(soft music) - Hello, good afternoon and welcome to Basin Life.

I'm Krista Escamilla and it is a pleasure to share time with all of you.

This is our first episode, and I could not be more thrilled to inspire, to learn together and to grow together during Basin Life.

That's what our show is all about.

It's all about you.

Basin PBS is your station.

And we are here at the Anwar family studio in downtown Midland.

And I just, once again, couldn't be more excited to share this time with all of you.

So let's get started.

Coming up on today's show, after the longest spring break slash summer ever, kids are back in school, whether it's online or in person, but how has COVID-19 effected their mental health?

Today we will visit with Dr. Barbara Rila with Texas Tech University Health Science Center Psychiatry on tips on how to talk to kids about transitioning back in a healthy way.

In today's heart of the Basin we take you to the town of Monahans, population 7,439.

And we'll hear how one artist turned her passion into profit.

And every week we wanna help you live your best life.

Whether that's sharing cooking tips, entertainment, gardening hacks, technology, or like today's guest, who will teach us the art of the cocktail while finding out the latest in the local art scene.

Plus one of my favorites, I love kids.

We are celebrating kids.

Find out which outstanding young person is making a difference in our community.

But first speaking of community, let's take a look at some events we're looking forward to this week.

The Ellen Noel Art museum, bam is open.

That's right.

The art of the graphic novel exhibit will take place all month long.

We hope you can make it over there.

October is breast cancer awareness month.

All month long we will let you know how you can help raise awareness.

That's right this Friday, at Clay Shoot benefiting pink the basin is taking place.

Pink the Basin is a nonprofit, a fantastic nonprofit who raises money for individuals needing financial assistance for mammography and breast cancer diagnosis.

And we are so excited to announce that after years in the making, Centennial Park will be opening in downtown Midland.

The four acre park which is located downtown has over 150 trees, two dog parks, a playground, a big giant screen, a stage and a splash pad.

It will be so much fun.

I just love taking our family there and so excited for them to open with this new park.

We hope that you and your family will enjoy.

Well each week following Basin Life, Becky Ferguson will join us for her new show called one question.

This week, she will dive deeper into an important topic that has hit our country hard this year, mental health.

Today's one question are West Texans depressed?

That's coming up today at five O'clock.

Joining us now is Dr. Barbara Rila.

Thank you so much for being with us today.

- Well thank you for having me.

We appreciate any opportunity to help with mental health.

- And I think right now we should all just take a collective, (both sigh) right, isn't that how everyone is feeling?

- True.

- And especially kids.

I'm a mom of four.

And I know we talked a little bit about this before, and this is tough on an any age.

On how to talk to your kids about what is going on with COVID-19?

- Particularly when we as parents, don't quite wrap our own heads and hearts around what's happening, this is uncharted territory.

What we do know though, is that this amounts to stress and it amounts to change.

And so whenever children are subjected to stress and change, we know there may be mental health consequences.

So what I really like to tell parents is tune into your youngster.

Because the losses, the disruptions, the isolation, the separation from loved ones, all of those things are having emotional impact on the children.

- And I think because right now everyone's kind of what is the right thing to do?

Should I send my kid to school?

Should I not?

So I think there's so much uncertainty.

The kids are feeling that uncertainty just as much.

Is there a certain sign may be that parents can look for in their kids.

That goes, "Hey wait a minute, something is a little off"?

- So when I say tune in, that's exactly what I'm talking about.

Focus on any kind of subtle change that you see in your child.

It may be that they start having headaches or tummy aches.

It might be that they don't want to go back to school or they don't want to study a home online anymore.

- It's fun being in your pajamas all day right?

I mean is that we all wanna do is be in our pajamas all day.

- Yes I think there are kids and parents alike who are working at home that enjoy the same thing.

So focusing on any changes in their moods, their behavior, their sleeping patterns, maybe their appetite.

Tuning into all of the whole child will help parents to know whether or not there's something to be concerned about.

- So once you've tuned in what's the next step, how do you get the conversation going?

- Communication is absolutely key.

And if nothing else this COVID season, has taught us that being together more means we talk to one another more.

And so opening conversations, particularly using feeling words this is a- - What are those feeling words?

- Those feeling words- - Because I mean I think well everyone feels differently.

So are there some key ones?

- There are some basic key ones and they are sad and mad and glad or happy and scared, which we might also use the word worried.

So those are the key phrases, the key words.

Now parents are having all those same emotions as well.

And so it's a wonderful opportunity for parents to model talking about those kind of difficult as well as happy feelings.

And that sets a tone for conversations with children who are maybe having trouble with sad or scared and worried or angry.

- And if you do find that you've honed in on those keywords, you're having those conversations and you still feel like they are not doing well.

what is the next step you should take?

- Then you call 6201160.

(laughs) - Then I'm glad you did that.

'Cause I was gonna ask you how can someone reach you?

'Cause I know a lot of people right now, they would love to have a lifeline and go, who can I call?

Let's repeat that number one more time.

- We are not the only ones in town.

But our phone number is 6201160.

And we have a host of friendly professionals who are more than happy to help you with concerns about your child.

Many times we're just gonna put your mind at ease, or we're gonna give you some advice for home.

Other times we may need to look a little deeper, but we're glad to help.

- Well, thank you so much.

I wish we had more time we're out of time, but really quick.

Look for the good.

We always like to look for the good.

What have you found is so good in this time?

- What I have found that I love is many families are spending so much more time together that we're finding a number of families are actually growing closer, having better relationships and better communication.

- Okay thank you, Dr. Barbara Rila.

Thank you so much we really appreciate you.

And all that you do at Texas Tech Health Sciences.

We really appreciate all of our doctors in our community because you are doing the important work.

So thank you.

- Thank you for the opportunity.

- Thank you so much.

Well, raise your hand if you feel technologically challenged.

Anyone else?

Yes, me too.

I can't even say the word barely.

Well, you are definitely not alone.

Coming up next, we will share some tips that can help you make your techno life a little bit easier.

(soft music) Welcome back, everyone.

Joining us now is Jose Gaona with Red Pixel Marketing.

Jose it's so good to have you on our first episode.

- Yeah so excited of you.

We've known each other so many years, and this just feels like home.

So let's talk about technology because I don't know about you, technology I still get a little nervous and whether it's for the kids or it's for me, or if it's for my parents, when my mom says, "I don't know how to download this picture."

And so I know that we all are challenged with it.

Let's talk about today's topic, which is Tik Tok.

- Yeah.

- We hear about it everywhere.

What is the Tik Tok?

(Jose laughs) That's the question my mom asks, what is the Tik-Tok?

- It has nothing to do with time.

Although you can easily spend lot of time, waste a lot of time on it.

But Tik Tok is a social media app.

So it's a great question.

You might know about it, especially if you have teenagers or younger kiddos in your family, you probably know about Tik Tok.

But you probably have seen Tik Tok.

If you ever go out in public and you see somebody doing dances together.

- [Krista] What was that again?

(laughs) - It's a thing.

And so Tik Tok it's social media.

And you're hearing a lot more about it.

You know the president has drawn some attention to it.

And so it's becoming a little bit more mainstream now, but it's big.

It's been big for awhile.

It's got 8 million worldwide active users.

- Wow.

- And in 2019, it was the most downloaded app in the world.

So what I wanted to talk about today, especially for parents, is you're gonna hear a lot about it.

You know I have preteens or younger kids eight and 10.

And so they see some of the older kiddos when we're around, they see my nieces and nephews and they wanna know about it.

And I think there's some things it's fun.

- My daughter and I had Tik Tok Thursday, every Thursday, but her senior year, because it was something fun for us to do.

We didn't post them, but we just did for fun.

And it can be a good tool for kids to feel connected.

But what are some of the things that parents need to know about?

- That's good it's a great question.

Did you see my script before that?

- No, I didn't, I didn't even look at your notes.

- The way Tik Tok works it's video based.

For the most part, you take these little, these 15 second videos and you post them.

And Tik Tok has just done a great job.

Part of the platform is growing is the, they do a lot of gaming's games, contests to localize the content, right?

And so a lot of this stuff is driven organically and things like that.

So here's the three things that I think parents need to know that you can be private messaged, right?

The app, like most other apps allow for private messaging and you need to know that.

So that means people who are not representing themselves or adults reaching out to a younger demographic.

- So strangers, so people that are not your friends can actually reach out to you in a direct message.

Okay that's scary.

So you need to be aware of that.

What's number two?

- Number two the type of content that's on there, it can be very suggestive.

So whatever your rules are within your family, your age appropriate, you need to make sure you know, what your kids are looking at with any social media.

But for this one in particular, there could be a lot of suggestive what I would term suggestive content.

So you need to know what your kids are looking at or what they could be exposed to.

The majority of users are, 41% of them are 16 to 24.

And overall the app and these users on the app skew younger.

So you just need to know that if your kiddo is younger than 16 and using Tik Tok, you need to know, and you need probably to be on the app.

- And maybe you need to have their password and be able to check and make sure.

And number three, we're running out of time, but really quick, number three.

- It collects user data.

Which could be good or bad.

- That's a whole Interview in itself, user data.

- And then that' a big thing right now.

I mean, it knows where you're at, who you are, that kind of stuff.

It does a really good job with collecting user data.

And as we wrap it up, I do know it's not all negative.

There are some things positive.

- Let's look for the good, look for the good.

- It's got parental controls, right?

So they have parental controls.

So again, make sure you are aware of how to use the app, and you can do it remotely.

So that's a good thing as a parent.

And then they have this setting that I think it's really cool.

It's a wellbeing setting.

And it basically will tell you if you turn the wellbeing setting on, it'll tell you you've been on here for two hours.

You've been on here for out, whatever your limits are that you wanna set, it'll help you manage that and tell you, Hey, you've been on here for too long.

- Jose, thank you so much for the wonderful information.

It was a pleasure.

We would love to have you back another time and talk more technology.

I think it's something that we all need to learn about and be informed about because it changes like this.

And I feel like I'm definitely a novice and we're very appreciative of your expertise.

- We probably are more technological than we think we are.

But again, congratulations again.

And so super proud of you guys.

- Thank you, Jose.

Thank you so much.

Well, coming up next, the Permian Basin is a beautiful area as you know, but what makes it the most beautiful part is the people.

That's right.

Each week we will take you to one of our amazing towns and hear a story from one of the residents that has impacted their community.

So I think we should go ahead and do it now.

In this week's heart of the Basin, we take you to my husband's hometown of Monahans in Ward County, take a look.

- Hi, I'm Kathy Fausett.

I'm a native of Monahans Texas.

I think living in an oil field town, you go through your ups and downs, the booms and the busts.

In the busts you need some inspiration.

And in the booms, you need to be expressing your creativity.

I did shoot two photographs that were selected to go into the Amanda Smith gallery in Johnson city.

I kept sending pictures in and they were denied.

I talked to Amanda and she said you've got to have something different.

One morning, I was getting ready.

And I thought, what am I gonna do?

And it hit me I'm about to turn 59.

How do you shoot a 59 year old woman?

I found an old ladder, stripped down my clothes and climbed on the ladder and did one shot.

I ran back, fix my husband lunch.

And when he came in, I said, "I'm embarrassed to tell you this, but I just shot myself naked on a ladder."

And he laughed lo and behold, that was the photo that was selected.

(laughs) One of our biggest art projects was the Jazz Cafe.

We bought a rundown building in 2005.

That was the former tower theater that was built in 1937.

It's probably the best art project we've done so far.

During this pandemic, I remember laying down and just being so depressed and not wanting to do anything.

And if I could get out and go look at a beautiful landscape or a beautiful museum or some type of music, it would inspire me.

And it would make me feel like I'm living instead of dying.

The world needs art.

That those are the things that needed to be opened most.

- Well you've heard the saying it's five o'clock somewhere, right?

Well, it's almost five O'clock right now, here in West Texas.

When we return, we'll be mixing up something fun in today's your best life.

And we'll meet this week's celebrating kids honoree.

(soft music) Welcome back everyone.

I think kids are amazing.

And I know that you think your grandkids and kids are too right?

Well, that's why each week we wanna highlight a young person in the Basin that is doing an outstanding job, big or small.

They are making a difference and we wanna hear about it.

So today we are celebrating this wonderful, beautiful young lady, Anaya Clinton.

Now Anaya is her mom, Kaylee sunshine, Anaya who I've known for years, she is intelligent, she is witty.

She is unapologetically fierce.

She's an honor roll student at Midland High, and this will be her third season on the MHS varsity volleyball team.

She just had an amazing game the other night with 15 kills.

Oh, she's a rock on that court.

Now she has been invited to play for the number one volleyball club team in the nation this season.

Nothing in this world could be as beautiful as she is to her mom I just love Kaylee to death too.

She is so sweet.

And Kaylee says that she wants her to reach for her dreams and touch the stars.

And I know she will.

That's what makes Anaya Clinton our celebrating kids nominee today.

So congratulations.

You are just amazing.

Keep on doing the good work we're so proud of you.

If you're child, grandchild, niece, nephew, neighbor, brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles, cousin, wants to be recognized, remember big or small we wanna celebrate it all.

Please email me basinlife@basinpbs.org.

And we will showcase them in an upcoming celebrating kids story.

If you've ever met me before, you know that I want you all to live your best life, or as I tell my kids that yo-yo or Yolo that's right.

Yo-yo is you're only young once, right?

And Yolo, you only live once.

So with that said, I'm so excited to announce our next guest of Basin Life.

I've known him for years, Mr. Randy Ham, the executive director of the Odessa Arts council.

Thank you for being with us, Randy.

- Thank you so much.

And congratulations on this amazing show.

- Thank you I'm so excited.

You know, we have to have fun and it's almost five o'clock.

So we're gonna talk cocktails and arts.

Which I understand you have your own podcast.

- Yes Dan Eck and I, Dan is the executive director for museum of the Southwest.

Right before COVID hit, we were talking about some things that we could do to kind of reenergize because working for nonprofits while incredibly rewarding can be very draining.

And we wanted to reignite that passion for artists and art.

And so we created the West Texas Cultural Cocktail and we go out and just talk to artists from around the Permian basin and give them a little amplification.

- I love that.

That is fantastic.

And then of course you share a little cocktail knowledge at the same time.

- Absolutely.

- And I have to tell you, I don't know much about cocktails.

I know my mom's favorite is a lemon drop and that's about it.

So I don't know what goes into martini and you're gonna tell us all about that.

- Absolutely.

I thought I would start us off with a martini because it's a classic and you need to walk before you can run.

So if you can master the fundamentals, then we can move on to the lemon drops in the Manhattan.

- That's one of my favorite sayings by the way.

You gotta crawl, walk, run.

(laughs) - That's exactly right.

- So let's crawl.

- So the three things to remember about a martini are ingredients, temperature, and marination.

Okay so always start with the best ingredients and a vodka martini is just two ingredients it's vermouth and vodka.

So now we've got our ingredients and then we start with the vermouth.

Now sorry James Bond.

But we stir, we don't shake.

- No shaking here huh?

- No shaking - See learn something new every day.

- So you just take a half ounce of the vermouth.

- Hopefully you're making this at home a long with us.

This is show and tell.

- So there you go.

And you stir that in with the ice and then you let it marinate for about two minutes and you let the ice kind of be coated with the vermouth.

So while we do that- - We eat the olives.

- We're not gonna the olives not yet.

(Krista laughs) But while that's marinading for a few minutes, I did wanna tell you that Odessa Art's just granted out $295,000 in cultural tourism grants for cultural entities across Odessa and Ector County.

And we are so proud of that.

- That is fantastic.

- So what we've done is we've let the ice marinate and then you actually drain the vermouth back out.

So you really, really take, this is what I would call a very, very dry martini.

But there's still vermouth there.

And then you take three of these of the vodka.

- Three, one, two, three.

(laughs) There we go.

- And it's really important to get these ratios right, two and- - Because it has to be the right mix with the vermouth.

- Right.

- Okay.

- And then you just stir that.

And again, because I like it so cold and cold is so important.

I just go ahead and grab a couple of extra ice cubes and put in there just to make sure it is absolutely as cold as it can be.

And the other thing you do is you chill your glass.

A glass can actually be 30 degrees warmer than the cocktail you're serving.

- Really?

- So if you're like me, you keep these in the freezer.

But today, if you don't have room in your freezer, just put some ice in there and let it sit like that while you make the cocktail.

And then you let this one sit for about two minutes.

So just enough time.

Ask me any question.

- That's right.

I wanna know what's the what's happening, I know arts are starting to open back up a little, what is happening in Odessa Arts council?

- Well I gotta tell you, we were so thrilled to see that the Wagner Noel just opened back up and they've had three shows now.

The Ellen Noel has two fantastic exhibits.

One from their permanent collection, all of black and white photos across West Texas.

So if you love that West Texas scenery, go check that out.

They're also doing the art of the graphic novel and they just had their first family art day.

So they had people coming through and it was fantastic.

And then in a couple of weeks, we're going to be doing the KIB Odessa beautiful recycled fashion show.

- Ooh, that sounds like fun.

- It is so much fun.

I've been helping them with that for about five years now.

And this year because of social distancing, we have the opportunity to film it at the brand new Ector theater.

And we're gonna be one of the first people in there.

So I'm really, really excited about that.

So now the ice has chilled the glass, we've got our martini ready.

And you just take this, strain it into your glass.

Now, most people serve with an olive, but I don't like olives.

So I will always make mine either with a twist of lemon, which is my favorite.

Or if you wanna gibsonize it- - This is called gibsonizing?

- This is called gibsonizing.

And you do cocktail onions.

And there you go.

That is your fantastic- - Cheers I will cheers and toast you with the onion.

- Cheers all right.

- Thank you so much, Randy Ham, the executive director of the Odessa Arts Council.

Perfect, perfect.

Thank you so much, Randy.

- Thank you.

- Well, Mr. Rogers mom used to tell him in scary situations or when watching the news to look for the helpers.

This is so true.

And I like to say, look for the good, there's always good to be found.

When we return we'll hear from your neighbors on the good things happening in your neighborhood.

Stay with us.

(soft music) Oh, I love the Sandhills.

So here's a look at what's coming up on Basin PBS this week.

Latino vote, dispatches voices from the underground.

And there's a lot of Texas that you'll notice here that will take place right here on Basin PBS, Tuesday, October 6th at 8:00 PM.

The MISD school board live debate is this Thursday, October 8th at 7:00 PM.

We hope you'll join us for that.

And last tango in Halifax.

That's right.

The series finale, series finale, not just the season, the series on Sunday, October 11th at 7:00 PM.

And last but not least looking ahead a week from today, the US house of representatives, Texas, 11th congressional district live debate is on Monday, October 12th at 7:00 PM.

We hope you will join us for all that and more right here on Basin PBS.

Well, that's it for our first show.

Thank you so much for joining us.

We hope you will make it a date every Monday to join us here at Basin PBS at 4:30 and stay with us for an hour and set your DVR, join us live, whatever you would like to do.

But we also wanna let you know if any of your friends or family missed the show, they can catch it tomorrow on Basin PBS's Facebook page and our YouTube channel.

And please connect with me on social media at Krista Escamilla on Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn.

I wanna hear from you what's important in your life.

Now, before we leave you today, one of my life goals is to share and spread positivity.

I truly believe you can look for the good in every situation.

Each week we will share what your neighbors and friends are grateful for.

Let's take a look at today's look for the good.

- Hi I'm Olivia.

And something that I'm really looking forward to is the football season finally started.

- I'm Addy and we get to have our first pep rally in a few weeks.

- Oh, I love that.

Thank you so much again.

Thanks for joining us.

It is time to pass over the baton.

That's right we're gonna hand over the baton to my friend, Becky Ferguson.

But before we do so, I just wanna thank all the amazing people here at Basin PBS for making the first show happen, Basin Life.

So thank you, Laura.

Thank you, John James.

Thank you Carolyn.

Everyone on production team.

Alison, you are all amazing.

And we look forward to sharing the good in West Texas.

So Becky take it away.

That's it for us for Basin life.

You make it a great day.

(soft music)