your executive director and i'm so glad to have you back i have someone new with me now chuck in san stephen's have made their way to california to begin retirement and our new marketing director steve baker is with me welcome thank you very much it's great to be here so steve you musician in your past you've worked in a number of orchestras can you give us a little bit of the flavor your background of where her name from i started off as a pianist actually my mother played piano and she wanted someone else to play in the family so i took piano lessons and within two weeks i passed her up and she had been playing for three or four years so anyway that was my start in music and my father played by ear trumpet so he and i played records and all kinds of jazz and blues together and then i got involved in the band and then i performed my first professional gig was with john williams when i was doing yeah it's pretty dirty you're a ready for when we have the boston pops here absolutely those music really well but you came from arizona yes from scottsdale yes i was working at scottsdale i was there last year if i had known i would have stopped in to do good yeah it's gusto arts and it's actually an arts center performing arts center and a museum and public art so it's all three combined into one and you worked in san diego symphony and i also work for steinway and sons selling piano got involved in doing that as well so what do you feel about now you're suddenly in a performing arts hall with all sorts of crazy artists i love it if you like it because i'm one myself so there is the artist yeah of course well the funny thing is folks that we hired two other people that are apparently flutists so i said god we could entered you know at the bateson standers we have here at the right it's all yeah so anyway that would be fun but i think we've had some you were lucky enough to be here we've had some exciting doings on the bay front we just had the new bayfront development plan that's a saki presented approved and in concept the master plan and then as well on the master plan is the new performing arts center which would be a big twenty three hundred seat theater with center aisle for everybody and you know as well as a smaller education building and then fantastic green and blue always so that was an exciting process the other night what do you think of all that i thought it was great i helped open the newark i always found interesting because you know you're like one train stop away from broadway that's correct how does that work it was very competitive but there's a big audience in new jersey and they were very supportive and we worked very much with the community like with the city is doing here so that's the very important component to make sure the hall serves the community first and of course presents world class talent yeah well well steve you didn't have any input into this year's season so i can't blame you so much as i really do you know something variety i'm thinking the blackwell in classical boom tour i've never seen them i've heard a lot of wow they are amazing the kids go while they go so i want to hear that we have a black violin is a really cool show that it's actually two in guys and obviously they're black they play the violin but they also plug in and they've got raf involved in all sorts of things and we have a school time show was several years ago and the kids went wild because what a way to introduce young people's right to music it's the greatest way and these are great classically trained violinist but our season went on sale recently and we had a huge turnout and that was exciting very exciting you know and then of course  can still buy a subscription to a broadway show because we have about eight or nine broadway shows and if you buy four more you can right now get your line king tickets because that's right lion king single tickets aren't going on sale to november the second although i hear there is some sort of special v i p program that you can be involved in as well yes through sarasota magazine and i think our we can offer special pre sales to folks that are on our club that's great that's great so how do people buy tickets what are the different ways they can get them they can go online of course to van ways org they can call the box office or they can make an appointment to come down and actually select their seats so we're trying to be very focused on service that's an important component of what we do here ok well i tell you what folks we will be back in just a minute at the end ways so and i have one of my favorite people here we have paul madison who is the executive chef and restaurants all over the area and you haven't probably yet had a chance to to enjoy our food in our we've seen here but it's really special i can't wait we'll be back in a minute hurricane season is upon us and city of sarasota residents are urged to have an emergency plan and be prepared before the storm make sure your disaster supply kit is well stocked with water food medicines extra batteries for flashlights and portable radios first aid kit and supplies for infants children and pets electricity may be out for several days so be sure to get cash and fill your car with gas also know if you live in a flood zone and be aware of evacuation routes near issue having a plan and being prepared to help keep you and your family safe in the event of an emergency for more information on that commission those emergency services and other storm related resources visit sarasota f l dot gov and click on services scroll down and select flood map info it just about over the month through the year we try to we try to put wind in around and it's we're flexible about it i never knew who's going to be here was going to be in town so i try to stay in touch with all my distributors and suppliers and say you know if you know some of the winery or wine makers going to be in town let's let's plan know we always you know as as little girls growing up we were all we were all supposed to learn to cook but it wasn't a thing that they always pushed for for young men or young boys i'm sure today that's a whole different thing but what made you want to get into into being a chef i grew up with an italian grandmother it was a big deal that was a big deal in our family everything happened around the dinner table and i was the youngest in my family so she babysat for me quite a bit i spent a lot of time at her house and my favorite things to do with my grandma was to make sausage use make we cook together all the times always had an interest in cooking and it was in high school i started working in a restaurant washing dishes and busing tables and then after high school i started to go to college locally but i was still working at the restaurant i found myself skipping classes and working lunch or didn't do they have college programs for it to become a chef  really didn't want to be in the restaurant world in the business and i could ask you questions all day about it because we all find it so interesting i guess that's why there's a food network in all of this but tell us about for the band ways all are you planning any different menus this this year are a she's getting everybody this year go and you know it's time to mix it up again we got to do this and do that so she bought a bunch of new equipment last year because we do a buffet style dinner being right is right for the timing of ever going to be able to get in and out and get to their seats in time it just seems to work really well we al had a soup which was popular last year and it was some fantastic soup is you know i've i've tried a lot of them and but i love the fact that people feel they can come here early they don't have to fight over a parking space especially now with all the roundabout traffic on it's great to be here before the rest of the crowds have a meal and then if you finish early enough go take a walk out on the bay and have a glass of wine or a soda or whatever makes you you know happy it's a really fantastic place it is nice and you can make a reservation either or when you buy your ticket you can do it right on line with us and they could call us well yes but it must be really really hard because i just i know that you do catering to so what do you do besides just in your restaurants how many events do you do weddings what do you do lots of weddings lots and lots of events and several of them here at the whistle says yeah it's going on there it's a we try to do as many as we can bay sure sure no it's great it's really it's luncheons i assume you do some lunch and a lot of lunches were wide open and very few are in catering how hard is it to do a dinner with say five hundred people and have all the meals hot at the same time and place temperature and then we final cook on site was we're about to finish cooking and plate and serve but it takes a lot of staff it takes a lot of organization to it's not a pre planning and just just making sure you get your timing down and you really have to think about how many people you have and how how to get that served in other words if if there's only one hundred people we may have one plate up line but if there's five hundred people you have two or three going on all the same time and he just keeping it all warm at the same time has to be a real real headache it is it creative because you're creating almost like a restaurant or a venue where there's not one sometimes around the middle of the field on a generator and absolutely zero and i had to have some of those things that we just want to thank you was beyond the fact that madison's does this all for our patrons they also with you every year and that's really one of the special things overseas and well thank you and we will see you soon back at the van w attending a meeting at city hall now it's easier to get up to date information on meetings and agendas with just the push of a button to nuki seven police and city hall to allow users to view upcoming meetings agendas and all of the backup materials right at your fingertips simply touch the upcoming meetings and agendas but select a meeting and view the agenda in all related information the new kiosks or a convenient way to get meeting information while helping the environment by reducing the costly printing of agenda books for more information contact the office of the city auditor and clerk at nine five four four one six every day forty four people in the u s die from drug overdose but they don't have to do more in florida if you're trying to save the life of another person you're protected from prosecution by the good samaritan and welcome back to at the van way it's all i have to tell you folks paul madison is nice on a one on one as he is on camera he's a really great guy and you're going to enjoy working with him stephen i really look forward to it and then we thought this is a perfect time to start talking about some of our november shows we kicked off the season shows are on sale a lot the great ones were in october but this year we have one of our favorite sons back lyle lovett but he's bringing his college roommate or his college best friend robert all keen and i saw the last time lyle was here was he was here with been skill and the fact of having the two of them on stage where they can tell stories and all sorts of things and  keane is somewhat of a living legend in american of music and i must say i'm more of the pop rock girl but his some of his big hits are a bigger piece of the sky whenever kindness fails the road goes on forever just the titles alone sound fabulous they do do you have you ever heard i haven't heard of him but of course i've heard of boy love it i've heard him in concert so i look forward to interchange and stories i'm sure they go back many many many well all the way to college yeah november sixth is the show and i tell you i love it has had a really interesting career of course he's been on a lot of television shows sometimes playing a really bad guy and we love music and that should be a great evening and then you know one of the things i talk about that the van waves will is diversity and we go right the next night to capitol steps and of course that's coming a perfect time it's right around the elections and capitol steps insults everybody so if you don't like trump you'll be happy here if you do like trump you'll be happy here and the near new version is called orange is the new brock which of course is a play on orange is the new black that's right and these guys were all former senator aid s and work for congress that's right i've never seen them i have we had presented them in scottsdale for three nights and usually it sells out solid oh gosh it's a very similar audience to this audience so i mean it was like everybody from ruth bader ginsburg you know hillary  is a real favorite of sarasota i don't know if you've ever seen him out before no i haven't but niels i think it's his brother that lives here or both his parents lived here unfortunately one of them passed away but neil is a big broadway guy he does a n roll and we had that last year and so he he could only i guess change the title to fifty one years of rock and roll but this is part two and he brings in a lot of the huge broadway stars that have been in the rock musical and they sing some of the hits and some of the people they're doing tributes to right now aretha franklin who just passed away and i was so disappointed as a wreath was supposed to be here a couple of years ago and that the last minute she canceled and of course she's been very sick but they'll do a huge tribute to her today to janis joplin who are some of the other performers rituals it says here and both buddy holly so all these are classic rock and roll type of performers so they'll be great to hear their songs and hear what they do to you know they do it in an incredible i mean you know billy joel aerosmith all sorts of them then comes one of my favorite shows this is sort of kicking off the christmas season and anybody that's listen to this program you know i am a christmas not i have an entire garage full of and this year i bought a light up six foot tall not cracker it was figure out how to put it together but maybe the guys behind the camera will come over and help me you never know or chuck because it's about the right size but anyway mannheim steamroller is coming and every time they call the show sells out and it's really new age music they bring be huge a full videos i just have enjoyed them you know have you ever seen them and i've heard a lot of the recordings and what they try to do is make it a total experience a visual experience as well as music so people  house and then one of the shows that i'm really excited about is something called beyond glory and that's on november nineteenth and there is an actor that i have really loved his career his name is steven lang and steven lang if you were a fan of he played the bad guy he was the general that was trying to destroy all the beautiful and the indigenous people and then he was recently in the movie don't read which was the hard film and he played the blind right and the kids came in and they were going to try to rob him and instead he terrorized even lang is a brilliant actor and he does stories of eight medal of honor winners and they go from the korean war to world war two to vietnam and i have been waiting to see this for several years you don't need to be you know you don't to be a veteran or a family of a veteran although i think i hope we get a lot of the veteran people  turning out because i'm sure he does a big salute to them but to see an actor of this caliber in a one man show is something you don't get a lot of yeah i was looking at the videos yesterday and it's really a tour de force what he does and all the different voices and all the different things that you have all the different emotions that he has so they'll be a real treat to see him in action oh i can't wait i can't wait and that's november nineteenth and then going back to the christmas theme that the annual i think it's the fourteenth year here at the  it's coming and of course dave makes you laugh because davis is jewish fellow who has one of the biggest christmas tours and all the country you know but i mean that makes me feel great because dave you know it just gets into the spirit of course along the way you'll have some hanukkah songs some fantastic people mindy a bar who is has been i think she's been here before but not with this show and then jonathan butler who is a regular jonathan butler for those of you that have seen dave cause before is the gentleman for south africa and i you know the little drummer boy his rendition of that made me cry and he just plays the guitar sings beautifully and then i'm probably going to murder this dame but  and this is on november twenty third that's black friday i believe and it's just going to be a lot of fun and then saturday night we switch to another great group casey in the sunshine band so i do say that like  to your mind when you say casey in the sunshine band what do you want to do when a dead you want to do of course yeah that's what it's all about feeling good feeling good and you know people are like well how can i dance in the van with life and you get up there and you dance and  just the one song that he's done a five with that's the way i like it i mean come on i want to dance right now yeah but i will spare you the pain but the case is from florida and you shoes and shake your booty and like his arrangements and you know he has a unique spin on everything he does so it's it's fascinating to see what he does with and it's very traditional his show is this year is called a joyful christmas and i often think you know a lot of the christmas shows are brassy and loud you so that's our november at the band way soul we hope you will be joining us every month we will be back next month with all sorts a big huge broadway shows that are coming and just a reminder you can call us at nine five three three three six eight go to van ways will dot org on the internet and please remember go to the official website or come to the box office we have some really friendly folks that will be glad to take your water and we'll see you next month