Homelessness, social media, blues music, Habitat for Humanity

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. So what shaped your name for working with the homeless? I actually got involved with working with the homeless in the homeless community, actually in the community as a whole, when I was 13. I was a police explorer with Compton PD, and that exposed me to working in the community as a whole, whether it was with convalescent homes, cleaning up the community, things of that sort. And during that time is when I noticed things going on and people leaving the community, living on the street, and that was very disturbing to me. Okay. What do you think are some of the things that the community can do to assist the homeless? One of the things that I feel that can be done is for everyone to stop just walking by and shaking their heads and actually do something about it, such as really getting involved with your community, your city organizers, things of that sort. Things can change. I mean, so many things are in place to manage homelessness, but we don't need to manage it, because when you use that word manage, that means that you're planning for it to be around for a while, and it can actually be solved. So people just have to push for things. Just like we push to get Obama in office, we can push to get these things changed too. So I just think really coming together and working as a team and actually caring would make a huge difference. We must talk. Talking a little earlier about some of the reasons that homeless individuals don't want to deal with missions and shelters and things like that. You were telling me about the young lady who had a pet or something like that that she was attached to. A pet, yeah. Yeah, well, yeah, because a lot of the majority of the facilities are not equipped to house animals, because if you notice, a lot of facilities, aren't equipped to house families either. They have to go to special facilities if you have children. So it's either, like at PATH, it's like men on one floor, women on another floor. If you have a child, they have emergency housing to get you off the street for the night, but then they're feverishly trying to find you a spot at a facility that can handle, that is equipped for family units is what they call it, to get you there. But definitely, it's very... It's very far and few in between for them to house animals. And I think that kind of needs to change, because people have to understand. You know, I had a lady that made a comment to me the other day who's not homeless, and she says, well, it doesn't make sense to me. You know, I would think that I'd rather give up my dog and get off the street rather than to, you know, be on the street. And I said, well, that's because you're thinking in the frame of mind that you're thinking. I was like, but when you're on the street, and that's pretty much your only friend, one that doesn't judge you, one that keeps you company, one that's wagging its tail no matter what. I mean, it's a little different. So I do think that there should be some kind of provisions made for people that have animals, because it's not that easy to detach from them. Now, do PATH have any special programs in relationship to dealing with families that find themselves homeless? They, like I said, they'll take them. But they will, you'll have to be moved to another, like, a sister facility that's equipped for families, because they don't have the, their facility isn't equipped to deal with children and things of that sort. It's just single women, single men. Now, you've worked a long time, and you've seen a lot of things down here in the Skid Row area. What do you see as the main reason that so many people end up homeless, especially families, but generally? And what's your perspective on it? Honestly, my perspective, I mean, I've worked with so many different agencies from all these years. And honestly, I just think a lack of being prepared for life, honestly, because that was another thing I was speaking with another girl who wants to start a nonprofit to help young girls. I really think it shouldn't just be for young girls. I think it should just be for youngsters, period. And I think it should start about the eighth grade. Because when you teach these life skills, not the life skills you hear about at these facilities, but, I mean, life skills like, you know, how to cope with depression, how to cope with, you know, people, how to deal with people, how to basically love yourself and have that self-esteem so it's not easily broken down and equipped for adversities. You know, things are going to happen. And everything's not going to go the way you want it to go. You're not always going to get a good grade. You're not always going to have all of these friends. And everybody's not always going to like you. You know, in our society, it's like everything is built around that. So when you face, let's say someone has been doing well all this time, and then finally, maybe for whatever reason, they get hooked on alcohol or drugs or whatever, and they lose everything, and then the guilt comes in, then the anger, then that turns into depression. Then without treatment, that turns into bipolarism. And then sometimes without that treatment, they go on to schizophrenia. So it's just so many different things. But honestly, I would put it back to the beginning because you teach all these other things in school, but except for how to be a human being. But we can name when the war happened in 18-whatever, but you can't, you know, it's like a manual. You need to really equip our children so that they can be bully-proof and things of that sort. But it doesn't happen until it's too late. Now, also, let me ask you this, and we'll get into it a little deeper when we start talking about the social networks and things. How much do you think the fact that we moved into the Internet, the high tech, do you think that has a lot to do with putting people out of jobs? Is the fact that we moved into the Internet, the world and the Internet super high away, as they say? You know, that could be yes and no. I would probably say no because, honestly, that's opened up more opportunity for people to become entrepreneurs and be inventive and do things that they may have always wanted to do. Even if, like a radio show, Internet radio show, you can do your own show for free on certain things. So, honestly, I think the problem is just on capitalism as a whole. Because these companies get so greedy and, you know, they're trying to save all of their money or as much money as they can, then they start outsourcing. So when you outsource, like, customer service centers to India and things of that sort, that takes away from jobs here. Just like, you know, because we're the California, the Sioux capital of the world, you know, everybody wants to sue for this, sue for that. So that scared a lot of companies into not having the opportunity to do that. And then, you know, we're hiring kids. So they only hire adults. So what happens, like, when I was a kid, I had a job at 13. I was getting a check. So, you know, it's hard to find companies that will hire teenagers. Remember, we used to go and get a work permit from your office at school, and you could go work. But it's really hard to find that now. So you take a lot of responsibility learning away from the kids. And then, two, you take a lot of the jobs away from us when you start outsourcing. And then, you know, you're outsourcing to different other cultures. You know, we need to keep that here, and we need to bring it back. Okay, Kimberly, I would like to talk to you a little about GKEEM MediaU. You train business owners and individuals on how to simplify and maximize the social media presence on the internet. Let's talk about some of the services that you offer. First one, social media marketing planning. What is that? You know, everything is social media now. Facebook, Twitter, well, not MySpace so much anymore. They're kind of like disappearing. But we teach businesses how to use the internet to create a presence and to generate interactivity with potential customers and current customers. Oh, okay. And then how about social media management? I go in and I teach them how to, you know, how to manage their media, meaning there's a strategy that you want to create depending on what kind of business you have and what your goals are. So we'll teach them how to generate, let's say, tweets. They can go in and... Because it depends on the company. Some companies have a team. I've worked with companies that actually have 10 to 20 people that they have working on their social media. And then I've worked with companies that only had two or three. And definitely for those smaller companies, I recommend, you know, setting things up in advance because you can't really afford to have somebody just on the internet all day while they're at work. You need to utilize them somewhere else. So, you know, unless it's something breaking news or something that you need to get out, I teach them how to basically schedule tweets and things in advance. And you can go in and do that for a week, a month, six months, a year. It's up to you. Mm-hmm. However much time you have to do the data entry. Mm-hmm. Now, this is what's interesting to me, the internet radio podcasting workshops. What do that entail? I teach people how to go on and create their own show. Introduce them to all of the different websites that are out there where they can do it for free. Teach them about using the equipment that they choose to get. If they don't have a lot of equipment, you can still... As long as you have a mic and your computer, you can still do it. So some people get fancy, some people just want to start out small. And then we talk about little marketing skills, you know, depending upon... I always say it's kind of cool to start your show first. And kind of like I have a radio show and I started mine first because I wanted to prove a point. Mm-hmm. So once I got X amount of followers and downloads and things of that sort, then you take that to potential sponsors. Maybe they want to buy ad spot. And they usually do if you can show that you have enough people downloading and listening all the time. That kind of changed a little bit once the recession hit. I think everyone was pulling back on advertising, both on mainstream and internet radio. But that's pretty much what goes on in that class. I don't know, Jeremy might have a question or something for you since you're dealing with the internet radio. 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. So, it's not something that's shaped by what you're doing, but it shaped by what you're doing for your name, for your name, for your name, for your name name name name name name name name name name name name name name name name name name name name name name name name name name name name name name name name name name name name name name name name name name name name name name name name name name name name name name name name name name name name name name name name name name name name name name name name name name name name name name name name name name name name name name name name name name name name name name name name name name name name name name name name name name name name name name name name name name name name name name name name name name name name name name name name name name name name name name name name name name name name name name name name name name name name name name the target demographics and who's listening and how often are people coming back. And definitely curious if you've explored those types of things to really find out who's listening and what they like, what they don't like. And those are the things that are always on my mind. I have. I usually, like for my show, I usually, I always engage, you know, my audience. So we're always including them throughout the show and saying, if you have an opinion or if you have any topics you want us to discuss, to invite them to email us. And a lot of them do. A lot of them do email us. So they give us their ideas. They'll say, oh, that was a good topic. This was my experience about that. So I just really engage them. Definitely social media. Twitter is a really, really good tool for that. And two, if you really, if you think you have a good rapport with your audience. You can use like Survey Monkey or Poll Daddy, things of that sort, and create a poll for whatever you want to ask them. And then tweet that little, you know, turn it into a tiny URL and tweet that out and get, you know, encourage people to answer that. And then you can get some of your questions answered. I know for a fact that 90% of our listeners are men and the other 10% are women. So on our show. So it just really depends. But see, I've been doing that show for almost four years. Yeah. Can you give us some basic information about your show? The name, the name of the show? How do we pull it up? The name of the show is Lipstick Radio. It's lipstickradio.net. The show, it's kind of random. It's about, we interview people. We talk about different topics. Usually it's a lot of relationships and the men-women issue. It's kind of comical. It's funny. But again, we touch on sometimes the serious stuff. We'll talk about statutory rape issues, child support issues. But for the most part, it's just a lot of fun and just shock jock, just to make you laugh and be like, oh my God, did she really say that? Okay. A couple more questions. What about your social media workshop? What does that entail? The social media workshop I enjoy doing the most because that's the least amount of work for me. Because I teach, people don't realize social media is, it's a lot of work. And depending on what you're trying to get out of it. So in the workshops I teach, I encourage the companies that participate to send the people that are actually going to be doing it. Because not everybody's computer literate. Not everybody's going to understand all these different terminologies, hashtags, all that, you know, tiny URLs, all that stuff. So I encourage them to send the people that are actually going to be doing it for them to the workshop. Because if you're not familiar with it, trying to explain what I'm telling you, it's not going to be easy to do. So I just basically give them tips. And we go through different websites that what does what, what I'm a big fan of trying to maximize the free stuff. You know, why go pay for stuff and you can get something that works just as well for free. Now, there are some things that used to be free that they're charging for now, but like Hootsuite, I love Hootsuite, it's still free. But if you want to add what they call a team member, where like if I want to add you on to manage the things that I've set up, it's like $5.99 a month. So it's not that bad. But so that's pretty much what I do in there. Just give them the rundown because they're already technically inclined. So I don't have to, you know, start from the basics and say, okay, this is a mouse. This is a desktop. I pretty much can just go in and say, okay, this is what you do. We talk about strategies, how to not usually not tweet more than four things out per day. You don't want to over, you know, inundate people and also how not to advertise to people all the time, but also give them things, whether it's information, whether you're giving away things, contests, because the social media is made to interact with people. We're already being sold so much, you know, with radio. We listen to ads, TV, billboards. We listen to magazines. So you really want this to be a place where, yeah, I can stick in some advertisements here and there, but you want to make it fun for them. So you want to find a way to interact. Okay. One last question. What is the best way for the organization or business to use a Facebook and Twitter? You know, that depends on the organization because everyone's going to use it in a different way. And depending on the type of business you have, some businesses may not. Some people may not want to be on Twitter. Some people may not want to use certain things. Not every platform is for every business. But definitely I've noticed that Facebook has a different type of audience than Twitter. Facebook, if you do what you do on Twitter, like Twitter, you can tweet out, oh my gosh, this is the longest line, whatever. I don't know why people do that. I don't do that, but they do that. But on Twitter, I pretty much will tweet out news blasts, things that happened, just like breaking news. If I find any cool articles, cool polls, whatever. You know, it's just different information. People are more open to that. Where Facebook, it's kind of like they just want, okay, you can give me some information here and there. You can tweet about what you're doing here and there. But that's pretty much it. Because if you over-engage them on Facebook, they will stop following you or unlike you or, you know, depending on if you're operating as a, or a page or yourself, your personal self. Okay. Thank you, Kimberly. Kimberly, for those who want to get in touch with you, what is your contact information? You can go to jinkimmedia.com. And that's J-E-N, I'm sorry, J-E-A-N-K-I-M-M-E-D-I-A.com. And our phone number there is 818-971-9220. I want to ask you one quick question. Yeah. How did you develop the name Jinkim Media? It's my name backwards. Because Jean is my middle name. Okay. So I was trying to find a way to like my middle name because for years I didn't. Oh, beautiful. That's wonderful. Okay. Thank you very much, Kimberly. Thank you. Thank you. And we enjoyed the information, all of that information. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. Next we will move to our Voices to the Community section. On Saturday, October the 1st, 2011, Drama Stage Kunran, in conjunction with the Peace Center on the campus of USC, had a chance to present 80,000 Nails to Habitat for Humanity, to be used for building affordable housing for low-income community members. The presentation was made in Southgate at a foreclosure house that Habitat for Humanity purchased to fix up for low-income community members. We assisted with the painting. Tonight in our Voices from the Community portion of the show, you will hear two interviews from that day. The first interview is from the family that would be living in the house, and the second interview from the foreman for Habitat for Humanity. Okay, it's a Saturday, and we're here on Liberty Street in Southgate at a site for Habitat for Humanity with the two proud new owners of this rehab that Habitat for Humanity here in LA is refurbishing. There's the mother, Sandra, and her son, Geo, and I'm going to have them explain the process of the rehab. And I'm going to have them explain the process of the rehab. And I'm going to have them explain the process of the rehab. And I'm going to have them explain the process of how they arrived at this point to be proud owners of this property and refurbishing it today. So who would like to go ahead and start off? Okay, Sandra, go ahead. Hi, my name is Sandra de la Garza, and this is my first house. And, you know, I like Habitat because Habitat helps all the people who need it for low-income people and for taking their home. They also make an effort so that we can be well. And I took this property because one of my brothers told me, hey, there's a place that you can go and apply, which is Habitat. So I went and did the rehab. And I did the process of Habitat. And, thank God, I was qualified. And now I have my house. I'm going to have my house and I'm going to be happy about it. Okay. And Geo? All right. So basically just... Your name? Geo. My name is Geo Velazquez. Well, basically, we're happy that we got this program. Okay. And we're happy that we got this program, Habitat. And she actually got this... She actually knew about this program because of her brother. Her brother actually mentioned this program. And she went ahead and tried out for this program and signed up for it. She actually qualified. She said she's really grateful for it. And... How long did it take? How long was the process? How... Almost one year. Almost a year? Yes. One year. Wow. That was pretty quick. Pretty quick. Okay. Yes. Okay. And are you in high school now or Geo? No, actually. I'm out. You're out. Okay. Okay. College or... Yes. Okay. In the Southgate area or where were you attending? Long Beach. Long Beach. What's your major? I'm not... No, no. You're still of a major. Okay. Okay. Okay. So, besides helping to fix the house up, what are your other plans for your new home? Do you have any? Do you... Any kind of special kind of garden you plan on growing here or... My plans are to live in it well. I'm happy and all that. So, that would be my plan. Not something to work here or something. No. What? Her new plans is basically just, you know, living, living happy in this house. Not really... Well, yeah, she'll put some stuff in and make it look neat but not too... Not too fancy. Not too fancy. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So, not too... So, not too... So... So... So... So... So... So... So... So... So... So... So... So... So... So... So... So... So... So... So... So... So... So... So... So... So... So... So... So... right now where we are is because it is very small and I have to be paying the rent so when you take a property that is yours and you can no longer, it is no longer necessary to pay rent elsewhere. She's just tired of that and I mean she pretty much it's a better idea having the property owning a property than I mean you know having your own house than paying for rent on an apartment. So through Habitat for Humanity the rent and it's all completely paid for you don't have to pay any taxes every year on the property how is that? Because I'm on the bank program with Habitat so the bank already has everything included with the payment of the house and security and everything. Well basically the bank which is, how would you say like, it's basically covering for now the Habitat. Uh huh. Uh huh. Uh huh. So. Okay. Okay. Well great. Well I'd like to thank you both very much for this opportunity and hopefully others can hear this and see that there is some hope too. Okay. Okay great. Thank you very much. Thank you. All right. Voices from the community I'm here with Rhett. Did I get that right? Yes. Okay. From Habitat for Humanity and he's I guess the lead foreman here. Yes. That's right. That's right. Okay. And I'm going to have him just kind of take over this conversation and talk a little bit about his involvement with Habitat for Humanity and what he does. So go ahead, Rhett. Great. Well thank you very much. Yeah today we're in Southgate, Los Angeles working on a four bedroom home and as part of Habitat for Humanity Greater LA. Our mission is to eliminate the poverty. We're helping to eliminate substandard housing here in the United States and around the world. In doing that we use a lot of volunteers in that process. So I think a big portion of helping to eliminate substandard housing is to actually engage the community and really get people out there knowing their neighbors really helping out and lending a hand whenever they can. And so I started with Habitat for Humanity a year and a half ago. I was a full time volunteer for a year. I was a part of the American Corps program which is funded by the federal government in Ventura, California and just loved it. The feelings I got through giving back and helping people that did need a hand was incredible. And so homelessness is a problem that extends far beyond our communities. It's worldwide but as well it's not something that's just worldwide. It is something that is in every community. And so you don't have to travel to Africa to go help out. You can do it on your block. You can do it on your street. Talk to your neighbors. Find out about those people around you that need help because it is a community driven effort. Okay great. So have you always wanted to be a carpenter or a builder or is this your life's path? It is, yes. I'm a, at heart, I'm a free spirit. I'm a traveler. And I grew up with a father that was a builder and so he built every house that we ever lived in. And it's something that is much like I think music. It's something that is a communication that transcends a lot of languages. People always need shelter regardless of where you are. And so I like to be able to prepare myself for being able to travel the world. And I love interacting with people and especially doing it with volunteers and helping people. So it's not for a cause larger than just yourself. It's a great way to be able to impart skills to someone else and have it be an educational experience and have it be something that is very, very rich. At the end of the day, I feel so good when I go home not because of having completed another necessary construction task but for having taught someone how to do that. And the analogy of, you know, give a man a fish and feed him for a day and teach a man to fish and feed him for a lifetime, when people leave here on the site, they know a little bit more about how their house works to build shelter and you can build shelter out of just about anything as long as you have those basic skills. Has Habitat for Humanity taken you to any other places besides Southern California? Have you worked in any other locations yet? I haven't worked with Habitat in any other locations. I came to Habitat as a way to be able to get those initial building skills that I was looking for. I've done an extensive amount of traveling in Central America, Mexico, and now Habitat is a part of my life. Every place I go I'll always be looking for Habitat affiliates. So your feelings, your opinions, what do you think about the homeless condition here in the greater Los Angeles area from what you've seen? I live in Venice Beach and I've noticed an increase definitely in the homeless population and it concerns me. For sure. I think it is something that's on the rise. With that being said, I think it is an opportunity for people to reevaluate what's important to them on a community level. Where I live, I actually live as part of a larger intentional community and then so we're ten people that live in a home, which is really funny because I think by regulations and by normal standards, it would be considered an environment in which would be substandardized. It's not going to be substandard housing, but because of the organizational structure of the fact that we all want to be there and we're all productive members of that household, it's actually the most rich, incredibly beautiful living situation I've ever encountered. So it is a way for people to be able to restructure how they live and what they consider to be the most efficient way to live. So rather than everyone kind of fighting for their individual self, if you can become part of a larger community and really help each other out and use that teamwork. So much can get accomplished. So that's what you see happening in Venice, where you live? Yes, most definitely. Yeah, the community network in Venice is really deep and it just continues to grow. Every day when I go back and I meet a new neighbor, I feel like I'm a little less alone in Los Angeles. And especially when it comes to dealing with housing issues. If someone needs a spot to stay, by all means, I don't mind taking them in, really helping them out, doing what I can. And so I think on a larger level, I see more of that all the time. When people are unemployed and they come out here to volunteer at Habitat, that's an example of how people are really starting to bridge those gaps. And while financially they might not be coming as successful, I think that there's a lot more fulfillment. There's a lot more interaction with people around. It's really nice to see. One last thing we want to cover. Housing the homeless. Yeah. I know we put someone in a room with four walls, give them a key and a door. But a large majority of us homeless, and I include myself, we have our mental health issues. And to take us off the street and expect us to make a healthy transition without still carrying that which we lived with on the streets. It's very hard. It's very hard for us. So what do you think about the mental health services here in the greater Los Angeles area as it pertains to homelessness? I'm not very familiar with the services that are offered. So it's hard for me to comment. But I was in Portland, Oregon a while ago. And in Portland, they have a area that's been designated for homeless people and is run exclusively by homeless people. It's known as Dignity Village. And in Dignity Village. And I went there and I visited the place and I saw it. And what they've done with the city gave them a parking lot and they've turned it into the most beautiful village. And there's so much responsibility there. Like people have so much pride for what they have as homeless individuals with really no specific financial equity involved in the project. It's incredible. And so I think with those homeless issues, with the mental health issues, it is very important to acknowledge them. And to really use those models of helping someone out, rehabilitating them. I'm someone who's very involved in health and more from a natural standpoint of looking at people's diets. I think that when you talk about cultivating your own food to eliminate a lot of the pesticides, a lot of the GMO type of things that we find in everyone's diet, that can really help people from a mental point of view as well. And so there's ways that as a community we can deal with those things as well. It's just a matter of being supportive. Not giving up. And just continuing to just move forward in a way that no one left behind. Well great, Rhett. Thank you very much for your time today. And we'll be in touch. Thank you. Our thanks goes out to Habitat for Humanity for the good work that they do. At this time I would like to turn it over to Ms. Earline Anthony for our community camera. This is the community calendar for the month of October. Friday, October 14th through Sunday, October 16th at 4.30 and 6.30 various times. Nate Holden's Performing Arts Center presents Ebony Repertory Theater, Back to the Future in Search of a New Black Exithet. Again this is at the Nate Holden Performing Arts Center. Location 4718 West Washington. Boulevard. For more information on this event you can contact ghooksebonyrep.org. Sunday October the 23rd, 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. Drama Stage Coon Run presents a forum on homeless veterans in Los Angeles. The panel will be made up of veterans, religious and community leaders discussing topics on outreach, education, treatment and prevention, housing, support services, income, employment benefits, community partnership and much more. Location The Exchange, 114 West 5th Street. This is a free event. Refreshments will be served and we will pass out hygiene kits. For more information on this event you can call 323-850-4444. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. So for yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo 26th, beginning at 9 a.m., Long Beach Community Councilman D. Andrews presents a Peace and Justice Summit focusing on deciding how to assist with policy change and the reentry process, housing, employment, and much more. Child care and lunch will be provided. The location is at the Long Beach Convention Center, 300 East Ocean Boulevard in Long Beach. And for more information on this event, you can call 323-357-8431. And this is just a reminder, if you have a community event that you would like announced on our show, send the information to DramaStage1 at yahoo.com, attention early and Anthony. And once again, our call-in number for the show is 800-893-9562. Now back to you. Thank you, Ms. Earlene Anthony. I'm delighted to have with us in the studio tonight two very talented musicians, Jack Rivera and Steve Goss. Welcome to the Qumran Report. Hey. Hey. Hello. Thanks for having us, Mel. Look, Jack, look, I want to start with you and Steve. Look, tell us quickly a little about yourself and how you developed your art form. I started playing when I was a real young kid. I started playing drums when I was a little baby because, you know, I was born in 1964 and that's when the Beatles was happening and my brother was all into that. So I was playing music since I was, you know, a little baby then. And just been doing it my whole life. Steve, I kind of grew up with here. He's from Boyle Heights, Eastside. And we grew up together in high school and all that kind of stuff. We really like the same music when we were teenagers. So I started playing together. Were you one of the Barry Pickens? No, I wasn't one of the Barry Pickens. Jack and I used to play together when we were kids. Here's the roadie. Okay. I was a hanger on. Now, how about some of your favorite musicians that influenced you? Well, like you were playing John Lee Hooker earlier. We were talking about it on the lift on the way up. You know, guys like John Lee Hooker and Chuck Berry and Jimmy Reed. One of the first songs we learned, Boom Boom. Stuff like that. A lot of blues people. We got into punk rock when we was kids. So bands like the Ramones and all that stuff, of course. Pretty well-rounded. We like it all. We like country music as well. We like country. Do both of you write music? I don't write. Jack does. He makes some terrific songs. Thank you, Steve. Now, you know we'll be hearing from you and the voices from the ether section in just a few minutes. But Jack, for those who want to get in touch with you about performing, what is your contact information? I have a Facebook page, which works pretty well for that sort of thing. It's just Jack Rivera at Facebook. I don't know exactly how the address thing works, but pretty much the whole planet's on that thing now. And I come up pretty quick. There'll always be a picture of a guitar or something. So other than that, that's about it. Now, you also, tell us, I mentioned about the Berry Pickers. Sure. Tell us a little about. Yeah, the Berry Pickers was a cool band. That I had when I was a kid. You know, it was my first band that I put together properly. That was right after I came out of a band called the Crawdaddies, which were real popular and real good, real influential. I was lucky enough to play with those guys. Came out of that and formed my own band. And that was the Berry Pickers. And it's just very 60s garage R&B kind of stuff. Very cool. Seems to be more popular now than it was back in its day. For us, anyway. So that's okay. You just put them up on YouTube. Yeah, there's all kinds of stuff coming out. That's been my project. I've been blessed to play with a lot of neat, special people. Who are the other members of the Berry Pickers? There was this guy. Yeah, well, it was John Vedder on bass. I think he's in film now. And the guy, the singer, went out to form a successful band called the Groovy Ghoulies. And his name is Jeff Alexander. He goes by the name of Keppy. But he does real good. And so they went off. Yeah. And they went off to do stuff. And, you know, we all did. But like I was saying, I'm trying to document all this stuff. A lot of groups I've been with, you know, trying to get the music up and out and photographs and the whole bit. So, you know, that's a chore, man. I'll be busy for the rest of the year. Yeah. So what have you been doing lately, Steve, as far as music is concerned? You know, I really just picked music up again in the last 12 months or so, the last year. I kind of took a hiatus when I was about 20. And I went back to college. And I had a successful career in the financial industry, of all things. And now I find myself kind of wanting to go back to my roots, you know. And once I started playing again, I started taking a few classes just to get back into it. And right away, I wanted to contact Jack again because he's one of the people that I grew up playing with. And we still love the same kinds of music. And we still have a little bit of chemistry going on, too, when we get together because we've known each other for so long. Mm-hmm. Okay. We love it. We have all the same influences. Great, great. Okay, great. Now we're going to, at this time, we're going to move into our voices from the ether section, which is the last section that we have today. I have with us on the phone, in a minute, we'll be moving into our voices from the ether section. And what are the two songs that you're going to play for us when we get off into that section? Well, we'll see how the first one goes here. Mm-hmm. I think we're going to do some Jimmy Reed. We'll probably do Take Out Some Insurance, maybe Shame, Shame, Shame, or maybe a Chuck Berry song, 30 Days. Mm-hmm. We'll see how it's sounding in here. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Okay. Now, our last section for today is from our voices from the ether portion of the show. And I hope to have with us on the phone, Ty. Ty. Ty. Uh, uh, uh. Uh. Uh. Uh. Uh. Uh. Uh. Uh. Uh. Uh. Uh. Uh. Uh. Uh. Uh. Uh. Uh. Uh. Uh. Uh. Yeah, Tyrone's got to answer his phone. Okay. Okay, let's, let's, let's move. Hi, this is Eric. I'm not. Eric, wrong number. Oh, okay. We'll wait. As we wait, we're waiting on Ty and our voices from the ether section. Let's move into our first song. And Jack, what's the name of the song? Let's go. This one's called Take Out, Take Out Some Insurance. It's by the late, great Jimmy Reed out of Chicago. One of my favorites. Ready? I better give some insurance on my name Take out some insurance on my name Cause if you ever ever say goodbye I'm gonna go right off and die Darling, I will love Long as I have a hand I didn't say that I don't see the old days The world be me if they did I better give some insurance on my name Take out some insurance on my name Cause if you ever ever say goodbye I'm gonna go right off and die I'm gonna go right off and die I don't care if she knows I said it Cause I'm pretty as can be I can't shy away I don't care if she knows I said it Only way you don't know me baby Like I know myself I can't wait to see my name Same thing though You love this dumb one else I better give some insurance on me baby Take out some insurance on me baby Cause if you ever ever say goodbye I'm gonna go right off and die So yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo All right. As long as it's not Kaiser, baby. As long as it's not Kaiser. Jack, tell us a little about the history of blues. How did blues develop in this country? Oh, now. Boy, you're touching on the spot, my man. Yeah. Well, you know, it's a three-hour show. Yeah. Tell us about some of the early blues musicians that you know about. You know, the way I understand it, I mean, you're really giving it to me now, buddy. You know, it comes from the old slavery days. You had what they would call in the fields, you know, they'd do a lot of singing in the fields and stuff like that. I think the guys got a hold of guitars. I can tell you how they started playing slide on the guitars. Apparently, they would get bone and lay it against the strings and kind of make that crazy wailing sound. And that's how, apparently. That's how that started. But going out of their, and also jazz, too, New Orleans. So that, you know. Who are some of the jazz, I mean, the blues musicians that started incorporating the harmonica into their playing? The Chicago guys really did it. I mean, you know, Sonny Terry, Brownie McGee, those folky kind of guys. But I think it really broke open when all the southern blacks went up to Chicago, went up north for all the good jobs and stuff. And they started. They started working and they needed music. And a lot of those guys from Mississippi had Muddy Waters, all those guys, right? But they'd go up to Chicago and they became northerners. So, you know. Okay. Let's do another one. What's the next one you're going to do? I don't know yet. Should we do a 30? We got one more. Go ahead. We're going to try to do this one here. This one's, there's an old song called 30 Days by my man, my pop, Chuck Berry. So we're going to try to do this one here. Ready? I'm gonna give you good days, get back home I drink coffee, tips a woman on the telephone I'm gonna put a dog chowder in you That'll better be everything I say I'm gonna see you to be back home On Thursday, on Thursday On Thursday, on Thursday I'm gonna see you to be back home on Thursday Well, I'm gonna say not a word about it That'll better be everything I say I'm gonna see you to be back home on Thursday I've been talking to you, I'm proud of you this morning Sitting in the chair as well, beside the wall I'm gonna put a dog chowder in you That'll better be everything I say I'm gonna see you to be back home on Thursday Yeah On Thursday, on Thursday On Thursday, on Thursday Well, I'm gonna see you to be back home on Thursday Yeah, I'm gonna put a dog chowder in you That'll better be everything I say I'm gonna see you to be back home on Thursday Right now So put yo' little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little And you gotta be the bearer of the hay, gotta see the I'm gonna see the journey back over the days Over the days, over the days I'm gonna see the journey back over the days Well, I'm full of gossip days and I'm gonna take out And I'm gonna see the journey back over the days There we go. All right, Jack, that's excellent. Chuck, what's that called, 30 days? 30 days, man. Yeah. Of all things. Okay, you seem to be influenced a lot by Chuck Berry. Yeah. When you guys was young, you said the Berry Pickers. Sure. Talk a little bit about that. Well, Chuck Berry, we were big Chuck Berry fans. You know, there'd be no Rolling Stones, Mel, quite honestly. Pretty much no Beatles. The way we know him, if it wasn't for Chuck Berry. You know, John Lennon says it best, I guess, when he said, if you had to give rock and roll a different name, you'd call it Chuck Berry. You know, he's the guy. He's my guy, anyway. He's a fantastic showman, fantastic songwriter, incredible guitar player, and good-looking guy, too. You know? You know, Chuck Berry's... The whole nine yards, you know. If I can interject for a minute, Chuck Berry's actually one of the big musicians who has a lot of money. He's actually crossed over from having a primarily African-American audience to having both African-American and a white audience. He probably rocked and rolled to the forefront. People thought he was white when they first heard Maybelline on the radio. People thought he was because it sounds country. You probably remember that. You were probably a little kid playing cowboy or something. Yeah. Okay, do we have Ty on the line? Do we have Ty on the line? Huh? Is Ty back there? Tyrone, are you on the line? I guess he dropped. Okay. Yeah, I don't know. Okay. Let's get back into our discussion of Chuck Berry. You were saying that he was one of the first that moved in the direction of crossover music? Yeah, like Steve brought up, that's a good point. Most people thought he was white when they heard Maybelline. That's his first one. You know, Oh, Maybelline. Why can't you be true? You know? He really has that kind of country thing to it. He's a very special guy. And what was great about him also, he was on Chess Records, which was primary blues label. You know, everybody was on that. John Lee Hooker, Howlin' Wolf, Bo Diddley, and Lil' Walter, Sonny Boy Williamson. I mean, ridiculous amount of people they had on that label. You know, and Chuck was there, you know. So there you go. Same band when they would record a lot of times, Mix and Match musicians. Great stuff. Mm-hmm. Now, Jack, tell us some of the things that you would be doing in the future. Are you forming your own band? Yeah. What's happening with that? You know, it's rough, man. It's real rough to do that. But obviously, getting back in the studio and doing recording, because I write, and I write for myself. And, you know, I'm an artist that way, so I like to play and just write for myself. I don't care if it's, you know, just in the bar or something. It's just having a good time. And that's what I do. But there'll be recording and writing. I'm just, got me a new place out in Silver Lake, so I'm going to be moving. Mm-hmm. And I got to deal with that. But, yeah, I've got Steve backing me up here, helping me out. Mm-hmm. So I'm in good shape. How about some of the earlier members of the Berry Pickers? Are they still musicians? Oh, as far as I know, yeah. Yeah. Yeah, as far as I know. Okay, but you're not playing with any of those guys anymore at the time? No, but the first band I came, came on the scene with was a band called The Stains. And Stains is pretty much the first punk band to ever come out of the east side of Los Angeles. And there's going to be a reissue of an album. That band's managed to have a lot of longevity again. Who were some of the guys that was in that band? That was Robert Becerra, Cesar Vizcarra, and Rudy Navarro. Mm-hmm. Great guys, all of them. We were playing around last year, did some reunion shows, and we'll probably do some more. Mm-hmm. And there's, don't know who's going to re-release the album, but it's definitely going to come out. It's out there. We're getting offers and we're starting to talk. We just got our masters back from one of these guys. And so now we got to get it out. And so that's, it's kind of funny that I'm spending a lot of time on all this past stuff, but that's what seems to be on the plate right now, and it is important. Mm-hmm. But we're going to be getting all that stuff out. So there you are. Okay, Jack, thank you very much. Thank you, Will. We really enjoyed the music. We're going to be following you guys. We're going to be listening to you guys closely. You sound great. Thank you. I would like to thank our in-studio guests, Ms. Kimberly J. Lewis, founder of Gene Kim Media, musician Jack Rivera and Steve Garza, and a special thanks to Jeremy and the Skid Row Studios. Our next show will deal with homeless veterans and the upcoming veteran forum at the exchange on Sunday, October the 16th. Thank you. So yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo I'm going to shoot you right down, right off of your feet. Take you home with me, put you in my house. Boom, boom, boom, boom. I love to see you strut up and down the floor. When you're talking to me, that baby talk. I like it like that. Oh, yeah. Talk that talk. Talk that talk. Talk that talk. Talk that talk. Would you walk that wall And talk that talk And whisper in my ear Tell me that you love me I love that talk When you talk like that You knock me out Right off my feet Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa Oh, talk that talk That talk, that talk Watch it Watch it So yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo