one, two, 34.

Get my shoes on at the door.

I'm Lapchick.

seven They feel great.

I'm gonna shine after I do it, I'm gonna do it.

But do they get a look at this guy with the beautiful color about the weather?

Just for me to not share it with another?

I got to show to give that out singing show.

I'll take a look and say a beautiful harmony that's earned your beautiful, easy and together make beautiful light.

And that's you wanna see the come along with me?

That's right.

Well, it is officially holiday season I will call it that.

And there is so much happening here in Michigan.

I'm so excited for this week's episode.

We have a lot to talk about, though.

It's well, I've got a chance to catch up with Aaron at the South Bend Civic Theater Can we just say I'm not going to give it away too much a Thanksgiving drama?

Oh yes.

Oh no.

I'm at my table.

Or that's what I'm saying.

Down down, Ben.

OK, well, we'll find out about that.

And Dave is taking us not just on an art adventure, but an epic.

All right.

I love art.

I'm excited for that.

But you know what?

I love even more than art.

Desert Boulevard confections.

Oh my gosh, I cannot stop talking about.

Oh, delicious.

You've got to check this out.

You like chocolate?

Oh, I love chocolate.

A lot of chocolate.

Oh, wow.

To see this, if you like desserts as much as I do, this is the place where you want to be.

We're in the Uptown Arts District here in Michigan city, Indiana, and we're checking out bowler man confections.

And I already see chocolate sitting in front of me and it's ready to go.

What are we making today?

Today we're making what we call our bonbon bars.

Oh, and those are.

What are your most popular items, correct?

one of our top sellers.

All right.

Well, what goes into it?

Our bonbon bars are start with a tempered chocolate shell that we use at hand.

That's what these are.

That's what these are here.

Yeah, we do our own hand blending chocolate that we have for our shop.

Then we make our molds and which come out like this, and this is how we start.

And then we fill them up with different layers of ganach or fillings or whatnot to make different flavor profiles that we want.

Awesome.

And so what flavors are going to go into this one today?

Today, we're going to be showing you how to do the campfire, which is our number one.

So that's one of my favorites because I think it's more like a s'mores.

Absolutely.

What of this?

Yeah.

So we have our tempered chocolate shell right here.

And then we got our creative blended cookie butter that we have about our Oh, okay so we're going to do a nice layer of cookie butter in the bottom there.

And you are a pro at this mine would not look like that at all I have a few years experience.

And what is your background?

And I have been a pastry chef now for six years.

Oh wow, that's amazing.

Before I.

Started the bakery here in the States four months ago.

I was a pastry chef for one of the local casinos.

OK, so so you've got the experience here.

Yeah, I've worked for hotels and directors baking for different grocery store outlets, so I've been around and doing pastries now for six years or so.

And so some of the best are here.

Absolutely, right.

Absolutely.

And so after you put the cookie butter in, what's going to go in next?

Next time we're doing this, we have.

Then we have a chocolate ganache that I've created, which is a mixture of chocolate and heavy cream, a pinch of salt just to help bring the flavors out a little bit.

So that's going to go in on top of that cookie butter.

And I know you were telling me earlier to before we got started that, you know, there's something unique about your flavors that the first thing you should never taste is sugar No, you absolutely should go first.

That's dessert is going to naturally have sugar in it, right?

But you don't want to be tasting sugar the first thing, because then it gets boring.

Really fast.

Hmm.

OK. We want you to enjoy every bit and gave into that balance.

So there's that ebb and flow of flavors as you're doing it.

So you're going to get this, you're going to get to cookie butter flavors and then it's going to go into chocolate and got that textural aspect of the crunchy chocolate with the creamy chocolate.

And hopefully you'll notice that it's sweet, but you're not going to notice that it's sugary.

OK. That's important.

That's important thing it is.

And that's what keeps people coming back here.

You say that you you're selling out often.

We do.

We do.

We sell out quite often.

OK. Yeah.

During this week, we saw not probably a day or two week right now.

In the summertime, we were selling about four out of five days.

Oh my gosh.

So this is the place to be right where you want to come.

OK.

So what goes on next after that?

And then after that one, what we have is we have our little marshmallows, OK, we cut and then we've probably pre toasted it and we'll put a nice little marshmallow.

And what can that?

Isn't that beautiful?

You can put some eyeballs on it and be like a little eyeballs opening logo.

Yeah.

Absolutely.

You know where I was going?

Awesome.

Well, there's plenty of stuff to try.

Can I check out what's over and over in the case here?

This is gorgeous, by the way.

Thank you and so many different options.

And I know you were kind of saying the bars are pretty popular.

Is that what those are called?

Yes, these are our bonbon bars here, OK?

We have a look at this display.

There's so much stuff here.

We'll just play for you guys here.

We did a little nice little cake and it's confections here.

Confections, I have to ask you the boulder man confections.

Where did the name come from?

Are you a boulder man?

Boy, that's that's a funny story, because my wife who's also coming over here, who's been our dream since we met in pastry school.

Oh, wow.

So we've always dreamt of having our own thing when we moved up here.

She ended up started and she became a milliner.

So she's a hat maker, OK?

You would have seen her in another episode.

Yes.

But so when we started this and I was getting into it, I thought her name is Chef Bizzaro, OK?

So she kind of kept some of the aspect from her food background.

She continued over into that.

Yeah.

And so I wanted to have something fun that way, but I wanted to do something hat related.

So I brought in Bowerman.

OK, or that way?

OK.

Bit of the hat aspect.

Gotcha.

All makes sense.

So what else do we have here?

What was kind of the special right?

Well, these are some of the bonbon bars like we did.

I was a campfire.

This was a pumpkin spice with some candy pumpkin seeds on it.

Oh, this one.

Here is our cherry bourbon.

Was can I sort of cook cherry jam on the bottom and then chocolate ganache?

These are our soon to be world famous turtles.

I've heard about this.

These are our number one seller, proudly.

So we.

And they're huge.

They're huge.

There's a lot of pecans in there.

So we really try to balance that pecan to caramel.

The chocolate region have a nice little dark chocolate pinch of salt on it.

These are we just launched this week.

This is a pumpkin rum cake with it's nice things pumpkin and nice pumpkin.

Kind of a pound cake that's a little denser than when it comes out.

It's still hard.

We we do a nice butter rum bath that we celebrate.

It's delicious.

We have some nice little decorated fun cookies, and you guys have events here sometimes too.

And you also offer catering.

People can preorder so that they make sure to get what they want.

Absolutely.

We do once a month.

We typically do a brunches and dragons, which is a fun play on some of the stuff with Dungeons and Dragons.

We have a lot of fun with this.

one of the big things here is we want to have fun and want it to be in a really serious place.

We want to enjoy our time here.

Yeah.

But yeah, we're getting ready to go into the holiday season.

So and so things like this, like you have your your chocolate bars are ready to go, these are great for stocking stuffers, great for the great idea of stocking stuffers.

Absolutely.

Uh-Huh.

And we also have a. Thanksgiving preorders coming soon, so we're going to launch that like November sixth.

I can't do that.

We're going to a special open house here.

We're going to do free samples of pie, different dinner rolls that you'll be able to have green and your menu is really always changing.

So you're never going to get the same flavors when you come in here.

No, no.

We we try to keep a few of the standards will stay turtle, stay turtle, stay a campfire by mind.

You typically hear some things that are typically here, but we want it to be a little fresh every time you walk in.

So we're always changing what we have.

It's seasonal, it's what we can get.

And you use a lot of fresh ingredients, a lot of ingredients.

Yeah, on the weekends we make savory go.

Let's just kind of an open face pie, but we we fill them with a savory element.

I just hear the word pie.

That's.

We take that.

We get those whatever from the farmer's market.

That's what goes into that race, you know, so we go there and they don't have that at the market and we don't have that in the okay.

So always changing.

And of course, you have this kind of information available on your website and Facebook website.

Facebook, where can people get in touch with you?

Instagram, Facebook Probably the easiest, quickest way to do that.

There's connections you can go through the website.

There's a way to contact us through that way as well.

Instagram messages.

We get a lot of those, too.

Yeah, so we're we're open to a lot of different ways to contact us.

And what are the hours that people here because there is a line at times out the door, down the alley?

Yeah, we're always open Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sundays, OK. twelve to five, Thursday, Friday, ten to six on Saturday, and then tend to choose on Sundays.

We also you might catch us here on a Wednesday too.

OK, well, there's so much to try.

Can I try something?

Absolutely.

OK, which one should I try?

I do the bonfire one.

You would try the campfire.

I always tried.

That's the one that we were just making in the kitchen.

Nice and fresh.

Is there a perfect way to go at it?

You got to choose that way.

It's going to be messy.

It is.

And it's.

Oh, I'm going to taste the layers.

Mm hmm.

Oh, that's wonderful.

Oh, I'm in heaven.

I'm going to go and enjoy this in my little corner.

Thanks for having us.

Thanks for being here.

I'm going to eat it all.

Oh, well, Thanksgiving is right around the corner.

And what does that mean?

Well, it means dinner with family and friends.

But let's be honest, along with that, dinner can come a lot of drama.

But thankfully this year you can have dinner at home and leave the drama of a South Bend civic theater.

And I am ready for him to do.

Wait, wait, Edwin.

Here I am.

Oh, my God.

You know, what am I going to play for you Oh, my goodness, OK?

So speaking of drama, I went on to your website, asked Morgan.

I thought, Let me take a look at this Thanksgiving play.

And then I saw adults only and I was like, What is Aaron up to What are you up to, Aaron?

It is a brand new play by a Lakota Native American playwright named Larissa Fast Horse and is one of the most produced plays of the last couple of years, really, because it just speaks to this moment and that moment is this idea of kind of political correctness.

How do you do things?

How do you say anything anymore?

And it talks about both sides.

It's not trying to skewer one side or the other, but just saying, how have we gone too far?

Is there is?

Is there such a thing as too woke?

Yes, and it is.

I think it's an important conversation to have.

So that's where we see adults only because it's dealing with adult issues.

You know, it's not it's not something that kids are probably going to get.

It'll probably go over their heads and which is nice because we have frozen junior that they can go see at the Battelle center.

Take it.

I mean, I take it.

The adults can come see this great new and I would say it, it's it's like a farce because it does.

It's just ridiculous in a lot of ways.

So the premise is there's these four white people who desperately want to make a culturally sensitive Thanksgiving play for an elementary school.

Oh my goodness.

And all of us remember our Thanksgiving plays in elementary school and thinking back, they probably weren't too culturally sensitive.

Probably not.

So this this is the the the challenge that they try to to to accomplish and not it's not a spoiler or anything with pretty ridiculous results because they just tried so hard that they end up messing everything up.

But you know, I love that you said that this is a really good play for the times that we are living in.

And I just want to step back for a minute.

You use the word woke.

Yes.

But those that may not quite understand what you mean, you're not talking about being asleep and kind of waking up in that sense.

So can you explain what woke means?

Woke is being incredibly, and some may say too sensitive to appropriation, to cultural sensitivity, to political correctness.

You hear this all the time with, you know, whether it's pronouns or whether it's race or gender or all of these things right now.

And some people are trying so hard to be right to do the right thing that they almost sound ridiculous.

And it's it's a challenge because a lot of the things that I hear in this play, which is basically people trying to write a play as a theater producer, I've said a lot of these things now.

Yes.

And I'm like, Oh, no.

So the playwright Larissa Fasters says performative wokeness.

And that's and that's the idea of being woke.

Not to solve any problems, but just to sound right.

And I think that's the problem.

If we're just doing it to seem like we're better than everybody els and not actually trying to solve the problems which are real, then that's a problem.

So if we're dedicated to to changing the world, making the world a better, safer, kinder, more empathetic place, then OK, wokeness is cool.

But if you're just doing it to seem cool, right to seem cool but not actually do the right thing then it's a problem.

And that's that's that's what this this wrestles with right now, no pun intended because, you know, we all love Turkey during Thanksgiving.

Is this going to ruffle a few feathers?

Yes, I hope so.

That's the best part about some of these.

Some of these plays is that we can create an environment where we can.

Like I said, wrestle with difficult issues and and no one's going to be like pointing fingers at anybody.

But then at the end, I hope we can have a talk back and say, What did you learn?

Hopefully, this playwright has created a space that we can all enter where we leave a little better.

You know that the impulses we have to be kind to our neighbors to be empathetic to the struggles that people are in can turn into real action instead of just this kind of performative ness that we're trying.

And we really do need that message in these times.

And now it's going to be taking place down right here in the Warner Studio Theater.

This is the first play we've had in here since January of 2020.

So, yeah, so keep more than a year and a half, and this is the place where we do kind of our edgy, fun kind of experimental stuff.

And so it will be here for two full weekends and then I think ending.

On the 20th, 21st, so Friday, Saturday, Sunday, so tomorrow and then that Wednesday through Sunday of that second week mean I said, what's so great about this space?

It's very intimate, so this is a perfect for you for that.

It really is because you feel like you were in that classroom having these discussions that kind of escalate, escalate, escalate.

And none of us are familiar with that in like Thanksgiving time, right?

I mean, we never sit around a table and have conversations that might escalate.

The thing about this is you're in a safe place where you are not going to lose family members over.

Now that's my great idea, and that is a great idea.

Now you have some fun things coming up before the end of the year as well.

Absolutely.

Like frozen, like I just mentioned the second weekend of that.

And then we have a Christmas Carol.

Yes.

And it is a new adaptation by Aaron Mays, who's a local playwright from Chicago who actually directed Gem of the Ocean last year .

And he has created a beautiful new piece that kind of highlights Scrooge love story, which we kind of lose.

And so we kind of develops these characters in a much more I don't know, romantic way.

So I think people will enjoy it like 90 minutes again.

So perfect length for the kids.

No one's going to be crying in the middle of act to say, Oh and then we just announced our hold optimistic.

22 season, OK, and you might have something that tells us a little can we get a sneak peak real quick?

Yeah, you're some of the first people to see what's coming up.

Oh my gosh.

Newsies?

Yes.

Oh my gosh.

So there's stuff for everybody like both Newsies and Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, and that's like story West Side Story at the Morris with the South Bend Symphony Orchestra.

Wow, we have.

It is an action packed season, and I like to say there's something that everyone can get behind.

Even if you don't like musicals, there's comedies.

Even if you don't like comedies, there's dramas.

If you just have kids and want to have them out, we have opportunities for them.

We just want a romantic date night.

We got those options.

Wow, that sounds great.

Well, we're wrapping up a season and looking forward to a great 2022.

Absolutely.

And thank you so much and take a little note from your play.

No, no drama at your table.

No drama, no drama.

Keep the drama on the stage.

Yes, on the stage.

Not off the theater.

Thank you, Kelly.

I am excited to be here in a room that when I look at it, I see just a lot of stuff.

But when an artists look at it, they see a lot of potential.

I'm here the old bag factory in Goshen and I'm here with Sonya and John.

first of all, I want to start with you, Sonia and the reason I do is because you're you're the brains behind this whole thing.

What is going on on the heritage trail?

Well, the Elkhart County Convention Visitor Bureau is excited to be able to offer a celebration in 2022 for Elkhart County and the entire northern Indiana region to celebrate our creativity.

The people and places that make so many wonderful things in our quilt gardens and all of the great cities and towns.

So we were working hard to announce and work together to build a trail, an epic art adventure along the heritage trail.

And it really connects our quilt gardens.

We have 17 quilt gardens next year that will be started on May the 30th.

These are those amazing giant gardens planned in the shape of quilt patterns, and it's our 15th anniversary.

So with the birthday party, you have to have great things.

So we're celebrating with special art and picking it up with this epic art adventures.

And right now, you're looking for local artists like John to actually come alon and share their pieces for this trail, right?

Oh, exactly.

We're in a time and a search for artists, creative people.

Whether you're an art student, a teacher of art, a professional sculptor such as John who has amazing pieces here, and artists who has a vision and a dream and would like to share that with the world.

So we're have an application period till the first December.

The six people can go online, enter their application or email and request or download a piece.

And so we're looking for artists to submit their vision.

Just like John's creative vision.

Take all of these spaces, bring them to life and help share and tell their story.

John, this is like the ultimate man cave in here, I think, right?

Is this your happy place?

Yes, it is.

People say that looks like you have a lot of fun here Yeah, and I do.

But it is sometimes hard work.

You know, in my studio sometimes looks more like a welding shop than when you think of an artist's studio.

You think of easels and paint brush.

Yeah, where mine is more material and I have all kinds of material around which gives me inspiration.

So how did you even get into this?

I mean, how did you even discover that you had passion for this?

When I was a sophomore in college, I took on the sculpture class and got hooked and went on and got my Masters MFA degree, and now I teach part time at Goshen College.

Wonderful sculpture.

Full time.

It must be wonderful to have that passion when you're in college.

And then be able to instill that in other students locally.

Yes, and it was a dream of mine to become a professional sculptor, but I didn't know if I'd work.

And now I'm inspiring.

My students and several of my students will also be on this outdoor epic adventure show.

And they're working hard to make big pieces that will fit in the show.

Well, I do think as well, and we're going to chat about some of the pieces that people can see from you around the different cities of Elkhart County.

But I do think that one of the great things about the internet is that it has helped artists to be able to share their work and sell their work to a much bigger audience than you kind of maybe when you started.

Right?

And it used to be you had to be with a gallery, and there aren't many galleries in this area.

I had to go to Chicago now because of the internet.

People are coming to me.

They see my website and then they come to me and.

And what's nice about that is when they when they see my website, they're kind of familiar with my work.

So I don't have to explain what I do.

So it really makes it a lot easier.

You know, I used to send out photographs and all that.

It's a lot easier now that is now saying you talked about you used to have to be part of a gallery, really.

Elkhart County is kind of turning into a gallery of sorts next year.

So what is it actually going to be on display It is.

We're inspiring and building an outdoor open ai art museum, a gallery that connects people can travel and fine, free of charge during all daylight hours, seven days a week.

It is makes it accessible for all people of all ages, races, accessibility, physical capacity.

We want to celebrate art and design and inspire those future students, just lik John is doing with his college students, but also then celebrate the experts And so this countywide trail, it's 90 miles, if you did it all at one time.

But it's going to be viewable for a year so people can pick and choose their time, Steve part when they have time and then go to the next community at their own time.

And what better?

And I know on our website we'll have a link to applications for any artists who want to apply.

But what better to inspire you right now heading into the winter to actually get working on some work than to know that people could be looking at it next year, right?

Oh, that's for sure.

Our opening day is May the 30th, so we've specifically selected that application timeline by December six in order for us to curate the exhibition and give those artists that time during those snowy winter months to visit and build and weld and paint and steel and glue and whatever they need to do.

It's nice to keep the brain active when the weather is trying to get you down.

John, for anyone that wants to come along next year, what will they see from you?

What?

What inspires your work?

I do see a lot of metal in here and yeah, I work primarily in metal and a lot of my things are painted in some parts of it or texture, and I'm really known for my kinetic work .

Mm-Hmm.

The tops of my sculptures often turn in the wind.

So it's it's ongoing.

The sculpture is always changing and on the wind.

So and I'm really influenced by the whole northern Indiana or Indiana in general because we are kind of an industrial area where there's plenty of industrial material around which inspires myself and my students.

So a lot of people in the area and of course, what might look like just a piece of metal can then become something beautiful, which is really the ultimate transformation, right?

Right.

Yeah.

You take something that's maybe been beat up or often discarded by industry.

They can't use it anymore, and we take it and make something out of it.

And often we find shapes or parts that are bent in ways that we could not do that we don't have big presses and things like that.

So it really is nice to find things and be inspired by the material All right.

So something you once again for anyone watching, if they're an artist, when do they have to get in?

So we're looking for art applications by Decembe the six and we want all artists with all mediums, wood metal sculptures, different types of of creativity.

So we're wanting different applications to be received so we can curate.

Art is very subjective.

What I might enjoy might be different from you in our audience.

And so we would like a variety.

We have certain standards and specifications for artists needs to be life size.

It's similar to a piece by you.

So we're looking for a certain size and scope and scale to enhance and engage so that there'll be a surprising adventure at each venue that our visitors go to.

But of course, just because that's the day when they have to apply doesn't mean that's.

The date when the peace actually has to be correct, they will apply by December six, will notify them of their acceptance in their location, and then they have until May the 30th for it.

It's open to the public.

I love it.

What a great way to inspire people.

What do you want to design?

You know your inner artist.

I'm pretty useless when it comes to stuff, to be honest The only thing I can create is a hostile environment at home with my wife.

No, I'm just kidding.

But I'm pretty terrible at this stuff.

I'm just not handy at all.

All right.

If you want to get more information about the art application, if you're like John or you're inspired by John, then go to our website and make sure you get that application in by December six.

All right.

Do it.

What a great show and art adventure.

I mean, your daughter does art.

That's what people are doing.

Well, it's an idea.

I know I'm getting crafty and there's so many crafts here We're actually checking up the top in farmer's market coming up next week.

So, yes, that's exciting.

That is exciting.

That's a lot of fun.

Lot of history here as well.

Do you want to tell you all about our next week's episode?

But thank you for joining us.

It's been a great episode.

All right, let's go shopping.

Can you shop already?

We can always start our way so the seasons are changing.

And if you walk outside and notice the weather, it's changing too.

And they're even talking about that four letter word which some of us love and some of us hate.

But what winter means is there's a lot of traditions that families get out and experience in our area each and every year and we would love to know about those.

So if you guys have things that your family loves to do around the winter season and the winter holidays, would you let us know about them?

You can email us at experience machinima at W on board, or you can send us a message on Facebook and tell us about some of your favorite things about the winter months and what you guys like to get out and experience.

We hope to hear from you experience.

Miss Gianna is made possible in part by the Community Foundation of Saint Joseph County and the Indiana Arts Commission, which received support from the State of Indiana and the National Endowment for the Arts.

This wnit, local production has been made possible in part by viewers like you.

Thank you.