Thrift Shop

Thrift Shop Video

by Danielle King

For my video class, I had to make a music video. Luckily, I have good friends who agreed to help me out with my dilemma of finding people to be in my video. I didn't have many choices for songs though, since they were quickly willing to come to my aid, I had to pick songs that were 

easy to dance to for my friends.Since my friend Sam's favorite song was Thrift Shop by www.macklemore ft Ryan Lewis we decided to use that song. Having the biggest challenge out of the way, which was my talent so we decided to start shooting.

The two people in my video, as far as the main character's are my friend Jeremy and Samantha. My fellow broadcasting buddy, Ryan, helped me out with the intro for the video inside the WHSN radio station that I work at. I think the beginning of my video was really cool. I remember when I was a teenager (a long time ago) watching MTV Jams and some music video's from that time period starting off inside the radio station then fading out to another scene that either the DJ was day dreaming about or that the music video was about.

We had a fun time filming this project, and my loving friends even talked me into appearing in my own project. I wasn't too keen on that idea but decided that I would make a brief (very brief) appearance.

The day that I had made reservations to take out a camera, it was kind of dreary. I didn't notice how over-exposed some of the shots were, and a few were out of focus. Besides those two major details, I think that the video came out amazing because it is so entertaining.

I am so thankful that I have my friends who are willing to embarrass themselves to help me out and make music video's with. I'm sure someday soon it will be time for me to return the favor. I only hope that they are kind enough to not post my embarrassing good deeds on the internet. I am not that nice, the video just wouldn't post!

Rocking the Stage at Club Tantrum

        Rock Revelation Takes The Stage At ClubTantum on May 24th


The Rock Revelation is a 6 piece collaboration of some of the most experienced and talented musicians in central Maine with over 65 years and 2,000 performances collective experiences.

Chris "The Prince of Awesomeness" Gagnon, certified audio engineer and former 13 year vocalist and guitarist for punk/alternative act Dugen, fronts Rock Revelation and helps bring high-energy, a gritty edge, as well as some polished audio production value.

Tom "Tommy Love" Libby (drums) and Lance "Sir Lance-a-lot" Astbury (lead guitar), formerly of 80's rock band Lockdown, bring 15 years each of gigging experience. Tom being classically trained as well as having theatre experience is the perfect juxtaposition to Lance who brings the raw talent and passion of a prodigy.

Heather "Samsonite" Libby adds a halo of class and helps bring the band to a much bigger, arena worthy level, with angelic vocals and a little Motown sass. Heather has extensive directing and performing experience with regional theatre and musicals.

Kevin "The KeyMaster" Bate adds depth and epic scale when he tickles the ivories with not only the experience of a driving rock musician, but also with a well rounded theater background in performing and directing. 

Gaylen "The Gaelic God of Thunder Down Under" Smith completes the rhythm section with more technical virtuosity wrapped up in his little pinky than the rest of the band combined! Gaylen also has more than two decades of experience performing in bands.

Rock Revelation brings together a plethora of talent and experience to deliver one of the most high-energy live shows in New England, featuring some of the only 6-piece vocals around. Appropriate for an arena or a pub, playing the greatest rock songs ever written, and ready to inject some face-melting awesomeness into your patrons.

"Let there be Rock," is something that you can frequently hear the band say during their concerts, advertisements and is one of their quotes. Rock Revelation frequently performs many covers and a lot of oldies music. 

They will be taking the stage at Club Tantrum on May 24th. I have had the pleasure of growing up with Chris Gagnon. I have watched him grow in his musical journey from the punk rock, immature youth days of 'Dougen' at the Penny Post in Old Town on to his adult music (which I must say I love) and his newer band; entitled 'Rock Revelation.'

Come out to support Rock Revelation on May 24th at Club Tantrum. Tickets are five dollars for a night of fun! You will not be disappointed!

"Let there be rock......"

Husson Eagles Softball

HUSSON EAGLES SOFTBALL GOING TO    NCAA TOURNAMENT

I recently did a story for a journalism class and had to interview the Husson Softball team after they won the NAC conference tournament. They were a great bunch of woman to talk to, so I thought it was worthy of a blog post. 

You could feel the excitement from these woman even five days after their victory. The lady Eagles did a chant for me during the interview so I could have some sound bites of it for my radio news story. They all were such a fun group of women to be around; you know the type I'm talking about or I hope you do. They were so cheerful, happy-go-lucky, and enthusiastic. 

The beginning of the interview was a bit awkward for me because the coach is very structured and certainly believes in disciplining her team and those vibes were pouring off of her. Having been on a very competitive team and knowing what that discipline is all about, I didn't want to take up too much of her time.

The coach is a very successful woman named Amanda Bourgoin. She's been with the Husson Eagles Softball team since 2007. Almost from the beginning, her coaching techniques and skills were paying off. In 2008-2009 the coach won NAC coaching honors.

Since 2008 the softball team has been very successful. The team has won a spot in the NCAA division 3 softball tournament for the last five seasons. They have also won the North Atlantic Conference title for the last five years as well. 

Coach Bourgoin gave me a lot of great information for my paper, but what definitely made the interview was the soundbites of the chants sang by Amanda Ryan; who is one of the two best pitchers on the team, and the rest of the team singing in response to her. It was amazing, and I was so grateful that they chose to participate. 

After the team willingly agreed to my request, the coach began calling shots and telling people to run certain plays. At that point I felt as though my interview was over, but I knew that I didn't have quite enough for my paper after having only spoken with the coach. To my surprise, the two girls throwing the ball back and forth to my right were two of the girls that I wanted to speak with. I was willingly going to settle for them no matter who they were as a result of the directness of the coach. Luckily, the two to my right turned out to be Amanda Ryan and Becca McCarty. Both of them are pitchers for the Eagles. McCarty won Tournament MVP last weekend after the Eagles beat the University of Maine at Farmington (Spartans).

Thank you to the Husson Eagles Softball team for helping with my story! Make sure you follow the team and cheer them on at the NCAA Tournament.

According to Coach Bourgoin, the Eagles should find out the details of the tournament this coming week. They are waiting to find out their seed, who they play, and which field.

Best of luck to the woman of the Husson Softball team!

This week on American Idol.. May 2, 2013

Results of American Idol this week...

As of the current moment on Idol, there are four contestants left. In just a few moments, the top three will be remaining on the stage.

The remaining four contestants are Angie Miller, Kree Harrison, Candice Glover and Amber Holcomb. At one time or another during this season, the remaining four have all been my favorite. However, my top favorite contestant was sent home a few weeks ago. In my opinion, Janelle Arthur was a shoe-in for the "next american-idol."  She was genuine, a hard-worker, and an amazing singer.

As I type this, I am embarrassed to say that I have tears on my keyboard. The new top three of American Idol are Angie Miller, Kree Harrison, and Candice Glover. Amber Holcomb was sent home after 2 weeks as one of the top four. She has been one of my favorites since the very beginning, She had me watch Idol almost every week, and this is the first season of American Idol that I have watched since the beginning. In the past, I couldn't stand this show but the females this season are so amazing and she has such an amazing voice. Amber sings a lot of Whitney Houston. She is almost a replica of Ms. Houston.

All of the judges on American Idol, including Nicky Minaj, Mariah Carey, Keith Urban and Randy Jackson‎ were all in tears on the stage. The girls who have just made it onto "home visit week" were all crying as well. I am sure with such a small number left and all of them being female, that they developed such a close bond. Not only do they feel their friends pain, but they can probably feel themselves in here shoes at any moment of the stressful, emotional, competition. I'm sure they will miss their friend as well, since it was just the four of them for a week longer than normal because they didn't have to vote anyone off last week. 

I truly hope that Keith Urban was correct in telling the girls prior to the results, "It only takes an audience to pick out a performer's career," because Amber surely had an audience when she picked up a microphone, she had the world's attention.

Best of luck Amber Holcomb!!

This week's radio shift 4/29

This week on WHSN...

My shift this week went very well. The closer I am getting to the end of the semester, the more comfortable I am feeling. I am really going to miss it over the summer. 

I really wish that I had applied for one of the summer positions, I don't know if I would have gotten hired but I really don't want to stop for the summer. I may end of up doing some shifts in my spare time because I don't know if I want to go the whole 4 months without being on the radio.

The longer that I am on WHSN, the more comfortable I am, which sounds like common sense but when I was first learning, I never thought it would come so naturally. 

"It's like learning to drive a car, once you know how, you wont ever forget," is what my friend Ashlynn use to tell me. She use to have to help me do my homework in adobe audition my first semester learning radio. I lost my patience and ended up switching to journalism because I thought that I wasn't cut out for radio. Even after changing majors, I still felt drawn to radio broadcasting so I came in over breaks to do air shifts and get more comfortable on the air and familiar with the equipment. Now I see that was probably God working in my life because it led me back to radio, after building that confidence and some hands on learning. 

Now I tell Mark Nason, the station manager and my radio teacher that radio ops (the first radio class for broadcasting majors) should be taught inside of WHSN, since the class is so small (since there are not many broadcasting majors at NESCom) and it is much easier for most people to learn with a hands on experience. 

I have been showing some people in my radio news class how to use the board since they have to sit in for 2 news casts as part of a quiz grade. Showing people the radio aspect and how the news is done on WHSN brought me back to my days of nauseousness and belly-flops prior to my shifts. I convinced one of the guys in my class to do the weather update after he sat in with me for an hour. He did a great job but he was so nervous and it definitely put things into perspective for me. 

My journey through journalism was definitely not a wasted experience. Through that I learned that I want to do something in broadcast journalism. Isn't it funny how God uses person experiences to reveal things to you. Within a short period I remember feeling so defeated that I wasn't going to be on the radio, then torn between radio and journalism once I learned the skills and gained a therapeutic comfort level to be on the radio. After a few months of agonizing over which career path I would choose, I FINALLY decided in a career between the two fields. In the end, I did switch back to radio but I sat down with both advisors and was able to pick the exact classes that I will need to be on the correct course for a broadcast journalist.