It was fun while it lasted...
by Matthew Martinez
In the August 2022 edition of this newsletter, I mentioned that I was hired by the Austin Radio Network as their new "Producer". As it turns out, I was not classified as an employee after all, nor was I considered a hot shot producer. I was merely a board operator with a fancy pants title. In between the last newsletter (Vol. 1, Issue 3) and this edition, I was notified that my services are no longer needed. Ah well. I don't have any hard feelings towards any of the people I worked with or came in contact with at the station. The only problem I had was with an engineer that had a BAD attitude problem, but that was probably due to all the work that was leveraged on his shoulders. All of the producers did their jobs to the best of their abilities and we mainly kept to ourselves, but we always remained cordial in our interactions. Please, don't cry for me. This isn't the first time I've been fired, and chances are, this won't be the last. Why was I fired? Simple, I live in Floresville (A suburb of San Antonio, TX) and ARN is located in Austin, TX. I would drive around 90 miles just to go to work. That is about a two hour drive, and that accounts for the traffic problem plaguing Austin. The troublesome engineer was even surprised early on when I kept arriving on time and prepared. Reason being is that most producers have had car accidents within the first several weeks of employment, or that was the impression I got. Maybe I'm just a better driver than a lot of people who live in Austin. I did have several enjoyable experiences while working at ARN. I had never stepped foot onto the campus of the University of Texas until my first remote broadcast during my training. I specifically remember this because some sort of bug had crawled up my program director's shorts while he was on the air. During the College Football season, I would broadcast the Spanish feed of the UT Football game on one of our translator stations The Bat 105.3fm. My broadcast team consisted of Dr. Ruben Pizzaro (An honest to goodness professor) and my on site technician Oscar Mendoza. I was warned by our troublesome engineer that they would be a big problem. As it turns out, they were a pleasure to work with. Dr. Ruben always brought energy rivaling that of a soccer play by play commentator. If you saw all the audio equipment Oscar used during the broadcast, you too would be scratching your head wondering why someone would need it all, but he managed to get it all working. During the summer, I worked with KOKE-FM to promote their annual music festival KOKE Fest. I enjoyed working together with the on air talent and the on-site board operators. Although I was back at the station receiving and broadcasting the feed sent to the station, I still felt like I was an important part of the team. Hell, I even worked with the station's owners during these remote broadcasts. I am grateful to Chad Hastings, my program director for even thinking I was good enough to fulfill my duties as a producer (Board Operator ;3). I'm also grateful to Eric Reigns for being so patient with my dumb ass whenever a problem rose up. I'm also grateful to Craig Way for being such a professional and for guiding me during UT Women's Basketball and High School Football broadcasts. Additionally, I'm thankful to Patrick Davis for helping me at the last minute at most times. You truly are a champ! I'm even thankful to Derek Cohen in Promotions, who was the one who let me know my services were no longer needed and why. No hard feelings Derek! I'm also thankful to all of the staff and producers of ARN for being so friendly and understanding towards me. As for this troublesome engineer, ya'll either need a more mentally stable person, or you need to hire more people to take the load off this dude. His mental health has already been shot. Trust me, he's trauma dumped onto me enough times for me to say, he needs a shrink. My engineers at KSYM never trauma dumped when I was operating the sound board. They'd mainly poke their head in and ask if everything was alright at the most part. Although I was a part of the family for a short time, I enjoyed my time with all of you. Thank you! Where do I go from here? Who knows? I plan on going back to work this year, and I am taking initiative to find work. What is in my future? Only time will tell.
Don't want to eat dry vegetables in your salad, but also don't want to add calories with ranch or blue cheese dressings? Get yourself a cocktail shaker, or a salad dressing shaker from OXO and mix oil and vinegar. I usually use three parts olive oil to one part red wine vinegar. Here's how:
30 ml Olive Oil
10 ml Red Wine Vinegar
Pinch of Kosher Salt
Teaspoon Freshly Ground
Black Pepper
Start with olive oil, then the vinegar, then the seasoning. Then shake. Alternatively, you can mix all the ingredients in a bowl, whisk thoroughly, then add your salad fixings.
A Letter from the Editor
Dear Reader,
As Mentioned, I lost my job. I wish not to receive sympathy or any of these sorts of feelings. I have been fired before, and probably will be fired again for one reason or another. My goal is to get a job in my field, broadcasting, and become financially independent and comfortable. Thankfully, the people that I associate with have similar goals, some have even achieved this goal. I do have a bad habit of being a poor spender though. When I was working, I would often search for sneakers on eBay. Reebok, Converse, or the Adidas website to see what kind of sneakers interested me. This caused me to spend a good portion of what I made on shoes. In the photo gallery, there will be pictures of my shoe haul. I've also spent a great deal of my paycheck on Manga and Japanese Light Novel series such as Uzaki-Chan Wants to Hang Out (Covered in Vol. 1 Iss. 1), Konosuba, Komi Can't Communicate, Out Last Crusade or the Start of a New World, My Senpai is Annoying, and other continuing series. This made me stop and realize how much those $10-$15 books can affect one's bank account. During the summer, I also saved enough money to purchase a Nintendo Switch Lite, after seeing how it helped my girlfriend Jahna cope with the COVID-19 Lockdown. Now I got another bottomless pit to spill my money into. Whether it be getting the latest Pokemon game, or finding a game recommendation via a YouTube video, I always have this gaming itch that needs to be scratched. At the beginning of the year, I finally broke down and purchased a subscription to Crunchyroll, an Anime streaming service, as well as upgraded to GameStop's PowerUp Plus Membership (I gave into peer pressure). Had I known I'd be out of a job a few months later, I would have stopped myself from foolishly subscribing to these services. My message to you the reader is simple: Buy what makes you happy, but be careful about how much you spend.
Signed, Matthew Martinez
"But it's alright with me now
I'll get back up somehow
And with a little luck, I'm bound to win"
From I'll Fall In Love Again by Sammy Hagar
WHY IS THIS NEWSLETTER SO DAMN LATE????
ANIMAL CROSSING:
NEW HORIZONS
2020 Nintendo Switch
This game is a life simulator game where the player is the main representative of a deserted island. In this game, you can garden, visit and donate exhibitions to a museum, interact with the islands residents, celebrate holidays, attempt to invite new residents to move in, and lots more.
The way I play it, I dig for fossils that I can have assessed by the museum curator Blathers the Owl, harvest vegetables for cooking and for selling at Nook's Cranny, operated by Timmy and Tommy Nook the racoons, fish, catch bugs (as long as it isn't tarantulas), pick up sticks, weeds, sea shells, buy clothes at Able Sisters owned by Mabel and Sable the hedgehogs (I think Sable has the hots for me), and talk to my neighbors: Katt the Cat, Coach the Bull, Beau the Deer, Kitt the Kangaroo, Sprinkle the Penguin, Curlos the Sheep, Francine the Rabbit, and Spike the Rhino.
Building up your own island takes a lot of work. Heck, I'm just getting started building my island! I've been playing this game since Christmas and I know I've only scratched the surface when it comes to infrastructure and how the island should look. Everyday, I play Animal Crossing for a couple of hours in the day just to complete the tasks I just mentioned. The game also has tasks it wants me to do to earn extra points which takes me extra time. If you're not careful, you could lose a whole day completing tasks. So that's why this issue is late. EVERYDAY I PLAY ANIMAL CROSSING!!! *SOB*
When in Animal Crossing, visit Sassypants Island! Email me with the subject line "Hey Matty! I wanna visit Sassypants!", and I maybe, just maybe, will find it in my heart to invite you over.
Fly On The Wall
AC/DC
June 1985/March 2005
Albert Productions
Atlantic Records
Epic Music Video
Underrated Album, Strange Video
One summer, my family went on a road trip to Alabama Adventure in Bessemer, Al. This is the first instance I ever remember us riding in a rented vehicle, a minivan in this case. In the back, I had plenty of room to stretch, and in the celling, I had a drop down DVD player. Naturally, I took the opportunity to bring along a copy of AC/DC's Family Jewels. The original two DVD set contained damn near every AC/DC video up to The Razor's Edge album. The Fly on the Wall album isn't much to write home about (Although I enjoyed listening to it) But I had more exposure to the five videos from the mini movie of the same name.
A shady photographer is sneaking around upstairs at The Crystal Ballroom, a fictional night club set in New York. After he gets thrown out, the fly on the album cover comes to life and flies inside. As the band begins their set with the title track, the bartender sticks earplugs in his ears. Betty, of Betty's Burgers, attempts to squash the fly, but her spatula lands on a burger.
The next song, my least favorite AC/DC song Danger, has our sneaky photographer getting a few lucky shots of the band and some of the patrons with his camera. Our fly friend accidentally flies into one of the band's speakers and gets bombarded with the music and gets kicked out by a musical note. Mr. Photographer gets too cocky and starts badmouthing the band and takes their picture close to the stage, and this leads to him getting tossed out again. Sink the Pink starts with a pink Cadillac pulling up to the ballroom. A lady wearing a pink outfit challenges one of the patrons to a game of pool. Our fly friend roots for "Suzy Cue" as her challenger starts hot-dogging until he misses a shot. After Suzy takes her shots, she starts dancing with her challenger, and our fly friend joins in dancing on a pink 3 Ball. As the song ends, one of the band's "managers" heads out to meet with his superiors who just arrived in a limousine. An alternate version has Angus sinking one of the balls with his guitar at the end.
As Stand Up begins, the Executives don sunglasses and enter the club and are seated. Around this time, Betty of Betty's burgers has finally warmed up to the group and starts dancing along with the larger and fired up crowd. As she does, our fly friend takes a bite of a hot chili pepper, and regrets it. The executives are also enjoying the band, but not before our sneaky photographer sneaks a photo of the executives. I must briefly discuss Decadent Dan. He is our Master of Ceremonies, introducing the band at the beginning. He has had no luck up to this point in picking up women. His pick up lines are usually met with smacks to the face. As the last song approaches, he just might get lucky. Shake Your Foundations, my favorite song on the album, has the band returning to the stage for the encore. The crowd is really popping at this time. Even the uptight executives join in the fun, and the bartender ditches his earplugs! In all this fun, there is ONE PROBLEM. The building is having its foundations literally shook. Liquor bottles are falling from behind the bar, the sign for Betty's Burgers falls, and the chandelier that was shaking from the celling has fallen onto the bar. NOW the audience flees out of the club as the bartender attempts to save his antelope head. Don't worry about Decadent Dan though, he's finally found someone who can tell naughtier things than he can. Our sneaky photographer gets trampled by the bouncers outside the club. The only one remaining is the member of the band's "management" that admires the band from outside the now destroyed ballroom. The band finishes in front of the New York skyline. As our fly friend heads into the distance, a voice cries out, "We'll call you in June", that's when Fly on the Wall was released.
Tonikawa: Over the Moon for You
Fun Times with the Fun Couple
In most cases concerning teenagers in Japanese Manga and Anime, the characters either take a long time to become steady, or the series ends without a satisfactory resolution. Tonikawa, and its Manga adaptation Fly Me to the Moon, we see things differently.
A boy is hit by a truck. Normally, Japanese stories would end here, or start the character in another world. Here, The young man discovers someone actually shielded him from the truck: The most beautiful girl he's ever seen.
As Nasa (Seriously, folks. That's his name) comes to, Tsukasa, the girl who saved him, tells him to forget her. Then he runs, like a dumbass, to a bus stop, and he thanks her for saving him. Mind you, this scene takes place in the dead of winter, and this dude is running in the snow, damn near about to die just so he can ask a cute girl out. WELL, she says that she'll go out with him, provided they get married. You read that right THEY GOTTA GET HITCHED! Nasa agrees to these terms before losing consciousness. He recovers, and as he turns 18, something happens. His bride to be arrives with the marriage license and her luggage, ready to start her new life with her new husband. And now the fun begins.
Tonikawa answers some logistical questions, a young married couple may have, as well as put them into situations that may put their love to the test. Such as a rich girl trying to start unnecessary drama by doctoring a photograph to make it seem like Nasa isn't faithful, or when the apartment gets struck by lightning and they have to find a new home. Both Nasa and Tsukasa have their own strengths and weaknesses that are showcased throughout the series. Nasa is book smart and can handle most logistical situations, but is naive when it comes to love and relationships. Tsukasa has been around the block a few times, more than you think but that is explained later, so her experiences in cooking and relationships, especially those concerning marriage, are the basis of what she teaches Nasa.
Tonikawa is a heartwarming and delightful series of manga and anime that should be shared with your significant other. This provides a unique perspective on relationships, married life, and history in the current issues of the manga. If you like watching a young couple's journey through the world and beyond (You'll have to read the manga to find out why homie!) then you'll love reading Fly me to the Moon, and its anime counterpart: Tonikawa, Over the Moon for You.
Kitty Corner
Dear Hooman,
Teh other hoomans are talkin' bout getting another kitty. I miss Salem, but I don't know about dis. I iz the pincess, but dis kitty might get all teh treats and get fed more than me. I don't want any other kitties to be the pincess, I only want to be teh pincess.
Signed, Princess Kinzie
Doggo Corner
Hi! My name is Clyde. Cat Daddy asked me if I wanted to say something for his reading thing you humans read. Umm... I like warm hugs, and I love my daddy and his boy. I love Grandma and Aunt Nana. I like when Cat Daddy comes over. He pets me and gives me hugs and kisses like Aunt Nana and Grandma. I miss my girlfriend. Her name is Bonnie. The humans won't let her in. I don't know why. Maybe it wasn't a good idea to bark at the neighbor's dogs. I'm still happy in my new home and I'm a good boy. Just don't tell anyone I pooped in daddy's bed one time... And I took a loaf of banana nut bread from the table and Daddy, Grandma, and Aunt Nana took the bread away from me. Oh well. Bye.
Signed, Clyde
In the next issue: THE CARS AND CHICAGO, AND BUTTMONKEYS! (I just wanted a reason to say Buttmonkeys)
