so let's talk a little bit about the time that Jeremy and I are going to be there. Yeah. Because I want to be able to, and I know that you probably have a lot of stuff going on, as you mentioned to us in the last Skype call. Well, the week of festival, yes. Yeah. But the week before is pretty much downtime, you know, to get other shit done, as they say. Right. Well, yeah. So that's when we're, I mean, I'm going to be there from the 24th through the 1st of March. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. No, through the 5th of March. And he's going to get there on the eve of the 25th through March. Is that confirmed, Jeremy? It's not 100% yet, but that's what I'm trying to do. Oh, sweet. That's what he's working on. I'm in. I already got my flight. I've reserved my flight out of Miami. And I got a flight from LAX to Miami, a red eye. So I'll get in around 8. And the flight leaves at 1230 from Miami on a charter. Great. So I'm in. I'm getting in on the 24th. So, you know, anything that we could do, like, to, in terms of meetings or whatever, you know, it would be awesome. My goal is to go to as many museums, because last time I wanted to, but I honestly didn't get a chance to go to every place that I wanted to go. Did you go to the Napoleonic? No, no, no. No, that was on my list, and I didn't get a chance to do it. So this time, I'm going to have a schedule, not necessarily a time schedule, but a bulletin of things that I need to do, and I'll work it out however I can. But that's on the list, the Napoleonic Museum, Museo de Artes Napoleona, something like that is what it's called, right? And I would love to meet, you know, I would love to meet a lector. You know, or two, you know, just to, I mean, I would love to see one in action. You know what I mean? I can probably arrange that. I'll have to work on that. Okay. I'd like you also to meet the director of the Tobacco Museum. Her husband actually is a television producer. Beautiful. Beautiful. With. 30 years in film and television. So. I really think that you should, we should arrange a meeting with him. I would love that. I would love that. For two things. First of all, for the technical perspective, you know, what can you hire down there as opposed to supply yourself? Mm-hmm. Because two things will happen. First of all, I think if you hire locals, you'll get more of people that are working as opposed to people that are on a working vacation. Mm-hmm. But also they know, they, they, they know the, the arena, so to speak, a lot better than somebody who's going to come in and see it for the first time, so to speak. And, and, and it'll cost you 15% of what it would cost you, if not less. No, I would love to. I mean, that's part, that's part of the goal. Seriously. But the, but the other thing is, is somebody with his kind of experience would have access to a lot of people in the arts. Mm-hmm. All the arts. Mm-hmm. So. So that sounds like a, like, like a, like a, you know, like a big, you know, it could be a two birds with one stone situation. Absolutely. Figuratively speaking, it could be more than two birds. So he also did production. He also produced. He also produced television. Is that what you said? He still does. Oh, okay. Well, that's even better. That's even better. And what is his name? First name's Frank. I don't know his last name. Frank. That's okay. That's okay. I just, I'm just taking notes. Because the problem is, is, is, is of course his name and his wife's name are not the same, right? Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Family names. Mm-hmm. Um. But I, I do believe that. I agree. Setting up that kind of network, especially when you want to focus instead of shooting all you can and then editing it, you want to focus on trying to get two or three episodes in a can, which means you can't shoot 15 different things. You better all focus shooting more on each thing. Right, right. You know, let's say on the six or nine things that you're, you know, that you want to be able to take back and edit. Right. Having somebody like that on the team would give you more direct access and quicker access. I mean, I know a lot of people, but, you know, if you if you want to see if you want to interview Alicia Alonso for ballet. Right. I have to go. Through three layers of people. Right. He probably only has to go through one of separation. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. So, I mean, here's the deal. I go there. I the ballet is one of my goals. Of course, it's that's dependent on if there is a show, you know, while I'm there. You know, I've been. Generally, generally is not ballet. Right. So, so, so, I mean, I mean, maybe I can tour the theater. I don't know if it's open for. For tours. You know what I mean? We can get you a tour of the theater. We can, you know, we can get you into the schools, the ballet schools. Mm hmm. We can probably, you know, if you're ready to film, get you interviews with choreographers, historians, whomever. Mm hmm. Mm hmm. Yeah. Hey, listen, I can bring I can bring a, you know, a decent camera. Right. Right. So that at least if the opportunity is there to get an interview, you know, we can get it. Okay. You know what I mean? I mean, it's better to be prepared than not. Right. Yeah. Sorry. I'm just browsing the ballet's website. I was I was on the site. And for some reason, I couldn't. I don't see the schedule. Yeah, exactly. When I went on in January, they just said that. They were doing a they're honoring Alicia Alonzo. And but I didn't see a schedule. Okay, here we go. February, February. Saturday, the 6th, Thursday, the 12th, 14th. That's it. After the 14th, there's nothing till March 18th. Fuck. Jesus Christ. Damn it. But listen, I mean, you're not ready to film a finished episode anyway. No, no, no, no, no, no. But it's just kind of like when you see something right, you have an idea of what can the content. You see what I'm saying? Because you can you can write out, you know, whatever you want to happen. And that doesn't mean it's going to happen. Meaning, you know. I want I want to I want to show this. I want to show this. I want to interview this. I want to interview that. You can have a a, you know, all that stuff. And that stuff may not happen. I mean, I just I just I saw the ballet. It doesn't matter. It was just it was just something. It was just something. But I'm saying, had I known, I probably would have booked my. Well, probably nothing. Don't worry about it. I'm just talking shit. Yeah. Yeah. At this point, you're not at the stage yet where. You're booking to fly down for an event because you're not ready. Right, right, right, right, right, right, right. Well, yeah, it wasn't. I don't think I needed to be ready to shoot to take it in, you know. But yeah, never mind. I mean, I'm just talking. I'm just talking. It doesn't matter what the hell. No, but I mean, I think what we should do is is is try to come up with a wish list. Exactly. And then see where the wish list takes you. You know, I would probably put the Fabrica de Artes. You know that that. Fabrica de Artes Cubanas, FAC. Yeah. Yes. That's on the list. I mean, I already went in. I already went there once. Well, here here's the thing. One of the person that that that owns it is Alfonso X, who's one of the biggest musical artists down there. Right. So through through him, you can get. Probably, you know, if he likes the way the conversation is going, probably get get more than enough material on up and coming Cuban music. Right. That's what I mean by a wish list. Sure. A static list. Do you know him? I've met him. I know people that know him. Right. OK. No, I read up on him. I mean, when I got back from Cuba and I went to the Fabrica, I was like, that place is that place is like like that's on another world. Absolutely love that place. That's that's like this is another world there. Like completely. You know, so. You know, I. I think that that's what you need is is is to have a defined wish list. Mm hmm. Mm hmm. Well, well, so so a tour of the theater. I mean, let me just run some things off because of our conversation, a tour of the theater. Right. Maybe meeting Alfonso X Fabrica de Artes Cubanas. I'm going there a couple of times anyway, just because, you know, I I just I went in there once. And I think if Jeremy gets there on the 25th, we drag him there that weekend. Well, yeah, he wants to go there. For sure. Because I showed him pictures and all that stuff. The thing about that place is that you got to stay there past three. I told you what happened to me when I was there. Right. The place closes at three around 230. Everyone started kind of getting up and all that stuff. And it was it was a really weird, tense situation where like everyone's pushing, trying to get out. And there's only two people, you know, taking those cards and charging you. And it was intentionally. So, you know, because if there's only two people. Nobody can be walking down the middle. No, no, no. I know that. But I mean, when you have 300 people trying to get out, there's no there was no there was no organized line. In other words, if you have a line and then you're next, OK, you step up. It wasn't civilized. It was it was it was kind of hairy. No, I'm serious. Listen, I yeah, I was it was it wasn't civilized. Like like either the only the only solution I could I can think of for that is to have two lines. That's it. No, no, no, no, no, no. There's no lines. There's a line to get in. And and that's it. And when you go out, there's just, you know, two two sides to pay. But if everybody like, you know, charges up to to the area to get out, there's two guys, two security guards pretty much, you know, with their arms, shoulder lengths, like pushing you back. Do you want do you want to give you the dummies book version? How to get out of there civilly? Yeah. Yeah. Get out at one. Leave at one at one a.m. No. Leave at twenty to three quarter to three. Right. Right. Right. Yeah. That's what I'm saying. You stay there till three. There's two reasons for that. First of all, you're beating the mass rush to get out. Right. Right. Right. For sure. And second of all, there's more cabs outside to take you to the next club. No, for sure. Next time I go, I'm not fucking leave. I'm not getting up at two thirty. I'm fucking stayed. I don't care. I'll wait for everybody to get the hell out and just chill out. Either that or you leave. You leave, you know, an hour earlier. I've done it both ways. Yeah, I generally find leaving half an hour earlier and going on to the next club works best because if you stick around. I got news for you after that crowd is gone. So are all the cabs on the street. Right. No, I'm sure. I'm sure. I'm sure. I'm sure. I'm sure. I'm sure. I'm sure. I'm sure. I'm sure. I'm sure. I'm sure. I'm sure. I'm sure. I'm sure. I'm sure. I've done that many cabs on the street when I went anyway. I think I went on a Friday, Friday night. So, yeah. But I have a cab driver that I found there while I was there. And, you know. But I have a driver with me all day, every day. But I generally tend to let him go to bed, go home at dinner. Right, right, right, right. Sure. You know, if I want to be out till four or five, six in the morning, I can pay for a cab. Exactly. He needs to sleep. No, no, for sure. I get it. I get it. I get it. But give yourself a wish list. You know, I would put, I would very strongly recommend putting a guy named Leonardo Padura Fuentes on your list. Leonardo Padura? Padura. P-A-D-U-R-A. 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. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. He has another name? Fuentes. Fuentes. But of course. And he is? He is the number one writer in Cuba. He is absolutely phenomenal. Nice. He not only does magazine articles and stuff, but his books have been translated into God knows how many languages. One of them is actually being made into movies, received awards in Spain and everything. And with all that money and with all that riches, he still lives in the house he was born in. Mm-hmm. He's very loyal to Cuba. But his books really are gritty. I mean, they're not, they don't put lipstick on the pig. Right. He wrote a series of detective novels. The translated titles of them are... Have I read them? Havana Black, Havana Gold, Havana Red, Havana Blue. And I think the first one was Hemingway and Friends or something like that. I think you mentioned those novels. Havana Black, Havana Blue, Havana Gold. I think you mentioned that to me. Just go onto Amazon and order the paperbacks. Seriously, if you love Havana, you will love reading these. You said one was really good. You said one was like... The first one I read... Was Havana Gold. Got it. I think that's what you told me. And it's not the first in the series, but it's the first one I read and it just... Blew you away? Blew me away. I literally went on Amazon, I don't remember if it was Amazon or a Canadian site and ordered the whole series and sat down and just read them. And I don't have time to read. Right, right, right. But it was that good? It was that good. And the thing is, is if you know Havana... Yeah. When you're reading it, you can smell it, you can hear it, you feel it. Right. Now, he writes about the Havana, a lot of it during the special period, which you don't have the experience I have with, but special was a very optimistic term for it. Right, right, right. I've read a lot about the Epoca Especial. So... Yeah. I would recommend try to get some of that in before you go down. Okay. I'll get Havana Gold. I'll just get that. He's a fascinating man. Literally, I would say he's one of my living literary heroes. And not because he's Cuban. Hmm. I read one or two fiction books a year and that's stretching it because I really just don't have time. And I'm a big reader. But I read a lot of stuff like on history. I read stuff that ties in with what I'm doing. No, for sure. I mean, I always... I go on your page on Facebook and I always get links and stuff to things that are interesting. So... I mean... But him, I read for the joy of it. Yeah. I'm reading the description right now and it sounds really good. Yeah. He's... It's like a Havana version of Philip Marlowe from... Very much. Yeah. Very much so. Although I think he's a better writer. Wow. That means a lot. I'm definitely going to get the book and then I'll just read it and... Now, remember, I'm reading the English translations, right? But... Yeah.! Just like your own. Just like your own. Just like your own. Just like your own. Just like your own. Just like your own. Just like your own. Just like your own. Just like your own. Just like your own. Just like your own. Just like your own. Just like your own. Just like your own. Just like your own. Just like your own. Just like your own. Just like your own. Just like your own. Just like your own. Just like your own. Just like your own. Just like your own. Just like your own. Just like your own. Just like your own. Just like your own. Just like your own. also cuban literature has a great history but it's not just that but but he's he's available to your american audience so if you do a segment on cuban literature and focus it let's say around him they can do just what you're doing you know pop up on amazon and but also i mean he's he's a he's an author right he's not but he's also a uh he was a journalist well what i'm saying is he's an author and he writes about living in cuba so what better what better uh uh tour guide so to speak right to see it through the eyes of somebody who's written about and who's born and lives there and also somebody who could have left anytime he wanted i just ordered all three books you did yeah your fucking your fucking I just ordered all three books. You did? Yeah. You're fucking snazzy, man. And chose to live there. How many pages? Three books. I don't know. No, how many pages is one book? Because I think I'm worse than Amir. I'd say plus or minus 200. Okay. Because if there aren't any pictures somewhere in the middle as like a break. Unless it's Cuba, though. I mean, I read almost anything that has to do with Cuba. I'll tell you something. You'll be reading 50, 60 pages at a time anyways. Right, right, right. Because you won't put it down. Okay, well, I got to get that soon and read it. Let me see. Yeah. All right. The other two people I can probably hook you up with while you're down there. One of them is the manager of La Zoda y el Cuervo. Okay. The manager. The manager of La Zoda y el Cuervo. La Zoda. Z-O-R-A. I think it's double R. Okay. La Zoda y el Cuervo. C-U-E-R-V-O. Yeah, the fox and the penguin. Now, is that a restaurant? Oh, buddy. You got so much to learn. No, no, no, no. It's probably one of the number one jazz clubs in the world. Oh, dude. Dude, you know what? My apologies. You know what? I have that place in my original list of places to see. And you didn't go. No, this is the first time I went to Cuba. This was a year ago, actually. A year ago. And you know Manuel Fuentes and Egon, right? You know those guys? Yeah. Okay. Manuel Ruiz, not Fuentes. I said Fuentes Ruiz. Excuse me. He'd kill me. I've known him for years. He'd kill me. That's my boy. He'd kill me if I said that. So anyway, so I hooked up with him. My friend from New York, we hooked up with him. And so we got a completely different, you know, experience in Cuba. You know what I mean? So we went all over the place. But we were in a car all the time. And so we went to just a few places, you know? Egon doesn't drive anymore. He doesn't? Nope. He doesn't have to? Nope. He is the office manager for... For an investment company in Cuba. Wow. Big time. Yeah. Like last time... Not last time. In June when I was there, I was at a dinner in a restaurant and Egon came in and we started chatting. And he goes, I'm here with a client. And I said, yeah, but I thought you don't drive anymore. And he turned around and the client was Dominique Khan. What's his name? You know, the guy that used to run the IMF? Wow. The guy that had an unfortunate run-in with a maid in a hotel in New York? Yeah. Yeah, him and his wife. They were sitting at the table next to me. What's the IMF? I know this guy. The International Monetary Fund. Got it, got it. I know the guy that got fucking busted with the maid. It's probably the most powerful financial institution in the world. Period. Yeah. Egon was such a nice guy. He really made our trip there amazing. Yeah, yeah. Caroline and I really like Egon. I mean, I've known Egon now for probably close to 15 years. Yeah, his whole family's nice. When we went to Robina's farm, his wife and his daughter came with and it was a real nice time. Yeah. Yeah. His... His... His... When's the last time you saw his daughter? Well, when I was there, yeah. You went... I went in March of last year, of 2015. You went in May of 2014. Yeah. Yeah. His daughter is like 13 years old and... Going on 20. 20? Going on linebacker. Wow. Yeah, she's a big girl. Yeah? She's a big girl. And I don't mean... Like, I mean, she's overweight, but she's well over... Like, she's got to be six feet tall. Wow. So, so I had never met Egon, right? Egon was supposed to be our driver when my friend Eddie and I went, right? And so Egon said to me, you know, I'm kind of occupied with some other clients. Is it all right if I, you know, a good friend of mine, Manuel, he'll drive you? So Manuel picked us up at the airport and Manuel and I, you know, hit it off right off the bat. I speak Spanish, yada, yada. So it was supposed to be for like three days. And then Egon... I was going to go, you know, with Egon. Well, it didn't work out. So Egon was still with another client or whatever. Whatever. We stayed with Manuel and we were going to Varadero one day, right? And on the way to Varadero, there's a fucking Egon's car. Manuel goes, mira, ahí está Egon. So he hits the horn and he pulls over and I get to meet Egon anyway. It was just bizarre. No, Egon is a good guy. Really good guy. But... So the manager, La Zara y el Cuervo. La Zora. Zora. What's his name? Hold on. In fact, I organized the first international television filming in that club. Ever. Let me see if I even have the fucking... I have the document. Hold on a second. I have the document that I initially wrote. Hold on. I have the document that I initially wrote. Hold on. I have the document that I initially wrote. Hold on. I have the document that I initially wrote. Yep. Jazz Club in Havana. Or just look for the London phone booth. Yeah, yeah. You know what? Is that... Hold on a second. That's near the National, isn't it? Yeah. Yeah. Okay. That's right down the block from the National. It is right down... Yeah. Yeah. It's half a block down, half a block up the next... Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So anyway, I have a printout of all these places. And of course, the only one I got to go to was Jazz Cafe, right? So I have El Gato, El Gato Tuerto. I got Quinta y Diecisei, which is... I think that's Carlito Rubina's casa, right? It's not Carlito Rubina's casa. He just works there. Oh, well, I say... That's what I call it. Forgive me. I thought... But I thought he was the manager there. He's not the manager there? Never was, never has been. Oh, okay. Got it. Well, like, every time... Anyway, never mind. Never mind. So the other place I have is Diablo. Diablo Tuntun. Yeah. Diablo Tuntun is upstairs from La Casa de Música Miramar. Okay. Yes. Okay. Got it. And then Jardines de 1830 is another one. And then Salon Rojo. Los Jardines. Is that what it's called? Los Jardines? Yeah. Los Jardines or Dos Jardines. Okay. Yeah. What I have is Jardines de 1830. Jardines de 1830. 1830. Then Salon Rojo. No, no, no. 1830 you don't want to go to. Salon Rojo you don't want to go to. Got it. Well, these are just places that I had written when I... I created a document of places to go. I had music venues, beaches, restaurants, yada, yada. So I had La Sora y el Cuervo. And I went to Casa de la Música, but I went to the one in Havana, not the one in Miramar. No, that's the bad one. I know. But I went to that one. That was... I wanted to go there for the matinee. You know? So I checked that out. Anyway, you know, when you said that, I said, wait a minute, I think I have that down. So I did. And El Gato Tuerto I wanted to go to as well. That's a good one, no? Gato Tuerto is like an old style pub. It's very local. It's a lot of fun. We tend to hang out there a lot because Irish friends of ours close every night there. So we tend to go there early and then go somewhere else afterwards. And that's also down the block from the Nassau now, because I remember I walked out of there. Yes, but in the opposite direction. Right, the opposite, towards the Malecon. Yeah, it's the one-eyed cat, but we call it the Irish Embassy. Got it. Got it. So listen. Arturo Delgado. Is that the manager? Yeah. Arturo? Arturo Delgado. Delgado. Okay. I know if I dug through my... So, okay. So, you know, there's a lot of stuff right here. If we can get to meet Frank, the director of the Tobacco Museum, that would be, you know, knocking out like a bunch of birds with one stone. Even just having a conversation with him about the project and about, you know, the production aspect of it. You know, the... The logistics and the mechanics. You know, if I could do a tour of the teatro, the ballet. That's called the Teatro Nacional de Cuba, right? Yeah. Yeah. One of my favorite buildings there, let me tell you. Oh, it's gorgeous now. It's one of my favorite. I photographed that thing and it's just unbelievable. At night, it's absolutely incredible. I know. I know. I know. At any time. The lighting there is amazing. So, if we can meet Leonardo Padura Fuentes, that would be awesome. The Fabrica de Artes, I'm going to, you know, that's on the agenda there. If we can meet Alfonso X, that'd be great. You know? You know? You might also want to do a segment on the culinary explosion. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Definitely. Definitely. The food, definitely. And I can introduce... I can introduce you to a lot of restaurant owners, chefs, anything like that. Got it. I know a lot of them. Yeah. I was trying to... We're trying to get this guy, Beanie, who actually does these pop-ups down in LA. So, he does these, like, events, these food events. Right. And he does... You know what? He's on my... He's a friend of mine. I'm going to suggest him to you so you can see. He does this, you know, like this weird... Forgive me. I don't know how else to call it. But just weird fusion brunches and lunches. And dinners and stuff like that. And they call pop-ups. They just... They're not a specific restaurant. They're events. They sell out. And they're at somebody's house. Or, you know, they rent a venue under a tent. Yeah. We have guests that do that here. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, that's what he does. And he's the guy I was telling you about that wanted to open up a restaurant. So, I told him, you know, you should come this time. Anyway, I gave him the dates. I gave him the flight information. So, you know, it's on him. You know, I got my ticket. I got my... You know, it's... So, you know, I have... You know, we'll work it out before you and I get there. Before I get there. You know, the wish list. This is the short wish list. If something else comes up that you think of, you know, by all means. I mean, there's always the visual arts as well, which I can get you connected with quite a few people as well. Yeah. Both from the museum management side and from the artist side. Yeah. There's a... There's a really hip Cuban artist. I got to get you the guy's name. Yeah. I have it in a magazine clipping that I took out. The interesting thing about artists there is that it seems like when it comes to political expressions, they're the ones that can probably get away with it the most. That's what I gather. I would say probably true. Them and musicians. Right. Well, yeah. But, I mean, in terms of expression... For instance, at the Fabrica de Artes Cubanas, there were a lot of, you know, kind of politically provocative, you know, paintings and stuff there. And I thought, wow, that's pretty interesting. That's always been part of the interest of visual arts in Cuba. It's always been... It's very metaphor rich. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah, for sure. I mean, we were there at the same time. Yeah. Yeah. Whatever was on the walls that time, you got to see. So we saw the same artists. Well, one of my favorite was the jockey triptych right at the front, by the front bar. The what? Photography. Of the girls wearing spurs. Okay. Okay. I'm not sure that I took that specific thing in. I mean, there was so much in there. And remember, I went once. There was so much. I mean, I remember seeing a painting. And it was the logo of Coca-Cola. And it was some political subtext in that. I can't remember what it was. There was a couple of artists that were from Cuba. And I think they were in America. And there was like the parting of the sea. And it was from Havana to Miami. I'll tell you something. The greatest collections of Cuban art are in the United States. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Because, you know, they have the biannual. Right. And it's very heavily attended by Americans. Because guess what? Art was never embargoed. Right. Right. Interesting. So the rich Cuban Americans. They can buy whatever they want. They were down there buying. Seriously. I'd say a good 50% of all the Cuban art in the world, good Cuban art, is within 100 miles of Miami. 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. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. And that's your arena anyway. Fine art, yeah. Yeah. That's your arena. I'll get you the name of a couple of artists. One in particular, he's a sculptor. I read about him in a magazine. It was a tourist magazine. But, you know, of course, they highlighted him. It'd be interesting just to meet a couple of these guys. Well, there's also a guy that has done something very, very interesting. He lives in the outskirts. And he has plastered his whole neighborhood in ceramic mosaics. Hmm. I'm not sure that I... Is this somewhere also that they plastered, like, the whole neighborhood in, like... No, I'm sorry. I'm thinking this is somewhere in America where they plastered it with, like, poetry or some shit. Is that... That's not in Cuba, right? No, there is the alley where they've painted up the whole alley and all the buildings with Santera. No, that's not what I'm talking about. With Santeria. Yeah. Yeah. With Santeria deities and stuff? Yeah. Yeah. Which is very interesting as well. I wouldn't... And where is that? That's, uh... Calahone Hamel. H-A-M-E-L. How the hell do you remember all this shit? And the ceramicist is named Jose Fuster. Jose Fuster. F-U-S-T-E-R. Yeah. Yeah. Jose Rodriguez Fuster. Jose Rodriguez. We must be related then. Sure. Somehow. Alda Smith, sir. Uh, so he, he, he has plastered his whole neighborhood in ceramic. Seriously, just Google it. Okay, got it. You know, I was... Are you familiar with Cyber Cuba, the blog? Yeah. Yeah, I subscribe to it. Yeah. Yeah. So, so, every once in a while... Well, there was one thing in there about some petroglyphs, this big, huge petroglyph that was... That's somewhere... I'm assuming... That, that's in, um... Just outside of... Out of Vinales and Pinar del Rio. Right. Yeah, that's what I figured. Uh-huh. That's what I figured. It's nothing much, really. No, no, no, no. I just thought it was interesting. I just thought it was interesting. There's so many things there that are interesting. I mean, there's so much. You know? So, listen. Listen. I'm gonna, I'm gonna, I'm gonna type up a list of all this stuff. And then, you know, if I can, you know, see a lector, you know, and I'm not sure, I'm assuming that's early in the morning? Or is that, like, all day? Is that midday? Or what? It's generally mornings. Yeah. Okay. When they work. Yeah. So, so, I would love to, you know, see that thing in action. Just see it. You know what I mean? Experience it. And then, you know, if I could talk to one, that's fine. If I can't, I'm sure we could work it out somehow. Um, I definitely want to go to a tobacco factory. And I'm pretty sure... I mean, I don't really care. I don't care which one or how, whatever. But that's something that I can probably work out on my own, right? Oh, I, I, don't worry about that. I can, I can hook you up on that. Okay. So, let me just, let me just put this down. I'll get, I'll get you the non-tourist tour. Cool. Perfect. Let me just write that down. Um, which, which factory do you know? Um, I can do La Corona. I can do El Ahito, which is the Cohiba factory. And I can do, uh... Partagas. Which one do you think would be great? I mean, I'll do all three. I don't get, I mean, you know. Well, I mean, you know, the one that everybody covets is El Ahito. Is El Ahito, right. Right. But that doesn't necessarily mean it's like the best one to, to see, you know. Is it? Well, probably if you want to see what true mass production is like, probably La Corona's. Right. That's what I thought. Or Partagas. Right. Because they're, they're more into, uh... Full blown. Right. You know. Right. They're significantly larger. Do, do, do you know who the lector at El Ahito is? I don't even know. If they have one? Yeah, I don't. Because, because it's, it's, it's housed in an old mansion. So they don't have the big galleries like the factories. Got it. Got it. Partagas does, though. Partagas does and La Corona does. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. So that would be really, I mean, I, I wouldn't mind seeing an El Ahito just because, because it's El Ahito. And I know if Jeremy definitely makes it there, we're going to have to go. Cause that's, that's his thing. Yeah. I, I, I can arrange all that. So, so, but La Corona or Partagas. Yeah. Yeah. And that, and that's relatively central to, uh, Havana Vieja. Right. Um, it's close. Yeah. Okay. Partagas is, is, is, do you know where the Masonic temple is? Fuck. Do I know where the Masonic temple is? No, no, not off the top of my head. Do you know where Romeo and Juliet is? No. No, because I, I mean, I don't know. I mean, I know, I know I've looked at it on, I've looked at it on the map and you know what? If, if I walked down that street, I'd be like, oh shit, I walked down the street. I just didn't know that was it. Right. Maybe. I don't know. The Masonic temple is, is, is pretty hard to miss. No. So then I don't know. Okay. So then I don't know. Um. The Masonic temple. That'd be awesome to even see that. Yeah. Um. Is that something that's open to the public? Not really. Okay. I have to join. Um. I can probably get a membership between now. I don't know how the Masons work. Like I, I, I know people in Cuba who are Masons. Yeah. No, I know a Mason. I know a couple of Masons here. I can just, I'll ask him how that works. Yeah. I, I, but I don't know exactly what their public exposure is. Right, right, right. I think you, I think you have to be a Mason. The building is hard to miss. It's got the big Masonic symbol on it. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah. I think you, you, you have to be a Mason. And then, you know, probably, but I'll ask this guy. He's, he's, he's, he's, he's a banker. Good friend, good friend. And a cigar smoker. So I just ask him. And borrow his ring. Yeah. Right. That's what I'm talking about. No, but maybe he knows somebody that knows somebody there and they can make an introduction. You know? Maybe. Yeah. Maybe. Um. I, I, I've never even asked anybody I know if, if they're, like I can ask my Mason friends down there, you know. Yeah. But, um, I've never asked about the building to be honest with you. Right. No worries. I'm going to make this, this list. I'll send it to email. I'll email it to you, Jeremy, and we'll have a copy and then, you know, we can add to it or, you know, that way it'll have a blueprint of what we can and can't do. You know, ideally if we can meet Frank, that, that would be a score. How long are you staying down for? Uh, I'm going to be there from the 24th through March 5th. So I get in Wednesday in the afternoon. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. 1.30. And then I leave March 5th around 3.35 is my flight out. Okay. Yeah. I'm, I'm the 22nd to the 7th. Right. Right. So, you know, if something happens on the 24th, it's open. I'm available. You know. The 24th. You land, you, you land mid afternoon, right? Yep. I have a flight out of Miami at 12.30. So I get in around 1.30. Where are you staying? I'm staying in Vedado. Like literally one block, uh, right around the corner from the Jazz Cafe from the Galleria. Okay. Which is two blocks away from the Melia Cohiba. I think it's... Yeah, I know where it is. Primero y Tercera or something like that. Parallel to the Malecon. Anyway, it's right there. It wouldn't be Primero y Tercera. That would be Miramar. Right. I can tell you exactly what the street is, though. Okay. Yeah, but it's centrally located, so that way, you know... Okay. Hey, Amir. I wanted to ask you a question while I have you on. Can you get books kind of the other way around out of Cuba that I might be interested in? I wanted anything from Cuba on the revolution or history books or anything like that. I recommend the best one I've ever read and you can get it off Amazon. It's absolutely friggin' amazing. Never mind the fact that the woman that wrote it is a friend of mine, but it really is amazing. It's called A Day in December. A Day in December. And it's the biography of Celia Sanchez. Ah, okay. It was written by a woman called Nancy Stout, who's a New Yorker. But she was given... She did the... You have the book called Habanos that has a picture of a little guy on the front cover. It's a photo... Oh, yeah. I know what you're talking about. Same person. Okay. And she was actually... Fidel gave her access to the National Archives and to Celia's family to write this book. Got it. And she was the one that amongst many, many other things promoted the ballet and had it funded. She was the one that started El Aguito Factory. And she was Fidel's girlfriend for the whole time in the jungle. I mean, they adopted 11 children together. But it is seriously the best book I've read on the Cuban Revolution. Cool. Tell me the name again. Do you have the name? A Day in December. A Day in December. One Day in December, yeah. Is it A Day or One Day? It says One Day on Amazon. Okay, there you go. In December. So it's Calle A y Primera. That's pretty much it. What is? Where you're staying? Yeah, yeah, where I'm staying. Okay. Smooth segue into that. Well, I was looking. I spend time on Google like looking at the map. You know, just looking at the what do you call it? Las cuadras. The streets and in relationships to where I've been and this whole thing. So it's just interesting. And there's a bunch of restaurants, man. Buddy, I've got a restaurant list like you wouldn't believe. Including one where the chef worked in the kitchen of Eli Bully. Now, I don't know if you're a foodie, but you mentioned to your pop-up guy, Bully, and he'll shit his pants. Bully? B-U-L-L-I. Hold on, I'm going to send him. In Spain. It's closed, man. Yeah, if he even knows, I mean, I'm pretty sure he's... Oh, buddy, if he's in restaurants, he knows this place. Because for three years running, it was rated the best restaurant in the world. B-U-L-L-I in Spain? That's the name of the restaurant? Yep. Three Michelin stars. The chef is a god. His name is Farah Nigeria. That's the chef that works at this restaurant you're talking about? No, that's the guy that owned El Bully. Oh, got it. And what's the name of the restaurant that's in Havana right now? Otra Manera. Okay, another way. Otra Manera. Otra Manera. It's fantastic. Have you been to El Laurel? Yeah. I love that place. I'm going to expose you to food that you... You'd forget you're in Havana, man. Yeah. With the exception of when you get the check and it's like, you know, 10% of what you'd expect to pay. Okay. Because if it was in New York or L.A., it'd be like $100. Well, let's put it this way. El Bully is in a little town in Spain. It's not even in a big city. They would get... And literally, they would get... This is according to some website. They can seat 8,000 people a year. They can seat what? 8,000 people a year. Got it. I think the place only had like 10 tables or something. Right. They would get a million reservation requests for those 8,000 seats. And so the food, it supposedly is that great. It was three years in a row rated the best restaurant in the world. So what is your take? Okay, so here's my thing, right? Okay. I think food, like cigars, I don't drink, so I can't say like wine, but food is, in my opinion, as good as the company you're with, right? So... No, I disagree. You disagree? Yeah. Okay, all right. It's better with good company. Okay, okay. It's not as good. Got it. No, no, yo, you know, after I said that, I said, you know what? I've been to some really fucking killer sushi restaurants, and it doesn't really matter who I'm with. I could be by myself. So, yeah. But what I'm saying, I guess what I'm trying to get at is that how fucking mind-blowing can a meal be? You know what I mean? Insanely. Really? Yeah. Yeah, I agree with that. Yeah? Oh, yeah. No, no, no. I've had some mind-blowing meals. I mean, I've had my fucking mind blown. I mean, I've been to some Michelin-rated restaurants, and it's a whole different experience. Okay. We've booked trips around restaurant reservations. Okay. Okay. Yeah. No, there's one or two in New York. There's more than one or two in New York. But I mean, one or two in New York, down in Soho, there's one. I've been to one or two of them. Like, a friend of mine was like, he's like, I got to get this restaurant off my list. Yeah. Because he follows the chefs and all that stuff. And, you know, I get it. I get it. You know, I, I feel, I feel the same way about cigars, right? So, I love cigars. I've been smoking cigars since, let's say, 1992 or something like that. Yeah. I'm not an expert by any means, and I'm not educated on, on cigars. Meaning, you know, fucking Jeremy knows what, you know, I didn't even know what a fucking, what you would call a different shape and size, Vitola. You know, there's certain things that people know that, you know, fine. But, I draw a limit, right? Like when some, like I, some of these cigar auction sites, right? For instance, somebody will spend $50, $60 for a cigar. I mean, how fucking good could a $60 cigar be versus, you know? Let's put it this way. I've got cigars that are worth over $500 a stick and they're worth every penny. So, I'm talking to the wrong person. Okay. Okay. All right. All right. All right. If, I mean, I mean, it's worth $500 a stick because they're what? Pre-embargo and you can never get those again? Nope. Nope. They're from 2007. Which ones are those? Cohiba Grand Reserves. Oh, yeah. And those are worth $500 a stick? Yep. Oh, okay. Sorry. For, it's about... They're worth $500 a stick. Why? $6,000, $6,500 plus, $6,500 plus or minus for a box of 15. So, $400 and change. Okay. So, why are they worth one? Why is that worth $400 and something a stick? Why? Because sometimes you put something in your mouth and it's just completely unlike anything else you've ever had. But $450 something dollars worth of something? You can get a Hyundai for $12,000. You can't get a paint job for a Bentley for that money. I get it. I get it. I get it. I get it. You know? I mean, it's... I get it. I don't understand it, but I get it. You know? Well, yeah. I mean, listen. It's... It's a sensory thing, right? Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. You know? It's like an old joke a friend of mine told me. He said, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, he used to go to Hong Kong in the 70s and 80s a lot on business. And, you know, I mean, you know, Hong Kong's probably one of the most expensive places on Earth. And he would say to me, you know, a parking spot in a condo, and I'm going back 40 years, right? A parking spot in a condo was $250,000. A parking spot in a condo? Yeah. Does it come with like a monthly blowjob from like a Brazilian porn star? Nope. It's just a place to park your car. And where is this? This was in Hong Kong. In Hong Kong. Okay. Jesus Christ. So, he said, he said, but the funny thing is, he goes, I kept looking out the hotel window and you'd see a lot of Rolls Royces, but you'd see a lot of Rolls Royces, but you wouldn't see any Ferraris. And, you know, if you can afford the parking spot, you can afford the, you know, the Rolls to put in it, right? So, he goes, I finally asked one of the people I was doing business with, why do you see so many Rolls Royces, but you don't see any of the Lamborghinis, Ferraris, or anything like that? And the guy turned to him and he said, you see our traffic? He goes, you're moving at five kilometers an hour. You may as well be comfortable. You may as well take your condo with you on the road. You may as well be comfortable. Yeah. You know, I mean, listen, personally, even if I won a $50 million lottery tonight, I wouldn't be buying one of those things. Got it. But, but you might buy a $500 cigar. Oh, I already own those. So, hold on a second. Do me a favor. Could you please tell me Mikey's real name, his full name? Yeah. Jorge Luis Mikey Fernandez. And Mikey is what? M-A-I? M-A-I-Q-U-E. Fernandez. And he was the ex-co- president of Habanos. Mm-hmm. He was very nice. Yeah, he's, he's, like my brother, I was speaking to him yesterday night. Yeah, last night. You're the, you're his son's godfather, right? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. No, you guys are great. I mean, the questions and all that stuff that you were, that you, uh, uh, provoking thought on was, was, uh, was very good. So listen, listen, let me, let me get this, uh, this, this, you know, uh, wish list on paper. I'll send you an email. Um, Okay. I got something else to throw at you. Go ahead. Um, do some thinking about what you expect my role to be in all this. I think that, you know, I'd like you, Don't answer. Think about it. No, I, I, I've already been thinking about this. What do you think? You just, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, and, and, and, and, and, and, and the reason, like, just, you know, right up on the table. The reason is, is, um, if I'm going to put effort and my contacts into this, right? Mm-hmm. I, I, I, I gotta know how it's gonna play out. Of course, of course. Um, especially, um, I don't know if I've mentioned it to you, I know I've mentioned it to Nestor, uh, to, uh, Jeremy. I've, um, I've been approached by a couple of production companies I've never heard of. Mm-hmm. No, you mentioned it to me, you sent, you, you replied to me in the email that I sent you. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Um. And I showed Jeremy. Okay. And, you know, I mean, you know, you, you know, I'm, I'm, I'm passionate about this. Mm-hmm. And I'd much rather do it with people I know and who are passionate, uh, rather than some unknown. Sure, sure, sure. No, I, I mean, what you said was clear and, you know, here, I can throw a title at you and I don't know what the fuck the title's gonna mean. You understand? So, like, I guess. No, no, no. Listen, I don't give a, flying fuck about titles. No, no, I know that. I know that. But I can say, all right, you know, Amir, I want, I would love for you to be the associate producer, right? Um, like, what the fuck does that mean? Exactly. You know, I want you to be comfortable, right? Especially now that we're at ground zero here, right? Yeah. So, so right now I want you to be comfortable with what kind of role you want in, in this. Well, well, it's twofold. And, and, you know, I mean, just speaking openly, um, the first part of it is, is what are your expectations? So I know, you know, I mean, if I'm, if, cause let's face it, um, reality is I introduced you to 20 people and if you so choose, you can sidestep me once you know those 20 people. So, but, yeah, no, I'll, I'll, first of all, let me just say, let me just say something right now, right? I, I've met you once. I have nothing but the utmost respect for you just based on what you came to the table with. Okay. Now, it's not a personal. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, I know, I know, I know it's not a personal thing, right? But you don't know this way. We, we, we wouldn't have had the last seven hours of conversations we've had if we didn't have something in writing, if I didn't trust you. Right. Okay. With that said, I just want you to know that, you know, there's no need for me to sidestep you however the hell it is because I'd like for you to be involved in it. You know what I mean? no, I get it. I, I, I, and, and I, and that's why we are, you know, that's why I'm giving you names. Right, yeah, right. Now, I want you, I want you to be involved in it because I think that you're as good of a resource as any of the names you're going to give me. You understand? So, and, and, and you're, you're as good if not better. Uh, like than anyone that I can sidestep you for, right? That's only one element. Like I can, listen, that's, that's not, no, no, no. I just, I just, I know that there's, there's a trust. I just want you to know what I think about you and how I feel about you in this project. I appreciate that. But, but the reason I want us to have that discussion and being frank, you know, like right out is because these people are giving me, giving me specific, uh, how should I put it? Expectations list. These people who, who've approached you. Yeah. And they're throwing numbers. Right. I get it. Now, at this point in time, I understand and, and, and, and know fully you're not in a position to throw numbers. Right. Because you don't have your financing. And, and you're in in line where these people do. But in the same respect, I think it's pretty important for both of us to have some sort of understanding. That, you know, if the project goes through and if it gets sold or, you know, aired or whatever, I, I don't know what the terminology is and I know, but don't pretend to. what each of our expectations and then like, each of our expectations can be. Right. Yeah. No, for sure. We'll discuss all that. I mean, you're definitely going to get compensated something. You know what I mean? No, no, no. Listen, I just wanted to throw that out there. No, no, no, no, no. I mean, you're involved in this from the beginning, right? So, you know, the thing about these things is you can make, you know, a project fully finished, soup to nuts, and then you're sitting on a fucking project, and it's just sitting there, right? No, I get it. Yeah, which is fine, but this is why, as far as numbers is concerned, it's like this. Look, I have an idea that, you know, when I come back, I'll have a more concrete idea of what episodes can be shot. With that, you and I have a dialogue. How much can we do this particular episode or these three episodes with? We'll shoot them all in one week or whatever. How much money do you think I'm going to need to do that, right? And then, you know, I come up with the money, whether it's going to be my own money or if I'm going to get a couple of people involved in it, right? I come up with the money, then we shoot it, and, you know, whatever, you know, I don't know the avenue where this is going to be sold at, but you can rest assured that you're going to be involved in it in terms of. Yeah, no, no, no. I just, I have to throw. Throw it out there, you know? Of course. Of course. You'd be, you'd be, you know, I don't want to say you'd be an idiot if you didn't, but you would. If you didn't even bring it up. I mean, I would hope that, you know, we have, you know, it's business, you know? Well, at the end of the day. Yeah. No, I mean, this is a business, you know, a venture. This is something that, you know, you believe in. I believe, you know, you're passionate about it. You know, I want to make it. I want to make it work. I want to make it happen. You know what I mean? But, but also, you know, in all fairness, I've done a lot of expensive passion projects, you know, that haven't amounted to much. I get it. And then I've got these strangers who I don't know, and it's certainly not a passion project. It's strictly a business project. Right. Who are essentially, they don't want me to be, how should we put it? An equity partner. They want me to be a hired gun. Right. They want to pay you for what they need. And then, you know, they do their thing and they're out. They do their thing and they're out. And whether they sell it or not, doesn't reflect upon my remuneration at all. Right. Right. Like I'm being hired to do a job. It's X amount. Per week plus expenses. And whether they can use it or not, whether a project dies at the editing suite, doesn't matter. Right. Right. Because you got paid. Got it. Well, this is, listen, after this trip, when I come back, you know, we'll, we'll hit the drawing board and then, you know, we'll have some, you know. That's what I said. You don't have to answer the question. I just want you to think about it. Yeah. Yeah. No, for sure. For sure. For sure. Yeah. And again, you know, it's got nothing to do with, with respect or whatever. No, of course. Of course. You, you should know, you should know what your role in this is going to be, you know, before you like dive into it a hundred percent without knowing A, what your role is and B, what the outcome is going to be. Well, yeah. Yeah. I need to know why I'm doing it. Of course. No, of course. Of course. Of course. For sure. Okay. Yeah. I'm going to be frank with you. You know, I'm going to be straight up. This is it. This is what's going on. You know? Yeah. No, no. I get it. You know, I just, I think it's a discussion better had earlier than later. Of course. Of course. No, for sure. For both our sakes. Yeah. Yeah. For sure. Yeah. Yeah. For all parties involved. Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. And I don't come at you with ridiculous expectations or I don't get disappointed. Right. Right. Right. Of course. Of course. Of course. Absolutely. Okay. Cool. All right. Absolutely. I'll send, I'll, I'll get this wishlist type emailed and then we'll take it from there. And hopefully by the time we get closer to those dates, we have a little, we have something a little bit more concretized and then, you know, we can make some of that. Concretize? If that's a word. I doubt it. That's all right. If it's not a word, then it is now. Okay. Concretized. Look it up. Let me see. It would have to be a verb for that to be a word. Hold on. Hold on. Yeah. It's a word. Concretize? Yeah. Concretize. Concretize. To make concrete, real or particular. Give tangible or definite form to. Okay. I learned something new. Concretize. I don't think it's a word I'll ever use, but. Don't fuck with me, Amir. Okay. I mean, let me tell you something. I am not a wordsmith. So I, you know, you, you're educated from a different perspective. I'm educated from like, you know. I write for a living. No, no, no, no. I get it. I get it. Yeah. The concretization. The concretization. Is a noun of it. I couldn't tell you this unless I looked it up. No, I imagined. You know, I just, I just, I just know here. Yeah. To, to make real or specific. Give tangible form to. Yeah. Okay. There we go. Fair enough. I'm glad I didn't make that up. But, but I, I want to do, I do want to make a disclaimer before we leave. I will be making words up. Okay. So it'll happen. Do it in Spanish. I'll never notice. It does. It'll happen. Trust me. You'll walk out saying things and you'll be arguing with people saying, no, that's a word. Buddy, I've heard your podcast. You've heard one of them. I mean, it's, there's some, there's some, there's some good shit. There's some funny stuff in there. It's, it's whacked out. You know, it's part of my, that's really like my personality, you know. Uncensored. Just fuck it. Having fun. Whatever. Yeah. Yeah. But, uh. You know, there, there, you, you gotta understand one thing about Cuba that maybe you haven't learned yet. Yes. Tell me. Sarcasm doesn't work. Sarcasm. Is not part of their sense of humor. Yeah. Yeah. It's a very easy way to offend people by making a sarcastic joke. Yeah. I, I try, I mean, I mean, I don't think I've ever come across, um, an opportunity to be sarcastic with anybody there. Ah, but you haven't done business yet. No. Yeah. Well, we'll see. We'll see. More, more, more will be, more will be revealed, I guess. Hey, Amir, do you know, do you know Marcel Schwarz? Schwartz. Schwartz. Yeah. Do you know him? I know the name. You're friends with him on Facebook. I'm just wondering if you know anything about him. I bought some cigars from him and. Buddy, I'm friends with 4,000 people I don't know on Facebook. What, he hasn't given you your cigars yet? He hasn't shipped them yet. I'm just, just didn't know if you know him. I'm just wondering if you know anything about him. I bought some cigars from him and. Buddy, I'm friends with 4,000 people I don't know on Facebook. your your your your your your your your your your your your your your your your your your your your your your your your your your your your your your your your your your your your your your your your your your your your your your your your your your your your your your your your your your your your your your your your your your your your your your your your your your your your your your your your your your your your your your your your your your your your your your your your your your your your your your your your your your your your your your your your your your your your your your your your your your your your your your your your your your your your your your your your your your your your your your your your your your your your your your your your your your your your your your your your your your your your your your your your your your your your your your your your your your When did you buy them from him? Yeah, about a week ago. And he still hasn't shipped them? Where's he from? Switzerland. Switzerland. Okay. No, I've never had a conversation with him. All right. Let me see who his mutual friends are. He's friends with Didi and... Andreas, AJ, Alisher. Yeah, he's friends with a lot of people I know. BG, a lot of the sellers. Cool. I'm imagining based on this, he's legit. Yeah, I'm sure it's fine. I'm used to people getting things out quick. Is that like a distributor or an individual? Well, I mean, the difference is, you know, and I speak from personal experience, if you were a retailer, then that's part of your operation. If you're an individual, you know, it could take a few days just because it's, you know, life goes on and you don't go to the post office or wherever. Right. I know that, you know, sometimes I ship things out and it could take me a week to get it to the post office. Yeah. But even retailers can take a while. But the thing with retailers is it's part of their business. So they've got time in their day allotted for business. When you're doing it, as an individual, you know, You do it when you get time. You're busy at the office, you've got dinner reservations, whatever the case may be. And, you know, okay, I'll get to it tomorrow type thing, you know? I'm sure it's fine. I just thought I'd check. Yeah, I'm looking through his mutual friends list and a lot of the people I see on there are stand-up retailers. So I would imagine that he's cool. Yeah, if everything works out, I'd love to meet AJ in Havana and just shake his hand. Yeah, he'll be there. That's cool. Yeah, he'll be there. What did you buy from our sale? I got those 2015 limited Ramon Iones. Oh, the German regional? No, it wasn't the German regional. It's the 2000. It's called the Club Iones. Oh, the Club Iones. Yeah, the ones we were asking me about. Yeah. Why did you have to go all the way to Switzerland to get them? Well, he just had them online and it was around the same price. So I just figured, you know. What's that? May I ask what he was charging? He charged me 130 bucks Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's not bad at all. Yeah, I thought it was a good price and, you know, I've been lucky so far. No one's screwed me over, but I just didn't know. Most people ship them out the next day, too. I'm just an impatient American. That's what it is. Well. Then smoke some patience pot. I will. Some patience pot. Is that what you said? Like some. Some herbs? I'll get right on that. No, you don't understand. Jeremy, if he doesn't get his cigars right away, he starts to itch. Oh, I know. Yeah. I know. Me, on the other hand, I've ordered boxes of cigars and I'm like, fuck it. I know they're going to come. Whenever they come, they come, you know? No, I remember when he ordered those Ramona Lones from London from AJ. I know. I freaked out. Well, I thought for sure those were gone. But then all of a sudden they popped up. I've had things take almost almost two months. Yeah. And then every now and then something shows up in four days and it's like, wow. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Right. Anyway. I'm sorry. Go ahead. I can't say I've spoken to the guy. Um. But. You know, judging from the people he's got online with him, he's legit. Yeah. Cool. I think I saw that he was friends with you before I ordered from him. So. Yeah, but. You're friends with everybody. Because, you know, when I was promoting the book. Everybody, you know, and their cousin who smokes a cigar wanted to be friends with me. And because everyone was a potential book client. I mean, literally. What is my. Three thousand eight hundred and ninety four friends. Yeah. And I don't have time to know three thousand eight hundred and ninety four people. And if you were moving tomorrow, maybe two of them would show up. Yeah, there may be three or four actually in my city. Yeah. You know. Yeah. I mean, between that page. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, we had a friend of mine from New York was a social media, maybe call a specialist. So she understands the mechanics of all that stuff. I'm more of a pessimist. I'm like, people spend way too much time jerking off time on all this other stuff under the guise of, you know, you're getting something productive or whatever, whatever. Oh, yeah. No, I agree. You know, but but but but, you know, when the reality is, is social media marketing is not something you can do for yourself, even if you have the skills. Right. Because you end up building personal relationships with people and you start chatting and you start reading what other people post and everything like that. Social media marketing. You get a social media marketing. You get a marketer to post your name. And, you know, bingo. No, no, that's it. I mean, that's the dilemma. That's the dilemma. Pretty much. Well, it's not really a dilemma. I mean, you know, I don't do my own dentistry either. No, no, no. I'm saying it's a dilemma because because on the surface, it seems like, oh, it's that simple. You just get on and do it yourself. But it's not really productive. And you may or may not know what the hell you're doing. Well, and the problem is. And. social media, everybody can call themselves an expert. You know, I've had a few run-ins lately where, you know, I mean, just because somebody types a lot, it doesn't mean what they're typing is of any consequence. And, you know, I've had run-ins with people who have told me, well, you know what it's like in Cuba. You know, you can walk into a factory. One guy said to me, don't tell me you can't walk into a factory and walk out with a bundle of 50 Lusitanias. And this is somebody who's never been to Cuba, who has never been to a store that legitimately sells Cuban cigars, but he's considered an expert on the web. Right. No, for sure. For sure. Trust me. You don't even have to make a point of this. You're, I mean, just, just go down anybody's page. You'll see fucking political experts. You got experts on everything. Sure. Absolutely. I mean, I just happened to notice the cigar experts because that's the stuff that, yeah, that's your thing. But, uh, you know, it, it, at the end of the day, anybody that, that takes social media as a, uh, encyclopedia of truth, um, is, you know, probably about as smart as those cat videos that show up on social media. Hilarious. You know, it's, it's, it's certainly not, first of all, it's unedited. Second of all, it's, there's no research involved. You know, I can literally type a post. I can literally type a post today that, that says, you know, um, I saw Donald Trump walk into a gay bar. You know, you should start to, I don't do politics. That's the beginning of a joke. I don't do politics online, but the point is, is before anybody realizes that I haven't been in New York for just over a year or wouldn't even know where to find a gay bar, much less if somebody's walking in and out of one, unless there were pictures of them. There's pictures of nude men on the front window. Um, you know, there's no substance to it. I can type whatever the fuck I want to type. You know, I, I got drunk on root beer. Um, you know, so I don't, you know, I mean, Facebook for me is, is, is more of a communications tool than it is an information tool. Yeah. Yeah. I don't know. I hate social media overall, but, uh, it's part of our society now for some reason. Well, because if you don't tell the whole world what you're doing, it doesn't, it never happened. Right. Exactly. You know, somebody on Facebook a little while ago posted a picture, um, of a cartoon and there was a couple in the restaurant. And I was like, Oh, that's a good picture. I'm going to post it. And I was like, Oh, that's a good picture. I'm going to post it. And I was like, Oh, that's a good picture. And I was like, Oh, that's a good picture. I'm going to post it. And I was like, Oh, that's a good picture. And the waiter comes over and says, uh, excuse me, madam, was there anything wrong with your food? You didn't take any pictures of it. Oh yeah. That's funny. Yeah. You know, um, you know, we listen, social media is, is, is, is a tremendous tool and, and, and it can be used for marketing, but, uh, I wouldn't use it for information gathering whatsoever. Yeah, no, for sure. That was one of the things we were talking about. It mostly exists so people can talk shit about each other. That's about it. Well, that's 90% of it. I would say that's 50. And I would say the other 50 is, uh, look at the great life I'm, I'm leading. Don't you envy me? Yeah. Showing off. You know, um, you know, you, you wouldn't believe, you know, I mean, do people really, just need, uh, to, to post a picture of every cigar they smoke? Um, and do they need to show off that picture to make sure that their cuffs pulled up so I can see their expensive watch? Yeah. You know, what, what's that got to do with whether or not it was a good cigar? Um, um, the reality is, is I, I, I, I, a friend of mine just the other day, uh, checked in at the Louvre. I know this person is sitting in Toronto. Yeah. Oh my God. That's hilarious. I knew somebody who posted pictures as if she was living in a fucking Taj Mahal. And in reality, she's unemployed. She hasn't gotten out of her fucking pajamas. She's been working in the car for like, you know, like, you know, like, you know, like And she's got no job. I mean, she's just ridiculous. You're absolutely right. You know, that's hilarious. But, uh, but, you know, it's an important tool, especially, you know, in, in, in the podcast world, right? Yeah. Well, trying to get, I mean, as far as if you have, you know, a radio show or a podcast, the thing is, how do you get more listeners? You know, how do you get more people to listen to? And that's really the, the, the reason. Look at what Jimmy Fallon has done with The Tonight Show. Oh, amazing. Using social media. I mean, he's absolutely brilliant. But he's, but he's actually brilliant. He's actually brilliant. As far as being a talented person and interesting and intriguing and entertaining. No, no, I, I agree fully, but, but you, you know, you look at their Facebook page, their YouTube channel, um, they even do a segment where they ask people to Twitter in things, you know? Uh, it gets millions of people involved and, and millions of people that may not stay up to watch late night television. Right. You know, it's, and I mean, his whole show on Spike, uh, lip sync battle, which, which is absolutely hilarious. I've never seen that, but no, he's a genius. I mean, the guy's a genius. And here's the funny thing. NBC said, no, they don't want to touch it. So he's in battle. Yeah. And, and, you know, he has a segment on, on that he does every once in a while on the tonight show where he has the stars lip sync song. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I've heard of lip sync, but I should watch that. I should check it out. Well, uh, LL Cool J is the host of it. Yeah, yeah. That's what my, my, my boy was telling me. My boy in New York, he was telling me he's watching lip sync, lip sync battle with LL Cool J. I got to check it out. Um, you know, some episodes are fairly boring. Yeah. But every now and then, I mean, if you can, Google the YouTube one with, uh, Anne Hathaway. Okay. It is, it is just, you know, I mean, I, I, I PVR them and then, you know, I, I try to convince Caroline every now and then to like, let's just smoke a joint and waste an evening watching these and we'll go through. Let me see. It's just hilarious. Lip sync battle with Anne Hathaway. She does, uh, Miley Cyrus. Got it. Yeah. Yeah. I got it. I got it. I want to watch it. Um, no, I mean, I, my, my boy was just telling me about this the other day. So it's funny that you mentioned it. So I'll check it out. Well, that's Jimmy Fallon. He owns that show. Yeah. Well, good. Yeah. He's a smart guy. I mean, he's one of these guys that, you know, you know, on the surface, it would appear as if he just came out of nowhere. Right. I think, I think he's, he's related to Lorne Michaels or something. I think that, I mean, for all intents and purposes, I'm, I may be making this up. It's probably on, on, on the internet. Who he's related to or whatever, but I had never seen him or heard of him as a comedian or anything like that. Usually you hear about some of these people, but maybe not, you know, but he, he got in and I think, you know, uh, Lorne Michaels, you know, blessed him. And, you know, the thing about him though, is that he delivers. He's not just, you know, fluff. Yeah, no. And, uh, well, I mean, Lorne Michaels is Canadian. Well, there it is. Any, listen, listen. Any reason. If he's a really good comedian, chances are they're coming out of Canada. Well, I don't know about that. I mean, all right. All right. Maybe not any really good comedian. Many successful, really good comedians come out of Canada. He, he, he auditioned for Saturday Night Live. Jimmy? And he won over Lorne Michaels with his impression of Adam Sandler. There you go. He came out of, he came out of, uh, the cast. That included Will Ferrell, Tracy Morgan. That's where he came out of. Yeah, but he wasn't on that show for a long time, you know? Well, that's, uh, 98, 99. Right. Two years. I know the guy, what the hell's his name? He's one of the- No, but he left in 2004. Oh, okay. Got it. So he was there for about five, six years. Yeah. That's a, that's a pretty good thing to have on your resume. Oh, are you kidding? You're kidding me? I mean, just being a writer on fucking, uh, on Saturday Night Live. And then he went, then he took over Conan LeBron's show in 2008. Writing for Conan? No. He took over the, uh, late night talk show. Oh, okay. Got it. Got it. Conan, now that guy's, that guy's, uh, yeah, he's in a class by himself. I met the guy. Okay. In fact, I'm not sure. If I asked you this, did, did you watch Conan in Cuba? Yeah. Okay. Yeah. So I went to a, uh, Q and A with him. They showed it at the, uh, uh, Academy of Motion Pictures over here in Los Angeles. And he was there and he was with a moderator. He was hilarious. I mean, the guy's hilarious, but he was really cool. He stayed after the show and basically took photos and did videos with every single person that wanted to. Cool. Yeah, totally. I mean, I mean, amazing. Listen, Amir, I'm going to get going. Yeah. Do you have any more questions or anything, Jeremy? No, I'm good. So thank you so much for your time. I'll write this stuff up. Um, I'll send it to you. We'll communicate and try to figure out, um, you know, what can and can't be done, uh, closer to that time. And then, you know, we'll, we'll, we'll discuss, you know, what you asked me. We'll figure it out. And Jeremy, thanks for those books. Um. Yeah. There's two more on the way. Okay. Brilliant. They're, they're, they're going to a, uh, well, her day job is she's the manager of the La Casa at the media Havana. Cool. But, but in the, she's completely involved with the arts. She's, she's been writing movies and things like that. And Cuba, she knows she, she'll be a good source actually for, uh, for Nestor's project. Uh, Melia Havana. I went to the Casa there. I went to the Casa there on. No, sorry. Amelia Cohiba. My apologies. Oh, Cohiba. Melia Cohiba. That's, that's one of my favorites. Not necessarily the Casa there, but, um, the lounge. Yeah. But, uh, Vivian, those books are going to Vivian. She's the manager. Did she, did she have a request for Bukowski or? Yeah, because I posted a Bukowski quote or something like that. Oh, okay. Cool. So she sent me an email saying, oh, I love Bukowski, but I've never gotten to read a full book. Do you think you can, you can bring something down next time you come to Cuba? Yeah, that's great. I actually think I've, I mean, she's always there, right? Um, on days that she's working. Yeah. Okay. All right. She, she has dark hair. Yeah. Yeah. I've met her. She's very nice. Yeah. She's a sweetheart actually. Very pleasant. Yeah. No, she's a good friend. Yeah. Well, cool. Well, listen, really, really nice talking to you, man. Thank you so much again. For your time. Don't worry, guys. Yeah. Thanks, Samir. And we'll talk soon. All right. Have a good night. Okay. Good night. Good night. I'm fucking stuck. I haven't eaten shit all fucking day. I had a bacon and egg sandwich earlier today. That's it.