Announcer: Major funding for "Chat Box with David Cruz" is provided by the members of the New Jersey Education Association, making public schools great for every child.

Promotional support is provided by Insider NJ, a political intelligence network dedicated to New Jersey's political news.

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♪ David: Hey everybody.

Welcome to chat box.

I'm David Cruz.

Good to be back with you.

I hope you are getting hyped for the solar eclipse coming on Monday.

We are going to tell you what to watch for, how to watch and what the solar system is trying to tell us.

Imagine being trapped in a brain that hears everything is music.

We will talk to a Jersey filmmaker about his new movie on that.

But let's start with the craziness of our current political season and the lawsuit at the center of it all.

Mike DuHaime is from a political strategy group, makers of Chris Christie and others.

Interesting times we are living in.

>> New Jersey never ceases to amaze.

David: but this is kind of beyond.

Of all the events that have happened in the last four weekends, I don't think I've ever seen anything like it.

>> The changing of the line or the removal of it potentially is a seismic change in New Jersey politics in terms of what it means for the county party organizations and down ballot races.

Like some reforms, I think well-intentioned but misguided and could have some unintended consequences.

I think it is something we should proceed with caution on.

David: let's talk about that party line case.

The judge agreed with the plaintiff's which means the line is gone.

In democratic primaries.

We wanted to talk to someone who would make the case for the line because despite like 18 lawyers in the courtroom, the clerk's main argument is the time it was going to take to change the ballots.

That's not the argument you are making.

>> Mind is more I value the party structure.

We have had well-intentioned reforms like campaign-finance reform.

It has backfired and put a whole bunch of money into these outside groups and they are taking the accountability of the candidates and political parties away.

They should be accountable.

I believe the political parties, this is not just some smoke-filled back room.

There are thousands of county committee people in both parties throughout the state that work hard for their local candidates.

They get elected in primaries to represent their neighborhood.

I believe folks who dedicate that amount of time to their party for years deserve to have some right to influence the process.

The county party structures can affect candidates -- vet candidates.

It's the most well-funded candidates, the people that can self-finance who have the advantage, or the people willing to go the furthest to the right or left.

Political parties deserve a right to support the people they think are the best.

David: what undermines your argument with a lot of people is you take Middlesex for instance.

You can have 80% of the vote going to one candidate and 22 the other, but it's the chairman who goes in the back room and lights his own cigar and says I want this person.

You lose the whole argument about representative party government when it's one or two guys making the final decision.

>> Middlesex Republicans and Democrats do it different.

If each county and within each party do things different -- but I will say this about Middlesex County Democrats.

Those county committee people do get to vote on the chairman.

If they don't like what the chairman is doing, they can have a new chairman next time.

I think it's this fallacy that there is like 21 Republicans and 21 Democrats in back rooms making deals.

Most of these counties have a democratic process whereby those County committee people get to vote.

But having the federal court tell New Jersey counties what to do overreaching over the New Jersey state legislature is another thing I don't agree with.

If we change the party line system, it should be our legislature, not some judge.

David: is there anything about this system that needs to change or be tweaked?

>> I would love to see the people have a voice in that process.

I have seen it happen on the Republican side work Curtis has gone around the state and he has talked to people and won them over.

He's hearing directly from local party leaders.

It's local mayors, county council people.

He's hearing their concerns.

It makes them better candidates in this process where you have to earn the support of the county parties makes them better candidates.

Those candidates still have to win.

There are plenty of people in New Jersey who have lost off the line.

This gives the parties some ability to support the candidates they think are best.

David: you are with Curtis you said -- in this case, maintaining the party line structure would be beneficial to him.

>> It certainly would be.

They were for the most part democratically held party conventions where he won the vote.

I have done this in the past.

I ran Governor Christie's race in 2009.

I did Bob Frank's in 2000.

It was a very close race.

These county conventions really mattered and made the process better.

It doesn't mean it's all perfect by any stretch.

There are many things that can be improved.

Campaign-finance reform has been a disaster.

Every editorial board and progressive activist loves it, it's been a complete disaster that only helps the wealthiest candidates and incumbents.

We have to look at the unintended consequences for these things that sound good but have bad consequences.

David: in your mind, let's say this decision holds and the original suit filed a couple years ago is now just starting up again, if the decision holds, what's the impact on politics in New Jersey?

I think I hear you saying be careful what you wish for, but what's the worst case scenario?

>> There are always positives some shakeups.

Sometimes the two-party system deserves a shakeup.

I think the unintended consequences could be wealthy self-funders come in.

Most of the campaigns will be decided by name identification.

If somebody comes in who is a wealthy self-funder, that person is going to have the biggest advantage.

Statewide it's even greater in New Jersey.

New Jersey is the most expensive state to run in per capita.

Your advertising is to 25 million people.

That's why you get wealthy candidates who have such a great advantage.

That would be even greater if you take away the ability to boost the candidate who may be underfunded.

The wealthiest candidates in the incumbents are going to have the most advantage going forward.

David: good to see you.

Thanks for taking a few minutes with us.

>> I appreciate it.

David: I'm sure you have been hearing about the celestial occurrence on Monday, a solar eclipse.

We are expected to see a lot of that here in Jersey which is causing all types of excitement among stargazers and kids of all ages.

Joining us to explain what's happening is a Rutgers professor in the Department of Earth and planetary sciences.

Good to meet you.

>> Nice to meet you.

David: can you give us the 30 second explanation about what's happening during a solar eclipse?

>> The word eclipse just means that the sunlight is being blocked.

The moon is going to be between the sun and our planet.

People who are lucky will be in the path of totality and will see basically darkness in the middle of the day.

Others will probably see what's called a partial eclipse where the sunlight is going to look a little less bright.

David: why is there so much excitement about this?

Eclipses are not exactly rare, are they?

>> They are quite rare.

This is a total eclipse, happening in 2024.

The last time this happened was in 2017.

The next time it will happen will be in 2033.

If you are lucky enough that you live northeast of the United States, you might be able to see a little bit of that.

For those of us living in the lower 48, it will not be until 2045.

And even then, only the southern states like Tennessee and Florida will be able to see it.

This is really a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for a lot of people.

David: there are a lot of moving parts to a solar eclipse.

Talk about that path of totality and what we are going to be able to see here in Jersey and what's the best place to watch.

>> In Jersey, it doesn't really matter where you are.

We are not in the path of totality.

I myself am traveling to Buffalo to see the path of totality.

In Jersey, 90% of the sun is going to be blocked by the moon.

That will begin at about 2:09 and last until 4:35 p.m.

The sun will go down in its brightness about 90%.

If you want to see the complete total darkness eclipse, the closest place will be upstate New York, near Buffalo.

David: you study how planets evolve and their potential for being able to evolve to the point of sustaining life.

Is this a research opportunity?

What do you learn from this?

>> Not exactly my field, but there is a lot of interest in studying eclipse, partially because the sons outer layer is called the Corona.

It's very hard to see all the time because the sun is so bright.

We have this excellent opportunity where the moon blocks most of the sun and we see the very outer layer.

There's a lot of energy and interaction that happens with the outer layer of the sun and the earth's upper atmosphere.

A lot of people are starting what's called the ionosphere of the earth.

-- studying what's called the ionosphere of the earth.

David: we have come a long way from offering human sacrifices to the eclipse now we predict them pretty easily and turn them into tourist attractions.

Is there something we on earth should be taken away from occurrences like this?

They always make me feel really small.

>> There is a really amazing story, back in 1503, Columbus was stranded in Jamaica.

The indigenous people were giving them food for about six months.

After that, they just stopped because there was not a lot of trade happening.

Columbus had this old almanac and he saw there was going to be a lunar eclipse.

He went to the indigenous chief and said, God is really angry with you unless you give us food right now, the moon is going to look red and God is going to manifest his wrath via the moon.

Lo and behold, the eclipse obviously happened and the indigenous people of Jamaica were so afraid they started giving him food again.

For such a long time we didn't really know what an eclipse was.

Now we can predict it happening 40 or 50 years down the line.

That's just an amazing feat of human ingenuity.

Something we do related to the eclipse is when we find other planets in other solar system called exoplanets, these small planets are going in front of the star and we actually see the eclipse caused by the planet and that's one of the ways we can detect planets in vast stars and galaxies that are way far from us just by looking at the eclipse.

David: public service announcement time.

Don't look into the sun during an eclipse.

Why is that and how do we avoid hurting our eyes?

I'm going to prep you for this.

Go on.

>> The temperature of the sun is 6000 kelvin.

David: it sounds really hot.

>> Exactly.

Super-hot.

Even during an eclipse, you should not stare at the sun for a very long amount of time.

Precaution must be taken.

If you have the proper gears, it's once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

What you will see is basically our moon basically starting to go over the sun.

At the very end in New Jersey, you will see a crescent.

Just a tiny part of the sun that is barely visible.

So wear glasses.

Besides that there is not really any other health crisis out there.

Just be careful when you look at the eclipse.

David: good to meet you.

Imagine going through life tasting sound or hearing colors or having everyday conversations turn into a rhythm track.

It's a condition called synesthesia and our next guest has put it at the center of his big-screen debut.

The film is called Música and its director, cowriter and start is New Jersey's own Rudy Mancuso.

Welcome to the show.

>> Thanks for having me.

David: you were an ironbound kid?

>> My mother lived in Glen Ridge in New Jersey, but we would spend the majority of our free time in the ironbound because that's where my mother felt at home.

There was such a tightknit Brazilian community.

I identify very much with the ironbound in Newark.

David: you don't see a lot of movies about Brasilero kids.

Were you able to shoot a lot in Jersey?

>> Almost entirely.

We were able to shoot in the actual locations where the story takes place.

The fish market is the actual one I used to go to as a kid with my mom.

The restaurant, we were there every weekend.

The city streets of ironbound was like my backyard.

We shot in my actual childhood home in Glen Ridge.

It was a dream come true reliving these experiences.

David: let's take a look at a clip and then we will come back.

>> See those guys over there playing basketball?

>> Yes.

>> Watch closely.

>> OK. >> You hear the balance?

Listen for more.

♪ ♪ >> Oh my God.

Wow.

That's incredible.

>> You heard it?

>> No.

David: so do you live with, suffer from, or are blessed with synesthesia?

>> All of the above, my friend.

It depends.

On the circumstances, the situation, what point of my life I am in.

The film covers all those bases and that's what the character Isabella represents, reconditioning yourself to embrace your difference instead of runaway from.

David: there are over 60 types of synesthesia I learned today.

Can you talk about what is yours and how you control it?

I guess you make movies, right?

>> There is even more forms of synesthesia for in single day.

And mine is very musical synesthesia, rhythmic Association, linguistic personification are a few of the ones I identify with.

The one depicted in the film is a very musical synesthesia whereby my character and me in real life trying to organize sounds into some kind of musical construct and sometimes it's very distracting and unnerving.

Other times I'm able to use it as an asset and outlet for creativity.

It's a little bit of both.

David: your mom is also in this film.

She's old school.

How did she react to your condition?

I guess she learned about it as you learned about it together.

>> I think she officially learned about it while making this film.

We haven't really talked about it.

I never knew how to diagnose it or understand and explain the symptoms.

I learned about synesthesia and all of its qualities late in life and it helped inspire me to tell the story.

I think my mom was learning about it in real time.

David: where did the music and the puppets and all of that come from?

>> The corazon.

I don't know.

I was obsessed with music and my relationship to sounds from a very young age just made sense to me.

And then through music I discovered film.

Through video production, comedy and theater and puppetry.

I loved Avenue Q and team America and Crank Yankers.

In the film, Diego represents Rudy's consciousness.

David: I think Diego is probably due to his own full-screen debut where he is the star.

Because he is a funny dude.

>> You said it, not me.

David: this is a very energetic film.

Who did you study as you develop to filmmaking style?

>> My inspirations are kind of all over the place very across-the-board.

There is a Brazilian filmmaker, his film central station is one of the first films I've ever seen and inspired me to want to make films and make music for my films.

I think the same year I saw life is beautiful.

My father is Italian, he introduced me to Italian cinema.

Those were at the forefront.

And then everything from Inarritu to Scorsese.

Wes Anderson.

All the greats.

David: how much of the Jersey kid is in your style?

>> A lot.

What you are seeing is what you are getting.

Jersey was a very specific experience.

I grew up in Glen Ridge and Montclair.

Then there was the ironbound and Newark.

Rutgers University is right around the corner from ironbound.

The bustle of Newark and the NJ transit commute and the ironbound is very specific and inspired me to do what I did.

David: you are self-made dude.

Your characters, your stories.

That's not easy to achieve and maintain.

>> It always presents its obstacles and challenges, but I would have it no other way.

I love fulfilling all the roles and wearing all the hats and telling these stories.

As tricky and time-consuming as it is at times, it's ultimately the most rewarding thing.

David: Música premiers on Amazon this week.

The director, cowriter and star is Rudy Mancuso.

Good luck with all this.

And that's Chat Box for this week.

Thank you to Lujendra Ojha Chuck and Mike DuHaime for joining us.

Get full exclusives and more including full episodes when you scan the QR code on your screen.

I'm David Cruz.

Thanks for watching.

We will see you next week.

Announcer: Major funding for "Chat Box with David Cruz" is provided by the members of the New Jersey Education Association, making public schools great for every child.

Promotional support is provided by Insider NJ, a political intelligence network dedicated to New Jersey's political news.

Insider NJ is committed to giving serious political players an interactive forum for ideas, discussion, and insight.

Online at insiderNJ.com.

♪