Monday - a Lecture (4 hours)
Tuesday – a Lecture (4 hours)
Wednesday – an Event (8 hours)
Thursday – a Lab (4 hours)
Friday – a Lecture (4 hours)
Saturday – a Lecture and a lab (8 hours)
So I actually get to write about this past month now that it is over. It was an interesting month, not too stressful, not too hard, but definitely a lot of work. First off let me go over the Product and Artist Management class. I really enjoyed this class, mostly because it was all about actually putting a live charity show together, and actually running the event. First off we, as a class, got to select a theme for the show, which ended up being a Vegas theme. Then we selected the genre of music that would be showcased at the event, which in the end was rock. Once those two items were decided upon we broke up into four groups to organize the event, A&R/Venue, Graphics, Sponsorship, and Promotions.
I decided to join the A&R/Venue group, mostly to prevent members of the class from having their own bands in the show. As a group we decided on a number of local bands that we wanted to approach to play at the show, but through the first two weeks we had bad luck with the bands. Some couldn’t make it the night of the show, and others agreed and then backed out when paying gigs came along. We finally had to let the classmates who had bands join the show so that we would have enough bands.
Well, the day of the event was this past Wednesday, and it went well but not without incident. One of the bands that we had signed for the show started jerking us around on the day of the show and caused us to have to rearrange the band order so that they could play last. Fortunately for us the band that was scheduled to play last agreed to go on earlier. Most of the members of the band that was jerking us around didn’t show up until just minutes before their set, making most of us really rather irritated. During the show I was one of the members of my group who were responsible for switching the stage from one act to another, which was a lot of work but I really enjoyed it. When all was said and done I thought that the show was great, I had some issues with the bands, particularly one of the class bands, but we worked through it and made the best of the situation.
We did some other stuff in the class but not much I really care to mention. I really liked my instructor, Jerry Waller, he’s a promoter, a manager, and a really interesting individual, and I think I learned more from what he did more than what he said over the course of the month. We also got the chance to hear from Tim Coons an independent A&R rep who came in to speak to our class. This was a guy that worked with some of the boy bands from the nineties before they made it big, which doesn’t really endear him to me personally, but he had a lot of interesting things to say about the music business, and he even gave some of the guys some freelance work to do.
The other class was Information Systems and E-Commerce, a class that is designed to explain the use of the Internet to make your business more successful. It was a slightly boring class, but I tried to make the best out of it. One of the main parts of the class was on designing your own website. In fact Full Sail bought a domain name and web hosting for each member of the class. I chose to get the domain name for our final project business idea, Inn Session Studios (http://www.innsessionstudios.com). I have some web design experience, having designed this site (along with my good friend and artist/web designer Matt Tyree) and a few others, so I ended up spending a lot of time helping my friends with their sites. I even picked up some new skills from some of the better designers in class. So, all in all this was not a bad class.
On a more personal note, I’m tired! I’m getting tired of the wear that I put on myself for the grades. I’m a little tired of the guys and gals that I have to see every day. I’m tired of the stress of not really knowing what’s going to happen after I graduate. I’m just plain tired! I only have four more weeks before this journey is finally over. It started about two years ago in State College, Pennsylvania with a decision to follow a dream. It really got going twenty months ago when I walked into my first day of class for Recording Arts. Eight months ago I move into the bachelors program, and today I start my last month of classes (as it is about 1am on Monday morning). In a way I really just want this month to be over, but in another I’m sad to see the end is finally here. I was talking to a classmate (Katie Pierre) after a class this week and she said that it was almost time to get back to the real world. I just shook my head and told her that the real world sucks! I was joking in a way, but I think that after my history with layoffs and being out of work for months at a time, the thought of going back into that reality is somewhat disheartening to me. I guess it is just an inevitably that I have to face and plan for.
One last subject before I close out this month. My friends in class are all pretty great, mostly because they put up with my crap, Mike, Jenn, Russ and Vince especially! I am such a major pain at times, especially when it comes to my grades. For me nothing less than an “A” will do, and I am pretty vocal about that, but I never mean for it to sound like I am better than any of them, because I know that I am not. I simply have a fear of failure as many people do, but everyone has a different definition of failure. For me it’s getting less than an “A”, for someone else it may be a “C”, and for others it’s actually failing. I guess what I’m saying is that I hope that through all of the stressing that I do over my grades does not make others around me think that I am judging their performance. I guess I should try to tone down what I say about my own performance around others in class, because I’d rather these people remember me as a hard worker and not as a “holier than thou” type.
Well, Final Project is next, Final Project is last… wish me luck!
This month’s totals:
Total clock hours: 120 hours
Total # of Tests: 3
Total # of Events: 1
Product and Artist Management: 98.7%
Information Systems and E-Commerce: 100.0%
4.0 GPA
