The Happy Hour: A palate cleansing podcast
Episode 5: TANGERINE SKIES
Malakai Wade
Welcome back to the Happy Hour: A palate-cleansing podcast. I'm Malakai Wade.
shaylyn martos
And I am shaylyn martos. Thank you so much for joining us, everybody. And just a disclaimer, if you hear some chirping in the background, that is my kitten. She is not happy that she's outside of my room right now and that she cannot be a part of the recording process. So if you hear that, just chalk it up to the kitten.
Malakai Wade
Yeah. And stay tuned for when shaylyn inevitably gives in, and lets her in and then she becomes the third host of the podcast.
shaylyn martos
And it's just her chirping because she's a chirpy kitten. And it's just her chirping and biting me the entire time. Anyway, we're here talking about happy news stories and putting some positive spins and talking about positive aspects of big stories going on today.
Malakai Wade
Today, we're going to touch on some different perspectives regarding the passing of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, some uplifting news about the fires in California, Oregon and Washington, and a special happy news story at the end that you'll just have to wait and hear about. Plus, a special cocktail recipe in regards to an iTunes review that we received. Stay tuned to learn more about that.
shaylyn martos
First, we want to address the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and open the conversation to how we can learn from the contradictions of her work and the way forward. You know, I grew up being taught that RBG is a hero for women and for other marginalized folks. I even bought a children's book about her life for my baby sister. But when Ginsburg passed, I saw all of these posts online claiming she was racist, classist, anti-LGBTQ+, and I wanted to know more.
I got in contact with Liza Mamedov, a fourth-year Berkeley student studying anthropology and rhetoric, she/they pronouns. They're also a longtime community organizer involved in various social justice and activist movements like mutual aid, prison abolition and anti-police work. Mamedov fosters conversations about how Ginsburg's death is a complicated issue. RBG's track record shows she's made decisions that were progressive.
In the United States v. Virginia, she wrote the majority opinion that allowed women to attend the Virginia Military Institute. She also wrote opinions on cases that restricted the rights of marginalized folks. Just this June she voted in favor of a 600-mile natural gas pipeline that would cross underneath the Appalachian Trail, a part of the National Park System. Mamedov said that when people idolize an 87-year-old white woman, they aren't thinking critically about how the Supreme Court and federal judicial system was created to subjugate marginalized folks and how Ginsburg's work focused on white, middle-class women. If you have heard the term white feminist, a lot of people would say this applies to RBG.
In our conversation, Mamedov explained to me that though people are calling for defunding and disbanding the police and private prisons, they fail to acknowledge how judges factor into the system. These are the people that are handing out judgments to these marginalized folks, penalizing them for existing, you know, in many cases. In our conversation, we connected on the need for mutual benefit organizations, places where the community works for the community, you know.
Mamedov said for a situation like this, it is important to know who your neighbors are and what your community needs, not just coming in and providing what you think is important. You know, I volunteer – I think it's super important. If you're sharing funds and stuff like that, that's important and it's helpful. But there's nothing like being with your community working for your community. Mamedov shared this powerful quote with me, they said, "Let this moment radicalize me, rather than lead me to despair."
Malakai Wade
I love that, you know, rhetoric, such as that has been floating around a lot. And so it's kind of been uplifting to me, the one good thing that I get from social media. So I want to address a thought that I'm sure is on everyone's mind. What now? Will any GOP senators oppose a Trump Supreme Court nominee? Is there actually hope? Let's break it down. Brett Kavanaugh was confirmed in 2018 by a slim vote of 50 to 48, according to senate.gov. And a Sept. 19 article from the New York Times breaking down the potential outcomes of the nomination, the author explains that because Republicans hold such a slim majority, currently 53 to 47.
Democrats will only need four Republicans to flip in order to veto Trump's nominee. Let's get into who exactly we may be counting on. Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska said that she wouldn't support a nomination before the election if there was a Supreme Court vacancy. She explained her reasoning as similar to that of Sen. Mitch McConnell back in 2016. This all according to a Sept. 18 article from Alaska Public Media and MSNBC. Murkowski isn't alone either, Sen. Susan Collins of Maine has also stated that she doesn't support such a rapid vote for the Supreme Court with an election right around the corner. According to The New York Times, she said, "In fairness to the American people who will either be reelecting the president or selecting a new one, the decision on a lifetime appointment to the Supreme Court should be made by the president who is elected on November 3." I think that's a powerful statement, especially coming from a GOP senator.
Next step in GOP senators who could potentially flip but we're not quite sure yet is Sen.Charles Grassley of Iowa. Grassley stated in 2016, that he would not fulfill a Supreme Court nomination in an election year. But that was when he led the Judiciary Committee, a position he no longer holds. We will have to wait and see what Grassley does and whether he keeps to his word or goes against it like Mitch McConnell has. Now lastly, I want to leave this on a slightly more uplifting note. A typical Supreme Court nomination takes about 70 days to complete and Kavanaugh's took even longer than that, according to the Associated Press. With only 39 days until the election, the Senate would have to pull some fast shit to get this pushed through. I'm not saying that McConnell won't try his hardest, but I feel slight comfort in due process.
shaylyn martos
Thirty-nine days until the election, can you believe that? That is happening so fast.
Malakai Wade
I just want my mail-in ballot so that I can vote, and get it, and make sure that it gets done and gets put in. Because I don't know.
shaylyn martos
Yeah, it's wild. Yeah. My goodness. And Kavanaugh's confirmation took forever. And I feel like if there's any, we don't know who Trump is going to tap. But if it's any, if it's any consolation, I don't think that he's going to choose anybody who hasn't had a sexual assault or harassment allegation.
Malakai Wade
Or, this is Sarah Palin's big moment. He did say he wanted to nominate a woman.
shaylyn martos
She has no experience!
Malakai Wade
So before we get into our interview, I want to touch on some uplifting news regarding the California, Oregon and Washington fires. Firstly, and most close to home for me, the CZU Lightning Complex fire in Santa Cruz and San Mateo counties has burned over 86,000 acres for 35 days. However, and here's the happy part, according to Cal Fire, it is 99% contained at the time of recording. I still remember when it was zero percent contained for several weeks, or at least it felt like that. And it was just really difficult to fathom. And then they slowly creeped up to 15%. And now it's basically 100%. So that's really good.
shaylyn martos
Lovely. And by the time this comes out, it will likely be 100%.
Malakai Wade
Yeah, exactly. Second, and also exciting. The California government has been partnering with native tribes to utilize traditional good fire burning to combat mega fire season. From an Aug.25 article from KQED. They note that the Karuk and Yurok tribes in Northern California are helping the Forest Service to better manage the land.
shaylyn martos
How long has it taken us to do this? How long?!
Malakai Wade
I know, traditional good fire burning has been banned in California for a really long time. I don't have a particular number for that. But of course it has because, you know, because we're terrible. And the government, you know, white settlers wanted to stamp out any form of things that they saw as wrong. And good fire burning is literally that it's good, it's necessary for the land to not burst into flames and also to help regenerate and grow. And it's just it's so, pardon the pun, but it's so blazingly obvious that we should be utilizing these traditional practices.
shaylyn martos
Exactly. And I'm glad that's finally happening to a certain extent. And I hope they continue it. I hope that every single season we are practicing good burning, that we are including native tribes and asking for them not to have to do this for us, but to work with them. You know, that's super important to me.
Malakai Wade
That's what I'm hoping comes out of this partnership, teaching everyone so that it's not just native tradition, it's California tradition as well. And just like that partnership, we can all learn how to manage that better.
shaylyn martos
Just to add on to that. So I'm in this really great Race, Gender and Science Fiction course. And we just finished up a unit on indigenous futurism. Awesome possum, right isn't that great? So, one of the things that, you know, they were consistently saying these indigenous, Native American, First Nation people, they're saying that, you know, "We are people of the past, and we are people of the future. We are not leaving, we are here to stay; we will be here in the future." And this, utilizing their tactics and working with the tribes is going to ensure that they're here for the future. So I think I'm just really happy about this. I'm really, really, really happy about this.
Malakai Wade
And lastly, California recently passed the bill, AB 2147, that allows incarcerated people who have fought fires to officially join as firefighters or EMTs, after they complete their sentence. These are mostly Black and brown folks who after release often have no support in finding housing, employment or other resources. This is hopefully a good step toward creating a better system than our current one which subjugates marginalized folks while profiting off their labor. This has been a long time coming. And obviously it's, you know, it's a step toward a better future. And obviously, there's still problems to solve, but we're getting there.
shaylyn martos
Definitely. And, you know, it can be argued that legislation isn't going to really help these people; I think that there's a chance that this could make a difference. And I'm willing to take that chance. And this is just like, as you and I were talking about before recording, like there are some people who you know, formerly incarcerated people who were like, I would like to do that job. You know, I'm part of a team. I am doing good for the community.
And the rate of reentry for people being incarcerated again, is so high, that if you are able to, provide employment, provide, you know, a stable paycheck for these people. And like, if you're a firefighter, then you have a place to be, when you're on call for a week at a time you have a roof over your head, you have a bed, you have food. And this is a great step. I think it is. I'm sure that other people can argue against it. And I will listen to them. I feel like this is a good step for us.
Malakai Wade
I think legislation is a good step toward normalization, and also creating the opportunities for communities to expand upon it. And you can, we may see in the future cities expanding on this bill, to create better situations for people in those communities and surrounding areas of prisons and incarceration facilities.
shaylyn martos
Definitely.
Malakai Wade
Alright, and we're gonna take a quick break before we bring on two special guests from the Golden Gate Xpress newspaper to talk about some of their fire related coverage.
shaylyn martos
Exactly Malakai. We are so excited to bring Jun Ueda and Justin Garcia here to talk to us about their work on the day the sky turned orange, whether you believe it was Sozin's comet on September 9, or what have you. It was a wild day that spurred a bunch of journalists into action. So we're really excited to talk to them about that.
*****
Malakai Wade
We're here with two guests, two people who are from the Golden Gate Xpress newspaper this fall. Would you like to introduce yourselves?
Justin Garcia
Yes. Hi, I'm Justin Garcia. I am a senior. And this is my first semester on Xpress. And yeah.
Jun Ueda
My name is Jun, I'm a senior as well, first semester in Xpress. I'm a photojournalist.
shaylyn martos
Well, thank you so much for coming with us to talk about your work. We invited both of you specifically, because of your work on the California, Oregon and Washington fires. I mean, you're focusing on the Bay Area since you both are located in the Bay Area.
Both
Yes, yeah.
shaylyn martos
So that's why we wanted to bring you on here today. So first, we want to kind of talk about you two. So Justin, can you tell us a little bit about the type of work that you do and what inspires you?
Justin Garcia
The type of work that I do, I try to report on stories that are either not being heard or listened, mostly for communities that are not represented correctly. Or there is no representation for them. And it can be varieties of communities, hundreds of different types where it can be race, people's age, gender, sexuality.
Justin Garcia
And that's what inspires me. Just everyday I want people to kind of know that there are people out there listening and there's a way for you to be heard. And I just think it's important for people not to lose any kind of fate, I would say, especially during these times. And so always try to be positive in situations where it's needed.
shaylyn martos
We're all about that here. We're all about positivity and trying to spread awareness. We appreciate that. Can you tell us a little why it's, it's important to you specifically, that there is more representation within the media.
Justin Garcia
It's important for me because I am a queer Latino man. And I, being in both communities, I don't see a lot of representation. Like in media, or for stories in that case. And I think it's important. I don't really see things that relate to me. I don't really see things that my community is struggling with, no one really cares about it. Because it's not being told or it's not being heard, or there's no reporting being done, or there's any of that sort. So I think it's for me, it's really important to see. I don't know, I feel like when kids are young to see themselves in media and to see, “Hey, I can do that.”
shaylyn martos
Thank you. Thank you for sharing that.
Malakai Wade
Jun, same same question. Um, just want to know a little more details about what type of work that you do and what inspires you to do it?
Jun Ueda
Right. So I'm pretty new to journalism. I've only been, you know, studying journalism for about two years now. But, uh, the type of work that I like. I guess I tend to gravitate more towards, like breaking news and like more action based stories. But honestly, any opportunity that I have to go shoot, I want to be there. So I'm constantly driven to just capture as many images as possible and try to get that out.
Malakai Wade
Cool. And did you start out that way, when you just started journalism? Or is that something that you kind of got into, wanting to shoot more breaking news?
Jun Ueda
I guess the reason why breaking news, and I guess being in places that are like, a little bit more dangerous kinda appeals to me because not a lot of people want to do that. And for me personally, it's like, I don't really think about that. I would rather go and get the shot, and share that.
After we went online, I went back home to LA. And I was just, you know, following the orders staying inside for , three months. I honestly didn't even talk to anyone. I didn't want to be on my phone anymore. Because it was, everything was online, right? So honestly, all I did was take photos, and I guess exercise and all that. But it sucked because I'm super extroverted. I like talking with people. And all my friends were like, “Yo, let's go hang out.” And I was like, “No, I'm good.” Like, I can't, you know, I got family here. I'm gonna stay inside. So that sucks. But then at the end of May, I came back up here because I was still paying rent.
And I think we all kind of became independent, like throughout this pandemic, right? We're all in this. I mean, we might be living with family or with housemates or whatnot. But at the same time, you're kind of managing your own schedule at home. It's a little difficult to do that just because, you know, you're just bound to one place and you can end up just being lazy or whatever. But at the same time, school just started now. We kind of have to get our schedules going. But yeah, just adjusting as time goes on. it's so crazy. This year.
Justin Garcia
Yeah. Honestly.
shaylyn martos
I saw Justin, you reacted and were like “Yesss!”
Justin Garcia
Yes. You're preaching to the choir. I feel it's, I feel like everyone, we just have conversations about the pandemic, everyone can relate on everything. And just like for everyone, it is different. But also, I think we're all in the same mindset that we got to do day by day. And just we gotta keep going. You know.
shaylyn martos
I like to say that we're all on the struggle bus. You know.
Justin Garcia
Exactly.
shaylyn martos
We come from different places. We have different stops, but we're all on there. Jostling for a seat.
Jun Ueda
Yeah, it just, it's just weird because it feels like it hasn't even been that long, right? Just because we've spent so much time inside. I don't even know what day it is sometimes. Or like what I did like three, if you ask me what it did three days ago, it's gonna take me like five minutes to figure it out. I have to get on my phone to like check my map. Oh, I stayed at home like, Gee, I wonder what I did.
Malakai Wade
The most exciting thing to me in the last few days is the iOS 14 update. And that's that's it. Justin, how has your experience changed with your reporting?
Justin Garcia
Just interviewing people in person, I think that's like, the biggest thing. And I feel like that's like the most, the biggest thing for a reporter is like going out and literally getting your story. And like, doing the work for it, and just being out there. And I don't know, I think that just that obviously changed. And like everything.
Now, what I do is mostly like phone calls or Zoom calls. And yes, you can kind of get the same, but I also don't get the same, like experience. And I also don't get the full story, I can't see the person's face or expressions, I can't really see their body language. If something's happening, if I need to pick up that question a little bit more can be like, “Can you elaborate a little bit more?”
Right now, obviously, I think for everyone who's just remotely reporting and I think just interviewing people's sources is always the main struggle, or like the biggest thing, because people don't call you back, or you just have people that don't show up.
Jun Ueda
If you're not persistent, they're just gonna forget about it.
Malakai Wade
And that was a little bit true before as well. Like, if you were going to reach out through email or phone, people, you know, you had to be persistent. But now it's like, that's your only way of communication. You can't just show up at their office.
Justin Garcia
You can't just show up. Yeah, exactly.
Malakai Wade
“Hey, talk to me.” And that was like,, that's like, the biggest most important tool in the reporter's tool belt. Being able to show up somewhere physically, and you know, not be rude but also talking to someone in person solidifies you in their brain so much better than an email, so we feel for you.
shaylyn martos
Yeah, totally. On the other hand, Jun, that is literally like if you are not there, it's very difficult for you to get the shot.
Jun Ueda
I feel like my creative vision has shifted in a way as well like reporting throughout this pandemic. Because now I get to focus on like, what are the problems now and everything like that. But I guess like my reporting experience, it's better, it makes personally like, I feel more driven. Just because there's like, a motivation, right? Like, I get to go shoot, I'm kind of lucky that I'm able to do that. I feel very privileged to do so.
shaylyn martos
Yeah, so I just want to know like, when you woke up and you saw the light on that orange day. I think it was September 9th?
Jun Ueda
Yeah, it was September. September 9th. That was a Wednesday. Yeah.
shaylyn martos
So what was it like waking up? And what were kind of your first thoughts?
Jun Ueda
So I woke up kind of late. I wake up at eight in the morning, every day. I woke up and then, you know, looked through the curtain. And I was like, well, it's foggy. And it's always usually really foggy. I live by San Bruno. So we kind of it's always foggy in the morning and at night, but it was like orange. So I was like, “Oh, this is like, odd.” And I thought it was just the sunlight. Like, you know, diffusing through the fog and it's orange, but it was oddly too orange. I was like, Okay, this is weird.
I just grabbed my camera and my tripod. I was like alright, let's go. Just threw on a jacket. And I was like, let's go get some shots. But I think the first shot that I took was actually in my living room. It was super calm like I just wanted to get the light leaking into the room because it's completely orange outside and it was a little bit like all the walls were like slowly turning orange and I wanted to get that light gradient. So I captured that, and then I got my general settings down and I was like, okay, let's do this. I kind of went out.
And I was really upset. I was like, I should have woken up earlier for this. But how would I have known right?
Malakai Wade
I think with the picture in your living room too like, that really connected, at least for me. It connected me to because I was experiencing the same thing. And you know, outside it looked a little different for me here. And, you can see all these fantastic pictures outside, but that living room shot just like, “Oh, this is exactly what my living room looks like right now, too.”
Jun Ueda
Like, that's kind of the first thing everyone else sees when they wake up, right, in San Francisco. Your room’s like, “Oh, it's orange. Like the walls are orange. This is weird.”
Justin Garcia
It was a dope shot.
Jun Ueda
I've been shooting photos for like eight years now. And like, most of that's, or pretty much all of it’s landscape work, right? That's like my favorite type of photography. So it was really dark in the morning. So every time I shoot, I always bring a tripod with me. That's just how I roll.
I had a mirrorless camera with me but because it was really dark I had the shutter open for, I think my baseline setting was like 25 seconds or like 20 seconds. So like during 20 seconds all the light is coming through. But at the same time, I stopped down my aperture to like f11, f16 just so that everything can be sharp. And then I had my ISO very low just so that it wouldn't be grainy. Like I wanted to get the cleanest, sharpest image possible, and I was like I have a tripod, I can do this.
Yeah, so you can imagine it was very dark in the morning. Like it was surprisingly dark. Usually for those settings like, I mean, you wouldn't stop down at night but like at night... If you want to shoot stars, for example, like your shutter speed would be like between 20 and 30 seconds and then you want to open your aperture up so you can get as much light as possible, right? But, that morning, I had the option to be a little bit creative.
shaylyn martos
I think, you know, it's something that I think connects with Justin's story a lot. You and all the photographers were like, we need to go outside, but also, like outside was quite dangerous.
Jun Ueda
So, I don't know if anyone smelled it. So I guess like, for me, the reason why it didn't really bother me that much was because last year, I had a head injury. I'm okay now, but I lost my sense of smell, like mostly.
So like, I haven't really been smelling the smoke. Like recently, these past few weeks. It happens, like, a roommate would open the door and be like, “Oh, wow, that sucks today.” And I'd be like, “Oh, it smells normal. I don't really smell anything.” But maybe that might have affected my mood on that day. Like, if I woke up and outside in the air was really, really bad, I might have just been like, “Whoa, I think I'm just gonna stay inside.”
Malakai Wade
That's really interesting, because all of our senses play a role in our fight or flight response. And your first thought was to wake up and go outside and shoot pictures. My first thought was, “Oh, shit, I guess I won't go outside today.” And I think the moment you can smell that smoke, our animal instinct is to get away from it. And so that's really interesting that you know, you might not be triggered because you can't smell the smoke. And of course other people too.
Jun Ueda
I was like, vibing. Like literally...
shaylyn martos
You were literally vibing?
Jun Ueda
I was like, “Yo this is sick, like the sky is orange.” Everyone's looking up, like everyone's taking photos. Like everyone's on Twitter going crazy. I was like, “Hey, I have a camera. Like I get better photos than you.” But I mean, I'm just kidding.
I think my favorite image from that day was while I was in the car, and I was trying to drive to the Bay Bridge. So I can get there, but I think I was under Salesforce. And I got a shot looking up from the inside of the car.
shaylyn martos
There's not many people. Right, right. And that's kind of like for photojournalism, they consider that you know, that's the ticket. You need to show people doing things.
Justin. So we want to talk a little bit about your story that you're working on right now. And the resource guide that you've been working on, you. Just tell us a little bit about why it was important to you to pitch and to cover this story.
Justin Garcia
Yes. In fact, okay, so since like the beginning of when the fires were happening, me being located in San Francisco, it has been pretty bad. Like the air quality just was not it, like, it just smelled really bad. I knew if I went outside, it's going to be dangerous. If I'm out there for a while, like I'm sitting outside for a while and inhaling the smoke. I know it's gonna do some long term damage, but I just didn't know what that was, or what the effects were of me being outside while the air quality's bad.
What does it mean for me to sit out when the air quality, or be out when the air quality is bad? Like what is the, I actually had no idea. Like yeah, I'm pretty sure it's gonna be bad, obviously. But how bad?
I feel like I wanted it to be accessible to everyone, and be really easy to look at it, and really easy for you to read. So I mostly just created it like an infographic.
The first step is to obviously check the air quality. Like when you're home, and it's smoky out, you wanna see what the air quality is like. You can either open your weather app and you can see at the bottom, it shows the air quality index. And if you don't know, there'a a number, and that number can range from 0-300 and higher. So when it's 0 to 50, that means the air quality is good.
So there's no risk, there's little to nothing. When it's 51 to 100, that means it's moderate. So it is acceptable. But however, that's going to be sensitive to people that have health conditions. And then from there on, it just goes from 100 to 150. And that's just depending on how sensitive you are. And if you already have health conditions, obviously, it's gonna affect you even more than regular people that don't have those health conditions. But I think just the beginning of it, I would say just checking the air quality, that's the biggest thing you can do.
It's really simple. You can either check, there's a website, it's www.airnow.gov, and you can put your address or the location that you're at, and you can check the air quality. But I think it's so much easier to just check your phone, like you have the weather app, you could just simply just look at that. And it's just as simple as that. But also, the other factor is staying inside. Just stay inside; close your windows. If you have air conditioning, put the air conditioning on. If you have an air filter, put that on. But I think just the biggest thing is just to stay inside when the air quality is bad.
And also, wearing the correct mask. I thought that wearing my cloth mask, it's fine for me to walk out. But it's not. You have to have a specific one, the N95 mask or the P100 mask. Those are the correct masks to wear when the air quality is bad. Because the cloth masks are not filtered enough and like the little particles of what is burning in the air is gonna get in your mouth or in your nose. I didn't know that until like, I did my research, my reporting. So I was learning as I was doing it as well. I think that's really also cool to educate myself as I'm doing it as well and I want to educate others. And also the other biggest one is not to exercise or exert yourself.
So I've seen a number of people when the air quality is bad running on the streets, just like exercising and I think that's really, it's really bad. It can cause a lot of heart health problems. And it’s just, I would say just avoid it. Don't do it or exercise at home or somewhere where you're not out. And also other alternatives you can do is obviously get a portable air cleaner for your house. Just stay hydrated and if you're in an area where you are really close to the fires I would say evacuate if it’s necessary or just relocate somewhere else for the weekend or for a couple days, while the air quality settles down.
But I would just say like, I think people need to be aware that other people have health conditions when it comes to air quality. And I know, we live in a time of COVID and whatnot. So everyone is kind of scared of someone coughing or someone sneezing. But it does play to a fact of that other people have other issues, relating health issues. And yeah, like, for an example, my boyfriend has asthma. So when he is out, and the air quality's bad, he's gonna have a little bit of trouble breathing. And he might have shortness of breath, or he might have a cough, like a small cough or something.
And obviously, when you're out, people are gonna look at you weird, or just give you that look like do you have coronavirus? And he obviously doesn't need to explain himself, but it's kind of just like it, just kind of like a weird thing that we live in now that everyone is scared of it. And obviously I know why. But the air quality does play a factor into people's lungs and just respiratory system.
But I think making people aware that the air quality triggers or affects these people that have health conditions. And I think just people being aware of that, like, “Alright, if I go out and the air quality is bad, what does that mean?” And I just wanted this story and this infographic to be a guide for people and show them and kind of help them not to damage themselves, or for in the long term damage themselves by going out. You know?
Malakai Wade
And, and even though the air is much better now, thankfully, there's always a possibility that as fire season continues, we'll have another orange morning. I remember I asked a few friends, like who lived in different areas what their AQI was and a lot of people were similar to Santa Cruz, which is where I live, which was like, 180 at the time. And then one of my friends who lives in Portland said that hers was 450. And I can't even imagine.
Justin Garcia
Yeah, that's like the most hazardous one.
Malakai Wade
Like you literally should not leave your house.
Justin Garcia
If it's not essential, I don't need to be out for me when the air quality is bad. And for him as well. Like we kind of are on the same page. And when situations like that do happen, it is annoying. And I'm like, it is annoying when you have that confrontation when someone just like that stare. And then, I want to tell them he doesn't have it. Like he just literally has a cough because of the air quality right now.
But obviously, it's a stranger and I'm not gonna waste my energy on a situation like that, when it's someone that's going to, someone's just trying to blow something out of proportion. When they don't know the full story. They don't need to know or they either if it is our friend like obviously we're going to tell them or someone that we're hanging out with like, “He has asthma right now and the air quality is bad, so he might be coughing.”
Jun Ueda
I mean, it's not a bad thing to be wary like your own surroundings, but at the same time, if you're not trying to understand, that's also not helping either. You're just making assumptions at that point.
Justin Garcia
Mm hmm. I feel like you just play a part into, the more of the hysteria part where, I'm scared of everyone.
shaylyn martos
I think that's just something really important to keep in mind. And I'm glad that you were able to touch on that for us. And Jun, like your story about kind of not being aware of it, because you can't really smell it. Like that's, that's interesting.
Jun Ueda
It's getting better. Like I did smell it. Like, obviously, like the bad days, I could smell it. But I don't think it was that bad.
Justin Garcia
It's crazy how you don't smell that. Like it smells like a barbecue. Like for me. It's like when you go to the beach, and you bonfire and then your clothes smell the next day. I hate that smell.
Malakai Wade
That's really interesting, because I like when it was really bad, because I don't have any breathing issues. But I noticed that if I went outside for even 10 minutes, just into my yard, like coming back inside my throat felt really dry. And I felt really thirsty. I remember that from the past years of the fire season as well.
Justin, and Jun, thank you so much for talking with us today. Where can people find you on the internet?
Jun Ueda
Yes. You can find me on Instagram @jbuphoto. Yeah. And then my website is jbuphotos.com with an S because someone took the photo. I don't know what happened.
Justin Garcia
Couldn't pay enough, right?
Jun Ueda
Yeah, it's okay. It's more valuable, I think. Anyways, um, yeah, I post most of my work on Instagram. Starting to use Twitter more for like, breaking news stuff, but it's still in development. I think my Twitter handle’s also @jbuphoto. Everything is kind of the same. So yeah, if you want to see my work, it's mostly landscape but yeah.
shaylyn martos
You got a brand going, I suppose.
Jun Ueda
A little logo and everything like it's good.
shaylyn martos
Oh, wow. Look at you!
Malakai Wade
We love to see it. And Justin, where can we find you on the internet?
Justin Garcia
All right. You can find me on Instagram. It's @jusstingarcia, but two s's in Justin. Um, yeah, you can just kind of stalk my life. I post just my personal stuff mostly on my Instagram. So yeah,
Malakai Wade
Please go, go stalk Justin's life.
Jun Ueda
Definitely, I'm gonna do that right after recording.
shaylyn martos
So your work is on Golden Gate Xpress, your future work is going to be there. And, you know, we're so excited to have the chance to talk to you about this. It's been a long while since we had a man on the show. So you two are very welcome. And, and we're just really, we're very happy to get this chance to talk about your work. So also Jun, you're the first photographer that we've had on the show as well. And since Malakai, and I both dabble, I have done photojournalism for a while as well. So it's kind of nice to hear about your process. And your process too, Justin because this is something that you know, people do need to know about. But they don't want to do the research.
Jun Ueda
Yeah, this is super important. I think your story is gonna be news for me as well. I'm definitely gonna be reading it.
shaylyn martos
Well, thank you two so much.
Justin Garcia
Yeah. Thank you for having me.
Jun Ueda
Thank you so much for having me.
*****
Malakai Wade
And we're back. Thanks so much to Jun and Justin for joining us on the Happy Hour. We really appreciate it, and we hope to see more content from both of you in the future. In our Slack message, they said they want to work together on a story. So not trying to take too much credit, but we made that happen. Anyway, let's get back into more happy stories.
shaylyn martos
I want to take you all back to the late 1990s. Little bitty shaylyn walks with her dad down to Lake Merritt to visit her favorite place in the world. She reaches the big sign and walks through an even bigger boot, grabs a plastic key on a lanyard and enters Fairyland. For 70 years as of this month, Children's Fairyland has brought joy and creativity to the kids of the town. Opened in 1950, Oakland Park Superintendent William Penn Mott and Arthur Navlett, a prolific local nurseryman, envisioned a place for children to play and explore their fantasies. They recruited architect William Russell Everett to design the attractions. And this place actually is said to have inspired Walt Disney. Yes, and then also Frank Oz. Yeah, wild.
Some of my first memories were in fairy land. There were these huge big storybook sets with dragons, princesses, animate kitchenware. And you would put a key into a call box of sorts, turn it and it would read a part of the story out loud to you. I may have this wrong because this is like when I was like five years old. So, this is what I remember. Fairyland likely had a big influence on me as a storyteller, but nowadays, the park is in danger. They may have to close indefinitely due to multiple rounds of layoffs following the Covid-19 crisis, according to KQED. But executive director of Children's Fairyland, Kimberly Miller, secured a small business loan in March through the Cares Act, the same one that gave us our one time stimulus check. She's working to make Fairyland more diverse as well, including fairy tales from different cultures because most of, well all of them, are eurocentric.
Miller and Fairyland teamed up with three other Oakland institutions, the Oakland Zoo, Chabot Space and Science Center and the Oakland Museum, to collaborate on making these institutes of culture and science more safe during the pandemic, reported in a story for Oaklandside, go Oaklandside. Fairyland means so much to the community, including Bay Area natives Daveed Diggs and Rafael Casal, known for projects such as their ode to Oakland "Blind Spotting" and Diggs' roles as Marquis de Lafayette and Thomas Jefferson in the musical "Hamilton," which I've never watched. Have you watched Hamilton? You haven't. Okay, my mom likes it. That's all I know.
Malakai Wade
I mean I've heard of it...
shaylyn martos
The duo will host a "Celebrity Storytime" fundraiser tomorrow, September 26., in honor of Fairyland's 70th anniversary. While the virtual program is free, the website offers an option to donate to Fairyland. We'll put the link to register in the show notes and the show starts at 6:30pm. Come support my favorite place. I know we will definitely have to go. And I think having to like mid 20s women walking around Fairyland. You know, people would just be like, those are some lesbians.
Malakai Wade
We'll dress up in our favorite Charles Dickens inspired garb.
shaylyn martos
Oh, totally. And it's just like, it's, you know, it may be selfish of me. But I just really want, I really want Fairyland to still be there to take my adopted children to, you know? I just want them to be able to have, they're probably going to be like, Hey, Mom, like where are the holograms mom? What do you mean I have to put a key into a box?
Malakai Wade
Will you please give me back my iPhone 200?
shaylyn martos
I'll be like, "No, Octavia."
Malakai Wade
No, Octavia. No, Spencer. Stop it. I mean Butler. Name your kids Octavia and Butler. I don't know where Spencer came from.
shaylyn martos
Audrey Lorde Martos if you don't quiet down!
Malakai Wade
Now it's time for our last call.
shaylyn martos
Last call, you don't have to go home but you can't stay here.
Malakai Wade
This week. We want to shout out a review from iTunes from Cardsfam. Thank you for reviewing the podcast, and here is your custom cocktail recipe. Hit it!
shaylyn martos
Okay, I'm actually very excited about this. So this is "The Pink Bunny." So you start with two ounces of grapefruit juice.
Malakai Wade
Optional, add an ounce or two of your favorite tequila Blanco.
shaylyn martos
Then pour some sparkling water on top. I prefer tonic but LaCroix works too. And if you have some rosewater throw half an ounce on there too.
Malakai Wade
Nice. then top it all off with a smattering of rose petals. And ask your parents permission to cut a piece of apple or pear into a star or crescent moon shape to place on the rim.
shaylyn martos
When you wrote that I was cracking up and I still am.
Malakai Wade
Did you see my face while I was cracking up trying to read it normally?
shaylyn martos
Honestly, it's kind of dangerous if you have little star cutouts or moon cutouts that's best but if you have dinosaur cookie cutters too, put a dinosaur on there. Who knows? Who cares, do whatever you want. We hope that you like this one, especially you Cardsfam. You can make it tequila or not, this could totally be a mocktail. It's just as delicious. And if you, you, you, you listener would, and you and me? No, you would like a shout out and a cocktail tailor-made just for you, head over to our iTunes either in our Instagram bio @thhpodcast or just search "a palate cleansing podcast," write a review, and we'll shout you out and come up with a cocktail just for you.
Malakai Wade
There's like, literally no downside. The Pink Bunny recipe will also be available on our website, which we will link in the show notes.
shaylyn martos
Yeah, definitely. And I want to check in with you, Malakai. What is your happy? What's making you happy this week?
Malakai Wade
What's making me happy is finishing issue one of Xpress Magazine. I am very excited, it will have already been released at the time of us dropping this episode. But me and my team of editors and writers worked super hard on it. It is an entirely virtually produced magazine in a pandemic, with art and stories abound. So we'll also put in the show notes where you can find that. And if you're listening to this at the moment it drops, because you're a diehard fan, in an hour we're having an issue launch party. Which if you head over to Xpress Magazine on Instagram, you can find us, DM us for the Zoom link and show up just in time to party.
shaylyn martos
Yeah, definitely. You show up just in time; you make your pink bunny, you're there.
Malakai Wade
Yes, you are there. shaylyn what is making you happy this week?
shaylyn martos
Actually, and this is such a Capricorn thing for the both of us, but my last call happy thing for this week is that I got to publish something that I've been working on for a very long time. So "Media Literacy for Revolution" is this video that I've been working on for like months, like over the summer. And it's a how-to on how to better understand what you see online in five steps. And media literacy is a topic that means so much to me. I mean, we try to cover it here in the Happy Hour without being like MEDIA LITERACY!
But it's just so important for you to be able to like research the stuff that you see, and especially since we have so much access to information. Now it's just even more important than ever to be able to differentiate, okay, what can I trust and what can't I trust? And at the time of recording, I've just dropped it. And I'm gonna get a little emotional about it. But it's gotten great feedback so far, and I'm just really, really happy about that. And I'm trying to think what's another thing that doesn't have to do with work shaylyn?
Malakai Wade
The both of us!
shaylyn martos
For dinner tonight I made a very traditional ChamorroChamoru dish, which Malakai has tried too. It's called tinaktak and it has ground beef, green beans, coconut milk, ginger, garlic, and it's a stew. You serve it over fresh steamed white rice. And it's bomb.
Malakai Wade
My mouth is watering.
shaylyn martos
Because you've had it before!
Malakai Wade
And I'm hungry.
shaylyn martos
Okay, Malakai and really, really, really, really quick. I want to hear something that's not work that you're happy about.
Malakai Wade
Um, does submitting my graduation application count?
shaylyn martos
Yes, it does. Look at that bitch,graduating college.
Malakai Wade
It's just, you know, it's making me look back on the last four and a half years of my life and realizing that they simultaneously took forever and also went by like that, like in an instant and suddenly it's all over. So anyone who's listening to this, if you like the work that I do, if you like the work that shaylyn does, please hire us. We are good podcast hosts, we write scripts, we write other things. We edit things, we edit audio. We're both workaholics. I bake really good chocolate chip cookies.
shaylyn martos
She does make very good chocolate chip cookies. And I make good drinks.
Malakai Wade
What do you need from a dynamic duo? Anyway, follow us at @thhpodcast on Instagram or at @happyhournews on Twitter. One day we'll sync those up. But for now, it is what it is. You can find me at @MalakaiWade on all socials.
shaylyn martos
And me at @shaylynmartos on all socials, which is a very, very good thing that both of us have very odd names.
Malakai Wade
That's having odd names that we can have our full name as and handle. I feel very fancy about that. Anyway, we hope you've enjoyed this episode of The Happy Hour: A palate-cleansing podcast. We will speak to you soon.
shaylyn martos
Speak at you soon. Have a really great weekend. And yeah, we'll be here with more happy stories. Stay positive! Stay positive, have some hope in the world because there's people doing really good work. I almost pressed the end button on the Zoom call that would have been so funny.
Malakai Wade
And then we would have put in the edit in the audio where I just go, "Oh, and she left the Zoom call. Alright." Thank you to Arman Bilimoria for composing and performing our theme music. Additional audio editing for this episode was done by Joel Umanzur Jr. The Happy Hour podcast is produced in collaboration with the Golden Gate Xpress, newspaper and Xpress Magazine out of San Francisco State University.