Strung Out Episode 185: THE PHILOSOPHY OF ART. ANANDA BENA-WEBER, PART TWO.

Part Two
During an arts conference last September, Martin met Ananda Bena-Weber, who performed part of her one-person show, Fancifool.   So unusual was the combination of choreography, humor and acting that a request for an interview was made.   Not only is Ananda a great artist, she also has a strong mission to present her art in an effort to bring all people together as in the United States motto: E Pluribus Unum.   Her own words describe that mission best:
“I believe very strongly in the importance of art in today’s society –especially the classical arts. The prevalence of the materialism, mechanism, instant gratification, and emptiness (perhaps the root cause) that abound in consumer society can isolate the individual soul and impoverish the imagination. As we aspire toward a higher quality of art, we return to ourselves. The ethos of the classical arts demands that we, as human beings, examine our place in the natural world. We strive to 'hold the mirror up to nature' and in doing so, are revived and enriched by the exquisite grace that we suddenly discover all around. I firmly believe that any true and honest effort toward that end, however small, is hugely important and life-affirming. I am grateful to everyone who engages in such an effort. They are helping to make our world a more luminous, more compassionate, more joyful place.”

Her website is Ananda Bena-Weber (anandabenaweber.com)
Her show FANCIFOOL website. fancifool!

Transcript

[00:00:00] Martin McCormack: Hello, everybody. We are Back in the studio with Ananda Bena-Weber, and if you listened to the last podcast, and I suggest that you do, you'll get a wonderful extensive background about what Ananda is doing as an independent artist.
[00:00:16] And what I mean by an independent artist is, for the most part, she represents herself. Goes after her own quests, if you will, teaching, directing a ballet company. That sort of thing is what's necessary to be I think a productive artist in today's world. One of her many different kinds of things that she does is a series of different variety shows called Fancy Fool.
[00:00:47] And there's a website link in the production notes. You can see it for yourself, what I'm talking about. And this From the first podcast really is where Ananda in New York started connecting with people, everyday people, and rather me trying to explain it. Can you explain it and welcome back again, Ananda?
[00:01:09] Thank you. But explain a little bit how you came into this whole e pluribus unum, social awareness of what people want their deepest needs sort of thing.
[00:01:20] Ananda Bena-Weber: Yeah, as I mentioned in the last one, I I started making my solo work based on real stories told to me on the streets by real Americans at first.
[00:01:32] In New York and being on the streets, meeting Americans on the streets of New York, you can really realize how different we are because also everybody comes there. I met people from the South who were there traveling on business. I met Americans from all over the United States and Americans who were born all over the world.
[00:01:54] in New York. Not everybody I met actually live there cause so many people are there and everybody ends up hanging out on the street. Everybody's in the subway. Everybody's in the park. Everybody's standing on line somewhere. And so you can meet people and the miraculous thing about the conversations that I was having, especially during a particular period which I didn't.
[00:02:15] do anything to do this. It happened as though miraculously, people came up to me and we'd start chatting. And then before you know it, they're telling me some of the most deep roots deep secret stories from of their hearts about their feelings about basically their feelings of what it means to be alive.
[00:02:33] And so many people said to me, I can't believe I'm saying this to you. I've never said this out loud before people cried in front of me so they weren't. It's great to chat. If you go to New York, definitely chat to people on the street because it's awesome. These experiences though were deeper, they were extraordinary.
[00:02:51] And and so many people, the thing that was the real catalyst is so many people, like hundreds and hundreds of people said, I feel like I'm alone. I feel like I'm the only one. And I was like, okay I have to make work about this so that people realize that they're not alone. Like all these.
[00:03:07] These hundreds of people just need to meet each other and then they will feel so much better. We are the cure for the thing that's ailing each other, do you know, but we have to try to get together. So I made the first show just a general, how can we love each other? How can we have compassion and love each other?
[00:03:25] And how can we love people who seem different than us, and the form that I use where I play all the characters and I transform is very conducive to that because when you, if you see the characters and you think the characters are different from each other, but then you remember that the same person underneath, that's a great way to view all of humanity, you can see people different from you, but then you remember when we get to the most fundamental aspects of ourselves, how we love our family, how we love our pets, how we love ice cream.
[00:03:54] We are. really the same. And as my husband's a physicist and what he studies on an energetic level, we are all literally one. This is like the holodeck. It's an energy field. We are literally connected. And that's something that we have to try to remember as well. When I harm someone else, I'm harming myself.
[00:04:17] And you
[00:04:18] Martin McCormack: are bringing up so many important things right now. And I want to jump in here because you represent to people, you're, you were trying to portray to people that we're all one and we can come together. Exactly. We live in an era now where there's people that say we're all one, except for those people there's polarity.
[00:04:48] And and while it's on my mind You're, the theater's the last kind of civic arena that has, everybody can come to without falling into a fight, really. But, we're up against a lot of stuff now, and Ipler Buzunum is threatened, and Do you, how do you find this show in this turbulent times? Because when you met these people, that was years ago.
[00:05:22] Probably a different presidency, I'm assuming.
[00:05:24] Ananda Bena-Weber: Yeah. I still, it still happens to me, so a lot of my current stuff is about how people feel now. And I've started to be a little more intentional about it. Like sometimes I'll just ask people cause I understand that's where the gold is but the stuff that they willingly share, the stuff that they share out of an inherent desire is always better.
[00:05:45] But yes that was a long time ago. So they were talking, it was more about being used up by corporations and how they felt tired all the time and isolated from others through technology. Now of course there is, and a lot of it does use, It's technology and the fact that we can be programmed through technology to divide us.
[00:06:08] But it's the ancient story of divide and conquer, divide and rule, right? If you separate people from each other, then they become weak. And then if you're a person who is an individual or a group of individuals and you'd like power over other people, then that's a great method to use. And you can reach, you can read ancient philosophy about that.
[00:06:26] What you mentioned, E Pluribus Unum, the national credo, so the thing is that a lot of people don't even realize that is our declared national credo of the United States. It's on all the money. So carry cash. If not to spend, carry it because you've got a little bit of philosophy in your pocket.
[00:06:47] You might need a magnifying glass to see it. But it's on every coin and every bill, e pluribus unum, from the many, one, which means we all come together and we become one people. And that's the idea of the United States. And I believe that the Founding Fathers placed that there absolutely intentionally because they were extremely aware.
[00:07:08] of divide and conquer, divide and rule, that people are strong when they're unified. And so that's the thing we can start, no matter what, I think one of the greatest things that we can do when we arm ourselves not through armaments, but in our minds and hearts with something that protects us from divide and rule.
[00:07:31] We can just look for a divisive quality in anything. What is telling me I should dislike or separate from another person, and I can go ahead and be a little bit suspect of that, who wrote that? Especially, oh, it's on the internet. Yeah the, we all participate in the internet.
[00:07:50] On the other hand, it's controlled by only a few companies who want, who get money for whatever, so if people have a lot of money and they're like, Hey, put this divisive rhetoric in there. They're not going to say no. They're for profit companies, yes. It's
[00:08:05] Martin McCormack: no small wonder that the arts are under assault in a way because of technology we're now.
[00:08:14] Dealing with artificial intelligence is the latest scary thing, but beyond that, prior to that as performers, we know that the very venues that we perform at are under assault. The pandemic didn't help, but there is a, would you agree that there's a at least if it's not coordinated, at least there's a subtle effort to try to push out.
[00:08:42] Independent artists, live, live interaction, because we
[00:08:46] Ananda Bena-Weber: don't have the people going. Yeah I think, honestly, the most powerful weapon that people have seemed to be used, using against theater is just to tell people that it's irrelevant. And it's a pain in the butt to go and you don't need to because you've got your phone and you can watch Netflix and Netflix, by the way, has wonderful programming and I do enjoy it.
[00:09:10] So there's great there's great television and there's great films and all that has great messages and beautiful art for human beings. Great acting, all kinds of stuff. Great writing. However, there's an experience of being in a room live. with other people because we do have an energetic interaction with each other.
[00:09:29] We do have a sacred feeling of being together that is something that human beings derive our strength from. One really good thing that I think actually came from COVID is people realized how much they missed other people just being with strangers. It's hey, I'm getting something from other people.
[00:09:47] Whereas I think they weren't when they were just working. the rat race and coming home tired before COVID and just doing their thing. People didn't necessarily realize it took for granted the fact that when they were in a restaurant and there were other people there and they could hear them laughing maybe make some comment across the table.
[00:10:05] Ah, yeah, that dessert looks really good. I'm going to take a bite whatever it is that people are off the cup, say to people that they don't know. Or just hearing other people or being in the presence of other people will realize that actually there's something to that after COVID when they find that they missed it.
[00:10:22] Pretty much everybody I've spoken to of, I talked to all kinds of people. The quote about artists is correct. We do mix with people from all walks of life, right? So I've talked to all kinds of people about how they feel after COVID. And pretty much everybody has said that that they, even people who thought they didn't like other people before, Oh gosh, I miss.
[00:10:42] I just miss being out. I miss being social. I miss for me, I definitely miss like going out dancing and stuff like that. Do you
[00:10:51] Martin McCormack: feel as a person that believes in E Pluribus Unum and as an artist that we are divided? Or is that at the heart of things, we are just having a family argument politically and even the world stage with the, these wars and such, what do you feel about that as an artist?
[00:11:20] And do you feel like you can go to Kansas and do your show or are you going to be scrutinized?
[00:11:29] Ananda Bena-Weber: Yeah, that's a really excellent point. It was always a struggle for me to go with some of my messages about loving people who are different to the South and to rural Midwest.
[00:11:44] However, before 10 years ago, I definitely did. I went to Kansas and I went to Wyoming and I went to all kinds of Southern and Midwestern rural areas, where people are very Christian and very conservative. The thing is, practicing Christians who believe in love thy neighbor, they tend to relate to they tend to relate to the show because they're like, yeah, you should love people.
[00:12:14] And if you feel uncomfortable, you should love through the discomfort. Jesus said that for sure. Love thy neighbor. And that quote, love thy neighbor as thyself is in the show. Like I, even one of my characters, he comes to that through. through actually Buddhist meditation practices. So it's a, you may, it mixes, it's the fact that these things are related as well, but, but it's in the show.
[00:12:37] But the thing is that it's very daunting now because I think. My opinion of the propaganda that people are able to use now. It's the most sophisticated propaganda machine that the world has ever seen. Utilizing, it's brilliant. It's absolutely brilliant. It's terrifyingly brilliant, but people they get us.
[00:13:01] And I think it starts, it started out through marketing it's like they want to attract people to buy a product or whatever. And it's let's how can we really attract people? though. If we were asked psychologists and they find, so you come down to, okay, you have to flash this color that gives them this feeling.
[00:13:16] And then you can say something scary that makes them feel uneasy. That triples a fight or flight. And then they're going to have this adrenaline rush, but then you give them the cure for it. You say, this is the solution. You have to hate that other guy. And then you're going to be the good guy. So they get a.
[00:13:30] Self righteous whole bunch of better pheromones or whatever it is and and there's a particular rhythm and a particular pace and and you get people and you can lead them down. And especially if you use algorithms, that can study our clicks and all of our different behaviors and can really use.
[00:13:53] It's wonderfully and terrifyingly complex math to be able to anticipate our next move. If you do propaganda using this machine, you can get people to start thinking that they came up with things that actually came from the machine itself.
[00:14:13] Martin McCormack: And this is something that's free and everybody can have it for free.
[00:14:19] But theater, dance, you have to pay 25 bucks to come in or whatever. And that challenge is where things are at today. Plus, there is a weaponization, I think of this free media. In the sense that they can say we don't like you. You are not, Subscribing to our thoughts.
[00:14:54] You're not towing the party line. Therefore, let's get rid of you. And that's, that you've encountered, and that's a scary thing as an
[00:15:05] Ananda Bena-Weber: artist. it's It's more scary to me as a person and as a citizen of the United States and as a citizen of the world than it is as an artist because this stuff can be life threatening
[00:15:19] but yeah, that was absolutely my point. The thing is you can use that so that they've got this great system, right? And it's really effective and it Appeals, as Alza said, is appeals to us below the level of conscious choice, which in a voting society we are not supposed to have, that.
[00:15:37] We're supposed to consciously think and vote in order to make the right decision for ourselves. Not the decision necessarily that makes somebody else money, right? But they have this. thing. And so anyone can pay. Basically, if you have enough money, you can pay to utilize this machine to sell a product or to sell a person to sell an ideology.
[00:16:00] And of course, if you want power over society to get people to hate other people so that you divide the society. Because as I mentioned, A divided society is weak, right? E pluribus unum makes us strong. A divided society makes us weak. And so what we're seeing is messaging, utilizing, you get people addicted to it.
[00:16:23] They're scrolling on their phones. They're scrolling on the internet all day long, sometimes all night. They can't stop telling them one message, and a lot of the time it's so it's such a simple message that one could say it's too simple. For a kindergarten class, it's like a slogan. It has no substance, you can't read an interesting article about it.
[00:16:49] It's, it's hate that guy because he's got brown hair. Why? Because I said so basically, but it's the thing is it's marketed in this way that is so compelling that is rhythmically. is color compelling is is exactly the kind of language the person wants to hear. And so they can go for it.
[00:17:10] And so then you find yourself with a great deal of zeal and a great deal of emotions, hating people you've never met for reasons that you read online. that you feel so close to, you feel like they're your own ideas. I think that's the thing that's the most terrifying is that people, this messaging gets into the place where people think they thought of it themselves and they don't notice that they're repeating the same thing that everybody else is repeating.
[00:17:40] it's Is that really your original thought? If everyone says it in the exact same way and the exact same rhythm, is that really your original thought? doesn't that Seem weird? but. But it's hard when I think once you're deep in that, and that's about anything, right? It can be about puppy dogs.
[00:17:55] It could be about anything that you can get into there. If you're in this zone, it's hard to see yourself and to see your behavior and to get out of it, And so that was what I, just to answer your question, I'm sorry, I know I went along about that. I apologize. But, but it's a big thing, it's a huge topic, but what happened to me, and actually it didn't really happen to me, it happened to the theater that hired me, and I feel more for them.
[00:18:20] Their their, I believe it was their Facebook page, got bombarded by people who had been having this. Rhetoric, experience where they're online and they're saying these people are bad. These people are bad. These people are bad and the particular thing that they were saying was bad is drag and cross dressing and gender related performance and so they attacked they came on the theater's Facebook page and bombarded it with negative terrible, vitriolic, negative messages all day long until the theater was, like, obliged to shut down their Facebook page, I think, and also, and cancel my show.
[00:19:11] And it was them, it was really they were being harassed, it was not me, but I was canceled because of it. And the thing is that I do play different genders, but it's not a gender show, it's not even a drag show, it's just acting. if You know about acting from Shakespeare's time. Men dressed as women.
[00:19:29] Women weren't allowed on stage. That's another conversation, women were not allowed to be actresses, so all the females were played by men, but they didn't think of it as a gender statement. They were telling a story that Shakespeare wrote. And That's the same thing. I am not, sometimes the content may be gender related, or about sexuality.
[00:19:54] I have one show that's all about sex and sexuality. It's about how we can love each other, around sex and sexuality, how we can respect each other and mostly and not be violent. So I talk about that, but my playing a man isn't a gender statement. It's just the fact that it was, these are the feelings of a masculine man.
[00:20:14] and I'm trained as an actress to change into a masculine man, but it's not like I'm, I happen to be a woman. I'm basically heterosexual. My proclivities are personal, but I'm married to another guy. I have a baby, so it's, so it's, that's who I am in my personal life.
[00:20:36] What I do on stage isn't a statement about that. And it's not a statement about how people should express their sexuality. It's just, to make stories.
[00:20:45] Martin McCormack: So here, we're going to take a little break right now. And then, we're going to come back, to continue along this line of art and art and activism and bringing together people, which is the natural part of art.
[00:21:00] But how sometimes he'd come up against a brick wall, especially in this day and age. You're listening to Ananda Bena-Weber here, and you're on Strung Out.
[00:21:49] And we're back, talking with Ananda Bena-Weber, and we're talking about the role of an artist, which is something that you and I both share that is we bring people together, not in a political way, but the idea of a soul energetic way that we are all related. That's the great truth that art brings out.
[00:22:15] But we are in an era where technology has advanced to the point where people could just sit at home and have everything come to them. Art traditionally has been about going, being involved. You physically have to be there. I know you can watch a great ballet on PBS. However, I would have to say you really have to go up to the theater there in the Sierra Nevada Theater, for example, that you work with.
[00:22:47] and experience that energy flow. You were cancelled, I hate to use that word, but the show was cancelled for one place. And that's just a good example of people using this new social media to amplify fear. And is that at the end of the day, wasn't that, that seems to have won in that particular case, right?
[00:23:22] Ananda Bena-Weber: Actually no, it did win temporarily, however, this theater, God bless them, they're in it, they're, they are absolutely committed to. Arts in their community and helping their community and what they do. So they are going to have me come and we're going to do a community outreach discussion where we're going to talk about what happened.
[00:23:48] We're going to talk about what I do. They want to really use this to get their community together. And then hopefully at after, cause they were already worried, they were certain of my programming that they were like, it might be controversial to play here, but hopefully after that discussion, none of it will be controversial and they can bring anything, So I think that, I think it's a beautiful thing, it could actually end up, hopefully end up being better. Because it, it's a catalyst to intentionally, bring people together. They're going to offer it for free so that they're and try to just get butts in the seats, all different kinds of people in their area so that we can have the discussion.
[00:24:37] And that's, I think that is what more theaters should do. I, though, I have to say in defense of theaters, it's really, it is absolutely The hardest job in the world to run a non profit theater because you have a building that very often is a sacred space, it's old architecture, it's so worthwhile that it survives, the pressure to keep it open, the pressure to keep it well renovated and maintained, to pay all your employees, and they have to get.
[00:25:14] people in their community to come. And especially like you said, the people feel like they can get everything on their phone now and laziness, and just like lying around on the couch and having everything you want brought to you is very compelling. Depression numbers are through the roof and this is part of why it doesn't actually make us happy.
[00:25:36] Exercising, eating right, going outside in nature. Not working hard at something that you find to be fulfilling. Those are the kinds of things that actually literally bring joy, but laziness feels good in the moment. It feels like it is going to, and it's so compelling. It's hard to get off the couch. So these theaters, they really, they're biting their nails.
[00:25:58] They want, they don't want to make people angry. And I know a lot of people, they see their communities blowing up around them from this propaganda and separating and all the hatred and they. They're afraid to bring in acts because they're afraid of making their community angry. On the other hand, I've talked to people who are like, I know I'm going to make my community angry, but I believe in this.
[00:26:21] I believe in e pluribus unum and I want to do this. And will you work with me? Because I'm going to go out on a limb here and we're going to. There's going to be some vitriol. Are you in? And I really appreciate that. And when the people say that, I say, absolutely, I'm in, I'm with you. You're not alone.
[00:26:38] Let's do this. let's reach Out to our neighbors.
[00:26:42] Martin McCormack: Do you feel that this is a minority that has this power or do you think the majority of people now are in this field, this sort of power that they can, anything that they don't like. They can just go after out of fear. Or is it just a handful of people as an artist, as somebody presenting the show, what is it?
[00:27:10] Ananda Bena-Weber: Yeah, it's no, it's really scary. And again, more than just as an artist, as a human being, it scares me, right? Because we, they've got this propaganda machine that can't, the thing is that what's really effective is if our zeal is magnified if we can if the propaganda can get us to feel a tremendous amount of zeal, like a very strong emotion.
[00:27:44] That's almost it's like a combination of rage and obsession and enthusiasm, right? Zeal towards something. And the thing is that you can do that using the propaganda machine that they do through our phones and through our computers using messaging. Rep repetitive messaging, first you scare somebody, you get their fight or flight going, they get that hit of adrenaline.
[00:28:10] Now they're vulnerable. We are, I am as well, we're vulnerable to suggestion now. And that's when you show us the colors, you repeat the slogan, you point to an enemy, anything you want us to feel, and if you do it over and over all day, before you know it, we're extremely agitated. And we're associating that with whatever topic the person has chosen.
[00:28:31] And this is happening in all kinds of ways. The thing is just like extremely effective. And if people, it really gets us to stop thinking and to go with that feeling of whatever you rage enthusiasm that the word for it, I would say the good word is zeal, right? Cause our founding fathers also talked about the dangers of zeal and zealots, right?
[00:28:53] And that's what they tried to do. And we can go, we can become, we can go from being what I believe the American people are, which is an extremely thoughtful society that knows how to practice advanced citizenship and democracy from the days of old, we can become an angry mob with a battering ram running at the castle door, and but that's the thing that we need to to try to.
[00:29:20] Calm down, breathe, and not allow ourselves to do.
[00:29:25] Martin McCormack: We're running out of time here, but, we're going to take just a short little break and then come back and what I want you to address on the flip side is how do you fight that? How do you go after the colors? How do you go after the fight or flight thing?
[00:29:41] That sort of thing. As a human being, but also as an artist, what, what is your thoughts here? Because you're on, you're there, you're in the trenches. We are talking to Ananda Vanneweber on Strung Out, and we're talking about the social responsibility of being an artist. You're listening to Strung Out.
[00:30:12] And we're back, and we're going to pick up where we left off. So we are in a weird age. We are in an age where our demographics, people that come to shows, they're getting older, younger people are disinterested. They have this new the internet, the social media that can squash you like a bug if they want, if it wants to.
[00:30:42] how You doing out there? How are you fighting the good fight, Ananda? What do you suggest?
[00:30:52] Ananda Bena-Weber: No, it's so daunting. And I think we're all feeling that. I think one Of the things that I think is important, which I'm not, this is not my idea. Plenty of very powerful speakers and leaders in the past have told us this, that we should fight for something, not against something.
[00:31:09] Because if you fight against something, it still empowers that. So for community, for coming together. for putting our weapons down and coming into dinner, because it's that's when I think of as a woman as well, it's if you look at violent crimes, really statistically, we don't commit them, and so what do we do?
[00:31:33] We set the table and we want everybody to put down their toys and come in and eat and plenty of men feel that way as well. Everybody's happy. what are you happy? Are you happy Killing each other? Are you happier sitting at the table having some good food, good wine, good conversation. I think pretty much everybody, maybe not Richard the third and anyone who identifies with Richard, but otherwise everyone would rather eat, and that's something that we can all do together and we can listen to each other's conversations and we can understand how to love.
[00:32:01] And so that's the thing. That's the way to come in to eat pleuribus unum and we can eat together. We can sit at the theater together and that's a lovely evening out the theater and a nice dinner date is great. And it, the thing is that, and that's something that I think young people right now are.
[00:32:18] They're being targeted so heavily. It's not their fault. They are being targeted by media so heavily all the time. God bless them that they can get through the day. It's just awful. And they're being told that they have to be influencers or they're never going to make it. And it's harder and harder for them to make money because all the jobs that have money and benefits and everything are slipping away, And so they feel like they have to be taking pictures of themselves and putting them online and getting likes because they don't know how they're going to make ends meet. But the thing is, depression is really high in those communities. And so I think young people, and that's also why we have to make it affordable enough but if young people come out to the theater and have a nice meal, inexpensive meal, we need to make inexpensive, healthy food.
[00:33:06] and a romantic environment as well. So they can have a nice date and do courtship. They're going to be happier. they come to a Concert or something like that. It's, it is going to be better. It's just about how to get them out there. And the ironic thing is the only way to get them out there is to try to do online marketing.
[00:33:23] And that's the thing like you and I are probably like, shoot, we got to use this marketing machine. The thing is, it's like the tech guys say, and it's not exactly the technology, it's what you're using it for. And if we can turn around, and plenty of people are doing that, if we can turn around and use tech to help the environment, to help communities, to help underprivileged, people who don't have a voice, to get people into the theater, to get people into a restaurant, to get people cooking together. if you have A meetup group, you can say online where you're going to meet and then go and be there in person like that. That's already something. And I do see people doing that. It's not necessarily as loud a voice.
[00:34:03] I think one of the Things that the actual news media can do is actually do their job and be the fourth estate and report on. actual people living their lives and report on the good and the things that are good and healthy for this country, like the philosophy it was founded on, that would be really great because I know that, that scaring people gets them to buy more papers, but we need to try to fund, also.
[00:34:31] the news so that we can actually get it and get the stuff that's good for us so that we're just doing, and we can focus on the stuff that's good for us. And one of the, the thing that we connected on that was in my show when you guys sang the song, The Red and Blue, I have the slogan, one of my characters in the show that's about democracy and multiculturalism has the slogan, Red, white, and blue makes lavender.
[00:34:54] And that's if you mix all the colors, red, white, and blue, it becomes this comforting pastel that makes an awesome interior decor. You can imagine yourself tucking in for a several course meal. My family's Italian. So like a seven course dinner with your family and friends. People of all kinds from all over tucking in and eating and listening to each other and loving each other.
[00:35:20] And that's an idea of E Pluribus Unum that, that we can think of as America. That,
[00:35:27] Martin McCormack: perfect. I Can't think of anything better, to wrap up. This interview with you, and I want to thank you for being on Strung Out and, folks find out more about Ananda and the various projects that she's doing. 
[00:35:46] she is Living the life of a true artist, to elevate everybody and touch souls. all The websites are going to be with the production notes, and one of the things I always will say at the end of a switchback show is I'll say to the audience, you're thinking that you were being entertained, but we all came here, we shared joy, and it went out into the ether, and really what you were doing is your civic duty.
[00:36:17] And I think as Ipler B'Zunim, there is, think about the responsibility you have to building society and go out and see Ananda in Fancy Fool. You will be doing your civic duty and you'll be touching other people's souls as well. Once again, what a pleasure. Love to do this again in the future and best to you, your husband, and the little one, a little guy there, and everybody else.
[00:36:48] We'll catch you next week. Thanks for listening. Bye bye.
[00:36:52] ​