McNally Smith Summer 2008 Interns

Evan Gundlach, music business, universal, twin cities

2008-08-25T17:30:00.001-05:00

Well its been awhile since last time I wrote here but I went out of town down to Kansas to visit my family that I only get to see once a year. I had a really good time, but I wasn’t upset to come back and keep interning. This week I did some online research about radio stations that have had artists appear live. I had to go online and see if I could find an archive of some kind to see the past guests. It sounds a lot easier then it actually is but I found quite a bit of new information. We are getting the information and adding it into our artist appearance database. With this database we then can see which radio shows give the biggest boost on record sales. Since we have radio, TV, and award shows we can also see which type of shows give the biggest lift. Once I got a lot of the research I just cleaned up the database fixing little errors. The music meeting on Friday was cancelled so no new music but it was still a really fun week and I’m glad to be back.

Jon Johnson - The Firm - Beverly Hills: Goodbye Firm

2008-08-24T01:49:00.002-05:00

After 3 short months my time at The Firm has come to a close. My final day was this past Tuesday, and I can say that it was one of the most memorable days I've ever had there.

I spent a healthy 12 hour shift covering the same desk I had been covering for about a week, and I was able to talk with almost all the employees that I've gotten to know over the past 3 months, and say goodbye. There are not enough good things that I can say about everyone over there. To all those employees that are at The Firm: I would like to thank you for everything that you've done to teach me, and the words that many of you spoke about me on Tuesday were more than flattering.

I wouldn't change a thing about what happened at The Firm, and I wouldn't trade the experience for anything else. The knowledge and insight that I've gained are invaluable, and so are the contacts that I was able to get.

As I type right now, I am only a few hours away from leaving the apartment and going to the airport, effectively ending the McNally Smith Summer intern semester (I'm the last one in the apartments-Traci is coming back though). I can't wait to get back and share all of the great stories and lessons that I've gained over the summer.

I dunno if I'm going to do another post or not, we'll see....

Cole Hendricks - Final Thoughts

2008-08-22T00:18:00.002-05:00

Hey everyone,

Well it's my last night in LA for a few months. I have decided to come back and finish my last semester of schooling. The House of Blues has told me they will rehire me if I wish to return after my graduation.

This summer has been so amazing and so beneficial. The amount of things I have seen and experienced while working and just hanging out in LA has been so much. Even when times were tough, I knew I had to stick through it and that it would pay off in the end. I have had so much fun in Los Angeles working in a top notch urban recording studio and working at the House of Blues right on Sunset Blvd. Working with some of the biggest acts out in the media right now has taught me how the industry works when it comes to production and live sound. I learned that the studio life is not glamorous as an intern but I was able to learn how commercial studios are run. In the end, this summer was well worth it and I would suggest everyone to take up this opportunity if presented with it. I mean who doesnt want to live where it only rains twice in three months. Thank you McNally Smith for the opportunity.

Cole Hendricks
Audio Engineer

Traci @ Key Club, LA-- Music Business: Its so hard to say Goodbye...

2008-08-19T10:32:00.002-05:00

Hey all,

Last week held my last two days at Key Club, which means this is my final post for the summer of 2008.

I know it is common to ease out of work in your last few days, but I kept going strong. We had a busy week for Jumbotron ads, where normally we might have 2 or 3, this week we had 5... I know it is only 2 more, but it still is a lot for just one week of ads. I spent most of Monday organizing those and updating the ad schedule. I also did some demo listening for Carrie.

Tuesday was my last day, so there was actually a decent amount of things I was asked to do before I walked out the door. I started off the day finishing the demos for Carrie, sending out the last few Jumbotron ads from the day before, and researching/photocopying press pieces for Zach in PR. Hollie and Kerry took me out to a farewell lunch at Rainbow, which was a lot of fun, and I learned that I need to stay more up-to-date on current events. After that, I had just a couple of things to do, and then I said my goodbyes.

I learned a lot from the people at Key Club. It was a great environment, and since it is so small, you really get used to seeing those people everyday. We will hopefully stay in contact and work together in some way or other down the line.

The reason Tuesday was my last day is because I have decided to stay in L.A. and continue to pursue my career. Since the job hunt is on now, we thought it wouldn't be a bad idea to have a little extra time to look, as there are currently no openings at Key Club. This summer offered an amazing journey from student to young professional... one I hope you (students) all get to experience. A big thank you goes out to all those involved, and to you for reading.

Until we meet again,

Traci Larsen, Music Business & Vocal Performance

Key Club, Summer 2008

Jon Johnson - The Firm - Beverly Hills: 2 days left

2008-08-18T01:42:00.003-05:00

It's weird to think that I only have 2 more days left at The Firm. All of the great people I have met and had the opportunity to learn from, and all of the fun experiences I've had with my fellow interns and mailroom staff.

This past week was mostly filled with desk coverage. From about the last forth of Tuesday through Friday, I filled in for an assistant who had been injured. The experience was unique compared to all other opportunities to cover desks. It went fairly well on Tuesday and Friday, okay on Wednesday, but if I had the chance, I would definitely take back Thursday. But that is all behind me, and I can only take it as a learning experience, which is what it was.

I really can't complain at all about the opportunities I've been given at The Firm, I have had more desk coverage than any other intern, or trainee (paid employees) has had during my stay. Each time I have sat on a desk, I've learned something useful, whether it be directly about the music business, or something about myself.

I pretty sure I've stated this before on my blog, but if I haven't, even better. Every McNally student with some ambition to do something in the music business needs to come out to Los Angeles. The pace is just so much faster than anything I've ever experienced in the Twin Cities.

Stay tuned for next week. I'll probably split up my blog into two or three parts like my fellow bloggers. I know I don't ever disclose too much on this blog, and so I might just be a little more personal about what I've actually done out here in LA.

Maybe

Traci @ Key Club, LA-- Music Business: and now, the conclusion of our episode....

2008-08-13T15:49:00.004-05:00

Hey all!

I don't know if you noticed, but I have tried to have a running TV/Hollywood theme throughout most of my posts... because we're in L.A...... moving on.

The last of this little mini-series of late posts is from last week, which essentially revolved around... WRAP PARTY! (yet another reason for my attempt of a TV theme) The photo to the right was my Hollywood look of the evening, and since we were asked to adhere to the strict rules about cameras at the House of Blues, the only one I have. However, there was a professional photographer there, so the school should have some soon.

The summer wrap party was in the Foundation Room at House of Blues, which was beautiful, and was attached to a large patio. The venue was great, and you should all go at least once while you are here... but not until after you go to Key Club...

The night was great, getting to mingle with your mentors, peers, and alumni, as well as other professionals in the industry, and if you are lucky you walk away with a few new contacts and friends. We had presentations to our mentors about half-way through the evening, thanking them for everything they have done for us throughout the summer and presenting them with certificates/plaques. All of the guests at the party also got these really cool, artsy pins with the McNally Smith logo. There was food and drink and great conversation. I could have gone all night long talking with some of the great people I got to meet. I also got to catch up with some of the people I met at the L.A. Women in Music event I went to, including Michael (the guitarist), and Leanne, the president of the organization. It was a fantastic night filled with great experiences. I was sad to see it end... or to see them cleaning up around us as we stayed after we were supposed to, still talking.

The next day, Zach and I went to Venice beach in the early evening to walk on the beach and have dinner before he had to head back to the airport. It was wonderful getting to see him out for the party, and start making plans for his L.A. internship. We had dinner at C&O Trattoria at the beach, which is a delicious Italian restaurant.

So that you are not confused, I did work as usual during this week, but I figured you would want to know about the party....

Peace,

Traci

Traci @ Key Club, LA-- Music Business: Busy Busy Bee

2008-08-13T15:23:00.002-05:00

Hello all!

I know you have been anxiously waiting for parts 2 & 3 of the previous blog, so I will shoot them off back to back today!

When last I wrote, I had told you about the hectic event week at Key Club. The week that followed (July 28-August 3) was a little busy, but a little quieter. We had Oakley come in and kick off the X-Games with a star-studded private party that was a smash! We also had radio stations in, KLOS and KLSX, for daytime live broadcasts, which is something we do occasionally.

KLSX was hosting a Battle of the Bands to find bands to play at...I believe it was the station's birthday party, or summer bash. It ran until early afternoon and ended with one of the host getting "kidnapped" by some of the fans. One of the many fun things about that was that for lunch, all of us from the office got to order food from the club restaurant and had the option to see some of the bands while eating. I have to say, between having to sample the appetizers for the L'Oreal show (a request made by our executive chef so that I would know what I was serving, not just me stealing food...), and having lunch I have to say, our food is fantastic! Plus it is a lot of fun to watch the bands from up in the mezzanine section where our restaurant is located.

KLOS had a live morning show broadcast with Foreigner as a special guest for which they had a radio giveaway for tickets. Foreigner was in town for a concert later that night or the next night, so this was kind of a special day. It was finishing up when I got in that morning, but as far as I know there were no complications.

Those were the work highlights of the week. Over the weekend, the McNally "Team" (Debbie, Isreal, Sarah, Zach Taylor, Harry and Alice, and Chris Osgood (no, not the goalie)) came out for the annual Summer Wrap Party, which I will discuss in the next blog. The interns hosted a little BBQ for our meeting at Meadows about the party with Debbie, Charley, Isreal, Ashley, and Warren as our guests. Except for a little problem with the grill (no fires, I promise), it went well and everyone left full... hopefully.

So that was pretty much that week. Now, on to last week.... can you handle the suspense?

Peace,

Traci

Maurice Champion - Urban Network (Los Angels) - Music Business - Wrapping Things Up Pt.2

2008-08-10T18:52:00.005-05:00

A bitter sweet moment walking through LAX to catch my red eye flight back to Minnesota. I was happy to go back home to my bed but I was leaving California, the place I called home for three (3) months. I learned and experience so much living in LA. I learned a lot from the business stand point but I learned more on the personal level. While observing the buildings and beautiful life on my way to downtown St.Paul, I was just in shock realizing how much God has been good to me. Moving from Detroit to Minnesota to California in less than a year is a blessing for me. I am truly understand that I'm seeing these places for a reason. I am so focus on the things that I need to accomplish. I understand being focus is nothing without actually getting out to do the necessary work that you're focused on. My drive, will, and work ethics has increased after being in LA. I needed that duration of time spent in Cali to push me further to blaze my trail that I'm leading. So even though I wrapped things up in LA, I didn't tie the knot too tight to where I can't go back and untie the knot!

Evan Gundlach, music business, universal, twin cities

2008-08-10T16:42:00.000-05:00

Well, I’m now a whole year older. It was my 21^st birthday on Wednesday so this week was a little busy for me, but I still got some time in at universal. On Monday I worked on the album tracking database and I found out we are actually really close to having that done. Some other people had been working on it also so we only have a little more history to put into and then all we have to do is keep updating it. Since it was my birthday on Wednesday they let me have the day off on Thursday so I didn’t end up going in. On Friday the new kids on the block were at the mall of America so a lot of people were out of the office on and we didn’t have a music meeting. I had to pick up my friend who was flying in from Colorado so I left a little early on Friday but I got a lot more titles into the database before I left. I think I'm going to take it pretty easy this weekend and rest up for another week at universal.

Jon Johnson - The Firm - Beverly Hills: New Phone

2008-08-09T23:50:00.002-05:00

Wow, it's almost over. It's almost surreal to think of all the time I've spent working at The Firm. Quite a bit has happened over the past week, and I'll try and get into everything...

Over the last weekend I had lost my phone, and I was unable to find it during the week. This meant I couldn't make or receive any calls, making it a tough week to communicate with people. I was able to get a new phone on Friday night, (thank God) but there is one problem, I lost all of my numbers. So, I invite everyone to join my new facebook group, and post up their numbers. I will post that link soon.

For a good portion of the week (Mon - Thurs) I was covering a desk for the assistant to the President of the music division over at The Firm. That was by far my biggest challenge yet when it came to covering desks for others.

Now I have covered plenty of desks in the past, but nothing prepared me for the challenge of covering this particular desk. First off, this desk is insanely busy, calls just keep coming in, so you have to keep on your toes and be prepared. Secondly, this desk requires hours, at least 11 hours everyday. Oh, and you can't leave the desk. During this desk coverage, I ran into some situations that I believe could have compromised my status as an intern for The Firm, but thanks to the help of those around me, I was able to get through these situations just learning valuable lessons.

The intern wrap-up party on Wednesday was very enjoyable, I was able to thank those around me at The Firm who had helped me so much throughout my internship. I don't want to spend too much time on it though, because it seems like everyone else had covered it as well.

Later during the week I saw a couple of fellow interns take off. Moe, Munya, It was great to be able to hang out with the both of you. I hope that you both enjoyed your stays out here, and I can't wait to see you both back at McNally Smith.

Only a couple of weeks left, the 24th is approaching.....

Traci @ Key Club, LA-- Music Business: Wow... I'm behind...

2008-08-09T19:05:00.003-05:00

Hey all!

So, its been a while due to a variety of different things, mainly staying incredibly busy to the point where I really didn't realize that it has already been THREE weeks! So here's how this is going to work: This post will be from 2 weeks ago, then later tonight I will post from 1 week ago, and then tomorrow you will get updated on this past week... so a kind of final countdown to the end of the semester, if you will (and now I have that song in my head... "It's the final countdooooown...").

Monday, July 21:

Such a crazy and fun day at Key Club. We were booked for two back-to-back events. The first of which was a L'oreal Matrix Hair Show. This actually required quite a bit of set up. They had people in the club stuffing gift bags and placing product for testing all over the club while we rolled out the red carpets and set up tables, photo areas and candles (n

ot too close to the hair sprays, mind you. We had to be very careful). They also were having hosted food and beverage for about an hour as guests arrived before the big extravaganza o' hair! The show was pretty interesting because they have a hair model sit while a "creative designer" performs his magic, all the while explaining what he is doing and how he prepped the model. Pretty cool actually. I picked up a few tricks. Then after the show, it was another half hour of passed drinks and appetizers so people could mingle on their way out. Then it was a chaotic half hour to transform the club from the hair show, into the normal Steel Panther night with a VIP JVC/Spin Magazine party in our Plush lounge for the launch of the Carstereoke contest that is going on right now. That is the billboard we had up for the event and the product of the photoshoot on my very first day at Key Club. You can also see it in this month's Spin Magazine along with an article.

You know how people always say "Hard work pays off?" Well believe them! I offered to stay and help cocktail during the L'oreal show since we were slightly short-handed for that aspect, and then pitched in to aid in the turn-over, even though it was not expected. Because of this, I was asked to stay for the JVC/Spin party and the show that night. I met some great people, and got to spend a little non-work time with my mentors and had a chance to enjoy what we had worked so hard for that day.

Tuesday, July 22

This was a slower day, used to catch up on work that would normally be done on Mondays, including my Jumbotron ads, a few phone calls, and research. I feel like there was something else that happened... but all I remember was being completely exhausted from the night before.

Wednesday, July 23

We held a charity event called Rock for MS, hosted by MS Friends. Set up for this was a little more low key since they brought out a lot of people to do most of the setting up. We mainly just had to help with a few tables and flower arrangements and candles again. It turned out beautifully.

The event featured legendary Rock 'n' Roll photography and photographers and was a combination of silent auction, live auction, and DJs. There were some incredibly recognizable pieces for silent auction in our Plush lounge, as well as the opportunity to meet some of the photographers, such as Jim Marshall. Then, as I understand it, the DJ would play sets with live auctions in between. It was so amazing to be in a room with some of the most famous Rock 'n' Roll pieces around, especially the candid shots, as if you were a part of their lives for that brief moment in time. Very cool.

Thursday, July 24

Another quiet day at the office, returning to the normal pace of things. Cleaning up a little from the previous days. I was also getting a little anxious for my parents to visit again, however briefly, and they had started the drive that morning. After work: SLEEP.

Friday, July 25

I researched some companies for some activities for a Bar Mitzvah we had coming up. Listened to a few demos. I think I even finished up a little early and headed back to Culver just in time for my parents to get it.

The rest of the weekend was a lot of fun, but packed trying to show them a few things they would enjoy, like the Rock Walk and cool Rock 'n' Roll art galleries on Sunset, Lunch at Mel's Diner, and, my favorite, Venice Beach and canals around sunset.

Somewhere during this week, I also tried "Chile's" for the first time ever (I know, I can't believe I went to a chain when there are so many great places out here either, but it happened). It was very yummy and I think I went back the next day too... It was at my transfer stop and I was hungry, ok?

Until later tonight!

Traci

Maurice Champion - Urban Network (Los Angels) - Music Business - Wrapping Things Up Pt.1

2008-08-08T14:22:00.005-05:00

On Wednesday August 6, 2008, the place to be was The House of Blues in Hollywood. As one of the nine interns in California I attended with gratitude towards The Urban Network and most importantly Miller London. I arrived with Cole Hendricks and Munya to the famous House of Blues. I had the experience to visit the performance room with the stage and it was incredible from observing the antique wood to the classic photo's of world renowned rock stars. I made my way up some stairs greeting those who I knew and didn't know. There were tons of people in attendance from successful companies in the music industry. The party started off with some light mingling amongst your peers and others. Then we kicked the party off with presentations from the interns presenting a plaque to their mentor of the company. After expressing my words of gratitude I was shockingly surprised by the staff at The Urban Network with my own cover on The Urban Network Magazine. I was smiling so HARD receiving my plaque. I wish I had the photo's to show you guys but I'm sure you'll see them posted soon. After all the presentations were done. It was time to do some more networking. I was able to get some contacts to some people that cam open more doors for me and what I'm doing. This party was very very cool. I really enjoyed the food and the atmosphere in the building. Everything went smoothly until I had to...........................TO BE CONTINUED

Stay tuned! Sunday @ 7:00 I Will Post Part 2 of "Wrapping Things Up"

At The End...Nick Garrison - AEMG - Los Angeles

2008-08-05T22:11:00.002-05:00

My work for Alan Ett Music Group came to an end. It has been an amazing experience working for such a professional and established company.
I have soaked up so much information about aspects of music licensing, publishing, royalties, and so much more.
I'm really not sure what to say at this point. This has been a summer that has had a big impact on me and will definitely help shape my future.

I am really grateful for the opportunity I had in coming out here and all the doors that were opened. I have met some incredible people that I will be keeping in touch with as I head back north.

Take care,

Nick Garrison

ZIMBABWE TO LA, AN INTERNATIONAL INTERN STORY SO FAR pt 4

2008-08-05T02:48:00.006-05:00

Hey guys

Well I have to say the last week has been quite eventful and a busy time for me, for we are getting to the end of this long journey here in LA.

Last week began with a sudden shake up to the city of LA with an earthquake happening at the beginning of the week. I was at work sitting on my desk when all of a sudden our room was shaking and moving side to side. I quickly went underneath the table and Maurice did the same as well, as our whole building was moving. This was just another crazy experience to be in, but to some a first time. To me this was just another adds, to my many earthquake experiences I have had in my lifetime but been in while since I have felt one and I must say it did give me a little shake up. Being in this earthquake reminded me of the days I was I lived in Japan, an about 13 years ago I experienced one of the most devastating earthquakes of all time in 1995 when an earthquake struck in Japan in the city of Kobe. Now this was a life and death situation but luckily at that time we had just moved to the city of Tokyo but the earth quake was so powerful that the after shock’s were able to reach Tokyo.

On Thursday we had a half day at work but returned to work later on that night at 9:00pm for an all night of working hard and pushing ourselves to reach certain goals that Warren wanted us to achieve by the end of the night or should I say beginning of the morning. Yet again this was quite an experience, but hard working as well, really hard. But a lot of work was done and to; all social networking sites, invites for the upcoming marketing entertainment summit it Houston Texas and packaging of magazines. We did it all, but at the same time it was fun and tiring too. We got done around 5am and It was back at the apartment for a little nap, and before you know it I was once again up at 8am and ready to get back in the office around 10am. We had to get in early to attend a meeting at noon at SESAC that day. So Tracey kindly gave us a ride to work that morning and we were in the office just in time to meet up with and Jayson another intern that interns with us from MI and Warren to head down to the SESAC offices in St Monica.

The reason for this meeting was for the marketing campaign that Maurice and I are involved, and we had to shoot some footage for the promo video that Maurice has been working on for most of the summer. Being at SESAC was an honor indeed; it just felt so great to be at this organization were songwriters and publishers license there songs and music. In addition of being there we were able to meet with the senior director, writer and publisher relations Mr. James Leach. It was such wonderful pleasures too meet and chat with Mr. Leach who’s has been with SESAC for many years and around the music industry for as well. The man had a few words to say about certain things we discussed and just before we left Mr. Leach gave us some really good words of encouragement and advice to Maurice and I. It was truly something to take in and hear these great words from him. After spending sometime at SESAC we headed back home and all I wanted to do was sleep the rest of the day.

This past weekend was my last weekend out here in LA and I wont lie I really wanted to make the most of it, and there’s no other place I’d rather be at than the beach on the last weekend. So a couple of friend’s of mine and I headed down to Manhattan Beach for the day to watch the huge Volleyball Tournament that was being held on the one side of the pier. The Beach was ridiculously packed with people and there was no chance of walking on the beach, but we made a plan and were able to park some were and watch the games being played. The day went on and turned into an eventful night of hanging out with random people that we met by the beach. On Sunday the day began early and getting prepared for Debbie’s arrival to the apartment. Debbie, Charley, Warren, Ashley and Israil all came by for a visit and hang out and to talk about our wrap up party on Wednesday night, on specific things we shall be expecting to happen. The afternoon went on very smoothly and relaxing, with hotdogs and salads and just socializing time. Later on that day around 5 Cole and I headed down to Venice Beach, for I hadn’t been there yet and there was no way that I was going to leave LA without seeing this place. Cole and I just took a walk down the side of the road to see various activities that people will be doing. The beach is very entertaining and full many cultures and tourists walking by and admiring the area. It was actually a good time to be at he Venice because at that point in time the sun was setting and we lucky to see it. I was told before I came to LA that you have to see the sunset at Venice beach for it’s the most incredible thing to see and it truly was.

Well the final week is finally here and it’s hard to believe it, but it’s true so much drama, action, love and laughter has happened out here in LA. For some its going to be hard to leave behind what they have created but not goodbye, but others its been a opening gate for new things in life, but I think to all of us its, defiantly been worth it. So I say this to all the other Interns congratulations!! On a job well done and make most of these last few days or weeks form some and make them count, for you only live once to tell a great story.

Munya

.....eh

2008-08-05T01:12:00.005-05:00

The past week has definitely been an interesting one, to say the least.

If there is one thing that anyone should know before coming to LA to intern, it's that you should be prepared to WORK. If you don't dedicate yourself to the internship, then there is no reason to even come out here. I'm not saying you can't have fun. Some weekends out here have been very action packed and exciting for me, and the rest of the interns. Just be prepared to focus during the week, and keep your mind on the goal at hand.

This past week, I was able to walk into Snoop Dogg's manager's office and hang out for awhile. I was given the opportunity to listen in on calls, and ask for advice from Snoop's manager on becoming a better, more prepared person myself.

When you're a manager at the level that Snoop's is, you'll always be working. That is something that I've noticed while working at The Firm. I honestly don't know how some of them keep on top of things. There are so many people that need daily correspondence, and it seems like half of a manager's day is playing phone tag. Not to mention, the added stress of everyone else who calls in, with other concerns.

I loved the experience, and I was also given the opportunity to come back again sometime this week, which I definitley won't pass up.

Currently, I'm covering the desk of one of the busier assistants at The Firm. The manager I am working with is at the head of the music division. So he is in charge of a lot of different things; not to mention his own expansive client list. My experience of covering this desk has definitely given me my own share of lumps, but at the same time, I'm still even more eager to take on the challenge.

I honestly hope that everyone at McNally, and perspective students alike, are able to one day come out to LA and see what the heart of the music business is like. I have enjoyed almost every moment out here, and I'm torn about coming back to MN. I've got a few weeks left, and I'm looking to make the most of them.

Stay tuned-I still need to tell you all about the business that me and a few others are working on.

Stream of Consciousness

2008-08-04T04:20:00.000-05:00

First let me say that I blog daily. Okay, almost daily. But most definitely more than I do here. But I do it on my Twitter page. You are invited to check out my Twitter feed below. What is Twitter? It is a micro-blogging tool that allows a maximum character count of 140 (like a txt msg). I consider compressing a complex thought in to such a small space an art form. Word.

LARRY LUCIO ON TWITTER

I just spent the weekend at my computer. Well nearly the whole weekend. Well nearly the whole summer. But I did get a break to kick it at the McNally BBQ on Sunday.

We were graced with the company of Debbie, Charley, Ashley, Israel, Warren and my fellow interns Jon, Joel, Munya, Traci, and Cole. Cole by the way is my hero. This dude is the youngest of us all out here and is making more happen for himself than I can believe. If he has the time to write blogs, you should be sure to follow his because what he is going through is the perfect example for any future intern to observe. Perseverance, sacrifice, hard work, and pure hustle. This guy has stared both diversity and the devil in the eyes and he is still standing. I salute you Cole.

Now back to the computer. I have yet to see the beach, go to a nightclub, or even take a dip in our pool. I've been working a lot. And this is as it should be. I have a big responsibility to do well at my internship and deliver on the CD project I mentioned last time. I take these commitments very seriously. What I am saying, is that to be out here takes sacrifice. I didn't realize how much until now. The summer is winding down to a close but I feel proud of how hard I worked. For me to stay focused in an environment like Los Angeles is a personal triumph. The distractions are endless and the things a guy can do with his time are vast and varied.

As an intern, I think I have learned more about myself than about the industry. This summer has been an exercise in mental discipline and intestinal fortitude. I faced some personal challenges that I would have handled very differently in the past. I felt like giving up sometimes. Anyone who says they haven't is not being honest with themselves. But the point I am making is that this experience has been worth it's weight in gold. It's the kind of thing no amount of money could ever buy you. You are dropped into an strange place and you either sink or swim. And I feel like I'm swimming. This could not have happened without the McNally Career Center. That is just a given. At the same time, I think they will tell prospective interns that the Center can only show you the door. You have to walk through it.

I have yet to make a decision about whether or not to stay. The allure of working for GridMob is intense. I can't reveal details yet but I have had the pleasure of working on deals for some of music's most iconic figures. In fact I got a chance to work with an artist who's work literally changed my life. I know that sounds vague but when the dust settles and the contracts are signed I will explain further. Confidentiality does not lend itself to be good blog material. But the discipline required not to name drop all over the place is good I guess.

That said, I will try to provide some more insight into the experience of an intern as I go along my last few weeks. But the truth is, some things are hard to capture in words and I hope when you read this you allow me that caveat.

This entry was more about me providing some momentary insight into the thought process of an intern in action. I decided ahead of time to sit down and do a stream-of-thought entry. This wasn't planned out... It just came out. And I hope you find some value in it.

To the young people reading this and considering coming to McNally, I have one piece of advice that I am sure you will hear me repeat again and again.... You will get out of this experience as much as you put into it. It is that simple for me.

And I feel good about what I put into it.

PEACE. PEACE.

LL
LarryLucio.com

Maurice Champion - Urban Network (Los Angels) - Music Business - Grinding To The Sun Come Up

2008-08-04T03:01:00.003-05:00

This past week has been very busy in the offices of The Urban Network. On Thursday, July 31, 2008, Munya and I worked a half a day leaving at noon to come back to the office at 9:00 that night. Yes I said it, 9:00 pm. Along with two (2) other interns we worked from nine (9) pm to four (4) am on various assignments. Blasting promotional invites and flyers and boosting myspace activity were some of things we did that night. This was fun but also a tool to relieve you from deviating from the work that you have been assigned to. I had my head phones on playing music "grinding it out" to reach the goals that we had to meet.

After leaving the office at 4:00, I made it home with just enough to catch three(3) and a half hours of sleep before heading to the office that Friday morning to attend this meeting with James Leach, Sr. Director, Writer Publisher Relations for SESAC (performing rights society). Arriving at the SESAC California office, we were greeted by an assistant offering beverages , "Would you like a water or apple juice?". "I'll take a apple juice please!", was my rebuttal. She returned with a Juicy Juice small carton that you use to pack in your lunch in elementary LOL. I'm not going to lie the juice was very good. James arrived shortly and we soon began our meeting discussing some details about some ideas that we would like him to be apart of for The Urban Network.

Today I finished R&B artist Chaz promo video. I see the growth in video editing each time I edit some film. I hope Miller (CEO, The Urban Network)enjoy the video as much as me. So far he has liked all my videos. That's great coming from especially when I just started editing prior to me coming to California. One (1) video down and two(2) more to go. As my internship at The Urban Network approaches the end, the things I've learned are being revealed and coming to fruition.

Much Love
Maurice C.

Evan Gundlach, music business, universal, twin cities

2008-08-02T16:34:00.001-05:00

This week at universal I continued to work on the data base about single songs. Since there are so many titles its taking a really long time to get through. I also have to make sure all of the information is correct so I go through it pretty slow. I am going to start putting the sales information on the cd sales pretty soon and start to measure the lifts. I haven’t done that yet so I’m pretty excited about that. So as far as the work I did this week it was a lot of the same, but that doesn’t mean I didn’t have fun. On Thursday I got to go to the cities 97 studio c and watch Duffy do a private performance for us and that was really cool. On Friday we had the music meeting and watched some new artists. I also got the N.E.R.D cd and I thought it was pretty good. I’m also using the warped tour tickets I got this weekend so I’m excited about that as well. Sorry to be so short but I'm sure next week will have a lot to write about. Talk to you later.

Maurice Champion - Urban Network (Los Angels) - Music Business - Ground SHAKING

2008-07-30T21:20:00.002-05:00

On Tuesday July 29th, 2008 I was working diligently in the office of The Urban Network when I felt a powerful push and tug on the walls of the building. Little did I know, we were going through a Earthquake that struck 5.4 on the rector scale. As the walls began to shake tremendously I fell to the ground under the desk with Munya. I know that's crazy but I was very shocked like, "What's going on?". That was my first Earthquake experience. In Detroit we get Tornado's and that's about it LOL. Praise God the Earthquake didn't cause any major damages to anyone or any business. This event was scary and fun at the same time. I know that sounds absurd but it's very true. It's just amazing feeling an actual worldly disaster that you learned about in school. Plate tectonic, see I learned something Rob, Historical Geology teacher for MSCM.

ZIMBABWE TO LA, AN INTERNATIONAL INTERN STORY SO FAR pt 3

2008-07-29T02:40:00.008-05:00

Hey everyone,

I hope you guys are ready for yet another ride to my adventures here in LA, because I’m about to fill you in with another crazy journey. So sit back and relax and enjoy.

So about a month ago the fabulous BET awards were being held and so much great events were happening and every hot singer, rapper, music producer, managers, models, actors, actresses, and sportsmen, were in town and attending these awards for LA was the place to be at. Well I had the pleasure to attend the Keyshia Cole BET Awards Official after party at the Ritual Nightclub. This was such a great event and so much fun to be at, that I had my first red carpet experience with all the flashing lights on me and mingling with the stars and seeing celebrities such as Sean Kingston. This was a night to remember. Work had been pretty much the same that week and I had a lot going on for me. I was given the opportunity to transcribe the Common interview (which is in this month's magazine so check it out at wwww.urbannetwork.com) and an up coming artist known as HiPost. It was a lot of work but worthwhile knowing the new scoop on things.

That Friday I was invited to attend the G- Unit Listening party hosted by DJ Woo Kid at the Social Nightclub in Hollywood. This event was something unexpected and was packed with people and the whole G-Unit family representing, on behalf of G- Unit for they were touring in Canada, promoting their new album. After that I met up with the rest of the interns and some friends around UCLA and hung out hung out with them for the remainder of the night networking with other college students.

The next day, Joel, Nick and a friend of Nick's named Patrick who had come down from Texas to visit and I went, spent the day at St. Monica Beach and the pier. The day was just sunny warm a day of hanging out as a group of guys and having fun by the beach and cool out. We acted like real tourists and took pictures at every nice spot we can find, and I have to say I would probably be the blame of that. Hahahahahaha. We even road on the roller coaster and dragon swing don’t remember what the name of the ride was but it was decent. Later that day around 6 in the evening, I left the guys and met up with my friend Vivien who had invited me to attend with her a screening of a new HBO; show written and directed by Alan Ball (the writer for American Beauty) called True Blood. Vivien had been working on the set of this show and was part of the cast and members. The show is about the Southern Vampire Mysteries books by Charlaine Harris and its cast members are:

Anna Paquin as Sookie Stackhouse,
Stephen Moyer as Bill Compton,
Alexander Skarsgård as Eric Northman
Sam Trammell as Sam Merlotte
Ryan Kwanten as Sookie's brother Jason Stackhouse
Brook Kerr as Tara Thornton

And a few others that I cant quite remember. They only screened two episodes from the show which totally got me hooked on, that I do advise you all to keep an eye for the show when it airs on HBO this fall. After watching the show everyone from cast and crew members and invited guests gathered outside the lobby for drinks and snacks and have a chance to meet and socialize with some of the actors and actresses from the show. I had the opportunity to talk to some of them from Alan Ball, Stephen Moyer, who was quite an interesting man and thought I was British because of my accent to some of the producers from the movie The Fast And The Furious franchises, one of the producers of Deal Or No Deal and a few cast members of the TV show Lost. It was truly a great experience and a great time. After a while of mingling, Vivien and I headed back to St Monica to meet up with Joel, John and Patrick for a night out, along 3rd street. Good Times. The next day all fours us met again for lunch and watched the finals of the UEFA EURO CUP 2008, (for those who don’t know what that is, its the European soccer or should I say “football” cup) which was very an interesting game and congrats to Spain for wining it. After a good lunch we spent the rest of the day at Nick’s place and hung out and ended the night watching the movie Wanted.

That week work had been a bit busy, for it was coming to the end of the month and at this point in time everyone is trying round up the last bit of the magazine. But work ended on Thursday that week for the 4th of July weekend, so we had Friday off. That Thursday night Joel and I hung out with some friends that we had met in our apartment place in Hollywood and all I can say is what a night. Lol. The following day Joel invited me out to spend 4th of July with a friend of his from The Firm for a BBQ to chill out and have a good time. Vivien also ended up joining us as well later on that day, and it turned out to be a great night of celebrations. That Saturday Joel, a couple friends of ours and I spent the day by Redondo and Hermosa Beach. It was a really hot, sunny day and the beach was the place to be at. I spent most of time running around playing soccer and volleyball and taking a dip in the Pacific Ocean just to cool body down. That Sunday John and I went to spend the day with Tim and see what he was up to, but to our surprise Tim planned on took us to Malibu beach for the day. Malibu was a beautiful quiet and calm place and very different from the other beach’s I had been that weekend. Malibu was fun.

The following week on Friday Warren took us to Warner Brothers Records for business and to also meet with the Chairman of black music Mr. Kevin Black. Being at Warner Brothers was something so out of this world and could not believe it. This was definitely a moment I cold not imagine being in, and seeing myself walking in the halls of Warner Brothers Records meeting up with incredible people. It was truly a point in my life I could not for get about. Later that afternoon we went to a studio in Watts where we met a really talented producer named Stix. He had amazing songs that he had been working on he really had me blown away that I really have an ambition to work with him one of these days. That Saturday I spent the day mostly at home relaxing but later on that night Joel and I met up with a few friend of ours and did the whole dinner, then a movie thing, which Larry later joined us on, to watch Hellboy, which I thought was a good movie.

The following weekend was the weekend that a lot of people had been waiting for all summer, the premier of the new Batman movie, “The Dark Knight”. I have to say this was on of the most anticipated movie of the year to come out and let me repeat myself and say that it was worth the wait and the money to watch this movie. If you have not seen this movie yet go and watch out now.

This last week has been quite a hectic week with work and the few things that had to be done, but Maurice and I we were able to get the job done and get most of the work done. During the weekend our apartment complex had a party and BBQ by the main pool with free food and drinks and a chance for all residents to interact with each other. This was really fun and Larry Joel Maurice and I attend the event and hung out with everyone. It was a good time everyone to have a great time to meet new people that live around us. Joel and I hung out that with a few friends that we had met that afternoon, down by the Marina for dinner and drinks and just get to know new people and friends.

Well in closing I would like to say this; Being at The Urban Network and this internship has made me realize what a great opportunity we have to be out here in LA and gaining an experience of a life time in the fields that we want to be in. I personally have learnt so much about this music industry that you really have to work so hard for what you want and be able to take every opportunity that you have and take advantage of it, for Napoleon Hill once quoted “Your big opportunity may be right where you are now.” So never turn away from an opportunity. It can change your life.

To Live and/or Die in L.A.

2008-07-28T02:00:00.000-05:00

Since what happens in Los Angeles, definitely does not stay in Los Angeles, I will assume a few of you have heard parts of my summer story and I will attempt to fill in the blanks. For the rest of you, just follow along. This should still make sense... Kind of.

I started my summer at Crash Mansion in downtown Los Angeles where McNally alumni Conall Walsh was my mentor. This guy is one of a kind. I really hope you are lucky enough to meet him someday.

Then, very shortly after I celebrated the organization I work with back home being nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize, I survived being robbed at gunpoint. In broad daylight. At 2PM. On a busy street. How is that for peace? Ironic right? I changed internships twice, experienced all the challenges of entering into a new work environment (3 times), and all the while maintained 70 hour work weeks. 50 at the internship and 20 at the "day job" (I'll explain below).

The “day job”, for lack of a better term, is as a consultant for the 501(c)(3) non-profit organization Youthrive. They are the upper midwest affiliates for PeaceJam International, an organization that works to connect young people with Nobel Peace Prize Laureates like the Dalai Lama, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, and President Oscar Arias. For my job, I am working on the 2nd edition of a CD (Zero Element) project that utilizes credible Hip Hop music as a tool for bringing the ideas of peace to young people. I'm basically using the appeal of music and art to get kids to acknowledge the cryptic messages of peace woven into the fabric of Hip Hop culture since the art form began. To claim that message as their own, and encourage them to begin breaking away from the commodified garbage being sold to them at their own detriment. Through my work at Youthrive, I was also able to work with the Cesar Chavez Foundation (East L.A.) during their Los Angeles PeaceJam event and travel back to MN for a week to work on the POWER Summit with the Sisters of St. Joseph in St. Paul. I have been busy. The real kind of busy. A kind of busy I did not know existed prior to this summer. Really.

Next I went to The Firm in Beverly Hills. My mentor there was Tony Ross. As the office manager he is responsible for SO many people. The office there spans two floors and is pretty big, which means he has to deal with every individual and every individual’s set of problems. I have learned a lot about how to conduct business under pressure from watching him. He makes it look easy but I still wonder to myself if I could do what he does. I didn’t get the impression that The Firm interns are generally that “highly cut-throat type” of competitive, but by the time I got there, Jon & Joel had set the bar VERY high for other interns like myself to follow. Don't get me wrong. I have always given 110% to my internships but we worked HARD. And work hard at a constant rate. There was literally NO DOWN TIME when I was there. None. I made so many runs some days that I still have the blisters on my feet now to prove it. I even estimated one week that I was walking an average of 7-8 miles per day. This was by no means a “requirement”. It was out choice. There were a few interns that put their energy into other areas, but when runs were needed, Jon, Joel, and I stepped up every time. This was our choice. They set the example and I followed suit. And it paid off.

In fact this summer I beat my original record of being offered a job within the first 21 days of an internship by 1 whole week. But not at The Firm... At my 3rd internship, a mobile marketing company called GridMob, where I was offered a promotion to a paid position after only 2 weeks.

You’ll have to wait until the next blog to hear about my most recent internship with GridMob. But I’ll say this... It involves BMW’s moving at high rates of speed through Beverly Hills, massive amounts of cigarettes and second hand smoke, 3 carnivorous fish, one little dog named Henry, and me (a young Mexican kid with only my gift of gab) talking a professional locksmith into breaking down the doors of a stranger’s mansion on Paris Hilton’s street. And yes... It was all legal. But so much fun it probably should not have been.

Oh yeah, and not that you would care anyways but I will be deciding whether or not I stay in L.A., or come back to MN very soon.

Stay posted!

PEACE. PEACE.

LL
LarryLucio.com

Maurice Champion - Urban Network (Los Angels) - Music Business - Time Is Drawing Nigh

2008-07-28T01:18:00.007-05:00

As the end of my internship approaches, the busier it gets. The marketing and branding department that I'm apart of at The Urban Network started a marketing campaign for the company, as well as the forthcoming conference in Houston, TX this September 24th through the 27th, 2008. I've been responsible for overseeing the marketing campaign. Last week I finished editing the EMI promo video for their artists that performed at The Urban Network last conference in March. Before the EMI, I edited SESAC's promo video clip also. You can watch these videos at www.youtube.com/urbannetwork or www.theurbannetwork.blogspot.com. This week is no different with no exceptions when it comes to getting things completed before I leave. I'm currently working on another video as I write this blog. It's funny because I'm learning things on both sides of the spectrum. One side is the knowledge I desired to seek while being out here in California and the other side is exercise and experience I'm getting from editing these videos. Plus I'm working with someone else footage that makes work more challenging. I'm going out with a BANG, mark my words!

On another note, living at the Meadows have been great. Since moving in the Meadows in May, the business admin has prepared two (2) full blown out cater style food for all the residents. I love it here! Below are some of the pics taken from the event Saturday July 26, 2008.

Christina- Soup Bowl- Minneapolis

2008-07-28T01:02:00.003-05:00

So this week went by pretty fast considering it was finals week at school. But as always Soup Bowl was entertaining.

This week I had to post comments Soup Bowl and The Z-MO Trio about the school showcase at the Acadia cafe this past Wednesday. I did that all day Tuesday, Soup Bowl and The Z-MO Trio have tons of friends that I had to search through just to find the ones from the Twin Cities, but it was a good time. Wednesday I didn't have to come in early to school for internship the only thing I had to do that day was go to the Acadia school showcase, which I did. Everyone did a fantastic job, the music was great and the food was great also. I had a fun time and it was awesome to see fellow students come out and support each other. Though I left a bit early so I didn't get to see the last two bands that were suppose to play, but I'm sure I'll end up seeing them sometime soon here.

That was all that my week consisted of. It's been a great time at Soup Bowl, some good memories and new information that will be really helpful later in life.
Christina

Unai Bolivar - 93X Rocks! - Production - Twin Cities

2008-07-27T22:59:00.003-05:00

Hey guys & girls!

For some reason my recent posts haven't been showing and I didn't realize it until now, but I will include all information about the past weeks in this one and will be as thorough in my explanations about my internship with 93X as I can! First off, a review of the past two weeks!

On the first post that didn't show I wanted to tell you guys that it was the first time Patrick allowed me to record him for a commercial and edit it all on my own! I guess he saw he could trust me and that my ability was up-to-par with what he needed so he let me do the entire process; from recording, to editing, to saving on all systems and make it radio-ready! I learned how to operate the EncoDAD, Audicy, and Dalet hardware/software properly and have been looking over Patrick's shoulder every time I could to see if I could learn a new trick or two!

The week after that we had finally talked extensively about beginning the "Ask The Expert" segment for the Loud & Local show. This segment allows people who tune to 93X to email their curiosities regarding ANY aspect of the music industry. The question can range from how to get a certain guitar sound to how to put together a good media package or presentation! Every week a question would be addressed, an answer recorded fro the mouth of one of our local experts at McNally Smith (our gracious Department heads were the ones followed around the most) and aired on the Loud & Local spot. We set everything up to start the following week. We planned out the name of the segment [McNally Smith College of Music's Ask The Expert], the time it would air in [before the 'Goodbye' segment of Loud & Local], a music intro and bed were made, and a set up of how we would go about getting the media [we settled on having me record the teachers at school using a good quality field recorder and then making the recording radio-ready].

The week following that we aired our first Ask The Expert segment. The official debut was by the head of the music business department: Dave Olsen. He talked about how to copyright and protect your material if you are into composing songs and creating ideas. Keeping your ideas protected is extremely important as you never know who might end up using something you did for money, and you want to make sure that either: A. that doesn't happen; at least not behind your back. Or B. That you are handsomely rewarded for your work.

This week we aired the second segment of McNally Smith's Ask The Expert. This time we had Judy Donaghy talk to us about how to keep your body and voice healthy in the case that you are a rock singer who either practices a lot or gigs or just demands that much from their voice. She described tips for keeping the voice clear and throat unharmed. This is something that I think hit the spot with 93X Rocks' listeners as a lot of them are avid rock singers or know someone who is and will consequently come back to listen to more advice from our resident experts!

Since this was my last week at my internship. I decided I would take the time to show you guys that in most jobs [especially in the music industry] it's not all stress and deadlines. I took some pictures of things that I thought were cool and were a part of what not only 93X means or is, but also who the people that work there are.

First off, the atmosphere is very relaxed at 93 X and the adjacent radio stations.
One quirky thing about the place that says a lot is: there is a radio tuner in the bathroom. Yep..two knobs: one for volume and one to pick the station. It's great..you can listen to anything you want in the bathroom. Another thing was there are toys everywhere! Doug's office [the 'big dog' at 93X Rocks!] is covered in collectibles! Not to mention there is a Toshiba scooter/cooler in Patrick's office and regular scooters spread throughout the facility, for ease of transportation obviously. Every one's mood at 93X is always cheerful and it was a pleasure to work along side them!

Now that my internship has come to an end I realized that I wasn't going to let them high and dry with out any support from the school. So I took the liberty to make a batch of Ask The Expert segments which I will email to Patrick so he can air.

I am very happy with my experience at 93X and my first internship. Patrick and all of the guys and girls at 93 X are AWESOME. They're all funny, quirky, unique, great conversationalists, and they are always willing to help!

I would like to take this opportunity and thank everyone involved in this project and everyone I met! I want to thank Patrick for being such a good boss and great friend over all; I want to thank Doug and Rudy and the rest of the guys and girls from 93X whom I had the pleasure of talking to and growing with; I want to thank Bryan Forrester for giving me this great opportunity and trusting me with the Ask The Expert segment. It means a lot to me when a teacher endows me with the same trust and responsibilities as an equal. I want to thank Sarha Paterson for helping me out along the entire time! Even though it's your job you did it with a good heart all the time and a great spirit! I want to thank Debbie for cheering me on and being such a sweetheart! All of you guys helped make this experience ten times better than anything I was anticipating!

I will see you all next semester.

Best wishes,

Unai J Bolivar Uriarte

Evan Gundlach, music buisness, universal, twin citys

2008-07-27T16:12:00.000-05:00

I can’t believe how fast the time is flying by, its feels like the summer just started. This week I got to do something a little different and it was pretty cool. Some one at the LA office had a database about single songs being played on shows and tracking the CD sales after. I didn’t know it but we had one of these data bases as well but we had only 100 songs in it compared to 600 in the other one. For most of this week I have been combining the 2 data bases and adding more in depth information about the artist and albums. The music meeting on Friday was really long and we got to watch new videos from ill Wayne and listen to a newly signed artist, Hollywood undead. I also just got tickets to go see the warped tour and I've never been before so I'm pretty e1xcited to go to that. Well ill talk to you guys next week!

Langen- Soup Bowl- Minneapolis

2008-07-25T23:02:00.002-05:00

Same old same old this week at soup bowl. It was full of booking and chocolate ice cream.

I'm still working on the Dingus tour and am getting a lot of responses back but all of them are asking me to look for some locals which is almost harder than actually booking the shows. It's extremely frustrating to look for bands. Myspace changes some of the ways you can search for bands and it's becoming more and more difficult to use Myspace as a resource for bands. I have started to use Purevolume but I consider it a bit out of date and I know I'm missing out on many new bands that don't have a purevolume.

Even though the semester is done, I will keep on working on this tour along with various other ones.

Peace,

Langen

Cole Hendricks - Recording Technology - Studio Atlantis - Los Angeles

2008-07-21T14:07:00.003-05:00

Hey everyone,

Not much new lately. Just been working alot of hours at the House of Blues. I am enjoying myself so much at the job. I have been blessed to be able to work with some of the top music artists this summer while working there.

I'm finishing up my internship at Studio Atlantis very soon. I've been golfing alot in my spare time trying to always improve where needed. I am happy to be out here enjoying my job at House of Blues and enjoying the weather and people.

Evan Gundlach, Music business, universal distribution, Twin Cities

2008-07-21T01:45:00.000-05:00

The summer seems to be just flying by. This week went by really quick although I had a pretty bad beginning. I had a slight case of pink eye but I caught it early on so I got rid of it pretty quick. I couldn’t go to universal on Tuesday since I might be contagious but by Thursday I was ok to go. On Thursday I found out that someone in California was making an artist appearance data place like the one we were working on. They sent it over so we now have a big list of shows that we might have missed. So this week I’ve been going through the other data base and adding a lot more titles to the data base. This new data base also has up coming shows so now as the shows happen we will be able to track if there is a lift in album sales. Friday we had another music meeting and watched a ton of new music videos. We heard some songs off the new Nelly cd that comes out this fall which was pretty cool. I also got the new beck and weezer albums which I was pretty excited about. Well hoping I stay healthy and can go for a full week this week until then ill talk to you later.

Traci @ Key Club, LA-- Music Business: Where do I begin...?

2008-07-21T00:42:00.002-05:00

Hey all!

So last week was crazy busy and by Tuesday it already felt like it should be Friday. I don't even know how much I can remember, but I will try... for you.

Monday was kind of slow at work, but I got to meet up with a good friend of Charley and Debbie's, Nancy Leiviska, who works across the street at Cube Vision in the 9000 building. We took a midday stroll through a residential area near Sunset and chatted about our backgrounds a bit while trying to find Sammy Davis Jr's ex-wife's house (Nancy used to work with Sammy when she first got started with music). We had so much fun we are made plans to make it a frequent thing, taking walks when I get done in the afternoon.

Tuesday was a little busier at work. We had our Marketing Meeting a day earlier because Jerry Pressman, the club owner came in. Then work resumed as usual. I can't even remember what all I worked on, just that I stayed busy.

Wednesday, more work (I enjoyed being busy this week, don't get me wrong... I just can't talk about some of the things I worked on because it involved a little espionage...). Left at my normal time but was invited back to join in the red-carpet event of the evening. Oooh.. Fancy! We hosted a charity event for The David Lynch Foundation including a silent auction and some bands. I had a wild time trying to find a "date" last minute, but I pulled it off and managed to make myself look fabulous in 30 minutes in order to make my appearance for the night. There were some indie film stars (no, not Indiana Jones... I got that a lot this week), although I really can't even remember their names... I recognized their faces but couldn't tell you anymore than that. We didn't stay very long, but it was a great time while we were there.

Thursday I did some follow-up for our Rock for MS event coming up on Wednesday with local art galleries that were invited. I had made a database of the galleries and email invitations because the event features a rock & roll photographers and their work up for display and as part of another silent auction. I have seen some of the photos and they are amazing, and include the iconic photo of Bob Dylan with the tire (If you don't know what I'm talking about, you should look it up. Great photo).

Friday was a casual day and was pretty laid back. I finished up with the few galleries left to contact and did a little PR, but it was a pretty slow day. The bus took a really long time to get back to Culver due to traffic, so after that I slipped into a pretty lazy night. It was pretty refreshing actually after the crazy week I had.

Saturday, Tim Bjorkman came over for a BBQ and relaxing catch-up session since we have been trying to schedule time to hang out, but due to the sometimes last-minute-opportunity style of the music business usually got changed around. mmm...BBQ and sunshine... Then he had to go and help out an artist friend/client of his for a performance and I boogied over to an Alumni house-warming party with John. We had a lot of fun catching-up with our peers and hearing about their recent adventures. The next soiree will be an afternoon pool-side at the Meadows.

Today was a wind-down/gear-up day for the upcoming week. I usually like to take Sundays to decompress and prepare myself for what's to come since one usually doesn't know what that will be and it is important to be able to take things as they come with as much energy as possible. Positivity is the name of the game and we always need to steal away time to debunk.

Oh, also, in there somewhere I spoke with a songwriter in OC about recording at least one song in the near future... looks like I may be able to fulfill my deal with Charley after all... :)

I hope you all have a great week and we'll chat soon!

Peace,

Traci

Nick Garrison - Alan Ett Music Group - Los Angeles

2008-07-20T21:27:00.003-05:00

So this past week I was put in charge of a another project. With the program File Maker, Max, the computer guy, added a new version for cd descriptions. I have been updating their database all week. It has been a lot of computer, but it's been good.

One of the breaks from that routine I had was getting to sit in with another mixer. He was working on a show for a series that hasn't been aired yet. I was allowed to sit in with him and watch him mix the whole show. The attention to detail is amazing. So much work goes in to shows that I didn't even notice, but if what they did wasn't there, you would know something was missing.

It was a good week.

Oh, and if you haven't seen it, you should check out "Dark Knight". Alan Ett did some work on that movie. It's crazy to be working for a place that is doing such big things.

Maurice Champion - Urban Network (Los Angels) - Music Business - Get Out!

2008-07-20T20:45:00.002-05:00

This weekend I was able to observe more of California beautiful locations. My girl and I went to California Pizza Kitchen in Santa Monica. Before we actually went to the restaurant, someone was subconsciously raining on our parade by saying, “California Pizza Kitchen is cool but its very motif because you can buy everything they sell anywhere else”. Motif Huh! Dude who cares, we never been LOL. My perception of California Pizza Kitchen was this simple little spot that served pizza but when we arrived, that perception was promptly changed. It was a full dine in restaurant that was packed with people ordering. We waited approximately five (5) minutes before we were actually led to our table. The atmosphere of this place was amazing. I really enjoyed the feeling of being there. Some places just give off this good vibe and California Pizza Kitchen is one of them. We tried the Original BBQ Chicken Pizza that was cool but it didn’t give the feeling of wanting to buy it again. After the meal we decided to head to Santa Monica Pier which was right up the street on Ocean. We walked on the beach glazing at the Pacific Ocean while the children voices on the rides acted as background music for that specific scene LOL. Driving around Malibu was fun as well looking at different shops and homes.

I visited the Studio City and more of Beverly Hills. It was very intriguing being up there in the hills. I was just thinking how in Cali it’s two different worlds. You have those people that live in pits of the city that never seen Hollywood and they live in California. Also, you have those people that live on top of those hills that don’t realize the pits of the city exist. I guess we can call it the haves and have not’s. I’m glad I’ve been exposed to both because it one of those things that help balances you as a person. No too longer ago I was in Watts doing some film work for Flawless in the studio. This internship has been very beneficial to me on the business side and as a person. I can’t complain. It’s been too good!

The White Stallion

2008-07-20T18:15:00.002-05:00

Hey there again, another week at Soup Bowl Records done with. This week I could say was a bit more productive, yeah that's a good word for this week.

Well on Tuesday I had to go through all of Ryan's venues for each state and put them in an excel document with the name, address, contact, phone number and all that good stuff. It was a fun time, I didn't mind doing it. Ryan wanted to do a video update for Soup Bowl but no one wanted to talk except for me, but in the end we didn't do it. It would have been fun though. After I had finished up a state for Ryan he showed me how to update the Soup Bowl website, which was fun. I like to use html stuff, I do a lot of it with my myspace and what not. I got to update the website and post a little blog about what is new with Soup Bowl, which is just The New Monarchs joining us.

On Wednesday I had to type up an Management Agreement for five or so artist, that was cool. I love reading that stuff and looking at what they agree to. After typing that and printing it all out, I had to go to class but after class I had to start looking up some more music blogs. We need more electronic music blogs for The New Monarchs since they are more that genre and all the other music blogs we have are rock oriented.

That was what my week consisted of and I'm sure this week will be jammed pack with more blogs and venues. But till then,
Christina

Langen- Soup Bowl- Minneapolis

2008-07-20T11:31:00.002-05:00

This week was another thrilling week at Soup Bowl Records. Okay, so I'm lying, but it wasn't that bad.

It was another week full of booking. I'm still working on some Now, Now Every Children tour which is not going well. Apparently the band is getting mad that the dates are filled and a few had to be cancelled due to the venue. I wish they knew just how much work all of this really is. I hate how some bands take booking agents for granted. I've also run across this with my own company and it's really frustrating. I would rather work with bands that have tried to book their own tours before because then they know just how hard it is to book tours and to get everything going.

Ryan is letting me work on a whole new tour. It's for the band Dingus (www.myspace.com/dinguspunk) and it's in October which gives me plenty of time. I feel like this tour is more on me than the last ones because I will get everything finished with the venue. Before now I would send out the e-mails asking if the band could play and then once I got a positive response Ryan would kind of take over. This time it's all me which is exciting but extremely stressful.

Well, that's all for now

Until next week...

Peace,

Langen

Maurice Champion - Urban Network (Los Angels) - Music Business -The Unreachable Becomes Reachable, The Unavailable Becomes Available...

2008-07-16T01:00:00.011-05:00

What’s going on readers and supporters? You know when I deliver I give you something good every time. In that case, right now I’m giving you food for thought and it’s on you if you do the dishes. Last Friday on July 11th, 2008, I hoped out the car walking to Warner Bros. Records. As I’m walking, I’m briefly able see some of the background sets for the attracting tourists. As We (Flawless, Munya, Jason, and I) walked through the doors all you see is a long desk in the front with a couple of a Sreceptions and receptionist. There were two (2) sets of soft leather sofas and chairs sitting on white shag like carpet on both sides of the waiting room. The carpet was so soft I wanted to take off my Rockports (they’re comfortable) Lol. It’s funny because they (Warner Bros.) have these funky seventies (70’s) televisions on playing videos. While waiting on Kevin Black, the Office of The Chairman of Warner Bros, I just happen to look up at the entrance door viewing the Warner Bros, Reprise, Sire, Warner Nashville, and Nonesuch Records logos on the door. Here is a Brief history of Reprise Records. The label was started by Frank Sinatra and later sold to Warner Bros. with the help of Mo Austin, Frank’s accountant. (Back to the story) We were greeted by Kevin Black intern and then lead down the hall, through a door, down some stairs, through a door outside to another door that was the vicinity of Kevin’s office. After meeting with Kevin’s assistant, we waited in his office for him to come in. This was enough time for me to assimilate being at Warner Bros.. WHAT A DISTANCE I CAME!!!

I say that for this reason. Growing up in Detroit, MI isn’t the brightest city for seeking refuge through your dreams because your dreams are tainted by other people mess ups and the depression that’s giving off by others and so much other crap. If you’re in an environment like that, please believe that there is a brighter day but you must have faith that there is. Coming out to California and being exposed to these nice places and nice things has really open my eye’s allowing me to see that you can really have what it is you desire. A year ago I was in my mother’s basement praying to see nineteen because of what was going on outside of my home. Now I’m walking on top of the hills in Malibu looking over the Pacific Ocean. On the roof top of a beautiful hotel that overlook Hollywood. Dude I WAS IN HOLLYWOOD, MAN! Only with the help of God that this is possible but you must also work towards your dreams and goals as well. I know I haven’t “made” it yet, but I do know I’m not that far from achieving it. I look at situations like, “The cup is half way full not half way empty”. Continue to work and work and I promise you your rewards will be revealed to you. “The unreachable becomes reachable, the unavailable becomes available…” (Stacy Charter).

Nick Garrison - AEMG - LA

2008-07-14T11:39:00.002-05:00

Hey,

So most of last week was spent finishing up some ongoing projects here. I did a lot of casting for a new library they have set up. Casting is where I listen to and categorize music that comes in, which helps their clients when their clients are trying to search for a specific style.

Also, they are working on adding certain addendums to some other their contracts, so my job was to find and organize who has a non-exclusive license agreement. It was great to already feel familiar with contracts as I was reading them thanks to the class I took last semester at McNally.

It was a busy, but good week at Alan Ett.

Take care,
Nick

Traci @ Key Club, LA-- Music Business: "Last week on: Interns..."

2008-07-14T01:33:00.003-05:00

So, I know I got a little preaching last week on making the most of everyday out here, and I hope you all got something from it, but this week I will stay a little lighter.

Most of the week was the same fun stuff at Key Club, some Jumbotron, a little demo listening, marketing meeting, and a barn raising... I mean cleaning, a barn cleaning.

"A barn cleaning?" Why yes, avid reader, a barn cleaning. See, there is the club, quite large despite its street appearance, on the right hand side that runs to a back alley. On the left-hand side in a separate building on property attached by a small fence/gate, are the actual Key Club offices. Now, because the club is deeper than the office building, there is a little barn-like-shed (Hollie's Shed as it is so lovingly called) where we store supplies and decorations for special events held at the club. Now that we've finished the tour, lets get back to the whole idea of a barn cleaning...

So like I said, the barn houses all of the special events goodies, from vases, picture frames, candle holders, etc to extra furniture and decorations. Well, when we have an event, naturally we take items from the barn to set up in the club, but at the end of the night, the club staff returns said items to the barn, but doesn't generally put them back into their proper places. So we have to go in a few times a year and reorganize in order to inventory and of course, be able to locate what we are looking for. So on Friday, Hollie and I went to the barn for a little "spring cleaning" if you will. Now that everything is back in order, it will be my job in the near future to return to the shed and inventory the items. It may not sound like a lot of fun, but we worked very quickly and efficiently and had a few good laughs along the way, so it was actually a good day. (With the exception of a bee that we watched die a slow and painful death despite our efforts to get him out of the blistering sun which, no doubt, was the cause. RIP little bee, thank you for not stinging us.)

Anyway!

Now onto the personal ventures of the week, for which we will have to rewind from Friday to Wednesday. ~~~~ (that was supposed to be a rewind, which is difficult to demonstrate without use of sound or other media) Wednesday evening there was a Los Angeles Women in Music "Best of the Best Soiree" (aka, great networking event!!!). Charley came and picked me up from work and in our attempt to think of something(s) to do before the event began, we stumbled upon an Arclight theater and decided to catch a movie. We saw Hancock, which was surprisingly better than I had thought it would be based on the previews, and I highly recommend that everyone go check it out, I laughed, I cried, I ate popcorn. Then we moved on to the event, and even though we were an hour early it worked to our advantage. It seems that due to a communication error, the room was completely full, so much so that they ran out of food before everyone had eaten and people had to stand in the back behind one of the tables with the filming crew (which is FANTASTIC by the way). So our being there early secured us a table. We also had a chance to meet some great people before-hand as well as spend the evening with some amazing people performing that night that needed to sit with us.

We sat with the wonderful TC Campbell who is an amazing pianist who was playing that evening with the lovely Miss Ronee Martin (also at our table) who was a phenomenal singer/songwriter who has had a song recorded by... someone from Motown who's name a can't believe I have forgotten right now. We also had Michael (whose last name I have also forgotten at present) who plays several instruments, writes music, sings, and is a worship leader. Among his many endeavors, he is also playing with Diana Ross at the Hollywood Bowl Symphony this summer (insert shock and awe here).

We had a wonderful evening, in which I was asked by Michael, a la Berry Gordy, to sing a little something for him in the middle of dinner (definitely an interesting request while I am chewing a garlic roll...). I got to speak a little with Ronee as well and we have since been in contact about trying to sit down and do some writing together after a charity event she is hosting on the 20th. I plan to contact Michael and TC this week to touch base and see what stuff they are working on next.

Following the event, Charley and I stopped off at Wendy's since we didn't really get any of the food at the Soiree since we were more concerned with the great conversations we were having with people involved in WiM (Women in Music.. keep up). We grabbed some dinner and ate in the parking lot, which I think was sort of poetic in a way. THAT is my kind of classy... get all dolled up, smooze the night away, then grab fast food that you eat in the parking lot... Classic! (Charley may hate me for revealing that dirty little secret, but I had a blast with it so I wanted to share)

Wow... can't believe I'm not done yet... I will finish soon I promise.

We can now fast forward back to Friday~~~ (what? I know I used the same symbol for rewind and fast forward... what of it? You try and do better!) ~~~ Friday was a slow night, which picked up when Warren and a colleague (?) of his came over to play Monopoly with Munya and Maurice... and eventually me. I love the game, and try as I may to polish my strategies, I usually end up losing. Friday was no exception. Our team (the interns) lost to Warren and Jason (said colleague (?)) by $90 million dollars plus property. Ouch. (for those of you that think that number is high, we were playing the Millennium Edition, where the dollar amounts are 10,000 times higher)

Saturday was filled with personal business and today was spent relaxing/being lazy and almost getting food poisoning at a local restaurant which I won't name because I have been there several times before with good experiences and don't want to tarnish their name over one bad one. It was a good week.

That's all for now, join us again next week. Same intern time, same intern channel (if you don't get the reference, I really don't know about you... but here's a hint: Think Batman... not Cristian Bale Batman, the old old TV show Batman.... pretty much I just gave it to you... Ok, OBVIOUSLY, I need to quit writing and go to bed).

Peace,

Traci

ZIMBABWE TO LA, AN INTERNATIONAL INTERN STORY SO FAR pt 2

2008-07-13T23:59:00.001-05:00

Hey guys

Well its been some time since I updated you with another epic of my internship here in LA because allot has happened since the last time I wrote, I mean a lot, I do apologize for this late blog, but I do have to say that I do get caught up with other stuff and I seem to get side track all the time when I want to write and its been really busy. So sit back and let me take you on a ride on my adventure so far.

The few weeks have been really crazy full of fun and excitement and my internship keeps getting better and better each day, I'm telling you now, I don't want to go back or should I say leave LA, it’s awesome out here. So like 4 weeks ago we where graced with the appearance of a hip-hop group from the south known as Nappy Roots. They came by the Urban Network so we can have a listen to there up coming album which sounds great and has this a great southern vibe to it, so trust me on this one, I advise everyone to have a look out for the album when it comes out. Meeting these guys and getting know them and just learning from them was worthwhile.

That same week during the weekend Joel, Tracy and I dressed up looked fresh and went over to see the Premier of SEX AND THE CITY. I have to tell you that this movie was ok from a guy’s point of view but from a girl, it was the best thing that was ever created, lol. Which I think is true because when we got to the amazing theater called the Bridge, all the women had there gorgeous dresses on and heels and looked like they where the girls from sex and the city, which I thought was really interesting to observe if you know what I mean hahahahaha. Anyway I guess the new thing in LA is wear watch you are going to watch so I can't wait to see what people are going to be wearing next week when the new Batman comes out.

The Following week at work Maurice and I attended an event for Karina Pasain, hosted by K- Day radio station at a skating ring. The event went well and it was great fun. I got to the chance to put on some skates and just try show off some moves which I couldn't do because it had been at least 9 years since I had put on some skates so this was a chance to laugh at me and see me try and skate for it was very funny seeing me skate but I did get my motion on and was skating away eventually. Karina then came on stage that was on the center of the skating ring and performed a number of songs, which was really entertaining, and the girl could really sing for a 16 year old. So I congratulate her on her upcoming album, it’s going to be a success. So after the event we went to grab some food and unfortunately on our way there, our friend that also interns with us, (Jayson) car broke down, and at this point we new we were up for an adventure. But luckily we weren't too far from Warren's apartment, so that was a good thing. We began to walk towards his place when things changed and Warren wanted us to have a taste of the Hollywood hills and see the lights of the LA from the La Parc hotel roof. I just knew then that this was going to be amazing. On our way there we walked through a gas station, and realized that we were in the middle of a movie scene, and we were told to quickly get out the way, I thought this was funny, and now I can say that yes I have been in a movie scene. So we got to the hotel and went on the roof and it was just amazing to see the skyline of the LA city, the view was incredible, something that I hadn't seen in years.

That weekend Nick came by and picked Tracey, Joel and I, and took us to the Bob Dylan exhibit at the Skirl Ball center. This was a big learning experience about a man who changed the face of music. This was a really interesting exhibit and had so much information and crafts and work that Bob Dylan had done over the period of 10years of his life (1956-1966) this was truly amazing and it was something that I wish a lot of people could attend. That night we all hung out by the sunset strip and just walked around and observed the various activities that were going on, basically the night life of the strip.

The following week at work was pretty busy, for we are preparing for the companies marketing campaign for their conference in Houston in Texas, coming up in September. I have learned so much so far with my internship in the marketing and branding side of things, but still have a lot coming for me that I cant wait to get my hands on. That week a friend of mine phoned me from Minnesota introduced to me to a friend from Zimbabwe named Vivian. Vivian and I met up and she showed a bit of the nightlife of LA and we just hung out and did a lot of getting to know each other. The next day Vivian and her friend Karina took me to the Farmers Market by Fairfax, and this place was crazy, and had so much food, but not just any old food, but different kinds of food to, American burgers African, French crepes, and Japanese food.
This place was tasteful and Karina and I had some Brazilian food and it was delicious. We had so much to eat and After a good lunch we walked around the area and had a look at the different stores that were around us, and we were luckily to be in the scene of the Premier of a movie that has just come out called "Kit Kittredge: An American Girl". Well we didn't stay to see the whole event for we had other plans. That night Joel Cooper was celebrating his 21st and I have to say buddy we had a great time and Happy birthday once again even though it was a while ago but we had fun, that night.

To be continued…………………………

Munya

2008-07-13T15:51:00.002-05:00

Another week at Soup Bowl Records had past and we are coming upon the end of this semester but that doesn't stop the work from flowing. We are still working hard even though we really want our month break before the fall semester gets started. But enough of that, so this week in Soup Bowl Records, I had to look up Artist Pages in Newspaper on the West Coast.

I had to go by state and look for Newspapers in large cities like Los Angeles, Sacramento and places like that all across the West Coast. Ryan wanted me to look this stuff up so when Dingus tours the West Coast soon we will have places to send info about the shows that are out there. It's a great idea to collect all of this stuff now instead of later when you really need it.

Some of the cities I had to look in barely had any Artist Pages so that was difficult and some cities didn't even have a Weekly so that was just a waste of time. It was a bit time consuming but I found plenty of them. That was all I had to do this week, but this coming week who knows what I will have to do.

Till then,
Christina

Evan Gundlach, Universal, Twin Cities

2008-07-13T15:14:00.000-05:00

Hey again, Well this week at universal was a pretty slow one, but it was still a lot of fun. Tuesday I got all caught up in the album tracking database. I’m not fully caught up since they want to go back another full year but I was still pretty happy about it. Thursday was pretty much working on the same thing only I got invited to help out at the three doors down and hinder show on the 21^st of august, but unfortunately I might be out of town. I also helped get the food order ready for Friday’s music meeting since we hadn’t had one in a while. I was pretty excited for the music meeting on Friday. We got to watch new videos from the game and Sheryl crow, along with hearing new tracks from hinders new album. I helped run the lights at the music meeting and at the end everyone went around and told people about up coming shows. The flobots are coming to town on the 21^st of august as well so I’m trying to get a ticket and go to that. I finished the database up to as far as they had it so I left a half hour early after I helped with the mail. It was a good time and I’m looking forward to finding out about these up coming shows.

Langen- Soup Bowl- Minneapolis

2008-07-13T14:55:00.002-05:00

This week at Soup Bowl it was pretty boring. I'm still working on finishing up the Now, Now Every Children tour and it's completely down to the wire.

I did try something new this week. I wrote out a blog e-mail. Basically what it is is an e-mail Soup Bowl sends out to various online webzines and websites about what's going on with the label and if there are any new releases or anything they contain MP3s. The blog I wrote was about some media attention that The Z-Mo Trio has been getting in local newspapers in Minneapolis including Rift Magazine and City Pages.

To be completely honest, I'm not a huge fan of The Z-Mo Trio which made it really hard to write an e-mail saying how good they are. I eventually got it after a few red bulls. So I wrote up this e-mail and then had to send it to all these e-mails on a database of them. It was so tedious but really easy.

This week I think it will be more booking. Hopefully I will be able to do something new again. I was so proud of myself after I had written that e-mail.

That's it for now

Peace,

Langen

Nick Garrison - Alan Ett Music Group - Los Angeles

2008-07-08T02:10:00.003-05:00

It has once again been an interesting week at Alan Ett.

The big project I am still making progress on is the registering and renaming of their Audio Horizons catalog, but what I wanted to mention in this blog was something I got to do that I thought was really interesting.

They have a meeting with a company on Wednesday (I just say "company" because I'm not sure if I'm allowed to openly talk about deals they are working on), which I was able to help with researching. Today I wrote up a one-sheet with different types of information I found on this company they didn't know too much about.

Research like this is something that easily applies to things you do and new adventures you are about to take. You want to make sure you know who you are dealing with before you start signing the papers. There was something about helping them with that I really enjoyed.

Tomorrow I get to spend more time with one of their composers. Those are always good days.

Take care,
Nick

Jon Johnson - The Firm - Beverly Hills

2008-07-07T09:31:00.006-05:00

It's been way too long since my last post, so I'll try and catch you all up to what I've been doing the past few weeks.

For a week and a couple of days I continued to cover the desk for Snoop Dogg's manager's, assistant, until her intern, Kenny started. I trained him in a little bit, and had him take over for me. Covering her desk was fun while it lasted, I was able to learn a lot about the business, hopefully that won't be my last stint covering a desk. Afterwards, I asked Snoop's manager if she would give me a review of my work. She gave me a good review, I then asked if I could sit in one day and just absorb knowledge from her, she told me I could! I would just have to wait a couple of weeks, I have been just ecstatic, waiting for the past week for my opportunity to sit in with her.

During my weekends I've been working with McNally alum Tim Bjorkman, on a business that we are planning on starting. I will give out some more info on a later blog. This past weekend him, fellow intern Munya, and I took an impromptu trip to Malibu during one of our business meetings. This was the first time that I had ever even seen the Pacific Ocean, which looked amazing.

I feel like I am in a great position right now, and I feel blessed to be living in LA. I am in control of my own path, and only I can ensure my own success.

This Week.....

2008-07-07T00:43:00.002-05:00

I'll start off by saying that THIS WEEEEK.....

Anyway, I went in Monday and everything was all good. Regular day at the studio and what not. On Tuesday the exact same. It wasn't until Wednesday that I got a little action. So Wednesday comes and I'm going on my food run.... now USUUAAALLLYY, they ALWAYS get Taco Bell but for some reason this time, they wanted to change it up and get pizza; altering my route. So, to make a long story short, when I was on my way back from getting the pizza,I got in a car accident. A guy hit me head on and totaled my car!!!

Initially, I was like WHOA.... MY CAR!! And then I thought ... hold on..... WHOA.... MY LIFE! The car was so jacked that the only thing that allowed me to walk away from that accident was G-D. I had 2 little scratches on my arm and THAT"S IT!!!

This past weekend alone, 19 people were called due to car accidents and I think, I could have easily been killed too.

Buuuuuut anyway, (don't really want to dwell on that too much because I AM PERFECTLY OK)

SO due to the accident, I haven't really been able to report to the studio which SUCKS. But they told me they'll help me pay and that I can come back whenever I'm ready; THAT ALONE WAS ALL I NEEDED TO HEAR!!

Evan Gundlach, Music Buisness, Universal, Music Business

2008-07-07T00:11:00.002-05:00

Hello again, well with the holiday weekend it was a pretty short work week at universal. On Tuesday we kept updating the album tracking database. I also did a lot more work in the mail room this week so I got to know more people and see what people actually do day-to-day there. Thursday was a short day and I was only there for three hours. I worked on the current week of album tracking, delivered the mail, and headed out. Since Friday was the fourth no one worked and I hope everyone had a great day. Until next time hope you all have a good week.

Traci @ Key Club, LA-- Music Business: "...I thought I'd be a big star by today, but I've been sleepin' in a warehouse in West LA..."

2008-07-06T23:15:00.002-05:00

Hey all!

So the latter of that lyrical snack is false, but I thought it was just too fitting (bonus points if anyone can name the song it came from).

This week was a very short one for work. The offices at Key Club were closed Thursday and Friday to allow for a nice relaxing holiday weekend, so you know what that means.... (and if you are thinking "party" you are so wrong) Networking!! I got out a couple nights and met some great people in the most unlikely places, 2 songwriters and one manager. From these chance encounters, I can now honestly say this from experience: anywhere you go out here, if you are outgoing and will just talk to people, you can make a contact. Maybe they are just starting out, maybe you can do more for them than they can for you, maybe they are the key piece to the puzzle, who knows? But there's only one way to find out. You have to meet them!! Get off your butt, get your heads out of the clouds, quit whining and put yourself out there. People will NEVER know who you are if you don't. Opportunities won't knock if you don't provide a door (ooh, I just came up with that... I like it).

Consider that a bit of motivation for the week, and if you don't buy into it, ask yourself how badly you really want whatever it is you are after.

Now, that little babble and my uber-long walk/talk/eat amazing food with Charley at the Marina has me exhausted in an "I feel accomplished and I don't really know how much more I can do today" way that I am going to call it an early night and go to sleep at a record time for me.

What's that? Pictures? Yeah right, I was meeting people! I didn't have time for pictures! Maybe next week...

Peace (speaking of, don't forget to go out at 12 noon tomorrow to hail a peace sign for Ringo's Birthday!!)

Traci

Omaha is not a friend of indie bands

2008-07-06T18:32:00.002-05:00

Hey there! Langen from Soup Bowl Records here. This past week was filled with more of the same booking and what not.

Deadlines keep on getting closer and closer for the Now, Now Every Children tour that I have been working on booking. It's getting closer to dates that we still don't have venues for so currently we are looking for ANYTHING including house shows. I thought that it might make it a little easier to book but it's just as hard to find some house shows and what not.

I have been trying to find some indie bands in the Omaha area to play a show with them at Box Awesome in Omaha but have had no luck. It seems like there are NO indie bands there that are popular at all which is kind of sad. I thought that Omaha would have a bigger scene than that.

I'm thinking this week will be some more last minute dates for Now, Now Every Children. I have also started looking for venues in California for a future tour so that will probably continue.

I wish we could go back to making posters haha. Not that I don't enjoy this, but it's getting very exhausting and frustrating. Welcome to the biz I guess.

Peace,

Langen

2008-07-06T15:44:00.002-05:00

Christina here,
This week has been crazy in the world of Soup Bowl Records. Well first off, Ryan was gone for both of the days that we have our internship so we didn't get to work with him. Brian, his partner, was our boss for Tuesday and Wednesday,which was great. I loved working with Brian and not Ryan for a change. It was great to see how he handled everything compared to Ryan.

On Tuesday I had to go through Afternoon Records press page on their website to see if they had blogs that Soup Bowl didn't, of course there were tons that we didn't have that they did. So I had to update the blog list all day on Tuesday, there were tons of blogs to go through. Some of them were in different languages. I had one in Chinese, so that was exciting. That was really all I did on Tuesday.

On Wednesday I had to do the same thing though I didn't have much more to go through this time so I got done pretty early, I was just finishing up what I had started on Tuesday, although I had gotten a lot done the day before. Brian didn't have anything else for me to do, so I got to leave early that day.

That was pretty much the extent of my internship this week, it was quite fun and we didn't really do much but I know this week we will be doing a ton more since Ryan is back in town. But it was fun while it lasted but I'm actually looking forward to getting some work done. Later,
Christina

Cole Hendricks - Recording Technology - Studio Atlantis - Los Angeles

2008-07-03T16:18:00.003-05:00

Hey everyone,

Sorry it has been a while since my last post. I have been crazy busy between my internship at Studio Atlantis and my job at House of Blues. I just recently also got my car and let me tell you, a car in LA makes things way better.

My internship at Studio Atlantis is going along. I have been sticking to my daily routines and getting to know the staff a bit more.

House of Blues is going along great as usual. This job has turned out to be such a huge benefit to me, with me learning everything there is to learn about live sound and production behind high profile shows. One thing I have really built upon for my skills is dealing with musicians and clients. Live Sound really tests your skills when under heavy pressure and when the time is ticking. Having to get the opening bands gear setup, the microphones in place, and the lines checked within 10 minutes to the doors opening is really an adrenaline rush and when mistakes can't be made. This job has allowed me to network and open many other doors as well. I am very happy to be at House of Blues.

I look forward to getting out golfing this weekend out here since I have the weekend off of work and my internship. The courses are mad busy out here and the rounds take a while because of that but you get to meet alot of people becuase you usually get paired up with other people.

I will keep everyone updated on my progress out here.

Cole Hendricks
Audio Engineer

Traci @ Key Club, LA-- Music Business: OMG! No post last week?!?!

2008-07-02T00:25:00.003-05:00

Hey all,

Sorry for my lack of attendance last week. I've been super busy trying to get my business in line. I am desperately seeking new songs in the hopes of trying to record a few new demos and/or stockpile material for an inevitable album. I actually have initiated a deal with Charley to have at least one new song recorded that I am happy with to be able to pass out at the summer "wrap party" as I know there will be A LOT of contacts there. Just thought I would drop a line and let you know why I was MIA this week. Also, if you write or know people that do, get in touch, I would love to have a listen.

Peace

Traci

Nick - A.E.M.G. - Los Angeles

2008-07-01T11:17:00.002-05:00

In the moment, you don't realize everything you've learned. It's when you take a step back and look at things that you begin to realize the big picture.

It was a good week last week. I was given an unexpected two days off from work, which was great to just relax. At Alan Ett, I have been working on renaming the Opus 1 cues for a publishing deal they now have with 44 Blue Productions. I have been doing a lot of computer work, but I had a good time last wednesday as I asked questions and learned about the process of registering songs and publishing deals.

Last weekend, I finally was able to spend time at the beach in Santa Monica. It was incredible.

-Nick

Evan Gundlach- universal-music buisness- twin cities

2008-06-30T00:37:00.000-05:00

Hello,

This week was a pretty hectic one. I had to be moving out of my apartment by the end of the weekend so I was running all over moving stuff back home, going to school, and interning. I ended up not having to come in on Friday since the music meeting was canceled and everyone in the analysis team where going to be gone. This was perfect since I needed a lot of time to move. I’m all done now but my week went pretty much like this. Tuesday went fine I worked a lot on the artist appearances and got a lot more information into the data base. I started a new schedule so I go in fifteen minutes earlier and get out a little early and it lets me beat a lot of traffic. One thing that I really like about universal is how laid back and understanding they are about a lot of things. Anyways Thursday I worked on more artist appearances but I got to fine new shows and add those into the data base. It was pretty cool that I got to make up my own section and put it in there. That was pretty much my week at universal. Till next time, Later!

-Evan Gundlach

These Contracts All Look The Same!!!

2008-06-29T22:03:00.002-05:00

Hey there! Langen from Soup Bowl again. This week has been more or less the same as every other week.

I finished getting information from radio stations' websites and creating a spreadsheet that included normal information about the stations like address, phone number, and contact names. The list ended up being well over 200 radio stations long. Hopefully it will help Soup Bowl in the near future. It's helping me and Distractions right now.

Ryan and I got a bunch of copies of contracts from some teachers at school and we were comparing them to try and help us write our own contracts with riders and we realized that they were all the same except for a little bit of different wording. We never actually got a contract written but we definitely got some good ideas for our own contracts.

Well that's all for this week.

Peace

Langen

Gray Matters

2008-06-29T13:25:00.002-05:00

Well this in Soup Bowl Records was a fun one. Okay not really, but it's been hot. On Tuesday I had to look up more college newspapers for Ryan, which I did. I've collected a huge list of them. I just have to look up the conferences that the schools are in and then look up their newspaper. Though some of the websites for the newspapers don't have their mailing address on there so that always makes it hard to get in contact with them. That's all I really did on Tuesday.

On Wednesday I had to send out some more blog emails like usual. That wasn't so bad, just the same old thing that I usually do every Wednesday. I send out the emails to the same places every week hoping that the band will get mentioned. Though it has happened twice to The Z-MO Trio. So that is good, knowing that all my hard work is getting paid off.

This week Ryan is going to be gone, so we get to work with Brian, so that will be good. You know experience something else besides Ryan, though he is great. I wonder what we will be doing this week without Ryan there. Hmmm, you'll have to wait till next week to find out what I did this week.

Christina

Bear, that is all.....

2008-06-24T01:15:00.003-05:00

Well here I am again with another tale of the exciting life at Soup Bowl Records. Well last week I didn't have to send out any blog emails so that was kind of different and I didn't have to look for local support for any shows. On Tuesday I was in charge of looking for new college newspapers. I had to look on their websites and find an address, someone to contact and all that info so we can send them promo stuff about the bands if they decide to head out there.

This part also went into Wednesday's work, where I had to look all over. Though some of the websites I was looking on had no address for their newspaper, which was quite weird and quite frustrating at the same time. That is mainly what I had to for last week, I know it doesn't seem like a lot but it there are a lot of colleges out there.

I was going to work on radio stations but Langen got that job for Wednesday so I was lucky not to have to do that one. But who knows what I'll be put up to this week during my internship. Till next time,
Christina

Evan Gundlach, Universal, Music business, Twin citys

2008-06-23T18:38:00.000-05:00

Greetings again! Well this week was just about as eventful as the last. Over last weekend someone broke into the office building and stole three laptops. This was a huge problem since many of the computers were being taken up but it let me do some other things around the office. I did a lot of work in the mailroom this time delivering packages and helping send things out. This was nice because I actually got to meet a lot more people in the office and I got to know a lot more about what other people do. On Tuesday I got two tickets to the jack Johnson at Apple River in Wisconsin. I was really excited because I didn’t think I was going to get a ticket since they are in such high demand. The concert was great and I had a great time. On Thursday some of the laptops came in so more computers opened up. I worked on an artist appearance data base. This is where we look at an artist that has had a live performance and we enter information into the data base about it. After this we look at there record sales for the following weeks after the performance. Once you get all this information then you can see if there is a lift in the CD sales. Certain shows give artists more of a lift and those are the shows universal wants to put their artists on. On Friday about half of the office was gone so there wasn’t a music meeting. It was a really slow quite day and I actually left about an hour early. I worked on more artist appearances and some of the album tracking database and it was a really nice way to end the week. Week 3 was a great one and I hope week 4 is even better. Talk to you next time.

-Evan Gundlach

Nick Garrison - A.E.M.G. - L.A.

2008-06-23T01:41:00.002-05:00

Hello again from sunny California, and by sunny, I mean hot. The weather today was around 110 degrees in the valley.
This past week at Alan Ett I was able to sit in on more sound and dialogue editing for different television shows. It's been really interesting to see how the shows are sent to them from the production companies and how certain sounds are added and dialogue cleaned up to enhance shows. Little things that aren't noticed by the normal television watcher add a lot to the show. You would certainly notice if certain room noises were left out, but their subtly when added in makes the show sound so much different. And believe me, I have now seen a show both ways.

Other than that, not too much went on this week. I caught a little cold that was going around the office, which caused me to go home sick on Monday.

One last thing, I did go check out a church service here at a place called Mosaic I had heard about. They have podcasts and deal with different media outlets and after chatting with some of the production staff, I was invited to come out early next Sunday to observe how they set up their equipment and different things they do behind the scenes.

Take care,
Nick

Traci @ Key Club, LA-- Music Business: Nothing new...

2008-06-23T00:26:00.002-05:00

Hey all,

So this week I really have nothing new to report. I spent 3 days recovering from a stomach bug before being able to go back to my internship. Those last two days of the week were spent taking it easy and working on a project to get all our event planning information in a neatly organized binder that can be easily accessed by our planners and be presentable to our clients.

Saturday ended with a bang... You can take this to be funny, or turn-of-phrase, but ironically is 100% true. No, I choose not to decipher it. It is a personal matter and those that were involved know what I am talking about, to everyone else, I apologize for being cryptic.

Today was spent in relaxation watching one of the best television series ever created, Studio 60. If you haven't seen it, you should watch it. It won't take long, it was only one season, which is a major blow to the world of GOOD television.

That's all I have this week. It wasn't a great one, so I apologize that this post is not as upbeat and quirky as usual.

Traci

Unai Bolivar - 93XRocks! - Production - Twin Cities

2008-06-22T23:11:00.002-05:00

Hey everyone,

Today concludes another week at the ever-so-dynamic 93XRocks! radio station. We did some more commercials this week and I got to practice my editing on the Audicy system some more. As usual we did our Loud & Local spot. The spot will evolve once again during the coming weeks but I am still making the final arrangements for that. The objective is to eventually feature either a spot that will push the minds of the McNally Smith student body and faculty towards figuring out a task of some sort, or to display the talented musicians that attend college. But as of now I bring ye' some pictures!
This soft-hearted, meanie to your left is Patrick. He is one of the DJs at 93X and is also my boss. My job currently consists of assisting him at the board during his sessions and tending to whatever he needs done. When doing the Loud & Local spot for example, my job is to make sure the CDs are in the proper order (yes, we DO have a system), that the beds and drops are loaded in order and ready to go by the time he needs them; making sure all systems are recording. As of next week I will be in charge of the board and all operation systems while Patrick just sits back and talks the show through. He has taught how everything works and I am confident in my ability to manage the engineering portion of the show.

Below is a picture of Patrick looking for the albums we used for last Sunday's L&L. I am still not used to the archiving hierarchy employed as it is, "kind of ah...my own system I guess..?" [from Patrick. Verbatim]. The system currently consists of Patrick knowing where most things are and myself still not having a clue of where to find most albums. To the best of my abilities I have managed to surmise the cabinets to the right of Patrick are where stuff that isn't meant for radio play is placed. Patrick and the rest of the members of 93XRocks receive demos daily and some fail to meet the quality standard for air time. To me, the reasons that stand out the most are the band not being professional and sending us their album in a CD-MAX (or some other generic) case, not having a CD cover, sending us demos that have not been mastered, etc. All of these things are both taxing on the band's chances to get air time, and, on some levels, on the band's credibility.
The shelves to his left are reserved for the CD's that have been aired. These usually get some rotation and span the year spectrum, I believe the oldest album that has been played since I have been at the station is from back in 1993. Patrick and I will usually do our search in those shelves.
The shelves to the far left in the picture are for small DAT's as you can see. Sometimes the shows will not just be saved in the station's main server with several duplicates under several serial codes for the different systems, but will also get saved on DAT and stored as a hard copy. This is usually left for much loftier shows with prime air time so as to be able to glide past any and all server problems. The system at 93X is extremely stable; to the point in fact, that most of the staff doesn't save to DAT anymore. Only some of the audiophiles there continue this practice.

Next week should have some exciting things going on as far as McNally becoming more integrated with the station and especially Loud & Local; so stay tuned!!!

Let's Get Down To Business

2008-06-21T22:28:00.002-05:00

So, now that the floods have calmed down and the water has gone down back in my hometown. I was finally able to actually spend some time on working for Soup Bowl.

This week I had to create a spreadsheet with information about different radio stations across the country. I had one site that had links to a bunch of different radio stations and I had to go to each radio stations website and find various information like the call number, address, contact, blah blah blah. Needless to say, I did it for over three hours in a row and am no where near being done. I assume that's what I'll be finishing majority of this week.

Ryan mentioned something about writing his own rider for his contract that goes between the company, the bands, and the venues. I hope that I can help him do it since I think Distractions (my company) will be needing a better, more professional contract.

I kind of think that my internship has become more and more intertwined with my company. Distractions had our first major show the other night. We had worked out a deal with the band The Wedding and it involved this very complicated contract and some really big jerks from a major booking and management firm. I think I mentioned before, but Ryan had been helping me out with negotaitions between me and the management firm. I was really worried that the show wasn't going to go well considering the flood that was going on in Des Moines, Iowa and I knew that I needed at least 70 people in there to break even with my half of the guarantee that I paid in advance. It ended up that 68 people showed up and I was able to pay myself back but couldn't pay any of the local bands that opened for The Wedding. Long story short, I'm glad I did the show, I think it was great experience and that the connection I got with this big management firm could be really good for me.

That's all for now. Talk to you all next week!
Peace
~Langen

Dallas is Back!!!

2008-06-21T14:31:00.002-05:00

Hey Ya'll,

This week, Dallas came back on tour from NY. They said the tour went great and that they had a great time. When he came back, we had to unload all the stuff all the truck and sit it in the studio. Now the studio is a MESS because all of his touring equipment is in there and it's going to be in there until September. On Thursday, We had to reassemble all the fixtures for his keyboards so that they can fit inside a box. It was kind of cool because I was able to get some live sound experience... building stuff from the bottom up. I was supposed to leave early that night but I was notified that Dallas was going to be having a session later on in the evening so I decided to stick around to see what was up.

I ended up meeting this guy named Asher Roth. He's a white rapper but he's damn good. He's not like a Paul Wall or "anything like that." Some compare him to Eminem.... I like him better than Eminem though. He's cool as hell and he's said to be the next big thing. He's signed under Steve Rifkind. You should check him out when you get a chance: www.thedailykush.com

Well anyway, Dallas doesn't like a lot of people in the studio when he's coming into work and it just so happened that one of the producers had about 9-10 people in one little room when really, only three girls that were recording. Sooooooo, the studio manager shut down the dudes whole session and him and his folks had to go. I was like DAAAAANG!!

So anyway, he got kicked out and the night went on..... and I went home around 1am. And that was an EARLY night!!

Tied Up

2008-06-17T21:53:00.002-05:00

Sorry guys,

I've just been so busy and tied up with things that I forgot to blog. Well anyway. The past week went by pretty quick. It was a pretty slow week at the studio. It actually kind of caught me by surprise. Dallas went to NY for his concert and all the studio guys went with him. I was literally the ONLY person in the studio basically running it by myself. It was cool that they trusted me to be there and "man the fort" (technically they didn't really have a choice..... it was kinda me or nobody lol). It was so quiet in the studio I didn't know what to do. Thank God there's a TV in there, otherwise, I might have fallen asleep. Nothing special though. It was just a VERY slow week. Not many sessions and not many people.

Cole Hendricks - Studio Atlantis - Los Angeles - Recording Technology

2008-06-17T19:29:00.002-05:00

Hey everyone,

Things have been going great for me out here. I have been continuing my hard work at the House of Blues working some very high profile shows and getting great experience with Live Sound and the production that goes into these events. I have been getting alot of hours and I am very happy to be working a job there. All the staff are very helpfull and kind people. It is definantly a job you need to be able to shine under pressure and always be hard at work.

My internship is still slowly going along. I feel as though I am not being able to use my skills in recording and able to be mentored to polish and build upon my skills. I have continued to give an effort to hopefully get a chance to show my skills but at the moment things have been going the same as they were from day one there.

I will finally be getting my car out here this next week. I have realized that having a car is very important to have out in LA to be able to get around and be able to have more chances at other experiences and jobs as well. Having a car will allow me to be able to get around faster and will hopefully open even more opportunities at other places as I am one who likes to stay busy.

Other then that I have been busy working almost every day and on my days off have been hanging out with people I have met while I have been out here.

Cole Hendricks
Audio Engineer

The Firm (Weeks 1 & 2)

2008-06-16T23:59:00.009-05:00

Celebrity Sightings: Cameron Diaz, Brian Grazer, Perry Ferrell, Dave Meyers, HITS (from BET), Archbishop Don "Magic" Juan, and faux-celeb Audrina (from that horrible MTV show)

Initially I was an intern at Crash Mansion, a very cool venue in downtown Los Angeles, but switched to The Firm in Beverly Hills. After interviewing successfully in person I was accepted in late May, but my official start date was Monday, June 2nd, 2008.

At the interview, I was told that internships at The Firm were highly competitive. That we had to start from the bottom and work our way up. This has been my experience in other situations and it seemed fair and reasonable. The typical intern experience seems to be a few initial weeks of “grunt work” or “menial tasks” as they call it, and then increasingly interesting learning opportunities as the internship progresses. My roommates, Jon & Joel, have been there 2 weeks longer than I have and already moved on to covering desks for the Assistants to Managers for Snoop Dogg and Enrique Iglesias.

I’m just getting started so my blog entry this week includes a lot of manual labor but I look forward to the next few weeks when I get to cover desks and interact with the Managers. I think that it is fair to expect interns to earn that responsibility because the work Assistants do is VITAL to the success of The Firm’s clients.

I will say that I had obtained my first desk assignment in only my 2nd week! From what I hear this was unusually fast. I was going to cover the desk of an Assistant to a key Firm Films Manager for an entire afternoon. He planned to be out of the office on June 20th but had a change in his itinerary and no longer needed me to cover him. He did confirm I would get another shot when he needed to be absent and I can’t wait to do it.

Monday, June 16th will be the start of my 3rd week in The Firm's office. Below is a recap of my first two weeks. Remember, this is the time I was told would include the most remedial of tasks.

I have observed the following organizational hierarchy so far: Managers (Top), Manager's Assistants (Middle), Trainee's (Middle), Mailroom Staff (Middle) and Interns (Bottom). I place the interns at the bottom because it is a general rule of thumb in the music industry that a person is expected to pay their dues first to prove they are capable of handling such critical responsibility, and is no way a negative reflection on the position or people. Besides, I am an intern and take pride in working very hard. I give 110% for more than 12 hours a day and I know it will pay off.

-

Monday’s we take the bus to and from The Firm. We leave the Meadows at 7:00 AM and walk about 1.5 miles to a bus stop where we then ride about 90 minutes to Beverly Hills. From that stop we walk another mile to The Firm and generally arrive with time to spare before our 9:00AM start time.

Tuesday’s we get a ride. Miraculously, one of the other interns at The Firm, our new homeboy Ian K., happens to live in Culver City. He is kind enough to let us hitch a ride with him to and from The Firm.

Wednesday we also get a ride to the office from Ian but since he leaves the office early for class, we take the bus home.

Thursday Ian hook’s us up. Again. Very graciously I might add.

Friday’s we basically follow Monday’s routine. We “clock out” at varying times, and depending on what tasks still have to be completed, we typically get back to the Meadows between 6:30 and 8:00PM

-

My Typical Intern Tasks (Week 1 - 2)

Sweeps... We walk around and monitor both 5th & 6th floor "Outboxes" for outgoing mail. We do this very often (I try to do it every 30 mins) because of the varying degrees of urgency. Some outbound mail is sent via Fed-Ex, some is sent via US Postal Service, and some of them are urgent enough that we use messengers. We run Fed-Ex through a dedicated computer in the mailroom and USPS mail through its own machine. The Messenger service requires carefully entered data so they can pick it up and deliver it immediately.

Walking Runs... A Walking Run is when a Manager or Assistant calls the mailroom or stops us during a sweep to request we leave the building for various tasks. Some Assistants are so busy they literally do not leave their desk all day. So we pick up lunches, go to Starbucks, and deliver various packages to places like William Morris Agency and miscellaneous entertainment companies. It is safe to assume with the walking we do to and from the office, added to the Walking Runs, we average 3 - 7 miles per day on foot.

RIAA Certified Plaques... I have hung approximately 50 plaques and posters on the 5th floor alone. I take pride in making sure they look good and the intern team has spent entire days making sure they are properly hung from the walls. I've never seen this many plaques for one person before. Though other Managers have them too, 90% of the multi-platinum plaques have Jeff Kwatinetz’s name on them. This man has sold 10’s of millions of albums for The Firm’s clients. Maybe even 100’s of millions. I kid you not. Very cool...

I also...

Refill refrigerators with bottled water (I generally carry two 24 packs of water to each of the 2 kitchens. I check on them 3 times a day to make sure they stay stocked)
Take Stationary to Managers and Assistants (Letterheads, CD/DVD Labels, etc.)
Moved a 7 foot tall clock for Snoop Dogg's assistant, using the freight elevator
Take document boxes from office to office when they need to be moved
Maintain food supplies and clean the 2 kitchens about once an hour.
Sort through files and determine what needs to be trashed or saved
Make copies (fix paper jams, refill paper trays, deliver copies, etc.)
Refill the water cooler (1 big plastic jug per kitchen per day)
Distribute Messenger deliveries to Managers & Assistants
Answer phones at the Reception Desk and in the Mailroom
Clean Cabinets out to make room for new occupants
Take Moving Dolly’s to Managers and Assistants
Accept Grocery deliveries and stow the food
Pickup used dishes around the office
Take Fed Ex boxes to assistants
Load and empty the dishwasher
Take deliveries to mailroom
Wash dishes by hand
Deliver mail
Make Coffee

I tore down an extra computer set up at an Assistant's Desk and set it up in a Manager’s office when their primary computer went down.

I sorted through hundreds of Variety and Hollywood Reporter Magazines to determine what was trash and what was relevant to current clients

I moved a 10 ft x 5 ft white board for the new tenants (Jason L. and I had to carry it downstairs from the lobby to Parking Level 1 first so we could gain access to the main stairwell. Because it was too big to fit in the freight elevator, we had to take it up five stories of narrow stairs)

Summer Going Fast

2008-06-16T22:34:00.005-05:00

My past few weeks at The Firm have been great, but just for the readers sake, I will only talk about my last week or so.

My last week started out good, I was able to cover a desk for one of a managers assistants. For a few hours on Monday, and then for almost the entire day on Tuesday. Being able to cover a desk for an assistant has got to be one of the more rewarding experiences at The Firm. It gives you the chance to be up close with what managers are doing, giving the opportunity to learn the business from experience. While I was covering the desk, on Tuesday, Cameron Diaz came in the office. I thought it was a trip just seeing her in person, she even said hi.

The week was also filled with many runs. I was able to get quite a bit of exercise, especially during the latter part of the week. There was a point in which I was going on multiple runs on one single trip (I was running out for a couple of different things at once), which definitely kept me on my toes.

I closed out the week on Saturday by attending the Playboy Jazz Festival (thanks to free tickets from Traci) with Traci and McNally alum Tim Bjorkman. Most of the music was great, especially towards the end. Bill Cosby was the host, which was a great surprise. I just wish it had been cooler outside, then he would've been able to wear one of his Cosby sweaters. It was hot during the beginning of the festival, around 2:30, but around 7 or 7:30 it started to cool down quite a bit.

Today, I was able to cover the same desk I covered last week twice for the entire day. While I was doing that, I was also able to help Snoop Dogg's tour manager secure vans at each venue on Snoop's upcoming tour with 311. Something that I definitely had fun doing. I was able to talk to a lot of different promoters across the country, something that not everyone is able to do. I certainly hope that I'll be able to do similar tasks throughout the summer.

So far this summer has gone by very fast, I can only hope it slows down a little bit to catch up with it. Last week was another good learning experience, and I hope this week goes just as well.

P.S. Apparently Snoop thinks I sound like Barry White.

Evan gundlach- universal distribution- minneapolis, minnesota

2008-06-16T19:06:00.001-05:00

Greetings again! This week at universal was definitely the best one so far. Little Wayne’s new CD Tha carter 3 dropped on Tuesday and that was my fist day. The first thing I heard when I walked in was “I can’t believe he might beat Kanye” so I knew everyone was going to be pretty excited. Its turns out that the numbers that they thought he was going to have were much lower so everyone was happy the record was doing well. I worked mostly on the album tracking data base in excel for most the day but I helped out on some other office things people didn’t have time for since it was such a big day. On Wednesday I was invited to a private performance by a solo acoustic artist that is signed to universal but I was unable to attend because the yellow jackets were having a clinic at McNally. Since I missed that I was going to go to his performance later that night at the varsity theater but I ended up having other things going on. On Thursday everyone had calmed down a little bit but they were still talking about the new releases. I learned about how they project record sales a lot better and then showed me some more in-depth things about the album tracking and I saw how the work I was doing was helping them with the new little Wayne album. Finally on Friday they didn’t have a music meeting but they had a corporate conference call and everyone got olive garden. Instead of listening in on the call I deiced to help let people in as they came and work on a really cool project. My project for Friday had to do with best buy and the new little Wayne album. I went through a sales sheet for all the best buys in the nation (which was about 950) and checked how many copies of the CD's they still had on stock. This helps them a bunch since they distribute the CD and need to know how well they are doing it. All and all it was a really fun week and as I said before I'm excited for next week. Ill check in next week,

-Evan Gundlach

Fishies Like Record Stores

2008-06-16T15:41:00.003-05:00

This week has been crazy for me. First off, an explanation as to why my post is late:

My hometown of Des Moines, Iowa got hit hardcore by floods. I took a last minute trip home in order to help out. My dad's house had about 4 feet of water in the basement along with other friends houses. What was worse was the old record shop that I used to work at called ZZZs Records. There were 7 feet of water in the basement where we kept a lot of vinyl and that's before the water even crested. I had to help my boss move all the vinyl and CDs from the first floor up to the attic and then help salvage what we could from the basement. In the process, I saved about 4 big fish and released them back into the river. After helping out the record store as much as I could I made sandbags for over 23 hours and helped the community. Amidst all of this, I had no time to write a blog about the internship and I apologize but at the time it was not the first thing in my mind.

But.... when I was at internship this week, I helped book some more show for Now Now Every Children. Their tour is coming up in July so it's becoming crunch time to get all the dates booked. I have decided that North Dakota and South Dakota have zero venues in them and that has made it extremely hard to book there. I am almost getting so desperate to book these shows that I would put them at a house show or something.

On top of the booking I have been helping add some local bands on each show like I have been in the past.

This week I will be missing my internship on Tuesday because I will still be in Iowa at the time but I assume that on Wednesday I will just be booking some more.

Peace,

Langen

Nick Garrison - A.E.M.G. - L.A.....AEIOU

2008-06-16T00:53:00.002-05:00

I just thought I would throw a few more letters in the title.

One thing that I have been enjoying about my internship is how they really reach out and want to make sure we are learning and getting everything we can from our time here. I was even given a great opportunity to help in picking out music for one of their clients. Someone had requested a certain type of music and I was given a cue library to go through and choose music from. When I had picked out a few choices, I sat down with the music supervisor and we went through my choices. One of them was chosen and sent out with a few he had chosen for the client. It is now up to the client to decide if that is what they are looking for for their commercial.

As for non-worked related, I went with Joel Cooper, his brother, and his brother's girlfriend to Santa Monica. We walked along the beach and explored the Santa Monica pier. It was great to finally see the ocean. And you know what, that Pacific Ocean looks pretty big. I bet it even stretches all the way to Asia.

Take care,
Nick Garrison

Unai Bolivar - 93X Rocks! - Production - St. Paul

2008-06-15T23:46:00.003-05:00

Hello everyone,

I have been very busy with my internship at 93XRocks! A local radio station in Minneapolis. Every Thursday I make the journey to the radio station thinking about the task ahead, and as always the job is both filled with interesting tasks, questions and insight!
I'll point out some of the things we have been doing. Right now my routine consists of arriving on scene at 1:00pm to see Patrick do his on air spot. This display of 'mind over microphone' showed me that no mistakes are aloud when on air. Keeping your eye on the ball is crucial to running fast, flowing, quality show. After Patrick is done with his spot. We usually move on to recording a couple of commercials. Usually commercials get divided into two categories: the ones that air, and the ones that get streamed on the internet. Patrick recorded a commercial for 'Jobdig' and edited it using Audicy, a piece of hardware akin to the shuffle feature in Protools. He used this opportunity to show me how to operate Audicy and then had me edit the second commercial we recorded. he also showed me the other systems they use such as Encodad [Digital Audio Delivery], and Dalet.

After the commercials we usually take most of our time and devote it to producing and recording "loud & Local". Sponsored by McNally Smith College of Music, this spot features the best in the local Minnesotan scene. We make our best efforts to always keep the show fresh and fun for the listeners! The show usually takes about an hour to produce, wherein we choose the music for all the different categories, we jot them down on a piece of paper which Patrick uses as cues for the show; we look around for the music in Studio B which harbors all the music and which we also use to record the show. Then the actual recording and editing of the show takes approximately 40 minutes. Eventually I'll be taking on the whole recording process, and throw in the cues, and run the music, etc; all Patrick will have to do is speak into the microphone, but for this, baby steps are needed.

the most beneficial part of my internship at 93XRocks! aside from the fast learning curve and constant influx of ideas and strategies shown to me by the station's DJ's has been meeting the rest of the wonderful staff. Everyone working there bears a critical part of the entire process. It is amazing to see how smooth team work and clean communication can benefit a larger entity.

Don't forget to tune into 93XRocks! on Sunday nights for our spot, Loud & local!

Unai J Bolivar Uriarte
Production

Traci @ Key Club, LA-- Music Business: Short and sweet

2008-06-15T19:37:00.002-05:00

Hey all,

So this week's blog is gonna be short and to the point as I have the head into work soon. I can maybe drop an extra early next week for photos and what-not.

Last week I got really busy with Key Club in helping to go through and rate the demos that come in for consideration. I also did some research for support groups for a few of the shows we have coming up. I really can't go into detail here, sorry. It was a different experience, to say the least. I really enjoyed it... and hey, I got to keep the t-shirts. Late in the week my mom and her friend road-tripped to bring out my car and visit for the weekend. We found out Toi is GREAT thai food (on Sunset), and it is easy to waste an entire day at the beach when its sunny.

This week at the internship was pretty much business as usual: couple jumbotrons, marketing meeting, and PR. As the time for businesses to think about holiday parties draws near though, its about the time that we send out a little gift box with information about whom to contact, and why they should use our club. So I got to pack those up, which actually wasn't bad. I kinda like wrapping presents.

On Friday, one of my mentors that used to work for the Playboy Corporate offices, generously gave me her tickets for the Playboy Jazz Festival on Saturday which included 4 great seats, 2 VIP passes into the press room, and a parking pass. John, Tim (Bjorkman), and I went (as well as Tim's colleague, Justin) and had a great time. It was a very memorable day. Thanks go out to Kerry for giving us her tickets.

That's all I can give you for now, the sold out Fratellis show, Key Club box office demands me. Don't stress out too much waiting for me to fill you in.

Peace :)

Traci

Blogs, blogs and more blogs

2008-06-15T18:40:00.002-05:00

Back once again,
This week at Soup Bowl, really wasn't all that exciting; just the usual stuff.
This week I had to look for venues in Minnesota, in smaller towns that not a lot of bands play in. Such towns as Red Wing, Rochester, Mankato, and other towns such as that. It wasn't too bad, but it got quite frustrating after while since in some of the towns I had to find venues I couldn't. It just seemed like nobody played in those towns now. That's what I mainly did on Tuesday, though while I was trying to send the links to Ryan I forgot to save the document so I lost all of the venues that I had found and their contacts. It was a sad day, but Ryan found them so it was alright in the end.

The next day was filled with sending out blog emails once again, that job isn't too bad. I'm still sending blog emails out for The Z-MO Trio and Dingus. I heard from Ryan that The Z-MO Trio got mentioned at 'What to Wear During An Orange Alert' blog so that was cool that my hard work is pulling off and they are getting some play.That was really all I did that day, the blogs take up some time since I have to find the emails, but it's okay it keeps me busy and I don't mind that.

I have a feeling this week I'm going to be doing some more blog emails, but who knows if that feeling is right or not. I hope we get to do some more flyer's sometime soon, it was a fun time writing on them. I'll probably look for more venues or look for local support for a show that is coming up. Who knows though, I'll find out when I get to my internship on Tuesday. Till next Sunday, have fun everybody.

-Christina

Joe Weum - DMI - Pasadena CA

2008-06-15T12:59:00.002-05:00

Greetings from California. After a month at my internship I believe it is going very well. We are a relatively new company which makes everyday very interesting. A lot of work is being done to put our stamp on the in-store music world so everybody is helping everybody to reach our common goal. It is really giving me a good teaching in all aspects of a digital music company and just as important, a young company. Because we are a digital company, updating technology is a very important part of the business. So my days involve trying to balance updating databases for the future while still working on the present issues of customer service and player repairs....not to mention an odd job here and there which are always interesting. Time has been going by very quickly with work and exploring the area. I luckily have friends from MN down here that live on the beach cities of Venice, Manhattan Beach and Long Beach which makes the weekends fun and sun-burn filled. Take care and a shout out to all McNally friends and teachers up there.

Joe

Maurice Champion - Urban Network (Los Angels) - Music Business - Give Me 10mins

2008-06-11T01:33:00.006-05:00

I have to apologize, but when you're having family issues going on at home the last thing on your mind is a blog. Not desrespect is intended to anyone but when you're across many rivers and states and your family needs you to be there its SICKEN. No matter the amount of sucess nothing compares to your family. The reason I'm writing this blog is because of my family. Pursuing a career that I loved doing that would generate great revenue is what led me to McNally Smith which later led me to LA (you get my drift). Give me 10mins!!!

Last week I attended a Def Jam/Skating Party with performance by sixteen (16) year old R&B artist Karina Pasian. Being at the skating rink allowed me to make a right on memory lane and take that all the way up to those salad days. I was so moved leaving the skating rink after seeing so much youth, it restored and polish those adolence feelings. It just felt good being in that environment. Everything is going just fine at the Urban Network, I can not complain. I was just announced team leader for a upcoming project so that's very cool and rewarding. The ball is finally moving and all I have to do is keep it moving!

THOGUHT TO REMEMBER

At the end of the day never lose focus on your mission even if its to take care of your family. Make sure you do everything to the fullest and enjoy the simply things in life.

A Day At Alan Ett

2008-06-10T23:45:00.003-05:00

Hey,

Since starting with Alan Ett, there has not been a day where I don't learn something new.

For example, today I sat in with one of their sound editors as he worked on a segment for Disney and then a television show for the History Channel. The people their really know what they are doing. It is impressive to see how fast they work. One of the things I noticed was "quick keys". Using mostly keystrokes and less mouse really speeds up what they are doing.

Yesterday I had a great opportunity. I was allowed to pick out music for a commercial that will be airing in Canada. I was told what they company was looking for and given a library to check out. After I had several cues picked out, I met with the music supervisor and we went through my list. He showed me some he picked out and there was one we both picked and really agreed upon. So that one and some other cues were sent to the company in Canada. I'm not sure which one the company will go with, but it was great to be involved in that way.

Until next time,

Nick

P.S. That picture is Joel and I at the Bob Dylan exhibit from the other weekend.

Working on a song at esession

2008-06-09T08:55:00.002-05:00

Its been a great experience working with brad and his team as a music programmer at esessions.my main task is to finsh two songs which promote brand recognition.am almost done with one of them. i work along with another guitarist by name peter black.who comes up with riffs coz the songs i do has to be close to hannah montana(which are totally riff based)
.i should be done with the song pretty soon and am hoping brad like's it... Brad called me the other day and said if i would be interested to work on a song for a band called groovy girls.. so am kind of excited about it aswell...its been a good learning curve for me in listening to diffrent artists and musicians which i have never been introduced to before...
Vasanth David

Land of the Cold Air- Universal Internship

2008-06-08T19:45:00.001-05:00

Well I didn’t travel too far but I've been having a lot of fun interning at universal in Minnesota. I had my first full week and I'm already really comfortable with everyone there. I’ve been working with the analysis team charting record sales. I’ve been helping build a data base that allows people to forecast upcoming record sales. It’s really cool that I get to actually contribute and I’m not just running errands.

I work on Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. On Tuesday and Thursday I did a lot of work in excel working on spread sheets putting in data about record sales. Fridays are the best days. Friday is the weekly record meeting where everyone in the office gets food and has a meeting to talk about upcoming artists. We got chipotle and watched the new weezer video so there were definitely no complaints.

After the meeting I got to help design a flyer for a N.E.R.D signing at a local shop. We made 500 copies printed them and cut them up. They said they are going to be having me do a lot of little project like that and try to keep it really interesting. They are going a great job so far and I’m pretty excited to see what I get to do on Tuesday. Until next week have a good one and ill be sure to keep updating. Talk to you soon.

-Evan Gundlach

'Bring me all the finest meats and cheeses in the land'

2008-06-08T15:40:00.002-05:00

Christina here,

This week has been exciting in the world of Soup Bowl Records. Though I was stuck with the wonderful job of looking up existing businesses to see if the address we had was the right one. That job took a while, only because I about 4 excel documents to go through. I'm not complaining it did take up most of my time that day. I also got to send out tons of blog emails like I did last week. It was the same message, and to the same people but just different days.

I have to send out blog emails for Dingus(www.myspace.com/dinguspunk) and The Z-MO Trio(www.myspace.com/thezmotrio) a three piece band created by our own students. The emails usually just tell about their upcoming tour dates and where they are playing at. It also tells the reader about their new singles and how they can check them out.

I don't mind really sending out the emails or looking up addresses, it keeps me busy and I'm just experiencing the other side of a record label instead of booking shows, routing tours, or making posters(which I would love to do once again and probably will sometime soon). Ryan is just showing Langen(roommate and fellow intern) the whole record label life. It's great, I love it and who knows what I'll be doing next week.

I could be sending out more emails or making labels or maybe I'll get to look up more addresses to make sure they are still in business. I will only figure out that answer to that question when I head in to the week. Till next week you'll have to be on your toes to find out what I did during this upcoming week.

-Christina

Contracts Create Headaches

2008-06-08T13:42:00.003-05:00

Hey!

Langen reporting from Soup Bowl records. This week has been crazy for me.

I'm still working on booking some dates for the bands Dingus, Now Now Every Children and A Night In The Box. Also I have been working on finding some local bands to play various shows that the label is putting on. I have filled up a few dates with locals but there are always more that need to be done.

Ryan, my boss has been teaching Christina (my roommate and fellow intern) and I how to register a company with the state because she and I run our own company called Distractions (www.myspace.com/distractionsinc). We hope to have it all done by next week.

Ryan has also been helping a lot with an outside project. Distractions recently got an offer to book the band The Wedding on a pre existing show. Personally, I love The Wedding so I didn't want to pass this up. It's also through a huge management firm called APA. At first I didn't think it would be that complicated but then we got deep in contracts and guarantees and demands from the band. Ryan has been helping me negotiate the contract and what not and I'm pretty sure the show is going to happen which is exciting!

This week will probably be full of booking and looking for locals again. Hopefully I will get some more shows booked and almost all of them full. I have decided that California is the hardest place to book right now.

That's it from me this week.

Peace

~Langen

The Recording Academy (GRAMMY) Atlanta Chapter: Producers and Engineers Wing

2008-06-05T22:21:00.003-05:00

Ok, A couple of weeks ago, Kim Smith (one of my bosses) asked me if I'd like to attend a Grammy meeting that was being held by the National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences. Of course I said yeah, so I've been waiting to go to this event for the last 2 weeks...............

Soooooooooo, today I did not go into the studio because I was attending this event. It was only from 7pm to 10pm which was good because it was a pretty brief event. Six o clock came around and I was heading out the door until my mom stopped me and told me that I should dress up. DRESS UP? I looked at her like she was crazy. I told her that these were producers and engineers..... not doctors and lawyers. She doesn't understand that these folks wear Budweiser shirts EV-ER-Y-DAY!!!

I drove there, fending off Atlanta traffic, and pulled in at 6:30; which allowed me to have an option of where I'd like to park. I went in and sat in the lobby until seven o clock. At seven, I went to the front door, they checked my name off ( as if I were VIP) and I walked right in. I went straight for the food and "beverages". After stuffing myself silly with quesadillas and coke, enough people had come in for me to do a little networking. While making my rounds, I continued to see this woman who looked so familiar to me, however, I just could not put my finger on where I might have known her from. But nonetheless, I met so many people it was ridiculous. So many people invited me out to come check out there studios and/or to collaborate on some projects. And these are guys with huge studios that anybody's whose anybody records at. I was so overjoyed by the end of the night that I........ I don't even know!!!! So, anyway, I was leaving out the door, I saw that lady again that looked SOO familiar to me. It had been bothering me all night so I went up to her and told her that she looked so familiar. She told me that I also looked VERY familiar. To make a long story short. She is the freaking PRESIDENT of The National Recording Academy: Atlanta Chapter and I knew her because her daughter and my little sister go to the same acting school. This was just unbelievable. We chit chatted for about fifteen minutes and she gave me her card and made me promise that I'd send her my information (since I didn't have any business cards----- I'm going to get some TOMORROW), and also made me promise that my mom would bring my sister over her house to hang out with her daughter.

It just feels like I'm walking on the exact path that has been paved out for me. It's just crazy to me because everybody says that things never happen that easily. So when it does just fall into place like that, you begin to second guess yourself because you are like no, no, no, wait a minute. This can not be right! But what if it is???!!!??!!

Cole Hendricks - Studio Atlantis (Los Angeles) - Audio Engineering

2008-06-04T14:28:00.003-05:00

Hey everyone,

Alot has been going on for me since my last post. I will first start off by saying I love Los Angeles. I recently got a job at the House of Blues on Sunset. I am on the production staff where I do multiple things. I work with the audio crew and help set up and load in the equipment for the stage. All the employees at the house of blues are very nice and hard working people. I feel that the opportunity I have been given will help take me to the next plateau in my experience in this industry.

I am also still interning at Studio Atlantis where things are going according to schedule. Working in a commercial studio like Atlantis really tests a persons patience. The process of moving up the ladder in a commercial recording studio can be very slow and aggonizing at times. I feel I have the skills that are required but getting the chance to prove those skills can take time. I am doing my daily routine there and working hard on making a great impression so that when the time comes I can prove my asset to them.

I have met alot of cool people so far since I have been out in Los Angeles. I am trying to get out and experience as much of the city that I can while I am out here while also working hard to make a name for myself in this industry.

Cole Hendricks
Audio Engineer

ZIMBABWE TO LA, AN INTERNATIONAL INTERN STORY SO FAR

2008-06-03T23:30:00.004-05:00

Hi everyone!!!!! I guess its about time i did one of these, well where to begin???? First thing is first, i have to apologize for being really slow about bogging and getting it started but i have finally done it. To tell the truth i had totally forgotten about it and other things got into the way, but now i have made it my priority and your going to be hearing allot of wild and crazy stories about my adventures.

Before i go on i would like to take this moment and introduce myself to those who may not know me. I'm Munyaradzi Tirivepi but imp well known as Munya, I’m from Zimbabwe and for those who don't know where that is, GOOGLE it. My current major is Vocal Performance and the reason why imp doing this internship is to gain some more knowledge of the music business world that i once had done some years ago in the urban world. I'm the first International Student form McNally Smith doing an internship which imp proud of and hope that other international students can one day take this opportunity i have. I'm currently interning at THE URBAN NETWORK MAGAZINE that deals allot with media, music, entertainment and marketing industries. I hope that’s allot said.

Well enough said back to the real deal, so far the summer has been great and the internship even better, but things did start of rough for i only got into LA the day before i started in which i was really upset because i was meant to come on the Friday before the weekend but i had a little flight issues, but what matters was i made it. I couldn't believe that i was in LA until i step outside LAX and all i could say was WOW. My first day was great for i spent most of the day adventuring the city of LA and seeing the glamorous places i thought i would never see and just saying the word WOW. It was great to be here.

My first day at THE URBAN NETWORK was really orientated based for i only got introduced to the company by Warren Griffin and an alumni of McNally Smith College Of Music and who now currently works there and met the important people who work for the company. I finally got the opportunity to meet the CEO and founder of the Urban Network and great man to the company Mr. Miller London. It was such an Honor to meet him but we didn't get to talk as much but a little welcome conversation in hand was enough.

That week we got down to business and worked allot on media relations (social net working) such as IMEEM, MY SPACE, BE-BO e.g. just getting to know how some of this stuff is done. We also had to allot of desk work and updating on radio contacts in which me and mo (another intern from McNally) got really confused in doing but eventually we were able to work it out. For the most part the first week went pretty smoothly.

My second week started off easy and we basically carried on doing our media relations updates and improving on that, and towards the end of the week, 2 new interns form MI school joined us. So Warren split us four into 2 teams a BRANDING TEAM an MARKETING TEAM and each team had its own responsibilities for the next couple of weeks until we change. For example the Branding team in which mo and i are charge of making sure we brand the companies name and what it stands for and getting people to join our social net works., the Marketing team is all about getting the companies name heard and promoting and networking with others. These are 2 very important teams and have allot to offer for the company.

So far so good and everything keeps getting better the weekends have been great to our adventurous night out at Crash Mansion in which Larry took us to have fun, thanks Larry for that one. Oh and not to forget to mention that my boy DANAMI (MO) who terrifically performed yesterday and rock the house down. BIG UP to my boy you did GREAT. I was also able to meet up with an old junior school friend from the 5th grade, Marika May who i got to meet after 9 years of not seeing each other since i left Japan, was a great seeing her and catching up and having a good night out at Santa Monica Beach.

Well there it is focus the brake down of the last 2 weeks and allot that i know that’s going to happen this summer. So 3rd week here we go.

Traci @ Key Club, LA-- Music Business: Oh 13....

2008-06-03T23:27:00.002-05:00

The wonderful and yet terrible thing about blogs is EVERYone has access... that is all I will say on that topic, but it was something I needed to say. Think on that.

And now for the real deal:

So, this past week at Key Club was a crazy, but fun one. Aside from my usual work with press clippings and the Jumbotron, we had a Bar Mitzvah to plan! It was a whirlwind of frenzied excitement as we set up the most extravagant event I have ever seen. Aside from the 12 performance acts that were hired to entertain in 15-30 minute sets, there were a variety of activities for the kids to engage in from an Etch-a-Sketch artist, to a table where girls could get fake eyelashes and "bling" their phones, to casino tables with Roulette and Craps, to a stilt walker, living statues, a mime, aerialists, dipping dots, models to greet and interview guests on the red carpet before they entered donning their "VIP backstage passes," 3 Lakers girls, and that is not to mention the personalized jewelry and other goodies passed out inside, most of which lit up in an array of blinking, multicolored lights. And that is just the beginning. One of the many highlights was a magician that made Rami, the birthday boy, appear from a cloud of smoke to the delight of his friends. It was a night I'm sure he will not soon forget, I know I won't and the party wasn't even for me! There was definitely a lot of hard work that went into the planning and execution of that night. Happy Birthday, Rami!

I also worked the Box Office a couple nights, which is much more complicated than one might think, but I think I almost have it down enough that I could muddle through a slower night. Sunday, The Cool Kids played with close to sold out numbers already at the beginning of the night, so there was a lot of chaos, but overall I think the night went smoothly. Since a lot of the tickets were will-call, I was quickly assigned the job of selling the soda tickets to under-agers in the line that for most of the evening stretched from the entrance up around the corner of the street with one of the security personnel close behind. It was slightly stressful at times but a little exciting seeing that big of a response to a show that I was behind the scenes a little on (or maybe it was just one of my nerdy moments).

Thursday (I know, I am bouncing around), I had a break between internship and box office, so the lovely Charley Brooks (who is quickly becoming one of my favorite people in the world), took me sight-seeing again for a little bit. This time we went down Sunset a ways to get to two of three rock & roll art galleries owned by Sam (whose last name I have forgotten as of this post and will update later along with the names of the galleries), as well as the Rock Walk in front of the Guitar Center on the next block. The galleries were amazing! The first was all artwork used in posters and album covers of legendary rockers, as well as paintings and prints inspired by the same. The second gallery we went to was mostly photography, from concert shots to candid photos of the greats. When we went to the Rock Walk, we had fun comparing our hands to those we admire (mine are a perfect match with Steven Tyler!!! I also got a close match on Eric Clapton and nowhere near close to Debbie Herring ... her hands are so small there are almost child-like). And of course, Charley pointed out some of the hip restaurants for me to try to check out, I already can't wait to hit up Toi ("Rock & Roll Thai") and Cheebo. And then, in true Charley style, stopped at Cafe Med (yummy, yummy Italian... and I don't just mean the food ;) ) for a late lunch and some "chill-ax" time.

Man... last week was busy... getting tired of typing... and you are probably tired of reading. So now, just the highlights:

Friday: Bar Mitzvah (above) and then... SEX IN THE CITY!!!! SO good! (It was really hard to get tickets though, we had to wait until the 12:50 am showing... which is probably why it grossed over $55 million dollars just in the U.S. making it number one at the box office this weekend... yeah, I read the paper)

Saturday: Bob Dylan exhibit at Skirball Museum! Very cool. Memorabilia + interactive music stations where you can sing, edit, remix, or play to the tunes= fun. Joel and Nick have already posted details on this.

Sunday: Cool Kids... already told you that. But afterward I did meet a guy from a label and we have started communication. I am hesitant to share more for fear of Jinxing myself.

And then Monday started a new week that you will have to wait to hear about later! HA!

... and.... I'm out.

~Traci

Do you need a bowl for that soup?

2008-06-02T16:16:00.004-05:00

Christina here,
First blog on here, so I'll just give you all a little insight into my internship and all the stuff that I do. Well I'm a 3rd semester student at McNally Smith, I came here in the fall of 2007 from the good old state of Iowa. I'm currently interning at Soup Bowl Records, the independent record label that is own and run by McNally students.

I do a ton of things at my internship. Just last week I had to send out blog emails to a huge list of blogs so they could know about the tours that the artists are going on. I had to look for locals to play on the shows that are already confirmed. It's a bit time consuming but it's still fun.

I've had to make posters, well I had to write on them which was a bit of fun. I really loved doing that maybe just because I didn't have to stare at a computer screen for hours on end; who knows. I've had to put labels on envelopes and look up the address of promoters in towns the tours are hitting. I've also had to email venues about shows for upcoming months.

All in all so far I've enjoyed everything I have done. My boss is amazing, he is just a nice guy, so much fun to work with. I know that many more exciting things are in store for me and I can't wait to find out what they are. I'll end the blog for now and catch back up with you all later.
Christina

Fill up my Soup Bowl

2008-06-02T13:45:00.000-05:00

My internship at Soup Bowl records has been the greatest thing for me to date. I have made so many contacts at venues across the country and have gotten huge lists of media contacts and random other things that might be needed to book a tour.

Last week I spent some time routing a tour that goes from Minnesota out to Portland, down to LA, and then back to Minnesota for the band Dingus (www.myspace.com/dinguspunk). I assume I will start booking the tour this week or next week.

I also spent some time filling out posters with dates and venues and other information about Dingus' shows in various states to send out to record shops and other places in order to promote.

On top of all this, there are various shows that I have been trying to find some local support for across the country. It has introduced me to a bunch of new bands and has gotten me a lot of contacts for any shows that I put on in the future.

For some reason I really enjoy making the posters and what not. Maybe it's just because it's so much easier than trying to book shows. Booking is a lot of fun it's just so frustrating it's pretty much a waiting game because you send all these e-mails out and then just wait to hear back from a venue about the show you want.

I think this week will be full of booking and promoting but it sounds good to me!

~Langen

Maurice Champion - Urban Network (Los Angeles) - Music Business - 1ST PERFORMANCE IN LA AND MORE...

2008-06-01T23:02:00.003-05:00

After being in LA for three (3) weeks, I've seen and done more things than people who've been here for months. By no means I am trying to downplay anyone by my last sentence, I'm just making a point that "I'm Blessed". Last Sunday (5/25/08) I did my first show in LA at the Desert Rose in North Hollywood and it was amazing. For one it was amazing because it was my first show in LA and I did my thang as the performer. Second, it was amazing because the audience responded to my performance with homage. My homie Flawless gave me a chance by suggesting I take his place on the bill (performance). To show appreciation to Flaw and the people at the venue for giving me the opportunity I made sure that I rocked the show. After my performance I was embraced by tons of handshakes and expressions of "Great Job" which inspired me to continue to make great music.

Last week the Nappy Roots (do your research on them) came through the office to play their new music from their up and coming album. I was kicking it with them and doing my networking thing. It's crazy because you forget the people you see on TV are actually real people. The next day I went to Can Am Studio's with Flaw. Brief history, Can Am Studio's was formerly the legendary Death Row Studio. Currently, it's the home of Dr. Dre and his staff producers and recording artists. While there I was introduced to Focus, one of Dr. Dre staff producers, and others. It was an erie feeling being there because 2Pac recorded in the same place that I just chilled in. It was a great experience being there.

THOUGHT TO REMEMBER

Manifest GREATNESS and GREATNESS will happen.

Til next time. Realize and Take It There

~ Champion, Maurice

Being Lost, Royalties, and Bob Dylan

2008-06-01T22:01:00.000-05:00

To start things off, I feel like I have been driving around lost since I reached L.A. I have learned that driving to work and back I am completely comfortable, it's when I venture out to different places where most of my gas is used in trying to find a place that was closer than I thought. I should stop getting bad directions.
It seems I am finally settling into my apartment and new surroundings. My internet has been down for over week now and it is great to finally have it back.
Work at Alan Ett is still great. Lately I have been working on their Opus 1 library. They just signed 2 publishing deals and part of my job is to go through their catalog and make sure things are good to be registered with ASCAP and BMI. Most of my work has been with licensing and registering music, which has taught me lots about that process.
Also, they have introduced me to computer programs that I am becoming familiar with, such as Music Maestro. This program is very common with companies that deal with cue sheets.
The weeks are really busy with work, but I have been learning something everyday about how things run. But with the weeks being busy, it allows me to see things on weekends. Yesterday I went to a Bob Dylan exhibit with a few of the other interns. I can't even begin to say how incredible that was. We were able to see old guitars and harmonicas of his, handwritten lyrics, letters from him and Joan Baez, and we even played drums on some of his songs. The whole exhibit was something I'm glad we were able to see.
That's all for now. Take care.

-Nick Garrison

It STARTS!!!

2008-05-31T15:04:00.000-05:00

Hey ya'll....

Sorry it's taken me so long to start blogging but I've not only been extremely busy, but I just couldn't figure out how to log on to this thing. But now that I've figured it out, here we go! This experience has been amazing and I am only a few weeks into it. For the first week, I started off in the office, (doing paper work) working with Rowdy Records Production Manager/A & R, Kim Smith. On my first day working there, she asked me if I had any music she wanted me to look at and shop and I said (Excuse My Excitement)," HELL YEAH! Right after that, I stepped out of the room and nearly ran into Dallas Austin himself. He laughed and then Kim introduced us. I nearly fainted (not really, but it felt like it). Working under the A & R for the first week taught me A LOT!. For all of you who don't think they even bother listening to your songs........ THEY DO! And for those of you who don't think presentation matters..... IT DOES! I can't tell you how many CD's I threw away just because the handwriting was sloppy. Buuuuuuut N E WAY, on to the good stuff.

The following week, I started working in the studio. I started off cleaning and getting food (the usual intern stuff), but now, they allow me to sit in sessions and even engineer some. Don't get me wrong, I still clean. But now, I've figured how to get my duties done so that when it's time for a session, I've done all my work.

This past week, Dallas Austin had a show in Atlanta (he's coming out with an album) and it was phenomenal. I mean this is the kind of thing that nobody has ever seen before. It is so innovative that the stuff that goes on in music now seems about 30 years behind. It's incredible. I wish I could spill more beans but we're sworn to secrecy at DARP.

Well, I'm beyond tired and I haven't been able to practice much so I figure right now would be a good time to practice, and then sleep. And oh yeah, This Georgia heat, I'd almost forgotten what it felt like until today. Can we say 90 degrees and it's not even summer yet. WHEEEW!

Maurice Champion - Urban Network (Los Angels) - Music Business - Fresh Off the Plane

2008-05-28T21:21:00.001-05:00

It's funny because the day that my plan was taking off I still went to work and worked the whole day (9 am -5pm). So may say that's impressive, others may call it stupid, but I call it taking care of business so things are straight for the next four (4) months while I'm gone.I made my way to the airport. I checked in and just waited until it was time to board my plane and ready for take off at 10:00pm. The flight was cool even though I slept the whole way LOL. The ride was approximately four (4) hours, so I landed in Cali, LAX, around 11:30 (you have to remember Cali is a three (3) hours time difference from the east coast). I hoped of the plane and made my to baggae claim and I saw the Black Ranger Zach, from the first Power Rangers LOL. C'mon you remember Zach, he use to break dance. He was looking a little dusty, run down, ragedy (I guess that Power Ranger money ran out). I felt fresher than him and all I had on was a hoody, some jeans, and some boots nothing fancy. I think it was him but IDK because Cali is filled with look a likes LOL. I found my bag and I went outside to wait on my ride to take me to the place where I'll be staying in LA.I finally arrived in my apartments and was greeted by my roomates, that I knew from school (they're interning also). I unpacked and went to sleep because I had to be at The Urban Network in four (4) hours.I woke up the next morning ready for my big day at the office. While waking into The Urban Network I was greeted by Miller London (CEO/President of Urban Network) with a firm hand shake and a welcom to LA. Now quick history lesson, Miller London was a very young man when he went to work for Berry Gordy at Motown Records in 1969. VP of Sales and Marketing for a very long 21 years. Then he just bought the Urban Network.....Rewind HE BOUGHT THE URBAN NETWORK...YES SIR.I finally got situated in the office and started working right off the back calling radio stations and creating radio contact spreadsheets. That same day these two cats named Rock City (they also go by R City), who is sign to Akon label Konvict, came through the office and had a meeting with Miller London and others in the office. Rock City was playing tracks that have written for artist and playing music from their album. One of the many songs they wrote was Mario's "Music for Love". They also did "Get Low" with Beanie Sigel. Rock City has worked Akon, Usher, Leona Lewis and that's just to name a few.It was nerve wacking feeling while Rock City was in the office being interview because I wanted that to be in their position but instead I was making phone calls, but I realized that I was actually on the grind pavening the way so I can be doing the same thing as Rock City, making music and living out my dream. At the end, my first day was a great day and I'm enjoying LA

The Adventures of Joe Weum cont.

2008-05-26T15:10:00.000-05:00

Happy Memorial Day all! Things continue to go great here in Pasadena. I am really liking the area more and more each day. DMI continues to go well as I learn more and more each day about this digital music company and how it really is the wave of the future. Everyone continues to be so nice and helpful to me which is very encouraging. Lately I have been helping out with reprogramming the chips they send out to their clients which is pretty important in the whole process of what they do. To all recording technology students: Get very good at editing in Pro Tools because it goes a very long way out here and most likely where ever you will end up as well. Weather hasnt been to great here but still having lots of fun going to new places and meeting new people. Take care Minnesota.

Joe

P.S. All these Dodgers games make me miss my Twins.

Reporting Live and Direct from Califas

2008-05-25T01:00:00.000-05:00

Greetings from the city of Angels.

My name is Larry Lucio, Jr. I am currently completing my Bachelors Degree in Music Business from McNally Smith College of Music.

I will be maintaining a Weblog here, a Photoblog via Flickr, a Video Blog via YouTube, and a mobile blog via Twitter. I am still generating content worth looking at but here are approximately 100 pictures from my first week on the job.

Below is a link to some pictures of the following...

Adventures in Los Angeles Photo Stream

* Crash Mansion L.A.
* Culver City, CA
* Downtown L.A.
* LAX (Airport)
* McNally Smith
* The Meadows (Our Apt.)
* T.B.I. 2006 Sites (Tunnel Builders Institute)
* Travel (Driving, Flying, Walking, etc.)
* Wild Life (Possums stalk our patio)

A sincere thank you for the time you spent absorbing my content,

Larry

What a couple of weeks.

2008-05-24T23:20:00.000-05:00

Jon Johnson again, and what a first couple of weeks this has been in LA. So far, my experience at The Firm has been great. Everyone is nice, and it's generally a pretty laid back environment, which is completely different from what I expected coming into this internship.

Generally, Coop and I do the same tasks everyday at The Firm, but sometimes we're given special jobs. During my first week, I was able to cover for an assistant, which interns usually aren't able to do during their first week. That was definitely an interesting experience, receiving calls from people you've actually seen on TV.

My second week, which we've just wrapped up, has been just as fun and interesting as the first. I've gotten to meet several of the managers, and have gotten to know several of the assistants very well. Not only that, but I got free stuff, and free stuff is always great. Especially when one of the free things is a pair of Christian Audigier jeans. Which I got just by doing a routine mail sweep around the office, and being at the right place at the right time.

Later in the week, Coop and I had to go on a run to get food for Snoop Dogg. I don't think either of us had run so fast to get food in our lives, but the chance to see Snoop was good motivation. I wasn't able to meet him, but seeing him was pretty surreal.

What a couple of weeks it's been in LA. I can only hope the next months will be just as fun.

Welcome to the Jungle... (part 2)

2008-05-23T22:46:00.000-05:00

... Last time... Let me tell you... you have experienced nothing until you have ridden an outdoor escalator. Ok, well maybe there are some cooler things, like when Charley took me over to venice beach and I got to stick my toes in the ocean and get run past by a training football team... or seeing a film crew set up and film a scene from the Notorious BIG biopic... or walking down the street for lunch and passing by a film crew for The Girls Next Door and looking over to see Holly (one of Hef's girlfriends)... well, you get the point.

I guess by now you see that I am truly having a one-of-a-kind experience out here so far. While for now my main focus is settling into my internship (which is going great, I couldn't ask for nicer people to work with), I can only imagine what the rest of the summer will bring. Friendships are already blossoming, with, I'm sure, more to come as we spend more time with the Alumni and start making contacts, and puzzle pieces are snapping into place, and adventures are being had. Plus the (almost) perpetual sunshine is amazing. I can't wait to see what the next 2 1/2 months have in store.

Happy adventures, all.

~Traci

HOME SWEET HOME!

2008-05-23T12:02:00.001-05:00

Whats going on everyone? I just finished my 2nd week at Alan Ett Music Group. It was a slow first week, but this week was definetely better! The best thing so far was that I got to sit in on a spotting session and an editing session for the Modern Marvels episode on lead. Alan Ett Music Group and Opus 1 provide music for a number of well know networks. Such as, The Discovery Channel, History Channel, NBC and so on! The music editors down here are amazingly fast! Nothing like back home. I love California living though! Sunny all the time, warm, and the ocean is only minutes away! I moved down here with my girlfriend and we both have decided that we will be staying down here for good. I am all done with my classes at McNally Smith so school will not be an issue! If you want to work in the music/entertainment industry this is where it's at. Well thats all I have for now.

~ADIOS~

KM

Welcome to the Jungle... (part 1)

2008-05-23T00:36:00.000-05:00

... concrete jungle, that is. Well, I am a naughty girl and forgot to post last week, so this will be one of two, in case you were thrown off by the title. But in true Hollywood fashion, I am going to leave you hanging in suspense until tomorrow for part 2.

Part 1: My First Week

The first week at Key Club was great. A slow start at first, with a great finish. I am handling a few different projects, including making sure the current acts are on the Jumbotron (big flashing TV screens that advertise for us as well as others) outside of the club. This was my biggest accomplishment for the week, believe it or not it is a pretty big responsibility to be handed in the first week. I also got to search for press clippings for the club as well as some of the bigger events we've had, which turned out to be a lot of fun because it gives me some back story to some of the great shows we've hosted.

It is hard to believe that a little over a month ago, I was barely aware of the Key Club's existence... as far as I knew, it was an exclusive honor society that my sister applied to in high school (lame, I know... not my sister, my lack of knowledge). But now I am working for a club that is so notable that my very first day, there was a photo shoot outside the club for JVC car stereos featuring our weekly, Monday night band, Steel Panther (formerly Metal Skool), to be run in Spin Magazine. That quickly enlightened me as to just how important this club is.

We explored just a little, enough to have seen the outdoor mall that is within (long) walking distance of the apartments. Let me tell you..... To Be Continued.... (don't you just hate that?!)

~Traci

The Adventures of Joe Weum

2008-05-18T22:31:00.000-05:00

Whats up Minnesota. My name is Joe Weum and I just moved out to Pasadena CA. for an internship through McNally Smith where I graduated with a Recording Technology Degree. Debbie Sandridge and Sarah Peterson of the Career Center worked with me while at school to get an internship at DMI Worldwide in lovely Old Town Pasadena. I am working for a company owned by DMI called Private Label Radio. We specialize in custom in-store playlists for local and national companies around the US. We also partner with record labels to promote bands at many movie theaters across the Us as well. My first week was very fun where I began to learn how the company works as well as meet all of my very nice and helpful co-workers. My week consists of working Monday through friday and on the weekends I get a chance to explore socal and see what this place has to offer. This weekend I was in Venice Beach which is a very fun beach in Santa Monica. I will continue to post of my progression at DMI as well as my adventures. Take care Minnesota!

Joe Weum

Week One Done.

2008-05-18T02:02:00.000-05:00

I'm glad no one else had that title because it rhymed and I thought is was clever...

Anyways, the first week at Alan Ett has been great. I have learned a lot about royalty information and how deals are split up between multiple publishers.
Earlier this week, Kyle and I were allowed to sit in on a spotting session where music was picked for a show that will air on television. After that, we were allowed to watch the editing session where the music was edited to fit the show.

This first week has been great, tiring, but great. L.A. has been a different experience, but I am happy to say that even though each work day leaves me exhausted, I am excited at what I will continue to learn.

I hope all is well with you.

Nick

Cole Hendricks

2008-05-12T17:58:00.000-05:00

I am in-between my 3rd and 4th semester at McNally Smith College of Music where I am pursuing a A.A.S. Degree in Recording Technology with an emphasis on audio engineering. I decided that the best possible situation for me now was to put myself into a professional environment, so I decided to make the trip to Los Angeles and intern at Studio-Atlantis in Hollywood, CA. Studio Atlantis is a top notch recording facility with a huge client list.

I have been in LA since Sunday of last week and I think this place is perfect me. I am able to work hard and meet a lot of people in the industry. LA also brings a certain vibe that I think encourages people. Israel took me around and showed me all around the west LA and I feel I have a great understanding of the area already.

On Tuesday, I met with the owner of Studio-Atlantis and got a tour of the facility. I was very excited to get started to work for him. The rest of the week I spent working out and getting to know more of Los Angeles. I have been out in the city everyday whether just hanging out or walking around to check out the sites.

Today is Monday, I have been here now for a week and a day and I am very happy. I started my internship today at Studio-Atlantis and it went great. I will post more later when I get time!

Cole Hendricks

Audio Engineer / Producer

651-890-94507

colehendricks.com

Here We Go...

2008-05-11T02:13:00.000-05:00

This is Nick Garrison checking in on the blog site. I guess this would be considered my third semester at McNally Smith. I am pursuing a Bachelor's in Music Business and currently I am pursuing that degree in Los Angeles. My internship is with Alan Ett Music Group and the companies associated with it. Needless to say, I am excited about being out here. These first few days have been great. There has been a lot of sleeping as I get adjusted and lots of driving around this crazy, big place.

As Joel posted, we had quite the adventure getting out here. Driving across the country in just over two days. We clocked in about 2200 miles. Good times.

Now as Monday gets closer, I am excited/a bit nervous about my internship. Since my acceptance to McNally Smith, many opportunites have headed my direction. Now, those opportunites have led me to Los Angeles.

Well, that's all for now. There will definitely be more to come. And if I figure it out, there may even be a few videos.

Take care,
Nick

LA - First Impressions

2008-05-10T15:04:00.000-05:00

Hey, my name is Jon Johnson. Currently I'm a 4th semester business student. I came to LA to intern at The Firm, which is the largest and most powerful artist management firm you could ever find. I will start my internship on Monday.

I landed in LA on Wednesday night, and it's been a trip since I got here. The apartment buildings that most of us interns are staying at are extremely nice looking. The scenery (not just the trees, heheh) is beautiful. I wish I could show pictures, but I don't have a camera... yet.

So far me and the other interns have been checking out all that West LA has to offer. We saw sunset blvd, beverly hills, bel-air, and the UCLA campus, all of which are visually satisfying. Me and a few other interns also checked some fine dining by eating at In-N-Out Burger, as well as Fatburger. If you ask me, Fatburger is the better choice, but some might disagree.

Yesterday, Me and fellow intern Joel Cooper went to go check out the location of The Firm's building, which both of us are going to work at. The building is around 10 miles from our apartment, located in the middle of Beverly Hills, surrounded by expensive stores. It took us about 4 hours to reach the building, it would've only taken us about 2 hours, but we got lost a few times.

All-in-all it's been a fun week. I can't wait till I start this upcoming Monday at The Firm.

Hell-ooooooo LA!

2008-05-09T20:39:00.000-05:00

Hey all! Traci here. I am a soon-to-be McNally Smith Graduate with an Associates of Vocal Performance and a Bachelor of Music Business. But for now, I am a Summer intern sunny California...LA to be exact (its ok, you can be jealous). I will be interning at the Key Club, a highly noted club on the Sunset Strip in West Hollywood (drooling yet?). Now some fun stuff:

So, I've been here in lovely Los Angeles for a total of 3 1/2 days, and the surreal-ness is just barely wearing off. Between myself and the other interns, who you will meet later, each day so far has been peppered with "dude, we live in LA." We have explored into a few areas, mostly the Target, but also some fun things. We went to Sunset Blvd for the alumni dinner (those of us that made it into town in time), which was a lot of fun. Debbie and I made sure to take a few minutes to pop down to the Key Club so I could see my awe-inspiring internship venue in person.

Another fun thing a bunch of us have decided to do is hit all the native burger joints and decided which is best. Yesterday was the ever-famous In-n-Out Burger (yummy, but if you want to taste the meat, ordering a Double-Double is recommended. Great Fries!) and today it seems that a few of the guys went to Fat Burger...I will have to catch up I guess.

We are all so excited to start our internships Monday. But then, you'll just have to wait and see....