Herschel Martinez
Unknown Speaker 0:00
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Unknown Speaker 0:16
You're listening to rebel radio with your host Malika Bella lyrics locals love on the rebel HD two
Unknown Speaker 0:39
what's good everybody. Welcome back to rebel radio here with Malika Bella. Our next guest is actually Herschel Martinez. Welcome to the studio. Hello. Hello, everyone. So I don't know what we're talking about today. But is there anything enlightening that you want to share?
Unknown Speaker 0:56
I guess we could talk about life and how everything is being in Las Vegas. And we can talk about sports and concerts and stuff, stuff that are recently new within the town. So okay,
Unknown Speaker 1:10
yeah. So correct me if I'm wrong, but you're a Vegas local, right?
Unknown Speaker 1:15
Yes, I am a unicorn as they say I am a I am born in Ray's 30 years. I was born in UMC. If anyone knows where that's at, I yeah, I lived. I lived my entire life in Henderson, and then grew up in Las Vegas area of a 9123. And then eventually, for some apparent reason it changed to a 9183. So I don't know, it was kind of it was kind of weird, like change when I was in middle school, middle school to like high school. And then there was like one, which I'll get into don't get me wrong. Like, I it was kind of interesting loan knowing that I lived on the E 9123. side. And then literally one street over was the Henderson 89052 side. So I don't know, I it's it's kind of confusing,
Unknown Speaker 2:10
but well, that change is what they call a Mandela effect. So the whole world has shifted, and I'm just kidding. But yeah, so your whole time. In Vegas, you've talked about like changes and things here like seeing it live, like as you've been raised here. Yeah. Like what are some of the changes? Of
Unknown Speaker 2:29
obviously, a lot of the the attractions that we currently have, like, we never really had such an A, like an explosion of sports. Granted, obviously, sports betting was always there. But like the attraction of just sports and new shows and a lot of production, even with current things that are sort of happening with Mark Wahlberg and his production studio, that's going to be in Summerlin.
Unknown Speaker 2:58
Yeah, so we're going to be Hollywood 2.0 Apparently,
Unknown Speaker 3:02
yeah. You know, truthfully, I'm not all too happy about it. Because I genuinely don't want it to be such a an emergence of place like I get it, we're entertainment. And we we have people that come into town for the entertainment aspect. But eventually now it just it shifted to like food. Like, there's a bunch of prestige chefs coming in and making their own restaurants. And just, it's no longer than the entertainment capital anymore. But I feel like it's, it's, I guess it's sort of shifted. So I guess we're trying to become the entertainment capital again. Because prior like years before now, it was all food. We had zero entertainment here.
Unknown Speaker 3:48
Well, how do you define entertainment, shows,
Unknown Speaker 3:51
massive shows and concerts that would come into town. And then the emergence of the food came into play after not a lot of people were attending events and more. The, you know, it's very difficult to sort of, like describe, but a lot of emergence for food came into play. And now not only that, but now. It's such a massive thing where people come into town just to try the foods and it's not even about like, you know, the concert experience, you know, so, besides the MS. Besides, you know, the MSG, the giant crystal ball that we have in town, like yeah, there's not much for entertainment besides like, the Vegas Golden Knights or, yeah, very much. That's it, like people come into town to watch the nights for hockey. And we weren't in hockey town, but the emergence of it is, it's great for the city as well, too.
Unknown Speaker 4:52
So what are your thoughts on the sphere? Like with that? Mixed feelings?
Unknown Speaker 4:57
Yeah, I know. It's all Mixed feelings. It's, I don't feel like we needed another thing. You know, because we are sorry, because it's like a concert hall. So I feel like we didn't really necessarily need another entertainment aspect of concert. If we already had T mobile arena for it, or, you know, the Grand Garden.
Unknown Speaker 5:22
So I think part of, and I'm undecided with how I feel about it. But I think part of the allure is that it's like on the strip, the visual aspect, right, the outside what they do with it. Not sure. So how do you feel about that? Is that unnecessary?
Unknown Speaker 5:41
Yeah, I feel like we already have enough lights as it is. And if you ever driven in that area, it is you absolute worse, because you have people just casually taking pictures in the middle of the street. And that is kind of equally sad. Because if traffic is gone, and the light is green, people are gonna get hit, like, come on. What are we doing in that corner? And then the monorail is over there too. And it's just a bunch of confusion on that corner. Yeah,
Unknown Speaker 6:10
confusion corner is the name of this episode. There's large crowds of people. And I understand that, like, it's expensive, but also there's a sense of privilege that comes into it, like ticket costs and everything else, even f1. It's just like, people are getting a sense of entitlement. And they're like, I paid for this, like, where's my entertainment now, and I don't know what's to come because I don't want things to turn into riots. I don't want things to turn into, like, this really heated situation where you have
Unknown Speaker 6:41
like Fremont. Yeah, we're now on Friday, Saturdays and Sundays, they have to like, stop. And like, you have to stand on a line to go through a metal detector. Because of people ruining, like fun. Like, I can't imagine. I can't imagine stuff. Like in casinos, like metal detectors and casinos. Like us. It's disappointing. People ruin the fun.
Unknown Speaker 7:11
Yeah, so speaking of Fremont, though, with everything that the strip is becoming. How do you feel about downtown?
Unknown Speaker 7:19
Personally, I still love it. Like, I really do. Back when I was a lot younger, I used to go maybe like two three times, just to go and drink and Bar Hop. And that was, it was fun, because obviously, I really didn't want to be a part of the Vegas experience on the Strip. Because obviously, no, like us, locals don't really go to the strip, unless we weren't there, or we have some sort of business. But other than that it's just such a tourist trap. Every every casino is always trying to get you to buy something, or they want you to stay or they're handing out coupons. So like I said, one massive, I get it. It's a business. But it's like a massive advertisement as well, too. But in comparison to the Fremont experience, no one's trying to sell you on anything besides the entertainers that are outside, which now they can't even leave their circle. So yeah, another thing I also really enjoy about the Fremont experience as well too, is they're starting to they're starting to revamp the the harnesses that are coming for free shows. Yeah, that's pretty cool. Like I would have never expected some of the bands to even show up during during like, summertime. Summertime it here is absolutely crazy nights still so hot, somehow manages to be 100. And it's like 2am The hottest
Unknown Speaker 8:45
show which like in both meanings of the word. Like my favorite concert I've been to was actually all American Rejects every month. Nice, best, just like onstage like best engagement of the crowd. It's just really nostalgic songs. The crowd was just amazing. It's just crazy, but it was hot. Yeah. drenched in sweat. Yo, yo, but still worth it summers in here are no joke. They are completely no joke. So what are some artists that you've seen on Fremont?
Unknown Speaker 9:20
None to be honest with you because I don't want to experience the amount of crowded it brings. It's just a lot of B is a lot of people. Yeah, it's
Unknown Speaker 9:29
you get what you kind of because it's free. And then there's like random people who are like just drunk traveling, they don't even know and are like, Oh, what's going on down here and you're like, move like, I'm here for somebody else. And I mean, I've seen Smash Mouth which was so funny. Also, Katy Perry like randomly flying in for their new like slot Zilla kind of thing. Like, yeah, they have to give a vision. Like, I don't know if you're aware of like the Viva vision thing, but that's the visual aspect. Like they have so many. It's a lot of money. in tech, but they created a visual like components for songs that go on every single night at like, specific timeframes.
Unknown Speaker 10:08
So, yes, so going, gone with that funny enough. I remember that as like a little kid, I remember watching the Lion King. And that is one of my favorite movies of all time. The Lion King has like a little little, like a little, little piece of like walking around. You know, that was one of my very first memories of being with my family and mother and father. First experiences for Fremont. Yeah. And now if you go down there, they're just like I said, a song is being advertised or like a artist is being advertised on the overpass on the above, which is cool. Yeah, so Fremont experiences, it's always interesting having to go downtown now. And you know, when, when my family comes in, I always have to take them downtown, because I'm like, strip is nice. But you got to look at the real vase, like, you got to see how it is down here. I feel like it's a lot more entertaining than the actual physical strip. You know, I feel like I always catch myself sort of dancing on the Fremont experience somehow, what do you mean
Unknown Speaker 11:20
sort of dancing? Sort of, okay,
Unknown Speaker 11:22
so it's either you're in or you're out, like, sort of feel, but sometimes I'll, I'll be paddling like a group. And they'll play a really good song licks. You know, like an entertainer, that's their thing, which is just a play off of a boombox and get everyone to tip them, you know, but the sort of aspect is, like, walking by and listen to the song and like, semi grooving, but not actually physically stopping. And like, facing them and starting to dance, it's more like a quick movement, and then just walk in, you know, that's like a sort of a dance, like paying attention to it, but then not really paying attention to it, but just like, like a little. Yeah, so that's, that's the, that's the sort of dance. I go to a lot of concerts. And so what I can definitely say as well, too, not necessarily a lot of indie ones. But I've back when I first started listening to music, I was listened to a lot of female illnesses, you know, when you started listening to music, but actually physically started hearing and listening to music. So, in when I was raised by women, I was raised by my great grandma. And my great grandma was always closer to my aunt Vanya, and my aunt Norma. And so I was always raised by ants, you know, a whole colony, a colony. Yeah. And so, my first, my first, like, Introduction to Music, and what music was, was during the 90s Yes, there was the boy bands, but it was a lot of since I was hanging out with a lot of females, which was where my cousins, I got introduced to female artists, such as brandy designate child, Britney Spears, you know, Christina Aguilera. So I got introduced to like female artists is first and then, you know, everything else. So that was my upbringing. I go to concerts a lot. I've gotten to a substantial amount, I would probably say, from the year of 2012, to now maybe a good 250 to 300 concerts. My hearing is shot like horrible ly, like, ringing ringing in the ears. Granted now. As of, you know, as of like, six or seven years ago, I finally started using earplugs because I thought I was a cool kid by not wearing the earplugs. And now I'm just like, I can't hear. And it's also equally sad because now, you know, the older i The older I get, the more I'm like, ah, ah, what did you say? Did you say something? And it's just like a casual, like, conversation that we're sort of having and sometimes I won't even hear something out of my right ear, which is horribly like I said, shot. My left ear is cool. Right? Not so much anymore. But I going on to sort of relate everything together. It's I love entertainment. I love being able to go to events. I love the nights. I love aviators. I love you know, hockey stuff, even with UNLV Funny enough, I if you if I gotta shout like UNLV hockey out. They are so cool. They are so dope to go and see. And I love the turnout of UNLV students there. It is absolutely amazing. Like I had never thought college students would get behind something, such as a sport grant that obviously like I said, hockey bah bah bah, you know, but it's Hockey, you know, like UNLV hockey crazy anyways. Just that's yeah, like concerts were a means of weights to get out and enjoy. Like, not being how to say it like it was like a getaway for like, for reality for a bit. And it was also equally nice being able to listen to the CDs and the artists and the music and the songs and then actually having to see it live. Amazing. So,
Unknown Speaker 15:38
wait, what's a CD? now?
Unknown Speaker 15:41
What is that? Is that a flop? In a way? I can't even say that either. I can't even say floppy disk. Because you'd be like, what's your floppy disk? Yeah, I still collect CDs to this day, as well, too. I'm very old fashion. I'm very personable. I love being able to go face to face with someone. I love having something physical, such as tickets. So majority of my tickets are all paperweight just tickets with the wristbands that I have. Obviously, you can't really, you know, you know, some of them don't really give you tickets any like, yeah, they're e tickets. Correct. Now, are there any tickets back to the they used to physically give you a ticket? Or sometimes when they did it, I would physically go there, get the discount and then get the ticket? Because I wanted that extra feeling of being like, Oh, I went to this show or I went to that show? Oh, yeah, I remember I went to this show.
Unknown Speaker 16:38
It's a nostalgic and tangible aspect of the show. And just having like that memorabilia, it's really cool to create you said like 250 300 concerts over the years. And I'm assuming most of those were local. But really just the aspect of like, well, real quick. Imagine like how much money that's a masked? Like, that's crazy. The cost? Yeah. Like, would you even guess? Oh, number out there,
Unknown Speaker 17:08
probably good to Oh,
Unknown Speaker 17:11
like even what you spend a year.
Unknown Speaker 17:14
I don't know, I feel like I spend a lot more money on tickets now than I ever spend my entire life. I can't believe some of the tickets prices are absolutely horrible. But if I had a given number, it probably be in the like, 10 10k to like 15. But that's also, that's tickets as well too. And if they actually physically don't give me a ticket, I actually buy a shirt there too, which shirts used to be 20 bucks. But now they're like 6065 75 bucks, I can't afford that anymore. So I feel like sometimes at the same exact time, I feel, I feel like the concert experience is also equally dead, or dying. Because of that. Because of people who are reselling. They grabbed these tickets. And they managed to just try to sell them and try to flip them as much as you can. There's been certain instances where I like my friend and I who I love going to concerts with as well to Florence. We'll we'll look at tickets. We'll buy we'll look at them. We'll marinate on them, as I like to say, and then literally the next day sold out. Then we'll go and look at the results. A ticket that cost 20 bucks is like 120 bucks. People are just trying to get their money. You know, get rich quick.
Unknown Speaker 18:42
Trying out like everything.
Unknown Speaker 18:45
This. This is like the thing with Taylor Swift. Yeah. And the resells. Like there was thing about Ticketmaster, yeah, which owns everything, like ticket web ticket fly. I remember having to go through these as well, too. And then Eventbrite is another one. They take a Masters just I feel like one giant monopoly. At this point there. I feel like there has to be some sort of competition toward them to be like, Hey, we do our stuff cheaper than these people. So you know, if there's competition, they'll do you have to lower it. Because maybe more people are gonna gravitate to the other company if they're cheaper than a, you know, a one. But do
Unknown Speaker 19:27
you think technology kind of caused that? Like the ease of like having things online and like via Apps? I
Unknown Speaker 19:35
feel like the the accessibility of it did ruin it to the fact that we do have our phones immediately. And the fact that it's everything's now fast pace. I felt like it did semi ruin it as well, too. So
Unknown Speaker 19:51
speaking of phones, what's your opinion on like, people on their phones in concerts?
Unknown Speaker 19:59
So I used to be One of those people Funny enough, I used to just record it, because obviously I'm like, you know, I want to have this for memory, I want to have this for memory, then lo and behold, when I didn't have any space on my phone, I would have to go back and be like, what's this really worth it. And then I would delete that video that I spent, you know, one minute, two minutes on our picture. And then obviously, with more space, you have more stuff. But now more or less, it's, I take a picture or two, or I take a video of my favorite song or songs now. And I just laugh at these people. And I get it. Because if you want to truly feel a concert experience, just like any event as well, too, you have to be off your phone. It's like, it's so mainstream to say. But I feel like, in order for you to fully grasp it, you have to be off your phone.
Unknown Speaker 21:01
Yeah, it's kind of like this tug and pull because you want to remember it, but also like to remember it, you have to be immersed in like, in it. Right.
Unknown Speaker 21:11
That's, that's why I said, I'm like, I usually grab something. Like with the night's games, I usually grab a puck, like a puck, if it is the very first time seeing the game, then I go and grab the puck, which is funny enough, I actually found another stack of like 15 bugs, like in my room that I did not even remember I had. And I have a lot of bucks as well too, from a lot of games. But same thing goes with concerts as well, too. If I don't get a concert ticket, it's buying a shirt, sort of just to remember it, or some sort of like remembrance of it of that moment. Or sometimes it's a something that I have an emotion or a feeling towards when it comes to a shirt. So even if I do necessarily get that ticket, I still grab a shirt. Because I'm like, I want to I want to I want to help out, you know, they do get a portion of like the bands or artists is because I listened to a lot of hardcore rap. Not hardcore rap. Well, they actually lie. I listened to a lot of metal, like pop punk pop, you know medleys of stuff. And the scene was also interesting as well, too, because I used to have a lot of friends in the scene. And I would be like, let me try to support you guys. And all that money that they would get from the, you know, their, their merch, they would be there's so that it would help them travel out. So I feel like I still have to sort of do that till this day. Even though these, these bands are still mainstream. Like they're very popular. Because the companies will still take money from the merch that they made. And the rest of it goes to the band. You know, so I feel like I if I liked them enough, I'll go physically buy a shirt
Unknown Speaker 23:00
from them. Yeah, back to like you being old fashioned and stuff, especially with music. So collecting CDs, a lot of memorabilia. What's your opinion on vinyls? Because now it's become such a, like a mainstream thing. And it takes away from the experience in my opinion, I
Unknown Speaker 23:18
actually own a bunch of vinyls as to why I actually do this was before the, the Yeah, like $20 Trees of urban outfitter whether like, you know, by via vinyl, via by the by the player by you know, I felt like I was once again always mainstream or like, you know, horrible to say but yeah, and I feel like a sound old. I was, I was on the left side of the bell curve of when it happened. And so I remember, I was influenced by a gal who had a vinyl player. I'm like, that's actually pretty cool. Like, I've seen them obviously growing up because I live in the 90s. And my family would always play and then you would always have this. Like the the giant crazy looking radio sets with the stereo systems. Exactly. And so this girl influenced me to want to buy one. And so I did. And then I started collecting vinyls a lot. Granted, I stopped because they're 35 to $50 now because of these people who are buying it, but I feel like we're all sort of reverting back to something like a 90s nostalgic feel. Because if you go to Urban Outfitters, you see cassettes in a tracks. Like who in their mind is going to be like, Oh, I'm gonna you know, I'm a Gen Z or, or it's because listening to a cassette tape, you know,
Unknown Speaker 24:52
they've been okay. I feel like from a company mindset, they've sold the market is saturated. They've sold as much as they could. So like what But it's something new. How about going to something old? So it's just wild and as a business, like in a business perspective, just being I don't know. It's just so crazy. It really is. It's so smart.
Unknown Speaker 25:12
I feel like he me I feel like they profited on. nostalgic feel. Yeah,
Unknown Speaker 25:17
for some people's nostalgic, right. But like physically like they remember having those
Unknown Speaker 25:22
are like, yeah, there's
Unknown Speaker 25:23
other people. It's something new.
Unknown Speaker 25:25
Yeah. Crazy. Yeah. I watched some of these some of these videos of like, the Fine Brothers. I forget the React channel. And then they're like, oh, yeah, react to this. And then the kids will be like, what is that? Like? For example, I was about to say floppy disk. You said Oh, CD. What is that? Oh, yeah, it's like a floppy disk. away. I can't see. Because you don't know what a floppy disk exactly like you could
Unknown Speaker 25:49
say. It's like a DVD and maybe they know what that is. Yeah. Blu ray and then exactly. Buy in VHS like all these different technologies that change several industries and we don't have to get into it but just like even Blockbuster and Netflix. That's just crazy.
Unknown Speaker 26:06
Yeah, they blockbuster fumbled the bag on that one. They massively fumbled the bag, because they they offered them. They said, Hey, and blockbuster was like, nah. We're fine. We don't we don't need your Yeah, we don't need your service. We're fine. And then that's when Red Box happened. And then Netflix.
Unknown Speaker 26:31
Yeah, I don't know. Just music, entertainment sports. We even talk about gambling. But I mean, kind of sports betting but not really. There's just so much going on. In
Unknown Speaker 26:43
Vegas. There are it is.
Unknown Speaker 26:45
It's crazy. And I know talking to locals, and they're like, Oh my God, you're a unicorn. That's actually not a thing anymore. Because it's not. There's so many people here. Now people will pass it off as they are. And as big as the city is. It's such a small town. You could actually is somebody knows somebody else. Somebody knows somebody else. And it is It's wild. And I don't want us to lose that connectivity. With as commercialized as it's becoming with human saying like advertisements at every corner, turning into like a Time Square kind of thing. No shade to New York, but Vegas has that community feel and that's what makes us different. And I don't want us to lose them.
Unknown Speaker 27:28
No, never. We as the locals are the only people that are sort of trying our best to sort of keep that up. Keep it by being like, Hey, we're still locals. We Why haven't you left? Because we love our city. That's why good and bad. We love our city. Here. Do we do? I feel like I love my city too much. I love Vegas. Just support the local. That's it. I feel like I can just set my roots here.
Unknown Speaker 27:58
Yeah. Well, Herschel Luis Martinez. I felt that Hershey, what else do you want to tell the audience something else? I
Unknown Speaker 28:09
really love you guys. If you for anybody who is listening to this, like, I love you. You're awesome. Whatever happened today, you know, speaking
Unknown Speaker 28:18
to himself, so he's gonna be listening to I'm gonna be
Unknown Speaker 28:21
obviously I'm gonna try to listen to myself too. But for the viewers and listeners to once again love you. You're doing great. doing amazing. Keep pushing. And eventually you'll you'll eventually land where you where you want to be if you just keep trying. Yeah,
Unknown Speaker 28:41
keep flying. Yeah. Okay, well, thank you so much for your time. No,
Unknown Speaker 28:46
thank you. Appreciate any socials
Unknown Speaker 28:49
that you want to plug.
Unknown Speaker 28:51
It's just IG just Instagram. It's at Hirsch Dersch which is a really funny story as well to her stirs H E R. S HDRSH
Unknown Speaker 29:04
have passed the spelling bees. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you all for listening to rebel radio. This again has been your host Malika Bella here signing off. Make sure that you listen and follow. You can find us on Instagram at rebel radio.fm. And yeah, let me know if you have any friends who are local artists or if you yourself are a local artist. Hit me up if you want to be featured on the show. So yeah, thanks for listening. Peace. Love you. Thank you for listening to rebel radio with Malika Bella lyrics locals love on the rebel HD two
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