Matt Connarton Unleashed 1-20-24, part 1

Illuminate you come he God, don't get so matself. Good morning everybody.

We are live, truly, Yes, we are live. Wow, this

does sound different. Welcome. It is that time. Matt Connorton unleashed.

We are back live from the studios, the brand new studios of w M

n H ninety five point three FM, Inglorious Manchester, New Hampshire. And

we will talk about that in a moment. But I am not alone this

morning. Jenny is here of course, of course. Good morning, Darling,

Good morning. This is gorgeous. What's up? I love it?

Yeah, yeah, So we're in the We are in the brand new studio

here of w M and H at our new location in Canal Street, and

everything is new and clean and really nice. So so we've been gone for

a little while. This show has been gone for for a bit, you

know. We had the holidays and then of course we had the big move

to the new location and uh, somewhere in there, I had COVID after

it for nearly three years that I that I know of. I mean,

I'm vaccinated, so I probably did have it along the way and didn't know

it, but it finally got me. It put me down for a few

days. But yeah, so you know, I'm fine. Now obviously that

was that was during the holidays, that was that's how I spent my New

Years unconscious. But uh, but it is true, it is true.

But yeah, so we are in the new location on Canal Street and uh

yeah, really nice. But if the show seems a little if I seem

uncertain at any point, I'll just throw that disclaimer out there, it's because

we're in new environs. But really happy to be back. Of course,

while I was here last night for Retro Spectrum Radio with poly C we were

broadcasting and that went really well. And if you didn't, uh, if

you didn't hear the show, of course, you can get it in the

archive at w m n hradio dot org. You can go back and listen

to it. But uh so this is uh, this is great. It

sounds everything sounds a little bit different of course in the new studio, and

we have some new equipment and sounds really good in the headphones though. It

definitely it definitely does. Now did you request the sound panels to be read?

I can't, no, but notice they're at your favorite. Yeah,

we have the panels in the studio, some of them are red, some

of them are gray. Red is my favorite color, so I do like

it. These are my high school colors. I do like the red.

Yeah, no, it looks. It looks really good in here. Everything's

everything's really nice. So we are of course broadcasting from wmn H ninety five

point three on your FM dial if you are local in Manchester. We changed

physical locations, but the frequency is the same ninety five point three. And

of course you can stream it. You can go to WMNH Radio dot org

and click listen live. And of course you can go to my website,

Matt Connorton dot com for all your live streaming options. That's another way to

get there. We are not on Facebook this morning. I thought we were

going to be so damned this thing. So last night for Retrospect Radio,

we weren't able to be on Facebook. We tried, but Facebook was being

glitchy. I don't think it has anything to do with any of the technology

here in the studio. I think it's just Facebook being Facebook. So then

Peter White was here this morning to let us in and help us get set

up for our first show in the new place, and he was able to

get on. He had no problem getting logging into Facebook to broadcast, but

then when I went to do it, it won't let me do it.

I'm having the same issue that Paul was last night. So Facebook being Facebook.

But you can of course stream the show online at Wmnhradio dot org.

Or of course, like I said, you can go to my website Matt

connorton dot com and get to it that way too. That will take you

to the link so you can stream it. You can stream it on your

computer, on your mobile device wherever your heart desires. And of course,

like I said, if you're local here in Manchester, you can get us

at ninety five point three FM. A little bit of just another thing too

about today's show. You know, since we moved to Saturday mornings, we've

been doing very busy, very stacked shows. You know, we're here for

three hours on Saturday, and you know, a lot of guests. You

know, we try to have like a different a lot of musical guests.

We try to have a different musical guest each hour and so forth. Today's

show is a little more laid back, actually a lot more laid back again,

just because we're in the new studio. I wanted to keep it kind

of light this morning, so as we get used to our our new environment

here. So we do have guests coming in in the second hour, looking

forward to that. Uh, but first hour it's just Jenny and I and

we're going to We're gonna be having my old friend Derek Smith, who uh,

well, we'll we'll talk about how Derek and I know each other when

when he gets here, and I think he's gonna have one or two other

people with him because tonight at the Mosaic Art Collective, it's collective, right,

correct. I always want to say studio, but no art collect the

Mosaic Art Collective. There's a fascination. Yeah, there's a show there tonight,

Abner the Second and it's a bit yeah who has been on the show

who played live in studio. He uses a viola and does looping. Yeah,

really really cool. Yeah, what what he does is quite unique.

And also a band called Regals is going to be there and we're going to

play over the course of the show. Today, we're going to play a

little bit of music from both of those artists. But they're going to be

playing tonight at the Mosaic Art Collective and Jenny and I are going to that

we uh, that'll be the second time that we've been there for a show.

Plus we went to that event about it, Yes, about AI.

They do a lot of things there. Well we'll get into later, but

yeah, yeah, that was really interesting we did. We went there to

talk about AI in art, which is creeping into every aspect of art.

Actually. Yes. Oh and Melanie has decided that you must be in phase

book jail and it's all your fault. Uh yeah, yes, by the

way, Uh yeah, so that uh so we'll be uh we'll be talking

to uh talking to some people from there today on the show, and we'll

get into some other stuff too. But the phone line is open. The

studio line is open if you are listening live, so give us a call.

Six O three two five O six oh seven six O three two five

oh six O seven is the studio line. You can also text us at

six one seven nine one seven four four seven six. I'm on social media

at Matt Connorton. You can hit me that way and if I see it

during the show, I will read your comment or inquiry. Of course,

you can email me anytime Matt at mattconnorton dot com. But uh, the

best thing to do so that we can here and enjoy your Dulca tones is

give us a call six O three two five O six O seven six O

three two five oh six O seven. Uh, let's see. I'm trying

to think if there's any anything else I wanted to mention now that we're back.

Actually, yes, I am now officially taking bookings. Yes are actually

yes, so time slots are actually filling up fairly quickly. So if you

are wanting to guest on the show and share your creations, just get me

in touch with me. And how how can they do that? Um,

telepathy won't work right, Nope? Like oh I want smoke signal Nope.

Alright, Well then I guess they'll have to email me at gen Coffee sixteen

at gmail dot com. J E N N C O F F E Y

sixteen at gmail dot com. When William from Sepsis was here the last time,

he mentioned something about New England telepathy. But I don't think that's really

a thing. Now, wait a minute, how dare you disparage New Englanders?

You are one? No, I'm saying New England telepathy. I don't

think that's real. Now, of course it is. Telekinesis perhaps app No,

what do you think it is that makes everybody's memories go away? When

when they right before the first snow, and then when the first snow hits

they've all forgotten how to drive? What does that have to do with telepathy?

It's meant it's connection. Yes, it's all over New England. It's

it's yes, absolutely, I'm telling you by the way, we are all

connected in England. We did play a Sepsis song ope in the show today

to played Romance and Reality, their newest single, and of course we played

our Unicycle, the radio edit from Jerry and the Scumbags, a band that

is particularly near and dear to my heart. Let me give the studio line

one more time. Six o three two five six seven six three two five

six seven. Uh we do we? Sorry? What? Oh? Lots

of Yes, Yes, I spoke to them yesterday. You were very excited

that we were bringing in the peeps again. Yes, the peeps, the

peoples. I uh some interesting music news. Oh yes, are you familiar

with this older lady. She goes by the name Madonna. Madonna, she's

named she's named after the mother of our lord, you know. But uh,

but she also Okay, the reason I make that reference is because I

cannot. I can't whenever I think of Madonna, of course, I'm talking

about Madonna the musical artist. Whenever I think of Madonna, I I immediately

think back to uh when when we were kids, and uh church Chat was

a recurring sketch on Saturday Night Live, the church Lady played by Dana Carvey

and and the uh the guest one week was Sean Penn, and Sean Penn

at that time was married to Madonna, so that you know, the church

lady says something about you're married to a woman who named after our Lord or

something like that. So that's that's what I when I think of whenever I

think of Madonna. No Madonna, of course, the musician who was popular

in the nineteen eighties and has had a lot of plastic surgery. You know,

when I think of her, I think of bruss Oh, the Cones,

yes, the Cones, the Crown. Yes. Well, apparently she

is being sued. This is from you know, I like the BBC because

they don't I don't know, I feel like they do a better job than

a lot of American media just in general. But you can find this anywhere.

Of course, if you just google Madonna. But the BBC reporting Madonna

sued by fans in New York over late concert start time. Have you ever

heard of such a thing? I have not. These these Madonna fans revolting.

They're very upset that she started late. Well there's late, and then

there's holy crap, there's no more public transport. I mean, well,

that's true, and that is a problem in New York City. Now I

have to assume that none of these people have ever been to a Guns n'

Roses concert, because you don't know when Axel Rose is going to finally emerge.

Oh, I think he's gotten better in his old He's actually gotten better

about gone two hours though, like, has he gone to Axel Rose?

Oh? There are stories really yeah. But but but from back back in

the day, as I think the young people say, no, I think

he's gotten a lot better about that. Now. I don't think he does

that now. But when he was, when he was younger, Yeah,

he just he'd make he'd make them wait. But h So this is what

Now, by the way, this is not a large scale sort of class

action lawsuit. It says here two Madonna fans are suing the singer for being

late by more than two hours for a show last month in New York.

According to court documents, they state, the show is meant to start at

two thirty Eastern, which would be I'm sorry, well that threw me off.

It's written as twenty thirty Eastern, which would actually be, of course,

at eight thirty pm Eastern time. It's the BBC. They do things

all British on all three nights, but in each case it did not begin

until after twenty two thirty, which would be ten thirty, ending around one

am. The case says they quote would not have paid for tickets unquote had

they known it would finish so late. The BBC has asked Madonna, Live

Nation and the Barkley Center for comment. The case, brought by Michael Fellows

and Jonathan Hadden, states that quote, many ticket holders who attended concerts on

a week night had to get up early to go to work and or take

care of their favorite family responsibilities the next day unquote. They're assuing promoter Live

Nation and venue the Barkley Center for quote false advertising, negligent misrepresentation, and

unfair and deceptive trade practices unquote. Fellows and hadden't attended the show on Wednesday

thirty the uh again, it's the BBC. Everything's written weird. Let me

December thirteenth. I'll just give you the date. Well, the way this

is written, it literally says Wednesday English. Right, Well it may be

the Queen's English. But you know, listen, can I just say this.

You know here in America we speak American. That's it. We speak

American. So this is difficult for me to read this this way. This

is why. Let me also just add this, Okay, this is a

perfect example of why we thought the Revolutionary War. Really we don't usually we

don't get political on this show anymore, but I just want to throw that

in. This is why, because of because because of the way this is

written, we thro tea Because this is written they attended the show on Wednesday

thirteen, December twenty twenty three. That's how it's written. That's how they

apparently in the BBC, by the way, is in Wednesday thirteen a band

on the right, So that's confusing to me. Yes, they do date.

Yes, yes, the legal documents note that other nights at the same

venue on fourteen and sixteen December. That's how it's written. Also, reportedly

started more than two hours late. The document says, quote defendants failed to

provide any notice to the ticket holders that the concerts would start much later than

the start time printed on that ticket and as advertised, which resulted in the

ticket holders waiting for hours unquote. The court papers also say Madonna quote has

a long history of arriving and starting her concerts late, sometimes several hours late.

Unquote. I didn't know that. So she's just like Axel Rose,

citing examples including quote her twenty sixteen Rebel Heart Tour, her twenty nineteen twenty

twenty Madam X tour, and prior to hers, where Madonna continuously started her

concerts over two hours late. Quote. This is a problem. This is

a she's she's an habitual offender. Looking to our British brothers and sisters.

They're reporting in the I have no I just own them. I'm very upset

about this whole thing with the dates. Oh so that's stop. The Guardian

is reporting that this is not the first time she's actually been sued over being

late to her concert. In twenty nine and twenty twenty, she was sued

by concertos who felt scorned by her lack of punctuality, well score, Yeah,

I love the British writing. Well, I mean it is uh,

it is rude. It's rude, well you know, and in all fainness

it is. I mean, if you're if you're expecting to get out of

a concert at like ten eleven o'clock at night, when the trains are still

running and the buses is still running or whatever, and you're gonna get home

whatever, you know, But if you're getting out at one o'clock in the

morning and these same services are no longer available in the overnight hours, which

is what some of these people are talking about, the people who got like

kind of trapped to figure out on how to act to get home. M

hm oh yeah, yeah. No in a city like New York, Yeah,

that's obviously it's a really good reason. That's a huge issue. I

mean, it's not like it's something bad, like if you've got an accident

or plane got late, something that's beyond our control, understandable. But if

it's just because you feel like it, are you know, you're that diva.

No, not just on York side, I'm on their side. Yeah,

any any metropolitan area where you're depending on public transportation, Yeah, that's

going to cause a real problem for you, if you know. I mean,

it's it hasn't happened to me, but I've known people, you know,

who go to shows in Boston that for some reason run ridiculously late,

and then they you know, and then they have trouble getting getting on the

subway. But then you also, if you're a parent, this is your

your out. You've got to You've got a babysitter at home who's got school

the next day, expected to be home at eleven o'clock at night, I'm

less, and they're not getting out of the venue until one am. Yeah,

I'm a little less sympathetic to that argument, only because, well only

because you know, I mean, the transportation issue is is something is one

thing, but you know, you kind of I mean, it is kind

of baked into the cake that if you're going to a concert, you're you're

gonna you're gonna be late. You just don't expect to be, but you

don't you don't want to be so late that you can't get home. No,

I don't know. I don't wire you against the parents. I'm not

against it. I just said I'm less sympathetic to that argue. You have

any You see, you don't have any idea how hard it is as a

parent. I don't to get time off, to get tickets, to get

a babysitter, if you've got pets, whatever it is, get all of

these things lined up so you can have those couple of hours out. Well,

most people, when they hire babysitters, there are other kiddos who got

to go to school the next day, and you can't be sending them home

at two three o'clock in the morning. Well, this is time to get

home. This is the entire reason why I never wanted to start a family,

why I have no children of my own, and I decided at a

young age I have no I have no interest in being a father, specifically

because if I ever I knew I knew from this is something I understood about

myself from a young age. If I ever wanted to attend a Madonna or

a Guns n' Roses concert, the children were just going to drag me down,

because then I'd have to be worried about, you know, the babysitter

getting home for them. So I said, you know what, I just

can't have kids. What was that did you? What was that sound?

Did you hear that it sounded like a train horn track. It actually did.

Yeah, maybe it was. We are on street level now, like

that's true. Well, that's exciting. We have a crazy cool new building.

Yes, and you know what, we can see stuff, but the

people outside can't see it. So you can make like silly faces and they

won't see you. Says here. The plaintiffs are suing for unspecified damages.

This is not the first time fans have expected I'm sorry, I've objected to

the singer being late for her shows, and in twenty nineteen, a fan

sued over a delay for a US show, but he voluntarily dismissed the case

a month later, according to ABC News. In the same year, Madonna

had shared a post of her live on stage in which she told fans,

quote, there's something you all need to understand, and that is that a

queen is never late unquote. Oh my, so that's such a so when

she graces us with her presence in her own time, because she's the queen.

Thanks, Madonna's sold out qua tonight myself I can be lead everywhere now.

Her sold out Celebration tour was a Greatest Hits show, including more than

forty songs from her career to celebrate the fortieth anniversary of her breakout single Holiday,

playing venues including the US, Canada, and Europe. The singer had

a health scare. I'd forgotten about this. She had a health scare last

summer after she was found unconscious in her New York apartment in June and rushed

to the hospital, where she received treatment for a serious bacterial infection. She

later said she was lucky to be alive and postpone the start of the tour

from July to October last year. See, now that's different. That's way

beyond her control. Sure, you know, don't die. We want you

to play. Not die. That is beyond her control. But the simply

be late, offer no explanation anything like that. Yeah, you just screwed

up a whole bunch of I mean, how many thousands of people were there,

right, you know what I mean? And it's a week night.

See it's a weeknight. Really kicks me because it really messes up everybody.

Uh huh. But this is a good example too of why. And this

is advice that no one will probably take, but you should. If you're

gonna buy tickets to to a show, And there's another reason why I say

this. You should always before you buy those tickets, no matter how excited

you are, just do some quick light research so you know exactly what you're

getting into. There's an element of buyer beware to this, and I'll tell

you what I mean by that. So somebody like, see, I didn't

know this about Madonna. I just knew it about guns and Roses because of

Axel Rose. But you know, but I've also never been interested in seeing

Madonna live. So uh, but you know, you want to know at

You kind of want to know what you're getting into because if it's if it's

an artist who is notorious for being late, you you know, if it's

going to be a problem for you potentially, like if you have kids and

you know you've you've got a babysitter and you've got to be home at a

certain time, you know you're you're gonna want to know that before you buy

those tickets. Especially I assume she's charging outrageous sums of money, because all

major artists do. But the other reason I I there's an unrelated reason that

I always say this to people too, that has nothing to do with punctuality.

There are a lot of if you're seeing you especially see this with classic

rock bands, seventies you know, rock bands, Eighties rock bands, and

and I suppose at this point some nineties bands as well. You know,

if you're going to see a band and you're someone who is concerned about who's

knowing who's actually in the band, for example, or you know, are

they are, how how are how are they doing on stage? Are the

shows good? Or are they stumbling out there addled with drugs and alcohol or

whatever? It's it's worth well, but it's me that is their issue back

then if you call back then sure, so if you were going to that

concert, you knew, you knew what to expect back then. And yeah,

now they're all pretty clean, I think, but much to not be.

Yeah, you get to a point where you can't do that anymore or

you'll die. But but the reason I say this is there's a lot of

bands now and and some people get upset and they don't realize what they're getting

into. So I'll just give you an example. If you say foreigner,

this is a perfect example. Say foreigner is touring. If you're someone who's

particularly concerned about who's actually going to be on stage. There's so many examples

of this, but Foreigner is a great example. If you're someone who's concerned

about who's actually going to be on stage when you go to see them.

Is it going to be any semblance of the original lineup, the one you

grew up with, the one that you love. Is Lou Graham going to

be singing? Spoiler alert? He is not Kelly Hanson I think has been

singing for Foreigner, probably for at least two decades now, longer than Lou

Graham was ever even in the band. You know you're gonna want to do

some it'll take you two minutes. Just do some quick light research before you

buy those tickets. If you're someone who is concerned about that. Now,

the average consumer I don't think cares. But let me just tell you,

if you go to see Foreigner, there's nobody in that band on that stage

who is an original member at this point. Even what's his name? Is

it Mick Jones? I always get to get the name wrong. I did

not know this. The guitar player. It's the guitar player's name something Jones

is. I feel like it's Mick Jones, but I'm not sure Anyway,

the the guitar player in Foreigner actually now manages the band, and he doesn't

he doesn't even want to be on stage, the original guitar player. Yeah,

yeah, he So he's still he's still part of the band, but

not on stage. He runs the band. He acts as tour manager,

but he but he lets them go out on stage and perform. He doesn't

want to perform anymore. But right, but he's still you know, so

he's still making that money. Interesting thing. A number of years ago,

Foreigner went on a tour with Cheap Trick, but Cheap Trick's management insisted that

the guitar player had to actually participate in a certain percentage of the shows.

Oh, they wanted at least one original Yeah. Yeah. Things like that

happen when in what was it, two thousand and four or two thousand and

five, when Kiss and Aerosmith did their co headlining tour. They Aerosmith actually

closed out every show. Kiss was on first and then Aerosmith, so they

weren't really co headlining because you know, whoever goes on last is truly the

headliner. So really Aerosmith was the headliner and Kiss was the opener. They

called it a co headlining tour because they're both like that. But the thing

is, so dare you say such thing? Well, the thing is,

though Aerosmith management, when they put that deal together, they had leverage because

Aerosmith had all five original members, whereas Kiss had a different guitar player because

Ace Frehley had left the band again, so they had Tommy Thayer on guitar.

So when they were putting the deal for the tour together, which Doc

McGee, the manager of Kiss who's still the manager of Kiss today, he

really wanted that tour. He really wanted that tour, so he agreed,

you know, okay, so Kiss will open all the shows. We're gonna

call it co headliner. They're going to play the same amount of time,

but Kiss is going to open every night because Aerosmith had had all five original

members and Kiss only had three of the four original members. So Aerosmith had

that leverage. But I'm just saying, if you're someone who because you know,

every once in a while, I'll see people online. Oh I went

to see such and such band and I didn't even recognize anybody on the stage.

I can out first do some light research. There are there have been

instances where this is something I'd have to do a little deeper research to really

get into the subject in depth, but we'll do it on a future show

because it is a fascinating subject. I think there was a point where remember

the band La Guns. Yes, the Ballad of Jane was like their big,

massive hit, but they had a few other hits. Oh, that's

right, Edgewise open for La Guns right right right over there, right right,

because we're on Canal Street now, so right across the street at Jewel

that's right. I forgot about that. There was a point where there were

two versions of La Guns touring at the same time, one with Tracy Guns

and one other version with I think the singer, and it was yeah and

and of course and well that's crazy. Yeah, you know now he is.

You have to be a deep fan to know which concert to go to

or like, whose side are you on. That's why I tell everybody if

if it matters to you, if it matters to you, And like I

said too, you know, to the average no clue, to the average

concertgoer who just likes going to a concert, they probably don't even care.

And that's what the industry depends on. That's what these these bands who do

this, that's what they depend on. You don't care who's in the band,

so it doesn't matter, and everybody's replaceable. But if you do care,

do the research. And and to kind of circle back to the Madonna

thing again, you know it's going to be the real Madonna, unless it's

an AI version of Madonna or something. But do the research. If you're

concerned about what time you're going to be getting out of that venue, do

the research. I don't think it's going to be too far that we're not

look at it, look at it? Is that AI? Is that not

AI? I mean, isn't Kiss supposed to be setting up something like that?

The avatars? Yeah, that's all. It's basically it's AI. Yeah.

So yeah, we may welcome to the twenty second Center. Twenty first

No, not yet, Okay, No, I have to say, though

I love living in my jestsine world, I really do remember your kid,

you've watched that stuff. Now now we have it, we can come on

yet all right, I don't have my car and suitcase yet. I'll give

you that. I'll give you that, but I do have the screen come

up and somebody there and we can Yeah. Yeah, but uh, I

don't know why. I mean, I don't know how this lawsuit is gonna

end up. But I assume, you know, just uh, just refund

their money, right something. You would think that hopefully nothing really really bad

happened because of this, right. There's a huge difference between getting out of

a venue around eleven o'clock and getting out at one am. There really is

a big difference between them. Yeah, and I don't blame people for being

upset if there was no good reason, given it doesn't sound like they any

reason. Well, if something happened in her defense, I mean, she

had that post from a while ago when she said, you know, she's

the queen. Yeah, that's not good enough. She's never late. Yeah,

no, that's Queen Latiza shows up on time and she is the queen

of course. Yeah. Yeah, no, no, I don't. I

don't think that's good enough. No. I think you owe your fans something

when they're gonna come spend all that money to come see you and spend money

on all your march. I wonder if she sings live, can you imagine

standing well for me, it would never happen. I could have never if

you had seats that were a ground level. Everybody's standing or your no seat.

What if you're on the floor, there's no seat, you're standing there,

and you're spending over two hours on your feet before you even get to

see a show. No better be a good show. I couldn't do that.

I would have to leave. Do you think she sings live or does

she lipsing? Of course I wouldn't be her non seated because she probably still

dances around, right, she probably can't sing live anymore? Does her face

even move? Have you seen her? Have you seen her? It's awful.

Have you seen how strange she looks. I'm just saying because she's she's

had all that. I mean, she looks weird. A lot of she

looks very strange. A lot of people seem to enjoy plastic surgery in a

way that it's psychologically addictive. Yes, I believe that. Yeah, oh

yeah, no, it definitely is. Yeah. Then you're staring at yourself,

always looking for flaws. I hate that. I hate that it makes

people do that. I suspect what happens is beautiful people have they get the

plastic surgery, and then they're they're not happy with the result and they probably

it becomes like, you know how if you know how if you're addicted to

uh well, addicted to anything, if you're addicted to drugs, and you

get into that, Okay, just one more fix, just one more fix.

Or if you're addicted to video games, you know, just one more

game, just one more game, and then we're gonna put down this controller.

I think I think it's the same thing. It's probably probably the same

thing with plastic surgery. You get plastic surgery, and then you thought it

was going to make you look so much younger and it doesn't, and then

you go, all right, I'm just going to get one more surgery,

just one more surgery, just this, yeah, just that, yeah,

and then you end up like and then you end up like Kenny Rodgers.

Like remember, like in the last ten years that he was still alive,

he looked like a different person, Like he had a different face because you

know, he just kept getting plastic surgery. And it can be pretty addictive

to people, you know, but I'll never shame somebody for doing it.

But you know me, personally, I love imperfection. I think imperfection is

the most beautiful thing in art everything. I like when I make scarves and

things. There's always something maybe a stitch got dropped and I pulled it back

up, or one's a little tighter than the other. That's part of what

makes it special and unique is that each one has its own and that's what

I like about art. I don't want it to be. If I want

something perfect computerized, well that I can go to a computer. But if

I want something that's that has passion in it, or emotion or feeling whatever

it is that I'm looking at, I want those imperfections. It's what makes

them beautiful. Uh. Six O three two five six seven is a studio

line six O three two five six seven. If you'd like to chime in

on anything. Hey, Uh a separate story just briefly, but uh,

because we have guests coming in in the second hour. But uh, this

is story on the Verge dot com, which is a great site. Uh.

TikTok can generate AI songs, but it probably shouldn't, it says here.

TikTok has launched many songs that have gone viral over the years, but

now it's testing a feature that lets more people exercise their songwriting skills with some

help from AI. AI song generates songs from text prompts with the help of

large language model Bloom. Users can write out lyrics on the text field when

making a post. TikTok will then recommend AI song to add sounds to the

post excuse me, and they can toggle the song's genre. Quote. It's

not technically an AI song generator, the name is likely to change and it's

currently in testing at the moment. Unquote. Barney Hooper, spokesperson for TikTok,

excuse me, send in an email to the Verge. Quote. Any

music used is from a pre saved catalog created within the business. In essence,

it pairs the lyrics with the pre saved music based on three genres,

pop, hip hop, and edm unquote. The feature was first spotted last

week. AI song doesn't seem to be available to everyone yet, but some

TikTok users have already begun experimenting with it. The results so far are not

great. Many are out of time despite the availability of auto tuning vocals.

There's an exam we'll hear from user Jonah Manzano, who created a song that

somehow tried to make the word comedy have more syllables than it needs. Another

user I would play these, but I don't know if there's any bad language

in them. Another user, Christy Lalani, sort of recreated a Britney Spears

song, but again with severely out of time vocals. I'm curious to hear

those AI generated songs, however, are not new to TikTok. The now

infamous AI Drake and the weekend song Heart on My Sleeve gained virality on the

platform. Bad Buddy also criticized people for listening to an AI sound alike posted

on TikTok. TikTok is not the only platform to lean into generative AI features

for its users. YouTube began testing a music creation functionality that lets users make

songs from either text prompts or a hummed tune dream track, allows for thirty

second snippets in the style of other popular artists. To be more sparent,

TikTok rolled out other features that help identify AI created content on the app and

updated its rules requiring users to be upfront about using AI in their content.

So hey, we should mention too you you've been posting videos on TikTok and

doing quite Oh, let me unmute your mic there and doing quite well.

Yeah, that's not the weirdest thing. Like, I just really haven't put

a lot up there. But yeah, I mean, shoot, one of

my videos is over thirty three hundred. Yeah, yeah, but there's quite

a number of them that are well over a thousand, actually a lot more

than I realized now that I'm looking at it. Yeah, I only just

recently started playing with TikTok and it seems like a fun space. Yeah,

Rocky say on there. Oh, our friend Rocky Hubert yeh, TikTok channel

on there. He does very well. Yeah, he does a lot.

It's interesting that you just get these little small snippets of things. But it

is addictive when you talk about addiction. It is addictive because you can sit

there and just scroll in video video video. It's very easy to go down

that rabbit hole and stay there. But it's also really cool to see snippets

of other people's stuff I've got, So it's yeah, it's a rabbit hole

that you can enjoy but try not to disappear into. Well, that's the

thing, I mean, the addictive nature of it. And again that you

know, as we were just talking about a few minutes ago, a psychological

addiction, it's kind of what they're counting on in a way, right,

I think that's part of the business model, is that you'll get hooked in

and you know, and that's true of any platform really, not just you

know, there's a lot of talk these days about how social media people become

addicted to it, but really, anything anything that you do online, any

website, if it's a blog, side, if it's anything, well it's

perfect for it. They want to keep you there as much as they can.

Well, when these and the fact that their snippets actually helps that it's

a small moment of time and then you're onto the next, on to the

next. Right when you watch a video, you might get two three minutes

into it and you're going, I don't know, I'm getting kind of tied

of this and you move along to something else. When you're looking at something

that's so short, it's easy to keep your attention because there's always something new

rotating in front of you. Yeah, so it's very easy to get suck

into that. I mean, I'm not obviously, I'm on there now,

so obviously I'm not against it. I think it's got its place. I

think it's a fun way to share art at least, you know, Yeah,

to be creative. Yeah, it's a great creative space. I don't

like this AI and songs though, I mean, because they're one hundred percent

the music that they're using is everybody else's. Yeah, it's not original music.

Although is there really any original music if you think of it. I'm

curious to try it and play around with it, you want to flare around.

The only thing I've done so far is uh, just you know,

when I started using chat GPT, which is fun, and of course I

use it in my work somewhat, but I like, I asked it to

write a kiss song, you know, and I came up with you know,

is pretty pretty silly lyrics. So you see, I'm still on the

fence. I have a book in progress, and I keep thinking about how

I'm going to edit this book. Yeah, and there's a part of me

that says, geez, maybe I should use AI to edit. It would

get a lot of that stuff, and it would give me the control of

making sure that my voice doesn't get lost. But then do I want my

written work on this thing. I'm really on the fence. I can't make

up my mind just yet on should I use the AI to do the editing

and try and try and just do it one hundred percent of my own,

or should I try and find somebody that can work with me and help string

the story along together and edit with me. You know, I think using

it for editing would be probably not not great. I don't think. I

don't think it would be effective for that. Like I use it for if

I have something that's going on a website that I want to say, you

know, edit this, but maximize it for search engine optimization in terms of

using keywords. But I think for I think for writing, for editing your

writing, I think it would be uh. I think I think you'd you'd

accidentally stumble into plagiarism because it's going to start. I think it's it's going

to start editing that based on what else is out there, and you're you're

gonna end up. I think you would end up accidentally plagiarizing something. Now,

now there's other tools you can use, right, but there's other tools

you can then use to fix that. I wasn't even going there. I

was thinking more about the fear of putting my writing on this thing. Yeah,

you know, well but that but but that's going to happen anyway.

Once you publish it, you're putting it out in the world. Now.

Grammarly has a plagiarism checker, and there's other tools you can use for that

too, that will then take that content and unplagiarize it. For you have

a weird thing about my writing and that I am always assessed to using words

that most people don't use. So I don't usually run into that. I

come, it's weird. All those games and things you do, I always

end up in the weird, weird zone. But I would hate to mix

it. And then you're not sure what part is mine? What part did

it use? Yeah, no, I think you just talked me out even

considering it. Yeah, I don't. I never thought about it on that

side. I don't. I mean, I'm not an expert, but I've

been trying to learn all that I can because it's fascinating. It is fascinating,

and you can do some really cool things with chat GPT mm hmm.

Well let's let's let's do this. We'll take a break. We're going to

play a couple of songs and then show some love to our amazing sponsors,

and then we've got our number two coming up. We've got guests who I'm

really looking forward to talking to. But I think I'm gonna play something from

I'm gonna play something from Abner, the second song called the Audrey at Burns,

which he played here, well not here, but when we were in

the old studio, which which he played live for us. And I'm also

going to play a track for Regals who are also playing tonight. They've got

I assume it's the single because they have a video for it called the Orbit

of Your Heart. Although I had to make it. I had to make

a radio edit of it because there's a bad word, but I didn't even

pick up on that there is a bad word, but I made it.

But I made a radio edit because I really want to play it because it

is a great song. That's awesome. So we'll play those. We're going

to show some love to our amazing sponsors, and then we'll be back with

our number two. We've got guests, our first guests in the new studio

here on Canal Street, so we are live. Matt Connorton Unleashed will continue

does continue live from w M and H ninety five point three in glorious Manchester,

New Hampshire and uh here's uh here it is the Audrey It burns from

Abner the Second or Abner two. You're listening to wum and h come he

God, don't get so freenly mattself coving. Welcome back everybody. It is

Matt connorton on as we enter our number two New Marrow Dose live from the

studios of w m n H ninety five point three FM and Glorious Manchester,

New Hampshire, our brand new studio on Canal Street. So yes, we

are actually live. It is January twentieth, twenty twenty four. I hope

I said. Did I say twenty four at the start of the show today?

I'm worried I actually said twenty three. I think he said twenty four.

You know how people get, you know, they forget, like they

write the wrong year on checks and whatnot. For the first month. Most

people don't even write checks anymore. That's true. I'm just worried that I

actually will have to tell people don't even write anymore. We'll have to listen

back to the podcast. I'm worried that I said twenty three at the start

of the thick on you if it is or I could just edit it and

then no one will know ha ha, I will know you will, I

will tell you. So. Jenny is here of course at the news desk.

I am present and account at four and if you are just joining us,

like I said, this is our so of course you know the morning

show's been here now and last night I was here for retch Spectrum Radio with

poly C but the way, thank you, thank you, But this is

our first Matt Connorton Unleashed in the new studio. Tell you you inspired me

to paint last night. What do you mean, Oh, the show Retrospector

Radio inspired you? Yeah, big time? Oh good. I'll have to

show you the canvas when we go home. Yes, and a beautiful background

started. Excellent, excellent. So we also have our first guests on Matt

Connorton Unleashed now that we are are in the new studio. So we have

my old friend Derek Smith is here. Hello, Derek, I met,

Nice to see you, and and uh you brought Nick and Chloe here with

you. Welcome, nice to be here, thanks for having and uh and

I got to turn those mics. I'm getting used to getting used to the

new MIC's here, the new setup. Turn you guys up a little bit

there. So Uh. Now, obviously I've known Derek for like twenty years,

but uh, who are who are the two of you? Who are

Nick and Chloe? Well, my name's Cloches Stoptmeyer and Nick and I are

both representatives and board members of a really cool space that's kind of coming up

and coming here in Manchester. Yes, yes, it's called the Mosaic Arts

Collective, located at sixty six Hanover Street, right next to the Palace Theater

and a couple other really important Hanover Street entities. We are more than just

a gallery. We do have gallery space where lots of local artists are exhibiting

over the last year and it's been really fulfilling to see these local artists come

from all over New Hampshire and beyond New Hampshire to come show their work of

all levels in the space. But one of the cool things about Mosaic is

that it's not just a gallery. It is also a studio space and a

workshop space and a classroom and a collective for all of the arts community of

Manchester to kind of share and come together. And m yeah, that's artists

that are just starting out, that's established artists we do art calls, so

like anyone can enter and join a show and show what they have. Ok.

Sorry, okay, I forgot I muted my mic for a second.

Yeah, I'm still getting used to the new the new set up here.

Yeah, Jenny and I have been there, so we've been there twice now.

We were there for the show. Uh there for a concert. Yeah,

who was who was? I forget who was playing that night? Derek

will remember that was back in December. Yeah, yeah, and that was

the first one had Evan Benoit Happy just to see you and the DJ visit

from Portland, Maine. Yeah, yep, yeah, he was great.

Well, both both of them were really good. And then we were there

a number of weeks ago for the during the daytime for there was a presentation

of talk on AI in art in many different forms, which was really interesting.

I really learned a lot about AI that I did not know before.

So it was a great talk and I know they have more things like that

coming up. And tonight we're gonna go see Abner the second Yes and Regal

Yes, Regals. Forgive me, I forgot to put the s on.

Yeah, I was checking checking them out last night. I was really enjoying

their music, so I'm looking forward to seeing them live tonight. And the

space is so uniquely cool in that the Misaic are collective. When you walk

in, it's just it's art. You walk into this this really amazing space

that has different different people's work, different types of talents, different types of

textures and styles, and then you have this warm room in the middle where

the music is and everybody can gather and and then there's a lot of artist

spaces there. They're beautiful. It's just a really uniquely cool place, that

little little diamond on the rough of the city that even once you know it's

there, yeah, right right, yeah, it is sort of set up.

We are located on the second floor, so we are a little kind

of set back and a little hidden there, but it is a diamond when

you when you first walk in. And the space has served a numerous amount

of purposes for many artists and creative in Manchester over the last year plus.

I love that you guys have been into shows and seeing some of our music

that's happened so far. That's really exciting. Yeah. Oh yeah, yeah,

no, we fell in love really quickly. Yeah, absolutely, No,

very cool place now, so so the two of you, Nick and

Kloy, so you're both on the board. Correct's correct? Now? How

did so how did this get started? How did the art collective get started?

So it started back in August they did a show called Full Circle and

it was kind of, like I said, an art call so local artists

could are participate. My friend Cassie has sent me a link and I entered

and I met Liz when I dropped off, and it was just extremely warm

and welcome. You just walk in and you just kind of feel like comfortable

and it's just kind of been like that all year and it's snowballed and now

we're a nonprofit with the board which we joined, and it's it's just a

nice spot for people to show this art that are local. And right now

there's a show called This is Us plus Some, so the board members brought

in a guest each to show some art that are like local leaders in the

in the area. Yea, really all of New England, but mostly local

to the after Okay, I assume you know we we always talk Jenny and

I talked about talk about this on the show quite a bit, you know,

because we have a lot of musicians on. We're always talking about how

it's amazing how much local talent there is and and you would you know,

you almost and I assume it's not obviously, it's not unique to this area

any anywhere. Really, you know, there's you're going to find a lot

of music, local musicians in your area who are doing really great stuff.

And I don't think people who aren't paying attention realize just how much talent there

is going on around them that they're not aware of unless they're actually taking the

time to investigate and go out to see shows or go just go online and

find what local musicians are doing. I assume it's the same with art,

right, that there's just all this talent all around us that unless you're really

kind of tuned in and paying attention, you don't even you don't even know

that it's there unless you at least put in the effort to you know,

to check out a place like Mosaic and explore. Yeah. Absolutely, Mosaic

was the first place that I ever showed. I had no idea. I've

lived in New Hampshire for ten years now, so yeah, it's like I

had no idea that everyone was around here doing uh this much it's the community.

I just was oblivious too. Yeah, So it's really cool just to

see and meet all these people over the year and it felt like it felt

like years really been one year, so it's like this place is just kind

of blown up in Manchester. That's really cool that that was your first time.

I talked to Liz, and at some point, when I get daring

enough, i'll submit something. But I like hearing that you did it for

the first time and then here you are, So that's awesome encouraging, it's

encouraging. What goes into that is showing? Is that the right term?

Show? Sure? Exhibitioning showing? Yeah, like what goes into that?

So it is, uh, it's a team effort. So this this current

show that we have up was a little bit of a different structure. It

was an invitation structure, so that was a little bit different. We we

reached out to artists and invited them to come into the space and show.

Typically we run a open call every month, and for an open call,

anybody is welcome to enter, and we love that everybody does. Like when

you say everybody, like how many people doesn't end up being Oh, it

depends. So some of the things that might dictate who enters a show are

We try to assign a theme to each month that might be relevant to something

that's happening in the month or relevant to our own timeline as a gallery.

So I think different themes attract different kinds of artists and attract different kinds of

work. So, for example, in October, this most recent October,

we did the Never More show, and I think Halloween is a very popular

thing for artists. I can imagine. Yeah, yeah, thats we had

just an influx of just amazing work, all inspired by spooky October things.

Yes, and that was on the flip end, you know. Then the

board has to get together and review all these submissions and make selections, and

once we have that list of work that's selected to make it into the show,

then we have to hang it on the wall. Yeah yeah, So

that has always been fun. And I think I can speak for more than

just myself when I say the hanging parties that we do at Mosaic have been

a really huge team building experience for the steps or those of us that are

involved with that process. We have really had every month just this wonderful point

to come together, touch touch base, kind of collaborate on on this on

this show, that's going to mean something to everyone, not just us,

and it's it provides all of us such a such a great feeling of fulfillment

and happiness, and we all walk away from those days those evenings feeling really

uplifted, and you know, I think recognizing what this was all about in

the first place, Liz moved. Liz is the owner and founder of Mosaic,

and she moved back into this area to hooks the area after living in

Vermont for quite a while, and I think her time in Vermont, she

found that there was a really thriving, collaborative local arts community and when she

moved back to this space, was sort of surprised to see a different environment

in this space. And I think she saw identified and then executed the need

to produce a space where the local artists here in Manchester could come and really

live up to what some of the other like small local art communities in the

US are doing all around us. And it's sort of collected and organized that

effort into one space. And seeing that come to fruition over the last year

has been I think to next point, it's felt like a decade, not

just you know, we've gained a decades worth of friends and met a decade's

worth of people all in the last year, and network and inspiration and collaboration,

all of that and last year. It's mind blowing to think how much

has happened, no doubt. It's interesting how people can interact with the artists

more here too, where it is a local collective of artists, you have

the opportunity to speak to the artists or get closer to them than you would

in a large gallery situation where you might see their name, but you wouldn't

even know what they look like. Yeah, Here, the artists can be

more more in touch or they're more reachable. I'm curious too about the submission

because you're talking about like the board, you've got to review all the submissions,

and that is that a difficult process because I would imagine because obviously art,

any kind of art, is subjective, and so I would imagine there's

some disagreement right about, you know, like someone might like something and someone

else will say, no, we can't. Yeah, exactly. I mean,

you have three of us, try to do it at a time,

so that you know there's a tiebreaker vote type of thing. Oh, okay,

that's smart. You know, like if it was one person, it's

going to be pretty biased. But if you have three people doing it,

then it's like two people could agree and one guy's like maybe iffy about it,

or like two people could kind of be iffy about it, and then

you have the third person say, yeah, that's like why not bring that

in and that type of thing. Like, so it is a collaborative effort,

like with everything. So like judging a show, hanging a show,

like Chloe said, we all show up and kind of take a wall and

hang the show, and then we also have the openings like where you can

meet the artist because most of them show up. So it's like you can

just go to an opening and see something on the wall and the person standing

right there to talk to. So yeah, yeah, very cool. Yeah,

there's lots of checks and balances and how we make those selections, and

I think one of the core elements that we keep in mind when we're making

them is the mission of Mosaic, which is to help build and nurture and

influence the growth of one's practice in a safe place. So when we're making

these selections, we're keeping in mind that this is not just about what is

the internationally technically good like museum artwork. This is about real art. This

is about community art, This is about self expression, and this is about

being supported in that. Yeah, yeah, excellent. And now, Derek,

how did you get involved? Obviously, you know you've been You've been

booking the music and you and I have known each other for a long time

in the in the music industry. We used to do Jenny's heard this of

course, but you know, back in the day, we used to book

a lot of shows and you introduced me to well, you know, we

were sort of half kidding at the at the show that Jenny and I went

to that. You know, Acacia Strain. They owe all their success to

us because we booked them on a show. I'm honestly surprised they're still the

band, they are still around. Well, you know, they had a

great start because we booked them, So I don't pave the way, that's

right, They all all it all to us. But yeah, so how

did you get involved in the collective? Once I moved back earlier last year

and in the spring, I reached out to Liz. I was just looking

for some sort of outlet because I had initially won to start the gallery collective

of my own in the city here when I lived here, you know,

ten plus years ago, and that never materialized. So I started. I

started my online gallery of artists only, and you know, I've just hosted

a bunch of artists throughout the country and international, but I still wanted a

physical space because the idea was always to include a monthly showcase of performers.

And I reached out to her to see if she was open to the idea,

and she was, so I met with her, went over some logistics

and we you know, that was in the fall that I met her initially,

and we had the first show, as you mentioned, in December.

So yeah, it's just gonna we're gonna try to keep doing them. Are

you still doing your online gallery? Period? Not as regularly as it had

been, but yeah, it used to be a more full web page.

Now it's it's solely structured to Instagram. So that's that artists only Aoh oh

okay, okay, what goes into that an online gallery? I mean,

do people contact you and say I'd like to feature How does that work?

I don't get contacted so much as I network with the artists, I'll reach

out to someone i'd like to feature. Also, it's it's nonprofit, so

I'll just also sometimes repost various artists work and give them the credit. Yeah.

Yeah, what was your Instagram page? It's artists only and then the

abbreviation AO at the end. And now for the music, are you booking

all the music at the at Mosaic? Is that that's all you at the

moment? Yeah, I mean I know it's relatively new still, but right.

Yeah, So this is the the second one tonight. I already have

the one set up for next month, will be on the seventeenth. It's

going to be more of an electronic night with two solo electronic artists, another

one from Portland, Maine, Gibbs Freelance, and I try to have a

local support as an opener for draw And that's going to be Danny Kemp's any

Camps. Yeah, he does kind of like he plays guitar and bass,

but he also this is around with since how do you how do you figure

out who would be a good fit? I mean, is there do you

do the musicians that you're booking, do they have to kind of fit a

do you have a certain criteria in mind in terms of who would you know,

because it's not it's obviously at a place like Mosaic, it's you know,

you want to have artists, musicians who are gonna fit the vibe.

I mean, how do you Is that a big part of the process in

terms of figuring out who to who to book there? Somewhat? Yeah,

I mean I'll I'll try to have it, you know, be some sort

of complimentary in a sense, but I'm all for diversity as well, so

maybe in shows to come it'll be more of a an abstract bill. Yeh,

yeah, I mean that, you know. When we were there that

night, I mean that that seemed perfect, you know, that seemed like

just the perfect fit for for that, you know, And it's such a

it's such an amazing space. You're sitting in the middle of all this beautiful

art and the space is so it's yeah, God, I'm looking for a

word that's not coming to me, huh, intimate, intimate. That is

exactly what I was looking for. You And the sound is just really great

with the musicians. I'm telling you, it's totally worth going there to listen

to the music. It's just such a great space. To be in.

It's more personable. You know the artist is right there, not humpteen feet

away from you or what have you. Yeah, yeah, no, I

really am. I've already written it down February seventeenth, got that February seventeenth,

after tonight will be the next music night, so I'll have that down.

Love to actually keep in touch and bring musicians that you have, bring

them to our listeners. If we haven't beat each to the punch we already

had yeah yeah, yeah, I mean if they're available or before the show

on some Saturday and we started to see a lot of oneful musicians. If

you ever need anybody, please don't hesitate. I love recommendations that come in

and go out. So thanks for that. Absolutely absolutely, I'm I really

am excited about tonight's show too. Regals is new to me, never heard

of them before the and I'm really interesting sound. I really enjoyed. We

were listening last night because I was just playing. I always play something I

have tonight, so I always have something in the room going on. Really

great sound, really great. They started as a three piece and I first

saw them perform over at two Shared Okay, and they've expanded to a fuller

band. Ryan Egan, who leads the band, has been in former Manchester

bands. Before Happy Just to See You were that band. It was Bad

Fellows and he played drums with them, and it was also in a band

called Pleasure Gap. Okay, he's been a man Us through a staple for

ten plus years. This city has a lot of arts, a lot of

amazing artists. I didn't realize how much until last year when we've really started

concentrating hard on bringing in more musicians and more artists. This city is bursting

with incredible talent. It's just amazing to me what we have in this city.

You think New Hampshire kind of a small state. We can fit your

whole state inside of New York as far as people go. But we really

are very blessed with a lot of amazing talent and different genres, all kinds

of genres. If you ever want to try out a new genre, a

small venue like this is absolutely perfect to go listen to something you haven't seen

before, like Abner two or the second Abner the Second. I never know

which way to go either or I think, really he's amazing. He uses

a viola and does this looping technique and the music he creates, and I

love his voice. The songs he creates are absolutely awesome. It was funny

because Matt's been playing him for a very long time before we ever had him

on as a guest. We finally got him on a Gut as a guest,

and I got the joy of sitting there going We've been playing you for

years. Him being on this show was actually how I realized that Matt had

started a radio show. Oh no kidding, I was. I was still

in Austin, Texas at the time, and I saw Zach Abner post about

it. Oh cool, yeah, cool, excellent. The small world comes

around. That's good to hear. By the way, the studio line is

open. If you have any questions or feedback or anything at all for our

guests, you can give us a call six O three two five oh six

oh seven six O three two five oh six oh seven. You can also

text us at six one seven nine one seven four four seven six. I'm

on social media at Matt Connorton. You can email me Matt at Matt Coonorton

dot com. But we would love to hear your adulca tones at six oh

three two five oh six o seven. So now, so what does the

future hold for for Mosaic? I mean, is is there kind of a

long term plan as far as continuing to expand what you're doing? Or we

have some really exciting stuff that you know is maybe potentially hanging in our future,

but some of the more kind of immediate moments that we'd really love to

see the community show up and support. And is of course our music night

tonight, and so doors will open at seven pm. Okay, it is

a twenty one plus show, but we will be having refreshments by donation and

live music and we expect the show will run through about ten pm. Okay,

this evening cool, So feel free to stat by between seven and ten

and come check us out and see what the gallery has to offer. Jenny

and I'll be there. So you come say hello to us, say hello

to Are you an artist? Do you want to be young? Hi?

Absolutely? Now, in the course of the collective, you guys operate mostly

on donation, right, correct, So we are a nonprofit, so we

really do rely on support from our community by donation and also by showing up

and being in the shows. Right. Submitting it feels like really cheap isn't

it like ten dollars? I think ten to fifteen dollars. Yeah, it's

very accessible. That's our aim and our goal is to keep it that way.

You take a chance without losing your grocery bill, which I think that's

it makes it all the more accessible to everybody. Right, you don't have

to be somebody with a whole lot of money to try and buy your way

in through a gallery. Your donation is helping to fund this beautiful space for

local artists, which, as people know, Matt and I are huge on

supporting all local artists and you can't go wrong when you support your community anyway.

Yeah, we actually have a sticker to support local art which is three

dollars which helps artists with submission fees. And we also have gift cards done

by Jackie Hanson which you can kind of buy over time if you want to

save up for yourself or give it to someone else to buy a piece at

the gallery, or you can use it towards your submission fees for open calls.

So, okay, the next open call that we have is all heart

statuses for February show. So it can neither be you know about your relationship

or love for whoever, or it could be about how love sucks and you

can just do something for that. So any heart status. Okay, So

it doesn't even necessarily have to be love, you know, it could be

any emotion that you feel you need to express. Oh very good, very

good. Oh I like that. Yeah. So the submission, the submission

date is for that. All submissions are due due by January twenty six at

eleven fifty nine pm, So mark that on your calendars. Okay. So

well, if people go to submit, they take a picture of their work,

send it to you with the fee, and then everybody those looks at

all the different pieces. And now do people come in with huge paintings teeny

tiny paintings? Are there size restrictions like or do you like just send a

picture and go, hey, this is what it is. So typically we

don't do We don't impose many restrictions because we want to see what you have.

You know, we do have space limitations obviously that it's not a huge

room, but we accept three D artwork, two D artwork, digital art

or any kind and the dimensions are completely ope, I mean only the only

limitation we have is can we get it in the room, right, So

it really is open ended and we encourage everybody to kind of not be constricted

in what they're bringing to the table. That's awesome. Yeah, Oh,

I'm glad I asked that question. Yeah, that's a great question. We

have a couple So Nick mentioned that we have a gift card done by a

local artist, Jackie Hansen, who we done some incredible workshops with, and

she actually has a workshop coming up in the next couple of weeks here and

it's actually January twenty fifth. It's going to be an eraser workshop. So

the gift card that we have is kind of done in a similar style where

she has carved into material to create a stamp and then you know, repeat

that artwork, you know, over and over again as many times as she

wants. Interesting. So that's how our gift cards are made, and so

this eraser workshop will be very similar to that in carving into an eraser material,

which is very easy to get accessible. Anybody can find an eraser and

then create a stamp out of it. So that will be a really exciting

workshop coming up, and those who are interested in signing up for that,

I encourage checking out our website and getting a slot ahead of time. Now,

what is the cost on that particular workshop Off the top of my head,

I actually not one hundred percent sure, but I you know, I'm

not even going to give you an estimated figure because I can't remember off the

top of my head. But it is posted on our website. Okay,

okay, oh, I've got it right here. Actually, the erase or

print marketing workshop that is going to be held on January twenty fifth, arrive

at five forty five please, and their address again is sixty six Handover Streets

to a suite two oh one. The thirty five dollars registration fee which covers

all the supplies that you need to make your own to be able to take

that home. Very cool. So that would be your very exciting way to

not only support the gallery but also have something that you get to take home

with you today. Yeah. Yeah, I think it's great that you're doing

something that's not a painting right, right, like different? Yeah no that,

I mean, obviously I paint, but everywhere's always a paint bar.

I want to do something fun, right, it's not something different, something

that you can play with. Yeah, I like that. I like that.

And maybe four to what else from absolutely, Oh, I like to

support local artist sticker. That's really I love stickers. In case you didn't

notice, my laptop is completely covered. Well, you must need one.

I must need one. A very fun fact is the artist who created that

sticker is actually sitting right next to me in this room. There you go.

Hey, no, seriously, I really like this. Yeah. Liz

ree Stone asked if we wanted to do a sticker, and I just kind

of came up with something and we went back and forth about it, and

we actually used that same design for the we were did that Christmas bread recently

and we had a banner on the side that had the same thing. So

that was pretty cool too. Excellent, excellent. Hey, by the way,

this is a little bit, uh not off topic, but not specifically

about the gallery, but I'm just curious do any of you have any thoughts

on because Jenny and I attended that that event there was at the gallery about

AI and art. Do any of you just have any kind of general thoughts

about that or it's kind of a big, big subject, but it's a

broad question, but I'm just curious if any of you have any thoughts on

the matter. Generally, I'm not for AI, but I can understand its

use kind of like I don't know if you're editing something or something like that,

but if you're going from like zero to an image, I don't necessarily

love that use of it. By that, you mean like if you give

it a prompt and create this and create this. Because I don't know.

I I hand draw and I use digital. I think digital is like the

closest they'll get to it. Yea, But no, I understand its uses

though, so generally I'm not for it, but I can see how people

can use it to enhance whatever they're doing the right right or edit their writing.

So say, see, we were talking about that before you guys came

into the show because I have a book started and I was coming in hiring.

Should I use AI to edit the book or not? And now I've

come to the conclusion that I'm not going to. Yeah, but for I

was toying with the idea. I mean, did he talk about of it.

He totally talked me out of it. But I have a unique style

of writing anyway, I don't know that you could fit that into me.

I have a little bit of a different perspective on AI. Oh cool,

so I'm classically trained as a photographer, and I think one of the things

when AI started coming onto the scene that I'm like just immediately started thinking,

was, Man, this this must must be how painters felt when photography hit

the scene, you know, you know, and just to see the medium

ghosts, you know, you have to at least with photography, you had

to actually go to the place and bring the equipment and put that amount of

effort in. Now you can just go type in, make me a picture

of Santorini with a wedding happening, and there it is. You know,

you don't have to be there, so I think, and and similarly to

a painter who used to have to put or still does put hours of time

into accurately translating what they're seeing, and then photography hit the scene and you

just press a button and go about your marry day. Right, I can

only draw like equations to how that must feel there. Yeah, it never

occurred to me. Yeah, but that's yeah, it's an interesting insight.

It seems like it might be some kind of natural progression in you know,

art and technology that we're experiencing. But it's also I am skeptical too.

You know there there. I think AI can be misused, and it is

also a tool that is dictated by humans still, so it's depending upon other

people's work to draw itself into work. It's pulling from everything else that other

people have already done, right, which in a lot of way, we're

doing that right right. So so the only difference is that it's an artificial

intelligence that's drawing inspiration from the world around it rather than an organic intelligence,

so which I think see is the reason to be skeletical. But it is

interesting. Yeah, what do you think, Derek, I think that I'm

I'm anti AI in the respect of, you know, it potentially taking jobs

from people, but I believe that there may be some sort of merit to

it in like the medical field. Yeah, it's they're they're working out ways

to allow even like paralyzed people to walk again. Watch some of those videos.

There's like sensory mechanisms that they have been implanted in people that they're able

to control remotely and you know, give those sort of you know, sensory

function that the body is supposed to and uh, you know, it's it's

it's still at the beginning stages and the people are are still slow to to

get going. But it's yeah, there's it's it's some sort of you know,

progression in that field. Yeah. Well, it's funny you mentioned that

too because when we had when we had Conrad War from the band I don't

know if you know the band Be's Deluxe, really good Boston band, and

and we were talking about that with him, you remember this, and he

was talking about how, for example, if you're a medical professional and you're

you're trying to find a treatment plan for someone with an illness, and you

can, you know, say to AI, you know, give me,

give me three treatment plans for this person and describe the person and and uh,

you know, it can save a lot of time and potentially be very

useful in a situation like that. So as in medicine is just exponentially going,

I agree with you. In a lot of different industries, AI does

and will continue to have a great place. But in art that's where you

and it's all art, whether it's right, whether it's music, whether it's

print, whether it's writing. It adds a lot of guesswork to is this

authentic or not. So I'll just share briefly my my one experience trying to

create visual art using uh Dolly three. I don't know if any of you

have used that at all, but I had to. We did a segment

on the show talking about the Darryl Hall versus John Oates lawsuit a couple of

months ago, and so I took that segment and I put it on YouTube,

and I needed a thumbnail and uh, so I tried using Dolly three

to create. What I wanted was to see because I'd seen I'd seen people

come up with some pretty good stuff using this, So I wanted an image

of Daryl Hall and John Oates in a boxing ring. And what I learned

pretty quickly is it's very resistant too. And we talked about this too at

the event that we went to at a Yeah, this came up at the

event. I wish I could remember that. Who's the gentleman's name, by

the way, do you know offhand? Carl? Carl? I cannot.

I have a mental block with his name. He was very impressive. I

liked his presentation. So we were talking about about this and I remember telling

him I couldn't get it to do that exactly, and he said, it

seems to be the program seems to be very resistant to the idea just broadly

of putting celebrities in violent situations. So it wouldn't let me do that.

So the best I was able to get out of it when I tried to

make that, and I did, I did get it to do. Something

that I used for a thumbnail on the YouTube video was Darryl holland John Oates

at a playing chess, but with angry expressions on their faces. It doesn't

quite look like Darryl holland John Oates, but it looks close enough. The

but they both look angry and it's a funny fixture. But that's the only

thing I've I've used it for so far. But that was kind of fun.

Well, listen, we will, uh, we'll begin to before we

run out of time. I want to make sure, well, actually,

is there anything that we didn't mention, because I know you had a bunch

of things you wanted to mention. I don't want to leave anything out.

I think we got through most of them. The only one that I and

it occurs to me since we're talking talking about Carl's talk, we will be

having another artist talk at the end of January. Here. On January twenty

six, local photographer Gary Sampson, who's actually he's the photographer I invited to

the This is Us plus Some show. He's been my longtime mentor and professor

as a photographer, and he has a really extensive history with Manchester and supporting

historical and cultural preservation in Manchester alongside being also a very prolific artist in his

own respect. Oh cool, And he'll be doing an artist talk on the

twenty sixth January twenty six starting at five forty five pm. So I know

many many of the listeners out there may actually know of Gary and might be

interested to see him talk and hear about his work. So please feel free

to register online for that talk as well. We'd love to see the community

show up. Excellent, excellent. Where should people go online to keep up

with everything that is going on at Mosaic Art Collective. I think we are

most active on Instagram Mosaic Art Collective very simple on Instagram. We are also

on Facebook and if you go to Mosaic Arcollective dot com, our gallery website

is also updated regularly along with all of our social media pages. Okay,

and you can actually see like all the archive shows from the past year or

two so if you're curious what we've been doing, you can go down and

see all the art that was in each show. Okay, okay, excellent,

excellent, And what will all three of you be there tonight? Absolutely

absolutely, very good. Well, we look forward to that. We look

forward to seeing you there. Jenny and I will be there and we encourage

people to participate. Yes and yeah, speaking of archives, as you are

aware, I had told you I had a radio show of my own.

Oh yeah, I have, so since being there, I quote unquote revived

the show as a home recording good back in October. So I have a

handful of episodes up, most currently one from the beginning of the month,

and I'm gonna have it go for maybe a few more installments and until I

reached episode fifty, So those can be listened to on It's a it's a

music variety show, okay, and it's on mixcloud dot com, Forward Slash

Eclectic Arrangements. I like the name. Yeah, thanks, And we only

left out for the show tonight that the admission is a sliding scale five to

ten dollars. Oh okay. I bought our tickets online. Yeah, and

that was an option as well. On event right, yeah, yeah,

excellent, excellent. Well, I'm I'm glad you're all going to be there

tonight. That is wonderful. Of course, Abner the Second and Regals will

be playing Who's Who's going on? What's the order is? It's Abner first

and then uh and Abner will be joined by a drummer tonight. Okay,

okay, very interesting, very good, very good. Yeah, oh that's

right, our friend EZG hasn't called. Well, thank you all three of

you for coming in. Nick and Chloe, wonderful to meet you, and

Derek of course, always nice to see you, my friend. Thanks,

Matt. Absolutely look forward to uh, look forward to seeing you tonight.

And yeah, definitely I would encourage people to come down Mosaic Art Collective tonight.

And in fact, we're going to close out the segment with another song

from Abner the Second and his album The Audrey at Burns. This is called

Dover, and then Jenny and I will be back. There is more a

show to come, so uh, don't go anywhere

Game Plan