SOUND MIXING TOUR

Hi lads.

Thank you to those of you who came at HALLOWEEN PARTY 2011 last sunday!
I hope you all had fun!

My name is Yusuke "Vash" Okada, and today I would like to talk a bit about my major, BECA.
A lot of you probably have not heard this major I assume. It stands for Broadcasting and Electronic communication arts. What students in this department basically do is 'making TV/Radio programs and Music'.
I am focusing on the audio production emphasis, and actually today was my midterm sound mixing day. SO, I would like to take you guys to a small tour of the SFSU music studio.

It is located in the basement of creative arts building, the room # is CA 40. Today my sound buddies and I mixed a song of semi-professional spanish band called "Sergio y Tierra"

Here is the broad that we use for the sound mix. Look how many buttons and faders there are... Trust me, they all have a specific job to do. This band is a 4 piece band, which means they have Vocal, Guitar, Bass, and Drums..But in the sound mix, because the sound of each instrument is recorded using several mics, we got about 20 different sound tracks to mix.

The effect boxes and cable connections. Each instrument needs specific effects, so we have to connect all sound signals right!

We monitor the sound by using the software in the computer, and record the song on to this old-school looking tape! A mixture of the latest and old-fashioned technology!

The whole mixing session took about an hour. 

I would have liked to take some more pics tho, like I said, It was during the midterm...so, this is the end of the tour.

Luckily this was the last midterm for the semester!

Good Luck to those of you who still have more midterms coming up! 

Thanksgiving break is almost there, so hang on!!

in a bit. 

Vash

The Awesome Places in SF

Hey, guys.

I’m Daisuke Nemoto. I am a member of the JSA career team. I’m not good writer, so you don’t care if you find some grammar mistakes.

Today, I am going to show you guys the places I visited on the weekend. I attended my friend’s engagement party at The Place of Fine Arts in San Francisco. It was originally built for the 1915 Pan-Pacific Exposition.

I love walking around with seeing beautiful architectures and ducks in the pond.  Also, here is the great place to relax; everybody takes a nap on the lawn. I recommend you visiting the place to get away from it all. The Palace of Fine Arts Theatre has convenient access to public transportation. We are accessible by San Francisco Muni buses #30, #43, #28, and #29. Muni bus lines #22, #41, and #45 also stop in the vicinity.

Anyways, these pictures are at the Place of Fine Arts.

The picture is while doing the cake cut. She looks so happy.

After the party, I had a dinner at SF Japan town. You know YakiniQ is the all you can eat Korean BBQ. The price is reasonable for $20 each person. Very nice foods, nice music, and friendly staffs make you happy for sure. You just keep in mind YakiniQ is always packed to capacity at a dinnertime, so you had better to sign up early. 

Every week!? the JSA officers are supposed to upload the blog. Hopefully you enjoy reading. Who's next?

East Bay Punk's Not Dead

Hi guys!

This is Akira Ogiso. I’m an officer of JSA Career Team.

            Today I’d like to show you guys one of the hottest clubs in Bay Area. For those of you who are native English speaker, club is a place where it serves drinks and snacks with playing different kinds of music, and the bands can play a gig as well. For those of you who are native Japanese speaker, club means a nightclub where people dance while DJs are playing Hip Hop and R&B. So, do NOT consider me as a nightclubbing guy!! I am a PUNK rocker!!
            Well first of all, I have one question. How come people today don’t know how to listen to the rock music?! Whenever I go to a music concert, I see many people are just standing and watching the bands. Of course it depends on what kind of music they play, but if you go to a punk rock show, there is no reason not to be calm. Wanna mosh, stage dive, and stage surf? Come to the 924 Gilman Street right now!!!
            924 Gilman Street is an all-age, not for profit, collectively organized legendary music club which is located in the West Berkeley area of Berkeley, CA about a mile and a half west of the North Berkeley BART station.

There are four main rules for patrons:
1) No Drugs 2) No Alcohol 3) No Violence 4) No Racism

There is a gig at least once in a week usually on Friday night or weekend. Most of the bands are independent and underground. So, if you are really sick of those commercialized MTV sellout rock bands, Gilman is the place where you can find the real punk bands. I mean ‘‘REAL’’ punk spirit bands!!!

I usually go there once in two weeks to check some hot, local indie bands. You might be scare of these spiky hair punks wearing a crazy leather jacket if you come to Gilman. I also dress like them to go to the show.

But they are all nice and kind, so do not hesitate to talk to them! LOL
Gilman has a lot of awesome graphics everywhere on the wall.

This is the hottest bathroom I’ve ever seen in my life!

These cool flyers inform you what bands are coming. I always collect them to decorate my room like Gilman.

             

             Honestly, my primary reason to study abroad to the US is to see the Gilman punk scene. When I was in high school, I was crazy about Green Day and Rancid (Of course I still love them, and finally I was able to go to Rancid show in SF!). They inspired me to be punk, and I really wanted to visit their hometown, which is Barkley CA. They were used to play at Gilman around 90’s when they were still unknown. NOFX, Bad Religion, The Offspring, AFI, and many famous punk bands today were used to have a gig at Gilman as well.

            So why not coming to Gilman? The pit might be little bit dangerous for the punk beginner. You will be sweat a lot, get injure, and sometimes bleed. However, you can get rid of tons of stress from busy school days for sure!!!!!

The Life of International Students

What's up!

I'm Nobu Momoi. I'm a sub-leader of the JSA Career Team. The mission of the Career Team is to help Japanese international students at SFSU find a job in Japanese companies in Japan as well as in the US based Japanese companies. We also help them get prepared for job hunting by holding various events.

Since I’m in the Career Team, I’d like to share with you folks the techniques that I acquired from the countless job recruiting professionals in the United States…. Well, I guess it’s going to be too boring, and I’m too lazy to write about it. Let’s not do it lol

Instead of writing about the dull stuff, I’ll write about typical international student’s (me) one day schedule, which those who will begin or just started to attend an American college are probably most interested.

I wake up at 6am every day. The first thing I do to start my day is to take a shower. After taking a shower, I check the messages from SFSU’s online learning site over a cup of coffee. I usually cook pretty heavy breakfast and eat quickly while checking emails and Facebook. I have a class at 11am, so I usually study at home before my class. Often times the thing I do in the morning are proofreading my essays and other assignments that include lots of calculations. I can do those homework better when I still have a fresh brain.

Since I live pretty close to school as other international students do, and I have a bike, I leave for school 7 minutes before my class. My morning class is English for multilingual students where I enjoy chatting with my classmates from all over the world. This class is my favorite in this semester. And communicating with the people from many different backgrounds is one of the most fun things you can experience in San Francisco. San Francisco has an extremely rich diversity, so you can meet with many different people by just staying at one city! You only need to know English to experience this because most people speak English!

After my English class, I often have some group meetings of my finance classes where we discuss homework assignments and group presentations. My other class starts at 7pm, so I stay in the library or other study rooms on campus to study. My evening class finishes around 9:30pm. After I come back home around 10pm, I review some of the class materials I just learned on the day and go to bed before midnight.

Did you get some ideas about how the life of international students is like? You probably thought being a college student in the US is tough. Yes, it is tough sometimes, but there is a lot of fun at the same time. And we can do this because of weekend parties! So if you’re hesitating to come to an American college, don’t! Just come and have fun! Maybe next time I’ll write about the weekend parties.

School Started!!

Hello!

This is Motoki Tamane, who is an officer of JSA and made JSA SFSU website!

How was your summer? Was it good or bad? Traveling, staying in home, hanging out and sleeping all day etc… you could do whatever you want (I was taking summer class and spent whole summer…). However, the sweet time ends and now it’s time to do student’s duty.

The instructions of class began today, and I guess everyone will become very busy.

I have 7 classes including 3 labs; they are going to be tough for me…

By the way, there was a huge earthquake in Virginia (I heard the President Obama has evacuated from White House). Hopefully, San Francisco is not damaged because it’s far from the center. Japan has experienced a lot of earthquakes, and has suffered from the damages. Most buildings collapse and electricity stops. Moreover, Tsunami (tidal wave) comes after those disasters if the earthquake is intensive. All Japanese (me, also) know how scary it is, so I hope everyone is OK.

Have a good one!

Motoki

The first thing i had done in SF.

Hey, guys. This is Taichi Kanemoto and i'm the officer of JSA.
From now on, i try to continue writing a fun post for those who thinking of coming to SF.
Okay, Here we gooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!

I lost my way. LOL this was the first thing ive met in SF.

when u have a chance to come to SFSU, the first thing you are going to do is to arrive at SFSU correctly. However, the way of coming to school is not easy but sort of complicated.

So, Let me explain how to get SFSU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

you are going to get off at airport after landing in sf. First thing u should do is to find the BIRT which looks train but super slow and ghetto but dont worry and u are not gonna die. Take Birt train toward Daly City and get off at Daly City. Then, you are gonna have to find a 28 Bus. you are going to pay 2 dollars and jump in it and it would take you to San Francisco State university.

now you know where you are going and what you should do.

Last thing i need to tell u is,,,, dont forget to say "Thank you" when u get out of bus, otherwise, you feel bad.

The places I love in the city :)

Hi all!!

Hope you guys are enjoying this summer and making loads of fun memories with your family and friends! Talking about me, my summer has already ended nearly a month ago as I celebrated my 23rd birthday and started my summer semester at school. Summer classes are always tough.. But still, I'm glad I can live in such a beautiful city as a student :) By the way, this is Aileen, I'm one of the new members in JSA since this summer. Hope I can learn and have fun with other members there, and also those who are thinking of joining the team will also do so too!


By the way, I'm writing today's blog to introduce some of the beautiful and delicious restaurants/cafes in the city for those who are thinking of moving to San Francisco, or new to the city and want to get to know more about this area.




By the way, is anyone of you familiar with this huge round sourdough bread?


(Sorry, I have a trouble uploading photos now. It's coming soon!)








It's the best sourdough bread you can get in San Francisco, and not only that, it is ranked as the No.1 sourdough bread in the nation!!
If you go to the store around 5:10 PM, you will be able to get a fresh one which just came out from the oven at 5PM. The store closes at 7 PM so you only have two hours to get it, but it is worth going there during that time just to get this bread. ;)


If you like to see the Ocean view and mysterious yet beautiful places, Sutro Baths is the place you might want to visit. It's one of the most beautiful places in the city I've ever known located on the north end of Ocean Beach.



(photo 2)



If you go there after walked around the city, you might think you've lost your way to another time... It's actually only 100 years old, but it looks way older than that!


It used to be a privately owned swimming pool complex nearly 100 years ago which was burned down and abandoned soon afterwards in 1966.


When there on sunny days, you can see Golden Gate Bridge,

(photo 3)


and enjoy this magnificent view of Ocean Beach.


(photo4)




There are so many other places you can visit and enjoy your day in the city. Why don't you take a casual walk on sunny beautiful days and find out the coolest place just for you! :)

1st Meeting with Professor Fubabiki

Hello, Everyone!

How is your summer??

This is Miki Fukai and I am the President of SFSU JSA :)

I normally hesitate to write in public because I am not a good writer,

but since everyone is taking their turns, I will do my best to write an entertaining post today.

SFSU JSA had a meeting last week with one of the Jounalism Professors, Mr. Jon Funabiki. He is such an intelligent and friendly man with a good sense of humor.

He knows what college students always like. Yes Cupcakes! :)

I actually met him in the end of May for my first time to brainstorm ideas about Center of Japan and Japanese Culture.

http://www.nichibei.org/2010/12/sf-state-to-establish-japan-and-japanese-cultural-center/

It is a new center in SFSU thanks to Dr. Dilena and this center is going to provide students and faculties in SFSU and hopefully people in the SF community to learn about Japan, Japanese language, culture and many other things.

This time, Professor Funabiki set a meeting with some of the SFSU JSA officers to expand the ideas more and even to discuss about some of the new ones!

 from the left: Sumie Komiya, Yueyu Kanno, Professor Funabiki, Aileen Hara, and Nobuaki Momoi.

With the delicious cup cakes which Professor Funabiki brought to the meeting, We had a great time expanding ideas about potential small events, big events, lectures, exhibitions, and so many  more!

From the left: Yueyu Kanno, Professor Funabiki and me.

This project is going to be very exciting for us because with the center, SFSU JSA is going to be able to plan events which we never had before and also such a precious experience for all of us since we all get to help supporting the center which is related to all of our identity and our root! Also, it is going to be a great chance for us to learn new things about Japan!

Our next meeting with him is in Mid August!

Thanks, Mr. Funabiki and please remember that college students always love sweets no matter how mushy they happen to look!

Thank you very much for reading my post!

Have a great day!

Miki Fukai



Enjoying Your Summer Vacation?

Hello! And welcome to our JSA blog! This is Yueyu Kanno, the Vice President of JSA.

It's already half way into summer vacation and it'll be August will come along pretty soon. Time passes quickly... especially when you're enjoying it! I really hope everyone is enjoying their summer, going out and having fun with friends or just staying home relaxing.

This weekend, I was able to bike around San Francisco with my close friend who visited from LA (When I say bike, I mean bicycle). We started near the Ghirardelli Square, went over the Golden Gate Bridge, then to Sausalito. I wouldn't say it's an easy ride (considering the steep hills in SF), but I would say the experience is definitely worth it. Great sight-seeing too!

There's several rental bikes available for a reasonable price. I rented one of their bike and went over the bridge. So no worry about getting a bike of your own bike or gear. And if you don't want to look like the other biking tourists, simply take off the front pouch attached to the bike.

Unfortunately, the weather in San Francisco wasn't so well when I biked over the bridge. The fog was thick and the wind was cold (That's one of the reasons why I didn't take any pictures in SF). However, the fog cleared up once we hit past the bridge and down to Sausalito.

After arriving at Sausalito, we decided to take a break and grab some ice cream. There's several neat small business shops in Sausalito, it would've been nice to check them out but didn't have much time.. We hitched a ride on the Blue & Gold Ferry back to Pier 39.

It was one tough ride, especially for someone who doesn't ride on a bicycle daily (including myself). After coming back to SF from Sausalito, my knees were giving up time to time. Even now, after a day, my legs are really sore. Biking (although I walked majority) up the hills really works out your legs...

I would suggest biking over the bridge for many people staying at SF. Not only tourists, but locals can do it too! Great view and a great work out! If you have the time and the courage to bike over to Sausalito, I'd say it's a great way to tour around the bay.

Hope everyone is having fun!

-Yueyu Kanno

Welcome to SFSU JSA Blog!

Hi! This is Sumie, one of contributors of this blog from JSA (Japanese Student Association) at SFSU!

I am proudly taking a role as starter of this blog... so let me start with what it is about.

This blog is to provide more vivid portrait of us, and this beautiful San Francisco :)

☆

To start with, I am going to introduce my most favorite place in San Francisco.

It is Dolores Park! http://maps.google.com/maps?client=safari&oe=UTF-8&ie=UTF8&q=dolores+park&fb=1&gl=us&hq=dolores+park&hnear=0x80859a6d00690021:0x4a501367f076adff,San+Francisco,+CA&cid=0,0,6144503937010318441&ll=37.761012,-122.427263&spn=0.008126,0.01929&z=16

15 min walk from both muni Castro and Church stations.

With a huge bottle of beer, I actually have just been there last weekend. It was a very nice, sunny beautiful day. (You know SF is either foggy or cloudy most of the time)

This is me, the left one with beer, and Miki! Our President!

It is one of our favorite things to do in SF, chilling at Dolores Park with snacks and drinks, chatting whatever things :)

San Francisco is at it's most beauty in sunny day.

Here is view of San Fran from Dolores Park.

There are lots of nice restaurants and coffee shops in this neighborhood too.

I love San Francisco so much!