the indoob! network

May 13, 2011

fripodding and graduating: “spotlight” patrick stump

Filed under: adventures,fripodding,music,school — t. sterling @ 8:42 pm
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It’s the return of the fripod posts. I thought I was going to have more of a fanfare about it, but it’s not necessary. Anyway, due to an email I received yesterday about certificates and such being in the mail, I can confidently say that I’ve officially graduated from the Connecticut School of Broadcasting!

BUT! My journey isn’t over. I just completed phase I, which is the training. Phase 2 is job placement, which they assist with as well. I’ve already started and will be returning to the studios to start recording my demos for future voice over work.

These are some exciting times ahead of me. It’s that “Fear of the unknown” exciting and it’s cool and refreshing to have. You don’t get that when you’re already in your 9-5 job or you’re in school (college too) because from the day to day you kinda know what to expect. And for some people, that’s good, that’s how they like it. But I found out a long time ago that I don’t think I’m made for a daily routine. I mean, I would like one to some extent. It’d be nice if I went to the gym everyday at the same time or woke up in the morning before Burger King stops serving breakfast. But for the most part, I like my days to be different. I enjoy a passive adventure. (I’m not looking for an Indiana Jones type adventure right now.)

I imagine a number of my classmates, or rather, fellow graduates might feel the same way. Whether they do or now, I wish them the best of success and I’m sure I’ll be working with some of them again. Throughout my time at this school, I happened upon Patrick Stump, formerly of Fall Out Boy, and his solo EP Truant Wave. I loved the messages in the songs and “Spotlight” was one of the most encouraging to me. I know there are two versions, but my favorite is the New Regret version.

In case you miss the meaning, it’s a self empowering and encouraging song that you can be your own star and you don’t have to let others tell you what you can or can’t do or what you are and aren’t capable of doing. Early on, I felt that the song, or even the whole 6 song album, or Stump himself, was a less eccentric looking male version of Lady Gaga… when it comes to self empowerment and “be yourself” attitude.

But this fripod post is dedicated to my graduating day class of March 2011! May you all be your all spotlight (which some of you already are) and continue to be awesome and achieving those goals.

But stay tuned Indoobians, I have some catching up to do in letting you all know what I’ve done in the past 2 months. For starters, I have a Tumblr now and check out a few of the videos!

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April 20, 2011

chatting with kevin marc

Filed under: 3S:FX,school,video — t. sterling @ 7:56 pm
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Hey Indoobians. I’m technically still on hiatus, but I was in shooting/editing mode and I decided to have a quick chat with my buddy, fellow CSB classmate and Renaissance man Kevin Marc. Watch here as we shoot the breeze about inspirations, books, and forest critters we see behind the school. There will be more videos to follow. In the meantime, follow him on Facebook  (twice) and YouTube. The kid does his own reality show and as much as I dislike reality TV, I can’t help but cosign since I find myself watching it.

Anyway, in this video, I forgot to add his Twitter and his Tumblr. Fame whore…

And yes, I am holding back a video many of you may have already seen by now, or at least you’ve seen it on my Vimeo channel. By the way, how do you like the new 3S:FX Productions logo?

(See Part 2!)

April 15, 2011

the indoob (blog) takes a spring break

Filed under: class,school — t. sterling @ 11:17 am
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Happy Friday, kids. Sorry to say, there’s no friPod post this week, or possibly the next two-three weeks, or any planned updates. CSB has upped it’s ante when it comes to work and projects that we need to have completed by May, and many of my personal projects and activities have to take a temporary hiatus.

If I can make any posts or updates, I most certainly will. I still have to share my Sugarland and Duran Duran adventures. But I also will try to take my cameras with me wherever I go or whatever I do so when I make my official return, I can show you what I’ve been up to. In the meantime, I’ll more than likely post updates via Twitter. Lately it’s been a toss up between to-do lists, accomplishments, random thoughts, and of cravings for food, or food I’m about to eat, eating or ate. Ya know, the usual. Just follow me if you don’t already.

Stay tuned Indoobians. I’ll be back in a few weeks, and maybe with a few surprises that I hope you’ll enjoy!

April 9, 2011

when csb met kopek, egypt central and cold: part 2

Filed under: fripodding,music,school — t. sterling @ 11:45 pm
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Just another day with CSB

Once again I’ve been slacking and I wanted to have this written and posted yesterday but better late than never, right? And by now you know my usual rhetoric: I’ve been busy. But at least this time I’ve actually been showing you–through video no less–what it is I’ve been busy doing. And that’s exactly what I’m showing you again here…

While I wasn’t operating any of the cameras taping the bands, I was snapping pictures of the band and us (CSB) taping the bands, which is what I showed in the last post. I feel like these videos should be longer, but that’s probably because we spent most of the day there, setting up, waiting in between sound checks, “hanging out backstage with rock stars” …ya know, the usual. But enough of my blabbing, let’s get to the videos. Just a recap, this is all brought to you by The Rock 106.9 WCCC. I’m posting these in the order they were recorded. (more…)

April 2, 2011

when school is too cool

Filed under: adventures,life update,school — t. sterling @ 10:06 am
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I kept promising to divulge in what I’ve been up to the past few weeks to a month. As most of you should know by now, I go to the Connecticut School of Broadcasting which from here on out will be known as CSB (unless, for whatever reason, I feel the need to spell it out). Since I’m still there, I know there’s a lot more I’m going to learn and experience. Initially it’s an 8 week program, but it offers a lifetime, career long service. I could talk all day about how awesome the school is, but for right now, I’m just going to explain why I’ve been so busy.

Like I said, the education lasts for 8 weeks. We’re taught by industry professionals (who are still working in the industry they teach) and we learn by doing. We take notes but at times it seems pointless (I take them anyway) because it’s all hand-on training. Grab the camera, sit behind the radio mic, DO IT! It’s intense. They throw a lot of information at you in a very limited time. Fortunately, I have a background in a lot of this stuff so some of it was a refresher, while other parts built on to what I already know. But I’m loving it.

Outside of class, our fearless leader and school director Art takes us out on what a few of us have called “field trips” where we get to experience first hand what some people do for a living. Long story short, we go out and record live performances. We can’t call it “filming” because we don’t work with film. Especially not on these field trips, everything is recorded on to big memory cards. By the way, those cameras are nice. The ones they make us use… well… it gets the job done. But the point is we have to learn how to use a regular camera before they can trust us with the high end ones.

Anyway, I’ve now gone on three of these event field trips, sponsored be local radio stations which usually feature CSB graduates. There are a lot of them out there and all of them singing praises of what a great school it is and how it got them to the job they are working at now, or at least started them on their way. (By the way, the school specializes in dozen upon dozens of jobs. I wish I brought a few of my friends to at least check out the tour.)

CSB with Egypt Central

So our first event was somewhat of a mini rock concert. I want to have a separate post for that because of all the pictures I took and all the video we shot and experiences we had. That was last Friday. Monday I saw Sugarland. Due to this being a much bigger event, camera work was left to the professionals, which was our teachers. I took a few pics with my phone which I’ll also post later. But check out some of the stuff they shot here. Last night I saw Duran Duran (and a cover band called Kick). I actually got behind a camera this time, but video won’t be up for a few days, but I’ll post it when it does.

Besides that, I’ve been having a blast. My classmates are all very diverse and have their own bursts of awesomeness. I don’t want to call any of them out by name right now, there’s time for that later. All you need to know is sometime maybe in May you’ll get to hear a “morning” radio show online called “The Morning After” and yours truly will be the news anchor. It should be a lot of fun and I’ll also be living my dream. Part of it anyway.

Before I sign off, here is a look at an assignment I had been working on. It’s practically finished, but I was so excited, I wanted to show it off a little. The assignment was simple enough, shoot some footage, edit, add a voiceover, maybe some music, some transitions and have fun. Check, check, check, check, check, and check.

March 30, 2011

so i got a new camera…

Filed under: school,updates,video — t. sterling @ 6:47 pm
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Canon VIXIA HF M3000

I feel like I’ve been away for a while, but I notice my last post was actually only 10 days ago. But still, that’s much longer than I like to be away from my beloved blog. Anyway, I wasn’t going to do a video, but I have a new camera so why not? Plus, I haven’t made a video in a while, so I might as well give it a spin, right? Let me know what you think. Maybe with this new toy, I’ll make more videos. This will also allow me to get out of my office (and detached from my laptop) as you’ll see below. I think it’s a major upgrade from the webcam…

As for the pics I mentioned, I’ll upload those ASAP and introduce a few of my classmates and talk a little bit more about what I’m up to.

March 2, 2011

where’s the pause button?

Filed under: awards,Friends,life update,music video,story — t. sterling @ 8:02 pm
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Shrimp was involved at this party

I don’t know what happened but I felt like I missed a couple of days. Once again, I dropped the ball on my Oscar recap which now seems pointless to talk about other than correctly predicting 14 out of 24 winners. My prediction post left out the short films but I made educated guesses before the telecast and scored a bunch of “points.” I also had my first ever Oscar party with only a couple friends. I also tried to stay on Twitter as much as possible and remain a good host. At least now I know it can be done and where I can make improvements.

The following morning I was reminded about Lady Gaga’s new video premiere “Born This Way” but after viewing it, I didn’t have time to write up my snap judgement due to a meeting about school financing and official enrollment. But even after I got back, I ended up speaking with close friends who are also Little Monsters and both had contrasting views on the song itself but hadn’t seen the video. I find myself in the middle, yet we all agree that it sounds just like Madonna.

As for my thoughts on the video? Typical Gaga I suppose. It was weird and got weirder. There was a story but I wasn’t sure what exactly was going on. I did declare her as taking Michael Jackson’s place when it comes to music videos… but I don’t wanna jump the gun on that since Kanye is still rewriting visual music too. The message is clear and I can definitely hear this being played while drag queens do their thing and it fills the space on gay night at the club. Yeah, I was there once. Not necessarily a highlight of my life but it was an experience. I’m not a fan of clubs at all to be honest. But back to the song, it’s an anthem to be who you are or what you are. I’m all for self empowerment or encouraging songs. I think the only thing, like many others I talked to, it just sounds too much like a song I’ve already heard. But I’ll take it as it is, and I have a feeling the other songs on the album I may like more than this one. I did like the “once upon a time” mythology storyline it started out with. I just wasn’t sure where it was going afterwards.

Besides those events I meant to write about, I had to get all my paperwork together: applying for a scholarship, applying for loans, taxes and unemployment. A lot of the paperwork all needed similar things I couldn’t find like past school loan info and car loan info… then my bank’s website wouldn’t work. Oh yeah, I also had to get some articles done for Patch… but that’s another story for another day even though it’s been related for the past few days. To cap off that story for now: I got my first decline for an interview. In the guy’s defense, he must be really humble.

Added on to the dog pile of work I’ve cut out for myself and a deadline for all of it by Friday, I get attacked with some sort of a cold. My dad had been sick for the past few days so maybe I caught the bug. But if I can’t sleep, what’s the point of staying in bed? So I got up and did what I needed to do which included stopping by my grandmother’s house to deliver a shovel she no longer required. But at least that gave me the chance to stop by Dunkin Donuts to finally try that Big n Tasty sandwich. It was indoob quite tasty. I could make it at home though.

My mom is all about me getting rest, and I would have been doing that but thanks to me being so proactive this morning, I’ve been getting non-stop calls all afternoon. I’m not complaining. The calls were quite welcoming. It was just the dramatic shock of being snapped back into reality and then composing yourself to answer the phone and not sound like I just came back from the dentist. Or perhaps that’s just the effects of the drugs? Or maybe my body just badly needing, no, craving the rest it needs in order to recover from whatever ailment is tormenting my body? Either way, I should take it as a sign and throw up the white flag for the day because I’m not enjoying sneezing so hard that I fart. I don’t foresee getting much more accomplishments done today other than sleeping more than 10 minutes. At least my throat no longer feels like I has swallowed a few Brillo pads.

Plus I’m out of DayQuil. And orange juice. Both are vital to my speedy recovery. Oh, and sleep, of course. (NyQuil is always on stock.)

September 3, 2010

fripodding and burning: “the fire” the roots & john legend

Filed under: friday,fripodding,music,wisdom — t. sterling @ 5:47 pm
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Today’s friPod goes out to all the kiddies and college students… or anyone going back to any kind of school, or going out to do something that they believe in to either better themselves or others around them. Once again, this is coming from The Roots featuring John Legend bringing you “The Fire.”

This song, like much of the album, is about achieving and overcoming, if you couldn’t tell from the album’s title How I Got Over. The title track, by the way, is an equally awesome if not the best song on the album. Specifically, well to me, “The Fire” is about desire, passion and ambition for reaching and accomplishing that goal you set for yourself. I really resonate with this song personally because it’s speaking to that fire within me, to achieve something great. I admit I kinda lost my drive over the summer. But as I, and many others, remind me–life happens. So I lost some of the passion and focus that I need to keep going and doing what I need to do, but I’m gaining it back and do what needs to be done.

This is why I felt this song is perfect for this time of year and for all those that are going back to school, hoping that fire in them only grows brighter and stronger so they can become great as well. I was never a fan of saying “Good luck” to people, mostly due to my unbelief in luck… but it also felt like some throw away encouragement phrase that doesn’t hold a lot of weight when someone is about to tackle an obstacle. Well, this song’s chorus says what I will say from now on:

There’s something in your heart
And it’s in your eyes
It’s the fire, inside of you
Let it burn
You don’t say “good luck”
You say “don’t give up”
It’s the fire, inside of you
Let it burn

I love that. Honestly, that’s a much better thing to tell people, especially with a challenge like school and education. Speaking as a non-college graduate, giving up seems so much easier than going through. But, I’m not going to give up. I wish I hadn’t stopped. Part of that reason is due to the school loan repayments kicking in (and it’s ridiculous that higher education is so expensive), but being continuously fed knowledge is awesome. Knowledge really is power, that isn’t just something people say.

So with that, I will quote the end of Black Thought’s verse (I love quoting this guy and I love his raps… he’s a lyrical idol of mine). As I said, I loved the whole song and many other lines, but this is one that truly sums it all up.

Something in my eyes say I’m so close to having the prize / I realize I’m suppose to reach for the skies / Never let somebody try to tell you otherwise

My last note on this song is the instrumentals from the band itself. It gives me the feeling of triumph and determination. This is what I’d call “Champion music.” The driving drum line, no doubt one of the many products of ?uestlove. But just the way the song is structured, it sounds like an anthem, or maybe something you’d hear in a movie when the hero is about to embark or is engaging in battle, or a march, or possibly a theme played in the resulting victory. Needless to say, vocals and instruments compliment each other. There’s an invigorating and triumphant mood to it that makes me want to turn this up to 11 every time I hear it. There is a music video, to be honest I’m not a huge fan of it, but it’s something different. Feel free to discuss your thoughts with me afterwards.

So with that, Indoobians, I encourage you to not give up on whatever endeavor you are about to endure. Also, keep an open mind because you can never learn too much.

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